Presentation given to Prof John Roberts\' ASB class in August 2008

1. Branding in Practice: Past Present
and Future
A Personal Perspective
By Michael Graham
http://brand2point0.blogspot.com/

3. The threat to Brands is real and present
From ever more informed and critical consumers
- Coke gets my “What were they thinking?” award
for the week

4. The threat to Brands is real and present
From ever more informed and critical consumers
From marketing people who don’t like data or
technology

5. The threat to Brands is real and present
From ever more informed and critical consumers
From marketing people who don’t like data or
technology
From strategists and communications agency people
who still talk about ‘the emotional connection’ as if it
is the panacea to all ills – see Ad Guy on you tube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxKeVEEXA3g

6. The threat to Brands is real and present
From technologists – ‘Geeks’ - that are creating needs
through imagining things that marketers and
consumers cannot.

7. A ‘potted’ biography
Bachelors Degree –Russian Language and International
Relations
Chartered Company Secretary – ICSA
Postgrad Diploma in Management - QUT
Joined Landor 1998 in London
Resigned as MD Australia in August - currently
exploring the next phase of career

8. Desig Drive Desir
The Evolution of
n
Brands
e
s

9. The Knowledge based economy
As economies evolve they become less about tangibles
KNOWLEDGE
INFORMATION
‘Connectedness’
MANUFACTURING
AGRICULTURE
Time
Page 9

10. Three Sacred Cowsquot;

14. Possibilities
Desig Drive Desir
Purpose
n
s
e
Persona
Property

15. Branding in Practice – Hammer and Nails
The agency that does advertising sees everything as a
30 second slot to nail
The agency with designers to feed sees everything as a
logo to nail - ‘contemporise’.
The agency with newspaper connections sees
everything as a media relations problem
…and so on.

16. The Result
Client
‘Other’
‘Brand’
Ad Agency
Agency
Agency
CD
CD
CD
Planner
Strategist
Consultant

17. In Practice, ‘branding’ is mostly
…seen as a communications outcome alone
…regarded as activity not achievement
- Qantas re-brand – new logo?
…led by industry people with little business training
(especially numbers) and/or artistic training
The outcome is that the marketing communications
industry talks ‘Brand’ but sells and walks comms (ads
logos press releases etc etc.)

18. Desigthink about Brand
How to Drive Desir
so n
you s
the most
that get e
out of yours…

19. What is the role of Brand?
To deliver your organisation a competitive advantage in
the marketplace in which it competes…
…for customers
…for consumers
…for suppliers
…for people
…for the future
If your brand is not delivering then you have a
problem.
Page 19

20. Where does brand fit in?
“All marketing is the art of brand building”
Philip Kotler.
Page 20

21. What is this thing called brand?
A brand is a set of associations (formed by beliefs, expectations
and indirect and direct experiences) that exist in the mind of
an individual connected to a product or service. (We just
measure the associations in aggregate).
Depending on the individual’s context (usage, socio-economic
situation, occasion) these associations can sometimes lead to
the consideration and purchase of that product or service
If enough people have strong enough, positive enough set of
associations this may lead to valuable exchange over time –
what we call a strong brand.
Brands can influence purchase behaviour. This is what makes
brands valuable…what makes them so intangible, frustrating
and elusive is that they are linked to human behaviour.
Page 21

22. …and here’s my view…
Brand is much more than a communications outcome.
Brand is a tool for winning in business by tilting the scale of
decision in your favour - whether that be a customer, an
employee, a shareholder, at all levels of management.
The marketing communications industry and senior
management has underestimated the importance of
brand by a factor of four or five. That’s why they see it as
lower down the importance scale. But it’s not some
fringe concept…
Page 22

23. Tim Ambler

24. Don Schultz*
“The brand is the only element in the organisation that
✔
has the potential to provide value to all four of the
organisation’s stakeholder groups - the customer/
consumer, the employee, the stakeholders and
management…
In short the brand is the integrating factor around which
✗
all marketing and communications should be built.” (not
only but also)quot;
* Professor of Integrated Marketing, Northwestern University

25. Branding – a whole of company job
The whole organisation has to be configured around
one goal - understanding and delivering value to the
customer.
P&G get this absolutely right when they ask ‘Who is
your WHO?’
The customer is BOSS, The customer is BOSS, The
customer is BOSS, The customer is BOSS – that’s
where the brand makes a BIG difference.

26. Intangibles are up to 80% of market
value
8
7
6.8
6.6
Market to Book Ratio
6
5.5
5.3
5
4.7
4.6
4.3
4.1
4
3.8
3.3
3.0
3.0
3
2.7
2.4
2.3
2.2
2.2
1.9
1.9
2
1.5
1.4
1.3
1
0
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
Market Value to Book Value of Assets for the S&P 500 –
1983 to 2004 (Annual Average)

27. A Framework for Meta-Brand Thinking?
On average more than 80% of a company’s enterprise
value is in intangible, non-balance sheet assets.
Intangible Value components – brand, market position,
quality of leadership, earnings track record,
technology, distribution power all drive market value-
add to differing degrees.
If “brand” were treated as a value creation tool - a
tool with which a company can gain access to scarce
resources – people, customers, supply of capital,
would it get a seat at the Boardroom table?

28. Initial Thoughts
Brand shapes internal culture and external reputation
Brand can and must go beyond comms outcomes if it
is to be fully exploited (or not die)
Some are calling this Brand 2.0 some calling it the
meta-brand mandate.
Tomorrows brand-thinkers will see this as the early
stage of brand 2.0…

29. Brand as Value Driver

30. The Apple Framework
Brand equates to vision and purpose and vice versa
Brand shapes leadership style and manner
Brand informs innovation
Brand is a tool to engage employees
Brand is a way to show us what might be possible.
Brand is a way to compete for the future.

31. Desig Drive Desir
So what forces might shape
that future?
e
n
s

32. Generational
Change in
Marketing
Brand
The role of
2.0
technology
My Media

33. 1963

37. It means that you are no longer in control.
Not because of binary code,quot;
but because the technology people imagined
a world that marketing people could not…
and then they made it happen

38. From ‘mass’ media to ‘me’ media.

39. Everyone’s a philosopher
blogs
Sharp, witty, harsh, incisive, not
constrained by the traditional rules
of journalistic integrity - and, as easy
as opening an email account
Becoming institutionalised:
magazines recruit bloggers to be
sta writers, bloggers achieve
celebrity status and blogs unite to
form media “companies”

40. Consumers become producers
Inspiration:
Linux Open Source
Network
Shoe designer John Fluevog’s Open Source
Footwear
www.ipodlounge.com
showing Apple what we want
Oral Fixation Mints
next
Flavour Lab
Idol: interactive
Ben Jerry’s “Suggest a Flavour” obsession
Competitions

41. What’s the answer when fewer and
fewer people are watching TV any
more?quot;
It may happen sooner than we think…

42. Desig Drive Desir
So how might you compete
for the branded future?
n
s
e

43. Who is your who and what is it
they do?quot;
When was the last time you spent a week
with a customer?

44. Forget sequential, think parallel quot;
forget neat, think messy channels
that you don’t control…

45. An increase in media morphing will
require an increased focus on the
insight and the idea that underpin a
brand’s success…quot;
ideas can rise above turbulence.

46. Let it go. quot;
Your company might own and protect
the trademark but the brand only lives
if it is in people’s hearts heads and
houses

47. Co-create and co-design with customers
Ideas
Ideas
Ideas
Innovation

48. AMI
National
Conferen
ce
Page 48
10/10/05

49. Listening closely will be a pre-requisite
to being heard

50. Be interested and interesting…
“The opposite of love
is not hate…
it is indierence…”
Bree Hodge
Desperate Housewives

51. Responses, opinions,discussions?quot;
blog: http://brand2point0.blogspot.com/quot;