The Brand As Utility
Piers Fawkes PSFK Organization & Management Seminar Columbia University Monday Nov 13 2006
The rationale for my investigation into Branded Utility is to look at not what the future of branding is , but to understand the future of brands. For so long, a brand has been a badge that represents a company or product - represents in an accurate or even inaccurate manner. For a long time, such branding was forced. Forced by television, retail distribution monopoly on a population with few media outlet. Today that has changed - our access to channels has multiplied and even more importantly maybe, our ability to share information and opinion about brands has never been greater. I’m going to spend part of this presentation talking about the modern landscape for brands and a new opportunity available which has been called Branded Utility. Branded Utility is a theory that has only started to be considered. I am no expert on the subject, but it excites me so much that when Howard invited me to speak today, I set myself to find out more and present the results to you today. Over the last few weeks I’ve spoken to several thought marketing leaders and you’ll see them quoted throughout the presentation. Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mleak/
The Modern Landscape For Brands
• • • • •
Multiple Channels Questions Over Relationship With Brands New Brands Emerging Emerging Consumer Trends Out Of Sync With Brands Advertising Industry Slow To React Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mleak/
Multiple Channels
Digital Is More Than Just Another Channel
55 Million Blogs: Everyone Has A Personal Magazine
YouTube Gives Everyone A TV Channel
The Rise Of 3rd Screen
Growing capabilities Growing multi-use
Multiple Channels • Nichecasting • Fragmentation • Difficulties to target en-masse • Costs to reach large groups increasing
Questions Over Relationships With Brands
•Brands overstep the mark •Brands become more powerful than governments
Brand Values Don’t Sync With Consumer Trends •
CREATE –
•
CONNECT –
•
Blogs, Video, Customized Products
MySpace, Facebook. Dodgeball
SHARE –
Flickr, YouTube
Ref: Josh Rubin, Coolhunting.com at Future Trends 06
New Brands Emerging Ignoring The Old Model
•
Brands being built on their usefulness to the consumer –
“… many new companies have built great brands not by interrupting people and telling them how they should feel or think, but rather by spending time and effort to be useful in people's lives. Starbuck's provide a place for me to get online and hear new music, Yahoo gives me answers.” • Johnny Vulkan, Anomaly
•
Peer to Peer recommendation becoming more important than brand advice –
•
E.g. Amazon reviews
Digital technology driving change –
Does a shopper in GAP ask the staff what they think about an item - or does she take a photo with her phone and ask her friends
Consumers Having Their Own Fun Without Brands •
Once we needed advertising!
•
It paid for a lot of our entertainment : TV, Radio, Print
•
Advertising, was useful!
•
But now we can use digital tools to have our own fun
Flash Mob Clubbing
A group of people assemble suddenly in a public place, do something unusual for a brief period of time, and then quickly disperse.
Online Gaming A subscription-based online gaming service that allows players to play games with or against other players around the world or over the internet.
Digg - We Media
Advertising Industry Slow To React •
Taking offline principles and applying online
•
Faddish
•
Urban Spam
Ad Industry: Replicating Offline To Online
Ad Industry: Faddish
Ad Industry: Urban Spam
YouTube Ref: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdHlob1lSUo
The Modern Landscape For Brands
• • • • •
Multiple Channels Questions Over Relationship With Brands New Brands Emerging Emerging Consumer Trends Out Of Sync With Brands Advertising Industry Slow To React
Missed Opportunities
Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/urbanphotographer/
Opportunity: Flickr Uploader
The Unbranded Flickr Uploader - missed opportunity for Kodak?
Opportunity: Teabuddy
•
Regular bursts of popularity, no maintenance –
“That’s one of the things I love about online. Things can just live on forever, getting discovered by new audiences up to years after they originally launched. It’s something that clients are often uncomfortable with, they’re used to campaigns having a launch date and a finite lifespan. Those rules just don’t apply any more. I guess that’s the long tail of advertising.” • Iain Tate, Partner at Poke
•
Why didn’t Lipton or PG Tips make this?
Opportunity : Branded Utility •
If small teams can create applications that people love - imagine what could be done by a big brand with budget? –
“I think that the most interesting branded utility opportunities are actually among big companies that have a massive reach. Why? Well, for a lot of applications, you don't need the backing of a big brand because a couple guys in a garage can go ahead and build it on their own. However, there are certain apps that can't happen unless you're Nike or Apple because it requires integration on so many different levels. Sometimes it takes giants to move mountains.” • Jack Cheng,Freelance Creative Director
Brand Utility •
In order for brands to remain relevant, they must become useful: –
“It’s where the brand creates a commitment to a relationship. It’s where the brand creates something useful to you, something that’s a utility in your life. The consumer will feel more confident with the relationship if the brand will continue to be part of your life. Branding has been about cultural relevance – what we’re saying is that it’s not so much about relevance as usefulness. Brand messages need to be in a useful format.” • Benjamin Palmer, Barbarian Group
–
“Brands being genuinely useful to their customers, employees, suppliers and the people they touch.” • Johnny Vulkan, Anomaly
Examples?
ViaMichelin
Widgets Are The Big Buzz On The Web •
Immediate opportunities of brands.
•
More reading: http://www.typepadhacks.org/2006/11/why_the_whole_w.html
King Of Widgets: Flickr Badge
Walmart Entertainment Station
Run London : Utility Online & Offline
Nike+ : Moving Branded Utility Offline
New Companies Are Building Branded Utilities •
Teknision
Where Next?
What Drives Branded Utility? •
Online reach, online costs
•
Vast amounts of money are being spent on 3 month campaigns that are switched off
•
Maybe we could channel some of that budget for useful projects…
•
Long term relationship building
Remember •
You still have to get the Utility out there
•
Yes, there will be advertising… –
“At the end of the day you have to let people know about your Branded Utility and one of those ways will probably be through advertising.” Russell Davies, Planner OIA
•
But more partnerships and content share.
Branded Utility
•
At the end of the day, it’s about making great products
PSFK •
PSFK is a team of future thinkers. This presentation has been given by Piers Fawkes to provide debate on an idea.
•
For more information - or if you would like Piers Fawkes to come and present these ideas to you and your team, email Piers at piers@psfk.com or call him on +1 917 595 2227.
•
All content © their appropriate owners.