The pharoah who got up everyone's nose

The king is dead. Long live the new pharaoh.  And as Vice-President Omar Suleiman said, “May God help everybody.”

Hosni Mubarak finally relinquished his throne as president of Egypt, handing over power to the military who now  will serve the interest of the new Egypt.

A local government official said Mubarak was in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, 250 miles from the capital Cairo.  By Saturday it was rumoured his was in the UAE.

In the lead up, the  recent events in Cairo and other cities kept the world spellbound to their TV and mobile screens.

Throughout the crisis, beleaguered President Hosni Mubarak, devoted practically all of his political airtime to classical propaganda.

And why not?  He had lorded over his people since 1981.

In an attempt to cling to power, the country hijacked international mobile phone networks, broadcasting communications described by the Egyptian government as ‘messaging concerning national security and general safety’.

For example, France Telecom, which runs mobile carrier Mobinil, involuntarily broadcasted text messages such as: “ Egyptian youth beware of rumours and listen to the voice of reason.  Egypt is above everyone – so protect it.”

(Quite a departure from the routine “get a 100 texts free” brand messaging that you would usually expect from a mobile phone company).

Yet are we being played a double-bluff by those who claim that this revolution was a new-social media one?  The US media claimed that USA companies like Twitter, Facebook and Google  helped free the Egyptian people.  However  taccording to the New York Times,  only .09% of Egyptians have Twitter accounts.  Moreover,  Twitter and Facebook had  been off for most of the recent events.

Meanwhile, Egypt’s own state run TV channel presented footage of charming views of a bridge spanning the Nile, alongside film of ‘evil protestors who were ‘traitors’ to the country – or maybe Israeli infiltrators?…  (Cue sinister music a ‘la ‘mode of ‘independent’ TV stations like PRESSTV). [NB – I was censored by PRESSTV  last month when I defended News Corp as a better alternative than state-controlled tv).

One senior reporter, Nile TV anchor-woman Shahira Amin quit her job with Egypt’s state-run Nile TV saying that she did not want to be part of their “propaganda machine.  I am on the side of the people”.
Amin told the world press: “We (Nile TV) were only allowed to report the pro-Mubarak rallies that were going on, as if nothing was happening in Tahrir Square…”

Here comes the new boss  – same as the old boss – We all get fooled again – and again…

Less than 12 hours afer the revoluiton, an official daily  Chinese newspaper  warned  that: “Social stability should be of overriding importance. Any political changes will be meaningless if the country falls prey to chaos in the end.”

Propaganda techniques  employed by the outgoing Egyptian government – as well as incoming opponents are discussed in my book, Soul Traders.

The worrying thing is that, come the next national revolution for change, (think any number of possibilities including Bahrain) political parties may once again return to techniques which are as old as PR Spin itself.

… And that dates back to days of sand dunes and stone pyramids built to honour men in glass houses and guarded by militia whose remit was to protect the new order for a promised better world to come.

JJ@gabaynet.com      Jonathan Gabay

Share on Facebook

Bookmark to:

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

Share on Facebook

Bookmark to:

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

Share on Facebook

Bookmark to:

Is anyone listening anymore from the clock tower?

There have been riots again on the streets of London.

Legitimate protestors had arguments, rather than arms in the mind.

However, spotting an opportunity for a ‘good kicking’ many illegitimate rioters turned chants of complaint into assaults on democracy.

Meanwhile, following a pleasant lunch at the House of Commons restaurant, MPs, elected by the people on a promise, betrayed voters’ trust in preference to keeping their jobs during tough economic times with new coalition bosses. (Who says Parliament doesn’t reflect ‘real life’).

Long-term commitments, like memories in photo albums seem to be fading relics of the past.  Unsurprisingly people – like the ex X Factor contestant, Cher, are led to believe it is their right that fortune must instantaneously follow fame – even if that fame is over in the rap of song.

Today, pictures of promises are becoming as disposable as people’s jobs at companies into which they invested their lives and from which in return they can confidently expect a ‘Good Luck’ card from their nearest and dearest bosses.

Bravery and independence as displayed by the likes of WikiLeaks has been kettled into place by a society that sometimes appears to have more in common with Stalinism than capitalism.

In the concrete jungle, just the promise of having a job in 2011 to pay the increase in rail journeys to work, has become enough of a carrot to keep the masses from protesting – too much.

With so many sniffing like dogs at the heels or any whiff of opportunity at all, those still with a job grow increasingly desperate to keep afloat.

The only certainty seems to be uncertainty of the future and fragility of the present.

We comfort ourselves in the high-definition lit delusion of our John Lewis TVs broadcasting around the clock Xmas dreams at the price of two for one.

Our sense of self and social demonstration of worth has become defined by the latest release of fashionable phones, computers, celebrity books (on a Kindle of course) or trinkets.

With populations doubling in size in years rather than decades, whilst tightening their grip around the neck of available community resources, the ordinary person in the street is forced to implode his or her id, ego and super-ego – so become increasingly self-centred – and obsessed – simply to survive.

Middle class professionals, complaining about the state of the nation  retreat to a Sony/ Xbox/ Nintendo fantasyland, away from the harshness of the day to a place where they can be the celebrity, sex symbol, speed fiend or thrill seeking rioter  they know they will meet again in their dreams tonight.

Brands such political parties, financial institutions, power-generating companies, and commercial enterprises – all promising to protect our futures – are regularly exposed as primarily concerned with protecting themselves before the rest.

With each exposure, people become much more immune and blasé.  Like watching thousands die in Pakistan, or another story of a cleric abusing a child, shock is no longer shocking enough.

Our trust in leadership – religious, political, social and commercial has become as tenuous as our faith in liberal democracy

The UK government, faced with the cost for recklessly inviting everyone from anywhere to become someone in a land away from their home, has been hoisted on its own perturb.

Overwhelming competition for space, land, and jobs …  has forced Parliament to repress accessible education for the masses, by imposing a lifetime repayment tariff for the foreseeable future generations of brand UK.  Or to put it another way, a further tax for already hard-pressed parents who only want to give their kids some kind of chance for a future.

Perhaps eventually the only ones able to pay for places at top UK universities will be those from India, the Middle East and China (where the UK buys the components for consumer’s trinkets).

The rest will have to settle for the high street college near a MacDonald’s, which offers local students free Fries at lunchtime.

Greed is good - worth fighting for

So money is tight. Cheer is translucent. Christmas has become little more than a sales promotion opportunity for companies to offer hope through gifts for the hapless horde.

Yet despite it all, in desperation to live the moment – capture a ‘buzz’ of happiness whilst they can, consumers consume as if the weeks leading to Christmas day mark the last supper of their lives.

Thanks to the Internet, redemption is just a click away from consumers walking the mile.

In the fervour to spend, consumers inadvertently feed the cycle of needs and wants kept spinning by wheels bigger than the one who guilelessly believes is in fact the biggest wheel in town.

And so the spiral goes on in the circles of the windmills of the minds.

This Christmas and into the new year, the greatest wish is for companies, politicians, students, surfers, bosses, individuals…  to follow the philosophy of human greatness: communicate with honesty and integrity for others and in doing so nurture a market rather than exploit it and then reck it.

Do that and students will eventually inherit more than arrogance bred into them by adults who, by the time they mature, long lose their spirit – apart from the solace still lingering at the bottom of their glass.

Opportunists will link hands rather than take up arms.

Instant gratification will serve lessons for a long-term education.

Politicians will aspire to more than borderline expense dodges or pay checks in the House of Lords.

Brands will actually believe and act upon the message of social responsibility facetiously promised by their advertising.

People will stop feeling that in order for their drum to be heard – they have to bash the skin of their passions until ears burst.

Respect will be returned to the hard working…

But perhaps that’s all just a Christmas faith, that is as realistic as baby in a crib of straw changing the world.

Maybe we are all clutching at straws.

Or just perhaps the one who picks the short straw to make a sustainable change will be you.

Merry Christmas.

Jonathan Gabay

www.brandforensics.co.uk

“ I wanted to change the world, but I realised it was too large of a task for one person, so I tried to change my community.

That was also too hard, so I tried to change my family. That was also too hard, so I decided to try and change myself.

And though it was very hard,

I finally changed myself.

And once I changed myself,

I discovered my family changed, the community changed, and the entire world changed.”

Rabbi Israel Salanter

Share on Facebook

Bookmark to:

Share on Facebook

Bookmark to:

Jonathan Gabay discusses the rise and rise of the Meerkat brand in insurance

Share on Facebook

Bookmark to:

(From BBC website…)

The Independent has launched its new light edition, branded “i”. So what is it about the letter that has made it so popular?

It started over a decade ago with Apple’s iMac and caught the imagination of a generation through the iPod, spawning a whole family of products.

Since then, all manner of products have taken the “i”, including the iDog and iTeddy, as manufacturers sought to tap into the buzzword.

By 2008, the BBC’s iPlayer had adopted the same snappy title form – even its developmental name of Integrated Media Player was shortened to iMP – and last year “i” was chosen by Magazine readers as one of 20 words which defined the last decade.

Now the Independent’s publisher has chosen the letter as the title of its new edition, aimed at a younger crowd who want quality journalism but lack the time to digest a daily broadsheet.

Its promotional blurb gives a few clues as to the reasoning behind the choice, peppered as it is with words like intelligent, incisive, interesting, influential and ideas.

Branding expert Jonathan Gabay says the newspaper’s marketers are also capitalising on the modern trend towards personalisation of products

Click ‘I’ for more…

Share on Facebook

Bookmark to:

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

Share on Facebook

Bookmark to:

The ultimate driving machine - but can the company put a halt to breaking issues before damage is done to the brand?

On October 1st,  brand giant BMW recalled approximately 350,000 cars worldwide due to potential faults power braking system faults.

BMW-branded cars from the 5-series, 6-series and 7-series built between 2002 and 2008 could be affected.

Additionally between 900 and  1,200 Rolls Royce cars were said to be recalled.

Reports suggested that in acute cases, drivers in affected vehicles would need to assert more force on the breaking pedals due to a reduction in power braking assistance.

However, the vehicles’ mechanical systems would still work.

So far there have been no reports of accidents or injuries.  A spokesman from BMW (the world’s biggest maker of luxury cars)  told the BBC that the recall is entirely voluntary.  The problem came to light following feedback from routine vehicle servicing.

In the US, BMW said it had prepared an inspection-and-repair procedure and would distribute replacement parts throughout its North American dealer network.

For the BMW brand, normally associated with a strong safety record, the news comes at a particularly unfortunate time.

In the US this week the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported that it was investigating a potential power steering problem with the Mini – another global brand icon owned by BMW.

Shares in BMW were down 2.4% in Frankfurt.

Vehicles covered by the recall included:

2002-2008 BMW 745i/Li, 750i/Li and 760i/Li; 2007-2008 BMW Alpina B7; 2004-2010 BMW 645i and 650i; and 2004-2010 BMW 545i and 550i.

The recall also included 2003-2010 Rolls Royce Phantom models.

The automaker said the Rolls-Royce Ghost was not affected.

Owners will be notified by mail and invited to schedule an appointment with their dealer to check their vehicle.

The company said that any drivers who experience reduce power in braking assistance should immediately schedule a service appointment.

From a branding perspective, the auto-giant was probably correct to take such swift action.  Providing any allegations of a mechanical fault could be justified, by responding early, the brand could instill confidence with owners and show the media that it was making a responsible response to a mounting crisis, rather than having to take an emergency reaction.

Earlier this year, the Toyota brand had to recall 8.5 million cars worldwide. However the recall was seen by many to be too little, too late.

That said, shrewd advertising and marketing instigated some months after the recall,  along with launch of a new hybrid vehicle, helped the brand rebuild its reputation.

Jonathan Gabay

www.brandforensics.co.uk

Share on Facebook

Bookmark to:

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

Share on Facebook

Bookmark to: