BBN comes to Chicago

How do you effectively integrate brand asset management, creative and technology-enabled channel strategy… and play it out on a global scale?

That was just one item on the agenda when Bader Rutter played host to the Executive Board of the Business Branding Network (BBN), which held its first ever Chicago meeting last week.

Representing a network of more than 20 agencies worldwide, the BBN Executive Board

Click to read more ...

Make it personal

Recently, I attended the annual meeting of our global agency network, BBN, in Paris. Mineo Kamiyama, CEO of Business Decisions in Japan, shared some very recent research on the impact of the tsunami on Japanese attitudes and behaviors. 

One of the more telling results was that a vast majority of respondents said they were going to spend more personal, face-to-face time with their friends, relatives and colleagues and would not overly rely on social media tools and other impersonal communications methods. The emotional impact was readily evident.

It really struck a chord with me. Fortunately, not many in the world have faced such a major catastrophe, but it is a reminder that we shouldn’t forget about the need to interact in person.

Click to read more ...

Sometimes we forget them

I had occasion to visit Washington D.C. this weekend, and while walking among the white headstones at Arlington National Cemetery I decided I needed to write this post about a recent trip I took to the United Arab Emirates.

I traveled to Dubai in the UAE last month for a Business Branding Network Executive Board meeting. On the way over and back my flights out of Atlanta were completely packed. More than half of the passengers were U.S. military personnel. There were folks from the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines (hope I didn’t forget a branch). It was fundamentally a cross section of our younger population. Every race, creed, color, gender and size was represented. Traveling internationally these days is truly a bonding experience, so we got to know each other. Together we went through primary security, stood in line for sign-in at the gate, went through final security at the gate, waited together to board, sat together (and I mean together) on the plane and finally stood in line again for passport control.

I’m writing this because I was struck by the level of professionalism among these men and women. To a person, they were well dressed (mostly in civilian clothes), well groomed, articulate and completely polite. As an ex-G.I., I spoke with a number of them as I was curious about life in the military today. A good number of them are working on continuing education either in military classes or universities. They are proud of what they do in the service and spoke of the opportunities to change jobs if they were qualified for the training. Not once did I hear any whining, despite the fact some of them were headed to duty stations in garden spots on the frontier in Iraq and Afghanistan. God bless them. They are all volunteers and we are very fortunate to have them. 

It dawned on me if anyone wanted to militarily impact the interests of our country anywhere in the world, they would have to deal with these folks.

I wouldn’t like their chances.

Impressions of Cairo

Having visited Egypt in December for the Business Branding Network’s International Branding Conference, the current climate of civil unrest has really had an impact for me.

I see some of the very same streets and places I recently walked through now filled with protest demonstrations. The time I spent in Cairo was filled with strong impressions of a visit to another world. Here is what I saw and experienced in Egypt just a few weeks ago.

First impression: It looked just like Wisconsin. As our plane descended on final approach, everything was white, everywhere.  It was a sandstorm – basically, a blizzard substituting sand for snow. It lasted two days, like living in a dense gritty fog, but with very strong winds. It was also dangerous, with more than a dozen lost lives attributed to effects of the storm across Northern Egypt.

Click to read more ...

BBN International Branding Conference

It began in the midst of a major sandstorm blanketing Cairo in grit from the desert, and it ended two days later with a chilly evening cruise down the Nile in unseasonably cool temperatures. But in between, an audience of business leaders, marketing professionals and journalists warmly embraced the second International Branding Conference hosted December 13 to 14 by The Business Branding Network (BBN) Egypt.

Conference participants were keen to explore best practices that could be applied to global brand development and destination marketing. We had top names from Egyptian companies and universities at the podium. We had featured BBN speakers presenting examples and perspectives from different nations (I was there for BBN USA). And we had a forum that devoted extensive time to open discussion, challenging questions and even debate among all participants. Nobody mailed this one in – there was engagement and energy throughout.

Click to read more ...

Life with Sina

Sina is an extremely bright, beautiful woman of 25 from Germany. She came to Bader Rutter as a part of the Business Branding Network’s Rising Star program from our sister agency wob. BBN is a network of 25 agencies located all over the world. Sina’s focus is Brand Asset Management, which is the internationally vetted branding process used at  all our sister BBN agencies that allows us to work seamlessly together amongst different cultures providing truly global integrated services. While I know that this multi-cultural business interaction takes place at our agency everyday, it was particularly eye-opening for me to see it first hand through Sina.

Sina came to BR at the end of August and left at the end of October. As with other interns who have come to Bader Rutter in years past through BBN, Sina lived with my family and me. She was in some ways another child, but more so a friend to my daughter Nicki and me.

Doing basic daily things became fun with Sina. Going to the grocery store was particularly fun and interesting. She was like a child in toy store. Her eyes would get big over the number of cereal and yogurt selections and at the size of bottles available in everything from shampoo to ketchup. When it was time to do the laundry or empty the dishwasher, she’d jump up to help making the chore easier, faster and more fun to do.

Click to read more ...

Marcom A to Z — G for Global

Digital channels that easily link people and businesses around the globe create a feeling of connectedness. Even issues are more global from cause to effect — energy, climate change and “green,” for example — thereby unifying people from different countries. While the corporate world is growing smaller in terms of connect-ability (person-to-person, BtoB or BtoC reach), it’s growing larger in terms of virtual and global expansion opportunities for businesses.

I’ve read a slew of articles recently about global business growth. Of them, these stand out as interesting trend indicators:

• A recent CNNMoney article by Beth Kowitt confirms that emerging markets have become a choice investment option due to developed countries’ stagnant economic situation relative to the growth opportunities in developing parts of the world.
• The National Business Travel Association (NBTA) unveiled initial research findings about the growth in global business travel through 2013: Global Business Travel Spend Projected to Exceed $986 Billion by 2013. “The study predicts that growth of business travel in China and Japan will exceed U.S. growth over the next five years. In addition, developing nations, like India, Vietnam, Iran and Indonesia will experience significant compound annual growth rates over the same timeframe.”

Click to read more ...

Brand portfolio strategy and M&As

While the recession may have put a halt on many mergers and acquisitions, it has also put more pressure to succeed on the M&As that are getting completed. Both domestically and internationally through our BBN (Business Branding Network) partners, we develop effective brand portfolio strategies for clients going through M&As. Analyzing a company’s brand portfolio strategy is a critical, yet often overlooked part of the M&A process. It provides the structure to manage and leverage a valuable asset beyond buildings, machines, technology, logos and people. A brand portfolio strategy provides the structure to leverage the brand.

Click to read more ...

Back from Prague

From left: Debbie Dawson BBN HQ, Rob Morrice BBN UK, Johan Astrom BBN Sweden, Timo Kruskopf BBN Finland, Andrew Higgins BBN HQ, Gudmund Semb BBN Germany, yours truly

Just returned from the 2009 BBN Management Meeting. Business owners from 18 marketing communications agencies covering five continents met in the Czech Republic for three days around the theme “Change and Challenge.” I’m pleased to report that despite a tough global economy, the 22-year-old BBN network is alive and well.

We continue to grow (new members from Korea, Egypt, Russia, UAE, and Romania) and are supporting brands like Air France, SNA Europe, Mercedes Benz, LeasePlan and WEG in a number of geographies. During the meeting the 2009 – 2010 Executive Board was elected. I’ll continue to serve with four other owners for the next two years. See BBN’s newly designed Web site for more and check back for posts about what’s happening in international markets.