Blog
The UK political conference season is now in full swing and the media are obsessing about ‘the narrative’. Last week, The Guardian claimed Labour leader Ed Miliband set out a “clear overarching narrative” for government. The Confederation of British Industry disagreed, arguing Miliband’s speech lacked an “economic narrative”. Others claimed his speech was part of a “narrative reorientation process…” – a procedure which sounds possibly quite painful.
I find there’s something very therapeutic about attending focus groups.
Not because everything the respondents say is nice. On the contrary, in my experience, they often attack the client’s brand with vehemence and venom and occasionally rip apart much-treasured campaign ideas in front of their creator’s eyes.
Awkward.
Why every good message needs a mate
Firstly, a disclaimer. When I say cheerleaders and communications, I’m not about to recommend adding some pom-poms and razzamatazz to the launch of your next Annual Report, although of course that might be a good idea anyway. Instead I’m interested in the Cheerleader Effect and its impact on how we communicate our messages.
The story that McDonald’s is to stop serving Heinz ketchup has been massive this week. In the UK, where we love our red sauce, the story was all over the media and must have caused some real headaches for the Heinz brand team.
In these circumstances, you would be forgiven for expecting our favourite ketchup company to come out fighting. In fact, their response has been to say nothing.
With corporate trust at a low ebb, most businesses are struggling to work out how to increase their reputation.
A few years ago I was working for one such company. The business had a number of reputation challenges and I remember one day the CMO, faced with ever declining trust numbers, suggested creating a campaign solely to explain why they were a trustworthy business. Sound like a crazy idea? I certainly thought so. I tested the messages for them in a poll, they didn’t work well, and the idea was quickly dropped.
Do you really put customers at the heart of everything you do?
I was watching an old edition of Undercover Boss yesterday. Earnest and hard-working CEO of a large manufacturing company is shocked to discover his positive messages aren’t being well received by his staff and customers, for whom things are much tougher and more difficult than he realised. Who would have thought?
Millennials, or the cohort of young people who came of age around the time of the year 2000, are an often written about and yet still much misunderstood group.
They are sometimes characterised as flip-flop wearing, work-shy geeks with a social conscience, who expect life just to fall into their lap.
Having just reviewed one of the most substantial pieces of global research about this group ever undertaken, commissioned by Telefonica*, I’d say this stereotype is undeserved.
