The one about the Marketing publication editor and Wikipedia

A while back we met with an editor of a marketing trade publication, in talking about various things we made a statement linked to brand tribalism and his reponse was “I’m going to check that out, If it’s not on Wikipedia it’s not true and it doesn’t exist”.

Interesting thought “not on wikipedia……..doesn’t exist?” what did we do for knowledge before Wikipedia?, it’s just an encyclopedia at the end of the day. I remember as a kid referring to the annual publications like Encyclopedia Britannica or World Book for pearls of wisdom that was before technology changed things.  Wikipedia has tranformed how we share knowledge and you just need to look at the statement of that magazine editor  to realise how much.

My full cabinet of World Book encyclopedias are small and outdated compared to the collaborative depth and up dated nature of wikipedia’s knowledge.  It’s an example of the instant, consensus-driven nature of information which fuels much of the 21st Century.

The knowledge retained and guarded by one person is no longer the power, Knowledge is Energy. Knowledge Shared – is Energy Shared™

Interestingly as much as we hear lots of people talking about brand tribes, and brand tribalism no one had actually defined it on Wikipedia until

we spent a few hours, a couple of debates and more than one re-edit to get it accepted by the reviewers.  So  Brand Tribalism is now on Wikipedia here  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brand_Tribalism

From High Society to Big Society-Check us out we’re in the marketing press again.

We’ve made another appearance in the press- check it out, share it with you friends and colleagues and please do comment or share your opinion if you do have one.

http://www.utalkmarketing.com/pages/Article.aspx?ArticleID=18425&Title=What_Cameron%92s_%91Big_Society%92_means_to_marketers

It’s not about Marketing and HR functions-It’s about Business performance!

Sustainable business performance in the 21st Century requires joined-up thinking,joined-up responses,and joined up doing…..your function working in isolation within the organisation doesn’t allow you to operate as effectively or efficiently as you could. Time to think and do things about different!

If you’re interested check out our NBT associate Dan Gray’s Latest Live Long and Prosper blog post at http://bit.ly/9R19zm

Dan if you’re reading, hope Saudi Arabia is going really well, will catch up with you soon.

Politicians and Brands.

After analysing the results of the independent public survey we commissioned we’ve done a bit of a write up on the results. Feel free to share your thoughts on this too, always happy to hear from you all.

Gordon Brown and Volvo

It’s been tough times for traditional industries such as the automotive one; like the Labour party, people are asking: do the economics and business models really add up anymore?

Over the past fifty years, Volvo has been a leader in automotive safety technology but ask many people what it stands for these days and often the terms “boring, ”for old people” are offered.            Likewise, the media and public have often defined Gordon Brown as cold, lacking personality and clinical.  Gordon Brown and our Labour Government aren’t making that much money these days and neither is Volvo.  However, Volvo, have just been taken over by new Chinese owners, and they may yet have fresh resources to reinvigorate their competitiveness. Could the Labour Party Machine also hope for such redemption?

After analysing the results of the independent public survey we commissioned we’ve done a bit of a write up on the results. Feel free to share your thoughts on this too, always happy to hear from you all.

David Cameron as Nokia

People know who he is and whilst he’s aiming for the cult appeal of the iPhone and trying to convince people he’s reinvented the brand, he still focuses too much on the functionality of his product rather building a brand people can believe in – just like Nokia. Basically, in aligning Cameron to Nokia, voters seem to be suggesting  that he just represents the institution of politics and like Nokia, Cameron and his party appear to be still out of touch for many and not the most inspirational or glamorous offering they hoped him to be.  Cameron and the Conservatives, like Nokia, are the establishment: big, inefficient and for some reason, still have a big part of the market.

Nick Clegg as The Co-operative

Is the rise of the Lib Dems and Nick Clegg a cry from voters for differentiation and a consequence of the “catch-all” approach adopted by Labour and The Conservatives?

Like politics, supermarkets are a mature industry with two main parties dominating the landscape – ubiquitous, and often seen copying each other.  The Co-operative brand is a challenger to the established big brands, they have enough heritage in their own right but have chosen to stick a flag in the ground and say “this is what we’re about and what we stand for”. Possibly not too dissimilar to what Clegg seems to be doing in this election.

The Co-operative is currently demonstrating their ease with being inclusive through their recent partnership with Somerfield, again demonstrating to consumers that ‘big is not always beautiful’.

Voters were clear and have said Clegg is NOT the Tesco of Politics and nor should he aspire to be.

NBT Competition – Pick a politician and a brand that best describes them

We’re running a little competition asking people to pick 1 UK politician and a consumer brand that best describes them, and then explain why in no more than 150 words. The prize being lunch on us at The Ivy (www.the-ivy.co.uk).Would love you to participate.  So please send your submissions in to hello at newbrandtribalism.com or submit your response by commenting below.  Entries close Friday ^14th of May.

Independent public survey matches political leaders to consumer brand equivalents.

Recently we commissioned an Independent survey about the election and the various leaders asking voters to match political leaders to their consumer brand equivalents. Our survey demonstrates the ease with which people are happy to assign certain characteristics to brands and use their attributes and beliefs as criteria while making decisions.    The world’s leading brands distinguish themselves and engage with their tribe and that truth holds, irrespective of whether you are a political party or a supermarket.
Anyway thought you might be interested in it.

The link to the article is below, please do check it out, comment and share it with your friends.

http://www.utalkmarketing.com/pages/Article.aspx?ArticleID=17517&title=Gordon_Brown_is_%E2%80%98the_Volvo_of_politics%E2%80%99,_say_voters

In the Press:News Analysis “Why ‘Brand Tribes’ are key to building a brand in the 21st Century”

Check out our article at utalkmarketing

http://www.utalkmarketing.com/pages/Article.aspx?ArticleID=17334&Title=Why_%E2%80%98Brand_Tribes%E2%80%99_are_key_to_building_a_brand_in_the_21st_Century_

NBT in the Press- Nike’s new Tiger Woods ad: Canny or creepy?

Check out the article.

http://www.mycustomer.com/topic/marketing/nikes-new-tiger-woods-ad-sinister-or-successful/10645

What are your thoughts about the ad?

Members area is back

I’m told by the geeky ones that it’s back in action!

You may need to log in again and/or refresh your browser, then enter your details as you signed up originally. In case you need help finding it the members sign in link is on the top right of the home page.

Apologies again for the glitch hopefully it won’t happen again.

Please do let us know if problems persist via hello at newbrandtribalism dot com

Members area temporarily offline

Hi all, sorry to say the members area will be down for a little while, there’s been a bit of glitch through the main host.

Working to rectify the problem as quickly as possible, hope it won’t be too long.

Thanks in advance for your patience and understanding.