News & views
Blog / February, 2009 /
25 February 2009 /
by Ian Stephens at 4:11 pm 25 February 2009
Filed under: Branding, Identity
Tags: energy, solar
The time is right for solar energy companies to put energy into building strong brands.
When I was a child and forgot to switch off the light when leaving a room, my grandfather used to say, “switch off the light because I am not working for an electricity company”, the subtext being that electricity didn’t come free. Simply put, his main reason for being careful with energy was an economical one: you shouldn’t waste it because it is expensive.
The environment wasn’t an issue then, but it is now.
The idea of renewable energy, far from being a fantasy is now a real industry, growing at exponential rate for the past ten years – solar energy, in particular, has been growing at or above 20% year on year and continues to do so. Favourable regulations and smarter technology are amongst the factors that fuel, as it were, the growth of the industry. Read more…
18 February 2009 /
by Ben Knapp at 7:23 am 18 February 2009
Filed under: Home Page
Wally recently wrote this piece for the UK’s 
on the much-discussed subject of brand valuation.
18 February 2009 /
by Ben Knapp at 7:00 am 18 February 2009
Filed under: Art, Branding, Luxury, Press
'Black swans are always emerging from everywhere.'
‘It’s a sobering time for number crunchers. From quantitative risk analysis to credit ratings, many financial statistics have revealed more artistic license than resemblance to reality,’ says an editorial in the Financial Times of 30 January 2009. And you can add brand valuation to that list, too. All this number crunching whether it’s risk analysis, GDP projections or brand valuation is part of an attempt to measure areas of activity which are for the most part inherently unquantifiable. The assumption is that people and the organisations they manage, act only out of rational calculation; it’s a natural extension of the economic theories of the Chicago School. These figures are a major part of denial of risk.
At another level they are like a comfort blanket for a child, which makes it feel safe, secure and stable. But all of us know deep down that life isn’t like that. Brand valuation and the other statistical analyses with which it is associated are supposed to be an aid to predicting the future, when as has recently been made clear yet again, the future stubbornly refuses to be predicted. All you can really predict about the future is you don’t know what will happen. Black swans are always emerging from everywhere. Read more…
14 February 2009 /
by Ben Knapp at 7:17 am 14 February 2009
Filed under: Home Page
Wally sat down with the magazine run by 
in India to discuss branding exercises during the current downturn. He also spoke about how the recession will affect the green agenda and globalisation.
14 February 2009 /
by Ben Knapp at 6:49 am 14 February 2009
Filed under: Branding, Press
Is this the worst recession you’ve seen in your lifetime?
I’ve been through several unfortunately. My memory is that when these things start, people tend to think it is the worst ever. Maybe this time they will be proved right. I certainly hope that’s not the case. I find it difficult to remember what previous ones were like, but you find your way through them. Some companies die, but people make it through.
How do companies tend to react when the economic climate takes such a turn for the worse?
The immediate reaction from most companies, of course, is to cut everything. They see a likely sales drop and want to reduce overheads. The natural reaction is often to cut the marketing budget. But it is also the case that in a time of recession, people are much choosier about their purchases. So an organisation that has something special and particular to say, especially one that promotes itself effectively, can actually take advantage of a slowdown and come out on top. Take Jaguar, for example, who started operations in 1934. They were offering something entirely different and the fact that there was a depression didn’t seem to make any difference. Read more…
