From the moment the fireworks exploded over Beijing at the Olympics' opening ceremony, you knew something fantastic was taking place.
But you'd have been forgiven for underestimating just how truly fantastic those fireworks were, because many of them did not actually occur. They were digitally enhanced video effects superimposed onto the Beijing night sky by a team of special-effects experts headed by Gao Xiaolong. 'Most of the audience thought the display was filmed live, so that was mission accomplished,' smiled a clearly delighted Mr Gao after the event.
Meanwhile, equally fantastical events were taking place inside the 'Bird's Nest' stadium, where little Lin Miaoke was belting out a rousing rendition of Ode to the Motherland. It emerged later that Miaoke had been lip-synching and the real singer was another, slightly less photogenic, seven-year-old called Yang Peivi. Chen Qigang, musical director of the opening ceremony, explained to the world's media that Lin Miaoke was chosen ahead of Yang Peivi because she was nicer looking.
In China, there is often a vague but accepted disparity between what is seen as genuine and what is real. Fake fireworks that look real can be better than actual gunpowder. It's acceptable to have a little girl singing with someone else's voice if it makes for better entertainment. Copies and fakery can be better than the real thing. That's important, given the influence China is about to have on branding over the next century.
There are already four Chinese brands in Millward Brown Optimor's Top 50 Global Brands league table. Shame on you if you can't name at least two, given that all of them are already bigger brands than Mercedes, Nike or Starbucks. More will follow, and they are unlikely to emerge from the traditional Western points of brand origin - innovation and differentiation. Many of the new Chinese brands will emerge from less traditional sources of brand provenance - replication and similarity.
We have already seen several examples of how imitation is the first page in the book of Chinese brand-building. The automotive producer Shuanghuan made headlines last year by producing new cars that looked uncannily like the BMW X5 and Mercedes' Smart car.
Li Ning, for example, is probably the most noted example of the new generation of up-and-coming Chinese brands. What makes Li Ning special is its lack of difference from its two key international sportswear rivals, Nike and Adidas. While its logo might have been created from the company founder's initials, the curved identity that they form bears a striking resemblance to an upside-down version of Nike's 'swoosh' logo. Similarly, Li Ning's famous strapline, 'Anything is possible', is remarkably close to the Adidas slogan 'Impossible is nothing'.
It would be too easy to look down our Western noses at Chinese brands that are apparently bent on replication rather than revolution. Give brands like Li Ning time, and their differentiation and creativity will emerge.
In the bold, new brand universe of the 21st century, the future belongs to Chinese brands - even if they begin looking very similar to Western brands whose days of global domination could soon be consigned to history.
30 SECONDS ON ... LI NING
- Li Ning was born in 1963 in China's Guangxi province. Li joined the country's first Olympic team for 32 years and returned from the 1984 Games with six gymnastics medals.
- Li formed his brand in 1990. It has a 10.5% share of the Chinese branded sportswear market. It has 4300 retail stores in China and rolls out about 600 different styles of sports shoe every year.
- To keep pace with Nike and Adidas, Li Ning has used budget sponsorship deals with the US table tennis team, the Sudanese track team and NBA star Shaquille O'Neal when he plays in China.
- Li himself lit the Olympic flame at the opening ceremony, despite the fact that Adidas was the major sponsor. Because of the $80m sponsorship deal, when he lit the flame he was wearing an Adidas tracksuit, but most Chinese citizens assumed his brand was the major sponsor of the Games.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Brand Equity Measurement in two minutes
"You can’t manage what you don’t measure.”
This is especially true of a brand and its equity. A robust brand equity measurement system will accomplish the following objectives:
•Measure the brand’s equity across a variety of dimensions at different points in time over time
•Provide diagnostic information on the reasons for the changes in brand equity
•Gauge and evaluate the brand’s progress against goals
•Provide direction on how to improve brand equity
•Provide insight into the brand’s positioning vis-à-vis its major competitors including its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats
•Provide direction on how to reposition the brand for maximum effect
The following five attributes that drive customers to insist upon specific brands: awareness, relevant differentiation, value, accessibility and emotional connection.
These brand insistence drivers work together to move customers from being aware of your brand and preferring your brand to purchasing your brand and being loyal to your brand. Our chart demonstrates how this works...
(click on the image for a larger view)
We recommend that brand equity measurement studies:
•Focus on the key drivers of customer brand insistence
•Measure changes in brand equity over time
•Diagnose reasons for changes in brand equity
•Provide insight into the current brand positioning, including strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats
•Provide direction on how to increase customer brand insistence
Brand equity studies should measure the following for your brand and each of its competitors, with responses reported separately for different user segments:
•Awareness
•Convenience/accessibility
•Perceived value (including quality and price sensitivity)
•Rank in consideration set
•Preference
•Usage
•Relevance
•Differentiation
•Vitality
•Emotional connection
•Loyalty
•Multiple personality attributes and
other brand associations.
( Source: Branding Strategy Insider)
This is especially true of a brand and its equity. A robust brand equity measurement system will accomplish the following objectives:
•Measure the brand’s equity across a variety of dimensions at different points in time over time
•Provide diagnostic information on the reasons for the changes in brand equity
•Gauge and evaluate the brand’s progress against goals
•Provide direction on how to improve brand equity
•Provide insight into the brand’s positioning vis-à-vis its major competitors including its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats
•Provide direction on how to reposition the brand for maximum effect
The following five attributes that drive customers to insist upon specific brands: awareness, relevant differentiation, value, accessibility and emotional connection.
These brand insistence drivers work together to move customers from being aware of your brand and preferring your brand to purchasing your brand and being loyal to your brand. Our chart demonstrates how this works...
(click on the image for a larger view)
We recommend that brand equity measurement studies:
•Focus on the key drivers of customer brand insistence
•Measure changes in brand equity over time
•Diagnose reasons for changes in brand equity
•Provide insight into the current brand positioning, including strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats
•Provide direction on how to increase customer brand insistence
Brand equity studies should measure the following for your brand and each of its competitors, with responses reported separately for different user segments:
•Awareness
•Convenience/accessibility
•Perceived value (including quality and price sensitivity)
•Rank in consideration set
•Preference
•Usage
•Relevance
•Differentiation
•Vitality
•Emotional connection
•Loyalty
•Multiple personality attributes and
other brand associations.
( Source: Branding Strategy Insider)
Color Strategy in Brand Identity
Color is an important consideration in your brand identity system. Colors have a significant impact on people’s emotional state. They also have been shown to impact people’s ability to concentrate and learn. They have a wide variety of specific mental associations. In fact, the effects are physiological, psychological, and sociological.
For instance:
•Non-primary colors are more calming than primary colors.
•Blue is the most calming of the primary colors, followed closely by a lighter red.
•Test takers score higher and weight lifters lift more in blue rooms.
•Blue text increases reading retention.
•Yellow evokes cheerfulness. Houses with yellow trim or flower gardens sell faster.
•Reds and oranges encourage diners to eat quickly and leave. Red also makes food more appealing and influences people to eat more. (It is no coincidence that fast food restaurants almost always use these colors.)
•Pink enhances appetites and has been shown to calm prison inmates.
•Blue and black suppress appetites.
•Children prefer primary colors. (Notice those children’s toys and books often use these colors.)
•Forest green and burgundy appeals to the wealthiest and often raises the perceived price of an item.
•Orange is often used to make an expensive item seem less expensive.
•Red clothing can convey power.
•Red trim is used in bars and casinos because it can cause people to lose track of time.
•White is typically associated with cool, clean and fresh.
•Red and black are often associated with sexy and seductive and are favored by porn sites.
•Black clothes make people look thinner.
•Black is also associated with elegance and sophistication. It also seems mysterious.
Colors also have a functional impact on readability, eye-strain, ability to attract attention, ability to be seen at night, etc. This is important in choosing colors for signing, website pages, prints ads, and other marketing media.
•The most visible color is yellow.
•The most legible of all color combinations are black on yellow and green on white followed by red on white.
•It is no surprise that most traffic signs use these color combinations.
•Black on white is the easiest to read, on paper, and on computer screens.
•Hard colors (red, orange and yellow) are more visible and tend to make objects look larger and closer. They are easier to focus upon. They create excitement and cause people to over-estimate time.
•Soft colors (violet, blue and green) are less visible and tend to make objects look smaller and further away. They aren’t as easy to focus upon. They have a calming effect, increase concentration, and cause people to under-estimate time.
Usually, it is advantageous for a brand to consistently “own” certain colors, which provide an additional recognition cue.
Obviously, colors are an important part of any brand identity system. Testing the affect of a new brand identity system’s colors is well advised. It is important to consider that color associations will vary by individual, and especially culture, due to the cultural context and previous experiences with the colors. All of the impacts of colors are equally true of music, scents and sounds. For instance, studies have identified that music has an impact on supermarket sales, mental concentration, and achievement on standardized tests, factory productivity, clerical performance and staff turnover, among other things.
( Source: Brand Strategy Insider)
For instance:
•Non-primary colors are more calming than primary colors.
•Blue is the most calming of the primary colors, followed closely by a lighter red.
•Test takers score higher and weight lifters lift more in blue rooms.
•Blue text increases reading retention.
•Yellow evokes cheerfulness. Houses with yellow trim or flower gardens sell faster.
•Reds and oranges encourage diners to eat quickly and leave. Red also makes food more appealing and influences people to eat more. (It is no coincidence that fast food restaurants almost always use these colors.)
•Pink enhances appetites and has been shown to calm prison inmates.
•Blue and black suppress appetites.
•Children prefer primary colors. (Notice those children’s toys and books often use these colors.)
•Forest green and burgundy appeals to the wealthiest and often raises the perceived price of an item.
•Orange is often used to make an expensive item seem less expensive.
•Red clothing can convey power.
•Red trim is used in bars and casinos because it can cause people to lose track of time.
•White is typically associated with cool, clean and fresh.
•Red and black are often associated with sexy and seductive and are favored by porn sites.
•Black clothes make people look thinner.
•Black is also associated with elegance and sophistication. It also seems mysterious.
Colors also have a functional impact on readability, eye-strain, ability to attract attention, ability to be seen at night, etc. This is important in choosing colors for signing, website pages, prints ads, and other marketing media.
•The most visible color is yellow.
•The most legible of all color combinations are black on yellow and green on white followed by red on white.
•It is no surprise that most traffic signs use these color combinations.
•Black on white is the easiest to read, on paper, and on computer screens.
•Hard colors (red, orange and yellow) are more visible and tend to make objects look larger and closer. They are easier to focus upon. They create excitement and cause people to over-estimate time.
•Soft colors (violet, blue and green) are less visible and tend to make objects look smaller and further away. They aren’t as easy to focus upon. They have a calming effect, increase concentration, and cause people to under-estimate time.
Usually, it is advantageous for a brand to consistently “own” certain colors, which provide an additional recognition cue.
Obviously, colors are an important part of any brand identity system. Testing the affect of a new brand identity system’s colors is well advised. It is important to consider that color associations will vary by individual, and especially culture, due to the cultural context and previous experiences with the colors. All of the impacts of colors are equally true of music, scents and sounds. For instance, studies have identified that music has an impact on supermarket sales, mental concentration, and achievement on standardized tests, factory productivity, clerical performance and staff turnover, among other things.
( Source: Brand Strategy Insider)
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Friday, August 8, 2008
Blue Ocean Strategy in two minutes
Just finished Blue Ocean Strategy. Its by far the best book on strategy I have ever come across. Initially it may seem commonsensical, the central idea presented in the book is very very powerful. The book also designs a framework to implement the core idea. I would recommend this book to everyone.
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