Johnny Lyle

Never has the need to be clear and demonstrably different been, well, so clear

I’ve spent much of my time this weekend looking for a place to rent for our holidays next summer. It’s one of the most enjoyable bits for me and I just love looking around at who’s letting what and how much they want for it.

But this weekend, I noticed something else altogether and that is how few decent platforms there now are offering a good access to rental properties and how undifferentiated some of those competing have become.

The one we used to use all the time was Holiday Rentals. These have now either been taken over by, or are changing their name to Home Away, which I have to say is a sightly weaker name than they have already.

holiday-rentals.co.uk, which takes to the UK version of the homeaway site

The .com name takes you to a more US based site and the old UK name takes you to the interim UK (ish) site.

http://www.homeaway.com the US based version

The site that seemed to have the most property in the area we were looking was actually another one called Holiday Lettings. I didn’t realise at the time, but this is part of Rightmove and works very well indeed.

Holiday Lettings, which is now part of Rightmove

But the one that really shocked me was Owners Direct (UK).

It may be my imagination, but this is the one that started the direct rental revolution many years ago (even though Holiday Lettings claim it is ten years old!).

Will the real Owners Direct please step forward..... — Will the real Owners Direct please step forward…..

They are in a situation where the four simple combinations of their domain name are owned by different people with totally different sites.

http://www.owners-direct.co.uk/ is dreadful holding page.

http://www.ownersdirect.com/ is an individual trying (unsuccessfully I assume) to sell their house in Virginia for $599,000

And http://www.owners-direct.com/ is another portal style site that doesn’t really have any stock.

But, for a market to be this confused is terrible for customers. It’s a simple lesson to any brand or business owners as to why you need to be really clearly differentiated in the market you address.

It’s not always important to say exactly what you do in your name (the Ronseal, does exactly what is says on the tin school of thought) but it’s absolutely vital that it is very clear who you are and what you stand for.

The alternative school of thought (the Egg, Orange O2 model) is one that has an equal place but is perhaps now done to death in certain markets as we run out of fruits, colours and fluffy animals with an available domain name.

It’s a basic fact that If you look the same as your competitors, your customers will not know who you are and why they should talk to you.

Perhaps that’s why all those years ago we called our business Purple Circle and not the very forgettable Fisk, Lyle, Slack to join the army of three name acronym design agencies that dominated the early 90’s.

The rules are still the same now, and I’m truly amazed that there are still some site/brand owners, like Owners Direct who haven’t learnt them.

Brand Experience, branding

Is £1 the new brand battleground?

Poundworld Nottingham

The old Woolworth’s in Nottingham, Victoria Centre is now the new Poundworld. It’s apparently the biggest they have, so I thought I’d have a look around it.

Most of their stock isn’t for me, but I guess I’m not their target audience. They have some great value Johnson and Johnson facewash and 3 cans of diet Cherry Coke – all for the bargain price of £1. They have electrical items, hygiene and bathrooms stuff and almost anything youcould possibly need to kit out the perfect value house. But what really surprised me was the fact that they have a chiller.

In this chiller are Richmond sausages, 2 litre packs of milk, back bacon (in slices of six), vile Rustlers burgers (priced up at £1.49!) and a sandwich selection that even includes Coronation Chicken on a brown bread – again, all for £1.00.

Is £1 the new battleground – Judging by their hideous sandwiches, I think not!

Purely in the interests of research, I bought one of their Tuna mayo sandwiches and can report that it was truly disgusting. I ate one half of one sandwich and threw the rest away. For a gannet like me who considers chiller grazing in garages as top fodder, this is highly unusual behaviour.

Greggs across the way however have a new offer of crusty cobs with ham or cheese at only £0.80 each or both for £1.55. Now these are lovely. Fresh, crusty, made in the store on the day and remarkable value.

I can honestly say, because the £1.00 sandwich was sooooo bad, that it will make me look with some deep suspicion at every other thing they sell too. Proof again that one bad brand experience can reflect badly on your entire branded offer. Don’t just look at some of the elements of what you do with your brand, Look at all of them.

So no, £1 isn’t the new battle ground. It’s £0.80.

Thanks to James Cridland for his Poundworld facia shot. You can see more of his stuff here.

branding

The end of an era – another structural change quietly changes our buying behaviour

The end of an era as my Filofax is replaced by a Moleskine diary

It’s a bit of momentous day for me today as I have just been out and bought a Moleskine diary. This probably isn’t that momentous for most people, but it is an indication for me of a structural change in the way I work.

I bought a Filofax years ago – when I was still at college in fact – and have kept all of my diaries dating back over 20 years. I’ve seen off a few covers, but the format of the inners have remained broadly the same.

Over this 20 year period, I have now switched almost completely to a shared online diary – as most of us who work in groups have done too. Google Calendar is our calendar of choice and it works brilliantly. It allows others in the team to make appointments for me and then invite me along. When I get those invites, I add them to my Filofax diary, so the two should correspond perfectly.

But they never do.

Because I never carry my Filofax anymore.

It’s not that it has become any chunkier, it’s just that I now only carry a laptop bag with me 90% of the time, and this doesn’t have room in it for a big chunky Filofax. It does however have room for my new best friend the Moleskine notebook.

On my trip the US recently, I carried it everywhere and it is full of little notes and reminders of that trip as wel as ideas and notes for blog posts. It has quickly become a very treasured little possession. I liked it so much, that I have been out and bought the matching Moleskine diary. Week to view, with a detachable address book section in the back. On Amazon at a bit under £8.00. You too can be a bit like Hemingway yourself, by buying some of his heritage here.

I completely understand that this isn’t significant in any way to most people, but to me it shows that they way I buy and the way I behave is now different.

Filofax have changed and are doing lots of cool things with Twitter, Facebook and limited edition books, but they can’t really influence the size of the bag we carry and this alone has changed my behaviour.

I look at the branding work we do at Purple Circle. Yes it’s still branding. But it isn’t branding like we were doing 20 years ago. I’m looking at our own industry and wondering where the next structural change is going to come from. I suggest you do the same.

branding

I’m an entertainment guru you know!

I was interviewed for an article in the Publican magazine the other day and they have published with myself being listed as an ‘Entertainment guru’.

I’ve never been a guru before, so as you can imagine, i’m pretty excited by the whole thing, even if everyone I know is taking the p**s out of me mercilessly.

Joking apart though, the Publican do a brilliant digital edition, which you can browse through almost as well as the magazine itself. You can see the whole issue here.

branding

Brilliant ‘wide boy ‘ tactics used by Red Bull

Monster Energy - Who sponsor events and behave in a way that is perhaps even less subtle than Red Bull

In an article in the Publican Magazine published yesterday 09/11/09, Wetherspoons, the Pub operator accused Red Bull of ‘Wide Boy’ tactics in trying to get their drink back into their pubs.

Last month, Wetherspoons, had delisted Red Bull in all of its 783 pubs and replaced it with Monster Energy. This brand is one of those ones that has come out of nowhere by sponsoring all sorts of monster truck and drag bike events.

What Red Bull have been doing is sending in students, with a can of Red Bull up their jumper who were then briefed to say they had to do it because they didn’t like the taste of Monster Energy. For me, this is exactly the sort of subversive and slightly naughty idea that you would expect from Red Bull and despite the fact that they have now been caught, I say good luck to them.

In a taste test, both Monster and Red Bull would come out as a bit horrid and sugary and more like a cough medicine than a drink, so it is more about the image than the taste. The only reason that I can see that Red Bull has been delisted is for purely commercial reasons. They have been given a better margin or a bigger incentive to stock Monster, who are obviously trying to ‘buy’ their way into the Wetherspoons estate. If this isn’t wide boy tactics, I don’t know what is.

branding

Two minutes to change your brand behaviour

The old ways of working are changing forever. I’m reading Seth Godin’s Purple Cow at the moment, which I know I should have read already, but I never quite got around to it before now. Sorry.

The long and short of the book seems to be that ‘if you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll no longer get what you always got’.

We don’t respond to print advertising anymore. We interact with each other online and we often come into contact with brands online. We don’t just want products that work, we want brands that make us feel good about ourselves, help us bed into our particular tribe we have identified we want to be part of and speak to us in a relevant voice.

All this, and at the same time, listening to what we have to say, because we the customer owns a brand these days, not the company who may own the production.

This short video sums it up beautifully. You have two minutes to change the way your brand behaves. Use them wisely.

augmented reality, branding

Sixth sense ‘Minority Report’ user interface in the real world

In the 2002 film Minority Report, with Tom Cruise, We see the most amazing example of a totally intuitive interactive user interface. Here’s a clip for you to remind yourself of what a clever film it was and how quickly ideas that are being posed, are now being delivered.

I remember watching it at the time, thinking how incredible it would be if we all started relating to our embedded computer systems like this. It’s as though the boundary between reality and computer is being continually blurred.

But now this new TED lecture from Pattie Maes at MIT Media Lab, Fluid Interfaces Group (what a cool title that is!), shows that this virtual or even augmented reality is almost achievable now.

It starts off a bit slowly, but then you can hear the crowd gasping at what is possible. From something as simple as your own hand becoming a keypad, to your own shopping preferences being overlaid onto available shopping products.

She even references Minority Report and then goes on to prove that they can deliver it today, for about the same price as a conventional mobile phone!

I am looking at the brands we work with and thinking what endless possibilities this delivers and what endless problems we now have to overcome to allow them to speak with a common voice on yet another platform in which they operate.

branding

The M1 is 50 today

Happy birthday the M1. I’ve spent many a long hour in your company and you’ve always been very good to me. When I was commuting to work in Kilmarnock from Nottingham, I used to drive with you up to Leeds and then join the A1 north. When I head south, it’s still you I choose over the A1 every time.

When it was built and opened in 1959 it didn’t go very far and ran from St Albans (J5) to crick (J18). Over the years it has been lengthened to its current 193 mile length, linking London to Leeds.

The M1, when it opened in all it's three lane glory back in 1959 - note the lack of crash barriers and even speed limits!

So is the M1 a brand? And if it is, what does it stand for?

I think, when it first opened, it stood for freedom. It was the first truly joined up bit of quick road. Yes, it was a year later than the Preston bypass (now part of the M6) but it actually joined places rather than just went around them.

If there is a north/south divide in the UK, then the gap is closed by the M1. Life at the top is very different to life at the bottom. Leeds is a great city that is evolving into a fabulous cosmopolitan place to live and work, but it ain’t no London and never will be.

It’s seen many historical events too, from the Kegworth Air disaster in 1989 where its accessibility probably saved many lives, to the Buncefield Oil depot fire in 2005, which you can still see the aftermath of today.

It was closed on September 6 1997 to allow the funeral procession of Diana, Princess of Wales to drive from London to Althorp, Northamptonshire. They even allowed pedestrians to line the road to pass on their respects.

But like any 50 year old brand, the M1 has continued to evolve to stay relevant to it’s audience of road users. It’s being widened all over the place and is still a quick route for the north/south commute – at least most of the time anyway.

I am, perhaps slightly weirdly, an M1 fan.

Anyway, happy birthday M1. And any more.

And a late PS. According to the BBC, there is a musical called ‘Watford Gap – the Musical’ that is being launched at the services today too. I’m sure that will be absolutely brilliant!

BeWILDerwood, branding

BeWILDerwood – The last few days of the season

I was over at BeWILDerwood yesterday on the last Friday of half term and their last day where they were expecting a great crowd before they close for the season on Sunday.

There were 1600 people in and an amazing atmosphere. The night before BeWILDerwood had been awarded the title of the best large attraction in the East of England, beating Duxford Air Museum and Woburn Safari Park at the regional Enjoy England for Excellence Awards.

All of us on the broken bridge

Having spent time there when it was that busy. I’m not surprised. The children were having a great time, swinging and whooping in the woods and the Twiggle Team had put on free lantern making sessions for all, leading to a giant lantern parade through the woods as the light fell.

The crowds are on to make your own lantern

It was a magical procession, with well over 500 people parading happily through a totally unlit woods on their way home. They were lead by a giant lantern bat called Snagglefang.

DoodleTic leads the lantern procession with Snagglefang the Lantern Bat

It seems so simple to get children to play again and for their parents to play with them, yet many get it so wrong. BeWILDerwood proves it can be done beautifully and elegantly and without breaking the bank. Seven of us ate and drank at lunch for £32 and we ate well, with the biggest hot dog I have ever seen, made from a beautifully tasty award winning Norfolk sausage. It was as good as if you’d barbecued it yourself, having made the effort to get lovely ingredients first.

The slides were brilliant too and you can see from the face of young Charlie here, quite how much fun he’s having.

Charlie at speed on the Slippery Slope

I know I’m biased because we’ve been involved in BeWILDerwood from the outset, but to see the way that my kids played and our friends kids played and how they all slept on the way home, it was an absolutely brilliant day out for very many families. I love this place, my kids love this place and my friends all love this place and I’m not surprised it’s been recognised as the best in the east!

Bring on the new season.

And how cool does it look at night?

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