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Brand Man
| Date: |
15 May 2005 12:00 |
| Producer: |
Michael Duffett
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| Show: | Carte Blanche |
Do you recognize this sound? Can you believe that Kellogg's has a patent on it? And that's Mercedes' high quality clunk?
Martin Lindstrom (Branding expert): 'This sound is actually a trademark of Mercedes Benz.'
And that's branding - building recognizable elements of a product.
But, you ain't heard, or smelt nothing yet, according to branding guru Martin Lindstrom. He jetted into South Africa recently to promote his book and to teach marketers new tricks.
Derek Watts (Carte Blanche presenter): 'You know how to spot a bargain, you know exactly where to find the labels you love, but can you smell them? According to Martin Lindstrom, who's changing the face of global marketing, we're about to be the focus of a total onslaught on all of our senses.'
Martin: 'I think it's fascinating to see that, if you take a bank like Barclays Bank in the UK, they've actually started to brew coffee in the banks to make people feel at home.'
Martin is convincing marketers that appealing to our visual senses through TV alone will not continue to sell their products.
Martin: 'Now the clutter is so strong that really you can't come through it without having other techniques to use.'
So how about the power of smell? We love the smell of the new car.
Martin: 'In fact, that smell of the car doesn't exist. In many cases... up to 90 percent of the cases, the smell is artificially manufactured and sprayed into the car two hours before it leaves the factory.'
In an experiment conducted in Las Vegas, a pleasant smell was sprayed in a particular gambling area, which resulted in 45% more takings. Extra sensory branding is Martin's baby.
Martin: 'Yes, it's taking you straight back to when you're a kid. And that's exactly what marketers are doing right now - they're spraying certain smells on teddy bears that remind you of when you were a kid.'
Derek: 'Martin's now in his mid-30s but he opened up his first advertising agency at the age of twelve. He's written several bestsellers and also writes a regular column on branding which reaches four million people in 30 countries - and it all started with a Lego set.'
Derek: 'Martin, it seems that you owe a lot in life to Lego.'
Martin: 'I do. I can tell you, I was very ill when I was a kid and my mom and dad placed this box of Legos in my hand and I had my own Legoland when I was 12 years of age.'
The Danish teen then brought in thousands of paying visitors to his Legoland
Martin: 'And I later on developed some of the global strategies on branding.'
He helped Lego develop their brand-line, to appeal to the younger children
Derek: 'Martin, you were a media and marketing man when you were just out of nappies.'
Martin: 'It's kind of scary when you think about it. I must have been a weirdo, I can tell you!'
Today his many blue chip clients include Disneyland, McDonalds, Microsoft and Kellogg's. This year he is embarking on the biggest-ever world series of branding conferences - 35 countries... And all because of a smell.
Derek: 'Now what was it that triggered this interest, or obsession maybe, in sensory branding?'
Martin: 'When I was walking down the streets in Tokyo in Japan a couple of years ago I saw this beautiful woman was passing by me and she was wearing this beautiful perfume. It was amazing, because all of these tall buildings disappeared and I was back in my little town where I was born and raised, and it was so real. And I realised the power of smell was incredibly strong, is incredibly strong, and of course my question then was, 'Can you brand it?''
Martin is adamant that marketers need to enhance, maybe exploit all our senses.
Martin: 'Do you know this brand? [Martin holds up box of Crayola crayons.]'
Derek: 'Yes, it's available in this country.'
Martin: 'Do you remember this smell?'
Derek: 'Waxy.'
Martin: 'Go on, try it.'
Derek: 'It does take you back, doesn't it? To, in my case, being hit over the knuckles with a ruler.'
Martin: 'Yes, exactly.'
But in most cases, smell triggers pleasant memories, which prompts a purchase.
Martin: 'Basically you can't turn that factor off.'
In an experiment, identical Nike shoes were placed in two separate rooms. Consumers overwhelmingly preferred the shoes in the scented room, and were even prepared to pay more for them.
Derek: 'Woolworths is regarded locally as a market leader when it comes to layout and design. Martin's going to rate their performance in Hyde Park.'
Martin headed straight for the coffee.
Martin: 'Now smell this one here. Can you smell anything at all?'
Derek: 'Not really.'
Martin: 'I can't. Where is the smell of baked bread, freshly baked bread? Can you smell anything?'
Derek: 'The dreaded toilet paper.'
Martin: 'Well, you know, I have no clue whether this is good or bad toilet paper. Feel it. Can you feel how it feels like?'
Derek: 'So should we have a little piece on the outside so you can feel the texture, feel the ply?'
Martin: 'And that's exactly what actually Woolworths thinks in the UK, where there are on wraps certain parts of the toilet paper and sales increased by more than 50%.'
Martin's belief is that by allowing consumers to experience their five senses - that's smell, touch, sight, sound and feel - this ritual creates a sense of well-being and belonging, and has parallels with religion.'
Martin: 'Actually, the world of branding can in many ways be inspired by the world of religion in a good way, and so I travel around the world and visit 14 countries and religions. What I learnt was that religions have a clear enemy. Now if I say, 'Pepsi', who's then the enemy to them? Coca-cola. Certain brands are leveraging the fact of having clear enemies because it creates a sense of belonging. I realised, using rituals in brands like they have in religion is incredibly powerful. Think about the Corona beer... you know, the beer where you put the lemon on top; that's a ritual. There's no rational reason why we actually create a sense of belonging by using rituals and then, funnily enough, the essential appeal seems to be the gratifying thing across every religion.'
Every day we are exposed to between 5000 and 7000 branding messages, which, like some charismatic religions, offer wealth, health, property and a sense of belonging. How does this onslaught affect our kids?'
Martin: 'Kids' senses are more that 200 percent stronger than any other of the older generations. So what I'm saying is, they have to start from a younger segment and actually build in the sensory touch point, which they're, by the way, doing right now.'
Martin has researched the buying habits of tweens - children between 7 and 14. They spend, or rather their parents spend, a staggering two trillion dollars a year on brands.
Derek: 'Martin has researched and analysed what he calls the 'brand child', but what do they have to say about their choices in fashion and accessories and what's in and out?'
Child 1: 'It goes from Billabong and Roxy and that, and then it goes up to like YDE.'
Child 2: 'Because we both like YDE and Heat.'
Child 3: 'I got out of this into this.'
And these brands don't come cheap!
Child 2: 'R600, R700 for a pair of jeans.
Child 4: 'Foxy jeans are like R500 or R1000.'
Rhoda Berry (Mother): 'So you're spending R800 on a pair of shoes, which I would never spend on a pair of shoes for myself, and those shoes are not going to fit this time next year.'
Bronwen Roberts (Mother): 'They will wear their three Billabong, Roxy, Foxy t-shirts or whatever to death. They will not be seen dead in a Mr. Price or Woolies.'
Derek: 'Do you try and steer them towards the cheaper shops?'
Bronwen: 'Yes, but it's just pointless because they won't wear them.'
Derek: 'Is it important what you wear to school on Civvies Day?'
David Berry (Rhoda's son): 'In my standard everybody would like judge you by your clothes sort of thing. If you had like nice clothes, you were like a good oke and stuff.'
Georgie Roberts (Bronwen's daughter): 'I know it takes me like three hours to get dressed every day.'
Bronwen: 'And the bedrooms look like a bomb's hit them and they've been up since five. Trying to get to school by eight is a mission.'
Martin: 'Probably this generation is spending the most money ever in history.'
Martin says that children are now also influencing their parents' purchases.
Derek: 'I check with her, 'Is this watch cool?' and, 'Do I look okay?''
David: 'Like even with cars, I try and convince him, 'No dad, go buy a Merc, don't buy this because this has got that. You tell him all this stuff that he doesn't understand to try and make him go buy it.'
Georgie: ' 'Cos like they're old and they don't know anything.'
Martin: 'In 67% of cases kids are deciding what car mom and dad are purchasing, close to 70% of what cell phone brand.'
But with the ever more efficient techniques to make us loyal to products, do we need to set up guidelines to protect ourselves?
Martin: 'On one side I find it as, almost a revolution right now in branding. It is so powerful that most likely very soon we'll have to have a debate around it because there are no ethical guidelines around it.'
Derek: 'Martin, you've got a foot in both camps here. You're talking to corporations about how they should market their products using all of the senses, but you're also saying that we're being manipulated by all of these marketers?'
Martin: 'What I'm saying is that companies should certainly not go too far because it will backlash on the brands. And what I felt when I started writing the book is that someone needs to write a book about it, tell the world about it so that we can start a debate. We've never seen something so powerful before, so we need to find that balance. That's what I'm working on.'
IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER:While every attempt has been made to ensure this transcript or summary is accurate, Carte Blanche or its agents cannot be held liable for any claims arising out of inaccuracies caused by human error or electronic fault. This transcript was typed from a transcription recording unit and not from an original script, so due to the possibility of mishearing and the difficulty, in some cases, of identifying individual speakers, errors cannot be ruled out.
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