Starting Conversations about Marketing and Purpose

Is P&G Built to Last? A Raging Debate on Brand Purpose…

Posted on June 13, 2008 in Brand Purpose

Piers Fawkes over at PSFK just opened up a big can of worms on Friday the 13th by asking the bold question…How Long Can P&G Last? Click here for the full post.

A 170 year-old “tradition rich” Company is really going down ???

In a nutshell, Piers says that P&G brands lack soul & substance. Brands that do have soul, history and substance - (e.g. Innocent Drinks or Method Soap) will continue to cut into P&G’s market share over time. P&G will be forced into a battle of attrition & then ultimately morph into a sort of distribution network that supports “real” brands with the management and their consumers who believe in their values.

Then it gets personal…

Piers then attacks the P&G (and Unilever) mid-level management by saying: “At P&G and Unilever brands appear to still be run from brand books by an army of brand managers who aren’t connected with the values each brand is supposed to contain. They sell faux brands that were created in an age of control - control of media and message

Where he is right:

  • Challenger brands threaten: A new breed of more local/purpose based challenger brands (e.g. Method/Innocent) are inspiring people everywhere & challenging the multi-nationals. I have written about brands like Method on m-cause…these brands inspire me as well.
  • Emergence of a “License/Distribution Network” Model: P&G is already experimenting with this type of business model on its fragrance business–which has experienced excellent growth over the past 15 years. With fragrances, P&G partners with A list fashion houses and consumers to deliver top notch products & marketing programs. Piers is right in that this type of model works can deliver more growth…so P&G could consider moving more in this direction to achieve its growth targets.
  • Even more Openess/Transparency, please…:P&G has long been seen as a closed company with a internally focused corp. culture. But, in recent years, P&G has come a long way. Over the past decade, A.G. Lafley (our CEO) has brought in a wide range of “connect and develop” partners–even competitors, making P&G arguably one of the more innovative FMCG companies in the world (see A.G.’s new book for details). Even so, there is always room for improvement. P&G was a pioneer in “the age of control”. In the new world of soul, history, purpose, openness, and substance, there is an opportunity for P&G to get out front, pioneer, and lead change again. This blog is calling for conversation in this very area…

But then a swing & miss:

I enjoyed Piers article and I really appreciate the challenge he is making…hopefully it will start even more dialog and spur even more change. But where he goes wrong is when he gets a bit personal and calls out BMs for not being connected to their brands…perhaps he had a couple of bad experiences with BMs? I wonder where he got this? I have worked at several other companies (and govt. organizations)…I can tell you that P&G Brand Managers are very passionate about their jobs and their brands. Sure, you will find all types of people in a HUGE company, but this generalization is simply off target…Dave Knox over at the brand manager blog HardKnoxLife even mentions that he once met a P&G BM who tattooed his body with the brand he was working on. (Side note: you should read Dave’s excellent commentary on this debate as well).

P&G is a tradition rich company that will manage through all of this. You don’t make it past 170 years by just sleeping through major transitions in culture and consumer behavior…having said that, changing “before you have to” will be critical for P&G to ensure continued success.

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The next Obama…? David Gustave, a man with a purpose

Posted on June 11, 2008 in Causes

Barack Obama’s mythical rise to (hopefully) President has inspired the world. In Europe, there seems to be a similar grassroots effort starting for a new British Obama–David Gustave. James Pattinson, a good friend and fellow P&Ger, recently started a facebook group that has spawned mainstream media articles around the possibility of David Gustave becoming the next British Obama.

How similar are they?

There are definitely similarities between Gustave & Obama. Both are tall, in their forties, and of mixed ethnicity. One major difference is the Obama is a Christian (yet many in the US still think he is a Muslim) and Gustave really is a Muslim.

David Gustave

Gustave’s story is inspiring…he left school (and home) at 16 unable to cope with an abusive father. He then spent several years finding a range of (sometimes dubious) ways to earn a living. At 30, a series of unpleasant events caused him to truly seek a life change…and so he enrolled in an adult ed. course. One thing led to another, and at 32, he entered Oxford as an undergrad!

David’s Cause

David currently works as an educational motivator for Kids Company, a charity founded by Camila Batmanghelidjh in 1996. Kids company provides emotional and educational support to vulnerable inner-city children and young people primarily in London.

David is, no doubt, a fantastic role model for inner-city kids. From what James tells me, he is very inspiring, really a “man on a mission”. So, I am signing myself up to the facebook group…

Marketing Gustave

A quick Google search shows that several political new-comers are being touted as “the next Obama”.  Gustave and his supporters will need to move fast if they want to brand him as the next Obama in the minds of everyday Brits.  The Facebook group is a great idea and has already led to press coverage.  Indeed, by using social media/web 2.0 tools to get the Gustave grassroots movement started, James and co. are already thinking ahead.

David has a big challenge ahead if he wants to make it to the Obama level. But then again, did anyone think he would actually make it to (and through) Oxford? And did anyone think Obama would beat Clinton?

Stranger things have happened…

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Generation Y: Ego or purpose driven?

Posted on June 10, 2008 in Brand Purpose, Randomness

Generation Y (those born from 1982 to 1997) has received a lot of buzz recently.  Indeed, much has been made of Gen Y attitudes over the past few months (see this Post).  Gen Y “millennials” are apparently looking for:

  • Better work-life balance
  • “Flex” work hours
  • More time to travel
  • Purpose driven companies

Many I talk to in Gen Y are indeed pushing for their companies to find “a purpose”.  Millennials want to  work for companies that actually stand for something.

But wait!  One could be cynical with all this talk about purpose driven Millennials…last year a San Diego University Study bashed the Gen Y kids.  The study was entitled: Generation Me: Why Today’s Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled - and More Miserable Than Ever Before.” Here is a link to an interesting commentary on the article by Evan Maloney, which sparked some passionate comments!

Whatever you think about the Millennials, they aren’t wrong if they want to see more purpose at work.  I had the pleasure of stumbling upon a great internal P&G blog today written by Matt Carcieri.   He notes in a recent post that Brand  Purpose is not just a nice to have…it is actually a winning model.

Matt leaves reminds us of a couple of good resources on the topic of purpose:  Built to Last and Firms of Endearment.  Both books call out purpose as a serious value creator.

What do you think about Gen Y?

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It is mid-08…do you know where your Personal growth stands?

Posted on June 8, 2008 in Sustainability

Two things happened this week to prompt this post about the halfway point of 2008.

1. I looked over at the calendar and saw the month of JUNE staring me down..

2. I took part in a great discussion on grassroots/personal sustainability with Saatchi & Saatchi S.

GROWTH:

As we all know, personal growth is not automatic. When we stop learning, we stop growing and when we stop growing there is no way we will reach our full potential. All too often, we let life get pretty routine & our passions then start to wane. Once our passions start to wane, we tend to get lazy and even fall asleep at the wheel. So I am asking you (and myself)…are we heading down the path envisioned at the start of this year? And what about that seminar, or that book reading plan? Where do we stand with our relationships? Are we reducing our carbon footprint?

THE GOOD NEWS:

There is still time left in 2008!

PERSONAL SUSTAINABILITY

Many of us set out this year to start becoming more Green or BLUE or whatever, but maybe we have been a bit slow to start. S & S S has proposed a way for corporations to help “nudge” people toward change via simple voluntary commitments called Personal Sustainability Practices (or PSPs). In a nutshell, S&S S’s PSPs are SMART…(3 acronyms in 1 sentence!)

Sustain the planet
Make you happy
Affect the community
Repeatable
Take visible action

PSP Examples: Biking to work. Parking in the spot that’s farthest from where you’re going. Changing your lights bulbs to CFLs. Caring for a park.

Picture credit:  Pushing America by hypertypos

NUDGE ME PLEASE

Currently, P&G is competing against several other companies in Switzerland to see which company can get the most employees to bike to work during the month of June. I realized after the S&S S discussion that I had been gently “Nudged” by my company into a sort of PSP via the corporate biking to work incentive program. Indeed, I haven now decided to turn biking to work into my own PSP. Side Note: For more discussion on using “nudges” to improve health/wealth decision making, check out the much hyped recent book, NUDGE by Thaler & Sunstein (tks to my dad for recommending). Click here to check out a blog called the lazy environmentalist. Josh Dorfmann keeps his blog packed with ideas for sustainable day to day decision making. You might find something in there that you can make a PSP.

PSPs are a great idea…what are yours?

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Green is dead…hello BLUE + new 3Ps of marketing?

Posted on June 5, 2008 in Sustainability

Today, I had the pleasure of hearing Saatchi & Saatchi S talk about their vision of a mass social consumer movement that goes beyond “green” and lands “in the BLUE”. In the words of Adam Werbach at S&S S.

BLUE is a platform for sustainability that goes beyond the deep, beautiful green of environmentalism Green puts the planet at the center of the dialogue. BLUE puts people at the center…BLUE integrates all four streams of sustainability: social, cultural, economic, and environmental. BLUE puts the way we treat ourselves and each other at the center of our focus.

I like the idea of BLUE. As I have talked about in previous posts, getting more people/consumers involved in change is critical. The guys at Saatchi & Saatchi S. have done an excellent job in coming up with a new idea to widen the focus beyond green.

Saatchi & Saatchi S. also propose a change to the classic 4 Ps of marketing…here are their “3 Ps”.

Price, Process, and Purpose.

PRICE: First, we need to democratize sustainability and make it available to everyone. You shouldn’t have to be rich to be sustainable.

PURPOSE: What’s the purpose of what you’re buying? Do you need it? Does it fit into the healthy practices in your life?

PROCESS: What was the process to make the product? Was it energy intensive? Did it use pesticides or petroleum? Were the workers paid a fair wage? How will it be disposed of?

To track sustainability-focused campaigns, Saatchi and Saatchi S also have a new blog called The Wash. Go over and check it out. I have added it to my blogroll.

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What do marketing mix models have to say about cause?

Posted on June 3, 2008 in Causes, Marketing

Cause marketing campaigns are on the rise…indeed, companies have increased their “cause spend” significantly since 2005 (click here for details).  All this increase in spending would suggest that marketing mix models (within companies) are signaling high ROIs for cause related campaigns.  But is this really the case?  Are TV, Print, Interactive campaigns centered on cause being rigorously measured internally?  Jack Neff posits in a recent AdvertisingAge article that YES, there is an ROI for Doing Good but admits that numbers are “hard to come by.”

Wouldn’t it be great to see cause campaigns measured more effectively?  If there was more convincing data available to the global marketing community, doing good would become even more fashionable…

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Tips for writing great design briefs…

Posted on May 29, 2008 in Marketing

Luck is the residue of design.  –Branch Rickey

Excellence in design can = excellent business results.  Everyone knows that great design (e.g. product, packaging, graphic & web design, etc.) can be a such a big differentiator.  Apple has been a master at pulling together great design & WOW’ing consumers.  I would love to see a good example of an Apple design brief…wouldn’t you?

Clients have the responsibility of writing up design briefs.  Some clients are pretty adept at providing written briefs because they have a “writing” culture,  while other clients are not very good at writing design briefs because they simply don’t do them often enough…or briefs are just not integrated into their business processes well enough.

Most design briefs include all the typical items:  Objective, Deliverables, Mandatories, Budgets, Timings, etc.  But what makes a really great brief?  What is that trigger that really gets an agency moving toward great design?  Do agencies even read briefs?  And what if you are a freelancer living thousands of miles away from your client…making face to face communication with your client next to impossible?

To close my rambling thoughts tonight (it is late) and I thought I would leave you with tips on what to include in a good brief from a Freelance designer perspective.  As I am on the client side, I can always benefit from design brief nuggets of wisdom…so tks to from Shaun Crowley at the impressive blog Freelance Switch for the tips.  Read below for my condensed copy/paste version of the tips or click here to read the full post (The Ultimate Design brief) that I am highlighting this evening.

Good things to include in a brief.

* Title of item.
* Delivery mechanism and marketing objectives.
* Format.
* Budget and schedule.
* What are you providing the designer with: Product shots, website screen shots, photographs, diagrams, etc. (Check these are high-resolution.)
* General description of format: Describe any formatting issues you have arranged with the printer.
* Description of target audience: Occupation, gender ratio, average age, nationality/location, psychological demographic, lifestyle preferences.
* Message objectives: Hierarchy of copy messages, treatment of headlines, body copy, visuals, product samples, call-to-action.
* Where to look for inspiration: Give brief examples of style / overall look you want the item to achieve. What aspects of the product or branding can be used as a starting point for the design? What feelings or metaphors reflect the spirit of your product or company?
* What not to do: Also give examples of what the design shouldn’t include and what styles to avoid.

Here are some additional tips for briefing a designer from Shaun

1. Think about the message of the design.
Offer guidance to help the designer marry the “look” of the item with the “voice” of the copy.

2. Don’t prescribe solutions.
You are paying for the designer’s ideas, so avoid the temptation to tell the designer what to do. Instead, be clear about what the item needs to achieve, so the designer can explore ideas. This is where you need the designer’s expertise.

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A sucker for…

Posted on May 28, 2008 in Causes, Uncategorized

…cool cause campaigns like the one new media writer/consultant Joseph Jaffe is conducting on ebay. Joseph is basically auctioning his consulting services over dinner. If you win the auction, Joseph will have a chat/brainstorm session with you somewhere in the NY/Conn area.

I thought about throwing in a bid for fun…but I will wait & see if it remains low before plunging on in. Plus, I am currently living in Geneva, so it will be hard to get to the NY area over the next few months. Click here to see where the bidding is currently.

THE (m)CAUSE: Joseph Jaffe is helping Jennifer Leggio raise money for her participation in the Nike Women’s Marathon, which is Team in Training’s largest event, to support the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Note: Other social media notables like Chris Brogan are participating as well.

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More web 2.0 sites popping up around “cause”

Posted on May 27, 2008 in Causes, Social Entreprenuers

I just stopped by one of my favorite cause related marketing blogs…aptly titled Cause-Related Marketing.  Paul Jones does a great job of covering cause related marketing campaigns.  I suggest you check out his blog.

Today, Paul talks about some cool new cause related web 2.0 sites that could use a little network effect love.  So, I am doing my part to link to the them this evening…go on over and check them out.

Good2gether: This is a very interesting idea (my favorite of the 3) led by serial entrepreneur Greg McHale.  Currently, many of the 1.5 million non-profit websites out there don’t get much traffic & suffer from a lack of awareness…Greg is trying to solve this issue via a widget provided to media outlets (e.g. newspapers). When a story pops up around a crisis event (e.g. Chinese earthquakes) the widget will provide links to local nonprofit resources helping to battle the issue.  If a user clicks on a link, they are directed to a page where they can get more info about the non-profit…cool idea, I will put Good2gether on my watch list

Just Cause:  A “social networking with a purpose site”.  JUST CAUSE is an integrated media property with a  national print magazine, an interactive online community site, and community events.   I am a big fan of Good Magazine and its online site + print pub…it seems Just Cause will try to differentiate via the creation of community & a more local focus.

uPlej: In Paul’s words, a fundraising company that uses the power of a networked downline to raise money for charities.

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Your wit is needed…

Posted on May 27, 2008 in Marketing, Randomness

We need your help…the HUGO fragrance team is having a little competition to find the coolest “slogansmith” out there in cyberspace. The winner of the competition will have their own slogan placed on a chic NYC billboard. So, if you have a moment, head over to www.hugosprayit.com and “get your best slogan on”.

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