BrandKnew November 2013

Branding matters. Because branding matters.

Published by ISD Global

brandknewmag.com

11.13#19

Dear Friends: The year is hurtling past us at a furious pace. By the time you receive this issue of Brand Knew in your inbox, newsstand, smartphone or tablet, we would have begun the countdown to 2014. As we await that, you can take a sneak peek at which are the most beloved brands of 2013 and get to know more about the man who apparently told Steve Jobs that Apple needs to be design centric. What you will also find very interesting is the take by 3 ad agencies on rebranding feminism as they see it. Ever since we entered the ‘always on’ world, the opportunity to establish your personal brand has grown in leaps & bounds. We unravel that in our feature on how entrepreneurs should look at personal branding and how it helps them grow their organisations.

We have seen many a potential brand & agency relationship fall by the wayside over the yearstake a look at the do’s and don’ts in the feature on agency client partnerships. The time has come to go further than lip service on experience marketingour article unravels the need for that diligently. For all those just about getting started on using social media as a strong marketing ally, the article on how brands should be looking at using Facebook Apps will be very insightful. There is a significant amount more packed into this issue and we look forward to knowing more from you on what you would like to see featured in the coming months. Till then, the very best!

Suresh Dinakaran @sureshdinakaran ae.linkedin.com/pub/suresh-dinakaran/67/355/335/

07 09 11 13 15 17 21 23 25 27 29

suresh@groupisd.com

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 Marketing Strategist: Mark Cijo Associate: Brand Success: Andre Van Helsdingen Web Specialist: Prasanta Kumar Sahu Online Support: Mahendra Kumar Behera

Brand Knew is published by

31 33 35 37 39

For Advertising Enquiries: info@groupisd.com or call + 971 4 386 7728 All content copyright rests with the respective contributors

www.brandknewmag.com | www.groupisd.com Download Mobile App from

41

CONTENTS

How I Taught Steve Jobs To Put Design First Realising the Vision of True Personalisation Three Ad Agencies Try To Rebrand Feminism Check Out the Top 100 Beloved Brands Six things brands should know about experience marketing The “Bad Guys” Of Engineering: What Defines “Design-Centric” Companies Like Apple Why Every Entrepreneur Needs a Compelling Personal Brand - And How to Build It 7 Things Marketers Need to Know About Agency Partnerships Community managers: the most understated role in marketing Redefining Facebook: how brands should use Facebook Ad Apps Luxury Brands Get Behind Travel Revival with New Products, Experiences Laying the Foundations for New Media Brand Licensing Clicks to bricks Brands taking tech into their own hands Groceries Are Cleaning Up in Store-Brand Aisles Mobile Sites of Most Top Brands Are Slow to Load, Not Optimized Book, Line & Sinker

How I Taught Steve Jobs To Put Design First Hartmut Esslinger

HARTMUT ESSLINGER, FOUNDER OF FROG AND CREATOR OF APPLE’S SNOW WHITE DESIGN LANGUAGE, RECOUNTS CONVINCING JOBS TO EMPOWER DESIGNERS.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS My first encounter with Apple was at the ICSID World Design Congress in Helsinki in 1978, where the company had installed a working Apple IIe system. I liked Apple’s technology and price and how well these rudimentary products worked. Apple’s funny rainbow logo had the words “apple computer” scrawled across in an ugly typeface. As for product design, it looked like a clunky old typewriter without its ribbon and roller, and the keyboard stood at a wildly non-ergonomic height above the desktop. Two primitive 5 ¼–inch floppy disk drives made of generic sheet metal rested on top of the computer case, capped by an off-theshelf Japanese monitor that displayed green characters on a black background. The Apple IIe clearly fell short of a grand vision, but I decided to buy one anyway. And as I played with my nice toy it dawned on me that computers--or “thinking machines”--were destined to enter our daily lives.

ON THE ROAD TO APPLE My major consumer tech client at the time was Sony, which I believed had the technology to expand into personal computers. But after developing a few prototypes with Sony engineers, it was clear by 1981 that management wasn’t interested. I turned my attention to Silicon Valley: HP, for example, with its technologically advanced products, seemed to be a logical choice. Yet I eventually realized that HP’s DNA simply didn’t allow for introducing human-centered design to technology products. At that point I knew I had to get in touch with Apple.

That happened in an unusual way. In early 1982 I was in California talking to designers who might be interested in working with me. The meetings didn’t go anywhere, but the discussions brought home the realization that most designers in U.S. companies were in-house employees who reported to managers in marketing and engineering. Then one day I was at a party in Silicon Valley and met Rob Gemmell, the Chief Designer of the Apple II Division. After showing him my visual materials, Rob said, “You have to meet Steve Jobs. He is this crazy guy, but he really cares about world-class design and wants to bring it to Apple.”

THE REAL JOURNEY BEGINS Rob visited our studio in Germany’s Black Forest and described a competition Apple was organizing between design agencies--which was fine with me. I was already convinced that working with Apple might be a life-changing

opportunity for me. I clearly recognized the huge gap between the reality of Apple’s current products and Steve Jobs’ ambition to make his company “the world’s best.” We agreed that on my next trip to the U.S. I would visit Apple’s offices in Cupertino and meet Steve Jobs, who by coincidence would soon appear on the cover of TIME magazine with the headline “Striking It Rich.”

As I prepared for the meeting, I wondered what this mercurial man would be like and if he’d quickly kick me out of his office, as I had been warned. While waiting to see him, a rather formally dressed man came out of his office; this made me uneasy because I was clad in jeans, sneakers and a t-shirt. But when Steve emerged I noticed that his t-shirt was even older than mine. The previous visitor, Steve told me with a laugh, was California Governor Jerry Brown. “He’s looking for a job,” Jobs joked.

STEVE DIDN’T REALLY KNOW MUCH ABOUT DESIGN, BUT HE LIKED GERMAN CARS. That broke the ice, and I showed Steve some of my work, emphasizing the products I’d designed for WEGA and Sony.

Almost immediately he said, “I want this for Apple.” We also spoke about process. I explained that to make design a core element of Apple’s corporate strategy, it would have to be seen as a leadership issue; world-class design can’t work its way up from the bottom, watered down by the motivations and egos of every layer of management it passes through. I also offered a number of examples of corporate designers-especially in the United States--who were being compromised by the need to report to lower levels. Steve looked a bit irritated when I told him that my initial observations of Apple’s design process revealed exactly the same pattern of structurally determined mediocrity.

That wasn’t the only strained moment of our conversation that day. Steve seemed astonished that I spent less time talking about my projects than I spent describing the objectives, goals, and processes of my approach to design, including my experiences navigating power struggles within my client’s companies-- most of which resulted in very successful products. He seemed mildly uncomfortable with the idea that a design language isn’t universal or absolute but needs to be right for the spirit of a company, and I saw him frown when I said that aesthetics evoke emotions but are just one of the elements of a great product.

brandknewmag.com

08 That wasn’t the only strained moment of our conversation that day. Steve seemed astonished that I spent less time talking about my projects than I spent describing the objectives, goals, and processes of my approach to design, including my experiences navigating power struggles within my client’s companies-- most of which resulted in very successful products. He seemed mildly uncomfortable with the idea that a design language isn’t universal or absolute but needs to be right for the spirit of a company, and I saw him frown when I said that aesthetics evoke emotions but are just one of the elements of a great product.

In fact, Steve didn’t really know much about design, but he liked German cars. Leveraging that connection, I explained that design like that has to be a complete package, that it must express the product’s very soul; without the excellent driving experience and the history of stellar performance, a Porsche would be just another nice car--but it wouldn’t be a Porsche. We also discussed American design, and I offended him when I insisted that American computer and consumer electronics companies totally underestimated the taste of American consumers--Sony’s success with clean design being the proof. He was gracious enough to concede that Apple didn’t make the cut, but he also said that he was out to change all that, which was why he was looking for a worldclass designer.

When I asked him about his bigger ambitions, he simply smiled and said: “First, I want to sell a million Macs. Then I want Apple to become the greatest company on earth.” For

I URGED STEVE TO RETHINK APPLE’S EXISTING DESIGN PROCESS AND THE WAY IT PLACED DESIGNERS AT THE MERCY OF ENGINEERING.

some strange reason, we both agreed that those goals were absolutely achievable.

At the end of the meeting, I again urged Steve to rethink Apple’s existing design process and the way it placed designers at the mercy of engineering. I told him that, in my opinion, Apple needed one design leader and one team reporting directly to him, and design had to be involved years ahead of any actual product development in Apple’s strategic planning. With that framework in place, Apple could project new technologies and consumer interactions for years ahead, which would help avoid shortsighted adhoc developments.

Steve reluctantly promised that if frog won the competition, design would take a top position at Apple and report directly to him. I left his office that day feeling motivated and inspired, but also quite aware of the challenge we were taking on. My brief experience at Apple had convinced me that neither its division managers nor its designers would accept this change without a fight, and Steve had assured me the battle would be mine to win. Naturally, there were some points where we disagreed--Steve believed that “one insanely great product” would define Apple, whereas I insisted that Apple needed a comprehensive strategy that could generate a line of great products. But we launched a pivotal collaboration that day, creating what would become one of the most successful and influential designer/entrepreneur alliances in the history of consumer technology.

Realising the Vision of True Personalisation Nick Keating Analyst firm Forrester recently reported that we have now entered the “Age of the Customer,” where the customer is in control and the only way for brands to differentiate is by delivering an optimal customer experience. Yet with brands exploring what personalisation and behaviour-led targeting entails, many are getting bogged down in a morass of historical customer data.

While analysing a customer’s past behaviour and activity is important, it is only the first step. Only by adding the most current contextual data and enabling real-time targeting parameters can brands deliver a personalised customer experience that best serves the individual needs of each customer. As Nick Keating, VP EMEA, Maxymiser explains, personalisation is not a ‘set and forget’ activity; it is an evolutionary, iterative process that demands real-time testing and measurement to create the best, most relevant, personalised customer experience.

groupisd.com

10

Get closer to customers.

So what does ‘getting closer to your customer’ mean in practice? Before brands can begin to implement and see the value of personalisation across their digital channels, they must first agree on the larger business goals.

There is far more to transforming and improving how customers interact with your brand than simply collecting data and compiling detailed reports on customer behaviour.

Unless brands can actively and rapidly transform those insights into tangible and worthwhile benefits (better known as ROI and actual sales), all that data is just academic.

international data plans or WiFi tethering options that would allow the customer to use his/her mobile device as a WiFi hotspot? The content and offer is, therefore, tailored to meet the real-time behaviour and historical relationship of that customer.

Being flexible is also important. Travel brands can tailor the holiday booking process to reflect not only the customer, but also the type of holiday currently being searched for. For example, the same individual may book a week-long holiday in Ibiza for five adults at one visit, while booking a holiday for two adults and children in the U.S. at another time.

So how can a brand get close to customers and provide services and product offers that feel authentic, show value, make them want to click through their site and seamlessly move them through the purchase funnel? How can personalisation help brands reduce the cost of sale, especially cost of acquisition, and increase revenue? While this may be common practice in the offline world, brands should become more adept at exploring and leveraging CRM data if they want to make every single decision made on their websites count.

Realising the Vision

Refined targeting parameters strengthen customer loyalty.

It is this ability to automate the process that is the key to exploiting the real-time context. Attempting to tailor and target content manually across multiple segments throughout a customer lifecycle, in real time, is simply not feasible anymore for any most brands.

Static web sites are no longer compelling enough to hold the attention of consumers, who are often connected to multiple devices, have short attention spans and minimal patience for brands that don’t get the customer experience right.

Using traditional customer segmentation parameters based upon fixed rules can only present a one-size-fits-all customer experience that just won’t cut it any longer.

True personalisation comes down to understanding the context of a visitor’s behaviour and activity, and must include previous click streams, location, device preference and so much more. Context is both historical and in real-time, enabling brands to tailor the experience to reflect not only previous behaviours but also current and cross-channel activity. In practice, this means using dynamic contextual information to tailor the customer experience in real-time.

For example, is a returning customer visiting the site from a mobile device or desktop/laptop computer? What did the customer buy last time? What types of keywords did they search? What is their complete buying history? What content is the customer looking at right now? And is this customer more likely to browse or buy when on a particular device?

It is important to recognise that personalised customer experiences need to go beyond the content itself. For example, if a telecommunications customer still has six months left on their contract before they are eligible to upgrade, what is the value of showing this customer photos of new phones while online? Why not, instead, leverage the insights indicating the customer routinely uses international roaming and is browsing portable WiFi devices to present offers that relate to

Underpinning this targeted content, offers and journey is the ability to not only segment customers based on past and current behaviour, but to also flag the most important attributes of customers within each of those segments and then automatically predict the content that will be the most effective. By continually monitoring results, an optimisation tool should be able to identify the winning experiences for each segment and increase the promotion of that content.

The proof is in the pudding.

Personalisation is clearly a compelling proposition. But it is also challenging. It is, therefore, essential to understand the effectiveness of personalisation strategies. This is a process of continual optimisation to refine and find the optimal customer experience.

Is presenting returning customers with different content, offers and journeys than those served to non- customers successful? And which landing pages or offers resonate best with each individual visitor profile? Does offering different booking experiences depending on the type of holiday make a difference in conversion rates and/or frequency of customer return? If so, what is the value of building on that model to tailor content to customers who return after a period of one week, one month or over six months? How much additional value is being created by tailoring the customer experience?

To continually refine and drive personalisation in this way demands that brands adopt an ongoing culture of testing and learning. Unless brands can scientifically measure each form of customer engagement against desired goals and metrics, there will be no real value long-term to the business’ bottom line. No brand can afford to spend the time, resources and budget (be it small or big) if personalisation fails to demonstrate the reduced business costs or increased value that can be achieved by getting closer to customers.

Three Ad Agencies Try To Rebrand Feminism Carey Dunne For its November Issue, Elle UK decided to “Rebrand Feminism,” treating the advancement of women’s rights like a dated product that needs to be dusted off and made cool again. The magazine paired three award-winning ad agencies--Brave, Mother, and Wieden+Kennedy--with three feminist organizations and had them create a series of advertisements aimed at fixing feminism’s supposed image problem.

“Too many women who believe in equality and choice wouldn’t be proud to say ‘I’m a feminist,’” Alex Holder, creative director of Mother, tells Co.Design. In the popular imagination, a kind of mythical beast dominates feminism’s image--a hairy, manhating, bra-burning shrew--which scares people away from the F-word. Charlotte Raven, founding editor of the Feminist Times, wrote, “The puritanical, anti-fun feminist looms large in the media’s consciousness, but not in mine. I’ve never met her, even in the women’s groups I attended in the ‘80s.”

brandknewmag.com

12

In their mod-ish neon poster, Mother London and the Feminist Times showcase a single shocking fact: “On average, British women make up to 15% less than their male colleagues. That pay gap is unlikely to close until 2057.” Holder tells Co.Design of the design process, “We wanted to create an ad that made you feel empowered to do something about the pay gap.

Thinking about asking someone what they earned made me physically wince. I liked that. It wasn’t another statistic to gloss over; I had to think about whether my male colleagues earned more than me. It also gave people a simple action to do.” A protest board inspired the art direction, and the colors are a nod to the spirit of punk rebellion--they exactly mimic

original idea because of its anti-consumerist message, and their second concept, “Proper Cunts”--a photomontage ad featuring a variety of different vaginas, aimed at making the Elle reader think twice before getting a Brazilian wax--was also, unsurprisingly, nixed.

Elle deserves points for effort when compared to many women’s magazines, which, in their exclusive focus on beauty and recycled dating tips, are often part of the problem, not the solution. But, as Raven says, “The problem with ‘rebranding feminism’ is that feminism isn’t a brand to begin with. It’s a process rather than an idée fixe. There’s no easy way of capturing that process in an A4 visual advert--believe me, we tried--so any ‘rebrand’ would inevitably have been a compromise.” If feminism were as simple as an old-school sneaker, maybe these flashy ad campaigns could help bring it back into style. those of the Sex Pistols’ “Never Mind the Bollocks” album cover. The message goes interactive in MakeThemPay.co.uk, which estimates how much more or less you make per year than your colleagues of the opposite gender. By leaving out the word “feminist,” the poster is a reminder that whether or not the cause has a fashionable label, its message is still critical.

In a flowchart by Brave and Jinan Younis, all roads lead to the realization that you are, in fact, a feminist, even if you answer “no” to the question “Are you a feminist?” It’s a clever rhetorical move that likely leaves those reluctant to accept the F word feeling a bit cornered. Wieden+Kennedy London collaborated with satirical website Vagenda and created the #ImAWomanAnd campaign. A laundry list of sexist slurs and nicknames graces their poster, from “bimbo” to “slut” to “thinking man’s crumpet,” headed with a demand to “Sod the Stereotypes” and printed in stereotypically girly pink ink.

The organization UK Feminista was tapped for Elle’s project, but opted out because they didn’t think Feminism needed “rebranding.” Participating organizations, too, were still wary of working with a women’s magazine that tends to airbrush with abandon--would they defang and dilute their cause? Sure enough, Elle vetoed Mother and Feminist Times’

Check Out the Top 100 Beloved Brands Yahoo, Google, Sony rate high. Guess who’s No. 1 Christopher Heine

groupisd.com

14 Walt Disney, Yahoo, Google, Sony and NestlĂŠ, in that order, are the most-loved companies in the world, according to an extensive study by APCO Worldwide.

APCO surveyed 70,000 consumers in 15 major international markets about 600 of the world’s biggest brands to arrive at its top 100 rankings. Interestingly, the Washington, D.C., firm’s study measured eight emotional feelings people have toward brands: understanding, approachability, relevance, admiration, curiosity, identification, empowerment, and pride.

Six things brands should know about experience marketing Alex Brownsell

Leaders in experience marketing gathered at the “Profiting from Experiences” conference held by experiential agency Imagination. Marketing outlines the six biggest findings.

1- If a brand is a story, then experiences are high- points of dramatic action Plenty of brands have used experience as the high point of brand expression: Guinness with its Dublin Storehouse attraction, IMG with its US cafés. Joe Pine, author of “The Experience Economy”, however, was drawn to the example of Procter & Gamble-owned toilet roll brand Charmin.

Launched in 2006, the Charmin Restrooms at New York’s Times Square promised the best bathroom experience in the entire city, with staff available to offer a, erm, helping hand.

Over 400,000 consumers visited the restrooms in the first year of opening and US sales increased by 14%. As Pine said, “If you can do it for toilet paper, you can do it for anything.”

2- Experiences are more emotionally impactful than communication Orlando Wood, managing director at insight agency BrainJuicer Labs, evoked Daniel Kahneman’s theory of behavioural economics, claiming marketers must better target “system one” emotional decision-making, rather than careful “system two” thinking.

Using the parable of an elephant and its rider, Wood said brands should attempt to appeal to the “emotional, impulsive” elephant, rather than the rider, suggesting the vast majority of consumers’ a quick to trust “plausible, immediate judgements”. He added: “If you build a path for people, they tend to walk down it.”

3- Powerful experiences keep you coming back This is especially true in the luxury sector. Land Rover’s global brand experience director Mark Cameron revealed that the marque has ambitious plans to get 2m customers taking part in branded experience events by 2020.

In its attempt to target its ideal consumer – the “unruffled hero” - the brand offers a range of experiences, from one-off urban tours to lengthy Land Rover Adventure Holidays. The company has 42 global experience centres, with plans to extend this to at least 60 over the coming years. Consumers taking part are also far more likely to go through with a sale, claims Cameron.

4- Experiences are most powerful when they can be shared The energy sector has suffered its fair share of reputation issues. Danny van Otterdyk, head of production group communications, production centre of excellence, at Royal Dutch Shell, claimed that experience marketing has provided

a positive way for the brand to convey its technology and innovations.

“When I joined Shell 13 years ago, our communications were very reactive, almost apologetic in tone,” said van Otterdyk.

By ramping up activity around its Eco-Marathon events and opening the doors to its interactive Shell Energy Lab, consumers – in particular children and students – can share their experiences of the brand and prove that the company is “passionate about innovation”.

5– Experiences work at all points across the purchase journey Land Rover’s Mark Cameron remarked that experience can work better after purchase in the automotive industry: “Most people just want to drive straight off with the car after purchase. Then, three months after purchase, we can use an experience day to give them a deeper understanding of its capabilities.”

However, citing the invention of the gumball wizard, author Joe Pine remarked that experience can interrupt and enhance the traditional idea of service delivery. “It has no functional purpose, and the service if even worse, and yet it has more value.”

6– The share of budget allocated to experience marketing is growing Paul Simonet, creative strategy director at Imagination EMEA, said the agency had seen sufficient evidence to suggest this is true, claiming that brands such as Red Bull and Nike had transformed the way marketers think about experience.

Land Rover’s Mark Cameron backed him up, estimating that experience projects now accounted for roughly 20% of the brand’s overall marketing budget, and is growing year on year.

The “Bad Guys” Of Engineering: What Defines “Design-Centric” Companies Like Apple Austin Carr

WHAT DOES IT ACTUALLY MEAN TO BE A TALENTED ENGINEER IN A “DESIGN-CENTRIC” COMPANY? YOU’RE THE (NECESSARY) BAD GUY. On the back of every iPhone and iPad, on the underside of every iPod and iMac, glistens the signature of Apple’s products: “Designed by Apple in California.” Apple, it’s often said, is a design-centric company; its products are not “Engineered by Apple in California,” like they might be in, say, Redmond, where Microsoft is widely regarded as an engineering-focused company. What actually divides the two approaches though?

During our extensive reporting for Fast Company’s oral history of Apple, which is comprised of interviews with more than 50 topflight insiders, we tried to get at the core of what distinguishes a design-centric company from an engineeringcentric one. We already know Apple’s DNA is unlike that

of any other company’s, infused with a spirit of design and reverence for designers. It’s not just a fanciful, overblown reputation, despite its almost mythical status, driven by brand-synonymous characters such as Jony Ive and the late Steve Jobs. No, design has upended all aspects of Apple, from its product development processes to its executive food chain.

In fact, what we found most telling was that even Apple’s own engineers revere Apple’s design-driven approach, despite it meaning they have less agency than they would at other organizations. Nitin Ganatra, the former director of iOS application engineering who worked under ousted engineering SVP Scott Forstall, explains why:

brandknewmag.com

18 We very deliberately did this with my engineering team: You let the design team come up with the absolute best possible design, regardless of engineering constraints. Many times, designers are well aware of engineering limitations as they’re designing, and while that means the development process is going to be smoother--because the design already has builtin constraints based on engineer feedback--it can also mean that you’re not shooting for the best possible design.

So one of the many novel things that Apple did in this area was to very intentionally let the designers come up with the best possible design, and then have us figure out how to actually make it work. You might say, “Oh, of course you would work that way! You don’t want your designers to have their hands tied!” But that’s not how it works at so many other companies, and the designs are just compromised right from the start.

It can be a little frustrating: As a manager of engineers, it can be hard on the team, because you see something that’s clearly well beyond the hardware capabilities of today, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try. That’s one of the things that Apple does really well, and I think more companies need to work that way.

APPLE LET THE DESIGNERS COME UP WITH THE BEST POSSIBLE DESIGN, THEN HAD ENGINEERS FIGURE OUT HOW TO ACTUALLY MAKE IT WORK.

service to the idea. As Jobs once said of Ive, Apple’s senior vice president of design, “He has more operational power than anyone else at Apple except me.”

WE WANTED TO PUT DESIGN FORWARD AS A COMPETITIVE TOOL FOR APPLE, BUT NOBODY REALLY UNDERSTOOD WHAT DESIGN COULD DO. Don Lindsay, who worked as a design director for years at Microsoft after heading up the Mac OS user experience group at Apple, zeroes in on the actual results of such an organizational structure. “The challenge in delivering simplicity is, marketing wants to bring more functionality to bear, engineering wants to bring more options to bear--and all of that just adds to confusion and clutter. That’s when a task like printing a document becomes confounded with all these buttons and fields and tabs,” he explains. “If anything, this was one of Steve’s greatest strengths, because he was able to reinforce that principle again and again. He was in a position where he could turn to marketing and say no.

Or turn to engineering and say no. He was a champion for design, a stick we could use against everyone else who was trying to see that their needs were met.”

Andy Grignon, another former top engineer and a founding member of the iPhone team, seconds Ganatra’s assessment.

“A lot of companies start the design process by blocking things out with wireframes, like, the contact list goes here, and there’s a big wireframe with an X through it,” he says. “Apple would start with these gorgeous mock-ups in Photoshop and

At other organizations, designers often do not have that leverage or champion, especially in the technology space.

Even Apple struggled to give its design team a voice in the 1990s, not recognizing its potential. “Under [then-CEO] Gil Amelio, design didn’t mean anything. You’d design a product, and marketing would say, ‘Well, we only gave you $15 to do this and it’s gonna cost us $20, so we’re gonna badge a Dell computer or Canon printer,’” recalls Doug Satzger,

Flash--or Shockwave at the time. There’s no code behind it, and you can only do one thing, but you get the feel.”

Apple’s former industrial design creative lead. “We were a marketing-driven company that wasn’t focused on design.”

The not-so-dirty secret about Apple is that the company actually empowers designers at the highest levels. While other business giants eager to tap into the Apple’s magic are busy appointing chief design officers, an increasingly popular title that’s become a corporate cliché, Apple isn’t just paying lip

Thomas Meyerhoffer, a former senior industrial designer and Ive’s first hire, agrees. “We wanted to put design forward as a competitive tool for Apple, but nobody really understood what design could do,” he recalls. “It wasn’t until Jobs came back that what we were trying to do got any traction.”

The problem is that many companies don’t truly dedicate themselves to this design-centric approach, even with the influx of CDOs and design VPs. Many sources I spoke with felt the competition’s adoption of design values was more of a symbolic gesture--if not a superstitious reaction to Apple’s success. One source joked how it seems that if it came to light that Ive’s stealthy design team had, say, 300 designers who worked in the third office on the 30th floor in a 3,000 square-foot space, then Apple’s competitors would inevitably replicate that exact set up--as if it would produce the same results, without the soul.

Of course, that’s not to say a design-centric approach is the only approach or even the best one. An endless number of companies have found success by other means, Google perhaps being the best example now of an engineeringcentric organization that also deeply values design.

There are also myriad downsides to being so biased toward design. Most dangerous is the unbalanced dynamic it can create between engineers and designers, where the latter group is seen as being responsible for all the creativity and innovation and out-of-this-world thinking. Too often engineers are at risk of being made the scapegoat--the conservative pessimists not bold enough to execute futuristic ideas. This arguably unfair dynamic is on display in Walter Isaacson’s biography of Jobs, with Jon Rubinstein, Apple’s former SVP of hardware engineering, portrayed as not being imaginative enough to implement Ive’s designs: Rubinstein was repeatedly clashing with Jony Ive, who used to work for him and now reported directly to Jobs. Ive was always pushing the envelope with designs that dazzled but were difficult to engineer. It was Rubinstein’s job to get the hardware built in a practical way, so he often balked. He

was by nature cautious…His job was to deliver products, which meant making trade-offs. Ive viewed that approach as inimical to innovation, so he would go both above him to Jobs and also around him to the mid-level engineers. “Ruby would say, ‘You can’t do this, it will delay,’ and I would say, ‘I think we can,’ ” Ive recalled. “And I would know, because I had worked behind his back with the product teams.” In this and other cases, Jobs came down on Ive’s side.

According to Rubinstein and others, it comes with the engineering territory at Apple. As Rubinstein tells Fast Company, “Steve didn’t like being the bad guy, so that was my role,” even if it meant frequent fights with Ive. “That was my job, and I was okay with that. My job was to manage all the different requirements from all the different teams and make it work: partners in Asia, material suppliers, operations, legal, product development. And yeah, that means you’ve got to be the bad guy.”

IT’S DEFINITELY TOUGH ON THE ENGINEERING SIDE, BECAUSE YOU HAVE TO SAY ‘NO.’ Ganatra agrees. “In order for the model to work, someone has to be the bad guy,” he explains. “Someone has to root it in real engineering, and bring the bits down from design.

It’s definitely tough on the engineering side, because you have to say ‘No.’ You don’t want to say ‘No’ too early-you want try as hard as you can to implement that fantastic design they came up with. But often times you’re going to say ‘No’ or, ‘Hey, that’s a really cool effect, but instead of nine moving layers, can we cut it down to six? Because it’s going to consume this much CPU and eat up this much battery life.’

It’s hard because designers are very uncompromising, so they’ll be like, ‘Oh jeez, you’re going to crap up my design if you make it use six layers.’ It’s never going to be as good as the design. If you get close, that’s pretty good. But you’re still going to have a disappointed designer when you’re done with it.”

The approach, at least at Apple, has made creative heroes out of designers like Ive, while at times making engineers

such as Rubinstein and Forstall out to be the uninspired villains.

The question now is whether that arrangement is sustainable, whether Apple engineers can continue seeing the greater merits of this relationship. Today, there’s likely a larger pool of talented engineers than there is of talented designers. But will those engineers maintain the desire to work for Apple if the chances of gaining favor are so lopsided?

Why Every Entrepreneur Needs a Compelling Personal Brand And How to Build It Karen Leland

As customers gain more access to general company information via the Internet, they also develop a greater demand for details about a business’s founder. That’s why you need to take the time to craft your reputation in order to create a personal brand parallel to your company’s brand.

Your personal brand will help you plan for the future. Even if you own your own firm outright, in an uncertain economy, businesses can and do take major hits when economic, political and world security shifts occur. Having a strong brand as founder of the company helps ensure your options and positions you for possibilities, should you need them in the future.

Keep in mind that every time a CEO or founder with a strong positive personal brand shows up or speaks, he promotes his business. Steve Jobs, Marissa Mayer and Tony Hsieh have all become synonymous with their companies. Even if you’re not a household name, having a strong personal brand establishes you as a leader in your industry and field. By default, this increases exposure and enhances the reputation of your business.

In addition to being beneficial for your career and your customers’ comfort, a strong personal brand both online and off is good for employee morale and engagement. In one 2012 study from brandfog.com, a majority of those surveyed believe that CEOs who use social media channels can improve engagement with multiple stakeholders across their organizations. Building better connections with customers topped the list at 89.3 percent, but engagement with employees and investors also came in strong.

Once you’re on board with the benefits of creating a strong CEO brand, the next step is to begin with both online and offline strategies. Here are a few ways I get my clients started:

1. Make your bio bold, not boring.

Take a look at your current bio and make sure it is fully fleshed out with all the accomplishments and achievements from your career, not just your present position. This should include who have you written for, speeches you’ve given, media interviews, relevant certificates or awards, projects have you been involved with, how long you have been in business, recognizable clients, national or international credentials and

whatever else makes you a thought leader in your field.

I worked with one CEO whose bio was focused on his current position as president of a consulting firm, but totally ignored his past as a high-profile attorney who had been interviewed

by The New York Times, Rolling Stone and the Washington Post for his expertise. Making over his bio increased his credibility and personal brand.

2. Optimize your LinkedIn profile.

Once you’ve crafted an updated bio, the next step is to review your LinkedIn profile and bring it up to speed. Having a fully fleshed-out summary, a professional headshot, at least 20 recommendations and all past positions held is essential.

According to one Lab42 survey, the top activities on LinkedIn are industry networking, keeping in touch and co-worker networking.

I once had a client who was president of a 40-person financial firm, but had no profile picture and only a one-paragraph summary on his profile. Within a week after he optimized his LinkedIn profile, he was contacted with offers to speak at industry events.

3. Write a blog post or article.

There is no doubt content marketing is a great way to build your CEO brand. Getting known personally as an expert in your field can be a boon to your business. Make a list of relevant top industry or business publications and blogs and brainstorm article topics you might write about. If you’re not a great writer but still have something to say, you can hire someone to ghostwrite the article or post for you. Even a single, short blog post placed in the right media outlet can greatly increase your personal CEO brand.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed and wondering where you are going to get the time to do all this individual branding, don’t worry. The nice thing about wearing so many hats is that you have the ability to hire someone else to organize them for you. With the strategic use of virtual assistants, freelance writers, marketing and branding consultants and other support staff, you can create a personal brand that will build buzz for you and your business.

Things Marketers Need to Know About Agency Partnerships Satoru Wakeshima So, you go through the long, arduous task of an agency selection process. “We’re not looking for just a great agency,” you say. “We’re looking for someone that will truly partner with us.”

The agencies go through a rigorous request-for-information (RFI) and request-for-proposal (RFP) process that involves lots of important people who have little time for this kind of thing, but “this will affect the future of our organization and our brands!” Then each agency is brought in to demonstrate how it is different, answer questions with all the right answers, and put on a show. Finally, you’ve found them—the agency you’ve been searching for. Great people, incredible talent, the right experience, and, thanks to procurement, a great price! You’re excited and they’re excited, too. “We love these guys! GREAT! (pause) Now, we can’t stand them.”

Unfortunately, those quickly changing feelings are common. Why? Let’s look at how a partnership between an agency and a client compares to other partnerships in our lives.

groupisd.com

24

1. Money Matters Most people don’t have to pay someone to be their friend, mate, or partner. Money makes a relationship awkward. But here’s the truth: The creative folks aren’t in it for the money.

The money is a necessary means for people to be creative for a living. Creative people are motivated by the opportunity to do great work. We want the work to be great, not for our clients, but for us. Why is this important? Because to get the best work out of a creative agency, you have to get past any misconception that they’re out to get you. They’re not. A creative agency’s work is its calling card. The more successful the work, the better we look. The better we look, the better we feel.

2. Expertise and Experience Means Something Think about other relationships where your expectation is that the person you’re paying has specific expertise or experience—doctors, lawyers, mechanics, accountants, etc.

These people “work for you,” but you’re likely to want to work with them because they’re trying to help you. You don’t usually tell a doctor or lawyer how to do their job because they’re experts. Are the folks in your agency experts in what they do? They should be. And didn’t you just go through a very rigorous process in hiring them?

3. Your Partner Wants to Help You How is your relationship with your doctor different than your relationship with your gardener? You have a much more respectful relationship with someone who’s trying to help you solve bigger problems. There’s a lot more on the line when you’re dealing with your health or legal matters, than if your grass is cut too short. Your agency is trying to help you solve brand problems—that’s pretty important.

You don’t need to show your agency “who’s boss.” Trust me, we already know. Because without our clients, we have no business.

5. Good Partnerships Are Fair In any partnership, there’s give and take. Each partner needs to feel like they’re getting something in return for what they’re giving. Like in any business partnership, there’s a value associated with time. If something requires a lot of time or needs to be done in a really short amount of time, it generally costs more. But being fair isn’t just about money.

One of the most important factors in making either scenario work is the amount of your time you invest in setting your agency up to succeed. Your time in planning, preparing, organizing, gathering, and explaining will directly impact their performance.

Being fair also means being loyal. When you’re loyal in a relationship, it can prosper. Play the field, and the relationships become less meaningful. It’s common for clients to require their agencies to sign contracts that prohibit them from working with their direct competitors. But is that a commitment from both partners? Just like a person who dates too many people at the same time, gets a reputation, so can business partners. Just like in a good personal relationship, with commitment comes trust.

6. Trust Is Everything The best partnerships are founded on trust. Trust is earned over time and demonstrated by actions. We typically enter a partnership cautiously—that’s natural. But just as agency needs to earn a client’s trust, clients can do things to earn an agency’s trust, whether by helping them communicate their perspective to senior leadership, working with them to secure more time for the project, or just truly listening to what they’re saying. Trust is what makes each partner feel like they’re on the same side.

4. Respect One Another There are also relationships where you’re paying someone to do something that you know how to do, but don’t really want to do, like cutting your lawn. Unfortunately, you’re not likely to show these people the same respect you would your doctor. (Truth.) But these people are likely to want to do a better job for you. Whether you’re asking your agency to help you with highly strategic, creative work, or maintenance work, you want them to feel like everyone’s on the same side. Because ultimately, you’re all working towards the same objective: great work.

We agency people are like puppy dogs; we want you to love us and we want to please you more than anything. Tell us you love us, treat us with love and respect, and we’ll bend over backwards for you. Hell, we’ll even give you extra work for free! Treat us like we’re on opposing sides and… well, we’re less likely to want to please you.

7. Don’t Forget to Appreciate Your Partner I really appreciate great clients who exemplify the word “partnership,” and I let them know how much we appreciate their support. I tell them and I show them by treating their business like our business. Saying thanks, dropping a little love note, and showing your partner how much you appreciate them goes a long way. Don’t worry—you don’t need to remember birthdays or buy flowers. But like a good marriage, a good business partnership does take effort.

So in the end, the client and agency partnership is actually quite a lot like the other relationships in one’s life. There will be bumps in the road, walks in the park, celebrations, and sometimes tears along the way. But with the right partner, the work is worth it.

Community managers: the most understated role in marketing Steve Cater A salary doesn’t define the importance of role within our industry. Perhaps it should. Perhaps the supply of, so-called, “Community Managers” far outweighs the demand. Not likely. Maybe, the wheels of higher education haven’t yet appreciated the current need for skilled, social-savvy, brand ambassadors (for want of better job title!). What is clear, in my view, is that the current situation is not best placed to serve the flood of real-time brand-to-consumer conversations that is needed.

Nimble brands and agencies have evolved their approach to content planning, creative, production, insight and customer service. They’re the few among the many. They’re also reaping the rewards, easily grabbing their moment in the Sun off the back of quickly executed smart content. O2 (pictured) have become the masters of this.

Whilst we could all rattle off a number of shining examples (be they opportunistic content or best in class customer service), we should accept that there are many more examples of missed opportunities and those that simply got it wrong. The first touch point is often the community manager. Whilst, things have moved on from a few years ago – you can expect to see them sitting there with two screens, [insert mainstream monitoring dashboard here] and headphones in – are we giving the keys to the best person possible?

Good community managers are hard to come by.

So, why are we not nurturing the ones that we have? We’re not taking it seriously enough. Community Managers are the ultimate brand ambassadors. They’re the front line face of the brand. Having the tools in place is valuable. It’s surely more important to have the best possible person using those tools. Someone who knows the ins and outs of the brand history, the product(s), the brand strategy and the brand personality.

The copywriter once owned these keys. If we’re to use a channel that requires incredible scale and speed then we need to resource appropriately. We no longer have the luxury of four weeks and three rounds of amends. We have an hour. Our audience is not always happy (often far from it). Once it’s broadcast, our feedback will be from the customer for all to see.

Let’s look at how we’re currently set up.

Let’s consider the importance of the community manager.

Let’s better it.

Redefining Facebook: how brands should use Facebook Ad Apps Lexi Brown

Facebook is expanding its mobile advertising offering with a highly specific mobile app format.

It has been introduced to bolster the social network’s fastgrowing mobile business and is a key revenue focus for the future. But how effective will they actually be? And how can clients use them to drive business value?

Mobile app ads, which allow companies to promote content within their mobile apps, will encourage users to remain active within the apps beyond the install.

The ad format will show in a user’s news feed and is a development on the app install ad, but instead of directing the user to the relevant app store, (to download), the new format will deep link to content within the app itself.

Previously, we would focus on one metric – cost per install.

However, this only shows intent to download. And whilst the number of installs is vital for user acquisition in the infancy of a campaign the challenge then shifts on getting installed users to return and remain active within the app.

If a user has already downloaded the app then they are pre-qualified customers for the brand and more likely to be receptive to further advertising. From the user’s perspective the advertising is relevant to them as they have already signalled that they are interested from installing the app.

For clients, using Facebook’s mobile app ads increases the

odds of a conversion and gives them the ability to directly link media spend on the platform to ROI – therefore driving business value.

Facebook’s new mobile app ads demonstrate the shift towards our clients wanting to track and attribute in-app purchases and user engagement metrics beyond the initial installation and these ‘mobile app ads’ help direct the user to the most relevant location within the app once installed.

This is vital to remove an extra stage in the consumer journey (which is often one of the main barriers for continued engagement with mobile and tablet apps) as well as allowing clients to flag a specific promotion or new update to the user.

For example, if a retail client combines its list of existing app downloaders from its own CRM database with Facebook’s custom audiences they can retarget lapsed customers by enticing them with a flash sale or the launch of a new product or range using the call to action, ‘shop now’.

Re-targeting users is nothing new in advertising and it is surprising that it has taken Facebook this long to integrate such a feature to help optimise the funnel beyond the install.

Currently there are limited calls to actions (7 in total) such as ‘book now’ or ‘watch video’, but hopefully more will be added in the future giving our clients more flexibility to entice their users back to their mobile apps.

Luxury Brands Get Behind Travel Revival with New Products, Experiences Barry Silverstein US consumers seem temporarily frozen in place due to a Federal government shutdown, but that isn’t stopping some of the world’s best known luxury brands from planning for a rebound of the luxury travel market.

British luxury fashion brand Burberry, for example, has just launched “Travel Tailoring” via a global digital campaign.

The new menswear line includes suits with “innovative lightweight construction, lightweight shoulder construction,” and “naturally flexible fabrics,” according to the company.

A “memory fabric” (100 percent merino wool) is designed to resist creasing. Intended for the luxury traveler on the go, the line comes with an equally high-end price: suits start at $1,995, while blazers begin at $1,295. Burberry is no stranger to innovation though when it comes to combining fashion and technology, as it most recently caused a stir by partnering with Apple during its iPhone 5S launch for Fashion Week.

The London department store Harrod’s is also looking to cash in on the expanding luxury travel market. Burberry, GlobeTrotter, Mulberry and other luxury brands are featured in the retailer’s newly refurbished travel goods store, which includes over 40 premium luggage brands, some available only at Harrod’s. The travel department, occupying some 11,000 square feet of space, also boasts the most comprehensive TUMI shop in the world with an exclusive monogramming service. Merchandise in the new department is surrounded by a series of wall displays and large screens depicting the latest travel products.

Annalise Quest, Director of Harrods Home, said, “The new and improved luggage department at Harrods offers an exceptional choice of luggage brands from the technical and innovative to the hand-crafted with many ranges being exclusive to Harrods or available in luxury fabrications offering our customers a wide range of choice and a must shop destination for all their luggage and travel requirements.”

Famed fashion brand Louis Vuitton is also going back to its

roots in luxury luggage with the opening of pop-up store L’Aventure, just next door to it’s Paris showroom. Looking more like a posh travel agency than a retail store, L’Aventure has exclusive art, leather hammocks and vintage trunks set among a selection of men’s shoes, clothing and luggage.

Louis Vuitton tapped Tyler Brûlé, head of the agency Winkreative and founder of Monocle magazine, to consult on the store.

This heightened activity by luxury retailers points to the fact that high-end travel is indeed on the rise, despite a still shaky world economy. Small Luxury Hotels of the World, an exclusive group of over 520 global hotels in 70 countries, recently surveyed its clientele, who said that over the past five years, luxury travel was first on their list for consumption of luxury products, tied with technology. When asked to choose just one luxury item, a luxury holiday was the top choice.

Resort property sales are also skyrocketing. Through the end of August 2013, resort sales topped $2.4 billion, exceeding sales in all of 2011 and 2012 combined, according to commercial property brokerage firm Jones Lang LaSalle.

Meanwhile, Investor Business Daily reports that hotel construction at midyear has experienced a year-over-year increase of 23 percent, with construction over the next twelve months expected to show a year-over-year increase of 36 percent.

And fashion brands are getting a piece of that growth, too. Looking to expand their brands with unique customer experiences, luxury brands like LVMH are scooping up international reality in some of the world’s most pristine locations—and in turn can keep close watch on what their key clientele are needing and wanting when it comes to luxury goods and services. Bulgari, Versace, and Armani have also ventured into hotel design and ownership, while more traditional hospitality brands, including Starwood Hotels and Marriott, have renewed their efforts in the luxury hotel sector with over-the-top accomodations in exotic locales.

Laying the Foundations for New Media Brand Licensing Dan Amos

Successful apps and social networks can gather hundreds of millions of downloads or users; that’s a definition of success.

Successful new media properties may also want a presence in brick and mortar or online retail with tangible consumer products. Those that can make this leap understand that extension into products requires that the property possesses the same licensable equities as traditional brands, coupled, of course, with a direct and significant connection to their audience. The following are four (but there are many more!) ways that a new media property can lay the foundations for a successful licensing program:

Licensable Assets A new media brand looking to extend into consumer products should have unique, compelling characters with depth of content and worlds. Ideally, the brand should also be capable of extending to TV, YouTube or other mediums, where supporting material will be essential. Expect to need a style guide or brand bible that outlines the proper use of the graphics and characters for products and packaging. You will need to be able to communicate the brand’s DNA and share usable assets with your partners.

Communication Having millions of active users doesn’t guarantee a successful extension into consumer products, especially if you aren’t communicating to them. This is a big mistake that successful properties make. Tens or even hundreds of millions of users automatically translate into a hunger at retail. To your licensing or sponsorship partners, the most desirable equity of a social network, app or game is the engagement it has with its audience.

And with levels of user engagement being so high comes brand awareness and brand affinity.

Your users are ready for you to share the launch of your licensed products so they can experience your brand beyond the device.

Use Push Notification or promote consumer products on your website to drive awareness and purchase. Or use traditional marketing, promotions and advertising -- that still works, as well!

Brand Support The growth of smartphone usage directly impacted the invention and growth of the app marketplace; the introduction of unlimited data plans has fueled it. Smartphone users expect more from their devices and apps deliver this. The smartphone user will be equally demanding when purchasing real-world product based on new media properties, so finding ways to reward the consumer in the same way an app does is key. What added in-game benefit can a consumer receive from purchasing your licensed products -- exclusive content, an augmented reality experience, advancements in-game?

These benefits, and others like them, are something no traditional consumer or entertainment brand can offer, and if you can partner with a sole retailer who will add additional marketing support, even better. Cross-promotion can be a powerful marketing tool.

Know your brand’s demographic The simplicity of micro transactions makes purchasing any app or game accessible to everyone. When developing products for your consumer audience, be realistic. Licensed products developed around the significant popularity of a low price point game app should be accessible to everyone, but this doesn’t mean compromising on quality. Know who your target audience is, so you will know how to create and market consumer products that they will enjoy. Be prepared to be asked this question: Are you offering toys to young children, or gaming accessories to young adults? Unlike in the app store, broad demographics can be confusing to prospective partners and retailers. Your target audience for consumer products isn’t “all age groups.”

New media brands extending into consumer products is a clear trend, and as consumers continue to become comfortable with advances in technology, even more properties will make this leap. Children have access to smartphones and tablets at a much younger age and many do not see a difference between the character on their mobile screen and the character on their TV. It’s all entertainment. And retailers are beginning to understand this dynamic as well.

But it’s still a new frontier in “entertainment” marketing, so do your homework, invest in what’s necessary and be prepared.

Clicks to bricks Camilla Grey

In the our latest Game Changers report, The New Mainstream, we make the recommendation that brands ‘let people do things on their terms, in their time: total convenience to create the experience they want’. For most companies, this means taking an ‘omnichannel’ approach to selling and comms through consistent branded experiences across touchpoints. The examples we hear about most often are how brands are replicating their realworld experiences on screens - the old “bricks-to-clicks” challenge. For traditional brick-and-mortar brands, letting people do things on their terms means a great e-commerce site, 24 hour accessability, mobile and tablet apps and a well-staffed social media team. But what about the brands who were born digital? The companies who are fantastic at 1-click shopping and apps and hilarious tweets? How do they interpret and deliver ‘total convenience’ in the real-world as well as the digital world?

Warby Parker decided to go from clicks-to-bricks and nailed it. In a recent New York Magazine article founder, Neil Blumenthal, explained that “One of the things we’ve learned is that if you really want to be a dominant player, you need to have a presence in both online and brick-andmortar”. So, having built a loyal army of poorly sighted hipsters through their website, they opened a flagship store in New York’s SoHo. They took the lessons they’d learned about how people shop Warby Parker online and applied them to the retail space, “We can create really special experiences online, but there’s nothing quite like walking into a physical space, a world we’ve created. …

To some extent these stores can be considered a form of marketing and customer acquisition”. Furthermore, their stated values “inject fun and quirkiness into everything we

do” and “treat others as we would want to be treated” empowers their staff to provide amazing customer service offline, just as they do online. Warby Parker received $41.5m in investment earlier this year.

To more traditional players, the idea of taking a 2,000 square foot retail space in New York where the emphasis is on experiences not sales must seem ridiculous. But even in an unfamiliar landscape, digitally native brands are starting to disrupt the status quo and proving it works. Last year, Everlane moved temporarily into the physical space with their Not a Shop in order to build their community and bring customers literally closer to the product. As The New York Times reported, ‘Though visual and tactile, the experience is still meant to drive e-commerce. At the shop you’ll be encouraged to try [things] on… but you will actually pay less (and get free shipping!) if you go and order them online’. Having secured $1.1m in funding in 2011, Everlane is expanding rapidly.

When it comes to letting people do things on their terms, Warby Parker, Everlane and others like them are responding beautifully. They understand that total convenience isn’t just being able to buy something quickly, or viewing accounts on a phone. For today’s consumers, it’s about building relationships with brands, where the focus isn’t on selling.

Convenience is being allowed to immerse themselves fully in the brand’s world, to ask questions and learn about the product. Convenience is about taking the time to browse, think and dream. Convenience is about returning to the brand again and again for that “special experience”.

The ‘confirm payment’ button is no longer the end of the customer journey. It’s just the beginning.

Brands taking tech into their own hands Peter Veash It was only a few weeks ago that Tesco launched its Hudl tablet (pictured) and Argos has just launched MyTablet this week. It’s fair to say that everyone wants a piece of the tech pie. And the pie is not just for the tech giants. We are set to see more and more brands outside the tech sphere develop their own consumer electronics as an effective way to keep consumers close.

Amazon was one of the first brands to take tech into its own hands with the Kindle. Even Amazon has admitted that it makes little profit from the devices themselves but providing a medium to consumers that can help deliver Amazon’s online content – such as books and video – which have much higher profit margins, is clearly the strategy here. By offering consumers a device that costs as little as possible (which consumers will likely only buy once) to then purchase the company’s own online content over and over, Amazon is making a strategic move in both customer acquisition and retention.

And how about Nike? It has been laser-focused on developing consumer electronics, pushing the boundaries of what we’d expect of a sports brand that is known globally for its trainers and sports apparel. The brand is fuelling the appetite for quantified self, with Nike+ FuelBand. The electronic bracelet tracks athletic performance and with Fuel, a proprietary metric, measures movement relative to a person’s age and body type. Nike already uses the data it collects from its Nike+ system to design products and build its brand strategy. For example, when the company found that Nike+ users were

running on trails more than paved roads, Nike expanded its trail-running merchandise offerings.

Nissan Europe also recently unveiled its own new smart watch for Nissan Nismo drivers. Unlike most other smartwatches that just sync to a person’s mobile phone, the planned Nismo Watch will also connect to a sports car to provide data on its performance in real-time. Through the Nismo Watch, users will be able to check their average speed and fuel efficiency.

It will also keep a log of all this data to compare with current info or share with friends online. If the app detects that the car is due for some maintenance, the watch will display a warning message.

Tesco have been very vocal in implementing digital strategies to stay ahead of the curve in the retail. Tesco’s foray into this new market of technology is a significant step in its datadriven business and will enable the supermarket giant to significantly add to its giant data pool with the behaviour and insights of more than 16m regular loyalty card holders already on its files. Argos is in the throes of implementing its 5 year digital strategy, in which it is expecting internet sales to make up three quarters of its sales by 2016, many of which will be through own-brand products such as MyTablet in order to beat off online competition.

These brands are not waiting around to see how they can fit into the ever-changing digital marketplace, they are embedding digital change at the heart of their business to respond to consumers’ needs. Brands need to pay heed, otherwise they will be left behind in the digital age.

Groceries Are Cleaning Up in Store-Brand Aisles Stephanie Strom Grocery store brands once carried a stigma. With no-frills white packaging that telegraphed bargain basement and low quality, they were a last resort for consumers on tight budgets.

Today, they are the stars of grocery store shelves and refrigerated cases.

From Safeway’s Open Nature to Target’s Archer Farms, grocery brands are challenging traditional brands from food companies, and preserving or improving their own slim profit margins.

“There is really widespread acceptance of store brands among consumers,” said Janet Eden Harris, senior vice president of Market Force Information, which recently surveyed consumers and found that 96 percent said they bought private-label brands at least some of the time. “Sometimes I think they don’t actually know what is a store brand.”

Sales of store-brand foods and other grocery merchandise took off during the recession, when shoppers practiced a forced frugality. But to the surprise of consumer and food analysts, sales of store brands have remained strong even as the economy recovers.

Over the last three years, sales of store brands grew 18.2 percent, accounting for $111 billion in sales, according to Nielsen. That is more than twice the rate of growth for national brands — 7.9 percent to $529 billion — over the same period.

“We expect private brands will continue to grab share year over year because of investments they’ve made in enhancing quality, innovation and hiring more people with brand experience to help them with marketing and promotion,”

said Todd Hale, vice president for consumer and shopper insights at Nielsen.

Mr. Hale said consolidation among grocery store chains and acquisitions of stores in the United States by European retailers, which stock their shelves heavily with their own brands, were contributing to the trend. For example, Trader Joe’s, which is owned by the German retail group Aldi, sells its own brand almost exclusively.

Additionally, grocery retailers have spent heavily to develop their own brands over the last several years, building test kitchens, hiring culinary experts, improving packaging and testing and retesting their products with consumers. And lower-income shoppers, who have not bounced back from the recession as quickly as those in higher brackets, have stayed cautious about their food budgets.

Patricia DeMarco, a shopper at a Stop and Shop in Lyndhurst, N.J., completed a survey comparing pretzel flats that the chain is testing to a low-fat cheese cracker it already sells.

“The pretzel thing, it was O.K.,” she said. “I didn’t like the other thing.”

Stop and Shop conducts consumer testing of what it calls “own brand” products every Friday in different stores. Sometimes its products are compared to one another and other times to national brands. Consumers taking the surveys, however, are not told what products they are testing.

Almost 40 percent of the products sold in Stop and Shop, which is owned by Ahold, are private label. Most are simply identified by the store’s logo, which insiders refer to as “the wedge.” It also has a large natural and organic line called Nature’s Promise and an upscale snack line, Simply Enjoy.

brandknewmag.com

38

Juan De Paoli, who oversees private-label brands for Ahold USA, said of the Simply Enjoy line: “I don’t want to say that’s my favorite, but it’s a very exciting one for us. These are gourmet products of exceptional tastes, discovered and crafted by foodies.”

Mr. De Paoli said the company’s goal was to market its brands in the same way national food companies market theirs. “We’re doing public relations events to promote them, reaching out to food critics and commentators, advertising them on TV and billboards and store signage to make sure customers really know what they stand for,” he said.

Marilee Cortez and Krystle Maldonado stopped to take the survey in Lyndhurst. As roommates, they try to shop together, and they said about half of all their purchases were Stop and Shop private-label products.

“I think they taste just as good as national brands, and in that case, why not save the money?” Ms. Maldonado said.

A Stop and Shop Crispy Thin Crust BBQ Chicken gourmet pizza in the store was priced at $4.99 or two for $7. It was stacked in a refrigerated case right next to a California Pizza Kitchen brand BBQ Chicken pizza that was selling for $6.29.

The only difference in ingredients between the two pizzas was cilantro — the Stop and Shop version used parsley.

Similarly, an eight-ounce packet of Stop and Shop brand shredded mozzarella was selling for $2.99, while the same packet from Kraft was priced at $3.49.

Ms. Cortez said their purchases of private-label products had been increasing. “The taste is getting better and better,” she said. “I can tell they’re working on it.”

Last month, Consumer Reports published taste tests comparing store brands to national brands. The organization found that 33 of the 57 private-label products sampled were as good as or better than the national brand version.

Consumer Reports said such brands accounted on average for about one-quarter of the products in a supermarket and could save customers as much as 30 percent. (While branded

food manufacturers suggest a retail price, grocery stores set the actual prices they charge.)

Mr. Hale of Nielsen said the greatest opportunity for stores to expand their offerings was in foods and other products aimed at Hispanics and other demographic groups, who tend to buy more private-label brands.

Just this month, for instance, Safeway began selling a line of products named for Marcela Valladolid, the Mexican celebrity chef and the host of the Food Network Show “Mexican Made Easy,” who is teaming with the grocer.

As varied as ready-to-cook meals like carne asada and snacks like chile lime flaquitos, the new store brand is aimed at the growing market of Latino consumers.

In an e-mail, Ms. Valladolid said she had turned down several offers to endorse food products over the years because she thought they did not accurately capture the true tastes of Mexican food.

“I worked closely with the talented chefs at the Safeway culinary kitchens from start to finish to create this product line,” she wrote. “We even took a trip down to Mexico so I could share with them the flavors I grew up with.”

Similarly, new pizzas with hand-stretched dough in the Safeway Select line of premium products were formulated after a team went to a food trade show in Italy. Safeway has more than 20 different brands of its own, including O Organics, the Snack Artist and its largest brand, Lucerne, which accounts for a majority of the chain’s dairy sales.

“It is a multitiered portfolio in terms of price points, appealing to a variety of lifestyles and packaging and promotion,” said Michael Minasi, president of marketing at Safeway.

While that may sound like a grocery retailer on its way to becoming a food company, Mr. Minasi said the goal was to develop products that filled a consumer need that branded manufacturers were missing. “We don’t see ourselves competing with national brands,” he said. “Customers want to see both.”

Mobile Sites of Most Top Brands Are Slow to Load, Not Optimized Ayaz Nanji

Pages on the mobile websites of Fortune 100 companies take five seconds on average to load, much longer than Google’s recommendation of one second or less, according to a recent report by The Search Agency.

The agency examined the mobile sites of the Fortune 100 and gave each a score based on five factors: load speed, site format, calculated download speed, social media presence, and app presence.

Site speed in particular was emphasized because of Google’s

recent mobile best-practices guidelines.

Out of a possible five points—one being the lowest and five being the highest—the average score for the companies in the study was just 2.31.

However, the average score varied significantly by industry, with the mobile sites of telecom (3.26), logistics (2.97), and retail (2.89) companies ranking the highest, and those of wholesalers (1.16), aerospace (1.17), and oil/gas (1.87) scoring the lowest.

groupisd.com

40

Below, additional key findings from the report.

Top-Performing Mobile Sites • Coca-Cola and FedEx had the top performing mobile sites of the Fortune 100, tying for first place in the report’s ranking with scores of 4.49 out of five.

• TIAA-CREF and Walgreens tied for third place with scores of 4.24.

• Liberty Mutual ranked fifth with a score of 4.19.

Worst-Performing Mobile Sites • Sysco and Hess had the lowest scoring mobile sites of the Fortune 100 (0.36 out of five), Philip Morris International had the next lowest score (0.39), followed by Fannie Mae (0.48).

Responsive Web Design • Although Google has established Responsive Web Design (RWD) as the best-practice for serving the same HTML across devices, the 20 sites that ranked the highest in the report use dedicated mobile sites rather than RWD. • Of the 100 sites examined, only nine use RWD. • Of the remaining 91 companies, 47 use dedicated mobile sites, while the other 44 do not provide a separate mobile experience from the desktop version of their site.

About the research: The report was based on an analysis of the mobile sites of Fortune 100 companies. Each site was assigned a score based on load speed, site format, calculated download speed, social media presence, and app presence.

Book, Line & Sinker The Power of Habit

Thinking in New Boxes: A New Paradigm for Business Creativity

In “The Power of Habit, “award-winning “New York Times” business reporter Charles Duhigg takes us to the thrilling edge of scientific discoveries that explain why habits exist and how they can be changed. With penetrating intelligence and an ability to distill vast amounts of information into engrossing narratives, Duhigg brings to life a whole new understanding of human nature and its potential for transformation.

By Luc De Brabandere, Alan Iny

By Charles Duhigg

By Larry Freed

THINKING IN NEW BOXES is a revolutionary process for sustainable creativity from two strategic innovation experts from The Boston Consulting Group (BCG). To make sense of the world, we all rely on assumptions, on models on what Luc de Brabandere and Alan Iny call “boxes.” If we are unaware of our boxes, they can blind us to risks and opportunities. This innovative book challenges everything you thought you knew about business creativity by breaking creativity down into five steps

Innovating Analytics

The Leadership Contract

“Innovating Analytics” introduces an index that measures a customer’s likelihood to recommend and the likelihood to detract. The current concept of the Net Promoter Score (NPS) that has been adopted by many companies during the last decade--is no longer accurate, precise or actionable. This new metric called the Word of Mouth Index (WoMI) has been tested on hundreds of companies and with over 1.5 million consumers over the last two years.

Author Larry Freed details the improvement that WoMI provides within what he calls the Measurement Ecosystem. He then goes on to look at three other drivers of customer satisfaction along with word of mouth: customer acquisition, customer loyalty, and customer conversion.

The book lays out the four terms and conditions of the leadership contract and enlists leaders in making a conscious decision to lead, including the understanding that leadership is a decision, entails an obligation, is difficult, and requires a community.Designed for top-level executives, midlevel managers, front-line leaders, and emerging leaders, the book identifies the shortcomings of current leadership methods and explains how to adopt new policies and mentalities to make you a better leader and ensure business success.

Author Vince Molinaro, Ph.D., CMC is the author of two successful books, Leadership Solutions and The Leadership Gap and is also a Certified Management Consultant.

By Vince Molinaro

Energy Bus: 10 Rules to Fuel Your Life, Work, and Team with Positive Energy “The Energy Bus,” an international best seller by Jon Gordon, takes readers on an enlightening and inspiring ride that reveals 10 secrets for approaching life and work with the kind of positive, forward thinking that leads to true accomplishment - at work and at home. Jon infuses this engaging story with keen insights as he provides a powerful roadmap to overcome adversity and bring out the best in yourself and your team. When you get on “The Energy Bus” you’ll enjoy the ride of your life!

By John Gordon

By Matt Haig

The Little Book of Big Data, 2012 Edition

By Noreen Burlingame

The term Big Data gets thrown around a lot, but what it actually means is less well understood.

Big Data is the future, so it is essential for brand marketers to get up to speed right away. Yet, there are few primers offering a solid foundational understanding of Big Data much less a comprehensive look at its many incarnations, including those directly affecting brand marketers.

This book, written specifically for senior business executives with little or no background in IT, fills this gap. Covering a wide variety of industries, data environments and business applications, this book is the best resource for getting in the know quickly, intelligently and proficiently.

BRAND ROYALTY

Brand Loyalty

Some say that brand success equals business success, and since there is no single magic formula for creating a winning brand, studying the best brands can provide many winning strategies for those looking for a better way to brand. Branding expert Matt Haig, the author of the acclaimed Brand Failures, has studied the longevity, technological advancements, new product developments, workplaces, mass communications, achievements and financial success of hundreds of brands to determine the best of the bunch. The result of his research is Brand Royalty, a book that provides a list of 100 brand success stories, helpful commentary about them from brand managers and experts from a variety of fields, and the secrets behind their worldwide recognition as great brands.

A 1984 for the 21st century, the novel explores a possible world which has been taken over by the corporate totalitarianism of the ULTIMATE company. Personal identity and meaning have become trading commodities and the central characters struggle to maintain their individuality in the face of a world which has registered, trademarked and copyrighted their very existence.

By Cally Phillips

brandknewmag.com

42

Future Perfect: The Case for Progress in a Networked Age

Tubes: A Journey to the Center of the Internet

Johnson has built his career as an unabashed champion of contemporary digital culture, debunking critics and promoting the nurture of ideas and innovation. He goes the next step in this book with an examination of the ways in which digital sophistication and imaginative reinvention are transforming everything. Decentralized peer networks that channel and harness the flow of data are remaking government, education, railways, community infrastructure and more.

The term Big Data gets thrown around a lot, but what it actually means is less well understood.

Big Data is the future, so it is essential for brand marketers to get up to speed right away.

Yet, there are few primers offering a solid foundational understanding of Big Data much less a comprehensive look at its many incarnations, including those directly affecting brand marketers.

This book, written specifically for senior business executives with little or no background in IT, fills this gap. Covering a wide variety of industries, data environments and business applications, this book is the best resource for getting in the know quickly, intelligently and proficiently.

By Steven Johnson

By Andrew Blum

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Guerrilla Marketing

Branding for Nonprofits: Developing identity with integrity

By DK Holland

Targeted at nonprofits, this book is for any organization that believes it’s above corporate shilling. Holland leads us softly with facts and logic until we arrive at the realization that everything really does have a brand (politicians, religions, museums). The good news is that a clear and consistent brand identity can aid an organization in growing brand awareness; the question is how to arrive at that clear identity.

Practical and process-oriented, the author walks us through the design brief (tailored to nonprofit concerns), exploring design options, launch, and implementation. Non-threatening, easy to read.

With a sluggish economy, businesses are looking for new and cheaper ways to promote themselves and market their products. Given that scenario, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Guerrilla Marketing could not have arrived at a better time.

Authors Susan Drake and Colleen Wells deftly explore the basics from defining and appealing to target audiences to exploiting the many assets of viral marketing and the Internet—all while avoiding the pitfalls of misdirected resources and bad buzz.

By Susan Drake and Colleen Wells

Branding Your Business

By James Hammond

As the title indicates, this book is for business owners who wish to develop their brand. Branding Your Business provides a comprehensive analysis of branding from its very basics to the industry’s more complex, psychoanalytical nuances. By building on the fundamentals, author James Hammond creates a coherent argument regarding the components and benefits of branding for independently owned businesses that don’t necessarily have the financial resources to hire outside experts. From simple advice on telephone etiquette to branding strategies that cater to the five human senses, this book demonstrates—with the help of questionnaires, quotes, images, and real-life case studies—how and why branding can work for everyone who is honest with themselves, their employees, and their customers.

Why Johnny Can’t Brand Not groundbreaking, but if you’re still trying to get your head around “what is a brand and why should I care,” this book is as readable as any we’ve seen this year. After drawing the reader in with what branding is not, the authors focus on defining, identifying and instructing the reader in devising a dominant selling idea (DSI—what used to be called USP). Short illustrative examples from current popular brands quickly make the point and move on to more enlightenment. The book has teeth; the authors are not afraid to stake out a position (focus groups blow, the AFLAC duck is a quack), but they have a tendency to get overexcited with their own outrage.

By Bill Schley & Carl Nichols, Jr.

Branding Unbound

A Fine Line: How Design Strategies Are Shaping the Future of Business

Leave no channel untapped for reaching consumers. Mobile marketing, ring tones, electronic signs, Wi-Fi on the grocery cart, RFID and countless other innovations allow brand owners to better research (data mining), better reach (targeting, advertising, distribution) and better delight their markets. The possibilities are endless but the old rules still apply: all of the technology is useless if the brand itself is not worth communicating.

By Rick Mathieson

By Hartmut Esslinger

A Fine Line, by Hartmut Esslinger, explores the unholy alliance of creative design and practical business. And it’s surprisingly soulful. The book draws on Esslinger’s wisdom as an accomplished professional—he’s the founder of frog design— and a thoughtful person. Its meticulous and relevant insights—citing real world examples and companies—on everything from innovation and industrial-cultural colonialism to originality and manufacturing plants, offer branding enthusiasts a unique understanding of how design influences the entire production process and beyond.