Featured Section • Page 491 of 523 •

Martin Lindstrom on Brandwashing and the consumer revolution

by Mandy de Waal (@mandyldewaal) Take a look at how angry consumers are getting in banks and what’s gone down in Wall Street. Seen a consumer revolution on Facebook or insurgence on Twitter lately? If you’re a big brand that’s been manipulating consumers for longer than you can remember, perhaps now’s the time to be nervous. Mandy de Waal speaks to Martin Lindstrom, author of ‘Brandwashed’ – a book in which the marketing guru turns the heat on his own industry, drawing on all he has witnessed behind closed doors to expose the psychological tricks and traps that companies use to get consumers’ hard earned cash.

Mandy de Waal: Consumers are taking action against greed and what they see as the perversion of capitalism. What does this mean for brands and branding?
Martin Lindstrom: Brands should get their ‘house in order’ soon, rather than later. I’m convinced that we’ll soon see a Wikileaks of brands – some independent organisation that will disclose trade secrets and marketing programs from companies across the world without their permission. Many companies will “survive” this as there’s simply nothing to disclose – but some will be hurt greatly because they’ve crossed the line.

MdW: What was the motivation for ‘Brandwashed’?
ML: I’ve worked in advertising since I founded my own advertising agency at the age of 12. I’ve seen a lot – and at times become disturbed about what’s going on. Admittedly I’ve been part of this, and feel the time is right to put a line in the sand and push back on some of the techniques used. Had I written a book about ethics I’m sure no-one would ever read or write about it – so I had to write a provocative, thought provoking, edgy book which grabs people attention on both sides of the table. My hope is that the consumer gets a “wake up call” and realizes that they’re probably not as “immune” as they think they are. I also hope they’ll push back on some of the topics I’m raising in the book – like privacy – which (when you read about it) is rather shocking.

In terms of companies I hope the same – over the past months I’ve been on a road tour presenting for them a new set of 10 ethical standards. These are developed by the consumers not by me – but outlines what the “future” consumer hopes / expects from brands. Here’s the good news – all companies – all belonging to the biggest in the world – have bought into these guidelines – giving me a great sense of hope that things indeed can change. I’m fine about Brandwashing people – as long as it is positive – it is when it’s negative brandwashing I start to feel uncomfortable.

Brand Journeys: MWeb – not quite ‘just like that’

For many people MWEB is still the big black box, which it launched in 1997, the same year the business was established by MIH Limited (a Naspers company). The big black box, in case you don’t get it, was a box, and black, and offered wary South Africans everything they needed to connect to the Internet via dial-up modem, with the payoff line “Just like that” (I still hear the finger snap in the background).

The commercial Internet was new, exciting, and big business was getting in on the act. The first dot com bubble had yet to burst and MWEB was spending large swathes of money buying up rival ISPs before its 1998 listing on the JSE.

Today it is a friendly consumer brand wholly owned by Naspers. Its pay-off line has changed to Connect & You Can to reflect the growing acceptance and integration of the Internet into daily lives. It serves a user base of over 300 000 subscribers (which is not that much higher than figures available for 2005 – although it has had success in converting many of those to ADSL) of whom more than 200 000 sits on ADSL. They consume 4.5 petabytes (4,500,000,000,000,000 bytes) of bandwidth per month.

Magazine covers we love (to tweet)

MarkLives.com runs a regular slot featuring the best local and international magazine covers every week. We recognise well thought out, powerful and interesting (and hopefully all three in one) magazine covers and celebrate the mix of pragmatism, creativity and personal taste that created each of them.

TechCentral readership climbs to 133 000

TechCentral, launched in September 2009 by IT journalist Duncan McLeod, has shown steady growth, averaging between 250 000 and 300 000 impressions a month. It has also been profitable from day one thanks to a lean structure put in place by McLeod, who manages the site with one other full time journalist, Craig Wilson, and with Lance Harris in charge of lighter content over the weekends.

A string of freelancers make up the rest of the team. McLeod handles sales himself.

McLeod had been at the Financial Mail for twelve years before he jumped ship, and served as technology editor at the time that he left the publication, to which he still contributes a weekly column. Having seen the decline of print in the US, especially on the newspaper front, and seeing the rise in connectivity in South Africa and the relatively low barriers of entry into online publishing, he made the leap and launched TechCentral.

The Gate Keeper (Chapter 6 In which flames re-kindle)

Tim Broadbent had run TBW Smith Jones Wallace Broadbent and Ndimande for two decades and been an active board member for almost the same time. He had been in the ad business for over 45 years and now, in the twilight of his career, the time when he should have been sinking with steady dignity into his Plett mansion and regular early morning golf, he was staring right down the barrel.

Finding answers, but not in focus groups

by Herman Manson (@marklives) Already as an advertising grad trainee at O&M in London Craig Irving realised he had little understanding of people outside his office environment. Who were these people he was thinking up campaigns to sell stuff to?

Hitting the streets with first a voice recorder and later a video camera he began finding out. His rebellion against conventional qualitative Township Youthresearch methods created a nice little profit centre at O&M, and when he wasn’t offered his share, he picked up and launched his own business, the Consumer Insights Agency (c.i.a).

Brands like Unilever, Diageo, brandhouse, Coca-Cola, FNB, Woolworths, PEP, Old Mutual and Pick n Pay have all found benefit in using the agency, which has grown to a team of 20, to gain real insight into the people who buy their products, all around Africa.

Rebuilding business trust in ad land

Arctic Circle, the maverick Cape Town agency run by Reghard Goussard, positions itself as a navigator in the changing economic and social contract brands are facing, promising to find a path out of the communication morass many brands and their agencies face today.

This under the radar agency famously lost 19 of its 20 retainers several years ago, only to rise again and reinvent itself, transforming from a design to an advertising and then a brand agency. Today it’s a business solution focussed agency with creative and production as value adds, says Goussard.

Goussard says even within the industry he is positioned as a business man rather than an ad guy, focussing on the business procedures of building a brand, and employing multi-skilled individuals with backgrounds in business rather than traditional agency people. Goussard says the role of his agency has evolved to a point where it is getting paid to source and translate market intelligence rather than just create ads.

Magazine (paper sculpture) covers we love

Brand reinvention: What Windows 8 means for Microsoft (and computing)

Debate swirling around Microsoft’s proposed Surface tablet misses the point about the significance of Windows 8, writes Arthur Goldstuck (@art2gee).

It’s almost a mantra in the computer business that you write off Microsoft at your peril. The company’s Windows operating system runs most of the world’s computers, it has tens of billions of dollars in the bank, and its Office software sets the standard for productivity tools in the working world.

Yet, it remains fashionable to predict its demise or declare it is unable to innovate and is about to be supplanted by Google or Apple.

That summed up the response to Microsoft’s announcement last month that it would release its own tablet computer, to be called the Surface. (see http://www.microsoft.com/surface/en/us/about.aspx ). Its most striking feature is a thin, touch-sensitive cover that folds out into a keyboard, with a built-in trackpad. It will run the new Windows 8 operating system, in two configurations: a lower-end version called Windows RT, and the business-oriented Windows Pro.

EXCLUSIVE: Hellocomputer – “we’ll continue to fight the fight from the inside”

Draftfcb acquired independent digital agency Hellocomputer earlier today. MarkLives talks to David Moffat, Managing Director at Hellocomputer, about the future of his agency within the Draftfcb South Africa Group (also see our interview with Draftfcb CEO John Dixon).

MarkLives: Why did you choose Draftfcb as a new corporate parent?
Moffat: Hellocomputer has been approached by most of the leading advertising networks. This possibility resonated with for a number of reasons: it’s an esteemed group with an impressive track record creatively and in terms of business performance, a culture and value structure we subscribe to, enviable clients and a management team we admire. Draftfcb has also demonstrated its belief in digital by investing in its own digital agency Mesh Interactive. We look forward to being part of a group that has built many of South Africa’s most loved brands.