Havas Media came up with a Meaningful Brand Index (MBI), that ranks the top performing brands when it comes to making a difference in people’s lives. Here is the result:

Top 20 global brands according to Havas Media’s Meaningful Brand Index:
1. Ikea
2. Google
3. Nestlé
4. Danone
5. Leroy Merlin
6. Samsung
7. Microsoft
8. Sony
9. Unilever
10. Bimbo
11. LG
12. Philips
13. Apple
14. P&G
15. Mars
16. Volkswagen
17. L’Oreal
18. Wal-Mart
19. Carrefour
20. Coca-Cola

Simon Sinek in his TED talk shares the same opinion when he says “people don’t buy what you do, rather why you do it”:
How do you make your brand meaningful. Get people talking about the ‘why’.

Bare with us, did you know it took nearly 30 years for TV to take off even though the technology was there?

American newspapers carried ads since 1700. Jumping to the 1920’s US billboard ads were all about making you paranoid to buy. “Will your hair stand close inspection?. “Did Nature Fail to put Roses in your Cheeks?”. This problem led anxiety sale is still used today by US corporates like P&G.

The first ‘commercial’ on radio lasted for 12 to 15 minutes depending on who you source. Commercial radio at first was a disaster but by the 1920’s people were flocking to buy air time. Radio had arrived. Companies clamoured to get shows names and in fact they often wrote the radio shows and scripts gloriiying the product and the radio stations let them do it, it was called ‘sponsorship’.

A little known fact was that television had arrived too – in fact television was available as a medium from 1925 but no-one cared for 30 years.

The first working television was showcased by Charles Jenkins in 1925. Baird demonstrated a model with sound four months later. Bell demonstrated a telephone system in New York followed by entertainment on a ‘television’ – the broadcast showed comic who told darkie jokes and then blackface jokes. In 1928 Baird showed the world’s first colour transmission – a man repeatedly sticking out his tongue.

TV did not take off in the United States until the 1950’s – from 1928 until the 1950’s it was regarded as a novelty – rather like we might treat a restaurant where you order your meal with a touch-screen projected on your table. (A South African has done this in a London restaurant.)

The first ad showed a Bulova watch ticking for 60 seconds. That was an honest ad. It was on TV and ticked. It is amazing what the US ad industry got away with overtime, whether this is the 5% misbehaving and the 95% being good or the other way around only you can tell. But here we go.

Heinz 57 varieties – there were never that many varieties it was just a number that sounded good. In the 70’s Chevrolet ran ads for the ‘Chevelle’ which boasted that the car had ‘109 advantages to keep it from becoming old before its time’. It was made up. The 109 included a rear view mirror, reversing lights and stuff every other car had. In 1986 John Hancock Insurance launched a campaign where ‘real people in real situations’ discussed their predicaments with candour. When challenged they confessed they were real people, actors. It was all totally made up. Republicans in the States ran a campaign saying what a great bloke Ronald Reagan was for supporting the cost of living increases for federal workers…

It was all made up, he opposed them. When the Republican official was challenged he responded “Since when is a commercial supposed to be accurate.”
But this is America, not Australia, NZ the UK, Holland or Denmark, not Europe – we are different. Aren’t we?

Is it any wonder consumers rely on Word of Mouth? Marketing has a history of bullshitting and lieing it is a conspiracy we love to be part of. Word of Mouth is the most trusted medium there is and it can be harnessed.

Here’s a really radical idea – how about getting those who love you to tell the truth?

Our warning is simple – if your organisation isn’t used to telling the truth don’t bother. If your organisation isn’t ready to act on what people tell you don’t bother.

But if your organisation has people who believe in the product, your staff talk about it and you have a natural following – you are ready to talk the truth.

We will amplify the truth by channelling your Advocates into an Army, Honest.

Source: Made in America by Bill Bryson

The most searched for word on the internet is “pizza”…So gentlemen “don’t believe what you think” and ladies “don’t believe what you think we think!!!”. In fact Google generously give access to all the ‘hot topics’ for any week here: http://www.google.com/trends

Did you know the fastest growing franchise in America is in fact a pizza company using Advocate marketing. They have gone from 1 store to 450 stores in 2 years.

Advocate Marketing can be used in different ways, depending on the company. You have to match your culture, your willingness to work with Advocates with their willingness to work with you. You can get to these levels by working up the Advocate evolutionary triangle.

We’ll be talking about that next week. In the meantime if you want to know the ‘hot topics’ of the week go here. Would you like your brand, service or organisation to be one of them?

Jake, Cornelis & The TVS team

The Village Square offers Meeting Tree: custom advice on the process of creating a self generating customer referral grapevine. Meeting Tree offers the following four areas of advice within this creation process:

Meeting Tree Explore
Meeting Tree Develop
Meeting Tree Launch
Meeting Tree Implement

Click here for more details

This website is sure to delight.

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/

It is full of gems like “black music that is no longer considered cool by black people.”

This week’s WOM thought. Cool products make people talk. These extra long Converse boots are a novelty and the shoes attached are designed by Architects. As we discussed recently in a world of increased parity – it is often the ‘little extras’ that make so much difference and often they aren’t hard to do. Not all of us work in companies that will produce ‘one offs’ or stuff that is outside the ‘market norms’. So we have to find a way to put a twist on what we’ve got.

Here are some examples. There is a cafe in Kingsland New Zealand which is called ‘The Fridge’. It does ‘nice food’, has a ‘nice environment’ and reasonable service but what stands out is they let people write messages on lolly sticks and put them on the wall. People say ‘is that the ‘lolly stick cafe’? Here is another simple example. Carly is an ophthalmologist, when children come and do an eye test with her they leave with a print of a dinosaur on their hands. Why don’t opticians do that? The cost is $2 – it’s a little touch that will have kids talking all day.

And for next week an example that will blow your mind. A bank has instituted a buddy system. A buddy will come and help you out with anything – from shopping to DIY at no extra cost – they can be summoned by touching an application on your phone. Who says banks can’t innovate to create WOM.

And if they can, my dear reader, you have nowhere to hide and no excuses.

Live long and prosper

Jake and Cornelis

We saw a great Irish comedian on a flight. He said, and it doesn’t work as well without the timing etc but you’ll get the picture – “Saturday is next to Sunday. That’s wrong bad planning. Why put the two shi****iest days of the week next to the worse one, Monday. It should be Saturday Thursday Monday Sunday Tuesday Friday Wednesday…” It made us smile.

We flew down to Wellington (capital of NZ) and volcanic ash from a Chilean volcano was blocking flights. This is what people were saying about a local budget airline:

“They’re f***king crap. They don’t tell you what’s going on, they don’t have a separate desk and they’ve got two staff on.” Strong Referrals have a statement followed by 3 pithy reasons why. Most corporate people write an essay when asked to what they think is being said about them. This is a great referral from one of the attendees on a course. Model answer. (Not quite word for word – we don’t have the post it here but nearly.)

“Emirates are comfortable – the most modern plane fleet, huge leg room & stunning International food. “

Go and talk to your customers. Your Referral won’t be this “They do premium insurance products…they truly understand me, my world and the context of my International perspective. This new easy as a go you package truly meets my needs. My key drivers are efficiency, connectivity & protectivity articulated by a giant cactus singing inside a broken piano which can only be smashed by a spanner which is singing “ok start her up”.

Because the stuff in red is as about as ridiculous as the way most companies think they are being talked about. If you get a line with statement and 3 pithy reasons – well, job done.

Focus gentleman & Ladies, Focus & ask yourself “What am I doing this week to keep people talking” – that’s the ultimate campaign plan – ask your agency how the ads will make your audience talk. It’s not just the “response” that matters but what they say.

The Village Square Team

Internationally Acclaimed Word of Mouth Marketing Course

Need to make your marketing $ stretch further and work harder?

Let’s face it, everyone is slashing budgets and yet companies also want to cut through the clutter and engage more effectively with their customers!

So: how do you overcome this seemingly impossible challenge?

You save money and drive growth by harnessing the power of Word of Mouth (WOM) using our proven Referral Marketing System.

You see, most people think WOM just happens and don’t know how to systematize and expand WOM continually. Yet with The Village Square’s five-step Referral Marketing System, WOM is a practical science you can apply day after day to create an ever growing network of inspired referees.

And you can’t argue with the numbers…

The ROI wins for Referral Marketing and WOM are oh so BIG.

Check out a couple of key stats:

• 78% of people trust WOM referrals more than any other way of finding out about a product or service; and
• People act on a WOM referral 1 times in 3; that’s a super-efficient 33% conversion rate. Compare that to Direct Mail which has (if we are generous) a success rate of only 3% – WOM is 11 times more effective right there…

“A fantastic practical session, lots of how to. You can start right here with “types of tips” rather than focusing on theory”

Natalie Sutherland, GM Brand & Communications – Vodafone New Zealand

This means that we all need more WOM because the cost of ‘acquisition’ is so much more efficient than other methods. The “missing link” is The Village Square’s Referral Marketing System to ensure that WOM will grow consistently and cost effectively.

So how can you apply WOM to your marketing challenges?

All it takes is for you to attend a one-day training in The Village Square Referral Marketing System.

In Wordvine Level 1, our specialists guide you through our proven, break-through System so you can build a continually expanding team of top referrers who will promote your branded products and services.

This is achieved by gaining a clear understanding of the compelling simplicity of Referral Marketing so you can implement a cost effective Referral Marketing Plan straight away.

“A lesson in listening and the need to engage better than we do as large corporate: great.”

Richard Stevens, GM Sales & Marketing – Fisher & Paykel

It doesn’t matter what sector you operate in, by the end of the day, you’ll be tooled up with: A clear understanding of the five steps to the Referral Marketing System An insight into how well you are currently using Referral Marketing; Where your priorities are in order to make Referral Marketing work harder for you; Your individual step by step action plan to move to a whole new level of opportunity through effective Referral Marketing strategies

Get ready for massive success and book your spot at the next Wordvine Course now! Please contact us if you have any questions.

Still not sure? Check out our full list of references.

Common sense isn’t common. Some products are truly welevant – ie wacky and relevant. Take for example the Rug Mouse Matt or Naked Nude shoes worn by a client of ours. The shoes are designed by Architects. This sort of stuff is truly original. “Organic water” – is something you might talk about (for all the wrong reasons – how can water not be organic?) You get the point, if you have a bad product – fundamentally no-one is going to talk about you; period.

But these days there is lots of parity; product parity, service parity…so how can you make a difference? How do you create Word of Mouth in a World of Parity? Here is a clue.

How many Italian Restaurants have you been to? How many do you talk about? How many Italian Restaurants have a Ferrari collection in them (of models?). One! Is this hard to do? No, it isn’t. There are model shops. So how come he runs the only Restaurant in the whole of Sydney to go beyond great food, great service and a nice environment and has a Ferrari collection in it (the point is you have to go beyond great or good product don’t you)? So what is the answer, why the Ferrari collection?

The winning answers will go into the draw to win 1 of 2 “WOM Course Discount Vouchers”, which are 2 $500 course discount vouchers for the next WOM Marketing course we are conducting on Thursday 16 June 2011 (that is $500 off the $995 registration fee).

And no it’s not “be creative” or “find a point of difference” or stand out – it is in fact something deeply fundamental – all of those things are symptoms of the driving force behind generating Word of Mouth. What is it? You love it this thing – You seek it everyday – You give it everyday and it is the secret to creating on-going Word of Mouth – irrespective of what category you are in.

So? E-mail jake@thevillagesq.com and go into the draw to win $500 off our internationally acclaimed WOM course – crazy!

Jake & Cornelis

Now for those of you who read this because you want to understand more about Advocacy read on, for the rest of you – every-time you find Monday is just too intense for you and you feel too many problems… we want you to turn to ‘Spock’ and say ‘what do you think?’. It’s been proven laughter makes you think better. So get SMOWSING.

Monday – well today with a client we opened a Magnum of champagne on a Monday morning at 9am. The reason? To make a point and the point was that a brand message (like an ad or like academically looking at glasses and saying that a beer glass and champagne don’t go together well) is less powerful than an actual real life experience. ( I made him pour a $175 dollar Magnum into a crappy pint mug, he could not bear it anymore after a third was full.)

Now it seems that everyone wants our e-mail address and companies are getting cunning at getting it. They increasingly advertise and want you to go to some uncorporate website named www.savemorefaster.com and leave out the NatWest, Rabobank or ANZ bit. What they might as well say is – we don’t care about you we want your e-mail address – you see messages can lie – they might be sincere but the more companies in general catch onto this trick – the more suspicious we become.

Here is the point. It is possible that as the internet becomes ‘more corporate’ (as it seems to be becoming) our level of trust in it and what’s said there will drop – as increasingly the ‘neutral source’ will lead to some corporate agenda. 98% of all the e-mail in the world is SPAM, look what we did to that medium…”History doesn’t repeat itself it rhymes” says Marc Twain…you get the picture.

And if the internet does get more corporate who do you think you’ll trust more than ever? Your mates and your girlfriends, your brothers, cousins and anyone you are close to.  The real life experience of ‘your mates’ – will count more than ever. There are already sites like lifehacker.com that are starting to show you how to avoid technology and Telcos brands showing how you can re-route e-mails and calls to defend yourself against it… and brands like ‘Skull Candy’ make clunky old fashioned looking headphones to celebrate the good old days when technology wasn’t so intrusive or ever present.

So if the internet becomes more corporate then we’ll turn more than ever to Word of Mouth in the Real World for advice and help. ‘Gob advertising’ is the most trusted form of advertising and until we have cyborgs it probably always will be.

When did you last give your Customers a real experience? Time to get out the champagne then (and the beer glass )

Kindest

Jake & Cornelis.