Loud Thinking

Archive for August, 2014

Try This Exercise to Clarify What Your Company Stands For

For your organization to be successful, you must be crystal clear about your brand essence – i.e. your brand’s essential, enduring value.

When what you stand for is clearly expressed and delivered in everything you do, every day, you leave an indelible mark on people’s hearts and minds.

If that’s not clear yet, ask yourself:

What was the brand’s biggest accomplishment?

What will it be remembered for? What did the brand leave unaccomplished?

Who would miss the brand if it was gone?

Why? What lessons can be learned from the brand’s life?

If the brand disappeared, what would take its place?

Adapted by HBR from “Write Your Brand’s Obituary” by Denise Lee Yohn.

Great Branding Takes More Than Advertising

As digital disrupts more marketplaces, brands become more important and valuable – not less.

They provide meaning and satisfy emotional needs. As consumers experience information overload, the tendency to gravitate toward what’s familiar increases.

At the same time, reliance on traditional tools, like advertising, corporate identity programs, and PR, to build brands is waning.

So how can companies strengthen their brands? Look at Apple: Since its “Think Different” ad campaign, it has withdrawn from image-building ads, kept a smaller marketing budget, and instead, focused brand efforts on creating a well-designed, holistic product experience.

Firms must be able to tell a meaningful story through actions and products, not words in ads or statements.

Products and services should encapsulate a brand and communicate value without an additional layer of advertising.

Make your brand more central and embed it across the customer value chain.

Adapted by Harvard Business Review from “ Brands Aren’t Dead, But Traditional Branding Tools Are Dying” by Jens Martin Skibsted and Rasmus Bech Hansen.

Some very nice and simple talk about Market Share, Mind Share and Heart Share:

Market share is the competitors’ share of the target market which may be calculated as Market Share = Firm’s Sales / Total Market Sales.

Mind share is calculated by the percentage of consumers who identified the competitor when responding to a question asking them to name the first company they think of when thinking of a specific industry.

Heart share is calculated by the percentage of consumers who identified the competitor when responding to a question asking them to name a company from whom they would prefer to buy a product.

Analyzing the relationship between these three measures can assist a company in focusing on weak areas for improvement and strong areas for leverage.

Amarjeet Singh
Marketing Executive

Heart Share – first thing that you can relate to or prefer over number of given options or choices.

Totally based on personal experience and can vary from person to person.

For example – Whenever there is a new born – many individuals prefer Johnson n Johnson over any other baby care product – its because of their personal experience attached to it.

Mind Share – Its more to do with Brand Recall – efforts made by Agency or Brand itself to have its impact on customers – For example – here in Pakistan we associate Rooh-e-Afza as a Ramadan Drink – This is because of efforts made by agency or brand itself to position itself this way.

Market Share – now this is an entire reflection of Heart Share + Mind Share in terms of Revenue it generates.

For example – Honda Motor Cycle – amazing branding and amazing heart share 🙂 you can see its revenues

Munir Sharif
Senior Brand Manager

Racist ICC & FIFA..?

An eye opening letter published today by the daily “Daily Times”

ICC and Palestine
August 05, 2014
Comment

Sir: The International Cricket Council (ICC) took swift action against Moeen Ali who was wearing a wristband in support of Palestine against the apartheid of Israel. ICC argued that no one should bring politics into the game.

Well, ostensibly it looks like the ICC has no leniency against code breaking. But if we leaf through the pages of history this is not the case.

For instance, in 2003 it took ‘no action’ against the former English coach Andy Flower and his Zimbabwe team mate Henry Olonga when they wore armbands against Mugabe. Then why is Moeen Ali banned?

The same is the case with Malaysian cyclist Azizulhasni Awang.

Likewise, in football, FIFA took stern action against Lazio (an Italian top club) when the spectators demonstrated against Jews in a match against Tottenham Hotspur. Lazio fans also unfurled a ‘free Palestine’ banner.

As a result FIFA punished the club by forcing it to play in an empty stadium.

However, it did not take action against David Villa (a Barcelona player) when he ridiculed Islam in a match between Barcelona and Real Madrid.

It means players are free to abuse Islam and anti-west governments but cannot support innocent Palestinians.

Israel butchered over 1,700 people in Gaza and demolished over 3,000 homes and is constantly violating international law without stirring the conscience of the world leaders and here we have the ICC taking abrupt action against Moeen.

What kind of world are we living in? In a nutshell, there seems to be a total control of the Jewish lobby not only in politics but in every walk of life.

The west claims to be the champion of human rights, but perhaps Muslims are not humans in their eyes.

Muhammad Wajid Munir
Islamabad

“Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought.”

— Pope John Paul II

Change the Way You Start Your Day

What’s the first thing you do when you get to your desk? Check email and listen to voicemails? This is the worst way to start the workday. Instead of automatically going into reactive mode and focusing on other people’s priorities, begin your day with a brief planning session about what you need to get done. The moment you sit down, ask yourself: The day is over and I am leaving the office with a tremendous sense of accomplishment. What have I achieved? Thinking this through will help you distinguish truly important tasks from those that only feel urgent. Determine what to focus on, and then break down these tasks into specific actions and goals. Think about how to prioritize your list, and try starting your day with tasks that require the most mental energy.

Adapted by HBR from ” How to Spend the First 10 Minutes of Your Day” by Ron Friedman.

Dear Mr. Mohammad Zubair,

Minister of State and chairman Privatisation Commission.

Dear Sir,

As you have written on the fb that only 19 election disputes are left to be resolved. May be in these 19 cases the big wigs of PMLN are affected in the sensitive constituencies. But, then why the NADRA chief was removed and why the latest NADRA opening of bags with CCTV cameras shut down? What the government wants to hide from the public? Is there some thing black in the pulse or the whole pulse is black?

Mr. Zubair, things are not so simple, as you are pretending.

And remember, people are mostly fed up with the government because this government is providing electricity, even less, than provided by the PPP govt. (despite paying the circular debt), but the rates have been doubled.

With gas the situation is even worse; it is being provided in much less quantity, with double the rates.

Each and every items rate has been increased with a minimum of 100%.

All the taxes, specially car token tax has been increased by 100%.

Actually, PMLN is behaving with the people, as if they are their slaves, not voters.

The biggest failure has been on the economic front, where it has been ruined by taking huge loans (even at 8.25%) and increase of rates of utilities and taxes.

Sir, this is the WORST way of economic governance. If I was the PM, the finance minister would have been sacked at the earliest. But who cares about the public, in front of own close relative.

The biggest down fall reason of Nawaz Sharif is the conflict of interest in running of the government through the relatives, whom you can’t sack even if you want and this is a classic example of the conflict of interest.

So now please don’t expect any mercy from the public after you party disconnected it self completely from the interests of the masses.

A lesson of morality for all Pakistani leaders, set out by the father and founder of the nation, Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah Sahab, in his his speech on 11 August, 1947.

““I shall always be guided by the principles of justice and fairplay without any, as is put in the political language, prejudice or ill-will, in other words, partiality or favouritism. My guiding principle will be justice and complete impartiality, and I am sure that with your support and cooperation, I can look forward to Pakistan becoming one of the greatest nations of the world.”

Pakistani leaders look what Quaid

“I really believe that everyone has a talent, ability, or skill that he can mine to support himself and to succeed in life.”

— Dean Koontz