BrandSoul

Performance and judgement in Branding

What does it take to build a great brand? Let's take an example from the sports world: what does it take to a football team to build a great brand?

The first answer should be: results. But I'm not so sure.

Let's take an example from this week.

I've just read in today's (Friday) paper that Real Madrid, the mythic spanish soccer team has scored the most points in the second part of the season in their history. Not only that, if they continue to win the three remaining games until the end of the League, they would beat all the marks in the history of the most successful soccer team in the world (Real Madrid).

This should lead us to a satisfactory perception of the situation among supporters. The surprising thing is that by reading the comments of Real Madrid fans on a couple of blogs, it seems like the team is accomplishing something ordinary. Even the coach is being  judged as too tactical and many comments point out he should leave the team next year.

This is crazy. There must be something influencing the judgment of supporters that is not performance and is not availability of information either.

What is it?

Be water, my friend

BMW have achieved one of their most succesful brand messages joining taoist simplicity with the corporate idea of adaptation and flow.

You can enjoy their awesome latest ad here. Branding and spirituality joined together?

As to spirituality, Amare Stoudemaire of the Phoenix Suns, who is recovering from serious injury, said last week he does not envision difficulties,

I am too spiritual to be afraid of anything

Lessons on women's habits by Andrea Learned

Andrea Learned is a highly recognized specialist in marketing to women. She is also the co-author of Don't think pink.

In an interview conducted by Steve Sherlock for The Blog Synergy she tells some secrets about the different buying habits of women and men. In her opinion,

Women are more strategic online, going straight to their intended destination, doing their research or making their purchase and then getting out – so they can go back to "real" life and what needs to be done at the office or in the yard. Men will   surf around for hours.

Read the complete interview here.

Northrop Frye and advertising

Tom Asacker has posted an interesting fictitious conversation with Esther, a marketing manager at Coca Cola. Esther tells Coca Cola is searching for new ways of enhancing their brand experience for

Our executives conducted a massive research project we called "The Big Dig," which revealed that consumers had a deep-down love for our brand, but it wasn't as top of mind.

According to Esther,

You consume the accumulated feelings created by your experience with the brand communication in various media, events, games, etc. When you drink a Coke or share one with a friend, you are, in turn, communicating.

I think these kind of "Brand definitions" are quite common among our marketers and not only that, they are absolutely excessive. I agree with Esther that you can always find new ways of reinventing the brand experience (that´s innovation), but, please, just don´t approach it from the perspective of "accumulated feelings created by your experience with the brand communication in various media" (that´s retrickery). 

What customers do is to include a product in their daily experiences and you should find ways to become useful for that customer and tell her you really can, and that´s all. Let´s remember here what Northrop Frye wrote about advertising:

Advertising and propaganda pretend to address themselves seriously to a subliminal audience of cretins, an audience that may not even exist, but which is assumed to be simple minded enough to accept at their face value the statements made about the purity of a soap.

The big secret

Most of the management books are concerned with modes of achieving success. Most of branding books talk about the ways of achieving a worthy ($) brand. They pursue the discovery of the big secret, as if there was one. In my recent post Un douce nihilisme I called for an attitude of action, of following´s one´s own path, of not having one certain aim, of being an adventurer. As a visual proof of what I am stating can be the evolution through time of some very worthy brands.

For instance, take a look at the Bugatti brand. If you look at their History-Bugatti models section you will see the evolution of their cars. One thing I have noticed is that the first models don´t seem to have anything special. It is true, they are very old, but I don´t think Bugatti was as prestigious then as it is now. It is when you see their latest models when you realize that value is not only a matter of strategy or of talent, but also a matter of time. And time starts by doing, by being productive, creative.

It is in Tom Peters´last slides where I have found a quote that can perfectly fit with this idea. Tom says,

“Strategy” overrated, simply “doin’ stuff” underrated.

Little starts can lead to big wins. Most true winners—think search & Google—start as something small. Many big deals—Disney & Pixar—could have been done as little-er, less expensive deals if you’d had the nerve to step out before the value became obvious.

I really believe in this.

Some short comments on media

• Google video is offering Kobe´s exhibiton vs. Raptors for a more than a reasonable price. The problem is that you cannot buy the match if you live outside the US. It´s a pity. I was longing for it. I don´t have any problems to buy at Amazon.com so, guys at Google, you should learn from them.

• A couple of weeks ago I commented ChangeThis manifestos (mine included) were suffering the harassment of some advertisers with little care for readers. It seems like our friends at ChangeThis agree with us. Annoying messages have disappeared. Good news, thanks.

• Trevor has sent a proposal for a manifesto at ChangeThis. Simplicity is the key will be his manifesto. He´s an expert on the matter. Don´t forget to vote for it, you will enjoy reading it.

My sponsors

If you have visited my manifesto´s site recently you will have noticed I am being "sponsored" by some curious websites: addiction to viagra (wow), etc. I wonder whether this is marketing, advertising, branding or any other technique. I don´t know whose brain is behind the messages but aren´t they simply stupid?

On size

Telefonica, the spanish tecommunications giant has acquired the british O2. Telefonica is one of those companies better known for their corporative movements than for the quality of their services. In fact, one of the most important corporative movements of the late 1990´s was their acquisition of Terra, the biggest inflationary operation in the spanish stock market.

It is evident that the strategy of Telefonica is more concerned with size than with excellence in service. If they put the same emphasis on quality as they put on corporate politics their customers would be probably much happier. Someone will say these two facts have nothing to do, for one refers to big corporate strategy and the other to product improvement. I think there is always an energetic factor in any organization and that if you spend so much energy in one thing other parts of the company must remain de-energized.

Telefonica also is one of those companies that spend huge amounts of money on advertising. Their ads and campaigns of the last years have been addressed to build brand loyalty by identifying the brand with famous sportsmen and with a team spirit. I have never heard about a Telefonica campaign on cool service. In the case of Telefonica cool service means simply things working as they should be.

So why do they focus on corporate operations and not on quality and customer satisfaction? This is not what companies normally do to improve their bottom lines. I suspect an interest of the Senior Management on size and big corporate operations must be behind these "strategic decisions".

Multicolor visits

I am amazed and really thankful to all of you who read my blog. I´ve been reading the statistics of the last week and I could never imagine people from so different places would visit my blog.

These are some of the places  where you can find readers of BrandSoul:

Gurgaon (India), Italy, New Jersey, Buenos Aires, Johannesburg, France, Mallorca, Maine, Nebraska, Canada, California, Tijuana, New Hampshire, Ukraine, Michigan, Washington, Madrid, and of course, Bilbao.

It´s a big pleasure to write when you read these statistics. Thanks to all of you.

Recognition marketing

It seems like not answering to e-mails is one of the traits of the e-relationships. This is a source of annoyance for many people.

Since Seth Godin revolutionized the e-mail based market relationships no other developments have been significant in this field.

I claim for a Recognition Marketing as a way of completing what the Permission Marketing left incomplete. Recognition Marketing is the other side of the e-mail based relationships. This is how I explain it.

The fact is that technology enables close conversations and fluency in relationships but it also allows setting barriers or distance in conversations. I think we all have a right to stay silent but a sense of acknowledgement should foster people to answer to any e-mail. At least if there is a previous permission from the other part. I think sometimes people get obsessed with advertising techniques and traffic issues and forget the most basic traits of any kind of relationship, recognition and respect.

Permission marketing + Recognition marketing = Marketing with a human face