During my week of seminars I also attended one called “The Business of Branding” by Sid Madge from Mad Hen……

During this seminar we were asked what we recognise/recall when it comes to the brand of any one company. Is it colour?

The Google logo written using Coke’s font and colour….


Is it shape? Is it sound? (Intel’s little “ringtone” has become synonymous with technology and speed…)

The Metro Goldwyn Mayer lion

 

Is it purely visual?

The Sony Bravia advert actually used all those balls and dropped them from helicopters… 50 interns were asked to collect them after the shoot

 

Guiness, “Good things come to those who wait” ad campaign

 

Or is it how they make us feel? How they converse with us?

Innocent adverts open up with communication

 

We were then asked what we thought the percentage between logic and emotion was when it came to people making a choice and buying a certain product. The answer was 15%/85%; most people decide on which brand they’d buy based on their emotions at that time.

The global brands thought to be worth the most (not the profits the companies make) are

  1. Coca Cola, their brand is worth more than 70bn
  2. …
  3. Microsoft
  4. Google

We were told that the value of a brand isn’t just financial  - unhappy employees cost businesses 40m

Brands engaging people through social media saw sales increase by 18%, whereas others dropped by 6% – Facebook: if the people using it are considered as a “population”, then Facebook is the 4th largest country in the world (the USA is the 3rd)

Most people’s interaction with brands is online and by 2016 digital music sales will eclipse CD sales worldwide. One survey found that 70% of young people would rather go a week without sex than a week without music!

Craigslist and Wikipedia are two examples of sites/organisations that go against nearly every traditional branding principal.

So what are these intangible items that make up 85% of our decision making?

Love, loyality and passion – service, customers and staff/colleagues. Creativity is highly collaborative.

Sid went on to say that there are 3 attributes to a successful business:

  1. A great idea
  2. It holds true to it’s core purpose and values
  3. It employs brand as the central organising principle

To build a successful brand you need to

  • Understand the brands pressure points and eliminate them – the best feedback is from the customers
  • Use innovation in the workplace; harness the most important asset of any company – your workforce
  • Link brand to the key driver – make customer experience easy
  • Think what measures you have to control your brand – Innocence focused on education and the big knit
  • Walk your own brand

Apple are one example of a good brand. Since their “comeback” they have become hugely successful by staying true to their original brand values.

The PC versus Mac campaign!

At the end of the seminar we were recommended a list of 3 books:

  1. Lovemarks by Kevin Roberts
  2. The Brand Gap by Marty Neumeier
  3. The Extreme Future by James Canton

I really enjoyed this seminar, the speaker was great and enthusiastic… plus I do like looking at all the pictures and little clips on Youtube!