by: Anja Bauer Minkara, director & senior brand consultant
People are bored. Everyone wants inspiration, goodness, emotional contact and uplifting brands. And when? When they least expect it.
If I were a CEO of a huge company, I would focus on guerrilla marketing and goodwill campaigns. Let's stop buying media spaces and convincing people to buy us, only us and that we are better than competition.
Focus on the game not your competitor. Be an athlete, be the fastest and the best you could be and stop focusing on your opposing team. Simply go for the best shot you can take and if you miss, you will be applauded for your efforts.
Surprise the consumers, learn about them, reward the loyal ones, show them why you are so special and give back to the community, to those who don't have anything and to the talented ones that have the potential.
When it comes to studying brand classics, there are several great branding cases that appear on regular basis. Whether you are reading a book about brand management or browsing through branding blogs, you will probably run into Volkswagen, Nike or Virgin examples at some point. If you narrow your classics search down to brands that were successfully repositioned in relation to the market leader, your journey will probably end with Avis. Or better yet, it will start with Avis.
I have studied the Avis repositioning million times. It is a great example of how to challenge the market leader. Avis openly stated that they were number two in rent-a-car business and that they always had to try harder. I was well familiar with the slogan “We try harder”, but only recently I found out that the process that led to it was even more inspiring.
Back in the sixties Avis was only number two in rent-a-car business in America. They lagged heavily behind the leader Hertz and have not gained profit for years. Somewhere during that time Avis appointed Robert Townsend as their new CEO with the main tasks of reviving the brand and boosting profit. The new ambitious CEO immediately started the search for the creative agency that would help him in achieving those goals.
The agency brief was rather challenging. It demanded a campaign that would achieve the same effect as their rivals but with five times less money. DDB’s Bill Bernbach accepted the challenge under two conditions. The first condition was having 90 days to get to know Avis and its business better. The second was running the campaign exactly as the agency has defined it, without making any changes. Two businessmen shook hands and the rest is history.
Not only was the branding and advertising history made that day, but also the history of good and respectful relations between the client and the agency. Robert Townsend wrote a short manifesto making sure that the deal between Avis and DDB was fully respected. He had the manifesto framed and hung in every office at both sides.
Meanwhile, DDB came up with a strategy and the creative idea so simple yet so brilliant stating "Avis is only No.2 in rent a cars. So we try harder". The advertising was straightforward, truthful, fun and timeless. Within two years Avis was back in the game with its profit and market share steadily rising.
The moral of the story is simple. Why not try harder to trust the agency next time it comes up with some innovative and challenging ideas. It is definitely worth it if you have in mind that trust and mutual respect are the best incentives in making inspiring and timeless brands.
by: Anja Bauer Minkara, director & senior brand consultant
Nike bought Converse in 2003 and filled up Nike’s portfolio perfectly. All Stars are the lifestyle shoes, as opposed to the Just do it shoes, or shoes that make you move and attain personal athletic goals. Nike people were wise and didn’t touch the design of the famous All Stars or Chuck Taylors as they are called.
What’s the secret of a shoe that hasn’t changed since 1949?
They were first made as great basketball shoes endorsed by Chuck Taylor. They were popular in the 1970s by the baby boomers, they were perceived as rebellious, unconventional and very comfortable. The Ramones wore them, Kurt Cobain as well and now everyone wears them. My 2-year-old son, my 59-year-old aunt and I now wear Chuck Taylors or All Stars, just because they look good. Or maybe not, maybe it’s because we feel like we belong to a certain group of people. People, who are a bit rebellious, people who like the style but also the comfort.
Quite simply it’s a good match between looking good and feeling good. Looking good doesn’t need additional explanation, but everyone who wears them feels somehow special which doesn’t explain anything. The reason why could be because of the small Chuck Taylor signature or because Kurt Cobain wore them. It could also be because of the new fashion - the skinny jeans fashion. I don’t know why exactly but I feel like a part of the Chuck Taylor clan.
In their communication they go for passion, for a different or individualistic point of view. They focus on individuals and their professional life – mostly artistic and they convey their personal dreams, philosophies and their take on life.
But naturally people who wear them are not all artists, photographers, hip chefs but normal people who sit behind their desks and maybe dream of breaking out of the stuffy atmosphere and jumping into their world of passion. All Stars could be that push or that rebellious detail on the person that screams I am not what I seem to be.
The two examples show my ambiguity with the brand. The first is a trendy young girl who teaches you how to lace them and another is the communication done by a Polish advertising agency.
I enjoy watching Gossip Girl for various reasons. One of them is simple relaxation while another, believe it or not, has to do with branding.
For those of you who don’t know, Gossip Girl is a rather popular American TV show revolving around lives of rich and restless Manhattan youngsters who spend most of their time shopping, partying in fancy clubs and coining conspiracies against each other. As the intro to each episode says, it is “your one and only source into the scandalous life of Manhattan’s elite”. Childish? Maybe. Most valuable when it comes to watching great examples of product placement? Definitely.
Gossip Girl first started airing in 2007 and since then it has provided cozy shelter to numerous brands. Some of the brands that were given a significant role in the show were Vitaminwater, Tally Weijl, Droid, Bing and Verizon. At the same time some premium brands such as Givenchy, Marc Jacobs, Louboutin and Chanel have also starred in some rather nice supporting roles, too.
Advertising brands by placing them in a certain context, for example in life of a young movie star in a popular teen show, is defined as product placement. And trust me, Gossip Girl has product placement brought out to the last detail. Either it was the restless Chuck Bass shopping at Harry Winston or the fabulous Serena van der Woodsen wearing her Louboutins, product placement is definitely the name of the game when it comes to Gossip Girl.
This, sometimes more and sometimes less subtle, form of advertising has proven to be very efficient, especially when targeting eager young population seeking for role models when building their own image. A recent study has shown that product placement scores exceptionally well among teens when it comes to building brand awareness, especially when promoting products such as beverages, cell phones and cars. Even bigger winners may be the owners of web sites, as the same study claims that teens not only notice but also actively pursue web sites shown in their favorite series.
The producers of Gossip Girl sure had their homework done. One doesn’t have to watch intensively to notice that the stylish Manhattan gals talk or send messages through one of the latest models of cell phones promoted by the Verizon network. And the fact that almost every little conspiracy that goes on in the show has to first be run through Bing search engine isn’t just a happy coincidence.
So next time when Queen B. (i.e. Blair Waldorf, one of the main characters in the show) drinks her Vitaminwater while wearing a Chanel bag and talking casually over her Droid phone watch carefully. There truly is a great lesson to learn.
by: Anja Bauer Minkara, director & senior brand consultant
I feel inspired. Hopefully the man from Porlock won’t come in and mess it up for me like he did for Coleridge. A person from Porlock interrupted Coleridge while he was writing the poem Kubla Khan and ruined his inspiration.
I am inspired. I see that people in this industry think with their hearts when they create incredible advertising. I get disappointed when they just sell. I love it when they inspire us so you stop what you are doing and sit yourself down in front of TV to get something more than just an annoying hard selling ad.
Is our purpose to sell only, or is it our responsibility to walk people through inspirational insights that people - good brave people - thought of to inspire you. This way people see more than just a brand that needs to be placed in their home, in front of their home, but in their minds and hearts as well.
Inspiration leads people to feel like someone tried hard to make them feel good. It’s like sitting down with your good friend who does her best to make you feel better. That’s what good strong people in this industry do and I appreciate it.
There are clients who think this way as well, thankfully. For such clients I only have respect and they deserved that respect the hard way. They had to risk a lot by doing something unexpected. They risked their careers, the stability and fought against the non-believers and the safe-doers. Safe is boring, safe won’t get you anywhere in life, you will be forgotten and dismissed in this industry because of bored consumers who won’t take part in your brand.
So create with your heart, understand that you do have to fight against the non-believers and be persistent at it. You the creative, you the consultant and you the client will feel good and all who need the inspiration will rejoice in that feeling and I don’t know a single person who doesn’t want to be inspired.
by: Anja Bauer Minkara, director & senior brand consultant
I spoke to one of my friends who is not a part of our industry. She said that she has a feeling that when she hears me speak about what I do, it’s like I speak a foreign language. I completely agree with her, because I sometimes get annoyed with my colleagues and myself when we talk about branding or advertising.
To outsiders our branding language sometimes sounds like a lot of babbling. Terms such as synergy, repositioning, brand harmonization, and monolithic brands confuse people who are not part of the industry.
My wish is to simplify a small but important part of our branding lingo and I am thinking about simplifying the terminology for the clients who sometimes look at me as if I was speaking Chinese.
Let’s take it step by step.
What is a brand? A brand is an imprint or an opinion. It can be an imprint in the form of the story or images in your mind, on packaging and all communication.
The most demanding part of creating the brand is defining the brand positioning. If instead of saying brand positioning, we called it finding the right position or spot that would already be clearer. Brand positioning or the brand essence is the core of the brand, it defines what the brand is all about. In other words brand positioning answers to the question what is the brand. The answer should be summed up in one short sentence. Without this brand statement, the brand is out there roaming aimlessly, like a lost teenager trying to find his place in the society.
The next step is defining brand image. It answers to the question what is this brand like. The answer to this question is composed of three to four attributes. I have probably already annoyed the non-branding crowd with the term brand attributes. Brand attributes are nothing more that characteristics of the brand. My colleagues would describe my brand image as passionate, stubborn, and intuitive. These would be my characteristics if I were a brand or my brand image.
Sometimes clients have problems with what we call brand architecture. Brand architecture has nothing to do with the art and science of designing and erecting buildings. It should be actually called brand relationships, because it’s all about defining relationships between brands in the portfolio. I won’t go into explaining the differences between different models, but comment on their confusing names. One model of brand architecture is called House of Brands. These are brands with different names and logos that have a common “roof” brand. This could be called long distance relationship between brands. The example of this is Procter & Gamble who is in a long distance relationship with Pantene or Eukanuba.
Branded House is another confusing term and it refers to the brands that are closely linked together through the name and the logo. The example for this is Virgin or Harvard with its schools: Harvard Medical School, Harvard Law School or Harvard Business School. We could refer to this brand relationship as the twin brands.
Renaming a part of branding services is just an attempt to talk about branding without using the terminology that makes outsiders feel well, as outsiders. The point is to talk about branding without people feeling like you are babbling in order to impress them. Being down to earth and open is the door opener to outsiders as well. By simplifying the terminology we will create understanding and stop people making fun of us, so I suggest we stop the brand babble and talk simply.
For the most of you who read this blog social media is a standard thing. Waking up and having coffee while checking up your e-mail or updating your Facebook and Twitter account sounds pretty much like the usual morning routine for most of us. But what happens when it comes to brands? Do they follow or share our daily routines? Should they post daily or weekly on their changing moods or show us their newest photo collections? Can the social media improve relationship between brand and its consumers?
The best thing a brand can do is to become close friends with its consumers. Becoming friends means sharing the same values and offering comfort, inspiration or fun when needed. While other media such as TV or print make a solid platform to promote core brand values, social networks make the perfect place to getting to know your consumers better. To listen to them, offer them advice or share news on daily basis. Just like what good friends do.
It’s not strange that some of the most successful global brands have recognized the opportunity and invest heavily in this kind of friendship. Besides veterans such as Coca-Cola with nearly 22 million friends on Facebook and Starbucks with 19 million, one of my top favorites is Ford. Once the first talks about social media have started Ford has hired Scott Monty as their Head of Social Media. Scott has taken his role pretty seriously and has become a true touch point between the brand and its consumers. Scott promotes his own and his company’s views and values through his blog and Twitter account where he has made about 30.000 followers. With investing so much effort in trend watching and innovation, no wonder Ford has come out as one of the winners from the last year’s automobile industry collapse. According to brandchannel “Ford is expected to post its best annual profit in more than a decade, when the company announces its fourth quarter and full year financial results on Friday”.
Last year we have seen a true rise of social media. One of the heaviest advertisers when it comes to traditional media Procter&Gamble has announced recently that it will redirect a fair amount of its advertising spending from daytime television serials to social networks. The Old Spice Guy campaign staring Isaiah Mustafa has certainly been a huge incentive to this kind of strategy with 140 million views on Youtube and 1.2 million fans on Facebook. When it comes to ROI, the Old Spice has reported a double-digit growth by the end of 2010.
So how does this apply to your brand? Communicate with your consumers, get to know them better, show them your fun side, make them laugh and talk about your brand over their coffee breaks. That’s the best way to enter their minds and hearts.
by: Anja Bauer Minkara, director & senior brand consultant
Interact with people, talk to them about your brand and see how the brand makes them feel. How does the brand make them feel - good or bad, inspired or annoyed? Without these sorts of answers, you will never know where you stand.
Lots of clients ask me if we do our research ourselves or we let a research agency do that job. My answer is always the same - we do it ourselves because we want to hear what people have to say. If you are not in touch with your consumers, your brand will not live in their hearts and minds, but somewhere out there. There won’t be a connection.
A connection is made when the brand really has something to offer to the consumer and makes them feel special. If the consumer doesn’t feel special when buying the brand, the brand becomes just another commodity they can live without.
For a brand to be emotional, the creator of the brand has to be a good storyteller. The brand storytellers create stories that that they would like to take part in. But really good brand storytellers look into the psyche of the people they would like to target.
Even though we are all unique as individuals, we all obviously have common characteristics. We love the color purple (and all that it stands for), we cry when listening to “Nothing Compares to You” by Sinead O'Connor, we love the smell of freshly mown grass, we don't like pushy people, we smile when we see kids smiling, we love the touch of silk, we crave ice-cream, we feel safe in our mothers' arms, we don't like boundaries. I am sure that when you read this, you made mental ticks yes/no to each statement. You might have made the same mental ticks as other people who read this, so you do have a lot in common with the other people. Brand storyteller’s task is to know which traits are important for the brand. The brand storyteller creates a brand that will resonate with the people who have specific traits in common with each other.
Therefore by combining the brand's innate traits with the consumers’ traits - a believable, strong and relevant brand is built. Such a brand is trusted and people feel passionate about it, as it stands for something important.
But brands shouldn’t stop here they should not just stand for something important, but do something important. The brands and the corporations that stand behind them need to do good, help out when help is needed, inspire when inspiration is needed, create a well-meaning aura around them, otherwise the brand is meaningless.
by: Anja Bauer Minkara, director & senior brand consultant
I just watched the Nike ad with LeBron James and I wondered how do they do it? How does Nike do it?
They give me goose bumps every time I watch their ads. Ok, I am an ex basketball player so it hits me even more than an average viewer, but other people say they get the same feeling even though they have no connection to basketball.
Mr. Knight who sold shoes out of the trunk of his car and called the company that preceded Nike – Blue Ribbon Sports, was a visionary like many successful people. His determination to create high quality shoes for an affordable price was a good motivation. But the best motivation of all was his love for athletics. He wouldn’t have been able to create something this strong had it not been for his true love for the sport. This true love is seen to this day whether you are a professional athlete or a regular person who occasionally likes to sweat the stress away.
Phil Knight’s partner Bill Bowerman was Knight’s athletics coach and his famous saying is “if you have a body, you are an athlete.” This is an embodiment of Nike’s spirit. Everyone can be an athlete. If you Just do it, you are an athlete.
That’s exactly what I love about the Nike spirit. It inspires you with good energy, which is seen in their advertising. It’s likeable and doesn’t turn anyone away. If only there were more entrepreneurs who loved the business they were in, it wouldn’t be just about money but also about sharing with others their inspiration and passion.
by: Anja Bauer Minkara, director & senior brand consultant
I frequently talk to talented copywriters, creative directors, designers, other brand consultants and we all agree about one thing – why don’t the clients let the creatives do the work. Why don’t they accept the gutsy idea? Why can’t the work of a brilliant creative see the light of day?
What’s the client afraid of – that it won’t sell. The client thinks that we sell ideas and that they sell brands, but once the client understands that we all sell brands together, the world will be a better place for the advertising people.
So where did the gutsy client go? The bad financial times hit and the gutsy client disappeared. I used to be one of the clients and I understand that they are scared of crazy ideas, but if the idea is aligned with the brand, there shouldn’t be any problems.
In order to help the client and the brilliant creative I would sum up what is important to sell the idea. The checklist is for both the creative when creating the idea and for the client when judging and choosing the idea.
The idea needs to be on brief
Brand associations are aligned with the brand
The idea is communicating to the right consumer
It has a long term potential
The competitors aren’t saying this
It is likeable (some out of the box ideas turn the audience away)
The market trends are in the favor of the proposed idea
This one’s for the clients. Let me just say a few words about the first point. If the brief is bad, then your brand will have bad communication.
Make the brief as if you were talking to a friend about another friend. Give your brand human traits when you are describing it – in three attributes tops. Describe its strength in one short sentence. Describe its weakness in one short sentence. Name the competition – give a short overview. And that’s it! Don’t put unnecessary information that will kill the most inspired creative and don’t hide behind complicated words that don’t mean much.
If you have all the seven points you have a bigger chance of selling the strong idea that will benefit the brand long term. Of course I can tell you that sometimes even all the 7 checks won’t help the idea with the scared client.
Just a bit of advice for the creatives. Explain the idea well. Provide the reasons why the idea is brilliant, why it would work for the brand, how it would benefit the brand long term. In my experience too many creatives think short term when selling the idea. Keep this in mind when doing the presentation. Show the client how the idea could be communicated over a longer period of time. That means doing more for the pitch – show what could happen in a year, for the client to see the reusability of this. That is why it is good to have the foundations of the brand that you could get from the client in the form of the brief. Keep thinking of that one sentence that sums up the strength and never go astray from it because that will help the brand become distinctive and wanted in the market place.
Recent Comments