Josh Chambers

A Useful Guide to the Brand Utility

Branded Utility – The Future of Marketing

Above is my latest slide deck entitled “Branded Utility – The (already happening) future of marketing.” I first gave it at my work’s weekly “Lab Share” and I thought I’d post it here as well.

What’s a “Lab Share” you ask? Each week at my company, Viget Labs, someone has an opportunity to present on just about anything (including hockey fighting), but mostly it’s on industry trends. I gave this presentation in an effort to shape my department, and my company – both of whom I love. I omitted a few company specific slides (how this applies type stuff) and there’s obviously a bit lost without the audio, but it should make sense.

The concept of “Branded Utility” certainly isn’t new, but I would say it’s new-er and I would also say that by no means has it been widely accepted, or widely disseminated. It prompted some great discussion internally, hopefully it does the same for you.

Let me know what you think!

Modern Branding Slideshare by Zeus Jones

Just checking out Zeus Jones today, and was impressed with their work, blog, and site. They’re worth looking up — particularly their presentation section.

I checked out their “Modern Branding” presentation from 2008, and a few things in particular stuck out:

Modern brands invest in people, products, and experiences instead of media.

And this slide:

Design Strategy + Surprising and Delighting

Paul Isakson just posted an exceptionally well done and thought provoking video by Continuum entitled Resonance. The video is worth the ~11 minutes, and while I’d rather have you spend your time watching it than reading this post, I do want to make some short comments and pull out a few key quotes.

“[Ideas win when they achieve] a resonance between what’s meaningful for people, and what’s profitable for companies.”

This (among other things) is one reason why marketers and companies are having a hard time these days. Either a) they’re marketing something that’s genuinely not useful/hopeless (it happens to the best of us), or b) they’re not thinking creatively about how to market in a way that really is meaningful (lame banners vs. genuine interactions).

“Sometimes there needs are to be surprised and delighted.”

“Surprised and delighted” are two words that seem to be quite popular. There was an excellent article on The Next Wave about Crispin Porter’s work in which the author states, “They know that advertising is supposed to surprise and delight.” Perhaps this is another reason why marketers are having a hard time, companies aren’t ready to step outside their comfort zone to market in a way that surprises and delights — especially in this economy which has unfortunately all-but demanded short term thinking (“just stay alive”).

Last comment: Isakson rightly points out that

“…it’s really about putting people at the center of the approach, rather than profit or your own desires as a company. Not only is this relevant to design, but it is also paramount to creating great advertising.”

That is the one thing perhaps this video is missing. While people are definitely at the center of this video, there is much reference to discovering what people need and designing things that meet those needs. I love this concept with one caveat: people need relationships and you can’t create relationships. You can, however, build things that help foster those relationships.

Enjoy the watch.