Pink and Blink in Belgium (2)

As promised: comments on some of the speakers at the Stichting Marketing congress last week. I had set out to see two interesting speakers, it turned there were four. Talking about getting your money's worth... Let's start with number one.

Early in the morning: Martin Lindström, one of the most hyped young marketers of the moment, but well worth watching (and listening to, of course). Entertaining speaker, who even made sense - brand sense, that is: he claims that his branding revolution will  solve the problem of decreasing returns on ever-increasing advertising expenditure and will turn every concept we've learned about branding inside out - and upside down. Apparently, he has done extensive brand research on our five senses, exploring the effects of leveraging all five of them - touch, taste, smell, sight and sound when building brands. CEOs of McDonald's, Mattel, and Disney, have praised it. And good old Philip Kotler has declared that this book contains "mandatory knowledge for every marketer".

So who am I to say this guy is wrong? Mind you, every year somebody claims to start a revolution in marketing, but Lindström does have a point in claiming that all our senses are connected to the way we perceive brands, while most marketing and advertising focuses on vision only. Yes, the smell of Play Dough does bring about childhood memories; yes, I agree with people who think McDonald's smell; yes, I too love the way a new car smells; no, I did not know that Rolls Royce actually created its own car perfume so that every Rolls would smell its typical distinguished smell; yes, I agree that Coca-Cola should have stuck to its traditional bottles and colour (and thus avoid losing market share); but no, I do not agree that Disney music can put anybody in a shiny, happy mood (but that's probably just me)...

To cut it short: yes, we all should try and be aware of our senses more than we are now. And so should brands, I guess. The idea of creating a brand identity not only through visual aspects seems very appealing. In that respect, a Ferrari-themed laptop without a Ferrari vroarrrr when starting up would seem like a unique association opportunity being missed...

Comments

[dirkd]

Where was george ?

[Serge Cornelus]

All over the place. As usual... ;-)