What is the Purpose of Marketing
Interesting that Marketing would rank so lowly as a profession in which people are happy.
Is this because we are not clear on its purpose? And I am sure it has something to do with: “What’s striking about the list is that these relatively high level people are imprisoned in hierarchical bureaucracies. They see little point in what they are doing. The organizations they work for don’t know where they are going, and as a result, neither do these people.”
The Time for Mobile Has Come
Loved this quote. So right: What is clear though is that the time for mobility has come. The next 12 months will see the commoditization of mobile retail banking and the consolidation of the use of mobile applications within corporate and investment banking. As Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, said “mobile is not another channel, it’s the channel”.
Brands We Love
David has linked some great insights on how we feel about brands. No question in my mind great brands engender excitement and make us smile. Minis make me smile. Audis do the same.
Three Michigan researchers, Rajeev Batra, Aaron Ahuvia and Richard P. Bagozzi, have provided more depth to “brand love.” They conducted two qualitative studies exploring what a person means by loving a brand or other object and a quantitative study to identity its underlying dimensions and the output or value.
The qualitative studies found characteristics that subjects reported when discussing brands they loved. They included feelings that the loved brand:
1. is the best in every way from value, to key attributes, to experience.
2. connects to something deeper. Apple (the most mentioned loved brand was the iPod) represents
creativity and self-actualization.
3. creates emotional benefits like being happy, e.g. “Pinkberry frozen yogurt makes me smile.”
4. provides self-expressive benefits and high levels of WOM communication.
5. generates affection and warm-hearted feelings.
6. has a natural fit and harmony between people and the loved brands.
7. stimulates a desire to maintain proximity to the brand and even feeling “separation distress.”
8. engenders a willingness to invest time, energy and money into loved brands.
9. involves frequent, interactive contact with the consumer
10. has a long relationship history.
In the quantitative study, a brand love variable was found to predict loyalty, word-of-mouth communication and resistance to negative information.
The question then is how do these elements impact demand. Minis make me smile. So do Fiats. But I haven’t bought one. So, do love and loyalty matter when they aren’t married with a purchase and demand. Without that final step, we are only experiencing a superficial love of the brand anyway.
Shocker Shaker
Earthquakes are mysterious. I’d always had the impression the kind of devastation they wrought was random. Large in scale, but random. Visiting Christchurch last week my understanding of the absolute annihilation they can inflict changed.
Nearly every one of the Cities beautiful churches and buildings of note seems to have been specifically targeted. Any building above three stories is gone. Where corner dairies stood, flattened lots remain. Its as if though someone drew a circle around the downtown area and said, “bomb that bit”.
Various folks at the Software Summit I was speaking at in Christchurch shared photos with me of ruined homes. It takes some resolve to hang about after watching your business and home destroyed. It takes something else though to hang about while the ground continues to rumble, buildings stand abandoned, their windows smashed and curtains billowing out; and, a once lively downtown is empty and dark at night.
Christchurch clearly needs help. And it is going to need help well into the future if New Zealand’s second largest city is going to be all it once was. I believe it can and will. The people and businesses remain steadfast. And the companies I saw yesterday are innovating like crazy. Its those entrepreneurs that will create not just jobs, but hope and meaning for the city.
It got me thinking about how technology and social media could be used to help regenerate Christchurch. I use that word specifically. Rebuilding will take much longer. Nature needs to stop its rumbling – things need to settle down. But the regeneration can begin now.
- Could a platform like Ideastorm be used to bring ideas and thinking together? This could be a great way to engage people around the world in regenerating the city and business.
- How about listing projects on Basecamp and inviting us all to contribute time and energy to ideas that drive outcomes?
- Where is the blog and feed that speaks to the progress being made – and things going on that we can get behind? Like the Arts Festival?
- What about a summit of technology leaders that clearly defines a technology centred vision for the city? I’d be in for supporting that.
So, as you watch the Rugby World Cup over the next month, spare a thought for the people of Christchurch and see what you can do to help. Go visit. Look to support a business there. Offer support.
They need it.
