Branding « Marketing Babylon

NO!SPEC: Spec/Pitch work and strategy

May 10th, 2009 Posted in Branding, Marketing

May, 10 2009

Hear hear! Way to go NO!SPEC campaign people!

NO!SPEC is a campaign against speculative work, which is the practice of companies asking creative professionals, mostly designers, to produce work without getting paid and “pitch” for it, competition style, for a chance to get the project (or, sometimes, just to get paid if their work is used).

Traditionally, Ad agencies happily participate in the “pitch” practice, because their business structure allows them to subsidise concept creation and then make their big money off the full campaigns that they win and/or media commissions.
For designers, whether independent or small-mid-size agencies, this is just not sustainable.

I totally agree with the campaign’s claim: Spec work devalues the potential of design and ultimately does a disservice to the client.

From a strategic angle, an example that comes to mind is FMCG package design, an area of design where this practice is extremely common in the UK.

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FMCG, internships, nospec, packaging, pitches, specwork, strategy

Haven’t mentioned that "the product is the brand is the product" for about five minutes…

May 8th, 2009 Posted in Branding, Marketing

May, 08 2009

3 Comments »

So I’m working with the excellent Outlook add-on Xobni, when I’m noticing the tips section of the Xobni side-bar telling me that Outlook might be not shutting down properly because of Skype.

Huh?!
So I press the link and I learn, interestingly, that Outlook may be not shutting down properly because of Skype, or some versions of Google Desktop, and so on. I also learn that Xobni is making great efforts not to mess with the Outlook.exe process. My guess is that Xobni are getting complaints and probably uninstalls for bugs which are not their fault. Unfair.

This is an interesting branding situation. Who will the average user suspect? Skype? Google? Microsoft? or the relatively new and anonymous brand Xobni?

How likely are the users who just recently installed the massive Office SP2 update pack to still think “this Xobni thingy is messing up my Outlook”? I’m sure the Xobni team sees the irony, but doesn’t enjoy it…

And what can a small start-up do to build and maintain its own reputation in such a technology brand salad situation? (Not including selling out to Microsoft and consolidating the brand under Outlook)

(Funnily, I immediately suspect Microsoft, even though Outlook has been a central and loved tool for me for years, but that’s a different branding story…)
(Funnily = as long as you don’t work for Microsoft’s marketing)

bugs, microsoft, outlook, skype, xobni

5 Principles for the Agency of the Future

October 31st, 2008 Posted in Branding, Events, Marketing, Presentations

Oct, 31 2008

4 Comments »

This post is a "sound bite version" of a more elaborate piece, based on a talk titled "Emerging practices in Branding".

This blog has been dormant for a while, and I expect it will stay low frequency. I still hope this will get some attention, as it summarises so much of my work and thoughts of the last years. Not a very web-like time-scale, I guess…

Background:
On September 25th, I gave a talk at the Strategic Branding forum in Romania. I was asked to speak about "The Future of Branding". I used the opportunity to bring together some of Brandinstinct’s and my ideas about how branding should be practiced. This is stuff that has been dominant in the way my team(s) and me do things over the last couple of years. These are also trends I recognise increasingly among leading members of the creative industry.

The full article deals with 5 important aspects of branding work (methodology, relationship, culture, identity and engagement) and, "to put money where my mouth is", uses examples from some of the Brandinstinct projects I managed (From the projects used, the Sohar project is the only one I didn’t lead.). In this short version, I’ve left the examples out and focused on summarising the principles.

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Branding, emergenttheory, engagement, meaning

Foxytunes and Yahoo! fighting the good fight together

February 4th, 2008 Posted in Branding, Marketing

Feb, 04 2008

1 Comment »

I was delighted to hear about the Foxytunes-Yahoo! deal. The Israeli media reports 30-40 mil , which is x10 on investment.

I met Alex & Vitaly, brothers and founders, in the summer of 2006, while visiting Israel on another project. A long talk in my hotel room has developed to a short but sweet brand strategy project. One of my most enjoyable collaborations ever.

Over a couple of weeks, mostly through email and Skype, we had some seriously exciting conversations about the future of music and the Internet, and how Foxytunes can help. At the time they were already a highly popular Firefox extension, but found it hard to communicate and differentiate their offering.

My job is rarely that easy – all the good stuff was there, we just had to dig for it together, focus it, and articulate it. That’s because Alex & Vitally are true visionaries, driven by a very clear ideology. I would come up with catchy ways to convey what they were about, and they would gently slap my hand when the message wasn’t as accurate and clear as it was in their mind, or if it could make anyone, anywhere, confuse their true cause.
Back in the days, we used to talk about how information wants to be free (this fight is still going on, recently the fight for user information). It can also be said that music wants to be free, and Foxytunes is a product built around that world-view.

For me, Foxytunes were always the poster-boys-case-study for a post I wrote about the relationship between brand strategy and product development. Now I can finally say it.

I would like to think our collaboration helped them communicate more clearly and get decision makers along the way “get it” the same way Firefox users so easily groked them, but I always knew they were going to be successful – with or without my help.

I’ve met very few web entrepreneurs more deserving of becoming multi-millionaires.
My only regret is that at the time they politely declined my offer to get paid in stock-options…

Mazal Tov guys! It has been a pleasure and an honour!

exit, foxytunes, israel, start-up, yahoo

Marketing plots: The leader’s lament

December 18th, 2007 Posted in Branding, Marketing, Storytelling

Dec, 18 2007

No Comments »

Last time I talked about the generic trap loop. This time I want to talk about another generic trap, a “golden generic cage” of sorts. Another case where being successful brings with it the curse of becoming generic.

I’m fascinated by stories where leading brands become stuck in that generic spot everybody is trying to get out of. These are players who worked very hard to get to the top, only to discover they’re all pretty much the same up there.
As a consultant I really like working with challenger brands, but often find them trudging through a painful plateau, that is something quite depressing for a hard-working
over-achieving team.

This is a plot that repeats in highly competitive global categories, especially with big service oriented B2B companies. In these categories it is common to have hundreds if not thousands of global players, but there will usually be a group of leaders that tower among everyone else. They may be top-5 top-10 or top-50, it depends on the category, but they stand apart from all the rest.

When a brand enters this exclusive club a common mistake will be to get stuck on things that no longer matter for audiences:
“We’ve grown a lot in the last couple of years – nobody seems knows it. Let’s make more noise about how big and good we are.”.
News-flash: no one cares. Of course you’re big, that’s why you’re a top-X player. Thus, this fact becomes boring and irrelevant. Counter-intuitive, eh?

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b2b, differentiation, leadership, positioning

Marketing Babylon

Life between form & meaning. Adventures in the transformation of marketing by communications, design & technology, meandering from theory to practice.

NO!SPEC: Spec/Pitch work and strategy

Haven’t mentioned that "the product is the brand is the product" for about five minutes…

(Funnily, I immediately suspect Microsoft, even though Outlook has been a central and loved tool for me for years, but that’s a different branding story…)
(Funnily = as long as you don’t work for Microsoft’s marketing)

5 Principles for the Agency of the Future

This blog has been dormant for a while, and I expect it will stay low frequency. I still hope this will get some attention, as it summarises so much of my work and thoughts of the last years. Not a very web-like time-scale, I guess…

Foxytunes and Yahoo! fighting the good fight together

Marketing plots: The leader’s lament

Uri Baruchin

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Marketing Babylon

Life between form & meaning. Adventures in the transformation of marketing by communications, design & technology, meandering from theory to practice.

NO!SPEC: Spec/Pitch work and strategy

Haven’t mentioned that "the product is the brand is the product" for about five minutes…

(Funnily, I immediately suspect Microsoft, even though Outlook has been a central and loved tool for me for years, but that’s a different branding story…) (Funnily = as long as you don’t work for Microsoft’s marketing)

5 Principles for the Agency of the Future

This blog has been dormant for a while, and I expect it will stay low frequency. I still hope this will get some attention, as it summarises so much of my work and thoughts of the last years. Not a very web-like time-scale, I guess…

Foxytunes and Yahoo! fighting the good fight together

Marketing plots: The leader’s lament

Uri Baruchin

Subscribe

Archives

Meta-me

Blogroll

Hebrew

Wordpressiana

Free Culture

(Funnily, I immediately suspect Microsoft, even though Outlook has been a central and loved tool for me for years, but that’s a different branding story…)
(Funnily = as long as you don’t work for Microsoft’s marketing)