Lovemarks Campus

For bookstores to survive in the Age of Now they need to go beyond the traditional offering of books and make themselves local social and cultural institutions. Here are some book retailers and publishers that are innovating in this category.

From dominating the smartphone market, BlackBerry sales have fallen 41% in the last quarter. It’s once loyal community of fans have fallen out of love with their BBs and what was once a Lovemark is now looking very much like a commodity. Low Respect. Low Love. What happened?

At the Institute of Directors Annual Convention in London this year, Kevin Roberts, CEO Worldwide of Saatchi & Saatchi, outlined four principles that distinguish Creative Leaders from their less agile counterparts. These principles are not only for people who want to create change; they can be applied to brands wanting to stand out as leaders in their market.

The adoption of augmented reality, QR codes and near-field communication (NFC) is challenging the notion of what is possible in the field of marketing. What’s interesting is not just the types of interactive experiences enabled through technology, but how technology is being used to magnify the feelings of Intimacy that consumers feel with brands.

Storytelling has been long known to be an effective tool to engage and connect with people. To give you a sense of some innovative approaches in storytelling, here is a selection of methods used by brands in different markets to extend the reach, participation and emotional connection they have with consumers.

In last week’s post we began to compare the differences between New and the Age of Now, and how brands could move towards Lovemarks territory by acknowledging changes that are taking place in the consumer landscape. This week, we look at the characteristics of Return on Involvement, the impact of global markets and creating movements.

New is old. We live in the Age of Now, a new Economy made up of a soft grid of electric moments, where creativity is the entry point and consumer is curator. How does this cultural shift impact the theory of Lovemarks, and is there a place in this always-on, instantly demanding, immediately-sharing world for a concept that is built on Respect and Love?

When you experience something you feel might be a Lovemark, check out how it acknowledges the past as it heads to the future. If there are no connections, the brand is not a Lovemark. In this post, we’ll look at the Procter & Gamble washing detergent, Ariel, as an example of how notions of Past, Present and Future have been applied to its brand strategy.