Catherine Guan's Blog

Those were the kisses that’s gotten people talking. No, it wasn’t on the big screen during a sweeping romance. Nor, for that matter was it on the grainy pages of a tabloid.  The Italian fashion company Benetton recently released a  controversial “Unhate Campaign,” consisting of various political and religious leaders locking lips. The campaign is composed of series of advertisements that includes, among others, images of Obama kissing Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez and Germany’s Angela Merkel kissing France’s Nicolas Sarkozy.

For a advertisement campaign that relied on traditional channels, like print publications and billboards, Benetton enjoyed enormous success. As Drew’s Marketing Minute pointed out, marketers shouldn’t dismiss traditional platforms quite yet. These simple, but jarring images, were more effective at attracting audiences than many elaborate digital advertisements.

While the campaign’s distribution strategy was impeccable, the ethics of Unhate is another matter.  It’s hard to find fault with a message promoting to undo the hatred between people of different race, orientation and creed. However, the link between compassion and the clothing manufacturer is strenuous at best. Does Benetton really want to ignite an authentic discussion or do they just want to sell more v-necks?  The campaign seems too calculated.

Benetton must have known they were playing a high risk hand when they unveiled the image of Pope Benedict XVI kissing Sheikh Ahmed Mohamed el-Tayeb. The resulting furor of the Vatican has forced them to pull it. It’s now up to their PR team to prove that all publicity is indeed good publicity, that the increased interest will offset the loss of consumers deterred by these smooches. Benetton is playing a dangerous game.

Devotees of video games and tech toys have long used fan art to give expression to their love.  Cultivating customer equity with brand experiences, or “lovemarks”, consumers strongly identify with and are attached to their favorite brands.  Tributes such as these are not exclusive to geekdom.

As reported by AdFreak, the team at sports comedy site Tauntr took fan art to a new height with a mash up of their favorite TV shows with their favorite sneakers, Chuck Taylor All Stars. A personal favorite is Tauntr’s ode to the AMC smash hit, The Walking Dead.

They also transposed the likeness of Breaking Bad’s Heisenberg and a bloody Dexter onto the canvas of Converse.

Having been amused and awed by great fan art, this is the first time I have wanted to possess one this badly. Why was this combination particular potent? A recent blog by Heidi provided fantastic insight on this topic.  She pointed out that for celebrity endorsements to be successful, it must be the right person for the right product. Isn’t this the secret to success for all co-branding efforts?

Whether it be the personal brand of a celebrity or a pair of Chucks,  its personality must be compatible with and highlights an attractive aspect of the product’s brand. The iconoclastic reputation of Converse sneakers is a too perfect match for the antiheros of The Walking Dead and of the other shows featured in Tauntr’s collection.

What a wonderful opportunity for brand extension! Really hope someone at AMC’s product licensing division will pick this up, because all I want for Christmas is a pair of Walking Dead Chucks.

Setting the blogosphere ablaze, the passing of Steve Jobs seems to have resonated Apple evangelists and many besides.  As the tributes flow in, the man and his legacy are the subject of furious debate.

According to Andrew Potter, Ottawa Citizen, “for all his success as a business executive, Jobs’ most enduring legacy is not as a corporate but as a cultural visionary”.  Indeed, Job’s greatest creation is arguably, neither the iPod, nor the iPad, but Apple’s brand.

Targeting the contemporary creative class, Steve Jobs has created a brand synonymous with networked independence and stylish non-conformity. Despite being a gargantuan corporation, the Apple somehow positions itself as a defiant rebel against the corporate world.

In her blog, Robyn marveled about Apple’s consumer generated marketing, made possible by devoted fans. More than its sleek design and cutting-edge technology, it is this distinctive brand identity that has inspired such fervent loyalty.

The “Get a Mac” campaign with Justin Long made pop cultural splashes quite recently, but it was the watershed “1984” commercial that best encapsulates the Apple positioning strategy.

Airing once during the Super Bowl XVIII, “1984” introduced the Apple Macintosh personal computer for the first time. Directed by Ridley Scott, the commercial’s hammer-heaving heroine was used to represent the coming of the Macintosh as a means of saving humanity from Orwell’s Big Brother, a not so subtle reference to IBM. Thanks to the Apple Computer Corporation, we are assured, the year 1984 will not be like the book 1984.

Ever since, the brand has stood as the definitive rebel sell: “the individualized resistance of political authoritarianism and cultural conformity through the adoption of non-standard consumer goods’.

Here’s to you, Steve Jobs.

Cinema. It’s the realm of imagination. It’s the empire of fantasies. Indeed, Humphrey Bogart could have been describing film-making in his immortal line, “It’s the stuff that dreams are made of.”  Or, if we are discussing The Blair Witch Project, nightmares.

The Blair Witch Project‘s marketing campaign, a sensation in its use of the Internet twelve years ago, remains influential today. Creators Eduardo Sanchez and Daniel Myrick perfected “the Art of the Hype” when the public initially believed the footage was real.

One of the reasons behind the campaign’s success is its ingenious use of the marketing channel. Online marketing was perfect for its target market of 18 to 24 year-olds, particularly the niche audience of comic, sci-fi and fantasy enthusiasts. They drove the campaign by creating a veritable fervor in online forums even before the release. The resulting “buzz” caught the attention of mainstream media.

Further, it proved expensive visuals and designs aren’t necessary. The minds of teens were saturated by fantastical blockbuster productions and this campaign broke through with its semblance of reality.

And it paid off in a big way. Blair Witch went on to become one of the top grossing independent films of all time, earning more than US$248 million worldwide.

Now, the question is if Blair Witch‘s success can be replicated. When every major production has a online presence, an exact duplication of the campaign is near impossible. Even when campaigns become viral, it doesn’t always translate into big box office numbers. For every success like Cloverfield, there are failures like Snakes on a Plan.

According to Fast Company, the guys behind Blair Witch have formed a marketing company called Campfire. This raises an intriguing question: Could story-based viral marketing be used for different products and services?

Promising to resurrect hope to the American Dream, Obama is gaining on the likes of Mandela and Gandhi in popularity as a role model.

Having famously sneered at this dream is the man I admire the most, Hunter S. Thompson. Although I don’t share his love for firearms and mescaline, he has taught me to never compromise in my beliefs.

A true leader who never ceased to challenge the status quo, he revolutionized media with Gonzo Journalism. He rejected traditional journalistic objectivity and adopted manic subjectivity in works like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Rum Diaries. The unflinching honesty of Thompson’s writing had a profound impact on me both as a person and as an aspiring journalist.

He wasn’t only vocal about his contempt for authoritarianism, he acted on it. Who but Thompson could have campaigned to become the Sheriff of Pitkin County on the Freak Power ticket? Advocating to rename Aspen as Fat City to discourage investors and to decriminalize drugs, he garnered significant support. Despite losing by a narrow margin, he showed me that the masses have a radical potential and can be awoken from a political stasis.

Hunter S. Thompson, through his turbulent life and times, inspired me to be vocal about the tabooed; he empowered me to be true to myself.

Today, we pride ourselves for building a society on the principles of equality. Gender equality, indeed, has made significant progress. It has been 200 years since Mary Wollstonecraft published Vindication on the Rights of Women; it has been 50 years since the Women’s Liberation Movement.

As a female student in a business school, I must admit I am dismayed by the relative absence of women in senior management. Exceptions like Carly Fiorina, who became the first female chief executive of Hewlett-Packard in 1999, encounter many challenges. Organizational Behavior theories help to explain some of the problems she encountered. The information technology industry is heavily male dominated, so a high score on Hofstede’s culture dimensions is expected.

Many members of the board of directors questioned her decisions. This may have been a Halo effect from her unfeminine self-assured personality. This became especially evident when she decides to acquire archival Compaq computers for $20 million in 2001.

Fiorina made headlines again this year when she entered the Senate race as a Republican candidate. The organizational culture of the U.S. government is considered to be more masculist than IT, so she has a tough journey ahead.

In Gotham city, the Bruce Wayne assumes his alter ego Batman to fight crime. Beeman is not a millionaire playboy, nor does he have a fancy ride like the Batmobile. Like Batman, he improves our society not with superpowers, but with human ingenuity and determination. While the name Axel “Beeman” Krause, may not inspire fear in the hearts of criminals, I am confident it will soon be known by anyone concerned about our ecosystem.

Mr. Krause has the less than glamorous task of teaching Biology at my highschool, New Westminster Secondary School. The beekeeping program he introduced began as a teaching aide, but has since grown into a movement.

Mr. Krause has the makings of a social entrepreneur. The fully functional beehives produce honey and beeswax, which are sold for profits. However, the merchandise is merely a means to promote a social mission. With the recent collapse of many bee colonies around the world, he recognized the opportunity to create a social enterprise. Honey bees are under threat from various mites and diseases as the use of pesticides and herbicides weaken their immunity. Beeman may not fight crime, but he is improving our world one colony at a time.

Moments of euphoria and anguish, tears of heartbreak and joy, this year’s World Cup provided them all in abundance. My favorite memory was surprisingly not the triumph of La Furia Roja, the return of Maradona, nor the god-like abilities of Messi. It was a group of miniskirt-wearing women.

A daring marketing ploy by the Dutch brewing company Bavaria saw of group of young women arriving in red outfits that seem to be in the Danish colours to the game between Netherlands and Denmark; then stripping off those outfits to reveal the orange dresses with the Bavaria logo underneath. In the second half, the young women were removed from the stadium, questioned by FIFA and then by the police before being released.

This is can be considered as an instance of ambush marketing, because the official beer of the World Cup is Budweiser. FIFA is seeking to protect its sponsor’s interests by forbidding any promotional activity by competitors that uses fans to advertise products.

While I admire the audacity of Bavaria, finding legal loopholes is a dangerous game to play. FIFA, likewise, finds itself in a dilemma. There are boundaries as to how far it can punish offenders, because prison sentences of up to three years under the law seem too harsh. In 2006, FIFA ordered fans wearing Bavaria-branded Leeuwenhosen in 2006 to take them off and watch the game in their underpants. Thankfully, that option was not chosen this year, or there might have been more than great footwork to boggle the eye.

Dov Charney, the founder of American Apparel is the enfant terrible of the garment industry. A polarizing figure, he is known for both his philandering and for infusing his progressive politics into his business.

He draws both praise and criticism for his leadership style, but it must be acknowledged that he is an entrepreneur. As per Joseph Schumpeter’s definition, for his business is based on innovative ideas for both the products and the production methods.

His “Classic Girl” t-shirt is now a legendary staple in the garments industry. Meanwhile, his labour practices are likewise renowned. Not only does American Apparel pay fair wage and provide low cost health care to its factory workers, Charney has taken a company position on immigration reform. On AmericanApparel.net, there is a section called “Legalize LA”., which has become the name of a pro-immigration activism group underwritten by AA.

The creative-destructive process of capitalism that Schumpeter envisioned is manifested in Charney. Both a visionary and a rule-breaker, he drives the brand forward with his relentless vision. In addition to generating profit, it is admirable that Charney has taken on a social mission.

Not bad for a wiry kid from Montreal.

I’m in love.

And you might wonder who’s the lucky man? Google has won my heart with its GoogleDocs and zesty email backgrounds. After being badgered by so many friends to switch to Gmail, I finally succumbed. Now, I can wax poetic about its incredible features.

The devastating charm of the media giant has conquered many others. Indeed, the verb Google has entered our everyday vernacular and even dictionaries.

Swoon-worthy news came with the announcement of the launch of Google TV. GOOG represent Google’s foray into home entertainment, trying to revolutionize the TV as it revolutionized the personal computer. Its point of differentiation is  to make the Internet fully accessible on TV and make searching for videos as easy as searching for web pages.

Partnerships have been struck with other online giants, Twitter and Pandora. Google TV will be built into SONY flatscreens or Logitech boxsets.

Google’s strategy to enter the home entertainment market is a risky one. The rivalry is intense in the already crowded industry. While Google has maintained the number one position in search engines, it will be an upstart coming up against the established networks.

I must confess, I’m a little worried for my new beau.