My children date on Facebook. I tweet my colleagues in Sao Paulo, Istanbul or Mumbai. Our clients request Apps for the iPad and iPhone. At 49, my professional life has never been more exciting than now. Saffronites live and exchange ideas and trends from Shanghai to Mumbai, Istanbul to Sao Paulo, London or Madrid, where we live, we have our families and homes. We are there. We don’t travel there – well, we do too, but you know what I mean…
Our world of cultural diversity, of technology and connectivity rules our business.
In such a transparent world, fancy advertising and images no longer work in creating a recognisable value. We’ve just seen in Tunisia or Egypt that information is controlled not by companies or institutions, but by the public. People have access to massive information and can instantly share their ideas with other people all over the world. The public no longer believes what a company or an institution says. They trust what they see and experience. Thomas Aquinas said it in the mid 13th Century and it’s more valid than ever.
For a brand to succeed in today’s environment, we have to go back to Wittgenstein and Descartes and agree that perception is reality, yes, but also accept that a brand only creates real value through customers’ experience of it through its touchpoints, through the sheer living of it. Today’s successful brand means a meaningful customer experience that plays a role in our lives.
Saffron has experience in working with many ambitious organizations. We collaborate with corporate customers including Swiss Re, Baker & McKenzie, KPMG, Digiturk, Bankinter or Fujitsu.
Through the work for public projects, including London or for West Bengal clients express their goals and bring positive impact to their communities. Our partnerships have been most successful when Saffron fully represented a client’s brand to its maximum aspiration, like with Spanish airline Vueling.
The Madrid Open is another great example. The tournament wanted more than brand recognition, they wanted to change the game of the industry. We created the concept of Tennistainment and reimagined what it’s like to experience a Sports Tournament with all five senses. We decided to turn a banal Tennis event institution into a fun and exciting place. Now aged 10, the Madrid Open is by any standard theone-week destination in Spain’s capital city.
So if brand now means actions rather than words, then brand must be integrated with the overall operation, business model and customer experience of an organisation and applied in a deliberate and consistent manner.
Branding…oh well, it’s mainstream and we all love that term, but let’s face it. It’s grown out of the box. It’s stronger, more powerful and meaningful than ever. Brand is dead, long live the Brand!
