Brands Matter!

As a marketing major, I constantly have to take a lot of crap from self-righteous, over-zealous finance or accounting students. The problem is that a lot of times the marketing benefits are intangible (especially to accountants). So imagine how happy I was to stumble upon this study, providing me with some live ammo to fire back. Even though it was published in 2002 (and some of you probably already know it), it is still very much relevant.

By comparing the returns of a portfolio made up of companies with a strong emphasis on branding with the returns of a benchmark portfolio made up of the rest of the U.S. market, the researchers arrived at the conclusion that strong brands consistently outperformed the market. While this has been suspected for a long time, even before this study, the use of financial tools such as Present Value calculations makes it all the more valuable for my purposes.

Blink!

I have been reading a lot lately, so here is another book review for you! “Blink – The Power of Thinking without Thinking” by Malcolm Gladwell focuses on the first 2 seconds of thinking about a topic. Using research studies and a wide variety of stories and examples, he explains why thinking long and hard about a problem isn’t always the right approach.

While the first half of the book is mainly dedicated to proving his thoughts on the topic, using examples from everyday life, he does address marketing applications of this phenomenon in later chapters. The New Coke debacle, why ice cream comes in round containers, and why customer surveys aren’t always a good indication of product success are just a few of the issues he suggests a solution to.

When I picked up the book for the first time, I didn’t expect it to be such an entertaining read. Gladwell manages to convey his ideas in such a diverse fashion that you can’t wait for the next example he conjures up.

Now go buy this book!

MBA By Blog

Robert May at the Business Pundit just launched a very interesting project that I absolutely would love to see succeed. It is called MBA by Blog and its goal is to collect the best blogpost of all time, dealing with business related issues. Topics from Accounting to Economics or Marketing are being covered and visitors always have the option of suggesting another category if they feel their educational post doesn’t fit in any of the existing ones.

So far the site is still fairly empty, so if you have an educational, in-depth, business related post, head on over there and submit it!

Reviewing The Age of Conversation

I just finished reading the Age of Conversation, a collaborative work by 103 authors, dispersed around the globe. Each author was given one page to write about the very broad topic. As far as I know, it is the first of its kind. Anyways, the unusual and remarkable back story aside, here is my review of the book:

My first thought after finishing the text was that it seemed like all the blogs in my reader had conspired to all cover the same topic. The easiest way to grasp the book would be to think of a collection of the best blog post on the topic of conversation.

My favorite part about the whole concept was that the final product turned out so diverse. The spectrum ranged from specific guidelines on how to make your corporate video more engaging to more philosophical thoughts on the nature of conversation itself. It was quite an experience. Since each “chapter” is only one page, it was a very quick read. I actually plan on reading the book again, just to make sure I’m not missing out on anything.

As a last thought, the existence of the book itself proves in a way the validity of its content. In this Age of Conversation, it is possible for more than 100 authors to work on one project, without coming face to face.
I recommend this book to anyone, looking for some insightful thoughts on this very relevant topic.

Racing is a State of Mind

yet another Mercedes Commercial that I loved so much, I just had to share it! Those guys are on fire

Taking Costumer Service to a New Level

This is a Mercedes commercial, promoting their new commitment to global service. I just loved it!

The text at the end says: "This Passion. Difficult to replace"

My Random Rant on Second Life

Now that the corporate euphoria about Second Life is on the decline, I see my chance to jump on the bandwagon and throw in my two cents worth. Firms are starting to abandon their virtual corporate islands and business suites they had hailed as the future of marketing just months before.

In my opinion, the hype about the new platform came at an incredibly inopportune time (i.e. too early) for Linden Lab. Companies, intrigued by the media storm and the prospect of some free press attention, are making their decisions about setting up shop in Second Life now, while there are still lots of kinks to be worked out and acceptance is far from widespread. I have to admit that I am a big proponent of virtual environments and I see incredible potential for such platforms in the future (especially in a business context), but I also advised the company I work for, not to enter the metaverse just yet.

But it would be ignorant to blame the glitches and high learning curve of the platform for the poor performance most company projects display. A lot of companies simply refuse to see SL for what it really is. It makes little sense to conduct job interviews or sales meetings over a medium, which relies on text based communication (unless you use a third-party provider) and doesn’t allow you to see the body language of your opposite. Building enormous shrines of worship for your brand will not get consumers engaged. It is time to end the virtual corporate pissing contest and face some realities:

Second Life is not a search engine! This means, if people look for information about your company, they visit your website or read your blog. People want to be entertained in SL, so unless you have interesting, engaging content to offer (not to say that that can’t be informative at the same time), there is no point in joining second life. It might be fun to test drive a Mercedes, but what drives your potential costumers to come back a second or third time?

One company I would like to mention for doing a great job at creating a space, appropriate for the Second Life platform is GM. No matter what you read or hear about Second Life, one keyword keeps coming back: User-Created Content! On Motorati Island, GM has given users an opportunity to realize their car related projects for free. If this strategy will pay off for GM remains to be seen, but you have to commend them for knowing what they are getting into.

Of course I realize that there are many, many more pros and cons to Second Life, but they have been discussed ad nauseam in other blogs and articles. These are just some points that have been bugging me for a while.

Live Earth and eco-marketing

After millions of people from New Jersey to Antarctica witnessed live earth concerts last saturday, the debate about the sucess and influence of the project is upon us. The aim of the concert series (besides rasing funds) was to create awareness about the climate-change. But here is where things go wrong in my opinion:

The awareness already exists and in no way changes the behavior of the people. It can be safely assumed (especially after the recent media frenzy) that almost everyone knows about global warming and the dangers associated with it. Buzzwords such as “sustainability” and “energy saving” are flying around everybody’s head, but the concepts are too abstract, too distant to be really absorbed by most individuals.

Earlier, as I walked out of the company bathroom, I left the light on (just like everyone else does) and continued back to my office. About two steps into the hallway, I turned around on an impulse, opened the bathroom door, hit the light switch and started my way back to work again. Now, sitting in front of my computer, I realize that this simple act gave me a complacent, maybe undeserved sense of self-satisfaction. The feeling that I did my part in some way. I wasn’t wasting a single thought about penguins dying of heat, desertification or climate change. In my opinion this is exactly what should be advertised. Instead of calling for people to save the world, we should start a campaign to sell people “peace of mind”. The price? Just do a little bit to conserve energy or resources.

Just imagine a TV commercial told you that you had every right to feel like a hero, just because you walked to the store today, instead of taking your car… I know I would be walking a lot more