Price is the quality signal that rules

The brain is easily duped into believing having a high quality wine when in fact it is drinking a "peppermint-favoured burgundy". scientist called Professor Nicholas Potts from Charles Sturt University reported that Recently a group of scientists were given 25 wines to taste in a blind tasting. The bottles had their labels covered but their prices left on. The scientists not only rated the bottles with higher prices as best. Their brains, which we being scanned, reacted to the wines according to the quality signal of price, enjoying the wine with higher prices more than the cheaper drops. But the trick was this: the prices were all reversed, with low priced wines bearing high prices and vice versa. So, as the barrow boy said to the bishop, never mind the quality, feel the width. Does it mean you can bottle swill, price it high and watch sales fly? AT least there is a group of scientists we know it will work for.

ABC logo: a clever announcement

They are changing the guards at Buckingham palace.
Christopher Robin went down with Alice.

Here are the lessons from the ABC logo flap:

1. No one except a new marketing director likes change.
2. ABC viewers are more likely to think they own the place and complain.
3. As the only one of its kind, in the Australian marketplace, it barely needs a logo.
4. Logos must be designed for tomorrow, not today. The CommonwealthBank's logo caused an uproar when it was launched. Because it was designed to look relevant not in 1980 but in 2008 and beyond.
5. Logos must be maintained relative to the Times.
6. The marketing people guaranteed maximum awareness for free by leaking it and unveiling it only 7 sleeps later. They new it would cause a stink.

MK

Marketing as a lifeskill

Being able to peek inside the minds of others is an essential marketing skill. It doesn't come naturally. In the last 2 days I have encountered 2 people whose marriages have come to a dramatic end after 25-30 years. In each case the other person was entirely to blame. They acted badly. Betrayal. One man's wife joined a religious group and left. Another woman's husband chased other women ... and caught them. The obvious question arises: what made her go looking for meaning elsewhere? What made him want to chase women? Logic tells us that each partner in a relationship contributes equally to its good and bad aspects. Was the fact that the religious woman's husband had been poured his passion into an invention he was trying to perfect, working day and night on his own, when she needed passion... and found it in the arms of God? The man who chased women was probably trying to get some sex, plain as that. And with it, some intimacy. Obviously something missing at home. Both the leavees felt attacked and betrayed. Neither of our leavers was intending to hurt the leavees.It wasn't about them. They had simply become irrelevant. But my attempts to get the embittered man and women to try to see the situation from their former partner's point of view entirely failed. They couldn't read their partner's mind all the time leading up to the break up, either. It is a great gift to be able to focus on 'the other'. Then you'll know why people won't buy or cease buying.

Toyota becomes Australian of the Year

I've had a thought...

Few people know this, but Toyota made a plan to take over from Holden as the "Australian" middle of the road automotive brand more than 25 years ago. I was there when it was hatched. The fact that the Australian of the Year is Toyota's 2nd-longest serving spokes-celebrity Lee Kernaghan (the longest being Big John Laws) is one thread in the fabric of the plan. Lee already slips mentions of Toyota into every interview. Don't be surprised if people start to believe that Toyota sponsors the Australian of the Year. Because they do. I wouldn't be surprised if a Toyota celebrity doesn't become Governor General. Then Toyota will be sponsor of the whole country. The company's brand dimension tracking has been following the relentless rise of its "Australian" personality for the last two decades. The jumping chook, the "unbreakable" ute, the "Bugger!" ads, the sponsorship of the AFL and the Olympic Team. Toyota outspent and out strategised the others. The only thing that held them back was their product quality. It was too good. Australians expect Australian made products to be crappy. Just like "Made In Japan" meant tinny, cheap, and unreliable in the 1950s and 1960s when the Japanese started exporting their way out of wartime devastation. Then a Professor Demming introduced the concept of "Quality" and the Japanese 'got it'. Their products became so reliable, they took vast market share from the old leaders. Toyota's quality made it attractive to ordinary Australians.. and at the same time made it harder for its brand to be accepted as Australian. The lesson from this: Marketing is not this year's plan. It is part of the DNA of the company. Does your company have a DNA? Or will it be lucky to last til drinks next Friday?