Modern living: Brandtastic and when they aren’t

A friend of mine, who also works in PR, showed my blog to her (lovely and very smart) boyfriend and he came across my post about my now dusty Cartier watch. He made a comment along the lines of “I like the way Neil writes, but he works in PR, doesn’t that mean that he should be all about the brand? I mean isn’t building brands what you guys do for a living?”

When I was told this I immediately got defensive (not too dramatically mind) and explained that my problem is not with brands themselves but rather when a brand lets you down, as Cartier did to me.

I have reread the Cartier watch post and can see that I might need to clarify my position a little. So thank you friend’s boyfriend for your insight. So here I go...

I do believe in the value of brands and yes part of what I do for a living is to build belief in them. I think that brands are powerful and by their very nature build loyalty – strong invisible ties that keep you coming back for more. They inspire us and give us a warm fuzzy glow when we interact with them.

Some of my favourites are:

• Clothes: Paul Smith, Nicole Farhi and Hugo Boss
• Electrical stuff: Sony , Toshiba and Miele
• Food: Sainsbury and Prêt-a-Manger
• Department stores: John Lewis
• Skin care: Clarins
• Cars: Mercedes Benz
• Sports clothing: Nike

This then extends into countries (Italy, Spain, Thailand and India), artists (Chris Bush), where I like to go and see films (Vue), the ice cream I love (Haagen Dazs) and even bins (Brabantia) I buy for my home (I’ve got three of them).

So I am an official brand lover and from my list of brands above you will have already got a feel for me as a person – drawing from your experience (whether as a fellow brand devotee or just having seen marketing relating to that brand such as an advert or maybe even an engaging viral). This short list of brands blends into a profile of me. Not all of me, not a definitive "yep I got this chap sussed" but more of a flavour.

Brands are about human interaction, they are built by organisations which are run by people and the consumer of that brand, who again are people, derive enjoyment from buying, visiting, using, etc, etc, etc, that brand.

As part of the brand experience there are always going to be times when a product lets you down – it’s normal, things break, they are after all just stuff, and stuff is fallible. I can cope when something screws up. What I hate is when something does go wrong and you give the brand an opportunity to correct it, and following this plea the response is "bugger off". They don’t try and keep you, they just spit you out. This is the problem with brands that don’t live up to the proposition, as Cartier did in my experience, where a ‘lifetime guarantee’ guaranteed absolutely nothing. We want brands (with all our heart) to deliver on the promise.

As the saying goes ‘To err is human’, and when we make an error we should apologies where necessary and strive to get it right. This is what great brands do (I will maybe post some more on great brand experiences in the future). The very process of correcting a problem reinforces our belief that our decision to engage with the brand was a good one in the first place, building more trust, more loyalty.

Phew, that was a long post, I hope that I have explained myself a little better. Anyway I’m off for a Diet Coke now ;+))

Loved stuff: Bad yet thrilling memories

Just watched a Michael Jackson tribute programme where they played his best videos – boy they were great tunes and the video spectacles that that he created were amazing.

To be honest I haven’t been a huge fan over the last decade and some of the ‘reported’ elements of his life were frankly a bit worrying - reported being the operative word. I have been the first person to be fascinated by his changing appearance and making quite frankly disparaging comments.

It is so terribly sad that he has died, especially as he was about to do the mega London concerts and was going to get the satisfaction of being back on top – where he clearly enjoyed being and with his talent for singing and performance he did deserve.

I am feeling a bit queasy about the whole thing: how the media is suddenly being so positive about the man – having torn him down so hard for such a long period. I am sure that more money will be made as a result of his death by the vultures who were doing very nicely on the money front on the drag down.

However as I said I took part in being fascinated by the man and fuelling the tear down. Yep, feeling a bit rubbish about it.

You just think that if he could have heard all this positive stuff being said now that it might have given him a boost that, let’s face it, all of us need from time to time.

All very sad – but listening and watching the videos on the box has brought back two childhood memories that I had totally forgotten and which have made me smile...

NUMBER ONE: I had the Thriller album on cassette tape – I was eight years old and I absolutely LOVED it. I played it so much that I stretched the tape. So now when I hear any of the songs from the album I actually think that they are being played a tiny bit too fast. I had a Thriller poster on my bedroom wall and Elaine (my little sister) and I used to act out the Thriller video morning after morning for months.

NUMBER TWO: I was 14 and the day that Bad came out my dad took me to town in the car and I stood in the queue before the record shop opened to be one of the first to get it. I had never done that before (or since). It was a big moment and I remember rushing home and playing that LP over and over again – it was the coolest thing ever.

All the ‘RIP MJ’ on Twitter seems on the surface a bit too much: overly media generated and desperate, but do you know what, he does deserve to rest in peace and he did inspire millions of people.

Word from nowhere: Cognizant

Yes my friends, with hindsight, the the word 'aware' is definitely more than sufficient.

I used this interesting word in the pub earlier this evening. Ouch - contact the Plain English Campaign.

Loved stuff: Dance goes viral...

I love this video, MaestroJ cited it as an illustration of how something on the web goes viral through word of mouth.

Enjoy...