Brand building and bullshitting
Here’s Radio KK back again, hopefully tuned to your frequency.
The ‘Radio’ of course refers to my earlier blog on brand building and the oral culture of India;-) BTW, John Hegarty, the one living person I look up to in the world of advertising, did mention to me when he was in India at the invitation of India’s fledgling Creative Directors’ Club in 1997 that the Irish people also delayed the adoption of writing in order to maintain the richness of oral story-telling!
Those of you who have read Jared Diamond’s Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, will probably agree that groups of people who belong to one sect, caste or society often grow blind to the practices that are clearly self-destructive. Jared refers to Easter Island and Mayan societies as examples that prove this theory.
Are there such practices amongst us, we who claim to be brand creators, brand builders, brand definers, brand sustainers, brand nurturers, brand guides, brand expression specialists…?
One practice that springs to mind is the usage of jargon to bullshit our clients. In my two and a half decades in marketing communication and branding, I realized that clients as a species often worship ‘creative people’ as a species. Creative people are considered owners of arcane and mystical knowledge. Do we exploit this faith?
Here are some examples I picked at random:
1. A branding expert regularly tells his clients that he “assimilates market viability through brand planning…” I am a published writer of fiction and attempt to keep up with the world of words and grammar; and despite revisiting the dictionary I could make no meaning of this glorious objective of brand planning. To me it sounds suspiciously close to the language of art criticism, which uses words like the ‘precession of the simulacra’. If any of our brothers and sisters in branding can unravel the meaning, do write in.
2. Here’s another branding expert explaining a logo for a bank: “it signifies four new things about the brand: value for money, variety of channels, different timeline for every product that it offers and transparency in every service/product that it offers.” Four new things in one logo??!! That is real value for money! I was under the mistaken notion that a logo is a visual telegram (after all, the word logo itself is a short form of logogram) that communicates one message strongly!
3. Hardly had I recovered from this muscular, multi-tasking logo’s onslaught than my colleagues pointed out another one for a software company, which, they maintained, made the bank logo look like a starving featherweight. The brand expert maintains that this logo (which, btw, uses seven colours, so I don’t know what happens to it in B&W) communicates 16 rational and 12 emotional attributes! But don’t hyperventilate yet, brothers and sisters in branding. The brand line communicates a further 18 rational and 10 emotional attributes!! And they even communicate contradictory attributes like solid and flexible!!! And all this is proudly rounded off with the claim, “We focus on one singular positioning statement…!”
Because poor unsuspecting clients are dazzled by ‘creativity’ just as millionaires are by ‘art’, does not mean we as brand evangelists exploit their credulity…unless of course, like the societies outlined by Jared Diamond, we want to press the self-destruct button. Amen.
Questions and Answers
Big Bazaar, the "Indian Wal-Mart", is the modern Indian family's favorite store. Big Bazaar symbolizes modern retail, the business which isn't looked up to in our country, is now in the eyes of many multi-national biggies.
: The concept of branding in India is yet to evolve. Unfortunately there are many design companies some large and many small firms that are providing brand consultancy and design without the understanding of the strategic implications. I believe that experience in managing and building brands through effective communication and advertising is a good foundation for creating and developing brand strategy and design.
New Delhi: Approach Communications, leading public relations and rural communications firm with a specialized division for Pharma and Healthcare PR, has bagged the entire gamut of corporate communications and media relations activities account of USA based Phytonics Enterprises's Indian subsidiary Phytonics India PR account.
Thailand property developer, Pruksa Real Estate PLC, has announced plans to invest US$300 million in the Indian property market over the next five years.
Langham Hotels International, the operating and asset management arm of Hong Kong-based Great Eagle Holdings, has identified India as a strong market for development. Helmut Knipp, its senior VP (development) reveals, “Our focus has been on China of late. But India is as large and showing similar growth. The opportunity cannot be missed and we wish to take measured steps to establish the brand in India.”
The hospitality industry in India is growing on the back of a steady inflow of domestics and international tourists. Companies in India are venturing into the sector to get a share of the growing market.
The online world is changing and this is one of the main reasons that there is a great room for marketing and promotion. The ways to promote the products of any specific company are infinite, however the companies need to concentrate on the top ways so as to get the maximum profit.
When you need high avenues of free advertisement for traffic and promotion of your business, you would definitely understand how traffic and promotion is making the world go round with free ads.
There are two kinds of advertising above the line (ATL) and below the line (BTL). Above the line advertising is one which involves commission such as radio, TV ads or newspapers and below the line advertising is print based such as flyers, direct mail, trade fair marketing or point of purchase ads. There is no commission for advertising agency in this kind of advertising. Now a day's above the line advertising is not preferred as much as below the line.
We have added many features to the Fusion Electronics Direct site to allow users to be able to search for there products they are looking for. We have got some new product ranges from Fusion which are the New headunit range and the full sub and amp range. They look really sleek so no matter what vehicle you have it will look perfect.
The debate for white paper is intensifying in the b2b blogosphere about whether the white papers are still relevant for b2b marketing. But if you ask me, then honestly speaking, white papers are still an integral part of b2b marketing. This article will state you the reasons why white paper is still essential for b2b marketing.
Messer’s Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Co, have a lot to answer for. Their leveraged buyouts in the 1980s created a long-lasting interest in the enormous value of ‘brands’. But even they could not have imagined just how much this business of brands would infiltrate the life of people in the years to come.
Even before the Tweets had quietened, there were blogs about MJ’s childhood, his Moonwalk, his music and his life, and the brand he chose to live.
Since 1995, I have been making presentations to fellow Indians and marketers about India’s oral culture and how it affects everyday life, product development as well as marketing communications even today!
There are several instances where an ill-defined corporate brand will also have an impact on the bottom-line…but all of that must become the topic of another post.
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