eat your greens · eat your greens eat your greens prelims final.indd 1 31/08/2018 14:22

EAT YOUR GREENS

Eat your Greens Prelims final.indd 1 31/08/2018 14:22

EAT YOUR

GREENSFACT-BASED THINKING TO

IMPROVE YOUR BRAND’S HEALTH

Edited by

Wiemer Snijders


Copyright in this and future editions of this title only © 2018 APG LtdThe moral rights of the Editor and contributors

(including cartoonist Tom Fishburne) have been asserted.

Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in

any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries

concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers.

Matador9 Priory Business Park,

Wistow Road, Kibworth Beauchamp,Leicestershire. LE8 0RX

Tel: 0116 279 2299Email: [email protected]

Web: www.troubador.co.uk/matadorTwitter: @matadorbooks

ISBN 978 17890167 58

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YYTypeset in 10pt Gill Sans by 4word, Bristol, UK

Matador is an imprint of Troubador Publishing Ltd


v

CONTENTS

FOREWORD Sarah Newman ix

INTRODUCTION Wiemer Snijders xi

1 MAJORITY REPORT 1 Wiemer Snijders and Charles Graham

2 PEOPLE WHO PREDICT THE DEATH OF BRANDS 20 DON’T UNDERSTAND WHY THEY EXIST

Shann Biglione

3 WHAT AILS MARKETING? 25 Mark Ritson

4 SHORT-TERMISM IS KILLING EFFECTIVENESS 33 Peter Field

5 THE SIGNALLING OF TIME HORIZONS – OR HOW 39 TO PROVE YOU ARE NOT A CROOK Rory Sutherland

6 FIGHTING NONSENSE WITH NONSENSE 42

Ryan Wallman

7 POST-TRUTH TELLY 51

Tess Alps


vi

8 IT’S BEYOND TIME TO RETHINK SOCIAL MEDIA 64 MARKETING Jerry Daykin

9 TO TARGET OR NOT TO TARGET, THAT’S NOT THE 76 QUESTION Shann Biglione

10 PERFORMING SCIENCE ON YOURSELF 83 Julian Cole

11 SOMETHING IS NOT ADDING UP IN ADLAND 88 Becky McOwen-Banks

12 MAKING AND MEASURING WHAT MATTERS 97 Anjali Ramachandran

13 THE SILENT AD THAT SPOKE VOLUMES 104 Ryan Wallman

14 WAGING WAR ON RADICAL INCREMENTALISM 107 Rich Siegel

15 DEATH OF A SALESWOMAN 110 Rich Siegel

16 BEST PRACTICE – IS IT REALLY? 112 Mark Earls

17 WHERE DID IT ALL GO WRONG? 121 Eaon Pritchard

18 APPLE, WALT DISNEY AND HARLEY-DAVIDSON – 135 EXCEPTIONAL BRANDS! Robert van Ossenbruggen

19 EVERYBODY LIES – THE IMPORTANCE OF 139 PSYCHOLOGICAL VALIDITY IN CONSUMER INSIGHT Philip Graves

20 FACTS, FRAMES AND FANTASIES 147 Robert van Ossenbruggen


vii

21 BIG DATA, BIG NOISE 152 Robert van Ossenbruggen

22 CAN NEUROMARKETING REALLY HELP BRANDS? 158 Brandon Towl

23 THE SCIENCE OF EFFECTIVENESS 168 Phil Barden

24 PUTTING ‘NUDGES’ IN PERSPECTIVE 179 Byron Sharp and Amy Wilson

25 IS THERE ANY SUCH THING AS BRAND LOVE? 190 Helen Edwards

26 SEDUCTION AND CAULIFLOWERS 202 Paul Feldwick

27 MARKETING UTOPIA 207 Richard Shotton

28 AUTHENTICITY, PURPOSE AND FAKERY – 215 THE CHALLENGE FOR BRANDS Kate Richardson

29 WHEN PURPOSE BECOMES A PROBLEM 225 Wiemer Snijders

30 ALL YOU NEED IS EMOTION. REALLY? 229 Phil Barden

31 MADVERTISING, BADVERTISING AND SADVERTISING 248 FOR MAD, BAD AND SAD PEOPLE Adam Ferrier

32 WHAT I LEARNT FROM JOHN WEBSTER 256 Paul Feldwick

33 THE DEVALUATION OF CREATIVITY 260 Bob Hoffman


viii

34 BITING THE HAND THAT FEEDS US? WHY 267 ADVERTISING’S LOVE OF NOVELTY IS DOING BRANDS A DISSERVICE Kate Waters

35 WHY INNOVATION ISN’T AS SEXY AS BUSINESS 278 BOOKS PROMISE Costas Papaikonomou

36 UNLEASHING THE POWER OF DISRUPTION – 285 THRIVING IN THE POST-DIGITAL AGE Tom Goodwin

37 WHY CHALLENGER BRANDS MATTER IN THE AGE 292 OF DISRUPTION Mark Barden

38 MARKETS VERSUS MARKETING 303 Doc Searls

39 A SIMPLE WAY TO WIN 325 Sue Unerman

40 MARKETING IN THE AGE OF UNREASON – THE RISE 336 OF EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCE DESIGN Patricia McDonald

41 SWALLOWING THE LITTLE FISH – HOW BIG BRANDS 352 STAY BIG Gareth Price

42 RISING FROM THE ASH [ART, SCIENCE, HUMANITY] – 366 THE PERSONAL AND THE PROVABLE Rosie and Faris Yakob

EPILOGUE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 376

ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS 378


ix

FOREWORD

Stimulating better thinking

Eat Your Greens is an eclectically excellent collection of papers by some of the best thinkers and practitioners in marketing and communications. But the apparently eclectic nature of the contributions belies the seriousness of the endeavour, which is to bring together a body of evidence-based thinking in one useful and inspiring reference book.

The original idea for the book is Wiemer Snijders’. The APG got involved part of the way through the project because we were keen to support the idea of bringing evidence-based thinking closer to the heart of creative strategy. While the world we occupy is apparently awash with data and facts, it is as hard as ever to find rigorous analysis combined with practical prescription, and in a form that is usable and stimulates better thinking.

Encouraging creative thinking and fuelling effective creativity are a fundamental part of the APG’s purpose. The last few years have seen a number of real advances in thinking about how creativity works, and how to plan for successful communications. These ideas have taken root precisely because they are based on thoughtful interpretation of data collected carefully, and applied with understanding and flair.

The contributors cover a broad and diverse selection of subjects, but they are united by passionate personal interest and great intelligence, and cover many of the things that are uppermost in our minds as strategists: long versus short-term thinking; the fallacies of an obsession with communications and digital toys; brand equity; a female future, and so much more.


EAT YOUR GREENS

x

We’d like to thank all the contributors for their ‘greens’. We find the analogy rather delightful, and I should say that it’s the very best of freshly prepared and high quality intellectual produce that appears in the book. We’d also like to thank Wiemer for his unfathomable wells of energy, and all of you for embracing the idea that fact-based thinking has the power to create change and nurture the best of creativity.

Sarah NewmanDirector, APG


xi

INTRODUCTION

There is an abundance of data and technology available to better understand the people to whom we are selling our products and services. However, it is useless if we don’t know how to use it effectively.

Progressively, this industry relies on short-term metrics, as they produce instant feedback. But we seem to have forgotten that the business of building brands is also a long game. It is one thing to measure whether someone has clicked on your ad, but the true effect of advertising is something you might have to wait several years for to effectuate. As marketing analyst Daniel Yankelovich described, disregarding what cannot be easily measured in favour of measures that do is artificial and misleading. But the ultimate step is to say that what can’t easily be measured really doesn’t exist – which he considered suicide.

We also seem infatuated with metrics and tactics that have little relation to our actual buying behaviour. Things like tweets, buyer personas, NPS (‘Net Promoter Scores’) and engagement rates. We convince ourselves that, with enough multivariate analyses (emphasising small differences over similarities) and significance tests (flagging differences where there aren’t any), we will get a better grip on people’s purchasing behaviour. Unfortunately, these things are mostly figments; cast on our office walls by projectors, flip charts and sticky notes.

So, if marketing is out of touch with reality, how can we fix it?Thankfully, there exists a large body of knowledge that provides a more

realistic view on how we can effectively sell more, to more people, and for


EAT YOUR GREENS

xii

more money. Dr Archie Cochrane introduced the concept of evidence-based medicine to the world, from which many benefited. It is Andrew Ehrenberg who did the same for the marketing industry. And its effects are starting to take hold, in part thanks to the continuous efforts made by Byron Sharp and his colleagues. But even amongst those who know and read such academics, the question of how to apply these learnings remains the subject of much debate.

And herein lies the objective of this book: not only to counter some of the hype and what we believe to be nonsense in the industry, but also to provide perspectives on how marketing can better itself, inspired (not contrived) by the advances in marketing science.

Some of the papers (or, for the purposes of this book, ‘chapters’) are written by some of the best-known thinkers and practitioners in the industry; others are written by people you might never have heard of, but from whom, nonetheless, you will no doubt find inspiration. The brief to all of the contributors was simple: tell us how you apply or find inspiration from marketing science in a short, easy-to-digest paper (some provided more than one paper). I did not ask them to write to a particular topic; this was intended as a bag of nutritious ‘mixed greens’, but as it happens, the papers did fall naturally into loose categories. The book starts with a contemporary view of the marketing industry (chapters 1–17), before moving on to specific topics within it (chapters 18–34), and concluding with a more forward-looking view (chapters 35–42). The chapters offer a mix of perspectives, and varying styles: some are more academic in approach, others less formal. All are interspersed with some lively cartoons from Tom Fishburne.

These writers, these people ‘from the trenches’, don’t have all the answers, and at times can be found a little at odds with each other, but they have all been willing to share their unfiltered views on how to make marketing much more effective and simpler. After all, eating your greens is meant to be good for you…

After digesting this knowledge, you might experience the uncomfortable tension we feel when we encounter conflicting thoughts or beliefs. But if we want to fix our collective disconnect, the challenge also lies in our ability and willingness to reduce this so-called ‘cognitive dissonance’. If we can bring


INTRODUCTION

xiii

ourselves to notice and accept it, and be more open to the message it brings, we can get a clearer sense of what needs to change – and our role in that process.

Finally, an anecdote from John Scriven, who worked closely with Andrew Ehrenberg for years. After listening to a presentation from Ehrenberg in the early 1990s, the then CMO of a global consumer packaged goods (CPG)company asked, ‘Does anyone else know about this? It will give significant competitive advantage.’ Ehrenberg drily replied that the results had been published some time before. The CMO then asked what he needed to do about these findings. To which Ehrenberg answered, ‘That’s for you to work out!’

If you like what you’ve read thus far, please read on. But don’t stop there. Explore the evidence, don’t assume too quickly, and find out what you think for yourself.

Wiemer Snijders


eat your greens · eat your greens eat your greens prelims final.indd 1 31/08/2018 14:22

Documents