Brand as a Service // Brand Butlers

Today, Emily, our PR Executive forward me an email. Emily usually forwards me either work to

approve or interesting articles to read, usually in areas that I’m not overly educated, such as fashion! The thing about Emily is that as a good PR executive, she always manages to get my attention, as she puts an extra effort to write catchy subjects on the emails so I open them and read them...although sometimes they’re not as subtle with headings such as “Read this” or “Help me”!

Anyway, the subject of this mail was "Brand Buttlers". The content of the mail was Trendwatching.com newsletter. Trendwatching.com have identified an imminent new trend that is based around brands working hard on assisting consumers make the most of their daily lives, rather than the old model of selling them a lifestyle or identity.

At Clownfish we called this Brand as a Service. But Clownfish did not coin the phrase. Nigel Morris, CEO of Aegis Media North America and our Chairman did years ago!

In our book Peter Fisk and myself defined “Brand as a service” as a facet of brand innovation

We defined brand innovation as developing a culture or an identity that reflects the purpose and sustainable practices of businesses. This can be from an strategic and or tactical level and it can be disruptive or evolutionary so for example:

Product innovation – new products and services that embrace new technical and sustainable dimensions as sources of differentiationMarket innovation – addressing new needs and wants, finding new markets as either new places for existing sectors, new sectors in existing places

Business innovation – rethinking the purpose of business, the business model by which it works, its stakeholders and measures of success

So brand buttler or brand as a service is the result of the innovation process whether disruptive or evolutionary..it is essentially how to bring innovation to life.

Why consumers are embracing these trend?

For consumers, time, convenience, control and independ

ence are the new currencies: this trend requires B2C brands to turn many of their 'campaigns' and all points of communication with their customers into broader services. In short: a shift from 'broadcasting' to 'servicing'

Relationships with brands are now more down to earth and less reverential. With uncertain times, consumers are longing for institutions that truly 'care'. This

is more about showing empathy and providing customers with a status fix . This too requires brands to master a more service-oriented personae.

On top of all of the above, the current online mobile revolution

is shifting consumer expectations even further into the always-on, instant gratification online arena. For brands, this means that there are now endless creative and cost-effective ways to deliver on this need for Brands as a Service

In short, for a brand to become a butler or be a service – it need

s to be relevancy not about gimmicks or entertainment for enter

tainment's sake.

In the end, finding the right mix of online and offline services is something that requires thinking and cross functional capabilities

Here is an example:

Thank you again Trendwatching.com team for inspiration and content

Happy Easter

Great video but look who is the inspiration...

A friend sent me a link to this video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qybUFnY7Y8w&fmt=18

All looked a bit too familiar and then I remembered where I saw it before... http://greenxchange.force.com/

Sustainable innovation - just a rant

Sunny and crisp Sunday morning. Woke up went for a run and here I am with a bunch of thoughts I though I owe to right somewhere...

Why sustainability is such a difficult concept to grasp!? The concept and practice of sustainability is evolutionary. The things around us rarely become extinct, they don’t simply disappear. They evolve as the context and backdrop changes.

In business the reason for evolution and re-invention is growth. The opportunity businesses have for sustainable economic growth and innovation is directly linked to their incentive for profit which is ever more dependent on their willingness and ability to evolve

Accepting that delivering shareholder value, and therefore profits, can be one our greatest motivators for sustainable actions, particularly during a recession is crucial to understanding the importance of how businesses should embrace innovation with every new wave.

So has the idea to sustainability innovation finally captured the imagination of brands? What is Sustainability Innovation?

Sustainability Innovation is discovering new ways of creating value and building capacity whilst taking in account the environmental and social impact of our thinking (brainprint). Sustainability Innovation will become the lifeblood of many brands survival and growth as communication get more fragmented, consumer became savvier, and the markets gets more uneven

The sustainable innovative model needs to foster sustainable creativity and this is quite different from the traditional innovation programs developed by many innovation companies.

The diverse backgrounds and experiences that Peter Fisk and myself have, has allowed us understand the drivers and outcomes that make brands successful when it comes to sustainability innovation and communications.

In People, Planet and Profit, we describe how our innovation process is about enabling, creating capacity and value. The success of our work is about delivering a dynamic process that sustains itself. Making sustainability normal, part of everyday life, and for a business part of every day process.

The convergence of digital technologies and need of businesses to continue to grow from supply led models to a service mode, are the cornerstones and drivers of our thinking...