Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Brand, Brand Suicide, Brilliant Marketing Ideas In History, Communication Strategy, Confidence, Context, Crap Marketing Ideas From History!, Creative Development, Creativity, Culture, Cunning, Devious Strategy, Differentiation, Entertainment, EvilGenius, Experience, Innovation, Luxury, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Packaging, Positioning, Pretentious Rubbish, Toilet, Wash Your Hands You Dirty Pup, Women
The fragrance industry is fascinating.
I’ve written a bunch about this in the past [here, here and here for example] but nothing reinforces my view than the new fragrance bottle from Moschino.
Have a look at this …
On one hand I admire how the industry uses creativity to design distinctive bottles and packaging – mainly because the smelly liquid inside has little value – and I love the fearlessness they tend to embrace all they do, but there’s few industries as pretentious as the fragrance industry. Hell, they’re even more pretentious than a Swiss finishing school run by a Victorian father.
Now I accept some are being ironic – or have evolved to be that way, like Gucci for example – but the vast majority continue to have their heads so high up in the clouds, that even the biggest dope smokers couldn’t reach them.
I’m not sure which side Moschino are on, but anyone who makes a perfume bottle to look exactly like a disinfectant spray and proudly puts the words ‘toilette’ on it, suggests either the biggest misstep or act of fragrance genius I’ve seen in years.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Brand Suicide, Communication Strategy, Confidence, Creativity, Culture, Documentary, Emotion, England, Football, Love, Loyalty, Management, Professionalism, Relevance, Resonance
I recently watched the Netflix documentary on Bobby Robson.
While I had followed his career as a manager – especially during Italia ’90 – I didn’t know many of his life’s details.
He had always come across as a kind, considerate man … maybe too kind and too considerate … but given his achievements in the game, it’s fair to say it worked for him.
While I thoroughly enjoyed the documentary, there were two things that really hit me in it.
The first was the people who went on camera to speak about him.
I’m not talking about his lovely wife and son, but football elite like Sir Alex Ferguson, Mourinho, Shearer, Lineker and even Gazza.
All to a man, talked about his character … integrity … compassion and humility.
For that to happen means you had to be something special.
But it’s the second part that led to the title of this post.
You see Bobby Robson went on to manage Barcelona.
Apparently he had previously turned them down twice due to his loyalty to the teams he was managing before, but on the 3rd ask – he said yes, even though it meant he had to follow in the footsteps of the great Johan Cruyff.
To be honest, this added a huge additional amount of pressure on him and fans were initially very skeptical about his tactics and style of play. But he won them, because he showed he loved the club and the region, he desperately wanted them to win and he conducted himself with nothing but compassion and dignity.
And this all turned into some iconic achievements and actions …
He brought Ronaldo to the club and turned him into the most famous player of his generation.
He won the Copa del Rey, Supercopa de España and European Cup Winners’ Cup all in one season.
He offered to pay part of his salary to cover the cost of his assistant manager, Jose Mourinho as he wanted him there so much.
He turned down approaches from other clubs because he loved Barcelona and wanted to honour his contract.
And then, just as he was ready to use that season as a launchpad to achieve even more, he discovered the Barcelona chairman only ever planned for him to be manager for one season.
ONE.
Like a buffer manager between Johan leaving and the next dynasty of Barcelona.
Imagine discovering that.
That you’re only seen as a ‘stop gap’.
To make it worse, they weren’t going to get rid of Bobby, they were going to ‘move him upstairs’.
Oh I am sure they thought that was a sign of respect, but it was anything but … especially with how they did it.
You see the manager they brought in was Louis Van Gaal.
Without doubt, an excellent manager … but not only was it a smack in Bobby’s face, they made Bobby attend his unveiling.
Like attending your own funeral.
And while I accept Van Gaal wanted to assert his arrival to the press, the way he did it was both arrogant and disrespectful … especially given the manager he was taking over – a manger who neither failed or was fired – was sitting to his right.
While Bobby was too nice to say anything, his face said it all.
But here’s the thing, Barcelona – or at least the top management – couldn’t care a less.
They got what they wanted.
And by keeping Robson onboard, they had – in essence – bought his complicity.
Or so they thought.
I’ve experienced these kind-of situations in my time.
Albeit a very loose version of these situations.
Being hired because we thought the client valued what we did and how we did it.
Then discovering it was really about PR because their intention was to make us complicit. That they deemed all the experiences and viewpoints we could bring to them, as unnecessary. Because they just wanted to be seen to be doing something without actually doing anything.
And that reveal was horrific.
Initially written-off as ‘teething problems’ before realising it’s fundamental problems.
And while money can make you temporarily complicit, in the hope you can find a way to make it work, if someone is not transparent from the start, it means you can never get to a better place.
And that’s when you discover that regardless of how much money a client – or a job – is paying you, it’s never enough.
Not because you want to be disgustingly rich, but because you determine your value beyond money, but the work you do and the people you do it with and for.
Some out there will never understand that.
They evaluate success with the money they have. Or the groups they are a part of.
But some will.
The ones who remember that what you have isn’t as important as how you got there.
Anyone can win, but only the best want to win well.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, Audio Visual, Brand Suicide, Comment, Communication Strategy, Confidence, Corporate Gaslighting, Culture, Cunning, Equality, Experience, Fake Attitude, Honesty, Insight, Loyalty, Management, Perspective, Point Of View, Prejudice, Social Divide, Social Media, Standards
I know what you’re thinking …
Or should I say, I know what you were hoping.
That hitting 50 and having 10 days off would make me re-evaluate what I’m doing?
That I’d start to value afternoon naps versus writing stupid blog posts.
Well, if I was smart, maybe that would be the case … but I’m not, so here I am.
To show my age has done nothing to extinguish my pain-in-the-ass spirit, I thought I’d post about a little project I have going on.
It kind of comes out of the Corporate Gaslighting work I’ve done and basically relates to what seems to be the skills, modern management values most.
Now there are plenty of very, very good leaders out there …
But, and this is only personal opinion, it seems there are far more bad.
Now I appreciate some will view what I’m doing and say the people I’m describing are not bad, they are simply ‘optimising’ their position. However, managers should achieve their success based on what they enable their people to achieve rather than trying to ensure the spotlight falls just on them … so because of that, I stand by my view.
What’s scary is these attitudes and behaviours are so common that someone thought – when I posted one on social media – that I was celebrating them rather than mocking them.
That scares the crap out of me.
But not as much as the idea employees are being trained – consciously and subconsciously – to do this to further their career.
But I would like your help …
What am I missing?
What are terrible management practices that are being sold as ‘sensible’.
For example, with the blame thrower at the top of this post, I added the following:
If you don’t own your mistakes, let someone else own it. #LessonsFromModernManagement
And for this …
… I added this ‘lesson’:
It’s more effective to manage up than manage your standards. #LessonsFromModernManagement
But what else is there?
I’ve got one regarding the benefits of doing whatever someone wants you to do as well as destroying others careers is it proves you were made for success … but as I really want to turn this into some sort of alternative management book type-of-thing, I need a ton of them.
I know they’re out there.
I know I can come up with a lot myself.
But if you have any suggestions, I would be so grateful.
It may help someone not become the sort of manager that appears on Corporate Gaslighting.
Or allow someone who is suffering from this sort of ‘leader’, to realise they’re not to blame.
So I hope you can help.
Over to you …
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Audio Visual, Brand Suicide, Communication Strategy, Confidence, Content, Context, Corona Virus, Corporate Evil, Crap Products In History, Culture, Cunning, Daily Fail, Daily Mail, Marketing Fail, Media, Prejudice
Tomorrow I’ve written a positive post about some of the stuff Corona virus has revealed we are capable of being.
Today I’m writing about the worst of it.
Specifically The Daily Mail.
As we all know, they have become one of the most successful newspapers and internet destinations in the World thanks to their fear-mongering, shock-creating, prejudice-encouraging bullshit, all wrapped up in the illusion of being a family newspaper caring about family values.
If Donald Trump was a newspaper, he’d be The Daily Mail.
They have absolutely revelled in the corona virus.
Equally challenging the scientists viewpoints and then the people who don’t follow it.
They play both sides with such obviousness [see photo above] and yet they – like Fox TV – claim to be consistent, fair and balanced.
The fact they get away with it means either no one believes them or – as I fear – their readers don’t question a word they say.
While they like to focus their hate on minority groups, no one is immune from their hate.
Even the middle-England elderly readers – their core audience in the UK – cop it with headlines that suggest ‘they will all be left to die’ or ‘isolation till 2021’.
They are the embodiment of ‘take no prisoners’ …
For me, they are basically a far right political party.
However, unlike the far right, they have found a much more powerful way to operate.
They don’t openly show their hatred … oh no, they slowly and quietly infiltrate mainstream society so they can undermine the minorities, the unemployed and the poor by making prejudice, illness and poverty seem the words and beliefs of the irrational.
To be fair to them, they may not even realise it.
They are so myopic that they fail to appreciate other people have different circumstances.
Which is why they – like that other prick, Piers Morgan – don’t realise their commentary is so harmful because they’ve never experienced any of the issues they are so quick to either claim don’t exist or they would never advocate … like prejudice, racism and poverty.
As you’ll read in tomorrow’s post, corona has revealed the best of many companies and news organisations.
It has changed the dynamic between corporation and society.
It’s why I hope after this, the Daily Mail is seen for what it is, a social manipulator – a company who only acts in the interests of its owner and no one else.
A great villain for a Bond movie, but not a great company for society.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Brand Suicide, Business, Comment, Communication Strategy, Creativity, Culture, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Perspective, Resonance
When I was a kid, the top shelf of the newsagent was what I imagined Las Vegas was like.
Naughtiness.
Adult stuff.
Things no one should mention.
What am I talking about?
‘Men’s’ magazines.
I’m not talking Playboy … but the very English, very low-rent versions that were all – weirdly – either named after Ford cars or luxury London streets.
Fiesta.
Escort.
Mayfair.
Park Lane.
In the early days, the covers were on display for everyone to see.
EVERYONE!!!
Young boys would walk into newsagents and stare at them while trying desperately to not look like they were.
For most people, that was as close as you would get to them because buying one – or even looking through one – was out of the question.
What if someone saw you?
What if someone you knew saw you?
Of course someone must have been buying them because they were produced for decades.
I know for a fact that ‘one-eyed’ – the newsagent opposite the Nottingham main police station – was a magnet for the pervs and the teens, because it was small enough and out of the way enough to get away with it, but I always wondered how many of these would be bought at major players like WH Smiths.
Over time, the covers got covered up.
Not just to protect the innocent, but to try and stop the objectification of women.
Of course, given The Sun still had ‘page 3’ and claimed to be a ‘family newspaper’ this meant it had absolutely zero impact … and even today you can see those attitudes are still alive and well in all walks of life thanks to so many companies – including those specific to women evolve and grow – having a vested interest in making women feel, or be seen, as offering only looks to the World.
Anyway, the reason I say all this is that I recently walked into a WH Smiths to buy Otis a magazine and was pleasantly surprised – and a bit shocked – to see the top shelf was just that, a top shelf.
No doubt part of this is because porn – or erotica, or whatever title you want to give it – is so readily accessible that you don’t need ‘specialist magazines’ anymore as opposed to society having a healthier, more balanced attitude towards women [or sex] but it was weird to see nothing but genuinely ‘family friendly’ titles on there.
What was funny was one of those titles was something I was interested in buying for Jill, but the context from my past meant it was almost impossible for me to grab it.
That’s right, a ‘word puzzle’ magazine was loaded with baggage from what the top shelf once meant to me and I wonder if that is something that reflects my individual weirdness or something bigger … where being placed on the top shelf of WH Smiths may be best for visibility but worst for purchase.
And before you think I’m a total nutter, remember the brilliant – but slightly mad – Clotaire Rapaille believes your first exposure to brands and experiences frames and defines the way you look at them forever.