Tiffany box(ed)

Tiffany arguably have one of the most iconic brand identities in the world. Few brands can be identified on the basis of a colour. They can be. Their print advertising always stands out as being effective and clean. The example below is from the London Evening a Standard magazine. It's okay. But that's all. It could have done much more work for Tiffany bearing in mind that this shopping period will see a lot of occasional customers add Tiffany to their consideration set. Or at least they would if there was a little more help. It's good they have focused on the reaction to the gift exchange but it's subtle and without an actual product it does not inspire.

Tiffany also need to drop the shouty-shouty colour block which runs on the bottom third of the page as it detracts from the iconic gift box, and, since this is a London ad, not including the flagship store locations is a wasted opportunity.

Just a bit lazy.

A well aged ad...

When you are a brand which has established a reputation over more than three centuries you could be forgiven for being extremely cautious about how you communicate with your customers, both current and potential. When you are brand steeped in such heritage and provenance as Berry Brothers & Rudd then the risks are all the greater. Yet the print advertisement I've marked-up below shows they approached the challenge in a nuanced way which has resulted in a visually arresting ad which is rooted firmly in their DNA with a wry bit of humour thrown in.

This version was in the Saturday FT, I'm sure there are others but this is the first time I've seen it and straight away I thought "no image of a wine bottle". The chicken draws the eye. The copy engages and amuses. The final line reminds you that, at the end of the day, buying wine is about drinking it.

All of the traditional cues are there but the BBR brand gentle flexes a little towards a new customer.

It's worth raising a glass to.

PROVENANCE

1. provenance the place of origin or earliest known history of something This week I've been thinking a lot about provenance.   I'm not entirely sure what triggered it, it may have been the continued side effects of my diet and the fact that all I seem to crave is foods that have the strictest appellation - if it doesn't have a geographic name in front of it I'm not interested, oh and that probably holds to wines and spirits.   It could also be the time spent at Salon QP on Thursday amongst the finest watch brands of the world - think Switzerland.

No matter what the motivation I've decided to devote this post to provenance, both in observance and in the breach.

PROFIT - I don't hide my belief that provenance is all about profit.   The location of where something is made is all about profit. We either make it where labour is cheapest or as close as possible to the point of final consumption because that reduces cost OR we make it in a location which suggests greater equity and therefore we can charge more.   Producing clothing in China would be an example of the former and making watches in Switzerland the latter.

RELEVANCY - this is probably the most significant factor.   Is location relevant to the product.   Some products are strictly controlled (eg Champagne) so location is very relevant.  Where there is a choice some brands are defying the norm.  The English watchmaker, Bremont, being successful out of making watches in England is a good example.    If a brand is very artisanal and pulls from rural values then it needs to be based there.    But it is often not black & white.  You could create a candle brand which makes beeswax candles in the heart of the rural Cotswolds or a candle brand which makes candles in a former abattoir in inner-city Smithfield.   Both would succeed.

OPENNESS - you have to be truthful.   Some brands say "made" when really it should be "assembled".   Some obscure all together.  Bearing in mind you have made a logical decision as to where to source and produce you should always be truthful.   For example, "We make our product in India because it allows us to do everything by hand which is true to our values and results in a better product".

VALUE - does the location add value ?   If you are a niche brand I would argue that it does.  Especially if you are a niche brand competing in a cluttered marketplace.   Knitwear, for instance - a cashmere sweater produced entirely from a named region in Scotland will command a price premium.

EXCELLENCE - wherever the product is made, make it well.  This is a critical point.   Excellence underscores that you've selected the right location.

NUNACE - the greatest user of nuance has to be Apple.  "Designed by Apple in California.  Assembled in China."  Those words both follow my belief in openness / honesty but they also subtly place more emphasis on the design part of the product.   Basically making the point that the value really is in where the intellectual part of the brand is located not the manufacturing.

AUTHENTICITY - even without legal constraints some products just have to be sourced from a certain locale to have credibility.  Gin is a good example of this.   Beefeater Gin is the only major producer of gin that makes their gin in London but now new brands are seeing the power of London as a gin designator and are creating their brands in London.    Despite what I said about Bremont above - if I had limitless capital and wanted to start a new watch brand I would do so in Switzerland.  Without the 'Swiss Made' designation it is just another barrier to entry.  If your brand needs to draw from a locality to build equity then, especially in the early years you must respect that.

NEGATIVITY - assume all of your customers are informed and have a conscience.  Notwithstanding the need for profit wherever you manufacturer must have laws and conditions which past muster to your buying audience.

CREATION - if the point of production is either unattractive, boring or remote then you need to create an environment which is authentic, and hopefully will be used in the creative / ideation process.  This environment is the cauldron of creativity where the real value is added and can be displayed to the world.

EQUITY - does location add or detract from brand equity or is it irrelevant ?  Could you save money-making somewhere else and invest that saving in the product, marketing or innovation ?

We live in an every-shrinking world where the norms of making products HERE and selling products THERE has changed.   Location of production is very important unless it's not.   The one consistent theme has to be to make your products so that they are excellent and bring the creators together in an environment which inspires.   Sometimes creation and production will be together and sometimes not.

Bag it

Any experience is only as good as the weakest element. It's not a hard concept to grasp. Which made last night's Salon QP event at the Saatchi Gallery utterly bizarre.

It was a great event. The opening evening reception was a very energetic but civilised affair. It lived up to the promise of a variety of Champagne cocktails (NB who knew that Champagne, Beefeater gin and thyme could be so refreshing), plentiful hors d'oeuvre and the opportunity to review some incredible watches.

So what went wrong. The gift bag. A gift bag should 'surprise and delight' or it's not worth doing. You have complete control over the guests last impression. That could be a final glass of Champagne, a great coat-check retrieval experience or, if you must, a great gift bag. But if that bag is not going to add anything to the experience then bin it. Save the money, save the tree, save the fingers of the poor intern who stuffed them.

But no. There was a gift bag and it was bizarre. Firstly, no one wants or needs brochures and flyers - you've probably got my email address send me a great thank you email the next day with links to the sponsors product sites. Secondly.....wait for it.....don't ever, ever, EVER, put in a packet of crisps. It wasn't even a new brand, not even a new flavour.

I spent the evening looking at £10000 plus watches and my final image was a packet of crisps.

Here's a tip event organisers. Do a final walk through of your event. Experience everything that your guest is about to, if there is a weak link. Get rid.

The contents of THE bag.

Cracks in the China (Strategy)

Today's WSJ carries a powerful quote from Pierre Pringuet, CEO of Pernod Ricard "When a country falls from double-digit growth to 7.5%, there are repercussions".   He's talking about China and it's impact on his group's performance - alcohol beverage brands have the ability to flex their offering and Pernod is already trialling less-expensive products on a younger demographic as demand for expensive Cognacs - and they have global reach which means they can squeeze more growth out of another market. Some luxury brands that have ridden the Chinese wave will not have that option.   They have neglected other markets, or just found their offering unpalatable to a wider (Western) customer base.   Their growth has begun to dip and they will find it difficult to replace it elsewhere quickly enough.    Combine this with the fact that the Chinese audience is changing tastes and you have a perfect storm of reduced volume and a quest for new brands.    These brands, already seeing a reduction in footfall will be faced with retrenching their retail footprint and shrinking their ATL activation.   It's a toxic mix.    One that could drive a person to drink. Something that would certainly please Mr Pringuet !

Golden delicious

This morning on the way to the tube station I spotted a new iPhone 5S ad on the back of a magazine. It's probably the most luxurious and appetising adverts from Apple to date. If proof were needed that their product expansion strategy will stretch upwards further, this is it.

Checks and balances

This week I spent a few days learning in the countryside outside York, the course was about communication - specifically that which must occur in the context of sudden crisis - and it reminded me that brushing up on skills and fresh environments are critical for professional growth. And so it is for Angela Ahrendts and Christopher Bailey.

Ahrendts move from CEO of Burberry to heading up Apple retail appears bold and from left field but it really isn't. Firstly, it's time for her to move on and if it had not been Apple it would have been something else, secondly Apple has to fix it's retail strategy. It's working less well, the environments are stale and in the context of the sums of money customers handover it increasingly feels like a student bar during Freshers' Week. She will fix this. She'll bring new energy and an elevated experience - remaining true to the Apple proposition but preparing the ground for further product premiumization.

I've said it before in this blog and I will say it again Apple WILL continue to expand their price ladder. There will be a smartphone variant that breaks the $1000 barrier. This is essential if the brand is to monetize the customer pool and create differentiation. The 5C and the 5S are a toe-dipping exercise. Early numbers suggest that 5C is under-performing with people happy to pay the 5S premium. The only way is up.

Apple are also succession planning and in Ahrendts they have a successor to Tim Cook in the medium term and a strong and effective number two in the immediate term.

So that's Apple all dandy, what of Burberry ?

I'll put my neck on the line and say I do not believe the dual role that has been announced for Christopher Bailey as CEO as well as remaining as Chief Creative Officer is credible beyond the short term.

My take is you can be a CEO who is creative, and I've worked with some excellent examples of this, but you cannot be a Creative who is a CEO. It's unfair on the creative, the business and investors. Ahrendts and Bailey worked well because they had a skill overlap of, say, 20%. Remove her from the equation, especially when Burberry has so much to lose commercially, and there is too much doubt.

I think this is a holding position and the CEO search is ongoing right now.

A fashion brand that has embraced technology and a technology brand that has embraced fashion. There is a lesson there.

Brand loyalty

As consumers we make brand choices. Some of those choices are fleeting. They are inconsequential and are limited to that moment in time. But other choices we carry with us, wear as a badge, use to define our preferences. These choices have major longevity. They are often price insensitive and, at the peak of their behavioural influence on us, result in us defending and promoting them to our peer group. These brands tend to be more emotional in their impact on us because they centre on experiences. Travel brands fit neatly into this category. Choosing an airline or a hotel brand is functional in that it gets us from A-Z or a hot shower and 6 hours of rest but it is also akin to joining a club.

When I look at my peer group I know that Josh, Brad and Emily are 'Team United' whereas Lori, Kai and Larry are 'Team American'.....that's their air carrier choices. All live in the same metro area but they've delineated and formed tribes.

Hotels are the same and here I'm 'Team Starwood'. Before the cynics draw conclusions on loyalty schemes influencing choice I would say at best that's the third motivator, first is a sense of 'brand fit', with locational convenience number two. For me I would always chose a Westin over a Marriott, a Sheraton over a Hyatt a Luxury Collection over a Four Seasons. That's based entirely on the various brands working for me individually and as a group.

It's one of the reasons why I responded positively to their call to 'Preferred Guest' members to appear in their advertising campaign. I'm happy to say I moved along the process and ended up being selected - I'm writing this on the Eurostar on the way back from Paris where I spent the day being photographed. Like every other participant the motivation was supporting a brand we love. Hopefully my picture will make it through but even if it doesn't it's been one of those brand affirming moments.

Confident brands are able to turn themselves inside out and look to their customer to help define their positioning. It's clever, it's smart and it's fun. When a brand can convert a transactional customer into a brand advocate they've moved one step closer to being iconic.

Becoming iconic means longevity and resilience. If you are reading this and are responsible for a brand that's something you want to achieve, for certain your competitor does.

Eurostar*. (*could do better)

I cannot quite recall when the Eurostar service between London and Paris was inaugurated but I do remember I was a Parliamentary research assistant at the time and I had the opportunity to go on on one of their pre-paying customer proving runs so it was certainly the early 1990's......the interior of the trains does not seem to have changed or been cleaned since then. Shame.

Admittedly I'm travelling in Standard Class and, throughout the intervening years, I've usually travelled Business / Premier but this could seriously be improved.

I've just visited the buffet car and to say it is lacking in imagination or style (I would use the word panache or élan but we are not yet past the mid-point of the English Channel) would be an understatement. It's a lost opportunity to both delight passengers and make bucket loads of cash.

Catering choice has been reduced to the lowest common denominator when a range of price points would lead customers gently thorough an "up-sell". Some would argue that a two hour journey doesn't require it but I disagree.

It's 7pm. It's a captive audience. There is a high proportion of relatively prosperous professionals onboard who could use a drink. With imagination Eurostar could be relieving an additional £14 - £20 from many customers with a combination of tasty snacks and decent drinks.

They don't even need to take on any risk. Rather than a partnership with Waitrose which they extol with great virtue. Really ? I'm on the train to Paris and I want my catering provided by the local supermarche (through the tunnel now) ? Why not partner up with some established resturant or drinks brands. Why isn't Pernod Ricard, Remy Cointreau or Moët Hennessy running the bar car ? Profiting, promoting, pioneering ?

Eurostar is one of those brands which needs to be taken by the scruff of the neck and shaken.....a bit like a cocktail, if only you could buy one on this train.......

Luxury Redux

The last few weeks have been energetic. London - Nice (for lunch) - London - NYC - London.......and now the sleeper to Cornwall. Each journey - a day, a weekend, 24 hours requiring a curation of possessions - things we need for the journey. You could argue these items are our luxuries. They are certainly essential - cards, money, passport but then they go a little deeper. The items we chose, and the rejection of others, makes a statement. This one pair of shoes and not the other ten. The jacket, the book (I would argue there is something more rewarding about selecting the right hardback as opposed to the electronic reader with a multitude of choices), the sweater, the aftershave....all the key tangibles.

Then there are the the more ethereal things we pack. The tools we use to communicate. Compact physical devices which contain our every preference and which spring into life (or don't !) when we land in that distant port. Our tablets and our phones are the keys which open myriad doors for us. If you are reading this and doubt the sentiment consider how you feel when that connectivity fails. I'll return to this theme soon.

Then there are the illogical objects which provide us with deeper comfort. An old sweater to fall asleep wearing at 35,000 feet, a photograph, treasured cuff links.

The list is endless but the space is finite.

It's why travel is a luxury no matter what the class. It's about what you decide to bring with you on the journey.

A perfect moment in time

Watch advertising is a tough assignment. I've critiqued a poor attempt previously but this time I've found a brand which achieves great cut through. It communicates the brands values and positioning clearly, presents the product in detail and then makes the next steps obvious. Furthermore the media selection was on demographic target. The WSJ. Magazine in an issue which was heavily male focused.

Other brands take note.

Apple - missed opportunity ?

Just as Apple were unveiling their latest iterations of the iPhone I was sitting listening to a piano recital.   I include that detail because the accomplished concert pianist was playing on an upright piano.  It's a perfectly good piano but it wasn't a grand piano.   It was a 'fit for purpose' piano and the critical factor in the experience was the pianist.   The thought that all this triggered to the music of Debussy was it's really not the instrument that counts, it's what you do with it. We have become very attached to our smartphones or, more accurately, what they allow us to do - we are drawn fleetingly to their design and brand but more and more it's what they facilitate.   All of this is being accelerated with a category release cycle which has a shorter and shorter half-life.   That is making it increasingly difficult for a company such as Apple to dominate in the way that they once did especially when new products released contain only marginal improvements in functionality.

The big news expected from Apple was a change to their pricing strategy and a vertical expansion of what is a very "democratic" offering into a wider range embracing a "budget" iPhone at one end and a "luxury" offering at the other.   The sound logic being that a lower priced and physically differentiated product would allow Apple to compete more effectively in advancing economies such as China and India (where phones are not subsidized by the network provider) and the higher-end offering would protect brand equity and ensure the brand still appeals to those who crave being a little different.

Apple seem to have had a failure of nerve.

What they did launch was a slighter cheaper iPhone 5C in a range of colourful polycarbonate shells and a slightly more expensive iPhone 5S which comes in more 'luxurious' colours of gold, silver and dark grey with the technological enhancement of a finger print scanner on the home key.

In terms of differentiation this is dancing on the head of a pin.   Apple should have gone for a wider price point range accelerating growth in new markets (getting more users) and doing more to create a genuinely more luxurious top offering with real material differentiation, commanding a much higher pice (retaining HWI and opinion formers).

Survey work in the UK post the launch announcement has shown that about 1/3 of people in the marketplace who were waiting on the announcement before changing their phone will actually go ahead and chose one of the new phones.

Add in the fact that the popular media reaction has been less than the usual slavish adulation, a 5% drop in stock price and you can see that Apple is looking a lot less invulnerable than usual.   All is not lost but the smart phone market is only going to become more competitive and tougher for Apple to justify their prices without a serious "wow" factor.

Apple need more people using iOS I'm not sure this week's news will help much.

BA - Branding then Action

Yesterday British Airways broadcast on UK television their latest advertisement having trailed it heavily on social media.  Stylistically it's a departure from their usual efforts suggesting a strong degree of technology and modernity but that really shouldn't be a surprise. I have no particular insight other than being a regular customer / passenger but British Airways appear to have followed a solid narrative arc in three phases since the economic downturn;

(1) Survival - focus on simple revenue generating advertising with a strong consumer purchase call to action.

(2) Restore the brand - reminding every one of the heritage of the airline and reviving the 'To Fly. To Serve' motto as being a core part of the proposition.

(3) Brand & Product - placing product and the brand experience at the heart of the message although still in the context of 'To Fly. To Serve'.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1M0pbxNUF8

The third, and final stage is possible because with the retrofitting of the 777 fleet and the introduction of new 787 and A380 aircraft into the fleet allow British Airways to up the tempo of their communications.  They have every reason to 'brag', in as civilised a way as the brand allows, and they are.

It's an excellent piece of work by BBH London.  The score is beguiling and the juxtaposition of imagery takes British Airways to a new level of consumer engagement - leaving the category behind in my opinion.

Nokia. Elop. Microsoft. And an inability to capture a dream...until now

As a marketer you become used to people asking what your dream brand to work on would be. You also become used to the faint trace of disappointment you detect when you DON'T select a powerhouse brand like Apple or Louis Vuitton. But for a passionate marketer it's not the thoroughbreds that are interesting, it's the underdogs. Especially when the underdogs have an incredible product substantiation but just (I say just !) lack visionary activation.

Nokia is / was one of those brands. Pick up a mobile device, any device. Any device, anywhere. Probably half the intellectual property in that device was invented by a group of Finns. For a period it dominated the category. Then it suffered from a little bit of hubris, a dash of short sightedness and a splash of geographic isolation (big brands need to be managed from big global cities - simple fact).

Then those seismic shifts in the category came along. iOS and then Android. The number one never survives in the same state under those circumstances. Especially when they are out marketed.

And how Nokia was out marketed.

Stephen Elop came to the party too late. He tried. His "burning platform" epistle was daring and bold. Whilst it probably energised the employee base it, at a stroke, alarmed the world and reduced his window for escape velocity. And he was saddled with poor marketers. Microsoft terminate the lot of them.....and some of your own at the same time.

I write this blog having spent the day, as every other day over the past three months, accompanied by my Nokia Lumia 925. It's a great phone. Windows for phone is a reliable, smart and intuitive operating system. The phone is built well. It betters its Apple and Samsung rivals in many ways. I bought it in spite of its marketing.

So let's fast forward to now. Microsoft has made a smart move in buying Nokia. It's easy to write Nokia off and yet Nokia has almost half of Microsofts annual revenues. Microsoft has bought a bargain.

So what now ? Service and hardware. Brought together. Also two companies which have failed to market their products with imagination or in a way which communicates with key demographics.

It makes you want to fly to Seattle with nothing but a Sharpie. Sex it up a little. Translate great product to better proposition. Campaign as if lives depended on it. You know what ? They do.

A failure to communicate

Lloyds TSB Bank, during the height of the banking crisis, rode to the rescue of another banking group and in so doing almost destroyed itself. As a "thank you" the European Union demanded they divest themselves of part of their branch network and customer base to avoid breaching monopoly conditions. So the TSB part is being cast aside and the attached letter is detailing what's about to happen to those of us remaining at LLoyds. Only it doesn't really.

They should have saved the postage.

It's amazing that this passed muster before it left the bank. It's dry, difficult to read and basically misses the opportunity to be passionate about the 'new' bank and brand. At a time when bankers need all the help they can get why waste the opportunity ?

Remember this is a communication which people will open before they even close the front door behind them. Only they won't. They could have put in some eye catching service based statistics, humanised the bank but no.

Oh dear.

Luxury - it's about time (fast & slow)

To those of us who live in the Northern Hemisphere there is that moment when August ends but the summer does not.  The evenings are still warm, light clothes are still in order and summer drinks such as Pimms and languid gin and tonics are not quite gauche to order.     Tonight is one of those nights and as I cycled through Hyde Park dodging the odd leaf which had given up the ghost prematurely I turned my mind to defining luxury.

Every form of luxury from a leather case to a deserted island.  From 30 minutes of reading a novel undisturbed by friend or foe to slipping on a tailored shirt.  Goods, services, tangible things, an etherial moment all can be viewed as luxury to the beholder if not always by the observer.  It can be the shortening of a journey so you get from A - B before the other 90% of the aircraft or the lengthening of check-out from your favourite hotel suite.

In essence luxury is about time.    The extraordinary length of time a craftsman expends making something precious or the reduction in time a skilled concierge takes to get you exactly what you want.

Luxury is like a metronome that sometimes beats fast and sometimes slows down.   The secret is that it moves to your pace.    That's luxury.

Asmall(er)world

I know I'm not alone in being a member, almost without purpose, of asmallworld virtually since the beginning. In those early days snagging an invite to this private networking club was an end unto itself. On becoming a member you then waited until you were accorded member inviting privileges and thereby your social currency went up a notch. It was a glorified listings service for the wealthy and wannabes and, if you found yourself with nothing to do on a Thursday evening in St Tropez, there was sure to be another asmallworld member in a similar predicament.....so I'm told.

It survived, but become less relevant until last year it was sold and all went quiet. Then in March the new CEO, Sabine Heller, declared her intentions to relaunch 'ASW' as more of a private club. The existing list of members would be cut dramatically and those who survived the purge would then be invited to reapply with a small fee of £70 / €85 / $110. In return the benefits (or as they like to express them 'privileges') beyond interacting with a hopefully more useful membership base, had become more tangible. And there was a move from a hedonistic approach to one based on values - listed in the photograph.

All of this seems sensible. Charging a fee should create a more engaged membership base which will be easier to monetize and parley with potential suppliers of those 'privileges'. So it's a win for the members, the new owners and the supplier/partners.

Of course there has been opposition to the purge but, not unlike the frequent membership purges of Soho House, if done correctly this simply increases the value of membership. Less really is more.

I shall see if it is worthwhile. My FoundersCard membership (which I've written about previously) has paid for itself in hotel room discounts and upgrades alone. And that's the whole point - it's not about the cost, it's about the value. So I've opted-in and will report back.

Be differentiated.....just choose wisely

Yesterday Nokia announced a 24% drop in revenue for the second quarter. Unsurprising the share price declined (again) and one cannot help but think that those burning platform flames are now licking around CEO, Stephen Elop's feet. However before I go on let me declare that I am not a Nokia or a Windows "hater". Quite the reverse. I'm the happy(ish) owner of a Lumia 925, I enjoy Windows 8 and have Skydrive as an integral part of my business life.

Elop DID make the right decision to ditch Symbian. Nokia ARE making beautiful smartphones - the Lumia range is both ergonomically appealing and robust. And the operating system is fluid with an impressive ability to pull in information (this will always scare some) into one place which only helps the user to be more efficient.

But this has not been enough. For me the launch of the Lumia 1020 with its 41 mega-pixel camera was an example of now Nokia still gets distracted in this fight for survival behind the giants of Apple and Samsung. It's as if someone, in an ideation session a couple of years ago said "Smartphone users take lots of pictures. If we have the best camera they will buy our smartphone."

Logical but wrong. They failed to look at how these pictures are used and shared. It's got nothing to do with quality and all to do with instant gratification. Yes I'm sure the obsessive photographer (without his camera) might prefer a Lumia in his or her pocket for those must-capture moments but how big is that market ?

Differentiated yes but in an irrelevant need.

Meanwhile it's the lack of Windows apps which still continues to hamper growth and acceptance. There are a half dozen apps (including SBUX) where I have to fish out my SIM less iPhone to use. And hefty Nokia ATL advertising is countered wherever you look with posters and adverts from a range of consumer brands and services which have a related app and which display the Android, Apple and often Blackberry logo but with no Windows.

This shakes consumer confidence. It takes guts to decide to buy a Nokia smartphone. I'm glad I did but Mr Elop help me out a little. Pour some money into app development quickly or you will be in danger of photographing a door closing behind you.

Watch (this) space

Leo Burnett once said of advertising "Make it simple.  Make it memorable. Make it inviting to look at.  Make it fun to read."   With the exception of the final rule - which perhaps does not hold for luxury, although it certainly shouldn't be not-fun - I would agree with all of this. I was reminded of the quote when I was flicking through the UK edition of Esquire Magazine on a flight back to London on Friday and came across an advert for Bremont, the excellent British watchmaker in the inside back cover.

Let me be clear.   I love this brand.   It's been forged into existence by the vision and determination of the founders, Giles and Nick English.   So you will understand my emotions when I reviewed the advert.

It's worth bearing in mind that this is a watch collection which begins at about £3,500 plus. It's competitive set probably includes Tag Heuer, Panerai, Rolex, Omega, Bell & Ross each of those showing off the watch to full effect - showing exquisite detail, engaging the magazine reader with a richness and a desire to buy.

This ad. Not so much.

Too much copy. Too clever. Too insider. Dull. The watch, and indeed the Bremont brand itself, skulks at the bottom of the page with not even a call to action or a suggestion you visit their website (which is not bad).

If I was a Bremont die-hard customer I would read this. It would give me additional facts to throw about in a watch conversation. But there are more efficient ways of transferring those nuggets to your ambassadors - this is not one of them. The role of print advertising in this context should be to excite and draw people in - heart AND then mind. Convert a Rolex (or whatever) potential buyer into a Bremont purchaser.

Of course I could be wrong. In the meantime I will add this brand to my list of "love to get my hands on this campaign".

China matters

Earlier this week the CEO of Hugo Boss, Claus-Dietrich Lahrs, made some interesting observations on China one of which was that the commercial landscape in China was becoming just as competitive as anywhere else in the world.   The report in the WSJ goes on to quote an estimate from CLSA Asia Pacific Markets which suggests that there are now nearly 1,000 luxury retail shops in China today which represents a doubling on the number five years ago. Back in May I outlined six areas for consideration by brand owners who trade in China for the publication Luxury Briefing and I am happy to share them here. Since writing the article and it's publication I've avoided commenting on China - but I am glad to say that my remarks have stood the test of time - 6 weeks can seem like an eternity - and I've shared the article below.

LUXURY BRIEFING JUNE 2013 - IZATT CHINA ARTICLE