Our first Closeness Breakfast took place this week. Despite the terrible British weather conditions, forty people made it to Wallacespace St. Pancras in London, for a delicious breakfast and an hour of “Consumers Through the Looking Glass”.

We were really glad to have the opportunity to showcase our Closeness capabilities – combining our own thinking with successful client case studies. To whet your appetite, here is a brief summary of what was covered on the day:

Anna Eggleton, Director of Closeness at The Value Engineers, kicked off by asking company executives “how do you experience your brand’s service?”. Very often this is totally different from how the majority of their customers do! Having customers explain why they value or dislike an aspect of your service can really focus practical brand building. Talking to customers face to face also gives employees a sense of inspiration and excitement, fuelling a new commitment to growing their brand.

Nicola Craig, Head of Customer Insight at BSkyB, exhibited the rigorous Closeness programme that BSkyB have developed with The Value Engineers over the years. Aligning company thinking with customer thinking can have a fast-moving and positive effect on the way people within organisations tackle specific business problems. Our joint Closeness programme has not only embedded a more customer-focused culture within the executive team at BSkyB, but also contributed to an award winning advertising campaign for the Sky+ service. As she summised, “this allowed us to meet the human face behind the numbers”.

Charlotte Vicary, Senior Consultant, talked about some of the less obvious merits of a Closeness programme. We heard about the freedom of direction, the memorability of ‘out of comfort zone moments’, the power of honesty and the salience of story telling. Closeness can also help link businesses back into their brands through internal myth-busting, telling the story behind the numbers and giving senior executives the reality check they sometimes need.

Finally Katy Mousinho, Director of Insight, told us how one single Closeness event has the power to change how organisations think about the role their customers play in their business. Closeness can really help clients understand their own segmentations – rooting brand planning and strategy in powerful human insight.

We hope to follow the Closeness Breakfast with further events to share our ideas on other aspects of successful brand building that we work so hard to develop. We look forward to seeing you and your colleagues at one of these events in the future.

For more of our thinking on Closeness, please contact Anna Eggleton.

There was little Christmas cheer for poor old Barbie this year – a bitter pill to swallow for the iconic fashion doll who turned 50 in 2009.

Despite a mid life makeover, it is reported that annual sales are down in excess of 25%, a decline which one might argue reflects the perennial ‘age compression’ problem faced by all toy brands as kids gravitate towards video gaming at an ever younger age. However other classic brands have fared pretty well during this years recession with the likes of LEGO up 20% and Sylvanian Families up 40%, possibly reflecting a parental predisposition for nostalgic brands that provide comfort during such difficult and volatile times.

Successful toy brands continue to be those that have a clear set of values coupled with an ongoing investment in genuine innovation that ensures the refreshment of the experience for kids whilst providing traditional branded re-assurance for parents and grand-parents. The new ‘Monopoly City’ is a great example and was one of the top 5 sellers for the year.

Perhaps Barbie needs much more than a cosmetic make over if it is to re-engage with this new generation of kids, especially with the 2009 launch of Moxie Girlz. MGA Entertainment are behind these new dolls adding to their Bratz line which was launched in 2001, and which are still being contested legally by Mattel in the US. In recent weeks though MGA won its appeal to retain the rights to sell Bratz and so 2010 is set to be another challenging year for Mattel’s flagship girl brand.

Just before Christmas I was stumbling along Regent Street in a haze of bright lights, expensive prices and carrier bags when I espied a little piece of what might be my own personal paradise: a Marmite pop-up shop!

The store was selling a range of Marmite related objets d’arts like t-shirts, Andy Warholesque pictures, aprons, bags, boxes and jigsaws. Of course Marmite itself was available in a range of sizes and formats. 

As a lover of the sticky black stuff I was bowled over by this store and intrigued about the idea of pop-up stores in general. Clearly the pop-up is not a new idea but this was my first such store, was in a very prestigious location and was attracting a lot of interest from passers by. What a fantastic way to promote a brand: massive exposure, huge footfall, strong word of mouth. To add to it all the store had its own Twitter feed so that true devotees could keep track of the high jinks going on at the store on the move.

With all the closed units on high streets due to the current downturn what a great way for brands to get out there and promote themselves, without taking the hit of a full store lease. Love it or hate it, that Marmite sure is clever.