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Dear Friends: The March madness is on, good and proper. A high energy issue by all means. The story behind the new kid on the branding block Shake Shack and it’s brand value that is making waves all over. Also, get to know what a brand like Nike does to tackle counterfeiters especially for it’s revered Air Jordan line. There is a primer on creative thinking and creating and for all those who want to know about F1,the glamour and chutzpah of motor sports the feature on brands in the fast lane will provide you with lots of adrenaline. The Star Wars franchise has made more than US$ 27 billion till date and you will get to know how. Google’s mobile optimisation will call for a new approach by brands- get to know that. For all those obsessed with writing a great slogan, there is enough fodder on that front as well. The social economy has been increasingly calling for more meaningful and compelling engagement and our article in this issue will provide a sneak preview on how brands are doing that. Sir Ken Robinson talks about how innovation is critical for an organisation’s survival in today’s time. Lots more to soak in and relish in this issue. Happy reading!
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Best always
23 Suresh Dinakaran @sureshdinakaran
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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
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CONTENTS
How Star Wars Made $27 Billion Brands in the Fast Lane What makes a good slogan? How Nike Protects Air Jordans From Counterfeiters The Untold Story Of Shake Shack’s $1.6 Billion Branding Five Actions Marketers Can Take to Deliver Real Engagement in 2015 More With Less by Tom Fishburne Mobile optimisation: What do Google’s warnings mean for brands? Innovation Is Vital for Your Organization’s Survival: 10 Must-Learn Lessons From Sir Ken Robinson 7 Retail Brands That Will Inspire You to Up Your Content Game Demystifying Innovation: A Guide to Creative Thinking and Creating Going Below the Surface What Brands Need To Know About Online Reviews: 5 Questions With NYT Bestselling Author Bill Tancer Book, Line & Sinker
How Star Wars Made
$27 Billion By Lily Tidhar
THINK STAR WARS MADE MOST OF ITS MONEY OFF THE FILMS? THINK AGAIN! Given the lasting relevance of Star Wars over the past four decades, it shouldn’t shock anyone that the franchise has made a metric shit ton of money. But exactly how it made its money might surprise more than a few of you. As our infographic breaks down, nearly half of the $27 billion in revenue that Star Wars has earned over the years has come from the sales of toys. Neither earnings from the six blockbuster films, nor the income from the many successful video games comes anywhere close to the $12 billion in collectible figures and lightsaber replicas snapped up by the most rabid of fans.
So the next time someone wonders why the design of a lightsaber matters so much, you can just point him to this.
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Lily Tidhar is a graphic designer who creates data visualizations for Co.Design. She grew up in northern Australia and now happily lives above a pie shop in Brooklyn.
Brands in the Fast Lane Words and photographs by Colin Beaton In 1968 highly restrictive FIA sponsorship rules were causing sponsors at all levels to leave the sport in droves. In particular, the FIA lost the support of several large and lucrative automotive sponsors. As a result the FIA decided, or more likely was forced, to allow unrestricted sponsorship. In May of that year the Lotus Formula One team appeared at Jarama, Spain wearing the red, gold and white colors of Imperial Tobacco’s Gold Leaf brand, the sport’s first nonautomotive team sponsor. Upon learning of the new exposure opportunities in F1 (in particular the tobacco manufactures who were being squeezed out of other media channels) the race between the international brands to attract the hearts and minds of race fans began in earnest.
popularity of motorsports (F1has more Fortune 500 sponsors than any other professional sport). Innovative broadcasting agreements negotiated in 1979 not only provided TV access to the sport for millions of new fans but also injected large amounts of cash into F1 which, in turn, funded marketing programs to attract even more fans and helped finance the teams. As the sport grew so did the level of competitiveness which drove up the cost of winning: technical innovation, development of new materials, R&D teams, dedicated factories, even proprietary wind tunnels. Everything became more expensive, the teams were forced to look for additional financing and, now with a global TV audience for each race, the sponsors were the logical place to start.
The early years of racing sponsorship were simple, often just a handshake agreement to provide money or nonmonetary race support in exchange for a brand on a car. It was basic logo placement, largely for the benefit of the fans in attendance or print media as television coverage was relatively limited both in terms of availability and popularity. There was certainly plenty of glamour and action to attract sponsors and fans: dashing drivers who embodied bravery and skill, exciting and dangerous events, innovative and technical racing teams, and manufacturers whose credibility hung in the balance of every race - there just wasn’t sufficient media distribution to fully engage either party.
Today, money from over 200 sponsors is the lifeblood of F1. The tactics and strategies are state-of-the-art cross channel and multi-platform utilizing integrated social media in global/regional co-branded campaigns. The complexity of sponsorship today is hardly surprising given the dollars involved. The cost of running an F1 team had spiraled out of control; in 2008 Toyota had the largest F1 budget of nearly US$500 million. The latest edition of ‘Business Book GP’ says the average annual team budget has reportedly decreased to US$165 million in 2011 as a result of aggressive cost control measures, a significant decline from US$300 million per team in 2009. The teams are spending much less than a few years ago but are relying more heavily on sponsors who
Formula 1 can be credited for much of the growth in
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now account for more than 50 percent of their budgets. F1 is the big dog in this world of motorsport branding and it’s easy to see why. The statistics on reach, draw, exposure and brand awareness are staggering and everyone who can afford it knows that to be a partner in F1 provides marketing opportunities unavailable elsewhere. The capacity of F1 to build a global brandovernight was clearly demonstrated with the inaugural Abu Dhabi F1, which in October and November of 2010 generated nearly 28,000 print and online stories that mentioned the Yas Marina Circuit with a total audience measured in billions; nothing like 400 journalists and more than 80 TV stations broadcasting in 180 countries to an audience of over 500 million to quickly create brand awareness. From the sponsor’s point of view, the socio-economic status and psychographics of race fans make them an appealing target market. Motorsports fans, F1 fans in particular, are in the upper range of median income, are generally well educated, have strong lifestyle preferences and, very
importantly, tend to have deep emotional connections and loyalty to brands they prefer. F1 also presents a set of uniquely desirable marketing attributes in its tremendous breadth of brand and lifestyle appeal: travel, fashion, luxury goods, technology, finance, entertainment, etc. Virtually any product of service can benefit from an association to motorsports. As the sport has grown so have sponsor’s branding ambitions. Consider the program for Petronas, the Malaysian national oil company with global intentions. What began as the primary “team sponsorship” for Red Bull in 1995 evolved into a “race sponsorship” of the Malaysian F1 race in 1999, then as a “Premium Partner” to Sauber in 2005, and now as the “Title Partner” to Mercedes GP (officially known as the Mercedes GP PETRONAS Formula One Team). Petronas recognized the value in their relationship with F1 and has continually increased their commitment to motorsports, they now have a broad sponsorship program that spans local, regional and global events. As a core component of their brand platform they are investing in a carefully constructed program that ensures maximum reach and exposure both
domestically and internationally. Tag Heuer, a sponsor of the McLaren F1 team for over 30 years, is good example of a non-automotive sponsor whose brand foundation is largely based on their connection to motorsports. Racing legends that have worn Tag watches include Ayrton Senna, Phil Hill, Bruce McLaren and Mario Andretti. Images of Steve McQueen, Lewis Hamilton and Jensen Button adorn their advertising, and their products are named after famous racing events, cars or venues (Monaco, Carrera, Silverstone, F1, SLR). However, more than just brand association, TAG has secured a unique position by also leveraging its technical prowess by providing official time keeping to a number of major race series; not only a sponsor, TAG is also a participant. TAG has managed to inextricably link their core business, the keeping of time, to the glamorous fashion exterior and the innovative technical interior of the sport.
build local interest and participation, establish themselves as a regional motorsports hub, and to create global awareness, they need to do more than simply stage one big race a year. In fact, many people would be surprised to learn there are events at the track 260 days a year. Although the F1 race gets the lion’s share of the media attention, other race series also garner big numbers on awareness and media impressions and can provide unique and focused marketing opportunities. The V8 Supercars is an opportunity to target an important trade and tourism partner directly by hosting a race series that is near and dear to the hearts of many Aussies. The recent V8 race generated over 5,000 print and online stories with over 100 million impressions about Abu Dhabi in the Australian press.
The internet and social media are now changing the face of motorsports marketing the way that television did the 80s and 90s. It is direct, immediate, flexible, and multimedia. Although television provided video coverage to millions it was static, the fundamental benefit of online marketing is dynamic interaction and individual customization. The TAG website allows you to create your own personal page (My TAG Heuer) and have your choice of McQueen, Hamilton and Button featured alongside your choice of favorites watches. Real-time connectivity provides an immense advantage, within minutes of Hamilton winning the Chinese Grand Prix the TAG Facebook page had a photo of him on the podium wearing their new Carrera Calibre 1887. The business of branding has now extended to the venues themselves, and there is no better example than Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi. Their program includes a broad array of Yas-branded experiential and educational opportunities including karting, top fuel drag racing and multiple open and closed wheel driver education series (Aston Martin GT4, Camaro, Yas Supersports SST, Formula Yas 3000), which are all sub-brands beneath the Yas Marina Circuit master-brand. They’ve even taken the unusual step of sponsoring a regional superbike team. Yas Marina Circuit also understands that to
On a larger, and perhaps more important, scale is the relevance of Yas Marina Circuit to the country as a whole. The track and facilities is an important symbol of achievement and capability in this developing market, it represents the ability of the UAE to accomplish herculean tasks with world class results. This is building cultural brand value, emblematic of the aspirations and potential of the UAE. It also represents co-branding on a national level as Yas Marina Circuit features prominently in the on-going marketing efforts of Abu Dhabi and the UAE around the globe promoting it as a tourist destination. Here
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we see an important and critical development: the alignment of strategic objectives between government and sport. Such is the brand cache of motorsports that emerging economies (India, Russia, Korea) now see obtaining an F1 race as an economic indicator and a source of national pride. In the near term future of motorsports branding there are
quantifiable proof of the benefits; teams and series will need to assemble compelling marketing data in conjunction with flexible participation opportunities in order to attract increasingly demanding sponsors.
4. Segmentation: Brands, teams, series, and venues will all segment their marketing efforts further in order to provide more focus on the special needs of geographic (global or local?) or demographic groups based on brand profiles and target markets.
5. Complexity: The sophistication of the marketing programs will continue to grow exponentially. For the larger brands, the commitment to sponsorship with require a reciprocal commitment to teams of internal marketing staff, technology consultants, brand strategists, media experts and partner brands working 24/7 to maintain the real time connections. several key trends that will either strengthen or emerge:
1. Cross channel expansion: Sponsorships will be the centerpiece for a broader business relationship that is leveraged across multiple companies, business channels or partner brands for compound benefit, in some cases, they may have little or no connection to the originating motorsports events.
2. Realtime Connectivity: web based applications will become the fundamental means of enabling fans to interact, be informed and participate; this level of involvement will increase lifestyle connections and brand loyalty.
3. ROI Justification: Potential sponsors will require
There is little doubt that motorsports will continue to be a powerhouse in the world of marketing, branding and commercial sponsorship. The speed, technical innovation, glamorous personalities, international venues and rich sporting heritage will continue to attract companies of all sizes (although mostly large) seeking to expand their market share by employing the allure of motorsports. The competitive spirit of race teams at the pinnacle of the sport will drive further technical innovation, which will require resources to develop which will, in turn, drive the need for more sponsorship. Correspondingly, sponsors will be even more focused on converting their investment in the magic of motorsports into greater market share and brand equity. The focus on winning in this truly symbiotic commercial relationship will continue and, if history is a gauge of future events, cars will go faster and brands will get stronger.
What makes a good slogan? By Polly Becker
A recent study by Texas Tech University found that creativity, clarity and brand familiarity are the factors that count. So which have stood the test of time? We take a look
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How Nike Protects Air Jordans From Counterfeiters AND OTHER DESIGN DETAILS NIKE HAS SQUIRRELED AWAY ALL OVER ITS ICONIC LINE OF SHOES. By John Brownlee
Over at the sneaker-crazy Sole Collector, there’s a great round-up of some of the hidden design details found on various Air Jordan releases. From the 14 Jumpmen symbols hidden all over 1999’s Air Jordan 14s, to the handwritten midsole texture on the Air Jordan 2010’s, Nike’s Tinker Hatfield and crew put a lot more work into the designs of these shoes than first meets the eye. The effort to combat counterfeit Air Jordans may seem futile, but Jordan Brand has taken steps to at least make things harder on the counterfeiters. Every Air Jordan 4 Retro released in 2012 (the 23rd anniversary of the model) features an embossed “TWENTYTWELVE” on the lateral side of the tongue, just below the mesh, and out of view when worn. This detail was conspicuously missing from all of the early release pairs – presumably because the counterfeiters didn’t know it was there.
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.
The Untold Story Of
$1.6 Billion Branding By Mark Wilson
FOR THE FIRST TIME, PENTAGRAM TELLS THE STORY OF BUILDING SHAKE SHACK’S BRANDING FROM THE GROUND UP.
Last month, Shake Shack went public in an IPO that ballooned to $1.6 billion—cementing the brand’s journey from a oneoff boutique stand in New York’s Madison Square Park to a multinational burger titan with restaurants reaching Moscow, Istanbul, and Dubai. In retrospect, a dream team of talent assembled to build Shake Shack. Founder Danny Meyer is the restaurateur behind many of New York’s hottest restaurants. Pat LaFrieda butchers blended the umami-rich mix of brisket, chuck, skirt steak, and short rib in each burger. And architect James Wines developed the original shack structure in Madison Square Park. But what of the casually catchy Shake Shack
branding that has spread so effortlessly to cultures across the globe? The logo, signage, bags, and uniforms were all designed by Pentagram in a project led by principal graphic designer Paula Scher. “It was so accidental,” Scher explains on a call, “because it was conceived for one specific location at that point in time. I don’t think anyone was thinking that this was going to be a chain.” Scher was already spearheading a pro bono redesign of Madison Square Park’s identity for the park’s Conservancy. So when the Conservancy decided to build a permanent burger stand on the public premises, Scher was the logical
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with squiggly burger, shake, and fry icons that evoked classic signage. Even rendered in ink, you can almost see the 1950s neon shining through.
Two different sources of inspiration informed Shake Shack’s branding, which evolved over time. The first was the shack structure itself—a corrugated metal hut that would help earn James Wines a National Design Award for lifetime achievement in 2013. “The original idea was, the shack would be part of an urban landscape in parks. And that’s how the first one was designed,” Scher explains. “So when I designed the logo for Shake Shack, it was really the architecture that drove the design.”
Though the branding was designed for the peculiarities of Shake Shack’s original site, it has managed to scale to franchises placed in more typical storefront locations, and even airports. “I think the modernness of it is somehow perfect in keeping with the quality of the food. It’s a contemporary fast-food chain with a high-level product—as opposed to McDonald’s, which is also modeled after 1950s burger chains but serves downscale food,” Scher says. “In retrospect, if you’d done a million years of focus testing and consumer studies, you wouldn’t do a better job. It shows you the charm of the happenstance.”
The shack exuded a kind of approachable modernness, and Scher wanted a typeface to match. She chose Neutra. To this day, metallic, Neutra lettering spells out Shake Shack in front of all their global stores.
Scher introduced a second wave of branding some time after the store had opened for business. This time it would be paid work—”not well-paid, mind you, but they only had one outlet,” Scher says. It tapped the core idea behind Shake Shack itself—a ‘50s burger joint reimagined for a modern context. So for the text on menus and bags, Pentagram turned to the curvaceous Galaxie Cassiopeia font, or what Scher lovingly calls “a phony neon script” that still felt modern enough to keep up with the logo. The typeface was paired
When I ask Scher later if it felt a bit strange to see pro bono work now define the face of a $1.6 billion public company, she admits that it is “a bit.”
“They offered me a stock purchase before the public offering,” she writes in an email. “And in fairness, no one had an idea of how successful it would become.” 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.
Actions Marketers Can Take to Deliver Real Engagement in 2015 By Reggie Wideman
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When we really sit down and start to think about digital engagement, it probably feels like a complex and daunting exercise. But when consumers are using more devices than ever before, across more channels than we could even fathom just a short 10 years ago, it’s critical that marketers pause and ask themselves and their teams one simple question: How can we better engage our customers? There’s no magical solution to engagement, but you can take concrete steps to crafting a strategy that works. Here are five actions that brands and companies can take to create an engagement strategy that not only aligns with business objectives but also provides a willing marketing team with a road map for success.
1. Write a customer-engagement manifesto Marketers have heard the message loud and clear that using Big Data and creating personalized experiences is an imperative. But many struggle to articulate their goals. A critical step for any champion, thought leader, or tiger team is to sit down and agree on a series of principles by which they’ll govern and build an engagement strategy. Coca-Cola’s Content 2020 Manifesto remains a standout example. Check out Part 1 and Part 2, bearing in mind that you need not strive to those production levels in order to be successful. The path won’t be the same for every business, but make sure you answer this question: What does customer engagement mean to our business? “Engagement” is not another checkbox, and brands do well when they define, in advance, the types of interaction they want to have with their customers. What works for one brand may not work for another, and different verticals and demographics present even more variables for how customers may interact.
2. Define your key use cases and determine a starting point When you’re building an engagement strategy, it must start with business impacts. First ask, “If we knew more about our customers, what could we do better than we do today?” Then ask, “What exactly do we need to do to get that data, so we can start doing those things better?” Make a list and prioritize it. Even if your list is long—which it will likely be—start by selecting a few key use cases to start in order to keep the project manageable and clear-cut. Do you need to overhaul a key digital experience? Find ways to get your customers to create content and provide feedback? Auditing the landscape of possibilities is the first step in
creating a plan, and this exercise is also useful for gaining alignment internally and setting expectations for higher-ups.
3. Define the path to value over 3 months, 6 months, and 12 months As with any initiative that affects how you interact with customers, you must have a clear plan for how and when the organization—and your customers—will see value from the efforts. This step is important not only for internal evangelism but also for getting customer buy-in. For example, if your engagement strategy includes deploying a new technology on a digital property—such as social login and registration for collecting richer data—be prepared to explain to your customers what the benefits are for them (in this case, the benefits of sharing their data with you). Organizations must also look at value as something that evolves and grows over time. Consider how engagement makes an immediate, short-term, and long-term impact on your business, and define metrics that make sense to the broader organization.
4. Map your engagement ecosystem The marketing technology landscape is simply huge. Real engagement often requires a few tools, and both technology and marketing leadership must work together to define an ecosystem for engagement that is sustainable, scalable, and, ultimately, cost-effective. Use your key use cases to support this process. You may even discover a few scenarios where you might retire legacy tools in favor of newer technologies with broader capabilities. You may also discover new ways to use existing tools, such as email marketing platforms or content management systems, now that you’ve developed a strategy for obtaining useful customer data.
5. Engage the internal organization At this point, we should have enough information to begin the process of building internal evangelism for prioritizing customer engagement. Don’t leave objection-handling to your vendors, and certainly don’t slow your project in the middle of execution by having to explain to stakeholders why you’re even doing it in the first place. *** Let’s also not pretend all this work is easy. These actions, however, are achievable: We have plenty of brands to look to that are in various stages of this journey. Reggie Wideman is senior director of strategy at Janrain, which helps its clients acquire customers online, recognize them across all digital touchpoints, and better understand them by collecting and using demographic, psychographic, and behavioral profile data.
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Mobile optimisation:
What do Google’s warnings mean for brands? By Drew Brigham
Brands that have invested in mobile and responsive websites are likely to reap the benefits as Google moves towards a better mobile user experience.
The warning states that “these pages will not be seen as mobile-friendly by Google Search, and will therefore be displayed and ranked appropriately for smartphone users.”
But Google recently sent a warning out to webmasters whose sites have issues on mobile devices.
Essentially, Google is warning that non-mobile friendly sites will rank lower for mobile users.
Launching on Webmaster Tools, the warning highlights how many pages have ‘critical mobile usability errors’ i.e. which pages may not display correctly on a mobile device.
Google has already announced experimental mobilefriendly criteria as a ranking signal, and this update could serve as a warning before the launch of a new mobile algorithm that favours mobile-optimised sites in its search results. Although we are yet to see a significant change in mobile search rankings, sites receiving these warnings are at risk of losing mobile search visibility. IMRG and Capgemini recently found that 37% of online sales this Christmas came via smartphones and tablet devices, a 55% increase from the previous year. With mobile traffic rising across every sector, this update from Google will have a direct impact on traffic and sales and it’s important for brands to audit their mobile performance accordingly. These warnings are not to be taken lightly. This is another example of Google rewarding brands who are investing in their user experience and who are geared up for the multiscreen and multi device world. We’re likely to see an increase of algorithmic changes from Google to reward sites that work natively across a multitude of devices – from PC, to tablet, to smartphone – and potentially penalise those that don’t. We recommend checking your site using tools like Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test Tool to identify any issues that will negatively affect mobile rankings. Drew Brigham, technical director at Epiphany
Innovation Is Vital for Your Organization’s Survival:
10 Must-Learn Lessons From Sir Ken Robinson
By Ann Handley
What’s it mean to be “innovative”?
the spark that fuels it.
“Innovation” is one of those words that we understand in the abstract or in retrospect—but consider hard to apply in daily life, and in real time.
That sounds both vague and high-minded, doesn’t it? But holy wow... it so wasn’t!
And how can you discern the difference between real innovative genius (say, the coffee-cup holder in your car console, or Disney’s Fast Pass program) and flat-out silly innovations (I’d put the selfie stick in that category). Last week, Sir Ken Robinson presented a 90-minute video talk and Q&A at MarketingProfs on the nature of innovation in organizations. Sir Ken is an internationally recognized authority and speaker on creativity and innovation in education and business. He is the most-viewed speaker on TED.com, with multiple talks totaling more than 40 million views. He is also the author of the bestselling books The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything and Finding Your Element: How to Discover Your Talents and Passions and Transform Your Life. Sir Ken argued that innovation is critical and imagination is
I’m one of those people who gets antsy at webinars. But last week I was zero percent tempted during Sir Ken’s talk to start scrolling through my email or checking Twitter. Part of that ability to engage was Sir Ken’s delivery: He’s hilarious—in a British dry-humor kind of way. Which makes the big concepts he talks about feel accessible and suddenly relevant to all of our lives. I came away from his talk feeling inspired to do things differently within my own organization as well as elsewhere in the world. When’s the last time that you had that kind of reaction to a marketing webinar? To paraphrase Eliza Doolittle—that ‘ardly hevver ‘appens. I can’t quite capture Sir Ken’s entire talk here... but what follows are 10 highlights. If you’re wanting more, you can watch the entire seminar.
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1. ‘Innovation has to become a habit.... Innovation needs to be systematic, deliberate; it is what defines you as an organization.’ Innovation is simply a habit, not an art or a gift. (That reminds me of my philosophy toward writing: It’s a habit, not an art.) “Make innovation part of the daily conversation,” Sir Ken said.
2. ‘Tools stretch our minds in new directions. They allow us to do things, but also tools extend our minds.’ When the iPhone came out, in 2007, there were a few hundred apps for it. Now, there are a ka-frickin-zillion. (That’s not Sir Ken’s word, it’s mine.) “You can now download an app that turns your iPhone into a blues harmonica,” Ken said. “Why? I have a blues harmonica that’s smaller than the iPhone...” The bigger point is that tools and technologies allow us to channel creativity and innovation in new, unexpected ways. “Innovation feeds on itself. It becomes part of a multiplier effect” in that things are launched that were unanticipated by the original design or intent, Sir Ken said. Innovation isn’t a straight line, in other words; rather, it’s “a kind of conversation, multi-layered and multi-modal,” he said.
3. ‘Technology is one of the two big drives of change. All the innovations and changes we’re seeing now are baby steps on the road to what we will see.’ In 10-20 years, your children will be looking back at pictures of you with your iPad with a patronizing smile. Because we’re moving in a different direction: Technology will merge with human intelligence.
The notion of enhancing our intelligence by integrating tech with our brains isn’t far-fetched. It’s the future.
4. ‘Companies are living organisms; if they don’t evolve, they simply don’t make it. Innovation isn’t optional.’ Organizations are mortal: Most last only 30-40 years. And they don’t survive if they don’t evolve. One good example is Kodak. It invented the brownie camera, which Sir Ken called “the iPad of its day.” The Brownie camera made photography accessible to everyone, and as a result Kodak went on to be the dominant force in photography. Now the company is in receivership. Kodak didn’t fail because people stopped taking photographs: We take more photos now, not less (“an irritating number,” Sir Ken in a mock grouse). Rather, Kodak failed because it didn’t adapt to a digital culture and instead bet its future on film—”when things really went quite differently, of course,” Sir Ken said. Kodak was created by chemists and it was run by chemists. That, Sir Ken speculated, might’ve contributed to a kind of innovation blind spot at Kodak. “Kodak created a habit of mind, a culture that stopped them from innovating,” he said.
5. ‘The second driver of innovation is the sheer number of people on the planet.’ There are 7 ½ billion people in the world—more than any other time. By the middle of the century, there will be an estimated 9 billion. Much of the population growth is expected to come from emerging or developing economies. That may affect the future of your own organization. But, more broadly, it’s also likely to affect our collective futures. More people means more need for food, fuel, and water. Beyond the question of whether our planet can handle the growth is the question, “In what fashion?” Sir Ken said. If we all consumed resources as most people do in India, the earth could sustain 15 billion people, he pointed out. But if we all consume fuel, food, and water as we do in North America,
the earth could sustain only a mere 1.5 billion.
you frame a task matters.”
“Which means that by the end of the century, we’re going to need another 4 or 5 planets to accommodate us all,” Sir Ken said.
In an organization, he added, “Culture is about where you lay the lines of permission.”
This February only, upgrade to PRO membership at the discounted rate of just $195 (regularly $279)—and you’ll gain exclusive access to our PRO Library of more than 7,000 premium marketing resources, including Sir Ken’s seminar! Use code INNOVATE to save 30% and become a PRO member today! (If you’re already PRO, the seminar is available to you, on-demand, for free.)
6. ‘Creativity is the applied wing of imagination.’ Innovation is the drive to find new ideas and new ways of doing things, to launch both new products and better processes. “But you can’t go straight to it,” he said, because the foundation for innovation consists of two things: Imagination and creativity. Imagination gives you the freedom to consider alternative views. Creativity is about applying imagination to existing systems—to challenge what we take for granted. It’s the process of figuring out if your imagined, original ideas have value. “Creativity is the applied wing of imagination,” Sir Ken explained. And innovation comes from the application of that creativity in an organizational context.
7. ‘A myth is that you’re either creative or you’re not. I disagree.’ “Creative” does not equal “artistic.” You can be a creative team leader or a creative scientist or a creative marketer— which means only that you look for new ways of doing things. We all have creative capacity. But most organizations don’t give people permission to be creative. Here’s an example from an elementary school in which students were challenged to create a drawing the “right” way versus any old way: The lesson is this: If you limit options, you get a limited result. “What people need is permission,” Sir Ken said. “The way
Very often, he said, “the seeds of possibility are waiting for the right conditions to come to life.”
8. ‘Creativity is a process, not an event.’ Pixar bans no or but during company meetings. Great ideas aren’t accidental; rather, they come from a practiced point of view that encourages new ideas and innovation. Support a “yes and...” brand of improvisation at your own organization, Sir Ken said. In comic improv, the actors accept what those around them suggest and work with it: You accept what you’ve been given and build on it, saying yes and instead of no or but. Banning no and but might “sound trivial,” Sir Ken said. But “it’s really not.” If you’re a creative leader, he added, it’s not your job to have all the great ideas. Instead, it’s your job to allow those you lead to contribute their own creativity. “Take that weight off yourself,” he said.
9. ‘I thought of a weekend with spellcheck and a bottle of burgundy. Turns out I rewrote the whole book. If you bought the original, I’m sorry.’ That’s how Sir Ken described his approach to the second edition of Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative, originally published in 2001. The second edition came out in 2011. I’m including this quote here only because it made me laugh.
10. ‘Imagination is what sets us apart as a species.’ Sir Ken ended on an even broader note, putting the notion of innovation into an expanded context. He challenged all of us to work on solving some of the very real social, international, and ecological problems of our planet. “It’s not the cats and dogs and lemurs that are creating problems on earth—it’s us,” he said. And so it follows that it’s up to us to also solve those problems, to sustain both our own lives and our planet’s: The problems our world faces don’t belong to other people or other businesses or other cultures; rather, they are the responsibility of us all. “It’s up to us to not just sustain but enrich the physical environment we are part of,” Sir Ken concluded. Ann Handley is chief content officer of MarketingProfs, a monthly contributor to Entrepreneur magazine, the author of Everybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide to Ridiculously Good Content (Wiley, 2014), and coauthor of the best-selling book on content marketing, Content Rules (Wiley, 2012).
7 Retail Brands That Will Inspire You to Up Your Content Game By Julia Lynn Rubin
In the world of content marketing, retailers are doing so much more than just advertising their products; they’re providing useful information, visibility, and helping brands build relationships with consumers. Here are some of the most inspiring B2C retail content marketing campaigns that have managed to build brand loyalty by engaging new and old consumers with awesome branded content.
1. PATAGONIA It’s safe to say that a lot of the people who trek through the wilderness in Patagonia gear care about the environment; with that in mind, the retailer released a campaign called “The Footprint Chronicles,” which tracks the company’s textile supply chain and how it affects the planet socially and environmentally. Last year, the company also boldly released “Worn Wear,” a short film that focused on the love people have with the clothes and gear they’ve owned together. On Black Friday, they screened it inside their stores. It inspired viewers to be conscious of their purchases and repurpose old clothes instead; alongside the screenings, Pantagonia had stations where experts patched up worn Pantagonia gear. It may sound like a counterintuitive message for a retailer, but it’s that kind of transparency and humility that consumers love.
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2. ASOS Clothing company ASOS capitalized on the phenomenon of unboxing (uploading a video of yourself opening a brand-new product straight from the box) by creating their own unboxing video for Vine along with the tag #ASOSUnbox. The retailer encouraged ASOS fans to upload and tag their own videos to share, and it proved to be a hit. Consumers were stoked to share the excitement of seeing their coveted clothes for the first time. It also helped that ASOS promised to reward some participants with a shiny new product to unbox.
3. BARKPOST Dogs lovers unite: Bark & Co. has created an online branded publication for everything pooches, from adorable photos of puppies to inspiring stories of love and friendship between canine companions. It’s pretty much BuzzFeed for pet lovers, which proves to be awfully addictive. BarkPost has found a much wider audience than just fans of Bark & Co.’s many doggie products and services; about two million people now read BarkPost. One of their posts involving a marriage proposal and 16 pugs even went viral, and was featured on every major site from TODAY to BuzzFeed, and even got its own segment on Good Morning America.
4. FRANK & OAK Luxury menswear retailer Frank & Oak not only has a seamless mobile app, but also their very own editorial hub, aptly titled The Hound. Digiday called them “the fashion brand with a publisher’s heart.” Featuring style tips, how-to fashion demos, and interviews with fabulous bloggers, Frank & Oak has capitalized on fashion-forward content; as Digiday notes, it’s a twist on the formula that turned GQ and Esquire into empires. They even put out a quarterly print magazine called The Edit. All of these efforts have helped fuel 80-plus percent growth year-over-year. “We found that when it comes to men’s fashion, they care about looking good,” CEO Ethan Song told Digiday, “but they care more about the context: ‘What are those clothes used for?’”
5. NET-A-PORTER Net-a-Porter’s brilliant blend of digital content and commerce has been the gold standard for retail content marketing for over a decade, but they took it up a notch this year. Luxury fashion retailer Net-a-Porter’s glossy, star-studded print magazine, Porter, is on its way to becoming the new Vogue, with an initial international circulation of 400,000 readers. Supermodel Gisele Bundchen graced the cover of its debut issue, which featured stars Uma Thurman and Angela Ahrendts inside. Net-a-Porter is not just a retail company, but a media company, as their founder said earlier this year, and they are intent on being the best of the best. Indeed, their glamorous publication is an impressive feat, but it doesn’t come cheap, retailing at $9.99—four dollars more than Vogue.
6. JOHN DEERE
Featuring stories about everything from reindeer revivals to why bats matter, agriculturally-minded The Furrow is a branded magazine by John Deere, and has become something of a legend in its own right. First printed in 1895, the mag still reaches around 2 million readers globally, and even in the digital age, the photo-driven print edition remains most popular. In fact, its back issues are fiercely fought over on eBay. Hear that, Farmers’ Almanac? Earlier this year, Kate Gardiner revealed the fascinating story behind the 119-year-old magazine.
7. APPLE Riffing on Robin Williams’ famous speech in Dead Poets Society, Apple launched its recent “Your Verse” campaign. The almighty question, “What will your verse be?” challenges consumers to make their voices heard and create powerful works with the help of Apple products. In fact, Apple was so inspired by what their customers were producing with iPads that the company decided to feature several of these stories in short films that explore everything from a composer’s app for sharing his love of classical music to mountaineers’s trips up the highest peaks in the world. It’s a case study in how the best aspirational marketing is often inspirational storytelling.
Julia Lynn Rubin is a creative, efficient and experienced writer & editor with a penchant for pop culture, music, and anything intellectual.
Demystifying Innovation: A Guide to Creative Thinking and Creating By Erika Napoletano
Following a formula for innovation can lead to bigger and better ideas. Innovation. How many times have you heard this word in the past year? “Innovate” is thrown around meeting rooms and during conference calls—it’s a verb, a directive, a demand.
of what “better” actually means? Beginning with a shared definition of innovation helps any company or brand in the relentless pursuit of better.
But do you know what it means? And more importantly, do you know what it takes to be innovative?
Innovation is the creation of value, both for your company and the people who interact with your team, products and services. It’s that simple. When you seek innovation, you’re creating a deeper value for the people who matter most: your audience.
At the OPEN Forum: CEO BootCamp event in Chicago, Lisa Buckley and Jennifer Ebert, directors with ?What If! Innovation Partners, let the event’s nearly 500 attendees in on the formula they use to innovate for their firm’s many clients. Here are a few of their key tactics for your own innovation journey.
What is Innovation? Have you ever been in a room filled with people who all want to create something better, yet no one has a shared definition
To create that value, you must build an environment that fosters innovative thinking. For that, you’ll need The Four “I”s.
The Four “I”s What allows innovation to happen? According to ?What If!, it’s a combination of four elements: IDENTIFY x INSIGHT x IDEAS x IMPACT = INNOVATION
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And yes, it’s an equation. Buckley and Ebert note that if you have a zero in place of any of these four critical components, your sum is a big, fat zero as well.
through the pile of ideas your expansive thinking accumulates. That way, you can focus your resources on developing the best ones.
First, you have to identify what demands innovation. Secondly, you have to be willing to gather the insights required to fuel your quest. Then, ideas have to flow—even the silly and uncensored. Finally, you have to decide on the impact you want to create.
What are the best ones? Well, the ones that show the most promise for creating the impact and value you wish to bring to the market. As the directors of ?What If! pointed out during OPEN Forum: CEO BootCamp Chicago, innovation and leadership are just as much about saying no as they are about saying yes. Begin with your pile of yeses. Then, tell Debbie to come on inside and sit down. You need her “no” skills now.
Those four elements, when each executed beyond zero, are the beginning of innovation. But before you can create an ideal environment for innovation, you need to know how to deal with roadblocks.
Roadblocks to Innovation Look around your professional life. There’s that guy. You know, the one who always says, “That’s not the way we do things,” or, “We can’t do that.” He (or she) is super fun to have around, right? Companies and brands seeking to innovate hit these kinds of roadblocks daily. Your job is to be able to identify these roadblocks and either move them out of your creative process or help them find a role in your innovation system. According to the ?What If! team, behaviors are the number one roadblock to innovation, those that have become part of our core as people and as company cultures. To innovate, companies have to be able (and willing) to utilize two separate types of behaviors: expansive and reductive. And yes, even the Debbie Downers have a role here. Expansive thinking is the kind we enjoyed as kids, where we came up with wild solutions to nonexistent problems and never let anything get in the way. Kids are great at using their imaginations, taking risks, challenging the status quo and bouncing right back when things don’t go as planned. Many of us have forgotten how powerful our minds and imaginations can be, whether it’s been beat out of us by the naysayers or we’ve simply forgotten our childlike sides. For innovation’s sake, go find your inner kid. Once you’ve let your inner kid run amok, it’s time for reductive thinking. Buckley and Ebert are quick to point out that not every half-baked idea deserves your resources. Some ideas inevitably shine brighter and become more interesting. Reductive thinking (aka your Debbie Downers) helps you filter
But there’s one more thing that innovation requires—and not everyone has it.
Bravery Now you have a solid definition of innovation and the formula needed to give it a place to grow. You even know about the two types of behaviors most necessary for innovation to take shape and the roadblocks that keep it from happening. But one question remains: Are you brave enough to pursue it? According to the ?What If! team, innovation demands bravery. A willingness to take risks and propose and embrace bold, daring ideas. It also requires that you take ownership of your ideas and sell them. Modesty is the ruination of the seeds of innovation. Bravery is also a culture that truly is top-down, and brave teams require brave leaders. Innovation rising from the ranks will rarely take hold if management isn’t willing to lead the charge. This means that companies on a quest to be innovative have to commit to hiring brave employees, from executives to management to day-to-day-level team members. Remember the old adage about a chain only being as strong as its weakest link? This holds true for innovation as well. Yes, you might be scared. But check in with yourself. That might just be excitement taking hold and demanding you give your brave, innovative ideas a chance to thrive.
Erika Napoletano, Columnist, American Express OPEN
Going Below the Surface Delivering Successful Insight Driven Innovation. By Asher Hunter
Steve Jobs and Henry Ford are both well known for their skepticism about the use of market research At a 1982 planning retreat, someone on the Mac team, “thought they should do some market research to see what customers wanted. ’No,’ [Jobs] replied, ‘because customers don’t know what they want until we’ve shown them.’” Henry Ford famously stated “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” I agree with the sentiment behind both these quotes. Asking consumers what they want is poor research and just plain lazy. Where I disagree is when people trot out quotes like this as justification for dismissing market research as a valuable tool in the innovation process. In reality, these quotes highlight two common pitfalls of poor market research in the world of innovation and growth strategy: 1. Consumer Deferral - the tendency to ask the consumer directly for the answer to the business question. Essentially using consumers as a substitute for doing the marketers job. 2. Scratch the Surface - research that is narrowly defined and fails to uncover underlying motivations and is based
on existing business paradigms. Fortunately, there are ways to overcome these pitfalls.
Understand people, don’t ask people Henry Ford was correct when he said “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses”. Yes that is true, but what if you asked them why they want faster horses? It’s likely that people would respond with “to get home from work faster”. Ask them why again and we might find that they want more time to spend with their family. Establishing and focusing on the core need ‘faster transportation and freedom’ without the category frame of reference (horses) provides a more fertile base for innovation. We can then apply our grey matter and creative thinking talent to come up with a solution for the core need of “faster transportation and freedom” - enter the automobile. I have oversimplified this example (needs are multidimensional and require context), but it illustrates an important point - understand people, don’t ask people.
Key learnings: • Make
sure
your
business
objectives
are
clearly
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differentiated from your research objectives • Observe and listen to people before asking direct questions • Stop yourself from asking consumers about what YOU or YOUR COMPANY should be doing
Define your business around needs The Harvard Business Review paper ‘Marketing Myopia’ by Theodore Levitt, explores this topic in more detail. He argues that companies should not be defined by the products they sell, but by the needs they meet. British Rail suffered because they defined themselves as a railroad business rather than a transportation business. As marketers, we often look at the world through the lens of our category or our brand, and most of the information we receive (sales data and research) is organised in this fashion. Unfortunately, this rarely matches up with how consumers view the world. It’s often this category tunnel vision that obscures the real opportunity to identify breakthrough innovation opportunities that exist beyond category boundaries.
Key learnings: • Seek to understand relevant life moments/ occasions within a broader competitive context • Avoid prompting consumers with marketing defined categories
Triangulate from multiple viewpoints Jobs, and Apple in general, is a great example of having a deep understanding of today’s world, without letting the paradigms of today stifle the possibilities of the future. While others were focusing on improving mobile phones, Jobs was focused on making mobile phones obsolete. The iPhone was born out of setting a broad frame of reference and looking at the world from multiple viewpoints. On one hand Apple understood that people have multiple needs they want to communicate with others, they want to capture important moments and they love listening to music. They also understood technology enablers – improved wireless telecommunications, miniaturization of digital camera hardware and increasing data storage capacity. There was
also a strong company leverage point, iTunes - an ecosystem for delivering entertainment. Couple this with the fact that before the iPhone people required three devices to meet these needs and you can see why the iPhone is such a big success. It’s about using research to understand people, but also looking beyond the immediate category to identify trends that triangulate around an opportunity.
Key learnings: • Use a central framework to connect information from multiple sources – macro trends, technology enablers, global innovation trends and consumer research • Involve a core team from multiple disciplines in the planning process • Talk to experts from outside of your typical industry definition
Moving Forward Great market research can be instrumental in developing the solid strategic insight that unpins successful innovation. On the flip side, poor market research that fails to go deep enough or delegates business decision making to the end consumer, is more dangerous than no market research. Avoid the pitfalls of poor market research and keep these three guidelines front of mind the next time you set out to explore the innovation and growth strategies available for your company: • Focus on understanding people rather than asking them to solve your problems • Build your learning and research context around core needs, not your existing business paradigms • Bring together information and insight from multiple viewpoints Investing in getting the right insights upfront provides a more fertile grounding for innovation and ultimately increases the chance of delivering breakthrough innovation. Has your company invested in the right insight foundation to drive successful innovation?
Asher Hunter, Managing Director, Melbourne— Metrix Consulting In September 2014, Asher was appointed to open and lead the Melbourne office for the fast growing insights and strategy agency – Metrix Consulting. He recently returned to Melbourne after nearly five years in New York, where he was the Vice President of Consulting for a multinational firm, and won the Advertising Research Foundation Great Mind Award. Asher has worked with a broad range of companies to drive major business and marketing initiatives, including, Nestle, Colgate, General Mills, Danone, Mondelez, Merck, AB InBev, The Good Guys, Walgreens, Coles, Medibank, Commonwealth Bank, Tourism Queensland, Holden and Subaru. His passion and focus is on helping organisations deliver successful innovation that is grounded in deep strategic insight.
What Brands Need To Know About Online Reviews: 5 Questions With NYT Bestselling Author Bill Tancer By Amy Gesenhues
Online review expert and author of “Everyone’s a Critic” explains why brands need to pay attention to what consumers are saying online. In 2008, Publishers Weekly said Bill Tancer’s Click – What Millions Do Online and Why It Matters was, “…destined to become a primer for online marketers and usability experts while shedding new light on the mindset and curiosities of the average Web surfer.” Tancer followed the success of his first publication with a deep dive into world of online reviews for his most recent book Everyone’s a Critic: Winning Customers in a ReviewDriven World. The New York Times bestselling author has been researching consumers behavior patterns for more than a decade. “During that time, I’ve been immersed in studying how millions of consumers interact with over one million websites,” says Tancer who serves as the general manager of global research for Experian Marketing Services. According to Tancer, more than 80 percent of consumers check online reviews before making purchase decisions. His research shows that online reviews play an undeniable role
in a consumer’s purchasing decisions, and that brands are missing out by not giving the channel more attention, “Failure to understand the channel has led to a huge inefficiency and untapped opportunity.” No other social media channel is as influential as online reviews. “No other social media channel is as influential as online reviews,” says Tancer, “Many brands and business owners are put off by online reviews given that the channel appears to be beyond their control.” Next month, Tancer will share his extensive knowledge and understanding of consumer behavior at SMX West 2015 as a keynote speaker, offering in-depth insight into the world of Yelp reviews, TripAdvisor posts and more. Before he takes the stage in San Jose, Tancer was gracious enough to answer our five most pressing questions about online consumer behavior and the importance of customer reviews.
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5 Questions with Online Review Expert Bill Tancer
brands in the review space is Sephora.
Amy Gesenhues: What do brands fail to understand about online consumer behavior?
Sephora has used online reviews as a way to bridge the gap between online and offline. In some of their brick and mortar stores, Sephora provides their customers with touch panels to read online reviews for products.
Bill Tancer: Generally, that online consumer behavior, if
Recent research indicates that consumers give more weight to online reviews than they do to opinions from sales associates in retail settings. Combining that research with the fact that the mere existence of online reviews on a retailers site have been shown to increase conversion, I believe Sephora’s incorporation of online reviews into offline shopping experience is very smart.
observed and analyzed with rigor, can provide very valuable insights into how consumers make purchase decisions. To this day, many marketers rely on gut instinct to guide marketing decisions, their chances of launching successful campaigns increases when those decisions are fueled by observed behavioral data. The biggest mistake most brands make is to not engage with online reviews. In Everyone’s a Critic, I discuss the latest research in how consumers perceive business responses to both positive and negative online reviews. When considering an appropriate response, an inappropriate response and no response at all to a negative review, study participants ranked no response as the worst for a businesses reputation. I often tell my clients that their responses to online reviews should mirror how customers are treated in a face-to-face interaction. If a customer came up to you in your store and complained about an experience, ignoring that customer and walking away without responding wouldn’t be perceived well. Why would business owners act differently when the interaction is online? By simply analyzing the reviews for their own business and brand and those of their competitive set, many businesses could gain valuable insights into improving their businesses position.
Amy Gesenhues: Speaking of Everyone’s a Critic, you have a chapter titled, “How Reviews, Even Bad Ones, Are Good For You.” Can you expand on how bad reviews can be a good thing for businesses? Bill Tancer: One of the main reasons businesses ignore reviews is that we have a problem handling criticism. However, as I point out in Everyone’s a Critic, research from NYU indicates that a few bad reviews can actually be good for your business, especially if those negative reviews don’t deal with deal-breakers. Behind the research, given the volume of fake or sham reviews, a few negative reviews give some credibility to the positive reviews that a business receives.
Amy Gesenhues: In your opinion, which brands get it, and which brands are missing the boat? Bill Tancer: I think one of the most forward thinking
I still have some retail clients that have not incorporated online reviews into their product pages. When research indicates that the mere presence of those reviews can increase conversion between three to fivepercent, not putting those reviews on their site is just throwing money away.
Amy Gesenhues: What do you find most fascinating when it comes to how consumers interact with brands online? Bill Tancer: I think the motivation that consumers bring to the online review conversation. While writing the book, I had the opportunity to interview several different reviewers, from Yelp Elite to TripAdvisor’s top reviewers to the #1 reviewer on Amazon.com. What I found fascinating was what compelled these individuals to spend so much time writing reviews. What I found was that motivations vary, from wanting to right a wrong, to wanting to contribute to a community, the desire to reach a status level, or for some the motivation is simply finding a channel to express their creativity. Most business owners that I talked to are unaware of these varying motivations.
Amy Gesenhues: What significant trends do you see taking shape in how consumers interact with brands online, and how will they impact the way brands do business? Bill Tancer: While reading reviews has become a ubiquitous online activity, the act of writing reviews, while currently skewed towards specific demographics, will grow over time (primarily fueled by the sharing economy). This will lead to the growing importance of online reviews and the necessity for better tools for consumers to navigate the space and business owners/brands to leverage. Amy Gesenhues is Third Door Media’s General Assignment Reporter, covering the latest news and updates for Marketing Land and Search Engine Land. From 2009 to 2012, she was an award-winning syndicated columnist for a number of daily newspapers from New York to Texas.
Book,
&
Line
Sinker
The Art of Social Media
Growth Hacker Marketing
By Guy Kawasaki, Peg Fitzpatrick
By Ryan Holiday This book points out that many of the megabrands of today haven’t spent much of anything on traditional marketing. Instead, they figure out how to reach customers who “sell” other customers on using the product. While I’m not certain that the techniques Holiday espouses will work in every (or even many) business situations, the book is worth reading simply to understand how companies like Dropbox and Twitter suddenly burst out of nowhere.
Anything that Guy Kawasaki writes is automatically of interest, since he’s one of the most creative and original thinkers in the business world. In this case, though, Kawasaki (with the help of a coauthor) has really outdone himself. Rather than another 60,000-foot view of social media, he’s collected a series of practical tips that you can apply immediately to get your message out and acquire new customers. Absolutely a must-read for any marketer.
Spin Sucks: Communication and Reputation Management in the Digital Age By Gini Dietrich Back in the day, the job of a PR group was to put “spin” on reality to make it more palatable or exciting. This book explains why that no longer works in an environment where the internet makes everything public knowledge. The book also describes how to use the unvarnished truth to “humanize” yourself, your products, and your company.
What Great Brands Do. The Seven Brand-Building Principles That Separate the Best From the Rest By Denise Lee Yohn As a general rule, I’m not always sure that small businesses benefit from studying the branding strategies of the behemoths. That being said, this particular book makes a real effort to present those strategies in a way that can be applied in more typical business and branding scenarios.
Hello, My Name Is Awesome. How to Create Brand Names That Stick By Alexandra Watkins This book should probably be required reading for anybody starting a new business. It’s got plenty of examples, most of which are both amusing and instructive. More importantly, it provides a simple system for evaluating a brand name: Does it make you smile? Or does it make you scratch your head? BTW, I have personal experience in product branding, so I’m 100 percent certain this book should be in your library.
The Power of Visual Storytelling By Ekaterina Walter, Jessica Gioglio Marketing professionals have a tendency to think in terms of “messaging,” which consists of a verbal or textual expression of a static idea. Even when they use graphics, those elements tend to be static, like logos. While there has been a lot of talk recently in the sales world about storytelling as a way to engage customers, the stories in question are nearly always assumed to be verbal or textual. However, we live in a society where far more people understand stories in terms of visual images rather than text, especially on the internet.
Decoding the New Consumer Mind By Kit Yarrow While this book is about marketing to consumers, even business buyers are influenced by the principles that it describes. What I found most interesting was the way that it used research to delve into the thought processes of people when they’re shopping and buying.
Global Content Marketing By Pam Didner This book is the flip side of The Power of Visual Storytelling and the other tactical books in this list. There’s no question that content is important (although getting less so, due to information saturation), so if you’re going to provide content, you must ensure that it’s strategic and has the right effect on your current and potential customer base.
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Hooked: How to Build HabitForming Products
Unconscious Branding
By Nir Eyal
In this blog, I’ve repeatedly written about the practical application of neuroscience to make you a better manager and salesperson. This book goes way beyond this sort of tactical application and explains what happens in customers’ minds when they’re exposed to media, visuals, textual content...and virtually everything that goes into making a brand successful. It’s a must read.
Much of what’s written about marketing assumes that marketing and branding are about creating something new. This book explains that in many cases people buy products and return to brands simply out of habit. Effective marketing should therefore seek to establish habit rather than simply achieve prominence.
By Douglas Van Praet
Tilt: Shifting Your Strategy from Products to Customers
Romancing the Brand
By Niraj Dawar Tilt will help you grasp the global nature of this downstream shift and its profound implications for your strategy and your organization. With vivid examples from around the world, ranging across industries and sectors, Dawar shows how companies are reorienting their strategies around customer interactions to create and capture unique value. And he demonstrates how, unlike product-related advantage, this value is cumulative, continuously building over time.
In Romancing the Brand, author reveals what it takes to make consumers fall in love with your brand. Step by step,he reveals how to start, grow, maintain, and troubleshoot a flourishing relationship between brand and consumer. Along the way, author shares the secrets behind establishing a mutually beneficial “romance.” Drawing on exclusive, in-depth interviews with managers of some of the world’s most iconic brands, this book arms you with an arsenal of classic and emerging marketing tools.
Designing Brand Experience
Branding Yourself
By Robin Landa
By Erik Deckers, Kyle Lacy
In today’s competitive marketplace, establishing a creative and comprehensive branding program is crucial to achieving business success. This dynamic new book from best-selling author Robin Landa is an all-inclusive guide to generating ideas and creating brand applications that resonate with an audience. A highly visual examination of each phase of the branding process includes comprehensive coverage of the key brand applications of graphic design and advertising.
Want a new job or career? Need to demonstrate more value to customers or employers? Use today’s hottest social media platforms to build the powerful personal brand that gets you what you want! In this completely updated book, Erik Deckers and Kyle Lacy help you use social media to attract new business and job opportunities you’ll never find any other way. From Facebook to Pinterest to video sharing, this book is packed with new techniques and ideas that are practical, easy, and effective.
The Science and Art of Branding
Brand Bible: The Complete Guide to Building, Designing, and Sustaining Brands
By Giep Franzen, Sandra Moriarty This innovative work provides a state-of-the-art overview of current thinking about the development of brand strategy. Unlike other books on branding, it approaches successful brand strategy from both the producer and consumer perspectives. “The Science and Art of Branding” makes clear distinctions among the producer’s intentions, external brand realities, and consumer’s brand perceptions - and explains how to fit them all together to build successful brands.
By Tim Halloran
By Debbie Millman Brand Bible is a comprehensive resource on brand design fundamentals. It looks at the influences of modern design going back through time, delivering a short anatomical overview and examines brand treatments and movements in design. You’ll learn the steps necessary to develop a successful brand system from defining the brand attributes and assessing the competition, to working with materials and vendors, and all the steps in between.