free influx thought pack: 30 new ideas for C21st branding

Influx's third free Thought Pack is now available. The 70-page PDF is entitled 30 New Ideas for C21st Branding.

This volume was inspired by the idea that C21st branding is a little different than its C20th counterpart. Looking back through past posts helped us uncover some dominant themes and ideas that we compiled into a single volume.

It covers a wide range of thinking, including: brand transparency, brand experience, ethical marketing, consumer-generated media, creativity, brand curation and discovering brand truths.

You can download this Thought Pack by clicking here and then clicking on the "FREE" button on the left.

Influx also has a presentation version of this pack that we are willing to give to anyone who is happy to pay a small fee for our time.

brand churn and burn

Is the rapidly increasing pace of information forcing us to cycle through brands and media faster? It's hard to say exactly, but there are a couple of research studies suggesting this might be the case.

First, media consumption.

Lulu.com has done some great research into the shrinking lifecycle of best-selling books. It found the average number of weeks that a new No. 1 bestseller stayed on top of the hardback fiction section of the New York Times bestseller list has fallen from 22 in the '60s to 14 in the '70s and 5.5 in the '90s, to barely a fortnight last year.

In the 1960s, fewer than three novels reached No. 1 in an average year; last year 23 did.

So, more evidence of The Long Tail, a world with fewer big hits and more stuff competing for our fleeting attention.

The second study relates directly to brands and comes from Y&R's Brand Asset Valuator research on the Australian market.

One of its conclusions relates to the rapid cycling of brands.

"We have been getting far greater moves in the last three years. One of the things that seemed to happen is that [consumers] have a greater propensity to transact quicker with brands, to move them in and out of their lives quicker than before."

— Mike Morrison, Chief Strategy Officer, GPY&R.

The study suggested that consumers are now looking for brands to do different things because they are "harder" and more "pragmatic." They are more prepared than before to accept a "great offering" regardless of the company behind it.

Brand values such as prestige, authenticity and tradition were in decline, but greater importance was being placed on brands offering openness and participation.

What does this all mean for brands?

1. Consumers are more willing to accept challengers who can come from anywhere and at a faster pace than ever before.

2. Innovation is the only protection against churn. You can't rest on your laurels; you need to keep constantly reinventing yourself in order to stay relevant.

myspace and brands

As MySpace's audience share continues to accelerate, it's become hard to ignore and tempting for everyone to climb aboard the bandwagon, including politicians and the church. While politicians and the church may turn up some noses, it's a reality that communities are built around those entities.

Remember, the beauty of MySpace is that it currently is a permission-based environment. Members seek out the things that interest them and add them to their pages. There is some advertising and there will be more, but again, because the average MySpace user has submitted a profile as long as their arm, it can be finely targeted.

So how do brands play in this environment?

Influx believes the answer is very cautiously. It's a little like the whole debate over consumer-generated media, where success depends on having enough passionate brand evangelists to lend volume and credibility to your efforts. Influx finds it hard to think about banks, insurance companies and most packaged-goods companies building their own brand pages, but Ben & Jerry's could probably get away with it. It's tempting for many of these companies to consider using their fake advertising properties to personify themselves (e.g., Tony the Tiger gets a MySpace page), but that's probably not right.

Here are some categories that Influx believes could work on MySpace:

Automotive: Many auto brands have huge fan bases and communities built around them.

Documentaries: Al Gore's new doc is a great example. It's built around a single idea and it's activist in its goals. It naturally lends itself to the site, and of course, Paramount understood that.

Books, Authors, TV Shows: Like music, there are communities built around authors and reading clubs built around books. The power of the TV-show fan online has been well documented and obviously makes sense on MySpace.

Tourism: Tourism boards should have pages to support their geobranding efforts, but they need to make them more interesting than their websites.

Brands with Causes Built into Their DNA: American Apparel, CurrentTV, Patagonia and the Body Shop.

Brands with a Living Human Being Very Much behind Them: They could use MySpace to bring the founder to the foreground and humanize the brand. Dozens of fashion brands could do this, from Prada to Armani and Jill Sander. However, this would need to be done in a really clever and creative way, so it doesn't mess with the brand image. Offering people a chance to peek inside the creative process might be an interesting way to go.

Sports Teams: Most of them have fans.

So before jumping out of the p*** onto the MySpace bandwagon, do a quick check to make sure your brand is appropriate. If your brand is right, there is no doubt that MySpace could become an important and powerful part of your communication mix. However, you still need to remember this is not branding as usual.

beyond fashion, seasonality is the cool new marketing tactic

Both InterContinental Hotels and Anheuser-Busch have recently discovered the power of seasonal marketing.

For a couple of years now, AB has been successfully experimenting with seasonal beers. The latest from the St. Louis giant is the dangerously named Beach Bum Blonde Ale that rolls off the tongue nicely. Beach Bum, being strongly promoted at an airport bar near you, is the latest in a line that includes: Jack's Pumpkin Spice Ale, Winter's Bourbon Cask Ale and Spring Heat Spiced Wheat. AB simply borrowed a tactic used by the microbrews for years and made it their own.

Beer lovers comments are here.

The unexpected side of seasonality is represented by Hotel Indigo ("a hotel that's a source of inspiration, not just tiny shampoo"). Indigo is redefining the hotel as store, a place of change to keep the concept from going the way of a 1970s motel chain and a hotel where you can be certain the sheets will be changed.

Its press release tantalizingly describes the promise:

"Renewal is the soul of Hotel Indigo's retail-inspired design concept - thoughtful changes that are made throughout the year to keep the hotel fresh, similar to the way retailers change their window displays. Guestrooms feature signature murals, area rugs, fluffy duvets and slipcovers that will change periodically, while public spaces will be transformed seasonally through changing aromas, music, artwork, murals and directional signage."

There's something sneakily postmodern about consistent change. Almost oxymoronic, but appealing to those on the quest for something new, who don't quite know where to find it.

Both brands illustrate a significant development in today's marketing world: more and more categories are adopting fashion strategies to keep their products interesting. Fickle consumers demand change and the only thing brands can do is keep delivering it, or people will go elsewhere.