Hello. I’m delighted this month to welcome you to a completely new website for Brand Strategy Guru.

It’s a much improved site in many ways: most significantly because of the fantastic new TV / Video player created for Brand Strategy Guru by Fiona Ryder and her team at Stream Exchange.
This terrific player not only allows me to put all my video material in one place on a very effective and fast player, complete with electronic programme guide, but also offers the massive benefit of unlimited video length. For the first time therefore, if you’re so inclined, you can watch two complete half-hour episodes of my TV series The Brand Effect.

The new site also allows you to buy a signed copy of my book Build A Brand In 30 Days directly and easily. Plus there's direct access to back copies of my newsletter, as well as regular news updates.

Please have a look around - I hope you find it interesting. Incidentally the new website was designed and built by Kate and Clive at Web & Pen, and I recommend them very highly. Great service, and very
nice people indeed.

Invitation to my Norwich book launch

Build A Brand In 30 Days is published next month so together with the fantastic people who contributed expert specialist chapters and real brand stories for the book, I will be marking the launch with a little celebration at Waterstone’s, Castle Street, Norwich on the evening of Thursday May 13th. You are warmly invited to attend, and I do hope that if you are based in or near Norwich you will come along.

There’ll be a little chat from me about the book (which I’ll try to make interesting and useful) then some convivial networking, fuelled by wine and nibbles courtesy of Waterstone’s and Capstone: plus delicious samples from Bray’s Cottage Pork Pies (who feature in the book).

It should be fun, and I think it will be a very nice, relaxed, networking opportunity. The launch bash begins at 7.30pm and it’s free of course. You’ll be able to buy a signed copy of the book from me if you like: but it’s not obligatory! I’d just love you to be there.

Bringing the Hemsby dream to life!

Regular readers of my blog and newsletter will know that I’ve been involved with the little Norfolk seaside resort of Hemsby for a while. Amazingly (it feels just a few weeks) it is now a year since I began to work with the business community there, trying to raise the profile of the resort and to develop its brand reputation, in the wake of the closure of the Pontins holiday park.

We’ve achieved a great deal together. A vast amount of positive local, regional and even national media coverage about the resort, not to mention being invited to speak about the project at an international tourism conference in Stockholm.

We’ve established the first Hemsby Viking Festival, which will take place on June 18 to 20 this year: complete with a 60-strong Viking horde with their own encampment, craft and combat demonstrations, and the burning of a Viking longship!

And now there’s the biggest potential news of all. Supported by local people, by politicians and by the local media, I have decided to try to make something very special and lasting happen in Hemsby, which will benefit the community and its economy for years and years to come.

My team has formed a new company, called Norfolk Leisure Ltd, with the purpose of designing and creating a stunning 21st Century take on the holiday park concept. The media have been referring to the project as Eden of the East, but (whilst it does describe the scale of the ambition) that isn’t a really accurate term. In fact the project is to create a holiday accommodation destination, providing a unique “wow” holiday facility. It will be based on environmentally sustainable principles and will attract visitors to the fantastic coast at Hemsby and the surrounds, from all over the UK and beyond.

Detailed plans are being drawn up now by a specialist architectural team and more news will be released soon. The project already has its first investor, the wonderfully inspiring businesswoman
Dawn Gibbins MBE, founder and chief executive of Barefoot Flooring, and the recent star of
Channel 4's documentary programme, The Secret Millionaire.

Postponed Build A Brand In 30 Days open course

Sadly pressure of commitments forced me to postpone the half-day open course to accompany Build A Brand In 30 Days. I still hope to put the course on during 2010, probably in the autumn.

Meanwhile, companies and organisations can book the in-house version of the course. Full details are on the website, here.

BA strikes back

With more strikes in the news again that look to further weaken British Airways’ increasingly beleaguered brand, the airline has launched a viral campaign attacking the decision by cabin crew to strike. A two-and-a-half minute video, which has been posted on BA.com and the airline's YouTube channel, features chief executive Willie Walsh reassuring customers that flights will continue in spite of the industrial action. The strikes are distasterous for the company so it needs to do all it can to limit the damage.

The UK’s flagship airline carrier has endured a turbulent ride in recent years with the business experiencing substantial losses in both passenger numbers and revenue and this ongoing strike action will only exacerbate those problems. As a brand BA was one of the most admired airlines in the world, but they have really started to lose it. They got out-manoeuvred by smarter airlines which were far lighter on their feet - other airlines have simply caught up.

The biggest risk is that the strike could destroy the trust that passengers have in BA. I think it could really set the airline back a decade: it may take that long for people to forgive it. People won't take kindly when people say that it was the brand that stopped me from visiting their family or taking their annual holiday.

Brand news in brief

> Banking on new brands

The financial crisis has tarnished the reputation of many bank brands. So with the government now keen to encourage more competition in high-street banking by selling off chunks of RBS and Lloyds, new entrants are hoping they can successfully take advantage of the trust vacuum left by banking scandals and reach out to disillusioned consumers.
Two familiar names hoping to enter the sector and provide a better banking experience are Tesco and Virgin. These established brands already have a proven customer focus, which should help them entering a market full of mistrust and scepticism. However, their retail success may not directly translate to high-street banking and they could also find it hard to get up to scale with branch numbers.
Metro Bank is another new player recently granted its banking licence, with plans to grow a network of about 200 branches across London by 2020, with a national roll-out to follow. Metro Bank's proposition will focus on high levels of customer service and greater convenience, opening 8am-8pm 6 days a week and 5 hours on Sundays.

> Brand wars

With the economy tight and ad money tighter, the tactic of ‘going negative’ with smears against competitor brands has become more popular and is expected to continue through 2010. One example in America is Fedex’s latest campaign, highlighting the government ‘bailout’ of its competitor, United Parcel Service (UPS). Elsewhere, car maker Audi recently released an ad entitled ‘Friendly competition’ sarcastically showing its superiority over rival BMW and is now taking advantage of Toyota’s weakened position with a spoof viral ad called ‘Toyota Lawnmower Recall.’

> Tweet success

According to recent research at Penn State University, one in five (20 percent) tweets posted on Twitter includes an inquiry or information about a specific brand-related product or service. People are using this form of micro-communication to connect with products and in return, companies are building up close links with customers, who provide a rich source of information and feedback. Dell and Moonfruit are just two companies that recently reported successful Twitter campaigns that boosted sales.

> A place in the classroom?

Renault’s recent ‘Tales from the Glovebox’ campaign, which aimed to engage families and inspire kids to read with CD Rom story books to play in-car, was supported in school through educational content and teaching resources. However, it has prompted debate about whether it’s appropriate for commercial brands to advertise to children within school.
Opponents feel there are plenty of other channels for commercial brand messages and worry that if there is room for brands in the curriculum, then what is being sacrificed? Those less opposed believe that brand education is part of the school’s role in teaching children to be 'world aware' and as long as the material is useful and relevant, can provide extra resources for cash-strapped schools.
Although companies will claim their campaign is driven by social responsibility, you wonder if Renault’s motives are entirely altruistic when it admitted that it was hoping to communicate with its 'future drivers'. It’s certainly a slow-burn initiative in this case but brands would have to tread a careful line if looking to the school environment to meet more short-term aims, as that could quickly cause parental outrage.

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