Bài interview được lấy từ Markazine, version tiếng Việt nằm ở đây

What do you see in the future of branding?
All the real action is in the area of new categories. That’s where the real opportunities lie. Existing categories and existing brands will continue to muddle along with little changes in market
share. Coca-Cola has been the No. 1 cola and Pepsi theNo. 2 cola for more than 100 years. Is that likely to change? Of course not.

The opportunities lie in creating new categories. In the recent past: Red Bull, the first energy drink. Starbucks, the first highend coffee shop. Vitaminwater, the first vitamin water. The iPod, the first high-capacity MP3 player.

Too many companies, however, ignore this possibility. They are almost totally focused online extending existing brands rather than launching new brands which define new categories.

How do you get clients like Apple, IBM, etc.?
Clients hire us when they have problems. They don’t hire us to refine their marketing strategies.

Apple hired us when they were about to launch a new computer. IBM hired us for a similar reason. A problem isn’t necessarily a bad thing. A problem can be how to handle a new product launch, for example.

We have discovered that the direct approach (mail, email, telephone calls, etc.) never works so we don’t do any of that anymore. Clients have to come to us and the way they find out about us is through our books and articles and blogs.

Social media: how has it influenced branding? Has it affected the „22 Immutable Laws of Branding“?

Marketing can be divided neatly into two areas: strategy and tactics. Over the past two decades, there have been enormous changes in the area of tactics, of which social branding is one.

But no company ever got successful by focusing solely on tactics. What wins in marketing is strategy. A good strategy plus so-so tactics will win every time. A bad strategy plus terrific tactics will never win.

Our books, our articles, our blogs have been almost totally devoted to strategy which is the more important half of the marketing process.

Is there a brand you feel sorry for because it did not make it on the market?

There are so many brands that pioneered new categories, but lost out because of poor marketing strategy.

The Creative Nomad Jukebox was the first high-capacity MP3 player, introduced by a Singapore company 21 months before Apple introduced the iPod. But the Singapore company (Creative Technology) made every mistake in the book, including the use of a lineextension name which almost guaranteed its failure.

Is there a brand that you would really like to help?
General Motors. Or rather, Chevrolet, Buick, Cadillac and GMC, which are the brands rather than a company name.

General Motors was once the largest, most-profitable company in the world. The fact that General Motors went bankrupt is a black mark on the entire American business community. It didn’t need to happen. For decades, General Motors has been trying to build better cars when they should have been trying to build better brands. What’s a Chevrolet? It’s a large, small, cheap, expensive car or truck. In other words, it’s a brand that doesn’t stand for anything.

What would you advise General Motors to do?
Keep in mind that marketing is a long-term proposition. Nothing is going to work in the short term.

General Motors should change the product lineup of each of its brands so they stand for something. Chevrolet should be changed to an entry-level car. Move the trucks to GMC and drop the expensive sedans. Sell Corvette to Roger Penske (Owner of Penske Racing,US-Reseller of Smart). Buick should be focused on mid-range sedans and SUVs. Cadillac should be moved upstream with more expensive, betterdesigned vehicles. GMC should be the company’s truck brand. But the name is bad. It should be changed to Silverado, the Chevrolet truck name.

In marketing, a good strategy usually involves taking one step backward before you take two steps forward. No company in trouble wants to take that one step backward.

Which profession would you have if you were not a „marketing guru“?

Wow, there are some many things that interest me. I’d love to be a personal trainer and own a gym. Or a veterinarian and take care of animals. Or a horse trainer and rider. Or a movie actress. But really,
for me there is no better profession than marketing. I wouldn’t trade by job or life for anything. I go to work excited every day and think I am making a positive difference in the world of marketing.

What or who inspires you?
It has been fun working with my dad because we inspire each other. Furthermore, we are building a brand for the long haul. In your experience as a marketing consultant, which of your branding laws do companies violate the most? Focus. Almost every company wants to get larger when the real objective of a marketing program is to dominate a category.

Sometimes, that involves sacrifice. A company needs to have a narrow product line that stands for something rather than a broad product line that stands for nothing. Take Dell. Did Dell’s expansion into the consumer market help the company? I think not. As a matter of fact, Dell’s expansion coincided with its loss of its leadership position in personal computers. Dell used to be focused on the business market with a unique marketing idea. Dell tailored its computers to the needs of an individual company. Today, Dell has lost most of its uniqueness. It’s just another personal computer company
that is struggling in the marketplace.

To your book, „War in the Boardroom“, are you left or right brained?
Right brained.

Who do you think makes a top world leader? Is it a left or a right brainer?
Business and politics are two different areas. Business needs left-brain managers to manage its affairs. The political arena needs holistic right-brain leaders who can see the big picture. Unfortunately, it’s very difficult for a right-brainer to become successful in politics. To become a political leader, you need to be a talker, not a thinker. Left brainers are normally very good at verbal skills, while right brainers are normally very good at visual skills. A politician gets to the top by exercising his or her mouth, not his or her mind.

Who do you think should lead companies: left or right brainers?

Left brainers, but with a catch. Every company needs left brainers to manage its business. But it also needs right brainers to lead the company in its marketing efforts.

Too many CEOs think of themselves as leaders. That is, they believe they are the best people to decide marketing issues. They need to look at what self-confident left-brain leaders have done to companies
like General Motors, most of the airlines and many of our largest banks.

Thank you so much for your invaluable time.
Interview in October 2009
with Saadath Blickle