Shopping the surreal

Surrealism, accessible art form and established part of the vernacular for marketing campaigns from Guinness’s fish riding a bicycle ad to Britvic’s “You know when you’ve been Tango’d” concept, is being shopped on the high-street as in-store marketing theme for London department store Selfridges.

While London gallery the V&A puts on a major show looking at surrealism’s influence on design, Selfridges, keen to tie its store in with the artistic programmes of the capital, is hosting its own homage to the movement. A surreal temporary concession in the department store is selling a number of items that reflect the surreal aesthetic as well as a consumer appetite for commodities that don’t make sense.

Products ranging from the Dali inspired mirror-nails produced by O.P.I Nail Bar, to oversized stationery by design brand XL and unbelievable confections by ChoccyWoccyDoodah, who are also offering demonstrations of the art of chocolate design, are on sale.

There is also a surrealist art installation in the store’s “Ultralounge” event space area where The Fountain of Innocence by Dadadandy gives a modern take on the super real.

Exclusive BS Blog Online Article: Sponsorship

Welcome to the first of our special Brand Strategy: The Blog articles, exclusive to our online readers. This month, we are looking at sponsorship and how to take partnerships beyond simply the logo with a question and answer session with Julian Laister, European marketing communications director for technology company Easynet, which has a market capitalisation of £9bn and is part of the BSkyB business.

Singing the Welsh Burberry blues

Today is the day that luxury brand Burberry pulls out of a factory in Wales and moves production to China, a move that has prompted questions about brand provenance, started protest marches and even inspired celebrity boycotts.

Burberry obviously has sound commercial reasons for moving its productions to China. The shirts manufactured at the factory in Wales sell for around £60 at retail and each one costs around £11 to make in Wales. The company believes it can have the items made for around £5 in China, doubling its cost savings and increasing profits.

But luxury brands particularly need to keep a very close eye on their reputations. After all, a brand is only deemed ‘luxury’ if it has a high price point (maintaining an elite positioning); uses the finest materials (partly justifying the price tag); and offers buyers the chance to participate in a certain ‘lifestyle’.

Can Burberry maintain these values while closing the factory? There are some interesting considerations.

Burberry’s whole brand is based on this idea of ‘Britishness’. This is something that buyers in other parts of the world outside the UK are particularly allured by. The idea of Britishness is somehow tied up with history, monarchy and class. By buying a Burberry item, you buy a little piece of old British class with modern design.

Can you still claim to be British when outsourcing the production somewhere else? Even if Chinese workers can make the items for less money and with the same amount of skill, aren’t you really buying Chinese workmanship rather than British? But does that matter? If the design is British, does it matter where it is made?

The truth is that despite celebrities declining to attend Burberry’s then-cancelled Baftas party earlier this year, the move to China will probably have little impact on sales. Unless the items show a drop in quality (which is unlikely), then the company will find that most people forget the whole affair relatively quickly. Perhaps the notoriety will even give it more of an edge.

You do wonder if the company could have turned the affair around, however, and made it into a positive PR push for the brand. Why not keep production in Wales and boost your income by widely publicising just how British the brand really is – making a real selling point out of the fact that it is made in an expensive country and you don’t WANT to use cheaper labour? Isn’t there something very luxurious about buying something that COULD have been made cheaper, but wasn’t, because there is a moral reason not to make it cheaper? As more and more buyers get turned on by the idea that luxury is having enough money to be able to do good for the world (see celebrities using brands like Toyota Prius and People Tree to show off that they can afford to care), couldn’t Burberry tap into this?

What do you think? Will this affair really hurt Burberry’s reputation? Let us know your views.

Weak links in the chain

Social book groups may be booming and consumers still hungry for everything from chick-lit to management tomes but the bookshop appears to have a shelf life. Borders books is moving to sell its international stores including 72 UK ones after reporting a fourth-quarter loss that echoes the poor sales others in the high street book trade are suffering.
With the challenge from online sellers such as Amazon, times are tough for bricks and mortar book sellers even for one that has attempted to pull in the punters with American style in-store cafes, events and extended opening hours. George Jones, Borders’ new chief executive concedes its performance had “fallen short in an industry that is increasingly competitive, technology driven and price-sensitive”.

The answer for Borders appears to be exploring strategic alternatives for the majority of its international segment and it will look toward its successful franchise model for future international expansion in new markets.

Living the brand or a heavy hand?

An interesting situation has arisen at UK bank The Royal Bank of Scotland. A letter obtained by union Amicus appears to say that staff salaries must be paid into an account owned by the banking group. If this does not occur, it is ‘a breach of group policy’.

RBS claims that this is industry-wide policy and part of an overall reward package for staff; the bank also says that employees are free to open other accounts with different banks for other purposes. It apparently explains the situation to employees at interview, according to the BBC.

But the union says that it has been contacted by staff unhappy with the policy, who believe that it is their own personal business where they bank and not a matter for employers (despite the employer being a bank itself).

So what do you think? Internal branding rules tell us that you want your employees to ‘live the brand’ by using your company’s services. It does the brand no good if even the internal audience is not buying into the services on offer – how can they effectively convince an external audience if they don’t believe it themselves?

But should you require employees to do this? Or does that move too far into people’s own personal space? How much should people reflect their employer brand?

Perhaps RBS should take time to sit down with employees that don’t have their accounts with the company and convince them that the brand is right for them. If the company is able to make an impact on the internal audience, surely this could only be good for the external brand too. Employees who feel valued and have switched because of the brand’s good deals are likely to be more motivated and invest more in their work.

What do you think? Let us know your views….

NBC and Fox online: the YouTube killer application?

NBC Universal and Fox TV networks have announced that they are combining their shows into a single online service, aiming to rival video-sharing site YouTube. The new portal will carry programmes such as 24, House and Heroes and various hit films such as The Devil Wears Prada. The new initiative’s shows, clips and another features will be distributed through Yahoo, AOL, MSN and Myspace (which is owned by Fox boss Rupert Murdoch’s company News Corporation).

So will the new service really be able to compete with YouTube, which is owned by Google, and currently the subject of a £1bn lawsuit from MTV-owner Viacom for copyright infringement?

Certainly, fans of NBC and Fox shows may be happy to access their favourite programmes and clips through sites they already use – one report suggests that 96% of all web traffic goes through Yahoo, AOL, MSN and Myspace at some time or other.

But the model is based on advertising, which means that viewers will need to watch commercials to view the content. Seven companies have already signed up, including Cadbury Schweppes and General Motors, with heavy copyright protection to prevent the content flooding onto YouTube.

The new service also lacks YouTube’s level of interactivity, which allows people to generate their own media as well as viewing clips of shows, music videos and performances.

So what is your view? Will this be the YouTube killer that the big media companies are hoping for? Or just a useful service for viewers that merely offers another choice in an increasingly fragmented environment?

PS3 Countdown – Europe awaits the console

It seems that all European media are on ‘Playstation 3′ watch today ahead of the console’s launch in the region at midnight tonight. As Brand Strategy is alas far too tired to stay up and queue for our own console (we’re waiting for the new Grand Theft Auto game to come out…), we have rounded up some YouTube videos of people doing generally insane things with the product:

Smash My PS3:

A fan’s PS3 trailer:

A fight over the PS3 at Best Buy:

Madonna clothing range sings to H&M shoppers

After last year’s casual sportswear range collaboration between Queen of Pop Madonna and Queen of Fast Fashion H&M, the two are back. The new clothing selection was launched this morning in London and unlike the rush for Stella McCartney’s recent diffusion range in Target Australia, shoppers seemed to be taking their time – only a few early-bird fashionistas (and hopeful journalists) crowded around the store before opening time.

This month seems to be a boom period for designer or celebrity high street ranges – apart from Stella and Madonna, the extremely trendy designer Giles Deacon launched his range for New Look in the UK, modelled by Hollywood star Drew Barrymore.

Will Madonna’s clothes appeal to young fashionistas? Or do diffusion ranges only really work if designers are involved? Is Giles onto a smart thing with New Look? Will consumers get tired of these diffusion ranges? Let us know your view.

In the meantime, you can see The Guardian’s pictures of the H&M launch here.

Or watch a video of the range below:

7000 Oaks in Second Life

Back in 1982, Joseph Beuys started a project that was intended to help address environmental change. He created a plan that would see 7000 trees planted, each paired with a columnar basalt stone; it was to be the first stage in a massive tree-planting scheme.

Artists Eva and Franco Mattes have now taken this idea into Second Life, the virtual world. The first virtual tree and stone were planted on March 16th 2007, exactly 25 years after Beuy’s original oak. The artists will continue with the project until all 7000 trees and stones have been placed; they are inviting other Second Life inhabitants to take part in the initiative with them.

What do you think? Interesting idea? Could this have implications for brands? Could we see more ‘environmental’ initiatives in Second Life? Does it matter? Let us know your views.

Food and Drinks Trends in the ‘New Europe’

Consumers in new EU countries, such as Poland, Hungary and more recently Romania and Bulgaria, are developing a taste for western lifestyles and brands, according to new figures from Euromonitor International.

Packaged food value sales in the ‘New Europe’ grew by an impressive 72% between 2001 and 2006, while soft drink sales grew by a staggering 87%. In comparison, in the ‘Old Europe’, packaged food sales grew by 63% and soft drinks sales by 71% over the same period.