Toronto – Ontario
Never did I think that someone deserved or could have the title: “King of Branding”. Yet yesterday I was summoned to a performance from the royal court of advertising at Koerner Hall, where Martin Lindstrom, Time Magazine’s 2009 Most Influential Person of the Year, was giving a speech regarding his new book Brandwashed. Martin came to Toronto to lay down the law on the advertising/marketing world, whats wrong with it, whats good about it, what works, what doesn’t, and most importantly provide insight into his own personal research about Brands and their affect on our lives. I will share with you some of these insights because they are honestly too good to enjoy on your own.
Do not do unto others as Jobs would do unto Microsoft
Firstly, a little background on Mr. Lindstrom would be in order. He is a self admitted Lego maniac who was one of few children actually employed by Lego to advertise their brand to other children. After Lego he spent 30 years in the advertising world building up some of the most prominent brands you see today. Nowadays Lindstrom has made the change from influencing consumers to being a consumer advocate. As admitted in his speech he did some bad in the marketing world (didn’t explain what) but now he is using his powers for good.
Lindstrom predicated his speech on the basis that although we believe ourselves to be rational, throughout our daily lives we make irrational decisions sometimes in response to advertising stimulus or preconceptions that we have as a result of advertising. Being a curious guy Lindstrom decided that talking to us regular folks would not give him the answers he needed, instead he turned to science to solve some of the “irrational” decisions that consumers make. In fact he turned to modern MRI technology to scan the brain patterns of consumers as they react to various ads.
His most interesting project was mapping the similarities between peoples interaction with brands vs that of religion. His research was backed up by two years of traveling around the world researching major religions and brands, along with quantitative data from MRI scans. The results helped him to create a matrix based on the four elements of: Ritual, Sense of Belonging, Story Telling, and Clear Vision, there are sub headings for each element to create a total of 10 tenets to follow. Essentially if a company can “tick” all 10 boxes they have earned themselves a license to print money.
Lindstrom then discussed some effective forms of advertising. Despite the latest craze over social media Lindstrom pointed out that word of mouth is still the most effective in influencing consumer behavior. He suggested that in the future it will not be uncommon for companies to use “seeders” or undercover brand ambassadors to promote products to friends and families. He said its already happening, remember the I-Phone that was forgotten at a bar before its launch? Or even how Lindstrom himself was employed by Lego? There is even a movie about it called The Joneses an idea that Lindstrom replicated in real life called The Morgansons.
If you blink -Lindstrom will sell you this book.
He also dropped some serious branding knowledge about an idea he coined, “the smashable”. “WTF is that you ask?”, a smashable is a part of your product, that when separated from the whole product is still recognizable as an intrinsic part of the main product. Think for example, Apple head phones, or McDonald’s Golden Arches. He said the smashables are some of the most important elements of brand building and recognition.
Lindstrom’s talk was engaging and very powerful, but it was also worrying. He touched on a Filipino chocolate company that targeted pregnant woman with coffee flavoured candy. These children showed a preference for chocolate by the age of 2, the youngest ever documented. This is a target market that cannot even breathe on its own yet.
The use of statistics was common throughout Lindstrom’s speech, the accuracy of his research was not discussed so one cannot help but take it at face value. It clearly shows a worrying trend where science has begun to track and influence consumer behavior to a degree not yet been seen. However, lets not forget that advertising has become a tough game, companies cannot reach the average consumer as before and the consumer is more empowered and informed. So while the companies are getting smarter the consumer is not making it easy.
Lindstrom based many of his conclusions on scientific research that he conducted, but I can’t help and remember that at the beginning of his speech he mentioned, “On average companies now spend about 7 billion a year on R&D, and despite this 9 of 10 products fail.” Now that he did all his research will it be worth the money?
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