Would you temporarily re-name your brand?

Yes, you can do it. Nestlé is doing it now in 2015, with one of it's strongest brands. A bold move, Nestlé is re-naming KitKat to names like "Youtube Break" and "Adventure Break". 

The fact is, you can do this with your brand, if it is strong enough (KitKat equity is incredibly strong), your brand communication is more than its name (and, if you look at this link, you will find the brand visuals are kept) and if the new name is completely aligned with your brand equity / communication idea - and what more "kitkatish" would you have than remembering that this brand is all about having a break, and enjoying a moment of pleasure?

Quick project management tip

Get your key stakeholder involved in your project and your solution as early in the process as possible. This way, you will the opportunity to reflect his / hers point of view in the early stages of the project, saving painstaking discussions and changes in later stages.

Who are the super-sharers of videos?

According to a Unruly research, 82% of shared videos in the internet are shared by a "super-sharers" group that represents only 18% of internet users, but that do so at least once per week (half of them actually shares daily, it seems). This is the group that you need to target for a video to go viral in the web! You just need to find them...

P.S- The same research concludes that the best day to share a video for it to become viral is on a Wednesday (hump day, anyone?), followed by Thursday and Friday. So, now you know why I am sharing this on a Wednesday (though no video attached).

Logos and luxury

For many years, luxury brands made sure they would design their products so their logos would become big and visible, as a beamer of aspirational brands that would drive penetration in the middle class thirsty for status symbol. But, interestingly enough, over the past 5 years, luxury brands have started to see this as a dangerous and harmful move, that actually drives away the higher classes from their products and damages their equity, turning their brands into middle class wannabees instead of the real thing. The luxury brands don't show off anymore, because wealthy people don't want to show off their wealth, but prefer more discreet branding and products that are driven to self rewarding experiences rather than show-offing that can be offensive. This idea, conveyed in a research paper from Wilson, Eckhardt and Belk in the latest HBR issue, has long been observed in part of Europe where "old money" sits, but, according to the authors, can start being seen in some of the new biggest luxury markets as well, as China. It would mark a very different period for luxury branding, and a very challenging one - I must say I am rather curious to see how this develops going forward...

Break your industry's bottlenecks

July's Harvard Business Review had a very interesting article on breakthrough innovation. That article said that, in order to revolutionize the market, you should focus in 5 types of common industry's wisdom and established rules - what the authors call " industry's bottlenecks". If you do it, then you will be focusing on the big structural problems that are endemic to your industry, thus you will be able to satisfy consumers in a way no one else does.

The 5 type of industry's bottlenecks the authors urge us to focus are:

- Outdated purchase or usage experience

- Superfluous major expense category

- High financial risks for customers

- Disengaged employees

- Detrimental side effects of the product or service

If you want further explanation, you should read the article. But just by looking at these, I can find 2 bottle necks in my industry that I will aim to break...

Develop innovations in its usage environment

July's Harvard Business Review article "Engineering Reverse Innovations" explains why you shouldn't develop innovations for Developed countries and then just expect them to be successful in D&E markets with some minor adaptations. The article (which is really good, by the way) explains five design principles to showcase how to develop a product for D&E, but I would sum it up in another very basic principle - "Develop your innovation in its usage environment". Make sure that your product is suited to the way it is meant to be used by conceptual design - if you do it that way, you maximise your chances of success. And, by the way, this is not only valid for D&E - it is valid for every single market and product.

Masters of Marketing

The Apple - Taylor Swift Twitter conversation on artist rights and payment is just the latest example of Apple's mastery of marketing. Please, raise your hand if you think this just wasn't a carefully planned marketing campaign, set up to generate positive brand appreciation and bombastic talkability around the world.

In reality, Apple is brilliant at managing communication which goes beyond their media investment - I would actually say, that goes "a lot beyond"! It has been able to use this ability to firmly establish itself as a cult brand, that makes media work for it, instead of paying for media space.

I think this Taylor Swift Twitter conversation is a good example. But another one is the way Apple leaks information to news agencies, newspapers, TVs, bloggers about new products or new features is amazing, and makes the market eager to understand what is coming, to discuss about it, is it useful for me, is it breakthrough, do I want it - it creates discussion and anxiety in the news and that is then cascaded to the people that read news, independently of the media.

Apple sets their conferences up to be events, not presentations - they are trully shows, with their new products at the center of it. They are televised moments, followed by millions of people throughout the world through internet live streaming - it is an enviable audience! And there is no clutter on the message - it is all about Apple and what their products can do for the consumer!

Also the way capacity is planned for innovation, letting people be waiting for a few days, especially in their early iPhone launches, helped to create a myth of unreachability - these products are not for everyone, you need to pay and wait, do an extra effort, which, if you think about it, just sets Aple products apart from any easily reachable product. You don't just go to a store and buy it.

(Oh! The functionality of the stores... But so many people wrote already about it - I will not even go there, but they just hint at how technologically advanced and consumer focused is Apple.)

And, last but not least. The cheer functionality and consumer / user focus on their product, all of them designed from a system perspective to be easy, friendly and connected to other Apple products - it seems to easy, it is so logical, and it creates such a positive communication and talkability among users. Again, an ocean could be written on how Apple products are designed to be just a part of the consumer.

Apple is a master in marketing - I would say it is the best in the world and its brilliancy and managing all the product mix and communication, focusing on the consumer, that sets it apart. From minute 1.