HRVNK on BRNDS and THNGS

It must have been. This guy definitely didn't come from where I live. He asked me for a meeting with quite a vague agenda which involved some kind of brand consulting job. In the meeting he talked a lot about his project and, yes, the need for having brand consultants on board but, alas, he mainly talked about the importance of sticking to certain values in marketing practice. And how these values were central for him in finding and hiring staff for his project. And how long-term perspective and strategic thinking mattered for him the most. And how he started his own business after walking away from a top-noch international management position in pharmaceuticals because he became fed up with the business cynicism. I wrote him a mail after the meeting expressing my thanks and reporting my readiness to help him with his project. His e-mail address had cz written just after the dot. He even came back to me on that e-mail. Well, the Martians surely have mastered the art of camouflage..

I have linked to McCracken's blog frequently in the past. And I suspect I will keep doing it in future. It is not only the sheer size of the commitment he has been putting in (over 700 posts yet!) but also the energy of his writing. By now, he might have become something of a mutant with his hands firmly attached to keyboard. One of the more recent inspiring thoughts from McCracken's blog is the one about USP (unique selling proposition) and how it needs to be irrevocably replaced by something else. Marketers have yet to agree what this "else" should be, but the irrelevance of the concept of USP is flagrant. Also, McCracken offers a nice update of a notorious "law" in marketing - KISS (keep it simple stupid). He suggests that by dwelling on USP and similar snappy frameworks we are not making it simple - just stupid. I've been through this frustrating experience a couple of times this week already; and it's only Tuesday.

I haven't been to the October 2nd Smplicity Event organized by Philips in London. Yet, judging from a recent article in Business Week Online, it must have been a spectalucalr show. However, what struck me most was the kind of statment Stefano Marzano, CEO and chief creative director for Philips Design, treated the reader to. Marzano is quoted in the article talking about the change Philips is undergoing: "from a company in which technology called the shots to one in which the focus is firmly on people." Fair enough. One just gets the impression that this "revolution" should have happened some 30 years ago with the advent of consumer-oriented marketing. Right? Are such giants as Philips just discovering the power of usability research and alternative ways of qualiltative research? If so, then we'd better call the recently ended marketing era the "era of looks-like-consumer-oriented-marketing-but-really-is-just-huge-sums-of- money-thrown-into-advertising