The Boss

An interview with AG on the Innovation Process at P&G and described in detail in his recent book The Game-Changer.

Another viral campaign

Up Close And Personal With The World

I have been a long time fan of Iconoculture...

Fascinating article for a marketer and a philosophical point of view from an organization focused on researching cultural trends.

Here are some of the top lines from the article:

• Technology is rapidly helping to level the worldwide commercial playing field
• Consumers make new connections everyday socially and professionally that redefine relationships
• A whole new relationship has been established between the consumer and the marketer
• There are 6 trends at play -

• The centerless world - Technology enabled global competition, Cultural migration.


• Greater expectations - Almost no barrier for new entrants, Consumer demand Trust!
  The fear economy - Brands are hope, brands are trust in an otherwise crazy world.
  Finite future - Sharper focus on sustainability.


• The Age upon us - Age'ing consumer has different needs that need to be addressed


• Belief and the globalized consumer - 3 types that are passionate about their views on ethics, morality and religion.

• Belief-motivated consumers: Cause Consumers driven by ethical (including environmental) convictions


• Confession Consumers: Live by a set of strict religious doctrines


• Conversion Consumers: Represent the shifting allegiances of religions and cultures as they mix

One thing to remember with research and consumer research is just as guilty of prejudices...

We don’t see things the way they are, we see them the way we are – Anais Nin It is never too late to give up your prejudices - Henry David Thoreau

Geometry INfinitly Adaptable

I just completed some market research and brand strategy for a food brand that allows consumers to PERSONALIZE the new buzz... 'Make it your own'.

But this may be a whole new revolution in Automotive technology - GINA from BMW.

Do brands need sidekicks?

We have all solved riddles at one time or another for pleasure or as a test of our intelligence. I remembered one while watching a movie, “Make this line shorter without erasing it.”. The simple solution is to simply draw a line longer than the one that exists. It is all relative, long, short, big and small, all adjectives are a relative assessment of one thing over the other.

Products often share several similar traits it is the relative assessment across attributes that results in a hierarchy of the good, better, best. The choices also create a clutter across consumer offerings, but it is only relative to the next product that makes a product better than the next. Every product is great by itself, it is only with reference to the next product that it is gets better or worse. Products need companions and competition to fade or shine, without a ‘sidekick’ products can’t hit its full potential.

Products need liberation! The liberation from the proverbial ‘sidekick’, the kind of liberation where one does not depend on another product to achieve its full potential. It is not to say that emotions are not relative, they surely rank order based on people, their psychology, behavior and attitudes but now the basis for measure of relative value is not another product or attribute but this one is in a new domain and a whole new dimension. One that is out of the labs where products are created and in a world of emotions and values. From the tangible to the intangible.

There is no doubt, Liberation is a great feeling!

Brand communication and the primal human instincts

As a marketer I have always believed the best chance of success starts by knowing the consumer, her desires, her needs and her wants. We sometimes forget some of the deepest motivations that drive our choices and our behavior. Perhaps it is the chaos of the day to day that masks these potent drivers of survival and the deep seated motivators of behavior.

Survival is our most basic human instinct. Our sole purpose in life begins with extension of life itself, procreating and protecting our existence. Modern survival manifests itself in other forms, our philosophies, our principles, our values and beliefs. We see our survival through proliferation and propagation in people we make friends with, the things we choose to do and the material items we decide to own. To the consumer the brands they own are an extension of themselves, we associates with friends who share a common taste and a similar preference for brands and products.

It is a shame we depend on sexuality in sensationalizing our brand communication to make this point of survival. As humans we are genetically coded to synthesize and decipher the right signals that enable survival and drive forth our genes and our ideals. Brands that leverage these signals in communication have a stronger chance of success. The works of Ernest Dichter during the later half of the 20^th century and more recently Clotaire Rapaille have gives us the hope to better leverage these deep seated drivers to be built into our brand communication.

Can dimensions be branded?

These days what gets branded is only limited by the marketers imagination and the need to differentiate. The other day I had was wondering if time, space and frequency can be branded? Hang on… I am not crazy, and no this is not an advanced physics essay either! I am still talking branding, all I am trying is to present a new perspective on branding a dimension. The service industry has used dimensions as a competitive edge for years, especially when they say ‘we have the expertise to do this job faster than our competitors’ – Time dimension, ‘We know the local market better than the rest’ – Space dimension, ‘Our scale and size enables us to support your needs, when needed’ – Frequency & Time.

IT services companies (IBM, HP, Infosys, Wipro, Accenture, etc.) initiated it with computing software, products, service and staffing; Cable channels do it with video; FedEx Kinko’s does this with printing; Merry Maids does it with household help; I could go on and on. Yet it is strange to think about the basic dimension that they leverage.

They are all in the business of being there when you need them!

So are basic dimensions differentiable? Time is time is time is time whether is mine, yours or anyone else’s, so also time in the US is the same as that in Asia, Europe or Latin America so clearly space and frequency are as much a commodity as grains and oil. Perhaps the differentiability is a function of ownership. My time may be more valuable today than it was yesterday and similarly when I am working on a job I am on a delivery schedule making the space-time combination valuable and hence differentiable. That is classic branding that needs segmentation, targeting & positioning for its success, may I just say dimensions can certainly be branded!!!

Brand manager is the brands backseat driver

In today’s world of User Generated Content, super segmented mediums of communication (Blogs, Podcasts, Videocasts, etc.) the brand manager has little executional control over the brand itself. What he or she drives is the strategy the road map to steer the brand towards the direction where we want the brand should go.

The consumer may hear about it from a friend, advisor, expert or may be she receives a sample from one of the same touch points or just watch hear an advertisement, print ad in a magazine or simply a flyer at the store; Mom is now curious about the product prompting her decision to try the product. She makes the trip to a store or a website to browse and make the purchase. Her purchase may involve interaction with fellow buyer (who knows may be someone who liked the product and praises the brand or someone who hated the brand/company dissuading her from buying the brand/company products) who provides her an opinion or an expert who influences her choice.

Once home she tries the product experiencing it holistically from opening the package, to reading dispensing, using, and repetition until the product/brand is ready for replenishment. If we convinced her about the efficacy of the brand and the benefits exceeded her price creating a value, we may even have an ambassador or even a zealot depending on how exciting the results turned out. On the other end if we failed her she is going to do everything within her capacity to talk about her failure. All this while the brand manager is tracking only aggregated data on market trends at a much higher level with the individual consumer in his or her blind spot.

The circle of the brand experience starts with awareness, research, browsing, purchase, usage, advocacy and repurchase. The brand manager is working out the grand plan for the brand, the message, the pricing, the placement, the promotions, the affiliations, the alliances, the endorsements and even the packaging with the intent to get to his or her prospect a fulfilling experience anytime and every time she interacts with the brand. As aggregate market data trickles in to the Brand manager any obvious deviations from expected outcome require retooling, taking aim and firing all over again, all this while Mom may be cooking up a whole new surprise.

Not too different from passenger who is reading the map and instructing the driver who may chose to follow the directions or simply ignore and do what they want.

Brands and rituals

It was talking my cousin sometime ago and I was fascinated to hear about his mornings, from the time he wakes up to the time he leaves for work. His narration got me thinking of my mornings and that of the members in my household. We have all heard about the strange rituals some of the sports celebrities perform before, during and after their games. It is amazing how every one of us have such a unique and yet eternally repetitive behaviors, whether it is by day part, week days, monthly or even annually. It sometimes feels like we are slaves to our schedules and rituals, and days when these schedules fall apart it throws us into a state of disarray. A sense of disorder takes over and it often feels like things are quite working out. Could it just be that these repetitions create a sense of HOPE?

From the more mundane things like the lights turning on when you flip the switch to getting the top grade or promoted in your career for the investing hard work in your work or a course. In a world where brands convey trust, wouldn’t it be great to build a ritual into the brand experience whether through packaging or form. Hope is the light at the end of the tunnel, Cicero said “While there’s life there’s hope”.

May be creating rituals may create hope, let my brand enable the hope mom desires!

Direct flight

When one is in the middle of a project or recently exposed to a concept it suddenly seems like there is a disproportionate coverage on the topic or a sudden cloud fall of consumer use of the product more than you ever noticed or knew about. This same thing happened to me recently when I was leading an effort on naming a new brand.

My agency introduced me to the concept of ‘the direct flight’, “Chemistry.com” is one such example! When you talk of relationships, rarely is there any chance of misunderstanding the term chemistry. If an online dating or matching site is named Chemistry.com, the site clearly must match prospects based on attributes of personal chemistry. The idea of the brand name should be vivid and descriptive enough to take the consumer’s mind on a flight, one that is direct and leads the consumer to imagine the potential product based purely by its name.

In a world where the absence of an interactive marketing strategy spells doom for the brand the availability of a domain can drive the selection of a brand names and moreover results in strange names like, Zillow.com, Squidoo.com, etc. The phenomenon is not limited to web based services, solutions but the physical world too – Wii, Ikea, etc. the list goes on.

Brand names need more than just a direct flight; ability to own and legal protect it; expandability in the event of future extensions; executability for operations to print without stretch, distortion or fit and lastly different from existing products and brands in the category.