Egypt's Revolution Signage

More photos here

The Trend of Telling the Truth

One of the things we discussed during zeitgeist for the 2000s was trying to find the truth (or defining what is the truth). Many brands are claiming transparency with more testimonial-ish and behind-the-scene ads. Take for instance Domino's Pizza and their "we use real tomatoes" TV commercial. I'm still wary of Domino's and I don't believe for a second that their pizzas taste better. I never doubted they used real tomatoes, it was more a matter of whether the tomatoes tasted good. When brands announce that they're telling us some kind of "truth", most of the time they feel more like little white lies. Also, for many of these brands, I feel that we, as the audience, do not give them the permission to be perceived as truth-tellers.

More here: Watch as the Truth Trend Grows

Clouding the Brandscape, and the Virtues of Manning Up

by Jeremy DiPaolo

The Forbes list of Most Desired Brands brings to mind many of the concepts we've been discussing over the past months, specifically in the areas of market research and brand personality. As the veil is lifted on the methodology employed by many market research firms, I can't help but find myself wanting to dissect and test the validity of each one I come across. If our goal is to provide brand experiences that are authentic, transparent and (insert transcendent value here), then shouldn't that extend to how market surveys are communicating with consumers as well? With that in mind, let's examine some of the inherent issues present in the Forbes article. My hope is that we can develop some dialogue that can lead to solutions on how to better portray brands in these studies, so please, let this be a dialogue.

First, the "neurotypes" that the Forbes study (performed by the research firm Buyology) uses as a basis for the strength of brand connection seems an interesting, but shallow spin on the archetypes we've all come to know and love from The Hero and The Outlaw.

The firm identified and evaluated consumers' relationships with brands using four key parameters, or "primers." These "neurotypes"--awe, superiority, harmony and exploration--were paired to give a total of 16 possible combinations.

The fact that only four types were employed seems limiting somehow, especially when there are only positive associations. Even Aaker's personality model would have been more appropriate here, as the pairing of attributes may have created unexpected combinations leading to some real qualitative insights on the brands studied. These types, "awe," "superiority," "harmony," and "exploration" seem vague, but allow for direct literal translation. It is somehow unsurprising that Johnson & Johnson's Baby Oil achieved a rank of Harmony-Harmony, and National Geographic was bestowed Awe-Awe. The point here is that we see, once again, a top X list that offers little real insight into the consumer experience with the brands being ranked. Instead this tool further clouds the brandscape with vanilla terminology that is fit for publication in national magazines, but offers the readers—and indeed the brands that made the "cut"—little that isn't already known.

To turn over another stone: P&G's Crest ranked highest among men. Surprised? Forbes was.

It makes sense that women would go for a maker of baby products. But oral care for men, and not cars or sporting goods?

The Buyology study was most likely conducted before the launch of P&G Productions' Man of the House, but the megabrand seems to have been on this scent for some time. Man of the House is a home for man-related content filtered through the lens of—you guessed it—P&G products. One can only speculate on the influence last year's Old Spice success has had on marketing personal care items toward men, but P&G has set forth to make its mark in the XY column. My most recent visit was met by a pop-down ad for Head and Shoulders featuring NFL star Troy Palomalu: a Super Bowl bound Pittsburgh Steeler whose gridiron pedigree is of only slightly more renown than his flowing mid-back length mess of curls.

Using sports superstars to sell to armchair quarterbacks is certainly old hat. What makes Man of the House an interesting study on the male market is that with the exception of these few ads, the site is veritably devoid of these clichés. Instead, the site focuses on offering males (specifically of middle age, hence the "of the house" bit) advice on fashion, diet, family and, well...life. The front page is bedecked with headlines such as, "When To Cut Old Friends Loose," and "Bullying and Your Daughter." This approach feels a little like reading Woman's Day with some guys' faces taped to the images, but the shift in tone this campaign employs is fascinating nonetheless. It also seems more on-brand for P&G, who has a strong track record when it comes to building life-long relationships with consumers through its use of life-cycle messaging. Whether the campaign will be "man enough" to make a dent in the overpopulated sector remains to be seen. If it is successful, it will mark a shift in messaging toward men that may just be met with awe-awe.

Here we have two examples of how brand experiences are being communicated. In the case of the Forbes article, the language used is vague and broad, and offers us an expected view on how brands are perceived through the murky lens of neuromarketing. On the other hand, we have P&G's Man of the House, offering advice on how to be a better middle aged man, and, oh, buy P&G products. Do either of these succeed in delivering clear messages to consumers? I think it can be argued that neither are clear, but what about authenticity? When consumers read a study in a respected business magazine, does that validate it automatically as authentic, or do they need a to experience the brand before making those judgments? These are loaded, pointed questions. But my hope is, as branders, they are questions we are all asking.

Wow. Errol Morris, Philip Glass & IBM

Dan Formosa is Mr. May

Some of the ladies at Smart put together a calendar of some of the men at Smart, including our beloved Dan Formosa. Besides the men, Smart's product designs are highlighted. Download the calendar.

Benefits of a Pre-Mortem

Today I had the pleasure of seeing a panel discussion on the launch of StyleFind.com - a shopping site created and curated by InStyle editors. It was orginally the site StyleFeeder.com (original site is still up) but was acquired and re-branded as StyleFind. This is an attempt by InStyle to claim their original branded content positioning as more and more brands are heading in this direction, as well as take advantage of the e-commerce potential.

One interesting take-away from the panel was a comment from the moderator, Martha Nelson, Editorial Director of Time Inc. which was a "Pre-Mortem" exercise that she implemented at the beginning of the project. It involved imagining and visualizing that the launch was unsuccessful and discussing what were the mistakes that led them to their demise. This allows the team to exorcise their fears and worries about what might go wrong and it identified 16 potential pitfalls that they should be mindful to avoid. She then assigned each issue to a member of the team so that they could monitor them throughout the process. Thought it was a very positive, proactive way of handling the negative.

Ted Talk : Gunter Pauli

Here is the link for the video I tried to iterate tonight in class.

Hope you enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmtIXjekGAk&feature=youtube_gdata_player