I’ve been asked recently, on a couple of occasions, if brand strategy can inform the development of new products, services and offerings.

While those processes cannot be guided only by the brand, the two are more closely related than they may seem.

Companies today live in a world of abundance. One side effect of this abundance is that at any given moment, the amount of new offerings and product they can embark on developing borders on the endless. This is even worse when it comes to things like software features.

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Just got back from the CNN studios in London, where I commented about the “user generated content” SuperBowl ads (youtubed version hopefully to come unfortunatly, due to a seried of technical glitches, I don’t have a video of this segment, and would be thankfull if anybody out there has. I only have “bootlegs” that I only dare show to friends & family.).

On this year’s superbowl, some of the adverts feature user generated content. But are they, really?

• The NFL run a competition where members of the public pitched ideas, but the winning idea was created by a professional marketer and will be professionally shot.
• Doritos & Chevrolet will air ads shot by users, but (the brilliant) finalists look just like professional ads.
• Alka Seltzer will broadcast the winner of what is practically a jingle competition (those were quite popular with 40’s and 50’s radio campaign).

The points I was trying to make (and hopefully did – with TV you can never know until you watch it, and it was a live recording): Continue reading →