The Musings Of An Opinionated Sod [Help Me Grow!]

… they get rewarded because they helped keep my Italian Mum happy!  Ta Luca.

www.lucavergano.com/the_blurber/quick_news/index.html

I know many people in advertising hate ‘puns’ [Steve Henry used to tell me they represented a ‘lazy mind’] but there is something about them that I love. 

The picture above is from the ‘confectionary shop’ at my local cinema.  How lovely is that? Far better than ‘Sweets’ or ‘Candy World’ like you get at the local ‘Showcase’. 

A name is so bloody important for a company – but it is so easy to fall into wank-territory and over-think it. Saying that, anything is better than simply calling your company by your own name.

I can’t help but feel when that happens, you either have no imagination or have an amazing ego!  How funny so many ad agencies fall into this trap eh! Ha.

I know this has the potential to be really sexist – but it is a serious question and I hope you will answer it.

OK … as a gender, do you feel women are as ‘funny’ as men?   

And when I say ‘funny’ … I am talking about being continually and consciously able to make people [of either gender] laugh out loud?  Ta.

Many people in marketing and advertising are on a constant quest for what they call the ‘big idea’. 

It’s like the Holy Grail for business and yet, in my experience, most organisations wouldn’t know what one was if it came up and smacked them in the face.

You see, I truly believe big ideas are all around us all the time … it’s just we have to take the blinkers off to see them.

In the US, the Bank Of America has launched what I think is a truly big idea … and it’s an opportunity any bank could have had if they’d looked abit harder.

Research showed people on a budget tended to mentally ’round up’ their purchases to the nearest dollar to ensure they never overspent on their weekly/monthly allowance. Infact, doing this meant they’d often have abit of money left in the budget which they could use in the next period of spending.

So what have the Bank Of America done?

Well they’ve simply launched a program where every purchase made is AUTOMATICALLY rounded up by the bank to the nearest dollar, with the difference being immediately placed into a special savings account. Suddenly people who find it hard to save money are building a little nest egg without even having to consciously put money aside … which results in the Bank Of America not only being differentiated from the competition, but also offering consumers a real reason to change their financial organisation, let alone making their existing customers feel they’re with a bank who actually does give a shit about them. Brilliant!

I remember having countless arguments with the folks at Apple about this sort of thing because at the time, they were obsessed with innovating their way into a big idea … and yet, you could argue their biggest successes over the last few years [iPod and iMac] had little to do with the innovation of new technology – and more to do with the exploitation of old opportunities. 

Well, that’s what we keep arguing about with them anyway, ha!

Here is a picture of Prince Waleed’s US$4.8 million dollar Mercedes.

No, it’s not that expensive because he upgraded to the ‘leather package’ … it’s because for he had the machine covered in diamonds.

Putting aside the fact it’s hardly practical [I mean, you can’t exactly park it at the local Asda can you?] … I wonder if this car could prove to be a tipping point for Mercedes?

Let’s look at the Bentley brand … 

In the past few years, Bentley enjoyed their greatest level of sales.  When you look for why, you realise much of the growth came from America’s Millionaire Rap Artists deciding it was the car they wanted to be seen in.  All well and good …

However jump to today, and Bentley are under sever sales pressure … and whilst there are many reasons for this, one of the most significant is that Bentley loyalists [ie: Rich, Anglo-Saxon, Conservatives] don’t want to be associated with the sort of ‘people’ they feel now drive the brand today. [ie: America’s Millionaire Rap Artists]

Thus a brand has potentially had the rug pulled out from under it by it’s own customers – proving that for every action, there’s a reaction so you’d better be aware of it! [It also proves brands are ‘owned’ by the people, not the manufacturer but you already knew that didn’t you!]

So back to Merc. 

Well basically my hypothesis is similar to the Bentley scenario. 

What happens if all the Rap Artists see the ‘bling’ on this Merc and start ordering their own version?  OK, so it will probably help Bentley attract some of their old customers back, but would Merc’s long-term customer base [plus all those who aspire to owning a Merc – who lets face it, are probably more into Robbie Williams than N.W.A.] suddenly look for an alternative brand which they felt was more suited to the values they judged themselves by?

Just a thought …