There has been some debate about the new Microsoft logo and the specifics of typography, but for laypeople, it looks very much like the new Microsoft logo is either derived from, or very closely related to the Macbook Pro logo by Apple. I’ll show you the argument, you decide whether they have learnt from Apple.
Branding is far more than just logos, but in my eyes, there’s a real case of one looking very much like the other. I still wouldn’t want to own a Microsoft product though.
I have to write the blog post title like that to stay the right side of LOCOG. Don’t want to get sued for using their name in vain. Well, anyway here’s a response from Nike which is a nice piece, but probably rubbish, when it comes down to the facts.
If you look at the real story, it’s just not true that we all have the ability to be great at an individual sport. I accept that we can all become the best we can, but beyond this, it’s down to physiology and our mental capacity. Lets look at the facts.
Heather Stanning and Helen Glover who won gold in the women’s pairs had been identified as strong candidates for brilliance through British Rowing’s Sporting Giants programme. In this, they not only check their physiology, but they go through some psychological profiling too. As a junior Helen Glover ran cross-country internationally and Heather Stanning won a British Army scholorship to study sports technology at Bath University, so she was already exceptional and disciplined. That’s hardly leaving it to chance is it?
But I do think this is a brilliant way to find future winners. Physiology first, attitude second and then teach them how to do the sport brilliantly.
Bradley Wiggins is an even clearer case. The average male is 5’9″, Wiggins is 6’3″. His lung capacity is 8 litres, compared to a more normal 6 litres. That’s over 30% greater capacity. His resting heart rate is 34bpm compared to a normal man’s at 64bpm. ( I wish mine was as low as even the normal bloke) and his body fat is only 4% compared to 16% for a normal fit man of his age. Add to this the mindset to win and train for years and years to succeed and you have a rare beast indeed.
So, in summary, he’s a freak. A brilliant, brilliant freak. A total one in a billion and the finest fancy running shoes in the world aren’t going to allow you to compete with people who have a physiology as perfect as this.
I love the inclusivity of the Nike ad, but in summary. Doing your best probably won’t make you a champion in anything.
A little while ago, I read this article called the $300m button. Whilst I took some of it with a pinch of salt, it made me think and change the way I advise clients on their Internet and social media behaviour.
But I’ve now discovered that I am living it myself. I have stopped wanting to become friends with organisations online, unless they are amongst my very few special online friends.
So there is a very simple lesson for all of us involved with brands, websites and social media strategies. Stand in your own shoes and see how you behave.
I probably don’t want to be your mate. if I do, I want it to build slowly and get to know you first, before I commit long term.
Ooh, that sounds rather like building a normal relationship doesn’t it?
So, the new lesson i’m sharing everywhere is that you mustn’t expect people to create a unique user name and password to buy, comment or login to your site. keep it simple, keep it slow and let them log in with their Facebook, Twitter or Google identity and you will make far more friends and build a far more active community. When they show they want to get to know you, that’s when you think about moving the relationship up a gear.
If you have read any of my blog posts before, you may remember that I spent some of my formative years in Margate and I still rather like the place. But for many years it has been a seriously depressed and depressing place to be. I’ve suggested ways for them to improve things before and already reported that it is getting better, but I am delighted to report that after my visit this weekend the town feels really like it is well on its way to a complete recovery.
The Turner Contemporary was showing a huge Tracey Emin exhibition. Not even slightly my cup of tea and I can’t show any of the work as you’re not allowed to take photos. But it is a huge draw and there were far more people here than on the beaches.
The Turner Contemporary in Margate
The statue by Rodin ‘The Kiss’ was far easier for a simple bloke like me to understand and whilst I did think the characters in the statue did have extraordinarily large hands and feet, it did feel like a huge privilege to see something so beautiful and obviously world class for free in (one of) my home town(s). It is made even more dramatic by the backdrop of the sea through the spectacular windows of the Turner, which completely frame the view.
Rodin’s Kiss at the Turner Contemporary in Margate
But at the same time, there was a massive UK beach volleyball championship going on further up the beach. The Margate Masters was beautifully organised across 12 courts and again free. It had quite a few people watching and cheering. from my completely limited knowledge, it looked to be played to a high standard too.
The Margate Masters – Beach Volleyball Maragte Style
What a fabulous and world class little shop. For regeneration to take place, it needs world class inward investors. The Turner started it, but little retailers like this are picking up the baton and really carrying it forward. I know it’s only a sweet shoppe, but it was beautifully designed, offered great service from knowledgable staff and had things from around the world that I have never seen in the UK, such as Vanilla Coke Zero and Peanut Butter Snickers (which I have enjoyed already).
The whole town felt like it was becoming a little Brighton and the retail centre is slowly building itself back out from the Old Town. there areother new retailers throughout the Old Town and back up the High Street.
I was so impressed with how far Margate has come that now i’m hoping for the rebirth of Dreamland and even more great things to come.
One of the biggest areas of work for me at present is delivering a brand experience for different brands. It’s about living your values through what you do, how you do it and who you do it for.
Hot Wheels is a brand to admire as they are so clear and consistent in what they do. We all had the orange track in our bedrooms as kids and made our toy cars do all sorts of impossible things. Well, now they have taken it one stage further, by bringing their brand to life. Literally.
I was looking at some mobile usage stats for a client of mine last night and I couldn’t help but notice how much RIM (the operating system for Blackberry is falling away). Research by Gartner shows that whilst it’s still hugely significant, it’s falling off fast. And, this got me thinking.
We have no Blackberries left in our house. All have suffered white screen of death or just been quietly replaced in favour of iPhones. Please don’t accuse me of being an Apple Fan Boy, as I have been using their computers for well over 20 years and have never owned a PC.
But, I wonder whether to survive, RIM, the owner of Blackberry, have to ditch their esoteric and unreliable operating system, in favour of the lighter but increasingly popular Android system – which is growing the fastest.
This would be a huge change and it would bring the market back to being a fight/choice between a few key operating systems, but it would shed a huge cost for RIM and give them the chance to bring their brand back up on the back of decent, usable handset design. It feels to me more like they design within the capability of what their system can deliver, rather than what customers want. This is never sustainable. Designing Apps for RIM is a nightmare and I guess fewer and fewer will bother to do it and just build for Android and IOS.
It may be an old argument, but it’s not one I’ve seen before for RIM. For me, it gives them a far better chance of survival.
We once had a client tell us that it was impossible to differentiate in his market (he sold tiles). He told us bvery clearly that it was all about price, price, price. As you can imagine, we didn’t quite agree with him.
Well, know, some 15 years later, it looks like we have been proved right after all.
This new survey in Marketing Week about the top global brands shows an amzing statistic or two.
Brand seems to have now become more important than anything in making a purchase decision.
Making a decision to buy on price alone has declined in the past 10 years from 16% to 7%, while deciding to buy on brand alone has increased from 43% to 59%.
So it’s no longer price, price, price. It’s brand, brand, brand.
Maslow. Fond as I am of your Hierarchy of Needs, I think it needs a little review
When I was at college studying marketing, this was a classic piece for us to learn. Maslow proposes that as we grow and attain civilisation and wealth, we move up the hierarchy of needs.
But I think the model is still potentially relevant, just far more muddled than it used to be.
Replace the Physiological needs with getting the mortgage paid and staying out of fuel poverty and you cover a very large proportion of the population.
But what has changed in my opinion, and what matters to people who control brands, is that he progression through the hierarchy is no longer, well, hierarchical. I believe many people now jump from the bottom right to the top. I’ll explain.
For many this is as good as it’s going to get. If you have ever read the book ‘We need to talk about Kevin’ (you should) the reason for all his pain and violence is that even though he is from a normal middle class family, that just wasn’t enough. He wanted recognition too.
Change the word ‘recognition’ to ‘self worth’ and you have an important jump.
If this is as good as it’s going to get for many. They still want more. They want to know they are doing things with their life that have worth, that makes them feel good about themselves.
So for me, it’s an early trend. More people doing more good, creative and artistic things – not for profit, but for self worth.
So if you own or control a brand, it’s time to start thinking what’s in it for them. How can they feel better by hanging out with your brand.
Howies summed it up years ago in a mailer, when they asked whether I just had enough stuff. In truth, we all have enough stuff, so what I’m saying is that we need a little more thoughtfulness as well.
Brewdog Nottingham – Not terribly keen on Carling or Diageo
You may have seen this little story bubbling under over the last week or so but it says an awful lot to me about brands and their respective behaviours.
In brief, Brewdog were at the British Institute of Innkeeping awards and fully expected to win the title of Bar Operator of the Year. They were on the top table and their name was on the trophy. It was that nailed on.
But when the announcement came, it wasn’t Brewdog, but someone else. They were surprised to say the least and when they saw Brewdog’s name on the trophy, rightly refused to accept it.
The independent judges couldn’t believe it had happened, but what did happen.
Well, it appears that Diageo, wanted any winner but Brewdog, so told the local BII team that if they won, they would withdraw any sponsorship in any BII event for the future. Strong arm tactics to say the least, so they panicked and gave the award elsewhere.
But social media has real power these days and the story came out anyway, but so did all the backlash against Diageo.
So what does it say about these brands?
Diageo, is old school. Flawless, never makes mistakes and wants to control every single element of their brand and who it hangs out with. They rather forgot that you don’t decide how your brand is perceived, your customers do. It shows to me the fear they are facing with craft beers, low run, carefully produced products that are worth paying a premium for.
For Brewdog, it can be nothing but good news. Look what happened when Radio One banned the Sex Pistols. It launched them! So the Punk beer brand is banned by the establishment.
I was in Brewdog Nottingham on Saturday afternoon. It was busy, the beer was good. A victory for Punk.
Thanks to Brewdog shareholder Lisa Harlow for telling me about this story.
Tesco as a business isn’t doing badly. It’s profits are still huge, even if they are slightly down on previous quarters in the UK.
But for me, this is masking a much bigger brand problem and that is because nothing they offer is special any more. They don’t make customers feel valued, they don’t surprise or delight us, they just keep chipping away at prices by chipping away at suppliers who have no choice but to chip away at the quality.
We have always believed that the way a brand should behave is to decide a price and then see how good you can make the product for that target price. To me, Tesco look like they are aiming to produce all of their goods as cheaply as possible and not seeing how good they can make them for the money.
This is a short term profit boost that leads to long term decline.
Look at the section with motoring and cycling products. If you are even slightly into either pastime, you will see that what they are selling is utter crap and not cheap either. This is one tiny category in a huge store, but it’s reflection reaches far and wide in perception. If everything in the store is as badly produced and as nasty as this, why would I trust the brand overall?
Unless they up their game, start focusing on quality again and start treating their customers as intelligent individuals who do have a choice, this will be the first of very many profit warnings to come.
Johnny Lyle's new brand thinking 