SPQR - the oldest know brand in the world?

Having just returned from a wonderful break in Rome and some not so wonderful rugby, I was left reflecting on whether the Romans created the first global brand.

Wherever one walked and whichever corner one turned the immortal initials SPQR jumped out at you from statues, monuments and even drain covers.

Almost all of us know that SPQR is the brand of Rome, of the Roman Republic and of the Roman Empire. It comes from the phrase, Senatus Populusque Romanus ("The Senate and the People of Rome"), referring to the government of the ancient republic, and was used as their official signature. It appears on coins, at the end of documents, on inscriptions in stone or metal, in dedications of monuments and public works, and as many school children will tell you, was emblazoned on the standards of the Roman legion.

The exact date of its first use is not known, but its meaning places the origin of it clearly with the Roman Republic which dates back to 508BC, over two and a half thousand years ago!

Awareness of the brand is immense; it transcends millenium, centuries, generations, national and international boundaries, race, sex and religion. It must surely be one of the most well known and easily identifiable brands and whilst not all will know the meaning of the initials, most will be able to identify its origin.

Could this be the oldest gloabl brand? - It is hard to think of anything else that stands the same test of time. Could it be one of the most widely known brands in the world? - It may not have the same awareness now as Coke or McDonalds, but one wonders whether either of them will be as well known in two and a half thousand years as SPQR is now.

And the truly remarkable thing? If SPQR is not one of the most widely recognised brands it certainly spawned one. On the same monuments that bore the initials, those that were dedicated to famous Roman miliatary victories also bore images of mythical animals and gods with wings - wings that became the inspiration for the Nike whoosh.

Differentiation in the modern male grooming market

As the female grooming market enters into new stratospheres of evolution, the male grooming market by contrast is still in its infancy. A modest selection of brands litter high street shops and supermarkets and as they grow and evolve in response to demand, competition gets stronger and we’re left questioning how differentiation can be achieved.

For female brands in the grooming market there is a great deal of emotion, sensuality and freshness. More pampering than cleansing. But for men, naturally, ‘pampering’ isn’t something that they readily can relate to as an attitude. There is a lot of stigmatism in the male grooming market around using the same attitudes and language as women because that’s not what they see themselves as doing. This is why for a lot of brands in the male market, they take on the attitudes and language used in the female market and turn them on their heads. It’s time to reinvent to be relevant. Brands like Nivea embrace words like ‘refuel’ rather than ‘moisturise’ – giving a common behaviour a distinctly masculine edge to quash any stigmatism. A brand like Nivea is in a way helping to shape the market, by giving it a language that is ownable.

However, this isn’t always the case. Some brands embrace the love of moisturizing, the care and attention of cleansing. Dove now operates in both male and female grooming markets. The female proposition ‘Real Beauty’ is highly emotive and commands dynamic feminist respect. However, when thinking about translating this idea into a male market, there are a few stumbling blocks. Dove’s men’s brand Dove + Care, uses a ‘mathsified’ approach to remain as down to earth as its female counterpart, yet giving it a slightly analytical masculine charm. The language use is no different. Dove embraces moisturising in both markets and I think it’s a bold choice. For the older generation, who understand the importance of good ingredients and the benefits of their routine, don’t really need it to be packaged up in the pomp and circumstance of younger, brash brands that feel the stigma and want rid.

Yet, for those younger, brash brands such as Gillette and Lynx, is it all about a fresh language approach? Younger brands do their part in making male grooming into something that not only empowers men, it exaggerates their masculinity. And the most important benefit of this exaggeration is to attract the opposite sex. It is about differentiating on tone of voice – both heavily masculine, but with Lynx adopting a cheeky attitude and Gillette focused on power and performance. If there were ever any reasons to think cleansing, smelling nice and hair removal is just for girls – well, not any more. This is a man’s game – and it is serious. Lynx is like lager. Gillette is like the sports car. And they’re both playing to win.

Audi - A new take on Brand Architecture?

Those of us who brave the M4 on our daily commute into London everyday have watched with interest over the past months as West London Audi have built their new flagship £30m building quite literally a stone’s throw from the edge of the elevated section of the motorway.

We have wondered why it was built so high, what all of the glass was for and how they could possibly manage to utilise all of the space that the seven storeys gave them. Well now we know – the building has been built as a huge advertising hoarding. The floor level with the motorway houses all of the latest models and the top floor a number of iconic Audi cars from its incredible motoring heritage. Both of these floors are directly visible for motorists driving into and out of London.

The outcome of this, as any commuter who drives into London can attest, is that traffic quite literally now slows to a virtual standstill as it passes the new beacon of the Audi brand and drivers of various other marques gaze longingly at the shiny new Q7s, R8s and S4s before attaining normal road speed as the building disappears in their rear view mirror and they wonder what they are doing in their aged and not so shiny Fords and Vauxhalls.

A clever way to communicate and advertise the Audi brand or an unanticipated by-product of placing a seven storey car show room next to one of the busiest motorway stretches in the UK? Whichever it is and I am sure that Audi will plump for the former, the impact on the traffic in West London has been incredible.

It also serves as a great illustration of how to place a brand into the everyday lives of thousands of people and how it can effectively become part of the fabric of society. It is in marked contrast to the traditional DM and advertising approaches used by so many others and could mark a change in the definition of ‘brand architecture’.

As with all of these things there are always pretenders and I notice that Mercedes are building a new showroom right next to the new Audi temple. The only problem is that if they want to have the same impact and compete with their German rivals then someone needs to tell them that they need to put a couple of extra storeys on it. It won’t be me though, I can’t cope with another 30 minutes added to an already extended journey time.

Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority | Travellers Welcome

A couple of years ago, I remember the ''Travellers Welcome'' identity being launched by Abu Dhabi and thinking how original and different it was compared to the more artificial nation brands being promoted by other countries in the Middle East. Whereas other identities seemed to be all about ''logic''- shopping, leisure, hotels, lifestyle - here was an identity that was pure ' 'magic'', evoking the heritage and nostalgia of Arabia. While Dubai has raced from 0-60 in terms of its brand reputation internationally, and is now arguably paying a price for a loss of credibility, Abu Dhabi has proceeded in a far more understated way. It comes across as the antithesis of its louder neighbour. The challenge now is how this brand will evolve.

A couple of weeks ago, coming through Abu Dhabi International Airport I was greeted by the ''Travellers Welcome'' sign in the arrivals hall. It struck me that this powerful message and its romantic imagery needed to move on. I found its message a little one-dimensional and not broad and interesting enough to accommodate all the exciting aspects of the most powerful Emirate. To keep saying the same thing doesn't do justice to the potential of this identity and the brand now needs a framework to allow it to grow and develop.

It needs to clarify its target visitor and identify what makes them tick. Comprehensive consumer insight was the foundation stone for all our work with Wales. It needs to create a clear and ownable verbal identity that can give Abu Dhabi a distinctive and original voice in the world; the brand identity and communications needs a framework that allows it to grow. It feels a little stifled right now.

A nation brand that we are very involved with is Wales. We've worked with the Welsh Assembly Government since 2004 developing a core proposition for the nation brand and then, beneath that, brands for tourism, culture, inward investment and education. We created the idea of ''originality'' for the Wales brand, communicating the thought that this is a nation that does things differently and which is the home of original thinking. When the world zigs, Wales 'zags'.

The single most important asset of the Wales brand we created is its 'verbal identity' or brand language. While photographic and typographic style plays a significant part in communications, the way the brand speaks is what truly differentiates it. Wales has a confident, knowing and understated tone of voice that engages a like-minded consumer. Visit Wales talks about 'unpackaged holidays' and celebrates the lack of Starbucks outlets it has; Sport Wales welcomes the Australian cricket team by saying 'G'Dai'; International Business Wales encourages businesses to relocate for a better quality of life; Wales the True Taste invites consumers to remember what good, honest food tastes like. Abu Dhabi Tourism, like the nation it represents, has an incredible wealth of potential in the world travel market. To realise this, it needs some help.

The passion of innocence vs. the authority of experience

We are constantly learning new things. As humans we thrive on building a huge bank of knowledge. As we get older, the more we practice something, the better at it we get. We look up to our elders and learn from our parents and see experience as aspirational. But just as experience brings with it rewards of knowledge, the innocence of youth brings imagination wrapped up in the inquisitiveness of the quest to learn. So, in an industry of ideas and creativity - should we be driven by the passion of innocence or the authority of experience?

Experience is a fantastic thing. And there have been some brilliant leaders in this industry, who with age, have matured into advertising royalty, for example, Stanley Pollitt's pioneering the account planning discipline and Bill Bernbach bringing together art directors and copywriters to name but a few. They have moulded and shaped the industry that we work in today and without them, the landscape would be decidedly different.

According to the IPA, advertising is a young person's game, with 80 per cent of the 14,000 people working in the industry being under 40. But we must remember that our business is ideas. Creating. Innovating. Disrupting - whatever you choose to call it. And ideas, opinion and great thinking can come from anywhere and anyone. Young people are capable of great things - Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook) and Alex Tew (Million Dollar Homepage) are excellent examples of how fresh passion and a lack of worldly experience should never prove a hindrance to having a great idea. Yet it is also the case that experience can prove equally as iconic. Bill Bernbach wrote 'We Try Harder' for Avis in his virtual twilight years by today's standards (in 1962 - aged 51). This campaign has proved to be one of the best pieces of brand planning of all time, a campaign which set Avis up as the quintessential challenger brand - a campaign which is at the heart and soul of Avis to this very day.

Merry Baskin, founder of strategic consultancy Baskin Shark has suggested that junior planners 'are more of a liability than an asset'. Speaking from a research perspective, Merry may be right in suggesting that experience is paramount to craft and hone these specific experiential skill sets. We only learn that fire burns by burning ourselves, like we only learn how to devise great survey methodologies by doing them. But from a creative perspective, a much more intuitive ball game, it doesn't necessarily follow that you need experience in having great ideas to go on to have great ideas.

Ken Robinson's book The Element starts with a wonderful story of a schoolgirl drawing a picture of god. When the teacher suggested that no one knows what god looks like, the girl replied 'They will in a minute'. From a creative perspective, this innocent spirit of imagination is blinding and we should cherish the strength and conviction young people can have in their thinking. Whether right or wrong, it's the bold strength of the idea that should be applauded.

Winston Churchill was elected prime minister twice during his lifetime, the second in 1951 following his wartime premiership, where he proved himself to be a confident, supportive orator and celebrated leader amongst the British population, during a time of great global upheaval. A younger, less experienced politician, might not have been given this opportunity. Yet, Tony Blair was the youngest prime minister since Lord Liverpool (1812). In 1997, the nation was craving a fresh approach to politics. Tony Blair packaged a new political outlook and delivered it with youthful enthusiasm. An older, more experienced politician might not have had the same impact.

Maybe the key to the dilemma of innocence vs. experience is to see them as complementary, not mutually exclusive. After all, experienced people can display passion and imagination, just as much as young people can display wisdom beyond their years. Advertising royalty is something to aim at, through the passion, enthusiasm and openness of creativity - which can be displayed throughout our lifetime, not just when we're young - as Bill Bernbach proved for Avis. If young graduates and senior directors share the same passions, they can be amongst the same sounding board - ultimately, innocence and experience can and should co-exist.

Twitter: pure insight or sheer self-indulgence?

''I think in a few years we'll point to Twitter as a seismic point where the tide really changed toward building brands'' says Akira Morita on BrandChannel. Hmm. A microblogging site as the future of branding? Can a page that enhances our lives with such enticing updates as 'bit bored going to shops lol!' and 'omg! timbaland remix tinyurl.com/br488x' really spearhead a step-change in the development of brands? It's not such a crazy suggestion. For the first time, people's thoughts, whims, stories, interests and chatter are all being published in real-time on a site that's accessible to us all. Is Twitter an opportunity for agencies to develop brands that come from the consumer's thoughts rather than from those of the planning department?

For the answer to this question, we might turn to Martin Lindstrom's book, buyology, which argues that humans are rather poor reporters of our own beliefs. Whether or not you agree with Lindstrom that in the future we'll be developing brands at the bedside of patients undergoing MRI scans, his argument that we can't rely on people's self-assessments is pretty convincing. In effect, he suggests that, in market-research situations, people say what they believe others want to hear, rather than what they actually think.

Twitter is a very public environment. Its users may be encouraged to say what they are thinking but I'd argue that, in reality, they'll be writing what they think others want to hear. Peer pressure and the desire to conform don't magically disappear online: if anything, the permanence of a person's web presence makes the need to say the 'right thing' even more pressing. In that respect, the idea that Twitter provides us with a vast database of consumer's ideas - the planner's ultimate resource - stands on shaky ground.

That's not to say we should dismiss the potential opportunities that Twitter provides us with. Responsive brands will take the service and run with it, exploiting its reach and appeal to their advantage. But I think that to see its introduction as a 'seismic point' in brand conception is misguided.

A Fable of four rooms in the House of Creativity

I HAVE A QUESTION said the Seeker, 'and would find an answer in the House - if indeed there is an answer for me anywhere!' 'If that is the case', replied the Guide, 'I will show you around the House myself, for few have seen as many come and go as I. The world has been grateful for a few works that have been made here - while many have filled the dustbins and created the deserts of the world.'

AND SO SAYING he took the Seeker by the hand across the threshold and into a huge room where men and women each followed their own way. Some worked alone in silence while others gathered in bright and chattering groups, some were earnest, some were gay - but withal an air of intent spread about the room. 'This' said the Guide, with a smile that might or might not have been kind, 'is the Room of Great Works. All work done here seeks to win the greatest acclaim and to be given the greatest awards.' It is often based on the magnificent work of others and so looks brilliant. Those are my ideals' replied the Seeker, 'for my Question deserves the greatest talents and the keenest minds.' 'That is not quite what I said' returned the Guide, 'but even so I must warn you that the Room of Great Works is not without its disadvantages.' 'Disadvantages? What possible disadvantages could attach to the seeking for the highest goals?' exclaimed the Seeker, querulously. 'If you seek for the highest goals you are right' said the Guide, 'but those that look for honour and awards are often inclined to take but those as their goals. Having once made a beautiful thing and been honoured for it, a certain hunger haunts their mind. Evermore they are condemned to repeat their best work, imitating themselves and others over and over, painting in ever paler shadows ideas that once lived in shining colour. Your Question is not interesting to them - it is only their own answer that fills their time. 'No, no', said the Guide I would not advise you to linger here too long' and he hurried the Seeker through into the Second Room.

'AND THIS' said the Guide, with a flourish of his arm that might or might not have been ironic, 'is the Room of Great Reason.' Within the room the noise was low and earnest as small groups worked in conference to explore and analyse the questions of the world. Some made models from numbers that whirred like clocks while others fitted concepts together with the fine mastery of cabinet makers. 'This surely is my ideal' said the Seeker, 'for how can one produce great works if one has no understanding of the task?' 'That is very true, perhaps,' replied the Guide, 'but even here there may be pitfalls?' 'There can be no pitfall in Reason', said the Seeker confidently, 'for in knowledge, surely, lies the key to life?' 'I wonder how you came to life in the beginning, after all' said the Guide behind his hand, 'for you surely knew nothing of it - but' - as he turned once more to his companion, 'the pitfall of Reason is that it is so very reasonable.' 'To a reasonable mind one idea is much like another, all can be analysed, prescribed and if some, perhaps, lack a little life, well, be reasonable, is that so bad a thing? Your Question is of great interest to these but the answer is merely an answer. We shall not linger here!' - and he propelled the Seeker before him into the Third Room.

THE ROOM that lay before them was rich and elegant and spacious and the men and women there had the steady stare of confidence. 'So see' said the Guide, in a quiet voice that might or might not have been reverent, 'this is the Room of Great Experience' and advancing towards a corpulent man whose ruddy cheeks and pursed smile told of great wealth he asked 'dear Sir, would you be so kind as to explain the advantages of Experience to my friend?' 'I would have thought' said the man, 'that there was little necessity to explain the advantages of Experience for they are so very self-evident but, since you ask me - and it is a question I have been asked before - I will answer you thus. There is no-one more expert than the expert. There is no way to become an expert except through practice. And what is practice except another name for Experience?' 'How True!' exclaimed the Seeker. 'Why should one risk all on mere originality? What can Reason really produce? Expertise is all' and looking around the room once more he added to himself 'and it seems to pay well, too.' 'I do not want to deter you from the work of Practice' said the Guide, 'but I must in all fairness warn you, that Experience may not be the whole picture. For Experience is also based on repetition and rigidity and often the box it comes in is but a box and empty within. Here, they will answer your Question as if it were one they have answered before and they will only, in the end, give you the same answer that they gave to others.' And before the Seeker could resist him, he ushered them both in the Fourth Room.

ALTHOUGH SIMPLE and sparce, the Fourth Room was not without its sense of style and purpose but it was quiet and those there, though friendly enough, looked enquiringly at the pair who had just that minute walked in. 'Good afternoon', said the Guide, 'I have come to introduce this Seeker who is looking for his way in the wide world.' 'Then let us discuss it' said one of those who was there, 'for few questions could be more interesting and it is a subject on which we know nothing.' The Guide turned to the Seeker and, with a voice that was only straightforward said 'And welcome to the Room of Great Unknowing.' 'Unknowing!' cried the Seeker leaping as if bitten by an asp, 'How now! Am I so dim and dumb that finally I am put among the ignorant? 'Give me prizes! Give me Logic! Give me Expertise! - or tell me, if you can, what Fools are these that refuse Glory, Reason and Riches and huddle here in their Room of Great Unknowing.' The Guide looked steadily at the Seeker. 'These Fools, as you call them, are those that have lived long in this House and seen, as I have, many come and go. They too enjoyed the applause in Room One and tired of it. In Room Two they understood Reason's power but saw its failure to light fires in the mind. They have seen in Room Three, that Experience, though of great value, all too often fails to change the world. 'If I were you' continued the Guide as he settled among his friends, 'I should ask your Question here. For here alone, I feel, they will listen, and fashion an answer that is yours alone. Here they are not fooled by fashion, tamed by reason or trapped by experience, but choose to work in the Fourth Room which is the only place where true answers can be found.'

Based on a fable by Michael Wolff. Terence Griffin 1999