http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/invisiblebrand Financial services, branding and advertsiing articles http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/109 Is this the secret formula for creating sustained marketing success? Lucian Camp explores the myth of a 'Philosopher's Stone' that can turn any brand it touches into gold. http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/109 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/108 Are brands still playing by the established rules? Lucian Camp thinks back to how the game was played at the start of his career, and concludes that over the years virtually everything he learned has been shown the red card. http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/108 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/110 As Billy Joel sang, "it's a matter of trust." Trust certainly matters in financial services, but is our understanding of it a bit simplistic? Lucian Camp identifies five different kinds of trust - and argues that after all the challenges of recent years, some are in much better health today than others. http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/110 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/111 For those who prefer business-class travel, luxury hotels, platinum or black credit cards and Michelin-starred restaurants, paying more to get more is a way of life. So why is it, asks Lucian Camp, that so many financial services providers still only offer a one-class service? http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/111 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/85 Has the credit crunch been the greatest disaster ever in the history of brands and branding, Lucian Camp wonders? Discuss. http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/85 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/83 With so many brands changing hands these days, Lucian Camp looks at whether changes in ownership makes that much difference to consumers, or whether they're really that bothered to begin with. http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/83 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/84 From buying bestsellers to booking theatre tickets, the internet now dominates our lives but do we really understand how it works? And when it comes to financial products, Lucian Camp explores whether the internet works for, or against us? http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/84 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/86 As it becomes harder to define the average consumer, Mark Humphrys ponders whether it's time for a rethink on direct marketing in financial services? And just how do we engage our audience's attention long enough for them not to recycle but to respond? Perhaps the answer lies within... http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/86 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/87 With the (so-called) festive season upon us, Lucian Camp reflects on the true meaning of the Christmas Party. Is it “Best Wishes” or simply “Bah, humbug”? http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/87 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/82 Back in the 1840s, these men had a big idea, says Lucian Camp. 170 years later, it's back http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/82 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/79 How will the era of the credit crunch affect financial advertising, asks Paul Gordon. Will the hair shirt replace Howard's Hawaiian variety? http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/79 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/78 After happily boring people to death for decades, says Lucian Camp, the financial services industry is belatedly recognising the need to be interesting http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/78 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/80 The financial establishment - including the FSA - has a vested interest in baffling the poor old consumer, says Lucian Camp http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/80 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/81 Lucian Camp explains why he didn't get round to writing this till long after the cows came home. http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/81 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/10 There's been little trace for many years, says Lucian Camp, but just recently we've started to see perfectly ordinary mass-market consumers turning up on the industry's boardroom radar screens. http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/10 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/8 Have Egg's new owners gone mad, asks Paul Gordon, or is it just that they don't really understand the values of the brand they now own? http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/8 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/9 Planning Director Chris Bromiley has specialised in mapping, analysing and refining customer journeys for fifteen years. Now he's sharing the key points he's learned about how this approach builds better businesses. http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/9 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/11 Lucian Camp gives advice on how to spare creative people's feelings when sticking the knife (or the fork) into their ideas http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/11 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/50 Lucian Camp explains how he struck rebranding gold in the unlikely environment of his own bath http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/50 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/20 The direct insurance market is certainly big, Lucian Camp acknowledges, but as yet it's far from clever. http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/20 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/19 Lucian Camp wonders with uncharacteristic optimism whether a new dawn of fair dealing, customer focus and “real” brands is slowly breaking on the UK's High Streets http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/19 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/23 Somehow or other, says Paul Gordon, people have got it into their heads that business communications should appeal to reason first and emotion a distant second. Some recent research we commissioned in the group healthcare market suggests just the opposite. http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/23 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/22 It's all true, admits Jonathan Spooner, agencies and their stupid names are like the old saying about cobblers' children and their ill-fitting shoes. But not for much longer, at this agency at any rate. http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/22 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/24 In the investment funds market, says Lucian Camp, campaigns based on extended analogies are all the go at the moment. But will others follow where Artemis's hunters lead? And if so, will they find what they're looking for? http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/24 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/25 Lucian Camp thinks the pressure is on financial marketers to respond to today's environmentally-responsible climate. http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/25 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/26 Why can't I think of a single provider who makes us laugh? http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/26 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/27 Investment funds advertisers, according to Lucian Camp, should start thinking like pizza manufacturers or car makers. http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/27 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/28 Paul Gordon thinks that the country's remaining building societies have a surprisingly strong story to tell. http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/28 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/29 Lucian Camp suggests there may be trouble at t'mill for companies who don't champion their mutuality. http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/29 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/31 When it comes to developing new products, financial services could learn a lot from car designers, says CCHM:Ping joint MD, Paul Gordon http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/31 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/30 Lucian Camp discovers that genuinely compelling facts are dead and buried. http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/30 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/32 The plan was to integrate online, telephone and face-to-face advice so that customers could hop happily like mountain goats from channel to channel. http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/32 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/33 They'll tell you everything you need to know, assets Lucian Camp, about creating a distinctive and sucessful world for your brand. http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/33 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/36 cchm:ping Joint Managing Director Rupert Pybus takes a world-weary view of the idea that massive service brands can be re-engineered at the flick of a campaign switch. http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/36 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/34 Apparently not, according to Lucian Camp, who has been investigating the mysterious absence of http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/34 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/35 Can marketing communications make a difference when more fundamental issues remain unresolved? cchm:ping Joint Managing Director Paul Gordon investigates. http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/35 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/77 THE CCHM:PING CONTRACT OF EMPLOYMENT states that our normal working hours are 'from 9 to 5.30, with an hour for lunch, or otherwise as required by your manager.' Very likely this wording wouldn't stand up in court, but in truth it doesn't stand up too well in real life either. http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/77 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/37 Financial Services marketers seeking to establish a new generation of customers among today's 18 - 34 year-olds may have their ingenuity stretched, but solutions do exist, argues Steve Chipperfield. http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/37 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/38 Can the concept of 'Treating Customers Fairly' in marketing communications stand up to rigorous interrogation? http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/38 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/40 The imminence of 'A-Day' offers financial providers a fresh opportunity to reach out to target audiences. But to be successful, they need to rely rather more on insight and a good deal less on product features. http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/40 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/39 Lucian Camp casts a weary eye over the long drawn-out demise of the personal finance sections and makes the case for something fresher. http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/39 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/14 The days of monogamous relationships between financial services providers and their customers are long gone. But it's surprising how the presumption lives on, often to the detriment of successful marketing communications. http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/14 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/16 As a forty-year growth market is rapidly approaching maturity, Sean Ingram - Deputy Chairman of cchm:ping - asks whether today's credit card marketers regard growth as the natural state of things? How well are they prepared for tougher times? Have they used brand to give themselves an enduring compe http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/16 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/18 'Balanced Advertising' may be the finest example ever created of the figure of speech known technically as oxymoron, and in plain English as a contradiction in terms. Other examples - 'dry water', 'cold heat', 'German comedian' - pale into insignificance alongside it. http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/18 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/15 An important feature of Ellen MacArthur's recent solo circumnavigation was weather routing - she was in touch, 24 hours a day, with one of the world's most sophisticated weather mapping and forecasting organisations. http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/15 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/17 Lucian camp on the dangers of both giving and receiving awards http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/17 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/41 It doesn't seem so long ago that economists and sociologists were promising us a brave new world of leisure and material well-being based on three-day working weeks and retirement at 50, all thanks to the benefits of new technology. http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/41 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/43 As an agency that collectively spends something like 3,000 person-hours a week producing financial marketing communications, we could get pretty depressed when we hear the sort of words that people use to describe them. http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/43 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/42 Or are we? Lucian Camp takes issue with the widespread assumption that financial services marketers are uniquely hard done by. http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/42 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/44 cchm:ping Joint MD Paul Gordon finds a historical slant in making a case for the integrated communications agency. http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/44 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/48 It's a sort of Trojan-rocking-horse strategy, in which the Government's gift comes with its own inbuilt hidden agenda. http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/48 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/45 The major banks see customer segmentation as the route to even greater domination and profitability from their retail operations.There have been some successes, but the challenge remains a daunting one... http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/45 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/46 Lucian Camp reflects on why the financial advice industry has yet to embrace the concept of branding. http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/46 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/47 CCHM MD Paul Gordon considers the intriguing inferences of a recent CCHM research study. http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/47 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/49 Lucian Camp takes a light-hearted look at brand behaviour as articulated by the corporate biscuit selection. http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/49 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/56 The communications industry is guilty of misleading services businesses about the cost of entry to the branding game, argues Lucian Camp. http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/56 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/51 The fight to sit at the King's right hand side http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/51 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/52 Three decades after its definitive hit 'Living in the Past', Jethro Tull is still pulling in big audiences on tours throughout the world. Flute-playing lead man Ian Anderson and lead guitarist Martin Barre are the mainstay talents in a band that has sold in excess of 50 million albums. IB Editor Steve Chipperfield interviews Martin Barre to find out what today's marketers can learn from the Jethro Tull experience. Amongst other things, he discovers there's a passion for the product and a huge respect for the customer behind the band's enduring success. http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/52 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/53 We're all familiar with the experience. You've picked up a nail in your tyre, so you drop into your local branch of a national tyre and battery organisation. There's no-one in reception, and the phone is ringing... http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/53 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/55 Lucian Camp considers the life-sapping implications of providing work experience today for the business leaders of tomorrow http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/55 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/59 CCHM's Managing Director, Paul Gordon, reflects on the comparative lack of advertising in the UK mortgage market and wonders if things may be set for change. http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/59 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/57 Lucian Camp on... some of the nation's most powerful brand relationships. http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/57 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/58 'Alternative' areas of corporate sponsorship can present interesting and affordable branding opportunities for professional and business services firms - but there are pitfalls as well as rewards. http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/58 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/60 CCHM's Head of Planning, KateWellesley, explores some of the issues confronting planners in the development of communications strategies. http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/60 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/62 George Pitcher argues that international marketers are going to have to pay greater heed to the new American psyche if they are to engage successfully with US audiences and markets. http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/62 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/66 Is it possible for a service business to succeed commercially when it alienates the people who deliver the customer experience? It may defy conventional wisdom, but it happens. How do we accommodate this within our theories of branding? http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/66 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/63 There is a long tradition of featuring celebrities in advertising to promote service brands. Do they really work - or are they a substitute for a strong proposition and an original creative idea? http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/63 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/64 How does 'the service brand agency' manage its own brand and communications? http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/64 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/65 Lucian Camp on 'Education' in marketing http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/65 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/69 Nescafe, Persil, Red Bull, Haagen Dazs, Flora, Sunny Delight. Six big fast-moving consumer goods brands. Can you break them out into two groups of three? http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/69 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/67 How does the established service business make the consumer take a fresh look at its offering? How can it put blue water between itself and competitors in me-too markets? We explore how distinctive behaviour can make for distinctively successful brands. http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/67 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/70 If service brands are people businesses, and if one of their biggest challenges is to align the attitudes and behaviours of their people with the values of their brand, then common sense says that the greater the number of people, the more difficult the challenge. http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/70 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/71 Stephen Lowe conducts an investigation. http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/71 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/68 Can marketing communications strategies ever replace 'the Man from the Pru'? http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/68 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/74 The Consumer Association'sWhich Online recently removed two high profile internet businesses - Trainline.com and Jungle.com - from its Web Trader recommended list for repeated failure to deliver fulfilment or address customer complaints. http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/74 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/72 Can communications ever take the lead? http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/72 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/73 Promoting new categories of service business can lead to a classic communications dilemma for clients and agencies. http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/73 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/76 argues Anthony Thomson http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/76 http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/articles/id/75 CCHM Creative Director Lucian Camp comments on the underestimated importance of a distinctive tone of voice. http://www.invisiblebrand.co.uk/rss/75