KEVIN ROBERTS, CEO WORLDWIDE, SAATCHI & SAATCHI Foreword by A.G. LaAcy, Chairman, Presiden t, and Chief Executive, Procter & Gamble ® powerHouse Books New York, NY
"I have learned, based on my experience, that everything is dominated by the market. So whenever we are struck with any obstacles or difficulties, 1 always say to myself: 'Listen to the market, listen to the voice of the customer.' That's the fundamental essence of marketing. Always, we have to come back to the market, back to the customer. That is the Toyota way. "So, whenever we're stuck, we always go back to the basics. Because branding, image, or Lovemarks are determined by the customers, not us. We really cannot determine anything. The customer does that. That is the essence." Yoshio Ishizaka, Executive Vice President, Member of the Board, Toyota Motor Corporation ••
Contents FOREWORD A.G. LAFLEY CHAPTER 1: START ME UP Here's what I learned from fi ve great businesses I've worked for: • Always sllrrollnd you rself with Inspiration al Playe rs · Zig when others zag · Get Ollt of the office and in to rhe street · Li ve o n th e edge · Nothing is Impossible CHAPTER 2: TIME CHANGES EVERYTHING T he journey fro m products ro tradema rks, from tradema rks co brands. A q uick look at why brands are runni ng our of juice as they confront the Attenrio n Economy CHAPTER 3: EMOTIONAL RESCUE Why I believe emotio nal co nnectio ns ca n transform brands. If YOLI spend your days reviewing data, read every wo rd of th is chapter. Twice. INS IGHTS: Maurice Levy, Publicis Groupe CHAPTER 4: ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE Taking brands to rhe next level depends on one fo ur-Icn cr word: L-O-V-E. INS IG HTS: Sea n Firzpatrick, sportsman; Tim Sanders. Yahoo! CHAPTER 5: GIMME SOME RESPECT Love wi ll change the way we do business, but on ly if it is built o n Respen. No Respect, no Love. Simple. Let's celebrate what Respect has achieved CHAPTER 6: LOVE IS IN THE AIR Okay, so how do you creare Loya lry Beyond Reason ? INS IGHTS: Ala n Webber, Fast Company magazine CHAPTER 7: BEAUTIFUL OBSESSION SO what are Lovemarks? They inspire Loya lty Beyond Reason through their obsession with Mystery, Sensuality, and Inri macy. Here are o ur first ideas about purring rhem inro aerio n. INS IGHTS: Jim Srengel, Procrer & Gamble CHAPTER 8: ALL I HAVE TO DO IS DREAM Unde rstand how Mystery can transfo rm rela tio nships with consumers. G rea r stories; mythi c characte rs; the past, presem , and future toget her; dreams and inspiration. Be insp ired by rhe ideas and actions of great Mysre ry makers. INS IG HTS: Dan Sro rper, Purumayo World Music; Cecilia Dean , Visioflflire magazine; Mauri ce Levy, Public is Groupe; Sean La nders, a rtist 9 II 23 37 49 59 65 73 8 1
CHAPTER 9: THE HUMAN TOUCH The five senses-sight, hearing, smell, [Quch, taste-make Lovemarks real in rhe world. Leading sensualists show how they move liS. INS IG HTS: Dan Srorper, Purumayo Wo rld Music; Masao Ino ue, Toyma; Alan Webber, Fm! Company magazine CHAPTER 10: CLOSE TO YOU Intimacy is rhe chall enge of our time. l nrimacy demands time and genuine feelin g, both in ve ry shorr suppl y. See how businesses deep inro Inrimacy ca n create empathy, commitment, and passion. INSIGHTS: Clare Hamill, Nike Goddess CHAPTER 11 : ACROSS THE BORDER The Love/Respect Ax is is your first step. By plerring where YOLI arc roclay, YOLI can trace where YO LI need to go. Using the Love/Respect Axis, Kodak shows how it reinvigora ted itself with the yourh marker. INS IGHTS: Eric Lenr, Kodak CHAPTER 12: I CAN SEE CLEARLY NOW The rei nvenrion of research. Xploring and power listening-and powerful new proof that Lovemarks are what maner most to co nsumers. INSIGHTS: Malcolm Gladwell , wrirer; Peter Cooper, QualiQuam Imernational; Jim Stengel, Procter & Gamble; Masao Inolle, Toyota; Cla re Hamill, Nike Goddess CHAPTER 13: I'LL FOLLOW THE SUN An Inspirarional Consumer is precious beyond measure. Saatchi & Saatchi people share their most inspiring consumer stori es. Tell me yours at www.lovemarks.com INS IGHTS: Tim Sa nders, Yahoo!; Malcolm Gladwell, writer CHAPTER 14: ROLLING THUNDER Lovemarks in action. Real life client stOries from Olay, Brahma beer, Lexus, Chccrios, and Tide showing the power of Mystery, Sensuality. and jmimacy CHAPTER 15: WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS NOW The role of business is to make the world a berrer place for everyonc. Becoming a Lovemark has to be the destination of every business. Step up to the challenge. INS IGHTS: Sandra Dawson, Cambridge University; Alan Webber, Fast Company magazine; Dr. Arn o Penzias, Nobel Prize winner; Bob Isherwood, Saatchi & Saa tch i INDEX FURTHER READING 103 127 145 153 169 185 201 216 219
Foreword by A.G. Lafley, Chairman, President, and Chief Executive, The Procter & Gamble Company The best brands consistently win two crucial moments of truth. The first moment occurs at the sto re shelf, when a consumer decides whether to buy one brand or another. The second occurs at home, when she uses the brand- and is delighted, or isn't. Brands that win these moments of rruth again and again ea rn a special place in consumers' hea rts and minds; rhe strongest of these establish a lifelo ng bond with co nsumers. Most of the [,stest-growing P&G brands today Focus intensely on winning these moments of truth. They are in touch with consumers, not as demographics or psychographi cs, but as peop le- as indi viduals. Fast-growing brands such as C rest, Olay, and Pampers have very emotiona l, aspirational equities. We are lea rnin g that a brand like Crest doesn't sta nd only For toothpaste or toothbrushes, bur For hea lthy smil es-a nd an expanding lineup of branded products and se rvices that ca n help create those smiles. It's no coi ncidence rhar all of th ese brands are growi ng with the help of Kevin Roberrs and his coll eagues at Saatchi & Saatchi. I've known and have worked closely with Kevin For seven yea rs. His passionate belief in building brands consumers love is inspirational , and effective. It is helping reinvent how we at P&G think about creatin g, nurturing, and growing big brands. T his book will provide even the most experienced marketers with Fresh new ways to think about branding. It provokes readers to think about mystery, sensuality, and intimacy as brandbuilding tools. It provides practical insights into leveraging the power of emotion, res pect, and love. And it provides proven case studi es that bring the Lovemark concept to liFe. In short, this is an important book for all o f us who care about consumers and the brands they love. A.C. L1.Aey, C hai rman , President, and Chid Execurive, The Procter & Gamble Company 9
Chaptet.l STA,RT ME UP .. : :~'.i!
I was born an optimist. During my childhood in Lancaster I always believed that nothing was impossible. Where bener to find myself than as CEO Worldwide of Saatchi & Saatchi, the Ideas Company that made this belief a founding declaration? I've been lucky to have been guided by exceptional people who have mentored me. Inspirational Players. People who believe that to dream is as important as to act, and that winners are powered by passion and emotion. By the time I was ready to enter the world of work I wanted to go somewhere that was top of its class. Somewhere that relied on passion and inspiration as its driving force. Who better to work for than the most inspirational businesswoman of the 60s, Mary Quant? 12 lovem ......
Mary opened her famous Lo ndon bourique Bazaar in 19 55 and was swin gi ng-60s London person ified. The miniskirrs, hot-pallts, shiny plasti c rain coats, and painr-box makeup all added up ro rhe Mary Quanr decade. Mary was rhe first person [0 opcrarionalizc rh e concept "less is more." As she sa id: ''A woman is only as young as her knees." When Bea rl e George Harriso n and model ['arri Boyd married in 1966, they both dressed head-ro-roe in Quanr. It wasn't my in credible cool and fashion sense that landed me the job. it was beca use I had learned French and Spanish at school and Quanr was moving into Europe. fu one does, I started in the lowest of jobs: fusistanr Brand Manager. The business was moving so fast it wasn't long before they promoted my marketing manager and a gaping opportunity opened up right in fronr of me. . ... ~ " ( /
I Wl'llt to Tony Evans. the boss of the ilHcrna tio nal d ivision. and said . "I'll do the job for half the salary of the previous guy for the next six months. If you think I'm worth it, then you can pay me what the job deserves." I Ie said, "Okay, you're on . Do it. " Working in cosmetics was incredible. Everything happened so fast. It was try, r.,i l, learn , try .lga in , win. rry again. Every mOlH h. Wt' were f,f{)\ving o ur busi ness at 500 pt'rcent a year wit h a product lifccyclc of around nine mo nths. That's new products conceived , lau nched, sold, and d iscoIltinued with in ni ne mo nths! Fo r Illl' it was like enroll ing in the University of Branding. I loved every minute. Inn ovation and flln were our passion. \X/e were the fi rst (0 do "makeup (0 make love in": a waterproof kissahk· lipst ick. waterproo f masca ra. We did the first eve r makclip for men. W ith her perfe'ctly o n-brand , super cool haircut hy Vidal Sassoon, Mary understood as well as anyo ll e I have ever Ill et th at hrands are aho ut clll ot io n and personality. She also kllew that in tilt, l'nd it was what consumers desired that would pro pel her business in to the srrarosphere. "T he fundamentals of fas hion remain the s"me," she wrote in her book, QUI1n1 by QUl1nt: "Women wear clothes to make them feel good and to feel sexy. Women turn themselves on. Men like to look at women to be turned on-to feel sexy is to k now you ' re al· " lve. W ht'llt'vn I .11 11 in Illectings and hea r compl ica ted stra tegies fo r getti ng co nsume r an clltio n. I rClllt'mbcr M.lfY (~ nt s simple heli ef in human desires and passions. 11 ove .ar ~A
My experience in bringing new products to market landed me my nex t job: Gillette's International New Products Manage r for their fast-growin g business in the M iddle East. It was my fi rst taste of the serio us corporate wo rld; a three-year stay where I first visi ted the Casi no du Liban, Aew Pa n Am 001, and started a love affa ir with G illette razor blades that grows stronger wirh eve ry innova ti on they launch. I'm now a Mach 3 Turbo jun kie. Gillerte was the fi rst step rowards rhe company that would change my life: Procter & Gamble, th e inte rnational multi-bill ion-doll ar co nsumer goods company. T he people who inve nted brand management. p&G My rela rionship with P&G sra rred on January 1, 1975-the day I joined . W har can I say' I love r &G. I always have. I found out everything important I know about people, business, and marketing at P&G. And in amazi ng places li ke Sa na'a, AI Ain, Casablanca, and Felixsrowe Ferry where I spent five months selling P&G brands to the trade. I love P&G's scale. I love the ambition of the enterprise. The disciplines invented at P&G have shaped my life. To be a P&G Brand Manager in the 1970s was to be King of the Worl d. In rhe Midd le East 1 lea rned lessons that have been in valuable to me about how ro connecr with consumers, and how to do it in a place where mass marketi ng was in its infancy. I learned to love the peo pl e. In Arab co untries you make friends fo r life. T he peo pl e were genu ine, emotional, fa mily-focused, hospitable. They understood their tradi tions and the past, and rhey really un de rstood that they had a comp letely differe nt future. It was very exciting. T here was lirde resistance to the new beca use they d idn't have much of a present. They had a past and they had a future. Stan Me Up 15
I also lea rn eel there that you could make a big difference fast. The re weren't Westernstyle barri ers in place, so new ideas go t to the surface much quicker. There was no burea uc racy to go through , they d idn't have an orga ni zed, data-rich trade to say " NO! )) And you didn't have corporate HQ on your tail. When you brought Tide, Ariel, or Pampers in to Oujda, Abha, or Sa lalah it was trul y li fe-changin g. It didn't improve li ves a little bit: it improved li ves significa ntl y. P&G is a company totally committed to doing th e right thing. W hy? Because the principles don't belong to Procter & Gamble, they belong to the people who work there. Jo hn Pepper, He rbert Schmitz, Ron Pea rce, and Fo uad Kurya tim live the principlesand the d reams-<:very d ay. No one li ves these va lues more than current P&G lead e r A.G. L1Aey. All these yea rs later I still believe in the powe r of those prin ciples I learned at P&G. Totally. C ha rles Decker summed up man y of the best in his book, Winning with the !'eire 99. Do the right thing. Capitalize o n yo ur mistakes. Winning is everything. Th in k sid eways. Make something happen. Never try to fool rhe conslimer. For me the Midd le East was perfect. It was full of adventure and I could be out th ere in 16 lovemarkA the streets and markers. watching. listening, doing, lea rning. Seven yea rs late r, still in love with the Middle East, I seized an o pportuni ty and moved to anothe r grea t company-Pepsi. More fan tasti c opportun ities and serious challenges. Like buildin g a Pepsi plant in Kathmandu. Like graduating from Pepsi's elite negotiation school and gettin g "th e Iraq job" on th e strength of it. Like building seven Pepsi pl ants in Iraq. Pepsi introduced me to mo rc Inspirational Players like Roger E nrico, Alan Pottasch- th e fath er of the Pepsi ge neratio n-and a tOugh nut with a hea rt of gold , Bob BeebyPresident of PepsiCo Internatio nal. I became President and CEO of Pepsi in Ca nada in 1987. Another world! In the M idd le East, Pepsi was N umber O ne; in Canada it was a different sto ry. We had been sitting behind Coke for yea rs. If you want to learn about the power of brands at street level, th e Pepsi/Coke battl e is as good a place as any I know. In Canada we had the add ed problem of competing aga inst some of Pepsi's own brands like Di et Pepsi and Mounta in Dew. So Pepsi itself was at risk of slid ing to Number T hree, don', worry abom N umbe r Two.
My gut reaction has always been to zig when everyone else zags. The best way for us to avoid becoming Number Three, I figured, was to become Number One! Lemonade was a reall y big ca rego ry in Canada. So we boughr th e 7 UP brand. Ar rh e same time we drove Di et Pepsi hard against Die t Coke, the independent botrlers' network rook up the challenge and stree t by streer, city by city, province by province, just poured it on. We passed Coke. No rhin g is impossible. Ar rhar time, in th e late 1980s, Canada was anxioLls about the implications of the Free Trade Agreement with th e United States, and how it was going (0 be rhe en d of all thin gs Ca nadian. I rook th e completely opposite view. My fee ling was rha t because Ca nada was small, fast, and flex ible, we could n't lose. Being on the edge of the United Srates made LIS more powerful , no r less. G reat rhin gs always come from the ed ge, as I've had th e chan ce ro discover pe rso nally. To inspire our people and panners, we hired a very bi g and very smart hotel in Toronto. Everyo ne came: the trade, our own peopl e, all our botrl ers, rh e media. My keynote speech was all about comperirion. How Pepsi had just beaten Coke, and how, in the same way, Canada co uld be competitive wirh America . About halfway through my prese ntation , a huge red-andwh ite Coca-Cola vending machine roll ed onto th e stage. I ignored it. As I ended my speech I reached down behind the podium, picked up a machine gu n and started blastin g the Coke dispenser. When you machine-gun a vending machine, it makes . . a seriOUS nOIse. We had people di vi ng under tabl es and heading for the doors. It was in credibl e. For safery's sake we had invol ved the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, so we weren't being comple tely irresponsible. And what happened th e next day' The word around th e trad e was unbelievable. The shoot-up was on rhe news, in th e papers and magazines. It was th e powe r of humor and branding at wo rk in very diffe rent tim es. And it rru ly galvanized our sal es force and our botrle rs. SlaT! M e Up 17
c o 0.. :::J C .... :::J - -if) o E -:::J .!) Q) .... Q) ..c ~ >, c ctl E o .... '+- Q) E o () c ctl () if) ctl Q) :Q ~ Q) .... C.9 Q) E Great ideas, like humor, come from the corners of the mind, out on the edge. That's why humor can break up log-jams in both personal relationships and in business. I have always loved the extreme, and my next move proved it. I went from Canada, a large continent at the (OP of the world, to an extraordinary country on th e very edge of the Pacific O cean-New Zealand. In 1989 I moved to Auckland with my family as Chief Operating O ffi cer for Lion Nathan, which was led by Douglas Mye rs (another Inspirational Player). The first time I met with the financial analysts at Lion Nathan in New Zealand, I walked into the room with a real lion I had borrowed from the zoo. I ca n tell you, from that dayan, no one in the company ever forgot the Lion in Lion Nathan! O ver the next seven years we transformed Lion Nathan from a large New Zealand brewer to a significant force in the Asia-Pacific beverage industry . And I transformed my life as well. Having worked o n most conrinen [ 5 and in many, many countries, I found my place in these upside-down islands. Not that J spent all my time there, even then. In the early 1990s I became a huge China fan. I am to this day. 1 spent a lot of time in China for Lion Nathan researching market and investment oppof[uniri es. We built a brand new $ 150 million brewery in Suzhou, the most advanced brewing operation in China. And I gOt to experience the pleasures of local brands of beer. We also moved our Asian HQ from Hong Kong to Shanghai. My home is New Zealand. We're as close to th e South Pole as you can get and still have running water. The edge gives us a special attitude. Cutting edge, leading edge, bleeding edge, the edge of inspiration, on the edge of our seats. It's a place to shake off conventions and worn-out formulas, and shake out ideas. New ideas. The edge is exciting and risky and extreme. J love it. -l ::r CD CD 0.. CO CD CO <' CD if) c if) III (f) 1::J CD () iii ' ~ ;::;: C 0.. CD o c o:l=. :::J CO CD 0.. CO CD CD III 0.. :::J CO CD 0.. CO CD 0- m CD 0.. 5 ' co CD 0.. co CD ~ I believe "edge cultures" will have even higher value in this millennium. Great .-+ ::r >< ideas can come from anywhere, bur most of them turn up on the edge. The places CD ~ that are restless and resourceful. The places that don't understand "can't be done." ~ c CO ctl A)jSU pUB 6uql8xa SI a6pa aLU 'SlBas Jno}o a6pa a4l uo 'UOIlBJldsUI }OCD 18 iovemarRJ..
o be revered as a hothouse fori world-changing creative ...--Ii. ideas that transform our clients' brands, businesses and \ reputations.
I signed up on the spot. Saatchi & Saatchi gave me the chance to test my belief in the power of big ideas and in emotion. I was de termined to refocus on emotional connections, both within Saatchi & Saatchi and with peo pl e eve rywhere. T here was press ure on me to restructure the business. We're talking 1997, when the management consultancies were still in the ascendancy with th eir sli ce 'n' dice reci pe for dea ling with anything that moved. I was advised to bring in my trusted guys: my HR guy, my marketing guy, my money guy. Instead I bro ught in nobody and I moved nobody fo r twO yea rs. My instin ct was to go against the prevailing wisdom. I went to Saatchi & Saatchi peo ple and sa id, "Here's our Inspirational Dream. We're all goi ng to pull together to stay in the premier league fo r 24 months. After that, we'll thin k about makin g changes, bringing people in and moving peo ple around. I thin k you can do it, and we're all goi ng to do th is thing together." As it turned out, they could. And we d id. In my experience, when you go inro most companies what yo u find is good people and bad management. You can turn that around really quickly by starting with an Inspirational Dream, settin g some challenges, and getting everybody foc used. As it wo rked out, to get moving took only one year, not te n, as one wise-guy predi cted. And in that time we were also able to kick-start three great ideas. The first was to transform Saatchi & Saatchi from an advertising agency in to an Ideas Company. In fact, the hottest Ideas Company on the planet. The second was to start deliveri ng not just great performa nce, but Peak Perfo rmance. Saatchi & Saatchi had to be Number One, Two, orThree in the world- preferably Number O ne. We had to be in co ntinuous co ntentio n-and we would do it with inspiration. And the third was the most exciting of them all. It combined everything I had learned. It was the answer to the critical question: What comes after brands? 5ran Me Up 21
For more years than I can remember I have used the same shampoo: Head & Shoulders. Ridiculous, isn't it? I mean it's a shampoo to remove dandruff, which it does. BlIt I've no hair, let alone dandruff! Still, I love Head & Shoulders. I won't buy or use anything else. It's a Lovemark of mine.
Over the yea rs, I have visited China many times. Saatchi & Saatchi was one of the first businesses to take part in China's amazing transformatio n. It has been nothing short of awe-inspiring to watch this enormously complex and ancient nation assimilate Western business practices in a matter of a few yea rs. And set out to surpass them. The Chinese have an ancient curse: "May you live in interesting times." Well, my message to China is: Hold on to your hats, interesting times ahead. No t only is China borrowi ng from the powerful fi nancial and social models of the West, but they are doing it at a time when those very models are shifting fundamentally. T he journey from products to trademarks to brands is one of the great stories of the last century. It is a story that has had profound effects on how businesses deal with co nsumers. And how people dea l with businesses. Each step has brought consumers closer to the businesses that produce the goods and services they need. Closer to their need for design, qualiry, price, usability, availabiliry, innovation , and safery. Each step has: • turned up the voice of the consumer • added weight to what is most difficult to measure- the intangibles of relationships, brands ... people power • pulled emotion closer to the center Interesting times? I love them. 24 iovemarbh
Products to trademarks In the beginning, products were just, well ... products. One product was pretty much indistingu ishable from another. Get hit over the head with Jake's club or Fred's club, th e headache was much the same. Trade was kept in the fam ily. Making the right choi ce was easy. But people being people, even in such a simpl e trading system, trademarks made an ea rly entry. There are trademarks on pottery in Mesopotamia (now Iraq) dating as far back as 3,000 B.C. There is a cafe I go to named SPQR. It is named after one of th e most feared and respected trademarks the world has ever known. Four letters that told you the mighty Roman Empire was at hand. Over th e centuries, trade increasingly stretched past local boundaries and the imponance of trademarks increased. Fine to trust the local village blacksmith. You could check out the forge, bite the metal, ask around. But the weird guy bringing in iron implements from the next village? Not so easy. So trademarks moved up a notch from simple name-tags to marks of trust and reliabi lity. From a business perspective, trademarks play great defense. They offer legal protection for the un ique qualities of your products and se rvi ces, and declare yo ur interests. Trademarks defi ne territory. That's how it works when yo u are in charge of a business. To consumers, the picture looks somewhat different. Consumers care about a trademark because it offers reassurance. "This will have the quality I paid for." For both sides, businesses and co nsu mers, trademarks are a sign of continuity in a constandy shifting environment. As Kate Wilson, a prom inent New Zealand parent attorn ey, once told me: "Patents expire, copyrights eventually run their course, but trademarks last foreve r." Trademarks are not exempt from change. SPQR gets thousands of hits on Google, but most of them are not for the Senate and Peopl e of Rome but for a popul a r compute r game- SPQR: The Empires Darkest Hour' Time Changes Eve rything 25
The history of trademarks is littered with once-famous narnes (hat have gone generic. Bad news for them, as all the value they have created with co nsumers can be sucked up by juSt about anyone. Band-Aid has become the generic term fo r any bandage that sticks over a small wound. )ell-O and Vaseline have been pushed down the same route. And the process is sti ll happening. In some countries, unique product names like Rollerblades and Walkman have been accepted as the given and defining names for in-line skates and portable music players. Just holding a trademark doesn't guara ntee successful diffe rentiation, but it can be a great sta rt. Over the 20th century some trademarks have grown inro enduring icons. The MGM lion first roared in 1928 for the silent movie White Shadows a/the South Seas. Work out the technology on that one! And if you have ever wonde red what it says in the circle that frames the lion, try AI1 Gratia Artis-Art for Art's Sake. 26 !ovemarbl.o
T he cl assic Coca-Cola bottle was designed in 191 5 and registered as a trademark in 1960. Even the stories around the botrle design are great, with lots of mysterious co nnections. Reminds me of th e urban myths around the c1ubbers' energy drink Red Bull. Contains bull semen. Secret weapon the military canned. Etcetera, etcetera. • package in the world ff .. l 'IIned' he most e~ ':M :; p " ., ..• '-'. the great trademarks of the 20th century. So protective was the company of its high status that when Stanley Kubrick wanted to use an IBM machine as the rogue computer in 2001: A Space Odyssey, the company pulled out. Kubrick, tongue-in-cheek, named the softspoken killer computer by moving one letter back in the alphabet, and creating HAL. In an average day you can expect to have contact with around 1,500 trademarked products. If you go to the supermarket, rack that up to 35,000! Time Changes Everyrhing 27
Everyone wants to trademark their stuff Names and slogans are old hat. Now th e push is to trademark shapes, scents, and so unds. Even colors. Owens Corning trademarked the very particular PINK® of th eir fiberglass insulation material in the 1980s. But not all expansionary efforts have been successful. [n June of 2000, Harley-Davidson finally gave up its gutsy six-year effort to trademark the roar of its V-Twi n engine. In its application, the company claimed that the sound of this engin e was "as recognizable to motorcycle enthusiasts as 'The Star Spangled Banner. '" Harley-Davidso n finally withdrew. Joanne Bischmann, the company's Vice President of Marketing, said, "If our CUStomers know the sound cannOt be imitated, that's good enough for me and for Harley-Davidson."
The id ea of separaring one producr from anorher wirh th e aid of trademarks was a good one. And ir wo rked- for a while. That was until it came up aga inst business' own necrotizingfosciitis) or Resh-earing disease: commodifica tion. For anyone in business, the rapid cycling of their valued products into generic stuff is a dark and constant fear. One day YO LI are sini ng 0 11 a premiulll product, enjoying high margins and fighri ng off co nsumers. The nexr yo ur produ ct is being bottom-loaded on back shelves or dumped inro "Specials" bins. The warning signs:
Now we're not just talking about bulk stuff like salt and pork bellies, rice and sugar. Anything can become a commodity, given enough competitive pressure. Consider the once mighty airline industry. No wonder brands were seized on as a way to fight back. Brands were developed to create differences for products that were in danger of becoming as hard to tell apart as chunks of gravel. They are also a proven way for companies to capture and exploit their innovations. If you are making a big R&D investment you are going to protect it with a patent. But the little ™ or "patent pending" note was never enough. You had to make sure everyone knows the value of what they are getting. Brands do this brilliantly. When I was working with Procter & Gambl e in the 1970s, we were proud that it was P&G that had articulated the concept of brands fi rst. Neil McElroy was a hero. He had understood the potential of the brand idea and codified it in 1931 into the brand-management system that made it a reality. P&G understood that brand disciplines could bring together the legal protection of patents and trademarks with the stuff that has meaning for consumers: consistency, quality, performance, and value. Commodities got a big hit, right on the nose. They wou ldn't be back for another round until late in the century. 30 20vemarb
Our world of brands As we watch television, open the mail, or go for a stroll, we now live in a world of brands. My experience on th e street-in th e back offi ces of retailers and ar bottling plants as we battled for Pepsi in the Middle East-gave me the first hints that branding was at the final frontier. Talking wirh co nsumers, I could see that as their choices gtew wider, their loyalty to brands that didn't touch them in any perso nal way was shaky. And there was much morc competition comi ng. Sure the main event was the tussle between us and Coke, but morc and more local and international competitio n was edging in. The deep insight for me was that many of our markerers saw Pepsi as a business of margins. T his is the first sure srep towards becoming a commodity. I always thought of Pepsi's business as a business of selling case by case. Let me explain. One of the realities I faced in business was that I didn't have an M.B.A. I hadn't been trained in all the ru les-so it meant I had to focus on the people: they were the ones who did the real day-to-day business and were close to co nsumers. Time Changes Everything 31
Many of my colleagues didn't feel the same way. They believed that busin ess was won through the best plans, memos, recommendations. and positio n pape rs. I beli eved that the co la business was won th ro ugh cases. In dividual cases of Pepsi sold by individual reta ilers to individual peop le who wa nted to drink it. Cases are strategic. H erbert Schmitz at P&G to ld me that. He was right. And because I believed this, and still believe it to this day, I was never in the office. I'm still not. Later, when I was working for Lion Nathan and marketing beer, the fundamental problems with brands became eve n clea rer. T here is no such thing as bad beer. They're all refreshing, taste great, and are the world's best socia l lubri cant. Technology is not a barri er. Beer is really srill just a local co rtage industry. Breweries a re ever)"Vhere. Through the lens of this incredibly competitive business I could see a relentless process that was turning what we truly valued into the commonplace, To me it was clear that brands were stuck on rhe "_er" words: Bigge r, brighter, berter, stronger, faster, easi er, newer and, the final stake through the heart, chea per. These are all tables takes, just th e stake any player has to bring to rhe game to earn a seat ar the tab le. I remember seeing a cover article in The Economist. It declared that 1988 was 'The Year of th e Brand. " I thought, "Yeah, right. But is it the beginn ing or the end?"
The Attention Economy Brands had a dream-run pumping the global economy. Maybe they could have survived the pressures of commodification if not for one big and unavoidable fact. By the 1990s it was cl ear that we were living in the Attention Economy. There were thousands of TV channels, movies, radio "ations, newspapers, and magazines. Millions of websites. Billions of phone calls, faxes, and e-mails. And right through all of it, new product laun ches and new improved product-line extensions and ads struggling ro be heard. Too much information! People are overwhelmed by the choices they face . Forget the Information Economy. Human attention has become our principal currency. "I don't want 500 television channels. I just want the one channel that gives me what I want to see." Time Changes Eve rything 33
Job Number One fo r any marketer these days is competing for attention . W hoeve r you are. Wherever you arc . And once you've captured that ancnrion, you've got to show YO LI deserve it. The process really only has two steps-so why does eve ryo ne find it so hard ' It's all because we obsess over rh e arrention part and forget abo ut why we need that attention in the first place: the relationships. Emotional connections with consume rs have to be at the foundation of all our cool marketing moves and innovative tactics. V iral marketing. guerrilla marketing. enrcnainmenr marketing, experi ence marketing- they can all seize atten tion if they are done right, but once they have it, th ey have nowhere much to put it. No thing to build, nothin g to add to, nothing [Q value or ca re about. Let the relemarketing debacle be a warnin g. When it was first hot in the 1980s ir was a ragi ng success. You could sell ANYTH ING on the phone. Fasr-forward a decade or so and you looked at a very different picture. Even if the telemarketers get past our answering machines and caller ID, the rules have changed dramatically. Nowadays we'll hang up rather than order the steak knives. 34 ov ~1..
Brands are out of juice ... They ca n't stand out in the marketplace, and th ey are strugglin g to connen with peopl e. Here are six reasons why: 1. Brands are worn out from overuse Michael Eisner of Disney has called the word brand "overused, sterile, and unimaginative." He's right. As the brand manual grows heavier and more detailed, you know you're in trouble. Making sure the Rowers in reception confo rm to the brand guidelines just shows you arc loolcing in the wrong direction. Consumers are who you should be paying attention to. What matters to them. Otherwise, you're hiding, and you're in trouble. 2. Brands are no longer mysterious There is a new anti-brand sensibility. There is much more consumer awa reness, morc consumers who understand how brands wo rk and, morc importantly, how brands are intended ro wo rk on th em! Fo r most brands, there is nowh ere left to hide. The information age means that brands are part of the public domain. Hidden agendas, subliminal messages, tri cky moves .. .forget it. For most brands, it is a new age of consumer savvy; at the extremes, it's th e atracks of Naomi Kl ein and the anti-global gang. 3. Brands can't understand the new consumer The new consumer is better informed, more criti cal, less loyal, and harder to read. The white suburban housewife who for decades seemed to buy all th e soa p powder no lon ger exists. She has been joined by a new population of multi-generational , multi-ethnic, multinational consumers. 4. Brands struggle with good old-fashioned competition The morc brands we invent, rhe less we notice them as individuals. If you're not Number One o r Two, you might as well forget it. And the greater the number of brands, the thinner the resources promoting th em. You get a treadmill of novel ty, production value, in cremental change, tacticaJ promotions, and events. 5. Brands have been captured by formula 1 lose patience w ith the wanna-be scie nce of brands. The definitions, th e charts, tables, and diagrams. There are too many people following the same rule book. When everybody tries to beat differentiation in the same way, nobody gets anywhere. You get row upon row of wha t I call "brandroids." Formulas can't deal with human emotion. Formulas have no imagination or empathy. 6. Brands have been smothered by creeping conservatism The story of brands has gone from daring and inspiration ro caution and risk-aversion. Once the darling of the bold and the brave, brands are relying on the accumulation of past experi ences rather than the potential of future ones. Headstones are replacing stepping srones. If the antics of R.jchard Branson cause a riot (and th ey do), how bland and boring has everyone else become? Time Changes Everything 35
Bra nds can no longer cope wirh some of rhe mosr importanr challenges we face (Oday as markerers, producers, traders, and busi ness peopl e. • How to cur rh rough rhe information duner • How to con nect meaningfully with consumers How (Q create integrated experiences • How to co nvince people to commit for life • How to make the world a bener place T here is only one way (0 thrive as marketers in the Attention Eco nomy: Stop racing after every new fad and focus on making consistent, emotional connections with consumers . If you stand for nothing , you fall for everything. The journey is over The great journ ey from products (0 trademarks and from trademarks (0 brands is over. Trademarks are rablesrakes. Brands are tabl estakes. Both are useful in the quest fo r differentiati on and vital to survival, but they're not winning game-breakers. Today the stakes have reached a new high. T he social fabric is spread more thinly than ever. People are looking for new, emotional co nnections. T hey are looking fo r what they can love. T hey are insisting on more choice, rhey have higher expectations, and they need emotional pull (0 help them make decisions. And, fi nally, they want more ways (0 connect with everything in thei r lives-including brands. Businesses have always assumed that people see the brands the same way they do . This is why they can get it SO-O-O-O wrong. But some special brands don't seem (0 make that mistake. They are so fa r out in fron t that they seem (0 have evolved in(O something else. T hey are what inspired Saatchi & Saarchi (0 develop Lovemarks as the furure beyond brands. 36 lovemarbh
In my 35 years in busin ess I have always trusred my emotions. I have always believed that by touching emotion you get the best people to work with you, th e best cl ients to inspire you, the best partners, and the most devoted customers. The last ten years have seen emotion dominate the bestseller-and the not-so-bestseller- lists. Click your way through Amazo n.com for tirles and see what I mean. Art and Emotion, Body and Emotion, Culture and Emotion, Reason and Emotion. Sounds fin e. Then there's Emotion and Spirit, Emotion and Focus, Emotion and Religion, Emotion and Insanity, Emotion in Organizations. There's more where that came from. People everywhere are w; Emotion has become a legitimate subject for serious research. Onwhat was obvious to everyone who cared to look. 38 ~ov€mar~r..
In the business world there's Emotional Branding, Emotional Markets, Emotional Capital, Emotional Value and, of course, Emotional Marketing from my friends at Hallmark. It goes deeper. How about Emotional Intelligence, Emotional Genius, Emotional Unavailability. And then, a little further out in the galaxy, Emotional Yoga, Emotional Cleansing, Emotional Alchemy, Emotional Claustrophobia, and Emotional Control. And two books no self-respecting business should be without; th e helpfu l Emotionally Weird, and the essential Emotional Vampires. ting to embrace emotion. scientists got into emotion it didn't take them long to prove Emotional Rescue 39
"Father and Son" Cat Stevens was a mega-star of the 1970s with such hits (0 his credit as "Moonshadow," "Morn ing Has Broken," and "Peace Train. " He co nverted (0 Islam in I 977, changed his name (0 Yusuf Islam, and pre((y well left the music business. Since then, he has devoted his time (0 charities and education in support of his religion. He is very cautiolls about (he lise of his music. Man y of his songs deal with th emes from his life before conversion, and he no longe r wants (0 be associated with them. Li((l e surprise then that he had never allowed an y of his songs (Q be Ll sed in TV commercials. When creatives at Saatchi & Saatchi Welli ng(On gOt it inra their heads to use a Cat Stevens song for a comme rcial, the first reaction was "find another song. " Trouble was, the so ng th ey wanted was abso lutely perfect: "Father and Son." I was once like you are now, and I know that it's not easy to be calm when you've found something going on. But take your time, think a lot, why, think of everything you've got. For you will still be here tomorrow, but your dreams may not. Our people didn't just want th e song as th e background music. The song was the sra ry. An emotiona l portra it of a most special relationship-a father and son growin g rogeth er from birth ra death. The client was Te lecom N ew Zea land. Like many o ther telecommunications compani es, rhey had never been big on emotion. They are under intense pressure every minute of every day. The whole industry lives in a waking nightmare of margin-s hav ing, competition, un ex pected technology shifts, rising consumer expectations. They usuall y don't see peopl e's feelings as a priority. 40 iov€mar~~
But Telecom New Zealand had been a monopoly and was now confronting competition with energy. They were adventurous and up for a challenge. T hey knew that when you act like a commodity, you get treated like one-that old vicious cycle. Forget about being loved; it's rough ro get even a little respect on the street. That might have been the end of the sto ry in some places, but our people took it as a perso nal challenge. They truly believe that Nothing is Impossible. A passionate plea to Yusuf was drafted. Sure, permission had never been given before, but that was then. Our people pinned their hearts to their letter and waited. Weeks later as the team sat in the mixing room despairing of even getting a response, they heard the rustle of a fax. 1t was ftom Yusuf He had responded to the visuals accompanying his words and the emotional truth of th e story. He had written one word on the fax they had sent him pleading to use his song: "Yes." Since joining Saatchi & Saatchi, I have given hundreds of presentations around the globe. "Father and Son" is the spot I always play at the end. In Dubai, Denmark, Los Angeles, London , New York, Sao Paulo, Barcelona, and Sydney, the response never varies. People feel this spot is talking to them personally. T he Story makes a deep emotional connection. Our client wanted a more connected counrryCat Stevens sa ng the song. His Greatest Hits album moved into the Top 10 CD sales in New Zealand a month after launch. Emotional ResclIe 41
Human beings are powered by emotion, not by reason 5wdy afte r study has proven that if rhe emotio n centers of o ur brain are damaged in some way, we do n't just lose th e ability to laugh or cry, we lose th e ability to make decisions. Alarm bells for eve ry business right there. T he neurologist Do nald Cain e puts it brilliantly: "The essential difference between emotion and reason is that emotion leads to action while reason leads to conclusions." You don't have to be a brain surgeon to get that. The rea li ty we face docs not require mastery of arcane terminology, and it's not about evaluating competing theori es about how rhe mind works o r how it is structured. T he brain is more complex, more densely connected, and mOfC mysterious than any o f LIS can dream. That's as much as we have to know. Emotion and reason are intertwined, bur when they arc in conAic(, emotion wins every time. W ithout the Aeeting and intense stimulus of emotion, rational rhouglu winds down and disintegrates. Maurice Levy, Chairman of Publicis Groupe, owners of Saatchi & Saatchi, elaborates: "Consumers who make decisions based purely on facts represent a very small minority of the world's population . They are people without feelings, or perhaps people who put their heart and emotions in the fridge when they are leaving home in the morning, and only take them out again when they go back home in the evening. Although even for these people, there is always some product or service they buy based on impulse or emotion. 42 iovemar~A
"The vast majority of the population, however, consumes and shops with their mind and their heart, or if you prefer, their emotions. They look for a rational reason: what the product does and why it is a superior choice. And they take an emotional decision: I like it, I prefer it, I feel good about it. "The way this works is very subtle. Most of the time, before seeing something in detail, you have a sense of what it is. Before understanding, you feel. And making people feel good about a brand, getting a positive emotion, is key. This is what makes the difference. "To get emotion back into business in this period when cost-cutting is king is very difficult. People making decisions are tense, under pressure, and rationality is reassuring. But emotions are more rewarding, both in the short and long-term. " [Maurie.: Levy, Chairman, Publicis Groupe, ParisI Writer Vi rginia Postrel has a great example of how igno ring the real emotions of co nsumers ca n point us in the wrong dircnion. About ten yea rs ago, many women's fashion retailers had the same dumb idea: it's possi ble to rationally predict what women wa nt. The demographics sa id that women were gerring older and bigger and so perfect logic ki cked in. Older, bigger women are not go ing to be interested in yourh. novelty, or sex appeal. Bad call. Turned ou t that women didn't feel o ld er and bigger at all. They rushed to buy slinky slip-dresses and curvy, miniskirted business suits. T he logicians tanked and th e few reta ilers who backed a genuin e understandin g of th e human hea rt did great. What is importa nt is to engage with the new realities of emotion. We must work out what they mean to us. How they affect behavior. And then do someth ing different because of it. Marketing people talk about emorion. They present charts and di agrams. even raise their voices and wave thei r arms, but fundamental ly they treat emotion as . . . out-there, felt by someone else and able to be manipulated. Analyzing orher people's emotions and refusing to acknowledge ou r own dumps us in the same old ru t. What a waste. T he emotions are a serio lls o pportuni ry to get in rouch with consumers. And best of all , emotion is an unlimited resource. It's always there-waiting to be tapped with new ideas, new inspiratio ns, new experiences. So what kind of emotions are we talking about? Everyo ne has a different list, but peopl e tend to agree on [wo points: first, emotions can be separated in to primary and secondary emotionsi and second, most of ou r emotions are negative. Emotions can inspire and excite us. They ca n also fr ighten and threa ten us. It's survival. Our emotions tell us what's important, and in our ancient past it was smart to pay the most attention to the bad stuff. Emotional Resclle 43
Chapter 4