Branding matters. Because branding matters.
Scan these QR Codes to download the Brand Knew App IOS
Android
brandknewmag.com
Published by
01.15#33
07 Dear friends! Its arrived. And come in a hurry. 2014 has just whizzed past us and it is difficult to imagine that this indeed is the last issue of the year. Well, as has been the case with every Brand Knew edition, there is lots to read in this issue. How about some lessons in re branding from Monica Lewinsky? Or Scott Goodson’s insightful and compelling version of the threats that are hampering global brand building? As marketing gets more bottom up, we examine the need for more left brain thinking. No veil or cloak here, brand is the experience and experience is the brand,as vividly articulated by Vikram Chadha in his inaugural column for the magazine. We also evaluate some of the Social Trends that will gain currency in 2015. This issue also looks at a toss up between Television & the Internet as the best place to build brands. Lots more to look forward to as we thank you for your continued patronage, sign off for the year and prepare to welcome another year of opportunities, challenges and brand stories. Peace & Goodluck! Best always
09 13 15 19 21 23 25
Suresh Dinakaran @sureshdinakaran linkd.in/1dsjYaW bit.ly/1h95tgO suresh@groupisd.com
27 29
Managing Editor: Suresh Dinakaran Creative Head/Director Operations: Pravin Ahir Magazine Concept & Design/ New Media Specialist: Mufaddal Joher Country Head, UK: Sagar Patil Country Head, India: Rohit Unni Digital/Social Media Marketing: Loknath Swain, Vishnu Nath Associate: Brand Success: Andre Van Helsdingen Web Specialist: Prasanta Kumar Sahu Online Support: Mahendra Kumar Behera
33
Brand Knew is published by
37
35
39 For Advertising Enquiries: info@groupisd.com or call + 971 4 386 7728 All Copyright of the content in this issue rests fully & comprehensively with the respective contributors and/or media platforms at all times, as the case may be.
www.brandknewmag.com | www.groupisd.com Download Mobile App from
41
CONTENTS
Why Left-Brained Thinkers Are Becoming More Important in Marketing How to Read (and Decide) Your Marketing’s Fate [Infographic] The five worst threats to global brand building Brand is the experience & experience is the Brand Are marketers as tech-savvy as we think? Why Your Data Scientists Need to Be Storytellers, and How to Get Them There Do you need to be a certain ‘type’ of person to work in marketing? A Lesson in Rebranding From Monica Lewinsky Why James Bond Still Drives an Aston Martin, Even If He’s Not Helping Sales. Nike Lawsuit: How 3 Top Designers Allegedly Stole IP And Left For Adidas How brands can join the wearable revolution 7 social trends you need to know for 2015 Wesley R. Hartmann: Where to Build a Better Brand — Television or the Internet? The Sony Logo That Never Was Book, Line & Sinker
Why Left-Brained Thinkers Are Becoming More Important in Marketing Derek Slayton
brandknewmag.com
08
Marketing has long had a reputation as the domain for more creative types—wordsmiths, artists, conceptual thinkers, and message-makers. Though that reputation is partially earned and accurate, it has also been inflated by the Mad Mendefined persona who focuses primarily on design ideas and creative copy before knocking off for the day (and knocking back three fingers of scotch—even if it happens to be 11AM). While creative, right-brained thinking will always have a place in the marketing suite (can anyone contest the message is more important than ever?), the other half of the brain is increasingly important—and seems to be getting a little more respect as of late. More importantly, we are seeing best-in-class marketing shops building teams that effectively use both sides of the cerebrum—creative and data-driven thinking and execution.
A Shift in Thinking In the B2B world, a great side effect of these combined forces has been marketing’s shifting role in business as a strategic player with a more respected seat at the executive table. Unlike sales and engineering, marketing has historically struggled for this spot. Perhaps for the first time ever, a dollar invested in marketing can deliver a higher return than a dollar invested in sales. That’s not to say it’s a zero-sum game, but the discussion about how the dollar gets split is more relevant (and important) than ever. That has made the C-suite sit up and pay attention, and it has required marketing to become a lot more accountable. Along with the ability to measure and show results comes the ability to influence go-to-market strategy. There’s never been a more exciting time to be in the marketing business. Personally, I am excited to be a part of this shift. Not because I value creativity less, but because I value the balance of leftand right-brained thinking more. We are living through this here at NetProspex as we grow—and we are working with many other B2B marketing organizations as customers who are leading the charge. From that set of influences, I see (at least) a few key forces driving the evolution of marketing and its role in the business: • Mass adoption of marketing technology. Marketing technology spend is on the rise, and it doesn’t appear to be stopping anytime soon. We’ve seen the stats to back it up: Laura McLellan of Gartner predicts that by 2017, CMOs will spend more on IT than CIOs. And we have had some great conversations that reinforce those facts. For most companies, the conversation is not about whether they need to adopt new marketing technology but when and what tools and platforms to use. But like any IT investment, marketing is being tasked with showing ROI for these investments. How is this technology helping
to generate interest, reduce costs and, most importantly, drive revenue? • The evolution of the buyer’s journey. To say the buyer’s journey has changed is a vast understatement. We’ve all heard the stat: the B2B buyer is 57% through the purchase decision before engaging a supplier sales rep [PDF]. Other stats state it’s even higher. Either way, today’s marketers are required to carry the ball much farther down the field. They’re focused on educating and engaging prospects, uncovering who they are, and how and where they can deliver value. This demands a whole new level of analysis on the lead funnel (or buyer journey) and a greater understanding of where and how prospects are coming in, what’s meaningful to them, and where and why they are dropping off. • Increase in marketing channels. Ann Handley (chief content officer at MarketingProfs) recently said to me that online is the new tradeshow— a simple, yet profound statement. It used to be that in B2B, you went to tradeshows to get educated on vendors. Now, you go online. You read content, you join Twitter conversations on your areas of interest, you follow companies on LinkedIn, and you engage with like-minded people with similar problems to help find your solution. Today’s marketer has to understand which of these channels to turn up, and which to turn off. The only way to do that is to understand which are working and why they’re working. • Enhanced focus on measurement. More and more companies are adopting the philosophy that if it can’t be measured, it didn’t happen. All the influences above require a more sophisticated approach to measurement. Companies must understand what channels are truly helping move the needle in building their brand and driving sales. Today’s successful marketers are delivering the measurement goods. Those influences aren’t just affecting what types of marketers companies are looking for, but also what kinds of jobs are opening up. Some proof: How many times have you heard the term “chief marketing technologist” mentioned in the last six months? Compare that with six years ago. A premium is being placed on tech savvy, digital expertise, process, and analytics. I’m not one for crystal-ball predictions, but I think it’s safe to say we’ll continue this shift toward left-brain thinking and data-focused, technology-oriented capabilities.
Derek Slayton is CMO of NetProspex, a provider of B2B data services. He has over 20 years of experience in technology sales and marketing.
How to Read (and Decide) Your Marketing’s Fate [Infographic] Verónica Maria Jarski
Can you read what’s in the cards for your marketing campaigns? Some companies can—when they use the right tools and techniques. Here’s a look at three ways to predict the possible future of your marketing, according to Marketo. One tip is to write your marketing destiny. “Compared with ill-prepared companies, those with documented marketing plans were nearly 2X more likely to stay on strategy most or all of the time,” states Marketo.
When you plan, make sure you have the right calendar. “More than 2/3 of marketers agree that using a marketing calendar is important, but most are unsatisfied with their current tools,” reports Marketo. Popular tools include online calendar tracking software, Outlook, Google calendar, desktop calendar program, spreadsheets, and whiteboard calendar. To learn more about calendar must-haves and planning for the future, check out the infographic:
groupisd.com
10
Veronica Maria Jarski is the Opinions editor and a senior writer at MarketingProfs.
The five worst threats to global brand building Scott Goodson
Brands hurdle through the sky and around the world with unprecedented speed. At least the brand and its values, it’s vision and point of view can be spread quickly like wildfire across oceans and geography. The ancient brands of the past, built over decades, and centuries have a different attitude. “Quick? They quip. Not possible. We’ve been the brand of choice for the most famous people in the history of the human race. It takes time and huge investments and gazillions of dollars. “No, not true” say the young upstarts aiming for global relevance and adoration and an ever increasing slice of the global middle class’s daily spend. After 30 years building some of the world’s most iconic brands, I see positives from both sides of this debate. In early part of this century, I was the creative lead behind Heineken’s push to establish one global brand, one global advertising campaign across all territories. An achievement that never had happened prior to this before. It took incredible patience, relationships and a great idea and finally we managed to achieve this objective past politics and challenges. One brand, one name. It was the reason I moved from StrawberryFrog Amsterdam to start StrawberryFrog 11 years ago. Since then I had the pleasure to lead the global brand advertising for Emirates Airline and wrote the movement motto “Hello Tomorrow,” oversaw LG’s new global brand idea “It’s all possible”, the global digital and social
branding for Pampers. I pinned the words “Make History” on a wall that articulated the global strategy to build the Jim Beam brand across all territories. Google, Morgan Stanley, and one of my most favorites the global cultural movement RISE for one of India’s most powerful companies: Mahindra. These were brands built on an idea that’s highly relevant to a wide range of people, based on universal insights and the familiar echoes of human desires. Always the same two or three words repeated back to crystallize a common and relevant point of view, that many people can rally around. In my best selling book UPRISING: HOW TO BUILD A BRAND AND CHANGE THE WORLD BY SPARKING CULTURAL MOVEMENTS argues that brands should be striving to design global movements, after all. Not just doing traditional positioning that’s so 2005.
brandknewmag.com
14
So many different examples of big idea brand building that buttress entire companies, with an immense workforce or hothouses of innovation. But increasingly there are examples of brands that spread their story like lightning compared to traditional brands. And yet these modern brands, while they spread, they also live off of the violent waves of the global internet feeding off positive stories and on the benefit of strangers who spread the positive word via social media - brands such as Airbnb and Uber. But for these new brands it can be a forest of spikes and dark caves. Today for example Uber was banned in Delhi because one driver was accused of rape but yet word of this spread across the social space in the blink of an eye. My gut says to me that while speed can be a virtue it feels that the cornerstones of global brand building remain unchanged. And that avoiding or worst ignoring them will bring you bad voodoo. Here’s the path you must take. These are threats to global brand building that you should take heed. 1. Your mouth may drop open but must build a global brand based on a big movement idea that is relevant across all
territories and not just talking about yourself and your great company. The idea must be bigger and richer than the product, service you provide or your company. What’s relevant to the daily lives of your consumers? What matters in their daily lives? It’s not about your company. 2. A global brand faces many hurdles to birth. Differences between countries shouldn’t be one of them. We’ve developed a process that overcomes these obstacles. We disconnect all things that we can disconnect. And connect the important things that companies need to connect to build the brand across borders. One wire goes to ground and one goes to sky. 3. Global brand building happens slowly and meticulously. It cannot be rushed, yet the building blocks are needed even in exciting times. Plant your feet firmly in the earth. And aim for global. It cannot remain in the echoes of the global management team’s head. 4. Be a brain against a microphone and become a courageous confident thought leader with a rising purpose. Be the movement that employees and consumers cannot help but join and be a part of. 5. Maximize all of this through creative that people press their nose against the window to get a peek at. Express your ideas with cunning creative content that begets an unconditional devotion to the brand. You fidget in anticipation about a glorious global brand--all absolutely doable. Without a global brand, eventually the big handsome global brands will come and drag your consumers away, creating frustrations. Scott Goodson is founder of the world’s first movement marketing agency strawberryfrog. He’s best selling author of ‘Uprising: how to build a brand and change the world by sparking cultural movements.’ Scott developed the idea of movement marketing as the modern way to build a brand and has worked with Emirates Airline, Heineken, Jim Beam, Google and Mahindra.
Brand is the experience & experience is the Brand Vikram Chadha
In the 80’s and early 90’s it was the product economy which ruled the roost. From mid 90’s to till about 2010 the products differentiators started becoming the same and services gained prominence. Over the last 3 to 5 years services are also becoming the same. Both products and services have become passe, and there is a new economy which puts the journey of the customer at the centre of everything. I call it the experience economy. Here I will share some examples of new companies and old companies of what they are doing in this experience economy and then we will lay some key principles and attributes which are required in building the brand and the experience. In the experience economy, brand is the experience and experience is the brand. The first example I want to share is of a company which built its entire brand and service based on experience. Besides the disruptive business model it is the experience that the customers of Netflix rave about. Building a great brand,
especially online, starts with offering exceptional value to the customers. In the eyes of the Netflix subscriber, the brand Netflix is built through amazing customer experiences, which is what makes the Netflix subscribers highly engaged with the brand, loyal and strong passionate advocates of the brand. Netflix experience has created a plethora of “wows”the Netflix subscriber is spoilt for choice. In his onboarding process he has a huge selection of movies to choose from, he can find and select what he wants easily, he gets the movie delivered to him or streamed in time, all this happens with simple ease of use and convenience. All this is available to the subscriber at a very fair price and offered through very simple monthly based value proposition. These capabilities have been made available by technology, but it is this simple experience which is at the centre of Netflix brand building efforts. The first experience differentiator is in the selection of titles.
groupisd.com
16
Netflix removed the physical constraints of the store and the geographic constraints of reaching a location. Netflix selection choice gives the customers an advantage to select the popular, not so popular, critic’s choice, most importantly their own choice which the traditional stores simply cannot match. One of the stellar experiences that Netflix worked out is matching content with the customers. They have developed a proprietary recommendation system called “cinematch”. Every time the subscriber sends back a movie, Netflix requests for a rating of the movie, the subscriber with a single click can rate the movie. With this data and based on the millions of feedback by other users, Netflix has developed a map of user ratings and steers its customers towards movies and shows preferred by people with tastes that are most like yours. In the experience economy the community collaboration has a big role and we see this coming into play here as well. I call this system as collaborative analytics as this adds a high level of sophistication to the customer’s experience. This experience is fantastic as it monitors trends among customers and uses this this data to personalize an individual’s customer experience. This input is then reflected on the web and mobile page of Netflix of each subscriber as each one is displayed with a customized web page with only the titles that he is most likely to be interested in. This enables the customer to request for the new titles easily and creates a superlative experience chain reaction. It is simple, personalized and relevant which are the key attributes of this experience economy. From my point of view this experience on Netflix has created a very strong following for the brand Netflix. This powerful engine enables experiences which makes the Netflix subscribers a strong advocate of the Netflix brand. I am one of them. The experience they offer to the customers is platinum standard. My second example is of UBER. Though UBER has been in the news lately for all the wrong reasons however UBER is a testimony of what experience should be and this experience has ultimately led to define the UBER brand. One has these services at your fingertips whenever you need a ride and you are in complete control. Once you open the app you can visually see how many UBER vehicles are in the vicinity. One can make out which vehicles are free for a ride and which vehicles are carrying passengers. As a member one can set up the pickup location, one can choose the car which you want. Within five minutes, you have a professional UBER driver at your service.
Once you have chosen the vehicle, UBER creates a “wow” experience for you. One receives a text confirmation indicating the time of arrival, vehicle make, along with the license plate number, the photo of the driver and his rating. After you have taken your ride, you have the opportunity to provide complete feedback, you rate the vehicle, the driving along with the professionalism of the driver who took you to the location. The entire experience that one gets is outstanding driven by a simple user friendly app. This kind of experience propels the ecosystem of an experience which is memorable. The drivers want a good rating as it equates to more selection for them which means more trips, which in turn means more money. For the customer the simplicity of hailing a vehicle at your convenience in your location and the experience you get creates a service which you want to use often.
UBER has built its brand by taking the experience to another level. The premium it is able to command from the consumer is because of the awesome experience it offers. There is no money exchanged with the driver, there is no tipping involved as the UBER experience offers a hassle free cashless transaction, as the UBER experience already has your credit card details registered with them. The cherry on the cake is when you get an UBER receipt, besides getting the fare one also gets the miles travelled and map, the average speed and the duration of your ride. To sum up what is unbelievably cool is the entire experience. They have been able to turn the entire transportation and taxi industry upside down because of their simple differentiated experience. Consumers love the experience and they share their real time experiences with others. This results in positive word of mouth which eventually leads to building a brand. From the incredibly simple app, one can ride a car service which you get within five minutes of your request. Next in
your experience journey you get all the text messages with your updates. The ride and the quality of the car is an experience in itself as it is comfortable and classy. The feedback mechanism and the cashless transaction makes it a ride to remember everytime. This is the key in building the brand as this entire journey is enjoyable, memorable, and hence the reason the consumer calls this as an UBERESQUE experience. My next example is of Coca-Cola which for many decades has been the most valuable brand. The reason Coca Cola has managed to do this is because of the strong connect they have been able to have with their consumers consistently. In 2014 Coca Cola has been displaced from the top by Apple and this is clearly a reflection of the times we live in. However as always Cola Cola is adapting and becoming relevant to its consumers. I do not know how many of you have seen the new Coca-Cola ad of Vietnam. If you have not seen the ad you may check out the same on http://www. youtube.com/watch?v=xbwKPSbL0jw. What is special about the ad is that it provides a connect with the everyday lives of the people. Coca Cola here is delving into the everyday experiences of people. By going into this space where people can experience the product and make it part of their daily lives. The product (bottle) is being made useful and relevant to each of them in their own lives. Each individual is customizing the relevance based on their personal needs. As each user is designing, curating and creating his own experiences. The connect with the brand becomes even stronger. Another fact of paramount importance is that these personal experiences are being shared on community which builds the community experiences. This enables consumers to become advocates of the brand. These engaged customers then become the stimuli of the brand. They spread the word around. This is what the brands of today must do. Rather than telling people of how cool they are, let people work with the brand’s product and services and let them tell you how cool they are. The storytelling by people has much more significance and this is what creates engaged consumers. These engaged consumers create the community for the brand and become true advocates of the brand. Some key principles that one needs to remember to create these memorable experiences, which creates your connect with the brand. These are: 1. Keep it simple: The value proposition and the experience has to be simple so that it is easily understood by people. It is important to be easily found, example Netflix and Amazon makes it easy for you to select and with one click you buy. 2. Make it engaging: Make connect with your customers. Don’t tell your customer that you are cool, let your
customers share their experiences and let them tell you that they are cool. example Google, which is now the most valuable brand in the world does so. The self driven car concept from Google has engaged the users from many perspectives across many industries. This is the kind of content that make people want to follow you. These engagement builds community, these are very powerful as they fuel your brand. Google embraces this community. Today if you want to build a brand make the experiences of your brand engaging with your customers. 3. Don’t confuse branding with advertising: Advertising can build awareness but brands are built through customer experience. 4. Personalization relevance: Superior experience is delivered when it is made relevant to the type of customer. The Netflix service is platinum standard as the experience to the subscriber is made personalized because of their excellent recommendation engine. Online world, smartphones and software driven technologies are powerful tools which has enabled the world of personalization. In both the examples used as a case study for this paper – Netflix and UBER, the experience of getting the service when you want it, where you want it in one click is a killer differentiator. The personalization of experience creates a very strong emotional connect between the customers and the brand. The customers share these experiences online and word of mouth which build the brand. 5. Innovation counts: Innovation inspires people. People become subscribers of brands who are constantly innovating and keep themselves fresh. Brands have to be keep remaining fresh so that their subscribers keep coming back. Take the example of Apple, it has been able to redefine categories because of the innovation they were able to create through iPods/ iTunes which transformed the music player, iPhones which changed the landscape of how phones are used by consumers. Google is now the new innovation brand as its product spans across diverse categories from map systems, wearable devices, productivity tools, cloud services and driver-less car. People connect with this as it inspires them and they share these inspirations with others and promotes Google further. All of the above should be done in a way that it is fun and professional. Make the experiences for your customers memorable so that they share their experiences and stories with friends, family and communities, and these experiences make the Brand. Once you are on the journey keep this cycle going as the brand will define the experiences and in turn these experiences will define the brand. Vikram Chadha is a seasoned telecom professional with over 17 years of experience in Asia, Africa, America and Middle East in the telecommunication sector with du, MTN, Globacom, Reliance etc.Presently he is the Vice President of Marketing at du. Recently he has been honored by the World Marketing Congress and CMO Council as Top 100 Marketing leaders in the world.He was also awarded for Thought Leadership Award at Indian Innovation Awards 2014. Vikram Chadha is a thought leader on Mobile Data, Pricing, Digital and Cloud services for SMB’s, Building Brands and Innovation. He speaks regularly and shares his vision at leading industry events and writes for many top publications.
Are marketers as tech-savvy as we think? Nicole McNab
Are marketers really driving digital development? We’ve reached the point where it no longer seems helpful to debate whether digital is separate from marketing activity since digital is so prolific. Or that, seeking personalised customer engagement, the chief marketing officer will become the orchestrator of new technology-driven experiences and services. Analysts Gartner even predicted that the head of marketing would outspend the IT director by 2017. The problem is, however, that the way marketing and digital activities are organised isn’t yet synonymous – and marketers may not actually be the ones driving, technology-based innovations in their organisation. When we looked at what information sources b2b marketers use, a healthy majority of them use market data reports (69%), customer feedback surveys (68%) and market research (64%). But fewer than half of them are using social media and analytics (44%), and less than one third social media tools (31%). Marketers are still to make sense of the data blizzard, it appears. In a separate study, we asked IT and business decisionmakers in the UK and US to what extent departments in their organisation are, with permission or not, by-passing corporate IT channels and developing their own apps, databases or buying cloud services – otherwise known as shadow IT. IT heads seem resigned to its inevitability: 77% said there was some shadow IT going on in their organisation. Given resource constraints and the need to satisfy 24/7 customer
needs, everyone with business targets is pushing the boundaries to get a lot more done with a lot less. But most surprising is which departments are most active in shadow IT. 36% say business strategy, 27% say finance, but marketing is referenced by only 14% of these senior executives. What are we to make of b2b marketing’s low uptake of social media analytics and untraditional IT development? Perhaps we can say that the chief marketing officer’s team will naturally be outsourcing tasks such as analytics to the sharpest digital agencies – it can’t be expected to do everything, after all. Or marketing teams may be driving innovative developments via the corporate IT channels. Perhaps they don’t need their own programme of technology acquisition and development, even though those who are doing it this way say it’s an easier and quicker option. It needs further investigation but these findings raise the suspicion that marketing disciplines in large companies are not yet the orchestrator of agile, technology-led development. In a world of higher expectations and shrinking resources, marketers must find new approaches to leading the way on digital innovation – and ensure they are not left behind by their colleagues when it comes to smarter (if unorthodox) approaches to doing so. Nicole McNab, project manager, Vanson Bourne
Why Your Data Scientists Need to Be Storytellers, and How to Get Them There Laura Patterson
You’ve probably heard or read this stanza from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”: “Water, water, everywhere, / And all the boards did shrink; / Water, water, everywhere, / Nor any drop to drink.”
manage, as well as shorter product lifecycles, greater price transparency, and higher customer experience expectations, are creating an exponential increase in the amount of available marketing data.
Are you wondering what that quote has to do with marketing? Like the volume of water in the world’s oceans, the volume of data available to marketers is simply overwhelming.
But unless all that data can be effectively collected, analyzed, and transformed into meaningful and actionable insights— and then used to tell a compelling, actionable story—it is as useless as salt water to someone who is parched and adrift on the ocean.
More new channels, competition, and distinct segments to
brandknewmag.com
22
Data Skills Vital to Marketing A recent study from the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) revealed that business leaders rate creating a data strategy for marketing and predictive analytics as one of Marketing’s most important priorities. Survey participants suggested that marketing pros often lack the data science and business analytics skills to extract valuable, actionable insights from both large and small data sets—and that many organizations lack an information, technology, and data science strategy. That capability gap has created enormous opportunities for data scientists from other disciplines to join the ranks of marketers. The demand for data scientists has skyrocketed (Harvard Business Review termed it the “sexiest job of the 21st century”). For marketing executives who do not yet have this role on staff, here is a short job/skills description. Data scientists capture, manipulate, and transform data to create meaning. They need superb technical skills, such as the ability to devise algorithmic solutions to solve complex business problems. Ideally, data scientists employ both internal and external data and structured and unstructured data to help an organization make better decisions and gain competitive advantage.
Storytelling as Data Skill The ultimate challenge for data scientists is to use the data to create stories. Data scientists worth their salt can use spreadsheets and visualization tools to support analysis. Their real value lies in their ability to transform the data into a narrative experience for both internal and external communication. Johnathan Harris, the creator of We Feel Fine and Whale Hunt, reminds us that “the data is just part of the story.” He adds, “I think people have begun to forget how powerful human stories are, exchanging their sense of empathy for a fetishistic fascination with data, networks, patterns, and total information... The human stuff is the main stuff, and the data should enrich it.”
Five Tips for Data Storytelling Many marketing executives we work with have asked us for ideas on how to help their data scientists go beyond the data to become storytellers. Here are five coaching tips for doing just that: 1. Start with the business question that needs to be answered (think of it as a mystery to be solved), such as which customers are most likely to buy a particular product/service, or what is the next best vertical segment
to pursue, or what are the key customer touchpoints that are affecting customer experience post-sale? Knowing the answers is what help you make the story relevant to your audience. 2. Ask the right questions of your data to collect the “evidence” needed to solve the mystery. Trying to glean insights from the abundance of data without the business questions may take you down numerous rabbit holes. 3. Craft the story, set the stage, and identify the characters, such as which customers, or which competitors. Make the narrative clear and memorable. A good story has a plot—are you a challenger in an established market or the category leader facing niche players nipping at your heels? It is essential that the story inspire action and/or have a compelling takeaway. Convey the intentions and perceptions of the characters. 4. Decide what data to include and organize the data to complement the narrative, support the characters, and reveal the plot. Most people cannot discern the salient points from tables. They need pictures. Visualize the data so it captivates the audience. Visualization is the process of telling a story via the graphical depiction of statistical information. Daniel Waisberg, analytics advocate at Google, says, “Good data visualization stands on its own.” 5. Adapt the story to fit the audience. The language, tone, and focus may need to be adjusted depending on who is hearing the story. The C-suite may prefer a shorter version of the story—just the highlights and recommended action. The person responsible for developing the action plan may want a more in-depth version of the story, along with an understanding of the interrelationships of all the players and pieces. More than ever, marketers need to be able to use data in a variety of ways—to inform the organization of customer buying preferences or to match personas with channels and touchpoints, for example. Data scientists who can bring the art of storytelling to those challenges can help you both prove and improve the value of Marketing in your organization and ultimately to achieve market prominence. Laura Patterson is president and founder of VisionEdge Marketing. For 20+ years, she has been helping CEOs and marketing executives at companies such as Cisco, Elsevier, ING, Intel, Kennametal, and Southwest Airlines prove and improve the value of marketing.
Do you need to be a certain ‘type’ of person to work in marketing? Geoff Trickey
The ultimate goal of those working in marketing is to promote a product and generates sales, but what does it take? Earlier this year, Brand Republic asked readers to complete an online personality survey from PCL that identified the key personality traits and skills required to work in the marketing profession. The results are in. Marketeers need to focus on the bigger picture with a clear vision about the marketing tactics and strategies that will deliver results. A wide frame of reference fuels creativity with fresh ideas and a keen awareness of upcoming and declining trends. They need to be agile, able to think on their feet, keep up with rapidly changing communications technology and to embrace change with enthusiasm. They also require the communication and interpersonal skills to meet the changing needs and attitudes of their clients, the trends in their industries, and to deploy most persuasive marketing approaches. The distribution of competency ratings achieved by the sample of 122 marketing professionals who completed PCL’s Profile:Match assessment is illustrated below, as compared to a general population sample of over 4,000. Statistically, the most distinctive features of the group are high levels of persuasive communication and strategic awareness. In line with perceptions about marketing, participants also scored highly on creativity and bring strong analytic skills to their role. Marketeers scored lowest overall in attention to detail, which might have been expected since this is in some ways
the obverse of a big picture orientation. It is something that marketing departments may need to recruit specifically for in areas such as proofing, compiling bids, and other areas that emphasise vigilance and quality control. Low scores on development of others suggest that agencies may rely on hiring in developed talent, something that is understandable in a highly competitive and pressured environment. The relatively low self-confidence result probably reflects the edgy aspects of the creative personality. The motivation competence scores are around average for a working population but are compensated here by results orientation and project management, which are reassuring signs of purposefulness. The team orientation may also play a part, suggesting that cooperation and teamwork may be more significant than driving personal ambition. The results also looked at the relationship between competencies and job satisfaction. The findings revealed that those with higher customer focus, project management, resilience and motivation scores had the strongest links with job satisfaction. Finding all of the most desirable competencies in a single individual will be extremely difficult. Understanding the spread of skills and personality characteristics that are required and ensuring that a suitably diverse set of complimentary skills is available amongst the team and department is likely to be fundamental to marketing success. Geoff Trickey, managing director, Psychological Consultancy
Peter Gasca
The shamed and infamous White House intern is stepping out of the shadows and attempting to rebrand herself. Her brave move provides lessons for all entrepreneurs. Twitter has a new account as of last week, and it is one you should watch.
was an absolute media circus--a happy distraction from our obsession with O.J. Simpson.
Monica Lewinsky.
For Lewinsky, the scandal turned into one of the first true Internet defaming campaigns after being picked up and shared globally online by the Drudge Report--all of this before Google existed. The relentless humiliation and shaming turned her into an instant and infamous public figure, and eventually forced Lewinsky to retreat into what shadows she could find.
In case you were born late in this century or were living under a rock in the 1990s, Monica Lewinsky is the former White House intern during the Bill Clinton presidency whose affair with the sitting president from 1995 to 1997 eventually led to Clinton’s impeachment. For those of us who remember, it
groupisd.com
26
After an unsuccessful attempt to repair her image in 2001 for the documentary Monica in Black and White, Lewinsky is stepping out again. In June 2014, she published a poignant article in Vanity Fair discussing her life over the past decade and how she has managed to deal with the omnipresent public scrutiny. Last week, she joined Twitter--amassing more than 73,000 followers in just a few days. It is clear that she is stepping out again to leverage the same power of the Internet that destroyed her reputation in an attempt to repair it. Social media is a powerful beast in this regard, but it is also capricious. Whether she succeeds at repairing her image or not, her brave attempt to rebrand herself provides great lessons for others. Here are four:
1. Control your reputation online, or someone else will. For years, the news and social media constructed Lewinsky’s reputation. Filled with embellishments and lies, often politically motivated, her reputation was destroyed. Because her terms of immunity restricted her from speaking about her affair or defending herself for years, the Internet relentlessly pounced unanswered. It became so bad that when she did attempt to repair her reputation in 2001, the gap to make up was just too great. These days, it is incredibly important for everyone to control his or her reputation online, and for the most part, it is quite easy to do. More important, you need to make sure that there is as much positive content about you and your company as there is negative content. And if you do not believe that you need to worry about scandal or controversy, good for you. But the ease and remarkable speed at which even a rumor can spread is enough to destroy a reputation in a few hours. Stay ahead of the game.
2. Always take the high road. In her public appearances since the scandal, Lewinsky has never attacked or defamed anyone involved with her trial or scandal, some sarcasm excepted. She has instead done her best to accept the truths and attempt to rebuild her reputation on a platform of who she really is. Of course, Lewinsky understands the Internet’s “feedback loop of defame and shame,” so the slightest misstep in her personal rebranding would spread faster and more furiously than her original scandal. This approach is very admirable and smart. It might be difficult for many people to look past those who are attempting or have succeeded at defaming us to instead take the high road. While it often seems the Internet feeds off of vitriol and hate, it is still a place for occasional healing and reconciliation. It is more difficult to earn forgiveness, but you will never get it if you come out of the gates firing back defensively.
3. Ignore the noise.
Lewinsky has been called every hateful name in the book, and there is no shortage of lingering hate remaining. She is older and more mature now and, like a professional athlete, has learned to tune out most of the noise. Instead, she is choosing to outpace the noise by emphasizing the positive lessons from her experience. Whether she can win over older generations who know only the media’s side of the story is to be determined. What is important is that this strategy will build the counter viewpoint online for future generations to consider. Without a doubt, the Internet is full of “noise.” As entrepreneurs and business owners, it is just a matter of time before an angry customer, disgruntled employee, or random individual with a grudge decides to take to the Internet to spill his or her grievances. As you become more successful, the more you should expect it. There are times when you should react, and as long as you are reacting properly, the experience can help improve your reputation. Other times, however, it is just noise and should be ignored. Often, engaging in the noise does more harm than good.
4. If you cannot beat them, re-imagine yourself. In the Vanity Fair piece, Lewinsky points out that she has been unsuccessful at finding a good job, despite her skills and training, because her reputation carries too much baggage. In one case, the recruiter for a government-funded company asks for a “Letter of Indemnification from the Clintons (since) there is a 25 percent chance that Mrs. Clinton will be the next president.” Unable to find an employer willing to take a chance on her, Lewinsky is putting her introverted nature aside to speak publicly about online bullying. Her goal is to “help other victims of the shame game put her suffering to good use, and give purpose to her past.” Recently, she nervously spoke for the first time publicly at the Forbes Under 30 Event and focused her speech on the problem of online bullying. And while she has turned down lucrative deals to secure the rights to her story to avoid being perceived as an opportunistic victim, now she can comfortably leverage her experience to create a positive impact and make a living. For the rest of us, a professional failure can carry the embarrassing weight of shame like a sack of bricks. What we must keep in mind is that how we react to these failures is far more important to our reputation and character. More than likely, we will not be remembered for a specific failure but rather the failure to learn from our mistakes. We can all learn from Monica Lewinsky. Peter Gasca is the co-founder of Wild Creations, an Inc 5000 company that focuses on kid-related products and supports kid entrepreneurs. He is also a small-business consultant, youth entrepreneur mentor, and business adjunct lecturer.
Why James Bond Still Drives an Aston Martin, Even If He’s Not Helping Sales. An obscure British car and the spy who loved it Robert Klara, Robert Mann
brandknewmag.com
28
When Desmond Llewelyn (better known as “Q”) displayed the Aston Martin DB5 to James Bond in 1964, he was unveiling a sports car version of the license to kill. The movie was Goldfinger, the third in the Bond series, and the sleek, silver sports car—packed with predatory perks like front-wing machine guns and tire-slashing hubcaps—was really the costar of the film, assuring Aston Martin a place in the annals of cultural cool. Now, as a mark of brand continuity, the newest Bond flick— Spectre, set for release in November of 2015—will also feature an Aston Martin. This latest little sport is called the DB10. It’ll be the 11th time the pricey British nameplate has appeared in the Bond franchise. As Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer said recently, “Everybody around the world…loves to see Bond at the wheel of an Aston Martin.” No doubt that’s true—even though (just for the record) 007 has driven lots of cars, including Bentleys, Jaguars, Lotuses, Rolls Royces, and even Toyotas and Fords. But Aston Martin is Bond’s preferred ride, and the relationship between the car brand and the film franchise is well into its fifth decade. It’s easy to see what EON Productions and Sony Pictures gets out of this partnership—not just money, but a swell fleet of cars (Aston-Martin made 10 DB10s for the film.) Still, aside from glamor and media buzz, what’s in it for Aston Martin? Two years ago, FrontRow Analytics computed that the brands in Skyfall enjoyed $7.6 million in “brand value” on opening weekend for the cost of placement. But that figure is spread out over a slew of brands that paid for a part of the action, among them Macallan whiskey, Omega watches, Tom Ford suits and Heineken beer—which ponied up a reported $45 million for the honor of being sipped by Mr. Bond. What’s more, Aston Martin is not even producing the DB10 for public sale; the DB9 is as close as one can get. And at $198,700 for the convertible model, it doesn’t seem likely the
brand will find many customers among weekend moviegoers at the mall. In fact, last year Aston Martin sold 4,200 vehicles, not exactly one in every garage. In comparison, Bentley (which isn’t cheap, either) moved 10,000 vehicles out of showrooms. “Does [placement in the film] actually sell Astons? Considering how few they sell, probably not,” said Paul A. Eisenstein, publisher of automotive news site The Detroit Bureau. “But the link creates something of an exclusivity, a sense of mystery and excitement to the brand, and that’s rare.” For its part, Aston Martin corporate has gone on the record saying plain-old brand awareness is enough return on investment for them. Last year, Aston Martin’s vp for the Americas Julian Jenkins observed that “undoubtedly this long-standing association [with James Bond] has enabled us to achieve greater brand awareness globally, particularly in areas and nations where our brand is perhaps otherwise not as well known.” Bond films do seem to have a measurable effect on the resale arena. The franchise has worked wonders for the value of older cars. Four years ago, one of the original “Goldfinger” DB5s used in the filming sold for $4.6 million. The other one was stolen in 1997 from the Boca Raton Airport and has yet to turn up. Investors stymied by meager interest rates have also discovered that vintage Aston Martins aren’t just fine vehicles, but fine growth vehicles. U.K.-based Aston Workshop reports the value of a classic Aston Martin can rise by 100 percent in just five years. “Purchasing an Aston Martin and maintaining it in good condition enables you to enjoy the pleasure of driving one of Britain’s most stunning cars while feeling confident in the knowledge that its value to you and to others will not diminish,” states the site.
Nike Lawsuit: How 3 Top Designers Allegedly Stole IP And Left For Adidas Mark Wilson
Co.Design obtained Nike’s lawsuit against three former designers who left to found an Adidas design studio. Here are the highlights. There are no two bigger rivals in business than Nike and Adidas. Nike owns a 17% share of the global sportswear market, Adidas owns 12%. Nike has leveraged cutting-edge design to increase its foothold, while Adidas has watched sales plummet, even following its $150 million World Cup sponsorship. So it was a major coup for Adidas last September, when three high-profile Nike designers—Marc Dolce, Mark Miner, and Denis Dekovic—left to found a Brooklyn design studio for Adidas. But last week, Nike filed a $10 million lawsuit against the designers, alleging that they leveraged trade secrets to get the job. Co.Design has acquired the 50-page suit from the Multnomah County Circuit Court, where it was filed, and embedded it at the bottom of this story for you to explore. The document reads like a white-collar crime novel, as Nike portrays the three designers as bartering corporate secrets in exchange for freedom, fame, and fortune. In Nike’s telling, they’re so insecure that they purchase social media followers to boost their perceived popularity. And they’re so dissatisfied with their own selling out, Nike claims, that they plan to ditch Adidas anyway. For those who don’t have the wherewithal to read a 50-page lawsuit, here are the document’s juiciest allegations.
The Designers Copied Nike Corporate IP On Their Way Out As Nike tells the story, Dolce, Miner, and Dekovic decided to
open their own shoe design studio, an independent brand that could eventually compete in the global market, in April 2014. But without financial backing, they began negotiations to open a Brooklyn design studio under Adidas. By August, they each had contract offers with the company. And in September of the same year, the team left Nike together, proclaiming their new allegiance for Adidas on their last day.
groupisd.com
30
But before leaving Nike, the designers promised Adidas “a wealth of information and knowledge” that would give Adidas the advantage over Nike, and they allegedly copied thousands of proprietary documents on Nike’s upcoming product and promotional road maps—complete with performance details, testing methodologies, and information on new materials—to bring with them. The three designers had all signed very similar noncompete agreements, which prohibited them specifically from working for Adidas during or for one year after leaving Nike. It also prohibited them from copying corporate IP.
The Designers Not-So-Carefully Covered Their Tracks To avoid detection while planning their departure, the designers stopped using their Nike email accounts to communicate as early as April, but they continued to use their Nike-owned iPhones and laptops. In an unspecified communication, Miner expressed that it probably wasn’t a good idea to be chatting on corporate equipment, and suggested they at least switch to WhatsApp for more private communications.
The caution, and lack-there-of, failed. Nike claims to have “tens of thousands” of messages shared between Dolce, Miner, and Dekovic that trace months of plotting to leave the company.
Dekovic May Have Handed Nike The Very Pile Of Evidence Needed For This Lawsuit Nowhere in the suit does Nike reveal exactly how it acquired all of these communications, though the document implies that Nike may have been monitoring the designers. Furthermore, Nike used digital forensics to mine the corporate laptops and iPhones that the trio had been using to communicate. The Oregonian reported that Nike worked with Virginia’s CyTech Services to perform data forensics.
Less than two weeks before leaving the company, Dekovic had the contents of his corporate laptop copied (Miner and Dolce suggested just ripping out the hard drive, but concluded that might look too suspicious). And three days before leaving, Nike says Dolce emailed himself a .ZIP file containing confidential documents including a yet-to-bereleased shoe design for a Nike-sponsored athlete. According to the suit, Dolce and Miner both erased their iPhones before handing them back to the company, but apparently Dekovic turned in his gear “physically damaged” rather than erased “wrongfully believ[ing] that both items [his phone and his laptop] had been damaged so badly that Nike could not access their contents,” the suit says.
So Dekovic may have served as Nike’s chief source of intel— though it’s technically feasible that Nike may have been able to extract data from Dolce and Miner’s wiped iPhones, too.
They Never Really Wanted To Work For Adidas, And Planned To Jump Ship ASAP Nike claims the designers’ original plan had been to open an independent design studio, which they dubbed names like H-Design and Satellite. Without financial backing, though, they decided the best course of action would be to pitch Adidas on the idea. Adidas had already expressed interest in recruiting Dolce and Dekovic, as Brian Foresta, an Adidas VP and former Nike executive, reached out in March of 2014 to “discuss their professional careers.”
The trio had hoped the studio could be independently operated, and proposed to one another that such an arrangement might work around Nike’s noncompete agreement. Adidas wanted more buy-in, though, and the designers decided to “cash in” and temporarily give up their plan for independence. But they said that they didn’t really want to work for the company, the suit claims.
So in May 2014, a month after initiating talks with Adidas, Dolce and Dekovic agreed to buy fake followers on Instagram and Twitter, Nike says. Nike concludes that 85% of their followers have been purchased.
Dekovic Had a Side Business He Hid From His Partners The suit outlines a private venture Dekovic had started that even Dolce, Miner, and Adidas didn’t know about that violates Dekovic’s non-compete, Nike claims. He was working on a Michael Jackson-inspired throwback shoe and sportswear line called Moonwalker, complete with investors and product launches planned for 2015 and 2017.
Dekovic projected Moonwalker making $93 million in revenue in the first six years, according to recovered documents. Nike writes that the first three shoe designs discovered in a Dekovic PowerPoint presentation are “essentially copies of vintage Nike footwear.” Nike claims ownership over Dekovic’s Moonwalker creations.
Miner Almost Asked Nike HR For His Noncompete Agreement To Give To Adidas Concerned that Nike might sue them for breach of contract when they left the company, the designers got Adidas to agree to provide legal representation as part of their employment. The legal team wanted to see a copy of their noncompete agreements. Miner then asked Dolce and Dekovic if he should just ask Abby in Nike HR for the document. Dolce replied, “No way!!!” Dekovic already had a copy. As one of the designers is said to have communicated, “As soon as we are ready, we can terminate the agreement with Adidas and being the [independent] studio.”
The Designers Purchased Social Media Followers To Boost Their Appeal To Adidas Though Dolce, Miner, and Dekovic have helped design some of Nike’s biggest recent hits across running, basketball, and soccer—like Nike’s Free running shoes and Magista soccer cleats—they apparently felt they needed to appear more famous to attract investment from Adidas or anyone else.
On His Way Out, Dekovic Left The Door To Nike Open Despite months of alleged collusion, Nike says that the three designers all left the company graciously. In this moment, Dekovic, who had developed side projects with both Adidas and independent investors for his Moonwalker line, was the one to try the hardest to keep his reputation with Nike in good standing. We have reached out to Dolce, Miner, and Dekovic for comment but have not heard back.
Mark Wilson is a writer who started Philanthroper.com, a simple way to give back every day. His work has also appeared at Gizmodo, Kotaku, PopMech, PopSci, Esquire, American Photo and Lucky Peach.
How brands can join the wearable revolution John Newbold
As we wait for the arrival of the hotly anticipated Apple Watch in the New Year, in the last month we also heard that Samsung and LG are in the process of adding new, potentially more fashionable, smartwatches to their ranges. Like the smartphone and tablet revolutions before it, an explosion of hardware choices for smartwatches seems just around the corner. The huge variety of new hardware is a good indicator that amongst the myriad devices, no single ‘ideal’ user experience for how customers will actually live with these devices has been defined. There’s a sense of history repeating itself here when you look back to the early days of the mobile phone. In those early years we saw a vast array of phones of all shapes and sizes, running all sorts of different software and trying to provide different services to customers. As customer adoption increased, so too did the common user experiences we’re now familiar with. And, as with the device in our pockets, it may take some time before we understand the true value of any new device on our wrists. So, if manufacturers can’t agree on what the hardware should deliver, where should brands be starting when thinking about the experiences that they deliver on top of the hardware? “Anything that won’t sell, I don’t want to invent. Its sale is proof of utility, and utility is success.” These wise words from Thomas Edison should be the mantra of any brand looking to deliver experiences on wearables. Think back to when the iPhone first launched, customers were barraged with a flurry of ‘crap apps’ offering little or no utility. Many brands got caught up in an app gold rush, forgetting that in between them and the carrot of a million downloads they would first need to make something useful that customers
would actually want to keep on their phones. If brands really want to play in the wearable space they should think first about what experiences are emerging as most useful to the customer and where they might offer something new. By focusing on customer experience brands can also avoid the pitfalls of seeing the screen as another advertising medium. The reality is that people typically only use up to ten apps on the device in their pocket, so a stream of unnecessary promotions on their wrist will be far from a winning formula. Instead, brands need to think carefully about how they can become one of the apps that customers will use regularly by designing around the customer behaviours that emerge in the first months of wearables hitting the shelves. As for the brands that are likely to be first out the door with decent integrations, look no further than those brands that are already leveraging the utility on our existing devices. Starbucks will likely look to carry their success with passbook on mobile across to our wrists. And popular services like Shazam and MyFitnessPal may see natural extensions across to wearable devices. Whatever customer behaviours emerge, it’s a safe bet that if a new wearable app doesn’t offer utility, it shouldn’t be created. This time around let’s look to address the digital mediocrity of the ‘crap app’ boom and instead demonstrate how customer experience can be genuinely improved through new wearable applications. John Newbold, founder and creative director at 383
7
social trends you need to know for 2015 Harry Cymbler
Tis the season for all-knowing prediction stories, folks. Today is the turn of social media trends and how brands can make the most of them.
insights in real-time.
1) Predictive social analysis
What is it: Sensors in a physical place allowing app users to benefit from personalised micro-location notifications.
What is it: Predictive analysis with real consumer benefits. Why it will be hot in 2015: Expect 2015 to be the year brands apply big insight in cool ways as prediction analysis helps to create social content around upcoming trends. Why this is good for brands: Identify next big trend up to three months before it happens with a high degree of accuracy (expert opinion: 90%).
2) Social engagement in a physical space What is it: Using social insight to engage with users in a real physical space. Why it will be hot in 2015: Industry experts believe 2015 is the year new technology and geo-targeted, contextualised real-time social content will dominate. Brands will monitor conversations for audience sectors allowing them to deliver relevant messaging which influences brand conversation and conversion. Why this is good for brands: Opens the possibility to create bespoke lifestyle ‘wow’ experiences.
3) Ephemeral social communications What is it: Photo and video exchange social platforms and apps allowing recipients to view a sender’s image or video clip for short periods. Why it will be hot in 2015: Global Web Index (September 2014) predicts adults will become key adopters in 2015 as attention span on social media continues to wane. Why this is good for brands: Make audience aware of what you have to offer, great for unveiling instant and exclusive
4) Geo-targeted personalised social content
Why it will be hot in 2015: Industry experts predict 2015 to be the year that social engagement relevant to that moment and place in time will become the norm. Improvements in technology will also allow brands to capture data and offer real consumer benefits. Why this is good for brands: Unique ‘wow’ moments with social content that is geo-targeted, contextualised and in real-time – direct to a user’s mobile.
5) New social platforms What is it: New subject-based social network connecting users with topics they care about. Why it will be hot in 2015: The endless stream of social content will make 2015 users demand a more refined social experience. Why this is good for brands: Focus engagement, build a more relevant audience and, therefore, more likely to convert.
6) Geo-targeted visual content What is it: In 2014, Twitter, Instagram, Vine and Snapchat foresaw the significance of visual content and reacted accordingly. Why it will be hot in 2015: Whilst Instagram already has 100m users, industry experts predict 2015 will be the year dominated by brands using geo-targeted image based, graphics and micro-clip content. Why this is good for brands: Improved social engagement, creating visually rich moments.
7) Cool wearable tech What is it: Wearable lifestyle technology. Why it will be hot in 2015: Expect 2015 to be the year wearable technology looks cool, delivers functional benefits and becomes fashionable – and increasingly part of the digital strategy for the world’s most innovative brands. Why this is good for brands: Foster links with fashion, design and tech communities. Harry Cymbler, founder of social media agency Hot Cherry
Wesley R. Hartmann: Where to Build a Better Brand — Television or the Internet? Eilene Zimmerman
Shifting marketing dollars from television to online advertising can pay off. When it comes to brand building, advertisers typically put their faith — and marketing dollars — in the power of television over other forms of media, even though the internet is now the fastest growing medium by a long shot. What has been lacking is a solid understanding of exactly how digital ads stack up against television ads, either as substitute for them or a complement to them. New research from Stanford Graduate School of Business Professor Wesley R. Hartmann finds that online advertising performs just as well as television advertising when evaluated on brands’ trusted metrics. Hartmann teamed up with Drexel University Professor Michaela Draganska and Gena Stanglein, advertising research manager at Google. In their paper, published in the Journal of Marketing Research
in October, Hartmann and his colleagues compared the performance of internet and television ads in 20 different campaigns across a variety of industries. That is easier said than done. The difference between the two mediums makes it challenging to compare their effectiveness. “A fundamental issue with television advertising is that it’s intended for branding, so you are influencing someone’s mindset about a brand for a purchase that might happen two or six months from now,” says Hartmann. “It’s not as clean a number to extract as we’d like.” Online advertising would seem easier to measure because researchers can identify the person seeing an ad and follow them around the web to observe if they buy the product. But, Hartmann says, it’s not that straightforward. “People are hit with a lot of online advertising, but purchases are quite rare, so brand surveys are often used as an ‘intermediate metric’.”
brandknewmag.com
38
Although the performance rates of ads in both mediums have been studied before, this is the first apples-to-apples comparison, with researchers using questions structured the same way for both mediums. All respondents answered questions by logging onto RewardTV.com, a portal created by Nielsen to survey television viewers. “We tried to make it as literally comparable as possible, so that ad recall rates were measured the same way on both television and the internet,” says Hartmann. They gave participants a presurvey to determine if they had any pre-existing knowledge of the brands whose ads they were about to see. Then, researchers compared ad recall rates on both mediums after adjusting for what people already knew about a brand. Both the pre- and postsurveys asked respondents to read a statement associated with a particular brand and then, from a list of four choices, choose the brand the statement was describing. For example, if 40 percent of people guessed that a toothpaste being discussed was Colgate the researchers knew that subsequent ads for Colgate are only effective if people recall the brand at higher than 40 percent. That difference between the baseline knowledge and the level of recognition after exposure to an ad is known as “lift.” “Establishing that baseline hasn’t been done before and those presurveys turned out to be one of the most important parts of this paper,” says Hartmann. Being able to adjust for what people knew of a brand before they saw the ad produced a more accurate measure of lift from the various campaigns. The presurvey found that people who are consistently exposed to the internet have lower recognition of brands than those systematically exposed to television. “Brands spend so much money on television advertising that they are losing those that are part of the digital economy and spend more time online than they do watching TV,” he said. The results surprised Hartmann and his colleagues. Recall
rates after exposure to IF YOU ARE the ad campaigns — EVALUATING BRAND and after adjusting for previous knowledge ADVERTISING — were statistically AND HAVE A indistinguishable between PRECONCEIVED online and television. “It shows that internet ads NOTION THAT can be just as effective TELEVISION IS as television ads,” says BETTER, YOU NEED Hartmann. The results run contrary to the prevailing TO RETHINK THAT. belief in the industry. “Based on those metrics WESLEY R. HARTMANN advertisers do not have a reason now to favor television over internet advertising. If you are evaluating brand advertising and have a preconceived notion that television is better, you need to rethink that,” he said. “The metrics the industry uses and trusts don’t suggest television is any better. This should guide advertisers to budget more of their money toward online ads.” Hartmann hopes to further this research and learn how television and internet advertising can complement each other. “Television ads tell a story to get people’s attention, and at the end of the story, they see the brand. That’s why for some really great ads — like ones we see during the Super Bowl game — we often can’t remember what brand it was,” he says. “But internet ads can reconnect the brand to the message, and that might be why seeing an online ad after a television commercial is more beneficial than having it the other way around.” Wesley R. Hartmann is an associate professor of marketing at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. “Internet Versus Television Advertising: A Brand-Building Comparison” was published in the October 2014 issue of the Journal of Marketing Research.
The Sony Logo That Never Was John Brownlee
IN 1981, SONY ASKED THE PUBLIC TO REDESIGN THEIR LOGO. THEN IT REALIZED IT WAS A HUGE MISTAKE. Except for some subtle refinements, Japanese electronics maker Sony has had the same logo since 1956. But to celebrate the company’s 35th anniversary in 1981, someone at Sony had a brilliant idea: let’s throw a contest, and get the unwashed masses to redesign our logo for us! According to the ad, Sony received almost 30,000 entries for a new logo from the United Kingdom, Europe, North and South America, Japan, and Asia. They then narrowed these 30,000 entries down to three winners, and proceeded to not use any of them. The three winning designs — recorded for posterity in this vintage ad from Time, and rediscovered by Greg Prichard — aren’t just a fascinating look at a new Sony logo that never was, but serve as an object lesson on why you shouldn’t try to crowdsource design. “It was the decision of the judges that there was no clear first, second, or third place winner and that the prize money should therefore be divided equally among the three finalists,” Sony’s copy reads. “And until the time comes in the future that we decide to make a change, the Sony logo will remain the same and continue to represent our commitment to innovative thinking and quality projects.” Because what better represents innovation than leaving things the same? Yet with the hindsight of history, it’s sort of hard to fault Sony. All three “winning” logos are super ‘80s in design, like they belong on the side of a VHS tape. That said, it’s impossible to imagine any of them surviving the decade because they’re virtually illegible. Comparatively, Sony’s current logo -—rendered in Clarendon Bold Expanded, or something similar — seems timeless. It’s simple. It’s recognizable. It renders well in a number of different mediums. And it has class. So while it seems like bad form to get 30,000 people to design a logo for you, only to shriek “PSYKE!” at the end, it’s hard to argue Sony didn’t make the right choice.
groupisd.com
40
John Brownlee is a writer who lives in Somerville, Massachusetts with two irate parakeets and his wife, who has more exquisite plumage. His work has appeared at Wired, Playboy, PopMech, CNN, Boing Boing, Gizmodo, and more.
Book,
&
Line
Sinker
The Anatomy of Buzz: How to Create Word of Mouth Marketing
The Art of the Pitch: Persuasion and Presentation Skills that Win Business
By Emanuel Rosen
By Peter Coughter Occasionally, a great idea will sell itself. The other 99% of the time, you have to find a way to persuade others that it is, in fact, a great idea. Most executives spend the vast majority of their time creating their work, and almost no time on the presentation. Through an engaging and humorous narrative, Peter Coughter presents the tools he designed to help advertising...
The first guide to creating the word-of-mouth magic that breaks through the skepticism and information overload of today’s consumers, and drive sales--and profits--to new heights. As Newsweek recently proclaimed, “Buzz greases the great conveyor belt of culture and commerce, moving everything from movies to fashions of the body and mind faster and faster.”
The Cluetrain Manifesto: 10th Anniversary Edition By Rick Levine, Christopher Locke, Doc Searls, David Weinberge, McKee Jake The Cluetrain Manifesto began as a Web site (cluetrain.com) in 1999 when the authors, who have worked variously at IBM, Sun Microsystems, the Linux Journal, and NPR, posted 95 theses about the new reality of the networked marketplace. Ten years after its original publication, their message remains more relevant than ever. For example, thesis no. 2: “Markets consist of human beings, not demographic sectors”...
Hey, Whipple, Squeeze This: The Classic Guide to Creating Great Ads By Luke Sullivan, Sam Bennett (Contributor) The classic (and irreverent) bestselling guide to creating great advertising Hey Whipple, Squeeze This has inspired a generation of ad students, copywriters, and young creatives to make their mark in the industry. But students need new guidance to ply their craft now in the digital world. This new fourth edition explains how to bring brand stories...
The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail By Clayton M. Christensen His work is cited by the world’s best-known thought leaders, from Steve Jobs to Malcolm Gladwell. In this classic bestseller, innovation expert Clayton Christensen shows how even the most outstanding companies can do everything right—yet still lose market leadership. Read this international bestseller to avoid a similar fate.
Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations By Clay Shirky A revelatory examination of how the wildfirelike spread of new forms of social interaction enabled by technology is changing the way humans form groups and exist within them, with profound longterm economic and social effects-for good and for ill
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion By Robert B. Cialdini Influence, the classic book on persuasion, explains the psychology of why people say “yes”—and how to apply these understandings. Dr. Robert Cialdini is the seminal expert in the rapidly expanding field of influence and persuasion. His thirty-five years of rigorous, evidence-based research along with a three-year program of study on what moves people to change behavior has resulted in this highly acclaimed book.
Life After the 30-Second Spot: Energize Your Brand With a Bold Mix of Alternatives to Traditional Advertising By Joseph Jaffe The old media strategies advertisers used for decades no longer work. Here’s what does! Traditional advertising, in the form of print, radio, and most notably, television, is far less effective than it used to be. Advertising strategies using only these mediums no longer work. Life After the 30-Second Spot explains how savvy marketers...
brandknewmag.com
42
Little Red Book of Selling: 12.5 Principles of Sales Greatness
Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die
By Jeffrey Gitomer Salespeople hate to read. That’s why Little Red Book of Selling is short, sweet, and to the point. It’s packed with answers that people are searching for in order to help them make sales for the moment—and the rest of their lives.
Mark Twain once observed, “A lie can get halfway around the world before the truth can even get its boots on.” His observation rings true: Urban legends, conspiracy theories, and bogus publichealth scares circulate effortlessly. Meanwhile, people with important ideas–business people, teachers, politicians, journalists, and others– struggle to make their ideas “stick.”
Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time
The New Rules of Marketing & PR: How to Use Social Media, Online Video, Mobile Applications, Blogs, News Releases, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly
By Keith Ferrazzi, Tahl Raz The secret, master networker Keith Ferrazzi claims, is in reaching out to other people. As Ferrazzi discovered in early life, what distinguishes highly successful people from everyone else is the way they use the power of relationships—so that everyone wins.
Re-Imagine! Business Excellence in a Disruptive Age By Tom Peters More than just a how-to book for the 21st Century, Re-imagine! is a call to arms -- a passionate wake-up call for the business world, educators, and society as a whole. Focusing on how the business climate has changed, this inspirational book outlines how the new world of business works, explores radical ways of overcoming outdated, traditional company values, and embraces an aggressive strategy that empowers talent and brand-driven organizations where everyone has a voice.
By Chip Heath, Dan Heath
By David Meerman Scott The benchmark guide to marketing and PR, updated with the latest social media and marketing trends, tools, and real-world examples of success
Waiting for Your Cat to Bark?: Persuading Customers When They Ignore Marketing By Bryan Eisenberg, Jeffrey Eisenberg, Lisa T. Davis (Contributor) Evolving from the premise that customers have always behaved more like cats than Pavlov’s dogs, Waiting for Your Cat to Bark? examines how emerging media have undermined the effectiveness of prevailing mass marketing models. At the same time, emerging media have created an unprecedented opportunity...
Web Analytics 2.0: The Art of Online Accountability and Science of Customer Centricity
Where the Suckers Moon: The Life and Death of an Advertising Campaign
By Avinash Kaushik Adeptly address today’s business challenges with this powerful new book from web analytics thought leader Avinash Kaushik. Web Analytics 2.0 presents a new framework that will permanently change how you think about analytics. It provides specific recommendations for creating an actionable strategy, applying analytical techniques correctly, solving challenges such as...
By Randall Rothenberg Rothenberg chronicles the brief, turbulent marriage between a recession-plagued auto company and an aggressively hip ad agency (whose creative director despised cars), capturing both the ad world’s tantalizing gossip and the broader significance of its creations. “Simply the best book about advertising I have ever read.”-Neil Postman (Technopoly).