Brands, Business and BS

I was thrilled to be asked to talk to students, alumni, staff and select friends last week at Leeds University Business School, as part of their Corporate Wisdom series, where together we sorted some of the business from the BS in the world of brands.  I was even joined by one of our Unit4 clients who came in from Harrogate.  Lots of smart people, lots of smart questions....and lots of contact afterwards from attendees who agreed that strategic brand management needs to be more central to the curricula of business schools.  

I was particularly honoured as, unknown to me, I was the last in the Corporate Wisdom series for that year, and the last under the watchful eye of John March, Senior Teaching Fellow in Strategic Management, who retired last week.  Thanks for having me, John and team.  

Mizuno touches the soul

I’ve been really impressed with Mizuno Golf of late. Let me set the scene.

Firstly, full disclosure. I’m a golfer. Not a good one, not a bad one either (10 handicap, for those that care).

Secondly, a bit of history.  25 odd years ago many of the pros played Mizuno irons.  Then the big dollar brand endorsements started coming into golf, and Mizuno couldn’t compete to the same extent.  They lost their way as the Ping, Callaway, Titleist, Nike and other better funded brands promised performance: straighter, further, higher, easier to hit. Golf became a power-driven arms race that no one wanted to lose. 

Mizuno was known for “blade” irons.  For those non-golfers reading this, blades are thin, small and hard to hit.  Think of the difference between hitting a baseball bat and a tennis racket. A baseball bat is wonderful when struck out the middle but much harder to hit, whereas a tennis racket has a trampoline-like sweet spot which is much bigger.  While the golfing world went ‘tennis racket’, Mizuno stuck to ‘baseball bat’ (or at least that was what they were known for).  Those who were good enough to hit them (eg professionals) loved them because they’re consistent and you got better feel and control, but increasingly these pros were contracted to other brands.

Mizuno was drifting off the golf scene, but I’m pleased to say they are back and it’s impressive.  Let’s look at the strategy. 

Perhaps getting that they couldn’t go toe to toe on pure power, Mizuno has taken a different approach, based on a simple insight. They get golfing aspiration. Golfers don’t just want to admire the professionals, we want to play golf like them. We want to know what goes through their mind, we want to be reassured that they’re human as well. Those blade irons?  We’d love to be good enough to hit them, and maybe, just maybe if we buy the right set, we’ll put in the practice that will make them worthwhile.

So here are three things that Mizuno are doing brilliantly that is setting them apart in golf and tapping into that golfing aspiration.

In a category dominated by technology, they celebrate craftsmanship. Their clubs are objects of beauty and desire, with a great story of steel forging in Japan, of Turbo that master craftsman and of the feel of hitting a ball that is routinely described as 'buttery'. See the video below....

Rather than celebrity endorsement, they go for celebrity intimacy.  Nick Faldo, Luke Donald, Chris Wood, all talk in a very down to earth human way about playing with the clubs.  You feel with them, next to them…and as a result much more emotionally connected to them. Nick Faldo – sorry, Sir Nick Faldo - is not everyone’s cup of tea, but listening to the almost child-like excitement with which he talks about when his clubs came back from Japan in 1990 is infectious.

And, in a category dominated by power, they focus on feel and control.  They’re not the longest clubs, and they’re certainly not the easiest to hit. But when you do hit a great shot with a Mizuno blade you know it’s going to feel amazing and precise. 

Nothing Feels Like A Mizuno sums it all up: a golf brand positioned around control, touch, feel and the players craft, rather than power.  The story builds on their heritage, and sets them apart from Callaway, Ping, Titleist et al, and taps into a deep, emotionally-charged space of golfing aspiration that most golfers recognise.  And it is brought to life with a compelling and beautiful set of content that keeps golfers dreaming of being good enough to actually play with their stunning looking clubs.

HEARTS ON SLEEVE

“And then I went to Rochdale”. I’ve been lucky enough to work with the lovely people at the Workers’ Educational Association on and off for over a year now, and I suspect every one of them has heard me use this phrase at some point.

In the first few weeks of working with them, I had tried to get under the skin of the brand.  I wanted to know who they were, what made them tick.  I wanted to know how they were different.  I wanted to know where their soul lay.  I could sense there was a tremendous sense of purpose but that it was hidden.  I’d looked in vain at the website and the collateral and the impact report that listed the statistics of how many students have improved outcomes as a result of passing through the WEA.  There was no pulse, I wasn’t feeling it.

“I need to go out into the field”, I said to James Ward, who is the director of marketing, membership and income at the WEA.  He quickly lined me up with visits to a number of sites around the country – the WEA has hundreds of points of presence throughout England and Scotland – and I went out to Southampton, Ipswich, Manchester, Edinburgh…and then I went to Rochdale.

I don’t need to tell you any more.  We made a film about it...

The WEA is thriving in Rochdale explains tutor Rehana. "Why? The community needs us and supports us...it means so much to them. Some are now becoming tutors and volunteers because of their passion and their commitment. Everyone involved feel they are part of the WEA community".

“You’ve had an emotion by-pass” I remember saying to the senior management team at the WEA when I came back and presented my findings to them last year.  They agreed and we’ve gone about trying to fix that.  This week the WEA relaunched itself, with its heart proudly on its sleeve and with the simple idea at the core of it all – that the WEA provides adult education that’s within reach.  Within reach in terms of convenience as they are in 2300 communities across the country; and within reach in terms of the non-judgmental way it welcomes students and teaches them. 

It’s been a real honour to have played a part in helping make it happen.  You can read more about the journey the WEA is on here.

Update

It's been a great few weeks.  I've been having a lot of fun naming and positioning a spin off from a county council.  The positioning work evolved into giving the various teams a collective purpose, something they all felt represented them and they could all believe in, but which also had commercial value.  We've been crowdsourcing the naming, which has been fun and involved a variety of physical and virtual workshops  It's reminded me that people can be amazingly creative if you create the right conditions and give the right stimulus.

I've been working for a big multinational on messaging.  It's just been me on this project, but it's been really challenging to try and unite the various parts of the business around a common framework.  It hasn't been fast, but I think we're nearing the finish line.

I had the great honour last month of being the 'continuity host' at the WEA's membership conference (think Dermott O'Leary on X Factor, but without the dress sense, looks and banter).  This was quite something.  We had various speakers and workshops and the conference was streamed from Leeds into 6 remote locations around the country.  The WEA does amazing work in adult education.  At a point where we can see a future with various jobs becoming redundant (industries changing, dying, relocating, jobs replaced by machines, etc) it's essential we all keep learning, especiaily those in low skilled roles.  It fills you with hope to hear the stories of people who were at rock bottom but, through the transformative power of education, regained their confidence and self-repsect and pulled themselves upwards.  Ruth Spellman, the CEO, said some very kind words about me at the end to everyone who attended.  There's some lovely video work Ive done with the talented tea at Short Form that I'll share as soon as it's made public.

And I've had two former clients come back and ask for some extra help which is always pleasing.  

Olix will be two years at the end of August.  Where has the time gone?

GE Predix

I've started a review of Predix and it's turning into something much more deep and fascinating.  In particular it is interesting to read older articles, to see which of the predictions that GE spokesmen and trade commentators made have come to fruition. For now, I've posted here but get in touch if you want the full version.

GE and how to manage B2B brands

I love GE and they way they manage their brand.  See some observations I made this morning having read the CEO's letter to shareholders.  What I didn't talk about was Predix, GE's operating system for the industrial internet.  In a world where more and more we talk about platforms and ecosystems, it becomes harder to tell your own story.  So, rather than trying to tell a better story, GE has built its own platform.  It's a bit like a writer deciding that the best way to engage with readers is not to write a better book, but to open a bookshop.  Clever!  More to come on that in another post.

"Alexa, stop responding to ads about yourself!"

Read about my excitement and misgivings over one of my Christmas presents this year.  https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/alexa-stop-responding-ads-yourself-fred-burt?trk=prof-post

How to better integrate

I posted today on integration.  It's a huge challenge, and one that involves a different set of skills than simply communicating because it lives or dies on your success in involving the organisation.  Understanding the organisation, how it works, where the blocks are, what the opportunities for engaging them are, what bring the brand life might mean in their world, etc etc.  No wonder I'm finding our work sitting alongside HR and change management teams more and more.

WHY OLIX?

Wow, it’s been a hell of a summer.  I was hoping to ease off over August, but it went the other way. It’s what my wonderful former CFO used to call a high quality problem, and of course I’m thrilled with the work.  A consequence of all this has been posting silence, so I’m trying to get back on it.

But I did have a couple of weeks off and took stock on where we’ve been successful and where we need to work harder.  It seems there is one over-riding reason why our clients like Olix: it’s that we shape our teams to their problems, and not the other way around.  Too many are fed up with having agencies twist the brief to fit their own spare capacity.  We don’t have spare capacity, so we’re able to focus entirely on the business problem at hand.

What does this mean in practise?  It starts with me.  I know what I can do and what I can’t.  So if I can help a client I will, if not I’ll try to introduce them to someone who can.  Then I deliver what I can for clients, but I know where my skills end and where I need help.  If I need help I find brilliant partners: writers, designers, photographers, video producers, researchers, data analysts, amazing people and partner firms who leave me in awe at what they can do…and they knock the socks off my clients.  All of which makes Olix look good in the process, which is lovely.

It sounds simple…and it is, in truth.  I don’t know if I’ve reinvented the agency or consultancy model here, but it’s certainly working for now.

Always learning

Olix has been working with the Workers Educational Association (WEA) over the last couple of months.  The WEA are a fantastic organisation, providing adult education across the country, reaching out into parts of society that aren’t served by traditional higher or further educational establishments.  It’s also an organisation whose time has come around again, being driven by a strong social purpose.  With course content around Culture, Health and Wellbeing, Community Engagement and Employability, they are doing amazing work to represent some of the most fundamental learning needs of people living in Britain’s diverse communities.

The 1992 Further and Higher Education Act established entities called Special Designated Institutions – SDIs for short – as part of a broader review of adult education and the WEA is one of 9 of these SDIs.  In the 1990s the Act was fresh in politicians’ minds, and so a name referencing the organisations’ genesis made some sense, but over time the SDIs (rightly) stopped focusing on where they had come from and started focusing on where they were going, and what their purpose was.  Meanwhile colleagues and partners were increasingly asking what an SDI was, and so collectively they agreed that a new, more relevant name was needed.

That’s where Olix came in.  We developed the name and logo in two weeks.  We were clear:  keep it simple, keep it descriptive, keep it anchored in what makes you all special. Without any marketing support anything else would be counter-productive.  An apparently simple task then, but finding an answer that all 9 organisations could rally around was not easy. 

With our guidance a solution was found.  So goodbye Specialist Designated Institutions, hello Institutes for Adult Learning.  The name and logo was launched in conjunction with a report commissioned by the All Party Parliamentary Group for Adult Education, calling for a cohesive national strategy for adult education last month (July 6th).

A final point here, one often missed.  This work won’t win creative awards.  But it’s the right solution for the organisations in question.  I think we often overlook the practical, unsexy-but-effective solutions that we as brand practitioners quite rightly put in place for our clients. 

http://www.wea.org.uk/news-events/news/new-research-warwick-university-calls-urgent-action-adult-education

https://www.tes.com/news/further-education/breaking-news/adult-education-could-disappear-2020-report-warns

Summary report – not designed by us - can be found here:  http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/ier/research/adult_education/adult_education_too_important_to_be_left_summary3.pdf

People-based brand experience

I’ve been busy in the last few weeks working for a charity and two large B2B multinationals.  They have more in common than you might think.  The multinationals have thousands of employees they need to re-orientate around a sharper go-to-market strategy.  The charity has thousands of participants (I use this word to protect their anonymity) who engage with their end users in order to deliver what they do.  What they have in common is that their key ‘delivery mechanism’ if you will is people.  Their people interact with other people to create an impression. 

No matter where I wander, professionally speaking, I always seem to come back to the centrality of the brand owner’s people in brand strategy (with the notable exception of FMCG brands).  Do our people understand the brand?  Are they clear on how their behaviour contributes to the delivery of a brand experience?

I’ll share a story from a few years ago.  I was working with a chemicals business, highly B2B, selling adhesives and pre-treatments to various industry  verticals.  They had 150 product brands that they needed rationalising, and thought this would clarify their value in the market place.  But, as we working with them, we stumbled on a lovely story about an account manager who had been talking to an automotive client.  The account manager realised that the residual value (ie the second hand price) of your car after, say, 18 months had an impact on the new price you were likely to pay.  If the value was likely to depreciate rapidly, you’d be less willing to pay a premium.  So the longer the car could look new, the better the new price for the manufacturer.  And so the more the paint could maintain it’s ‘new look’ shine the better the new price for the manufacturer.  We might be able to help there, he said, by treating your metal work with a pre-coating that will ensure the nice shiny paint adheres to the body of the car better and maintains its ‘integrity’ longer.

The point I’m making here is that the value in this exchange was not in the product, but in the intelligence and responsiveness of the account manager.  A seemingly low value, downstream exercise, immediately created upstream value to the client.  The automotive client’s loyalty was firmly rooted from that point in the company brand (those smart people from Company X) not the product brand, as a result of the human interaction.  Bottle that, I said to the client, embed it across the whole of your business, and stop worrying about your product brands.

More and more brands are waking up to the power of their brand to guide and energise their people, and that this in turn is a key driver of business value.  In particular businesses that are undergoing significant digital transformation  need a compelling reason to persuade new talent (eg software developers) to join them and not to go to Google, Facebook or some sort of start up.  If you want to learn more about people-based brand strategy, go to my very smart former team mates at People Made (http://www.people-made.com) as they spend all their time thinking and working with their clients on this basis and have a lot of good content to review.

IFS launches Olix work

It’s thrilling when your work hits the market, and so I’m very proud that IFS has started to roll out the WHAT’S NEXT platform, developed by Olix Consulting working in partnership with Ian Styles and the team at Verbal Identity.  IFS is a global enterprise software business, headquartered in Sweden, that we’ve been working with.  They’re fantastic people to work with, passionate about their product and deeply caring about the verticals they operate in.  

We’ve developed a communications platform that gives them a visual and verbal framework to better tie together the various brand-building activities they undertake.  

As with many clients, ease of implementation was a key consideration, so we have developed something that is easy to implement, simple to use with a variety of visual assets, and impactful.

Part of our project deliverables included an approach to verbal tone of voice and narrative structure, including a simple framework that helps IFS writers structure longer-form text – something they use a lot to explain their products, services, and point of view – in a way that supports the WHAT’S NEXT idea.

We’ve also been hands on with implementation and created the ad that has appeared in yesterday's Sunday Times Raconteur supplement with the UK marketing team (see above for a screen shot from my phone).  This was relatively simple to put together because the foundation was set…which is what a strong platform should do, of course. 

IFS is in the process of rolling the platform out globally and we expect to see many more touchpoints influenced by the work we’ve done.  IFS team, thanks for being great clients, looking forward to helping make the work count for the business in the coming months.

Flying time

It's with some shock that I've spotted that nearly 3 months have passed since my last post here.  By way of explanation, if not excuse, we've been busy, working on projects as varied as a UK charity, a large multinational engineering group and a stately home.   More very soon, I promise.

Trump, autoerotic asphyxiation and brands.

It's hard to fathom how the Trumpdozer is ploughing his way through the American political system, but he is.  Some observations on my Linkedin channel this morning here

BrandFinance 2016 Forum

I try to be selective about the conferences I go to, as they take time out of one's working day.  It annoys me when lazy conference organisers allow speakers to talk on anything, and then they stand up and give a thinly-veiled pitch.  As a participant, especially a fee paying participant, you can feel robbed.  That being said, when you filter out the pitches and try and sift for nuggets of insight, the presentations can be instructive, and can help reinforce - or challenge - your thinking in a constructive way.  So it was at the BrandFinance Forum last week (although I was grateful for the freebie from David Haigh).  I summed up my takeaways here

How the UK Labour Party intends to fix its brand

I'm not particularly political, but I am fascinated by the challenge the Labour Party in the UK is currently facing.  Beaten by a surprisingly comfortable margin in the last election, they're going through an identity crisis.  It's similar to the angst I've seen with a number of big-but-struggling clients that I've worked with before.  This is how the Labour Party diagnoses its own shortcomings.

Renaming fish

I recently posted here on some fish renaming that caught my attention.  My points were light-hearted, but I was actually shocked to discover just how 'effective' some of these renaming exercises had been.  The Patagonian Toothfish went from being ignored to near-extinct thanks to being renamed the Chilean Sea Bass.  Anyway, read on, and you decide whether to laugh or cry...

All I want for Christmas...is proof

I'm in a festive mood so apologies for the cheesy headline.  To make it up to you, here's an early Christmas present in the form of some hard evidence that emotion matters in B2B.  I’ve outlined why I think this is important and useful in my Linkedin post here.  Thanks to Al Hussain at Verbal Identity, with whom I’ve been working recently, for bringing to my attention. Get in touch if you want the white paper.

Tend, don't raze

I like the guys at Transform Magazine.  Andrew Thomas, their fearless leader, is one of those unstoppable people that keeps going when others would give up, and he's achieved a huge amount with limited resources and in a relatively short space of time.  So I'm always happy to help out when I can, and so I spoke to Emily Andrews extensively here.  

I felt her starting premise was too pro-change: that brands need to be put down rather than perked up. As you'll read, I felt otherwise...

Lunching and learning

No profound thoughts in this post, but I’m feeling good about work at the moment so I thought I would write.  Today I had the pleasure of getting the current team working with me together for a session on one of our bigger clients.  They’re all amazing, and bring a mix of talents to the table…which is exactly what I hoped for when I set up Olix. 

A couple of things struck me.

Ideas need to stay open for as long as possible.  If you come into a working session closed-minded about an idea, you’ll spend your whole time defending it and not building it.  We started the day with some good thoughts and executions, and these morphed into something really exciting.  We had some debates, but they were never fights, everyone was listening, trying to find solutions.  The outcome was real progress.  Of course, you can only do this if dedicate real time to a client (but then that’s what we do here at Olix).

The value of lunch.  I made lunch for everyone.  Those of you who know me will know I like cooking, but this was an opportunity to stop, get around the table, talk together about the work, but also about other things.  It was a simple soup, salad and water affair, nothing fancy.   We all talked, listened, asked what we were all up to at Christmas, that sort of thing.  The corporate al desko lunch has taken these important moments of bonding out of our working days, and I think teams – so important for good work - are the weaker for it. 

So nourished intellectually and physically, I better get back to the work.  We’ve got an exciting presentation to build….