Author Archives: Giampiero

Giampiero

Giampiero Isabella is a brand strategy specialist who focuses on understanding consumers and how best to serve them. He is an MBA graduate from the Schulich School of Business in Toronto, specializing in Marketing and Strategy, and as part of the program, studied fashion and luxury management at the Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi in Milan. Prior to his MBA, Giampiero has worked in Marketing, analyzing consumer trends and translating insights into above and below the line advertising campaigns for a large clothing retailer. Giampiero has also worked for a global Consumer Packaged Goods company, assessing product quality and making packaging improvements. Giampiero has a passion for learning about cultures from around the world and understanding what makes people different. Through extensive travel and studies abroad, Giampiero has nurtured this fascination and is an expert at tailoring solutions to the many different cultural segments that exist.

Lessons in Teamwork from the Soccer field

I recently played my last game of outdoor soccer for the season, and although we did not make the playoffs this year, they were an amazing group of guys that I enjoyed playing with. What made this year more interesting than previous years was that I joined a new team with a bunch of people that I had never played with before.  One of the many early challenges we spoke about was the time it takes to develop chemistry within the team. This got me thinking about the parallels between soccer (and other team sports in general), and business – mainly, how do teams come together to succeed, and what are the challenges of making real-time decisions as a collective group in order to achieve a goal?  In my experience, playing team sports is crucial for developing teamwork skills. While I could go on for days discussing how soccer hones both career and life skills in general (and do expect me to do so in future articles), I will limit this post to discussing the teamwork lessons that can be gained from playing soccer. The three key lessons I have gained from being a more effective team player, and getting the most out of my teammates, involve (1) getting to know your teammates, (2) the importance of communication, and (3) checking your ego at the door.

Get to know your teammates

Part of understanding what your teammate is doing involves knowing what kind of personality they have.  Although it takes time to get a grasp of a teammate’s style, it does not take long if you take the time to get to know them off the field as well. Our team had beers after every game, and it was a chance to talk, not only about the game, but also about life off the pitch. This helped to strengthen relationships and understanding between one another, and what makes each person tick. By building this bond, teammates tend to go the extra mile to help one another out on the field.

(I think this guy’s teammates learned a little more about him after this night)

This same principle applies in a business setting as well. At my previous place of employment, our team made it a point to go get a coffee at 2:30p.m. every single day, and it did wonders for developing a bond between our team.  We felt like a family, which made going in to work, and staying late when necessary that much more enjoyable. This bond made it much easier to ask a co-worker for help, to understand each other’s strengths and weaknesses, and to plan out our work strategy as a group.

Communication is Key

Getting to know your teammates also helps to make another crucial component of teamwork easier: communication. On the pitch, as the ball is always in play, game plans and strategies go out the window when your opponent adapts and situations develop.  The only way to succeed as a collective group is effective and constant communication. This communication comes in the form of warnings (“Player on you!”), support (“I’m behind you!”), advice (“Lots of time!”), and encouragement (“Great shot!”). Effective communication on the pitch not only provides confidence when on the ball, it also provides numerous extra sets of eyes in order to navigate all of the moving parts on the pitch.

Business teams also need to communicate in order to be successful, as warnings, support, advice, and encouragement are critical to the success of any team in achieving its goals. It is very difficult to complete a task when one of your teammates fails to inform you of a critical change in the details (or maybe that there’s a linebacker in the office charging at you from behind), knows the answer to a problem yet fails to share it with you, or doesn’t encourage you when you are frustrated. Making sure that the lines of communication are open go a long way towards developing the cohesion of a team.

Check your ego at the door

I feel as though this point is not stressed enough among articles about teamwork, even though this is perhaps the most important one. Not everyone is created equal, and some people are better at certain things than others. Joining a team however with the belief that your skills are more important, or that you are overall superior, is a recipe for disaster for teams both on the pitch and in the office. There have been many instances over the years where a player has joined the team that has had a belief that they were the best player on the team (and in many instances they may very well have been the best player on the team).  Time and time again, their play reflected their lack of trust in the abilities of their teammates, they tried to do too much on their own, and repeatedly tried to do things that they simply were not capable of doing (like scoring from your own half). That selfish, egotistical attitude regularly betrays these players as a huge detriment to the team, in spite of their ability, hindering the team’s success. It doesn’t take a genius to realize that one player versus eleven does not give the team great odds of succeeding.  Leveraging your teammates skills goes a long way in achieving success.

There is a saying in team sports that states that “you are only as good as your worst player”. What that means is that the opposition will find your weakness right away, and exploit it. Teammates may gripe and complain about the quality of that weak player, but that does not help the team.  In order to succeed, it is everyone’s responsibility to help your teammate to not reveal his or her deficiencies, and make them a better contributor. At the same time, the opposition may be able to expose your weaknesses too…wouldn’t you want your teammates to help you out? If the goal is to win, playing the blame game does nothing to help your team win.  Only true teamwork can.

The hero mentality, coupled with complaining where help is needed, plays out poorly in the workplace, and inhibits team functionality (thereby reducing your own personal value). In my opinion, a great performer is one who makes the people around them better, and brings out the best in the team as a whole. Tackling a group project on your own will only expose your own weaknesses, alienate your teammates, and limit the quality of the output.

 

In my opinion, there is nothing more beautiful than a string of multiple one touch passes that leads to a goal.

Achieving this feat is only possible when the team is functioning at such a high level that communication is seamless, that sense of being able to predict where your teammates are going to be is spot on, and they can predict what you are going to do next. It is through the subsequent understanding and mastery of the points above, as a collective unit, that such a feat is possible. The business equivalent of multiple one touch passes leading to a goal can be difficult to master, as it takes time for a team to bond together – and in business, teams do not always stay together as a unit for a long enough period of time. I do, however, see the value of taking the time to develop a bond with your teammates, emphasizing communication, and checking your ego at the door –  that all go a long way in both speeding up, and improving the process of becoming a cohesive and effective unit.

What else do you think is critical to developing team cohesion? Drop me a line in the comments section below!

Is All Publicity Good Publicity?

Recently I read an article about Kenneth Cole and his latest tweeting escapades where he referenced a Barack Obama phrase regarding the conflict in Syria to promote the sale of their shoes.

 In a war-weary USA, his comment seemed to touch a nerve with columnists and what was perhaps more interesting was the fact that Kenneth Cole was purposely trying to be offensive in order to generate publicity for his brand. This raises an interesting question: Is all publicity good publicity?

In my opinion, the purpose of communication strategies are to provide awareness and recognition of what your brand promises to deliver to the right customer audience. Just as I mentioned in one of my earlier blog posts on humorous advertising,  the type of edginess used as a strategy will depend on the type of audience that you wish to covet. For example, Diesel is a brand that is young, edgy, and in your face – and their “Be Stupid” ad campaign did not seem offensive to the audience they were catering to and as a result the brand saw strong growth.

diesel_stupid_lion

If Martha Stewart launched that same “Be Stupid” campaign, her core audience would be very offended and confused by the campaign and although it would definitely draw attention to the brand, it would not help strengthen the brand image. The point is, be who you are because if you try and sell your brand as something that it is not, it just looks fake, contrived, and not very credible.

Kenneth Cole is a fairly conservative, inoffensive bridge brand that caters to both men and women looking for contemporary style at a moderate price point – a fairly large demographic where a lot of brands compete. Therefore, his core audience would tend to be those who like to wear conservative, fairly inoffensive clothing that looks sharp without making too bold of a statement.  As someone whose personal style and demeanour is much edgier than what the Kenneth Cole brand represents, I actually do not find the tweet particularly offensive at all, however I can see how his comments appear more offensive to the media because it is coming from an unexpected source.

What is interesting to note is that Kenneth Cole himself purposely tries to be offensive in his communication in spite of his brand being more toned down.

“We’re clearly bolder with our social messages than we are with our fashion messages, and that is by design.”

So why is Kenneth Cole using this approach?

As I stated earlier, the target audience Kenneth Cole is competing for has a wide selection of brands to choose from and it is difficult to stand out and get noticed. I believe that Kenneth Cole is employing the shock and awe tactic in order to increase awareness of the brand because he has seen short term spikes in sales whenever he does something offensive.

“If you look at lists of the biggest Twitter gaffes ever, we’re always one through five. But our stock went up that day, our e-commerce business was better, the business at every one of our stores improved, and I picked up 3,000 new followers on Twitter. So on what criteria is this a gaffe?”

Kenneth Cole’s strive for awareness and short term sales spikes may come at a cost if he does not re-align his product mix with his messaging because existing customers will be offended and leave, while new customers will be disappointed with the fact that the existing product line does not coincide with the edgier image being communicated.

The “all publicity is good publicity” approach is a great mantra when you are struggling to become noticed and are looking for a quick and dirty approach to letting people know that you exist. The problem with this philosophy is that unless the message is consistent with what you are offering, customers will not know what you are about, and once the initial curiosity fades you will not be remembered.

What are your thoughts about Kenneth Cole’s communication strategy?

Place Branding: Toronto Who?

Just like any organization or individual, destinations are also capable of branding themselves in order to provide a promise of value to specific customer groups that satisfy their needs; either as a place to live, or as a travel destination. In my last post, I wrote about Las Vegas and how it has informed people around the world what to expect, and then delivered consistently on that message for many years. The Las Vegas identity is well-known, and the mere mention of it conjures up visions in one’s head that actually become reality when travelling there. Today, however, I am looking at a contrasting example – my hometown of Toronto. I love this city and believe it has many things to offer to visitors around the world.  However, whenever I ask people who are not from here what their thoughts are about this city, they usually know absolutely nothing about it, and the ones who have actually travelled here do not really have any powerful takeaways from this place I call home. So, how can the city of Toronto become a place that a) the world knows about, and b) is on people’s bucket list of places to see before they die – like London, Rome, New York, Paris, and Las Vegas.

Unique Value Proposition

All great destinations offer something unique to its visitors that is usually a combination of physical attractions, along with an indescribable aura that is unique to that city. Rome offers a combination of a rich history combined with “La Dolce Vita”. Paris offers beautiful architecture, the Eiffel Tower but is also “the city of love”. Finally, New York offers towering skyscrapers but is also “the city that never sleeps”.

So what does Toronto have to offer as a physical attraction? Well, I would say that the thing that makes Toronto the most unique to me is the fact that on most lists, Toronto ranks as one of the most culturally diverse metropolitan areas of the world.  A fortunate consequence of this is that one can eat almost any type of food in Toronto, with the quality resonating with that of the area from which the recipes originate. As someone of Italian background, I can honestly say that the Italian food found right here in Toronto is on par with what one can find anywhere in Italy – which is a lot more than I can say about some Italian food I’ve tried elsewhere.

Given the rise of the foodie culture in North America and across the globe, I think that the quality and variety of food found in Toronto is something that will attract a growing customer segment to the city and is something that can and should be exploited.

The variety of international foods also brings out the emotional reason why Toronto is a great place to visit – that one can learn about a multitude of cultures all in one place; and beyond that, visitors can witness and take part in the cultural exchange and integration of peoples. While studying in Toronto I have had the opportunity to become friends with and share stories with Muslims, Jews, Chinese, and Columbians, all while having a drink at a bar. While the ability to interact with other cultures is present in other cities around the world, the level of diversity in Toronto is superior.

Consistent Messaging

After several hours searching the internet for an advertisement promoting Toronto as a destination for travel, I could not find even one that was less than 10 years old coming from the official tourism board for the city.  Even going to the official tourism website does not help me gain a clear understanding of what to expect when coming to Toronto. It would appear therefore that if Toronto does have a message for its audience, it is not readily available to them.

So where does Toronto go from here? Well, if the city agrees with my statement regarding its unique value proposition, it needs to develop a clear communication strategy.  This would let people who are interested in exploring new cultures know that Toronto is the place for them.  Staying in Toronto will provide access to some of the best food around the world, for all kinds of budgets. Without getting into too much detail, this would obviously require a slogan that captures the proposition being sold, printing ads around the world reaffirming this message, a youtube channel with promotional videos showcasing the diversity of this city, and it would require directly seeking out these “culture junkies” to let them know that Toronto has exactly what they are looking for!

Cooperation among Stakeholders

Cooperation between local businesses and the various departments of the municipal, provincial, and federal government is paramount to delivering the unique value proposition and communicating a consistent message.

At present, there are a multitude of excellent restaurants in Toronto that are not recognized globally by prestigious restaurant ranking systems. Michelin has never published a restaurant guide for any city in Canada, let alone Toronto.  Not a single Canadian restaurant entered the “San Pellegrino top 100 restaurants in the world” list. There needs to be a concerted effort by both the municipal government and the restaurants themselves to convince these prestigious restaurant rankers to at least come to Toronto to try the food.  Having Canadian exposure on these lists would go a long way in helping Toronto strengthen its reputation as a food city with fantastic international cuisine.

In conjunction with beefing up the city’s restaurant exposure, Toronto must make it easier for tourists to explore the varying cultures that the city has to offer. This involves the coordination of festivals, traffic and transit improvements, and welcoming committees, to help make it easy for tourists to get the most out of the city, among other improvements I won’t mention here.

As you can see, branding a destination is more than just finding a catchy slogan, and does not come as a result of fortuitous geography, nor as the benefit of history.  Branding a destination requires careful planning, and commitment from all stakeholders involved. Las Vegas saw an opportunity to satisfy a customer need, and managed to become an oasis in the desert, representing all things copious through consistent messaging and cooperation from all stakeholders, in order to deliver on their promise. Toronto is like many other cities in the world that struggle to attract visitors.  By defining a physical and emotional differentiator, communicating this differentiator to the right customer base, and ensuring that their promise is delivered through cooperation, Toronto can become a travel destination that people will want to include on their bucket lists.

Place Branding: How the legend of Las Vegas endures

Recently I traveled to Las Vegas for a bachelor party and every time I go it is always a completely different experience from my previous visits. The city has evolved quite rapidly from my first visit almost 10 years ago and what has fascinated me about the place is that this city has consistently been one of the most visited cities in the USA over the last 40 years and throughout this time frame it has successfully shifted the demographic to which it caters its message many times.

Just as companies compete for the affection and portion of customer’s wallets , so do cities, regions, and nations compete for visitors or residents to come and spend their money.  In examining areas around the globe, it is readily visible that some are very successful at conveying their message, while others are not quite so. How has Las Vegas done this successfully while other cities (such as Toronto) fail to establish a brand with a consistent message?

Same Identity, Different Audience

Las Vegas has been built on casinos and gambling, and has had a mystique for visitors as a place where anything can happen.  Until the end of the 1980’s, Vegas was essentially a place to escape one’s reality and do things that one cannot do back home. Sin City.

 

STARDUST_STRIP_DAY

(Las Vegas Strip 1980)

In the early 1990’s however, resort operators saw an opportunity to target an untapped market: families. The result: many family-themed resorts opened up with water and theme parks, along with kid-friendly shows and entertainment. Las Vegas transformed into a place where a family could have fun at every opportunity and in every which way. Despite the shift to a very different target audience, tourism continued to boom, reaching 36 million visitors per year by the year 2000[1], up 53% from 1993[2].

 

Las Vegas 90s

(Las Vegas Strip 1990’s)

Nevertheless, at issue was the fact that these families were not spending money gambling[3] – the fundamental activity that was funding Las Vegas. As a result, resorts began to shift away from the family theme and focus on the “Adult Playground”, developing the tagline “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas”. Importantly, this shift did not involve reverting back to the days of Sin City, as the focus now includes lavish parties, fine dining and extravagant shows, as well as gambling. Las Vegas is now more than just a place for sin, it is a place of extravagance and opulence.

 

City Center

(Las Vegas City Center today)

Throughout these three phases of Las Vegas’ past, it seems as though the method of delivery and the catered audience has changed over time.  So how has this not created confusion for tourists that visit? Well, at its core, Las Vegas has always been able to do one thing better than any other city in the Western Hemisphere: provide everything in excess. Whether it’s gambling and prostitution, theme parks and playgrounds, or pool parties and fine dining, Las Vegas has always delivered in excess – they provide more of everything than anyone else. Further, Las Vegas does not deliver conflicting messages, trying to be all things to all people in its advertising. When the tagline “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” was adopted, this message transcended all forms of media including: commercials, billboards, travel magazines, movies (The Hangover), blogs, and editorials.

What Can Places Learn From Las Vegas?

In my opinion, Las Vegas has been able to succeed as a magnet for tourist dollars because it has done the following things successfully:

1)      It has a unique value proposition that goes beyond the services they deliver. Las Vegas is no longer simply a gambling town, or family vacation spot, or an adult playground – it is a city that represents excess.

2)      It delivers one consistent message to its audience and does not try to cater to multiple customer groups at a time. When Las Vegas focused on families, they focused on families, and when they wanted to deliver the “Adult Playground” message, they focused on solely that message.

3)      A high degree of cooperation exists between the major stakeholders in the tourism industry (resort operators, municipal and state government) in order to ensure consistent delivery of the value proposition with the customer at every interaction point.

 

In my next post I will examine a city that has struggled to forge an identity and provide some ideas as to how it can begin to showcase itself using the template provided by Las Vegas.  In the meantime, what are your thoughts on the Las Vegas brand? Are there other cities that come to mind that have been even more successful at branding themselves?


[1] McCallister, Eden, “The Shifting of the Las Vegas Tourism Industry: A Historical Perspective on Management and Resort Revenues” (2012). UNLV Theses/Dissertations/Professional Papers/Capstones. Paper 1472.

[2] Akinsete, Joseph, “Las Vegas visitor demographics: Be Careful what you wish for” (2010). UNLV Theses/Dissertations/Profeffional Papers/Capstones. Paper 594.

[3] Ibid.

Funny Advertisements

While studying in Milan, I took a course that examined how psychological research can be better applied in marketing products and services more effectively and one particular lecture that caught my attention discussed how humour impacts marketing. After taking some time to let the course material sink in, I’ve realized how important humour is in advertising campaigns today. Just think about the Superbowl commercial phenomenon. Every year, people look forward to the Superbowl, in part, to watch the new commercials that are presented. The ad spots up for grabs during the Superbowl are some of the most expensive to purchase, going for as much as $4 million for a 30 second spot, and it is no coincidence that many brands choose to showcase their product using humour. Here is an example of my favorite Superbowl ad of all time, where a company employees a football linebacker to enforce office rules.

Viewing advertisements is a lot like dating, in that while we watch the ads, we are analyzing it to see if the brand would make a good addition to our lives. When looking for the right partner, often times, people say that they would like a partner that makes them laugh and finds humour in the same things. Companies are always vying for our attention and love, and they too have realized that the key to the customer’s heart is through comedy.

So if humour is a useful tool that can be used in advertising to attract the customer, how does one succeed at making a funny advertising campaign?

Before we can begin to understand how humour can be used successfully to appeal to customers, let’s talk about what humour really is. While there are many theories, the increasingly popular (among scholars) Benign Violation Theory (BVT)  states that something is funny if it threatens one’s sense of how things should be (violation), without being harmful (benign).

Using my office linebacker example above, it is pretty obvious that the violation is the linebacker in an office setting however, deciphering whether the violation is benign may be a little more complex. While some people may find the situation funny because they do not know the people getting tackled and because it is not real, to others, this may be seen as offensive and too violent for some viewers to be watching (along with Terry Tate’s language which may not be considered appropriate). This is where the viewer’s psychological distance to the situation that is unfolding comes into play. The further away the violation is to the viewer, the more benign the situation becomes, whereas the closer the violation to the viewer, the more severe the situation is.

As an example, consider an anvil dropping on a cartoon character’s head, versus an anvil dropping on your head (or you getting tackled by a linebacker in your office). The first situation is very far removed from your life and from real-life in general, therefore can be considered quite benign; yet is still a violation of what is perceived as normal. In the second situation, the violation is not benign at all because it is something very painful happening to you!

Psychological distance also plays a role in how severe the violation can be in order for it to be humourous.  What this means is that the more distant the violation is to you, the more benign it will seem, to the point where it may not even register as a violation at all. Therefore, in order for a situation to be funny, it needs to have a specific psychological distance from the viewer, depending on the gravity of the violation, in order to be a benign violation and hence, funny.

PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTANCE VS. VIOLATION SEVERITY

Graph3

What is interesting to note is that determining whether a situation is a benign violation depends on the viewpoint of the person witnessing the violation. Hence, just as how jokes about “that time in Vegas” are far more successful when told to your friends as opposed to your date, creating a funny ad depends on who the audience is and how you wish to present yourself to them. Therefore the key to making a humourous ad requires depicting a benign violation that not only showcases the value proposition of the brand, but appeals to the specific customer group being targeted with the ad.

A recent example of how humour in an advertisement has successfully applied these concepts is the new FIAT commercial, which shows a young couple purchasing a FIAT that comes with a family of (3) Italians.

This ad displays a situation that is inoffensive, but still quite a departure from what would normally occur when purchasing a vehicle. It highlights the target audience (25-40 year olds) through the purchasers of the vehicle and directly addresses a potential issue of the car being too small, through the deployment of three adult Italians sitting (relatively) comfortably in the back of the automobile, and several subsequent humorous adventures. Finally, the advertisement helps showcase what FIAT hopes its vehicles will be known for: being fun, and stylish.

To sum it all up, humour is a very successful tool that can be used to attract customers to your brand; however in order to successfully execute a funny ad, it must be a benign violation in the eyes of the customer group in which you wish to target, while still having the desired effects of educating customers about what your brand represents. Therefore, unless you think your date would be totally cool with it, while successfully communicating what you, as both a person and a brand represent, do not tell her about that “wedding you had in Vegas with the bartender 20 minutes after you met her” story.

 

 

Identity Crisis

Tim Hortons recently launched the “Maple Flatbread Breakfast Panini”, the latest in their “Panini” line, and another example of Tim Hortons foray into the premium cafe segment. While I applaud Tim Hortons efforts to attract a new customer segment, I find that this approach will only serve to confuse their existing customers.

Examining their “Maple Flatbread Breakfast Panini”, I see two issues that stand out:

1)      Since when did the term “Panini” stand for a grilled sandwich on toast bread? Panini is actually the plural term in Italian for a sandwich (singular being panino). I am of the firm belief that if you want to present a foreign name for a product, than you should use the correct foreign name. While using the plural term for a singular product isn’t as bad as some of these other foreign branding mistakes, given Canada’s large Italian population, I think Tim Hortons can do better.

 

2)      The “Maple Flatbread Breakfast Panini” is simply too long of a name for a sandwich! Can you imagine someone actually saying the whole name of this product while ordering? Tim Hortons has employed a layered naming policy wherein product descriptors are used in the name to classify where the product exists among Tim Hortons naming hierarchy (i.e Breakfast means that it is offered from 5am-12pm on weekdays and all day on weekends). I agree that product names should convey what the product is offering, however it should also be as short as possible!

 

Tim Hortons’ growth has slowed in Canada as a result of increased competition from McDonald’s and their poor performance in the U.S. As a result, Tim Hortons has chosen to evolve through the launch of their line of “paninis” and other premium products such as espressos and lattes in order to cater to a more upscale clientele. The issue I have is that Tim Hortons continues to market themselves as the traditional “Canadian Doughnut Shop” and the coffee of hockey families, while at the same time trying to cater to a more upscale urban clientele, causing confusion in their message and potential long term damage to their brand. I do think that the expansion of their food offerings may definitely be a great tool to reverse their recent performance; however I think they can do so by leveraging their strong association with the Canadian lifestyle when naming their grilled sandwiches as opposed to calling them “Panini”. They might also want to consider simplifying their naming conventions so as to keep the customer in mind.

 

Do you think Tim Hortons’ strategy of offering premium products such as Panini will be successful?

Did Daft Punk ‘Get Lucky’?

I am assuming you have caught Daft Punk’s latest song “Get Lucky”, as I have been hearing it everywhere I go, and it has taken off as a massive hit.

I recently read an article by Erik Spitznagel about how Daft Punk constructed this year’s “song of the summer”, and while I agree with most of what was said, there is a crucial piece of information that was missing.

The article points to the success of this song obviously due to the catchiness of the tune, but more specifically attributes the success to the way it was marketed. Spitznagel points out that their use of Billboards, teaser commercial clips, and the interactions between the traditional marketing media and its fans has directly contributed to the track’s success.

I agree with everything Spitznagel has to say however I believe that he missed a key point – this track and the marketing of this song have worked as a symbiotic relationship to deliver a uniquely genuine brand promise that is consistent to what Daft Punk represents, and it is this relationship that has resulted in the tracks success.

To better understand what Daft Punk’s core identity is, let’s have a look at their history. Daft Punk first rose to prominence in the late 90’s when the house music scene was reliving the nostalgia of the disco days in the 70’s. The music, the videos, and the attire, was all reminiscent of that bygone era, and Daft Punk were at the forefront of this scene.  They reached the pinnacle with their track “One More Time” and the video itself is very late 70’s/’smurf-esque’.

Throughout the 2000’s, Daft Punk hasn’t exactly been silent as they wrote the score for Tron: Legacy, the sequel for the 1982 hit Tron, further perpetuating their association with that late 70’s/early 80’s association.

Daft Punk’s attire also has played a role in shaping what their core identity is. Both Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel De Homem-Christo wear robot customs that look like what people in the 70’s envisioned future robots would look like. Why 70’s style robots? To provide an identifiable symbol to their audience that they represent a 70’s style sound that is based on electronic sounds.

Daft Punk

At the same time, both members of Daft Punk are rarely ever seen without their costume, which is done in order to ensure that the message to their audience consistently represents the message of 70’s style electronic music and does not become distorted by how they live their lives outside of Daft Punk.

Daft Punk’s core identity is a fresh take on the late 70’s disco/funk scene and a focus on making the music stand for itself. As a result, it only makes sense to release their latest track using 70’s era advertising, and using very little of it in order for the music to stand on its own. As a fan of their music for 15 years, this is what I have come to expect from Daft Punk and if they had released a track that did not have that 70’s vibe and relied heavily on marketing efforts to promote their song, I would be left confused and probably not have cared much for the song.

Therefore, while I agree with Eric Spitznagel’s dissemination of why he thinks Daft Punk has succeeded in creating a “song of the summer”, I also believe that Daft Punk has been able to do this by focusing on who they are as a group, and successfully delivering on this promise in everything that they do.

Welcome!

The wheels in my head are always turning and I am constantly looking for new ways to share my ideas and thoughts with others in order to gain further insight or perhaps even provide inspiration. Starting a blog seems like the best way to do this on a large scale and encourage larger discussions with all of you!

As you can see from my bio, my background is focused on Marketing and Strategy, and that is where I will primarily be writing about, however I may sneak in a few non-related rants now and again. More specifically, I enjoy examining the interaction between the buyer and seller of goods and services and how this differs depending on the type of vendor, consumer, and cultural influences impacting the two. By no means will this site be confined solely to business interactions as I believe that businesses can learn a lot about social interactions between a buyer and a seller (i.e a guy asking a girl out on a date), and vice versa.

This blog definitely is not intended to be a lecture, and so I encourage you to comment and post whether you agree, disagree, possible alternative viewpoints and so forth. My goal is to have a forum where we can exchange ideas and learn from one another.

So, welcome to my blog and I hope to hear from you!

 

Giampiero

 

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