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Well it bloody well happened at Tourism Australia, didn’t it?

Tuesday 28 October 2008 · 1 Comment

I just knew it when I wrote about this in February!  I’ve been waiting in trepidation for the outcome and now we have it. Australia, the land that we hold in great affection for its rough-edges - Crocodile Dundee, Home and Away and Sir Les Patterson, has decided that its a luxury destination for poser aesthetes in search of their real self - Strewth!  Pour me a Bundy and lets get real here!

There’s no doubt about it Baz Luhrmann makes great cinema, but everything about this production leaves me asking “So what the bloody hell happened to Australia” and not, by any means, in a good way.  What we are witnessing here isn’t anything to do with attracting tourism to Australia, its about a new government attempting to remove every trace of their forebears, but having nothing to replace them with.  Yes, by all means when you gain office establish your brand quickly and decisively by doing something different, but for Christ’s sake do something sensible.

This isn’t Baz’s fault, and it may not even be the agency’s (they are just being opportunistic), but it most certainly is the fault of whoever wrote the brief and approved the strategy and that, I guess, was a politician or civil servant because any half-wit marketing person would know that if you are going to make claims you firstly want to know both that anybody cares and that you can back them up.  However popular retreats may be these days, I absolutely cannot belive that anything more than a handful of tripped-out tree-huggers are going to fork-out thousands of pounds on a re-awakening walk-about.  The Australian outback is about four-wheel-drive, Bush-Tucker Man and the Crocodile Trophy (the toughest mountain bike race in the world!) not competition for yoga-punting Maharishis with Bentleys in their back yards.  And just because some asshole in Canberra decides that his future lies in distancing himself from what his predecessors stood for, it doesn’t make it right, or even wise, to present Australia, that we all know, and understand just fine already, as something that it isn’t!

It might be argued that this is aimed at Americans, most of whom don’t know where Australia is, or have a passport that will get them there.  I have to admit, when it comes to selling something “different” to Americans the extreme adventure element of traditional Australian positioning is a bit too close to home and the historical Aboriginal card starts to offer hope.  However, if this were so its, at best, a case of bad timing because the high-flying banker-type who might, a few weeks ago, have been fooled into embarking on a voyage of self-discovery in the Aussie outback is struggling to afford the bus ride home from the soup kitchen these days!

This absolutely has to be a case of a no-substance politician wallpapering over reality.  If you want to change a nation (and Aus looks just fine as it is these days to me) stick to your strengths.  Politic your way to change, don’t just tell everyone that its come about and hope they don’t notice its all bullshit.  Oh, and butt out of marketing, its definitely not your forte.

I really, really hope that everyone gets this situation for what it is and doesn’t end up hating brand Australia for trying (because, believe me it won’t succeed) to jump on what it perceives as a gravy train.  Remember, while it takes ten times as much to attract new customers to your brand than it does to repeat sell to existing ones, the cost of attracting someone you’ve already pissed off by not delivering or trying to scam (or maybe in this case by selling out) could be a hundred times that.

Categories: American · Australia · Australian Tourist Commission · Baz Luhrmann · Brand promise · Full Effect · Full Efffect Marketing · Government · National Branding · Politicing · Sir Les Patterson · The Full Effect Company · Tourism · advertising · bankers · brand · brand development · brand name · branding · brands · communications · customer · customers · honesty · maharishi · phil darby · public sector · tradition

That National Branding thing again!

Wednesday 26 March 2008 · 1 Comment

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I’m back in the UK for a while at the moment and my inadvertent, but perfect timing landed me right in the middle of one of my favorite debates - national branding.

I wrote a post about this about a year ago and added it to this blog in January (”Brand Britain”). I’m fascinated by the issues of large-scale brand development projects and they don’t come much larger than national branding. I’m also fascinated by the workings of government, so this is an area where I get some seriously big kicks. Of course, the participants in this debate rarely recognise the subject as “branding”. I have heard it referred to by many names this week, but that’s what it is aright and all the private sector rules apply.

The subject seemed to come to the surface this week in reaction to a new report, commissioned by the government and prepared by Lord Goldsmith on “Citizenship”. In their usual helpful way the British press have leapt upon a small recommendation that Lord Goldsmith made within it - that British kids should swear allegiance to the Queen and/or the flag on a daily basis at school. Of course they have as usual and probably on purpose, completely miss-represented what he was saying. The interpretation that they have been pedalling being that if kids are made to swear allegiance to the flag regularly enough they’ll start to conform - of course this very much a reversal of the truth and I am sure nowhere near what Lord Goldsmith was saying.

By way of putting my cards on the table I have to say that I believe that many, if not all of the ills of our nation (and probably many other nations too) stem from a lack of national pride. National pride is a larger-scale equivalent of self-respect and very much the same kind of thing that drives the family communities that Conservative leader David Cameron is going on about. Its also that same emotional soup from which strong brands derive. Nations, and brands are both communities and communities are built on the reassurance, feeling of belonging and confidence that arise when beliefs, attitudes and values are shared.

I was having a conversation with a chap in Prague a few weeks ago who was convinced that the reason that Czechs have become so bickering, back-biting and self-absorbed since the fall of communism is that their hatred of their communist oppressors that was once a common bond wasn’t replaced with anything else. Sadly, being basically clueless, the politicians there haven’t even come close to being up for this key task. As a result the country now has no focus, no common objective, no shared belief and as a result a state of every man for himself has developed in the void. For the Czechs this fact represents a seriously missed opportunity - the country was a blank sheet of paper, everyone was looking for a lead. The invitation was out for someone to pull it all together and nobody stepped up to the plate. While the first second republic president Havel was great at galvanising a generally ambivalent nation towards revolution, he proved singularly incapable of filling the void he had created. Klaus on the other hand, as witnessed by his New York speech three weeks ago, appears to be representing the emerging grab-all-you-can philosophy that is dominant in the republic now.

In the UK the task of focusing or re-focusing a nation is rather more complex. In exactly the same way that the structures and practices that a large organisation develops to help it maintain a status quo become the biggest obstacle to change, the UK is finding that, even though it may have the will to change the structures and practices of government and all other interested parties, that have been built and reinforced over the centuries now prevent that change.

Its not unlike the story that is unfolding in the US right now too. Obama recognises the need for change and seems to have a reasonable theory for bringing it about, while Hilary claims that her experience and insights of the people and the system give her the understanding Barak lacks when it comes to pre-empting and overcoming resistance to change. She says he will fail because he’s not going to know where the ambushes are going to come from (Although I’m not sure that she agrees with the principles of change any more than the ambushers she is so familiar with!).

However, as Barak says, once you recognise the need for change you are duty-bound to start trying to bring it about and that’s where US politics are ahead of the UK - they have Barak Obama, we Brits don’t seem to have anybody focussed enough to make it all happen. This fact mirrors my experience in brand development too. I frequently come across organisations who have in the past brought in some of the heavy guns to help them address their brand issues only to find that while they are great on spotting the problem and coming up with solutions, they often fail miserably when it comes to implementing them. My answer to this is a logical step-by-step approach that tackles all the obstacles in order. I go through this methodically, which takes time, but ensures that ultimately the required changes are brought about.

The first step with any project like this is to establish common ground (That’s what my Brand Model is all about) and that’s where the problems lie in the UK. I’ve listened to the views on this subject of a good many spokespeople for different interested parties over the last week or so and while I can see that there is fundamental agreement between many of them few of them recognise it, many are arguing about semantics and a very large proportion of them are confusing cause and effect. None of the people who I have heard representing any of the organisations seem to have a clue how to get things moving and all are very narrowly and tactically focussed.

What we and every other nation need is a senior minister whose sole responsibility is as champion of our national brand. Only then will we begin to be able to introduce the understanding among stakeholders and the initiatives we need to drive brand development. Its what is happening in the private sector, many businesses have directors responsible for brand development.

Compelling kids to salute the flag is definitely not the way to go, but a sure sign of the success of any national branding initiative would be if kids really wanted to raise their baseball hats when they passed a national flag. Actually, its not completely beyond hope either. As a part-time resident of Prague I see more Brit tourists wearing the George flag or Union Jack as they wander the attractions (or more commonly fall over in a bar!) and we are all familiar with the crowds at international football matches and other sporting events. So there’s is something to build on. So where is that national brand builder going to come from?

Categories: Barack · Clinton · Full Effect · Full Efffect Marketing · Government · National Branding · The Full Effect Company · Tourism · brand · brands · change · communist · consulting · czech · hilary · internal marketing · management · marketing · phil darby · social groups · strategy · tradition

Consistency - the key to strong brandships

Tuesday 29 January 2008 · 3 Comments

ConsistencyMy friend’s wife suffers from multiple personality disorder.  He says its fine - like sleeping with a different woman every night!  It doesn’t work that way with brands though.  Deviation from the personality your customers have come to know and trust could mean the end of a beautiful relationship!

You know how it is.  There’s a chap at work who you see every day.  You know him well enough, he’s the guy in the smart suit with the latest haircut and all his facial hair in the right places!  You like him, he’s reliable and you don’t really think twice about trusting him with a project or a task.

Then, one Saturday, you are pushing your shopping trolley around the local supermarket and you come across a couple of loud kids with some bloke in jeans an a baggy sweater, hair all over the place and stubble on his chin, who looks like their Dad and a woman in track pants tagging along.  It takes you a minute, but you think its that guy from the office.  You’re not sure, but he’s seen you and looks as though he knows you.  You make a sort of non-committed nod of acknowledgment and take half a step in his direction - yes its definitely him.  Blimey!  You would never have recognised him in a crowd, though now you do its OK and you strike up a conversation straight away, but its that moment of awkward hesitation that’s significant.

Now translate that to a brand scenario.  What if a brand that you know and trust, one that you had been married to for years, suddenly acts out of character - a corporate inconsistency, new packaging, a different advertising message, a disappointing experience?  It probably wouldn’t make you want a divorce, but there would be that moment of hesitation.  And that’s all that your competitors need to step in and introduce themselves, maybe with a little incentive to break the ice.  “Hello, I’m just the kind of friend you thought he was, but I come with an extra if you take me home today”.  That’s the way longstanding brand relationships can come to a sudden end.

Brand relationships (or “brandships”) are all about knowing and trusting and its vital that you maintain the core character traits that enabled you to establish the relationship in the first place.  Of course, brands have to make changes from time to time, its essential if you are going to evolve with your customer base, but there are risks.  Avoid them by remembering that its like seeing the guy in the office in a new suit for the first time, provided he hasn’t gone from Gucci to grunge, its just new and interesting, not a complete change of character.

Having said that, it comes down to sensitivity.  Changes can be more radical that you might expect - David Bowie (one of my favourite examples of a strong brand) lived characters like Ziggy Stardust that he created and changed music styles dramatically while maintaining a very loyal fan base for longer than most performers, because the key character trait that drew us all to him in the first place was his creativity and character creation, not necessarily a particular persona.  Product brands can be the same - Apple, automotive brands, sports teams (different players, same philosophy).  In fact I have written recently that brands often forget that they can and should be constantly re-inventing themselves.  Be edgy by all means but be so within the framework of your core character traits.

A smart marketer will be able to maintain the freshness of their brand, like the spark in any relationship, without losing the fundamental values upon which the relationship was originally founded, but it works both ways.  If you are looking to steal customers from a competitor, wait until you know they are going to make a few changes and make yourself conspicuous.

Categories: CRM · Full Effect · Full Efffect Marketing · The Full Effect Company · brand · brands · consistency · consulting · corporate · marketing · phil darby · sales · strategy · tradition

Brands and architecture

Tuesday 22 January 2008 · No Comments

The Dancing Building. PragueI’ve been working with architects and planners for the past few weeks and fascinating it has been too.  I have been trying to identify the key component of the perfect urban development, which sounds simple enough, until you try to find hard facts to support ideas and theories.  Then you quickly discover that once the buildings are up and the developers have made their money nobody is too bothered to find out if the development actually worked.

There was one worthwhile project that I uncovered though.  Its called the SHE Project - SHE being the abbreviation of Sustainable Housing in Europe.  So far it is the only project I have found that actually sets out to measure the benefits of various aspects of housing design.  Its just a pity there are no results yet (although the Italian government has changed it’s policy in response to the short-term results achieved by the SHE developments that are taking place in their country, so I guess the general indications are good).  I just wish that someone had done something similar for other aspects of planning and development - like a study of the optimal socio-economic mix for a new town, or the influence that integrating less well off and disadvantaged social groups with more affluent residents has on crime and social dissatisfaction!

I met some interesting characters on this project too.  Like an apparently well thought-of world authority on the subject who just seems to swear and rant a lot, but doesn’t appear actually contribute much and a developer in Eastern Europe who seems to be able to raise limitless funds (I’m talking hundreds of millions of Euros here!) for a development before he has a plan!  No, don’t ask!

Anyway, all this brought me around to the idea of Cities as brands again.  I say again because its something that I talk about often in my Brand Discovery Programme workshops and Full Effect Marketing seminars.  The particular prompt on this occasion came as I was reading through some stuff on the shenanigans surrounding a planned new development in Adelaide.  Don’t you just love Aussie politics?  It must be one of the few Western-style democracies where politics reach such a height of verbal and sometimes physical abuse that the real issues become secondary.

Anyway, I picked up on a debate about whether the design of the new centre was, or even should be, in keeping with the Victorian and mock Gothic architecture that the State Capital is known for.  Somebody had commented that the centre should be Victorian in style because that was what Adelaide is all about.  Now we’re talking branding and that’s my subject.

On one hand maybe the brand Adelaide is about faux Victorian architecture, in which case the Victorian style shopping centre would be right on.  However, if the existing mock Victorian architecture was in its day more about being off-the-wall architecturally, that’s a different promise altogether.

Living part the time as I do in Prague I have seen how a city renown for startling architecture across the centuries maintains this reputation today (despite a short interruption by the Commies).  Prague made the decision very quickly after the fall of Communism that its new buildings would match the promise of the First Republic and before - not reproductions of a classical style mind you, but bold contemporary statements as the old buildings certainly were in their time.  The city fathers started small this time, with a building on the river, known to everyone now as the “dancing building” and over the last twenty years they have expanded their vision and encouraged architects and planners from around the word to bring their wild ideas to the city, resulting in larger stunning projects that contrast with the old, but reflect the same bold architectural statement of their forefathers - its starting to work!

I have lost count of the number of brands I have come across that have failed to recognise that it was the fact they were different rather than what made them so, that created their success in the first place and this is the same thing.  Prague could have gone the way of many British town planners and created reproduction architecture that looked like reproduction antique furniture - and we all know how tasteful that can be - NOT!  Its a lesson a lot of brand’s could use.  Instead of setting up their business to deliver the promise - a constant flow of new and different concepts - too many organisations have invested all their effort in trying to perpetuate an old idea.  What happens every time is their least imaginative competitors catch up, do the same thing and between them they turn the sector into … well, Slough (and we all know what John Betjeman made of that) until the next lighthouse brand comes along and whips their boring butts!

Successful brands (I mean brands that hang around for a few years) continually re-invent themselves coming up with new ideas and trading concepts that match the evolution of consumers - you are only as good as your next good idea!  Of course, nobody would deny, there’s always a chance that you’ll get it wrong, but even if you did, the worst consequence isn’t going to be as bad as the ultimate oblivion that lies in store for those who are stuck in a rut.  Besides, you can always change again and try to get it right - so you might as well just get on with it.

My foray into the world of architecture also gave me another parallel and that too resonates with the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.  It goes back to the establishment of Christianinity in the West and the way that Christian churches were built on pagan religeous sites.  The idea was to symbolise the authority of the new religion.  When the Communists were in charge further East they did the same thing. Ceausescu in Romania was a master.  He virtually wiped out all evidence of history in Bucharest, replacing classical buildings with massive concrete blocks and cheap pre-fabricated high rises, but he also created a palace that was the third biggest building on earth.  Like a King rising above his subjects this dominates a grid of other Communist buildings from its raised position.  When you see it you just know what it stood for - no doubt there!  Although Prague wasn’t vandalised by the Communists like some other cities, its present day story is one of the brand reaserting its promise - pulling down the panelaks and replacing them with contemporary manifestations of the promise it always made.  There are a few commercial brands that could do with the same treatment.

Sure its tough to keep comming up with ideas, but that’s what marketing is, for Christ’s sake!  Its also why we marketers get paid (so they tell me!) so well!

Categories: Full Effect · Full Efffect Marketing · The Full Effect Company · architecture · brand · ceausescu · central europe · communist · czech · dancing building · design · ideas · innovation · marketing · pagan · phil darby · strategy · sustainable housing · tradition · urban development

How “developed” are the developed markets?

Tuesday 1 January 2008 · No Comments

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I have just returned from three post-Xmas days in the quiet of the South Bohemia countryside where my daughter was skating each day on a frozen lake, my wife was cross-country skiing and I went to a dance organised by the local “forest men” at a hall in one of the small towns down there.

I should point out that “forest men” are not Tarzan look-alikes.  Its a literal translation of what I guess we Brits would consider woodsmen.  They are state employees who dress in green tweed from head to foot, wear jay’s feathers in their hats and live in houses in the middle of the forests where they tend to the flora and fauna - and every year they have a ball in some local town.

There are community centres in every town, large and small in the Czech Republic and they play an important role in the life of the town or village.  There is always something going on in these places.  The “forest men’s dance” is just one of a glittering calendar of events that really brings it home to a Brit just how different life is here.

We arrived to discover the atrium lobby of this substantial and newly renovated two-storey first-Republic building transformed with custom-built racks upon which hung rows of freshly shot game ranging from ducks to wild pigs and deer - these were the raffle prizes and there were at least a hundred!

On the large stage an eight-piece band was thrashing out a polka one minute and rock-n-roll the next with equal vigour.  What they lacked in musical skills (which was a great deal) they more than made up for (unfortunately) in stamina as they played from 7.00pm until three thirty the next morning!  No sign of musicians’ union here! We arrived late and left early to a chorus of tut-tuts.

My wife bought four raffle tickets, which appeared to be the requisite number and I followed suit.  My wife, the local girl, won nothing … I won three pheasant!  Which only made it more difficult to slide out early un-noticed!  Well, even at a forestmen’s dance its hard for a foreigner to remain inconspicuous with three dead cock-pheasants in full plumage under one arm!  I felt like I was making away with the Stone of Scone.

My Czech friend (who I really must write a piece on later just because of his amazing escape from Communist Czechoslovakia) asked whether we ” … do this kind of thing in Britain”.  I had to say “no”, but pondered on it for a while because I felt that my answer deserved an explanation.  Looking around the two-or-three hundred people at the Zirovnice Forestmen’s Dance I had to admit that the British class system really precluded that a best-selling author, politicians and the drunks from the local pub should be rubbing shoulders as they were here.  And the thought of my teenage nephews and nieces, or even my almost thirty-year-old son Polka-ing one minute, jiving the next with the odd Russian Cossack dance thrown in, as the young locals did here, was taking things too far.

This kind of strong cross-generation, community is probably why they can plant lillies in the high street and expect them to last more than a nano-second before, as would be the case in a similar UK town, the first, brainless twat that comes along takes their heads off with a pseudo Kung-Fu kick and why people will think nothing of sitting next to (or even opposite) someone carrying a shot-gun and a brace of pheasant on the bus - which is commonplace in many parts of the Czech countryside.  It may well be that in a few years time in their clamour for Western products, services and living standards Czechs will have reduced themselves to the same level that we have, but I find myself reflecting on how relatively quickly they have acquired most of the worthwhile trappings of Western society - freedom of speech, travel, contemporary sports, healthy diet and the like and wonder if we could replace the things that we have flushed down the toilet, such as standards of behaviour and respect for elders, as quickly.

So much for “developed markets”!

Categories: Full Effect · Full Efffect Marketing · The Full Effect Company · czech · developed markets · marketing · phil darby · social groups · tradition