The biggest failure of management

"The railroads did not stop growing because the need for passenger and freight transportation declined. that grew. The railroads are in the trouble today not because that need was filled by others (cars, trucks, airplanes and even telephones), but because it was NOT filled by the railroads themselves. 

They let others take customers away from them because they assumed themselves to be in the RAILROAD BUSINESS rather than in the TRANSPORTATION BUSINESS. 

The reason why they defined their industry incorrectly was that they were RAILROAD oriented instead of TRANSPORTATION oriented. They were PRODUCT oriented instead of CUSTOMER oriented."

Marketing Myopia by Theodore Levitt

Diesel campaign “Be Stupid”- too stupid for you?

Diesel, the international jeans brand, a couple months ago launched a campaign “Be Stupid” and opinions about this campaign are very different, from big feud to true love.

Here you can find “Be Stupid” campaigns posters:

http://www.diesel.com/be-stupid/ 

My opinion about Be Stupid is that it encourages people to look at things in a different way, to see beyond the “smart” life philosophy and be and act in a different way because only in that way you will feel the real essence of life. It is about to be brave and to try many options. 

The other thing that comes in my mind thinking about this campaign is that Diesel is going against the fashion. In my opinion this campaign’s message is that the entire fashion thing is pretty stupid. And Diesel tells you to play this game, to be the part of this game, so it encourages you to be stupid.

The strength of this campaign in that the messages are told in a funny way. The whole attitude, the way of talking is funny. This attitude has only helped to engage people into this campaign and its activities and that is the most important things of today’s communication- interact and entertain consumer and let him feel the part of the brand. 

Other important thing is that brand need to behave on what it believe and when you see the Diesel webpage or every single activity they are making now, it’s clear that they believe and they approve that they trust the message they give to us.

Here is a great example of engagement: “The “Be Stupid” campaign looks for 100 creative individuals to feature its coming Diesel Stupid Music Video.”

My conclusion is that Diesel make a deep connection threw the time about living in a cool and esay way  and also they are doing what the same category brands never dared to do. And I think it’s cool. 

P.S. The most I like the sentence: „If you have never done anything stupid, you have never done anything at all”.

The New generation

From all the books I have red about brand development, advertising and  marketing, one of my favourite one is "Brandchild" by Martin Lindstrom. 

This book is about today's gloal kids and their relationships with brands.

There is a lot of useful information, but some of it is really interesting or funny. I have added only few of statements which I wanted to share with you:

1. Nowadays the interactive generation is used that they get everything HERE and NOW. The generation that knows only immediate satisfaction, is very demanding.

2. The difference between our generation and the new one is that they have grown with abundance of information. They don’t know another world. 

3. Consumers who are 34-45 years old don’t change the brands they have chosen. The only exception is that their children force them to change the brands. 

4. Frequently children can been called the key decision makers in the family, also, when they are not using this product. Teenagers can really persuade their parents to try something new!

5. In one family of three, the parents ask child’s view, purchasing a new car.

6. For attachment to one of the car brands, it is found more teenagers than the affection of a particular brand of modern clothing. 

7. Child has better hearing, smell and sharpen vision then adult. For these reasons, child is a great aim for commercials which cause feelings.

8. The loyalty towards brand may already begin to form children who are 2 years old. 

9. Teenagers in USA, Australia and United Kingdom in front of TV spend for 60% more time then at school. 

10. It is useful to work with paradoxes. Children don’t want products for “children”.

11. Regularly contact with children and follow their life's. 

12. Everything points to the fact that if the brand ignores children's market, it is doomed to extinction.(I like this one a lot!:) )

How to sell sustainability in the fashion industry

The most important rule I learned working for a project for sustainable fashion is following: want to sell sustainable product, don’t mention it is sustainable. So, the question appears: “Is it possible to transform the ethical fashion into a business interest in fashion companies?” 

This video was made for the project of sustainability for a network which business model is to sell sustainability but at the same time fashion, so there you can find an answer about sustainability from my and my group point of view after research we made.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8kEhvOsR30

To start, I want to explain what in my opinion is a sustainable business. It’s a synergy between environment, people and profit. If we talk about sustainability, then every each of you have a different thoughts and opinions what it is. “what is sustainability? ..no one knows” Vanessa Friedman (Financial Times). So that's why it’s so important to define, whats for your business is sustainability. 

Why it is so hard to sell sustainability especially in the fashion industry? Because there is no knowledge how to sell it. Sustainability is the new direction to get attention but it’s very hard to communicate it. You have to say in a light way that the goods are sustainable. It’s the vanguard of sustainability- you sell it but you don’t say anything about it, because nowadays all that people want is the word “fashionable”. First the good need to be chick, fashion. They need to be showed by the design point of you and then maybe mention also that it’s a sustainable product. At first consumers need to be involved into something and only when they are involved, you can show the sustainable part of it. 

Sustainability in fashion means fashionable yet responsible. Unfortunately, people think that sustainable goods are ugly what is not true. It’s hard to change this attitude from customers, especially in the fashion area. Sometimes consumers are scared about sustainable products, because they think it’s something very expensive. 

It’s important to understand that sustainability isn’t the same as green. 

My opinion is that this is unique business opportunity- sustainability together with good design. Everybody say that sustainable is nice, but when it comes to action, nobody wants to buy it. 

It’s important also not to look into categories and categorize customers. For example, into customers who want to buy only sustainable product or into ones who are interested only in fashion. The more important thing is to look into people needs because nowadays they are going into too many directions and business will lose if it will categorize customers.

There you can also find a presentation for this business model example. 

http://prezi.com/qzu-oiwdyjpa/class/