I thought Jon’s articulation of brand – and the benefits of a purpose or character-centered brand — were brilliant. Right on the money.

“IBM on Brand” by Jon Iwata from VSA Partners on Vimeo.

That Om wrote this. It precisely echoes my feelings on all things Google these days.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Google may think it can waltz into a market that Evernote and others have staked out, but I’m not going to dance.

… Google today launched Keep, an app that allows you to save things, clip stuff from the web, hoard notes and what not and put them all onto your Google Drive. Yup, you guessed it — it is an imitation to Evernote and many other such applications. It is a good thing that Google has decided to compete with the likes of Evernote — it validates their market.

It might actually be good, or even better than Evernote. But I still won’t use Keep. You know why? Google Reader.

“There is no work-life balance,” says Janice Marturano. “We have one life. What’s most important is that you be awake for it.“

You can read more here… and a good read it is…

In a brilliant piece disecting Apple commentary on compeitors, Jean-Louis Gasse gets at some of the reasons a PR firm exits.

… PR firms have long memories and sharp knives.

The approach may seem cynical, but it’s convenient and effective. The PR firm maintains a net (and that’s the right word) of relationships with the media and their pilot fish. If it has the talent of a Waggener Edstrom, it provides sound strategic advice, position papers, talking points, and freeze-dried one-liners.

Furthermore, a PR firm has the power of providing access. I once asked a journalist friend how his respected newspaper could have allowed one of its writers to publish a fellacious piece that described, in dulcet tones, a worldwide Microsoft R&D tour by the company’s missus dominicus. “Access, Jean-Louis, access. That’s the price you pay to get the next Ballmer interview…”

Today, look at the truly admirable job Frank Shaw does for Microsoft. Always on Twitter, frequently writing learned and assertive pieces for the company’s official blog. By the way, where’s Apple’s blog?

And he is right, Frank is doing a great job at Microsoft.

Seems like J&J have latched onto the “P meme” with Kimberley Kadlec (J&J) speaking to purpose, presence, proximity and partnership.

Here’s the mashup:

• Purpose: One the same page here but with a twist. It is so much more than emotional. This is the vital connection between marketing and the experience the customer has. Emotion is the outcome from focusing your brand on how it makes customers feel.
• Presence: For J&J this is social. For me it is mobile – I refer to it as Place. Meet the customer wherever they are. Mobile, digital displays, 3rd party digital, sensors, ATMs… the third screen is the new force in the media wars.
• Proximity: This is J&J’s mobile. Instead, here I have Publish – every brand will be defined by content. Content is the new wrapper. Without content, brands are souless. We need our customers to wrap context around our brands. Doing so turns them into magnets.
• Partnership: I like how J&J speak to this. Wisdom in the crowd. Good and right on. Here I speak to Participate. Brands must drive engagement to win. Brands that only have purchasers become weak and atrophy over time – great brands strengthen through the participation of their customers. They harness customer insights to innovate, grow and improve.
• Given I merge proximity and presence – and beleive everything is implicity social by design, I add in Play. In short, if it aint fun, they won’t do it. Gamefication is also about harnessing network effects. In short, getting your customers to market on your behalf by encouraging them to bring their friends and family into the fold.
• I have a fifth P – : We are well past mass customization and into the era of mass Personalization. Great brands win online by making the product and content hyper-personalized and hyper-relevant. They mine big data to do this. They use relevance engines to tune and adjust content.

So, different Ps, similar message. And one I will be speaking about at AdTech here in Sydney next week. Looking forward to that.