Personal branding by Albert

A mega ego-booster: having Albert Einstein write your message on a blackboard. Try it here.

Go, Grant, Go!

Wowík! Než jsem stihl dopsat poslední přípěvek, na McCrackenově blogu přibyl další zářez! Tentokrát si vzal na paškál Kevina Robertse, CEO Saatchi&Saatchi a jeho knihu Lovemarks (psal jsem o knize v úplně prvním příspěvku v únoru 2004). Ať mě Kevin nadchl sebevíc, McCracken se do Lovemarks přesně trefuje. Uvažte: "The good news: this book is art directed. The bad news: so's the prose." A nebo: "The reader ends up in a state of conceptual excitation that I have not experienced since I spent an afternoon at the Science Center in Toronto. After a couple of hours of pushing buzzers, spinning wheels, and otherwise "making science," its all I could do to keep from "operating" every shiny object in the parking lot. The spirit of the exhibit space had colonized consciousness." Drobné radosti kritické mysli!

Máte už názor na Modré oceány?

Grant McCracken (už to jméno je kapitál!) na svém blogu trefně glosuje knihu W. Chan Kima a Reneé Mauborgna Blue Ocean Strategy (český překlad zde). V českém marketingovém prostředí se teď o knize poměrně hodně mluví - a málo diskutuje. Já jsem začal Kima a Mabourgna sledovat v Harvard Business Review, kde v lednu 2004 uveřejnili článek Creating New Market Space. Jejich metoda "strategického plátna" (strategic canvass) je z praktického hlediska velmi použitelná a jednoduchá. McCracken mimo jiné kritizuje akademický prach, který na knize ulpívá. Mohu souhlasit. Přečtěte si "Modré oceány"! Zvýší to váš odborný "kudos"! Když si na knihu navíc vytvoříte názor (třeba s pomocí McCrackena), budete mezi českými marketéry ojedinělým zjevem.

Jennifer Rice strikes again!

JR delivers another portion of insights into consumer behavior and branding based on the Maslow's need hierarchy framework (see the link in the title). Not that it isn't appealing - it just reads as a piece of utopian treatise, especially from the local perspective.

Czech Republic: Whatever

The need for a consistent and appealing brand identity for countries is well documented. Not always can the official state symbols do the job of communicating the Zeitgeist of the country and serving the art, sports, and business communities as relevant endorsement. (See, for example, the case study of Estonia by Interbrand.)

Czech Republic's project of its brand identity has been plagued by bad project management, lack of leadership and bad design for years. The current attempt is no better, either.

In fact, it only got worse. Aesthetically the Side2 studio has created a very appealing format. Strategically, it is completely flawed. The format promises a great deal of flexibility in application but lacks substance. Correct me if I'm wrong but I still believe that a logo (or visual identity, if you want) is an attempt to capture the core message of a corporation, a country, a NGO... Logo is the first piece of advertising, a simple visual clue, a meme you want your brand to be associated with. Now, in light of what has been said, let's try to analyze the message of the new logo of the Czech Republic.

The logo speaks of empty form. Callout shape - as we know it originally from comics - is a placeholder for an utterance. It doesn't speak of anything by itself - it is a container to be filled with any kind of text. The callout shapes in the logo express variety - of form. As a result, do we want to position CZ as a variety of empty forms to be stuffed by pretty much anything? Well, from a perspective of a foreigner - albeit living in the Czech Republic for quite a while - I DO think the logo speaks of the Czech reality; but perhaps unintentionally, as a strategic side effect of the design. Here, the unwillingness to express positive values, to position yourself in one way or another, becomes the Czech brand message. Being Czech is an ultimate post-modern stance. The logo could be complemented by a brand tag-line: Czech Republic. Whatever.

Limits and opportunities in brand innovation and brand extension exercises

Illustration photo, www.trendwatching.com

Recently I had the chance to work on several new product/brand extension launches which taught me quite a few lessons which I'd like to share with you over the next few days.

Lesson 1: Never extend the brand if its identity isn't well defined

Successful brand extension doesn't come in family packs. There's nothing wrong with intuitive marketing but if you plan to spend some time and money on the brand extension exercise you'd better minimize the uncertainty of the outcome (to a feasible level). The key question to ask here is how does your brand generate value - and I mean not only value for the customer but also for you as a company. You can capture the whole picture of your brands consumer value through strategy canvas - a useful and simple tool suggested and developed by W. Chan Kim and Rene Mauborgne. You should also be able to boil it down to no more than a few words (ideally ONE). This will give you focus and direction in brand extension/innovation process which very often drags on for months, so it is quite easy to loose the sense of purpose. Also, brand archetyping can come handy. In principle you should try at least two or three alternative planning approaches to make sure your brand's DNA is clearly and simply set out.

As far as the value for the company is concerned, you should be able to assess your company assets and verify that a) these assets can and will support the new extension, b) the new brand extension integrates well with your successful business model (distribution-wise, price-wise, etc.)

Next time, Lesson 2: How to develop product concepts.

Oh, I almost forgot!

I know that Y&R has been working with the archetypes framework for some time - this white paper on Brand Asset Valuator, Y&R proprietary research and planning tool, also mentions archetypes and how the agency uses them for developing brands.

Also, NFO Aisa in Prague has to be given credit for seriously venturing into archetypal research. As far as I know they have been offering archetypal research (both quali and quanti) to their clients for some time now.

What's the story of your brand?

There are some 2,290,000 hits on Google for "archetype". It narrows down to some 194,000 when you add "marketing" to that search keyword. Most of the links are as much irrelevant as the archetypal approach has been en vogue recently in marketing and brand management. Just like with any other buzz word, if you are encouraged to take the "archetypal approach" by your brand consultant, there is a 50/50 chance that he or she is selling just another "paradigm shift". Still, through archetypes you can achieve clarity and an inspiring strategic direction for your brand and your business positioning. Some of my clients and colleagues have been asking me about the benefits of this approach as well as about basic knowledge resources on archetypes and their use in branding. This post tries to offer the basic idea:

By far the best (most accessible + most reader-friendly + most actionable) background reading on archetypes is Margaret Mark's and Carol Pearson's book The Hero and the Outlaw. It explains the basics - what an archetype is, where does it come from, what kinds of archetypes there are, and - most importantly - how to use the paradigm in steering your brand. (Don't forget to see Pearson's web page.) Meanwhile, there is a host of reliable and not-so-reliable resources on the web as well.

For basic definition of the term you can try this or this. What also works is to run a basic "what is an archetype" search on ask.com.

While you should find it pretty easy to get oriented in the terminology, there is still a long way from C.G. Jung's psychological theory and its application on one side to a viable business application based on archetypes on the other. Here Mark's & Pearson's book come in really handy.

When we use archetypes with my clients it is often to add depth and clarity to the brand identity they are aspiring to. Projecting your brand's future isn't a simple task - and also a very important one. Most of marketing managers are pretty good at sales and profitability modeling and other hard skills. Still, their responsibility is not only to create profit margins and incremental profit growth, but also (and I would say more importantly) meaning for their customers (which, in turn, generates profit and growth b.t.w.). Have a look at one of my previous posts about it - if you read some Czech, that is. Archetypes are a wonderful way to do it: they help you tell your brand's story consistently and vividly.

Normally, we work with the 12 archetypes derived from Jung and from Mark/Pearson which are organized along two axes - belonging versus individuation and mastery versus stability. On each end of those two dimensions sit 3 archetypes: so for example "belonging" archetypes would include LOVER, JESTER and REGULAR GUY/GIRL. The point is to try to understand what kind of archetypal story your brand is trying to tell, and how good it is in doing so. Also, we usually have a look at the category archetype (e. g. JESTER for the beer category) and decide whether there is opportunity in playing by the rules of the category or whether we should rather disrupt the status quo.

When you have arrived upon the archetypal profile of your brand, it'll make a lot of strategic as well as tactical decisions easier: decisions on new product development, on priorities in your consumer segments, on communication initiatives, on creating relevant brand experiences etc.

For the left-brainers I found an interesting reading of the term archetype. If you think Jung et al. is no more than just some new-age babble, you'll find comfort in this methodologically sound research paper.

Maslow se hodí

Jennifer Rice za nás navštívila marketingový skanzen a přináší docela svěží pohled na Maslowovu hierarchii hodnot a možnosti jejího uplatnění. Je to jen blog - nečekejte žádné akademické debaty. Mě však zaujal trochu jiný pohled na věc, a tak jsem si neodpustil komentovat...

Je to škoda. now

Osobitý humor a styl Oskara nahradila fotobanková neinvence, televizní McReklama a špatná čeština. Poté, co ve jménu akcionářského kapitalismu opustila scénu značka Paegas, jež získala za pouhých pár let hodnotu mnohem zavedenějších značek, přichází pohltit kultovního Oskara velké rudé prázdno vodního fénu!

Marketing a reklamní kampaně většinou nejsou centrem našich životů - ve skutečnosti jim věnujeme méně pozornosti než předpovědi počasí (zdroj: aktuální výzkum společnosti Consumerscope). Avšak způsob, jakým přichází největší světový mobilní operátor rozředit už tak mdlý český reklamní sirup a znásilnit češtinu si zasluhuje pozornost a přinejmenším jedno velké "děkujeme, odejděte". Obraznost z reklam Vodafone je ubohou tapetou z předloňských reklam na eurotelí "Více ze života" a témobilí "Lepší svět" a absurdní "now" na konci firemního sloganu je dovršením tohoto nesmyslu.

Dobro došli!

Krátký projekt v Lublani: tři dny (s nevábnou cesotu autem, která vypadá na mapě a na ViaMichelin daleko lépe, než ve skutečnosti). Depresivní výhled z hotelového pokoje. Slovinců je kolem 2 milionů - večer popíjení s kolegy a řešení tohoto mikroskopického národního pocitu: většina vidí budoucnost Slovinců v postupném rozplynutí se v okolí. Národní archetyp - silák Martin Krpan, původně snad pašerák, prý nijak sympatický člověk. Jednoduše silný, značně idiosynkratický, umí si poradit.

Kolegové všichni neuvěřitelně kouří - českou, byť nedokonalou, legislativu na ně! Navíc "kouřiti" ve Slovinštině sluje "kaditi", paralela dosti nešťastná.