Alastair Crompton put it well and simple in his book Craft of Copywriting: "If you have something to say: say it. If you have nothing to say: use showmanship." Today the latter basic strategy would be a wise choice for many brands. Too often there's nothing unique or truly different about products and services. If so, my advice would be to communicate the company's identity in a compelling way. That is to say: if your organisation has an interesting idea about it's position in the world of customers. If nothing else works: use showmanship. Be interesting. Like Docomo. What to say about a wood cased cellphone? Well, if you use showmanship, it's something like this:
Even if you are IKEA, what interesting things can you say about kitchens?
Or about closets?
So, if you have nothing truly interesting to say about your brand, product or service: use showmanship!
This Summer, as usual, I took a large pile of books with me on my holidays. However, I chose to spend my nights sleeping this time so i finished only three books in two weeks. Eckart's Notes was one of them and I raced through it. Eckart Wintzen is the man who turned a small ICT company BSO into a big multinational one. Wintzen found that if you want to grow fast, you have to stay small. This thought lead to a management filosophy later known as 'cell division'. A company should never exceed a size of 50 - 60 co-workers. By the time a BSO company employed 50 people, its management had to find and prepare a new management team. And when the company reached 60 people, it was divided in two new companies - each about thirty people in size. Both new cells split up the business according to strict agreements. One of the big merits of this management filosophy is the transplantation of the comporate DNA (culture , knowledge) into ambitious, coherent cells. Along with it goes a style of management that is at least as interesting as the principle of cell division on itself. It comprises such things as sharing and trusting. On the go Wintzen gives a great explanation of the the true meaning of assigning work to others (Dutch: 'delegeren'). I recommend this book to anyone involved in management (as an entrepreneur, a 'manager' or a consultant). And not just for its contents - Eckart Wintzen is a gifted storyteller and writer.
Maybe it's because I'm a guy. But I can't help feeling sympathy for brands that try and seduce women to get in touch with their own dark side. Such as Magnum Ice cream did with its Seven Sins campaign. Probably that works because it is built on the easily embraceable truth "Forbidden fruit tastes better". For we all have a little devil inside that needs a bit of a wake-up call every now and then.
I consider it an art if you can be so disarmingly honest and yet so brutally bold at the same time. The truth is always the best strategy. As long as it is interesting.
If you wanted to recruit supporters for your charity, you would try and make the good cause urgent and personally relevant to your audience. The latter still holds true. However, if your audience are young people, there is a fair chance that beating the drum of urgency and drama will scare them away. It’s a bit like Richard Huntingdon’s better advice to young planners: be interesting first and right second. It works in two steps. Offer a strong piece of magnetic content first (charitainment), then try and engage them in whatever it is that you do (charivolvement). You will only succeed if the bait is well intertwined with food for thought and calls for activism. As a charity you need to be cool as a license to connect. Dance4Life understood that quite well and I’ve spotted a prominent follower: Amnesty International. Yoko Ono gave them the rights to John Lennon Music (activism beyond the grave…) And 180 smartly simple turned that into a contemporary concept by inviting cool bands to cover Lennon songs and offer them for download on a microsite.
I think strategic planning is much about finding a convincing, compelling or at least interesting truth. Something the people you are trying to connect with will embrace. Some notion, vision or thought that could elicit a response like "...and THAT's exactly how it is!" The fresher the thought, the better. Yet the quest for freshness of thought often ends with far fetched and constructed ideas. This French AIDS prevention commercial (TBWA/Paris) is, in my opinion, a good example of great strategic thinking - i.e Truth finding. For it isn't particularly easy to convince youth of the clear and present danger of AIDS/HIV. If you talk to youngsters you will find out that they all aspire to have an exciting active sex life (inspired to search at the fringes; just look at MTV...). And at the same time they share a quite oldfashioned hope to get married, have kids and start a family life. "Live long enough to find the right one." That's the clever truth of this commercial - clever because it unites two different and seemingly contradictory worldviews (I want lots of sex AND I want to settle in the end). Great execution, too!
Update: This commercial is a sequel; find the (first) girl version here. (thanks Yves)
They sell instant fashion copied straight from the catwalk. If you wear the stuff a couple of times is gets out of shape. Color washes out straight away. Yet, everybody loves H&M. And with reason. After flings with superstar Madonna and couturier Karl Lagerfelt, H&M entered a new love affair with the successful Dutch designer duo Viktor & Rolf. This is how you make a brand cool. Bravo! See Dutch women loot the Amsterdam H&M store, this afternoon. Or shop on-line.
I think this will become my favorite post title. For this kind of communications concepts are my very favorite. Look here for my first post about demo ads. This Lufthansa commercial (Springer & Jacoby) is a classic. I was happy as a child when I managed to get a digital copy. Besides an arresting and clever idea, I love this for its smart strategic insight. The people behind this idea succeeded in making a valid, very true point about the use of airline service. *****
I think Dove perfectly understood how to build an icon brand. They recognized that Northern European women deep down don't agree with the beauty myth they've been brought up with. Dove started a revolution. By telling the story of true, and thus imperfect, beauty. One that will be happily picked up by modern women and girls to cement their identities as strong and independent personalities.
Chip Heath: Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die I found this one of the better books on the hot topics of storytelling and engagement. Where many authors present a couple of far fetched characteristics, the Heath brothers come up with insightful observations on what makes a remarkable story. (****)
Alastair Crompton: Craft of Copywriting This referencebook is as much about the craft of advertising as it is about copywriting. Although is was first published in 1979, it contains many truths still valid today. Reading a book like this helps shifting hype and Zeitgeist from intrinsic laws. My copy came from an anonymous technical college library and it was never opened. I'm glad that I did. (***)
Bob Gill: LogoMania I quite liked this booklet. In a witty, direct style it provides some insight into the art of design concepts. Interesting to anyone with a broad interest in communication arts. Gill demonstrates some fresh thinking. (***)
Malcolm Gladwell: Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking After the Tipping Point, this book is quite disappointing. The idea of Blink moments is interesting. But Gladwell doesn't make as strong a point as with the Tipping Point. His examples demonstrate both the accuracy as well as great failure of people to judge correctly in a blink. (**)
Seth Godin: Purple Cow Triggered by All Marketers are liars, I expected a lot from this book. I found it a bit disappointing. After classics such as Eating the Big Fish, Blue Ocean Strategy and Disruption, Godin fails to add something significant. All American brand examples don't make it better for a European reader. (*)
Martin Lindstrom: Brand Sense Maybe I expected too much of this book. I think there's more to sensory branding. Yet it contains a couple of comprehensive tools and pointers. (**)
Cooper: How to Plan Advertising Although this book was written in the late eighties, most of its contents still hold true. A valuable source book for those who take strategic planning seriously. (****)
Robert Greene: Concise Art of Seduction Recent brain research leads us back to the belief that seduction is stronger than argument. This booklet offers an inspiring overview of types of seducers and ways of secuction to get your thinking started. (**)
Crispin Porter + Bogusky: Hoopla An entertaining book about an entertaining agency that turned branded entertainment into an art. I much admire these guys for their contribution to the (r)evolution in advertising. (***)
Pim van den Berg: Ondernemen is een Straatfeest Inspiring book by a Dutch guy who invented 'street-o-logy'. Or: the fine art of observation and surprise. (***)
Tom Himpe: Advertising is dead, long live advertising A very helpful inventory and analysis of an art that in full organic development: alternative advertising. Must read for any planner and creative. Full of inspiring examples. The only standard work on the subject I've spotted so far. (****)
Paco Underhill: Why We Buy: The Science Of Shopping As with many true things, it all seems so simple and intuitive. Nevertheless this book is an eye opener. I will never see shops and shoppers the same anymore. (***)
Malcolm Gladwell: The tipping point Cram full of interesting and fascinating stories. Gladwell doesn't provide instant solutions but very useful food for thought when you try to stimulate or stop things of epidemic proportion. (*****)
