July'06/Costa Rica

Ignition

A presentation held at Universidad Latina de Costa Rica: Costa Rica is the supernova of Central America. Beauty and brains!! Young and part of the future. The challenge is to get to that future first.

My thanks to Jorge and Tribu for inviting me to your beautiful country. I’m going to talk about the future, about Lovemarks. Tomorrow is here. Most companies aren’t. The challenge is to explode forward and go beyond.

IDEA 1: LOVEMARKS START WITH ATTRACTION

Over the last decade life has accelerated. Everything and everyone is coming together. Technology, competition and choice are reshaping business. Consumers are saying: “You’ve got three seconds to change my life or I’m gone.

From Information Economy, Knowledge Economy, Interruption Marketing (aka the Mass Market), Permission Marketing, the Experience Economy, Attention Economy to the ATTRACTION ECONOMY. Attraction is about moving from irreplaceable to irresistible.

IDEA 2: LOVEMARKS CONNECT WITH EMOTION

Brands were about rational ideas with emotion clipped on by the ad department. Now brands look and feel the same. Google "brand" and you get 830 million hits!! Business has to go beyond attribute, benefit, performance, function, range. You need emotion through the core.

Emotion rules us. Emotion, intuition, long-term memories and unconscious motivations, they make up as much as 85% of our decision-making process. That leaves just 15% for logic to battle over. Neurologist Donald Calne makes it simple. “Reason leads to conclusions, emotion leads to action.”

IDEA 3: LOVEMARKS LOOK BEYOND BRANDS

The challenge that has gripped me for the nine years I’ve been CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi is - what comes next? What comes after brands? We’re on a journey. From products to trademarks, from trademarks to brands. And now from brands to Lovemarks. Lovemarks are the future beyond brands.

* Lovemarks are built on Love and Respect.

* Lovemarks inspire Loyalty Beyond Reason.

* Lovemarks are owned by the people who love them, consumers not companies.

* Lovemarks read ROI as return on involvement.

* Lovemarks can be everything that people care deeply about. Visit www.lovemarks.com for thousands of examples. Flags, shoes, magazines, breakfast cereals, beer – even turtles.

Lovemarks offer huge commercial advantages. We have proof and a unique methodology to measure Lovemarks and emotion. It’s hard to beat. Lovemarks transform how to connect with consumers.

You know a Lovemark immediately:

Harley/ Suzuki

iPod / the rest

Lovemarks aren’t just irreplaceable. They are Irresistible.

The classic T-shirt is Irreplaceable. In black – Irresistible.

The classic beer bottle is irreplaceable. The original Coke bottle is Irresistible.

Culture is irreplaceable. Friendship is irresistible.

IDEA 4: LOVEMARKS ECLIPSE RESPECT

Is it better to be respected, or loved and respected? No contest. Everyone wants both. Here it is...

Low Respect. Low Love. Commodities, utilities, raw materials. No names, no claims. Discounts, price wars, crushing competition.

High Love. Low Respect. Hero today zero tomorrow. Fads and infatuations, promotions and competitions. Paris Hilton. Reality shows and J Lo jeans.

High Respect. Low Love. Brandland. Where the “er” words rule: faster, bigger, brighter, cheaper.

High Love and High Respect. Lovemarks. Enchanting innovation. Irresistible appeal.

#5. LOVEMARKS USE THE 3 SECRETS

Brands have performance, trust and reputation. Lovemarks add Mystery, Sensuality and Intimacy, the most powerful human attractors.

Mystery – Metaphors and dreams. Symbols and stories. The timeless flow of past, present and future. The Consumer Republic is saturated with information. Twenty five percent of the people who pick up The New York Times Magazine on Sundays go to the puzzle section first!! I read that Starbucks bought 37% of Costa Rica’s entire coffee crop in the 2004-05 season. [The Economist, 1st April 2006] When we know everything, there is nothing left to surprise us.

Sensuality - Sight, sound, smell, touch and taste are portals to the emotions. Natural foods, places, people and experiences are opening markets. Consumers want more Pura Vida. Fast companies – like Wal-Mart – are waking up to it. Sensuality is a huge opportunity to turn shoppers into buyers. Up to 80% of purchase decisions and 50% of brand switching occurs in store. Make the store a theatre of dreams. If she doesn’t touch it, she won’t want it. In 85% of purchases only the chosen product is handled.

Intimacy is knowing the consumer better than she knows herself. For a tourist paradise, critical. Intimacy is the small touch, the perfect gesture. A smile, a look, a laugh, a kiss. Connections that win undying loyalty. Intimacy is passion, empathy and commitment.

#6. LOVEMARKS ACCELERATE WITH SISOMO

The digital revolution is transforming marketing, entertainment and technology. As people lean forward to work, shop and play, screens are morphing. TV has stepped out of the living room into our offices, cars, stores, streets, hands. TV is becoming more game-like, mobile phones more TV-like, in-store screens more movie-like – even computer screens are likable. Brands need Creative Connectors to accelerate innovation and build equity. People who can connect ideas, technologies, emotions and screens.

We call this “sisomo”.

Sight, sound and motion have broken free from the TV. The energy field now is sight, sound and motion - sisomo. Saatchi & Saatchi invented sisomo for the “everywhere world” beyond TV – to capture and explode the possibilities.

* sisomo is on-demand, on-the-go, ideas on screen - created by an Oscar-winning director or a kid after school.

* sisomo brings technology, marketing and creativity together. It’s where art meets science. This intersection is the future of advertising. sisomo puts ideas and potent connections ahead of technology. It brings screens to life in emotional and compelling ways.

* sisomo accelerates Lovemarks. Mystery, sensuality and intimacy pulsing with sight, sound and motion, sisomo attracts consumers with engaging, compelling stories. The story is an ancient, mysterious, timeless art. Marketers are caught up in technology and methodology. An engaging story well told is priceless.

* sisomo lays fertile ground for brands to innovate and excite consumers.

#7. LOVEMARKS ARE INSPIRED

Martin Luther King did not say I have a mission statement. Lovemarks share an Inspirational Dream. Dreams are about reaching for the stars not counting them. You cannot lead people to Lovemarks. "Manager”, even “leader” is just another label. “Inspirer” demands personal transformation as part of organizational transformation.

For Peak Performance, unleash and inspire your people to be the best they can be. Give them a dream to believe in. Continuously inspire them to exceed their personal best in pursuit of the dream.

Walt Disney: “If you can dream it you can do it.”

#8. LOVEMARKS EXPLODE PARADOX

Breakthrough innovation explodes paradox. How did Southwest Airlines get to Lovemarks? They broke the customer trade off between aeroplane speed and car convenience / economy. A focus on intimacy, velocity and frequent point-to-point departures created a flying car!! Lovemarks build complex opposites together with equal passion so they enhance each other and take you to a place neither dreamed possible.

This is the power of the hybrid. Instead of the best of neither, you get a new solution, better than both!!

* Toyota: Short and long term. Economy and innovation. Gas and Electric.

* Starbucks’ third place: Home and Work

* iPod: Business modelling ($1 a song) and networking (music companies) and branding (white buds and wires)

Spanish Emperor Charles V saw this coming about 500 years ago. He said: “I speak Spanish to God, Italian to women, French to men and German to my horse!” Don’t mix these up Ticos!!!

#9. LOVEMARKS MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE FOR EVERYONE

Business is the big game. The role of business is to make the world a better place. Five years ago this idea seemed radical. Like Love in business. Now consumers expect nothing less. In the Attraction Economy the challenges to brands are coming in from all directions.

Lovemarks show brands how to meet the higher aspirations of consumers. They reflect that people want to be part of something bigger than themselves. While governments form committees, business jump shifts humanity forward. And competitive advantage is passing to the little guy. New companies, small countries like Costa Rica and Inspirational Consumers have the power to drive change, shift agendas and make a difference.

Philosopher Dan Dennett: the secret of happiness is to find something bigger than yourself and then devote your life to it. Let’s go – before it’s too late.