things that numbers can not capture. or not?

I am studying for one of those super-useful-mega-boring courses these days: Analysis for Marketing Planning and Decision Making (dubbed Anal Marketing). Currently focusing on measuring the effect of advertising on sales.



On the one hand it's amazing to see how much you can figure out with regression analysis, cluster analysis, conjoint, etc... On the other hand, there is a feeling that there are things that this number-crunching will never manage to capture, i.e. the infitite subtleties of how the human mind responds to persuasion. Or perhaps it can? Is advertising an art, or is it a science?

Persil washes whiter ... since always

Went to see the Museum of Brands, Packaging and Advertising in London yesterday. It is essentially a private collection of branded products, although a stunning one, spanning from Victorian age to today.
Interesting to see how many of today's brands were already around over 100 years ago (think Cadbury, Rimmel, ...). Also funny to see how some others haven't changed a whole lot in the past 60 years or so:


(Rolo, ww2 time. The pack hasn't changed a bit since then. Apologies for the poor picture quality)


(a 1950's Polo poster. It was already about mints and holes)


(a Persil pack from the early 50's, with a coupon! wow)

shallow post about a fundamental issue in branding and the digital age

My respect for this guy is growing, although I am sure he doesn't need it.

He wrote an article in last week's campaign magazine which I think illustrates a very interesting point about advertising and branding in this 'digital age'. (and for the love of God, I can not find the article anywhere online).

In short, it is about two Unilever brands, Axe and Dove, which stand for two radically opposite concepts of beauty. Axe stands for seduction (i.e. the more you spray, the more you'll get laid), Dove stands for real beauty (i.e. real beauty is within, and every woman is beautiful).

The point made in the article is that consumers are beginning to raise legitimate questions about Unilever's integrity, as a parent company. Thanks to the internet they are able to voice their question: where does Unilever stand in terms of beauty?

For me, the interesting thought is that whilst agencies and brand owners are trying to figure out how to exploit the digital medium from an advertising perspective, consumers are one step ahead, and they are using the digital technology to ask more fundamental questions about branding and business models. How will Unilever react?

--
UPDATE 01/11: Russell kindly posted the article in comments: http://russelldavies.typepad.com/advertising_practitioner/2007/10/dove-lynx-incon.html have a read.

internet well done

Several years spent working in a variety of digital agencies.
The recurring debate has always been around how the internet will fundamentally change the way we consume information, entertainment and the way we relate to each other, and how companies need to find new ways to relate to their audiences.

An interesting idea, but to be honest, whilst a lot of people are good at asking the question, very few are able to provide a credible answer.

So you imagine my surprise when I went back to look at what my first agency - Pleon: a PR group - are doing these days, and I found that not only they are approaching the question in a very interesting way ... but also they are, I think, very close to providing a credible answer.

Well done Pleon.

consumer insight

I was trying to explain to someone at work today why spending money on market research to gather a consumer insight is something worth doing, but it's hard to explain in words. I guess this ad (a masterpiece, IMHO, although not exactly the latest) does a better job at it.

Best Global Brands 2007

Interbrand recently published their Best global brands 2007 report, which ranks the world's top 100 brands according to their value.

The finance geeks will certainly find something to argue with the valuation, discount rates, etc ... but I can't help thinking that this is an extremely clever methodology for a branding consultancy to have developed (pp. 50-51 of the PDF report), as well as one of the most fascinating reads around if you are interested in brands. (note to self: invite them to LBS next year).

This year, probably biased from my internship, I noticed that no major pharma company has made a decent place in the rank (except J&J at #90, but are they really pharma?).

Think how big some pharma companies are! Think how many million people use their products every day! Think how important those products are to their lives! Is pharma getting it wrong?

Bike maintainance & marketing strategy: improving

First sunny weekend in months, spent preparing for the Suffolk Coast bike ride coming up this weekend. Lots of cycling, followed by (nearly) successful front derailler maintenance and (largely) successful front wheel straightening. I am quite proud of these achievements, given that I usually am pretty useless at repairing stuff.

Today - Monday - back to work. Big presentation in the afternoon to get buy-in on strategy form Lady at 'international' (very smart!). I used Aaker's strategic marketing audit framework, from John Roberts Advanced Marketing Strategy course this year. It went down very well. I couldn't help noticing that the same presentation done one year ago would have met a lot more resistance. Perhaps in the end the MBA is starting to pay off?