The greatest opportunities to build customer bonds can often be unearthed by asking smart questions. The truth about how we are perceived can hurt or it can be a wonderful opportunity for genuine growth. These insights are rarely uncovered in traditional marketing and communication research, which tends to be conducted to prove a point rather than explore new insights and ideas.

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In a recent global survey by warpole/addvalue, consumers expressed their relationships with premium & luxury brands in various ways:

• I walk taller
• I feel sexier
• I command respect
• I feel complete
• I live my dream.

Luxury consumers pay premiums to surround themselves in fantastically beautiful and exquisitely crafted things. When assessing the many things that matter in luxury & premium branding processes, the focus must be on what matters most from a consumer point of view. At the root, however, all respondents were driven by a common motivation: "Luxury and premium brands make me feel more desirable."

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I’m getting very tired of seeing thousands of sexualised representations of young people circulating in society. Movies, TV, music videos and advertising increasingly rely on images of young people dressing and behaving in a provocative manner and singing lyrics of sexual frustration, promise and even loss to attract all ages. Even now with the ‘TWEENIE’ demographic and younger, a new genre of perversion has been coined - ‘CULTURAL PAEDOPHILIA’.

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Nobody knows why an inferior rope was used for the venture, but it is common knowledge that they did not use a genuine proven Alpine rope which is guaranteed and distinguished by a red strand running through it.

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It is the idea of creating an event or experience, large or small, to engage your target audience with your brand. The experience must be aligned with the core promise and values of your brand.

Recent published studies suggest that consumers now rate experiential marketing equal with the TV medium as a preferred method of learning about products and services. However even more important, is that consumers also suggest that they are as much as 3 times more likely to make a purchasing decision based on experiential branding, than from TV engagement.

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As a self imposed brand policeman I often find myself analysing TV adverts, looking and listening for a brand to convince, compel and connect with me. Like most of us, occasionally I am convinced by a particular brand promise, so I rush out and invest my hard earned cash looking forward to engage with my new found brand friend. However after experiencing it for myself, I find myself disappointed even angry that the promise sold to me earlier falls way below what was originally projected to me. Ripped off!

I really do admire clever, engaging and creative story telling that influences choice. However all brand promises should communicate a message and image that is consistent with customer experience. There is a fine line between influential, persuasive communications and flat out deception. To over promise and under deliver is dangerous and costly exercise, one that can create irreversible damage to a brand’s reputation. Particularly when you consider a typical dissatisfied customer will tell 8-10 people about their bad experience.

Here's a brilliant 1 MIN VIDEO demonstration of how easy it is to get caught up in story telling and how easy it is to be deceived. (make sure you watch it to the end.)

Enjoy.
Ray

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Recently my wife Joanne told me about a challenging time that she had had with our 3 year old daughter. You see it was my nieces birthday party and Joanne had bought her HI5 Pajamas as the gift. When my daughter was told that the Pajamas were not for her she threw a tantrum and bought on those big crocodile tears. Yet again my wife had faithfully fulfilled her role as the fun Police. I couldn't help but wonder how my daughter would have reacted if those Pajamas were the exact same colour, shape and design, but didn't have any logo?

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My wife recently got a part time job in a well known retail chain. At the end of her third shift of "on the job" training, they gave her a company "employee manual" which she was asked to read.

After reading the document, my wife exclaimed "they don't care about me, they just care about making money out of me."

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