livingbrands

One Word Equity (slight return)

Certain quarters of the biosphere are burning white hot with comments on OWE (all negative as far as I can tell). So, rather chastened by John Grant's thoughtful contribution, I thought I should offer up more than my glib initial response to M&C's new Big Idea.

Which brings me to Russell Davies recent post on the tyranny of all things big and idea-y (He, can you see where this is going?!). I won't go into details, as it is well worth reading in full, but he did make the point that, though the best big ideas can seem very simple at face value, in fact they are actually rather nebulous, broad and limitlessly flexible (see 'Just Do It'). He talked about concepts like this being giant buckets for holding lots of small ideas, which I think is a rather good way of looking at it.

Which does provide a different POV on the one(ish) word equity debate. If, as Saatchi seems to be proposing, you are looking for that perfect, diamond sharp word (it doesn't exist by the way) which you then use to impose rigid and literal consistency across your business, like a linguistic a rod of iron (or straitjacket), then I vehemently disagree. If, on the other hand, you are looking for a simple, easy to grasp concept to act as a lose anchor for all you do, but where there is the flexibility to interpret and execute this in many different ways, then I have more sympathy.

It's a bit like countries. The capital city may, in some loose sense, define what a country stands for, but that doesn't mean everyone has to live there, or that everywhere else has to model themselves on it. So London may anchor England in some way, but England is also Oxford, Manchester, Barnsley etc. All are different and unique in their own right...but all still fit with and add something to the brand that is 'England'.

Which is what brands are like as well - too simple and consistent and you become simplistic and boring. And, ultimately, inflexible. Without losing coherence (which IS important, where consistency is a red Herring), the world we live in requires brands and businesses to riff on different versions of their story at different times, and for different people. You can't do that if your story only has one word, and your song, one note.

And any way, if M&C had the courage of their convictions, shouldn't they have called this 'one' or 'word' (oops, there I go again).

Spot the difference

Was hunting down a picture of Isaac Newton today, to illustrate a point in a presentation. Found loads, and two things struck me.

Firstly, how very different he looks in the various portraits out there. Wouldn't be great if photos could capture such a varied collection of the different us-es that exist!

Secondly (and I have no doubt he will kill me for this - but think of the free publicity! And what a good comparison!), how much Sir Isaac looks like my good friend John Griffiths, top planner-for-hire and curator of that Aladdin's Cave of all things strategic, Planning Above & Beyond.

So, in time honoured fashion, I ask you to spot the difference between Sir Isaac Newton, founding father of modern science...

...and John Griffiths. founding father of web 2.0 on-line planning stuff...

Next? Separated at birth: Russell Davies and ???.

Negative talk costs business

The word of mouth debate seems to focus almost exclusively (at least when ad agencies get involved) on how to get people talking positively about a brand (I've done it myself). But are a lot of businesses trying to run before they can walk?

Positive talk is great. But negative talk has the potential to work even more powerfully in the opposite direction: human nature being what it is (or maybe it’s just us Brits), we are often more likely to talk about bad experiences, and more likely to act on such negative recommendations. After all, it is easier NOT to buy something than it is to buy...particularly if you don’t buy it already.

Something to bear in mind, when you consider recent research which found that "negative WOM influences future patronage up to five times more than the person who experiences the problem first-hand" (not quite sure what that means, but it sounds bad!).

Other findings were that...

• 31% of consumers tell one or more friends about the problems they experience in a store.
• On average, consumers tell four other people about their negative shopping experience.
• Almost 50% of shoppers said they avoided a particular store in the past because of someone else's negative experience.

The sad fact is that for every half good positive new thing companies introduce (probably to see them ignored), most will have overlooked 10 bad things that are having a genuine detrimental effect on their businesses.

So sort out the problems first: it will have a bigger (positive) impact on the bottom line, and make the good things you do more effective.

One Word Equity

One Word Equity is M&C Saatchi's big new idea.

And is that one word ARSE or is it GENIOUS.

Let me know.

Or maybe use some of their great new tools: WordShop, WordWise and WordPower (there's probably lots of TMs in there as well).

I'm all for simiplicity. And I'm happy with (single) powerful words. But to suggest that this can embody and define the entirety of your brand experience for people, well you can probably guess where I come out on this.

Snazzy website though!

The power of persuasion

What persuades us to do the things we do? Six things apparently…

• Authority - we defer to legitimate experts
• Consensus - people follow the lead of similar others
• Consistency - people align with their commitments (as long as they are voluntary, active and public)
• Scarcity - people want more of what they can have less of
• Liking - we prefer to say yes to those we know and like
• Reciprocity - the obligation to repay in kind

So, based on this we can define the perfect brand/business: it would be generally recognised and commonly accepted by consumers to be an expert and leader in an area that is really important to them which, despite being rather exclusive/expensive, would have a very open and engaging manner, with the result that people feel like being nice back.

Sorted. It’s easy really!!

(Thanks to Creative Generalist)

Get a life

My main problem with Second Life is that I couldn't get it to run properly on my chug-a-long computer. But it really is the Rolls Royce of on-line virtual worlds.

200,000 signed up members may not seem much, but it's growing fast. And members do spend a lot of time 'au virtual' apparently, not just building relationships but increasingly running (successful) businesses as well - from buying and selling (virtual) real estate to buying and selling stuff which exists in the real world.

Commercial organisations are now getting in on the act to. The Beeb has already done a few things. And retailers are seeing the opportunities as well - browse the store and look at photo-quality brochures etc.

The latest to go virtual is American Apparel.

Reminded me of a discussion we were having in the agency the other day about teleportation (as you do): 'wouldn't it make commuting easier', that kind of thing. Someone suggested that the effect of teleportation might actually be delivered in the end by very realistic VR.

Who knows: Second Life may just be the first step in that direction. Next stop The Matrix!!!

Join in the conversation

If you've not yet checked out IT Conversions, it isn't as dry and techie as you might think. Instead it's a collection of speeches (in MP3 format) by a host of great speakers at a variety of conferences. Anyway there's loads to get your teeth stuck into. The difficulty is knowing where to start! Think I'll pick a conference and work through. Will feedback on anything interesting.

Failing to communicate

A sad but (it must be said) darkly amusing tale, with a moral for those involved in communication.

There's a school near us which was having their sports day recently. During the shot put, one girl was not quite standing in the right place and got hit in the head. She was hurt badly enough for the school to call in the air ambulance. But everyone was rather surprised when, shortly afterwards, a police helicopter touched down, out of which jumped a rapid response unit, all riot gear and guns. The reason? They had got word that someone had received a shot to the head! Logical conclusion: mad gunman attacks school. Just goes to show why clarity (what your saying and to whom) in communication is so important!

Indiana Howard

As an alternative career I always rather fancied being an archaeologist (kind of a bit like planning I guess). Or to be more honest, I probably wanted to be Indiana Jones (adventurous planning!!). Well this weekend I got to indulge my fantasies a bit.

On Saturday, Josh and I went beach-combing on the Thames with London Walks. If you can get excited by other people's old rubbish, it was brill: we found stuff dating back to medieval and Roman times (thoroughly recommended if you've got kids).

And then on Sunday evening we had a family Father's Day trip to our local climbing wall (for the adventurous bit). Haven't been climbing properly for about 10 years, and it was good to know I still had it in me (though certain muscles I forgot I had are aching rather this morning).

Still not sure I will be donning the hat and leather jacket, and taking up the whip anytime soon though.

FutureScope 49

Just to let you know, the latest edition of my trends newsletter is now out: "emerging trends, new ideas and general thought stimulation"...or so it says on the cover.