Why brands should care?

Do you remember when you were a kid there was always one kid, who was a spiteful git and by his very nature greedy, always took and gave nothing back. Their response if someone pulled them up, with vented spleen they would reply; ‘I don’t care. We all disliked those kids and over time they would lose friends, and they became the outcasts in the playground.

These kids never had any empathy towards others. As human beings we warm to people who show empathy and these principles are the same for all brands, more so now were a brands actions are for all to see via online.  So why do so many brands totally ignore this human trait?

But they’re companies that genuinely do care beyond selling products take the company Seeds Of Change: http://www.seedsofchange.com here’s a company that 3:1% of net sales go towards promoting the use of sustainable agricultural practices. In 2010 the company used this to support three apprentices for a UK charity; Garden Organic.

They also set up a school programs around ‘Sowing millions, growing millions’ where they helped teach children where food comes from, the best foods to eat, they also went one step further by helping kids to sow and grow organic school gardens. Many of these gardens are in urban areas which have a very poor social demographic, where most kids would be lucky to get one meal a day. Now there’s a company that stands for something, they want to help others.

According to research from Havas Media, which tapped into 14 countries and looked into 300 brands, from a sample of 50,000 people, improving people’s collective wellbeing is imperative for brands. From the research 57% feel that they can make a company behave more responsibly, they feel as a collective they have a say on how a company should conduct itself.

And there’s a connection with the growth of so many social conscious organisations sites like Brand Karma and Kiva.

Brand Karma is giving the power to the people, they now have a collective voice on how companies should act and if they don’t act in a responsible manner they tell others and they all then boycott the brand.

The site http://brandkarma.com/ looks at brands in how good their products, are, how well they treat people and how well they look after the planet, good or bad it’s all there for people to see. There’s no hiding place.

Kiva http://www.kiva.org/ is another organisation that has grown out of caring, but takes a slightly different approach, quite simply they leverage the web and worldwide network of microfinance institutions to help other small businesses, especially women. Since Kiva was founded in 2005, they have 771,590 Kiva lenders with a staggering $317 million in loans given out with an equally impressive 98.94% repayment rate.  Dermalogica the skin care brand in the US is heavily active in Kiva http://www.dermalogica.com/au/fite/index.html and all new employees become part of the Kiva program. Question why wasn’t this started by a bank?

Interesting and much more worrying for many brands is the view that 70% of people surveyed would not care two hoots if brands disappeared completely, according to

Havas Media brands are becoming increasingly irrelevant to people;  ‘We need a new way to measure and build brand value’

So what can brands do? Quite simply, brands who haven’t in place a ‘caring policy’ should get one and get one quickly, believe in something, something that is genuinely going to help people, this needs planning and put into action from key staff. This has to come from the top down where everyone in the company believes and knows that the company they work for is doing something for the better.

This doesn’t mean getting people to ‘like’ your brand or a cheap giveaway, this has to be something much more tangible and it needs to be an ongoing outlook it goes beyond marketing, it’s about a belief.  It’s about a shared value, for instance take Pedigree Dog Food's shared value in the belief that every dog deserves a loving home, they don’t just flog dog food, yes that’s the long term goal by association but they know to get people to respond in a positive manner towards them first a brand needs to clearly communicate a brands philosophy or higher purpose.

Shared values are the new currency and brands with a social conscious are the ones that will be of value to people’s lives, the others will slowly disappear from people’s life’s as people couldn’t care less what they have to offer or eventually have to say.

You can follow me @kevinferry

Imagine another great ad by Lego

Creativity and the Lego brand go together well just like LEGO itself and here's another example of their creativity Using the medium to full effect by using their surrounding environment as part of the composition.  The bus shelter ads titled 'Whale', 'Caterpillar', and 'Monster' was created by Ogilvy Malaysia, lovely creative work, create and play.

Genius

View the ad here 

When I saw this and when the super appeared I laughed my head off. This is so beautiful and well shot, the cast and music, everything I love it. Hat tip to the director Jonathan Gurvit (Mercurio Cinematografica) and the creative's @ Italian agency Armando Testa.

Ideas- it makes you think

Read brief, read brief again - Go for a run, swim, walk, play monsters with the kids, read brief again, read books and blogs, watch films, watch everyday people going about their everyday lives, sit with the cat, read brief, eat cake and drink coffee. Then I begin to doodle, if I'm relaxed, ideas then flow- I usually start by word mappiing - then doodles - then ideas, then scamps.Read brief, read brief again - Go for a run, swim, walk, play monsters with the kids, read brief again, read books and blogs, watch films, watch everyday people going about their everyday lives, sit with the cat, read brief, eat cake and drink coffee. Then I begin to doodle, if I'm relaxed, ideas then flow- I usually start by word mappiing - then doodles - then ideas, then scamps.

Us and US - XL and XXXL

We all know the US have the highest food consumption in the world and Australia is wobbling close behind. Just looking at the stats below it's scary to think we are all eating ourselves to death, we need to start putting a 'fat attack' plan in place, what would you start doing now?
Created by: MedicalCodingCareerGuide.com

Kraft very much Likey

Now here's a nice simple idea that me likey very much, I like when brands reward people for their interaction it's much warmer and you like the brand even more. Kraft asked fans to “LIKE this post” and told them that they “never know what may happen”. Almost 5,000 took a punt and liked the post and in return Kraft said thank you with the aid of The YellowJackets a capella group. They called it “Likeappella – Mac & cheese likes you back”. The brand posted the video in a follow-up post: “We LOVE it when you LIKE our posts. So we’re showing you some love back with a song personalized for you, our fans.” Nice work Crispin Porter + Bogusky. Like it alot, enough of the like gags.

Cool Tool for Social Media Monitoring

Whether you want to do research on a current topic or track a future event, Hash Tracking is your tool to do it. Let’s say you are going to Blog World. Simply enter the hash tag and Hash Tracking will start tracking as the conversation with that hash tag starts. But you can also run custom reports on hash tags, like “networking”:

With the data reports you can see who is using that tag, total tweet impressions and reach, total tweets and a complete transcript of all tweets. Who should use Hash Tracking and why: This is another great tool for the marketing professional who wants to gather information in tweets and links from the social web on a particular topic, who the influencers in that topic are and seeing the reach for that topic. Insights might lead you to plan where you will focus your social campaigns.