Generic 101

With brands, as with people, the ones that truly stand out are the ones that have a distinct and distinctive way about them – they look, talk, act, sing, dress, walk, move, laugh, cry and dance in a particular and memorable way. They have ‘a style all of their own’.

The opposite of this is that much abused agency word ‘generic’, which essentially means ‘just the same as everyone/thing else’ (think school uniform, or think corporate warriors dark suit and tie).

At this point in the conversation many businessmen and women roll their eyes – ‘these ad guys, they just want to be different’.

Well yes and no is the answer to that statement. No, we don’t want to be different, but yes, your brand needs to be different.

After all what is the point of a brand? What is it if it is not a tool by which your business can differentiate itself, it’s products and it’s services in an increasingly competitive marketplace?

If indeed this is the point of a brand, to set you apart, then why would you run a piece of communication that looks/sounds/reads/feels like every other piece of communication run by every other brand in your category?

The banks in this Nairobi are especially guilty of doing this. If you conduct an exercise, as I have, in which you stick examples of a cross-section of Kenyan bank ads on a wall, and consider them, you will soon see that the various logos that they bare are essentially interchangeable. The arrayed ads are indistinct from one another – there is nothing to distinguish them from each other, other than the logos (and colors, though most are either blues or greens).  No effort has been made to generate a visual, graphic, typographic and tonal style for the brands that is clearly and identifiably of the brands…

There is a concept in psychology known as ‘groupthink’, in which a closed group of people succeed in convincing themselves of a particular reality regardless of the actual reality of said so called reality. We (marketing fraternity) are suffering in this town from an acute case of groupthink. We have convinced ourselves that this is how a bank ad is supposed to look like, and this is how a promotional ad is supposed to look like, and this is how a sale ad is supposed to look like…

How can we possibly get things so back to front? The only thing that an ad is supposed to look like is not like any of the brand’s competitor’s ads!!!!!

And no I am not saying that the ad referenced here should star a cartoon elephant and a topless grandmother in the name of being different – one must of course still work within the framework provided by the category, the brand’s position and the target audience – but if your ad is not clearly differentiated, it is doing nothing for your brand, and if it is doing nothing for your brand, pray what exactly is it doing for you???

All the great ad campaigns in history, and by great Mr. CFO I mean had the greatest impact upon the bottom line, were great first and foremost because they were so utterly different to anything that had come before them. It is this sense of difference, freshness, newness and originality that captures people’s imagination and drives them, almost unwittingly, into your stores/branches/kiosks/arms…

And no, for the last time, different does not necessarily mean pink dreadlocks with multiple nose rings. Different could mean something as simple as using illustrations when all your competitors use photos, or sponsoring a volleyball tournament when all your competitors are throwing money at football.

The great TBWA call the above process ‘disrupting the conventions.’ BBH put it slightly more poetically – “when the world zigs, zag!!!’ It is at the heart of what every good agency does, and whilst it will rarely be what the client wants, it will almost always be what the client needs…