I can assure you it didn't happen by accident.
Echoing the words of the Cluetrain Manifesto, the author offers this word of advice: marketing managers aren't in charge of brand development anymore. Consumers are, and in ways they never managed before (a feat the Cluetrain boys would undoubtedly attribute, at least in part, to the advancement of networked communications that empower consumers and allow them to express their "voice" in new ways). The author's principal point is that for a brand to truly stick with consumers, it needs to collaborate with its users; it needs to allow them to give the brand a meaning and life of its own. Of course, Wipperfürth also believes marketers have a role to play in shaping the "serendipity" of what he calls the brand hijack; it's that whole "marketing without appearing to do anything" line. He quotes a Red Bull PR manager as acknowledging that while the company doesn't do "traditional" advertising, it still spends quite a bit of money on the "illusion" of serendipitous success.
From Pabst Blue Ribbon and Red Bull to Apple's iPod and Doc Martens, Brand Hijack examines the ways in which consumers have embraced and shaped product image; the author also examines how many companies get it wrong (including, for example, Doc Martens, whose workmanlike boots managed to appeal to a broad cross-section of consumers until the company's marketing team decided to develop a splashy, trendy ad campaign that cost the company much of its customer base simply because it seemed as though the company had "sold out"). He drives home the principle of honest passion by contrasting the success of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream with the failure of Coca-Cola's Frutopia fruit drink. Both Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry's and a representative of Coca-Cola spoke at a seminar Wipperfürth attended in London; he noted how Cohen talked "passionately" about the company's sustainable vision, always seeming genuine and credible.
After Ben Cohen's speech, Coca-Cola's U.K. General Manager went to the podium dressed in gray pinstripes to lecture us on the karmic and psychedelic free spirit of Frutopia, a drink that would make the world a better place . . .Everyone in the audience knew right then that Fruitopia would fail. Its psuedo '60s hippie persona was simply too much of a stretch for the buttoned-up executives from the American South. Frutopia was exposed as a corporate poseur before it even launched.
Article comments
1 - Kevin Holtsberry
Good review. There is a missing close to a hyperlink, however, that is messing up the formating.
2 - Bill Wallo
Thanks, fixed it. :)
3 - Michael
This new pattern occurs because buyers are more sophisticated, so they're buying more PBR? Um.
4 - Bill Wallo
The fact that consumers are more resistant to marketing or more savvy about blatant efforts to get into their pocket doesn't prevent them from chasing "hip" or occasionally lacking taste buds. :)
5 - Eric Berlin
I always get sucked right into your reviews, Bill. This one especially interests me as I'm just finishing up William Gibson's Pattern Recognition and its heroine "cool hunter." Great stuff.
This book review has been selected for Advance.net. You�ll be able to find this and other Blog Critics reviews at such places at Cleveland.com�s Book Reviews column.
6 - Bill Wallo
Eric -
Thanks for the kind words. I take it you enjoyed Pattern Recognition? I haven't read it yet, although I've picked it up more than a few times.
7 - Eric Berlin
It's actually the first Gibson novel I've read, surprisingly enough. It starts off slightly slow but picks up speed throughout. All in all it's great fiction -- fast-paced and taut and interesting.
8 - marie
I disagree with the comment about people buying pepsi, because, it is in Jeff Gordon's contract. Nascar fans are very loyal to their drivers and my family will buy merchandise supporting our drivers over anything else.
9 - GOMEZ
Ok, the products quality is key... he dosent say that`s not true, if you re-read the book you will find out that he explians that consumers, besides, knowing about marketing strategy they understand that the quality in some products is not far from each other. (coke and pepsi, etc)
you cant use this kind of marketing in every product or service, you have to create a new strategy for every one, that includes all the instruments you can, to get where you want.