Off, for a while. . .

The OneBrand Blog will be closing down for a while. I shall be posting my BrandWidth column that I do for The News of Mexico City here for those that are interested in general marketing topics. This is definitely a "good news - bad news" thing. The good news is that the old work load has picked up a lot in the last couple of months. The bad news is, of course, that there is less time for blogging and reading the great blogs that are out there that feed the ideas, links and the thinking that gets posted here. So, "we'll be back"!!

Blog of the Year.

For my money, David Armano at Logic and Emotion has been the most influential blogger this year, in and around the TED triangle - Technology, Entertainment and Design (with Brand Experience at the center).
He has come up with some brilliant charts (the Ecosystem is my favorite) and has taken up the slack for daily inspiration. Keeping the energy and interest going is hard work. Well done David and keep those charts coming!

Santa – The Brand
The Magic of North Pole Marketing

Important disclaimer! If you are over the age of ten, please read this as it was written: tongue firmly in cheek. If you are under 10, please believe every word!

Walking through a busy shopping center the other day, I overheard a child talking to her mother.
“Hey Mama, I need to get my letter off to Santa. What’s his e-mail address?”
“Hmm. . .” I thought. “I wonder where that idea could take us.”
Here then is a quick update on Santa - The Brand and the workings of his marketing department, North Pole Marketing.

Brand essence: Santa Claus is one of the oldest and most endearing of brand icons. Rooted in the European folk law and mythology of St. Nicholas and Good King Wenceslas, Santa’s core essence is all about gift giving and helping those less fortunate than ourselves: the universal spirit of Christmas that Santa Claus brings to millions of children all over the world. The distances, coordination and logistics involved are mind boggling but, Santa and his team have managed to adapt to changing conditions, urbanization and architecture. The change of entry point from chimneys to elevators was particularly challenging.

Production and logistics: The original North Pole toy factory ran out of capacity years ago and NPM now outsources to production centers all over the world. Partner programs, with DHL, FedEx, UPS, Amazon.com and others, ensure a constant two way flow of technology and know-how. It is rumored that NPM hosts an annual workshop with suppliers and partners, during the summer, to exchange new ideas and upgrade technology for the coming season.

Retaining and refreshing the brand’s core values: Movies, such as the Polar Express, reinforce the magic and splendor of the North Pole enterprise and the dramatic departure of Santa in his sleigh, piled high with gifts. This year’s Santa movie, Fred Claus, reveals a more human side of Santa and his real-life sibling issues that every child can relate to.

The Brand experience: Santa cannot be everywhere, so depends on thousands of proxies and volunteers to appear in stores and shopping centers to deliver an unforgettable experience to children. Santa likes to stay in touch and sits in whenever he can. The Santa Brand experience involves 4 core elements: Have you been a good boy/girl? What do you want for Christmas? Santa humor . . . . Ho, ho, ho! and a photo for the children to take home.

Standards and dress code have been slipping lately. Santa has had to remind his team that Nike and Reebok sneakers are not in keeping with the Santa Brand identity and could seriously degrade the experience for children.

Code of Practice: Nobody actually owns Santa. This means that anyone can use the Brand for commercial purposes. Luckily, in most cases, his codes of practice and good taste are respected. As added insurance, NPM mails out a special card every year to remind marketing communities all over the world to respect the Santa Code.

People tend to forget that Santa still likes a snack when he has finished arranging all the presents under the tree. I understand cookies and a glass of milk are still his favorites ;-)

(From my Brand Width column in The News - Mexico City, Thursday December 13th.)

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Wish I had been there. .
From: garethk,
"Charts from Polygamous Marriage Connections Planning conference, New Orleans October 26 2007. Argues that we need to stop being in the message delivery industry and instead be in the business of creating energy for brands".
As I said, I really wish I had been there and not just for the food! Gareth has put together most of the salient ideas on new brand thinking and makes the point that we (planners and strategists) have a lot to unlearn first ("stop being in the message delivery business. . .).
Gareth's presentation mirrors a lot of the thinking that Russell Davies, John Grant, Richard Huntington, Jim Carroll and few others have been advancing. (See the "blogs we like" list over in left hand column). This new thinking started to take root before and during the dot com bubble of 2000 and has been gaining momentum in the last two years.
The problem, for many of us (with yours truly very much included), is how to communicate new brand thinking to our clients and potential clients.

Specialists or Generalists. Who fits where?

A thought provoking chart from xxxxx via xxxx at Logic and Emotion .
All this must, inevitably, bring us to the polemic of the Executive (OK, Suits if you want), Nerds and Geeks. We will get to that in a couple of days.

Epic 2007 - Ethnography Conference -
Keystone Colorado. Oct. 4-6th.

"EPIC is the premier international forum bringing together artists, computer scientists, designers, social scientists, marketers, academics and advertisers to discuss recent developments and future advances around ethnographic praxis in industry. Please join us in beautiful Keystone CO USA as we explore the theme of Being Heard".

I am not a member of the Association of American Anthropologists. The theme was intriguing, the venue incredible and the price very acceptable, so off we went, not really knowing what to expect but suspecting it might be interesting for a few days in the mountains. We were not dissapointed.

Brand Definitions at Your Fingertips

Here is a neat directory table for brand definitions from Kolbrener (brand consultants) by way of the good people at threebillion.com, who are one of my main sources for youth trends and other brand related news. They always seem to filter their sources well and nearly all their posts are worth reading.
The Kolbrener table is a good reference for structuring projects but beware of some of the definitions as it would appear that our friends at Kolbrener also specialize in MBA speak. Nothing wrong with that, just a bit irritating after a while. If you really like that stuff, try the MBA on a page from Value Based Management. They have managed to cram literally everything you might ever need to know about management theory on just one page with links to the detailed sources. Amazing! Just the thing if you need to brush up on the 3C´s, 7P´s, 7S´s or Activity Based Costing. I´ll bet you´ll be clicking over there right now!! I think that one came from Guy Kawasaki a few weeks back.

Not so forever young?
(Click on image for larger view)

According to the TGI (Target Group Index) Global Barometer, Mexicans are becoming less concerned with looking young than they were a few years ago; less now than Germans and Russians. 50% of Mexican adults, 18+, agree that "it is important to keep looking young." Of course averages can be misleading. In all probability at least 75% of Mexican women would agree, leaving just 25% of men make up the average of 50%. Or is the growing population of Mexicans over 45 starting to accept the inevitable?
Mexico has one of the highest of per-capita consumption levels in the world for skin creams, moisturising creams, skin treatments and cosmetics. So any change in consumer attitudes towards looking young could be cause for concern. However, there is a difference between maybe not looking young, but looking younger than you are. In other words the response would br quite different if, let's say, the question was reworded as "it is important to look younger than you are." But would that alter the ranking of responses by country? Probably not by much.

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Great TV Advertising. . . Great Brand Entertainment.

Research studies from all over the world show that quality TV advertising is still unmatched in its ability to create emotional connections between brands and people, get talked about and passed around. Like this great work for Brahma Beer. I haven't had time to check out who did it, but whoever it was . . Bravo!
The question is, where does the brand go from here? Hopefully not just another TV commercial, but something that takes this idea, this spontaneity, this relevance and builds it into another piece of great brand entertainment. Because I think this is not just a great commercial for Brahma, but great Brahma entertainment. i.e. the brand takes full ownership of the idea.