The Engaging Brand

Show 323 - Brand Driven Innovation

Show 323 of The Engaging Brand leadership and marketing podcast is ready just for you. To subscribe or listen for free, you don't need to download anything and all explained at the end of the post.

Erik Roscam Abbing, is a consultant and teacher in design management, with a strong focus on bringing together the disciplines of branding, innovation and design. Erik, founder of Zilver Brand-Driven Innovation and a teacher at the school of Industrial Design at the Technological University of Delft, Netherlands, joins Anna Farmery on The Engaging Brand podcast to talk about Brand Driven Innovation

• What is the difference between branding, design and innovation
• Are the three concepts independent or co-dependent?
• Are branding, design and innovation functional or intrinsic to the culture?
• Are branding, innovation and design goals in themselves or should they be a by product or outcome of other goals?
• Should we not even think about branding etc as they should be outcomes?
• What is design thinking?
• Balancing short term profitability with building the internal model of business driven innovation
• What is touchpoint orchestration?
• How the consumer experience should remain constant not the branding, innovation and design

Don't forget to subscribe to the show in iTunes or on the Blubrry site.

If you have feedback for me on the show or topics that you would like me to cover then e-mail me at anna@theengagingbrand.com or join me on twitter.

How you can listen to the Engaging Brand

1) You can listen on your PC now without downloading any software just click hear to listen to the latest marketing podcast

2) You can subscribe to the show via iTunes or

3) If you use a different podcatcher then you can subscribe using the following RSS Feed

When you just don't want to be average.....

When we are young, we learn new skills by mimicking others.

In fact when you think of child prodigies you think of the expertise of a child appearing to be as good as an adult....therefore copying the skill of the adult.

But as people develop, the difference between achieving the ultimate recognition and remaining at a fixed level...is learning that

"mimicking helps you gain those basic skills but it is the way that you express your own individuality that creates that special talent"

Whether a brand, a leader, a company, a manager, a service.....never forget the originality is the difference between mimicking averageness and something special enough to demand a premium.

Show 322 - Terms of Engagement

Show 322 of The Engaging Brand leadership and marketing podcast is ready just for you. To subscribe or listen for free, you don't need to download anything and all explained at the end of the post.

Dick Axelrod who before founding the The Axelrod Group, was an organization development manager for General Foods, - the first company in America to use self-directed work teams, joins Anna Farmery on The Engaging Brand podcast to talk about the Terms of Engagement.

• Do change initiatives need an 'engaging culture' before they start or can you develop them?
• Do you need engagement for both evolutionary and revolutionary change?
• How to pass the test as a leader of change.
• How to create change conversations and why...
• Why and how to connect people
• How to balance pleasing everyone and listening to everyone!
• How to create community
• How human brains respond to threats and rewards.
• How to create positive triggers in the brain
• How a healthy company responds continuously to its environment.
• How people don't need to like change...they need to understand change!

 

Don't forget to subscribe to the show in iTunes or on the Blubrry site.

If you have feedback for me on the show or topics that you would like me to cover then e-mail me at anna@theengagingbrand.com or join me on twitter.

How you can listen to the Engaging Brand

1) You can listen on your PC now without downloading any software just click hear to listen to the latest marketing podcast

2) You can subscribe to the show via iTunes or

3) If you use a different podcatcher then you can subscribe using the following RSS Feed

Whats wrong with the idea of shared value

Surprised? I mean I talk a lot about sharing, even more about values...the new capitalist model on the last Engaging Brand podcast was about a closer tie between capitalism and society....so why do I think the idea is wrong?

Well, I don't believe the idea is wrong but how companies approach this concept...they either

• Have a strong sense of what THEY want to sell and therefore tell you how they are sharing value when they mean we are sharing our value. Shared value must be like a diamond. It is one value which is seen differently by individual consumers. Too often the shared values are one dimensional, rather than multi dimensional.....allowing the consumer to understand them in the way they want to...rather than being told how to....
• Shared must - for me - be two way with an equality of respect. Traditional advertising and marketing is not two way, the creativity comes when you can advertise and market your ideas together with consumers rather than at or to the consumers.
• Value for a consumer has a different definition than to the company. The consumer looks for personal benefit, the company thinks in terms of profit rather than personal benefit for the consumer, which then generates profit.

Shared value based on shared values....creates valuable shares! But in order to create the value...you need to learn to share, you need to learn to value your consumers who share!

Ideas on How to Think Differently - Pt 4

Part 4 of the ideas on how to think differently blog posts...here are the links to the previous three.

The world is still struggling to get through the recession, though I smile sometimes that suddenly a recession makes you look at cost and value...mmm...shouldn't that be at the heart of all you do even in great times! 

But cost should not restrict creativity, indeed I feel strongly that cost can increase creativity. Having money makes things easy, and easy doesn't help creativity and it doesn't necessarily make a better product. 

Michael Eisner the former head of Disney does not believe that throwing money at a venture breeds creativity. He likes to describe the need for creativity in a box - ie creativity but one that must come in on budget. He tells of the Raiders of the Lost Ark. This was a film that had been rejected many times but they decided to go ahead with it - on a strict budget.

Harrison Ford on the day of the sword fight was ill - and kept running to the toilet. They could not afford the delay with the filming - so changed the scene from a sword fight to Harrison Ford getting his pistol out and shooting the guy! This became a famous comic scene and added to the film...the creativity was forced on them by constraints.

Embrace restriction....even when there isn't one! Because cutting the money can increase the value to both you and more importantly the customer.

Ideas on How to Think Differently - Pt 3

Last week I started to share ideas on how to create a culture of thinking differently. To check out last weeks ideas -  Idea 1 Idea 2.

When I was reading Umair's book - New Capitalist Manifesto,  one quote which really stood out was " disrupt yourself...before your competitor does".

So idea 3

Why not either

a) Have a half day or session with your team to create your competitor's business. How would you start a new business which would knock your socks off....then use the ideas for your own!

or

b) If you can afford it why not put a team of people onto creating a fabulous competitor. Give them a separate unit to run and let them give you a run for your money. You could also challenge the local college or University students to do it as part of their development.

Show 321 - Do we need a new capitalist model

Show 321 of The Engaging Brand leadership and marketing podcast is ready just for you. To subscribe or listen for free, you don't need to download anything and all explained at the end of the post.

Umair Haque, Director of the Havas Media Lab and author of The New Capitalist Manifesto: Building a Disruptively Better Business  joins Anna Farmery on The Engaging Brand podcast to talk about how we need to take a new look at the capitalist model and how business can succeed by renewing the capitalism model. We talk about

• Is the capitalist model past its prime

• How the institutions need to evolve to allow a new capitalism
• How capital now needs to become the by product of business not the ultimate goal
• What is thin value?
• Do we need meaningless products to compensate for our capitalist culture?
• How to disrupt yourself...before your competitor does
• Its not about being incremental but radical...look to see how you can complete the marketplace
• The 3 different values to create in the future:- sustainable, meaningful and authentic.

Don't forget to subscribe to the show in iTunes or on the Blubrry site.

If you have feedback for me on the show or topics that you would like me to cover then e-mail me at anna@theengagingbrand.com or join me on twitter.

How you can listen to the Engaging Brand

1) You can listen on your PC now without downloading any software just click hear to listen to the latest marketing podcast

2) You can subscribe to the show via iTunes or

3) If you use a different podcatcher then you can subscribe using the following RSS Feed

Ideas on how to Think Differently - Idea 2

Yesterday I set out the first idea of how to think differently, how to change the mindset of your company if it is stuck in a rut...or if it wants to continue evolving so that it never gets into the rut in the first place. Today...

Idea 2

Why not hold meetings whilst you take a walk? Health and staying healthy is integral to great work and natural light is key to creativity. I like doing this because it allows a more natural, a more informal style of meeting. I find people open up more and you can cover so much more in 20 minutes. 

Before anyone says but what about people who can't walk, no problem I still went outside to the local park or to a local cafe.

Meetings do not need tables or flipcharts...they need engagement and a break through of those barriers which prevent people from speaking honestly. They need people to speak to people, not job titles to speak to other 'functions'.

Ideas on How to Think Differently

When I am in businesses there are some general concepts that span the issues which I help companies overcome...one is how to engage people, another is how to generate ideas and another is how to develop talent. 

So I thought over the next few days I would suggest little, tiny steps which can help start to develop a culture that is not standard, that ignites people to think differently.

Idea 1

Why not stop meetings which last an hour or half hour? If you really need a meeting (you know my phobia!) then hold it for 11 minutes, 28 minutes or 47 minutes....just pick a number....start on time and finish when the alarm goes off....

It illustrates to people that you are not standard, your life is not run by your computer diary!! And change the time on each occasion.....

 

Have you famously failed..?

I often read Success magazine as a antidote to all the bad news. There was a section recently on famous failures which I thought I would share with you.

Life can sometimes be hard, life can sometimes drain you of every ounce of energy...but I have always believed that life does this to check whether you are really committed to an idea, really committed to achieving it...

Greatness is not about perfection, greatness comes when you overcome those imperfections of life!

Here are 3 examples of famous failures

1. Babe Ruth in his pursuit of the home run record, achieved the record for the most strikeouts! Saying "Each strike brings me closer to the next home run"
2. Winston Churchill lost every election for public office until he become prime minister...."never give in"
3. Michael Jordan was once cut from his high school basketball team...."I've failed over and over again in life. That is why I succeed."