The World Cup approaches and, once again, the English nation hopes against hope that it can win the tournament and finally end 44 years of hurt. Meanwhile, in South Africa the dreams are just as bold but aimed in a very different direction. FIFA’s World Cup presents its hosts with, what they believe to be, their biggest ever opportunity to build a stronger country brand.
Branding is all about creating alignment of your companies business processes with its corporate culture. British Petroleum (BP) provides a case in point of a brand that got way out front of its business process and culture to produce tremendous exposure to risk. (Risk that is perhaps contemplated above by BP’s Chief Executive Tony Hayward.)
What do consumers think about advertising? Is it broken? As I noted recently, “The 5 Truths of TV Advertising Effectiveness,” single source and syndicated ad effectiveness studies generally line up on the side of advertising continuing to be effective.
“You can’t beat somebody with a nobody” is the old political axiom, and it applies to marketing, too.
