Ged Carroll

Category: branding | 品牌推廣 | 브랜드 마케팅 | ブランディング

The dictionary definition of branding is the promotion of a particular product or company by means of advertising and distinctive design.

I have covered many different things in branding including:

  • Genesis – the luxury Korean automotive brand
  • Life Bread – the iconic Hong Kong bread brand that would be equivalent of wonder loaf in the US
  • Virgil Abloh and the brand collaborations that he was involved in
  • Luxury streetwear brands
  • Burger King campaigns with Crispin Porter Bogusky
  • Dettol #washtocare and ‘back to work’ campaigns
  • Volkswagen ‘see the unseen’ campaign for its Taureg off road vehicle
  • SAS Airline – What is truly Scandinavian?
  • Brand advertising during Chinese New Year (across China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia)
  • Lovemarks as a perspective on branding
  • BMW NEXTGen event and Legend of Old McLanden campaign
  • Procter & Gamble’s Gillette toxic masculinity ads
  • Kraft Mother’s Day campaign
  • Kraft Heinz brand destruction
  • Porsche Design in the smartphone space
  • Ermenegildo Zegna
  • Nike’s work with Colin Kaepernick
  • Counterfeit brands on Instagram, Alibaba and Amazon
  • Gaytime Indonesian ice cream
  • Western Digital
  • Louis Vuitton collaboration with Supreme
  • Nokia
  • Nike Korea’s ‘Be Heard’ campaign
  • Mercedes SLS coupe campaign
  • Brand collaborations in Hong Kong
  • Beats headphones
  • Apple
  • Henrion Ludlow Schmidt’s considerations of branding
  • Cathay Pacific
  • Bosch
  • Mitt Romney’s failed presidential bid
  • Microsoft Surface launch
  • Oreo Korean campaign
  • Chain coffee shop brands and branding
  • Samsung’s corporate brand
  • North Face’s brand overeach in South Korea
  • Mr Pizza Korean pizza restaurant and delivery service brand
  • Amoy Hong Kong food brand
  • Chevrolet Corvette ‘roar’ campaign promoting a build your own car service

  • VC industry transformation

    Technology venture capitalists (VC)  have been going through a lot of change since the dot.com bust, with disruptions to their model including start-ups needing less cash and Sarbanes Oxley suppressing the pipe line for early exits via an IPO. As innovation (ok web services) has become cheaper, it has attracted a wider range of entrepreneurs than bright (usually male) engineers with an idea. A new class of angel investor has filled some of the slots that venture capital firms would have traditionally filled.

    Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers is one of the cornerstones of Silicon Valley VC culture. Eugene Kleiner (the Kleiner in KPCB) was one of the traitorous eight who where responsible for much of the modern semiconductor industry as we know it. The VC sector like technology start-ups have traditionally been very male orientated environments have had to change as society and the companies that they fund change. Junior partner Ellen Pao is one of the most prominent women at KPCB with an impressive track record and range of qualifications.

    News sources in the US published that Ms Pao had filed a sexual discrimination suit against the company with a number of allegations against a senior colleague. This has had reverberations throughout the industry:

    • KPCB is a flag carrier for the VC industry
    • VC companies roles are being questioned as there has been a flight of capital from ‘hard’ investments in areas of innovation like biotechnology and the next generation semiconductor technologies – which impacts negatively on the global competitiveness of the US
    • Venture capitalism already feels out of touch with the kind of start-ups that it looks to fund, stereotyped as a preppy gentleman’s club
    • Female entrepreneurs are less likely to want to work with KPCB limiting the company’s access to some of the hottest start-ups

    What’s the PR opportunity?

    The opportunity for PR agencies is to sell reputation repositioning to venture capital companies:

    • Making them look relevant
    • Positioning them as open, inclusive organisations

    Venture capital companies have historically under-invested in brand building and marketing in general, so there maybe an education process required.

    Archived from posts that I wrote for PR Week. More finance related posts can be found here.

  • Nokia N9

    Hong Kong-based independent mobile industry analyst Tomi Ahonen is one of the most prominent critics of Nokia. One of the points that Ahonen makes is that the Nokia N9 (based on the MeeGo operating system; parts of which has now been incorporated into Samsung’s mobile operating system Tizen) is more attractive than the equivalent Nokia Lumia phones.

    Nokia has been suspiciously ambiguous about Nokia N9 sales numbers. Mr Ahonen has made some guesses that put the N9 selling in broadly the same numbers as the Lumia range; despite not being sold in many developed world markets and not being backed by a $150 million advertising campaign. These are just estimates so I was curious to to see what the relative interest was for Lumia devices versus N9 when they are sold side-by-side.

    I decided to look at Expansys.com. Expansys is the place to go for early adopters to get the kind of handsets that UK carriers, Phones4U and Carphone Warehouse don’t want to sell. In common with many sophisticated e-commerce websites Expansys has a search function that has an auto-suggestion function based on popularity to help get consumers to the item they want as fast as possible.
    Untitled
    In this unscientific study the Nokia N9 is more popular than all the Lumia models – when the products are sold side-by-side, which is probably why Nokia has taken care to minimise the amount of market competition between the Lumia and the Nokia N9. This still doesn’t give me any idea on differentiation between the N9 and the Lumia models.

    I decided to have a look at the different Lumia models and the N9 on Google Insights for Search. What this shows is an overall decline in interest on all the premium Nokia brand phones I looked at over time. Whilst the Lumia 800 has been the most popular on the chart, the gap between it and the Nokia N9 doesn’t merit the fact that Nokia blew an estimated $150 million promoting the Lumia 800 – their biggest ever budget and didn’t for the N9.

    One could argue that Nokia has been handicapped in its carrier relations because of Microsoft’s Skype acquisition, and reviewers have given the handsets themselves mixed reviews. But what I found most disturbing is that it seems that the evidence suggests consumers have failed to be sufficiently excited the Lumia phones; that an unpromoted, unsupported handset running an operating system that Nokia has killed off is giving the Lumia range a run for its money – despite the Lumia range having Nokia’s largest ever marketing campaign behind it.

    Nokia still has a stretch of runway to make its transformation complete, but it doesn’t fill one with confidence, perhaps RIM will be the third mobile eco-system? More Nokia related content can be found here.

    More information
    Who Wants Numbers? Lumia on T-Mobile? Lumia 800 vs Lumia 710? How Many Nokia N9? – Communities Dominate Brands

  • Korean Oreo ad

    Korean Oreo ad

    Looking at the Korean Oreo advert that seems to have caused a stir in the US, it seemed obvious to me that the advert was a case of throwing creative against the wall. It may have been used as a calling card, a way to spur debate or a mock-up for an award as Kraft seem to suggest.

    In this respect it is rather like Volkswagen Polo car bomb ad that went around London agency world a number of years ago.
    Controversal Oreo advert
    Korea like Singapore and China is a quite conservative country and has a higher proportion of practicing christians than you would expect. So I am not inclined to think that this was really designed to go out as marketing material from the band.

    The Korean public would create uproar. Korean consumers have a reputation for staging protests and product boycotts. That would be way too risky for a foreign brand like Kraft.

    I also found it is also interesting that Kraft has thrown Cheil under the bus really fast on this.

    For what it’s worth I think that this could be a great creative if it had the right context – say targeting young men as a snack rather their more traditional demographic of  family decision-makers – housewives. But you would have to select your media very carefully and be prepared for Lynx / Axe type backlash. More related content here.

    More information

    Double Slip: Controversial Korean Oreo Ad Leaked – ABC News

  • Chain coffee shops

    I had been in Korea less than 24 hours and already the number and diversity of chain coffee shops had surprised me. Whilst some people may call Seattle the home of the coffee shop, Seoul seems to have far more at least in terms of independent coffee shops and chain coffee shops.

    The quality of chain coffee shops seem to vary enormously and they seem to be very segmented in terms of their offering. Whilst Starbucks is in the Korean market with a substantial footprint – it hasn’t managed to achieve total market dominance in the way it has in the UK.

    From the small mom-and-pop shop feel of Mr Coffee to the mega-chain to Tom Tom Coffee there is something for everyone:

    • Coffee Bean – Korea’s oldest successful coffee shop brand isn’t as trendy as Caffé Bene. It has a mix of coffee and tea drink alternatives similar to Starbucks. It uses  wi-fi enabled buzzer to let you know when your order is ready. Coffee Bean is much better quality coffee than many of its competitors including Caffé Bene
    • Caffé Bene – the shop aims for a third-space type feel similar to Starbucks – but with a Korean modern design aesthetic.  The restaurant has a range of coffees on its menu including Ethiopian blend. Generally the coffee is milder than Starbucks. It also is known for its food; which is a grade above Starbucks.  Caffé Bene uses wi-fi enabled buzzers to let you know when your order is available to pick up from the counter.  Drip coffee is about two and a half times the price of the UK. Despite weak coffee, Caffé Bene has grown to 700 branches throughout Korea
    • Angel-in-us – aimed more at female customers, apart from the cute mug designs is is very similar in terms of its product and feel to Caffé Bene
    • Mr Coffee is a kiosk operation found at local mass transit stations – it makes a passable cup of coffee
    • Tom n Toms: ubiquitous chain, not known for the quality of its coffee. Inside it is very similar to an American style family restaurant like Dennys
    • Twosome Place – aimed at women.  It has a selection of beautifully presented cakes as an indulgence. . Advertised with a good-looking male celebrity selling a fantasy experience. It is also the chain with the best coffee. if you can handle the smooth marketing alongside The Coffee Bean, A Twosome Place is probably the best major chain to frequent

    Things to watch out for:

    • Prices are generally a third more expensive than Starbucks in other countries such as the UK, Hong Kong and US
    • Forget the flat white, the trendy coffee to order here is the ‘hand drip’ served in a lot of the independent coffee shops
    • People generally don’t understand what a black coffee is; they call it an americano even when its a filter coffee
    • Paid for wi-fi – this maybe due to the ubiquity of LTE | 4G networks and wi-fi bundled into domestic cellular deals. There is one variety of milk available – diary | full-fat. If you don’t have Internet Explorer | PC chances are that you won’t be able to sign up for a temporary account due to Korean reliance on ActiveX for online security – insane, but true
    • Milk – if you are on a diet or lactose intolerant go for black coffee, as milk generally doesn’t have any choices that you can make to customize your drink

    More Korea related posts here.

  • Mobile and TV integration

    Social, search, mobile and TV is the first in a series of posts of observations and thoughts from my recent trip to Korea.

    I was stuck by how mobile and TV advertising integration is achieved through QRcodes, search social and e-commerce. The consumer is surrounded in a brand membrane whilst at home in front of the TV.

    Korea is known for being advanced in social networks and search engines. Twitter has a vibrant community there, but Me2Day gives it a good run for its money.

    KakaoTalk is like a multi-platform version of BBM that brands are using to engage with fans and mature platforms like Cafe Daum, Naver and CyWorld can still school Silicon Valley on all things social.

    The country also has a diverse and vibrant eco-system of television stations with a lot of content based around K-pop stars and celebrity participation. TV is available on mobile devices and is one of the main engines of popular culture. TV enjoys a viewership that you don’t see in the UK or Europe any more.

    Given these two vibrant media eco-systems; advertisers and television commerce operations seek to do multichannel marketing. Here are some examples I took pictures of during a five-minute period during a mid-morning commercial break.


    Daum Mobile search is suggested as Daum is known as a site that provides content of interest for women. Encouraging mobile use allows for an immediate call to action.

    Han Hea Youn is a Korean fashion designer who sells her range of clothing via TV shopping channel. The QRcode at the top of the screen allows for the audience to get more information online and make a purchase.

    Where the product isn’t specifically aimed at a female audience the commercials recommended a search term for Naver Mobile.

    These commercial sections were not best-practice but indicated how true integrated multichannel has become a hygiene factor in Korean advertising campaigns. More related content here.