living brands: maart 2008

What is happening out there?
23 maart, 2008

Assignment: Pick 5 articles on issues in society, from authoritative newspapers like De Volkskrant, Trouw, Financieele Dagblad, NRC Handelsblad, New York Times, The Guardian, et cetera. Or why don't you just pick articles from very authoritative magazines like BusinessWeek and FEM Business.

Is Marqt ready?
Article in FEM-Business

A handful of big supermarkets is dominating the supply of products.
Smaller supermarkets lost the fight. The remaining ones are difficult to distinguish in terms of product range. Last week a new kind of supermarket were was opened in Amsterdam: Marqt.

According to founder Quirijn Bolle, consumers are unsatisfied with the actual productrange. He found the solution for the customer who still wants his potatoes fresh picked from the land.
Delicate, healthy, durable. These are the brand values of Marqt. That does not directly mean biological or ecological but it means daily fresh en durable products. Like very recently hand picked sprouts and super-fresh milk that just came from the cow.

It's about the direct contact between producers and consumers, without the intercession between different links from the factory. That's why you won't find any well known brands in the shelves. The store accommodates several parties which each operate as an individual entrepreneur. Among others PuurVis, bakery Brood and Waterand's Weelde Slagerij are established in the building.

The goal is to unfold the concept to 20 to 25 stores within five years.

Wooden boxes full of fresh veggies, wooden racks with bio-wine and cute cane baskets, it gives a bit of a quaint and alien feeling. Ideal for hippies, conservationists and other bio-plebs. Slow-food supporters must feel very comfortable here.
On the other hand, green, ecological, biological, durable, are very popular brand values these days. Many companies would like to see their brand associated with these values.
By focusing on fresh and durable products Marqt knows to appeal a growing target group. It might turn out well.
Another benefit is that because of the supermarket war many smaller retailers, like butchers and greengrocers, got lost. Their former clients could be his future customers.
The question is, wether or not this market is really big enough and how long the bio-hype will last.
Last years it became clear that 'cheap' became one of the most valuable brandvalues for a food store. Although customers said they were willing to pay more for biological products, they didn't buy it en masse.
The only supermarket that really knew how to distinguish itself without looking cheap but beneficial instead was Albert Heijn. Already the most powerful supermarket in Holland.

Buy a hippo
Article in FEM-Business

450 euros for a zebra, 1,300 euros for a giraffe and 2,500 euros for a hippo. You can just buy them, at least in South Africa you can. Since 1973 it's possible to trade in animals.

In the early seventies the Kaap fauna was almost eradicated. Until then farmers shot all their wild. The dry country made the antelopes compete for grass with the cows and sheep.
Something had to change.

The first auction continued despite the heavy protests. A revolution had started.
In the whole country high fences where build, farmers exchanged their cattle for wild, and arid areas became interesting for the wild industry.
After the apartheid ended in 1994 lots of tourist poured in. Most of them came to examine the exotic animals in parks and reserves. Other tourists would rather shoot a hippo for wall decoration. The hunting industry became big.
Now a days there are more animals compared to a 100 years ago. Redundant herbivores are going to the market. Auctions are grown to full-scale events, with singers, food stands, and other farmer amusement. Every year 21.000 animals are traded on the market.
Some animals are sold to the meat industry. For example biltong, a popular snack in South Africa, is made from dried meat from Impala's.

Most South Africans are convinced that the increase of wild is not the work of conservationists, but of the hunting industry and tourism.
"When you don't hunt, those animals will graze your land empty" says auctioneer Willie Roux. Like many of his countrymen he doesn't understand why big nature parks, who are under international pressure, are letting their huge elephant populations live.

Many Dutch think hunting on wild is cruel, or even weird. For the South Africans it's a tradition going back to the stone-age century, it's part of their culture.

This article shows the interesting differences in culture and how they affect daily life. The economy of South African is growing enormously, It's becoming more western, but there are some cultural differences that will always distinguish them from others.
When you look at archetypes for example, no matter how universal they are, this article emphasizes the fact that you always have to look at other conditions of a humans life. They have to be interpreted depending on the cultural differences.

The sentence "... he doesn't understand why big nature parks, who are under international pressure, are letting their huge elephant populations live ", shows hat international communities do not understand the South-African culture. They look at it from their own perspective, their own culture, which is wrong.
This is an easy mistake to make. Not only for politics, but also for business. A lot of multinational brands make the mistake of not investigating the new country and it's culture before entering it.
As an experience brander you should also look at the bigger, macro-economic, picture. These developments influence cultures and indirect human thinking and the way we experience things. The way you experience things now depends on the environment in which you live and have lived in.

Woman of 90 million
Article in FEM-Business

She sees herself as a simple weight consultant from the north of Holland. But she is actually running a food empire, with a cast-iron brand.

Worldwide 1,6 billion people are overweight. In the Netherlands it's more than half the population. Some people therefore will have to diminish. And there are sufficient producers that would like to help. Estimates of Europeans diet market scope diverge from 5 up to 20 billion euros.

Sonja Bakker is the most recent diet craze. In the nineties there was montignac and this century we already learned about Atkins low-carb diet and South Beach-diet. If Sonja Bakker will also last this short is unclear. Anyhow, at this moment her popularity is undiminished.

One thing is for sure: the method is purely Dutch. All of the products she mentions in her books you can find in the supermarket. Many Dutch A-brands should be thankful. Bolletje biscuits sales grew 6 million euros. Breakfast cake (typical Dutch) producer Peijnenburg established a sales growth of 14%, of which 5 million euros were caused Sonja. By Bakkers preference for yoghurtdrink Optimel, Campina made an turnover explosion. Sonja's part: 16 million euros. Also Kelogg's Special K, Coolbest, Conimex sauce, Liga Evergreen, Halvajam and Milner noticed positive effects.

Within three years she sold 2,2 million copies of her books, causing a turnover of a comfortable 28 million euros.
Therefor FEM Business valued the complete 'Sonja-economy' at 90 million euros.

In short, it's a strong brand, where many food companies like to gain profit from.
The biggest danger is when her brand becomes excavated. She guards herself well: "You must make it believable. What I do on TV must reinforce the image of Sonja."
Most recent brand extensions are a commercial for Robijn and a clothing line at Miss Etam. The latter goes accompanied by a new book titled: "Feel good with Sonja (Lekker in je vel met Sonja)".

She doesn't consider her success as a hype: "After three years there is simply no more hype". She has a good point. Many prior diet rages doomed within a year.
Thereby her focus is on average products. It doesn't diverge this much from a regular diet. So when the content of her books is worth buying, it works, so there is no need to worry.
On the other hand the 'diet' target group can be very sensitive. When one new 'hyped' product comes up, they are gone in no time.

She is very confident and knows how to deal with Sonja Bakkers brand values. That's in her advantage. The next market to conquer is Germany. When she succeeds, her brand will probably last for years.

Point and Click
Article in BusinessWeek

The company Backchannelmedia takes a shot at interactive television. Founder Michael Kokernak has been trying to fuse TV ads with the measurable, click-here-now aspects of the web.

The company peddles the technology that flashes on tv-ads and places small onscreen tokens that are sort of 'clickable' with a standard remote control, similar to web ads. The company is nearing an agreement for a real life test.

The history of interactive TV is strewn with carcasses. Many were media biggies, some were startups. They have all one thing in common: they failed.

As with any tech service that asks consumers to behave differently, it may well happen to Backchannel. So what would make Backchannel the first succeeding example? Backchannel's technology does not require a set-top box so long as you have cable TV. It can be installed in technological back rooms of TV stations, networks or cable operations. For consumers, it requires nothing more than a remote control and an internet connection. Backchannel-enabled TV programming, be it shows or ads, will display a relatively unobtrusive icon at key moments. Hitting the "select" button on your remote sends a message to a web in-box set up by Backchannel. Viewers can peruse the message on their computers at their leisure.
For the networks, Backchannel can become a way to spur transactions at iTunes and Amazon.com. TV advertisers can easily pass along coupons, additional information, and local come-ons to consumers.
Backchannel also adds a key element to TV advertising that was previously missing: data. There is power in the patterns of users' clicks, as Google already has proven.

As BusinessWeek mentioned, all of these benefits are useless unless users click.
Another problem thereby still exists. Viewers are not in the mode to be active. TV keeps an inactive, lazy medium. This technology asks people to behave differently when watching. One of the, among others, things that helped doom previous interactive TV attempts.
If Backchannel manages to overcome this issues, it could really work. The experience should be natural and painless. BusinessWeek conclusions have been positive so far. But as they say, the real test has to come and prove wether users will pay attention to onscreen icons and click on them.
If everything turns out right, Backchannelmedia can change the way TV ads look and feel.
Th test market is the USA. Another question is how the Netherlands will respond to this way of advertising. The Dutch have a slightly different media culture. There is a higher quality standard of commercials, and less commercial breaks.

One thing we know for certain: Kokernak deserves credit for his ambition and dedication to make it work.

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Super chicken
17 maart, 2008

Class assignment: Play "quick & dirty" with chickens. You know it's almost easter. If you like to see some more eggs, check: www.mexxeaster.com

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Food Court Musical

From the finders of the 'freeze flashmob' in Grand Central, there a is new action. There you are, sitting with your milkshake. Well, that's an experience.

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(New) navigation
16 maart, 2008

It's not the ideal method of navigating, it's slow and inaccurate, but it's different and fun.
Navigating with your webcam. Does it have a future? Or better, how soon will multitouch kill the mouse?

Give it a try. http://www.hrp.com/

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About relationships

via ffffound

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Archetype

Alright, here's a sketch of an archetype. Take a guess. You have the choice between: the innocent, ruler, sage, magician, hero, creator, explorer, outlaw, jester, lover, caregiver and everyman.

Good luck.

Did you do it? No? It's the explorer. The story goes like this: It's an average working man in his office and explores that his life is to restricted. The explorer is searching for freedom. In this picture he breaks free, and starts exploring the world.
In this picture I'm trying to tell this story. Sort of. For my own taste it's not finished.

Read more...in the documentation (pdf)

ya wanna mo-res?

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Emotions: What Do They Look Like
10 maart, 2008

Class assignment, look for images which express the emotion selfhate.

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Carbrands love Pilobolus
07 maart, 2008

Since their performance at the Oscar's, dancecompany Pilobolus is loved by advertising agencies. Especially for car commercials.

Here is the newest, made for Ford, Powered by You.

Bidauto commercial from 2007

Another commercial for Bidvest/Bidauto

Hyundai, Life Shapes