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