Tom Fishburne: Brand Camp cartoonist and marketing guy

emotional brands

My friend Eric likes to say that there are no low-interest categories, only low-interest brands (which is why he looked to household cleaning when he decided to start method). 

On every brand team I've joined, we've spent some time "climbing the benefit ladder" from product benefits to emotional benefits, trying to mine some emotional insight that will cause consumers to give our brand their undying loyalty. 

I've always enjoyed these sessions, but also find them really funny.  It's just so rare in the business workplace to talk about emotional issues at all.  There's something ridiculous about sitting around a corporate conference table talking about the guilt experienced by a time-stressed mother of three.  And why this guilt can only be sated by our brand of frozen broccoli-with-cheese-sauce.

I've been thinking about emotional brands lately, and it inspired this cartoon. 

It also reminded me a bit of this cartoon I drew a while back on brand loyalty.

the wizard of ad

I recently joined a group called the Marketing and Sustainability Steering Committee, which is trying to come up with standards for green marketing in the UK.  The UK Marketing Society asked me to me their delegate, which was nice.

On Friday, I met everyone else for the first time (kind of an eclectic mix of non-profits, academics, and agency people -- surprisingly I was the only one from the brand side).  Someone in the group was talking about company transparency, and how reluctant many companies are to reveal their inner workings.  The traditional approach is to concoct a persona via advertising and point to that instead.

Yet, more and more consumers seem to be looking for the company behind the curtain.  They're no longer as swayed by the concocted brand image of advertising.  Instead, they want to know who's behind the products they buy.

I found myself scribbling cartoons of Dorothy and Toto in the margins of my notes.  I'm sure the guy next to me was wondering what was wrong with me.  I hope I get asked back.

the csr fashion show

I just started reading John Grant's Green Marketing Manifesto, a thought-provoking book on how marketers like us should approach the green marketplace.  I'm only 56 pages into it, but I recommend it and the accompanying blog too.

We're at an interesting turning point.  Greenies and marketers used to be diametrically opposed, because the traditional eco mantra was "consume less" and the traditional marketing mantra was "consume more".

But now, it's more about "consume smarter".  And the roles of the greenies and marketers are blurring.  Marketers play an important role in helping explain all of this to consumers.  Instead of dragging the mainstream kicking and screaming to green, it's about bringing green to the mainstream (through smart products and marketing).  Making it seem "normal", in the same way that Apple has made computers normal and accessible.

A lot of this is already starting to happen, which is great.  But as more and more jump on the eco bandwagon, there's a whole heap of greenwashing too.  This is dangerous, because it risks turning consumers off of the whole thing, making them suspicious and sceptical. 

"You can't just decide 'ethical is in' and treat it like a fashion."  I read this line in John's book and it prompted this cartoon idea.  It's been interesting to watch so many companies trot out their CSR plans recently.  This is great when it's serious, but a problem when it's superficial and publicity-driven.  Because consumers can see right through it.  Sooner or later.

we're so eco-friendly

I came across an article on the environmental ills of outdoor media: lots of paper, lots of fuel to drive to media sites, toxic glues, etc. The next time I rode the tube, I was struck by how many outdoor ads were touting some environmental benefit.  I put the two together and it felt very ironic, and inspired this cartoon.

The trouble with much of the environmental grand-standing right now is that it tends to focus on one attribute or another, not a holistic approach of making a company more sustainable over time.  So, there's often more than a bit of hypocracy if you look hard enough.  The same company that garnered a packaging reduction is printing out masses of paper to tell the world about it, which kind of defeats the purpose.