TED TALKS: Life Lessons From An Ad Man
I watched a funny, fast-paced presentation from Ogilvy Planner Rory Sutherland today. From the TED site:
Advertising adds value to a product by changing our perception, rather than the product itself. Rory Sutherland makes the daring assertion that a change in perceived value can be just as satisfying as what we consider “real” value — and his conclusion has interesting consequences for how we look at life.
The best part is if you jump to about 12:30 of the video, where he talks about the “repositioning” of Diamond Shreddies.
He ends his talk with a nice quote, “Poetry is when you make new things familiar and familiar things new,” which is a nice way of summing of what we do in the Ad industry.
On a side note, I just finished reading the marketing classic “Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind (How To Be Seen And Heard in the Overcrowded Marketplace),” by Al Ries and Jack Trout. It’s somewhat outdated at this point (it was written about 20 years ago), but I think it has some good points on things like Line Extensions and Brand Naming. Personally, I would recommend one of their other books, “The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing” instead.
If you’re a Al Reis fan at all, he writes pretty consistently on Brand Strategy Insider: http://www.brandingstrategyinsider.com/
Thanks man, I used to subscribe to that blog about a year ago. I’ll have to check it out again.