Slogans can animate a company and its employees, not just shape what consumers might think about its brand.

'Beanz Meanz Heinz', coined in a London pub in 1967 to combat the incipient rise of own label competitors, is still going strong five decades later. Photo: Alex Segre/Rex Features

The advertising business loves its orthodoxies.

But two of its more unshakeable beliefs – that a picture tells a thousand words, that a brand's actions speak louder than words – cast doubt on another, previously ironclad assumption: that advertising copy – the words themselves – is what matters most.

The gradual displacement of the industry's copy-writing sensibility, of words by pictures (and now arguably by data) has many, self-reinforcing roots: the on-going globalization of the brand-building business; mounting evidence that modern advertising works by engaging rather than by persuading and the democratisation of design, to name just a few.

But, although jingles and even end-lines are occasionally frowned upon in fashionable creative circles, it seems a few carefully chosen words can still propel brands and business.

Creative Review magazine's recent poll of the top 20 slogans of all time underscores just that, showing the power of words, mere words, to supercharge advertising, fortify brands and even to clarify or add colour to the business mission.

Overall poll winner "Beanz Meanz Heinz", coined in a London pub in 1967 to combat the incipient rise of own label competitors, is still going strong five decades later. But it is some of the poll's runners up that best demonstrate how language first coined for the advertising frontline can perform an equally valuable business function behind the scenes.

Nike's "Just Do It", for example, originally conceived of as "a tagline to give some unity to the [creative] work", was quickly adopted not just by consumers but by the organization itself as "a doctrine to live by". It is less a slogan, more a brand philosophy.

The same might justifiably be said of Tesco's "Every Little Helps", a broad-based service promise that has always been at its most powerful when underpinned by initiatives such as the baby-changing facilities and no quibble returns that were rolled out at launch.

Even three words, then, have the potential to animate a company and its employees, and not just to shape what consumers might think about its brand.

It's a point underlined by the presence in the same poll of John Lewis's "Never Knowingly Undersold", first rolled out in London's Peter Jones store in 1925.

Although it "acts as a reminder to our customers of our pricing policy', a company spokesperson has explained, "its main purpose is as a discipline upon our central buyers to ensure that, in arriving at their selling prices, the best possible value is offered to our consumers". A discipline for the company, in other words, as well as a customer pledge.

Alongside this potentially deep business contribution, words are still, of course, what we use in a more everyday way to develop brands – to codify strategy, crystallise occasionally opaque ideas and to provide the common store of meaning and direction for a brand's stakeholders.

Even Apple had its "Stevenotes", the keynote speeches shaping and sharing the company's philosophy along its path to becoming the world's most valuable company.

Creative Review's reminder of the power of words also serves to throw up some more general lessons for advertisers and the businesses that use them.

It's noticeable, for instance, that many of the most enduring slogans researched badly when first exposed to consumers.

Designed to demystify the intimidating world of DIY, Ronseal's "Does Exactly What It Says On The Tin" was originally rejected for being too boring. Audi's ingeniously re-purposed "Vorsprung Durch Technik", spotted on a wall and plundered unapologetically on a factory visit, was similarly rebuffed in research, this time for being "too German".

Perhaps the very qualities that help great endlines to endure – their oddness, their uniqueness – is what undermines them upon first inspection.

Itchy-fingered new marketing brooms might also observe just how long winning words have served their respective brands or categories: from "Say It With Flowers" (1917) to "Snap Crackle Pop" (1932) and "The Real Thing" (first coined for Coca-Cola in the 1940s). Too often brand assets like these are deemed prematurely to have passed their "sell by" date.

Few brands today can compete with words alone. But brandowners would do well not to neglect their ongoing role in brand storytelling.

Understanding and leveraging their power remains an important and potentially lucrative task for marketeers because, as Mark Twain once put it: "Actions speak louder than words, but not nearly as often

It's hard to disagree with Buffett's enthusiasm for America

Looking at the Berkshire Hathaway website this week to find out when Warren Buffett's next letter to shareholders is due (at the end of the month, as it happens), I dipped into last February's missive. It was a good reminder of why he is one of the world's richest men and most of us are not – he sees things before we do.

Having bought the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad in 2010 in anticipation of economic recovery, Warren Buffett was still backing the US a year ago. Photo: AP

By Tom Stevenson

"Money will always flow toward opportunity, and there is an abundance of that in America" he wrote. "Throughout my lifetime, politicians and pundits have constantly moaned about terrifying problems facing America. Yet our citizens now live an astonishing six times better than when I was born."

Having bought the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad in 2010 in anticipation of economic recovery, Buffett was continuing to back his home country in no uncertain terms a year ago. That looks astute today.

Last year, the US market was one of the few to end higher than it began and it has been in the vanguard of the rally since the New Year. The future of the eurozone may hang in the balance (again) this weekend, emerging markets may attract as many sceptics as evangelists, but the US looks like one of the few markets investors can agree on.

Well, almost. The strength of the recovery in the US market since last October has taken many people by surprise. The S&P 500 index is up by around 25pc in four months and on Friday came within a whisker of its highest level since before global markets imploded in 2008.

The question now is whether the US can continue to decouple from the rest of the world's markets or if the best of the recovery is already in the bag.

On the face of it recent data out of the US have been encouraging. Initial jobless claims have dipped below 400,000, two thirds of their level in 2009 and suggesting that the American economy is finally creating jobs again. Economic output grew at an annualised rate of 2.8pc in the final quarter of 2011, the highest rate of growth since the spring of 2010. And even the moribund housing market is beginning to show signs of stabilising, as foreclosed properties start to clear.

As ever, however, the numbers can be read in different ways. Take those jobless figures, for example. A recent note from HSBC took a rather less rosy view of US unemployment, pointing out that while the population of working age people in America grew by more than 5m between 2007 and 2011 there were 700,000 fewer people in the labour force. This is unprecedented.

Had the labour force grown in line with the working age population over the past four years, and if all those people were registered as out of work rather than economically inactive or discouraged from looking for a job as seems to be the case, the unemployment rate would be safely in double digits, not under 9pc and falling.

It's possible to put a much less optimistic gloss on the GDP growth figure too. If you take the average for 2011 of 1.7pc and compare it with the 3pc achieved in 2010 the Federal Reserve's assumption that interest rates will stay close to zero for another three years seems more understandable.

Looked at through this prism, the US stock market recovery looks a lot more like a simple knee-jerk response to the dramatic reduction in sovereign risk in Europe in the wake of the European Central Bank's decision to provide unlimited three-year funding for banks. The bounce is a reflection of investors' relief that financial catastrophe has been averted across the water rather than a response to sustainable growth at home.

That goes some way to explaining why the market has risen so far in the face of relatively disappointing fourth quarter earnings figures and reduced earnings forecasts and why all the money continues to flow into bond funds rather than equities.

In the short-run, therefore, the US looks ready for a breather but I find it hard to disagree with Warren Buffett's long-term enthusiasm for America, and I would add three other reasons to back Uncle Sam: the significant emerging market exposure of its biggest companies; America's technological leadership; and the possibility that the world's biggest energy consumer could become self-sufficient in the future thanks in large part to the commercialisation of its shale gas discoveries.

Warren Buffett may have beaten us to it, but I can't help thinking a portfolio with no US exposure is missing a trick.

©

RIA Novosti. Mikhail Fomichev

Pancake power

by Jennifer Chater at 20/02/2012 20:02

Maslenitsa

© RIA Novosti. / Alexander Vikulov

A smiling sun in the symbol of Maslenitsa

Feb. 24-26 in Gorky Park, Feb. 26 on Red Square, plus smaller events in parks and squares all over the city; for the full program and all locations see maslenitsa2012.ru

Munich lures millions to drink beer at Oktoberfest, so Moscow reckons it can get the world to crave its bliny at Maslenitsa.

The Russian capital is going all-out to turn the pre-Lent pancakemunching party into a major touristattracting event of international renown, like Venice’s Carnivale or Rio’s Mardi Gras. And with the Maslenitsamakeover team boasting Sergei Kapkov in his new capacity as the city’s culture department boss, he might just be able to work his magic in revamping the old-fashioned holiday just as well he did with Gorky Park’s transformation last year.

This year Maslenitsa runs Feb. 20-26, and city authorities are spending more than 20.3 million rubles on the festivities, city tourism committee head Sergei Shpilko told a press conference last week. Shpilko said some 2 million people were expected to join the fun at more than 400 Maslenitsa events around the city, with sports events, market fairs, folk singing, dancing, theatrical shows and tea-drinking with the traditional pancakes.

© RIA Novosti. / Vitaliy Ankov

Feasting before the Great Fast

While the focus of the festivities in previous years has been Vasilyevsky Spusk beside St. Basil’s Cathedral, this year there will be no Maslenitsa celebrations at that location. Instead, the main festivities will be in Gorky Park, from Friday, Feb. 24 to Sunday, Feb. 26. Gorky Park’s larger capacity has been cited as the reason for moving the main festivities there. Bliny and souvenir stalls, art installations, cooking classes, traditional games, a medieval village with craftspeople at work, and performances by rock, ethno and folk groups including Ivan Kupala are all on the program. There is to be a live video link-up with London’s celebrations on Trafalgar Square from 7 pm on Feb. 26, when Gorky Park’s festivities climax with the burning of an 11-meter fire-breathing Zhar- Ptitsa (Firebird) installation.

Moscow’s second major venue for this year’s Maslenitsa is Red Square, which is also linking up with Trafalgar Square via live video transmission on Feb. 26.

Shpilko said the London festivities, taking place this year for the fifth time, are key to the touristluring efforts.

“The London event is important for us, as we need to export or our culture, a positive image of the city and country,” RIA Novosti quoted Shpilko as saying. “Maslenitsa can become a significant and effective event to advertise the capital as a tourist destination. …

“We are trying to make Maslenitsa more modern,” he added.

© RIA Novosti. / Grigory Sysoev

Pancake stalls are to open in parks all over the city

While Red Square and Gorky Park are marking Maslenitsa for just one and three days respectively, the All-Russia Exhibition Center or VVTs is promising a pancake party all week. Visitors can try eight different types of bliny from historical recipes in the Retro Rink’s cafe, and every evening there will be festivities on the ice. On Feb. 23 a Maslenitsa fair opens in front of pavilions 11 and 12, and the closing party on Feb. 26 includes a ski race, concert, folk dancing and traditional burning of a Maslenitsa figure.

Kapkov told the press conference that there would also be Maslenitsa events in all city parks, from Sokolniki to Kuzminki. Poklonnaya Gora is to host a carnival on Feb. 25, while Kolomenskoye will offer a fair with interactive games for adults and children alike.

Smiling-sun logos – referring to the holiday’s pagan roots as a sun festival – are to shine from hundreds of posters and thousands of banners all over the city, enticing visitors to join the celebrations. Indeed, bliny themselves are supposed to symbolize the sun, representing a good-bye to winter just as much as a last hurrah for believers before the Great Fast, so Maslenitsa is a holiday for all to enjoy.

POLITICS

© RIA Novosti. Sergey Mamontov

Audit Chamber head says Putin’s proposed privatization fee is doable

by Nathan Toohey at 17/02/2012 19:13

The head of the Audit Chamber, Sergei Stepashin, says he knows how to calculate what the so-called oligarchs still owe the state after the controversial and murky privatization of the 1990s.

Results unfair

Last week at a meeting with the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, Prime Minster Vladimir Putin called the privatizations’ results “unfair.”

“Of course, this page must be turned. We must end this period, there are different options being offered, of course, we must discuss it with experts. But it must be done in such a way that society will accept the closing of this problem from the 1990s, of the, let’s just say it, unfair privatization,” RIA Novosti quoted him as saying last week.

Putin proposed a one-off payment to compensate for their dubious gains, in a proposal that resembled Britain’s 1997 Windfall Tax.

“It must be either a one-time fee, or something else. We must think about it together. I think in the first place, society in general and entrepreneurs are interested in this.”

Who owes what

Stepashin said in an interview with Rossiiskaya Gazeta published today that while difficult, it would not be impossible to determine who owes what.

“In principle, one can calculate the difference in the price of those assets – from what they were purchased in the ’90s and what they were actually worth. But I must warn you, to do it will be difficult. If there is a need, we can solve the issue through legal procedures, bring in independent financial supervisors, including the Audit Chamber.”

Worst of the lot

The Audit Chamber head said that he had long pointed out that the privatizations had been less than ideal.

“I recall that in 2003, the Audit Chamber finished its study of Russia’s privatizations in the 1990s,” Stepashin said. “Analyzing the results of the privatizations, we openly and honestly said that it ‘was conducted the worst possible way out of all European countries.’ This I quote verbatim from a member of the expert group, which worked together with the Audit Chamber, the Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, an American professor. He is impartial, he grew up in a market economy. In not one country in the world, including Eastern European countries – Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, I am already not taking into account China, Vietnam -- was this kind of privatization carried out.”

©

Photo Courtesy of the Walt Disney Company Russia & Cis

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 927