Cool Brands of Britain

Reading the Evening Standard this morning (ha) I ran across a British digital marketing expert named Louis Halpern talking about privacy and security for children and adults online. Pretty interesting, so I checked out his blog, and he got me thinking about defining your personal brand.

The internet is one of the best ways to sell a product, create a buzz and inform your customer about your product or service. But we all know that people buy people. So, one of the best things you can do is to define your personal brand. Lucky for me, Mr. Halpern has also co-written a book with Roy Murphy, called Personal Reputation Management: How to make the internet work for you.

Interesting stuff. The writers bring up important points to consider in personal digital branding. They tell you how to find out what information about you is out there, how to manage that information, and how to put your best digital foot forward. They talk about how to use social media webistes like Facebook and Twitter, how to get the most of your website using search engine optimisation, and they discuss the future of the internet and how you can use it to your advantage.

It’s a great idea I hope you will implement. You are the cool brands of Britain, and you can use the internet as a tool to communicate that.

They say you never forget your first time… and it must be true, because Virgin Atlantic has been rending the sky with its service and entrepreneurism for 25 years and is still going strong under the leadership of Sir Richard Branson.

What sets Virgin Atlantic Airways apart from the competition? Virgin Atlantic’s main competition is British Airways, because when Virgin Atlantic startd in 1984, they began directly competing with BA on international long-haul flights from the UK to destinations like the USA and the Carribbean.

I’d like to discuss exactly why Virgin Airways (and Richard Branson himself) have been so successful. I’ve put together some quotes that discuss this.  Enjoy.

Talking about his mentor, Freddie Laker, Branson said: “At the time, I was running a little record company; I was about 17 years old. The first time I met him was some years later. I was thinking about setting up my own airline. He gave me this advice: ‘You’ll never have the advertising power to outsell British Airways. You are going to have to get out there and use yourself. Make a fool of yourself. Otherwise you won’t survive’.”

“I hope that the reason Virgin has been successful and will continue to be successful is that we recognize that the public cares about how companies in which they invest their trust, their loyalty and their money behave in the marketplace.”

“We’ve never followed the business models of the marketing and financial gurus. Rather, we’ve developed our own ways of doing things, regardless of the criticism thrown at us by the so-called business experts.”

“My parents would never let me criticize anyone, saying it would reflect badly on me. To this day, I look for the best in people who work for Virgin and believe that as a result I only get the best back. ‘Flowers flourish when watered,’ they’d tell me. The same applies to people.”

I am sure you are wondering whether Jamie Oliver is a brand. Of course he is. First of all, he now has his own product lines that carry his name (e.g. sauces and pasta) but as a cook, he is a brand of his own. Although Gordon Ramsay is now stealing his thunder with his unique character and “polite” manners, Jamie Oliver changed the meaning of cooking for many people around the globe.

I am certain the majority of European TV viewers are familiar with his name and shows, as he has managed to target a wide audience from different ages, backgrounds, tastes and nationalities! His charm and cheerful character have enabled him to draw the interest of many people, regardless of whether they enjoy cooking or not. People in the UK know him mainly through his initiative to change the lunch menu in schools, but also through his other shows. I personally enjoyed the show where he attempted to open a restaurant with cooks that he personally trained and transformed them to professional chefs. Although the story ended with him losing a lot of money and time, his passion to teach people how to cook at his standards and selfless character made the British love him.

So why is Jamie Oliver a cool British brand? He is unique, successful, absolutely associated with Britain and has reshaped the cooking industry. I don’t think you can ask for more from a person. He is an ideal representative of his country.

I think it is! I know right now you are thinking that I am weird and that I have serious “coolness” issues but let me defend my case!

When a retailer is currently holding 1/3 of the market share and is outperforming his main rival ASDA by nearly 100% difference, in my opinion that makes it cool. I agree it’s a different perspective of coolness but you have to give credit to Tesco’s strategy. Its growth rate has been phenomenal and its marketing tactics have definitely brought the majority of the UK consumers to its stores.

I was going through a case study in university of how Tesco executives have brought market research to a different level. Apparently the sales in frozen peas had dropped significantly, a category with a large profit margin. After extensive research, they found out that the size of the peas was the problem. They claimed that when kids sat in front of the TV, they found it hard using the fork to eat their peas because of their large size. When Tesco managed to make them smaller, the sales picked up again! Crazy eh? I though that was pretty cool.

And an ending note. I also think Tesco is cool because they have the best triple chocolate cookies!