Style and Strategy: snapshot aesthetics in Brand Culture

The second speaker of the Brand Summit- Jonathan Schroeder, Ph. D- focused on Style and Strategy: snapshot aesthetics in Brand Culture.

We notice advances in Brand Research- adding the issues of Brand Culture- the culture surrounding the brand.

3 dimensions of branding:

• brand identity- the strategic heart of the brand
• brand image- brand are psychological
• brand culture- cultural domensions of codes of brands that influence brand meaning

A brand culture mission statement- cultural, political and ideological objects- need to be correlated with typical branding concepts : equity, strategy and value

Companies need to tell stories, build community and solve problems, create sharing stories in order to appeal to the young educated public (18-34).

Snapshot Aesthetic:

- photos taken by amateurs or photographers, they look casual and authentic, invoke the average consumer

- Or consumer generated content- the snapshot looks more authentic.

18-34 demographic don’t respond to over-produced material.

- casual image of products – consumer lifestyle brands

- brands appeal to informal consumption- from family dinners to online financial management

- visual framing for strategic images- here and now contemporary look,  you can build onto a nostalgic idea, or the photo booth usage- to show that you are having fun

Framing: is used to resonate with the legacy of the brand- Frederick John Perry

Consumer Generated Imagery- the snapshit can become a marketing tool!

Examples:

• Youtube: Catch sunglasses – Ray Ban- using consumer generated for the relaunch of their product
• Ford Fiesta Movement Agent 2010
• Polyvore- for clothing- the leading coomunity site for online style, virtual styling tool

The new market place rewards more participatory, more sincere companies…

The tendences show that people are reorienting towards:

• Real, exciting, mundane experiences
• Twitter- verbal shapshots
• Youtube- documentary aesthetics
• Blogging and viral marketing campaigns

Brand Communication

• Photography an engine of value creation
• Understanding the visual context- history legacy of memory – of contemporaru visual strategy and corporate expression
• Focusing attention on how taps to create value

Zilele Biz- day 5: Media and Marketing

The first conference was about the Media and Advertising market- which was under a dark cloud in 2009. Most agencies had to adapt to a new situation- the economic crisis- when budgets were smaller, clients wanted the same results with smaller amounts of money, while adapting to a changing market. The overall atmosphere was one of pessimism, because the agencies representatives didn’t seem to forecast a brighter future for the next year.

Most of them had to rethink their strategy on a monthly basis in order to keep up with their competitors and in order to maintain a low level of costs. (Laura Badea – Omnicom)

Unfortunately, 2010 will begin with a budget deficit of around -30 or even 40% from 2009, even though agencies expected a 5% increase for this year. (Teddy Dumitrecu – Publicis)

This is why agencies had to do some restructuring and reanalyzing the costs in order to preserve the current figures and market share.

2009 was, for most of the advertising agencies, a risky year- clients wanted to go for the safe way- the traditional campaigns that can be measured and have immediate results with relatively low costs (opinion shared by Nicoleta Pădure – Media Direction, Teddy Dumitrecu -Publicis and Claudia Chirilescu- Spoon Advertising).

Competition is now extremely big and settles some price and quality benchmarks that will have to be modified.

2010 will be a year when quality will be the one making a difference and will begin to be a competitive advantage. It may be a difficult year because the market will be dominated by prices- and this will have an effect on quality. (Dan Balotescu – Media Investment)

Consumer habits have definitely changed, expectations are higher and the market is more mature than the previous years. We are no longer in an era of irrational consumerism and we have to adapt our businesses- especially on the needs of the clients who are paying a closer attention to global trends.

Some consumer habits won’t change. Especially women will continue to go on shopping sprees, but on a smaller level and will think twice before purchasing an item that before was seen as a luxury item. We will go back to the basis- especially to those brands that offer us stability. (Nicoleta Pădure -Media Direction and Claudia Chirilescu- Spoon Advertising).

Companies that now invest in media are thinking long term- because after the crisis passes they will preserve their brand images and the consumers’ perception of a strong, stabile brand, even in rough conditions.

When it comes to media costs Romania is not an expensive country.

Even other forms of media were affected in one way or another of the current economic crisis. The press is now varying between the printed and online content. The publicity in the print content has decreased with around 40-60%. The subscription cost won’t be accepted by all the consumers because by definition the internet is free so they could look for some free or cheaper alternatives.

The online had registered some decrease during this crisis, but comparing to the other media the decrease was not that significant. It is a new media and it could adapt better and faster than the others. Nowadays online is not looked from a tactic perspective rather than from a strategic view. And this is really important taking into account that 63% of the urban population is now online.

The most affected parts of the online were those of financial- banking and auto industry as a consequence of the offline situation.

The second conference was about Marketing in the New Media Era .

The media mix has changed : the TV importance has increased, the online has increased significantly while the print has registered a dramatic decrease.  We now have a highly fragmented media.

If in 2009 the buzz was social media, 2010 will be the year of portable media.

Simon Zsolt- CEO of Mediaedge:cia Hungary told that we have now 7 trends of the post broadcast of new age:

• social media= online word of mouth
• media will be everywhere (dynamic brand messaging in relevant environments)
• media will become more portable across time, device and place (deeper engagement through consumer controlled content)
• media will be more interactive instead of interrupting- we have here the concept of permission marketing
• media will be more transactional
• will be more searchable and measurable
• will be more social  (micro-publishing)

Social media has changed the way we communicate. Do you remember how your life was before you were using social media?

Social media now builds communities (remember the Tribes of Seth Godin). Brands should participate in the communication process through: dialogue, energising, supporting and involving people rather than interrupting them.

Paul Garrison (CEU Business School) underlined the basics: marketing is not about awareness building, is about selling more stuff, to more people, for more money, more often and more efficiently.

He explained the concept of Exponential marketing = segmentation comes first, know your customer and than create your marketing objectives.

Furthermore he underlined the idea that IT should not be considered only when there is a need to cut back costs- it should be used to increase revenue ( using it to obtain a better understanding of consumers), by using CRM (customer relationship management).

The concern should be to put the customer back into CRM and don’t lose yourself in details like who will be updating the CRM database… You need to understand your customer’s lifestyle in order to be able to sell to him relevant products & services. Knowing your customer enables you to engage with him at a more personal level.

Next I attended the Cyber PR workshop which was pretty interactive. The audience in the room was really active on Twitter and engaged in conversations besides those discussed in the room- which was really crowded. People came especially for Crenguta Rosu (DC Communications) and for Bogdan Olteanu (Millenium Communications).

To be up to date, changes in companies need to occur : in structure, in procedures and in period.  Social media can help you as long as you are actively participating: you shouldn’t leave your accounts to rust. (Crenguta Rosu)

The media consumption has changed. The spread of news online is now from many to a source. (Veronica Nicolae- Snapshot McCann PR )

Here is Bogdan’s presentation about the cost of online PR.

It seems that the online is not as cheap as everyone was talking…

Afterwards I attended another workshop: Marketing Through Social Networks which had a more fun approach and the speakers used videos to present the message : with web 2.0 consumers feel empowered. And you have to build, not just buy attention.

The perfect example for this was the campaign with the divorce between Advertising and consumers www.bringtheloveback.com

Mugur Patrascu (iLeo) had a funny presentation – he said that everyone is faking the realation with social networks. The consumer is like the ‘girl’ in the relationship while the brand acts like the ‘boy’.

Ionut Oprea (Standout) had also a really interesting presentation, but I don’t have more time to tell you about it.

Hope this long post was useful. Have a pleasant weekend!

Business is fun

 A început un nou an universitar şi cu siguranţă se află printre noi şi studenţi de anul I sau chiar din ani mai mari care nu înţeleg ce este un ONG sau ce face un ONG. Aşadar, iată un subiect care cred că o să va fie de folos.

Ce este un ONG? De ce să faci parte dintr-un ONG?

ONG – Organizaţii Non-guvernamentale. ONG Studenţesc – Organizaţii Non-guvernamentale înfiinţate şi conduse exclusiv de studenţi. Deci, nu este un job, nu iei salariu pentru ceea ce faci, în schimb: cunoşti noi studenţi, noi mentalităţi, îţi faci noi prieteni şi, cel mai important, câştigi experienţă, îţi conturezi o imagine despre viitoarea ta carieră şi chiar ţi se deschid portiţe pentru job-ul mult visat. Toate doar datorită implicării într-un ONG!
Majoritatea ONG-urilor sunt împărţite pe departamente(exact cum si companiile sunt împărţite!): Resurse Umane (HR), Marketing, Advertising, Relaţii Publice (PR), Relaţii Internaţionale,Vânzări, Finanţe, Logistică şi lista poate continua – depinde de profilul şi cultura organizaţioanală a fiecărei Organizaţii Studenţeşti.
Aşadar, mulţi tineri studenţi care vor să facă şi altceva în afară de facultate, cluburi, pub-uri!

Şi totuşi…ce fac aceşti tineri?
Creeaza noi oportunităţi studenţilor, îi aduce mai aproape de „realitate” – din punctul meu de vedere – căci dacă stăm să ne gândim bine, la facultate se pun numai bazele, se arată totul teoretic, iar practic studentul ajunge pe la finalul facultăţii să aplice. Ei bine, aici e partea frumoasă! Întru-un ONG ai ocazia încă din primul an:

- să intri în contact cu marile companii
- să relaţionezi cu specialişti din mediul „corporate”
- să îţi dai seama ce carieră ai vrea să urmezi
- să înţelegi ce înseamnă mediul business
- să călătoreşti, să provoci şi să îţi pui în practică ideile
- să organizezi evenimente pentru studenţi pe diferite domenii de interes(chiar şi în contextul crizei ), proiecte sub forma unor. conferinţe, workshop-uri, traning-uri, internship-uri, şcoli de vară.

Şi nu se termină aici, căci aici se îmbină utilul cu plăcutul!
Teambulding-uri, petreceri, se leagă noi prietenii, îţi faci noi amici, cunoşti alţi oameni şi înveţi de la ei ce e mai bun, iar greşelile întru-un ONG sunt permise! Aici din greşeli se învaţă şi astfel te pregăteşti pentru provocările şi eventualele piedici ale unui job!
Înveţi să respecţi un deadline, înţelegi exact ce înseamnă să lucrezi într-o echipă, cât de importantă este comunicare dintre membrii şi, cu siguranţă, vei trăi sentimentul de satisfacţie, bucurie şi de ce nu mândrie după fiecare proiect reuşit pe care l-aţi organizat!

Sfatul meu?

Implicaţi-vă într-un ONG, nu aveţi ce pierde! Faceţi un serios research înainte, analizaţi cât mai multe organizaţii studenţeşti, vedeţi ce valori şi misiune au, care este profilul şi cultura lor organizaţională, ce proiecte au organizat şi observaţi dacă dorinţele, aşteptările şi planurile voastre se întâlnesc într-un punct comun cu acel ONG!

Totuşi, dintre toate ONG-urile care există – în Bucureşti vorbind – este unul care îmi este drag: B.O.S! Oare pentru că fac parte din el?:P  Dar, nu mai sta! început perioada de recrutare a noilor membri, iar deadline-ul de aplicare este 20 octombrie, ora 23.59! Mai mult – pe 14 octombrie, la Orange Concept Store, începând cu ora 18.00, B.O.S te aşteaptă la un eveniment dedicat tuturor studenţilor care vor să afle: ce înseamnă brand personal, cât de importantă este implicare într-un ONG în timpul studenţiei şi multe alte teme de interes pentru voi!

Intraţi pe site-ul lor www.bosromania.ro pentru a afla mai multe si pentru a descarca aplicatia!

IAA- Marketing innovation Conference

What I learned from that beautiful conference will be summarised in a few words because I don’t have the time now to develop the subject- I have exams these days.

We have to reconsider the advertising industry. People might not even notice when there are fewer commercials on tv- because they have started to ignore them. They are like noise. For example people who live near train lines adjust to noise- the same story is with advertising.

5% of consumer products introductions and innovations fail to reach their ROI targets. Return on marketing investments is unclear, because they lack a target.

Brands are loosing their credibility. There are so many brands that overpromissed, changed their personality so many times  that the consumer does not know where everything started. We have to take into account that a brand is like an image bubble.

We have started to have one-night brands (similar to one night stands) because one day they say something, promise and seduce the consumer, another day they forget what they have promissed.

• The internal segment is crumbling.  Only 5% understands what the strategy is about.
• Marketing is a collective responisibility avoidance.
• Marketing rules are changing, but people are “addicted” to the “old” ways.
• Marketers gain a bad reputation- because they compete in price. They can’t compete on quality, features or service. Marketing is not understood- we cannot predict the results of marketing actions. They bring money, but they are not saying how much.

Clients need to walk digital , but sometimes advertising agencies only talk digital!

• Social media is all about engaging, about people not budgets.
• Social media is the core of communication. Is less expensive than media campaigns.
• It brings big figures.

Agencies have optimised their business for themselves. They need to be chameleons which can become what ever the client requires them to be, not just what they happen to be good at.

There  are 4 gaps in what concerns the agency authenticity:

• They have a diffuse identity;
• Are oversensitive to trends;
• They undue compliance;
• They have occasional questionable motivations.

People can become from Cynical - Empowored. You have to be careful how you do it.

12 remedies we can set things right in agencies/marketing companies:

• Become a solution house
• … or not
• talk money
• media neutrality and transparency
• replace noise by engagement
• be digital
• think of the shopper
• get a makeover
• synch to the Global Reality
• establish a clean and differentiated position
• align good apples, get rid of bad ones
• take a moment for self-reflection.

For further details join IAA- http://www.iaa.ro/ – you will meet some wonderful people and learn many cool and interesting things.

Have a wonderful day!

PRoud to say I know, second day of workshop

Asa cum am promis am zis ca o sa revin cu alt post pentru a doua zi de workshop care a fost senzationala- parerea mea. Pur si simplu o iubesc pe Ramona Patrascanu- de fiecare data cand deschide gura ne lasa pe toti cu gura cascata si suntem ceva de genul- de unde a picat? Nici PR-ista Familiei Regale nu ne-a dezamagit- este o femeie foarte desteapta- se numeste Adriana Lungu si lucreaza de 14 ani in PR.

O sa scriu doar cateva chestii pe care le-am retinut din dialogul cu Ramona- pentru ca in 2 ore a reusit sa ne ofere destul de multe informatii.

Vorbind despre social media- ce am retinut si dedus:

• Este mai importanta comunicarea online decat cea clasica; nu mai exista comunicare standard.
• Online-ul e in crestere;
• Online-ul costa mai putin decat offline-ul- deci in cazul unei promovari ganditi-va de 2 ori inainte sa va investiti tot bugetul intr-o singura directie- daca ajungeti pe la Arena Leilor remember my words;
• Nu renuntati la o cercetare clasica- pentru ca in offline poti aborda oameni care n-au treaba cu online-ul. Tineti minte: in online nu e singurul public pe care il puteti atinge!
• In momentul de fata social media e cam in epoca de piatra. Si totusi in Marea Britanie vor sa predea Twitter copiilor din generala;
• La fiecare 2 ani mai moare cate o retea sociala, sau daca nu moare isi pierde din popularitate- Hi5 nu mai e ce era acum vreo 2 ani;
• Facebook are deja 5 ani, Twitter cred ca o sa faca 2- daca nu cumva a facut deja. Si problema cu Twitterul e ca nu a gasit o metoda concreta de monetizare- stiu ca exista si pt corporate- in care contra cost pot scrie mai mult de 140 de caractere- dar deja ala nu mai e micro-blogging.
• Things evolve really fast- we are in the Google Era; the boundaries between marketing and PR diminish really fast, even though the second one is included in the first one  (Did you know?- tehnicile promotionale printre care si relatiile pubilice PR sunt parte din marketingul direct- mai invatam si chestii utile la facultate);
• Things are not the same as they were 10 years ago- we live in exponential times- some social networks didn’t exist a few years ago- Twitter is the newest and others have a small coverage; Now MySpace has many users- per day new new users amount to 230 000- if  MySpace would be a country it will be the 8th largest country in the world. Think about it. At least you or one of your friends has an account on a social network! – remember that i had some movies with did you know- http://simonalascu.wordpress.com/2009/03/28/hr-conference-resume-project-daafaceri/ ;
• Companiile trebuie sa pastreze echilibrul dintre relevanta, engagement si reputatie- mai ales pentru ca intre acestea 3 exista o relatie circulara pe termen lung;
• Cand ai produse de lux si incepi sa faci produse low-cost incepi sa-ti pierzi din relevanta- credibilitate si reputatie: de exemplu- Caddilac in timpul crizei a inceput sa produca masini low-cost- si a fost in pierdere;
• Microsoft incearca acum sa obtina engagement- foloseste versiuni beta- pe care le da gratuit utilizatorilor sa le testeze; Si e o chestie ok…
• Poti converti detractorii (cei care iti fac reclama negativa) in promoteri pentru ca online ai cum sa comunici cu ei; Odata ce ai convertit un detractor intr-un promoter castigi 12 pareri favorabile. Nu o zic eu o zic studiile -so believe me!

Cum putem scoate bani din PR?

• economisim prin social media- comunicam prin conturile de pe retelele sociale de genul Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook…;
• deduceri de la impozit- banii sunt folositi cu folos pentru PR- cresc cheltuielile dar cu folos;
• contribuim la reputatia companiei- prin actiuni destinate fidelizarii clientilor si implicit ne creste market share-ul;
• multiplicatorii- de care nu trebuie sa uitam- orice actiune are si o reactie, un rezultat;
• we increase productivity for the internal PR-we have to remember the fact that good ideas don’t happen while you sit at your desk and wait for things to happen- a historic example is that of Kekule- the chemist- which had a dream with monkeys. (search it on Google);
• Ca blogger iti poti pierde din credibilitate in momentul in care scrii platit de o companie- pentru ca iti pierzi din credibilitate. Cititorii se simt tradati daca tu le promovezi ceva in care nici macar tu nu crezi si scrii pentru bani. Ce urat! ))
• Pr is important for building brands- de fapt e esential- pentru ca nu mai sunt limite foarte clar stabilite intre Pr, branding si advertising;

Marketing and Sales should collaborate- this is way there are crisis inside companies- comunicati frate ca tot va laudati ca sunteti in era tehnologiei si comunicarii!

Nu mai este doar lumea Marketing-ului, Sales sau PR- acum e vorba despre Customer Relationships. It’s all about the customer!

Am discutat si un pic de brandingul de tara inainte sa vina PR-ista Familiei Regale cu Ramona. Degeaba promovam noi tara daca nu ne rezolvam si problemele- stiti ca avem o infrastructura de tot rahtul (turcesc sau de care vreti voi), un sistem fiscal care nu ne ajuta sa traim- de fapt distruge orice initiativa a micilor intreprinzatori ca sa nu mai vorbim de o justitie oarba, dar rau de tot, cu cataracta, glaucom- sper ca stiti la cine ma refer (Gorbunov)… Ma apuca sila numai cand ma gandesc.

DE CE NAIBA NU PROMOVAM VALORILE NOASTRE CA OAMENI SI LE TOT BAGAM INAINTE PE ALE ROMANIEI? O tara care nu ne ajuta? La noi tara e groaznica, dar oamenii sunt prietenosi, sunt instruiti- cu tot cu sistemul nostru de invatamant de toata rusinea, avem oameni care sunt de valoare! La noi initiativele sunt majoritatea private- si acum cu noile legi date de un guvern avid de bani- si astea se vor duce dracului. Stiu ca am deviat de la subiect, dar cateodata simt ca nu mai pot cu Romanica noastra. Nu degeaba zice Badea ca traim in Romania si asta ne ocupa tot timpul.

O sa revin cu alt post ca sa va povestesc si despre ce am aflat de Familia Regala, dar mai incolo.

Sa aveti o seara faina!