Lead the Tribe!

Be the leader of a tribe, or from a marketing perspective, segment your market and know who is your target customer. This speech by Seth Godin, a great mind full of energy, illustrates how finding people that have the same interests and by challenging the status quo, a business or brand can reach the next level.

Check out the video, it is very entertaining and informative.

Don't play with fire!

Socially responsible marketing can be creative too and I definitely like this idea of using pictures of crying children made out of matches. What they are trying to say with all this: "Don't leave matches around children". A nice way to get noticed and remembered, don’t you think?

Tagline: 72,000 children were seriously burnt in Mexico last year. Don't leave matches around children.
Advertiser: Michou y Mau Foundation for the Burnt Child
Advertising Agency: Young And Rubicam, Mexico
Creative Directors: Carl Jones, Adrian Brizuela, Ramiro Plascencia
Art Directors: Arlette Farah, Mario Aguilar, Carl Jones
Photographer: Paolo Gori
Copywriter: Lilianzur Fuentes

XX Mexican Beer building on Culture!

Cinco de Mayo is around the corner. Being a very important national holiday that involves festivities and in many households surely a few beer, Dos Equis is embrancing the opportunity to further impregnate their brand. National Pride + Holiday + Fun = Dos Equis, or at least they are trying to convey this thought.

Here is the whole article:

Mexican beer brand Dos Equis yesterday launched Expedition Cinco, a mobile marketing tour featuring branded off-road vehicles and unique sampling teams. Inspired by the escapades of the brand’s “The Most Interesting Man in the World” campaign, for two weeks leading up to Cinco de Mayo, the tour will engage consumers in 14 local markets via sampling, promotions and on-premise activations.

“Cinco de Mayo is not only an important Mexican holiday, but [also] an important part of the Dos Equis Mexican heritage,” noted Paul Smailes, brand director, Dos Equis. “Expedition Cinco is an opportunity to bring to life the brand’s adventurous spirit, while creating an authentic and engaging mobile marketing experience for our consumers.”

Expedition Cinco Teams, which consist of an Indiana Jones-like leader and Dos Equis ambassadors dressed as exotic tribal princesses, will travel in branded Dos Equis six-wheeled adventure vehicles to various Dos Equis accounts in the targeted market. The brand ambassadors will distribute such items as rigging carabineers and compasses and provide on-premise sampling opportunities. Consumers can additionally have their pictures taken with the “tribal princesses” in accounts and in front of the adventure vehicles. Consumers can access their photos online at www.ExpeditionCinco.com.

Expedition Cinco will visit Atlanta; Austin, Texas; Chicago; Dallas; Denver; Houston; Los Angeles; New York; Orlando, Fla.; Phoenix; San Antonio; San Diego; San Francisco and Tampa Bay, Fla. New York-based Mirrorball is the experiential marketing company behind the program.

Source: progressivegrocer.com

Coffee in China!

Today I would like to share with you an interesting paper by Daniel Spear:"Branding in China: The Challenge of Selling Starbucks Coffee in a Tea-Drinking Nation and Other Lessons."

It is a good example on how a company tries to change consumer taste or behavior, that stands in a cultural context, through effective brand management.

Below is a short introduction of the article and the link to the site. You can also find the PDF with the full article under the link.

On January 30, 2009, Columbia Business School hosted a conference exploring branding in China and India. With a population of 1.3 billion, China presents an attractive market opportunity for many multinational companies, as well as some unique challenges in building and expanding a brand. The first panel discussion focused on branding trends in China and was moderated by Mauro Guillen, the Dr. Felix Zandman Professor in International Management and director of the Joseph H. Lauder Institute for Management & International Studies at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Mark Aoki-Fordham, director and corporate counsel for Starbucks Coffee Company, spoke about the challenges of selling coffee in a tea-drinking nation and protecting the valuable company trademark in Chinese courts. Roger McDonald, outgoing executive director for global accounts for Xerox Corporation, explained Chinese attitudes toward brands in light of the country's historical experience and modernization. Jessica Zoob, senior vice president of global strategy and business development for American Express Company, outlined how partnerships in China can be effective and addressed the issue of Chinese consumer brand loyalty.


Here is the link to the site and PDF

Courtesy of Columbia Business School Chazen Web Journal

Nation Branding - Focus on Singapore!

Nation Branding - Take two

Singapore’s Economic Development Board (EBD) has issued a tender for a creative and media agency to develop and implement a marketing campaign with the goal of positioning Singapore as a premier business location.

Singapore is already known as a business hub in South East Asia with many MNCs calling it the home of their Asian headquarters. Their government has been putting lots of effort into establishing Singapore as a financial hub and is also heavily investing into the Biotech sector. With a shortage of natural resources and land they have been clearly focusing on their strengths by promoting a knowledgebased culture and emphasize education in order to create a highly skilled workforce. In basic terms it is all about knowing the strengths of your "product", exploit them, and build your campaign around it. Marketing 101!

High rankings in expat surveys already prove that Singapore is on the right track and I am curious to see if the new campaign will bring up a few more highlights of the South East Asian Tiger.

The link to the EBD site

Natural Branding!

Today´s post might not be in a particular cultural context, but nevertheless I think it might interest you. When it comes to placing a companies brand there are many options media agencies can draw from. Be it a billboard, magazine, webpage, or even somebodies body, those are all well known tools marketers use. However, London based media agency Curb has found another medium where to place a logo or slogan. They specialize on low impact advertising with natural materials as sand, snow, or even grass. A cool and creative way of using the resources available at any given moment and location while leaving a mark on the consumers mind. I surely will keep my eyes open the next time I walk along the beach or watch a soccer game. Have you seen any examples?

Here is the link to their website

Pictures Courtesy of Curb

Urban Culture is Hip!

I just found this new fashion brand and think the concept behind it is pretty interesting and worth sharing. Akufunctures design is based on Chinese mythical characters as the Monkey King, creating a brand that is targeting the urban market. Combining culture and urban fashion is defenitely worth a try and I am curious to see if this brand will leave its mark on the market. I like the idea and look forward to see some of those tees on the street. A brand with a strong cultural touch, way to go.

Here is what they have to say about themselves:

A fusion of Chinese culture and urban fashion is at the core of Akufuncture. For many years, Japanese fashion has taken over much of the urban scene with its creative ideas and clever artwork. It has utilized many Japanese cultural icons, figures, styles, and legends to great effects. The wildly popular Japanese fusion suggests that there has always been a thirst for the "oriental mystique" in the west. With 5000 years of history, China is rich with cultural mystique, ancient heroes, and romantic mythology. However, the West has yet to experience the irresistible essence of true Chinese culture. Our goal is to get you in touch with the "essence of the East" through a new trend of "fusion fashion".

Therefore, Akufuncture wants to spark your desire to explore the essence of the orient while strutting avant-garde fashion. Our product descriptions include a short background of the artistic style and mythical figures that have inspired us to create this line. Hopefully, the more you read, the more you will be interested in the culture that has lasted many centuries. After two years of rigorous effort and planning, Akufuncture was finally established in November of 2008. We really appreciate the hard work of every individual involved in our journey and thank all of you for your support in getting us one step closer to our goal.

The link to their site

Brand a Day!

Branding a product or service is very common, but how about branding a day? Well, it can be argued that some holidays are surely branded besides having a historical or religious base, but other branded days are purely commercial.

Just a couple of weeks ago couples around the world celebrated Valentines Day putting a smile especially on the face of florist, chocolate manufacturers, jewellers, and restaurant owners. However, in some countries this is taken even further and in Japan White Day is celebrated on March 14th. The Japanese celebrate Valentine's Day in a rather unique fashion, with women giving the men chocolate as well as other gifts. But there is more to it, the gifts of chocolate are divided into two types: giri choco (obligatory chocolate) and honmei choco (chocolate for the man the woman is serious about). Giri choco is given by women to their superiors at work as well as to other male co-workers.

On March 14th, exactly one month after Valentine's Day, men who were lucky enough to receive gifts of chocolate have the chance to return the favor by giving the women who gave them gifts of chocolate a more expensive box of chocolate or sweets, as a sign of love.

There are a few theories on how White Day started and according to wikipedia:

“White Day was first celebrated in 1978 in Japan. It was started by the National Confectionery Industry Association (全国飴菓子工業協同組合) as an "answer day" to Valentine's Day on the grounds that men should pay back the women who gave them chocolate and other gifts on Valentine's Day. In 1977 a Fukuoka-based confectionery company, Ishimura Manseido (石村萬盛堂), marketed marshmallows to men on March 14, calling it Marshmallow Day (マシュマロデー).

Soon thereafter, confectionery companies began marketing white chocolate. Now, men give both white and dark chocolate, as well as other edible and non-edible gifts, such as jewelry or objects of sentimental value, or white clothing like lingerie, to women from whom they received chocolate on Valentine's Day one month earlier. If the chocolate given to him was giri choco, the man as well may not be expressing actual romantic interest, but rather a social obligation”.

I just thought this is an interesting example on how smart marketers can brand a day and assure a huge seasonal spike in sales. How about branding a day yourself, any ideas. This might just make sense to Seinfeld lovers, but remember George Constanzas fathers holiday called “Festivus”. Well, Festivus for the rest of us!

J&J - The Show must go on!

The popularity of dramas in many Asian countries is well known, especially over the last years when the "Korean Wave" swapped the region and made their dramas one of their export hits. Building a campaign around tv dramas is exactly what J&J Thailand has done with it's contact lense brand Acuvue. They have created a short story series featuring in the lead role an actual customer, the actress Jessica Pasaphan. With this campaing they try to raise brand awareness among young women, and what is better than getting them hooked on a show while promoting their product.

It shows again, know your customer well and try to find new mediums to reach them in a effortless seaming way. As long as the drama does not make you feel like you are watching a non-stop commercial things should be ok.

Yum! adds Flavor to the Menu!

When it comes to culture, food is an important part of it. Yum! Brands Inc. better known for their main brands Pizza Hut and KFC knows how to address the cultural part in their expansion run through China. Besides their plans to open 500 new restaurants (in 2009) in the Middle Kingdom, they are aware of the fact that catering to the local taste by making the necessary adjustments to their menu should be an integral part of their strategy.

A few examples of their Pizza Hut menu in China are:

Tuna fish pizza, zesty shrimp soup, roasted squid, a variety of rice-and-meat dishes (kimchi pork, curry beef and Hungarian beef rice), and green tea.


This shows once again that if you want to establish your brands overseas it is crucial to know your market and target customer, but without neglecting specific traits of your brand.

Trying to impose typical American flavors might not always be the right thing to do, and especially in markets where religious believes might prohibit the consumption of certain foods (e.g. Beef in India, etc.)

Sounds like YUM! Brands has understood that being culturally sensitive is the key to success. Bon Appetite!

Cup Noodle Making it Easy!

There are brands that do not stand out for their luxurious or colorful design, but for pure convenience and practicability. One of those brands is Nissin's Cup Noodle.

If you have been in a convenient store in Japan you might have bought there some instant noodles and used one of the microwaves available to get them ready to eat. Furthermore, anybody that has been in Tokyo knows that the vending machine concept is taken to another level and can be found pretty much anywhere.

Cup noodle has now taken this concept by heart and a step further in their latest promotional campaign. Already known as a convenient product,its key brand value, it is trying to reach the "geeky segment" with this campaign. Besides, I am pretty sure that as a by product the media coverage generated will also reach other segments of interest.

But now more about the campaign. Until the end of March, Cup Noodle fans will be able to enter a contest to win one of 3000 limited edition "My Vending Machine Cup Noodle dispenser/water heaters". Want to know more, well just check out the video.

I just found this an interesting way of promoting a product while further emphasizing the brands key value. Thank you cup noodle, and thank you Japan for offering sometimes things that are just a bit different.

Lucky Beer for the Ox!

Building a marketing campaign on cultural believes is a good way to get closer to the target customer. The coming year 2009 will be the year of the Ox in the Chinese calender and Carlsberg is launching in Singapore a festive campaign for Christmas, New Year, and the the Chinese New Year. During times of economic hardship they try to built on the luck factor associated with the Year of the Ox, a good way to make Carlsberg the "lucky beer" that will bring good times back. In my opinion an interesting way to work with associations and I am curious to see what else this campaign encompasses and how they will promote their brand. If you know about any examples where marketers based their branding efforts on similar cultural believes, please share them with us.

The link to the short article


Picture courtesy of: www.brandrepublic.com

Consumer Brands from the Muslim World

Companies with roots in the Muslim world have been coming up more and more over the last years. In particular Dubai and its neighbors have been signaling that there is more to come and the market is getting more competitive each day. However, many people might just have heard about Malaysia Airlines, Emirates, or Petronas, and are not aware about other important brands that command significant marketshare and recognition in their sector. I have found an interesting article and encourage you to take a look at a few more consumer brands that seem to have a promising future. If you have any experience or knowledge about brands from the Muslim world, we would love to hear from you.

Check out the link to the article

Brand Packaging in Japan!

When it comes to branding it is crucial to reflect the right company image in the marketplace and an integral part of this is product packaging. If it is a tangible product the packaging is the thing the customer can see or feel immediately in the store and as in other aspects of life, a first impression can be made only once. Be it color, shape, or the labeling of the packaging, these are all aspects that have to further enhance and match the strategic message the brand is trying to project. Furthermore, practicality and convenience are other important factors of packaging that are gaining importance as a distinctive feature.

Oi Och Matsch ready to drink green tea, from Japanese tea brand Ito En, shows how innovative packaging can be presented, but in this case the innovative feature is just a tool to provide the consumer with the freshest product possible, which is one of the goals of the brand, stand for freshness and quality. Their PET bottle contains natural water and a cap filled with green tea powder. When ready to consume the beverage the cap is turned, which enables the powder to fall into the bottle and after some shaking a freshly mixed tea is ready to drink. It’s a simple process with a big payoff for the product and brand. Somehow it seems that especially in the Japanese market brand packaging is a crucial aspect of a companies overall strategy. I still remember from my time in Japan that if you bought some random cookies, often each cookie within the box was packed individually to assure freshness every time, and not only with highly priced products, this was quite common in Japan for products from different price segments. Maybe it was not the most environmentally way of doing things, but from a marketing perspective arguably a smart choice, even if packaging costs were high.

Below is a link to a number of interesting pictures about brand packaging that I found in www.businessweek.com. Check it out, and let us know if you have encountered some interesting examples around the world.

Check link here


photo courtesy GNPD, www.gnpd.com

Incognito Burger!

McDonald's Japan has temporarily remodeled two of its chain stores in Tokyo by stripping away any branding and just offering their quarter pounder in a red and black box. According to a spokesperson their aim is to offer the consumer a blind taste test without the preconception of who made the burger - pretty much with the thought "let the quality and taste speak for itself". However, I believe that it is more a stunt to get some press instead of a real taste test. Regular by walkers know that this is a MCD store, even if they changed their decor for a while, and the writting on the box seems to use a common MCDonalds font, which should be a hint about who made this burger. Anyway, I still thought it was an interesting idea and wanted to share this with all of you. Below is the link to the original text.

Check the link here

Branding in China - Positioning and Communications

It is no surprise that when it comes to branding in Asia many companies are focusing their resources on the Chinese market as China has what businesses want, a huge market willing to consume. Some might argue that even China's population of approximately 1.3 billion is a clear incentive, this figure is not a good representation of the market because a significant part of the population still lacks the economical resources that would enable them to go on shopping sprees. However, just to put the market into relation, if only 1% is really affluent and 10% has some disposable income this still represents 13 million and 130 million of potentially consume hungry buyers.

The challenge now lies on how to capture a share of this market where a large number of foreign companies are already facing difficulties in establishing their brands in a highly competitive environment. It should be noted that often those challenges are not due to a bad product or service, instead, cultural insensitivity in their communications and unclear brand positioning strategies are playing the trick on these marketers.

One of the reasons for those difficulties is that marketers commit simple mistakes as using models and messaging concepts not suited for that particular market. Clarins made such a mistake in their male grooming products ad by using ethnically diverse metrosexual models that represented an image the typical Chinese male could not identify with. This simple example makes clear that if a company wants to establish their brand in the Chinese market they have to make sure that all variables in their strategy are aligned and that particular cultural traits of their target segment are accounted for. Paul Temporal exemplifies this in his book "Branding in Asia" with the following statement: “Every image and every phrase included in a company’s communications, the way the advertising looks and the style of language used, every touch added to the product, every niche addressed, every service provided must focus on the strategic platform, that is, its personality and positioning”.


As previously mentioned there are more variables that need to be considered to succeed and clear positioning of the brand is another crucial factor that marketers need to get right when entering a market that is not very forgiving due to its extensive product offering.Positioning a brand as a premium-, mass product, or something in between should be on the agenda from the beginning to avoid confusion during later stages of the PLC and having to re-adjust multiple aspects of the marketing strategy.

This seems to be a no brainer taught in every Marketing 101 class, but even successful companies commit such rookie mistakes from time to time. Just to mention one, Buick, a famous US car company, tried to capture a new segment of the Chinese market and decided to offer a low cost model that would appeal to less affluent Chinese baby boomers. The formula worked at first, but with time it turned out that there was a flaw in their strategy and overall sales fell sharply. The problem was positioning! With their low cost model they had diluted their brand image to the extent that consumers which were interested in Buick vehicles as a status symbol felt no longer attracted by the brand. On the other hand, the segment that bought the low cost model was also disappointed as Buick had only been able to offer the car at an economical price by using inferior materials, not representative of the standard expected from a Buick vehicle. This mistake illustrates how easy it is to dilute a company’s highly respected brand image by choosing the wrong positioning strategy.

The lesson to be learned as a marketer is that you have to know exactly who your “real customer” is and what your brand stands for, particularly when entering a foreign market as complex and competitive as the Chinese one. However, on the other hand it is interesting to learn about the complexities of cultural branding and cases like these give us something to talk about. How about you share some of your experiences with all of us?

Nation Branding - Focus on South Korea

Nation branding has been generating more interest over the last years as countries are tying to establish or even reposition themselves in the global marketplace. Overall the process is similar to branding a product or service, but on a much larger scale. Having a strong brand as a nation can help attracting foreign investment and positively affect the reputation of brands from that country as numerous studies on country of origin and branding have shown. However, this leads to the question if it really is the country that makes its brands or the other way around. I guess it’s like the chicken and the egg story, where it is difficult to find out which one came first.

When thinking about what is crucial in nation branding the association effect comes to mind. Associations are an integral part of nation branding and probably all of us have certain perceptions about specific countries. Normally, if we hear that a product comes from Switzerland we associate high quality and precision with it, on the other hand, in particular Asian countries, with the exception of Japan, still have to fight their reputation of producing low cost/low quality products. This affects the brands reputation and even though corporations from South Korea, Taiwan, and China have created a number of very successful brands over the past years, they are still often linked to the aforementioned.

Many of those countries established themselves and grew their economies over the last decades as low cost producers, a stigma that has stuck on them. Furthermore, political ties have had an impact on their brands, and in particular South Korea has to fight some of those hurdles. They have world renowned brands as Samsung, LG, and Hyundai, but I have personally heard more than once that South Korea is sometimes linked to the North in the mind of some consumers, which is not ideal from a branding perspective. Even though there are general efforts to change the image of South Korea, they have not been completely successful in showing the rest of the world all they have to offer and that they are a developed high-tech country. The challenge South Korea faces lies in repositioning themselves in the mind of the consumer while building on the success of their top global brands. Recent events as the World-Cup and the Hallyu phenomenon (Korean Wave for television dramas and music), have surely been putting them on the right track, but they need to continue working on their communication and positioning strategies.

From my personal experience living in South Korea I believe that from a branding perspective there is plenty to build on.

Other countries as Malaysia with their 2020 initiative or South Africa with the coming World-Cup in 2010 are also putting significant efforts into their branding. A good example for regional branding that comes to mind is Dubai. Dubai is creating a city of superlatives, which is well known around the globe through a very focused communication plan. There lies the difference to the efforts of other regions and countries, effective communication. Just as an example, close to Seoul a huge development project called New Songdo City is creating a business focused city from scratch, but they have not been very successful with their communication strategy. I have not encountered many people yet that have heard about this project and an opportunity to strengthen a countries reputation like this one can be of considerable impact. It might not be product or service, but modern developments of this scale could positively impact South Korea as a brand. I suggest you check out the link yourself; it is a pretty interesting project. As countries develop and establish themselves economically, nation branding becomes increasingly important and I look forward to hear about some examples you might know about.


New Songdo City project

A number of articles have been published on branding Korea in the Koreatimes

Welcome!

Welcome to Globalguy Branding, where brands meet culture!

Food, isn’t it a great thing that connects people from all over the world? As for myself, I like to immerse myself in culinary experiences from east to west and I am a firm believer that food is part of and represents particular cultures.

Now you might ask yourself, why I am talking about food, isn’t this supposed to be a branding blog? Well, I think when it comes to branding we have to think outside the box, look further and search for intangibles that make the consumers heart beat faster, like a cook trying to capture our senses and attention serving us his best dish. Just as foods represent part of a culture, brands represent certain values and personalities, and in order to create a connection to the consumer on a global scale it is necessary to take into consideration country specific cultural factors.

What this blog and my persona are trying to do is adding a little spice and flavor to the branding equation, share insights and have some vivid discussions about classical as well as current branding topics and whenever possible add some cultural notes. I hope to cover branding issues from all around the globe, but as we progress you might notice that I have a slight inclination towards the Asian market. However, I want to keep it open to all regions and look forward to hear from you. If you landed on this blog, branding is probably part of your life already and I am sure you have lots of interesting insights to share, so let’s make this a platform where we can all learn from each other about what happens when brands meet culture.

Yours truly,

Globalguy