TheWayoftheWeb

It’s not often I would say a video is essential, but not only is this keynote by USC Annenberg Professor Jeffrey Cole full of brilliant comments and quotes, but after eight years of research in 20 countries, he’s got the stats to back them all up.

Found via the also brilliant Gerd Leonhard.

I’m always really interested to hear people in non-marketing and non-editorial jobs talk about how they make a living and the way they deal with the challenges they face in their industries. It’s a great way to get some inspiration and find ways to think about things a bit differently.

One topic that’s stuck in my mind for researching is the idea of belief - the idea that brands should have a clear belief (not a proposition or a strategy - that’s for the executives) that is integral to the project/product, the team, and the people who interact with it. And whether you need to start with a belief, if it’s possible to introduce one, and how you can find people who already share yours.

Obviously religion is a belief-based system, but I saw a great example today of something I can more readily understand - football!

A non-league team who train and play around their 9-5 jobs, Histon FC, played Leeds United today, a team that has won the English league, played in European competitions, and that is currently chasing promotion back into the top English league.

And they beat them, 1-0, to know them out of the FA Cup competition.

Watching them, it was clear that the Histon team were full of belief and weren’t scared of a team three leagues above them. And although their belief wasn’t the only factor - Leeds should have scored twice, and the weather and pitch conditions also helped the non-league side - it was the biggest one in their success as they were able to keep going.

It’s also what seems to separate world champions in any sporting discipline - in motorsport, for example, the likes of Valentino Rossi and Mick Doohan, Michael Schumacher and Ayrton Senna (F1), Sebastien Loeb and Tommi Makinen (World Rally). They all differ in their personalities, with Rossi standing out as the best example of a world champion (eight times) who appears relaxed and mischevious, but carries a huge amount of confidence and self-belief.

Valentino Rossi - Picture by Matt Ritchie on Flickr (CC Licence)

Now this isn’t news. Plenty of psychologists have looked at sporting success or celebrity and spotted the planet-sized self belief that powers these people.

In marketing and social media, the concept isn’t new: Mark Earls coined the term “Purpose Idea”

‘Put really simply, the Purpose-Idea is the “What For?” of a business, or any kind of community. What exists to change (or protect) in the world, why employees get out of bed in the morning, what difference the business seeks to make on behalf of customers and employees and everyone else? BTW this is not “mission, vision, values” territory - it’s about real drives, passions and beliefs. The stuff that men in suits tend to get embarrassed about because it’s personal. But it’s the stuff that makes the difference between success and failure, because this kind of stuff brings folk together in all aspects of human life.’

And Hugh McLeod created a social object around a Purpose Idea for Microsoft.

What I’m interested in is finding as many great examples of this working within marketing and business, and externally. Sport, Religion, Manufacture, Publishing, - anywhere it can be found. Because that’s how you can show the transformation it can make to those who haven’t tried it. And the more belief that is in the brands I work with, the easier it makes marketing them!

Here’s an interesting, possibly controversial, possibly visionary approach to restructuring from Giles Rhys Jones and Jonathan MacDonald. Both blogs are essential reading.

I’d be interested in seeing whether people agree or violently disagree… Certainly makes more sense than the vague notion of an impending headcount reduction based on undisclosed criteria.

(Most definitely a comment not related to any particular company, including my current employers!)

Edit: In a moment of incompetence, I forgot to point out that it’s in relation to media companies.

I downloaded the new Xbox Live Experience and Dashboard for my Xbox 360 last night, and while the functionality is taking a little bit of time to adjust to, I’ve already decided I don’t like a major part of the strategy. And more importantly, it may be a big mistake for Microsoft.

Everyone in the world knows the success that Nintendo has had with the Wii - which ignored the graphical arms race to focus on party games and family friendliness, plus little WiiMii avatars etc.

But I didn’t buy an Xbox 360 for those reasons. I bought it because I loved the Xbox Live functionality, enjoyed fairly mature games, and saw the potential for digital music and film distribution.

I liked the fact the Xbox was seen as slightly more hardcore than the family Wii or the trendy PS3. I liked the fact it was more of an unusual choice, and that in my opinion it looked quite stylish. I like the fact the dashboard system was quite simple and functional.

But with the new dashboard update, Microsoft has essentially forced me to turn my Xbox 360 into a less fun Wii.

And suddently the Xbox looks more like a copycat than a leader. That’s the marketing mistake.

The two incarnations of the Xbox did something different to the rest of the market by concentrating on online gameplay, and becoming the first console to make good use of broadband. That was the Purple Cow. It’s what built a following for both Xbox and Halo.

It’s what made me tell friends and colleagues why they should get an Xbox and meet up online. Why I talked about how Microsoft were being brave enough to blaze the trail for online gaming. And why people talked about Sony killing their brand. There was talk about convergence, and owning the living room. And as someone who grew up with videogames and has now reached middleage, it was a sign that the average adult could engage with gaming on their own contemporary level, rather than as a childish indulgence.

All that’s now gone.

Not because now I’m forced to represent myself as a cute little fella in a suit and comedy hat.

But because I’m forced to admit MS has copied the success of Nintendo in the cute market, and forced consumers who paid for a different brand and image to copy as well. It’s no longer a hardcore choice, or a Purple Cow. When two competitors start chasing the same ideas, and Nintendo already has the lead and a price advantage, it’s a battle the Microsoft brand can’t win.

Have you upgraded to the new Xbox Live experience, and do you agree or disagree? More importantly, how do you feel about the avatars, and the fact it brands Microsoft as copycats, not tech innovators - and could a brand with the legacy of Microsoft ever compete on that level against Nintendo?

Note: edited a reference to prices, as I incorrectly priced the 360 as more expensive than the Wii.