Paul Hogan
Originally uploaded by snoobidou

Another year…another year of predicted doom and gloom. Yes, the celebrity bureaucrats from Tourism Australia have predicted the number of foreign visitors will plummet this coming year, even after they spent tens of millions of dollars on another failed advertising campaign. Not to mention that MOVIE or its massive tax relief.

Is branding Australia that hard? I don’t think so. If you look at the bare facts, Australia’s lack of visitors has nothing to do with being seen or heard. Our key brands SYDNEY and AUSTRALIA are continually being voted as number 1# travel destinations.

So what are the celebrity bureaucrats doing wrong? Well, my own cynicism says it’s something to do with our tourism elite wanting to move away from our low brow beach culture of sun, sea, surf and bronzed Aussie’s. It must be too crass for them…

I have the impression they’d like to remove the cringe factor by repositioning Australia as a sophisticated destination for the middle aged adventurous traveller who is into natural, cultural and spiritual awareness.

Travellers willing to climb aboard a white 4WD, drive through hot deserts and beautiful bushland, roughing it in green tents and being at one with happy aboriginals.

Let’s face it people, most foreigners visiting Australia are looking for a coastal paradise with beautiful beaches, long sunny days, big surf and lots of bronzed Aussie guys and girls saying "G'day mate."

Just think about it, fat middle aged Yank’s, Brit’s, Jap’s or Chinese with fat wallets aren’t going to travel half way round the world in there millions to spend three weeks roughing it in a rent-a-tent with no amenities just outside Dungog or Cessnock? Nothing wrong with Dungog or Cessnock…

Australia’s real point of difference is its modern beach lifestyle.

Remember people, its near impossible to change someone’s mind that’s why Paul Hogan’s 1984 "The Wonders Down Under" TV commercial was so successful…

Bring back Hogan! Pity about his problems with the tax office.

  brand idea 
  Originally uploaded by mridea848

At last, the Australian Marketing Institute has given its member’s a clue to their vision of the future of marketing.

Roger James, chairman of the Australian Marketing Institute in this month’s issue of ‘Marketing Update’ tells us about the need to bring marketing and finance closer together.

He explains, his vision of marketing is based on a somewhat tongue-in-cheek suggestion by Tim Ambler in ‘Marketing and the Bottom Line’, that proposed a simple solution to marketing’s problem: “give finance the responsibility for marketing measurement, since that way the bean counters would be forced to learn about marketing and marketing metrics.”

And listening to a presentation by Angus McKay the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Foster’s, the title of his presentation gives a clue to its particular interest: ‘The CFO’s Role in Brand Management’.

Yes my fellow marketer’s…the brains trust at the Australian Marketing Institute think the CFO is the best person for championing good brand management practices!!!

Our miss guided Chairman has to remember his responsibility is to the members and championing the marketing profession. It’s not to put our marketing careers under the control of the CFO.

I think Milan Kundera was right when he said “Business has only two functions – marketing and innovation.” He didn’t say “Business has only two functions – “Cash in and cash out.”

At this point, I want to mention that I’m not downplaying the importance and role CFO’s play in the corporate world. It’s just that I believe in marketing and its importance, I didn’t join the marketing profession to be a bean counter…Get my drift?

In my opinion, our so called peak marketing body has lost the plot and they want to sell the family jewels, to a bunch of accountants (with all due respect to accountants).

In layman terms, our Chairman has just removed his bicycle clips, dropped his elasticated slacks, removed his crusty Y-fronts and taken a cash receipt book from behind, just to appease a bunch of cardigan wearing over inflated egotistical accountants, who just don’t get it (with all due respect to all over inflated egotistical accountants).

Doesn’t he know that 100’s of companies and agencies all around Australia have just been put at risk, due to the Global Credit Crisis? Who put these companies at risk? The marketer…no, the CFO…YES!!!

And the Australian Marketing Institute wants to put them in charge.

I’ve read heaps of marketing books by leading marketing thought leaders like Philip Kotler, Jack Trout, Don Peppers, Seth Godin, Guy Kawasaki, David Aaker and Al Ries, but I don’t remember them suggesting we should be integrating marketing with the finance department. 

How many companies are taking this radical idea? Our Chairman said “At this stage Foster’s is likely to be the exception rather than the rule.” With all due respect to our Chairman, if he had any experience in explaining marketing theory or pitching key marketing concepts to a CFO…he would understand why Foster’s is the only brand silly enough to hand over a key marketing function to the finance dude (with all due respect to Foster’s CFO).

In any case, CFO’s don’t have the time to manage the marketing team, CFO’s are to busy spending their time investing (losing) the company profits and cash reserves on the sub-prime mortgage market and/or manipulating their company’s financial performance and profitability metrics, before they go into retirement or gaol.

What next? A merger with the Charter Accountants.

But wait, that might be a good idea…rather than being a CPM, we could all become CPA’s…that’ll be good, we may gain some respect.

Marketing’s 4 P’s would become Price, Profitability, Performance and Productivity. The 4 C’s would become Cost, Capital, Counting and Crisis or Credit, Currency, Constraint and Consequences.

A leader must be able to gain respect for his vision and as a person. A leader is a dealer in hope. The Australian Marketing Institute is dealing in defeatism.

I’d like to leave you with a few words from our Chairman on his vision “there is a good argument that this approach should be increasingly adopted by Australian businesses. Let’s hope so; marketing will be the better for it.”

In the words of Gordon Whitehead mmktg, afami,cpm: “CRAP!” You haven’t presented an argument, all you’re trying to do is justify the AMI leadership’s fixation with marketing metrics program and marketing will not be better for it.

I said final word, but I can’t stop.

Yes, we all know marketers have to speak the language of business and achieve return-on-investment, but the role of the Australian Marketing Institute is to champion marketing and marketers, not give up on marketing because CFO’s just don’t get it or can’t be bothered to change.

To read the offending article in the AMI’s ‘Marketing Update’ go to www.ami.org.au. Be quick they might remove it.

  Blood Nose 
  Originally uploaded by Steve Kay

AUSTRALIAN MARKETING INSTITUTE is calling for nominations for election of members as state councillors.

Over 70 AMI Members are wanted to run for state elections to bring new blood to the organisation.

Ideally suited to members qualified in marketing with a vision of AMI Members becoming the preferred choice of employers and clients, valued by the community and leaders in the marketing profession.

The election will be held on the 24th September 2008.

Existing State Members and marketing laggards need not apply!!

This Advertisement has been made by Gordon Whitehead MMktg, AFAMI, CPM on behalf of  ‘Marketer’s with a vision.’

What’s your vision for the Australian Marketing Institute?

In an over communicated society that is constantly changing having a sticky brand is hugely important for any business.

Well…Australian Ad Agency owner, publisher of Australia’s leading media news blog – Media Hunter and contributor to the Age of Conversation books, Craig Wilson recently launched a brand new exciting blog called Sticky Branding.

Many people and some marketers misunderstand the role of branding, Craig’s new blog hopes to inform and educate people on the best way to establish a sticky brand.

Please give Craig’s new blog some link love. Remember…its a very lonely world for a new blog!

sexy
Originally uploaded by Big-heaD

As a huge follower of Al Ries and Jack Trout’s position on brand positioning, I had to read Mark Ritson’s latest article in the ‘Professional Marketing’ magazine, attacking Australian marketer’s.

To tell you the truth, I usually dump the Australian Marketing Institute’s ‘Professional Marketing’ journal in the bin or donate it to my doctors waiting room, but this time, I got passed the usual suspects Chairman and CEO intro and read on.

Good old Mark, lays into Australian marketers by writing that we are hopelessly inept when it comes to brand positioning.

At first, I felt outraged…but then again, I was born in Warrington, UK – so he wasn’t talking about me, thats okay then.

Marketers are fully aware of the extraordinary growth in communication clutter, its how marketers have to deal with it…thats the problem. Too many of todays marketers are not educated and groomed in the importance of branding, differentiation and positioning.

Most importantly, the typical Aussie business whether its small, medium or large hasn’t fully bought into the marketing and branding thing.

In addition, Marketers are increasingly being marginalised as brand champions, key decision-makers or influencer’s, replaced by Director’s with huge ego’s, senior managers that have never heard of the term branding and my favourite…the senior executives mate or wife, who’s done a bit of marketing.

The size of the business doesn’t matter, I’ve seen and heard it all.

Mark Ritson is perfectly right in pointing out the endemic problem with brand positioning, Australian corporates do have a tendency to follow rather than differentiate. This leads to what Mark calls the ‘usual suspects’ in positioning statements.

The usual suspects in Australian positioning statements:

• Quality: 70% prevalence
• Innovative: 60% prevalence
• Value: 60%
• Integrity: 50%
• Trust: 50%
• Sustainable: 20% (but gaining fast)

My favourite has to be quality.

Go and visit Mark Ritson site, he’s written some great articles…and they make you think!

Marketers should be seen as brand custodians or high brand priests, venerated by those above and below…is that too much to ask?

How can this problem be solved…shoot all the lawyers and accountants on boards? Too risky! Then, it must be education and for more marketers to climb the corporate ladder and attain board positions.

I wish I could give you a link to Mark Ritson’s full article, but ‘Professional Marketing’ and the AMI seem to struggle with modern marketing and communication technologies and strategies.

That’s my dig at the AMI for the month.

Obelisk @ Night 1
Originally uploaded by Snelvis

According to Tourism New South Wales about 95 per cent of the state’s business visitors spend most or all of their time in Sydney. This fact is not easy to forget, when you consider Newcastle is New South Wales (NSW) second city and the sixth largest in Australia.

Internationally, NSW has been successful in attracting over 65 per cent of all Australian-based Asia Pacific regional headquarters or operations – that’s well over 600 companies. Unfortunately, very few have located their headquarters in Newcastle.

Courtesy of the Australia Bureau of Statistics, over half of Australia’s 500 leading companies have called NSW home including companies like WestPac, Commonwealth Bank, St George Bank, Macquarie Bank, AMP, Woolworths, Seven Network, Boral, CSR, Harvey Norman, PBL, Leighton, Qantas, Lend Lease, Fairfax, and Westfield. Again, very few have seen the benefits of locating their major operations or headquarters to Newcastle.

Whilst Newcastle is struggling to project an attractive new image, Sydney our nearest and biggest competitor has been named the world’s best city by the Anholt City Brands Index, followed by London, Paris, Rome and New York. Paul Keating even said, “If you are not living in Sydney you are simply camping out"

It is no exaggeration to say that Sydney is as close to having a ‘perfect city brand’ as any city can have.

Like Sydney, increasingly more and more cities around the world are using branding, positioning themselves more effectively to compete globally for their fair share of the world’s consumers, tourists, businesses, investment, capital, respect and attention.

Rather than being classed as a campsite, Newcastle’s future success relies on it becoming a strong compelling brand. I can only hope our political masters see the potential of branding my adopted city.

Give me the job…I’ll do it.

As a big fan of Al Ries and Jack Trout, I normally measure firm’s against the 22 immutable laws of marketing.

So, in this final week of the 2008 Australian Federal Election, I’ve been thinking…What if, the next Australian Federal Government wrote the 22 immutable laws of marketing into law.

How would this effect Australian businesses and the economy? Would Australia become the marketing world’s own Utopia? Would this attract the finest marketing brains from round the World?

I think I best wake-up!

Here is Al Ries and Jack Trout’s 22 immutable laws of marketing:

1.   Leadership – It’s better to be the first than it is to be better.

2.   The Category – If you can’t be first in a category, change the nature of the category or set up a new category you can be first in.

3.   The Ladder – The strategy to use depends on which rung you occupy on the ladder.

4.   Duality – In the long run, every market becomes a two-horse race.

5.   The Mind and Perception – Marketing is not a battle of products, it’s a battle of perceptions; and sometimes it’s better to be first in the mind than to be first in the marketplace.

Read the rest of this entry »

Open Source Marketing
Talk to the Brand

Time is running out to book for the next Marketing Breakfast. The Open Source Movement refers to communities of like-minded and collaborative consumers – individuals who share a passion for a certain element of modern culture, such as a particular brand.

The web browser Firefox, created by a community called Mozilla, and the renegade music file-sharing site Napster, are two well known examples of the Open Source Movement.  Wikipedia is another.  Its 1.3 million articles are written and maintained in eight languages by individuals who are dispersed around the world.

As marketers, how can you take advantage of these influential communities for your brand? Tara Power from brand agency Passport DSN believes that participation is what open source marketing is about. Getting consumers involved in developing and naming the product and even designing the packs.

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Below, Laura Ries talks about mistakes made with brand Atlanta…

How many times have you seen other major cities make a real mess of their branding?

Off the top of my head, I don’t even know what word my home city (Newcastle, Australia) owns! Is that bad on my part or is the city’s problem?

The category winners, overall Marketing Program of the Year, plus the AMI’s special awards were announced at the annual conference gala dinner in Sydney this month.

Marketing Program of the Year (and winner of the Social Marketing category)

WorkSafe and the Victorian WorkCover Authority for their ‘Homecomings Campaign’.

This campaign was based on the insight that the most important reason for making your workplace safe is not at work at all (read more)

AMI chairman Roger James presents the award for Marketing Program of the Year to Sonya Kennedy, brand and advertising manager, Victorian WorkCover Authority.

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