State of play
If you haven’t seen it already, do check out “State of Play”, our excellent series of interviews with chief executives of some of the UK’s biggest companies.
Leaders so far: Francis Salway of Land Securities; Sir Martin Sorrell of WPP; Warren East, Arm Holdings; and Michael Smith of Mind Candy.
Tomorrow: Justin King of Sainsbury’s who has some interesting things to say on how consumer behaviour may well have changed for good as a result of the recession.
Style, inc
The new wave of luxury retailers – An interesting trend is emerging in fashion. A series of insiders – including The Sartorialist, Monocle‘s Tyler Brûlé (a columnist for this newspaper) and property developer Nic Candy, of Candy and Candy – are using their social networks to become retailers.
In the case of The Sartorialist, it builds on this idea of collaboration which I referenced in a post earlier this week about Liberty and Hermes. It also hints a new form of luxury in the post-boom. Brûlé has talked about this but could this see a move away from the idea of mass luxury to a more community-based, social network version?
Two classic brands tie the knot
An interesting branding story on how Liberty and Hermes, two classic brands, have established a partnership that maintains the right messages for each.
I wrote a few days ago on the potential pitfalls of brand association, but this seems a great idea that is innovative, creative and stylish, qualities that are all key to the bottom line for each of these companies. What’s more, this is a collaboration that seems, from the outset, to make sense. It is substantive – it’s about more than one brand slapping its logo on another – and actually suggests someone thought about what each brand can do for the other.
Using your 15 minutes to make some money
A wonderfully honest quote from Sheryl Weinstein on her business decision to write a book about her alleged extramarital affair with Bernard Madoff:
I don’t have any art. I don’t have any jewelry. What I have to sell is my story
Fair enough.
(Hat tip: Time)
For more on Madoff, check out part one of our series on how he did it.
Picks of the week
A few interesting stories I have seen in the past few days.
The potential pitfalls of brand associations
The controversial views of Glenn Beck, a television presenter and radio host in the US who has accussed President Obama of being “racist” (“This president has exposed himself as a guy over and over and over again who has a deep-seated hatred for white people.”) is leading some major advertisers to desert his programme. Procter & Gamble, Geico and Wal-Mart are just three leading brands that have apparently signed up to an advertising boycott. This is despite Beck attracting huge audiences for both his radio and television shows.
On the other side of the world, meanwhile, another company is dealing with a sponsorship that has raised thorny issues, Unilever Pakistan has found itself in a tight spot after a contestant on a reality television show it sponsors died during an event. Curiously, the news was announced by a company spokesman not by the network or programme makers.
A Free exchange of ideas
John Gapper reviewed Free: The future of a radical price, the latest book by Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired (US edition) in today’s paper.
And over on John’s blog, we have been engaging in our first ‘interactive review’ – opening up our pages to the author to respond and exchange ideas with the critic.
The discussion threw up some interesting ideas and, being the FT, they were discussed in a suitably civilised way.
I’m sure a lot of readers have thoughts on this so feel free to pitch in with your comments (registration is required but this isn’t too onerous).
Niche marketing takes it to another level
Our story in today’s paper that Mars has launched Fling, a chocolate bar targeted at women (“Naughty, but not that naughty”) is part of that contant trend among consumer goods companies to change what they produce and how they market it. Consumers are changing and the company’s selling them products are trying to keep pace with how things are evolving.
One reason, of course, is the global downturn. And to get a sense of how significant an impact it is having, you should take a look at Procter & Gamble, maker of Pampers nappies and Gillette razors. The company has decided to start making cheaper products.
Jenny Wiggins, our consumer industries correspondent, explains:
The new wave of marketing?
This video is part of a very innovative advertising campaign for True Blood, a hit series about vampires on the network HBO. The mechanics and thinking behind this viral marketing effort are explored in detail in a piece in today’s paper.
Campfire, the agency behind the campaign, has generated a lot of buzz in the industry both for its creative approach but also for managing to include so many partners in the project – no fewer than 12 different agencies, media buyers and in-house creative teams.
Could the multi-partner approach be the model for the future?
You can see all of the videos in the marketing campaign here. And you can check out Bloodcopy, their blog on Gawker here.
Italy’s Alessi is a master at using imaginative design to transform everyday objects such as kettles and toilet brushes into beautiful luxury goods.
Alberto Alessi, the design house’s CEO, applies a mathematical model to figure out whether a prototype will succeed in the marketplace.
In an interview with McKinsey (registration required), he says the first component of the formula is the degree to which a person would say “oh, what a beautiful object”.
The second is the extent to which customers could make use of the object to communicate their definition of themselves to others (i.e., show off).
The third and fourth components of the formula — and he rather glosses over these, it must be said — are function and price.
The formula doesn’t work for everything. But when we have a long history with a product, it works perfectly. If I have to evaluate a pot or a coffee maker or a kettle, for example, the score indicates exactly the number of pieces that we can sell.
The system certainly seems to produce new products that have a long shelf life: Mr Alessi says half are still on sale a decade after their introduction.
Further reading: Mr Alessi discusses how to compete with China in an FT interview.
Stefan Stern writes a column on Tuesdays on management. He is winner of the 2010 Towers Watson award for excellence in HR journalism, and has previously won awards from the Work Foundation and the Management Consultancies Association.
Ravi Mattu is the editor of Business Life, the FT's management features
section, and a former editor of the Mastering Management series. He joined the FT in 2000 from Prospect magazine
Lucy Kellaway writes a column on Mondays on work , poking fun at management fads and jargon and celebrating the ups and downs of office life. She is also the FT's Agony Aunt.
Luke Johnson writes an FT column on Wednesdays on entrepreneurship. He runs Risk Capital Partners, a private equity firm, and is chairman of the Royal Society of Arts.
Lucy Kellaway, FT columnist and associate editor, offers her solution to your workplace problems in a column in the Financial Times. In the online edition of her Dear Lucy 'agony aunt' column, readers are invited to have a say too.
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