Greetings.
Something has happened. Cicero is not sure what it is but something has sparked you into life and each week more and more comments are being posted and sent through to this wee corner of the blogosphere. Some funny. Some serious. Some rude. All thought provoking. Thank you.
Tribute must be paid at the outset this week to the immense achievement of the men from Dalriada in overcoming the challenge last weekend from their antipodean cousins on the rugby field. This is more than their chariot loving Anglo-Saxon kith were able to do though heaven forbid that you might think this is a Ciceronic gloat. This was an inevitable victory for the Picts. It might have been a while since victory over the Aborigines was last achieved but remember that every defeat takes you one step closer to victory.
And so to this week’s lesson.
Last week Cicero was wending his weary way home on his wee bike after checking as usual before leaving his Top Secret State Bunker that as per normal the borders were safe and secure. Before long he bumped once again into his Marketing Professional Friend out enjoying the Capital’s sights and sounds with his team.
‘Out celebrating?’ asked Cicero to his MPF.
‘Yes. Our new marketing campaign starts tomorrow. It has been a hard road with many late nights to get the stuff out the door. And now our work is done we thought we would come out and let our hair down. Will you not join us for a wee dram’?
‘Not tonight but thanks anyway though I am surprised you think your work is now done. Surely it has only just started. Surely the hard work starts tomorrow. You have done the easy bit now the difficult stuff starts.’
‘You kidding me?’ queried MPF ‘What more can me and team do? It’s now down the business to handle the work my marketing is going to bring in. Our work is done. We can put our feet up, let our hair down and chill. You do know how to chill, don’t you, Cicero?’
‘There is lots more for you and your team still to do. What you have done to date is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. It is merely the end of the beginning’, said Cicero going all Churchill, not meaning the nodding dog.
‘Let me see what still needs to be done. Here are some examples in no particular order.
Firstly I assume you have a telephone number and a website linked to your campaign. And I presume that these are included all on your marketing material. Do they work? Do you really know they work? Sure a customer might ring and the phone answered but how knowledgeable is the person answering the phone? Do all the online links work? Will the search engines be ble to find you? Do you know all this for sure when the campaign breaks tomorrow? If I was you I would be testing your phone and internet links to destruction, fault finding and stress testing and finding and fixing anything that is broken before your customers do.
‘Secondly what are you doing about making sure the campaign works and does the business for the business. We have spoken before about the need to impress your Finance people but you will never be able to do this unless you can show, indeed prove, that the marketing investment will deliver. Can you do this? Will you, in say 3 months time, be able to show that you delivered a great return on marketing investment.
‘And thirdly, and more immediately, what will you be doing over the next few days to make sure that your online spend is optimised. Will you know what creative, what search terms, what sites are working for you, delivering customers cost effectively? Do you have processes set up to collect and disseminate this data? Have you got meetings in place to review what is happening out there?
‘Need I go on, my friend?’
‘Ok, party over, folks’, was the MPF's shocked response, putting away and locking up his wallet, much to Cicero’s approval ‘we have still got a wee bit of work to do.
‘Know what, Cicero. You might be a bit of a party pooper. Many might think of you as anti-social. But you are rarely wrong on matters marketing.’
And with that thought Cicero wobbled away into the night knowing that his work was done for the evening and that another marketing lesson had been delivered, heard and understood. Cicero went home a satisfied man.
And should you ever see a marketing team in chill mode with hair down and feet up, please do remind them of Churchill, not the nodding one, the other one, and make sure they are not confusing the end of the beginning with the beginning of the end or even the end.
Is it only me?
Last week you might have seen the news that rail fares were going to go up. And every year when this announcement is made some intrepid reporter will take up his post outside Waterloo station and many other enquiring and investigative journalists will take up similar positions outside other stations up and down and across this green and pleasant land. They will be there to gauge commuter reaction and response to this news.
And every year the answer is the same. ‘Appalling’, says one. ‘Outrageous’, says another. ‘Scandalous’, adds a third. And so on and so on.
What do you expect them to say? You must be as staggered as Cicero to think that there is a news editor out there who seriously thinks that he is going to find someone out there who is going to welcome the news that rail fares are going to rise. Cicero would love it if they found some member of the salatariat in favour of the extra cost of their journey to work because the extra cash was needed to improve the quality of the rail passenger experience and to ensure that the shareholders get a better selection of bubbly and nibbles at the shareholders’ meeting.
Is it only me who questions why every year this charade is played out across our railway termini and station concourses. The same thing is said year in, year out. It might be cheap television but it is hardly news, hardly the scoop of the millennium, is it? We have had Woodward and Bernstein reporting on Watergate: Kate Adie in Tiananmen Square; and even John Sargeant tripping over his feet to get an interview with Thatcher on the eve of her resignation. All great examples of dangerous and intrepid reporting designed to uncover truth and illuminate wrong doing. How does the standard of reporting on rises in rail fares compare?
Have a great week.
Sis felix. Et sis fortunatus.
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Saturday 28 November 2009
Saturday 21 November 2009
Learning to speak serbo croat
This week Cicero is happy, pleased and thrilled.
Happy that more and more people are engaging in debate through this medium on the big issues of the day. Pleased with the quality of the debate unleashed. And thrilled that even the enviro-mental and health and safety community, for so long silent in the debate, have at last been stimulated, or maybe provoked, to join in. Cicero believes that to this community he is fast becoming a cult, or at least he thinks that is what he is.
And a great big thank you to the third Chuckle Brother for his masterful critique and detailed de-construction of last week’s witterings. Initially sent through privately it is especially pleasing that this was re-written and submitted for others to enjoy. However sadly Cicero’s inability to use new fangled technology meant that this masterful thesis was accidentally deleted. Hopefully it has not been lost forever and it can be restored
It cannot be long now before ‘Cicero Speaks’ is being used in universities, colleges and business schools throughout the land though there is still probably more work to do to dumb down these thoughts before they might be suitable for such an audience.
In any event Cicero promises that all comment is read and gratefully received and the points made will be re-visited over the coming weeks once due consideration has been given to the issues raised and once a cogent, compelling and comprehensive response formulated. Cicero recognises that this is the least you can expect.
And so to this week’s intelligent insight.
One night last week Cicero joined a fellow Marketing Professional to imbibe a small alcoholic libation at a local hostelry.
At this point Cicero would like to stress that the borders, freedom and democracy were secure, and that your security was in no way compromised. In any event he was no more than a phone call away at all times from a swift return to work should there be any threat to liberty, security and democracy. It is important that this is pointed out.
In any event none of this came to pass. However said Marketing Professional Friend was in a highly emotional, distressed and agitated state.
‘ No one understands me and what I do’, he sobbed to Cicero, ‘ I strain every sinew to raise brand awareness and to produce advertising that really cuts through and then just when me and my team start to make some progress, that son-of-a bitch of a finance director cuts my budget. I am at my wit’s end; I see no point on going on.’
‘Pull yourself together, man,’ empathised Cicero, giving the MPF a few painful slaps on the cheeks to try to get some sense into the man, ‘this is not the time to let these people grind you down. How did your campaign perform?’
‘I told you, didn’t I? Have you not been listening to a word I have been saying, Cicero? I was driving up awareness and our ads were getting noticed. Even that pig of a Finance Director said he had noticed them.’
And therein lies the crux of the issue, Cicero’s MPF was speaking Serbo-Croat with a Bosnian accent while his Finance Director was speaking Polish with a just a trace of a Prussian dialect. It is no wonder they were never going to understand each other.
It is no use the marketing team wittering on and on about awareness, saliency and cut through when the rest of the business is concerned about ROI, NPV and P&L. Who cares about the kind of thing marketers talk about if it does not contribute to the bottom line or impact on financial performance at the end of the day somewhere along the line?
It is not the fault of the business if we are not understood it is ours. And all marketers serious about doing great marketing must learn how to present our wonderful discipline in a way that the board, the business, their colleagues can understand. We must learn to speak their language and to understand it and to talk our language in ways they understand and care about.
Cicero read recently that ‘marketers are trained to broadcast when in fact the key to success is listening’. Exactly. We must learn to listen to what the rest of the business is saying, how they say it and listen to what they are saying about what we do. Only then can we start to develop the arguments that we need to show how investment in marketing can help deliver business success. That is business success, not marketing success.
How does awareness contribute to the bottom line? Where does saliency fit? What is the ROI on marketing investment? And one final tip-stop talking about marketing spend or marketing costs. And start talking about marketing investment. It’s all about language.
3 hours later the MPF had pulled himself together and Cicero’s messages had been received and understood. If the IT boys can grasp simple business and financial concepts, for they get it more than us marketing folks do, it really can’t be too difficult. Can it?
And so the moral of today’s tale for all budding marketers - go bi-lingual and learn to speak the same language as every one else in the business, especially the finance people.
Is it only me?
Cicero has spoken before about the health and safety hazards posed by the proliferation of trolley dolly briefcases on our streets and pavements. Today Cicero would like to return to this subject and to raise a new danger posed by these weapons of mass destruction. Indeed Cicero would like to urge the enviro-mental health and safety person who got in touch last week for his view on these killers.
And before going on, and possibly on and on and on, there is a need to explain the origins of the term trolley dolly briefcases.
The term comes from air stewardesses, or trolley dollies, who were among the first to use these monsters. At the time this was ok. There were few in circulation and largely confined to aerodromes. Now they dominate our pavements posing unnecessary dangers on our crowded pavement to the health of other bi-peds. Has anyone ever calculated just how much extra room these things take up? It must be massive. And you don’t even need planning permission or a license to have one. It’s crazy.
And now I must point out a new hazard. And Cicero is sure that once you see this danger lurking in our midst that you too will be shocked and appalled.
Now one reason for the sales success of these beasts is that they make it easy for people to move around their office or wardrobe or, if you are a woman, the complete stock of an electrical retailer. This strength is also its greatest weakness. The wheels on these weapons make weight irrelevant. Until you reach steps. At which point teams of Sherpas are required to shift these missiles. Have you seen what happens when people wheeling around their worldly goods hit steps? You get a log jam. And as queues of unencumbered bi-peds build up behind those straining every sinew to lug their now highly immobile missiles up and down steps and stairs, the health and safety hazards too start to mount and become more and more risky and dangerous with every passing second.
And so is it only me who says that something must be done before these wheeled health and safety risks cause injury and death? And so today Cicero calls on like minded and sane and safety conscious people to join in a crusade to dis-encourage the sale of all trolley dolly briefcases. Ban them, we say. Get rid, we assert. Exterminate all, we cry.
Have a great week. But be careful out there. The pavements are a dangerous place.
Sis felix. Et sis fortunatus.
Happy that more and more people are engaging in debate through this medium on the big issues of the day. Pleased with the quality of the debate unleashed. And thrilled that even the enviro-mental and health and safety community, for so long silent in the debate, have at last been stimulated, or maybe provoked, to join in. Cicero believes that to this community he is fast becoming a cult, or at least he thinks that is what he is.
And a great big thank you to the third Chuckle Brother for his masterful critique and detailed de-construction of last week’s witterings. Initially sent through privately it is especially pleasing that this was re-written and submitted for others to enjoy. However sadly Cicero’s inability to use new fangled technology meant that this masterful thesis was accidentally deleted. Hopefully it has not been lost forever and it can be restored
It cannot be long now before ‘Cicero Speaks’ is being used in universities, colleges and business schools throughout the land though there is still probably more work to do to dumb down these thoughts before they might be suitable for such an audience.
In any event Cicero promises that all comment is read and gratefully received and the points made will be re-visited over the coming weeks once due consideration has been given to the issues raised and once a cogent, compelling and comprehensive response formulated. Cicero recognises that this is the least you can expect.
And so to this week’s intelligent insight.
One night last week Cicero joined a fellow Marketing Professional to imbibe a small alcoholic libation at a local hostelry.
At this point Cicero would like to stress that the borders, freedom and democracy were secure, and that your security was in no way compromised. In any event he was no more than a phone call away at all times from a swift return to work should there be any threat to liberty, security and democracy. It is important that this is pointed out.
In any event none of this came to pass. However said Marketing Professional Friend was in a highly emotional, distressed and agitated state.
‘ No one understands me and what I do’, he sobbed to Cicero, ‘ I strain every sinew to raise brand awareness and to produce advertising that really cuts through and then just when me and my team start to make some progress, that son-of-a bitch of a finance director cuts my budget. I am at my wit’s end; I see no point on going on.’
‘Pull yourself together, man,’ empathised Cicero, giving the MPF a few painful slaps on the cheeks to try to get some sense into the man, ‘this is not the time to let these people grind you down. How did your campaign perform?’
‘I told you, didn’t I? Have you not been listening to a word I have been saying, Cicero? I was driving up awareness and our ads were getting noticed. Even that pig of a Finance Director said he had noticed them.’
And therein lies the crux of the issue, Cicero’s MPF was speaking Serbo-Croat with a Bosnian accent while his Finance Director was speaking Polish with a just a trace of a Prussian dialect. It is no wonder they were never going to understand each other.
It is no use the marketing team wittering on and on about awareness, saliency and cut through when the rest of the business is concerned about ROI, NPV and P&L. Who cares about the kind of thing marketers talk about if it does not contribute to the bottom line or impact on financial performance at the end of the day somewhere along the line?
It is not the fault of the business if we are not understood it is ours. And all marketers serious about doing great marketing must learn how to present our wonderful discipline in a way that the board, the business, their colleagues can understand. We must learn to speak their language and to understand it and to talk our language in ways they understand and care about.
Cicero read recently that ‘marketers are trained to broadcast when in fact the key to success is listening’. Exactly. We must learn to listen to what the rest of the business is saying, how they say it and listen to what they are saying about what we do. Only then can we start to develop the arguments that we need to show how investment in marketing can help deliver business success. That is business success, not marketing success.
How does awareness contribute to the bottom line? Where does saliency fit? What is the ROI on marketing investment? And one final tip-stop talking about marketing spend or marketing costs. And start talking about marketing investment. It’s all about language.
3 hours later the MPF had pulled himself together and Cicero’s messages had been received and understood. If the IT boys can grasp simple business and financial concepts, for they get it more than us marketing folks do, it really can’t be too difficult. Can it?
And so the moral of today’s tale for all budding marketers - go bi-lingual and learn to speak the same language as every one else in the business, especially the finance people.
Is it only me?
Cicero has spoken before about the health and safety hazards posed by the proliferation of trolley dolly briefcases on our streets and pavements. Today Cicero would like to return to this subject and to raise a new danger posed by these weapons of mass destruction. Indeed Cicero would like to urge the enviro-mental health and safety person who got in touch last week for his view on these killers.
And before going on, and possibly on and on and on, there is a need to explain the origins of the term trolley dolly briefcases.
The term comes from air stewardesses, or trolley dollies, who were among the first to use these monsters. At the time this was ok. There were few in circulation and largely confined to aerodromes. Now they dominate our pavements posing unnecessary dangers on our crowded pavement to the health of other bi-peds. Has anyone ever calculated just how much extra room these things take up? It must be massive. And you don’t even need planning permission or a license to have one. It’s crazy.
And now I must point out a new hazard. And Cicero is sure that once you see this danger lurking in our midst that you too will be shocked and appalled.
Now one reason for the sales success of these beasts is that they make it easy for people to move around their office or wardrobe or, if you are a woman, the complete stock of an electrical retailer. This strength is also its greatest weakness. The wheels on these weapons make weight irrelevant. Until you reach steps. At which point teams of Sherpas are required to shift these missiles. Have you seen what happens when people wheeling around their worldly goods hit steps? You get a log jam. And as queues of unencumbered bi-peds build up behind those straining every sinew to lug their now highly immobile missiles up and down steps and stairs, the health and safety hazards too start to mount and become more and more risky and dangerous with every passing second.
And so is it only me who says that something must be done before these wheeled health and safety risks cause injury and death? And so today Cicero calls on like minded and sane and safety conscious people to join in a crusade to dis-encourage the sale of all trolley dolly briefcases. Ban them, we say. Get rid, we assert. Exterminate all, we cry.
Have a great week. But be careful out there. The pavements are a dangerous place.
Sis felix. Et sis fortunatus.
Sunday 15 November 2009
It has to be you
It seems that last week Cicero awoke ‘a sleeping giant’. It is amazing how many of you saw fit to respond to my equality remarks. Some in favour. Some against. And it is amazing to how many of you are known as ‘anonymous’. Cicero is still not sure if all the remarks came from one ‘anonymous’ or several ‘anonymous’....or should that be ‘anonymii’? Now there’s an interesting question to start this week’s debate. Anyway Cicero would like to thank all those who took the time and trouble to respond to last week’s remarks. Cicero did enjoy reading the vies, comments and opinions expressed.
Now let’s see if we can be as controversial this week as last. As they used to say ‘it’s good to talk’.
The other night Cicero was watching the old flickering cathode ray tube in the corner of the room and caught an ad for Yahoo proclaiming its devotion to serving you. And there are other brands out there similarly communicating that you make it happen. Vodafone, for example, is talking about ‘Power to you’. There will be countless others talking about making you the centre piece of the brand.
Is this good or bad? Let me give you a point of view, I know you would expect no less.
Now it might be argued that brands which announce that they are all about you will be pledging their adherence to the false prophet of customer centricity, whatever that might mean. Well, yes, you could argue that but surely brands must be about more than that.
As consumers we want to love or hate it brands. We want them to stand for something real and specific, tangible and definite. We do not want wishy washy statements of intent, empowerment and affection.
Brands which talk about being whatever you want us to be is lazy marketing. Clever brands and intelligent marketing are about understanding what your customers want, showing that you understand this and delivering it. A brand cannot be all things to all people. As someone once said, and on this occasion I have no idea who said this, ‘great marketing is about making choices’. It is based on four principles: know your customer; segment accordingly; target sparingly; position specifically. A brand which says we will be whatever you want us to be does and cannot deliver against these principles.
Think of the easy going friend you have. The one with no ideas or suggestions of their own. The one who is always happy to go along with what you suggest. The one who lets you do whatever it is you want to do, whenever you want to do it. Now compare that friend with the one with interests, views and opinions. The one with whom you clash and argue.
Which friend bores you the most? Which friend stimulates you? Who do you want to spend time with?
And whatever is true of friends is also true of brands.
So should some acne ridden account executive come to you with self indulgent ideas of building a co-creative, self empowering and you based brand, talk to him ,or her, about boring and interesting friends. Your brand must have an identity that is clear, compelling and cogent. Just be yourself. Don’t be about you.
Is it only me?
Did you read recently that eco-mentalism is now deemed to be a religion which means you can’t be sacked for believing that the world is about to end unless we sit in the dark, unless we end all economic growth and unless we stop leaving the DVD on stand by? I kid you not. The world has now taken leave of its collective senses.
This has now been proved in court and a man has been told that he can take his employer to tribunal on the grounds he was unfairly dismissed because of his views on climate change. Have you ever heard such errant nonsense? This claim was made under regulations designed to cover any religion, religious or philosophical belief. Eco-mentalism, which in my view is more a medical condition than a belief system based on a philosophical idea, has the same status as Christianity, Judaism, Hindu, Islam or any of the other great religions on the planet. It is now faith.
I have a belief that Scotland will win the World Cup, that I am going to win the lottery, even that I am attractive to women, even though I am fast approaching my dotage. Yet I would not claim that any of these beliefs or faiths is in any way religious. Indeed many would think that such beliefs are more fantasy than faith.
And yet believing that global warming, or dodgy weather, will lead to the end of civilisation as we know it means you are now seen as having religious belief. Ye Gods. Of course if the eco-mentalists are now claiming religious belief surely the converse must be equally true and that those who consider climate change as natural and cyclical must also be considered religious. I bet that is not the case though.
I would also like to know what kind of a kooky lawyer when given the brief to sue for wrongful dismissal thought ‘I know, we will argue that eco-mentalism is a religion and you are therefore protected’. How do the minds of these people work? I swear they are wired up differently from you and me.
Now all I need to know is that health and safety adherents have been given religious protection and I will know the lunatics have taken over the asylum. It will not be too long now before Cicero’s thoughts on eco-mentalism, equality, health and safety, and other pc nonsense, will be deemed blasphemous. I see it coming.
Have a great week.
Sis felix. Et sis fortunatus.
Now let’s see if we can be as controversial this week as last. As they used to say ‘it’s good to talk’.
The other night Cicero was watching the old flickering cathode ray tube in the corner of the room and caught an ad for Yahoo proclaiming its devotion to serving you. And there are other brands out there similarly communicating that you make it happen. Vodafone, for example, is talking about ‘Power to you’. There will be countless others talking about making you the centre piece of the brand.
Is this good or bad? Let me give you a point of view, I know you would expect no less.
Now it might be argued that brands which announce that they are all about you will be pledging their adherence to the false prophet of customer centricity, whatever that might mean. Well, yes, you could argue that but surely brands must be about more than that.
As consumers we want to love or hate it brands. We want them to stand for something real and specific, tangible and definite. We do not want wishy washy statements of intent, empowerment and affection.
Brands which talk about being whatever you want us to be is lazy marketing. Clever brands and intelligent marketing are about understanding what your customers want, showing that you understand this and delivering it. A brand cannot be all things to all people. As someone once said, and on this occasion I have no idea who said this, ‘great marketing is about making choices’. It is based on four principles: know your customer; segment accordingly; target sparingly; position specifically. A brand which says we will be whatever you want us to be does and cannot deliver against these principles.
Think of the easy going friend you have. The one with no ideas or suggestions of their own. The one who is always happy to go along with what you suggest. The one who lets you do whatever it is you want to do, whenever you want to do it. Now compare that friend with the one with interests, views and opinions. The one with whom you clash and argue.
Which friend bores you the most? Which friend stimulates you? Who do you want to spend time with?
And whatever is true of friends is also true of brands.
So should some acne ridden account executive come to you with self indulgent ideas of building a co-creative, self empowering and you based brand, talk to him ,or her, about boring and interesting friends. Your brand must have an identity that is clear, compelling and cogent. Just be yourself. Don’t be about you.
Is it only me?
Did you read recently that eco-mentalism is now deemed to be a religion which means you can’t be sacked for believing that the world is about to end unless we sit in the dark, unless we end all economic growth and unless we stop leaving the DVD on stand by? I kid you not. The world has now taken leave of its collective senses.
This has now been proved in court and a man has been told that he can take his employer to tribunal on the grounds he was unfairly dismissed because of his views on climate change. Have you ever heard such errant nonsense? This claim was made under regulations designed to cover any religion, religious or philosophical belief. Eco-mentalism, which in my view is more a medical condition than a belief system based on a philosophical idea, has the same status as Christianity, Judaism, Hindu, Islam or any of the other great religions on the planet. It is now faith.
I have a belief that Scotland will win the World Cup, that I am going to win the lottery, even that I am attractive to women, even though I am fast approaching my dotage. Yet I would not claim that any of these beliefs or faiths is in any way religious. Indeed many would think that such beliefs are more fantasy than faith.
And yet believing that global warming, or dodgy weather, will lead to the end of civilisation as we know it means you are now seen as having religious belief. Ye Gods. Of course if the eco-mentalists are now claiming religious belief surely the converse must be equally true and that those who consider climate change as natural and cyclical must also be considered religious. I bet that is not the case though.
I would also like to know what kind of a kooky lawyer when given the brief to sue for wrongful dismissal thought ‘I know, we will argue that eco-mentalism is a religion and you are therefore protected’. How do the minds of these people work? I swear they are wired up differently from you and me.
Now all I need to know is that health and safety adherents have been given religious protection and I will know the lunatics have taken over the asylum. It will not be too long now before Cicero’s thoughts on eco-mentalism, equality, health and safety, and other pc nonsense, will be deemed blasphemous. I see it coming.
Have a great week.
Sis felix. Et sis fortunatus.
Friday 6 November 2009
Thanks for the memory
Ave atque salve.
Well it seems that ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’ could not be bettered and so if Anonymous reveals his or her identity then a wee prize may be forthcoming unless Cicero’s recognition is reward in itself which Cicero is sure will probably suffice. It was an inspired selection and does go to prove that the young can write fitting, motivating and inspiring autobiographies. And for all I know perhaps Ms Lewis’s autobiography may also meet these criteria.
And now for the greatest philosophical question of all time.
A question so big that many businesses have given up trying to answer it. But for those who stick the course and who do answer it, they find the elixir to everlasting wealth and prosperity. And today Cicero is going to try to provide an answer to this one simple question……what is a brand?
For many the brand is about advertising and becoming well known. It’s about having ads during Coronation St. Wrong. Did you know that until recently Marks and Spencer did not spend a penny on advertising? True. And yet no one would deny that M&S is not a great brand. And what about Google, Starbucks, Amazon? Does anyone think that these are not great brands? And yet, and I think this is true, these businesses have become successful and well known without advertising their wares. And think too about Marlboro and Viagra, both can’t advertise and yet both are well known brands. Anybody got an issue with this thesis?
Another school of thought is that a brand is a logo or a mark or a strap line of some sort. Wrong again. A brand is much more than that and the logo or mark or strap line should be an outcome from the brand communicating what it stands for and its values. It is not the brand. Think of a brand as a great big iceberg of the sort that sunk Kate Winslet and Leonardo di Caprio and should have sunk Celine Dion but missed. Now if we are to believe what the eco-mentalists tell us, our brand iceberg will be much reduced in size due to global warming or climate change or whatever wonky weather is called this week. However the basic physics remain the same and no matter the size of your iceberg 90% remains below the water line. The same can be said of a true brand. The logos, the marks, the visual design stuff which many see as the brand are only the tip of the iceberg with the substance of the brand hidden from view.
So now that I have told you some of the things that a brand is not, you are probably waiting impatiently for Cicero to spill the beans and to share with you the elixir of business success. Well if we are patient Cicero will do exactly that.
Traditionally a brand is described as ‘a promise’. A promise that is unique, compelling and which delivers rational and emotional benefit to meet customer needs. And because this promise is unique and compelling it is able to charge a price premium.
And so Disney offers ‘entertaining fun’, Coke offers ‘refreshment’, Apple offers ‘innovative design’. Now should be the brand manger of any of these great brands be around you might take exception to these descriptions of your brands but for the purposes of my musings these descriptions will suffice.
But Cicero being Cicero believes that this definition of a brand is too simplistic and does not go far enough. Anyone can make a promise. The trick is to deliver against it, to deliver an experience that fulfils that promise. And so for me a brand is a promise and an experience, an experience that lives up to the promise across all touch points consistently, day in and day out.
And yet it is more than that. Great brands stay in the mind. They are not dismissed from the memory banks. The experience lives up to and even exceeds the expectations set by the promise that they linger around among the old grey matter influencing future brand choice and making sure the brand, its promise and its experience are talked about with friends and family, producing word of mouth marketing.
And there you have it. A brand is a promise. An experience. A memory. No mention of price and price premiums (or should that be premia?)
And from this flows things like logos, visual identity, photographic style, tone of voice and the like.
Finally here’s a thought to leave you with and indeed is this week’s homework-given what has been said about brands so far in this rambling monologue, is Ryanair a brand? Answer next week but your thoughts welcome.
Is it only me?
Cicero had occasion recently to visit an exhibition. It was very interesting but the amount of floor space given over to various kinds of equality and minority units would amaze you as it did Cicero. And should you be perusing the job pages of any of our national newspapers, and especially the Guardian, the house magazine for taxpayer funded busy bodies, (though Cicero is sure that if you read these words you are so unlikely to read this organ) take careful note of all the positions advertised to promote equality and engagement. This is an important phrase among the tax spending classes, though hands up if you know what it means.
I came across a workshop held recently by an organisation which will remain nameless which was, and I quote, ‘designed to support senior job applications and is open to the following staff:
• women
• black and minority ethnic staff
• staff with disabilities
• lesbian, gay, bi-sexual staff
• transgender/ transsexual staff. ‘
Can anyone spot who is missing from this list?
Now don’t get me wrong. I am strongly in favour of equality, equality of opportunity that is. And I passionately loathe discrimination or prejudice anywhere it occurs. However is it only me who thinks that it is now about time we had equality for white, middle aged, middle class males? I see no units being established or funding provided to help support and give a hand up to this endangered species which is lingering and soldiering on despite the barriers being put in place to stop this group becoming as extinct as the Amazonian green cross snake. Does this group not have the right to progress their careers? Do they not require similar levels of help and support when applying for senior level jobs?
Let me know what you think. Perhaps now is the time to man, or should that be person, the barricades.
Have a great week.
Sis felix. Et sis fortunatus.
Well it seems that ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’ could not be bettered and so if Anonymous reveals his or her identity then a wee prize may be forthcoming unless Cicero’s recognition is reward in itself which Cicero is sure will probably suffice. It was an inspired selection and does go to prove that the young can write fitting, motivating and inspiring autobiographies. And for all I know perhaps Ms Lewis’s autobiography may also meet these criteria.
And now for the greatest philosophical question of all time.
A question so big that many businesses have given up trying to answer it. But for those who stick the course and who do answer it, they find the elixir to everlasting wealth and prosperity. And today Cicero is going to try to provide an answer to this one simple question……what is a brand?
For many the brand is about advertising and becoming well known. It’s about having ads during Coronation St. Wrong. Did you know that until recently Marks and Spencer did not spend a penny on advertising? True. And yet no one would deny that M&S is not a great brand. And what about Google, Starbucks, Amazon? Does anyone think that these are not great brands? And yet, and I think this is true, these businesses have become successful and well known without advertising their wares. And think too about Marlboro and Viagra, both can’t advertise and yet both are well known brands. Anybody got an issue with this thesis?
Another school of thought is that a brand is a logo or a mark or a strap line of some sort. Wrong again. A brand is much more than that and the logo or mark or strap line should be an outcome from the brand communicating what it stands for and its values. It is not the brand. Think of a brand as a great big iceberg of the sort that sunk Kate Winslet and Leonardo di Caprio and should have sunk Celine Dion but missed. Now if we are to believe what the eco-mentalists tell us, our brand iceberg will be much reduced in size due to global warming or climate change or whatever wonky weather is called this week. However the basic physics remain the same and no matter the size of your iceberg 90% remains below the water line. The same can be said of a true brand. The logos, the marks, the visual design stuff which many see as the brand are only the tip of the iceberg with the substance of the brand hidden from view.
So now that I have told you some of the things that a brand is not, you are probably waiting impatiently for Cicero to spill the beans and to share with you the elixir of business success. Well if we are patient Cicero will do exactly that.
Traditionally a brand is described as ‘a promise’. A promise that is unique, compelling and which delivers rational and emotional benefit to meet customer needs. And because this promise is unique and compelling it is able to charge a price premium.
And so Disney offers ‘entertaining fun’, Coke offers ‘refreshment’, Apple offers ‘innovative design’. Now should be the brand manger of any of these great brands be around you might take exception to these descriptions of your brands but for the purposes of my musings these descriptions will suffice.
But Cicero being Cicero believes that this definition of a brand is too simplistic and does not go far enough. Anyone can make a promise. The trick is to deliver against it, to deliver an experience that fulfils that promise. And so for me a brand is a promise and an experience, an experience that lives up to the promise across all touch points consistently, day in and day out.
And yet it is more than that. Great brands stay in the mind. They are not dismissed from the memory banks. The experience lives up to and even exceeds the expectations set by the promise that they linger around among the old grey matter influencing future brand choice and making sure the brand, its promise and its experience are talked about with friends and family, producing word of mouth marketing.
And there you have it. A brand is a promise. An experience. A memory. No mention of price and price premiums (or should that be premia?)
And from this flows things like logos, visual identity, photographic style, tone of voice and the like.
Finally here’s a thought to leave you with and indeed is this week’s homework-given what has been said about brands so far in this rambling monologue, is Ryanair a brand? Answer next week but your thoughts welcome.
Is it only me?
Cicero had occasion recently to visit an exhibition. It was very interesting but the amount of floor space given over to various kinds of equality and minority units would amaze you as it did Cicero. And should you be perusing the job pages of any of our national newspapers, and especially the Guardian, the house magazine for taxpayer funded busy bodies, (though Cicero is sure that if you read these words you are so unlikely to read this organ) take careful note of all the positions advertised to promote equality and engagement. This is an important phrase among the tax spending classes, though hands up if you know what it means.
I came across a workshop held recently by an organisation which will remain nameless which was, and I quote, ‘designed to support senior job applications and is open to the following staff:
• women
• black and minority ethnic staff
• staff with disabilities
• lesbian, gay, bi-sexual staff
• transgender/ transsexual staff. ‘
Can anyone spot who is missing from this list?
Now don’t get me wrong. I am strongly in favour of equality, equality of opportunity that is. And I passionately loathe discrimination or prejudice anywhere it occurs. However is it only me who thinks that it is now about time we had equality for white, middle aged, middle class males? I see no units being established or funding provided to help support and give a hand up to this endangered species which is lingering and soldiering on despite the barriers being put in place to stop this group becoming as extinct as the Amazonian green cross snake. Does this group not have the right to progress their careers? Do they not require similar levels of help and support when applying for senior level jobs?
Let me know what you think. Perhaps now is the time to man, or should that be person, the barricades.
Have a great week.
Sis felix. Et sis fortunatus.
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