Traveling the world with your personal brand

What if your whole personal brand as a university student was being an athlete and a student at the same time? And, what if that brand got to represent your country and your university all around the world? It must be an extremely challenging role to play, but the University of Sydney students representing Australia at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland, make it look effortless.

Seen above is student-athlete Matthew Mitcham as he competes in the Men’s 10 meter platform diving event in his third games. While he is studying Arts and Sciences at USYD, he has built the personal brand of a professional athlete and role model. I had the distinct pleasure of meeting Matthew at a closed practice in July 2014, as he was preparing for the competition. He was so unbelievably focused, yet polite and friendly – as it is an extreme talent to calmly greet curious bystanders all while striving to reach his goals. He later won gold in the Men’s 10 meter synchronised diving event with partner Domonic Bedggood.

Another student-athlete, Anneliese Rubie, who studies Arts at USYD, has previously spoken to USYD representatives about effectively balancing her university work with her focus and demanding preparation schedule for competitions. The level of mental toughness this portrays in her personal brand is immense, and is a quality many employers look for.

All in all, student-athletes are marketing and personal branding geniuses. By combining elite athleticism with prestigious academics, they display perseverance, drive, self-discipline, time management skills, adaptability, and flexibility, not to mention well-roundedness with all the traveling they do. Congratulations to my peers for all your hard work.

Christine Drpich
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School

If your mum were a professional, what would her role look like?

It's easy to take for granted the most important people in our lives, forgetting what they mean to each of us. That is, until we are reminded and given the opportunity to be grateful.

That's the insightful brilliance of the World's Toughest Job campaign by the agency Mullen for American Greetings. In the build up to mother’s day, the greeting card company tapped a universal consumer insight to develop an emotionally resonating ad to drive behaviour. What they ultimately created was a viral sensation gaining over 21.4 million views, for a rather mundane product, the humble mother day card.

So what consumer insight drove the ad and which consumer effects were targeted?

Consumer insights help to explain the why of a consumer’s action and can result in a new way of looking at an old problem. It's the revelation when you uncover a seemly obvious truth, which marketing can use to create ideas that resonate with the audience. In the World's Toughest Job, the consumer insight centres on the role of mothers in all of our lives. Mothers are the unsung heroes of the world, giving everything and expecting nothing in return. American Greetings is here to help you show your mum how grateful you are.

The objective of the online ad touches upon some of the aspects of integrated perception, having multiple effects on the audience. Firstly, it plays to emotions, driving an affective appeal by evoking the love we have for all our mothers, particularly in the moment when the job of Director of Operations is finally revealed as the work of mums.

Secondly, it leverages perception, using fly on the wall art direction and a reality driven narrative to draw the audience into the unfolding narrative, rewarding engagement with the punch line.

Finally, it drives behaviour, encouraging customers at the end of the ad to make a card for their mums, showing they are grateful.

This delightful ad is a clear standout for American Greeting. It's a new take on celebrating a mother’s thankless role, and a call to action for every child at heart to show their love.

Duncan Bell
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School

Umbrella Companies

Have you ever been shocked to find out that some of the brands and products you have been so very loyal to for ages were actually subsidiary companies to a larger, potentially less customer centred holding company? Well, Unilever is attempting to be one of the first to break that shock by incorporating all of its subsidiary companies into their newest logo, as seen below.

Research has recently found that customers are becoming increasingly aware of these company relationships and are therefore also becoming more interested in the intentions of their preferred brands and their holding companies.
It has therefore become pertinent to large companies such as Unilever to show their intentions and the success stories they are able to help create through their subsidiary brands. Although critics claim that the corporate figure should stay out of the advertising, Unilever is having success creating loyalty for the corporation through the inter-brand relationships that are now being recognized by consumers. This change in marking strategy will take a long time, but is ultimately hoping to increase consumer trust immensely.

Proctor & Gamble has taken a very similar approach with their Olympics ad which can be seen below:

This ad really helps show how P&G has contributed through all of their products to the Olympics and its athletes as well as their families. This type of campaign is really to identify the intentions of the larger company, their positive effects on consumers, and can really help create trust.

Christine Drpich
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School

The Key to Luxury Brand Revival - Is Evolution the Solution?

When it comes to luxury fashion brands I have this overwhelming need to be in the know; whether it’s following changes in their corporate line-up, or obsessively waiting for new campaign images to be released – it’s been somewhat of an obsession of mine to consume this information and catalogue it for later use. So when I recently read about some of the challenges that the Italian luxury brand, Tod’s, has been facing (they’re experiencing a continual slump in sales, profits, and the brand’s share price), it really got me thinking about how other fashions brands have turned things around when they were on a similar downward spiral.

In fashion, as veteran model Heidi Klum has been known to say, ‘one day you’re in, and the next day you’re out’ – the industry is notoriously competitive and brands need to consistently re-invent their products, the customer experience, and sometimes their brand ethos to stay relevant. There are very few brands (if any) that have the ability to get away with making very few changes to their business (think Rolex), but then they are often in a very niche market, and have products for which there is unwavering demand, and little competition.

Tod’s, which is predominately known for making high quality driving shoes, has in recent years branched out into designing luxury ready-to-wear clothing lines for both men and women, and has also been making accessories since the early 90s. The problem however is that footwear still accounts for around 75% of the Tod’s Group’s total sales, and when there is slower growth in the luxury market, there is greater reliance on this portion of it’s business to perform well. As mentioned in an article by The Business of Fashion, footwear is generally a lower margin product, and so most luxury brands diversify their product lines across several categories to stay profitable. Perhaps where Tod’s falls short on this strategy is that it has a reputation for producing high quality driving shoes, but perhaps not much other than that. The same article quotes Mary-Ellen Field, an intellectual property management and licensing expert, who sheds light on this problem from a consumer perspective – ‘Tod’s makes driving shoes. If you’ve been telling people you make great loafers for decades, it’s very hard to change their minds.’

Tod’s Iconic Driving Shoes (Source: www.tods.com)

This is a problem that many other brands in this industry have faced, and the most recent example of this is Coach, which has a long-standing reputation of selling ‘affordable’ designer bags and accessories. Although it was once a leader in this segment, it has failed to keep up with rivals Kate Spade, and Michael Kors, which have now gained more popularity among consumers in this market. Admittedly the situation with Coach is multi-layered, and attributed to several factors, however the challenge it now faces is similar to that of Tod’s, in that how does a brand known for one thing, begin to sell something else just as successfully?

The answer perhaps lie in the past, in that other fashion brands have notably built successful empires from a single signature offering. Burberry began with their iconic garbardine trench coats, Louis Vuitton had their flat bottom trunks, and Diane Von Furstenberg had her wrap dress - the list goes on. Fashion in itself is about reinvention and an evolution of ideas, so it can only be expected that brands in this industry be held to the same standard. But as simple as this idea sounds, the challenge most brands face in expanding their business is doing it in a way that is both logical to consumers, and still relevant to the brand.

It’ll be interesting to see how successfully Coach and Tod’s can turn things around in the next few years, but it’s probably safe to say that taking a step forward is still better than staying put where the fashion industry is concerned. I’ll issue a –watch this space – for now, but keep your eyes peeled for what is sure to be an exciting new chapter for both of these brands.

Salil Kumar
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School

Vaccinations: to end possible pandemics or not?

Lucky for me, my parents felt comfortable having me vaccinated for many extremely harmful and contagious illnesses when I was little. Additionally, the United States of America had rules in place that protected me from illnesses while I was beginning school as a child, but sometimes you wonder why other people don’t want the same for themselves or their children, especially when exceptionally contagious illnesses like the Measles roll around. Combined with this winter’s flu season, I think we’ve all been running around like crazy to try and stay healthy. 

Source: news.com.au

Above is a picture of the measles virus under a microscope. When spread into public areas by air contamination, it can be incubated for 7-9 days and then cause severe illness and rashes. It is expected to be unpleasant to say the least.

The additional side effect, however, of a disease like this, that no one expects, is the media presence it gets. Viruses become the talk of the world and even sometimes gets coverage over mass casualties or world wide efforts needing support from around the world, and I think it’s simply because everyone assumes the person next to them won’t take care of themselves. So because of that we get swarmed with medications, and advertisements, and use so much hand sanitizer we actually get rid of the good bacteria that helps us fight off germs.

So the next time you’re running around scrambling to get away from the areas of town the media tells you to avoid, you probably should have thought about getting vaccinated to save yourself the worry. Although I am exceptionally wary of the flu vaccination myself, many medical studies can easily spell out safety evaluations for you. 

Christine Drpich
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School