‘Commercialism’ – often tainted by a ‘big is bad’ attitude towards companies or an overly materialistic attitude towards life, it is a concept which has been both more relevant and rejected in the past 50 years than ever before.

But it needn’t be negative; commercialism is fundamentally about driving value in the most pragmatic way possible, based on identified needs and available resource. Here at The Value Engineers we are proud that our approach to branding, strategy, innovation and insight is rooted in the commercial value and implication of our thinking.

We can help you use insight to drive brand strategy and innovation for commercial success.

• ‘So-called commercialism includes elements like story, plots, rhythms and large big scenes’ – Zhang Yimou
• ‘Commercialism: the exclusive or inappropriate emphasis on profit’ – reference.com
• ‘Brands exist to add value – they are commercial by definition’ – V. Vale
• ‘The trick is for brands to really care about what they’re selling – rather than coming across as hard commercial machines’ –  J. Spencer
• ‘Commercialism without morality should be the death of business’ – Anon

Borrowed with pride from all over the place.

Considering Thinking about ourselves in a wider context helps us to understand who we are – if we fit into our environment, the lens through which we interpret our surroundings and how our background has influenced our present. We also speak of how competition makes us better, stronger and more determined; the challenge a competitor puts to us can force us to realise ambitions we might not have thought possible.

The same is true for business and brands – without evaluating their position relevant to the other brands and companies in their context, how can they know they are offering consumers a truly differentiated proposition and compete in a way which forces them to be head and shoulders above the rest?

We can help you understand your position within a market and develop your brand’s positioning and strategy for success within it.

• ‘It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change’ – Charles Darwin
• ‘Competition is the keen cutting edge of business’ – Henry Ford
• ‘You can’t just beat a team, you have to leave a lasting impression on their minds’ – Mia Hamm
• ‘Competition creates better products, alliances create better companies’ – Brian Graham
• ‘The worst thing a brand can do is retain a myopic approach to its competition. Competition is from all angles, from all markets – and that’s what makes business fun’ – J. Grimsley

Borrowed with pride from all over the place.

Here at The Value Engineers ‘thinking’ is very important to us; in our promise to ‘out-think the competition,’ in the way we consider problems from every angle and in our constant responses to the world around us and the implications it has for brands.

We can help you keep your thinking fresh to avoid stagnation and make sure that your brand is out-thinking its competitors.

• ‘The Value Engineers: out-thinking, not out-spending the competition’ – The Value Engineers
• ‘Thinking is easy, acting is difficult, and to put your thoughts into action is the hardest thing in the world’ – Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
• ‘What we think, we become’ – The Buddha
• ‘There’s no point in thinking if it’s not forward-thinking’ – N.Tyson
• ‘The best brand thinking is inspired by customer thinking – but the former must retain a mind of its own’ – G. Clayton

Borrowed with pride from all over the place.

Today’s quotes are all about brand marriages – marriages between brands and other brands to form stronger partnerships through shared values and audiences.

We often use ‘brand marriages’ as a tool in workshops to help us approach a brand’s footprint from a fresh perspective.  It can help us think about innovation in a new way and the many examples of brand marriages in the real world demonstrate the power of borrowed values when the combination is right.

So, which brands could your brand learn from to leverage principles in other categories for success in its own? We can help you think about your brand’s positioning, strategy and innovation pipeline using brand marriage thinking…just ask us how.

• ‘What it takes to initially attract a first-time buyer or user is often quite different from what it takes to turn that prospect into a fully engaged customer. Dating is different from marriage’ – William J McEwan
• ‘A long marriage is two people trying to dance a duet and two solos at the same time’ – Anne Taylor Fleming
• ‘A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person’ -Mignon McLaughlin
• ‘You’ll see substantial savings in your marketing budget if you marry the right brand the first time’ – Martin Lindstrom
• ‘Matrimony is a process by which a grocer acquired an account the florist had’ – Francis Rodman

Borrowed with pride from all over the place.

We often talk about how brands use disruption to their advantage; from disrupting a category to provide consumers with a new and different set of benefits and values associated with existing products / services to disrupting our mindsets through cut-through communications, brands often seek to gain our attention and interest through causing us to sit up and take note of something different.

How does your brand disrupt consumers’ daily lives in a good way? Is its role a category disrupter or a leader? We can help you define its role within the marketplace and against its competitive set to use positive disruption to its advantage.

• ‘To celebrate disruption is to celebrate original thinking; long live the disruptors and rebels, for they are those who lead and not follow!’ – Anon
• ‘Brand disruption changes expectations of the product category to make customers find your brand more appealing which, in turn, will help you attract more business’ – Claire Dally
• ‘Brand disruption without careful preparation of the initial conditions will often give people the experience of short-lived confusion rather than deep and lasting astonishment’ – Stuart Nolan
• ‘Cause as much chaos and disruption as possible but don’t let them take you alive’ – Sid Vicious
• ‘It’s always a disruption when you change’ – Jerry Mitchell

Borrowed with pride from all over the place.