MV newsletter - October 2004

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P&G and the successful parasite……………..

We all know about the viruses and worms that threaten to invade our systems and destroy our computerised lives, but many believe that the biggest threats come from the parasites.

Parasites have different implications, both branding-wise and computer-wise.

Originally, the impact of a brand parasite was “passing off”, where you had a fake Armani, typically originating from the Far East, being sold to you as a real one.

Then things got more sophisticated. You now know that the fake Armani is a fake, so it is not really being “passed off”, it is just that you can buy it, and pass yourself off as an Armani buyer (à la “Sex and the City”).

Up a notch, and the big brands started passing themselves off. It would be interesting to know what percentage of prestige-branded merchandise is actually manufactured by the brand owners, rather than by cheap, usually Far Eastern, sources of supply.

In other words, either crime pays, or money talks, or both.

We now just say to ourselves “Why not buy that fake? It is probably made in the same factory as the authentic one?”

All well and packaged up, but what happens next?

Well, in the computer world, there are more and more parasites that borrow lodgings in the networks of the global corporations. Somewhere in the vast electronic capacity of the mega-multinationals lurks a sex site being hosted for free. And, when it is discovered, it moves on.

Or, they just borrow the traffic. If they can divert a percentage of the traffic flow into the major brands because the name has been mistyped, or they have managed to set up a temporary deviation (so to speak), why not?

As an example, we were looking for local Belgian advertising for Procter & Gamble. P&G in the US is http://www.pg.com, so our logic went that P&G in Belgium would be pg.be. Well, if you go down to pg.be, you are in for a big surprise (as, no doubt are P&G). We just hope that the participants use a fair smattering of P&G’s personal hygiene products.

So the moral of the story is that you can do “passing off”, or you can simply grab the traffic. And, with a bit of hacking ability, you can use their computer-power too.

It is a complex world, Mr. Darwin.

Are you talking about me…………………?

As with health, many of the things that kill you also do you good.

If your cells grow just the right amount, you are a healthy individual. If your cells grow too fast, you have cancer.

So the same sorts of devices that insinuate themselves into your programs can both destroy you, or benefit you.

Some months ago we introduced you to Envisional, whose technology scans the web for mentions of your brand, minute-by-minute. This technology has now been joined by Cymfony, doing much the same thing.

Rather than commissioning brand tracking research among a representative sample of your market to understand how your brand is doing, you can buy Cymfony or Envisional services to analyse web-based commentary on your brand on a 24 x 7 x 365 basis.

Even as a supplier of the old-fashioned steam version, we think this has to be interesting, or did we mean complementary?

Talking about our services…………….

…… and we like to, we have just set up a full description, with demos, of all our corporate brand audit and customer intimacy tools.

Spend lavishly!

How to do it…………………..

Chris Cardell has developed an excellent site to challenge your media strategy.

It is primarily aimed at smaller businesses, but applies well enough to much larger ones.

And he believes in telling it just as it is (and we believe him). One advice is that smaller companies should not advertise and, if they do, never on the left hand page. Another piece of advice is that you should focus on the benefits, benefits, benefits, and never on your products (whoops!).

Those heart-warming brand stories……………….

If you like those fireside stories of how the big brands did it, trundle on down to Building Brands, who are peddling their new book “Brand Royalty”.

The first chapter is up there for free (a marketing buzz thing that we are facilitating), and profiles the “How we did it” stories of some of the world’s biggest brands (Sony, L’Oréal, Toyota, Addidas and Hoover). “Hoover?”, we all cry. “This is a success story?”

Like all the best success stories, the Hoover story is still worth leaning from, whatever happened afterwards.

The answer, it appears, is to innovate.

And if you want to know which brands are being nominated as the titans of the moment, you can go to Lovemarks, a site set up as the personal love child of the CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi, Kevin Roberts (actually, Saatchi & Saatchi’s own site is more fun).

Back on Lovemarks, they highlight people's brand favorites. The biggest hitters appear to be George Bush and John Kerry (which may destroy its credibility in the eyes of anyone located outside of the US), but what is really weird is the mention of “Abbey National” as a Lovemark within the “Everything else” category. Since when was “abbey” (as it is now) ever loved by anybody?

We also like the offer of a free entry into a draw to win a household appliance, but isn’t that a bit retro? We wonder what they are offering down at pg.be.

For further information, please contact enquiries@mudvalley.co.uk

© 2004, Mud Valley ™ brand marketing community.

Link to Mud Valley™ brand marketing community membership page and special offers

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