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BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Brands: Predicting the winners April 21, 2009

The fourth annual BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Brands ranking will be released on Wednesday, April 29. The BrandZ Top 100 is the first and only ranking that combines solid consumer research with publicly available financial data. While the results are embargoed until the official release, recent events have caused me to wonder which brands might rise in the ranking compared to last year.

Topping the ranking last year was Google. While it was the subject of much comment on blogs, Google’s preeminence was hardly a surprising result. A large proportion of Google’s advertising revenue derives from the strong but intangible emotional connection that users have with the brand. This connection keeps them coming back to use Google time after time. In BrandZ terminology, a high proportion of people around the world are “Bonded” to Google. They trust Google to find them the information they need. They appreciate it and think it is better than the alternatives.

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BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Brands: Predicting the winners

Facebook: A young network with an old mindset? March 30, 2009

Yes, I know what you’re thinking. “Not another post about Facebook.” Forgive me, but in yesterday’s New York Times, an executive from the world’s fastest growing social network suggested that Facebook users will not have the final say in how the site evolves. The quoted statement suggests a very old-school, command-and-control mindset. In this age of consumer control, don’t the hip young managers of Facebook know that marketers are meant to “just let go?”

In his article “Is Facebook Growing Up Too Fast?” Brad Stone presents an interesting overview of the social network and the difficulties brought on by its exceptional growth. What intrigued me most was the apparent discrepancy between what Facebook users expect from the site and the vision of the Facebook management team. This difference raises all sorts of questions about when a brand should exercise control.

Read The Rest—->Facebook: A young network with an old mindset?

Global recession: threat or opportunity? January 29, 2009

Now that Barack Obama is the 44th President of the United States, many are hoping he will act boldly and swiftly (as he promised in his inaugural address) to improve the state of the American economy. If the Obama administration succeeds in doing this, marketers around the world will breathe a collective sigh of relief.

Unlike previous U.S. recessions, this one has quickly affected people living in countries far away, including China, India and Indonesia. Marketers around the world are facing an unprecedented decline in consumer demand for goods and services.

Read The Rest—>Global recession: threat or opportunity?

Outdoor advertising in Mexico November 19, 2008

I have just returned from a quick trip to Mexico–two days in Mexico City and two days in the delightful and far smaller Valle de Bravo. The contrast I observed between these locations led me to reflect on the importance of outdoor media in driving brand preference in Mexico and elsewhere.

Once you get over the shock of being in the vast sprawl of Greater Mexico City, the apparently perpetually gridlocked home to nearly 20 million people, you find many things to enjoy. On this trip, I got to see the Museo Nacional de Antropología, the venue for our celebration of the tenth anniversary of Millward Brown Mexico. The museum is well worth a visit for its amazing architecture and contents, and it made a fantastic backdrop for our affair.

Traveling around Mexico City, one cannot escape seeing a vast array of outdoor advertising of all types and sizes. From my hotel room I could see a vast billboard for Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice. Covering one side of a high rise, the display proclaimed “Sabe Bien, desintoxica mejor” (which translates, roughly, to: Tastes good, purifies better). Just outside the Millward Brown office, one side of a smaller building was covered with a three-panel ad for the BMW Mini, which announced “Y la cuidad arderá” (translation: And the city burns). And then, of course, there were the more standard “48 sheet” posters for a whole host of brands, both local and international, and a plethora of branded awnings and signs. The whole city is well and truly branded.

Read The Rest —>Outdoor advertising in Mexico

Nigel Hollis Obama’s success: disrupting the status quo November 11, 2008

I was at the New York Times building in Manhattan last Thursday, waiting to meet with advertising columnist Stuart Elliott. The lobby was crowded, mostly with people who were lined up to buy copies of Wednesday’s post-election paper. Observing so many people who wanted a keepsake of Tuesday’s pivotal election, I had three seemingly disparate observations on the events of the week: the awesome significance of the election of the first African-American President, the power of the Obama “brand,” and the value people still attach to paper-based media at such a momentous time.

I had not intended to write a post on the results of the presidential campaign. I figured plenty of other people would be publishing their opinions, and I was right. Now that Barack Obama is president-elect, many marketing commentators are pointing out the lessons for marketers.

There is no doubt in my mind that the Obama brand is a strong one, not just here in the United States but around the world. But I think many commentators focus on the mechanics of his campaign rather than his overall strategy. For a brand to make significant progress in any market, it must disrupt the status quo. Obama did just that.

Obama recognized that he couldn’t win if he played the game in the customary way. So he changed the rules. Jack Welch comments on this in the current issue of BusinessWeek, pointing out that while Hilary Clinton was playing to win the big state primaries in New York, California, and Ohio, Obama managed to gain ground by winning the often overlooked caucuses. Welch goes on to draw a parallel with business:

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Nigel Hollis Blog- Advertising that works November 7, 2008

Politicians know that anything, fact or fiction, can be made more credible by repetition. In that regard Millward Brown could learn a thing or two. Often we are so busy talking about all the new, cool stuff that we do that we forget to remind people of the basics, and they end up learning about our views from other sources, who may deliberately distort our message or just unintentionally get it wrong.

So to set the record straight, here is our take on what makes advertising work, and by “work” I mean drive sales and strengthen brand equity.

Millward Brown’s research highlights three things that successful advertising must do to create a positive sales response. Advertising must:

• Engage people at the time of exposure
• Communicate the desired impression
• Link that impression to the brand in people’s memories

I will briefly elaborate on each of these key objectives for an ad.

Read The Rest—>Nigel Hollis Blog- Advertising that works

Nigel Hollis dvertising that works October 31, 2008

Politicians know that anything, fact or fiction, can be made more credible by repetition. In that regard Millward Brown could learn a thing or two. Often we are so busy talking about all the new, cool stuff that we do that we forget to remind people of the basics, and they end up learning about our views from other sources, who may deliberately distort our message or just unintentionally get it wrong.

So to set the record straight, here is our take on what makes advertising work, and by “work” I mean drive sales and strengthen brand equity.

Read the rest —->Nigel Hollis � Blog Archive � Advertising that works

Nigel Hollis � Blog Archive � Differences, diversity and marketing October 24, 2008

It only took a couple of days in Toronto last week to remind me that Canadians are not only different from Americans, but they are also different from one another: by province, language and ethnicity. This diversity has some interesting implications when it comes to marketing brands not just in Canada but globally.

As my colleague Aurelio Diluciano puts it, “If America is a melting pot, Canada is a fruit cake,” meaning that in Canada people adhere to their origins and do not blend into one homogeneous culture.

While I am not sure that Aurelio’s analogy holds up to close scrutiny – after all, many different ethnic groups in the United States maintain a strong cultural identity – it does give the right impression. Diversity in Canada, where there are just 20 million people, is more striking and obvious than in the U.S., where there are 300 million. A visit to Quebec might convince you that you were in France, while a trip to Nunavut or British Columbia would give a totally different impression.

This diversity does not stop Canadians from being very proud of their collective culture, and some brands have leveraged this pride to good advantage. A notable example is Molsen Canadian. This ad, “The Rant,” created substantial buzz around the brand with its humorous take on the frustration of mild-mannered Canadians who are overshadowed and often misunderstood by Americans (and others).

…
his ad appeals directly to Canadians but would not resonate the same way in the U.S. In this way, The Rant is like many ads in our Link database that test exceptionally well in one country but have limited appeal elsewhere. Similarly, a brand that plays to national culture may limit its appeal beyond the country’s borders, but may enjoy greater success within the country by doing so.

As I said at the outset, diversity has some important implications for marketing. If the choice to highlight similarities and differences among people has real marketing implications for brands, then an important question is: will the differences between ethnic and cultural groups in Canada and elsewhere stand the test of time?

My belief is that the answer is yes. As the world becomes more connected, we will observe two diverging trends: one towards greater homogeneity, and one toward greater diversity, a celebration of what makes us different as individuals and cultures.

We can see the two diverging trends at work online. Facebook, Google and YouTube have global reach, but much of the content shared on these sites is personal and local in nature. Just as these social media platforms connect people of like mind around the world, they also enable sharing among people in local communities who are likely to understand references to local news and events and enjoy the same type of humor. Recognizing this, these Internet brands have created local extensions to their global platforms. By creating sites specific to different countries, brands like Facebook and Google are seeking to foster a stronger sense of community.

I reviewed this idea with Matt Semansky, a reporter for Marketing Magazine in Canada, and he said he had come across something similar in researching an article that will come out this week. He suggested that people in Quebec recognize that they are becoming more similar to the rest of Canada in many ways but that this makes them more determined to celebrate what remains different.

This makes good sense to me. Humans have always been tribal in nature. Identifying with a group is important to us; therefore many brands have become successful by helping people promote a sense of community and shared interests.

In future I suspect brands will need to decide whether they want to be mass-market players that can appeal to common human motivations around the world, or if they need to solidly embed themselves in their local culture, whether that is defined by geography or values. We may eventually see a greater proliferation of niche brands, tailored and targeted to very specific audiences.

So what do you think? Will the world become more diverse or less? And what are the implications for marketers? Please let me know.

Nigel Hollis � Blog Archive � Differences, diversity and marketing

Coca-Cola: Building a Better Design Machine? October 16, 2008

Its Web-based design tool lets the beverage giant customize marketing for hundreds of brands globally while slashing the time it takes to reach consumers

Walk into any grocery or convenience store and you’re likely to see big sales signs tied to events—say, an Olympic-themed sign promoting a series of limited edition Coca-Cola (KO) cans that were available during the Beijing Summer Games. In the past 12 months, Coca-Cola Enterprises, the biggest bottler and distributor of Coke products in the U.S., has created 700,000 of these customized point-of-sale materials alone and expects to pump out 50% more in the next year.

Just five years ago a team of people might have spent weeks or months producing each in-store display. Today, all it takes is Steve Vande Loo and his office computer. Sitting at his desk, the vice-president of commercialization strategy for Atlanta-based Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE) logs into the Design Machine, a Web site launched by Coca-Cola last year. Vande Loo searches online for the right layout template, customizes the images and the copy, choosing from the seven language options currently available, and forwards the digital file to a Coca-Cola printing facility which will get it into stores within days. He can knock off a new sign in less than 10 minutes.

A huge time-saver for Vande Loo, the Design Machine solves the mega-challenge faced by all global companies: How do you retain control of the brand—or, in Coke’s case, 450 brands—and ensure that its image in markets around the world reflects the core strategy? And how do you do that while making the brand management system flexible enough to adapt to local market needs?

Big Web Trend

As a bonus, the Design Machine solves the challenge for a relatively small price: Coca-Cola won’t give the actual cost, but says it spent less to put the system up worldwide than it pays in agency fees for a single Coca-Cola ad campaign. “We recovered our investment well within the first year we went live,” says David Butler, Coca-Cola’s vice-president of design, who conceived the system.

It’s hard to know if the flood of new point-of-sale pieces is raising sales. “We typically measure the effectiveness of our marketing activities in broad strokes, so it’s difficult to zero in on one execution and connect the dots back to the Design Machine,” says Butler. But he adds that major customers such as McDonald’s (MCD) are as excited about the tool as Coca-Cola, and “that ultimately drives sales.”

The Design Machine reflects a broader trend towards so-called digital asset management systems, which are often Web-based repositories of brand materials (logos, text, images, video clips, etc.) that can be accessed by marketers around the world. Advertising giant Ogilvy & Mather built the first such system in 2001 for client IBM (IBM). At the time, Ogilvy saw it as a more efficient means of distribution and rights management, but the agency has since expanded its offerings and in July formally established a subsidiary, RedWorks, to handle language translation and production services.

READ THE REST AT——>Coca-Cola: Building a Better Design Machine?