15 minutes of your life that would be very well spent, if you choose to watch this. Some brilliant advice for the way you make decisions about what you do and how you do it.
Category: branding
I have loved this Rugby World Cup so far and have been getting up early on a Saturday and Sunday morning to watch the England games. Watching England at football World Cups’ is normally a pub based sport, so seeing the rugby without a drink opens up a whole new way of watching the game and is highlighting the difference between two of our national sports in exceptional clarity.
So what does the rugby brand have that football really needs, if it is to remain as our national sport of choice?
1. Respect. It’s being spoken a lot in the game of football, but never lived. The level of dissent in football is horrific and can be seen every saturday in kids games up and down the country.
2. Ref’s with authority. Related to the above, but the refs are exceptional, make very few mistakes, rely on their ‘fourth official’, have linesmen who help and do see things and manage a game beautifuly.
3. An advantage rule worth the name. In rugby, the advantage has time to work through, or it comes back to them. It’s a genuine advantage and penalises those who break the rules.
4. Players who care. The England Rugby players look and act like they are genuinely proud to be there. Name one player on the football side whose proudest moment is pulling on his England shirt, other than maybe David Beckham?
5. Players who think about the consequences. During a rugby game, there are fists and fights all over the place. At the end of the game, they are all hugs and hapiness. It’s incredible to see and wonderful. If football could breed better losers, they’d have better winners too.
6. They admit when they get it wrong. Tindall has been a proper fool. No doubt about it, but he did confess and not try and put a press gagging superinjunction, to try and hide it. Getting all the bad news out fast is always the best solution in the long run.
7. The management are more honest too. If their team have been dreadful, they say so. Who believes most of what the football managers say in their post match interviews? It was amusingly refreshing to see Neil Warnock after QPR’s 6-0 thrashing to say they were awful and got thrashed – But he is a rule unto himself and always has been.
So what does this say for the future of the rugby and football brands?
To me, it says that rugby is on the way up as it is a brand built on sustainable and real values. Football is built on money. when this stops rolling, or even slows down, there will be massive casualties and many fans walking away.
Looking at the number of kids on a rugby training pitch these days, i’d be very surprised indeed if it doesn’t become an even bigger participation sport than it is today, into the next generation.
Using toilet humour to appeal to the mass market to buy a particular brand of energy efficient light bulbs is a simple, but quite lowbrow trick.
But it made me smile.
After ages of waiting and not quite being bothered with the queues, I finally went to Jamies Italian in Nottingham for lunch yesterday and I was really rather impressed.
I can’t say I was completely blown away with the amazing tastes and flavours, but the food was certainly lovely and I did have very high expectations, so I was probably heading for a fall.
We both had different bruschetta starters, one tomato based and one mushroom based, which were actually the highlight for me. The tomato one wasn’t as classically made as the Carluccio’s version and had ricotta cheese in it, which was a surprise (but a nice one). The mushroom one, was just gorgeous and full of flavour. The main courses of a ragu based pasta and a carbonara were okay, but not really mind blowing. As we had starters we only had the mini mains and they were a good size and really good value for the quality of the food we were eating.
A few things did stand out though.
They were very quick to offer and bring a jug of tap water, which is good.
The staff were excellent, really friendly, helpful and knowledgable.
The wine was a bit on the steep side. £4.95 for an okay 175ml glass of rose is not terribly cheap.
The menu was a bit confusing. I was staring at it for a few minutes to a) find the beer and b) make sense of how to work it.
But they have created a lovely conversion in the building and it was a happy buzzing place to be on a lunchtime and probably near full.
£33.00 for lunch isn’t an everyday thing for me, but as a treat, it was money very well spent.
If I was going to launch a new brand, I probably wouldn’t call it Ainol. Some Potty mouth people may misinterpret the name as being vaguely rude sounding. But according to the Chinese company Ainol, They’ve launched an iPad 2 killer at a FRACTION of the price.
Looks okay doesn’t it?
I think they are being pretty brave using the iPad2 trademark in their own marketing, as Samsung have already had to remove their Galaxy Tab from sale due to some Apple patent infringements. (and the fact that it’s an almost exact copy).
The best bit for me is their strapline that they are using to take Europe by storm. “Enjoy life, enjoy Ainol”. I wouldn’t have chosen the brand name and I certainly wouldn’t have chosen the strapline to go with it.
I’ll leave you judge for yourself whether you think it will be a sales success in Europe.
My family are away in Spain without me at the moment, so I have been using my time wisely and watching all the back episodes of the remake of Hawaii Five-O.
A few things jump out for me.
1. It has the most unsubtle product placement I have ever seen, with the sponsors ‘Holiday Inn’ dragged into almost every story as some part of the plotline. So for example, when a witness needed to be moved, they sent her off to the Holiday Inn rather than an un-named hotel.
2. The cars throughout are Chevrolets. And I now want a Camaro. I guess it is a mid-life crisis, but I think it’s the sort of subtle car I need for cruising around Nottingham. It will sit well in our car park, next to Mich’s diesel Smart ForTwo. He would be sort of an offset for my huge fuel consumption if I drove this around town.
3. The series is so silly and glossy – almost like a a set designer has spent a few weeks watching Spooks over here and copied all their tech tricks.
4. There are some brilliant references to the old series though. My favourite so far was when McGarret was about to get Danno to do the line and he stopped him and said ‘Don’t even say it’ when he was about to say ‘book him Danno, Murder one’.
So does product placement work in this context?
For me, it has drilled the concept of going to Hawaii for my 50th into the front of my mind (in four years, before you ask), just so I can use the gag. And it’s made me want a Camaro, so yes, I guess it has.
Will I do either though?
I doubt it.
So Product placement works in a few ways. It changes perceptions for high value products and has a chance of conversion to a sale on low value, more immediate product.
If it’s done well and built into the story, it can work. Okay, more research.
One of the things that has struck me since living in Nottingham is that there are very few world class landmarks for people to use in their iconic shots to sum up their visit. We all know it should be the castle, but i’m afraid that will never happen.
London’s images are ever changing, but the London Eye, the Swiss Re, the upcoming Shard and maybe Canary Wharf are amongst the most the most used. This shows that modern stuff can take over from the more traditional images of Big Ben, Whitehall, Downing Street and Buckingham Palace.
I grew up in a suburb of Oxford called Headington (close to my beloved Oxford United’s old Manor Ground) and we had one amazing one, which was this massive pair of kicking legs coming out of the roof of the Moulin Rouge Cinema.
And then in 1986 the now famous Shark arrived and it’s now 25 years old.
So what has this got to do with branding?
Well, it’s partly a nostalgic look back for me, but it is also a reminder that creating a brand for a place is more than just using pictures of dreaming spires, or lush meadows by the Thames, it takes some brave design and an inspirational character (or two) to make it happen. And this is the same for any brand too.
To stand out in a crowded market, you have to stand out, just like my favourite shark.
I’m not sure what it says about the Jack Rabbit beer brand or it’s brand values, other than the fact that it is a beer aimed at lads, but I did actually laugh at the end.
I do think that it is funny enough to help establish this as a world renowned beer. Whoever did it should be proud, you have an excellent, world-class and brave client.
As much as I have been a critic of HMV in the past, I have to say that they seem to have changed their game plan a little. I was tasked with getting a Harry Potter DVD and thought that I may as well get the box set.
Online pricing showed it could be had for around £28.00 from Amazon and £25.50 from Play.com
And in store at HMV, it’s £28.00 too and you can pick it up now.
Result = happy children + a sale in a retail high street store stolen back from the brink of the Internet.
I was sent this article from e-consultancy by the very clever Rosalind Johnson at A Different View and whilst it works, I think they could have gone a stage further.
So what can’t social media do for you and your brand?
1. Make you cool
Everyone is on social media platforms, but few have a properly joined up strategy as to why they’re doing it. There’s more chance of you getting it wrong and being caught ‘dad dancing‘ by the very people you are trying to win over. If in doubt, don’t do it at all.
2. Create great products & services
Great products comes from a balance f inspiration, striving for quality and listening to what your customers needs, wants and dreams. You can listen to what they are telling you if you’re any good on these social channels, but As Henry Ford said, ‘If we’d asked our customers what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse’.
3. Quash criticism
People are talking about you already, good or bad. Social media allows you to listen and respond (if you do it well), but if you’re crap at everything else, you’ll still get criticism – rest assured if you pretend you’re listenibg and do nothing, it only gets worse (doesn’t it National Rail!)
4. Provide free marketing
This is a total myth, it costs time and money to do it well. Again, if you can’t do it right, you’re better off not doing it at all. My figures proved that here.
5. Improve your customer service
You can’t polish a turd, but you can roll it in glitter. The more you advertise a bad product, the faster it will fail and all the other ways of describing a disguise for bad products or service ring true. Customers have access to all the information in the world and are not afraid to tell people. If you get caught telling lies on a social media platform, your life will get worse and worse. The only way to solve it is to ‘fess up and sort the problem.
Johnny Lyle's new brand thinking 