This month the United Kingdom’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) the UK’s advertising regulator released a reported titled “Depictions, Perceptions and Harm” the report looked to ask if the existing regulations address “the potential for harm or offense arising from the inclusion of gender stereotypes in ads.” It was found that they didn’t. So, from next […]
Category Archives: Brand Management
Short term gains
My audience is different. My audience is special. My audience needs something new. My audience doesn’t want that. As a brand person working in a global company with a variety of products, solutions, markets, countries (therefore a variety of audiences) you hear this a lot. Constantly in fact. That’s because most marketers have short term […]
Trust me. I’m a plumber.
In Dave Trott’s excellent book Predatory Thinking he tells a story about a plumber. An elderly man had switched his heating on in winter but the radiators weren’t warming up. For the elderly this can be a serious problem. He called a plumber who looked at the elderly man’s old boiler. He felt around the […]
Photography: Shoot or Shop?
Shooting or shopping? A question you’ve probably asked and definitely something you’ll want to consider carefully. Initially you might think it is a question of cost. But there are a lot of other things to consider before you head to one of the stock photography sites or call your photographer. When you’re buying stock photos […]
We are all brand managers
Some people have brand in their title. Others don’t. Some people are receptionists, salesmen or in HR. Others work in marketing. Every one of them are all responsible for the brand. For example you might want to make your brand seem folksy and fun. You spend lots of money designing fun packaging, you get your […]
Don’t let the tail wag the dog
Advertising is only one expression of a brand. A brand strategy leads to a position. The position informs a creative direction which in turn guides all visual brand experiences. These can be as diverse as website properties, campus signage, corporate videos or buildings look at this site. Products and people are the ultimate expressions of […]
Practicing safe sponsorship
I often get emails from both employees and those outside the organization asking to use our logo. “This will be great publicity for the brand!” is the usual refrain. What the requestor often overlooks is that not all publicity is good publicity. This week sponsors have been lining themselves up to pull world! their sponsorship […]
A coffeeshop is more than its coffee
Every few months I take a long drive to my parents and I always stop at a particular Esso petrol station. This petrol station sells Costa Coffee from a machine and the coffee is almost as good as getting the coffee from the Costa Coffeeshop near my home, where I sometimes sit and work. But […]