Journey of a Researcher to Advertising

May 1st, 2012 Fatemah Bolos

CRPs. Focus groups. Questionnaires. Discussion guides. Moderators. Respondents. Analysis. Just some of the lingo I used every day. Until the day I decided to pack up and move to advertising.

It wasn’t love for the ad world that enticed me to move. In fact it was more of a personal quest or as some would say – an arrogant quest. With all the efforts we put towards listening to consumers, analyzing perceptions and making sense out of it all, I had the goal to help clients better understand and communicate with their target audiences. And then one fine morning as I headed to work, I saw a megacom that completely defied the findings of the research. No! No! No! That’s not what consumers want! That’s not what they said. Ahh whatever happened in those creative studios pretty much watered down the essence of what consumers really want.

And so I asked myself; why stand by the sidelines? Let me be part of the action, the decision process and then maybe, just maybe, I could play a role in ensuring the right message is communicated.

So a year later, I talk Concepts, Layouts, Artwork, Media Spots, On-ground Activation, Promoters, Rentals. And I finally saw and understood the world from the Ad Man’s eye. Yes, we go through the whole process of proposing the communication plan and the concepts. We interpret insights and brainstorm on ways to representing them creatively. It’s a great wonder the magic that happens in such rooms. It starts with jokes and silly ideas; then before you know it something wonderful comes out of it all!

But as you all know, what comes from those rooms is not exactly what is printed, aired or executed in the end. The result of the brainstorming is what we call the first draft. This then goes through a series of criticisms, where people like me who have no idea of colors, balance and art direction play our part to formulate the ‘perfect’ piece or execution idea. No wonder artists don’t last long in marketing! Their art is subject to dissection and if they’re lucky, the concept created in those magical brainstorming sessions – well let’s say only 40% of it is from the original piece.

It’s worse when an activation idea is dissected. Such glorious ideas are formulated aimed at creating a unique and unforgettable experience for the consumers. It’s where the actual engagement and connection happens! But most often than not, they stay within the midst of our boards to be erased and seen executed by some other brand a few months later.

In research, our audience’s mindset is programmed to ‘hear’ (I say hear and not listen as not all are open to listening); nevertheless they accept that this is consumers’ opinion. They may not like what they hear but hey this is what your consumers are saying! Want the audio evidence?

Now in marketing, everything is seen by the critical eye of subjectivity. I think. I like. I don’t like. Move this to the left. No, move it to the right. Change this color. Can we just do one part of the activity? Is this plan really worth it? Does it really communicate the message? And I suddenly begin to be less critical towards the marketing work I see and instead appreciate the process that it must have gone through.

And so my journey continues, but I think it is safe to conclude that great work is a balance. It doesn’t end with research findings. It is not enough to be creative and come up with a world of ideas. Saying something point blank is also not enough to drive sales or build brand equity. Our role starts with understanding what consumers really want – being more hands on in listening to them. Then taking our clients hand-in-hand on how we communicate their message, letting them be a part of how it works and making them experience their brand by showing them how we make their consumers feel. Together, and only together, can great marketing work be created.

Fatemah Bolos works as an Account Manager with RAPP Saudi Arabia and has contributed to this blog as a group company member. 

(Miss)Representation

April 1st, 2012 Suleman Abdullah

If aliens were to visit Saudi Arabia and they decided to watch all the TV ads with an ambitious attempt to understand the psyche of a typical Saudi woman, their perception would be somewhat like this.

“Essentially all adult females in Saudi Arabia are married with at least one or two kids with maybe another one on its way. She can be seen trying really hard to either impress or out-smart her husband, her in-laws or any other woman in her physical environment. She is keen on asking silly rhetorical questions and gets ecstatic every time she sees or hears about a discount or a sales promotion”.

Well, I don’t blame the aliens for this impression.

Unless you have personally known and interacted with Saudi women you will be convinced that they are home confined, exposure deprived, ego-centric, discount-hunting shopaholics that are on a mission to prove their smartness to anyone found in their circle of influence.

Advertising is about weaving together fantasies that feed into our aspirations. So is this sad stereotyped projection of Saudi women getting results?
Is it creating a woman’s dream lifestyle aspiration that all marketers are faithfully following the same approach?

I refuse to believe that this narrow stereotyping can create a meaningful emotional connection with real Saudi women, whose dreams, fears and passions are far more multifaceted and complex than the comical caricature of the Saudi lady that is being projected on the media.

So the big question is, who or what is the real face of a Saudi woman?

I am against stereotyping of consumers. However, lets consider the popular psychographic researches on Saudi consumers that conclude that there are four key segments of women in the KSA.
These four psychographic segments consist of the two minority groups of extremes, the “moderns” and the “conservatives” along with the other two groups that form the majority of the population i.e. the “modernity dreamers” and the “moderates”. The values and aspirations amongst these groups range from one extreme to another; well, this is a fairly simple classification of masses for a tightly knit conservative society.
However, I strongly believe that there are still layers of classes that need to be peeled further. Saudi society is rapidly evolving into a progressively liberal community. Saudi Women represent a majority of the population and are serving as a fundamental pillar in driving this change. They are now seeking professional careers with the unconditional and unprecedented support from the government. A good example of this support is the establishment of the worlds largest women only university in Riyadh and also the large number of scholarships given to Saudi women qualifying for Masters and Phd. programs in world renowned institutions.

With this evolution and progress, Saudi women need a new persona on TV.

A bold young human, whose ambitions go beyond making cupcakes and designing Abayas, someone who is emotionally secure yet progressively independent. Someone with a discerning, intelligent taste that helps her make refined choices as she navigates through life, respecting cultural values and traditions yet embracing modernity.

Most importantly a woman who is unapologetically her true self.

In conclusion, it is about time that marketers start to acknowledge and respect the intelligence of Saudi women. At the same time this situation creates a great opportunity for any brand to take the lead and present to the world, the real face of this remarkable woman and in return win the hearts of millions of Saudis for a lifetime.

Stop abusing children…in advertising!!!

March 14th, 2012 Khaled Kafarsoussa

In a few months from now, the Holy month of Ramadan will see the light, this month is the one in which the Qur’an was sent down – right Guidance to mankind, and clear signs of Distinction of truth from falsehood. According to tradition, Ramadan is not only for fasting and worship but particularly it is a blessed time to offer charity. For that reason, Muslims will spend more in charity (sadaqa), and many will pay theirzakat during Ramadan.

You might start questioning what is the link between my intro and the topic?!

There is a BIG link between the two!!

It so happens in Ramadan that the market is overwhelmed with adverting on food, entertainment and mainly social responsibility. Associations and social welfare organizations have a great presence, it is a big opportunity for them to launch a fundraising campaign, and the response is huge. Sounds fair and logical, why not! We should all support this noble move. But do these organizations know that they are abusing their children?! Most of the scenes we see on streets or on TV are considered child abuse i.e. “sad child, crying child, handicapped child, orphan child, sick child…you name it! And most of the cast used in these communications is actual children in real, unfortunate situations.  Such ads are done mostly without the approval of these children. “Donate to help these children” is the obvious message of course.

Another awful creative execution is when a famous actor with her trendy wardrobe and jewelry is seen hugging a child suffering from cancer asking people “You see him! He is sick, and we should help him blah blah blah!” What hypocrisy is this! Do we really need to see the child suffering so we pay!

In our understanding as DDB, “we believe that great ideas come from keen insight”. So what a controversial insight are we facing here? Is it the ignorance of these organizations or the coldness of our society? I believe the insight should come from the rights in terms of what is the best for children in a situation, and what is critical to life and protection from harm.

In article 36 of UN Convention on the children Rights; it states “You (child) have the right to protection from any kind of exploitation (being taken advantage of)…”

So who is protecting our children from being exploited and abused in advertising? Why we are neglecting this social ethics? Do we really need to drive (negative???) emotions in our communication in such a way to win the hearts of people and make them pay? Our role as creative agencies is not only setting the trends, but also we should take the lead and put a serious limit to such practices. Two equal important initiatives need our attention  proactively as communication people:

Firstly we should involve ourselves with these organizations and play the role of communication/creative consultants, to secure/lobby and drive campaigns in more engaging way i.e. “ (a responsible?) social act” that raises the attention without taking advantage of these children.

Secondly, aligning altogether as agencies and put an ethical platform “Deontology of Advertising” that helps establishing right limits for advertisers wishing to communicate responsibly about their brand/service.

Who is with me?

Vitamin Waw and Six Degrees of Separation

February 15th, 2012 Syed Abdul Karim

Ever heard of Vitamin Waw! It is an extremely potent rare form of vitamin found only in certain parts of the world. It can be a life saver, a game changer, can give you wings like the ones that not even Red Bull can match. Great thing about it, unlike other vitamins you can never overdose on it.  The more you have this power pill the stronger you become. It is magical dare I say. There is just one problem though. It is only available in Saudi Arabia to a minority of the locals and it is not for sale! Acquiring Vitamin Waw takes a lot of effort, sometimes years. Having the good fortune of belonging to a certain lineage does allow automatic access to this magical elixir but that is about it. People who live in Saudi Arabia see it’s power manifest everyday, they may not consciously know what it is but they are certainly a witness to it’s impact.

Wonder how the improbable just happens. Stories we all hear everyday of people circumventing the law to do things deemed impossible . Yup you guessed it, it’s all the power of Vitamin Waw. For the vast majority I am probably not making any sense but all my fellow residents of Saudi Arabia have certainly heard of “wasta” and the colloquial term ‘Vitamin Waw’. Bit of an anti-climax I suspect? You were expecting more than this. Well here it is. We all know about the power of “wasta”. It is both powerful and unique. This post is about the “why?” Where does this phenomenon of “wasta” come from? What is so unique about Saudi Society that breeds this?

There are indeed some very local customs and habits that play a big role in driving this way of life. Those habits may be shared by other Arab cultures but there is clearly a Saudi aspect that is unlike any other. It is this deep offline social networking that locals engage in that equates if not takes precedence to their close family ties. Just how close are these engagements? If a sister is getting married on a day of this special ‘networking’ day then the brother will have no choice but to miss his sister’s wedding. That’s right! It’s that important and it happens every week on a pre-fixed date for life. It’s not something limited to older men from the upper strata of society either but it’s a custom that is prevalent across genders and ages. College going kids for example will have their own networking rituals played out at a sisha cafe or on chalets near the beach on weekends for example. Women too will strictly follow their meeting rites exchanging thoughts from anything mundane to the not so ordinary. The real value of these meeting rituals is in the strength of the connections that are nurtured over the years. Imagine a high-profile businessman meeting regularly with a similar group of entrepreneurs, senior government officials and in some cases a member of the royal family and doing so to a level where all family matters, business goals and challenges are completely known to everyone in the group. If each member values this connection to a point that they commit to it like they would to a blood relative then you can imagine the strength of this connection. Speaking to some locals I learnt that these commitments demand a huge emotional investment as everyone tries their utmost to keep up with both the happy celebrations and the sad events of each connection. The rewards are obvious but they don’t come easy. Knitting such close ties to a network of twenty or so people at a very deep level gives them immense power in the society to get things done. With each family member having their own network the combined effect means for a certain level in society these individuals can pretty much get anything done. In a world which is just learning to capitalize on the strength of weak ties through online social networks here is a culture that has been doing it for centuries and these are no weak ties here either. They are equal to the strongest ties any individual could have.

In DDB we are really focusing on “Social Creativity”. Our goal being not just to connect people with brands but people with people. A concept known as “six degrees of separation” coined by Frigyes Karinthy states that every one of us is connected to another in just six steps. Today it has inspired a whole new thinking in science known as ‘network science’ and it has been proven that we truly are connected to each other in just six steps. However, if the same study were done in Saudi Arabia those steps maybe fewer than six despite the fact that the penetration of online social networks is much lower here than most developed economies.

So what does this mean for marketing? For one this is a unique insight into Saudi culture. The power of these networks can have a huge impact on brand building especially stakeholders as we experience it in our day-to-day business. The impressions and feedback from these networks can be a bigger influencer to a decision-maker than what conventional research might say. Also as we work to unleash Social Creativity in the online world globally there may still be room, at least in Saudi Arabia to use the power of these offline networks to build brands by encouraging participation, play and pass on!

Going Green the Saudi Way

February 1st, 2012 Suleman Abdullah

We at PDDB started the New Year with a Green greeting! http://www.green2012-pddbsa.com/

With every email greeting the recipient was invited to plant a virtual tree on a specially created website. For each tree planted, DDB pledged to donate a dollar to SENS (Saudi Environmental Society)

What a fresh and optimistic way to start 2012.

Being GREEN or environmentally friendly is one of the big new trends being followed by many companies in KSA. In the last three years there have been a lot of initiatives taken by the government from city cleaning activities, environmental awareness programs to establishing SENS. Similarly private sector organizations have taken some unprecedented initiatives that are in no way less than any international environmental protection program.

For those who would like to know more about these environmental initiatives taken in Saudi Arabia, here are a few useful links.

These are all great positive signs for a country with an obsessive consumption culture, high disposable income and a thriving young population, besides being the largest producer of oil in the world.

However, being a “Green” Company in Saudi Arabia is a bigger achievement than you may think. It is a matter of survival. Literally.

According to the Ministry of Labor in KSA, every business organization is required to employ a certain percentage of Saudi nationals as part of its total workforce. Only when the required number of Saudi nationals are employed, the company will be given a “Green” status.  In case of non-compliance, the company can face heavy financial fines, hiring restrictions and even disqualifications.  A company may not be completely “Green” today but based on how far they are from the required target, a company may receive an Orange or a Red rating code.

Now this seems like a brilliant initiative to create employment for a society with 60% local population under the age of 24 years and unemployment rate at a staggering 15%.

Great Initiative.

But here is the reality check.

Where do you suddenly find competent, qualified and willing Saudi workers who now have to replace up to 60% of your existing team.

Here lies the real problem. Limited talent. Unlimited Demand.

Hiring, training and most importantly retaining staff especially in the service sector businesses becomes such a critical challenge that it may even question the feasibility of your business.

To be a Green Company in these challenging times is quite an achievement. It shows impeccable resource planning, operational excellence and most importantly a great culture that is able to attract and retain local talent.

However the question remains unanswered. How do you find the right replacement talent? As of Right now, Today!

Image Courtesy: Saudi Gazette

Well, here is an Idea.

How about if every leading player in their respective industry takes their CSR budget and invests this money in developing local talent? Instead of complaining let us start creating.

Imagine if one of the travel industry giants takes the initiative to train young Saudis with basic skills and technical courses related to their industry e.g. ticketing etc. Within a few months we can have a ready supply of workforce, trained and skilled to work in the travel and hospitality businesses all across the kingdom.

Ok! So if the above idea may seem too far fetched, how about something simpler!

Let’s say a Chicken College! If you are in the hospitality or restaurant business can you imagine pre-trained workers who understand the importance of customer service, hygiene and basic food preparation?

There are some local industry patrons who have directed their CSR efforts towards skill development; Goody Kitchen is a great example of empowering women through training and skill development in the culinary field. Initiatives like these not only create new opportunities for  young Saudis but can also act as a social catalyst towards developing a progressive self-reliant community. Furthermore, it provides a great platform for organizations to demonstrate their commitment to the society by becoming visionary mentors to the local youth.

I am getting ides now. How about a Saudi School of Sales Training, if nothing else this will definitely improve the level of customer service in the Kingdom.

What about our industry? How about a College of Creativity!

Any takers?

Stand Up Saudi!

January 15th, 2012 Ali Zafar

A case for Stand Up Comedy as a communication platform in Saudi:

Good timing, strong insight, creative expression! Hard to tell if I am talking about a good ad campaign or a comedy show, right? Hope you see the connection.

Who doesn’t like funny ads! But how serious ‘funny’ can be in the communication world was never as evident as it is now.

Just Google ‘most watched ad campaigns of 2011’ and you will agree.

A few campaigns that made my favorite list (and of millions others’) are below

A fun fact in these campaigns is that none of these categories are inherently ‘funny’ driven. I mean, call me crazy but aren’t car and after shave commercials supposed to have beautiful girls and what we marketers love to call ‘Aspiration’? And a ‘utility product’ like a typo-fixer and a bear? C’mon!

Saudi is standing up

What do you do? Someone asked,

‘I work in advertising in Saudi’ I replied

Advertising! (short pause)

So…what do you do? They asked again!

When you say Saudi, people think of a closed society where women can’t drive and men don’t know the difference between a PC and a Mac. The list goes on!

The truth is, in the last 4 years I have been here, it is one of the fastest changing people I have seen.

Without boring you with statistics on mobile & broadband penetration, number of facebook and twitter users etc (that I would’ve Googled, so can you), I would like to shed light on Saudi’s ‘Funny’ side, and I am serious when I say that!

Below are some of the most popular ‘Saudi Stand-up Comedians’

  • Fahad al butairi
  • Ibrahim Khairullah
  • Omer Hussain
  • Badr Saleh
  • Yasin Kamil

Not surprisingly so, their content is fresh, local, relevant to the youth and revolves around media & social issues. All of them have gained fame almost overnight. They are doing numerous shows in Saudi and other GCC countries regularly.

For more details visit Telfaz11

Another surprising fact! Their humor is not mostly rebellious or anti establishment (as one would be reasonable in expecting from a ‘closed society’)

It is actually, exactly what it should be, a mirror to society. From making parodies of ‘typical TV ads’ to breaking stereotypes, a new video pops up from one of the above comedians pretty often.

No wonder then, that their partners in crime are the usual suspects: blogs, facebook, twitter, youtube etc. I might be stretching it a bit, but I am pretty sure that these guys account for most of the Arabic digital content.

Fine, so why should we (read marketers) care? Maybe it’s another fad that’ll pass by. Like everything else, Saudi’s will get bored with it and move on.

I think not!

http://www.lomarthobe.com/

From a strategist’s point of view, please consider the following

  • The unquenchable thirst for self expression and the richness of Arabic language
  • Unique modern metro culture (Strong local tribal/family culture + expats from around the world)
  • A large youth population who, though highly westernized, wants to maintain the Saudi heritage. (Case in point – Lomar’s Techno Thobe)

 

Conclusion

Stand up is here to stay. It exists in pockets right now, but has wide and deep reach already. Many brands, (telecom and others) have used it for branding purposes, but that is it!

It is waiting for the local ‘Virgin’ (i.e. the brand) a brand, brave enough, to take this up as a platform.

Until then, stand up comedy is virgin territory, pun intended!

Ali Zafar, Director Integration at RAPP Saudi Arabia has contributed to this blog as a group company member. 

Are advertising agencies geared up for this new world of social media?

November 15th, 2011 Ladislaw Menezes

Over the years, advertising has remained relatively unchanged. The first creative revolution was brought about by Bill Bernbach (the B in DDB). Bernbach was noted for his devotion to creativity and offbeat themes, a legacy that has credited him as being a major force behind the Creative Revolution of the 1950s and 1960s.

But now five decades later it looks like we are in the midst of a second creative revolution. The next five years will bring about a pace of change in the advertising industry that hasn’t been seen in the last 50 years. With the advent of social media the entire world of advertising has been turned on its head. The Internet has turned what used to be a controlled, one-way message into a real-time dialogue with millions. Now instead of buying spots on media channels, brands can “earn” free media, via consumers spreading clips over YouTube, Facebook, Twitter etc.

In the last 50 years Television has ruled the world of advertising. It was the favorite of ad agencies with the 30 sec spot reaching millions of people…making tons of money for them. But gone are the days of 15% media commission, most clients are now moving to a time based remuneration policy making it more and more difficult for agencies to make ends meet.

The recession in the last few years has forced clients to cut cost. Marketers have started to use the internet to spend less and still reach a large audience. We are reaching a critical juncture where new platforms may soon have more impact than TV. Today, consumers have more options for visual entertainment than ever before – TV, PC, game consoles, mobile devices, internet video channels and more. Studies from several countries have shown that, especially for young users, TV is increasingly becoming a secondary “background medium”. The primary focus of attention is elsewhere – surfing the Internet, chatting or playing an online game.

Brands that have understood these new trends are looking at different ways of targeting these audiences through innovative use of social media. Agencies are trying hard to get on board tech savvy talent to fill the social media knowledge gap that exist within agencies and if that’s not possible agencies are doing what they do best “come up with ideas” and then outsource the production to specialist digital agencies. But this formula doesn’t allow the creative teams to be part of the production process. Agencies ultimately need to hire the right digital talent who would work with the creative and strategy teams inside the agency to create and produce digital work that connects with its consumers. Digital experts in agencies are soon going to command the same respect as Creative Directors.

With the increasing amount of digital ideas being produced agencies will have to differentiate and come up with ideas that stand out and resonate with their target audience. Such ideas will only come out of agencies that understand both advertising and the social media platforms extremely well.

In the past couple of years DDB worldwide has been gearing up for this new challenge. It has successfully launched various social media campaigns in different markets around the world which have produced amazing results for their clients, while also generating word of mouth and tons of free media. DDB has been able to move swiftly and adapt its thinking by developing specialized tools, structured to help create content specifically for social media. With this new thinking at DDB we are no longer changing people’s attitudes but actually changing their behaviors. We are creating ideas that people want to play with, participate in and pass on. Ideas that connect people with people, not just people with brands. DDB calls it Social Creativity and we at Promoaction DDB Saudi Arabia are actively using this thinking in every new creative we produce for our clients.

Looking at the above I believe that advertising agencies can be successful so long as they are willing to adapt and evolve quickly to the digital revolution taking place around them. Agencies can no longer think of digital as a good to have media channel. It has already become “a must have” in every media strategy, how much of the advertising pie it will finally represent, will purely depend on the target audience it seeks to influence.

Real “State” of Saudi Arabia

November 2nd, 2011 Syed Abdul Karim

You could be excused for thinking that Saudi Arabia is one of the richest countries in the world! With a GDP per capita in the Top 50s and estimated cash reserves of over $500 billion at the end of 2010 prove this! Add to that the news of Qatar being the richest nation in the world on the basis of GDP per capita, the image of this regions riches is further perpetuated. What if I were to tell you that this is only half the story? And the other half is a complete paradox of what most would expect about Saudi Arabia.

Did you know that in a nation of 27 million only 10% of the population is making more than $4000 per month? With people in a government job making less than $1000 a month and those in a private company making about $2000 a month. This shows the great divide between the rich and the poor. The situation gets even worse when one looks at the impending real estate crisis prevailing today. On one hand we have some families who own more land than anyone can imagine and on the other there are thousands if not millions struggling to own a home. For perspective the Kindgom needs about 2 million new housing units over the next 10 years but the government is unable to do anything about it apparently because there is no vacant land available. There has been a royal decree to build 500,000 housing units with no project end date in sight. Why? The land owners have no incentive to sell. For a city like Riyadh, 50% of the land is vacant and unused. We are talking about 800 sq. km. of prime real estate laid to waste. With more demand and an artificially created shortage of land the average Saudi is forced to not only forget about ever owning a home (with a basic apartment costing about $150,000) but pay about $8,000 to $10,000 in annual rent on an income of about $24,000 per annum.

Add to this a bustling youth population of 5 million in the age bracket 18-30 with about 10% unemployed. We can expect one half of this segment – the men looking to marry and hoping to save about $20,000 as dowry. When you look at the complete picture the equation simply does not add up. Either they are going to be homeless or single! This is one aspect of the paradoxes that prevail in Saudi Arabia. A paradox that has been captured on film and recently exposed through social media. One is the short film “Monopoly” – an inspiring dark comedy made to raise awareness about the impending real estate crisis . The film was produced and directed by Bader Al-Hamoud. So far it had received over 1 million views (1.46 million to be exact!). You can check out the film with English subtitles here. The other is a series of short films titled “”Mal3ob3lena”by Firas Bakna, a Saudi Blogger who went out to the poor districts of Riyadh to give the “have’s” a true picture of the “have not’s”. The total views on his YouTube channel for all “Mal3ob3lena” related videos exceeds 3 million. You can check out the film with English subtitles here.

What is the key learning? The paradoxes that exist across all aspects of Saudi life are not as apparent and this is something we as marketers often tend to overlook. If these paradoxes are real and deeply rooted then FMCG companies, for example might have to rethink all the key elements of their Marketing Mix. We have seen Hindustan Lever in India realizing this fact and customizing their SKU’s to meet the needs of the rural customer. They started using sachets as a big volume driver and at the same time have been engaging poor rural women as a network of saleswomen to not only drive product sales but be a source of employment for them as well. Similar kind of approaches might be be needed for Saudi Arabia as well that reflect these prevailing paradoxes. It could prove to be a win-win for both parties.

‘Apple of my i’ is no more!

October 10th, 2011 Pavan Kumar

We at Promoaction DDB have been planning to have our own blog with individual contributions from our talent pool. We see enormous opportunity in engaging our talent, our clients and our community together in a healthy dialogue. It also provides a robust platform for us to develop and showcase our intellectual capital.

What better timing can there be than to launch this initiative of ours by paying a tribute to Steve Jobs who passed away just few days ago. Yes, we all have been swamped by ‘Steve-o-mania’ over the last few days but given his personality no amount of exploration would be enough. Such has been his charisma that made an impact – profound, deep and wide. Over the next few decades, not just years, his method (or lack of it), his leadership style and his visionary thinking will become classic case studies.

Knowingly or unknowingly, he has broken quite a few rules of the game that started in his early days of 1984 but became much more pronounced in his second coming. Of all the things that he has done, and not done, his beliefs and actions have had enormous influence on the field of marketing and branding and what follows is a brief perspective/interpretation from the way he built his brands.

One of the foremost inferences from Steve Jobs’ action is that build the marketing into the product. Conventional thinking sees Product and Marketing as two separate functions or silos that work in tandem. But Steve Jobs understood that there can’t be a better marketing vehicle than the product itself and therefore embedded the marketing right into the product. He made sure that every single Apple product is great in design, function and value – and made the product so great that people can’t help but notice it. His products created an innate desire in the consumers to want them, to love them and revere them. And in the last few years, we have seen an unprecedented phenomenon of Apple products marketing themselves even before they were launched.

The success of Apple products construes that categories exist only on paper – on power-point slides in corporate offices. In reality, consumers do not see categories – there are no verticals in their minds. They only have needs and wants, and in most cases either they do not know them or they are unable to express it. No one knew this better than Steve Jobs. With utter disdain to rules of the game, he broke through the shackles of category restrictions and chartered unknown territories – iPod to iTunes to iPhone to iPad. Many marketers see themselves fixated in a certain category – ‘our vision is to become number one in personal computers’. Had Steve had the same vision, we won’t be writing this eulogy on him.

The equity of a brand is not an end but a starting point. The equity that Steve built for his brands have tremendous power that transcends ages, countries, races and hopefully time. It drives home the point that equity is not something that comes out of the product but in fact it is what you put into the product. It is not something that starts after you launch the product and builds over time but it is what you inject at the very inception stage. In Steve’s case, the equity that he injected emanates from his passionate belief that ‘design is not how it looks or feels but how it works’. His fundamental belief that great design means great performance became the cornerstone of his brands’ equity. And when a marketer plants such non-rational equity into his brand, it is easy to transcend categories.

We hear an echo of Steve Jobs beliefs in DDB’s founder, Bill Bernbach’s principles too – ‘the magic is in the product’, ‘rules are what the artist breaks; the memorable never emerged from a formula’, ‘execution becomes content in a work of genius’, ‘word of mouth is the best medium of all’ and many more. In fact Bill Bernbach featured in Apple’s ‘Think Different’ campaign. It is great to see one legend inspire another.

May the Apple that he grew never fall.