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Take a look at this, it’s a parody of a brand with iconic status and iconic ads, from a brand that couldn’t be more different. Its new media meets old in a style all so familiar (that in itself is extraordinary). Brave to do, beautiful in its craft and a minute of your time. I don’t know whether it was commissioned by them or not, but suspect the fact I received this virally suggests it will help both brands. Hope you like it.
Just finished reading Rob Walkers book Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are that delves into the attitudes of the global consumer in the age of plenty, and, didn’t making us look at all good.
This amphetamine paced tour of senseless consumption spans Viking cookers to custom high-tops. And along the way walk I been introduced to a diverse cast of characters like Red bull entrepreneur Dietrich Mateschitz, and an assortment of white guys without any discernable urban credibility who’ve managed to build clothing empires around hip-hop and street culture, and even viral marketers who pretend to be customers, proselytizing to others about the merits of products (and apparently not always disclosing their affiliations).
By presenting both uber-consumers and the professionals who deal with trying to sell us the stuff to fill our endless appetites, or the holes in our souls, Walker indirectly addresses what he coins the “pretty good” problem: What distinguishes a product when assembly lines or underpaid third-world workers can make even the cheapest products “pretty good?” Since quality really isn’t much of a criterion any more, there must be other signifiers, and that’s where our subconscious steps in.
Walker’s key point echoes many in the intangible brand benefit camp often written about in the planning world. Most of us have been inundated with advertising for our whole lives, so on some level we know that we’re being sold … which is why some hipster crowds gathered around PBR (a cheap red neck beer – cheers Google) precisely because they weren’t being given the hard sell. So if somebody cracks open a can now, knowing that the trend is played out, what does that act of consumer disobedience say about them? Now that PBR is so “yesterday,” shouldn’t that make it cool again? If a hipster cracks open a can in the forest and there’s no one around to hear it, are they still being cool?” It all gets pretty meta.
And that’s Walkers thesis. He coins his own portmanteau for the way that advertisers can take advantage of that and calls it “murketing.” Murketing, then is that nexus between murkiness and marketing where buyers can project their own desires or aspirations on to the products that they buy. In examining the psychological motivations that drive this rampant consumerism, Walker references some of the best psychologists and researchers on the subject, including Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, who’s Flow should be required reading for anyone with an interest in being happy and who’s The Meaning of Things happens to be a little more topical.
The conclusion is that objects are only as totemic as we let them be. Walker even begins to hint at what might be a really interesting corollary, but it is left largely unexplored. For us, as product and communications guys, if we’re pondering the future, one must wonder what sort of value we can add to society.
In a potential post-consumer future, where we’ve harnessed algae to transform sunlight into electricity and where every home has a rapid prototype machine that uses organic compounds, how will we define wealth? Suddenly when everyone has access to flawless and pristine stuff, it’s that scuffed up and worn armchair that has real value. Because even though I may love my sleek modernist furniture in ways that might not quite be healthy, if my house was burning down I’d rescue the painting I found in a junk shop.
Walking past a pub on the way home yesterday evening I spied my old creative director supping a pint. 10 minutes later the old days were back; him, me, lager and discussion. He is talented as hell – scarily so, sharp to the point and fiercely no-nonsense talking. He makes me wish I was more instinctive.
We got talking about briefing and about how we need to reframe expectations of briefs to be more understandable; to drive to what is special, where the stand out come from, and what’s its going to do for you.
4 (or is could have been 5) in we stumbled upon the conclusion that a good metaphor is the job market. In many cases, a brand like a candidate competes to become occupied, it competes against other candidates, it needs to be relevant to the role specified, to have experience and stand out amongst a crowd.
We thought this was amazing. Writing this on this very bright morning having woken up in my clothes it seems to make sense but it’s not as brilliant as it was at 1 am – but it’s tidy.
We just won a pitch. A product we have been chasing for months. Hive day one started with a call to this marketing manager then I made up 2 office chairs to sit on. Seriously, its been this long.
It’s a biggie, a parent proof product. “Oh I’ve heard of that” replacing “What’s Commerce Anxiety Disorder”. My mum even wanted to star in the behavioural change application mock-up. She got her dream. She had to be 67 and meek and mild – which caused a few issues as she has been 47 for as long as I can remember.
Today we visited a big glass building with fountains and manicured gardens, went to discuss examples of our work that correlated to their problem. “Makes sense but where has it worked before” – A cry we can now answer with examples and metrics. Team back at the office nervously waiting. Hoping we closed the deal. Jackets on and shoes all shiny. We got it. This afternoon I made up our 15th and 16th chair.
Our new clients mentioned the passion (probably more nerves and need than anything) and about how different our offer is. It got me thinking and wandering around the web on my return in post win daze and stumbled back across a blog I haven’t been to for ages http://headrush.typepad.com/. The blog champions passion in business. The blog that I crashed into covered the difference between what we now consider “old-school marketing” (otherwise known as The Four P’s — product, price, promotion, and placement — heavy on advertising and “branding”) and the “neo-marketing” which we consider our end of town.
Here are a few ideas on some of the differences all a light read on a Monday am.
Something both exciting and unique happened to me in 1991…….
I bought my first 12 inc record album. The band was called The Prodigy and the album was called Experience and I had managed to purchase a limited edition white sleeve special. The slick minimalist style of the cover contrasted vastly with the atmospheric colouring and transient use of typography within the inner sleeve. The music was an array of cutting edge sounds and lyrics mixed with mesmerising beats and a unique series of piano keys. Fast forward 18 years and the band are once again proving that they see design as an essential ingredient in expressing their music.
The use of animated graphics in the new video for Warriors Dance is truly magical and inspiring….
I saw something this morning in The Guardian (Monday’s media day – stereotype me!). It seems that many in the TV world are struggling to build shows/brands that can spread across the range of media channels that exist today.
Stephen Armstrong’s article highlights emotional charged teen drama Skins as a successful example. He states that in these times of hardship the need to create successful media brands that deliver more than one programme, spur numerous spins offs across the multi-media landscape has never been more acute. Despite a complete change in cast and writers audience loyalty has remained, viewer contribute to stories, costumes, download the unsigned soundtrack, upload their tunes and even write scripts that are then filmed as webisodes. The shows co-creator Brian Elsley puts this ongoing channel neutral success down to staying close to their audience, being careful when selecting storylines and never letting their audience feel that they are alone.
We tend to be OK stretching our brands across media – admittedly in a less competitive world that entertainment. But this all sounded relevant to our world, especially when we are planning franchise offerings, extensions and channel planning.
PS – thanks to Ian for the headline his best to date
From the excellent holiday read Wikinomics comes a great case study for field personnel living the brand. Geek Squad is the answer to the layperson’s techno-phobic prayers, devoted to keeping technology running smoothly in the home and office. It is also among the best branded services out there.
What I read, gave rise to many questions about our as role as marketeers in enabling our most important resource to thrive.
Geek Squad is a rich source of learning for those of us who consider the healthcare field force an underused tool. The geeks on patrol are not only unified by the company’s branding theme – they are the brand. Each is dubbed with a title like “Special Agent”/”Covert Operator” (depending on duties) and is dressed to fit the part. Q: How successful are we in healthcare at engendering unity amongst our field-based colleagues?
Geek Squad’s mission is to “alleviate the world’s computer problems, educate people to fearlessly embrace technology and practice the art of human interaction.” And although their core business is PC troubleshooting, a little over 10% of their calls involve helping those who are having problems with other technicalities – such as setting up an iPod or putting the clock on your DVD recorder right. Q: What additional services could our reps perform that would contribute directly or indirectly to our bottom line?
Team members are encouraged to share their day’s tribulations with anyone, air issues and ask for help from peers, quickly and efficiently. Have a problem with a reboot or difficult customer? Up to 10,000 other agents are available to review your issue, comment and offer support, advice and fixes. Q: What do we have in place to facilitate best practice – or even best communication – between team members? How successfully do we facilitate dialogue across all corporate levels?
Answers on an e-postcard to the usual address…
Something seems to come over us when we write an ad brief, my planner friend reminded me this morning. It’s the way we do our best to cram everything about the product/condition/patient into one ad. We forget completely how we as consumers interact with ads; forget that below-the-line materials are on this earth only to communicate the underlying support for the product story.
I had a quick browse of OK! yesterday afternoon (dermatology research). The ads in there are graphic and simple. Their feel and message happened to me automatically, without conscious decision. Clarins just stepped right on in there. Bang, I was Gucci’d. But that’s a good thing. I didn’t have to waste time and delve into reams of body copy to know what it is these brands were trying to say to me. The same thing they were saying in their first, second, 500th print ad. One-dimensional, loud and clear. Intent – a quick reminder of high-end status. (Plus a little eye candy for the logo lover.)
We’d hardly dream of addressing healthcare professionals this way, because we seem to feel we need a myriad of reasons to excuse ourselves. The disease area needs innovating, here’s why, here’s how we help, here’s the whole deal in microscopic detail. Certainly, HCPs need this information – but a brand ad just can’t and shouldn’t carry all of it. Instead, we must communicate quickly the offer/ position in the one elegant wrapper of a creative idea or perhaps like Gucci, a proud identity. To keep our messages simple we can use a separate, successive approach – that’s why we often roll things out in campaigns.
However, healthcare is a major area of research and advancement and that’s why drugs and services are constantly turning over. Research shows that a small amount of inner detail is appreciated by HCPs, so we have room for a couple of clear sentences in our work. OK, our clients are not Gucci, but we can still learn from such brands. Manufacturing processes kept to the label, leather ageing techniques communicated in store, deals kept to a business-to-business environment, and endorsement happens via PR. The ad is left to communicate the feel of the brand as simply and elegantly as possible. Isn’t what really sticks in our heads the stuff we don’t have to think about too much?
To build upon this and make it relevant to our proposition here at Hive. Using the ad to communicate an element of the story, and the whole mix to contribute to a bigger idea which exists outside and above that of the ad concept seems to us to be a better way, and should provide not just a brand feel but a story and richness that contributes to a truer more in depth relationship.
Healthcare is a complex world to work in, whether we sell products or services. On top of our day to day business, we’re struck by reams of science, mode of actions, molecular specs, and more.
The result is that in healthcare, we are surrounded by distractions. When we’re asked to explain what it is we do, we get immediately sidetracked into describing stuff that is really besides the point. To be fair, there are times when we have to pass the time; fill in gaps in conversation. Perhaps this is why this kind of pointless talk has been described as “elevator speech”, or the more stylish “martini monologue”.
But sometimes it invades boardrooms, too. We lose sight of our brand as “the moral of our story” when we plan our communications. Or maybe we understand our brand in our own heads, but fail to produce a short, consistent description when asked. We prepare in the wrong ways, getting tangled in details when it’s really not necessary.
How do we get to that core of what it is we do? By asking yourself one question: why it is that we (or our service) can meet customer’s needs better than anyone else. If you can find a way to verbalise this to a stranger in a lift or a brand director over lunch, you’re practising engagement. That brand story will find its way into communications materials too – the places that you build on with key messages, that complicated MOA diagram, and so on.
Martini anyone?
A recent comment from a client made me think about how pharmacists act as brand enhancers for patients/consumers.
Pharmacists are highly educated healthcare professionals. Patients have long relied on their valuable skills and used their advice to make a purchase. However, it has been traditional for organisations to communicate with them principally in business terms. This retail-led approach creates dissonance between the relationship pharmacy has with a brand’s manufacturers and the one they have with the brand’s users.
The new Contract, however, changes things. Although the uptake of enhanced services seemed slow to begin with, pharmacy’s growing relationship with patients is now much in evidence. (As it is with other HCPs: the growing weight of pharmacy has strengthened links with prescribers.) With almost 2 years since the independent prescriber act, there are far better opportunities to be had than talking “stock pressure and profit on return”.
Instead, manufacturers who understand and enhance the close relationship between pharmacist and consumer will gain more end-user engagement. A recent study showed that when pharmacists intervened in the sale – not by recommending, but by providing an informed brand initiation – patient compliance increased and patients were more likely to make a repeat purchase. Proof that what can be good for profits can be great for patients.
As the professional identity of the pharmacist sinks in, their challenges revolve around setting the clinical scene and promoting new services to patients. Pharmaceutical companies must continue to track areas of progress and deliver a rounded offer that benefits in-house experts and their patients.
There’s a really interesting new theory circulating called transmedia planning. A quick background: transmedia storytelling was a trend identified by the cultural academic Henry Jenkins, where entertainment brands used different media streams to tell pieces of a story or plot. Transmedia planning was born when a number of strategists, including Faris Yakob, adapted Jenkins’ theory for the marketing world.
TMP places control in the users’ hands by asking us to “Allow your audience to assemble your brand story”. It’s an interesting evolution of 360° marketing where one idea is expressed uniformly by multiple channels. TMP allows ideas (or parts of ideas) to reach consumers from a slightly different point of view, but deliver consistent value and meaning around a brand.
Hive’s business plan adopts a transmedia approach in the context of the important changes happening in healthcare. You don’t have to have read our recent blog comments to know that informed, or partially informed, patients are increasingly the norm. Growing access to different information sources gives patients more control over their treatment. The web allows communities to form and discuss treatment and results. Consumers are showing they need more than shallow promises and that’s where TMP fits the bill.
We have to remember though that the transmedia concept evolved in an unconstrained consumer world. In its purest form, TMP can’t apply directly to prescription brands because of the necessary limitations on patient communications. However, prescription drug users still form communities to share experiences about treatment, particularly those with chronic conditions. Using a transmedia approach here involves setting up the dialogue between prescriber and patient, but acknowledging that some of the dialogue and beliefs around the brand may also be acquired from less informed sources. The reality for patients/consumers is, the relative weight of advice sourced online vs the prescriber is not always as you would imagine.
Building relationships in any industry is about engagement with people. In the healthcare mainstream, the critical commitment may still be the prescriber’s. But it’s vital to remember that the prescriber is not the person experiencing the brand in a hands-on manner. Its time our communication to professionals and patients alike began to reflect that.
I came back from a meeting yesterday to find that our big pink sofa had finally arrived. Naturally, this was a sign to put the kettle on and get comfy. Naturally, we got round to talking about what makes prescription brands “engage” with people.
Engagement stretches from a transient coupling of user and product to a loyal relationship rich in mutual benefits. This depends on how much emotional value is delivered. The most successful brands in the world, like Apple, appeal to our most highly evolved values. Healthcare brands with a life-changing reputation (Seretide, Herceptin) come closest to this.
Most Rx brands however, don’t inspire much in end users. We take them for short term relief, or because the doctor/pharmacist said so, and never develop more than a functional relationship with them. Medicine is not something we buy because we want to.
But even though we’re largely indifferent, we can still forge long-term commitments with treatments because “we probably should”. Millions stick with a daily hypertensive because their physician has confirmed that their lifestyle hasn’t done them many favours. Changing brands only happens thus, when the doctor sees fit. There’s no dialogue going on here, but while there is forced engagement, does it really matter? We believe it does matter.
As preventative medicine becomes more of a priority, competition will drive prescription brands into more emotionally accessible areas. Certainly they will have to compete for prescriber loyalty.
For patients, new ways of engaging might go further than driving revenue. Putting a friendlier face on those boring old blood pressure pills might make people more adherent to their medication and perhaps think about taking more control of their health in other ways.
It seemed to be going so smoothly, getting our offices up and running in just a month.
The key word is ‘seemed’. We are wiser now. We have seen the gap between promise and delivery. We know how it affects users attitude and behaviour.
It’s nice to be sweet talked at times; it’s fun visualising how great things will be. It’s less thrilling to hang around waiting for non-existent goods to turn up. That’s when you feel disappointed and want to kick your bright, flawless, newly painted walls down.
Customer service is something everyone gushes about. “We are competitively priced, but our premium is justified by our outstanding commitment to…” You’ve heard it. Why is it companies and brands still haven’t got it? Buying a service is about the delivery, not the promise.
Things that should have happened naturally were eclipsed by a tortuous string of phone calls and frustration: Transferring phone accounts: O2 say ‘1 day’, our panel say, Att-Ahhhh 2 months of chasing, cajoling and being let down. In the end we gave up and went to Vodafone, finding out that it’s easier to change provider than stay with the same one… hello? Putting landlines in. Our provider says cat 6 will be fine, so that’s what we do. Our panel said Att-Ahhhh, I meant cat 5, not cat 6 cable – 2 days wasted.
I could go on but I’m starting to tremble.
Brands must contain a promise, but more importantly they must fulfil it. One company that would never let that happen is First Direct. Their brand promise (or should I call it brand truth?) rings loud and clear from their call centre upwards, for them it feels that delivering the brand is actually more important than communicating it.
Something always comes good from bad as my Grandmother used to say. It got us thinking. Do we in the pharmaceutical industry focus so much on selling to HCPs that we fail to properly consider the impact on end users? The token patient programme, the leaflet, the poster. Not being able to talk to consumers is no excuse, we can talk to patients. Even if we can’t hear their complaints, the rest of the world will.