The core isn’t necessarily that we need to produce content to be consumed or shared, but that we need to find out that under the narrative of the brand – which services and applications can we enrich the consumers life with that will enforce the relationship between the brand and the consumer – through the creation of unique and added value.

An example:
Say I’m The Bank of Norway, my brand statement is “Your bank, made simple”. Now under that umbrella we do some research into our customers (emotional research / inspiration) and find out that what people want to do almost every day in relation to our brand is to check the available amount of money on my credit cards. Now in order to do this today they need to open up the browser, enter the URL to the site, log on to their internet banking application – using three different codes – and then finally finding the available amount on the summary-page. This is unnecessarily difficult and complex. What we want to do is create an application that let’s you do one thing (activity focus) available through you mobile phone – so you can check the amount whenever you remember it, not having to keep it in mind until the next time you’re in front a PC. And not giving you the opportunity to do anything else (why jinx it, only “users” ask for feature creeps).

As Jeroen Matser of Tribal DDB said at Cannes: “The future of advertising is marketing”.

Again, Thanks a lot )

- Helge

I will admit that I don’t like what’s discussed on slide 54, however, that we throw out the most meaningful if we ask people about their preferences. I recognize that it’s related to the fact that people are generally not very self-aware (or willing to divulge), and therefore we simply have to rely on their behaviours rather than what they actually do.However, I risk that it’s much easier for companies to justify ignoring the consumer altogether as a result.

My latest overused statement is “don’t ask the client what they want, ask them what they want to achieve. Then when you give it to them, they’ll always be happy”. When we jump too quickly to the what (”I want a widget”) rather than the why (”I want to drive traffic”), we have trouble measuring success, and may or may not actually be employing the best means to get there.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to repost!