Part 2: The Ten Touchstones of a New Belief System

@rossfarquhar

A strong view, lightly held…

1. Brands exist to speed up decision-making

The five functions of a brand

according to Feldwick:

•  A badge of origin / guarantee of authenticity

•  A promise of performance

•  The value of reassurance

•  Differentiation or Distinctiveness

•  Transformation of experience

Notice the absence of ‘to be your friend’.

Actually, they’re just there to make this manageable…

“It is a profoundly erroneous truism that we should

cultivate the habit of thinking. The opposite is the

case. Civilisation advances by extending the number

of important operations we can perform without

thinking about them”

Alfred North Whitehead

Amongst the current discourse of ‘dialogue’, ‘engagement’ and ‘participation’…

…we’d do well to remember they’re a means to an end, and that end is simply helping us to think less.

2. Start with context, not rules

Your brand is the patient…

…you are the doctor.

Imagine if your doctor started treating you without

asking you what was wrong?

Let’s all get more robust about diagnosis, and less

worried about prescription.

Context first, treatment second.

3. Treat people as people, not ‘consumers’

The problem with ‘consumers’ is:

•  They’re not an empty vessel, waiting to be

filled with whatever the brand owner wants

•  They’re not a homogenous group of people

•  Their primary purpose isn’t consumption

They’re you and me.

Stop seeing them as fixed, and start seeing them as a “temporary, precarious point of identity, which is ever-changing, ambiguous and unpredictable” (Gordon & Valentine).

Or in other words, people.

4. Create, build and reinforce memories

(not messages)

Your brand lives here.

(literally – it’s an engram, whatever that means)

Not here.

This is not how

your brand is

built.

So in that case, brands are multisensorial

memories for the people who know them.

And the message you spend huge amounts of time crafting is just a small fraction of the stimulus that creates it.

How you behave is more

important than what you say.

5. Respect rationality and emotion, not either/or

When did we divide on these lines?

Peter Field, IPA Databank

It seems like emotion is more helpful than rationality for generating long-term profit…

Peter Field, IPA Databank

But less so for stimulating a short-term direct action…

Who’s in the front seat,

and who’s in the side car?

Emotion and rationality and

profoundly linked.

Action requires both imagination

and reason.

The real question is the kind of

behaviour you want to effect, and

how quickly…

6. Find our connections, not just our

(individual) motivations

I don’t know

anyone like

Asimo.

But I know lots

of people like

Bender.

We aren’t individual,

rational decision-makers.

Otherwise why would we queue overnight

for a phone that’s not the best functionally?

Actually, we’re profoundly connected.

We’re more likely to be obese if our friend’s friends are obese.

(Ref: Christakis and Fowler – Connected)

So perhaps it’s time to stop targeting

us as individuals, and researching as if

we make decisions in isolation.

And instead, look for the

group insight….

7. Significant growth does not come

from frequency alone

Loyalty beyond reason?

This man doesn’t think so. And he can prove it.

Big brands are big because they have a larger number of light, indifferent buyers, not committed, high-frequency ones.

The exception, though, is when you look beyond category borders.

The curve might look normal when your frame of reference is ‘cake’.

It might be completely different if it’s ‘sweet treats’.

So growth without penetration looks unlikely.

But rules are dangerous without context…

8. Value fans for quality, not quantity

“the primary task of communications is not just stoking the fires of passion amongst fans, but nudging the behaviour of the largely indifferent.”

Martin Weigel

W+K Amsterdam

Fans are great.

They make up a big chunk of volume.

They advocate on your behalf.

And sometimes they do quite interesting

things.

But getting more of them doesn’t tend to grow your brand. See the last touchstone.

2.5m Facebook fans does not a big brand make.

Instead, give them a stage…

The interesting ones are there to nudge the

behaviour of the indifferent. Because we are

more receptive to people than companies.

The behaviour you want to change isn’t of

the fans. It’s of the people they might talk to.

9. Prejudice in planning media is

the enemy of effectiveness

TV IS DEAD

BROADCAST MEDIA IS DEAD

IT’S ALL ABOUT SECOND SCREEN

PEOPLE WANT

DIALOGUE WITH BRANDS (so employ the media that allows it)

No.

The PWC Payback Study 1 demonstrated that, over 10 years of data, TV returned the highest sales ROI of any medium, and had significant

longevity in subsequent years after use (Thinkbox)

The effectiveness of TV is getting better with time: campaigns from the IPA databank that

used TV as the lead medium saw greater market share gains decade on decade from the 80s, 90s

and 2000s (Field).

So let’s all just remain calm.

Media is the connective tissue between

brands and people. Ref: John Willshire.

Choose the channel that’s right for the

connection you want, not just what’s worked

in the past or what everyone is telling you

will work in the future.

10. Set business objectives, and

measure against them alone.

“We grew brand awareness by 1,000%”

Not good enough.

It’s chat like that which makes CEOs and CFOs think

we’re not worth having in the boardroom.

The marketer’s challenge is to separate

whether something worked and how it

worked.

Intermediate measures are fine for how

something worked.

But for whether something worked, it

can only be about a business outcome.

Hint: I mean econometrics.

Common-Sense Orthodoxy New Belief System

Brands form the basis for interaction

Brands exist to speed up decision making

Start with rules from the past

Start with context we find ourselves in

The public as consumers The public as diverse and temporary

identities

Send messages

Create, build and reinforce memories

Decision-making a product of rationality Decision-making a product of

reason and emotion

Decision-makers as individuals Decision-makers within connected

networks

Grow through penetration or frequency Significant growth without penetration is

unlikely

Grow fan numbers Grow fan quality (and use them

to influence indifferents)

Plan media based on experience Plan media based on the connections to be

made

Measure intermediate effects Measure business effects

There’s your

alternative belief system.

Next:

Part 3: An Idea for an Industry

@rossfarquhar

References and Further Reading

Sharp, B. (2010). How Brands Grow: What Marketers Don't Know. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Field, P., & Binet, L. (2007). Marketing in the Era of Accountability. Institute of Practitioners in Advertising. London: World Advertising Research

Centre.

Feldwick, P. (2002). What is brand equity anyway? London: World Advertising Research Centre.

Franzen, G., & Bouwman, M. (2001). The Mental World of Brands. Amsterdam, Netherlands: NTC Publications.

Heath, R., & Feldwick, P. (2007). 50 Years of the Wrong Model of TV Advertising. Working Paper Series. 3. Bath: University of Bath School of

Management.

Field, P. (2010). The IPA Effectiveness Awards at 30. Measuring Advertising Performance 2010. London: World Advertising Research Centre.

Duckworth, G. (1996). Brands and the Role of Advertising. In D. Cowley, Understanding Brands: By 10 People Who Do (pp. 58-81). London:

Kogan Page Ltd.

Gordon, W., & Valentine, V. (2000). The 21st Century Consumer - A New Model of Thinking. MRS Conference (pp. 1-35). London: Market

Research Society.

McGilchrist, I. (2011, October 21). The Divided Brain. (M. a. Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Producer) Retrieved May 31, 2012 from

RSA Animate: http://comment.rsablogs.org.uk/2011/10/24/rsa-animate-divided-brain/

Christakis, N. A., & Fowler, J. H. (2009). Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives. Little, Brown

and Company.

Kearon, J., & Earls, M. (2009). Me-to-we research - From asking unreliable witnesses about themselves to asking people what they notice,

believe & predict about others. ESOMAR Congress. Montreux: ESOMAR.

Roberts, K. (2004). Lovemarks: The Future Beyond Brands. powerHouse Books.

Gilboa, I., Postlewaite, A., Samuelson, L., & Schmeidler, D. (2012, January 29). Economic Models as Analogies. Department of Economics,

University of Pennsylvania . Philadelphia, PA, USA.

Weigel, M. (2012, May 21). Love, Friendship And Brands: The Inadequacy of Metaphor. Retrieved May 22, 2012 from Canalside View:

http://mweigel.typepad.com/canalside-view/2012/05/love-friendship-and-brands-the-inadequacy-of-metaphor.html

Thinkbox. (2007, April). Discover the Power of TV Advertising. Retrieved May 31, 2012 from Thinkbox:

http://www.thinkbox.tv/server/show/nav.1345

Jenkins, H. (2006). Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: New York University Press.

Walsh, M. (2009). Futuretainment: Yesterday the World Changed, Now it's Your Turn. Phaidon Press Ltd.

Willshire, J. (2009). What is media planning? Retrieved May 28, 2012 from Smithery.co:

http://smithery.co/uncategorized/what-is-media-planning/

Young, A. (2011). Brand Media Strategy: Integrated Communications Planning in a Digital Era . Palgrave Macmillan.

Download the full source essay, along with some

much better ones, as part of the IPA Excellence

Diploma’s 2012 ‘Campaign’ supplement.

http://www.ipa.co.uk/document/excellence-

diploma-campaign-supplement-2012

@rossfarquhar