chapter 7
define the brand

You're about to read the most practical chapter in this book. After perusing it, you'll know the precise steps involved in creating a brand. I can tell you now, the process is simple — but it's in the execution where it becomes difficult. The information is based on my experience with brands I've created and brands I've worked on.

A brand I'm particularly proud of

I love working in marketing sciences. I also enjoy consulting and helping businesses build their brands. During consults I'm sometimes asked, ‘What would you do if it was your money?' and ‘You're good at giving advice but have you a brand yourself?' The answer is yes. I've created several business brands, written a book, created a board game and developed a couple of conferences. But nothing gives me greater pride than defining and co-creating with my partners my latest company, Thinkerbell.

The main difference when defining a brand for yourself rather than a large organisation is fewer stakeholders. Negotiations only had to happen with my business partners. We met when working as minor partners at the same agency. It wasn't the right fit for us, so we left and started a new agency. We roughly knew the services we would offer, which happened to match our skill set, but that's all we knew.

What's the category?

The first thing we did was look at the marketplace and understand the category we were entering. It's no secret that the traditional advertising market is declining, but the consulting world is growing. Just look at the share prices of creative transformation company WPP, and multinational professional services company Accenture. We wanted a brand and business that could straddle both worlds. My previous experience at Naked Communications taught me it's important to be different but also easy for people to be able to buy you. Naked was very different, but we were also not really an agency like the others and therefore potential clients had trouble knowing when to buy us, or use our services. We didn't want to create an entirely new category but did want to bend the shape of what an agency could be in today's complex marketing landscape.

What's our promise?

Next up, we needed to articulate our brand promise or central organising thought. To work this out, we wondered what made us different from other agencies, what was motivating to prospective clients and what was true to the business and to the three of us (although we soon after took on another partner, Margie, as well as an investment from PwC). I'm a psychologist/marketing sciences/strategist with a creative bent. ‘Cuz' is an art director with an artist's soul. And Jim is a through-and-through problem solver. After some deliberation, we decided we represented ‘marketing sciences meets hardcore creativity'. We liked this broad thought as it also helped to reconcile what our clients grapple with: many different options and opportunities. The range of marketing options has exploded at the same time as budgets are reducing, stakeholders are growing in number and there's greater accountability for every dollar spent. The ‘marketing sciences meets hardcore creativity' proposition helps clients reconcile this fundamental tradeoff in the category — there's both increased opportunity and increased accountability.

To make the message stick, we needed a more straightforward way of expressing our central idea and came up with two alternatives: ‘controlled creativity' or ‘measured magic'. After a little discussion, ‘measured magic' won. Measured magic is our promise, delivery and central organising thought, and this will never change.

How do we deliver?

A brand requires more than a central organising thought. We had to offer reasons to believe we could deliver on ‘measured magic' and developed three key ways we'd deliver on the promise.

Four-leaf clover

The first reason to believe we can deliver on measured magic is our thoroughly considered ‘Four-leaf clover' process (see figure 7.1). A four-leaf clover is rare and meant to bring good luck. Two of the leaves represent ‘brand thinking', and two represent ‘consumer thinking' — in that order.

Figure 7.1: our four-leaf clover

Let me run through the brand thinking represented in figure 7.1 with a real-life example. Sukin is Australia's biggest natural skincare brand and famous for pioneering ‘the no list' — a list of ingredients their products don't include. We suggested amplifying the no list because it was a strong and distinctive asset. Here's the process:

• Leaf 1: Brand Meaning. What does the brand stand for? We distilled Sukin's brand essence to be: ‘it's what we leave out that makes us special'.
• Leaf 2: Brand Experience (BX). This is the consumer-facing articulation of what the brand wants to stand for. This idea is summarised in a brand book with style guide recommendations. For Sukin this came to life with the line ‘Nothing but special' (see figure 7.2). The communications were stripped back, minimal and beautiful.
• Leaf 3: Change behaviour. Once a brand is in place, we want to understand how we can use the brand to change behaviour. We look at the consumer, what they are doing and what we want them to do. For Sukin, this means taking all of the brand expression work, the look and feel of the brand, the distinctive brand assets we've created (such as ‘the no list' and the simplicity of communications, as well as the green and cream colour palette) and using these to create advertising and communications that change behaviour and encourage people to try the brand.
• Leaf 4: Customer Experience (CX). This leaf is dedicated to understanding how we can continue to build the brand experience for the consumer, so they stick with us and build a relationship with the brand. We offer content, ideas and conversation with Sukin consumers to keep them involved in the brand. For example, we asked them to provide content for a large user-generated campaign. In chapter 12, I describe how to get people to invest in a brand so they value it more.

Figure 7.2: a billboard for the Sukin ‘Nothing but special' advertising

Thinkers and Tinkers

The second reason to believe in our agency promise of measured magic is our ‘Thinker and Tinker' business model. Everyone is either a Thinker or a Tinker. Our topline description of each of these people reads like this:

THINKERS [thing-kers] noun: A cross between strategy-types and suity-types, they ask a lot of questions and listen very carefully for the answers. They're problem solvers, punctual and know how to drive business results. They know how to get shit done.

TINKERS [ting-kers] noun: Creative-types and producery-types who pull things apart and put them back together again. They hit things with hammers and fiddle with knobs and buttons. They experiment and play and build. They know how to get shit done.

You need both types of people for a great agency. The idea of Thinkers and Tinkers extends through the agency, with staff able to choose their favourite example for their business cards. Pictures of famous Thinkers and Tinkers are on the website and displayed on walls in the office. Each is represented as half Thinker and half Tinker, because that's where the magic happens.

The Little Green Book

The final reason to believe we can deliver is our ‘Little Green Book', which is a collection of thoughts and approaches from people we admire. We aim to be a hyper-connected agency. We believe full service is dead and that no one agency can do everything, but we know who to call to fill the gaps.

These are the three reasons to believe we can deliver on measured magic and help ensure the agency is structured to provide it. The next part of the puzzle is to define what the brand looks like — the fun bit.

The name game

We wanted our name to relate directly to ‘measured magic'. We came up with ‘Merlin & Sherlock' as a homage to measure and magic and a dig at those who name their agencies and businesses using their surnames. Here are five reasons you shouldn't name your company after your surname:

1. You sound narcissistic.
2. For people who do not own the company but have aspirations to do so, it makes it harder to have a sense of ownership.
3. It's not in itself a guiding brand — the name can inform the work and the brand — but the brand itself still needs definition.
4. It makes a promise that the founder (or spirit of the founder) will always be in the room (for good and bad).
5. It doesn't feel overly creative.

(There are exceptions to the rule, and you can still be a great business even if your business is named after the founder. In advertising, this includes Droga5, Wieden+Kennedy and Saatchi & Saatchi, all of which are exceptional agencies.)

I still remember Cuz turning his computer in my direction and saying, ‘I thought of this'. It read ‘Thinkerbell'. I instantly liked it because it screamed measured magic, and it felt like a name we could own. Thinkerbell is also soft and feminine, which felt different from other agency names. However, there is still an issue that everyone automatically says ‘Tinkerbell' even when they know it's Thinkerbell. Our neurons are deeply wired. I keep telling myself it's a positive thing — but I'm not so sure.

Logo a go

The logo was easy to develop. Thinkerbell is a clash between thinking and magic, so we integrated Rodin's classic sculpture The Thinker with the wings of Disney's Tinker Bell (see figure 7.3).

Figure 7.3: Thinkerbell logo

I love the logo. Someone told me they thought it looked like a dance party raver sitting on a rock after a huge night out feeling a bit ashamed of themselves. I love it nonetheless. The ability to succinctly summarise the brand in a logo is essential because many communications possibilities exist in under a square centimetre of real estate: the symbol on an app, an email signature, the profile picture next to a social media handle, or email signature.

How it carries through

The final elements we chose were typeface, colours (pink, green and charcoal), beliefs and values, all of which help to guide the agency. We also use the words ‘measured magic' throughout the agency. The week begins with the ‘Measured Monday' staff meeting where we talk through the upcoming workload for the week. The week finishes with ‘Magic Hour' where magic sometimes happens. The other manifestation of measured magic is the work we produce for clients.

When new employees begin at the agency, we give them a book that captures these principles, so they know about the agency brand. What we've done well, and what I'm most proud of, is how tightly we've defined our brand. A smaller company (ours has 40 to 50 people) is easier to brand than a larger one, but the principles still apply. In our second year we were voted Adnews Creative Agency of the Year and Mumbrella's Emerging Agency of the Year — so it's working well so far.

Many marketers don't adhere to one of the fundamentals of marketing: the brand comes first. At Thinkerbell, we apply the formula BXB4CX — brand experience before the consumer experience. This formula is relevant because of the current excitement around CX.

Positioning guides everything the agency does. We think it allows us to enjoy a little patch of real estate in our clients' and potential clients' minds that makes it easier for them to choose us rather than another agency. The importance of positioning isn't shared by everyone. Let me tell you about the biggest cage fight that's ever happened in Australian marketing circles. Okay, it's the only fight — but it's been pretty exciting.

The Great Brand Positioning Rumble

There are two alpha-male marketing science gorillas battling it out for the attention of marketers. Both Mark Ritson and Byron Sharp are welcome voices in an industry that for many years promoted BS and puffery. I know both chaps, and their opposing views are matched by their opposing personalities. Sharp is a neat, pedantic, self-confident and often dismissive academic. Ritson is a free-wheeling, expletive-laden street-fighting Yorkshireman. (Actually, I'm not sure if he's from Yorkshire, but if he isn't, he should be.) Both are brilliant and both have made significant contributions to marketing and marketing science. These two heavyweights are in intense disagreement about one thing: brand positioning. The argument is more interesting because ‘brand positioning' is a marketing fundamental — arguably THE marketing fundamental. By calling it into question, they are challenging one of the central tenets of marketing: that a brand holds a place in a consumer's mind and purchasing is based on this positioning. There's no doubt that brand positioning is out of style and under attack. The skills required to conduct brand positioning are on the wane in an industry drowning in data. Brand positioning is the place the brand holds in the consumer's mind. It is a set of associations and impressions that are carefully constructed and controlled. If your brand captures and holds these associations, then consumers understand the promise you offer and think of you when the need for the category is triggered.

Byron Sharp is critical of brands that spend too much effort on brand positioning, especially if they're trying to be differentiated. He says a brand should focus on its distinctiveness. Ritson holds an orthodox view and believes positioning is one of the foundations of marketing. In 2018, Ritson offered this advice in Marketing Week:

… Working out the attributes you want to stand for, which ones you want to grow, which you want to reduce and whether — a year from now — you have achieved your ends, are among the most worthwhile and valuable activities a marketer can ever commit to.1

After persistent online debate, I understand the two have since made up.

Byron Sharp was a keynote speaker at a conference I run called Marketing Sciences Ideas Xchange (MSIX). Before the conference we met over dinner, and I asked him about the value of brand positioning. He said to look at the key players in any significant category. Banking, for example. What sets one major Australian bank apart from another? The answer is nothing. They don't have separate positioning because brand positioning is a waste of time. He said it's fine to workshop the values of your brand and what it stands for, but suggests you don't spend too much time doing this.

I don't know if Sharp's views on positioning have been widely adopted and if agencies are consciously not worrying about the positioning of brands. In my experience, marketers are worried that their brands are under-developed and poorly thought through. When a company hasn't crafted its brand, and when the positioning isn't clear, it makes every other decision difficult. I'm a big believer in brand positioning.

The practical attack on brand positioning

Is the fact that brand positioning doesn't happen with as much care as it used to because people don't have the time? And if they don't have the time, is it because of the increasing complexity of their jobs? Marketers have moved from responsibility for around five channels to hundreds. Their tasks are increasingly complex and the demands on their time infinite, making it hard to ensure the basics are covered.

An interesting data point on brand positioning is figure 7.4. When I asked marketers the one thing they'd like to spend more time on, just over 20 per cent said brand positioning. Three times as many said understanding the consumer. The lack of clarity around understanding the brand affects my daily consultancy and agency work. Brands with a coherent and agreed-upon brand positioning are diminishing, but required more than ever. Without it, how can you be sure everyone is working towards the same North Star or organising thought?

Figure 7.4: desired time and resource allocations of marketers

At Thinkerbell, we pride ourselves on ensuring we understand, define and disseminate the brand, no matter the challenge. Here's a case study that reveals how we do this.

Defining Vegemite

At the end of 2018, Thinkerbell won the account for the iconic brand Vegemite, which had been with the same advertising agency, JWT, for over 70 years. When Australian company Bega Cheese Ltd took control of Vegemite from Mondelez, the advertising account was put to a tender. After an initial meet and greet ‘chemistry' session, Thinkerbell was asked to pitch along with four other agencies. The briefing document asked for one thing: iconic communications befitting an iconic brand. Thinkerbell asked for Vegemite's existing brand positioning and was met with the surprising news that there wasn't one, at least not in recent corporate history. We knew we needed to create brand positioning and capture this in a brand book to ensure everyone who worked on the brand knew what it stood for.

The pitch request was this:

To develop and articulate a new distinctive Vegemite Brand communication platform which integrates and delivers on our three strategic imperatives to win the hearts and minds of consumers, to grow the brand in 2018 and beyond.

Here's roughly the process.

1. Understand the vision of the business

What ultimately does the business want this brand to achieve?

This was contained in the brief — for Vegemite to find its voice as an Australian icon. For years, people knew this but Vegemite didn't act in this way and the communications didn't reflect its iconic status.

2. Define the market or category

What are the key dynamics of the category we want to embrace?

Again, this work was already done. Vegemite was in the ‘spreads' category, meaning the share of market would come from other spreads, including honey, jam and so on. The challenge was that Vegemite's share of the market had dropped, along with household penetration. We also knew the number one driver of choice in the category was ‘taste'. That is, the client wanted us to talk about the taste of Vegemite as iconic in Australia.

3. Develop the central brand idea

I'm not sure how other people do this, but I always jump to the answer and flesh out the central thought from there. The brief was tight: find a way to talk about taste that would also position Vegemite as an iconic brand. The target audience was pretty much every Australian, so we didn't need to spend time building a customer profile or delve into the current audience. We decided to look at pre-existing research. What made Vegemite so iconic? What was its history? Why was a weird-tasting spread so popular? We wanted to avoid the trap of only talking about taste and creating marketing that was similar to that of other spreads in the market. But how could we ensure that the brand had taste cues while referencing its iconic status?

We needed to discover the relationship between taste and Australia. To help with this process, we tracked down food scientist Dr Sigfredo Fuentes. Originally from Chile, Sigfredo is now based at Melbourne University in the School of Agriculture and Food. Thinkerbell team member Andre Pinheiro interviewed Sigfredo at his stark university office. Following the chat, Andre rang me from the taxi and, paraphrasing Sigfredo's responses, said, ‘Taste is a cultural construction. Australia created the taste of Vegemite. Vegemite tastes like Australia.' We didn't know at the time that these words answered the question of why Australians love Vegemite. It implied Vegemite is for everyone, which fits neatly with country's sense of egalitarianism. We used the line ‘Tastes Like Australia' to suggest everything about the nation is encapsulated in a little jar. Your definition of Australia is how Vegemite tastes.

4. Flesh out the brand

The next step is to flesh out the positioning and capture it in a brand book, which we created for Vegemite. Although mostly symbolic (the pitching agency couldn't know the brand as well as the business), it's a discipline that we are keen to encourage. The brand book represents, in my mind, one of the fundamentals in a marketer's bag of tricks. When the entire organisation and brand ecosystem (client, staff, agency and trade partners) understands the brand book, it's easier for everyone to communicate the brand consistently and coherently.

The brand book

The brand book is a way of capturing information to organise and communicate the brand (with the caveat that ‘everything communicates', from packaging to pricing to advertising, CX and UX; it's all communications). I summarise information within the brand book as the brand positioning.

Brand positioning has a chequered history and different meanings depending on who you ask (see: the brawl between Mark Ritson and Byron Sharp). The discipline of marketing has been terrible at its nomenclature and, ironically, the branding. Philip Kotler defined brand positioning as ‘the act of designing the company's offering and image to occupy a distinctive place in the mind of the target market'. But these days, positioning seems to be playing second fiddle to other execution elements. Consequently, I think it's worth defining what you mean by brand positioning and how you use these elements to organise what the brand is about and how to communicate it. The process can be accomplished within a week or three and doesn't depend on consumer insight, although we are happy to incorporate it if needed.

The best way to capture information for a brand book is in a way that matches the brand. It doesn't have to be a book, for a start. A book is just a practical way to start. This is what I like to cover in a brand book:

• The backstory. What has the brand done before, and why does it exist? This can be freshly created for a new brand. Existing brands can capture the best-of history. With new brands, if I understand the motivation for the brand, it helps me know the orientation of the brand and its aspirations.
• The consumer. Who does the brand appeal to and why will they choose to buy this brand? As is often the case, the consumer for a particular category can be everyone — if that's the case, state it. But perhaps give a reason why people prefer your brand over others in the category.
• The proposition. This is the central reason the brand exists. If possible, express it as a rallying cry to be used internally and externally. Can it be captured in one phrase? Thinkerbell's is ‘measured magic'. Another term for this is the central organising idea.
• Reasons to believe. These are the statements that support your central organising idea. How can you back it up so it's not just bullshit? At Thinkerbell, we support our central organising idea of ‘measured magic' with our 4 Leaf Clover, Thinkers and Tinkers and Little Green Book. Each demonstrates reasons to believe we can deliver on the promise of ‘measured magic'.
• The benefits. This is the way your brand is meant to make people feel emotionally, and the benefit of your brand rationally.
• The values and personality. There's been much debate around brand imagery and its association with brand preference. It's fair to say that identifying a few words that sum up your values and personality is helpful, no matter what the science says. At the very least, it helps to maintain consistent communications and guide internal staff on how the brand should behave.
• The distinctive assets. How does the brand express itself? In what way is the brand famous or could be famous? This is important and acts as a shortcut and signifier for the brand. They help to build distinctiveness. Think of Coca-Cola's red colour, contoured bottle, ribbon and sans serif font. We applied this to Vegemite, from the font, jar, colours, diamond shape, old song and a new song. Thinkerbell's distinctive assets include the little Thinkerbell man, the ‘Thinker and Tinker' naming convention and the combination of pink and green colours. To build assets over time, they need to be consistent. Fame and ownership are critical requirements for substantial, distinctive assets. They need to be recognised by others and be strongly associated with your brand.
• The actions. How does this brand behave? This is perhaps the hardest element to summarise in a brand book but one of the most pertinent. Many marketers spend way too much time wondering what the brand stands for, rather than how it will behave in the world. Crack that, stick to it and you'll spend a lot less time wondering if ideas are right.
• The strategic pillars. What are the top three to five achievements for the business over the next three to five years? This incorporates high-level communications strategy rather than brand positioning, but it helps in understanding a brand.

5. Develop the communications

Once the overall platform, idea and position were developed for Vegemite, the communications was relatively easy. We suggested three to four ideas that all fit within the central organisational idea: ‘Tastes Like Australia'. The client chose the weirdest and most wonderful of them all. The idea emerged from trying to determine the ‘ingredients' for Vegemite. There's the obvious material — Skippy, Bondi Beach, Aussie Rules football, the Barrier Reef, Rebel Wilson epitomising Australian humour, BBQs. The more controversial choices included Pauline Hanson saying ‘Please explain', convicted criminal Chopper Read, and John Howard attempting to bowl at a cricket match for military personnel in Pakistan. The idea also came to life in outdoor advertising and social communications.

Testing lunacy

How do you know it's the right idea? There's a subsection of marketing research called advertising pre-testing. It asks a consumer how they think they'll react to a new advertisement. There's next to no evidence to support its efficacy. I think it's lunacy. To this day, advertising pre-testing generally involves market research respondents viewing a cartoon version of the ad and being asked if they think the cartoon ad would make them buy the brand in the future. It drives me nuts.

An alternative to pre-testing is seeking the response of subject matter experts through structured interviews. Although it's uncharted territory, we used this approach for the Vegemite advertisement. Each marketing expert received a rough cut of the ad in a variety of contexts, including a line on its own, outdoor advertising, digital and video advertising and promotional ideas. A structured questionnaire accompanied the assets to capture their thoughts on the various pieces of communication.

Here's how several people viewed the same piece of communications. Let me introduce Mark Earles, who has held senior positions in some of the world's largest and most influential communications companies. Dr Peter Field has worked on planning and consultancy at iconic agencies such as Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO, DDB and Bates and Grey. He's also written Marketing in the Era of Accountability, The Long and the Short of It, Brand Immortality and The Link Between Creativity and Effectiveness. Faris Yakob is an old mate, an award-winning strategist, creative director, public speaker, geek and author of a great book called Paid Attention.

While all four loved the tagline ‘Tastes Like Australia', and their overall response was positive, they were cautious about referencing Pauline Hanson and posed great questions. Earles warned the campaign to ‘avoid simple nostalgia' because it risks easy dismissal. Field thought it was ‘infinitely flexible and has legs — I could see the idea playing out in fresh ways over many years'. Little did he know just how well it would play out in his home country of Britain during the 2019 Ashes, which you'll read about shortly. I took note of his advice about the budget. As Field put it, ‘To some extent, the outdoor requires scale and domination to achieve the iconic effect you mock-up'. Faris said, ‘Love it, mate. I love catchy songs and jingles and that the yellow is strong and awesome. It's fun. Tastes like Australia is gold and no-one else could do it.'

This feedback gave us the confidence to include the image of Pauline Hanson in the advertising, although it did cause a stir.

Now that everyone knows the brand …

Here's a real-world example that demonstrates the advantage of a tightly aligned brand. Our agency, Thinkerbell, picked a fight with Marmite during the 2019 Ashes series. After reading an article in Britain's Daily Mirror headlined ‘Free Marmite being handed out at the Ashes to prove it's better than Vegemite', I sent this email to the marketing manager of Vegemite, Matt Gray:

Sent: Wednesday, 7 August 2019 8:13 AM

Subject: It's our national duty to respond

https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/www.mirror.co.uk/money/free-marmite-being-handed-out-18845123.amp

Here are some possible responses

1. A full-page ad in the Mirror in the UK saying

• It's been brought to our attention that Marmite have been handing out free jars of Marmite to prove it tastes better than our Vegemite — well please, Marmite, save your money. To the English palate of course it does.
• You see, Vegemite is a far stronger taste, made of resilience and fortitude with a dash of cunning and guile. Vegemite tastes like back-to-back 100s on your return test. Because Vegemite Tastes Like Australia.

There could be other options Jim / Cuz / anyone. But this is pretty funny. We could then direct tweet all the players and ask them to retweet this. Thoughts??

Adam Ferrier — Founder / Consumer Psychologist

THINKERBELL

Seven minutes later, at 8.20 am, was a reply from Marketing Manager Matt Gray, who, along with his internal stakeholders, was completely aligned on the brand, so could act quickly and from the gut.

This is bloody brilliant! Love it, let's do it!

This led to a flurry of activity.

From: Adam Ferrier

Sent: Wednesday, 7 August 2019 9:10 AM

Subject: Re: It's our national duty to respond

Guys

Jim is turning my ramblings into a proper ad.

Margie and I have put calls into buying a full-page ad.

We'll develop a social strategy reaching out to the players to see if they'll retweet it, etc.

Nikia this is the bit where I have no idea what I'm doing. Could you help wrangle the idea?

Matt, the cost of a full-page ad in the Mirror will be the only sticking point. But it's also the fun bit. Kind of needed as the foundation.

Adam

Less than 24 hours later, this full-page ad appeared in the UK's Daily Mirror (see figure 7.5). Forty-eight hours later, Marmite responded with a reference to Australia's ball tampering incident from 18 months earlier.

Figure 7.5: Daily Mirror Vegemite ad

Vegemite's next move (see figure 7.6) was to place another newspaper ad on day one of the second test at Lord's Cricket Ground. It referenced the fact that the colours of the Marylebone Cricket Club are the same as Vegemite's: red and yellow. It cheekily suggested that members wearing the red and yellow striped suits and ties were indicating their support for Vegemite. We also offered to swap their jar of Marmite for a new jar of stronger, bolder Vegemite.

Figure 7.6: Vegemite's response to Marmite's response

By day three of the Test, Marmite's creative team upped the ante by handing out sandpaper swatches to the crowd, again referencing one of Australia's darkest days in sport, the shocking ball tampering incident.

Our team changed tack, and created an advertising jingle for radio. As Britons applied Marmite to their toast that morning, they heard this song on English radio:

We feed our team Vegemite to help make 'em strong and mighty, to battle through the cold and rain of a summer in Ol' Blighty,

We'll need our strength and energy to continue to impress, despite some shonky catches and a dodgy DRS.

The Poms have brought back bodyline to force our early exit, but our boys will still be standing long after Boris decides on Brexit.

If we start each day with Vegemite the Ashes are a shoo-in, regardless of their carry-on, their jeering and their booing.

It gives us the resilience to get back up off the deck, even after copping a bouncer to the neck.

Love or hate your Marmite, England, Aussies are decided, we all adore our Vegemite, it keeps us all united.

With Vegemite on our side there'll be no Ashes failure, because victory is sweet and it tastes like Australia.

It was accompanied by a press release quoting Matt:

We are increasingly disturbed by Marmite's insistence they won't be tampering with their Marmite. If people love or hate it then surely they can do what we've done and find a taste that unites the country. We don't want to mention Brexit or a parliament divided, but we think they are a manifestation of a country disjointed.

The initial full-page ad in the sports section of the Daily Mirror cost $29 000, reached 40 million people, and generated around $6 million worth of PR for Vegemite. Thinkerbell was able to act quickly because we were clear about the brand and what it stands for. Many organisations can't act in such a decisive manner because they don't understand the messaging of the brands they work for. As you can see in the example of Vegemite, decision-making was swift and streamlined.

It starts with the brand

Subsequently, after the Vegemite work we've had lots of discussions around if it ‘insight driven' or not. All I know for sure is that there were not a whole lot of Vegemite customers waiting for us to pick a fight with Marmite. It was a bit of fun, born from a great mutual understanding of the brand, what it stands for, and its objectives.

Note

1. 1 Ritson, M. (2018). ‘Byron Sharp is wrong — of course brand perceptions influence sales'. MarketingWeek. https://www.marketingweek.com/mark-ritson-byron-sharp-brand-perceptions/