More than just an odd chunk off the block

Cadbury brand owner, Kraft has kept true to character by putting profits before criticism in the knowledge that today’s consumers will put up with just about anything in a climate of fear and uncertainty.

Kraft has cut the size of many of its Cadbury brand chocolate bars – whilst keeping confectionary prices at pre-size reduction costs.

For example, a squatter version of Cadbury Dairy Milk bar has two less chunks, but still costs £1 at the till.

Toblerone has removed an entire ‘mountain’ from its bar.

Similar cuts have been applied to British brand favourites such as Mars, Snickers, Yorkie and Rolo.

· Rolo has been reduced from 11 portions to 10.
· Yorkie – 68g to 64.5g – a ‘chunk’
· Snickers is 7.2% smaller.
· Mars – 7.2% smaller.

Even the iconic Dairy Milk bar is now 120g from 140g. (Again its retail price has not been cut accordingly).

Kraft justified the slices by pointing to excessive charges for cocoa. (The commodity’s price rose to a six-month high, following reports of an export ban by the Ivory Coast – one of world’s key producers).

Last year the American company reneged on its promise not to close a Cadbury factory in Bristol.

Consumer Focus, an organisation that represents customer interests, told reporters, “Shrinking the size but not price of products could damage consumers’ trust in the brand they love”.

On the defence, Cadbury said, “… We believe our confectionary still represents very affordable treat.”

From a Brandforensics perspective, the trend is worrying. Brands including Dairylea, Pringles and Heinz have also used a comparable ploy.

The question now is just how far brands are willing to go to further gamble customer loyalty? How many more cuts, will consumers naively put up with before questioning the motives of brand ‘leaders’ that spend millions of pounds carefully nurturing imageries to suggest that they are people- before profits led organisations?

Years ago the British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher declared, “There’s no such thing as society. There are individual men and women and there are families.”

Today’s gates leading to the utopian ‘Big Society’ are draped with a banner which reads ‘austerity will give you purpose’.

Austerity Britain

Thin on excuses
Using obesity as central to its logic for justifying less for more, back in 2009, the Food Standards Agency said it wanted food and drink companies to start manufacturing smaller sizes, “which in time will become the standard”.
Arguably, that motive was noble.

However in today’s world of increasing divide between money-strapped consumers and certain bonus-bloated brand leaders, this ‘shared austerity’ could be viewed as little more than a propaganda ploy to create communal apathy.

In the short-term that is good for brands wishing to placate shareholders.

Long term it could spell trouble as it dawns on consumers that despite all the marketing hype, it turns out that only ones who really believe they are ‘worth it’ are the same organisations which keep on insipidly ‘swearing on their mother’s life’ that the public still has a choice and comes first – honest.

This may be just one example of brand conceit and arrogance that is simply too hard for any consumer to swallow or shareholders to profitably sustain.

Jonathan Gabay
www.jonathangabay.com
www.brandforensics.co.uk

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I have reached that age when it’s really difficult to sleep through the entire night in just one drop of the eyelids.

When I was a fit and slender boy  – long, long ago – I lived with my family in a bungalow.  At night from my room I could always hear the sounds of the TV in the lounge, or my brother and sister bickering over teenage anxieties.

The voices of the night carried me to ‘Planet Sleep’ where each continent had strange and wonderful people, and lands that were painted and speckled with bumpy roads of worries, warm seas of hope, mountains of struggles or valleys of possibilities.

Whatever concerned the people of ‘Planet Sleep’, eventually every one smiled the same smiles – which bizarrely looked a lot like mine.

The problem was that every night, I failed to notice them.   (After all, I was too busy with other things like getting over bumpy roads, skinny-dipping in the sea and scaling new heights).

Nowadays, most nights I lay on my pillow facing the yellow glow of my DAB radio displaying the station name of either LBC 97.3, Radio Four or Radio Five Live.

If it is LBC, as the night gets increasingly tangled within its own bed sheets, phone-in callers become increasingly wrought and lonely.

Come daybreak, the Eleanor Rigbys give way to Angry Normans who complain about everything from increased taxes to incoming immigrants, outrageous politicians, on-going crime waves and ultimate deflated ambitions.

The diet of misery is relentless. The wireless wails are only occasionally punctuated by radio phone-in hosts announcing what a wonderful, caring community of souls London is.  The hosts remind me of how nurses in a hospital ward deliver a cheery smile to patients wrought with diarrhea and drugs,who would give up everything he or she ever owned for just five minutes of normality.

With such an endless drip-feed of audible misery, it came as little surprise to me to learn that a recent Ipsos Mori survey of 24 countries pointed to the British being among the most pessimistic  in the world.

Watching the figures that point to a radical diet

Only 17 per cent expect their financial position to improve in the next six months – half the number in Australia (35 per cent) and the United States (34 per cent) and behind Germany (29 per cent).

Britons share little of the optimism of citizens from fast rising economies like Brazil (91 per cent), India (69 per cent) and China (51 per cent).

The only countries with gloomier attitudes were Belgium (16 per cent), Italy (13 per cent), Japan (11 per cent) and France (8 per cent).

So what’s bugging the Brits?

Seventy three per cent of Britons feel less secure in their jobs than six months ago.

Only 27 per cent expect job security to improve. (17th out of 24 in the international table).

I dare to console myself that given the evidence of shoppers during the endless bank holiday that was Christmas and New Year, people are at least confident to buy.

Not quite.  Rather than buy with self-assurance seventy-five per cent said they felt less comfortable when making a major purchase than six months ago.

Around 45 per cent defined their finances as weak, with only 26 per cent believing it to be strong.

From April the UK government gashes £81 billion from public spending – marking the start of the final years of employment for some 300,000 public sector jobs – due to be all but lost by 2015.

Reportedly many economists believe the VAT increase to 20 per cent will spur the Bank of England to instigate a faster set of increases in official interest rates.  Worse still, it is widely expected that various tax rises will in turn prompt brand names to quietly increase prices, simply to cover running costs.

… And it still gets worse.  Through a report commissioned by the development charity, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, the Institute of Fiscal Studies estimates that the number of people living in absolute poverty in the UK will rise by 900,000 by 2010.

Recalling the mad rush to the shops during Christmas and the New Year, it was as if a community-wide sense of expectation of doom and even more gloom around the corner compelled the throng to buy-buy-buy because tomorrow we all die-die-die.

More than two to one (70 to 30 per cent) Brits fear the country is heading in the wrong direction.

Asked what issues worried them most, 45 per cent said unemployment and jobs, 40 per cent said immigration and 30 per cent said crime and violence.

Immigration was named as a cause for concern by more Britons than the citizens of any other country, with only Australia (33 per cent) coming close, and more than double the level of concern in Germany (19 per cent) and France (11 per cent).

Yet, in a quirky British way, few Brits – apart from those able to conceal their identities on the radio – openly discuss their anxieties publicly.

To stem the fermenting crisis, the social Stasi, who in  hope for any kind of social control, appeases as many people as they can; checking words said in public for correctness and appropriateness.

The result is that everyone is forced to be like everyone else and so live a soup of blandness and fear of ‘rocking the boat’ – and thereby losing any chance for prosperity.

When left unchecked, that neurosis can give rise to fundamentalism promising to offer redemption to disenfranchised groups at every part of the social scale.

Where nationality or even religion can’t provide identity – entrepreneurs can and do – through branded products and services – all assuring salvation and escape.

If you’re happy and you know it and you really want to show it – complete a form

The bells of hell go ting-a-ling for you but not for me

Messrs. Cameron and Clegg seek to understand the depths of depression unexpressed by brand-UK.

From April 2011, the Office for National Statistics will ask citizens to rate their well being, with the first official happiness index due in 2012.

The Prime Minister quoted US senator Robert Kennedy, who said GDP measured everything “except that which makes life worthwhile.”

However, responding to this, the Archbishop of Wales, Dr Barry Morgan warned that surveys trying to measure happiness could make us selfish, introspective and dissatisfied.

He said that UK government plans to monitor mood would “encourage people to dwell on their own needs” rather than others.

America has a General Social Survey.  There is also a Euro-barometer.  Such surveys ask people to assess their lives as well as how they feel at any particular time.

Putting all this data together points to some interesting finds.  Take for example the NBER Working Paper: Subjective Well Being Income, Economic Development and Growth. It suggests that richer countries are generally happier.  However, Asians are less happy than you would expect from their income levels.

This despite the roaring ‘Peking Pound’ that accounted for almost a third of post-Christmas purchases of high end brands such as Burberry, Mulberry, Louis Vuitton and Gucci.

For example, Hong Kong and Denmark enjoys similar income per person, yet Hong Kong’s average life satisfaction is 5.5. on a 10-point scale.  Denmark is 9.

Latin Americans are ebullient, whilst the ex- Soviet Union could do with a stiff vodka, with just over 6 on the scale.

Then there’s Bulgaria, which – according to reports on Sky TV allegedly has gangs netting over 200 million pounds of income per year by coming over to London to pickpocket locals.

Bulgarians relative to their income per person, turns out to be the bluest place in the world.

All is not totally lost however.

By lucky coincidence the Royal Family  announced that April 2011 will see the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton.

This will apparently give everyone just the ‘feel good’  tonic they need, including a day off from work.  (Something the hundreds and thousands who expect to take extended garden-leave, will relish as they care for their specially cultivated Royal Wedding Celebration roses).

We're all in this together

Up, down and up again

The most fascinating finding is called ‘The U-bend on Well Being.’  The Economist magazine recently devoted its main cover story to it.

Contrary to popular belief, the happiest days of our lives are not necessarily those of our youth.  Nor the most cantankerous once we hit the crinklies of old age.

During late teens we reach quite a high (about 6.8 on a USA ‘well-being index).

Young adulthood is when hope is supposed to be future perfect.  We can’t wait for things to start happening.  Such yearning for immediate gratification spurs an entire culture of goods and services designed to squeeze time into little boxes of easily attainable satisfaction.

The far-reaching effects of such time crushes are profound:

• Why travel to meet people in a dingy disco when you could summon ‘time crushers’ like internet dating sites to sort out the wheat from the chavs into neat little video messages and personal statements?
• Why wait to accumulate knowledge when the all-knowing Google can deliver at a click?
• Why have conversations across a table when you can have an internal dialogue between your id, super-ego and ego via the web?

Whatever image of perfection we are searching for – modern brands and policies promise to deliver.  The more you invest into a branded (political or commercial) ideal and regularly update it – the closer you’ll get to your end-quest.

The ‘The U-bend on Well Being’ bottoms out at 6.3 (around the age of 46- 50).  Thereafter it slowly creeps up again. Reaching 7.0 in the late seventies and early eighties.

By that point, to identify ourselves or prove to others that we belong, we no longer feel compelled to buy more and more stuff.

The older we get, the more past hopes are traded for present happiness  – whilst we can still get it.

Rather than worry if people will love them when they are sixty-four, the older generation doesn’t necessarily crave for an iPod or games console in same the way more uncertain youth do to show inclusiveness.

Self-perceptions no longer need to be maintained solely by constantly upgrading technology, working out at the gym, wearing your heart on your latest Nike trainers or enduring others to network onto the next square of the game of life.

They don’t even blink when people don’t particularly like them –aged 64 or even 74.  They are as chilled and fly as a G6.  (Even if they confuse the aircraft model with the bus route number to the local post office).

Eventually we all become the brand smile of confidence and assurance that we always knew was hidden somewhere within us.

Last night I flicked on LBC. The conversation was about losing weight after the excesses of the Christmas and New Year season.

The interviewer asked a fitness expert about the holy grail of gaining a ‘six- pack’.  Could the ordinary person in the street really ever hope to get a ‘six-pack’ stomach?

The expert replied, “Every person on the planet already has a six-pack.  It’s just gets covered by the excesses of modern living – junk food, fast living …  Remove the fat.”

So we are all equal after all.

With a smile, I closed my 48-year old eyelids and rolled onto my suddenly rather comforting overweight middle-age spread.

Jonathan Gabay

www.jonathangabay.com

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The joys of text

New research of 1000 people from an online insurance brand called e-sure, has revealed that one in five couples spend as little as fifteen minutes a day talking face -to-face with each other.

Over a week, that works out to approximately three hours and 45 minutes together.  Fifty-one of those minutes are spent in silence watching television and thirty-seven minutes carrying out household tasks.

London couples spend the least time communicating face-to-face with each other: just fifty-two minutes a week.

Instead of talking, couples choose to filter interaction through social networking sites, texts and emails.

Annually, the average couple sends 1,002 texts and approaching 400 emails to each other.

Whilst startling, from a marketing point of view, none of this really comes as a huge surprise.

Branded technologies and services such as Skype and FaceTime from Apple appear to offer society great opportunity to communicate effortlessly and capably – even across continents.  However, as is so often the case, appearances can be deceptive.

In just about every walk of modern day life, day and night, rather than meeting ‘eye-to-eye’, brands encourage people to peer endlessly at screens on PC tablets, mobiles, laptops and so on.

Take business airline travellers.  As soon as the aircraft ‘all-clear’ dismemberment bell sounds, they automatically reach for their iPhones, Blackberries and so on; checking emails and continuing to use their technology to touch lovers and spouses at each step of their journey out of the airport terminal:

“Just leaving the plane”.

“Just picking up my bags”

“Just waiting for the airport parking bus to arrive.”

Then there are those at work who obsessively scour Facebook, Twitter, et al, to discover what every other lost soul is doing.  (Usually – as it turns out – checking out what every body else is doing).

If they don’t have a spouse they may instead Tweet “Just picking up my bags”… and, in the case of wanna-be media types looking to assert their social worth -“Just going to the studio.”)

Eyes down for blogging bingo

Sometimes when I lecture, at some point, a younger delegate casts their eyes to surreptitiously text under the cover of a table.

Like all of us, they have been conditioned to so.  Brands increasingly encourage society to live lives online.  (Facebook alone has enough members to fill entire countries).

Technology-led online society is marketed to make us all feel more productive – and so admired by our peers.

For example, products like Amazon’s Kindle cut out the need to browse a book at common bookstore.  Instead War and Peace can be delivered directly within two minutes to the Kindle’s screen.

Being recognised in an increasingly lonely world calls for us to become fully ‘tooled-up’.

That’s a 24-7 job.

Rather than nurture physical relationships, people increasingly spend every spare moment managing the efficiency of their in-boxes and social media pages.

Such pages have become personal outposts on various social networking sites, aimed to attract like-minded tribal members.

If, heaven forbid, the technology fails – panic sets in.  Equally if a person no longer constantly receives text email, or social networking updates he or she feels unwanted and ‘out of the social work and home-life loop.’

Google will answer your prayers

Marketers attend conferences to learn how to influence influencers – garner a following and then those turn followers into influencers.

A book called, Persuasive technology: computers to change what we think and do, notes that key opportune moments to grab a person’s attention online include:

• …when their worldview no longer makes sense.

• …when  they feel indebted because of a favour.

• …immediately after they have made a mistake.

• …immediately after they have denied a request.

At such times of vulnerability, people are offered refuge and even a sense of community and support online.  (A comfort once sought from the church, temple, mosque or synagogue).

So online has become the first line of support before actual human interaction. That lifeline increasingly gains greater strength and security as society feels less and less assured.

The firmer the channel to reach people – the more attractive such a conduit becomes to brands.

The esure research notes that couples living in major cities like Glasgow and London text or email each other the most.

This coincides with just-released official government figures that immigration into the UK will swell the population to 70 million people by 2027.

In many cases, economic migrants send earnings back home – so failing to fully integrate into a greater UK based society.  That adds to an even greater communal sense of disconnection.

Every one of   the 70 million – migrants or not, especially in the major cities (which always attracts greater numbers in search of work) will at some point, seek kinship and identity with others going through similar experiences).

Rather than venture beyond their doors into traffic-choked streets, online social media offers them a more refreshing outlook.

The virtual world

Meanwhile at work, open-plan offices paradoxically exacerbate the need for privacy.  That desire for space drives opportunity for technology-centric brands to bridge gaps.

Whereas in the past workers walked to other people’s offices for conversation, today in order to avoid being overheard, they email each other – often across the distance of just a few desks.

Back at home, rather than remaining social centres for family discussions, chic kitchens, complete with gliding cabinet doors and integrated TVs, have become efficient distribution points for serving up time saving brand-endorsed meals.

The net result is that increasingly people feel more comfortable living within their consciousness rather than a part of a social family.

As any writer of radio commercials knows, “the mind (imagination) sees more vividly than the eye”.

On line brands encourage us to feel connected through actually becoming further disconnected.

From day-dreams of vacations by logging onto holiday sites, to blogging on Word Press – it all serves as a means to either help us escape from the crowd, or have the feeling that, for example unlike at work where fear of redundancy forces us to keep quiet, we at last have the chance to be heard and valued.

Even watching TV in households has become more of a solitary pastime. 3D televisions require dark glasses to be worn – blocking out a sense of shared viewing.

Along with another sole soul brand maker: the iPod, the BBC iPlayer was recently named as one of the UK’s ‘coolest brands.

The irony is that the word ‘cool’ was distinguished as:

• Stylish.

• Innovative.

• Original.

• Authentic.

• Desirable.

• Unique.

… every naturally occurring human trait that social media so often efficiently removes from the individual.

I’ll show you mine if you show me yours

Extra marital affair sites like AdultFriendFinder and Ashley Madison, boast members in the hundreds and thousands – up to millions.

Such sites offer standard technologies delivered by other less salubrious social networks.

These include blogs, emails, chat-rooms… all perfectly synchronised to provide clandestine solitary escape to fantasy.

So whilst under the pretense of checking out an Excel file, one partner ‘comes-out’ of a predictable relationship to a soul mate, the other remains engrossed with their own PC or mobile screen showing a ‘catch-up’ episode of ‘X-Factor’.  (Or perhaps on the prowl for other technologically cuckolded people).

Branding has always been about perceptions.

Marketers use elaborate techniques such as stylish advertising, packaging, pricing and so on to suggest a desirable image in the mind of a potential consumer.

They have done well.  In fact, they have become so successful that perceptions are now more potent than reality.

And all this was bought to light by of all organisations – an online insurance brand.

Oh the bittersweet wonderful irony.

Jonathan Gabay

www.brandforensics.co.uk

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Brands so hot - they're cool

Aston Martin, the iconic British sports car manufacturer, has been named coolest UK brand in the annual CoolBrands survey.

Pioneer of punk Vivienne Westwood is ‘en vogue’ topping the list of fashion brands with BBC iPlayer named coolest website.

Factors taken into consideration when judging the brands included, style, innovation, desirability and originality.  The process was independently managed by The Centre for Brand Analysis on behalf of Superbrands (UK) Ltd.

Researchers identifyed thousands of brands, which were then judged by a voluntary Expert Council and over 2,300 consumers.

This year Aston Martin reclaims its position at the top of the table narrowly pipping Apple’s iPhone to the post, a direct role reversal of last year’s results.

Aston Martin has topped the rankings four times out of the last five years showing that the quintessentially British brand is always held in high esteem by the nation.

When it comes to fashion, Vivienne Westwood tops the poll in the style stakes beating fellow luxury brands Chanel, Jimmy Choo and Alexander McQueen.

As well as iPhone polling at number two, iPod comes in at number three with the Apple brand itself coming in at number thirteen. However the ground breaking iPad doesn’t make the grade.

BBC iPlayer, Nintendo Wii and YouTube  feature in the top twenty showcasing the popularity for fun and accessible brands. Despite two luxury automotive brands in the top twenty (Aston Martin and Ferrari), Mini also makes the list, further highlighting that the top of the rankings is a concoction of ‘classic luxury’ and ‘down to earth’ cool.

In terms of specific categories, many of the leading brands have retained their pole position but there are also some interesting changes. In particular Harley-Davidson has knocked Ducati off the top spot when it comes to the coolest motorbike, Ray-Ban has replaced Rolex as the coolest fashion accessory and The Fat Duck has replaced The Ivy as the coolest restaurant.

Top 20 CoolBrands 2010

The expert council and consumers were asked to consider the following:

• Are they stylish?

• Are they innovative?

• Are they original?

• Are they authentic?

• Are they desirable?

• Are they unique?

The CoolBrands selection process was independently administered by The Centre for Brand Analysis Ltd.

A comprehensive database of the UK’s coolest brands was compiled using a wide range of sources, from sector reports to blogs. From the thousands of brands initially identified, approximately 1,100 brands were short-listed.

An independent and voluntary Expert Council scored this list, with members individually awarding each brand a rating from 1-10.  The lowest-scoring brands (approximately 40 per cent) were eliminated. A nationally-representative group of just over 2,300 UK consumers (accessed via a YouGov panel) were asked to vote on the surviving brands.

The opinions of the Expert Council (70 per cent) and the British public (30 per cent) were combined and the 500 highest-ranking brands were awarded ‘CoolBrand’ status.

Check out:

www.coolbrands.uk.com

Jonathan Gabay

www.brandforensics.co.uk

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Only Apple could start their press conference to discuss the alleged signal fallout from their iphone with a song published on You Tube by a fan.

Hats off to being so brave, confident and assured in who they are and what their brand means.

The rest of the conference saw Steve Jobs drawing on facts, rather than hearsay. The result? He silenced the doubting thomases of the press but more importantly fused social media techniques with hard core PR business savvy.

You can see the facts and the rest of the conference at:

http://www.apple.com/antenna/

Brandforensics comment:  At last a brand which combines brand essence of originality with straightforward communication.  Brilliant.

This is exactly the sort of the out of the box – beyond boring best practice – thinking  that marketing students deserve to be taught and marketing professionals need to take on board.

Time to throw out the old  best practice and bite into a new apple.

Jonathan Gabay

www.brandforensics.co.uk

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On a positive note, the brand finally plugged its oil well in the Gulf of Mexico which, for three months had relentlessly spewed millions of barrels of global bad PR.

President Barack Obama sounded a note of guarded optimism:

“We’re moving in the right direction, but I don’t want us to get too far ahead of ourselves,” he warned reporters at the White House.

However, just as the company sealed leaks in the Gulf, further PR slicks appeared in the press.

Reportedly,  in order secure drilling rights, BP approached the British government to sign a prisoner-transfer agreement with Libya.

BP strongly denies the claim.

However, many in the press pondered if alleged deals had anything to do with the release of Al-Megrahi, only person convicted in the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am flight over the Scottish town of Lockerbie.

BP faces assertions that, to secure permission to drill for oil off Libya’s Mediterranean coast, it helped with the Libyan intelligence officer’s release. (Al-Megrahi served only eight years of the life sentence handed down to him in 2001).

Most of the 270 victims in the Pan Am bombing were American.

The U.S. Senate’s foreign relations committee will hold hearings on July 29 to explore BP’s involvement in Al-Megrahi’s freedom.

British Prime Minister David Cameron, who opposed Al-Megrahi’s early release, makes his first official visit next week to the White House.

Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill MacAskill told The Associated Press:

“We had no communication from the oil company and we had no support or assistance from the British government.”

However, Senator Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, said:

“The evidence here may be circumstantial but if I were a prosecutor, I’d love to take this case to a jury.”

Jonathan Gabay

www.brandforensics.co.uk

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BP brand spills all over world headlines

BP’s (British Petroleum) Chief Executive, Tony Hayward, demonstrated extraordinary lack public relations brand astuteness over the weekend of 19-20 June when he was spotted on ‘Bob’, his £182,000 co-owned Farr 52 racing yacht.

Mr Hayward was enjoying time off at the JP Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race held at the Isle of Wight, off the south coast of England.

A spokesman was quickly summoned to defend Mr Hayward, 53, saying he was there to relax with his son.

Meanwhile, the White House described Hayward’s involvement in the race as a:

“long line of PR gaffes and mistakes”.

The Gulf of Mexico spill is currently about a fifth of the size of the 1990 Persian Gulf spill .

Recently Mr Hayward wrote on Facebook that he wanted to “get his life back”.

Responding to ‘Bob-gate’, the White House Rahm Emanuel, President Obama’s Chief of Staff said:

“I think we can all conclude that Tony Hayward is not going to have a second career in PR consulting.”

A  BP spokesperson explained that the break was a first for Mr Hayward since the Deep Water Horizon rig exploded in April, costing the lives of eleven workers and causing America’s most devastating environmental disaster in history.

Life on the high seas for Hayward

On 19^th June, BP chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg said Mr Hayward had been relieved of the day-to-day control of the spill and that the company’s Managing Director, Bob Dudley, would be assuming responsibility.

However according to some conflicting reports, BP officials insisted Mr Hayward remains in charge of the operation. Hugh Wilding, of Isle of Wight Friends of the Earth, said:

“This will be seen as another public relations disaster.”

Greenpeace campaigner Charlie Kronick called the boating trip as:

“insulting… rubbing salt into the wounds” of those affected by the spill.

Thousands of barrels of oil continue to seep out into the Gulf of Mexico daily.

Steps have been put in to capturing some 25,000 barrels of leaking oil a day. However, reports suggest 35,000-60,000 barrels a day continue to spill out.

BP was recently panned over its role in the Gulf of Mexico oil crisis by one of its own business partners, the Texan company Anadarko Petroleum, the largest independent oil and gas company operating in the Gulf which owns 25% of the well. BP strongly denied any such claims.

The company has said that claim payments exceeded $100,000,000; 31,000 cheques had been issued in seven weeks since the original explosion. $104 million to residents along the Gulf Coast.

Jonathan Gabay

www.brandforensics.co.uk

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We are born to trust.

For example, to have faith that a mother will provide milk. It is after all, instinctive. However, as we we grow older that same parent will teach us to be wary of the world – not to trust everything or every person.
 Yet, when society trusts itself, wonderful things happen. Economies boom, infrastructures repair and unity strengthens.

It is a two-way street where the trustee and trusted depend on each other with mutual respect in favour of a greater good for all.

Ever get the feeling you're not trusted?

Smile you are on CCTV
Increasingly we live in a mistrusting society.  Once given bastions of truth such as politicians, police, clergy and big brands are now dispraisingly looked upon through cynical eyes.

Brands for example on one hand broadcast messages infused with sincerity and empathy and then on occasion are found to recall not just products, but their trust in consumers to accept mistakes, which if caught early enough, could have been rectified and forgiven.

Too often, social responsibility turns out to be little more than neatly painted whitewash to present a more acceptable face of what business is, after all, in business for – to make profits.

Politicians, especially during an election period, offer sound bites promising ‘big societies’, ‘a future fair for all’, ‘government we can trust’…

Like brands, parties deliver a stream of images and packaged promises designed to give a sense of what the party truly believes.

However such messages are in constant conflict with societal signifiers that may suggest an opposite underlying point to the sanitised or idealised political one.

Bursting scandals, revelations and commentaries train us to learn to expect spin to invariably follow pledges.

We develop a kind of in-built radar that recognises not the lies from the truth, but the truth from the lies.

In the past, politicians could easily manage perceptions through well-defined media channels.  Today thanks to the 24 hour news, web, blogs, Tweets and so on… politicians can’t hide from the stage that stretches across the wide web and reaches the inner psyche of a confused voter who is so bombarded with so many similar choices that he or she becomes not just bewildered but bitter.

Through instantly scrutinising every painfully extreme detail of a political message we get so close to nuances that we can no longer judge the bigger picture.

Truth lives only as long as a given moment or click.

Without a longer period to view in retrospective, we no longer judge the bigger picture.  We naturally conclude that every confusing fuzzy detail must simply be further proof that it is, in the end, all spin and no substance.

So what can politicians do to garner our trust?
Political brands must be consistent in what they preach. Not all policies will please all voters.  This is actually good- it creates integrity and clear water between one political brand and another.

Just as with brands, political values need to be understood and practiced not just be leaders but everyone allied with the party.  In so doing, manifestos become social causes.  (All sincere causes are greater than promises).

Just as with business leaders, political leaders need to be seen and appreciated through context and content as being responsible lions addressing confident communities rather than lapdog chameleons addressing transient drifters.

Such leaders need to be themselves, complete with humility, human faults and quirks – not just managed alter egos.  By being – not acting – genuine, leading not exclusively from the front or back – but centre of the pack, they can set examples accepting mistakes and giving credit where it is due.

In branding, consumers must be able to recognise themselves in a product and so feel aligned with a brand.  In political branding, parties need to reflect what a nation is and what every individual can become.

Jonathan Gabay
www.brandforensics.co.uk

With great thanks for support  in writing this article to Roger Steare- Europe’s premier corporate philosopher

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Within hours of the design being revealed, The Conservative’s aimed to turn the Ashes-to-Ashes debacle into a blue-streaked phoenix flying the flag for Tory principles.

Spin 'n' spiv poster

The Labour poster was suggested by an ordinary party supporter, rather than ad men.  As such it was meant to herald the UK’s first truly democratic piece of political advertising.   The concept was to bring about anxiety throughout the electorate over the threat of a Conservative win; causing the country to regress to the old days of 1980s Tory spiv ‘n spin.

However lack of understanding of psychographics meant the creative execution failed to grasp that the central character upon which the poster was based, was actually considered as a modern day straight talking cult hero.

David Cameron was so pleased with the handiwork of his opposition’s campaign team that he even offered to chip in some money for the campaign.

His party was quick to draw PR capital from the blunder.  It produced its own version of the poster – which cleverly featured the line:

“Idea kindly donated by the Labour Party”.

Conservatives jab back at jibes

However by responding with even more images of the near-same thing.  In some ways both parties fell into an open branding trap.

Certainly in its initial stages, negative political campaigning receives media and voter attention.  However by constantly having one party use advertising to take a jibe at each other, the net effect can be the electorate feeling rather like children caught in the middle of a messy divorce and coming to the conclusion that there should be a plague on both houses (parties).

Message not meanderings

A strong political branding campaign requires a clear political message based not just on taunts but appreciable relevant tactics.

From Labour’s perspective, the new poster isn’t the first time the party miss-calculated public perceptions surrounding campaign headlines.

1979 Labour poster

In 1979 Labour produced a poster warning of “the last time the Tories said they had all the answers” (referring to the three-day working week of the 1970s).  However at the time of the poster’s publication, the country had just suffered from ‘The Winter of Discontent – accredited to Labour’s miss-management.

The ‘war’ battled throughout the winter of 1978–1979, during which time there were extensive strikes by local authority unions.

In the end, the 1979 election went to the Conservatives with the largest overall swing in the popular vote (5.2%) since 1945 and resulted in a working majority of 43 for Margaret Thatcher.

(Interestingly enough 1979 was also the first time in British politics that the Conservative Party employed the services of an advertising agency to manage its election campaign).

Classical political point scoring in general elections

Just as consumer brands use classic communication tactics to woo consumers and so defeat competition, so political brands have certain campaign approaches that, over the years have swayed the electorate.

These include:

Contradiction

This focuses on disagreement and division either between parties or within parties.  (For example Blair versus Brown).

Human Interest

When political brands manipulate political leaders to show the ‘human face’ of a party’s approach to key issues.

Consequences

When political campaigners warn the electorate of dire consequences – usually in taxation – that would occur if votes go to the opposition.

Morality

This is when political campaigns take the moral high ground by pointing to the ethical lows of the opposition.  For example, in the last election, the war in Iraq or currently Hamas in the Middle East  placing innocent children in the front line behind terrorists and then blaming a (from its point of view) defensive Israel  for resulting casualties.

Responsibility

This places responsibility for a cause in the hands of the people rather than government alone.  For example the Conservative party’s  ‘Big Society’ campaign that calls on ordinary people to stand up and be counted through volunteer work, rather than relying on local authorities alone.

Once the Easter break is over, the real crusades will begin.  Then the electorate will decided which party offers a life of real sustainable change and which a life that may as well be lived on mars.

Jonathan Gabay

www.brandforensics.co.uk

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John Terry brand

Just as brands are recovering from their association with Tiger Woods, sponsors are grappling with allegations concerning the England football team Captain John Terry who is alleged to have had an affair with the partner of his former Chelsea team-mate Wayne Bridge.

The affair may affect the England line up for this year’s crucial World Cup tournament – as well as any current or potential lucrative sponsorship deals.

Terry reportedly took out a High Court injunction to prevent details of the affair becoming public. However once the ban was lifted, the News of the World newspaper suggested that Terry made Bridge’s French model partner pregnant, going on to subsequently finance an abortion and then paying £20,000 “to cheer her up”.

The News of the World, alleged that Terry (a previous winner of the ‘father of the year’ award ) frequently flirted with Bridge’s partner on footballers’ nights out.

Such salacious allegations may have deep repercussions for the £150,000 per week salaried Captain.

A brand own-goal?

John Terry is the public face of sportswear brand Umbro.  He also works with Samsung.

Neither would comment on their agreements.

However a Swedish betting brand, Svenska Spel, which had previously work with Terry, announced that it would not work with him again.

Svenska Spel’s press officer, Johan Tisell, said:

“It has been two years since we had any contact with John Terry and we currently have no business with him,” said Tisell. “Would we consider having business with him in the future? I don’t think so.”

Terry also advertises the computer-gaming series Pro Evolution Soccer and, as England captain, is involved with the national team’s sponsors, Nationwide.

A spokesperson for the UK building society said the accusation was a “private matter” adding that its contract was with the England team and “not any one individual”.

The Brand Forensics perspective

In the case of Tiger Woods’ affairs,he eventually lost sponsorship deals worth an estimated $1m (£617,000).  However, judging by some reactions to the Terry case, the outcome may turn out very different.

To begin with, whilst there is universally public condemnation of too many athletes – playing ‘away’ off the field, local perception regarding many British football players is a very different one than ‘squeaky-clean’ golfers.

Generally, local UK footballers attract a very different demographic and so particular kind of public commentary.

Take this from author Toby Young published on the Daily Telegraph blogging site:

“As far as I’m concerned, John Terry can shag for England.”

He continued:

“I was on the fence about John Terry until Gerry Sutcliffe, the Sports Minister, called his England captaincy into question. Now I’m four square behind him. If Robin Cook’s affair with his secretary wasn’t a good reason for him to resign from Labour’s front bench, why should Terry’s affair with Wayne Bridge’s wife be a  reason for him to lose his captaincy? “On the field John Terry is a fantastic player and a good England captain,” said Sutcliffe, “but to be the captain of England you have got to have wider responsibilities for the country.

“So it’s okay to have an extra-marital affair if you’re the Foreign Secretary, and quite literally represent your country, but not if your the captain of England, because you symbolically represent your country? What a load of balls.”

If the comment reflects the general underlining mood regarding the conduct of many football players, for now at least , the Terry case is very different from Woods’ situation.

Also, to put John Terry’s actual global brand potency into perspective, consider the latest list (January 2010) of the 100 most powerful athletes on and off the field.

Whilst the list is clearly USA biased, if nothing else it still offers general food for thought.

Bloomberg Businessweek teamed with CSE, an integrated sports and entertainment company and Bloomberg BusinessWeek columist Rick Horrow to produce the 2010 version of the Power 100.

The 2010 rankings  focus only on athletes. Measurements incorporated scores over a two-year period as well as total endorsement income, public opinion polls which evaluated the athlete’s awareness, trustworthiness, appeal and influence to calculate power off the playing field.

POWER 100 LIST

Athlete                       Sport

1. Tiger Woods         Golf

2. LeBron James        Basketball

3. Phil Mickelson      Golf

4. Albert Pujols           Baseball

5. Peyton Manning      Football

6. Dwyane Wade         Basketball

7. Michael Phelps      Swimming

8. Adrian Peterson     Football

9. Shaquille O’Neal    Basketball

10. Lance Armstrong     Cycling

11. Rafael Nadal        Tennis

12. Kobe Bryant         Basketball

13. Larry Fitzgerald    Football

14. Ryan Howard         Baseball

15. Brett Favre         Football

16. Serena Williams     Tennis

17. Roger Federer       Tennis

18. Eli Manning         Football

19. Joe Mauer           Baseball

20. Tim Duncan          Basketball

21. Jimmie Johnson      Auto Racing

22. Kevin Garnett       Basketball

23. Chris Johnson       Football

24. Randy Moss          Football

25. Drew Brees          Football

26. Kurt Warner         Football

27. Usain Bolt          Track & Field

28. Jeff Gordon         Auto Racing

29. Dirk Nowitzki       Basketball

30. Tom Brady           Football

31. Kevin Durant        Basketball

32. CC Sabathia         Baseball

33. Derek Jeter         Baseball

34. Prince Fielder      Baseball

35. David Beckham       Soccer

36. Dwight Howard       Basketball

37. Alex Ovechkin       Hockey

38. Andre Johnson       Football

39. Sidney Crosby       Hockey

40. Hines Ward          Football

41. Mark Martin         Auto Racing

42. Venus Williams      Tennis

43. Donovan McNabb      Football

44. Chris Paul          Basketball

45. Dale Earnhardt Jr.  Auto Racing

46. Mark Teixeira       Baseball

47. LaDainian Tomlinson Football

48. Tony Stewart        Auto Racing

49. Chase Utley         Baseball

50. Jim Furyk           Golf

51. Shaun White         Snowboarding

52. David Wright        Baseball

53. Ilya Kovalchuk      Hockey

54. Ben Roethlisberger  Football

55. Steve Nash          Basketball

56. Lorena Ochoa        Golf

57. Evan Longoria       Baseball

58. Deron Williams      Basketball

59. Paul Pierce         Basketball

60. Carmelo Anthony     Basketball

61. Alex Rodriguez      Baseball

62. Johan Santana       Baseball

63. Tim Lincecum        Baseball

64. Apolo Anton Ohno    Speedskating

65. Stewart Cink        Golf

66. Ray Allen           Basketball

67. Carl Edwards        Auto Racing

68. Yao Ming            Basketball

69. Troy Polamalu       Football

70. Kyle Busch          Auto Racing

71. Landon Donovan      Soccer

72. Manny Pacquiao      Boxing

73. Padraig Harrington  Golfer

74. Vince Carter        Basketball

75. Tony Romo           Football

76. Dustin Pedroia      Baseball

77. Ichiro Suzuki       Baseball

78. Ray Lewis           Football

79. Andy Roddick        Tennis

80. Maria Sharapova     Tennis

81. Sergio Garcia       Golf

82. Fedor Emelianenko   Mixed Martial Arts

83. Derrick Rose        Basketball

84. Vijay Singh         Golf

85. Steven Jackson      Football

86. Andy Murray         Tennis

87. Allen Iverson       Basketball

88. Danica Patrick      Auto Racing

89. Brandon Roy         Basketball

90. Manny Ramirez       Baseball

91. Floyd Mayweather    Boxing

92. Candace Parker      Basketball

93. Shane Mosley        Boxing

94. Diana Taurasi       Basketball

95. Misty May-Treanor   Volleyball

96. Brock Lesnar        Mixed Martial Arts

97. Patrick Kane        Hockey

98. Chad Ochocinco      Football

99. Matt Ryan           Football

100. Ryan Sheckler       Skateboarding

Jonathan Gabay

www.brandforensics.co.uk

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