January 2010
8 posts
Out of control
This brand republic article makes an old claim that’s - still - a bold claim: “brands have lost control of their identity and they will never get it back”.
I’ve heard that a lot, it might be true: my brief experience with brand identity leads me to believe they’ve never had much but I think now that yes, they probably have even less.
But you also have to ask what...
I must move fast, you will not miss me
Amazed and flattered that my post about hearing younger researchers’ voices in Market Research attracted so much attention - especially as it was posted at close to pub o’clock on a Friday night! I’ve replied to all the comments on the original post - all worth reading and posing intriguing questions.
There were also a couple of blog posts related to mine - this from Kelpenhagen...
Are The Kids Alright?
I was chatting to Katie Harris and Ray Poynter yesterday and Ray raised an interesting question. There’s a lot of talk about the future of research right now: a general sense that the industry is at a crossroads, even if people disagree on what the different signposts point to. But what’s noticeable is that most of the people talking about this stuff are, frankly, not the future of...
A Story About Listening
The other day I decided I wanted to do some research, so I went to a bar. In the bar were lots of consumers! They were in their natural environment, giving unprompted opinions: all I had to do was listen.
I excitedly sat down at the bar between a young man and a couple. Here was where I would do my listening.
First of all I listened to the couple: the man was talking to the woman....
“Looking for a new way to generate buzz for the brand, Unilever created an...”
– That sentence followed this sentence, “Consider Unilever. Its new-media initiative for I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter! features Spraychel—the brand’s animated mascot—and her adventures in the fridge.” We’re really talking about an animated butter alternative mascot and using the words “innovative”...
““I continue to grow at a nice clip — I have over 75k followers, but...”
– from this comment on a very interesting Anil Dash post. This makes a good deal of intuitive sense.
I do wish you could shift stuff between Tumblrs. This post, where I get typically annoyed about a Seth Godin blog entry, should really have been on Blackbeard. Sorry!
In His Suit And Tie
I had an exchange on Twitter with @nwjerseyliz the other day that got me thinking. She asked whether Twitter would have fewer negative stereotypes attached to it if it had come with a more “professional” name. I replied that part of its charm is the way it undermines the idea of professionalism, so I thought I’d pick at that a little.
Professionalism is a culture which...