The New Year will, as always, bring
with it a change. For marketers too it will be a year of looking at business,
at consumers, at strategies, at investments, even at job profiles in a
different manner.
IBM is in the business of computers.
Well, so you thought, for it does much more now. This year, it is also in the
business of selling what is known as ‘trend detection’ to marketers. The
hottest trend in fashion, music, etc this year is predicted to be ‘the
Steampunk movement’. Who predicted it? Yes, IBM! It developed a model using
proprietary software that studied various conversations happening in various
networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest etc for years and also in
the numerous blogs, and discovered that “Steampunk” was being mentioned more
and more frequently and hence predicted that this was a trend to stay. It has
been proved right as the popularity of this trend is increasing. Even the
fashion label Prada launched its new fashion line with ‘Steampunk’ as the
theme. What started as a literary subgenera in the 1980s is today a hot selling
fashion trend. Now, IBM is offering its services to brands where it can help
them predict and identify new trends with the help of its new software and be
better prepared for the future. It is no more the traditional computer
manufacturer.
Think about it, the job of a singer
is to sing well; and if he is popular, he gets to endorse brands. Not anymore!
Will.i.am, the lead singer of the band The Black Eyed Peas, just proved it
wrong. Unlike other rock stars, his brand endorsements are different. When Coke
wanted to sign him up as their brand ambassador, he convinced them instead to
start a new division ‘Ekocycle’ (look carefully it’s actually Coke spelt
backwards) and endorse that.
He had deeply studied the company profile and found
that this was an idea which would benefit both him and Coke, something no brand
ambassador is expected to do. Rather, it’s the reverse as brands study the
profile of the star to see if he fits well with the brand! This new division
would promote ‘recycling’, with each product being labelled, stating clearly
how many bottles were recycled while manufacturing the product. For example, a
pair of headphones uses three bottles. The idea was a huge success, and today
Coke and Will.i.am divide the profits equally from this division. Not just
this, Coke probably for a very long time, will not change its brand ambassador
either and many companies would be lining up at Will’s door to sign him up.
Will has proved that it pays to not just be the traditional brand endorser, but
to go a step beyond. Soon gone would be the days of many things traditional,
one of them being shopping!