Thursday’s tragic news about Lee McQueen taking his own life got me thinking over the weekend about the link between the originator of a brand and the potential for that brand to thrive after their death. In the fashion world, of course, there are plenty of examples of well established brands continuing to enjoy good health long after their founders have moved on to the great catwalk in the sky, but with a brand as relatively young as that of Alexander McQueen, I wonder how that longevity will be achieved.

No doubt there will be a strong upsurge in sales now, as collectors and speculators rush to grab the last remaining items of his retail stock (there are currently 879 items being offered on eBay, compared to only 10 for Stella McCartney goods) but what happens next? Certainly, with the stepping up of Donatella Versace to the role of Creative Director, the Versace brand has survived, as has the Moschino brand, but these were both brands with very strong identities and a back catalogue of visual equities that could easily be replicated by a talented team of designers. Will life be so easy for the successors at McQueen?

By all accounts he drove the look and feel of his collections with an obsessive attention to detail and incredible level of personal involvement, constantly reinventing his style with each collection. Once the sadness surrounding his tragic death has had time to pass, and his team review the future of the brand, there are a few key issues they will need to consider before proceeding:

• Who are the core audience for McQueen clothes and how can they be nurtured and kept close to the brand during this period and beyond?
• What visual, design and other ‘ownable’ equities exist within the Alexander McQueen brand and back catalogue?
• To what extent can the brand be scaled / extended … can the brand punch above its weight by strategically leveraging the equities it has and keeping the ‘spirit’ of McQueen alive (possibly through alliances with charities or other causes that he supported – Battersea Dogs Home springs to mind)

Personally, I’d hate to see the brand wither on the vine – I might have never been able to afford (or been thin enough to wear!) his clothes, but I’d love to think I’d be able to in the future … must get on the treadmill!

This weekend’s story that the sale of Gü has got potential buyers including Nestle and Mars queuing up for a piece of the pie shouldn’t come as any surprise – the story of Gü has been a triumph of branding, demonstrating the phenomenal value that exciting brands and strong marketing can deliver. Initially, of course it is the founders who will benefit, but in the future I’m convinced that Gü will continue to deliver strong value for shareholders too.

To my mind, Gü is a textbook example of a brand that has (more or less) done everything right in its six years of existence:

• clear segmentation of the desserts market to identify a highly profitable niche of consumers who are prepared to pay a significant premium for quality, imagination and style
• highly targeted channel and communications strategies, leveraging the partnership with Waitrose to build a strong consumer following before heading out to the mainstream
• a consistent renovation and innovation roadmap, building and refreshing the core offer of intensely indulgent chocolate desserts and then exploring profitable niches in bakery, fruit desserts and beyond
• a geographical expansion plan that feels robust and scalable (and even includes selling ‘mousse au chocolat’ to the French!)

More than anything, though, I love the fact that Gü was a pioneer in explicitly bucking the trend towards healthy, worthy and puritanical eating … it recognised that life isn’t just about punitive health, but that when we work as hard as we do, we need small indulgences. What’s more, it has proved that we’re prepared to pay a significant premium for these experiences to be of the highest quality … little pots of golden goodness.

So, what next for Mordecai Wosner and James Averdieck, the Gü-rus of Gü? A future in brand consulting perhaps? I’m sure they could offer many brands some valuable lessons in focus, strategy and innovation.

With the phenomenal growth of the market research industry, researchers and recruiters have been worrying for several years about the growth of the ‘professional respondent’ and the apparently increasing difficulty in finding fresh consumers who are willing to take part in research studies.

The current economic crisis may just have a positive effect on this issue – as more people lose their jobs, or simply become more financially insecure, the attraction of participating in market research may bring many new respondents into the pool, people who previously may have declared themselves too busy or simply unwilling to take part. Indeed, attendance at our recent groups has been significantly better than usual, and it is rare now to have ‘no-shows’.

However, whilst this can undoubtedly be highly beneficial for recruiters, researcher (and ultimately research results for clients), it will bring its own set of challenges. For example: how do you engage respondents who have previously been disengaged from the process? How do you overcome their cynicism if they have agreed to take part out of financial necessity rather than out of any kind of desire to assist the process?

I think there are several things that we should do at this stage to ensure that we get the best out of this ‘fresh blood’:
1. Encourage our recruiters now more than ever to search out ‘virgin’ respondents
2. Ensure that screeners are applied rigorously to weed out the disinterested and the freeloaders
3. Become ever more creative in ensuring that our research methodologies truly engage the imagination of respondents
4. Ensure that research approaches, where possible, allow respondents to feel that they are part of an important process with real benefits for people like them, not an exercise in hoop-jumping
5. Treat respondents as equals in the process – avoid ‘lab-rat’ testing methods and bring them into the marketing process as much as possible

Who knows, they might just surprise you and we might all get some fresh insights to drive the next phase of business growth.