TREND: Crowd Clout

April 2007 Trend Briefing

Hello.

History Lesson

A pretty cool site that details the history behind many of the world's best-known brandmarks.

LogoDesignHistory

Stengel: Market share is trust materialized

"Procter & Gamble's Jim Stengel described a major cultural shift that he believes is turning the world's largest marketer into a starter of conversations and a solver of consumers' problems rather than a one-way communicator. "

Stengel Exhorts 4A's: 'It's Not About Telling and Selling'

Diluting the Cafe Experience?

"Rapid expansion, the chairman, Howard Schultz, said, has led to a 'commoditization of our brand' that makes the company more vulnerable to competitors. Specifically, he cited several decisions that, he said, may have been right at the time, but which, in retrospect, have led to a 'dilution' of the coffeehouse experience that he wanted to foster."

Starbucks Chairman Fears Tradition Is Fading

Hangin' with Mini Cooper

TREND: Trysumers

"The concept of consumers becoming more daring in their consumption patterns just because they can, should provide you with ample ammunition to dream up profitable, ‘off the beaten path’ goods, services and experiences this year."

February 2007 Trend Briefing

And No Nasty Northeast Winters

"The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is spearheading a movement of major universities to put online lecture notes, coursework and required readings for MBA courses and other classes on the internet—for no charge! "

An Ivy League Marketing Education for Free?

High Standards Are Kind of a Pain Anyway

"Bank of America has long believed that a coherent brand identity could be an important advantage in consumer banking, just as it is with other consumer products. It treats its vast network of branches as bright red billboards, breaking traditional advertising rules about not associating that color with money. The bank has created its own flag symbol and developed its own theme song. And it spends heavily on all forms of marketing: about $600 million annually across all media over the last few years."

Bank of America Tagline Has Run Its Course

What You Talking About?

"It's my contention most marketers don't -- and shouldn't -- incorporate weirdness into basic brand-building strategy. All the work to come up with the next Subservient Chicken is diverting attention from marketers' main job of building strong brands."

Here's a Weird Idea, Marketers: Create Ads to Build Your Brand

Baaaaaaaa

A bit of a kick in the ass from Seth Godin.

Sheepwalking

Skate Like a Princess Today

Who Will Pay for the Trips to Nobu?

"AND THERE'S A REASON WHY CLOROX (CLX ) hasn't asked for ideas. Many big advertisers sell commodities—soap powder, paper goods—that lack logos people tattoo on their torsos or paint on their faces."

What Makes 'Citizen Ads' Work

Freaky. Like a Reverse Keyser Soze. But Cool.

The Costco Effect

"SHOPPING at Costco often goes something like this: Customer comes to buy bulk necessities like toilet paper and dish detergent. Customer buys those items, as well as a pack of giant muffins, three cashmere sweaters and a power tool."

24 Rolls of Toilet Paper, a Tub of Salsa and a Plasma TV

Almost Humorous Ads Fail to Drive Market Share. Man Law.

They never did much for me. And they didn't do much for sales.

Miller Repeals 'Man Law'

Ch- Ch- Check it Out

Pentagram is cool. Blogs are cool (right?). Is Pentagram's blog cool? Probably.

New at Pentagram

What Do We Think About This?

I've watched it 6 times and still can't decide if I like it or not.

Standard of Health?

BrandChannel considers the movement to standard labeling for healthy foods. Could the Pepsi SmartChoice be going away?

The Whole Package: Setting Healthy Standards

Your Moment of Zen

AG & Perpetual Growth

Fortune talks with a couple of old P&G ABMs -- AG Lafley and Jeff Immelt -- about creating profitable growth at a Fortune 50 company. Good luck, fellas.

Lafley and Immelt: In search of billions

The 411 on Fahrenheit 212

Inside A White-Hot Idea Factory

Can I Get a What-What?

Ad Agency TBWA is undertaking an 'experiment in open source creativity' they are calling The Big What Adventure. Basically they are asking the public to submit ideas and concepts. If they like something, they might even pay you for it. Though probably not much. Here's your shot to prove anyone can do decent advertising.

The Big What Adventure

Top 5 Consumer Trends for '07

1. Status Lifestyles
2. Transparency Tyranny
3. Web N+1
4. Trysumers
5. The Global Brain

January 2007 Trend Briefing

King Me

"Marketers like Procter & Gamble and Diageo say brand ambassadors give their marketing programs greater flexibility, because they can use the same image on television, in print or online. P.& G. posts images of its flesh-and-blood Mr. Clean on a Web site (mrclean.com), while Diageo goes even further, posting video and audio of its Tanqueray gin ambassador, Tony Sinclair, an affable 30-something with an English accent, on Tanqueray.com."

Who Is That Wearing That Milk Mustache?

Persuading the Masses

It's now a couple of years old, but Frontline did a great episode on how marketers attempt to influence the minds of consumers ... or voters.

"In 'The Persuaders,' FRONTLINE explores how the cultures of marketing and advertising have come to influence not only what Americans buy, but also how they view themselves and the world around them. The 90-minute documentary draws on a range of experts and observers of the advertising/marketing world, to examine how, in the words of one on-camera commentator, 'the principal of democracy yields to the practice of demography,' as highly customized messages are delivered to a smaller segment of the market."

View online at: The Persuaders

Hope Your Brand Didn't Make the List

Ads We Hate

Monkeys Make Everything Better

CareerBuilder.com Ad

Corralling the Buzz

A look at the burgeoning industry of electronic brand monitoring. Not surprisingly, the epicenter is located on Cincinnati's Main Street.

Brands for the Chattering Masses

Venti Cognitive Disonnance, Please

The Big Gulp at Starbucks

A VERY new Prime Prospect

Online, P.& G. Gets a Little Crazy

TREND: Trends!

In the most surprising turn of events yet, the newest trend is trends. Read on, fearless ones.

Phads

Tired of Reality Shows? Read This.

"The problem with the rush to define 'reality' is that very few people are inclined to try to change reality. Why would you? You can't change reality. Why would you try to change, for example, the laws of physics? In the late 17th century, Sir Isaac Newton made a number of observations about properties of physical objects and came up with a set of basic laws of physics."

Is Reality the Enemy of Innovation?

TREND: Generation C(ash)

"GENERATION C(ASH) isn't restricted to content creators. For this briefing, we chose to focus on compensation for video, pics, text and other creative outbursts, but the trend really embraces all consumers earning a bit of cash on the side, whether it’s from trading on eBay, to exploiting their WiFi connection through Fon. In 2005, we dubbed these enterprising consumers MINIPRENEURS; they too are part of GENERATION C(ASH)."

December 2006 Trend Briefing

Your Moment of Zen

I Wonder How the Priority of Communication Read on the Brief

Doritos Japan Nut-crushing Package Design

Eavesdropping on the Consumer

"A new word-of-mouth research firm, the Keller Fay Group, is attempting to demystify chatter in the offline world. Since April, the firm has interviewed 100 different people a day."

What We Talk About When We Talk About Brands

Cameras, Cleaning, and More

The latest edition of BusinessWeek's in: Inside Innovation is out. Yes, I know. in is out, it's confusing. Let's move on.

Mistakes Made On The Road To Innovation
Electrolux Redesigns Itself
Trend Spotting With Author Robyn Waters
The Importance Of Great Customer Experiences...

Much Love

You will not ever read a more over-the-top, ridiculous, beautiful love letter to a brand than this piece from SFGate.com. But you know what? He's right.

When Apple Rules The World: What does it mean when you really, really want to lick a new MacBook Pro, and swoon?

But Will it Pop?

A funny little animation on what national flags might look like if they had gotten some more client input.

Flags of the World

What Can R. Ray Teach us About Branding?

Rachael Ray: branding goddess?

Change is the New Black

From Fortune: "Across sectors--retailing, brokerage, software, publishing, computers--business models that produced profits for decades have shut down. In most cases managers aren't sure what the new model will be, but they're absolutely certain it won't have a multidecade lifespan."

You better get comfortable with seismic changes, because things are going to continue to move faster.

Managing in Chaos

Your Moment of Zen

For Your Bookshelf

I haven't read it, but it comes highly recommended.

Perfect Pitch: The Art of Selling Ideas and Winning New Business

I heart Chipotle

Mostly for the giant burritos, but also for the marketing.

When Your Ad Backfires

...and consumers better identify with the villian (your competition) instead of the hero (your brand).

Goodbye Mac guy

Juste le Faire

Cool little film on Nike design guru Tinker Hatfield, the birth of the Air Max shoe, finding inspiration is unexpected places, and a little building called the Pompidou.

Respect the Architects

Learn from the Masters

All kinds of yummy goodness from Fast Company's 2006 Masters of Design issue. Includes Puma, Ziba, Pentagram, and some cool slideshows.

Masters of Design

TREND: Transumers, More than Meets the Eye

From trendwatching.com: "This month’s briefing highlights TRANSUMERS: consumers who increasingly value a transient lifestyle. It’s not a new-new trend, but definitely one that provides context for many of our other trends."

November 2006 Trend Briefing

Sound Familiar?

Blog captures some of the less-intelligent things heard in the marketing/advertising field. If you recognize one of these quotes coming from your mouth, please flip off your monitor and come back when you are smarter.

AdVerbatims

What You Smiling At?

Wal-Mart introduces a new dress code. No more smiley-faces.

Wal-Mart phasing out smiley face vests

New Gifts of Gold

Godiva has redesigned its iconic boxes and the treats that come with them.

Godiva Strikes Gold

Redo the Dew

Apparently Mountain Dew woke up recently and realized that it's 2006. And maybe their extreme positioning was a bit dated ... you know seeing that everything from deodorant to baby formula is now marketed this way.

Not So Extreme: Dew Retooling Image

From the Makers of The Brand Gap

Author Marty Neumeier drops his latest book.

"ZAG follows the ultra-clear whiteboard overview style of Neumeier's first book, THE BRAND GAP, but drills deeper into the question of how brands can harness the power of differentiation. The author argues that in an extremely cluttered marketplace, traditional differentiation is no longer enough—today companies need “radical differentiation” to create lasting value for their shareholders and customers."

ZAG Website

Not So Fast, My Friend

With sales up only 1%, Wal-Mart chief executive H. Lee Scott Jr., said yesterday that the introduction of upscale products, like silk camisoles and 300-thread-count sheets, had proved “choppier than it should be” and that the company had “moved too far too fast” with fashionable clothing.

Wal-Mart’s Chief Says Chain Became Too Trendy Too Quickly

Purchase Decisions and the Subconscious

An interview with HBS professor Gerald Zaltman on his latest book: How Customers Think: Essential Insights into the Mind of the Market.

The Subconscious Mind of the Consumer (And How To Reach It)

Cutomizing Product via Packaging

"The maker of Crest, Folgers and Tide has expressed interest in a packaging technology that allows consumers to customize the flavors or scents of anything from beer to floor cleaner."

Procter looks at bottle with personal pop

Come for the Grunge, Stay for the Rain and Coffee

New branding initiative for the city of Seattle. Not exactly 'Virginia is for Lovers' is it?

Why Don't We Just Change Our Slogan to "Kick Me"?
metronatural.com

New Bravia Ad

Not quite as arresting as thousands of bouncy balls. But I bet you watch it at least twice.

The High Life

Miller returns the champagne of beers to a familiar positioning. One that might work.

Miller Puts the Gruff Back Into High Life Beer

"I can still hear that crashing sound"

A pretty amazing post from Design Observer. The author attended UC in the '70s and just designed a book on the Aronoff Center for Design and Art. A must read for anyone who went to DAAP.

What's That Crashing Sound, Or, Eisenman in Cincinnati

Real Beauty?

Check out this new Dove spot. Reminds me of my days on Pantene print. This entire campaign has been pretty powerful, and definitely separates the brand from the rest of the category.

My Dining Room: PMS 193

I suppose the only thing surprising about Pantone offering paint is that it hadn't happened sooner.

pantone.com

Negative Calories

Tea drink supposed to boost metabolism . "Rhona Applebaum, chief scientist for Coca-Cola Co., said that extensive scientific studies showed that three cans a day of the drink will burn a net average of 60 to 100 calories."

Coke, Nestle Unveil Calorie-Burning Beverage

Best Line Extension EVER!

It's chips ... and beer ... AND cheese ... all together. What more can you say?

Beer and crisps united at last

Give the Clients Some Credit

Fast Company introduces us to the people who had the guts to greenlight this past year's boldest advertising.

Fast Talk: Advertising Architects

When the Media is the Message

Nissan's new Sentra campaign will rely heavily on non-traditional media in an effort to reach 'the kids.' And by that I mean consumers in their 20s and 30s.

"To be sure, Ms. Thompson said, 'there is a trade-off' in concentrating ads in the new media because it can take more time and effort to reach the intended audience and more coordination is required to keep track of all the moving parts in such campaigns.

"But 'there’s better engagement than you can get with traditional, linear television,' she added, 'and we can measure impressions, interaction rates and view-throughs' to determine whether the new media elements are working."

Living the Promotional Life

Turn it Pink

Campbell's tweaks it's iconic packaging for National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

The A-List (or maybe it's D-List)

BusinessWeek's special report looks at the growth industry of design schools. According to BW, the best design programs:

- Utilize a multidisciplinary approach combining engineering, business, design, and social sciences.
- Can be found in both D-schools and B-schools, and an increasing number of mash-ups combining the two.
- Produce one-(wo)man cross-functional teams with depth and bredth extending into marketing, engineering, design, and strategy.

The global list includes fmailiar names like Art Center, University of Cincinnati's DAAP, and Stanford. Bonus points for spotting the Jerry Kathman shoutout.

Top Innovation and Design Schools
D-Schools: The Global List

Good Design is Good Business

Fast Company explores the need to reconcile busniess and design.

"Valid thinking demands an inspired leap of faith. Before John Mackey launched one of the country's first supermarket-style natural-food stores, for example, nobody could prove that Whole Foods Market would succeed at all, let alone become the most profitable food retailer (in terms of profit per square foot) in the United States. But Mackey did it anyway. As the computer scientist Alan Kay put it so memorably, 'The best way to predict the future is to invent it.' And that is what design-centric organizations do: They peer into the needs and desires of their customers, identify patterns of behavior, refine ideas that tap into those behaviors, then push into the unknown--or at least the uncertain."

Tough Love

Selling Nostalgia and Little Else

The Search for Life in Yet Another Ghost Brand

In-Store Metrics ... For Real

Breakthrough? Stores May Be Able To Measure POP Display Impact

Gimme That Beer

Great, arresting OoH.

From Across the Pond

At their best, the Brits do have style. Here's a list of the anglo-cool.



UK's Coolest Brands

Super Serifs

Underwhelming tweaks to the Reds logo.

Cincinnati Reds Complete Club Logos and Uniform Graphics

Selling CDs with CDs

I hope the market rewards Umpqua for taking risks and trying some radically different approaches in a very cookie-cutter industry. They continue to be a great case study for using designed experiences to differentiate. This article touches on their latest music initiatives.

Branching Out

5 Things About PowerPoint

Some good advice on how to improve your Powerpoint presentations (or Keynote for the evolved).

Brands That Stand Out

Landor (and others) attempt to quanitfy brand strength via contribution to the bottom line. What works is not surprising. But some of the leaders are.

"Three unmistakable themes bubbled up from this year's survey, and most of the breakaway companies are standouts in at least two of them. 'Today it's all about trust, community, and creating a dialogue with your customer that shares real knowledge,' says Hayes Roth, chief marketing officer for Landor."

10 Breakaway Brands

Marketing to Mommy's 'Me' Time

"They don’t want to talk about laundry, they want to talk about a mom’s emotional relationship to her clothes."

Marketers Look Past Jelly Stains and See a Mom Who Has Needs

Character & Conflict

I saw these guys give a presentation a while ago. Very smart. Their take is to find a brand's essential point of conflict and tension. A little different to the more prevalent idea of essence, etc. It may not work in every case ... but it's worth knowing about.

How the Pillsbury doughboy explains what you buy

Innovation Overload

Lots of great stuff in the newest Business Week via its quarterly Inside Innovation insert. Including:

- Jonathan Ive, Apple Design Guru
- Ziba and the Chinese Consumer
- The Truth About Brainstorming

A Marriage of Design & Advertising

It's more than impressive to see how Apple is able to consistently deliver fresh executions of a brand look within a campaign. Here is the newest IPod Nano spot, delivering the silhouette graphic idea in a new way. It links to the previous creative without simply repeating it. Much like the product it's Completely Remastered.



Here's some previous ones:

H-2-Whoa

When there is little product differentiation, what is left? Some pretty sweet bottle shapes.

who needs designer water?

Authenticity & the Grocery

"So what did Safeway do right? The short story is that it delivered before it promised. 'We were very careful not to talk about quality until we had stepped up quality,' Burd says. That way, when Safeway told a story about quality in a TV ad, customers could walk into a store that day and see and taste the quality, leaving no doubt about the story's truth."

Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is

A Differ Kind of CEO

Non-traditional titles and the companies that love them.

Wanted: Experience Officer. Some Necessary.

Nike Ad Update

Start here:



Then go here.

Innovation + Guts = Growth

If I had a nickel for each time I've dragged this AquaFresh package into a meeting only to lose another soul-crushing TDC conversation ... well I would have about 15¢.

This article from Fast Company tells a bit of the story behind that box. More importantly it tackles the challenge of brands forever looking to cut expenses.

"So, the next time a bean-counter tells you that spending extra money won't result in any extra sales, consider telling them that it's not just about sales -- it's about growth. Real growth requires the kind of innovation that gets customers excited, and that kind of innovation often means just putting a crowbar in it."

Spare No Expense

SBux Racy New Logo?

Well ... not exactly ....

Starbucks' bare-breasted logo returns for 35th anniversary

Empathy for All

From the Logic+Emotion blog comes this useful post reminding designers to stay close to their consumer ... and not to think you're too smart for that kind of stuff. In short:
1. Get out of the office
2. Talk to someone
3. Eat, Sleep, Dream Curiosity
4. Do what they do

Creating Compassionate Designers

Wal*Mart to Segment Store Offerings Based on Location

World's largest retailer to tailor offerings to better appeal to one of six targets: Hispanics, African Americans, "empty-nesters/boomers," affluent, suburban and rural shoppers.

Wal-Mart to Drop One-Size-Fits-All Approach for Stores

OK GO

Because Fridays should be fun. If you haven't seen this yet ... I just feel bad for you.

Embracing Accountability

From the Zyman Institute of Brand Science (now isn't that impressive?) comes this explanation of why it is essential to measure brand value, along with a look at a variety of established brand equity models.

"While the desire of marketers to demonstrate that they are allocating marketing investments as efficiently as possible is admirable, they are doing themselves a disservice with their current obsession with ROI. By interpreting marketing accountability solely in terms of a metric of short-term payback, marketers are reinforcing the impression of marketing as a merely tactical discipline.

"The bigger question — and the one that will earn marketers a seat at the boardroom table in a way that no amount of ROI measurement can — is whether brands truly are assets that enable the business to generate superior returns over time."

In Search of a Reliable Measure of Brand Equity

Trend: Status Skills

The September issues of trendwatching.com's trend brief is out. I always find these pretty interesting and well done. I really like that they end each briefing with a section on "Context, Next, and Opportunities."

September Briefing

Stay on Target ... Stay on Target ...

"P&G continues to block and tackle at the high end of the peer group, with organic sales growth supported by new products and pricing to partially mitigate rising input costs."

P&G affirms quarterly outlook for profit and sales

Is It a Gimmick If It Works?

Street Stunts On The Digital Highway

CBS News' New Look

Boston Globe looks at the new design toolbox that will surround Katie starting tonight. Seems a little all over the place to me (at least in static form).

"To represent Couric, Allen says, they added warm golds and oranges to a palette that had been exclusively blue. And they changed the eye, CBS's iconic symbol, from blue to gold in the new title frame."

CBS Looks to Surround Couric with Shiny New Image

Marketing Morality

Very worthwhile post from Seth Godin (who I recently learned was my sister's camp counselor in the '80s) about taking responsibility for the work we do and the products we market. I do agree that one must make peace with this. The fact is that we're not saving lives, but there is integrity in a job well done and honest effort.

Marketing Morality

Ah, the Power of Robin's Egg Blue

"Don't get me wrong. No packaging, not even Lanvin's, can ever matter more than its contents. But great packaging makes shopping more fun, and, as Tiffany has proved, occasionally elicits cash from impressionable people like me."

When the packaging makes it perfect

Shopping Seduction

USA Today examines the in-depth multi-sensory strategies retailers employ to separate you from your $$.

Just browsing at the mall? That's what you think