Little Aston

From the few articles I have read it seems that the Aston Martin hatch back is not going down very well.  I wonder if there is any genuine problem with the idea on a practical level or whether everyone is either directly (if you do it for a living,) or indirectly (because we live in a marketing society,) just applying some kind of brand extension logic that is a learned set of rules rather than a fundamental anthropological response.  

Yes it does seem strange that Aston Martin would make a hatchback because they trade on selling the unattainable dream.  But this is just a marketing idea.  If we were to place this into a more human context it would probably be like someone we know that has a really aspirational ability i.e. a top chef, deciding to go and work in a chain pub.  Maybe it was because they fell on hard times and needed the cash? Perhaps it would make us doubt the quality of the best they had to offer i.e. if they are willing to lower themselves then why should we expect greatness from them in anything anymore?  But having said this if you put the initial expectations on one side for a minute and think about the realities then it makes you wonder... wouldn't Aston Martin be pretty good at making a hatch back if they put their mind to it.  And wouldn't it be good if more people could experience the Aston craft and expertese without having the money to buy a super car.  And more to the point where I am coming at this from... wouldn't it be better if they found a way to make money out of a product with a lower environmental impact.  

My view is that every brand at some time in the future is going to have to play with the idea of a brand extension that they might at one time have never imagined.  Anyhow to cut a long story short I like the little Aston and would be happy to see more experimental designs from companies that show that they know how to loosen up.

Brand Global, Eat local?

Hellmann’s - It’s Time for Real from CRUSH on Vimeo.

More on the theme of food.  And also another slightly geeky interest of mine... info-graphics.  Data and art together - does it get any better than that :)?  Genuinely though I think that lots of the truths about the world around us are hidden by the fact that we can't easily process the underlying information.  For example the realities of the journey of all the products that we buy in our supermarkets stay remote and difficult to grasp while we shop.  If we could really get a sense of the mass of trains planes and automobiles involved it may not sit right in our minds.   This is the point of the film but the interesting thing is that while the previous example below is from a bunch of independent film maker types, this example if from one the of the worlds biggest companies i.e. Unilever.  My gut instinct would be that a single jar of Hellmann's is made out of the eggs of chickens from every continent and so it's unexpected that they have the credibility to start an eat local movement with their Mayo as the star.  I am also pretty convinced that they have done their homework because the risks of an expose focusing them as per the example below is pretty high.  

On a slightly separate note it is here where the idea of green influencers comes in.  Mainstream audiences do not adopt behaviours of green niches like the conventional trickle down model.  Instead they act like a kind of police (like those that roam the pages of ebay,) to alert us as to whether Unilver are presenting themselves proportionately.

If I were them I'd take a look at the Hellmann's case but then also remember that they are not an island in the Unilever stable.  Dove is criticised for Axe's attitude to women.  If Hellmann's walks to the supermarket while other brand rock up in a hummer this could back fire.  Lets see if it stands up to questioning.  

Original ref on adverblog.

Food Inc 'Information wants to be free'

Expose on the food industry... Generally in advertising we work on the principle of above and below the line.  A new idea that I have been thinking about is in front of and behind the line.  The vertical line being the inside world and the outside world of the company.  At the moment many companies seem to think its ok to have very different behaviour on the two sides which results in this kind of damaging revelations.  What used to be the exception is now the rule in this area i.e if there is something to be exposed then the chances are that it will - seems like this needs a law to explain it.  I could call it 'Davidslaw'... but then I'd have to spend some time on the maths to actually prove it.  Until then perhaps the 'information wants to be free,' principle will suffice if you use it in the liberty sense rather than the economic one.  Step-up an agency that works in front of and behind the line! 

What would you consult apple on?

As apple seems to be everyone's favourite case study to prove pretty much any argument going in the branding and communications worlds, it is difficult to think what you would go and talk to them about if they held their hands up and said, ‘we don’t know what to do next, can anyone help?’ In actual fact their approach to advertising and media is pretty straight forward. Its  conventional compared to what I would talk to most of my clients about. An advertising idea thats basically a piece of visual design work that never changes, with a TV + big posters media strategy. In fact most of the things that we use in case studies really happens from the inside out. Having said this I had a little think about what I might pitch to them given the chance.  To me it would seem to be pretty difficult to talk about doing much differently in the way their brand delivers on and enhances the experience of their products. In fact its pretty impossible to separate out where the product stops and the brand begins. I would leave them to it on this front.  But then if they are suffering anywhere then it is something like the same problem that McDonalds has had since their runaway success.  The problem of seeming almost like a corporate religion but one that leaves us with the distinct impression that it might not necessarily have our best interests at heart. I would talk to them about their place in the world. And lets face it they pretty much seem to succeed in most things that they do i.e. who would have thought they could have revolutionized the mobile business in just a couple of short years. I would put the design teams and technology experts to work on something bigger that looks at the broader social issues about the way we live.  If you applied the simplicity, innovation, inclusiveness and aesthetics that they bring to their products to other issues or problems that affect society such as education in third world countries or community organisation at home, I expect they would come up with something marketable.  

Louis Vuitton choose substance

I have been a little critical of fashion brands in the past. Coming at it from an advertising perspective you could argue that luxury brands don’t really get the notion of having ideas. Fashion advertising is basically photography. TV ads are photos that move. Plus they are basically all the same. The latest stuff from Louis Vuitton creates a bit of an excursion from the norm. Recently they have started to tell the stories of great journeys using rock stars and even ex Soviet leaders. This latest campaign brings together three people who have in some time in their lives made the ultimate journey of a trip into space. Unless you look closely at the image and see the LV logo you would not expect that its luxury fashion brand communications. Certainly not by the luxury brand that has historically relied on logos and image associations more than most others.

What is interesting is the idea that they have chosen to embed their commitments to sustainability into the communications. If you click through to the site these seem pretty robust. Maybe the lesson is that if you want to communicate meaning in the brand you need to be able to communicate meaning in the company. If all you want to do is project an image then the realities that sit behind it are best kept hidden if that’s even possible any more.

Sustainability idea wins grand prix

nice!

Employees on the loose…

If you believe the Clue Train Manifesto (which I do) then you could start to think that the established brand marketing methods are a stop-gap.  A space opened up when the actors of the small intimate market places of history were dissipated into different places and even time zones by mass culture.  Advertising filled the void and created a semblance of contact even though it was not the kind of personal interaction that typified the old market place. In the mean time we forgot that market places are always just conversations between people. But now we have the internet to help us remember and recently it seems to be bubbling over a little bit. This spirit is probably most alive through the staff in technology companies where a culture of open hyperlinked conversations based on home made intranets and wikis is the norm. But just recently since twitter has been around and since facebook started being used in a bit more of a blog-like way than a myspace way, I have noticed that quite a few people from the big agency group I work in are connected and exchanging interesting stuff in a new way. Many are even posting stuff about the clients they are working on becoming a bit of a media channel in their own right. Whether companies see this as a scary prospect or an untapped opportunity it’s not going to go away. The employees are on the loose!