Brand utility V Branded Utility

Have you noticed that the terms 'brand' and 'branding' have become highly abused in the advertising, design and marketing industry? 'Brand' has gone from being an approach to recognising and developing a products attributes, to being a cover-all term that usually masks a messy swamp of half-baked marketing waffle.

I knew something was up when I heard someone say 'Kylie is a brand'. err... I thought she was singer, or an Australian, or a cancer survivor, or the singing budgie. Not a sales sticker.

My concern was raised even higher when I started hearing the term 'branded utility'. A truck with a Ford emblem maybe ? No. Perhaps creating a product that actually stands out from the pack because it is more usable ? Like marketing a mousetrap that is actually better? No.

"If we took money from the TV budgets and created something useful, created a relationship, acted favorably towards the consumer, then the consumer will act favorably towards the brand. Consumers will actually thank brands for helping them out."

Sure, but is this something new - or a defense to the conscience of some advertising agency. Unfortunately the next line betrays them:

So many people who work in advertising hate what they do."

So it appears that to salve their conscience they actually want to build and sell a better mousetrap:

The key is to create something that is of fundamental difference. Not making more spin."

Hallelujah to that. more

Cherry Blossom Time

When told that I would be in Japan during Cherry Blossom season, I was underwhealmed. Cherry blossom is all very nice, but nothing to get that excited about. On arrival in Tokyo - there was not a lot of cherry blossom. I and my sinuses were relieved.

Then we hit Kyoto - and there it was Cherry Blossom Full On!

Not just pink either - shades of pink, and the especially beautiful white. But it wasn't so much the whole blossoms on the tree that impressed. It was the ground - covered in fallen petals. Even better - each breath of wind would bring more cherry blossom 'snow'.

Now I understand why the Japanese hold 'sakura' (cherry blossom) picnics within their petal strewn parks.

Turning Japanese

Prepare yourself. I spent some time in Japan earlier in the year. My first time. The next few posts will be that of me as a Japanophile.

Going to Japan has been something I wanted to do for many years. I love the minimalism, the respect for beauty, the torturing of nature. The ability to create beauty by the arrangement of things.

On my first few days in Tokyo, to my western eyes there were constant contradictions between beautiful vistas and mundane interruptions like electricity wires and TV antenna's. I would frame a shot, and there would be the bright pink sign in front of the perfect cherry blossom tree in flower.

For a while - I was frustrated, until I did some reading.

Donald Richie who since WW2 has lived most of his life in Japan provides some interesting insights into this. In his book Partial Views: Essays on Contemporary Japan he argues in one of the essays that the Japanese have a way of ignoring interruptions to beauty. The Japanese view instantly edits the frame to eliminate the telephone wires, or the neon sign.

Once I had read this comment - I abandoned my quest for the 'perfect shot'. It was quite liberating.