Cultural imprinting: how ads really work?
Ever notice how much better it is when your favourite song comes on the radio compared to when you listen to it on Spotify? It’s weird isn’t it. You’re driving along, radio humming away as background noise, and then you hear those first couple of beats and suddenly it’s volume up, windows down, hand beating […]
How not to be disrupted
Note: after last week’s discussion and the idea of balancing planned vs. agile strategies, I gave it some more thought and came up with a concept I think explains it well. So you can consider this a bit of a follow up, hope you enjoy. ____ Generally speaking, I think the pace of change is wildly exaggerated. […]
The Challenger Trap: fighting the status quo with the status quo
Once up on a time, to be a “challenger brand” simply meant that you weren’t number one. On this basis pretty much any brand could be framed as such, without it really saying anything about their philosophy or approach to the market. One of the original challenger brands, for example, was Avis, the car rental […]
Armani, aspiration, and the decline of luxury
If we’re reductive about it, we might say there are really only two strategic levers a business can pull from a consumer perspective: Utilitarian Brand led When it comes to delivering value, these are basically the paths to do it. Utilitarian companies offer a genuinely useful and unique “function” – for instance, the supermarket Lidl, […]
How to make eco-strategies work
I spend a lot of time here talking against herd behaviour; against the reflexive urge, we all have to copy and to cluster – particularly in business. It should be acknowledged, however, that not all herd behaviour is necessarily illogical or counterproductive. We are all swimming in the same cultural waters, and sometimes a wave […]
How successful brands die
Understandably we talk a lot here about growth. That’s what most founders are interested in. However, this is should only be one part of their agenda. The other, less discussed, is survival. Simply sticking around and maintaining your brand’s position – hopefully long into the future. When it comes to the growth side of the […]
Hattable brands – what makes a business a cultural icon
Arguably there are two types of brand in this world: Those you could put on a hat, and those you couldn’t. Harley Davidson, Mountain Dew, Jack Daniels, Levis, Marlboro, Fender, Porsche; all “hattable” brands. Dell, Audi, Dove, Pepsi, Cadbury’s, FedEx; all great brands, yes, but not “hattable”. To be the sort of brand who an […]
The Toilet Paper Rule
We want to be the Apple of dishwasher tablets. We want to be the Nike of accountancy software. We want to be the Tesla of bathroom grout. We want to be the Supreme of clingfilm. We want to be the Netflix of medical waste disposal. Recognise statements like these? We all want to be the […]
Go big or go home – why the mass market still matters
Apologies in advance to foreign readers for the very British cultural references that follow – no doubt you’ll be able to sub in your own equivalents and still get the gist. ___ When I was growing up, I vividly remember our family’s Saturday night viewing routine: Blind Date, Gladiators, and Birds of a Feather. An unbeatable triple combo of […]
Sussex Royal, Ad Agencies, And The Danger Of Subjective Language
A friend of mine runs a film company, and as a result often works with advertising agencies. He once made a comment based on his experience which has always stuck with me: “Any time I see an agency refer to themselves as ‘creative’, I immediately know they aren’t”. I know I have many newsletter subscribers […]