WPP: BrandZ Top 2009

Substract almost ¼ of Google and you get Microsoft.

2 thirds of google are worth 100% of CocaCola

 

Click here for Brandz Top for 2009

 

 

Sensitive Heroes

Brands are curious heroes.
They may be courageous enough to beat an entire army of enemies but
lack of enough love will almost bring them to their knees.

Here are three tokens of love, your brand will always understand:

(1) Consistency
Brands really really hate to change as often as brand managers switch
jobs or as often as a so-called design-guru tells you to change packaging.
I know at least two fmcg brands here in Romania which have lost brand
equity because they confused customers with horrible packaging and
with pushing two types of packaging design at the same time.

(2) Price wars kept at bay
Think of an elephant trying to compete at a weight contest. What are
the elephant's chance of getting a prize for the skinniest animal
around? Now picture this: brands command premiums. If you have them
competing on price for too long or too hard, they lose strength and
staying power. Enter price wars only if you're the sure winner and
the war is short lived :)

(3) Relevance
I'm positive that your advertising agency is mad about those pink
shelf-talkers saying "Have a minute?". But, think about how pink and
joyful fit to your aging maturing target market or to the nature of
the product itself.

Guard consistency and relevance. And keep price wars at bay. This is
how your brand will stay a hero for a long time.

300th Post

Dear all, this is post #300 for brandlyyours.ro.

I want to thank you each and every one of the 2552 absolute unique visitors this blog has tracked so far.

Thanks too all bloggers who send referrals to brandlyyours!

Besides these few figures from above, I would like to greet and thank SundanceKiddo, Alina Popescu, Kit and Mihai Dragan. 

During these, almost, 5 years I’ve managed to

• lose a father
  
• finish my studies at the university and get a master degree in strategic marketing
• get my dream job at Brandient.com (and this blog was a great help in this respect)
• return to marketing consulting with the same holding company I worked before Brandient (Daedalus / Visionwise)
• contribute to the success of at least one romanian brand: metropotam.ro had a good start
  
• grow a circle beard (Van Dyke, padlock beard or candado in Spanish)
  

Also, in the last years:

• Apple transitioned to Intel, lost the “Computer” tail of its name and launched telecom gadgets
• Connex.ro became Vodafone.ro
• Bill Gates officially retired
• Romania joined the European Union
• Sibiu, my home town was European Capital of Cultural

Where shall we go from here on?
Forward.

First step, I’m changing the profile picture ;)

Thanks for being with me so far, hope you’ll enjoy the next part of the ride.
500th post, here we come!

My High School. Interactive.

The city square where I spent four wonderful years while in high school. I took a few snapshots today and saw them together in Photosynth.
Sorry, but users with Macs will probably have trouble playing with this interactive media.


Click if this does not load

Equal Treatment?

We are all created equal but this does not mean that we are treated equal. And this is great news! This means that we usually get the treatment that we want and afford. I came across this idea while thinking about sms greetings for this year's Easter.

For a few years now, I have tried to send an sms to all my friends and work colleagues. And I've tried to customize the messages as much as I could ;). Well, this years was different because I realized that some of them never replied or never appreciated the fact that they were getting attention etc.

And so I decided that starting this year I will change the rule and I will discriminate friends and colleagues. Discriminate them in the most brutal and economic way – just as a monopoly practices price discrimination, I – the MeMonopoly – will invest different amounts of time in different people.

While this may sound cruel or shrewd, I can assure you that it is nothing more than "The Brand Called You" meeting "Economics 101" and "Marketing Segmentation".

Also, I would invite you to apply the same basic question to some of your "traditions": "Why do I treat all my friends / colleagues / clients equally?"

Here's a few of the most probable answers:

(1)    I don't.

(2)    Because they really are all the same/ ask for the same thing

(3)    Because it's easier/cheaper/faster that way

(4)    Well… I don't really know.

If you answered 2, 3 or 4, call a consultant or email me. We've got work to do. If you answered 1, go get a candy and then email me. We've got work to do. :)

Two become one

It's more fun when 2 become 1 :)

"Two Tails" From Bucharest

Clean Image

From Bucharest

This weekend's Photo Safari had some interesting results. Two shiny new Mercedes cars were welcoming us in Herastrau.

In these days of tarnished economic reputations, we should also be on the look out for clean and bright images.
Don't look for shallow brands, look for true ones.
Don't look for yesterday's hero, look for true leaders.
And ... even more important...

Now more than ever: Don't be a shallow brand.

I'm not advertising for this brand. The choice for cars is entirely yours. :)