I was at a big brand advertising and marketing conference recently in the heart of the largest market in the world. Mid town Manhattan in New York city. Several prominent and established players in the world of marketing were rubbing shoulders with their peers trying to latch on to ideas of what makes a particular brand great.
Coca Cola to Facebook to Google to Apple dominated the presentation landscape. While it turns out that these venues become a freebie opportunity to these already large brands to showcase their advertisements for a couple of hours in front of an audience already mesmerized by their success, they do little to actually teach the secret recipe of what truly drives that success for them.
I suppose in hind sight there is no secret recipe as it is sheer luck that today's most powerful brands or entities have been able to attract and retain the right mix of people (I mean that is the Biggest Wildcard there is) to continuously grow and stay ahead of their competition.
Be that as it may I was trying to understand how it is that the following ideas can be viewed in limited scope or expanded on to appreciate the difference in impact they have had on society. Marketers have done a fantastic job of conveying the broad message to the consumer and the latter seems to have acknowledged it for better or worse.
1. Coca Cola - according to their own marketing pundit is the second most recognized symbol or logo after the Crucifix. I can imagine consuming one is close to a religious experience to the fanatics. How is carbonate high fructose corn syrup in a bottle so popular? What makes it different than its competition and how is it that it is recognized by people in 150 countries that may speak a totally different language and have distinct cultural and economic background?
2. Starbucks - Same concept - except the focus is on instant caffeine in a disposable cup as opposed to bubbles in a bottle - global appeal and a status symbol - aspirational brand etc etc.
3. Apple - nice computers and phones - game changer in this case to an extent in making information access sexy. But the most valuable company in the world? Can you eat an iPad?
4. Facebook - this is my favorite - 20% of the current world population has an account on this platform and 20% of that total tends to access that platform for over an hour a day. Have people suddenly discovered the concept of networking or is that just savvy marketing?
What it all boils down to in the words of the same marketers as to what they are selling - a LIFESTYLE.
It took me a while to appreciate that notion in its entirety and still today I am not sold being brand agnostic to a hilt myself. But then again I am a minority in the scheme of 7B humans that crowd the rock.
It reminds me of Osho Rajneesh - a man truly ahead of his time in many ways - definitely was in India so much so that he could have got terminated. So he found more pleasurable pasture in some wooded hillside of OREGON USA to make his long term home. He marketed JOY to the WORLD in his own style and was fairly successful in his own right with a formula that involved consensual sex with like minded partners coupled with hallucinogenic chemicals consumed under an honor system. It was called an ASHRAM.
What Lindsay would give for an hour at that place over a Venti Low Fat Soy Milk Macchiato at a local Starbucks?
Coca Cola to Facebook to Google to Apple dominated the presentation landscape. While it turns out that these venues become a freebie opportunity to these already large brands to showcase their advertisements for a couple of hours in front of an audience already mesmerized by their success, they do little to actually teach the secret recipe of what truly drives that success for them.
I suppose in hind sight there is no secret recipe as it is sheer luck that today's most powerful brands or entities have been able to attract and retain the right mix of people (I mean that is the Biggest Wildcard there is) to continuously grow and stay ahead of their competition.
Be that as it may I was trying to understand how it is that the following ideas can be viewed in limited scope or expanded on to appreciate the difference in impact they have had on society. Marketers have done a fantastic job of conveying the broad message to the consumer and the latter seems to have acknowledged it for better or worse.
1. Coca Cola - according to their own marketing pundit is the second most recognized symbol or logo after the Crucifix. I can imagine consuming one is close to a religious experience to the fanatics. How is carbonate high fructose corn syrup in a bottle so popular? What makes it different than its competition and how is it that it is recognized by people in 150 countries that may speak a totally different language and have distinct cultural and economic background?
2. Starbucks - Same concept - except the focus is on instant caffeine in a disposable cup as opposed to bubbles in a bottle - global appeal and a status symbol - aspirational brand etc etc.
3. Apple - nice computers and phones - game changer in this case to an extent in making information access sexy. But the most valuable company in the world? Can you eat an iPad?
4. Facebook - this is my favorite - 20% of the current world population has an account on this platform and 20% of that total tends to access that platform for over an hour a day. Have people suddenly discovered the concept of networking or is that just savvy marketing?
What it all boils down to in the words of the same marketers as to what they are selling - a LIFESTYLE.
It took me a while to appreciate that notion in its entirety and still today I am not sold being brand agnostic to a hilt myself. But then again I am a minority in the scheme of 7B humans that crowd the rock.
It reminds me of Osho Rajneesh - a man truly ahead of his time in many ways - definitely was in India so much so that he could have got terminated. So he found more pleasurable pasture in some wooded hillside of OREGON USA to make his long term home. He marketed JOY to the WORLD in his own style and was fairly successful in his own right with a formula that involved consensual sex with like minded partners coupled with hallucinogenic chemicals consumed under an honor system. It was called an ASHRAM.
What Lindsay would give for an hour at that place over a Venti Low Fat Soy Milk Macchiato at a local Starbucks?
How did they market the conference to you?
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