How brands relate in the age of the networked consumer

1. HOW BRANDS RELATE
UL ES
D R
AN
BR
N EW

2. Branding has jumped the shark.
The meme is stale.
Worn out.
Post-peak.
If branding were a show
on Fox, it would be cancelled
next week.
Doc Searls, co-author of The Cluetrain Manifesto

3. A good brand changes the world.
Guy Kawasaki, former Chief Brand Evangelist at Apple

4. THE PSYCHO BRANDS

5. ➜ PSYCHO BRANDING
The dominating school in
branding today looks at the
brand's reflection inside the
individual and tries to
understand its deeper
psychological structure:
associations, motivations,
attitudes.
It's based on the belief that
brands must push a hot button
in the consumer's mind to be
successful.

6. ➜ THE SILVER BULLET JOB
This school of thinking believes in the
magic message.
Once delivered into the subject's mind, it
will trigger unconscious desires and trick a
rational censor on the way, if necessary.

7. ➜ SNIPERS
There's a whole industry around
the casting, loading, aiming, and
firing of silver bullets. It's called
advertising.
There are planners who design the
magic messages, creatives who
craft it, researchers who test it,
media planners who target it, and
media channels that deliver it.

8. ➜ CORTEX THE GREAT
New approaches, like the
current "Neuromarketing"
buzz, follow the same
road, driven by advances in
brain scanning technology.
They help us better
understand the functional
topography of the most
highly engineered buying-
decision-making organ in
the known universe.

9. ➜ THE LIMBIC CAVEMAN Neuroscience has
refreshed an old
myth: That man is just
a puppet of his inner
devils. The scientist
Benjamin Libet
showed that our
hand knows we will
move it before we
know it ourselves.
Our brain's limbic
system has been
triangulated as our
little devil's hide-away.

10. "GOOOOORGEOUS
THE MIND CAKE ➜
RACER"
And yet ...
In spite of the hard science, the
psycho school is notoriously weak in
foresight.
In reality, some brands just get a much bigger
slice of peoples' attention, desires, thoughts,
dreams (or curses) than others.
"Washing powder's out" We may find ourselves daydreaming
about a Porsche. Or swearing about
Micosoft's latest idea of how we
should work. But nobody
daydreams about Persil or Coke.
... and that's OK!

11. THE WIRED BRANDS

12. Most of the buying
decisions we make, we
don't make as an island.
We ask a friend.
We look at what the
Joneses do.
We negotiate with the
family.
We brag in the office.
Many brands only
have meaning and
value in a social
context.
➜ HOMO CHATTENSIS

13. Brands are a part of our social life. They are
social currency, social signals, social glue, and
meeting points. Social capital is a significant part
of a brand's equity. Can we afford the simplicity
of one-dimensional brand theories?
➜ SOCIAL CAPITAL

14. Some of our
relationships
are actually
centered
around
brands. Both
Tupperware
and Harley-
Davidson bring
people
together who
would never
have met
otherwise.
➜ BRANDS IN OUR SOCIAL GRAPH

15. Some brands have
strong impact on
how we relate to
people. Think how
Microsoft shapes
our office life.
➜ BRANDS IN OUR SOCIAL GRAPH

16. Some people are influential
experts in certain categories.
Mac users, Playstation gamers
or Sodastreamers all can't
resist to evangelize.
➜ BRANDS IN OUR SOCIAL GRAPH

17. In some of our social
groups, we have rituals
and membership badges
that may involve specific
brands.
Parachuters après-jump
on Red Bull. Girls' night-
outs start with a rallying
cry for "Bailey's, on ice."
➜ BRANDS IN OUR SOCIAL GRAPH

18. ➜ ALL WIRED UP
Because brands need social capital,
there's a new mantra for marketing
these days:
Brands should live in social
networks and attract and nurture
communities of "subscribers", "fans"
and "followers". ®

19. ➜ YOU TALKIN AT ME?
The web has changed how people relate to brands
and companies in a fundamental way:
They don't want to be talked at, but listened to!
The social life of a brand is not just a nice cream
topping on a psychologically sound brand strategy.
Customers, consumers and consumerists have lifted
their expectations to the standards set by the
most conversational
brands.

20. CAPRICIOUS EYEBALLS ➜
And yet, many brands
return disappointed
from their first
ventures into social
networking.
Amateur video steals
the show from your
expensive "cheap"
viral campaign on
YouTube? 1.5m loyal
buyers in the panel The uncaring masses,
from a painting by the late Sigmar Polke
but only 223 friends
on Facebook?

21. ➜ NOTHING TO TALK ABOUT?
Not all brands
have an
appropriate
idea of the
conversation
they should
have with their
customers.
With whom?
About what?
How much can
The uncaring masses,
I reveal?
from a painting by the late Sigmar Polke
What will the
SEC say?

22. NEW BRAND RULES
UL ES
D R
AN
BR
N EW

23. People have always
trusted certain
brands as reference
points in their area
of expertise. But
the new generation
of prosumers*
expects them to
open and share
that expertise.
* producing and/or professional consumers
➜ BRANDS AS TRUSTED EXPERTS

24. The strategy, not just
for master brands, is
to share rather than
jealously corrall their
knowledge.
Transparency is the
new foundation of
(brand) trust and
feeds and inspires
word-of-mouth
among customers.
➜ FOOD FOR THE NETWORKS

25. NEW BRAN D RULES
1. Transpar ency build s
tr u s t
(n ot mys ter y)

26. ➜ LOW INVOLVEMENT BRANDS
Some brands run into walls of indifference most
of the time. There seems to be no other way for
them than to buy attention space and shoot
silver bullets ...

27. ➜ BRAND AS APP
Consumers hire brands to do a job for them.
Brands have to become radically supportive of
what people really want to achieve when using
them. Think of your brand as a verb, not a noun.
What action does it perform?

28. NEW BRAN D RULES
1. Transpar ency build s
tr u s t
2. Brand s are Apps

29. BRANDS AS FRIENDS ➜
Some brands are in the entertainment
business. Not just since YouTube but since the
beginning of advertising. They invented the soap
opera and created the most memorable and
entertaining ads of all times.

30. CAN YOUR BRAND DANCE? ➜
Many brands are petrified in the
name of consistency; strangled DON'T
bloodless by codebooks that leave
MOVE
MOVE
no room for authentic interaction.
DON'T

31. CAN YOUR BRAND DANCE? ➜
2x
2. + 4.
((tap)) 3.
Many brands are petrified in the
1.
name of consistency; strangled
5.
bloodless by codebooks that leave
no room for authentic interaction.
Brands must learn to dance; to
6. + 7.
relate to flirt to surprise -- but
always with one foot on the solid ((tap))
ground of a robust proposition. 2x

32. NEW BRAN D RULES
1. Transpar ency build s
tr u s t
2. Brand s are Apps
3. Brand s mus t learn
to dance

33. BRAND AS MOVEMENT ➜
Some brands' fans and lovers want to be part
of a movement. They want to feel recognized
and valued.

34. MEDIA DON'T TOUCH ➜
LOOK
LO HERE
HE OK
WATCH RE
OK E
LO RE
ME! LO ER
Traditional one-way media
HE
HERE
OK
LOOK
WA E!
H
AT E!
CH
OK E
W M
M
TCH
LOOK LO ER
cannot touch them and get HERE TCH
WA E!
H TCH
WA E! TCH
WA E!
HERE
M
LOOK
M LO
filtered out. H HE OK M
WATC RE ATC
H
ME!
LOOK
OK E W E!
HERE
WATCH M
LO ER
ME! H WATCH
ME!
WA !
LO RE
HE
OK
ME
AT E!
HE OK
CH
TCH
ATCH WATCH
RE
W M
W LOOK LOOK
LO
ME! HERE ME! HERE

35. MEDIA DON'T TOUCH ➜
Traditional one-way media
cannot touch them and get
filtered out.
Traditional direct marketing is
nothing more personal -- plus a
scandalous waste of ressources.

36. TOUCHED BY THE BRAND ➜
Brands have to
proceed from
media thinking to
touchpoint scope:
where and when
are people
receptive to my
touch; and how
do I get and stay
in touch with
them?

37. NEW BRAN D RULES
1. Transpar ency build s
tr u s t
2. Brand s are Apps
3. Brand s mus t learn
to dance
4. Brand s to uch
people ... or else

38. MY THANKS GO TO THE ARTISTS OR THEIR RIGHTSHOLDERS
WHO I HAVE BORROWED ART FROM:
Banksy, Damien Hirst, Sigmar Polke, Michelangelo
bit.ly/uwelucas