Lecture : Brand Positioning + Brand Architecture

Lecture : Brand Positioning + Brand Architecture (in English) by Richard Stein

Date : 28 June 2007  (6.30-8.30 pm.)

At TCDC, The Emporium. 300 baht

Booking information below

17-20 May, 2007	For TCDC members only
and from 22 May, 2007 onwards	For TCDC members and the public

Call 02-664-8448

Diary of a Creative Director

Visit Black bag – Diary of a creative director here. You will find entire interview transcripts of David Droga, founder of Droga5 and Lee Garfinkel, Chairman/CCO of DDB New York. And watch out the upcoming from Tony Granger, CCO of Saatchi&Saatchi New York, Marcello Serpa, CEO/CD of Almap BBDO, and Erik Vervroegen, President/ECD of TBWA/PARIS at Cannes this year. Enjoy reading an exploration of the road to greatness.

Seminar: Consumer Co-Creation Advertising

We’re heading to Adman’s Seminar on “Consumer Co-Creation Advertising” on Friday June 8

It’s being held at the Sasin Hall (9th Floor) @ Sasin Chula from 1pm-5pm.

If you guys are brandage subcribers it’s free– call to reserve at: 02.219.2358
If you’re not a member i think it’s like approx B300 –call to check

Advertising is dead, Long live advertising.

Advertising is dead, Long live advertising book by Tom Himpe at Naked Communications.  I got Q&A session to share with you guys about his book and advertising. If you are the one who’s looking for great advertising cases, don’t miss this book. The collection of many great ad campaigns with practical theories lays in this book.
1. Why did you name this book, Advertising is dead, Long live advertising?

Because I think there is a lot of doomthinking about the industry. People have often talked about the death of traditional advertising. But there are many kinds of new opportunities, and agencies and brands which are able to embrace these new forms of advertising will realise communication has never been more interesting and promising.

2. What was your inspiration for writing this book?

There were lots of theory books on the changing face of advertising, but these books showed little about the actual campaigns that were happening in the marketplace. Most books who show us advertising campaigns are all about traditional ways of advertising (such as print, outdoor, television). With all the crazy stuff going on in the marketplace, I found that it was time to compile a book with all unconventional, off-beat campaigns from the last years. So I did just that.

3. There are many non-traditional creative campaigns in your book. What is
your most favorite case? Why?

Some of my favorites are:
- Xerox (on page 203). They enabled consumers to print artwork of a famous artist at the National Portrait Gallery in London on Xerox printers.
- Hewlett-Packard, HYPE Gallery (on page 187). HP gave creative people an empty gallery to print and project their artwork. All artwork was also put online and was sold to the public afterwards.
- The Meow Mix cat restaurant (on page 179). Meow Mix set up a temporary restaurant for cat owners and their pets, to have a dinner together.

I love these three campaigns because they all offer something valuable and relevant to consumers. They don’t just bore them with messages, they actually offer relevant experiences with an added value for the consumer. And that’s what brands should be doing today.

4. At the end of the book, you have “practical advices” section.  What are
the barriers for making today’s ideas practical?

2 things:
- Guts and courage. Many marketing and advertising are risk-averse and prefer playing it safe.
- Knowledge. There is a lot of misunderstanding and lack of knowledge about unconentional advertising practices.

5. Being a strategic planner and writing a book, how are the two encouraged
each other?

Writing the book has helped me to take a step back and take a broader view on what I do and what is happening in the market. I hope to be able to do it again shortly, with another subject.

6. How do you find or create inspiration for today’s planning job?

The internet is a main inspiration for me. The most interesting stuff today takes place online. I find the most innovative things online. And the most crazy stuff. It is an endless source of inspiration.

7. Last question, Is TV dead? if yes, will you revive it? if no, will it?

Television is not dead. But the format of traditional TV advertising, the 30-second spot, is. That is a big difference. There are plenty of new ways to use television as an advertising channel, such as sponsoring, branded content, product placement, and so on. I think the traditional 30 second spot is in decline, and although it still exists and will continue to exist for some time, it has lost much of its power.

If you have any comments or feedbacks, you can send him an email at  tomh(at)nakedcomms.com

Meet #7 :: Post: Seminar + Coffee #6

sorry, not so single-minded.

—

just a real quick note on our next meeting:

When: Wed Thur 15 (Anytime you can come after work)
Where: Sensual Suan Plu Restaurant, Narathiwas Soi 15, Tel: 02.676.1653

—

i’ve been meaning to raise the topic about the recent “future of branding” seminar that was held at chula university last week.

so a quick breakdown, there were three main speakers, all talking on the topic of branding in thailand from three perspectives: the marketer, the advertising agency and the branding agency.

most of the bangkok coffee attendees also attended the seminar, which was really great, because we were able to touch on the subject lightly at last week’s coffee meeting. i think we all agreed that we enjoyed khun thana’s (marketing perspective) presentation the most–inspiring and gave me a mental note to start inviting clients to these type of seminars!

like oakie said below in regards of bangkok coffee, we’re slowly growing little by little. with the most recent meeting, our newest attendees are: jai – interactive planner from dentsu, and ant – planning manager from hakuhodo.

excellent.

The John Grant Manifesto

I am reading the brand innovation manifesto book at the moment. The book is great and charming. Blissfully thanks to John Grant of Brand Tarot blog for doing a small Q&A session for me. Let’s get to the point.

1.What are the inspirations behind writing “The brand innovation
manifesto”?

It wasnt based upon any one insight or revelation. It’s a continuation
of the ‘New marketing’ project. But I felt that since my previous two
books the selection of supporting case studies had got richer, the
principles a little clearer. Mostly I wanted to write a useful book,
something fellow practitioners could dip into and use as they work. For
selfish reasons it is useful to me to have something current to share
with clients, conference audiences, readers of articles – to keep my
own brand up to date.

2.What have you learned after writing this brilliant book?

Thank you for saying it is brilliant. I prefer to think it is ‘not bad’
and save my perfectionism for the next venture

In the last year since the book I have learned a lot. Principally from
all the ‘2.0′ developments. Plus the green and sustainability (and
possibly spiritual dimensions) of branding are a current fascination,
and not just for me. I already have in mind a next book – centred on
the brand enthusiasm theory which I have been developing on my blog -
but I need to find a spare slot to write it and there is no time
pressure, so maybe I will wait a while and let the thoughts develop.

3.Would you elaborate this quote, Only liars need to be consistent, in
your book?

That quote was originally in a ‘not a brand book’ I developed for IKEA
ten years ago. They had a task force looking at the possibility of
developing a global brand bible. I argued quite strongly against this;
they are one of the few brands with a free inventiveness, falling back
upon some core company values rather than struggling to maintain a
facade of consistent brand expressions. Also they are a retailer; their
job is to cut costs, not build false brand price premiums. The line was
originally placed next to a photo of Richard Nixon. The point is
obvious; if you are true to yourself, you dont need false executional
constraints, acting like a mask. It’s about being authentic, also
relating to a point I made in my first book that a strong brand is an
author; their works can be diverse, but people still join up the dots.
I greatly admire Nike in that respect.

4.What would you say to a marketer who still adheres to the brand image
approach?

Good luck!

Seriously though it is all about doing what is right for your business,
market, brand. Perfumes are bought on image, as is fashion, probably
most drinks too. But even in image markets another position
differentiates you; for instance Benetton’s (former) emphasis on
politics. My view is really a corrective to the idea that everything
needs to be advertised like a perfume; a view which dominated
advertising and marketing since the 50s. The other question is
authenticity; people have higher standards and are more sceptical. In
many FMCG markets bad products hid behind glossy image advertising.
Today many of these are getting found out. It’s not just that they need
to change their ad strategy though. They need an idea to differentiate
themselves. One of the central themes of the book is that brand and
innovation today are very nearly the same thing. I developed the idea
of a molecule to show how successive innovations, both in product and
marketing build to create a compelling overall story.

5.What is your favourite brand of 2006? and why?

My personal favourite was (RED). Such a simple idea. But so smart. It
is predicated on the idea of making other brands look good. Plus I am
glad to have another example of consumer marketing which is doing a bit
of good and not too much harm. The individual (RED) campaigns are great
too. I think my favourite was UK newspaper The Independent who did a
whole (RED) issue. If anyone isnt familiar check this:
http://www.joinred.com/

6.What is your favourite future of branding?

My current expression of where things seem to be heading is marketing
enthusiasm. A company engages its customers by finding a broader
enthusiasm to share with them. Pampers and immunising babies in the
developing world. Nike and its city runs (Run London). The inNYC amex
card that connects with a network of venues in New York, enhancing your
chances of booking somewhere nice and having a decent social life. Lego
Factory and its Ambassador programme. Innocent’s Fruitstock festival.
Many current internet successes are built upon shared enthusiasms:
ebay, YouTube, blogging, Wikipedia, and Amazon, which functions as a
massive book club.

The marketing enthusiasm initiatives are often strongly branded in the
sense of having catchy names and an identity. But they are third space
brands; satellites of the original trademark. They are not based upon
communicating a brand promise, they are about doing something together,
building a relationship. With increasing possibilities to have a rich
dialogue with customers (via the internet and other means) I imagine
that relationship will increasingly be the central term in planning
rather than ‘target audience’. Brands yesterday were like the Woody
Allen quote: “enough about me, what did you think of my movie?” – their
urge to brand and control every facet and frankly a tendency to brand
narcissism left little room for involvement.

7.You got 3 sentences, what would you say to our readers about “The
brand innovation manifesto” book?

It has some interesting current brand theory. It contains over 200
reasonably current international case studies. It is designed to help
you develop good ideas.
I think you can find this book at Asiabooks store, Bangkok or order it via Amazon.

Oakie

Slang : Benetton Mom

Benetton mom (n.) : A rich woman who adopts babies from Africa or other exotic locales, apparently for their use as fashion accessories.

Usage : Madonna and Angelina Jolie are engaged in a very public battle of the Benetton moms.

I am not sure whether this slang has a relationship with United Colors of Benetton or not.

FREE Future of Branding Seminar

WHEN: Friday Feb 2, 13.00 – 17.00

WHERE: Room 307, Pinit Prachanart Building, Chulalongkorn University,

Seminar Speakers:

1. K. Vitavas, CEO of G1 Creative Juice and President of Ad Asso
Topic-Future of Brands in Advertising Perspective

2. K. Sirikul, CEO of Brand Being (Brand Consultancy)
Topic-Future of Brands in Brand Builder Perspective

3. K. Thana, Vice President of Client Servicing of DTAC
Topic-Future of Brands in Marketing Perspective

More info (in Thai): http://www.futureofbranding-seminar.com/

thanks jay for the heads-up!