Tosser, moi?
Now, my wife is American. Like many colonials, she can tell you in astonishing detail about who her great great great uncle twice removed was, where he came from and his occupation etc. She has pretty much memorised - sorry - memorized - the names of family members stretching back for the last four hundred years. Now most Brits on the other hand, me included, have a fairly vague idea about where they actually come from and their roots. Some struggle, in even having a really clear picture of who their Grandparents really were. So over the summer I decided to rectify this genealogical inequality and trace my own family tree. Shock horror! Turns out the ‘Stubbs’ name originates from County Durham and I’m descended from a long line of northerners. Came as a bit of a surprise actually. But maybe that’s where I get my craving to eat fish and chips once a week from - it’s in my genes. Anyway, less surprisingly, our family name derives from our having been ‘woodsmen’ - literally the men who cut the tree to a ‘stub’.
Which all brings me neatly to the focus of this entry - the name Stub. Stub just happens to be the brand name in Singapore of a very neat little packet one keeps one’s cigarette stubs in instead of ‘tossing’ them onto the street. At least if you live in Singapore, where tossing in public, so to speak, is pretty much illegal. Anyway the advertising campaign,‘Don’t be a tosser’ is a fantastic idea that fits with my four maxims of what makes great advertising - it’s immediate, relevant, simple and witty. Any brand that can make you smile, is generally on the right track.
If only I smoked I’d buy some!
Ship Shape Marketing in Stockholm
People have a few misperceptions about Sweden. One of them is that it’s so cold we spend our lives dodging polar bears in the streets of Stockholm. Happily this week the weather has been spectacular, well above 25C/80F all week, and not a polar bear in sight.
However there have been some spectacular yachts parked in Stockholm harbor. The Volvo Ocean Race is in town, on one of it’s scheduled stop-overs. The race circumnavigates the world during its 10 months and is truly one of the worlds great endurance events. The ‘Race Village’ in Stockholm has been extremely busy during the last few days with over a million visitors attending the daily activities. It’s also been a great opportunity for Stockholm, as The Capital of Scandinavia, to promote itself and I’ve been fortunate enough to have been keynote speaker at some of the official events. The brand strategy we put in place for Stockholm has received enormous publicity and generated plenty of discussion. Being invited to give these presentations has also given me a chance to listen to some of the other speakers. The Swedish telecoms giant Ericsson has two boats in the event and the Ericsson team captain gave a fascinating insight into the business dynamics behind their sponsorship in the event.
Interestingly the race is the major vehicle in their marketing program. Ericsson spend a cool 100 million dollars using the event to meet and entertain their corporate clients around the world. When it comes to getting quality time with your key customers, what better place than on-board a boat with the eleven stopover ports giving them a global opportunity to do it. I’ve always said brand building and marketing is about so much more than just advertising - especially in the B2B arena. Ericsson are doing exactly that - now that’s smart marketing.
BMW Campaign, San Francisco Airport: 6/10
This campaign has been running for a while now using the ‘aircraft’ analogy. My biggest problem with it is that Saab actually did this far better back in the 1970s and 80s in the UK. An old mate of mine, Nigel Fordham, was the agency account director on it, and he actually succeeded in converting me to driving Saab Turbo’s for a while. At least until GM bought them and totally messed them up and destroyed what was a great car brand. Overall Saab had more justification for the aircraft theme, as Saab was originally an aviation company. Hope Saab survive - the brand deserves to.
Anyway, overall I like the Beemer campaign. You have to admire brands who stick to their knitting and BMW stick to their brand with their Ultimate Driving Machine message - devised by London WCRS in the 1970’s and an example of great positioning if ever there was one. I ask myself ‘is it selling cars’ though - well I ask myself is anything selling cars just now? I suspect they are doing better though than most (certainly better than most US) car manufacturers. I give it a 6/10
American Pie - When Everything Goes Wrong.
Loris Diner, San Francisco Airport
I think I’ve said before San Francisco happens to be one of my very favorite places in the world. I’ve been here for a few days now running web workshops and just have to pass on a relevant brand related story, about one of the worst but actually best experiences I’ve had in a long time.
I was due to fly to Denver out of SFO, I was on an 8.45 morning departure and arrived two hours prior, knowing what US security can be like. I was booked with one of the major US Airlines and made my way to the check in area. The lines (when in America I never use the term queue for American political correctness) were horrendous, stretching way back. I smiled knowing that with my my Star Alliance Gold card check-in would give me a speedy passage. I showed my reservation to one of the attendants and asked where my particular check-in was, and he replied ‘ right here buddy, with everyone else’. There must have been over 100 people in the ‘elite’ check-in, and this particular airline had only 3 check in staff that day. 30 minutes later I’d fought my way to the front of the line and handed over the print out of my reservation. The lady behind the desk, who bore a striking resemblance to an American version of Margaret Thatcher in her prime, told me ‘You’re at the wrong airline desk, next please’. ‘But I can’t be’ I replied, ‘Look at the Airline reservation it’s your airline’. Now with a just a hint of a smile she replied ‘Code share. It’s our route but operated by our partner airline. You better get over there - you’re gonna be late’.
I ran to the next terminal and found the check in. The queue (forget political correctness) despite my gold card was even worse. Another 45 minutes go by and I’m finally checked in and now in the line (line actually doesn’t do it justice - it was a herd of miserable, sweaty humanity). Get through and now have just 5 minutes to dash to the gate (starving but forget breakfast), which is a fair distance through the terminal. I arrive and discover the flight has been overbooked by 20 people and due to the fact that I’m late (I’m late!) I’ve been bumped. I stood at the desk, simmering, ready to explode. I tried to tell them the torture I’d been put through at their hands. I was ready to unleash all sorts of threats on them - anything I could think of. I’d never fly with them again. I’d write a letter to their President. In fact I’d write a letter to THE President. He seems like he wants to sort out America’s problems - well this is a problem. Then it happened. One of the airline ladies behind the desk came over and appeared genuinely sorry for what I’d been through and the way I’d been treated. ‘I’m personally going to do whatever I can to sort this out’, she said. For the next 15 minutes she checked every possible departure until she found really great connections, made phone calls, fixed ticketing issues. She finally booked me onto another flight. In the process she upgraded me for my trouble. To round it out she even gave me vouchers for breakfast. I made for the diner to write this blog.
The point is this. More than ever today companies need brands to deliver really great experiences and a huge part of that is genuine customer service. That one lady changed my view of her airline and convinced me that at least some of their people were trying. It’s people that make the difference you see. Most brands, and certainly in the business to business sector nearly all brands, rely on their people as the primary brand carriers. Companies need to invest and commit to their people like never before. It’s something we help our clients with at Dowell Stubbs and Gyro through our Brand Engagement program and it’s something I’m seeing the value of even more in these dark economic times.
If you’re own people aren’t fully on brand - forget the advertising campaigns. It isn’t going to work.
Don’t worry, be happy…let it snow…
I was stranded for a day in the UK on Monday, and saw first-hand London in ‘crisis’. I’m not talking about the current economic woes, but…snow.
Now living in Sweden I’ve become pretty comfortable with large amounts of the cold, white stuff, and being in London on Monday, came as a bit of a shock. I’d forgotten how badly organised we Brits can be sometimes. The whole city, ten million people, came to a grinding halt, despite several days warning of cold weather. London Mayor Boris Johnson made a wonderful TV appearance early Monday morning to calm the nations capital. In a reference to the last great snowfall Britain had had 19 years earlier, when the nations entire train system was brought to its knees by ‘the wrong sort of snow’ (what’s the right sort?) Boris said ‘well, this time it’s the right sort of snow, just too much of it’! What can you say…
However I have to admit London was at it’s charming best. A sort of ‘Dunkirk spirit’ prevailed with people saying things like ‘never mind, have a cup of tea, it’ll all be alright’ etc. and grown adults in the streets were having snowball fights. It made me think. I had the distinct impression that people are sick and tired of thinking about the world’s current economic worries and recession, and simply wanted a day off to enjoy themselves again!
Enjoying ourselves is what gives us a feeling of real living, and when people feel that they tend to spend money. Not a bad thing at the moment.
Julian Stubbs on Brands & Positioning
If marketing is built on the fundamentals of branding, then branding is very much built on the fundamentals of positioning.
So what do we mean when we say positioning? Whether we actively think about it or not, positioning is something that influences our everyday decisions about all sorts of issues. From simply buying lunch or considering something more substantial like which make of computer to buy, we are constantly being influenced by positioning to help us make our choices. Highest quality products vs. good-enough quality, reliable vs. cutting edge innovation, cheaper vs. more expensive, bigger vs. smaller - we are constantly putting things in ‘mental boxes’. It’s all about how we position things in our mind - that’s positioning.
The same applies to how we all view and position corporations. If we consider Microsoft or Apple, Volvo or Volkswagen, or even GE or Siemens people instantly have pretty clear mental pictures of what those corporate brands represent. So how do great brands attain distinct and strong positions?
Today we are all deluged with media. Although the number is somewhat debated, we are all impacted by around 500 brand impressions everyday* via TV, radio, posters, magazines, newspapers, word of mouth and increasingly the internet. We are surrounded by brands competing for our attention. To help build clear brand positions in all the media noise, great brands keep their positioning simple, clear and consistent. As one example look at BMW and how they have kept a clear position and consistent focus over the last 30 years built around ‘the ultimate driving machine’. They even boil that tag line down to just one word - driving. What they are really saying is if you want a true driver’s car, then you have to put BMW on the consideration list. The tag line is there to prove why the brand is relevant to the consumer’s life. On a corporate, level look at the new positioning of Phillips, the Dutch multinational, Sense and Sensibility. On their corporate website Phillips claim they are… ‘convinced that no matter how complex and advanced an application or solution is, it should be simple to use and make sense’. Phillips is using this to bring their activities into a clear focus.
So positioning can play a crucial role in shaping how the world views a company and its activities.
The value of advertising
The newspapers drive me mad sometimes. We are all pretty well aware that the world’s economy has some major problems to sort out at the moment. The press however seem to delight in making matters worse, and enjoy nothing more than the current ‘bad news’ feeding frenzy.
When times get tough one of the areas that often suffers is marketing. This is almost entirely driven by the thought that marketing is a ‘cost’ and as such can be pruned or even deleted in tough times. With the rise of digital media we have never been in a stronger position to truly measure the value in what marketeers get back for their marketing investment.
Which leads me nicely to my subject of this particular entry - effective marketing advertising that really pays off.
Last week I attended, as one of the judges, the 100 Watt Advertising effectiveness awards in Stockholm, Sweden.
The award is sponsored by the Swedish Advertising Association and Dagens Industri - the Swedish equivalent of the Financial Times. During September and October we sifted through the best of Swedish advertising for 2008. The work we were reviewing was to be judged firstly upon the works effectiveness at achieving the clients business targets and secondly at the ‘creativity’ employed to do this. It was very revealing to be a judge of such an event - and convinced me even more so that advertising and marketing first and foremost should deliver a greater payback than the cost. If your agency isn’t comfortable with that concept fire them.
So, don’t give up investing in marketing or advertising - just demand a decent return for it.
The winners details for the 100 Watt Awards can be found on the site listed below.
http://www.annons.se
The value of B2B brands
I was recently invited to sit in as a guest on a client’s budget planning process. The company is a large, and well-known international organisation and there were around fifteen people present at the meeting representing everything from corporate communications to business unit managers.
The subject got around to media spend and the subject of allocation between corporate communications and the various business areas came up as well as allocation between media channels. The debate started to get focused around ‘brand advertising’ versus ‘product advertising’. A number of people in the room, mainly from the business units, argued that they just wanted hard hitting advertising focused on features and benefits that helped them sell products. After 30 minutes or so, it started to get rather heated and eventually, I suspect to call on someone in some way neutral, I was asked to give some thoughts.
This particular company is a very technically oriented organisation, and I knew that ‘branding’ is a relatively ‘new’ concept for many of the engineers who have traditionally driven it. I started out by stating that ‘corporate’ brand advertising that doesn’t actually help sell a product is actually waste of money (big grins from the engineers around the table). Equally, product advertising that doesn’t help to build the brand is equally wasteful (big smiles from the corporate communications folk). I’ve personally never seen it as an either or situation. In terms of the returns they could expect to get from their ‘brand’ advertising these should be measured not in direct sales that week, month or even year - but over the next several years. And therein lies the true value of brands - they help to sell products and services not just tomorrow - but over a number of years. Branding is a long-term process and the payback and value is equally long term.
It’s interesting how few B2B brands today attempt to put an actual financial value on their brands. In the latest B2B Marketing Insights survey conducted by Gyro International the majority of marketeers who responded said they felt brands were as relevant and important in the B2B world as in B2C (business to consumer). Yet despite this only 9% value their brand on the balance sheet and only 7% measure the value of brand equity.
Brands in the B2B sector are more relevant today ever before, as it’s one of the last few unexploited areas that can deliver business advantage. Most companies have already been through intense focuses on quality and production - to make them-selves as lean and efficient as possible. Supply chain and distribution has also seen some radical changes over the last ten years with the internet making e-commerce almost stronger in the B2B area than even in B2C. And with technology advantages becoming ever more difficult to find and ever more easy for competitors to replicate, marketeers need to find sustainable competitive advantages outside of the traditional comfort zone of the product sphere. That makes ’the brand’ the key area. Companies in the B2B sector have always valued and engaged in marketing - but it has been seen as a cost of sales. To view branding as something that actually puts value on the balance sheet - is another deal.
The B2C world has looked at various formulas for working out that ‘value’ for some time now. Take the latest Interbrand Best Global Brands 2008 survey, which puts a monetary value on the asset of the world’s biggest brands. Not surprisingly Coca Cola came out top, with a ‘brand asset value’ of over $66 BUSD. But in the top ten are two almost purely B2B brands - GE and Intel, with values of $53 and $31 BUSD respectively. These are both companies that recognise the value that their brands can leverage in not only helping them sell their products and retain long term customers, but importantly add value to their bottom line as well.
It was Intel, who recognised that differentiation by products and technology alone would not be enough. The man behind the famous Intel Inside campaign, Dennis Carter, was questioned about why a business-to-business chipmaker such as Intel would launch such an intense and expensive marketing campaign. He replied ‘In technology where products change rapidly, the brand is doubly important – more important than in packaged goods’. Not a bad quote to end with.
Sigtuna, Sweden. First Capital of Scandinavia.
Last week I was invited to give a ‘breakfast club’ presentation to the members of the local tourist board in my home town of Sigtuna, Sweden. Very happily I said yes. I love where I live. Despite traveling a fair bit and getting to see some pretty exotic destinations, my favorite place in the whole world is right where I live. Nothing beats walking down Sigtuna high street, wandering to the small bakery and buying a doughnut (called a ‘Sigtuna munk’ locally). I arrived at 7.15 AM to the venue, a spectacular conference centre located on the outskirts of town, expecting maybe twenty or so people to attend, and walked in to find around sixty people waiting! 
My talk touched on the work I’ve been involved with in developing the Stockholm ‘Capital Of Scandinavia brand’. Back in medieval times Sigtuna was actually Sweden’s ‘first’ capital city, so ‘technically’ it’s also Scandinavia’s ‘first’ capital!
We also had some great news to announce on the Stockholm front. Last week, in an independent survey, Stockholm was ranked 7th in a list of major European cities in terms of ‘brand strength’ and ranked at number 2 when size and brand assets are taken into consideration. A fantastic result. So, we seem to have done a good job of putting Stockholm on the map!
The Greatest Elevator Speech - Ever
I recently gave a speech on branding in the business to business sector at a well known venture capitalist company’s annual meeting for technology companies. The venue - a fantastic castle, just outside of Stockholm, Sweden.
My co-speaker for the morning was Christer Fuglesang, the first - and to date only - Swedish astronaut. There were around 70 people in the audience, mostly CEOs and CFOs, who, like me, were transformed by meeting a real live astronaut! Instantly there was a queue of very senior people in suits, forming a line like ten year olds for his autograph.
Christer kindly began his presentation by referencing mine, and saying he’d been particularly interested in the part concerning ‘elevator speeches’. ‘Well’ he said, ‘when I meet someone in an elevator, I just begin by saying, I’m an astronaut’.
Game, set and match. That has to be the ultimate elevator speech of all time.
