Thoughts from a Global Business Nomad
‘Don’t wear our brand’ – maybe the trend is catching on! Speedo tells bisexual to stop using brand
Posted by Global Business Nomad in Brand integrity on October 27th, 2011
Just recently we had Abercrombie + Fitch the all – American preppy brand getting hot under the collar with Jersey Shore, trying to stop Snookie wearing A+F underwear.
Now, it’s time for Speedo to jump on the trend. The swimwear company, known for its skimpy ‘ budgie smuggler’ briefs is suing a bisexual Australian blogger for breach of copyright, claiming that his websites are damaging the brand.
The company has begun legal proceedings against Dave Evans, aiming at blocking his site, which shows pictures of men posing provocatively in Speedo’s, and out of them. Speedo claims the graphic sexual content is offensive and the association with the word Speedo, and goes on to say that the trademark SPEEDO is under threat from Mr Evan’s website…
Dave Evan’s closing comments make me wonder if this is for real or a send up …’I have a huge Speedo fetish and Speedo’s have played a huge role in my sexual experiences’.
So now you know. I think I will keep mine for swimming in.
Product placement? No thanks! We’ll pay you NOT to wear our brand..
Posted by Global Business Nomad in Product placement on August 25th, 2011
I spend much of my life trying to leverage opportunities for product placement. From TV soaps in Spain, Girl Bands in Korea, a chatshow presenter interviewing Lady Gaga in HK, I have had recent success in product placement which I believe is great way to quietly build brand awareness and loyalty.
So yesterday’s news about Abercrombie and Jersey Shore made me smile. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/14563980)
It seems that Abercrombie and Fitch, the US lifestyle brand which promotes the all-american preppy look, so loved by teenagers and aspiring young adults around the world, has got an issue with Jersey Shore, the hit TV US soap series.
Abercrombie has offered to pay Snooki and other cast members of The Jersey Shore to stop wearing its clothes, saying their hard-partying antics could cause significant damage to its image and “distress” to its fans.
The clothing brand singled out Mike “the situation” Sorrentino, who is known to lift up his shirt and flash his abs to anyone looking, saying: “We are deeply concerned that Mr Sorrentino’s association with our brand could cause significant damage to our image.”
Abercrombie and Fitch said it had offered a substantial payment to Sorrentino and the other cast members, now in their fourth season of the show, to get them to stop wearing its clothes.
So my predictions for Geordie Shore – the new UK based spin off…
Superdry will do the same. Watch this space.
Fake Apple stores – what next?
Posted by Global Business Nomad in Counterfeit on August 18th, 2011
There it was on page 7 of the Shanghai Daily (www.shanghaidaily.com/national) .
‘Fake Apple Stores Shut Down’
This to me is the ultimate in counterfeit. Forget fake Louis Vuitton bags being touted on the pavements of Palermo, Rolexes galore on the streets of Bangkok and Lacoste polo shirts almost everywhere – how many variations of a crocodile can be copied? This is the real McCoy.
The Chinese, forever ingenious and innovative, decided to turn fake on its head. Instead of spreading counterfeit product around the world, ‘let’s keep it local’..
It seems that in the southern Chinese city of Kunming, there was not only one but 5 fake Apple stores. It seems the staff, who were all dressed as cool Apple store sales associates, thought they worked for Apple. A US blogger based in city revealed the hoax by posting a blog which was picked up by Apple in the US. What he found was a near flawless fake Apple store selling iphones and ipads.
Of course they claimed that the product was genuine, but even this could not be verified. The Kunming authorities shut all 5 stores down immediately.
There are only 4 genuine Apple stores in China – in Beijing and Shanghai. None in Kunmimg.
So now you know.
Bunga Bunga – diary from an Italian perspective
Posted by Global Business Nomad in Eurozone crisis, Italy on August 13th, 2011
I am very lucky. I live in Northern Italy on the edges of Lake Como. It’s about as good as you can get – great weather (for most of the year), amazing food and jaw-dropping scenery. Even George Clooney is a neighbour.
I recently overheard a US tourist saying it was like living on a filmset. It is but it’s real – this is my home.
But this is also living in the middle of Europe. A country that is on the brink of debt default.
A country with a highly controversial Prime Minister – Silvio Berlusconi – who is the clown of the G20, but still amazingly has a relatively high approval rating. Italy may be beautiful but I find it hard to believe that it’s the 3rd leading economy in the Eurozone.
There seems to be consistent theme running through Italian culture – if you can bend the rules and ‘get away with it’, then do so. That seems to the case with the most mundane of things – waiting in line or going to the Post Office, but also with taxes, fines and even going to the local hospital. Bunga bunga rules.
The system is on its legs, but no-one does anything to change things. So the corruption and ‘getting away with it’ carries on.
Only last week whilst taking the train to Milan, I forgot to stamp my train ticket before I boarded. Along comes the ticket inspector and of course there was a problem. Over the next 5 minutes, my ‘fine’ went from 20 Euros to 200 Euros, ending up at 5 Euros. I may be a cynic but I don’t think my fine went to the train company.
On my travels I am often asked in Asia what it’s like living in Europe. They see Europe as the ‘old world’ where the past lives. The future, they say, is in the East.
The same is not the case across all Europe. But they have got a point.
I ‘m off for lunch at my favourite Osteria overlooking the lake. It’s cash only of course.
Ciao
AAA rating – does it matter?
Posted by Global Business Nomad in AAA credit rating, Credit agency ratings on August 6th, 2011
The news came through as I flicked through the channels late at night whilst traveling in Central America this week. S+P had downgraded the US credit rating from AAA to AA+. The coveted AAA rating has been held since 1919.
But does it matter?
I think it does. The US has been behaving like an irresponsible person trying to borrow himself out of debt. Think Nick Leeson in the 1990’s. With trillions of dollars owed without a clear strategy on how to pay this back, S+P have had serious concerns about not HOW the US will repay the debt, but IF it can do so.
It’s been a bumpy few weeks – only 10 days ago, the US was on the brink of default as different parties scrapped on how to solve the debt crisis. A bit of band aid has been fixed onto the wound, but it won’t solve the issues.
The US must get its house into order; not just spend, spend, spend. It’s not a vote-winner, but the country should learn to live within its means.
If this was a business the company would have gone bust ages ago. If an individual, they would be long bankrupt.
As I often do in these blogs, my focus turns towards the East. Only today China has issued a harsh statement that the US has been acting irresponsibly on debt. They hold over 1 trillion dollars of US debt and are concerned about their money.
And rather predictably they have demanded a new global ‘benchmark’ currency. And it wont be the Euro.
China rises further.
Think Kiasu
Posted by Global Business Nomad in Emerging market trends, Emerging markets, Emerging trends on July 21st, 2011
Young adults in the emerging world obsess about career paths.
In Europe and the US, secure, middle class parents tell their secure, middle class kids to go off
and ‘express themselves’ rather than work their backside off. ‘Go and enrich your lives by taking a Gap
Year out…’ we tell our kids…
In the emerging world, everyone knows that going to become a farm worker is entirely possible. For that
reason, throughout the emerging world, society is ‘Kiasu’.
‘Kiasu’ – a Hokkien Chinese word, meaning a mixture of ‘competitive in all acts of life’ and ‘afraid to fail’
is a common concept in Singapore, Beijing or Kuala Lumpur.
But it’s also equally applicable to India, Brazil and the rest of the fast-growing emerging world.
- Life is about being ambitious, getting to the next level and never being ripped off. It’s a rat race and you have to win.
- Many succeed, only to find their friends have achieved more. In rapidly growing societies, you have to run just to stay still.
- Family life is intense. Life is about pushing your children, and education, education, education.
So the new consumer from these markets is so different to those from the West. Expect a big step change in attitude as Westerners are seen a lazy.
Expect universities to start becoming consumer brands in the 2010’s. It’s not just getting a degree that matters, it’s where it’s from. What brand? Getting an MBA will become the norm for the kiasu high achievers of tomorrow.
For many people in the emerging world, life feels like a staircase.
Will China stumble?
Posted by Global Business Nomad in China economy, Emerging China on July 16th, 2011
In recent article by the BBC (www.bbc.co.uk/news), Andrew Walker raised the question whether China will stumble.
Having visited Shanghai and Beijing several times in the past 2 years, the country is beyond impressive. Hotels, buildings and new infrastructure – it seems that nothing is impossible. Only last month I sailed along the MagLev train line from downtown Shanghai to the airport at an amazing 400km an hour in just 7 minutes.
This sure beats a one hour taxi ride.
The developed economies, bruised and aching, are pulling themselves slowly back to their feet after the Great Recession.
As Western consumers and governments struggle to get on top of their debts, they are not going to be the source of booming demand for goods and services they were in the last decade.
China by contrast slowed down a bit in the recession and then rapidly got back to something like full speed.
From 2007 to 2011 China accounted for as much of global economic growth as the G7 leading industrial countries combined.
But will the powerful performance be sustained?
The Wall Street Journal recently declared ‘after years of housing prices gone wild, China’s property bubble is starting to deflate’.
The Chinese authorities are getting increasingly uneasy about inflation.
And then there is Dr Doom himself, Nouriel Roubini, the New York University Professor, prophet of the financial crisis, warning about China slightly further into the future. He says China could face a “hard landing”.
He thinks the economy is too dependent on investment. Very high rates of investment create excess capacity and they can’t be sustained.
One key element in China’s growth has been shifting millions of workers from relatively unproductive work in the countryside to industrial employment in the cities.
That won’t go on for ever.
What is pretty clear is that China’s pattern of growth will change. At some stage, the astronomical rates of saving, investment and exports will surely give way to an increasing role for consumer spending.
Investing for exports is not the easy living it was when consumer spending in the developed economies was booming.
Chinese business will increasingly have to sell their goods either to other emerging economies or to Chinese consumers.
The country’s rising and increasingly affluent middle class probably will provide that growing market.
But watch out for a stumble in the near term.
I am not sure if this rather negative stance by Andrew Walker is correct (or is likely to happen). But it’s worry if it does.
Global brands – think very differently for the emerging markets
Posted by Global Business Nomad in Emerging China, Emerging Consumer strategies, Emerging markets, Emerging trends on July 10th, 2011
Over the past 2 decades, global brands have spread across the world. Today they fill the shelves and shops of Brazil, Russia, India and China as well as Mexico, Vietnam and Indonesia.
They have reached corner shops in remote villages. Five out of seven million people buy them.
Packaging has been adapted. Consumers have much less money to spend. So dandruff shampoo is sold in a sachet because a bottle costs too much. $20 mobile phones fill the pockets of peasant workers in the fields.
BUT
All these products were invented and created by Westerners on average incomes of $40,000. Now being sold to consumers on $3000 and year.
Sure – the emerging markets are getting richer – consumer incomes in China, India and Brazil have increased 7-10% a year. But they are never going to be as rich as consumers in the West.
Soon the Chinese economy will eclipse that of the US, but Chinese household income one fifth of those in America. India will follow with even lower incomes.
People in emerging markets are very different too. They have different demographics, attitudes and priorities.
- They are a decade younger than the Western consumer
- They grew up with generation gaps bigger than anything ever seen in the West
So the brand that appealed to the 50’s suburban US housewife is never going to appeal to the new generation of young adults in the emerging world of the 2010’s.
New direction is needed. We need to think differently.
Retail future trends – smart insights
Posted by Global Business Nomad in Future trends, Retail trends on July 5th, 2011
I picked up the following snippet on retail trends which I thought was really interesting and highly relevant. I am a big fan of Moira Benigson, CEO of MBS Group () in London, so I know she won’t mind my sharing her (very wise) words on retails trends with you.
I am beginning to think that in the world of retail, apart from independents, who have to be outstanding to survive, we are moving towards one (or, maybe, a very few) of everything: think about chains that sell electricals, music, video games, books and even wine. The majority are struggling for survival, many are in the intensive care ward and some are on their way to the angels.
What prompted me to think about this was that I really like to support my local book store, Primrose Hill Books . Jessica, one of the owners, is extremely knowledgeable and very helpful. Lately though, I find myself increasingly buying more and more books (and other things as well) on Amazon, or else I download books onto my iPad. Interestingly, I have noticed lately that the number of packages arriving at the office has increased dramatically. Who needs to go to stores when you can buy with such ease online?
Anyway, I bought a book from the store this week and, as printed on the sleeve of the book, I paid £20 for it. When I got to my computer, I checked on Amazon and the very same book was… £8. What chance does Jessica have of surviving, I ask myself? And all the conversations I have had this week about HMV go exactly the same way – punitive rents, all those staff to pay and other overheads – why bother, when you can just download the music on iTunes? The big issue is, then: what is the role of a store, and is it possible to survive the storm that is brewing for high-street retailers today?
Out of the Crunch, new ideas emerge
Posted by Global Business Nomad in After the recession, Crediit Crunch Solutions, Emerging trends, Future trends, recession trends on June 30th, 2011
A crisis always creates innovation. New ideas, new ways if doing things. Advances.
I have been fascinated in how individuals and businesses have adapted to the new world of recession. I have written about ZipCar, Pop Up retailers and Monday to Friday lodgers – each a bi-product of the recession.
And here’s another.
According to the London Times, (www.timesonline.co.uk) parks, allotments and markets are due to spring up across Britain as a result of recession.
In London we have already become used to eating in pop up restaurants (Selfridges have a phenomenal response to their Pierre Koffman Pop Up - www.selfridges.com), shopping at temporary outlets and at temporary theatres and cinemas.
Now the ‘pop up’ craze is being extended, with architects competing to find new temporary public uses for sites once earmarked for major development.
Due to the recession a lot of building work has been put on hold – British Land for example, has shortlisted a dozen young architects to come up with ideas for using the vacant space.
My own office is just next to the London re-development of the Middlesex Hospital in the ‘Noho’ area just north of Oxford Street. Up until last year this was going to be a Candy and Candy £175m designed residential mecca. Then the developers went bust so the now huge vacant space is being considered for a ‘Growho’ scheme to turn it into allotments.
Vegetable growing in the heart of London.
Out of adversity comes creativity. That’s the spin that architects are putting on this aggressive recession. In the building world the last time anything like this happened was in the early 1970’s when the postwar construction cam too an abrupt halt.
This downturn could be a boon to young architects – recently French architectural activists EXYZT created the Dalston Mill, a bakery with its own wheatfield, on a derelict spot in East London. Another, Carmody Groarke, created a much-lauded pavilion behind the British Museum last year.
This recession could be very rewarding for some of the most innovative.