Go on, be a Tiger

After 6 years of using his image as a "powerful metaphor of business success" Accenture announced on Sunday December 13th the end of its relationship with Tiger Woods.

There are 2 troubling things with this announcement:

1- a missed opportunity:

A brand that has been working so hard to position itself as a reliable partner could have taken this opportunity to demonstrate how it 'collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses' not only when they are making millions, but also when times are tough.

2- an unfortunate choice of words:

Beyond the decision itself, which may be understood considering Accenture's past and line of business, the firm could have exercised greater sensibility, if not class, when it came the announcement.

Compare their press release with declarations by other major sponsors:

- Accenture: "given the circumstances the company has determined that he is no longer the right representative for its advertising. We will immediately transition to a new advertising campaign. Accenture wishes only the best for Tiger Woods and his family".

- Nike:"I think he's been really great...when his career is over, you'll look back on these indiscretions as a minor blip, but the media is making a big deal out of it right now." (Phil Knight, CEO)

- Gillette: "He is still part of Gillette. As Tiger takes a break from the public eye, we will support his desire for privacy by limiting his role in our marketing programs". (Mike Norton, spokesman)

At least Accenture's rapidly redesigned website offers one possible explanation for their un-sportsmanly attitude.

why we need luxury and fashion

As social beings, we have always looked to define our place in society.

Whether by a system of casts, nobility, landownership or other, rigid systems gave us a sense of identity and order, for the greater good of the species. These structures were so useful that across eras and cultures our place in society was passed down from parents to children.

With the invention of agriculture 9,000 years ago, ancient hierarchies disappeared but were quickly replaced by new ones, based by our contribution to the group: laborers, merchants, warriors, priests, artists and rulers.

The next major change came with mass democracy and capitalism, old structures disappeared and true social mobility was born. Our own fate would no longer be limited by our parents'.

What hasn't changed in these 9,000 years though, is our need to define our place in society, and this is were fashion kicks in.

While luxury had always existed (kings and priests from Papua New Guinea to Egypt and the Inca Empire have always used jewels to advertise their place in society), the idea of ever-changing tastes is relatively new, and has accelerated tremendously as our daily lives were increasingly removed from the farming cycles.

In fact, some claim that fashion helps us regain a sense of "seasons", in a world of farm factories.

In short, both fashion and luxury help us regain a sense of social order. But one does it horizontally (where do i stand vs my peers), while the other does it vertically (how high do I stand in the food chain).

for more on luxury, read Luxe Oblige, by V. Bastien and JN Kapferer

7 Rules of Luxury

From Trump to Diddy to Cadillac SUVs, more brands than ever like to think of themselves as players in the luxury market.

But are they really? can a rearview camera, a GPS and premium price transform a small truck into a luxury vehicle?

What is the difference between luxury and premium? Are there different degrees of luxury? or is it something you either are or not?

By the time this boom goes bust, marketers who couldn't quite answer these questions will find themselves unable to sustain the healthy margins of luxury and instead competing on price and features.

To help shed some light on the issue, here are 7 key observations from some of the the world's profitable brands:

1- Luxury dominates: it is consumed to elevate us, and therefore it can't be "our peer". It treats us with utmost respect, but always keeping its distance.
2- Like art, luxury is driven by its creator's inspiration, not by consumer demand. It doesn't follow consumer tastes, it creates them.
3- Luxury needs to cater to "those who know", who understand the subtleties, appreciate the craft, revel in the myth. The others will follow by imitation, but without a core of passionate connaisseurs, a luxury brand is destined to disappear as such.
4- Luxury is both eternal and ephemeral: Created 1921, N.5 is still Chanel's best selling fragrance. but sprinkles of disruption can help design stay relevant (Stephen Sprouse inspired graffiti on LV's bags)

5- Luxury doesn't speak in USPs. It is not a product, a price, a set of features. It is a UNIVERSE defined by carefully groomed ingredients like its history (since 1876), its creator (madame Chanel), its craftsmen and their attention to detail, its myths (Cliquot overcoming Napoleon's blockade to ensure supply to Russia's imperial court), visual cues (Louis Vuitton's LV) and stories told among users and connaisseurs (Panarea watches used by Italian submariners in WWII)
6- Luxury brands focus on excelling at 3 things: product, distribution and communications, so that consumers forget about the fourth: price.
7- Luxury seeks to fuel desire, not sales: employees at LV stores do not earn a commission on their sales. Luxury never advertises price, but if it must be disclosed: it's $15,000 and never $14,990.

But perhaps a more colorful way to define luxury is spelling out what it's not, in the words of madame Chanel:
"Luxury lies not in richness and ornateness but in the absence of vulgarity".

Mademoiselle, chapeau.

For more on Luxury, read "Luxe Oblige" by V. Bastien and JN, Kapferer

What a difference 2 years make

As part of his Asia trip last week, President Obama visited Emperor Akihito. Upon meeting 天皇 tennō, literally "Heavenly Emperor", he bowed as a sign of respect and understanding of Japanese customs.

The picture below was taken in 2007, when a US vice-president by the name of Dick visited the same palace.

For more details on the matter, check out this article from the LA Times.

are marketers helping perpetuate segregation?

At a Client meeting recently, the media buying agency was presenting the media plans for the next year. Given that African Americans over-index in the consumption of this particular brand, the young executive explained how we needed to keep buying space in "Black zipcodes" and "Black media" channels such as BET and blackplanet.com.

The entire room complacently nodded. After all, it makes sense and we've done the same last year and the year before.

But wait, there aren't really "Black zip codes" in London or Sao Paulo. They don't even have "Black media" or "Black brands".

And if you paid attention you might have noticed how in those places the locals' clothes and accents have nothing to do with the color of their skin either.

The US racial history alone cannot explain the gap between White and Black Cultures in this country. After all, Brazil has the world's largest Black population outside Africa, and they didn't exactly board those ships willingly either.

So while there may be other forces at play, it's important to note how lazy marketing, unconsciously or not, benefits from feeding stereotypes and perpetuating the racial divide in this country.

After all, nothing easier for an executive in charge of a "African American brand" to keep plastering "AA zipcodes" and "AA media" with "AA marketing".

Taking risks

When Porsche launched the Cayenne in 2002, the mere idea of a Porsche SUV seemed like an oxymoron.

By then the SUV fever had begun to wane as environmental concerns and the price of gas were quickly growing. (1)

But a Porsche SUV? really?

In time it proved to be a brilliant move, and became Porsche's best selling car worldwide (2)

But how do you extend such a brand further? how do you launch a sedan, a "family" car, without upsetting the finely calibrated image that 60 years of masterful brand management built in our imaginations?

Here is how Cramer-Krasselt suggests it can be successfully done:

- First, it's a Porsche: the latest expression of a fine breed that traces its roots to the dreams of one passionate driver and designer. Beautifully brought to life here by the family tree, among other clues.

- Second, it's a Porsche: no satisfied dad with wife and happy kids rolling on a suburban parkway. It's meant to be driven with the same unapologetic passion and satisfaction as a Carrera.

Keep your audience dreaming, and their realities will eventually justify the premium.

enjoy,

sources: US Energy Information Administration (1), Harvard Business School (2)

The Landfill of Opportunity

The fact that every FMCG company from Coke to Colgate continues to sell their goods in landfilling, ocean polluting trash has to be a huge opportunity.

After all, a business model that relies on discarding 18 million plastic bottles every hour in the US alone seems too easy to attack:

• only 25% of plastic bottles are recycled in the US, the rest of them end up in landfills or the ocean. (the image above represents 1.5 million bottles, the number discarded every 5 minutes in the US)
• 26 million tons of plastic are dumped into the seas every year.
• there are islands of trash twice the size of Texas floating in the Pacific. Yes, Texas.

And while a few companies have taken a more sustainable approach with initiatives like 1% for the planet, most still feel good about themselves just for running "green" ads or adding a "please recycle" logo on their labels and passing on their responsibility to consumers.

The question for anyone sitting on the board of an FMCG giant then becomes: how much longer will the savings of doing business as usual will outweigh the financial and environmental danger of acting irresponsibly?

How much longer before a competitor changes the rules of the game, slashing short term revenue in favor of a more responsible approach that eventually catapults them into consumer Nirvana, making us look like a 21st century Exxon Valdez?

As consumer awareness grows through sobering reminders like the one below from Chris Jordan's work in Midway (2,000 miles from the nearest continent) and most companies continue their Detroit-like approach, a giant opportunity is created for visionaries willing to end irresponsible practices before they are enforced by law or a competitor.

sources: National Geographic, UN Environment Program, Earth 911

Who really decides?

If Freud was right, and our subconscious plays a huge role in the decisions we make everyday, understanding it is of fundamental importance to anyone wishing to influence others.

If you ever sat through hours of bad research downloads, instinctually knowing the "findings" made no sense, perhaps a look into Bernays' theories and work will inspire you to think about consumer stimuli and response differently.

Here's a great BBC documentary on 100 years of market psychology.

enjoy,

Fueling spiritual ADD

Money can't buy you Happiness, but it can buy Joy.

As ad people, we wonder about the value our work brings to society. Are we really helping the world move forward? or just convincing people to buy things they don't need?

Advertising certainly helps improve the world by informing people and fueling competition, which eventually translates into better, more affordable goods for all and creates jobs along the way.

Another way to look at it would suggest that advertising helps fuel spiritual ADD, distracting society from the pursuit of happiness and instead tempting us with the rewards of joy.

A new dress, a new car, a new stereo or a vacation are Joy Fuel: acquisitions that give us a rush of a temporary wellbeing, which disappears as soon as new events unfold or the novelty wears out.

Happiness in the other hand may be a permanent state of higher bliss, but attaining it requires years of spiritual work. Certainly a daunting prospect, and a far less attractive one in a society driven by instant gratification.

In such a world, it is far too easy to be distracted from our pursuit of Happiness and instead fall prey of the quick fix offered by the Joys of Capitalism.

So while advertising isn't any more evil than a hammer or a cup, it can enrich popular culture and our lives just as quickly as it can become the lubricant of our procrastinations, perpetually distracting us from our true purpose in this Life.

Interestingly, research indicates that the elder, precisely the section of society less impressed by brands, novelty and trends, are consistently happier than younger generations.

For more details on this particular evidence, see this Washington Post article.

on tribes+influence

Many times we've used the word "tribe" in our brand and media strategies. Identifying, understanding and working with tribes is not only great fun: it can sometimes also be the smartest way to allocate resources, ignite consumer movements and eventually help brands gain traction in popular culture.

Here's a great presentation from David Logan on his Tribal Leadership research, basically breaking them down to 5 types, and how we can work with them to promote change for the benefit of all.

visualizing information

Whether you are a planner, a creative or anyone who needs to tell stories for living, the ability to convey information clearly and quickly is a critical skill to master. And if on top of it you manage to convey an emotion, you're golden.

My boss Don had this old but amazing poster in his office:

It was Minard's "Carte figurative des pertes successives en hommes de l'Armée Française dans la campagne de Russie 1812-1813". A Brilliant flowchart representing the progress of Napoleon's disastrous Russian campaign.

The amazing thing about that poster was how clearly it conveyed certain variables (the route, dates, temperatures and number of troops), and how quickly that information translated into a (terribly disturbing) feeling to anyone reading it: 97% of the 422,000 soldiers that started the campaign never made it back alive...

Below is a much jollier and modern example, but still a super cool way to display information, and hear Beethoven like never before. Enjoy:

To understand what each color represents, click here

Go Mao!

Have you been following the 60th anniversary festivities in Beijing this year?

From Moscow to Pyongyang, Communists around the world have always had a knack for impressively well choreographed, gigantic public celebrations.

And now China is on a roll. After their hugely successful Olympic party last year, the Middle Kingdom has mastered this art to the point of putting the rest of the Comrades to shame.

We are no longer impressed by devastating military might, perfectly aligned soldiers or state of the art technology, but rather by the charming addition of female soldiers that actually look like women.

Because after all, nothing says Progress like an army of chicks in red mini skirts, white leather boots and submachine guns.

For more details on how China rolls, check out this article by the New York Times, or enjoy the white booted Barbarellas in this video of the official coverage on Chinese TV

For a more sobering view, you can watch this much scarier video of the rest of the marching troops.

be quiet! or how nature can help us improve our own marketing

Unless you work on TV, chances are that you find video of yourself somewhat surprising. Do I really sound like that? I didn't know I frowned so often!

You see, most of the times we hardly even notice our own behaviour. We may have a general idea of what we look like, but the fact is that whether you are a person, a brand or a nation, we always see ourselves from our own point of view, impairing our judgement and making it sometimes hard to understand how others perceive us.

This can be tricky, since understanding your counterpart's perspective is key to obtaining what you seek. After all, perception is reality. At least for a few critical moments.

On a totally different note, here's an incredible video, a little perspective from one of the world's most energy efficient predators.

augmented reality gets a boost

If you haven't heard about "augmented reality" yet, it's about time you did.

Basically the technology allows you to point your phone's camera to real world objects and get additional information not readily available to the naked eye:

Which way to the nearest subway? how much does this product cost and what's its carbon footprint? where is that movie playing and at what time? what building is that?

To help answer those questions on the spot, various developers have begun to offer their augmented reality applications for iPhone and iPod touch, IBM did it for Google's Android and now Nokia has finally joined the race with their free Point and Find app featured below.

It won't be long before AR revolutionizes more personal aspects of our lives, like the dating or business networking scenes. Just in case, you better start cleaning your record on google...



One Android example:

The Dangers of Virtue

When used as an unassailable argument to immediately discredit any opposing view, virtue becomes extremely dangerous. Labeling dissent as "Terrorism", "Repression" or "Axis of Evil" is a magnificent way to pay a deaf ear to inconvenient issues.

In 1980, the unassailable notion of self-determination brought hope of a brighter future for Rhodesia, then one of the most prosperous nations in Africa.

The great Bob Marley joined the celebrations as the world rejoiced to see the short-lived renegade state officially becoming an independent republic.

30 years later though, the smiles of joy you just saw in this video, and the hope behind them have all but vanished.

Crushed by a dangerous mix of incompetence, corruption and the Rhethoric of Virtue, Zimbabwe is today a failed state where the bank notes have become cheaper than wallpaper.

Although one of the saddest, this is not an isolated example: in the name of unassailable principles like Democracy, Human Rights, Self Rule and Freedom from Imperialism, millions around the world are being denied of their opportunities.

Democracies, dictatorships and pre-emptive strikes, from Argentina to Venezuela, North Korea to Iraq have advanced the personal ambitions of astute leaders, manipulating public opinion under the banner of Virtue.

But how is it that well intentioned candidates become so manipulative? According to a recent study at Tilburg University, old Lord Acton was right: Power does tend to corrupt, but only those who think they deserve it.

Thankfully there are encouraging signs: lawyers, professors and certain news organizations like Reuters have been fighting terms like "terrorism" precisely because of the bias they subconsciously create: in 1963 Nelson Mandela was convicted of "terrorism" and paid for it with 27 years in prison.

For an insight into the less publicized aspects of the Zimbabwean situation, check this documentary.

why ping pong is good for your career

Che used to say that one should grow tough without losing the heart's tenderness. Other, less violent people have also given us similar advice.

One of them is Tim Brown from IDEO, making here a good case on why working with friends and remaining playful is vital for creative businesses.

Chinese businessmen are not Latin ladies

A little instructional video for your upcoming trip to China.

Remember that unlike Latin women who say "maybe" to suggest they are down with your proposal, the Chinese use "maybe" to politely veil their disagreement.

thank youBill Green

plus ca change...

love this kickass 21st century version of The Little Red Riding Hood*.

And while I really wish I could present like this more often, I couldn't resist thinking how little has storytelling really changed since the Lascaux prehistoric cave paintings.

*by Tomas Nilsson on Vimeo.

copy and paste notoriety

Have you noticed how many blog postings, twitters and other digital ways of publicizing ourselves are basically quotes of someone else's ideas?

From the amazing speeches on TED to the more mundane updates on Facebook, copying and pasting and re-packaging other people's observations has become a completely acceptable way to establish oneself as an "influential".

While it is surely a good thing to help spreading ideas to a larger audience, it seems worth noting the disproportionate attention we pay to the messengers these days.

In this blog you will find the two clearly separated and labelled to help avoid any confusion or dubious credits.