Branding Blog

The Creative Pitch

Looking for inspiration for a forthcoming pitch I found this. Surely the art of a succesful pitch is to tell a great story well... this from Mad Men:

What Every Good Marketer Knows

Seth Godin published this list three years ago; which was very much a riff, not a carefully planned manifesto. As he says, it still holds up well…

• Anticipated, personal and relevant advertising always does better than unsolicited junk.
• Making promises and keeping them is a great way to build a brand.
• Your best customers are worth far more than your average customers.
• Share of wallet is easier, more profitable and ultimately more effective a measure than share of market.
• Marketing begins before the product is created.
• Advertising is just a symptom, a tactic. Marketing is about far more than that.
• Low price is a great way to sell a commodity. That's not marketing, though, that's efficiency.
• Conversations among the members of your marketplace happen whether you like it or not. Good marketing encourages the right sort of conversations.
• Products that are remarkable get talked about.
• Marketing is the way your people answer the phone, the typesetting on your bills and your returns policy.
• You can't fool all the people, not even most of the time. And people, once unfooled, talk about the experience.
• If you are marketing from a fairly static annual budget, you're viewing marketing as an expense. Good marketers realize that it is an investment.
• People don't buy what they need. They buy what they want.
• You're not in charge. And your prospects don't care about you.
• What people want is the extra, the emotional bonus they get when they buy something they love.
• Business to business marketing is just marketing to consumers who happen to have a corporation to pay for what they buy.
• Traditional ways of interrupting consumers (TV ads, trade show booths, junk mail) are losing their cost-effectiveness. At the same time, new ways of spreading ideas (blogs, permission-based RSS information, consumer fan clubs) are quickly proving how well they work.
• People all over the world, and of every income level, respond to marketing that promises and delivers basic human wants.
• Good marketers tell a story.
• People are selfish, lazy, uninformed and impatient. Start with that and you'll be pleasantly surprised by what you find.
• Marketing that works is marketing that people choose to notice.
• Effective stories match the worldview of the people you are telling the story to.
• Choose your customers. Fire the ones that hurt your ability to deliver the right story to the others.
• A product for everyone rarely reaches much of anyone.
• Living and breathing an authentic story is the best way to survive in an conversation-rich world.
• Marketers are responsible for the side effects their products cause.
• Reminding the consumer of a story they know and trust is a powerful shortcut.
• Good marketers measure.
• Marketing is not an emergency. It's a planned, thoughtful exercise that started a long time ago and doesn't end until you're done.
• One disappointed customer is worth ten delighted ones.

Authentic roots or national lager

Original Ale and Celtic Beer is one thing but New Zealand Lager must have the early Monteith's brewers squirming. I love Monteith's branding and I love the product. As the brand manager, I worked on Monteith's from the heartland when I took it from a West Coast oddity in the DB line up to a true specialised alternate brown beer. Back then we proposed launching it in an eloquent screen-printed bottle as a boutique - that was turned down because of a 'national brand strategy' – oh how things have changed.

My issue is that the people at DB Breweries (Monteith's owners) have gone from focus to greed. The brand seems to have done well as a 'mass-boutique', positioning on its authentic West Coast origins and its crafting of a very likable beer range. Now they've launched 'Monteith's New Zealand Lager' and all of a sudden the brand focus is shifted from authentic west coast to premium national lager, including jumping on the naturally brewed band-wagon!

The brand gurus are quick to point to big brand disasters after the fact but slow to predict mistakes before they happen. Well I predict this latest addition to the Monteith's family won't work because it's not focused on the brand's core success factors.

It's not in sync with the brand's mana of authentic crafting of real beers. The new billboards and glossy magazine adverts even highlight the international medal haul; dragging this product further from its focus. I suspect that the large budget mass media campaign, which Monteith's hasn't had to resort to before, is more about a strategic pincher move at Steinlager's Pure campaign than an honest line extension. I just doubt that any short term gains will outweigh the long term degradation in Monteith's brand mana.

Get yourself happy

Here's a brief motivation video we compiled for Business Mentor Grant Thorpe to use at his speaking engagements. It bestows the virtues of getting yourself happy. Visit Grant here.

Leave it to the Japanese

A round watermelon can take up a lot of room in a refrigerator and the usually round fruit often sits awkwardly on refrigerator shelves. Smart Japanese Farmers have forced their watermelons to grow into a square shape by inserting the melons into square, tempered glass cases while the fruit is still growing on the vine.

10 things I've learnt about business

1. Truth is the most important value. If you’re having problems, admit them. Sure paint a positive tale but be honest. Colleagues, suppliers and clients will reward your sincerity.
2. You make your own luck. If you don't blame your bad luck on others, and take it on the chin as self created in some way, then you can also claim your good fortune all for yourself.
3. Bank on dollars, not percentages. Cash and cash-flow are more important than high margins. Don’t star gaze over great GP% when its dollars that you bank.
4. Measure everything of significance. Anything that is measured and watched, improves – sales, profits, employees and relationships.
5. Narrow the focus to build the brand. This is a principle focus of our Brandmapping techniques. Don't try to be all things to all people. Own a simple idea in your clients mind. Wasabi Advertising is the only agency that provides a degrees of focus Brandmap.
6. Differientiate. Our brains are programmed to notice things that are different.
7. Get out of your comfort zone. Not much happens of any significance when we're in your comfort zone. Continually push your barriers. Constantly strive for more innovation, more differentiation and more edge.
8. If you’re not moving forward you’re going backwards. Never stop looking for improvements and new ways of doing things. Never stop trying something new. Small daily improvements eventually result in huge advantages.
9. It’s better to be almost right, than perfectly wrong. A good plan executed today is far and away better than a perfect plan tomorrow.
10. They can’t eat you. No matter how bad it gets you still have you. You’re lucky to be alive. We're not here for a long time; we're here for a good time.

Influenced by Bob Parsons, Go Daddy

Delivering Emotion in a Star Brand

OK, this blog is meant to be strictly about branding from a New Zealand viewpoint. BUT I can't help but post the following video… If a brand can deliver this sort of emotion then it is already a Star. Look to ways for your brand and its communication to connect to its audience with emotional marketing like Paul Potts does.

Britain's got Talent is a UK talent quest TV show featuring none other than Simon Cowell as a judge.

And to find out what happened next click here.
And then you'll just have to click here to see the final outcome. Priceless.

And while we are doing the emotional thing, take a look at Connie as well. Enough said.

Coach Yourself Happy: Five Questions with Grant Thorpe

I've had Grant Thorpe mentoring me for 3 years now and he has constantly inspired me to reach higher. Grant's coached me through tough times, like a client liquidating owing us $120k, and the great times, like bringing on new clients or developing our brand map workshops. For me, having a business coach is like having a conscience on my shoulder; I'm still in charge but it encourages me to think outside my skin, focus on our business brand, and remember that there's life after work. Grant's now spreading his word with speaking engagements as well. Check him out at www.grantthorpe.com

1. Question: From a successful career in real estate, what made you get in to coaching and mentoring?
   Answer: I had always given my time to others, and was constantly asked to speak, coach or train both new people as well as the tall poppies of the industry. In an 'Ahaa' moment, I realised it was my destiny and that I had in fact already made most of the journey across to this side. It didn't take much to complete the trip.
2. Question: Do you have a mentor? Who inspires you?
   Answer: Yes, it would be a bit hypocritical if I didn't! I have had the same mentor and coach for the past 10 years. I am inspired by successful people, not just successful in business but in life. I love dealing with people who have a dream, and believe despite the influence of all those around them, that it is absolutely possible!
3. Question: What issue do you come up against the most and what advice do you give to overcome it?
   Answer: The major obstacle that my clients have to overcome is their current belief system! Most people quickly recognise that the main thing in their way, between where they are now and 'success', is themselves?
4. Question: What does the brand 'Grant Thorpe.com' stand for and what's your brand mana?
   Answer: It's my personal brand, where I can show case the different areas that I enjoy working in, like my public speaking and coaching. What flows from within that is the different segments I cover, like my goal setting www.100thingstotrybeforeyoudie.com , my real estate coaching www.realestatesalessecrets.com and my 'Coach yourself Happy' program at www.secretstoawonderfullife.com  My Brand Mana is taking successful people and making them truly amazing.
5. Question: What's the secret to success?
   Answer: '80% of success is turning up', and I truly believe as you start a journey and look to influences within that sphere that you ensure you remain 'a first rate version of yourself, not a second rate version of someone else'?

Creating Great Names

Here are some interesting sites to help you name the website that you're working on. The tools can equally be used to help with brainstorming a new company or product name…

1. Dislexicon - Takes common words and adds suffixes and prefixes. It even gives you the meaning. This site is great for finding short domain names that look like they could be real words.

2. JustDropped - This site lets you search for domain names that have recently expired. You get a few searches for free with limited results. I've found that the free searches are usually adequate for my needs.

3. Word Mixer - This one lets you enter up to five words which are mixed up into new, semi-pronouncable words. The same website also has a couple other tools that are useful such as the random words tool which is hit or miss, and the mixer seeds page.

4. WordFinder - This is actually a tool for crossword puzzles, but it can also be very useful for finding a domain name.

5. DomainsBot - This search engine is geared specifically towards finding a domain name. It works best if you're looking for a compound-word domain rather than an invented word.

iPhone Hot or Not?

Launched on 30th June to an eager US market, Apple aims to sell 10 million iPhones in 2008, which would amount to a 1 percent share of the global market.

Not bad for a new entrant with a high priced phone aimed at affluent trend-setters. If you read all the negative reviews regarding phone quality, touch-pad screen, battery life, wireless speed etc then you'd soon consider that it may not be something you'll fork out US$500 (NZ$650) for the base model. But lets take a brief look at its pros and cons from a brand view point... 

A Spectacular Failure?

I particularly like Al Ries argument for failure. He points to an iPhone as a convergence device; compared to the iPod which is a divergence device. "In the high-tech world, divergence devices have been spectacular successes. But convergence devices, for the most part, have been spectacular failures." comments Ries.

How many of us watch TV or recorded movies on our mobile phone - very few; that's convergent product development. The real action in the TV market is the booming market for divergence products such as wide-screen LCD TVs.

A convergent James Bond do-it-all watch is reality now but we tend to choose specialist devices that do things well rather than one device doing many things poorly.

iPhone is not first in its category. Feature and benefit wise it offers nothing new over competitors. One of our core principals is 'narrow the focus to build the brand'; it certainly isn't doing that - it does everything (with critics saying that even its phone audibility is poor - you'd think that the quality of that component would be fundamental!).

Or a Runaway Success?

For all of these criticisms and despite the fact that some will prove valid, the iPhone will be a runaway success.

The Apple brand has developed from computers to music players and to mobile phones because it's known for "cool thinking".

Applying our 'Degrees of Focus' model, Apple is not confined to being a computer brand because its reputation is not based on 'what it does' (computing), but 'how it goes about it' (cool thinking). This powerful Apple attitude transcends 'features & benefits' and allows it to offer a broad range of products that deliver on its "cool thinking" reputation.

Apple are unleashing a mobile phone that will succeed because it looks great, it taps into an ever growing and improving mobile world, it's an original, it's a badge, because it creates passion-beyond-logic, because it's cool, because its Apple.

It may not be first in its category but before it was even launched it was first in mind. Apple aren't asking for global phone domination - they're targeting 1% within 18 months. Even if half the product shortcomings bear true, it will be a success - because this is not about a multi-featured phone, its about buying in to the culture and authenticity of an Apple.