When I was young, I loved looking through the Argos and Innovations catalogues.
They were a window into a world I couldn’t imagine.
One filled with gadgets and toys I’d never see, let alone never own.
It’s partly why whenever I fly, I always look at the Duty Free catalogue.
Because outside of the sexist shit like ‘air hostess outfits for girls and pilot suits for boys’ and prices that never seemingly being any less than I could get in a store … there’s something magical – at least for me – in seeing what’s on offer.
Bad versions of expensive brands.
Updated versions of old products.
Endless amounts of perfume and questionable jewellery.
I love it. Hell, I’ve even bought things from it occasionally … though the mini-projector ended up being something I used precisely ZERO times.
But post-covid, the people behind these catalogues have decided passengers are super rich and super stupid.
I get why they would think that with the price of tickets these days.
But even then, I am wracking my brain to work out who would get on a plane and order this …
A bed.
A SG$24,000 bed.
Seriously, what the absolute fuck?
I know there’s a lot of bed companies these days offering ’60+ free nights’ … but this isn’t one of those.
This is the real deal … mattress AND remote control flexible frame.
For the price of a car. Or at least a second-hand car.
And they expect you to buy it, without trying it, via an inflight, duty-free catalogue.
I’d kill to know if any have ever been sold. I’d kill to know the reasoning behind why they did it.
And I’d kill anyone who ordered one.
Forget Duty Free this would be Brain Free … or, the new way to signal to people you have vulgar wealth.
Better than a Black Centurion AMEX or a Lambo with Pepper Pig.
Evolution sure works in some strange ways …
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Audi, Authenticity, Brand, Communication Strategy, Corporate Evil, Culture, Honesty, Luxury, Management, Mediocrity, Metallica, Packaging, Premium, Resonance, Respect, Standards, Status, Strategy
A lot of luxury brands, invite a lot of mocking.
It might be what they make.
It might be the prices they charge.
It might be the way they look at the world.
But whatever your opinion, at least they commit.
Walk into a proper high-end luxury brand and you see high-end standards and experience.
Everywhere.
[The Netflix series ‘7 Day’s’ perfectly demonstrates this, as I wrote about here]
Innovation. Craft. Details. Service. Packaging. Training.
You might not like it.
You might not value it.
But you can’t say they’re not committed to it.
Now compare that to companies that like to position themselves as ‘premium’.
Sure, some live up to it … but my god, most don’t.
The only premium-ness is often only in their pricing and ego.
Big talking to the public, short-changing everywhere else around them.
Now I get you have to look after the pennies in business, but when you claim to be premium – it should mean you recognize the value of premium standards and service in those around you and with you. And if you don’t – or you don’t think the people you are dealing with offer that – then why the fuck are you dealing with them?
I’ve written about this before, but once-upon-a-time I was asked to work on a freelance project for a high-end German brand.
I submitted my estimate to which I was met with the following reply:
“Your fee is higher than other partners we use, please lower it”.
That was it. Not even an indication of the costs they were comparing me too.
Now while I value what I do, the costs weren’t excessive.
Infact they were a fraction of the cost of one of their lowest priced products.
But more than that, I’d agreed my fees with the CMO before I submitted them to procurement, so I thought., ‘fuck this’ and wrote the following response.
“Your products are higher priced than other brands I could choose, please lower it”.
I know … it was cheeky, but I just thought they were incredibly arrogant in their attitude, especially in the way they wanted to undermine my experience.
And guess what, almost immediately they replied with,
“We accept your rate and look forward to working with you” … which is the exact moment I saw through the hype.
Brands who value quality don’t benchmark costs against the lowest market rates.
I get it’s a negotiation tactic, but it also reveals their hypocrisy and insecurity.
It’s why my experience with Metallica was so shocking … despite the fact what they do and value all makes total sense but the way most business operates means it felt so bizarre.
Actually, Metallica are a great example of a brand that values who they are.
Everything they do is focused on respecting the quality of what they do.
For example, to make sure their vinyl is always of the highest quality – they bought the best vinyl printing press company in the world.
Same with their live shows …
To ensure their sound is of the highest quality, they had the highest-quality live speaker system in the world built.
Rather than approach investments in terms of ‘what can we get away with’, their attitude is to put highest quality first … which is why they buy stuff rather than lease it because not only does it ensure their creativity is given the highest possible quality [rather than the best they can get away with] it ensures they always have priority access to it. And when they don’t need to use it, they get people like me to work out how to make it pay for itself, which often ends up leasing it to other bands who don’t have the same needs/standards or values as them.
Metallica understand standards better than most brands.
But then they understand who they are better than most brands.
Which is why everything they do is focus up to the quality not down to the price.
That’s a proper premium brand … one who makes decisions that reflects who they are not who they are pretending to be.
Christ, I recently saw a rep from a coffee brand get into their gold Audi.
It stood out to me because it was a errrrrm, gold Audi.
And while some may look at it and say,
“If they drove a Prius, maybe their coffee prices were lower”
… not only are they unlikely to be people who buy their coffee, they are also unlikely to care about the difference of coffee.
That’s not a diss … I like Nescafe with Coffee Mate … but it also doesn’t mean that my taste is reflective of everyone else’s either.
Whether true or not, my impression of a brand giving their rep this choice of car was they had a different perspective on standards. Rather than give their reps the lowest priced car they could get away with, they found the most efficient car of the standards they live and operate in.
Of course many may slate or disagree with me for this view …
I also appreciate some may find their choice a reflection of their pretentiousness, which they find fucking annoying.
And in some way I agree with them.
However I feel a lot better about pretentious assholes when that’s who they actually are rather than those who do it to look like they’re premium when everything else highlights they’re anything but.
Commitment costs.
You might not want to pay it … you might not understand the reasoning for it … but at least you’re dealing with people who believe it rather than those who are exploiting you for it.
Watch theft – or should I say, expensive watch theft – has reached insane levels.
It’s so bad that some nations are warning their citizens to not wear expensive jewellery when visiting London – because things are so bad.
You can learn more by following Stolen Watch Group on Instagram.
The driver of this theft epidemic is not simply their current value … it’s that certain brands are seeing incredible increases in their worth and at a time where everything else seems to be falling dramatically, they’re proving to be a better investment than many traditional choices.
Anyway, luxury watch brand Audemers Piguet have seen an opportunity to benefit from this situation by being the first watch company to guarantee watches against theft.
OK, so the watch has to be $55,000+ but it’s still a smart idea … because even though most people who can afford a watch of that value would insure it against theft, the hassle – and cost – of external insurance makes this a pretty compelling offer, if only for simplicity should the worst happen.
As usual there are clauses galore – but in terms of taking an issue head-on – it’s not just smart, they’ve been quick to act and for a category often viewed as being slow and set in their ways, it’s good to see someone adopt the attitude of ‘don’t let a crisis go to waste’ rather than keep your head in the sand and wait till it blows over.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, Brilliant Marketing Ideas In History, China, Chinese Culture, Communication Strategy, Confidence, Content, Context, Creative Development, Creativity, Culture, Cunning, Devious Strategy, Distinction, Government, History, Influencers, Luxury, Marketing, Perspective, Politics, Relevance, Resonance, Respect, Revenge, Truth
Once upon a time, when I lived in Singapore, I popped into the restaurant next to where we lived on Club Street, to get some takeaway.
As I was waiting for my noodles, I saw a man at the bar having a drink.
He had a nice face but the only reason I noticed him was because he had a mark on his head that made him look like Mikhail Gorbachev.
The next day I found out, it was.
While Club Street was blessed with lots of nice restaurants and bars, seeing the ex-head of the Soviet Union having a drink next door to where you live, was not the sort of thing you expect to see.
But then Mikhail was good at the unexpected.
Like the time, in 2007, he turned up in a Louis Vuitton ad.
Back in the days when being an ‘influencer’ meant you had done something to impact the world rather than existed to simply flog product.
But Mikhail was an inspired choice for a whole host of reasons …
One was the visual metaphor he represented for Russia’s journey from communism towards capitalism.
The symbolism of a new era in Russia. And the rest of the world.
And while this ad came out in 2007 – 16 years after he had seen the dissolution of the USSR – what he represented was still clear. Made even more obvious by placing him in the back of a car – in a photo taken by Annie Leibovitz – driving past the Berlin Wall … another symbol of capitalism triumphing over communism.
For many who read this blog, the impact of this change may fly right past you.
I get it, especially if you’ve lived in Western countries, so to give you some context, let me take you to Communist China.
The modern metropolis that you see in photos of China today is certainly not what I found when I first moved there. Especially when you stepped out of central Shanghai, Beijing or Guangzhou. Though, to be fair, that’s still the case in many parts of the country – including Shanghai, Beijing or Guangzhou – despite the Middle Kingdom’s incredible modernisation and rise.
Anyway, when I first moved there, Louis Vuitton had a reputation – and nickname – of being ‘the mistress brand’.
There was a simple reason for it …
People who owned it were seen as ‘girlfriends’ of high-level business people or government ministers.
Basically the belief was that because their lovers were one of the few people who were allowed – or could afford to – leave China with ease, they’d buy LV products on their travels and then give them to their lovers as presents on their return.
Was it true?
Not entirely, but there was definitely a ‘second wives’ economy that existed and likely still does.
There was a street near where we lived where every shop was allegedly funded by a generous ‘benefactor’. And you could believe it, because we never saw a customer enter a single store and yet the owners – always young and attractive – were driving the latest Bentley’s. Ferrari’s or Maserati’s.
It was a different world.
And while China has been the centre of the luxury universe for decades, I still remember the Government banning all luxury outdoor advertising in Beijing every now and then to both show their power to the luxury brands who make billions from them as well as reminding the people who live there ‘they were still a communist land’.
Sometimes.
What is interesting is that when Russia and China opened up, Louis Vuitton were one of the quickest brands to see what this could mean for them and their category.
They recognised very early the importance – and confidence – luxury brands could play in culture and so they upped the branding on their products dramatically.
And that’s why these ads, from Ogilvy, are so interesting to me. Because at a time where the cult of luxury was on the rise, these ads attempted to separate LV from the competition by trying to position them with greater significance and purpose.
Presenting LV almost as something you ‘earned the right’ to have rather than something anyone could just buy.
Treating the LV iconography as a badge of honour, not simply wealth.
Reinforcing status as much about how you live, rather than simply what you have.
Maybe this was a reaction to the way Putin was starting to shape Russia to his will.
If you look closely at the bag next to Mikhail, you will see a magazine with the headline ‘Litvinenko’s murder: They wanted to give up the suspect for $7000.’
That headline was on the magazine, New Times, a liberal Russian publication that regularly criticised the Kremlin.
That headline was a reference to Alexander V Litvinenko – the former KGB spy who died in November 2006 after being poisoned in the UK. The former KGB spy who had accused Putin of orchestrating his murder.
While Ogilvy and LV dismissed the significance of that magazine headline, I think it’s pretty safe to say that’s bullshit.
There is no way that is a coincidence.
I get why they said it, but the symbolism of Mikhail … with that magazine poking out his bag … driving past the Berlin Wall … was a pretty blatant message of how far Putin’s Kremlin had taken Russia back to the ‘bad old days’ since Gorbachev had left.
It may have been a condition for Mikhail to feature in the ad.
Only he, Ogilvy and LV execs would know.
But I do admire their stance.
Let’s be honest, there’s absolutely no way that would ever happen now.
Which is as much of a statement on how safe advertising and brands have become as it is of the dangers of Putin and his actions.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, China, Chinese Culture, Comment, Hotels, Luxury, Management, Marketing, Marketing Fail
So I recently went back to China.
If that wasn’t wonderful enough, I was put up at the Waldorf Astoria.
If I’m being honest, I still get a thrill at staying in hotels. As a kid, we NEVER stayed in one – in fact the closest was a B&B in York – so every time I step in one, I feel excited.
But this was something else.
Something I didn’t deserve or – if truth be told – felt comfortable with.
It was sooooooooo over-the-top because the Waldorf Astoria x China makes for the most ostentatious experience you could ever imagine.
They were so nice to me, even though I imagine that every time they saw me in my shitty jeans and t-shirt, they wondered how the hell I was there.
But there was something before my trip that showed that even those at the very top of their game, can make mistakes.
It was this …
What the fuck?
Put aside the fact they called me Robert. Put aside the fact they talk about cleaning/disinfectant brands. Put aside the fact that by mentioning they are part of the Hilton group, they immediately diminish the prestige of the Waldorf. But why in gods name would anyone talk about ‘hygiene’ in a top hotel when that is the minimum expectation and now you’re left wondering what the fuck may have happened.
Worse, why would anyone talk about hygiene and use the name of brands you pick up in the Supermarket as examples of their exemplary cleaning practices. Not that I have anything against Lysol or Dettol, but I don’t think of them as the best in industrial cleaning, more like the stuff you use every now and then.
Yes … I appreciate Covid is still recent.
And it is something that originated in China.
And the country is still in its early days of opening up to the World.
But why, oh why would they raise an issue than you would never have considered an issue?
Of course when it came to the actual stay, it was brilliant. The people were amazing. And being back in China was wonderful – because of all the special places I’ve lived, China is the most special to me.
However of all the great memories that trip gave me – including the utterly bizarre experience of being interviewed by Fashion TV [I know, I fucking know!!!] – there’s one that should serve as a very important lesson for anyone who ever feels intimidated to talk/deal with people they perceive as being more successful than them.
Being rich, doesn’t mean you’re clever.