Firebrand

Last post I talked about ‘red saber tactics.’ Red saber tactics is a Star Wars reference by the guys at Marketing Over Coffee. They are tactics that could be considered questionable. While they can create short term rises in numbers, they come at the cost of the brand’s future. Red saber tactics are on a wide spectrum between benign and pure evil, and where each tactic lies on the spectrum depends on many variables. For example, using a bikini model to sell insurance is a little different than using a model to sell lingerie. But people know the spectrum by feeling what is in their heart.

I listed some common red saber tactics in the last post. As you read through those I bet you thought of one or two industries. Do you like dealing with companies in those industries? Most people don’t.

If you are a marketer in one of these industries than you may feel that you need to lower yourself to the level of your competition compete. I believe the opposite.

Dirty industries are great opportunity to create great, trusting relationships with customers. Just as a stagnant product category is an opportunity for a game changing product; an untrustworthy industry is a golden opportunity to develop a trusted brand. There are come pretty good side effects of having a trust worthy brand relative to other brands in the industry. Side effects like extreme customer loyalty, high word of mouth, endorsement, testimonials, consistent revenue, and higher ROI from advertising. Some of the side effects of being a Brand on Fire.

It only stands to reason that if you are holding a green lightsaber in a sea of red lightsabers, your going to get noticed. But you have a lot of Sith to fight through. But trust in the light side you must!

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By Colin Finkle. Colin Finkle is an award winning  industrial designer that works with large brands everyday designing displays for FX Displays in Toronto, Canada. He is the principle designer at Firebrand Creative. He also writes for AMD’s FireUser.com blog.

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The best predictor of the future is the past. This basic principle of the universe is what makes backtesting such a valuable tool in testing strategies. Backtesting comes from stock trades who test their mathematic buy and sell strategies against data from the past little while.

This is a great tool for testing strategies in marketing too. It would be great to have data to use to see if the new strategy of the month is actually a natural part of some of the strongest brands out their. I am going to have the Fire 5: five different brands who are on fire, as per my description in “What is a fire brand?” post.

If we report on someone’s book or lecture on a new marketing strategy than we will see if the Fire 5 naturally do the strategy. If they dont, than it probably is bogus, or too far out.

The first one is used so often as an example of great branding that it is becoming taboo to site it. Apple is a great brand. They’re core customer base seek out information on new products by watching hour long presentations by CEO Steve Jobs on their websites. This let’s Apple target their advertising on creating new customers with adds like the famous or infamous “Mac vs. PC” adds. Their brand is consistent from every frame of an add, to every corner on their computers. Cover up the logo of any of their offerings, and the average person will know if comes from Apple. Customers find purchases emotionally fulfilling and treat their toys like best friends. Apple patrons often strike up conversations on the street because of their commonalities.

Most importantly is the magins the Apple brand can demand. The new Macbook is sold at a 54% premium over a comparable Dell 13″ Inspiron. Apples profit margins are hard to imagine, considering Apple does not have to liscense Windows from Microsoft, nor have costly consumer customization supply chains that Dell has. That’s the bottom line.