Thursday, June 22, 2006

One word equity

Lord Saatchi who brought us some of the great slogans in advertising discussed the death of advertising as we know it in an online discussion at FT.com. He says that people who grew up with digital technology have brains that are wired differently from older people. That is why they can multi-task so well. It is called Continuous Partial Attention. The consequences for marketers will be to build brands that are associated with a single word.

The strongest brands are defined by their ownership of one thought; the
very strongest by one word. The nature of this thought or word predetermines the
breadth of the brand’s activities.

The proliferation of channels in the digital age presents another challenge.

It requires a new business model for marketing which is more appropriate for the
digital age, in which companies compete to build one word equity for their
brands, the global ownership of one word.
In this new business model
companies aim to define in one word, the characteristic, the particular value,
the emotion, the performance, the one word they most want instantly associated
with their brand around the world. And then own it.
That is one word equity.
It’s the modern equivalent of having the best site on the high street. Except
the location is in the mind.


What's your word?

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