Tag: Simply Speaking

Simply Speaking: Aping trends is wannabe. It is not what great brands do

Apple is the most valuable enterprise on the planet but you could put Apple’s entire product portfolio together on your desk. It has built value through immense focus and brand identity. Each facet of the brand experience inspires people through both tangible and intangible means. Most Apple users feel a part of a community that is elevating for them. (Representational image by Daryan Shamkhali via Unsplash)

Buck the trend of marginal futility and create something bigger and enduring.

Simply Speaking: Make the new familiar and the familiar new

Marketers must ‘make the new familiar and the familiar new’ But, how to do this in a deep, impactful and self-sustaining manner ? Use of a Metaphorical sensibility is one proven way. The use of Metaphor aids relatability and mental placement. The automobile, for instance, was initially described as "a horseless carriage”, the motorcycle as a “bicycle with a motor." The snowboard was simply "a skateboard for the snow." (Representational image: jianxiang via Unsplash)

It takes a brave company to take the long view, as few radically new products are an instant success. People appreciate innovations in hindsight.

Simply Speaking: Loyalty – A mirage or a fountainhead?

Brands earn loyalty by distinguishing themselves with their actions. The decline and death of brands has been predicted with every disruption whether private labels, ecommerce or near perfect information availability. Instead we find top brands are strengthening their positions across industries. Loyalty is not dead, only the ability to create loyalists is wanting, writes our columnist in this week's Simply Speaking. (Representational image: Artem Beliaikin via Unsplash)

Marketers who can’t earn customer loyalty declare that it is dead.

Simply Speaking (from the FIFA World Cup 2022): Copo Del Mundo – Qatar emerges the winner

"As a marketer, I saw an end-to-end attention to detail, focus and singularity of intent. They followed the dictum – do well that which matters to your customers - to near perfection," writes Shubhranshu Singh in this week's Simply Speaking. (Image source - Twitter @LSPNFC_)

Musings on the FIFA World Cup 2022, Qatar, controversies and the David versus Goliath narratives which played out on and off the pitch.

Simply Speaking: The rise and fall of Kodak

In 1996, Kodak was ranked as one of the four most valuable brands in the world behind Disney, Coca-Cola and McDonald’s. The brand’s themes resonated in every heart as ‘America’s storyteller’. On billions of occasions, it gave consumers ‘Kodak moments’ to cherish. In doing so, it entered the mainstream of social life and culture. Owning good times and fond memories was as powerful a platform as any brand could claim and own. (Representative image via Unsplash)

If ever there was a brand that owned a category, it was Kodak. But it lost its way thinking what it did was always right.

Simply Speaking: The changing face of Big Tech brands – from focused value creators to conglomerates

Jeff Bezos’s Amazon is driven on the vector of ‘efficiency via disruptive technology’ and is investing in server farms and drones. He owns the Washington Post in his personal capacity. Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook became Meta and he bet the shop on creating its Metaverse. Elon Musk, is not only the boss of Tesla, the electric-car maker and Twitter but also a huge investor in space travel and solar-energy systems.

Being a ‘conglomerate’ is again the name of the game. The sprawling new tech conglomerates in a hydra-headed structure will bring up fundamentals pertaining to the brand for a fresh application or re-evaluation.

Simply Speaking: A brand is a dream, and its real home is the unconscious

Brands have created their own brand worlds. They've opened a window to this world through their products, advertisements, catalogues, stores, celebrity endorsements, and so on. All these get subconsciously associated to their brands.

Fashion brands know the power of tapping latent emotional desires. They convey and own dreams and aspirations. They derive more from authority, class and provenance of the brand than mere expertise. They know the mood and feeling of the dream world that they want to connect with and that becomes their marketing strategy.

Simply Speaking: Brand Gestalt – going beyond positioning

In many ways, a brand is an illusion. It exists in our unconscious and in our feelings. But that - by itself - is powerful. These connections in the mind add real value to the products and to our lives. Wearing a fake Rolex will give us less pleasure than wearing the real thing. Take the Nike swoosh off a sneaker and it loses its magic. Why? Because value gets created in the mind. It must have emotional value to you. In this way, brands can add real value, beyond their physical product attributes. It is not water, it is Evian! (Representational image via Unsplash)

Gestalt refers to how the brain prefers to seek out the whole of something, rather than the individual parts. Brand Gestalt represents the whole of the brand – it’s the complete picture.

Simply Speaking: BBC at 100 – A hundred years with lessons for all

The BBC remains the world’s largest public service broadcaster with a total staff count of over 22,000, operating in over 70 countries. Its mission, laid down by Royal Charter, is to “act in the public interest,” champion impartiality, and “inform, educate and entertain.” (Image via Unsplash)

The BBC’s global spread, cultural impact and soft-power are undeniable. But the century-old media brand is up against a new world.