2008 October

Blaming a communications technology rather than how it is used for the social impact of the communication does nothing except fill our newspapers with insane headlines like the one above. So the story of Marlon Parker and how he is using social media tools such as Mxit, Facebook, Twitter and blogging to counsel drug users in the Cape Flats, nicely flips this argument on its head.

Marlon, an IT lecturer and PhD student at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, has banded together a group of reformed drug users, gang members and dealers to provide peer support for drug users in the community. Based at the Impact Centre in Bridgetown the group has been getting a fantastic response from the affected members of the community.

Marlon hit on the idea when he realised how important mobile phones were in the youth market. Using digital and mobile channels that people are familiar with, provide a non-threatening way to make initial contact, which often results in the person visiting the counselling centre and starting on the road to rehabilitation and reconstruction.

“The main objective was to meet the youth on a platform that they are comfortable with as a first point of contact, where they can express themselves and receive counselling or advice on the issue of drug and substance abuse,” Marlon told Business Day Africa.

The next step for Marlon is his initiative to teach the mothers of the community how to use computers and get online. And it’s the reformed drug users showing their moms the ropes.

Marlon has been doing the rounds publicising the work they are doing, and I have been lucky enough to see him talk at the Nomadic Marketing dinner earlier in the month, as well as last night’s cracking 27 Dinner where counsellor King Ross shared his experiences.

His is a fantastically inspirational story amid current tales of doom and gloom and global recession. I particularly like the theme of reconstruction that runs through the project - take a look at the blog title “Reconstructed“. It’s also a great example of somebody using the strengths of particular communication channel as a means to an end, and not for its own sake.

And for any corporates out there looking for corporate responsibility projects to contribute to - this is a fantastic one.

Great article by Jo Duxbury of Freelancentral in ITWeb recently looking at what it takes to survive as an entrepreneur. Jo is single-handedly revolutionising the freelance industry in South Africa and has some great insights to share.

Have a read here.

(She also quotes some great people in the article )

Further to my post on the results of Interbrand’s Best Global Brands 2008 report, here are a few more interesting snippets on the state of branding in 2008.

Interbrand Sampson see the breakdown of total market capitalisation of the world’s top 100 brands as follows: 38% brand; 36% tangible assets and 26% intangible assets.

If you take a look at the new entrants for 2008 in my previous post you’ll see a number of luxury brands: Ferrari, Armani, Blackberry and so on. According to Jeremy Sampson, Founder and Group Executive Chairman at Interbrand, the luxury category defies the laws of economics. Even in tighter economic conditions they keep going, and the top end demand remains. It is also important to note that they have a global footprint so are less dependent on a single market for success.

Sustainability is the hot new topic at the moment, with Ford one of the biggest losers, dropping 12% of its brand value thanks to it being slow to implement green technologies. “Momentum is growing from a low base,” said Sampson.

Emerging markets offer a huge opportunity for brand builiding, said Sampson. These markets usually have 50% of the population under the age of 21 and are typically far less risk averse than Northern European markets.

And finally, some sound advice from Sampson: “Strong brands invest and grow more in difficult times to secure greater market share for when the upturn happens.” He calls this the “clean out phase” and expects that the brands with the deepest pockets will thrive.

Having said that, I think this is true across the board, and applies equally to national and small to medium sized brands.

Google entered the top 10 of the global brand charts with a brand valuation of $ 25.6 billion, increasing 43% since last year. This is according to Interbrand, which has become expert at putting a figure to brands over the last 20 years.

Jeremy Sampson, Founder and Group Executive Chairman at Interbrand, was discussing the latest report from Interbrand: Best Global Brands 2008, at the UCT GSB Deloitte lunch time chat last week.

The results were pretty interesting for anyone following brands – here is a quick overview of the headlines. You can pick up the full results on the Interbrand website.

Biggest winners:
Google     up 43%
Apple       up 24%
Amazon   up 19%
Zara         up 15%
Nintendo  up 13%

The common factor amongst these brands is that they tap into the “we want what we want, when we want it, as we want it” culture and react very quickly to changing trends, said Sampson.

Biggest losers:
Ford                    down 12%
Citi                      down 14%
Morgan Stanley   down 16%
Gap                     down 20%
Merrill Lynch        down 21%

Ford in particular is lagging its competitors such as Toyota and Honda because it has not yet embraced green and sustainable technologies. Gap is lost in some sort of a fashion middle ground and so has seen three drops in a row. And finally, says Sampson, although this valuation was completed in June 2008 – it definitely signalled some of the rough water financial services firms were going to find themselves in.

New entrants of note:
H&M, Thomson Reuters, Blackberry (Canada’s only brand in the list), Ferrari, Armani, Marriott, Fedex and Visa.

And finally, the top 10 global brands:
1.    Coca-Cola    $66.66 billion
2.    IBM        $59.03 billion
3.    Microsoft    $59.00 billion
4.    GE        $53.08 billion
5.    Nokia        $35.90 billion
6.    Toyota        $34.05 billion
7.    Intel        $31.26 billion
8.    MacDonalds    $31.04 billion
9.    Disney         $29.25 billion
10.    Google        $25.59 billion

Source: Interbrand

Read more here.

If you have hired, or are considering hiring, a social media consultant - here’s a great article from Mashable.com entitled “How to Know if You Should Fire Your Social Media Consultant”.

All great points, but for me the crux of the matter is in the intro: “If your company, no matter how big or small, has hired a social media consultant to augment (or God-forbid, replace) your PR team, there are some things …”

The parenthesis hits the nail on the head, in my opinion. Social media is not a silver bullet that can be parachuted into your marketing strategy to act in isolation. It needs to be tightly integrated with your brand and comms strategy to be effective.

Social media is a fantastic tool in the tool-box, but that’s it. You wouldn’t use a hammer if a spanner were more appropriate to the task at hand. Similarly, use the marketing and communications tools only when appropriate to what you are trying to achieve and only in combination with other appropriate tools that maximise the impact.