Comments on: This Master’s Thesis Challenges Everything You Know about Branding!

By: Henri Weijo

Henri Weijo — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 19:13:31 +0000

Fixed now.

By: Sanne

Sanne — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 14:23:20 +0000

Ville, the PDF download link no longer works.

By: Arms race advertising in social media at Facade - Henri Weijo’s weblog

Arms race advertising in social media at Facade - Henri Weijo’s weblog — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 09:31:03 +0000

[...] is one of the main problems I found with advertising in my master’s thesis. Advertisers are constantly in an arms race against each other for two reasons. First, all [...]

By: Facade - Henri Weijo’s weblog » Blog Archive » Finnish brands and cultural branding

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 13:00:00 +0000

[...] talking about the usual stuff: marketing, Finland, entrepreneurship etc. He then asked me about my thesis and its theories and why I use big American brands mostly as my examples. He said that American brands (or rather, [...]

By: Ville Vesterinen

Ville Vesterinen — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 14:01:25 +0000

Yeah. Amazon is a funny example. I still argue that most people that use it have very little idea of the story or passion involved with it, and rather use it only because it has been recommended to them and they’ve found it a good buying experience. Yet, am sure they’ve not been able to build as strong product nor get the early critical mass without the story and the very passion.

By: Henri Weijo

Henri Weijo — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 13:03:18 +0000

Functionality goes a long way, I’ll give you that. But I don’t think it’s a sustainable advantage. Storytelling is.

And besides, matching your functionality with your storytelling might not as easy as it first might seem. Also, Amazon DEFINITELY is more than a functionality brand, if you look at their upstart mentality, frugality and passion for understanding their consumers, that story in itself is more important than how the site functions.

By: Ville Vesterinen

Ville Vesterinen — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 15:09:51 +0000

Solid points and can’t but agree with McCracken there. Yet, I still see something there in Armano’s argument as well. Maybe it’s time to leave the one-size-fits-all thinking also in the field of branding and admit that world might be too complicated to be explained with only one model. What I mean is that, whereas cultural branding is spot on with many brands, I find it harder to apply to say Amazon.com, PayPal and the likes. And even if you can, it’s not as obvious.

Armano may not have communicated his point clearly but when he says _[...]how to retool Web design into something more engaging, rewarding, useful and valuable. Call it “brand utility” or call it a good experience._ I believe he is emphasizing the world of web and all things digital. In the same manner I think Amazon’s success and brand is much about functionality and easy of use, whereas Apple might have both things going for it and Puccini in turn would have extremely strong link to the culture it represents.

By: Henri Weijo

Henri Weijo — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 08:59:34 +0000

Ville, I think Armano’s a bit off on what he’s saying. It sounds a bit too akin to what Christensen et al were saying in 2005, and what McCracken had condemned:

http://www.cultureby.com/trilogy/2005/11/and_stop_callin.html

To me, it boils down to this:

What Christensen and Armano are saying is “build brands that are cool and have a purpose”

What me and McCracken are saying is “understand what makes brands cool (in terms of cultural significance) and where their purpose comes from”

Understand the difference?

By: links for 2008-06-03 at Ip’s.

links for 2008-06-03 at Ip’s. — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 19:15:57 +0000

[...] A CONCEPT ANALYSIS ON MODERN BRANDING / This Master’s Thesis Challenges Everything You Know about … “A CONCEPT ANALYSIS ON MODERN BRANDING – Defining Key Concepts in Mind-Share, Emotional, Viral, and Cultural Branding” (tags: branding marketing thesis culturalbranding finnish) [...]

By: Ville Vesterinen

Ville Vesterinen — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 15:27:10 +0000

To continue our conversation from some time ago on how the brand maturity will evolve from cultural branding onwards. I’ve think I’ve found my best guess: Brand Utility. Won’t bore you with my rant, when David Armano has put it a lot better at http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/community/columns/other-columns/e3i26f1bfd408799a200df1722ea35ccfee

what do you think? Or am I totally missing the point and looking at branding on a too tactical level, where I should look at the strategic level where cultural branding operates.