It was let slip on 24th January that we would be facing a May 6th general Election and this will surely change everything, whoever gets into power.
I don’t want to be a doom and gloom merchant by any stretch of the imagination as recessions have traditionally been a superb opportunity for well managed businesses to establish a wider market share and trade through, without their weakened competitors who fall by the wayside as economic casualties.
According to Credit Action, the average owed by every UK adult is £30,226 (including mortgages), which is 133% of average earnings.
There is also the small matter of how much has been loaned on our behalf to bail out the poxy bank, which runs into the hundreds of £billions and the £200 billion that has been spent quantitative easing.
Well, from May onwards, we’re having to start paying for it through higher taxes and lower public spending, so I believe we will be facing our most austere era for many generations.
My own family had a very successful soft drinks business based in the South east that was the main supplier through the war years. When the country emerged from war in 1945 it was seen as the drab/austere choice that had almost been forced on them for the last six years and people walked away in their droves eventually leading to it’s collapse in the 60’s.
So what does all this mean for brands?
It’s entirely what you make of it!
1. It’s a chance to grab market share
By offering great value, better quality products that people care about. This is far more than just offering the cheapest price for a poor product as it is my opinion that in really tough times, people buy far fewer cheap products, they buy ones that they think will last and dispose of the discretionary purchases.
How good can you make your product for the money, not how cheap can you get away with making it?
2. It implies that online price checking will become vital
We are in the perfect economic market, where we can all check the price against anyone else out there. If the product is identical, why does it matter where you get it from – as long as you can trust them.
3. The weak will leave the market
In the design market, there are now loads of ‘design firms’ with no designers. They have a front person (suit) who then subcontracts the work to whoever is available. Yes it saves money, but it is a sure way to introduce inconsistencies and slowly undermine brand equity.
4. It is the time to reinvent constantly
Like the Lyle’s example above, I guess my Grandad stopped innovating and let his company slowly die. People became bored, because the product became boring to them. A brand has to constantly evolve and introduce new touches, tweaks and ideas or people will have excuses to flirt with their peers.
5. Don’t just cut costs, cut the right costs
In this great article from Accenture, they point out that Companies that did really well in the last recession did not just cut costs — they cut the right costs. They diverted resources to activities that actually created value.
So that’s it.
Like I wrote last year when Woolworths waddled pathetically into financial obscurity through lack of effort and like any good Cub Scout would advise.
I was in Liverpool at the weekend and as some of you will know, I am a huge fan of the City and the people.
It was my birthday and rather than travel abroad for a few days, we decided to stay within the UK and immerse myself as a total tourist and I simply loved it.
I’ll write it up over the next few days, but in summary:
We went to Flanagans Apple for an early beer. This has to be one of the best Irish pubs anywhere.
We then went on to lunch at the award winning deli restauarant called Delifonseca, where the food, the perfectly chilled Jever herb beer and the service were all superb.
After checking in at the fantastic Hard Days Night hotel (like any good tourist should do), we went off to walk through the Met Quarter, down through Liverpool One and then back up to the Big Wheel that graces it’s huge plaza. This was in it’s last few days in Liverpool and is on its way back to Nottingham to arrive in Mid Feb.
Back off to the Cavern Pub (opposite the Cavern Club) and then a few minutes to relax before joining our family at Bar Four, for some overpriced cocktails, even more overpriced wine and scarily expensive Peroni beer.
The evening saw us move onto the brilliant Italian (and quite huge) Zelig’s, where again the food and the service was brilliant.
After dinner we got some VIP tickets for Palm Sugar to enjoy a bit of un-named celebrity company where we danced and jumped about for the rest of the night.
I have to say that whilst I love Nottingham, I’m not sure that we could have such a night here. The genuine friendliness of the welcome in Liverpool was universal.
The quality of the venues was exceptional and the sheer scale of the developments that are undergoing is breathtaking.
I’ve been catching up with some of my Podcasts over the holiday period and this one by Jack Welch seemed to be good advice for all sorts of situations from MP’s expenses to any bad publicity your brand faces.
In his PodCast on 31/10/08 The Welch Way, Jack Welch, the former CEO of GE explains what he thinks you should do if you are getting a mauling in the press.
1. Get the whole story out there immediately. Their job is to deliver the whole story and you can rest assured they will find it, whether you like it or not.
2. Be consistent in the way you tell the story to which groups. Don’t tell them what you think what they want to hear. These inconsistencies will be reported and you will be well and truly caught out.
3. Be proactive. Tell your story by taking it into your own hands. You can’t change the coverage to your liking, but you can get the last word via your own websites and blogs. As long as your site has a reputation for being truthful/soul searching rather than propaganda you can still win in the end.
All of this applies to a news story as well as the way you manage any brand. Tell the whole story truthfully and consistently and you will win if the product is good enough every time they come into contact with it.
It may be slightly more expensive, but at least I feel (vaguely) human
I booked a flight this morning to go an join my family in Spain in the Summer and as it’s just me on my own, I thought I’ll just go for the cheapest available. It’s not for long anyway. It’s only a 2.30 hr flight.
But when I went onto Skyscanner and saw the prices of both Ryanair and BMI Baby were almost identical, guess which one I booked? BMI baby was £93 and Ryanair £88.
Yes, it’s BMI Baby for me. And whilst they tried to sell me a seat selection so I could stay with my group (at £7.99 per seat and £10.99 for extra legroom seats) that I’m not in, it was a far more open experience.
I hate the Ryanair brand. It makes me feel grubby and they attempt to catch you out with every single policy they introduce from online check in to the choice of cards you choose. When I booked the flight for our ski holiday, I used Easyjet and the card payment cost me an additional £3.50. With Ryanair for the four of us that would have been £30 as I don’t have one of their prepaid chav cards to hand, which is the only way you can get out of paying a stinging credit card fee. Hmmmm.
Brands that treat their customers that badly always fail in the end. The only good thing about Ryanair is that they are keeping the others keen with their pricing.
I happened to see the TV ad for We Buy any Car last night and whilst it is incredibly irritating, it is one where you have to remember the domain name and know immediately where to look if you want to sell your car in desperation. I actually went on the site last night and went through the valuation process to be offered a value that equated to almost exactly 80% of the trade price of my car according to Parkers price guide. I may not forget the domain, but I reckon even I’d buy my car again if I could get it at that price. No wonder they will buy anything, they pay rubbish money for it – But as a last resort, I suppose they have their place.
I got to thinking that TV advertising itself has become a whole lot more desperate too, with two appalingly repetitive examples around on our TV’s as we speak. The simply dreadful ‘Go Compare‘ with the chunky flying singer just saying the domain name over and over again.
And the equally irritating Compare the Market ads. Whilst they are hateful, I do again, remember their domain name, so they are working.
Insurance is obviously a very cut throat market, with everyone just trying to get remembered as we all assume that their products are equally bad. This classic from Michael Winner for Esure, isn’t the worst in the series, but the best one seems to have been removed. (probably due to be really irritating in the extreme)
There was a new entry for me this Christmas with perhaps the most shite ad ever produced for Safestyle. The people behind this should be ashamed of themselves. I hope it worked for the client, because it doesn’t seem to do a huge amount of good for the reputation of the advertising and design industry.
And then three absolute classics through the ages, which probably go to prove that there have always been a few really annoying ads that we all remember, the first of these is our old favourite Cillit Bang with Barry Scott. Its a bit of a low res version but as far as I can tell, it’s one of the oldest around on the net, from when Barry was a boy. Enjoy.
And another all time favourite. If I say ‘Oh Ambassador you’re spoiling me’ you’ll probably know who it is. One of the worst dubbed, internationally transplanted ads ever made, but again, one we all still remember. Does that make it a success? I guess it probably does.
And to end on the ultimate.
The irritating ad that gave birth to the entire genre. Shake and Vac.
Sit back, enjoy and smell the freshness of your carpets washing over you.
If there are more irritating ads out there at present, or of old, i’d love to see them and add them to this compilation.
Updated
I saw this film last night and I have to concede that it is a touch of genius. They’ve taken an irritating idea and built a real brand around it.
I can see this story running and running and being the ‘Shake and Vac‘ of this generation.
I’ve never been a big fan of delivered pizza. It always seems to be a bit like wet cardboard and the cheese is so tasteless and slimy that it just makes you feel unhealthy even thinking about eating it.
Pizza to me is a beautiful italian food made with fresh bright ingredients and it’s something that we’ve always made at home with the kids and their friends to introduce them to simple tasty cooking.
And now to their eternal credit, Domino’s have admitted the same. They had obviously commissioned some focus groups where people told them how poor their product is and shock of all shocks they listened.
You can see the site they have produced to talk about the story here.
And look at the video they have produced using their real staff, showing how much it upsets them when people tell them how bad their food is (and probably that they are likely to lose their jobs if the sales don’t pick back up.
We have long been fans of customer feedback with our involvement in feefo. It shows that listening to your customers is one thing, but actually having the nerve to do something about it is a far bigger and braver one.
Any business that has the balls to stand up and say their product wasn’t good enough in this direct a fashion, to me, deserves success. I haven’t tried their new pizza yet, or their old one for that matter, but I have to say, that I am vaguely tempted.
George and Henry, two nephews I should make more effort to stay in touch with
Over Christmas, we spend a lot of time with our families and all make assurances that we should make more effort to stay in touch and see more of each other through the year.
Inevitably though, with all the good intentions in the world, the thick of thin things soon takes back over our life and we get back into our lazy ways.
But I tried an experiment this year and it really worked. Rather than just sending my Aunty Freda a card and a present, I wrote her a letter. It took me about 20 minutes and ran to three pages of actual writing. It was mainly gibberish about the kids and work and everyday bilge, but she was so delighted that she rang me up to say thanks. She’d not been well, so it gave her a nice lift. She also claimed it was the first letter she had every had from me in all my 43 years. (so what happened to all those forced thank you letters then?)
My first ever boss has been taken il too, so I wrote to him. Again not anything particularly significant in its content, but it allowed me to lay out how much of an influence he had been to me in my early years in advertising and design. And I thoroughly enjoyed writing it.
And then twice, when I was about to text people wishing them well on sad anniversaries, I rang them instead and it couldn’t have been more appreciated by both.
I wrote a piece about branded stamps a few months back and had a good response from people, but I’m going to make 2010 my year of the letter. I’m going to write and ring rather than text people. Royal Mail could do with the business anyway as my mate Tim Garratt has stopped using them!
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed Christmas, have a great New year and speak soon.
If you care enough to text, then call.
If you care enough to call, then write.
Spooky
The amazing wisdom of a new years resolution generator
I just looked on this site called http://moninavelarde.com and it generates a new years resolution for you. Look what it gave me!
It was a big day yesterday on my blog and I saw the huge power of social media first hand.
Around lunchtime whilst talking in the office, I really thought that we had uncovered the fact that the RATM Christmas number one was a scam that had been funded by Sony to get sales for all their artists up. I didn’t like the manipulation it implied, so I started digging.
I put two and two together and made twelve.
There are so many coincidences that point towards it being a set up, I thought I would run with it and see what came out.
The most amazing thing was quite how fast the truth did come out.
I put the post up at 2pm and by late afternoon there were those who believed the story and those who violently opposed it. There were RATM fans who went to such lengths to defend their band that I was genuinely shocked.
And then the lady at the centre of the whole conspiracy theory came on to the site and put her side of the story. Later that day we spoke at length on the phone and I was reminded very simply of the human side to this. What started as a laugh for Jon and Tracy Morter became a beast that they simply couldn’t control.
There were hundreds and maybe thousands of people who just didn’t believe they could have done it for nothing (me included) and that is because social media channels and conspiracy theorists started to paint them as orchestrating gurus, pulling the strings for big business.
Social media has immense power. It has the power for social change and social good as well as massive media manipulation. But it also has the power to get things wrong and escalate things out of control.
Not all of the information on the Internet is correct, we all know that. Many coincidences are just that, coincidences.
For me, Jon and Tracy Morter are a slightly geeky, Internet obsessed couple who have been caught in the middle of a prank that grew beyond anything they could have imagined.
I’m sorry that I added to their woes, but very pleased with the fact that they have been able to come on here and have a voice that clears their name so conclusively.
I have to put this first as it’s the most important part of the story. I was convinced that I had found something that proved a conspiracy was afoot with Sony funding the viral campaign to get RATM to the coveted UK Christmas number one position.
But I was wrong.
It was never my intention to cause offence to Jon, Tracy and their family, it was to uncover a story that I thought was very interesting.
So I want to say sorry to Tracy and Jon Morter unreservedly.
I saw the response below here from Tracy and it got me (very) worried that my facts may be a bit out of line, so I mailed her and asked her to give me a call, which she did. We have just had a good chat with her kids running around in he background shouting for their tea.
The first response from Tracy Morter
Which she followed up a few minutes later with this
The second response from Tracy Morter that got me really worried
I offered to remove the entire post, but Tracy asked that I leave most of it in place as others will surely uncover the same series of coincidences and we agreed that this was a better plan to put my apology and her answers first.
Tracy assures me that all those coincidences are just that, coincidences.
They picked that song because it had rude words in it and they thought it would be funny on the Christmas Top of the Pops. I agree.
The Essex sites were done as a ‘swap’ to allow Jon to hold the real ‘World Cup’ and they didn’t even get paid for it.
The sites that link to the song on play.com are not connected to them and they are not earning commission from them.
They didn’t announce that they would be working to get Three Lions to number one for the World Cup. They refused an interview with the Evening Standard and the newspaper sort of made the potential connections themselves.
Tracy herself acknowledges that the coincidences are painting a picture against them, but they are just that. Coincidences.
Incidentally, Simon Cowell hasn’t been in touch and they haven’t been offered a job by his company.
And they’re not planning to run a similar campaign next year.
I’ve tried to be as open as possible here and published all the responses apart from the ones that are just offensive to the Morters or myself and don’t make any relevant points.
The story itself
Okay, I appreciate this isn’t going to be a very popular blogpost with some, but I said I was going to use this platform for my thoughts and these are my personal thoughts..
We’ve been talking about this a lot in the office and are now completely convinced that the RATM is no viral backlash, it’s a very clever piece of viral placement that is funded by Sony themselves.
So lets look at the evidence.
1. Simon Cowell wins both ways up, he is a director of Sony BMG who look after RATM. He has been since 2005 according to Wikipedia.
Rage Against the Machine’s album is on Epic Records. This single Cowell released on his own label is actually owned by Sony Music UK. Like Sony Music UK, Epic Records is owned by Sony Music Entertainment.
2. The strategy he employed is the same as that he used within the X Factor format itself. He is a bright fella and knows that the UK public either love him or hate him. He is the archetypal Mr Nasty – A pantomime baddy of the modern age. So, when he says he hates Jedward (and who could blame him for that) the whole of the voting public come out in their defence and vote for them to stay in the show. This has the effect of pushing the viewing figures to the highest they have ever been.
3. The guys behind the Facebook campaign don’t appear to have other jobs. Jon Morter has a linkedIn page that just lists him as professional. Perhaps he is a professional viral marketer?
4. There are press releases that have been placed on PR Log that have been written by an unnamed third party, but link back to a French Concierge Service that has in itself got links through to the UK music industry. I’m not sure this is a coincidence.
5. All the money is being given away to Shelter. Again, maybe I’m being overly cynical but I don’t believe that RATM have made Soooo much cash from their music that they can afford to ignore a casual £1/4 m of unexpected income? It sounds a bit premeditated to ward off the bad press in case they got caught. Which they have been.
6. The campaign’s Facebook page went down on December 13th. How convenient, just as the big push for sales was about to start that they should be front page news. They made it look like the establishment was even trying to take down two little individuals’ campaign to stop Simon Cowell dominating the charts, when all they were doing was actually helping him.
It’s just all a bit too convenient isn’t it?
7. Sony Have a track record of Viral deceit
In 2006, they placed stories as real customer feedback using an agency called Zipatoni and got caught. Again, I would say they are on the verge of being fully exposed again
8. RATM aren’t really anti establishment anymore. They are the establishment, they just swear for a living now. How is that anti? If all they do is the same stuff over and over again, are they continuing to actually rage against the machine or just capitalise on others desire to be seen doing so.
9. The Couple Who ran the campaign are called Jon and Tracy Morter. They ran a campaign last year to get Rick Astley to Christmas Number One against the X Factor Single. And yes, guess what record label our friend Rick is on? yes, Sony BMG.
10. They also announced yesterday that they were going to try and get the song Three Lions to be the Number one for the World Cup. This was written by The Lightning Seeds and featured Frank Skinner and David Baddiel. Guess what label they are on? Yes, it’s Epic, owned by Sony BMG again.
11. And perhaps the most damning evidence of all – from some great detective work by Hannah Pearce
Iris digital are on record as working on a project called Kiss The Cup (KTC). They have a facebook group for it, Which you can see here. And they have another one here. By some strange quirk of fate, the two administrators behind these sites are Jon and Tracey Morter.
Iris Digital are a part of Iris Group – an integrated services agency – and guess what they specialise in digital communications and campaigns. AND Sony is one of their biggest clients!
So that’s it. I know it’s not conclusive, but I’m convinced that this is a scam that is going to be exposed some time soon, as soon as someone can find who was really paying the bills behind the whole campaign.
What does this mean for the brand of Sony?
I would say that it will be in a little trouble if they get found out for this, but it shows the power of very cleverly manipulated social media and viral marketing campaigns and it also still shows that people do want to fight back against the dominance of this crap TV and crap music that is being produced by Simon Cowell and his pals.
You may also like to read Jane Love at Purple Circle’s take on it here.
Johnny Lyle's new brand thinking 