A Matter of Trust

Picked up a book again after many weeks of being utterly enamoured with my new iPhone 4. The book this time is called Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith.

Have read up to page 20 so far and I like what I'm reading.

Interesting reading on a subject that we somehow already have an inkling of what it's about and completely rely on. Trust is so important in every thing that we do. But can trust lead you in a direction that you may not want to be on?

No Longer Yours

The past week has seen news of brands making changes to their assets. First up, was Gap with their new logo. That only lasted a few short days, and then they went with the crowdsourcing idea to get people outside the organisation to volunteer their designs. Finally, all were scrapped and it's back to blue.

Needless to say, tonnes of moolah down the drain. And how on earth did that design got green-lighted in the first place? Ugh!

It's understandable that one would want to freshen things up around the house. And fix things up.  But why fix things if it ain't broke?

The thing is as a brand, that last question is no longer a decision you can make. Because in this day and age, you no longer own the house.

The Gap fiasco is a perfect example of brand democratization. The public "voted" and the new design was killed.

Consumer-Centric to Egocentric

There's a new restaurant that opened up near where I work. A breath of fresh air, I thought. Had enough of the mamaks and nasi campur.

This restaurant served Western stuff, with bangers & mash, sandwiches and pasta. Sampled some and liked them. They were good, the portion was large and the price was reasonably good.

But yesterday, I ordered a roast beef sandwich and it was half the size it was before, on cheap bread (instead of pannini) and at the same price. Huh?!

Is this how an establishment expects to keep customers?

The Lost Logo - A Review

This book is probably much like Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol....that is, not as exciting as previous outings. But entertaining nonetheless.

In this one, Brown continues his attack on marketing norms with zingers like the chapter where Abby trashed (literally) works done by hired brand consultants, those "fee-padding con artists".

I especially liked the chapter where a Coke executive tried to cut a deal with Magill to include Coke branding in Dan Brown's next book. How utterly uncool it is for brands to latch on to money-making mediums like books, using the most flimsiest of connections and at times, not connection at all! Seems desperate and yet, so very real.

Managing Facebook Fan Page - A 24/7 Job!

Seems like there's no stopping the Facebook juggernaut. While many may complain about privacy issues etc., it doesn't seem to stop others from signing up.

And where the crowd goes, that's where commerce will follow suit.  Almost like locusts....good or bad, however you may see it.

For the past few weeks, I have been observing brands on how they manage their Facebook Fan Pages. To make a long story short, it's not as easy as one thinks and it is definitely, a 24/7 job.

Right now, every brand wants to be like Starbucks on Facebook. Generating more than 13 million fans, it's the envy of the branding world.  For a look at the top 10 brands on Facebook, check out http://www.famecount.com/facebook-rank/Worldwide/all/Brand

The Upside of Irrationality - A Review

Yet another enjoyable and educational read from Dan Ariely.

A few observations :

1)  On the 'agent' & 'principal' bit in the case of revenge chapter, I think that the reason why people would direct their revenge towards 'principals' even   though it is their 'agents' that are at fault, could very well be that the 'principals' are thought to deserve punishment for employing those 'agents' in the first place. The 'rationale' could be "If you didn't hire these people, then I wouldn't be unhappy and therefore, would not feel the need to punish you."

2)  Coming from an advertising background, I now know why some form of advertising can become blind spots. In the chapter on adaptation, because of our ability to adapt, it can cause us to, over time, pay less and less attention to things around us, which for me includes advertising, which would then render such things as unnoticeable.  So note to self, do not come up with advertising that stays the same for a long period.  Must vary.

EDM - Best Practice?

For those not in the know, EDM is an abbreviation for electronic direct mail. It's one of the tools of the trade for marketers who want to spread their sales pitch en masse, electronically.

But we consumers either appreciate them because of its timely and useful information or hate them coz' they clog up our mailboxes.

Here's the funny thing.  I'm in the communication business. So therefore, there's a particular formula or rule of thumb for some of the communication things that I do. EDM is not excluded.

Official vs Unofficial

A few months ago, I read in the trades about someone leaving somewhere and about how that someone leaving was all done amicably, that a replacement is being searched for, that that someone wanted to spread his/her wings etc.etc.ad nauseam.

This is the official story.

But in any industry, people talk and the unofficial story is usually the more interesting one.  A bit more exaggerated, not entirely true (but where there's smoke, right?). I read somewhere we humans love the narrative, we love to tell stories. What's a few embellishments here and there when it can captivate your listeners?

hmmm.....sounds like advertising....but I digress.

But the point I'm trying to make here is that, in this day and age, such water cooler goss doesn't always stay within the confines of the 4 walls.  It does get out to people who aren't suppose to hear about it.

I suppose that's why you need the official story. Goss is unofficial, can't be proved....it is, oh so, delicious!

Life's A Game

Yesterday, I sat through a colleague's presentation on gaming. He was giving the lowdown on Jesse Schell's talk on how gaming is busting through to reality. The talk took place at the recent DICE 2010.  You can view the video here. Schell made a prediction; a future where everything will be related to gaming.

Today, I came across an Advertising Age article which also talks about "game-ification of life". That article can be found here.

Network Marketing - A New Permutation

I was invited to sit through a business presentation with a dear friend recently.  Much to our dismay, it was a network marketing sales pitch.

It was the usual opening gambit. A rundown of the current economic scenario, a re-jigged slide on Robert Kiyosaki's Cashflow Quadrant, the benefits of working for yourself...blah, blah, blah.

We just stopped the poor guy mid-sentence and told him that network marketing was not for us. To his credit, he persisted in trying to convince us of the errors of our ways (which were for naught, as we remained unconvinced).

Suicide in the Workplace

10th suspected suicide at Foxconn based in China, the people who make the iPhones for Apple. Read more here.

The reasons cited were work ethics, managerial practices and poor salaries.  Not to sound insensitive, but it just all seem so familiar.

There was a time when I used to envy the Americans or pretty much anyone who works in Europe, North America, Australia or New Zealand. I envied them coz' for their normal working hours. Those days, I used to think 'Gee, wouldn't it be nice to knock off at 5pm and go for a drink or two with your office buddies.'.

Going Crazy over POS Displays

There's so many ways to communicate to the consumer or customer.  Digital or social media is one of the new ways. Print Ads or TV commercials are part of the old way.


Today, I'm gonna write about those point-of-sale (POS) displays, the ones that you find in supermarkets.  


I think all those POS people are being too overzealous that they're constantly thinking up new ways to maximise advertising on supermarket space to the point where they no longer question whether these new ad units really work or not.

Big Brother in the Office - Good or Bad?

Sigh. I'm being blocked. I can't view any games sites in the office. And judging from this article, being spied on is not just about being blocked from certain sites.

I can understand employers' paranoia about keeping the lid on company secrets. Especially in such competitive times, who wouldn't want to keep their cards close to their chests?

But is it going overboard? 

Oh dear! Is anyone paying attention?

Sigh. Read this article last week.

It's not the first time I've come across something similar to this. I've lost count the number of articles that have cropped up all over the place, all of them saying the same thing.

The old agency model is broken, big time. But is it beyond repair?

Malcolm Gladwell & Branding

Malcolm Gladwell was invited recently to give a talk at a seminar in Singapore for business and marketing people. His presentation can be found here.

I want to talk about his talk from a communications aspect. Now, seminars such as the one I've mentioned tend to be really dry and yawn-inducing. The endless powerpoint presentations with tables of data and charts of all shapes and sizes could really test an attendee's endurance. For me, it makes me want to slit my wrist.

Anyway, he came in to talk about branding. Okay, what could this Canadian journalist/author know anything about branding?

Twilight Video Game - A Lost Opportunity?

"Milk it for all its worth!"

The ideal situation to be in when you've got a winner in your hands. That's the ultimate business dream.

But does it always makes sense?

One writer is saying that Twilight the franchise is missing out on millions of moolah because they've yet to get into the video game scene. Check out his article here.

Sad, True but Largely Ignored

The Last Advertising Agency On Earth from FITC on Vimeo.

Saw this ad on one of my favourite blogs, Digital Buzz Blog. (Btw, really recommend this site to all interested with all things about digital communications).

FMCG + CRM = ???

I don't know much about CRM. The little I know is that a big customer database is the ultimate pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, the practitioners are dying to get hold of my personal details, and sometimes, I get personalised messages, mostly in print form and lately, digital.

What I'm working on right now is on developing a printed direct mailer for an FMCG brand.

So, here's where I'm not sure whether it'll work.

Facebook : 'Like' or 'Fan'?

Read an interesting article recently from World Advertising Resource Center (WARC) which reported that Facebook has decided to drop the 'fan' term from client ads on Facebook which would direct users to specific brand pages.

Instead they'll be using the term 'like' as they've found through research, that FB users are twice more likely to 'like' something than be a 'fan' of something.

You can read more about this article here.

I have mixed feelings about this.

Wizard!: Harry Potter's Brand Magic - A Review

A fun analysis of that marketing behemoth Harry Potter.

Stephen Brown is fast becoming one of my favorite marketing writers. He has a humorous and engaging writing style. Loved it when he tried to use the Crucio curse on Seth Godin. Funny haha.

And yes, liked the gimmick of using a mirror to read one of the chapters. Interesting, but a pain and yet it was a marketing message in itself. If you liked something so much, you'd do almost anything for it. For marketers, that is the ultimate response to get out of their customers.

Agents & Dealers - A Review

I liked this book although it had less about marketing theory than Brown's previous release, The Marketing Code.

In this one, the fiction gets even more fantastical (which I think is why there was less marketing theory; the author may be too caught up in the writing of the fiction part to include the marketing bits).

But as per The Marketing Code, he reiterates again the idea that marketing is not a science but more of an alchemy. And that word alone, evokes magic and fantasy which unsurprisingly does not sit well with the many marketing gurus out there who have made their millions in consultancy gigs and hawking those almost unreadable tomes on marketing theory filled with scientific formulas and statistical data.

The Marketing Code - A Review

This is the first time I've added a review for a fiction book on this blog. But trust me, it's entirely appropriate. The Marketing Code is written by Stephen Brown, a Professor of Marketing Research at the University of Ulster, Northern Ireland. He calls this book a marketing thriller.

A marketing thriller? This book is like one of those marketing fads that he puts down in his book. An interesting idea but will it catch on?

Looks like it didn't judging from the very few reviews I found online. And it's shame. I liked this book. I absolutely dig that SA chapter where the Brady Bunch were cooking up fad marketing terms for sale. And the acronyms? Hilarious. It's a reflection of how ridiculous marketing is getting these days.

The Erotic History of Advertising - A Review

Sex sells. This book is proof that it does.

It was entertaining but not very useful in terms of any learnings. It was at times, a laborious read simply because a lot of the ads were described, not shown.

But then again, if all the ads were shown, the book would have made an interesting coffee table book which would not have made the author (a college professor) any more credible.

Brand Sense - Sensory Secrets Behind The Stuff We Buy - A Review

I bought this book because it was endorsed by Philip Kotler and The Wall Street Journal. And the fact that Martin Lindstrom is a renowned marketing guru. The WSJ hailed it to be “one of the five best marketing books ever published”.  Was curious about this and I did some Googling.

Turns out that it was one of 5 books that Steve Cone (senior marketing executive at Citigroup and the author of "Steal These Ideas: Marketing Secrets That Will Make You a Star" ) thought was the best. See the WSJ article here.

Ca$hvertising - A Review

This book is a gold mine! I made notes on almost every single page.

The best part I liked was on page 184 when he says,

"Advertising is not supposed to be entertainment! You may be entertained by it, but that's not its purpose. It's not a creativity contest. It's not meant to grace the walls of the Louvre in Paris. It's also not poetry, comedy, or a riddle to be figured out. Advertising is not about winning awards for being tricky, off-the-wall, or ingenious. Advertising - plain and simple - is about selling products and services. It's business communication with the goal to increase sales by interesting people enough in a product or service that they ultimately trade their money for it."

The Buzz on Google Buzz

It's gonna be nearly a month since the Google Buzz was launched. And honestly, I haven't been using it much other than to tell people that I'm somehow automatically following that it ain't something I'll be looking into.

Why am I not jumping on to this?

I didn't know this was coming
What I found really strange was that even though I am a long time user of the Google search engine and Gmail, I don't remember seeing any messages whether via email or Ad Sense ads or text links telling me that this was coming.

Hmmm...not quite, is it?

I was intrigued when some friends on Facebook had the following as their status updates a few days ago.

They all had the same message and of course, they were from the same agency.

Oh dear! More marketing terminology.

Read this research document on trends. Came across these terms ‘Live brand experience’ and ‘real time’ branding.

They're defined as follows :

"...'live' because the brand experience now needs to function like a show, event or multi-club experience so that its essence cannot be copied in any way."

" ‘Real time’ because consumers are now expecting brands to respond to their needs as soon as the ‘send’ or ‘post’ key has been thumbed."

What Would Google Do? - A Review

It's a very long ode to Google, methinks. Maybe too long? It seems like an expanded version of a blog post.

For me, I struggled to finish this. Yes, there are nuggets to be gleaned from it but it just wasn't gripping enough for me to get through this in one long sitting.

This book is for those who don't exactly understand why Google is big news and how it really works and why it's important in our lives. In other words, this book is actually for those who are not Net-savvy.

Marketing and Job Finding - Is it the same?

Many times I have been in conversation with friends and colleagues talking about making that career move. I think everyone who has ever worked before is familiar with this.

Aside from useful suggestions, there are warnings as well. 

"Oh, you don't want to go there. They pay peanuts"

"I hear the boss is a control-freak. She's a nightmare to work with."

"The office politics is just horrible. You don't want to get into that!"

"Everything works so slowly there. It's a wonder anything gets done."

"The work is uninspiring. You'll get bored easily."

Obama Can...But Can Others?

With a number of books detailing the use of social media in its campaign plus the Grands Prix from the Cannes Lions International Advertising Awards under its belt, it’s little wonder that industry experts point to the Obama Presidential campaign as THE case study on the best use of Web 2.0 technology.

Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs - A Review

As a person involved in the business of "changing behaviours" with particular interest in using the Internet as THE channel of communication, I had always wondered about the different methods used by big client and big digital agencies (the ones with big money) compared to those used by the internet marketing entrepreneurs (with little to no budget for marketing).

This book marries the two different methods.

Adland: Searching for the Meaning of Life on a Branded Planet - A Review

I had always thought the advertising scene overseas would be drastically different from here in Malaysia. Boy, was I wrong! In a way James Othmer shattered one of my long-kept dreams that the grass on the other side would be greener.

The book itself is divided into 3 parts. The first part for me, was a trip down memory lane which was basically a combination of dreamy and nightmare-like existence. The second part was about the changes currently going on in the industry. And the final part, what the future holds, somewhat.

The biggest thing aside from the advent of the Net as an advertising medium, are those little agencies that are going around saying that they’re not ad agencies.

When Common Sense Fails

I went to the Curve today to settle some affairs.

MALAYSIA AIRLINES

The 1st thing that caught my eye was this huge building advertising from Malaysia Airlines. The ad was on the e@Curve building where the Cathay cinema is at. The 1st thought that came to mind was “Wow, this is a first. I’ve never seen a MAS ad at this site before.”

LEAP!: Ditch Your Job, Start Your Own Business & Set Yourself Free - A Review

Short, succinct and to the point. With heaps of useful tips. However, I think this guide is for those who are considering setting up their own consultancy outfits. Not entirely useful for those in other types of home based business like network marketing or internet marketing, although some of the tips may apply. What I liked about the book was that it never tried to go into those mumbo-jumbo "find yourself","discover your inner mojo","get in touch with your inner self" rubbish so prevalent and long-winded in self-help books for entrepreneurs. Ian Sanders made his points clear and practical. I like this.

Why Network Marketing is not for me.

My very first post talked about (among other things) of my intention to get into network marketing.

Here’s an update on that. Tough work, folks. Not for the faint-hearted. I’ve also invested quite a bit of moolah to acquire some knowledge on how best to operate this business.

Everyone Connected. So, what now?

I admit it. I had a certain degree of envy towards the folks who came up with TM Everyone Connects campaign. It was big, loud and generated a lot of buzz. All culminating with that huge sing-along session at Bukit Bintang.

How To Get from Where You Are to Where You Want To Be - A Review

Canfield delivers. How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be is a practical guide, filled with common sense advice. What resonates to me the most is that you don't need to be perfectly ready to start. Just start. Time to get off my butt.

Mullahs, Merchants, and Militants: The Economic Collapse of the Arab World - A Review

In most history of military conquests and reigns of despots and corrupt government, the underlying reasons has always included economics. The kind where the country's riches are controlled by the very few and the many suffer.

Such as typified by the many Middle Eastern countries.

It's really not a huge surprise to see many turn to the likes of Hezbollah, Muslim Brotherhood and for those with more extreme tastes, Al-Qaeda as they seem to be the ones bearing beacons of hope.

If one is hungry, one will become very desperate.