The non rational

We like to think we’re all rational creatures especially when it comes to business but we’re not! Its comforting for us to think we make decisions based on merit and technical facts,but emotion and feeling beats reason almost everytime.

Why is it that so many businesses make sense but fail to connect with their employees or customers? They are too rational in their approaches, and forget that we are not rational creatures.

A couple of years ago we worked with a mobile phone manufacturer who couldn’t understand why people would buy what they termed the technically inferior Iphone, they also couldn’t understand why people were spending so much time in the Apple store.

Here’s the thing people don’t buy a specific brand of phone for the fact it calls people and has predictive text. Whether it’s an IPHONE, a Nokia, LG, Samsung, HTC or Blackberry the phone is a badge that satisfies the need to assert an identity in a social system. Think more about the non-rational- identity & belonging and less of the rational. The rational stuff gets you into the game, the other stuff is where you win or lose.

New Brand Tribalism goes international

In line with our saying “Knowledge is Energy. Knowledge Shared – is Energy Shared™” in late October 2010, Eb was invited to give a thought leadership presentation in Copenhagen at the Mannaz International Summit.

In front of guests from a diverse range of organisations, guests included  representatives from Nestle, KPMG, Danisco, Pirelli, Danish Giants Flsmidth and even a representative from European Investment Fund. This summit presented  another opportunity communicate our vision, of what the business models of the 21st century could and should be about.

A big thankyou goes to Mannaz for the invite and the opportunity and whilst i’m at it also a big thanks to our tribe member Dr Karen Moloney for her kind referral. This was a nice opportunity to spread the word of change and to encourage more action.

Check out the presentation slides here ……NBT Mannaz presentation pdf

As the audience was largely made up of HR and Learning and Development professionals. The  presentation was geared towards highlighting the importance of  seeing people  (learners, employees,talent) in a new context in order to create engaged, innovative, and
dynamic organisations.

Our message was that  the 21st century will require MORE THAN SIMPLY information delivery, and ORGANISATIONS that want to innovate will need to create a “culture of belief and inquiry” THAT REQUIRES REAL engagement. The idea behind that is simply that People with Purpose and Belief are unstoppable and powerful.

It’s the responsibility of  organisations to evoke that belief, otherwise, employees will leave, not join in the first place or underperform.    The challenge of providing more value than your competitors will focus on how you engage with your tribe.  Connections are the currency of the 21st Century.

So in line with our stated mission this presentation sought to  positively challenge and inspire the current thinking around the management of brands, organisation and people.

The music tribe ask Weezer to retire-is this for real?

Check out this Guardian article by clicking on the link below

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/oct/07/weezer-offered-10m-split-up

Clever PR stunt or something more interesting?

Would love to hear your thoughts

Refreshing People- Introducing the Rambutan approach.

Hey all, thought i’d highlight a little story not about our chums and  New Brand Tribalism service affiliate-Rambutan . Rambutan refresh the way people communicate, think or lead so that business, team or personal goals can be achieved. We think the link below which featured in their local newspaper might be something interesting to take a look at, it also gives you a little taster of their approach.

http://www.harboroughmail.co.uk/news/DIFFERENT-APPROACH–firm-offers.6509863.jp

If you’re interested in finding out more check out www.rambutan.biz  or contact us here at New Brand Tribalism and we’ll help connect you.

What do brands like Harley Davidson, Ryanair and Manchester United have in common?

Apple, Nike, Google, Ryanair, Manchester United, Innocent Drinks,Tesco, Hello Kitty, Brand Beckham, and Harley Davidson,
What do these brands have in common ?

* They are all brands that perform quite well, yes they are

* All of them create a deep emotional impact, yes

and

* All have a connection to customers in the marketplace , agreed

The real key in what these brands have in common is that they polarise opinion they evoke emotion.  Like or Dislike, Too expensive or too cheap, wrong values or right values, say what you like about them at least they stand for something and don’t encourage indifference. There’s  always a danger that one day they will lose their spark it’s not a given that it will always be the same, not in this ever changing world – the challenge for the brands above is to stay relevant, remain as brands people believe in.

Sometimes the killer of brands isn’t a lack of trust, or even a lack of communication. It’s simple indifference.-There are may be no customer complaints, arguments or nasty blog posts, so everything may seem okay on the surface, awareness may even be high according to your traditional insight measure.  Even Trust isn’t an issue when you come to measure that, the thing is though that’s because customers don’t care about earning or having your brand’s trust (or trusting your brand). See the demise of Woolworths in the UK if you want an example of that, awareness wasn’t a problem as we saw when their demise became apparent, trust wasn’t even a problem in the most part once again we saw the emotion return once it was too late, what was a problem was that people didn’t care enough about the brand, Woolworths became a commodity and it couldn’t compete at the bottom of the market.

High performing brands usually polarise opinion. Performance in this markplace is not about every one loving you that’s impossible,it’s about identity, competition and belonging.

Why do you exist?

“The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference.” ~ Elie Wies

Marketing Week Opinion-Can a rebrand save your ailing brand credibility?

Check out some of our views.

http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/opinion/real-meaning-of-csr/3013683.article

Tim’s comment back in May about BP  was in response to the  article below written by Mark Ritson, in case you have read it here’s the link below.

(http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/opinion/rebranding-cannot-plug-credibility-gap/3013343.article)

We’re thinking of making an appearance at an industry conference on rebranding in the next couple of weeks so that reminded me to post the above links.

What do you think can rebranding plug the credibility gap?  Do you have some other examples other than M&S and Skoda where a new brand position has positively changed a struggling business?  What about examples of rebrands that have spectacularly failed?

NBT service affiliate Milana Marketing launches with Enlightened CRM offering

“No human being is an island, so it’s no longer useful to consider them as one.”

Sooner or later, you are going to have to decide whether you want to get competitive by continually lowering your prices or by investing in the one advantage your competitors can’t replicate: your engaged, valuable, community.  It’s time for your 20^th Century CRM focussed purely on transactions, data and efficiency to evolve; it’s time for some Enlightened CRM.

Today marks the launch Milana Marketing, a consultancy specifically designed to help organisations adopt a more enlightened approach to customer relationships, enabling them to better compete in a world where increasingly customers are more democratised than ever before.

Societal, environmental and technological changes in the marketplace are forcing organisations to adapt to a new social dynamic. The tried and tested business thinking has become tired and testing and the associated models that have been used must also evolve and respond.  CRM, Social CRM, direct marketing, loyalty marketing- call it what you will, at the end of the day, it’s really all about relationship-building and engagement, it can also mean the difference between future prosperity and struggle or decline. 

In short, Enlightened CRM presents many opportunities to build a distinctive presence that can serve as a building block of high performance: a method to potentially accelerate the sales process, influence and connect more tightly with customers at lower cost and in a way that provides a real differentiation from competitors.  “It’s not just about the customers who connect to your brand; it’s the communities they create – and the other communities, networks and brands they connect to as well” states  Nazia Khan, Managing Partner, Milana Marketing.

“Working with a pioneering brand like Harley Davidson as they activated and influenced their advocates and brand fans, I have been able to understand the principles behind building a flourishing and sustainable community. It’s with this thinking together with insights and knowledge from the marketplace that we’ve been able to bring out a differing and compelling consultancy offering for brands looking to move things on without large investments or taking massive risks.”

“There are many CRM tools and services that claim to support all relationship needs out of the box, these claims should be met with  healthy scepticism. Your CRM system is only as good as the community you inspire.  Unless your system brings in the human elements and helps you to understand, connect and commune appropriately with all of your constituents, it is an expensive and inefficient part of the problem”

Outside of its consultancy services, Milana is also part of the New Brand Tribalism Community designed to increase knowledge and participation in 21^st Century business practices. Members come from a variety of backgrounds, ranging from CEOs and leaders in HR, Communications, Organisational Development, Management, Marketing and Branding, to academics and analysts predicting future trends.  To find out more check out www.milanamarketing.com or contact us through the NBT website and we can put you in touch.

Orange, The Industrial Era, Brand and Love

It disturbs me that so many businesses are still so disconnected from the human spirit,  I think it’s the left overs of the industrial era that are primarily to blame for this, as good as it was for our society it’s time to move on. The Industrial era taught us to create systemised and mechanised businesses with little meaning or differentiation. That was then this is now.  It’s now time for brands to stop just doing and start being something for people.

Businesses that stand for something beyond products and services, and that articulate and deliver on their belief are the ones that inspire the high levels of loyalty.  It’s becoming more and more obvious that the best performing organisations of the 21st Century will be those who are able to build strong cultures and surround themselves with communities of customers who have a deep belief in the brand.

The Orange brand now part of the market leading Everything Everywhere business has always shied away from concentrating on it’s product and spent its energy on growing its tribe.  As Justin Billingsley, former brand director at mobile brand Orange, once said: “There is a big difference between ‘like a lot’ and ‘love’ – arguably, a customer in love will never stray. Interesting point, the very notion of love is human, quite unsophisticated and not very rational, it just is.

Check out the following video it was created through our NBT service affiliates The Alternative and features Justin talking about love in Orange.

Another tribal chief sent into the wilderness.

The story of Nokia and a Southern African Tribe illustrates why CEO’s and boards need to embrace new thinking.

Who would be a leader in turbulent times like these? There has been a few notable falls from grace amongst some of our top leaders in recent times Kia, LG, BP and Nokia to name a few.

Which made me recall the mythical tale of the Fah-Kow-Wii Tribe.  A very small indigenous tribe of people who once inhabited the savannahs of South West Africa – until they became extinct. The problem with this vertically challenged tribe had been that because they were so small and the grass on the Savannah plains so high: they kept losing each other.  The tribal leader at the time ignored the pressing need to bring fresh blood into the tribe so that better statured people would be able to see above the horizon and help them as a tribe respond to the perpetual call of “Where the Fah-Kow-Wii?” Hence the tribe diminished. The moral of that tale is sometimes for the survival of the tribe you need to introduce new blood and new DNA – it means embracing new attributes to survive.

Unfortunately no-one shared the moral of the tale of the fabled Fah-Kow-Wii tribe to Nokia’s  outgoing CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo.  If they had, he might have better seen the fate of his tribe instead of staunchly sticking to the notion that only Finnish senior managers were equipped to lead the tribe. This exercise in Nordic purity (and we all know where those ideas end up), meant that the board of Nokia for two decades was almost exclusively made up of males of a certain age, all Finnish, all from the same educational and managerial schools of thought.

The issue here is that for any business, particularly one which is (was) a dominant global market leader to sustain the vitality of their tribe, they needed to increase their diversity – not continually reduce their gene pool and stick to the same rigid thinking. Not only is this potentially somewhat colonial and disrespectful to the various territories it serves, but it is also stifling in terms of being in tune with the real world and the customers and markets a brand seeks to engage with.  The failure of Nokia senior management of ignoring the headlong advance of Blackberry, Samsung, Apple and Google Android et al was a serious folly in proportion to that of the Chief of the Fah-Kow-Wii tribe.

However, the good news is that before all hope against extinction was exhausted, Nokia shareholders finally saw sense and have enforced a change of regime at the top of Nokia.  This will undoubtedly herald a fresh influx of new ideas and DNA into the Nokia tribe.  And not before time; the calls of “Where the Fah-Kow-Wii!” were becoming too amplified around the organisation and customer base of Nokia of late.  So, here’s to the next generation of the new Nokia tribe.

Tim Bleszynski

Co-founder New Brand Tribalism

American Chamber of Commerce in Europe features New Brand Tribalism story in Q2 publication.

One of our articles has made it’s way into the American Chamber of Commerce in Luxembourg’s connnexions publication.

Check it out

http://www.amcham.lu/uploads/tx_usermagazines/amcham_Q_2_2010_FINAL.pdf