Brands face - Forum for the Future Future of... · create brand equity in peer-to-peer...
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Transcript of Brands face - Forum for the Future Future of... · create brand equity in peer-to-peer...
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Brands have always been multi-factorial, multi-faceted beasts. They’re becoming more so. We’re seeing more opportunistic co-operation and co-creation as walls fall down between brands and customers, as well as between competing brands. Any ‘throne pretenders’ face two challenges. One is positioning. The other is power.
positioningIt is getting ever harder for brands to build strong positions in our minds. They have always needed to make a stand. Now they need to excel at it, way beyond paid media and deep down into what they really are. They have to be authentic, focusing on their strengths, including the genuine convictions of the people who steer them – while admitting imper-fections and limitations. To do this, they need to perfectly align all brand components – product, environment, behaviour, and communication – which means better integrating the departments that manage them. This is how today’s knowledge and organisational silos will disappear.
They also have to strengthen their ability to listen and empathise. Brands are doing more research and analysis in-house, with new means and channels provided by a world of always-connected devices. In future they will need to get more involved in major social, political and cultural changes, taking sides and making ethical stands in a much stronger fashion than they do now. Brands that oscillate, pretend, evade, and postpone will lose.
powerA transfer of power from brand to customer is taking place, with technology and access to knowledge lev elling the playing field. Brands need to evolve from profit- maximisation engines into relationship manage ment systems. These systems will have to be more data-driven and less controlling, because owners and customers will jointly create brand equity in peer-to-peer arrangements.
Brand loyalty will likely continue to decrease, particularly in the case of commoditised products and ser vices, where purchases require low buyer involvement. However, where brands manage to build unusually strong connections with their customers (and thus avoid commoditisation) loyalty will increase. The source of such strong connections will be the personal touch, so these brands will usually be the creation of small organisations. At the same time, large organisations will excel at building brands that thrive at low or non- existent loyalty levels.
text Stefan Liute
Brands face a game of thrones
Brand stand 17 Brand stand: Will brands take sides
on the civic playing field?
19 Sally Uren: Pressure gauge
20 Signs of change
21 David Brunt: the value of social impact
22 A tool to help brands find purpose
Play time 25 Play time: What happens when artists,
makers and brands meet?
27 Co-creating the future
28 Signs of change
30 Giorgia Lupi: Seeing is understanding
32 What will the Internet of Things mean for brands?
Personal touch 35 Personal touch: Just how closely will brands
engage with us?
37 Signs of change
38 Trust and traceability
40 Professor Gemma Calvert: neuromarketing
42 Intimate conversations
45 Gut instinct
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16 -23contentscurator
Anna Simpson
art direction & designzago nyc (Maria Lago)
productionRuth PriorSarah Veniard
researchRobert GreenfieldJessica NaylorJie Hui KiaJon Turney
directionJames GoodmanEsther Maughan McLachlan Ariel Muller
image creditsCover : artist - Jeremy Hutchison; photographer - Jonathan Minster
p.4: Bea Mahan, abc+, http://www.beamahan.com
p.16: Alexander KosolapovMalevich - Black Square 1987Oil on canvas119.5 x 173cm© Alexander Kosolapov, 1987Image courtesy of the Tsukanov Family Foundation Collection, London
p.19: torbakhopper HE DEAD, Revolution Toy
p.27: Nathan Sawaya, Untitled. Nathan uses Lego bricks to create his art, pushing the boundaries of traditional mediums, brickartist.com
Brands shape how we see the world and relate to it. They amplify cultures, influence perceptions, and create new norms. We shouldn't underestimate their power. But as the world changes, so will the role and manifestation of brands in it.
With this edition, we are challenging ourselves to fathom the future of brands. We scanned the horizon to collect signs of change, interviewed experts, and invited critical analysis of the shifting scene. As we were doing this, three significant ways in which brands are responding to change emerged. They are taking a stand in society. They are engaging with artists and creators. And they are becoming more intimately involved in our personal lives. What difference will they make to our future? What good might come of it? What are the risks?
4 Biography of brands
8 Don’t call me ‘millennial’
10 Four scenarios for 2030
12 David Hall: The no-brand challenge
14 Who to watch? Four brands redefining their market
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c r e a t i v e e n g a g e m e n t
p e r s o n a l e n g a g e m e n t
c i v i c e n g a g e m e n t
s e t t i n g t h e s c e n e
The cover image is taken from a pop-up shop selling useless objects, staged in the London gallery Paradise Row. The artist, Jeremy Hutchison, asked factory workers in China, India, Turkey and Pakistan to insert a design error into the items they produced, exploring the relationship between perceived value and purpose.
Published by Forum for the FutureRegistered Charity Number: 1040519ISSN No: 1366-4417© Forum for the Future 2014
The opinions expressed are not necessarily those of Forum for the Future, nor any of its associates.
This publication was printed by Pureprint, using their environmental print technology and vegetable based inks, developed back in 1990. Since then, Pureprint has gone on to win numerous awards for their environmental achievements, including the Queens Award for Enterprise 2013 – Sustainable Development.
It was mailed in SUPERECO bags, made of a biodegradable biaxially oriented polypropylene (BOPP) film which is recyclable, and non-toxic in landfill.
By using Cocoon Silk 100% recycled paper, supplied by Arjowiggins Graphic, as opposed to a virgin fibre paper, the environmental impact was reduced by: 2088kg of landfill, 280kg CO2 and greenhouse gases, 57,907 litres of water, 5,336 kWh of energy and 3,393 kg of wood.
Carbon footprint data evaluated by Labelia Conseil in accordance with the Bilan Carbone® methodology. Calculations are based on a comparison between the recycled paper used versus a virgin fibre paper according to the latest European BREF data (virgin fibre paper) available.
Forum for the Future is certified to the ISO 14001 standard.
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originsHow did brands begin? The subject emerged as a major discipline in marketing schools in the 1970s, but academics trace the origins of brands as a commercial phenomenon to over 4,000 years ago in the Indus Valley. Professors Karl Moore and Susan Reid of McGill Uni-versity describe the emergence of proto-brands in the Harappan cities of 2500 BCE, where craftsmen working in stone and bronze would create little square seals with animal figures, and sell them to merchants as trademarks. These marks indicated the origin of manufac-ture and points along the supply chain (sorting, storage). Etymologically, the word ‘brand’ is often associated with traders’ marks burnt onto livestock hide.
Brands evolved not only to convey information about where a product came from and who made it, but also to carry imagery suggesting value. Early examples might include the use of Shiva as a fertility god in the Harappan seals, or the brand of Melqart, a Tyrian Iron Age king whose princes and priests presided over a well-oiled multinational trading machine, closely linked to Melqart’s godlike status and imperial agenda.
As Moore and Reid put it, the value of a brand is not just transactional, but transfor-mational. By evoking common cultural markers, they cultivate and respond to aspirations for change and development.1
what came next? Shift west, and leap forward to the 1730s, when the printing press triggered a news frenzy. Newspapers would provide advert space and coverage to new brands, and chart innova-tions such as the Wright Brother’s first flight (1903). In 1885 the Lever Brothers begin making soap, later merging with a Dutch company, Margarine Unie, to form Unilever. By 1892, General Electric is on the scene, making trademark advances in electric lighting and appliances. Henry Ford’s conveyor belt assembly line comes on-stream in 1913, building cars in 23 minutes to put them within the economic reach of the average American. Then in the 1930s, the first ever television broadcast leads to TV adverts and product place-ment. Leap forward again, and the hashtag has transformed the speed at which ideas, messages, criticisms and entertainment circulate.
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WHERE DID THEY COME FROM AND WHERE ARE THEY GOING?
text Anna Simpson
art Bea Mahan abc+
Biographyof brands
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believe businesses should have a social purpose. Brands are expected to make life better not just momentarily but in the long-term. TUI, for instance, promises “a holiday where you can get back to your true self and enjoy moments that really matter, now and in times to come” – emphasising both the experience and its sustainable approach.
The potential of brands is no longer framed by either logo or trade. Political leaders, non-profits and global socialites are developing their brand. In China, Premier Xi Jinping is the first ruler to employ a big team to build his public profile since Chairman Mao. And he’s challenging what it means to be head of state in China: out of the limo, and onto the bus.4
beyond brands? Stripped of the logo and the commercial context, what is a brand? Its ultimate role, com-ing back to Moore and Reid, is to “carry and communicate cultural meaning that is both transactional (information-related) and transformational (image-related) in character”. Of course, meaning must travel between two or more parties. Another way to understand brands is a means of mediating relationships – mostly, though not exclusively, between an organisation and its users, and often between a company and its customers.
If we take this mediation as our definition of a brand, then anything affecting those relationships will also affect the role and manifestation of brands: the messages it carries, the vessel it chooses and the route it takes.
Changes in how people relate to each other and to social structures come from many sources: communications technology is an obvious one, now offering people an unprece-dented capacity to share and to influence. Other shifts might be demographic – affecting the values and aspirations of the people in question; political – shaping motivations; or cultural and linguistic, challenging any assumptions of common understanding. Scientific applications are already unleashing the potential for people and business to engage in ways that are very close indeed – through lifestyle monitoring, internal health sensors, and even modifications to the human microbiome. These pressures will have an impact on how we relate to one another, how quickly and by what means messages are shared, how they are understood, and what impact they have. There’s much talk of ‘emotional branding’; what does it mean for a brand to care? Is that possible? Should it be?
new memes As Stefan Liute, Strategy Director at the brand agency Storience argues, branding is reaching the end of its days. “The trade’s terminology is constantly evolving and fashion-able labels grow tired at some point. We will call this discipline by a different name, giving up the pretty barbaric branding.” Liute believes branding terminology and concepts will diverge into two subspecies: a “pragmatic one”, focused on economic results, and “an academic one, idealist and focused to bring the world back into balance”.
This edition explores the future of brands, questioning their value in mediating rela-tionships, and interrogating their readiness to adapt in order to engage with people on three levels: civic, creative and personal. In the first chapter, we question the roles brands can play in the lives of citisens, activists, visionaries and change-makers. In the second, we ask how brands can engage with creativity in individuals and society. And finally, we reflect on the capacity of brands to gain greater personal proximity to us, from our phys-ical health to the workings of our minds.
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changing contextThe context in which early brands developed was dominated by urbanisation and the rise of international trade. Local crafts journeyed from the maker to the packaging and sorting centre to the seafarer to the merchant: a supply chain tracked to add value for the end user. Iconic brands, from McDonald’s arches to Apple’s bite, have combined deep cultural roots with easy adaptation to different contexts.
Needless to say, what we make and how we trade has changed, and is now subject to rapid flux. New approaches to manufacture and trade are emerging in a hyperconnected world, where more people now have access to smartphones than sanitation.2 The journey of a product can now be so complex that every milestone could be as significant to the brand as the origin. Traceability is a concern for health-conscious consumers, particularly in Asia [see p. 39], but is this enough to determine a brand’s value and success?
As London Business School Professor Nirmalya Kumar told Spiegel, “Brands are not being defined by their country of origin any longer. Of course, if I market champagne, the country of origin still plays a role. However, if you buy an iPhone from Apple you don’t think Made in China. And if you drive a Jaguar or Land Rover you don’t care about its Indian owner Tata or that the CEO of Jaguar Land Rover Automotive is a German. What matters to the consumer is whether the brand keeps what it promises.”3
what promise?The notion of ‘brand promise’ bridges the gap between business strategy and marketing: what the business does, and what it says it will do. The Chinese tech giant Alibaba rose with no branding to speak of, even in China. Its promise and strategy were one and the same: simply to deliver, ensuring customers always got what they ordered. And so it burst almost unknown onto the New York Stock Exchange, opening with an overall market value of $168 billion.
The implication is that if the business has a clear sense of its purpose and sets out to achieve it with integrity, then it will keep its ‘promise’ and the brand will thrive as a result. So runs the logic leading to what Singapore’s Business Insider describes as the “worst nightmare” of Abercrombie and Fitch’s CEO, Mike Jeffries. He built up the brand by plastering logos – the square seals of the 20th century – all over the company’s clothes and consumables. Now, he’s taking them off.
brands beyond logoThe fall of the logo is not the fall of the brand. Brands are multimedia channels, deliv-ering meaning and culture through journalism, art, film, pop-up theatre, music videos and more. Their value rests as much in the quality of the story they tell – uprated by their online audiences – as in the product reviews. Hits, visits and trending tales sit along-side sales as markers of a successful campaign. They are expected to add cultural value, challenging our assumptions through political campaigns, decorating our streets with art and not just advertising. Moreover, people are looking to brands not just for embellish-ments, but for long-term engagement with societal issues. The study ‘Combining Profit and Purpose’ published in October 2014 by Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE) in partnership with Cranfield’s Doughty Centre for Corporate Responsibility and The Financial Times’ FT Remark (FT), found that 88% of current CEOs and 90% of future leaders surveyed
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So here we are, the millennial generation. Those that had our first snog, beer, or fag as the world quaked in the shadow of the millennium bug.
According to some, we’re self-obsessed and entitled. Narcissists addicted to smart-phones, clicktivists with superficial knowledge. We’re lazy, addicted to consumption, with grand, unrealistic life expectations that make us impossible to manage. We are not the sum of our talents, degrees, or achievements, but of our Facebook likes and Instagram feeds. We are ‘millennials’.
Or so we’re told.The reality is that we’re a generation in ascendancy. Soon to be the largest workforce in
history, we will (eventually) run the world. However, we come with an inherently different set of values to previous generations. Human resources managers are mystified by our work ethic; big business finds us increasingly hard to sell to; older generations slam our depend-ence on technology.
So what next? What do traditional systems do with a generation that often follows its hearts and guts over its wallet? That values creativity, experience and culture over posses-sions – but is also a growing global middle class that demands the new iPhone? The most connected global peer group in human history, that aspires for a better world, yet at the same time is opinionated and rebellious – unwilling to engage with traditional systems and insisting that we ‘do it ourselves’.
Some will denounce us and claim these paradoxes demonstrate our inherently fickle nature, or an inability to disengage with our smartphones and connect with the ‘real world’.
Instead, we see a language gap. A tragic lack of coherent dialogue that really represents our generation’s varied beliefs and aspirations. A fundamental misunderstanding of what it means to be ‘millennial’. When we reject ‘green’ or traditional politics, we don’t reject the need for change, simply the baggage that comes with them. It’s not that we are not listen-ing, just that you are not speaking our language.
We will inhabit the future, and as such, we need a thriving, viable platform from which to mould it.1 We need outlets to voice these needs, to inspire a belief in our ability to shape this future, which opens conversation to the mainstream, not just the elite. We must call for great-er understanding of who millennials are and really question the forces acting upon, under, or before us.
In 1961, Yayoi Kusama, said of the American art scene: Even those ostensibly new schools of thought that arose to oppose the [existing ones] only embraced, in the end, nos-talgia for [what had gone before]; they were incapable of moving so much as a single step beyond historical theory … The truth is that, at the time, there was not even the hint of any renaissance or rising tide that would define the century. Nor was it easy to imagine that we were approaching some sort of critical mass. The only thing certain was that the future was up to us, the younger generation.”
That was the 1960s: arguably the seminal decade of the last century in terms of social change. Our millennial renaissance? It’s almost here. It echoes in the passion of the pub debate, in the drum beat of the intrapreneur movement, and the steps of entrepreneurs paving their own way.
Not all of us have grand ambitions to ‘save the world’. But we look forward to our remaining 80 years of life, and want them to be the best they can be. This means change. This means dialogues and power dynamics that work for us. It’s time to ditch ‘sustainabil-ity’ and ‘green’ and move on. The future really is ours: we must find our voice and claim it.
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art Portrait of Maggie Wilson Watching a 3D Movie, after Frank Duveneck’. Mike Licht
Don’t call me ‘Millennial’
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Networked nationGovernment power is declining, and
the economy is struggling, if you refer
to traditional metrics like GDP. However,
the informal, peer-to-peer economy is thriving
due to digital sharing platform distributed
solar, subsidised energy storage, and the
rapid spread of disruptive technologies
for manufacture. Regulation and taxation
are unsolved problems, and state revenues
are losing out.
In this scenario, brands could be profoundly
disrupted by piracy of consumer goods, from
clothing to furniture. What happens when
the consumer no longer cares about the ‘real
McCoy’ – when the copy is just as good,
practically a clone, of the original? Will brands
move closer to niche cultures in search
of a stand-out identity?
Predictive planetThe US is transitioning towards renewable
energy and a less materially intensive economy,
while racing China and India |to innovate
in digital technology. Knowledge is power, and
the likes of ‘Lifeo’ rule the world. This widely
exported wearable device records everything
a user sees and hears, combines that with
physiological data, and sends their ‘lifestream’
into the cloud for storage and analysis.
If you have Lifeo, you don’t need any other
brand: it’s your friend and PA for life. It spots
the gap in your diary and suggests an activity
to raise your energy levels, followed by a finely
balanced meal. A flicker of the eyeball and the
suit you wanted prints out of your wardrobe.
‘Retail’ becomes invisible. A compromise
in privacy? Perhaps, but the next generation
has grown up with a tracked life and finds
the idea of Big Brother rather quaint.
Rust belt renewalIn an expensive resource-scare world, the US economy is benefitting from a resurgence
of local manufacture and agriculture. Increasingly, people self-organise to satisfy their needs,
seeking out strong connections close to home, sharing and making what they can. Anonymous
peer-to-peer transactions make it easy for consumers to buy direct, cutting out the middle
man of retail.
In this scenario, will brands become redundant, or will they work much harder to add value
in a community of makers? Might they play a role in overseeing and regulating resource use?
“You can do this yourself, but we’ll help make sure you can do it again tomorrow…”
Double or nothingThe US has pushed ahead with a high-carbon, high-growth model, while the rest of the world
looks on in dismay. Water shortages, crop failure, and loss of land to rising sea levels are sparking
fierce global competition to secure supplies and develop alternatives. New frontiers are being
opened up for resource extraction, from Antarctica and GMOs are a mainstream response
to food crises.
How will consumers respond to the increasing prospect of crisis and conflict? Might they look
to brands not just to satisfy their needs, but also for stability in the face of rapid change? If so,
brands could gain such strength that governments call on them in times of crisis, to spur collective
action. It’s a world of opportunity for brands that win trust through transparency and integrity.
What if…?
Brands that value longevity know they must adapt to shifting landscapes for exchange and trade. But are they planning for more radical change? What happens when the economic and social contexts in which they operate undergo radical shifts? Technology – from 3D printing to robots to the internet of things – is affecting the way people exchange goods and services. Resource shortages and climate change are presenting ongoing challenges to value chains. Geopolitical tensions are affecting global trade (they always do). Such pressures add up, and can lead to systemic change. Are brands seeing enough of the big picture to prepare for it?
We ask how brands might respond to four scenarios for the future of the US retail market. They are drawn from the Retail Horizons toolkit1, created by Forum for the Future and the Retail Industry Leaders Association to prompt strategists to embrace change, with sponsorship from Target and Unilever.
FOUR SCENARIOS FOR THE YEAR 2030 TO MAKE BRANDS SIT UP
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as: Was there any evidence of lasting change
from that campaign?
dh: There was. We ran a test against those
involved four weeks after, and found that
a significant people who had never used the
bus, or rarely, before the promotion had
taken the bus again since.
as: You’re working with some fairly big
brands – Kingfisher and John Lewis – on
a project relating to home energy efficiency.
What’s in it for them?
dh: The fundamental reason for them to
engage with the energy project is a deeply
commercial and rational one. Essentially
in energy, there is a very clear business
case for a wide range of organiz ations to
invest in growing the market for energy
efficiency. In the case of Kingfisher selling
LED light bulbs or loft insulation, or John
Lewis selling efficient appliances, it’s in their
interest for those markets to be vibrant and
dynamic and growing. Our initial research
demonstrated that there were barriers to
consumers engaging with energy efficiency
and energy control which were too significant
for one organisation or one sector to tackle
alone – but that needed tackling to unleash
huge benefits for everyone, such as a lack
of understanding of the benefits and how
to make the most of them. We are helping
to create consistency in how we talk about
energy control. Using less, wasting less and
spending less is fundamentally the three
things we are asking people to think about.
as: So you’re interested in a creating a
common culture around energy use?
dh: Yes, but we’re deliberately trying not
to create a new branding space. I think that
would be quite unhelpful. Finding the right
word for what we’re doing is very difficult.
At various different times we’ve called it a
linking mechanism or a platform; campaign
isn’t the right word either, with connotations
of political activism. It’s basically a set of
shared messages and some materials and
content. We think we’ve got a new name now
which is The Energy Vision, but that’s not a
consumer facing name: it’s for our partners to
talk about it. The name, the website, certain
areas like that become quite contentious
because partners like to sign up to something
identifiable and they like to belong to
something, but they don’t necessarily want to
divert people away from their own journey.
as: You mean they want the value of shared
messages, without the brand?
dh: There was a time where every initiative
had to be a brand. It limited the potential of
some of those ideas. Of course, we are relying
on the power and trust of the brands we are
working with in order to get messages to
their customers and supporters.
Brands are sleepwalking into a completely changed future
The no-brand challenge
David Hall tells Anna Simpson why rugby
matches and piggy backs are the future for
social change.
david hall: Many brands are
sleepwalking into a completely changed
future, armed with old tools. It’s hard to
keep track of all the disciplines: marketing,
advertising, PR and so on. Many of those
things are not necessarily the answer any
more.
anna simpson: Are there any new tried
and tested new methods?
dh: Agencies have always been very good
at consumer insight, but there are barriers
for that insight to get implemented in a
meaningful way. One is that agencies tend
to operate as a relay race rather than a rugby
match. The person who comes up with the
insight passes it on to the creative people,
who come up with a piece of advertising
and so on. So there’s often a mismatch
between the creative and strategic thinking
and how that gets turned into a piece of
communication. The second barrier is that
marketing of all types still sits essentially
in a world of communication, which is no
longer such a powerful tool.
as: So do you see a role for brands beyond
communication?
dh: What I think agencies have not done
is keep in touch with developing thinking
around human behaviour: how the mind works
and the rules of thumb of how people tend
to react in different situations. Which means
that the broader range of ways in which you
might influence someone’s behaviour, which
is fundamentally what marketers are trying to
do, has been often ignored.
as: Has concern about the scientific
credibility of neuromarketing put agencies
off?
dh: Yes, I think that’s right. When I worked
in advertising everyone thought that we had
all these clever ways of getting people to do
stuff. Actually that couldn’t have been further
from the truth. The stuff I’m talking about
is less psychologically derived it’s more that
whole world of nudge, and a lot of it’s about
social norms.
as: Can you give an example?
dh: In Leicester, we recruited a group of
ambassadors to encourage people to take the
bus. We worked with local radio stations and
we also did some on the ground engagement.
We had street teams, the kind of people who
would try to get you to give money to charity,
and we deployed them in strategic places
where people might be feeling a bit negative
about their car journey: car parks, petrol
stations, people stuck in traffic jams. We
got the route from the council where traffic
wardens were going, and followed them
round as well. We basically spoke to people
who might have been thinking, “Actually
taking the car wasn’t a smart move today”.
We offered them a free ticket to try the bus
next time. But to validate the ticket they
had to fill in the contact details and tick the
form of the transport they would have taken
otherwise that day.
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beyond meat: Love meat? Eat this instead
Most meat alternative brands cater for vegetarians or vegans. Rather than settle for the American
$600 million meat alternative market, Beyond Meat aims to break into the $180 billion meat
market instead. It is boldly offering plant-based substitutes to meat lovers with the promise that
it’s just as tasty as animal protein, with health benefits. The company prides itself in engineering
its products to look, taste, and feel like meat with every bite, rejecting the notion that something
is ‘missing’ from their products. Instead, its newest burger ‘The Beast’ is marketed as a nutritional
powerhouse with more iron and protein than beef and more omegas than salmon. scale? The
company claims to produce enough chicken replicas to save 1.5 million chickens a year.
warby parker: ‘Try it and see’ model for designer eyewear Traditional retail stores and opticians buy and sell designer glasses with expensive price tags.
Founded in 2010, this carbon-neutral American eyewear company has built a sisable and loyal
customer base through an e-commerce business model based on user testing. It produces its
own designer eyewear that can be purchased at affordable prices (around US $95 a pair) via their
website. Customers are offered a free ‘Home Try-On’ service that allows them to choose up
to five pairs of glasses to try on for five days. This flexible sales model comes with a charitable
incentive for consumers motivated both by value and by ethics: for every pair sold, another is
donated to those without the means to buy. The combination of quality, affordability, values,
a dynamic user interface, and sheer style has won the brand loyalty and recommendations in a
highly competitive market. scale? One million glasses sold.
xiaomi: Affordable quality electronics meets social mediaChinese electronics company Xiaomi focuses
on developing cheap, high-quality products
for the lower-middle market. Its recent
unprecedented success in Asia is epitomised
by its innovative marketing model. Xiaomi
offers periodic online flash sales to increase
desirability: its second of this kind in India sold
out in just 4.5 seconds. Money generated from
these sales and subsequent software downloads
is then invested into first-class components
and upgrades rather than advertising. Xiaomi
uses Weibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter,
to attract new customers. Engaging online
forums help to convert one-time users into
loyal fans. Wechat is then used for instant
customer support. Registered forum users
listed on ‘Me Fan’, the brand’s database,
are given the opportunity to vote for ideas
and review new software and product releases.
This way, Xiaomi treats consumers as
valuable assets in the creation and promotion
of a product. scale? Xiaomi sold more
smartphones than Apple in China last year
(4.4 million).
amazon prime: Drone delivery for seamless online salesAmazon has massively diversified its sales in
recent years: it started out with books in 1998,
and now sells everything from necklaces to
groceries. Now it aims to provide customers
with the quickest, hassle-free shopping
experience online, using all available mediums.
Amazon Prime Air, a 30-minute drone-drop
delivery system is set to take to the skies by
2015, building on offers such as 1-Click orders
and same or next day deliveries. Membership of
its two-day delivery policy, Amazon Prime, grew
substantially in 2012 – largely due to free trial
memberships being offered with each purchase
of their biggest seller, the Kindle Fire. The next
version, the Kindle Fire HDX, comes with an
instant tech support feature. It’s an approach
that values the consumer’s time, whether or
not the product is worth the ever shorter wait…
scale? RBC Capital estimates Amazon Prime
has 50 million members globally.
It’s an approach that values the consumer’s time
FOUR BRANDS REDEFINING THEIR MARKET
Who to watch
text Rob Greenfield
c i v i c e n g a g e m e n t
Bra
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WILL BRANDS TAKE SIDES ON THE CIVIC PLAYING FIELD?
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C onsumers are asking more questions of brands and taking the implications seriously: how they are made, and by whom, mat-ters as much as the product spec. A Nielsen Global Survey of
Corporate Citisenship in 2013 found that 50% of consumers round the world said they were willing to pay more for goods and services from socially responsible companies. That is an increase of 5% since 2011.
They may not all act as they say, but this rise in social engagement stretches beyond consumption, and has wider implications for how brands behave in society. According to a World Economic Forum report on Engaging Tomorrow’s Consumers, ‘Millennials’ – those born 1981-1995, now 25% of the global population – are looking to business to get involved with societal issues. >
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Brands are coming under pressure from civil society. People
are waking up to the reality of climate change, resource scarcity,
civil unrest and conflict, and beginning to ask, what are brands
doing about this? NGOs are channelling this pressure. Oxfam’s
campaign ‘Behind the Brands’ tells consumers, “The world’s
largest food and beverage companies have a lot of power
– but you have more.”
While governments around the world dither and fall short of
their Millennium Development Goals, civil society is marching,
signing petitions, and asking brands to step up. Some already
are – like Grameen Danone, forged in 2006 by the yoghurt brand
and the people’s bank to provide children in Bangladesh with key
nutrients missing from their diet.
The strength of brands is that they can capture the imagination
and create an emotional connection, which is generally the
precursor to changing perceptions and then behaviour. We’re
beginning to see ‘super-hero’ brands: those that don’t just want
to clear up their own mess, to change their external environment
through innovation, creative collaborations, and influencing
policy. Unilever’s Lifebuoy has always had this mission.
If corporates are to achieve any degree of social transformation,
marketing departments need to be on side. Sustainability metrics
are being incorporated into standard business performance
metrics. Very soon a marketer’s primary KPI won’t just be stuff
sold: there will be KPIs on the type of goods and services,
who they were sold to, and even ‘in kind’ services transacted.
Brands will answer to society.
CIVIL SOCIETY IS CALLING ON BRANDS,
SAYS SALLY UREN
Pressure gauge
> Overlapping with the millennials is the class of ‘aspirationals’ – the 2.5 billion empowered, young, urban shoppers with rising incomes, and the largest consumer segment in Brazil, China and India. They care about style and status, but also have an interest in collective action, and they like to see change catalysed by the companies they do business with. Accord-ing to a Globescan study in 2013, reported in Rethinking Consumption: Consumers and the Future of Sustainability1 agree that we need to moderate consumption to improve the environment.Tapping into these mixed sentiments is not straightforward. Two thirds of millennials say they would like it to be easier to identify companies that are “doing good”. But at the same time they are likely to be confused about sustainability, and do not feel they can trust companies’ claims. They want evidence, both about products and the organisations that deliver them. They have no particular loyalties to the majority of brands as they have existed in the past. Havas Media’s report Meaningful Brands in 2013 found that most people wouldn’t care if 73% of brands disappeared.The Futures Company also cautions that surveys indicating good inten-tions can be misleading. In a 2012 report How to Sustain Sustainability? it stresses that actual choices may be driven by other priorities: “Sustainabil-ity initiatives have to play more directly to consumer benefits, providing reward for the consumer first and society and the environment second to reach beyond the engaged niche to the mainstream.”
The Rainforest Alliance, in a 2014 report calling for a “new sustaina-bility narrative”, goes further. It claims that “Sustainability doesn’t mean anything real to consumers. Too often, it brings to mind technical issues or seemingly insurmountable environmental challenges.” However, it is optimistic that this can be dealt with, and that’s because more consumers than ever want to “live meaningfully and engage brands with purpose”.
The challenge is finding the most effective ways to help them do that.
>> Will future societies look to brands for civic stewardship?
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mood swing The impact of colour upon our mood is the driver behind the Let’s Colour
project, an initiative developed by Akzonobel brand Dulux. By transforming
grey and unappealing spaces into bright and colourful environments, the project
aims to bring happiness to the lives of thousands of individuals. Specifically,
by 2020, Dulux aims to have ‘coloured the lives’ of one million people around
the world. So far, the brand has donated 674,629 litres of paint to community
painting schemes across the world, including Community Repaint and DDC
Colouring the Community, supported by the Let’s Colour Fund.
anna simpson: Are there commercial
reasons for brands to take on a greater role in
society?
david brunt: Dulux does a lot of
engagement at a community level. In Brazil,
it really is core to the brand. Dulux sees
the synergy between community and social
transformation and the development of the
brand. The resonance from campaigns even
translates into normal marketing measures,
such as ‘top of mind’ indicators. At a higher
level, the rationale for ‘Let’s Colour’ or
‘Tu Decor’ is that colour can actually have
an impact on wellbeing. You work with the
community to brighten up a place, and that
may seem superficial, but bringing people
together creates a lot of dynamic interaction.
Dulux also trains people in that community
to paint, so they can then sell their skills –
which of course relates back to sales.
as: Is this sort of engagement seen as a
marketing investment, or philanthropy?
db: The former. I think a lot of brand
strategists believe in the importance of the
social dimensions of the brand, but most
of these projects don’t come from that angle.
For many brands, it’s still a transactional
thing: if we’re going to invest money in this
activity, we need to see some payback. You
can get a lot from the PR side of it without
having to advertise. Sometimes, the activity
results from a corporate imperative, which
is more philanthropic: for instance, the
CEO believes it’s important. But then,
if the CEO leaves,the impetus goes also.
as: Is that because it’s not easy to relate
the value back to the business model?
db: There will be a way, if you design
a measurement to do it. Unfortunately,
marketers are not always drawing
connections more widely than to the sales.
In all of our key countries we track our
impacts relating to social benefits. The
question might be whether the metrics are
appropriate to measure the deliverables from
that activity: do the numbers tell us enough?
This is something we’re working with Forum
for the Future to understand.
as: Do these activities relate in any clear way
to the mission of the brand?
db: I think so. The brand is more than the
physical colour: it’s about engaging people
with their surroundings, and transforming
communities. I think when people buy a
brand they want to feel good about it. So, if
you can have a more thorough impact, then
customers will think, “This brand isn’t just
selling me stuff, but is consistently helping
me transform my community”. There’s a
depth of association for that brand: you’re
known as that metaphor for transformation,
and that leads to greater loyalty.
Anna Simpson asks David Brunt
about the brand value of social impact
Colour for communities
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buy partisan Even a few years ago it would have sounded
like science fiction, but a new app has been
launched that allows consumers to find out
in seconds companies’ political donations and
affiliations.
Buy Partisan has been developed by the
US-based firm Spend Consciously. Using the
smartphone’s camera, it scans a product’s
barcode, which then reports back on the
political spending of the company in question.
At present the app can only scan barcodes made
by the Fortune 250 companies, though there is
potential to expand that number further.
The implications for brand strategy both
in North America and Europe are enormous.
Companies would be unable to espouse one
thing in their advertising yet donate to a
‘contradictory’ political cause behind the scenes.
Brands that promote themselves as ethical
would have to be scrupulously watertight.
Leonie Nimmo, Director of Ethical Consumer
Magazine gives it a tentative welcome. “If the
information is robust it could revolutionise
the way people shop and think. Theoretically,
it could prompt brands to tighten up their
ethical stance. But political donations are only
one category to look at; there are also issues like
workers’ rights, tax avoidance, pollution and
toxic waste. It sounds great but you would need
more information to get the full picture.”
– Will Simpson
oil-free paintPublic backlash against BP’s funding of Tate,
which houses the UK’s national art collection,
is raising questions about the ethics of
funding partnerships. Do poorly aligned
missions have such a significant impact on
the art lover’s experience as to outweigh the
financial benefits for the museum?
Protests concerning the sponsorship
began around 2003, but more recently, the
issue gained momentum following the BP
Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Over 8,000
people signed a petition in 2011 calling for
the Tate to end BP’s sponsorship of the
gallery. Further controversy followed when
public requests were made for the Tate to
disclose the sum of money it was receiving
from BP. Its withholding of this information
fuelled the opposition. Campaigners believe
that the sum of money given to the Tate
by BP is far less than most people would
imagine. In fact, they believe it is as little
as 0.4% of the Tate’s annual budget.
The issue brings to the fore an increasing
public pressure placed upon organisations to
ensure that their sponsorship and partnerships
reflect the image and ideals of the organisation.
For sponsorship to work well, it needs to
be meaningful. The importance of this
is heightened when a company’s social license
to operate is in question.
– Jessica Naylor
Signs of change
TWO INDICATORS OF A SHIFT IN BRANDS' SOCIAL ROLE
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By exploring what neuroscientists call the four primal emotional
operating systems, we have mapped a broader range of the
human motivations that brands seek to resonate with.
The Brand Substance Wayfinder enables any brand to identify
which of the 12 motivation states it best fits with and points
to a corresponding Brand Substance strategy to create social
or environmental value in a way that’s consistent with their
brand story.
Within the ‘contentment’ zone, which spans feelings of fear
and anxiety to security and safety, respect for tradition and
quality are well-worn paths in brand marketing. Levi Strauss
frame up their sustainability strategy around being ‘guided
by the same values since its founding in 1863’, which creates
opportunities for more authentic engagement. The ‘authentic
roots’ strategy is exemplified by the Levi’s ‘Go Forth‘ campaign
drawing on its heritage using the ‘new frontier’ of regenerating
the US rust-belt as the focus of a $2 million commitment
to rejuvenate the town of Braddock with urban farms and
community-building investment.
‘Nurturance’ is the second emotional operating system and
spans feelings of separation, distress and panic to connection
and care. Brands that stand for being caring, nurturing and
honourable usually find it easier to integrate creating positive
change into their marketing activity. That said, brands in the
banking sector that should stand for being trustworthy have
seen a huge disconnect between their brand image marketing
and the reality of recent banking scandals. The way the recently
demerged TSB bank is attempting to build trust as a local,
community bank exemplifies a ‘deeper caring’ strategy.
The third emotional operating system is called ‘seeking’,
and spans feelings of boredom to playfulness and curiosity.
The ‘play with purpose’ strategy can be seen in the way that
Virgin Media stayed true to its ‘make it fun’ brand-value,
even when addressing a serious issue like online child
protection. Its Switched On Families Playbook is an engaging
digital parenting tool that helps parents to engage their children
with development-appropriate content and fun games.
‘Assertiveness’ is the fourth emotional operating system,
and spans feelings of frustration and anger to power and
achievement. Humans will go to incredible lengths for peak
experiences of freedom, victory and epic wins. While many
marketers would assume a conflict exists between these kinds
of motivations and sustainability, Nike proves this isn’t the case.
The ‘values victory’ strategy can be seen in the Nike Better
World platform: “Making athletes faster, stronger, better with
less impact. That’s not sustainable. That’s unstoppable.”
Brands have embraced the full spectrum of human motivation
for some time. The ‘Brand Substance Wayfinder’ shows
that sustainability can do the same, and positively channel
motivations like toughness, individuality, a sense of adventure,
or even a desire for power, to engage consumers in creating
positive change.
One of the things I hear most often from marketers is that they
struggle to connect their corporate sustainability efforts with
what their brands stand for.
Integrating social or environmental value into marketing is too
often seen as a niche idea that only makes sense for ‘nice’ brands
like Innocent or TOMS – brands that have social purpose ‘baked-
in’ from the very beginning. As a result, there’s a dominance of
sustainability-led communications that focus on care, harmony
and gentle collaboration – something I call the ‘sustainability
story-rut’. But this narrow focus excludes much of the spectrum
of human motivation. And with it, a huge range of brands.
So if you are a brand like Lynx, Louis Vuitton or Hugo Boss,
how can you create social value in a way that supports what
your brand stands for?
JAMES PAYNE REVEALS A TOOL TO HELP
ANY BRANDS FIND THEIR PURPOSE
Beyond nice
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WHAT HAPPENS WHEN ARTISTS,
TECHNOLOGISTS, MAKERS AND
BRANDS MEET?
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W ill brand strategy move of business school into the cre-ative industries? The fence that kept brands on one side and consumers
on the other is down. Today, if your audience didn’t help you make it, they’re not interested. The idea, design, funding, manufacture and distri-bution can all be co-developed.
Which means everyone is peering over into each other’s patch. Sweeping privacy and property issues for a moment, this could be a good thing. A 2014 report from BT’s Better Future Forum, ‘Making Waves – The Rising Tide of >
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Tapping into a vibrant community of creative consumers can deliver
big rewards for brands. The ingenuity and feedback provided by
a vast global customer base has allowed many household names
to go beyond focus groups and target niches, generating new fans
with an enhanced sense of ownership and loyalty.
This kind of collaborative creation can reduce the development
costs and risks associated with new product lines. According
to Brian Millar, Drector of Strategy at Sense Worldwide, a
co-creation consultancy that has worked with Nike, PepsiCo,
Converse and other big brands, no in-house R&D department
can keep up with the current pace of change: “The smartest
companies have learned to turn to their most creative
consumers for inspiration and ideas.”
For consumers, the rewards of creative engagement with a brand
vary from a more personalised level of interaction, through to
shaping its development, or even financial rewards in the case
of those who co-create new products. Through the Lego Ideas
Platform, for instance, Lego enthusiasts are invited to submit and
vote for new Lego designs. Those that clear an initial review and
receive 10,000 votes from the community are evaluated by a Lego
product team before becoming part of the brand’s portfolio of
products; the person who originally came up with the idea receives
1% of the total net sales of the new design. Often these designs
are available to buy within six months, rather than the two to three
years it takes for in-house examples to reach the shelves.
Of course, not everyone has the time or desire to lend their
skills to an advertising campaign or product development
competition, and brands must avoid overloading those who
do with requests for their input. Millar advises that good
co-creation projects require “commitment, honesty and an
appetite for discomfort” from the brand.
But for many, the inspiration, innovation and deeper customer
engagement that co-creation projects can foster make them
more than worth the effort.
COLLABORATIVE DESIGN AND CO-CREATION PROJECTS
ARE REDEFINING THE WAY BRANDS WORK
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Co-creating the future
>> Will brand strategy move out of business schools into the creative industries?
> data for social good’, suggests that, “Transparency through technology such as apps, social media and connected smart devices enable new con-sumption models and more sustainable habits to thrive. These can deliver value which is shared and experienced rather than owned. The sharing economy – which makes the most of social connections – can be a disrup-tive business model for reducing consumption at scale”.
The 2014 Foresight Alliance report, Crowd-Defined Brands1, which looks ahead to 2030, anticipates that brand will be continually evolve and refine themselves in response to consumer feedback. Data analytics are already honing brands’ capacity to respond to consumer wish-lists, which may or may not reduce unwanted consumption.
Other disciplinary fences are also falling. From universities to pro-fessions, and from text books to museums, specialisms are increasingly multidisciplinary and cross-sectoral. Perhaps tomorrow’s brand strategists will also be artists, technologists, teachers and urban developers – marked out for success by their ability to think big, challenge current assump-tions, and find value in unexpected places…
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intel meets viceFloating nature towers offering new habitats for urban wildlife; clothing which translates
the wearer’s movement into a soundtrack; 3D-printed earthquake data… Just three of the ideas
showcased in an ongoing collaboration between information giants Intel and global media outlet
vice. The Creators Project aims to illustrate and help foster the endless possibilities that can
be achieved when art and technology collide – and, of course, to make the semiconductor
chip just that little bit cooler. Founded in 2010, the project is a platform for global creative
expression. An online blog, videos and YouTube channel keep the audience engaged and up
to date with developments in the art world. Users can glimpse behind the scenes of recent
music videos and browse features on the latest in boundary-breaking art and design. A short
documentary showing how art and science collide in the work of Harvard chemical botanists
who create miniscule floral structures from crystals is one of many to help The Creators
Project reach 250 million video views. There’s more offline. Chris Milk’s The Treachery of
Sanctuary engaged participants who used their bodies to interact with digitally altered shadows
projected onto 30-foot panels. Through such platforms, Intel aims to engage a younger, artistic
demographic and one which pushes the limits of technology for creative purposes, gaining
valuable input for fresh advances.
tiger translateAn arts and music festival run by the Asia
Pacific Breweries brand Tiger Beer aims
to showcase the best of Asian talent and foster
collaborations between artists from around the
globe. The festival exposes revellers to exciting
forms of art by combining different cultures
and artistic styles in an ongoing celebration
of multicultural creativity. One focus is Tiger
Translate Streets, which showcases the street
art of Asia. Twelve artists were given six days
to create graffiti with the theme ‘Pulse of the
Megacity’ at a live event in 2013 in Ulaanbaatar,
the capital of Mongolia, to the sounds of a DJ.
The theme continued with a virtual graffiti
project, which used photographs of buildings
in Asia’s big cities as canvases for the latest
in graphic design. Engaging with its audience
through street art and live music has given the
brand new resonance with a hip young crowd
throughout Asia, thirsty for talent, inspiration
and new ideas.
ibm’s think Outside the Lincoln Centre in New York,
a 123-foot wall swarming with colour, first
opened in 2011, grabbed the attention of
passers-by. The temporary display illustrated
the potential for solar power on the city’s
rooftops, using a colour-coded map. It also
tracked the amount of water leaking from the
Delaware Aqueduct, and visualised incoming
data charting traffic flow and air quality in the
surrounding area. If you had any doubt about
the potential of sensors and data mapping
to change the way that we live, a glance up
would probably have quelled it. Developed
by ibm, the think exhibit connected
technological advancements to the daily
lives of its audience, using an immersive
film displayed over 40 screens offering an
interactive touch screen experience. The
aim was to inspire visitors to reflect on how
technology can be used to create a more
sustainable and efficient world. In 2013,
think was opened at Innoventions West
at Walt Disney World, Florida, and both an
app and lesson plans for visiting schools were
developed to bring the same inspiration to
the next generation.
mini meets dezeen A car engineered from biological materials mutates and evolves through the process of human
design to suit localised conditions. It’s a bit like a car putting on a raincoat, then swapping
it for shades when the sun comes out. This is designer Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg’s response
to The Future of Mobility, an arts project commissioned by mini in a year-long collaboration
with design magazine dezeen. Ginsberg took her interest in synthetic biology and materials
and fused it with art, science and engineering. Her piece is comprised of 112 handmade model
cars, all part of a diverse model ecosystem which imagines a shift in the way we recycle and
repair our vehicles. Six designers took part in the project, all showcased online. There is a
chamber which prepares the body for space travel, a world in which augmented reality is used
to superimpose traffic information onto our own individual maps, and a colourful car made from
stained glass. Yes, glass. Its creator, Dominic Wilcox, took inspiration from the rise of automated
cars. You can use any material you like to build cars if they aren’t going to touch each other!
Brands meet art
text Jessica Naylor
FIVE BRANDS LOOK TO ART FOR INSPIRATION
selfridges: the festival of imaginationIn the opening months of 2014, the world-
renowned windows of Selfridges’ London store
took a look inside the mind. Why? To explore
the power of imagination to drive the process
of innovation and inform the shape of our
future, so the luxury retail store proclaimed.
man a, an interactive window controlled via
an app, explored the relationship between man
and environment: dazzle-camouflaged figures
were visible only with the help of technology.
Artist Agatha Haines designed External
Brain, a huge head with an outside extension
investigating how parasitic prosthesis may in
the future regulate our bodies. A double-bass-
turned-sailing ship designed by Nancy Fouts
invited the viewer to imagine the music
it might play. ‘Imagineers’ led discussions
in the Imaginarium, a purpose built
amphitheatre designed by architect Rem
Koolhaas. Of course, there was a sales element
to it all. Throughout, The Imagine Shop
was at the forefront of futuristic retail with
3D printers and printed glasses, a virtual
watch shop and – resonating with Selfridges’
commitment to luxury – an augmented-reality
model of Zaha Hadid’s £300 million yacht: the
most expensive item the store has put on sale.
3 2 3 3
t h e f u t u r e o f b r a n d s o c t o b e r 2 0 1 4 c r e a t i v e e n g a g e m e n t
Why do you draw? I draw to freely explore possibilities. I draw
to visually understand what I am thinking.
I draw to evaluate my ideas and intuitions
by seeing them coming to life on paper. I draw
to help my mind thinking without limitations,
without boundaries.
Drawing plays an important role in the
production and communication of knowledge,
and in the genesis of new ideas. It illustrates
how instinctively our perception is directed
towards finding meaning in things, recognising
things. The act of drawing, and the very fact
we choose to stop and draw, demands focus
and attention. I use drawing as my primary
expression, as a sort of functional tool for
capturing and exploring thoughts.
For me, drawing is also an obsession: I always
carry pens, pencils and paper in any situation.
I cannot think about a project without a pen and
some paper. Drawing is my way to understand
that I had an idea in the first place. Besides,
I take an incredible pleasure in tracing lines
on paper and seeing abstract shapes come alive.
When does drawing become design?I see design as a way to translate a structural
concept for a specific audience, through a
specific medium. It is also the process of visual
planning and organising the choices made
along the way of a project, given the specific
boundaries of it. Drawing becomes design when
you start tracing lines that help you rationalise
what you think, and envision a possible solution.
When it comes to designing data visualisations,
I see three phases. One is understanding the
macro categories to start sketching the first
visual possibilities to organise the data, its
‘architecture’. Then I focus on the singular
elements, the entry points, to figure out which
shapes, colours and features we might invent
to represent the sub-categories. Finally, we
structure what I’d expect to eventually have in
Illustrator software, but on paper. Isn’t drawing
already ‘design’ in these phases? I think so.
What impact would you most like to have through your drawings? I don’t draw to have an impact, I draw for
myself. My drawings are never final pieces.
I think this is something very personal.
The most important impact I want my
drawings to have is to lead me towards new,
unexpected and beautiful visual design
solutions, to create powerful and unusual visual
compositions with data. In fact, I really want
our work to be accurate, but beautiful and
disruptive to a certain extent.
Do you see yourself as part of a data visualisation movement?
What drives me is the search for multiple
ways to create unexpected, beautiful things in
a way that can accurately represent complex
systems of information. More generally, I think
there are many reasons for the popularity of
data visualisations. People are exposed to an
increasing stream of content from many sources;
bright and catchy images such as infographics
fit perfectly into this media diet, playing with
hierarchies to provide multiple levels of possible
readings within a single piece. Of course, the
proliferation of a number of easy-to-use and
free tools has made the creation of infographics
available to a large segment of the population,
even non-experts.
What does it mean to be a designer? To be a designer you have to find new ways
to attract attention through new languages,
products and solutions that – besides being
functional and appropriate – must
be magnetic and surprising. There are
no universal answers to ‘how’ one does that.
I think that I would simply say that it’s
important not to leave any possibilities
unexplored; and that it’s important to pursue
logical solutions while freely letting the
imagination flow.
Sometimes a great idea can come unexpectedly.
Free explorations in design can lead to
insights and epiphanies that cannot be always
anticipated with a rational design approach.
What I always do when I start every kind
of project is allow myself to have time to get
inspired by the world around me, while having
the ‘brief ’ in mind. I spend a great amount
of time looking for visual inspiration, which
I carefully organise on Pinterest.
What advice would you give to someone who can’t draw?
There is a lot of freedom in drawing; sometimes
this freedom can scare and paralyse you.
Complete freedom is never very good for
coming up with truly disruptive ideas.
Even in my personal project I set constraints.
What I would suggest is to start with a topic
you want to explore (or redraw), and some
rules for the final output, and then just start.
And do it again. And do it again.
Draw for yourself, not for anybody else.
And approach drawing less scientifically, more
naively.
I draw without any prejudice: letting my hand
go freely, without asking if it makes sense for
the project in that very moment. Then I look
at what I’ve drawn and decide whether to work
on it, engaging this loop between thoughts,
paper and sight.
Visual understanding
GIORGIA LUPI, INFORMATION DESIGNER AND CO-FOUNDER OF ACCURAT,
TALKS ABOUT DRAWING, DESIGN AND THE IMPORTANCE OF NOT LEAVING
ANY POSSIBILITY UNEXPLORED
Gio
rgia
Lu
pi i
s an
info
rmat
ion
desi
gner
and
rese
arch
er.
She
is C
o-fo
unde
r and
Des
ign
Dir
ecto
r at A
ccur
at, a
n in
form
atio
n de
sign
com
pany
bas
ed in
Mila
n an
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ew Y
ork.
ac
cura
t.it
gio
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lupi
.net
@gi
orgi
alup
i
3 53 4
t h e f u t u r e o f b r a n d s o c t o b e r 2 0 1 4 c r e a t i v e e n g a g e m e n t
Will the internet of things drive radical change?
Digital technologies can help drive genuinely radical systemic
change in two basic ways. One is by changing the structure of
information flows – new information, simplifying complex data,
making the invisible visible, and so allowing people to make
new decisions in new ways. The other is by providing people with
platforms to self-organise.
Connecting things does not make the world smart – it makes
it full of information and this does not result in understanding
or change. The acquisition and sharing of new information
reaches its full potential when it meets a clear need and can
provide people with the opportunity to act in way they could
not have done before. For example, at the Internet of Things
Academy we are building mobile, accurate air quality devices
to help people change behaviour to avoid pollution hotspots
and to create a new data set that can be used to lobby for change.
We are interested in how citizens and communities are going
to gain power and insight over their challenges, rather than have
smart solutions imposed on them. Whether big brands can play
a supportive role in this remains to be seen.
DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES CAN EMPOWER PEOPLE
TO UNDERSTAND CHALLENGES AND MEET THEIR OWN NEEDS,
SAYS HUGH KNOWLES
An
dy
Ho
bsba
wm
is a
Fou
nder
and
the
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icer
of W
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and
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t h e f u t u r e o f b r a n d s
A tectonic technology shift is underway as the physical world
becomes part of the web. Our real and virtual lives are merging,
powered by smart net-connected chips and mobile devices.
The principle that products are inherently more useful and
desirable when they come with personalised digital services that
expand and enhance the owner experience will soon be applied
across all categories. The technological building blocks required
to deliver dynamic services are now in place and have passed
the tipping point in terms of cost. The global market opportunity
represented by the Internet of Things has been estimated
at $19 trillion by Cisco’s CEO.
The real game-changer is smartphones, which function
as a set of handheld digital sensors for the physical world
(accelerometer, proximity, ambient light, compass, gyros, GPS)
with a range of in-built connectivity. These devices we carry
around with us constantly have more computing power than
was needed to launch the first Apollo space missions.
For brands, the global rise of smartphones represents
a tremendous opportunity to form direct, ongoing digital
connections with customers, and make their business and
marketing operations smarter by gaining real-time analytics
about every product interaction.
Already, there’s a growing range of web-connected products
on the market. The Philips Hue LED bulbs let consumers create
a personalised mood lighting system controlled with app.
Rolls-Royce has embedded jet engines with sensors that not
only transmit real-time data about their condition, allowing
them to be monitored and maintained remotely, but means the
engine usage can be metered on a thrust-per-second basis and
sold on a subscription-based pricing model.
Talking shop
THE INTERNET OF THINGS WILL TRANSFORM
BRAND-CUSTOMER RELATIONS, SAYS ANDY HOBSBAWM
This is only the start. Smart products can allow consumers
to access the kind of real-time, socially-connected web
experiences they’ve come to expect in their daily lives.
What does it mean for a brand if their product can talk to their
customer? What stories can it share? What advice on sustainable
use might it offer? Already, we ask search engines questions,
and follow people we may never have met on social networks.
Is it really any different to engage with a smart and responsive
object – in effect, to ‘friend’ our stuff?
Product Relationship Management™ – brands leveraging
physical products as owned digital media to super-charge
the consumer experience in exchange for a rich stream of
transaction and usage data – will leave no product or industry
unchanged. To remain competitive, all product companies will
have to think about technologies that bridge the real and virtual
worlds to provide smart digital services through the physical
things they make.
art Giorgia Lupi
Per
son
al t
ouch
HOW CLOSELY CAN BRANDS ENGAGE
WITH OUR INTERNAL LIVES?
art
Ron
Eng
lish
W orth around $1.5 trillion a year, employing more than 25 million people, and fashion-conscious or not, an information-rich culture and a world of big data leads
to an expectation that organisations can tailor their offerings more closely to individuals.
This may be especially important in areas related to personal well-being and physical health. The same digital technologies that allow access to data about companies and support social media trawls also lend themselves to personal monitoring – giving brands like Nike Plus a window on the ‘quantified self ’. Wearable technologies and implants allow people to monitor exercise, blood pressure, heart rate, and even blood chemicals. Apps make it easy to keep tabs on eat-ing, sleeping and physical activity. These are likely to combine with >
p e r s o n a l e n g a g e m e n t
3 9
personal care: a systems approachOn 4 September, 2014, Target and Walmart
co-hosted the first Beauty and Personal Care
Products Sustainability Summit in Chicago,
USA, facilitated by Forum for the Future.
It brought together retailers, brands, chemical
companies, academics, NGOs and other
stakeholders, to identify the top three action
areas to put the personal care sector on track
for a sustainable future.
First, there’s the chemical supply chain,
which demands alignment in chemical use
and transparency. One action agreed during
the summit was to make disclosure along
the supply chain easier and more consistent,
enabling stronger relationships and increasing
willingness to share information. Participants
also agreed to engage and educate consumers
on the science behind priority chemicals
in a way that is meaningful and accessible.
The second area identified for action
was the waste and packaging sector - both
its environmental impact and its inconsistent
communications. The delegates agreed
to address disincentives to collaboration,
looking at pre-competitive ways to develop
common processes, policies and metrics, and
to make information available to consumers
in unbiased fashion.
Building on consumer messaging,
consumer behaviour was selected as the
industry’s third priority. One action is to
develop information that resonates on a
personal level with consumers, helping them
make better decisions and to buy more
sustainable products.
gutter oil alertSafety underlies the attraction of established
food brands to consumers in East Asian
markets. Appetite for trusted sources grew
following crises such as China’s 2008 milk
scandal, in which infant formula was found
to contain the protein adulteration melamine;
the contamination affected 300,000 infants,
of which six died.
Another recent food scandal has
highlighted the need for brands to maintain
the strictest health and safety standards –
which involves building transparency into
supply chains.
In Taiwan and Hong Kong, during the mid-
autumn festival of the moon, it emerged that
pineapple cakes and mooncakes – two popular
products – had been taken off the shelves due
to fears that they contained Taiwanese lard
that had been mixed with cooking oil illegally
‘recycled’ from the grease traps that collect
waste in sewers.
By the middle of the month the scandal
had moved to Singapore where other
Taiwanese snacks – not just mooncakes –
were being removed from supermarkets.
In East Asia the high number of fake goods
has meant consumers are generally not as
trusting of brands as their European or North
American counterparts. Tackling corruption
and taking every possible step to ensure that
a product is safe is essential for any brand
after consumer confidence has been rocked.
Signs of change
no more sleeping at the wheel An in-car monitoring system has been
developed by researchers at the Instituto
de Biomecánica in Valencia (IBV) that could
prevent fatigue-related car accidents and
potentially save thousands of lives.
The EU-backed project, named Harken,
involves attaching a sensor to seat belts and
driving seat covers that tracks a driver’s
heartbeat and respiration, an indicator of
fatigue and drowsiness. The team at IBV is
hoping to develop visual and audible warning
systems into Harken that will warn drivers
to take a break. Jose Solaz, IBV Innovation
Manager, describes Harken as a “powerful
tool” that will be beneficial, not just to car
manufacturers but also to health providers:
“The monitoring capacity is the key to develop
on-board systems that could diagnose health
problems due to other causes, say age or drugs.”
“It’s a very positive step”, says Mark James,
a journalist on the motoring website UK Car
News. “But I’d say we’re likely to see high-end
manufacturers – BMW, Jaguar etc – introduce
it, before it enters the mass market.”
He also predicted that a system like
Harken could have an impact on employers.
“If an employee has a fatigue-related accident
in a company car, then at present that
company is liable. So the introduction of this
could well change that – and keep the human
resources guy out of prison.”
3 8
t h e f u t u r e o f b r a n d s
> personal analyses of genes (through cheap, individual gene profiling) and, potentially, profiles of personal microbial consortia, in the gut and elsewhere.
At the same time, the things we consume are blurring traditional boundaries that separated sustenance from medication. In Singapore, a high-street store now promises the ‘right diet for your blood group’. Neutraceuticals are a growth industry, and already big business. Accen-ture Life Sciences forecasts a market in consumer healthcare, valued at $502 billion in 2013 rising to $737 billion within five years.
There’s also a growing market for self-optimisation and amplification, through grafts, extensions and brain-computer interfaces. This raises all sorts of questions about what it means to be human. As Steve Fuller says, “it’s not so much that we’ve been losing our humanity but that it’s becom-ing projected or distributed across things that lack a human body”.
Personal health concerns are reinforced by an ageing population, which affects millennials as they gear up to care for their parents or grandpar-ents, with a shift from acute, infectious illness to chronic disease, and an increasing burden from conditions such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular problems and obesity.
Current attention is turning to the human microbiome – now subject to intense scientific scrutiny. This is reinforcing established interest in boosting ‘good’ bacteria through probiotics (food and drinks providing live bacteria) – and prebiotics (food that supplies nutrients for microbes, especially in the gut). Brands combine rather general promises with pack-aging that supplies a convenient daily dose – as with Danone and Yakult. Combine such promises with more detailed information about, say, per-sonal genomes, and the human microbiome, and we have the advent of designer innards.
RnRMarketResearch forecasts rapid growth in the microbiome market. Currently, Asia-Pacific is the market leader for probiotics, with an expect-ed compound annual growth rate of 7.0% from 2013 to 2018, according to Transparency Market Research. Here, China and Japan dominate the market revenue for probiotics, with India and other regions also showing significant growth. Europe is another key consumer of probiotic products, with consumer awareness levels much higher than in North America.
Will we look to brands for internal make-overs, just as we have for our faces and fashions? Trust is of the essence, and sharing reliable informa-tion about a product remains a challenge for key systems, from food to clothing [see ‘Gutter oil’, p. 37 and ‘Trust and traceability’, p. 39].
>> Is this the advent of designer innards?
o c t o b e r 2 0 1 4 p e r s o n a l e n g a g e m e n t
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t h e f u t u r e o f b r a n d s
4 1
In 2013, Europeans were surprised to learn they had unknowingly been eating horse meat that had been sold to them as beef. While safe, eating horse meat is considered taboo in many parts of Europe, and the news became a scandal that revealed deep vulnerabilities in the food system.
The seafood industry suffers from similar problems. “Illegal, unregulated or unreport-ed sources account for 7-15% of globally traded fish”, says Alistair Douglas, Partner at SmartAqua, an aquaculture, seafood and agribusiness advisory group. “And even then, legal fish sources aren’t necessarily sustainable.”
The drive to improve food systems will come from two directions: governments and consumers. “Governments will continue to focus on food illness, animal welfare and fraud”, says Brian Sterling, Managing Director of the Global Food Traceability Center. “But con-sumers are demanding better reporting of other metrics like nutrition, taste and source.”
Innovations in data collection and analysis are already giving consumers an unprece-dented view of where their food comes from. A good example is the Fish Trax Market-place, a platform that aggregates fishery data and provides a public interface. “It allows consumers to scan a QR code and see where their fish was caught, by which captain and on which boat”, says Douglas. “There are even videos.”
A more transparent food system also allows suppliers to identify efficiency improve-ments. That means suppliers who take food traceability seriously could doubly benefit, as they could significantly reduce their costs while improving their brand image among increasingly discerning customers. “Analytics could potentially help fishers optimise where, when and how they catch fish, thus reducing their costs, fuel consumption and carbon footprint while also providing a better service to customers”, says Douglas.
If suppliers are looking for inspiration, they don’t have to go far. Indices that measure and communicate the environmental credentials of consumer products have cropped up in sectors as diverse as electronics, textiles and tourism. Even the diamond trade – an industry traditionally fraught with opaque supply chains – has found a way to let some light through. Diamonds mined under the Canadian Diamond Code of Conduct are etched with a recog-nisable logo – a polar bear – to prove that they have been responsibly sourced.
So what does the future hold for traceability in food systems? Sterling is optimistic. “Traceability will move from something that individual organisations do to a more collab-orative effort that involves the whole system”, he says. “And better access to information will benefit everyone along the chain.”
WHAT WILL INNOVATIONS IN DATA COLLECTION MEAN
FOR GLOBAL FOOD SYSTEMS?
Mic
hae
l A
shcr
oft
is a
n in
nova
tion
co
nsul
tant
who
hel
ps e
arly
-sta
ge v
entu
res g
et
inno
vati
ve lo
w-c
arbo
n te
chno
logi
es to
mar
ket.
Trust and traceability
text Michael Ashcroft
art Craig Shaw
o c t o b e r 2 0 1 4 p e r s o n a l e n g a g e m e n t
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t h e f u t u r e o f b r a n d s o c t o b e r 2 0 1 4 p e r s o n a l e n g a g e m e n t
Asia is fast becoming the centre of gravity for big con-sumer brands. By 2016, Asia will account for a quarter of the consumer goods market and 40% of total consum-er growth. In the bid to dominate and maintain market share, brands compete ferociously to attract and maintain the rising tide of middle class consumers in key markets including China, Indonesia, Japan and India. Vital to their success is the ability of these global brands to communi-cate their unique assets in an increasingly cluttered market environment and cut through the morass of cross-cultural differences that shape consumer behaviour. Yet all too often, these prevailing cultural norms are impenetrable by traditional market research methods, and marketers are left scratching their heads as to why new products, cam-paigns and other marketing initiatives fail despite millions of dollars invested in consumer insight.
It is now well established that as much as 90% of our behaviour is driven by emotions and motivations that operate below our conscious awareness. These so-called ‘System 1’ or ‘implicit’ brain processes are now accessible via a range of neuromarketing techniques including MRI scanning, cap electrode EEG, biometrics, facial decod-ing software, eyetracking and implicit association tests. Of these, web-based methods such as implicit testing, facial decoding and eye-tracking, wich offer scalability, practical-ity (no equipment necessary) and fast, cost-effective solu-tions, are beginning to dominate the rapidly expanding neuromarketing industry.
Implicit association testing is one of the most established approaches now at the forefront of cross-cultural market research. These tests use online respondent panels and capture consumers’ ‘gut instinct responses’ at timescales too fast for the conscious brain to respond and influence the outcome. They are now being used to predict the likely acceptability of new products, brand extensions and pack-
aging designs, as well as measuring advertising effective-ness, the ease with which shoppers can identify a brand on shelf, and what is really stored in their heads about a brand’s perceived benefits and assets. By acting in the brain as shortcuts to expected rewards, powerful brands will increas-ingly become guides to aid consumers through the unfeasi-bly large choice of purchasing options, winning advocates by simplifying and enhancing the shopping experience.
Many implicit association tests are language agnostic, exploiting images rather than words, and are able to expose individual differences in consumer attitudes, stored brand memories and product preferences. In a study carried out in Malaysia, a global supplier of personal care products com-missioned Neurosense to identify which of several designs communicated the concept of the modern Muslim wom-an. Where explicit qualitative failed to elicit a clear winner (partly due to this group’s discomfort about talking about such concepts), respondents’ implicit reactions (obtained in less than a second) to the different illustrations of wom-en produced a clear statistically significant frontrunner and gave clear insights into which features of the design elicited different emotional attributes.
Beyond the marketplace, governments and non-profit organisations are also gaining greater insight into how best to effect behaviour change, to encourage sustainable choic-es and connect at an emotional level with the world’s grow-ing populations. In a study using functional MRI that we conducted in connection with the French Government’s initiative on anti-smoking behaviour change, cigarette warning labels designed to put smokers’ off or make them think twice, was found in reality to stimulate the brain are-as involved in nicotine addiction to a greater extent than images of the same packs without these warnings – a coun-terintuitive insight that was not revealed by focus groups or explicit surveys.
Pro
fess
or
Gem
ma
Cal
vert
, Fou
nder
of
Neu
rose
nse
and
Seni
or F
ello
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f the
Ins
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for A
sian
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ht.
Brands on the brain
PROFESSOR GEMMA CALVERT DISCUSSES NEUROMARKETING
AND THE FUTURE OF BRANDS IN ASIA
text Professor Gemma Calvert
art Beppe Giacobbe
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The critical thing is that the consumer sees value
Hu
gh
Bu
rk
itt
is C
hief
Exe
cuti
ve
of th
e M
arke
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Soc
iety
anna simpson: What makes for
a resilient brand?
hugh burkitt: What you’re looking
for when you create a brand is something that
will survive and last for as long as possible,
that people will come back and look for –
and one that develops value in its own right.
Whole books are written about brand equity.
as: Which factors might increase a brand’s
chances of retaining long-term value?
hb:Historically, marketers have broken this
down into simple models about the product,
such as where it’s available and its price.
My own view is that the critical thing at any
time is that the consumer sees value in your
brand: in its own market or in people’s lives
generally, because the great majority of us
have only a finite amount of money to spend
and a finite number of ways to spend it.
as: What characterises value for you?
hb: I was looking back over winners of our
own award, and was struck by the importance
of the product or service that underlies that
brand. A good image – attractive packaging
and advertising – can get you so far, but
underlying that you have to be delivering
a really good product – or increasingly, these
days, a really good service. Easyjet rose
to fame originally by offering cheap flights
where the service was deliberately quite
basic. Actually, recently, they have radically
improved their position in the market place
and seen a rise in sales and brand value
by improving their customer service!
as: Are you aware of change today as
a particular challenge?
hb: The pace of change is an issue: it means
marketers have to be much more responsive.
Digital media means reactions move
incredibly fast. Of course, change is always
an issue. If you go right back in history
– even in my lifetime – there was the arrival
of television in the 1950s, and then the arrival
of supermarkets – which radically changed
the balance of power between manufacturers
and retailers.
What’s interesting right now is that, in the
UK, the largest supermarket Tesco is rapidly
losing sales and share because the whole
UK grocery market is undergoing structural
change. People are shopping more online
and at local grocery stores, rather than
go through the tedious and mundane process
of driving a car to the local supermarket and
loading a car with heavy things and driving
it home. So that’s bad news for Tesco, but
it seems that, the more people shop online,
the more important product brands become:
people search for a particular brand in
the first place, rather than just comparing
attributes and price on the shelf.
as: Should brands be making radical changes
to keep up, or should they stick to their guns?
hb: Really good brands do subtly adapt all
the time. Their essential proposition and
personality remain reassuring factors through
this change. Brands simplify choice,
and as choice proliferates, brands help people
to find what they want.
Hugh Burkitt offers insights into
long-term value
The view is circulating among strategists that businesses are
competing less on product innovation and more on their ability
to shape consumers’ purchasing criteria. So, rather than focus
on having the best product in the category, you redefine what
people find desirable and then reposition your business
so that you’re then best able to deliver against those criteria.
It could be seen as a shift from internal R&D to marketing a core
business strategy; engagement with consumers sets the agenda
that you can then meet.
I find this a really interesting prospect from a long-term point
of view, because a business that is able to shift consumer
desires can expand the market for sustainable products and
services. Then, when you throw in campaigns like the ‘Throw
like a girl’ video by Proctor and Gamble feminine hygiene brand
Always, you see that viral video and social media offer a way
Intimate conversations
BRANDS ARE SHAPING OUR ATTITUDES AND PERCEPTIONS
TO STAND OUT ON THE SHELF, SAYS GEMMA ADAMS
art Eleanor Taylor
to engage people with an issue in society that they think that
their brand responds to. This resonates much more widely than
the sanitary towel, the brand’s leading product. So that’s an
example of a brand starting to change those marketing criteria,
restating its purpose, and using that purpose to attract people
who share a similar view. There’s a peer-to-peer influencing
thing going on as well: the video goes viral, because if you agree
with it you’re inclined to share it.
Brands that are able to have different kinds of conversations,
and in particular emotional conversations, retain certain
associations with people when they are hunting around
for something on the supermarket shelf; they’re likely to
prefer that brand over another, given the same price level
for comparable quality. But such conversations also enable
brands to push particular offers more, and I think this could –
eventually – help to open new markets for sustainability.
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Do you get your daily dose of bacteria? If the answer’s ‘yes’, the chances are that is because you have yoghurt for breakfast. It may be a fancy ‘probiotic’ brand, with some supposedly extra-beneficial bacteria added, or just bring you regular yoghurt-making cultures.
Either way, you and millions of others are picking up on outdated advice. Pioneer micro-biologist Elie Metchnikoff singled out milk-fermenters (lactobacilli) as ‘good’ bacteria over 100 years ago, without much evidence. His recommendation to eat them has survived on one side of our contradictory attitudes to microbes. On the other, we fear germs, and attack them with antibiotics and disinfectants.
Both views are about to shift, as new science sheds light on the intimate connections we all have with a vast, complex community of microbes. Your colon, for example, which Metchnikoff regarded as a ‘vestigial cesspool’, is home to a teeming ecosystem, which con-tributes to digestion, to production of vitamins, and to fine-tuning of the immune system.
As researchers discover more about the microbes that live in us – in our guts, mouths, genitals, and elsewhere – new ways of managing this vital community come to the fore. And they will lead to new, more scientifically sound products. Drugs that zap pathogens will still be life-savers, in their place, but we will probably be less prone to wage total war on our microbes for lesser ailments. Broad-spectrum antibiotics are like napalming a rain forest because all that foliage shelters predators. We will move to more subtle approaches, culti-vating our own preferred mix of microbes. With one firm of analysts forecasting a human microbiome (the term for the total complement of microbes) market worth $650 million dollars worldwide in 2023, what might be in store?
One medical application under development is microbial profiling for diagnosis and personalised treatment. DNA-based analyses of gut microbes are becoming fast and cheap. The species composition they reveal may help assess risks of a range of conditions, including inflammatory bowel disease and cancers, and judge which drugs might work best. French start-up Enterome Bioscience is developing diagnostic profiling for patients with Crohn’s disease and metabolic disorders. Metabiomics Corporation in the US prom-ises a similar approach to spotting incipient colon cancer.
There will be medical products based on beneficial microbes, too. At the moment the best-validated microbial treatment is a total faecal microbial transplant – yes, that means >
WILL BRANDS TEND OUR MICROBIAL GARDENS?
Gut instinct
text Jon Turney
art Beppe Giacobbe
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> what it says – as a simple remedy for patients who have a colon riddled with harmful strains of the bacterium Clostridium difficile. It works, but is a blunt instrument: just transfer the whole damn ecosystem! There will be better ways of repopulating the colon of someone whose normal microbiome has been depleted, using less complex mixes of bacteria.
Expect to see more products that supply helpful bacteria for other parts of the body, too. Anti-dandruff treatments (more a fungal than a bacterial problem, but the principle is the same) are under development. Chewing gum that helps prevent tooth decay is a serious possibility. There are already genetically engineered bacteria that colonise the surface of teeth and help prevent them becoming a home to Streptococcus mutans, which transforms sugar in the mouth into acid that corrodes tooth enamel, but turning them into a product has not yet overcome regulatory hurdles.
An alternative route, a mouthwash that contains a specific antimicrobial peptide that targets S. mutans, might be a better bet. Meanwhile, US shoppers can already buy oral probiotics for humans and, if they wish, their pets. Health claims are largely ruled out by the regulations on marketing probiotics as food products, so the pitch here is mainly cos-metic, even for pets. Sprinkle a patented blend of three microorganisms in powder form on your dog or cat food once a day, and the beast will have fresher breath and whiter teeth.
The next step is products that supply the right bacteria to anoint yourself with. A spray-on for skin care, intended as a substitute for soap and deodorant, is already under development and has been tried by a few intrepid journalists. The company bringing it to market, AOBiome, says that its patented ammonia-oxidising bacteria, “have been shown in a cosmetic clinical trial to improve the appearance and feel of people’s skin.” It quotes a price of $99 for a month’s supply, but has yet to scale-up production so has a near three-month waiting time for orders in the US.
Further ahead, we have to speculate. But imagine a future in which we spray our homes with bacteria instead of disinfectant, bring home-fermented foods into hospital to strengthen a loved-one’s recovery, or dab a cunning mix of bacteria behind each ear to boost our pheromones before a date.
Entrepreneurs are speculating freely, too. Gilad Gome, founder of a California start-up called Personal Probiotics, begins prosaically but then gets more fanciful in an interview on the website Motherboard. He suggests that a woman could protect herself from uri-nary tract infections and pathogens by taking a probiotic, and that the bacterial strains used might also be modified so that “if she wants she can hack into her microbiome and make her vagina smell like roses and taste like diet cola”. Whether or not this is a serious proposition, it is an effective way to get attention for a new company.
Meanwhile, there will be a large number of, er, less ambitious probiotic formulations that, unlike most of the old-school probiotics on the shelves, will be tested well-enough to allow their makers to make specific health claims. This June, Cultured Care probiotic gum, on the market as a mouth-freshener for some years, was approved by Health Cana-da. The makers, Prairie Naturals of Vancouver, can now advertise that the benefits of the bacteria the gum is loaded with – Streptococcus salivarius – include fighting bad breath and improving oral health. It is likely to be the first of many such products.
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