All of us in marketing spend our time clambering up the tree of brand understanding.

Up we go, the roots for the first leap, the solidity of the lower branches, the gradual thinning out of support, closer and closer to where the sunlight dazzles.

Then just when we feel we have a secure grasp of the principles, somebody gives the whole tree the most almi...

So where are we going after Gen Z?

I’m serious, we need to work this out. They started in January 1996.

Millennials were 1977 to 1995.

Generation X were 1965 to 1976. Something went wrong there.

Baby Boomers boomed from 1946 to 1964.

The Silent Generation from 1924 to 1945.

The Greatest Generation 1901 to 1924.

So I ma...

We all know who they are.

The politicians who proclaim they just want to #GetBrexitDone.

The BBC journalists who announce this is going to be the crucial day.

The presidents who accuse everyone else of spreading fake news.

The celebrities who say they want to be left alone by the press.

The companies that say they care about local c...

Which Avenger can teach you a thing or two about marketing?

The moral leadership of Captain America? The empowerment of Captain Marvel? The technical wizardry of Iron Man? The poignancy of Hulk? The mind-games of Scarlet Witch? The Vibranium of Black Panther?

For me, it’s the genius of Groot.

I don’t mean in the first Guardians of the Galaxy film...

When I get to that point of chronic work overload, there are certain things I say to myself:

1. Make a list. Not lists. One’s enough.

2. Do the tasks in the order in which they’re needed. As a plan, it almost always works.

3. Try not to panic. Act calm. Walk deliberately slowly.

4. Try not to complain either. Nobody likes a moaner.

...

It’s fashionable these days to say research groups are out of fashion.

The argument goes that anything has to be better than eight respondents and a moderator chatting away in a characterless room, with a clutch of clients huddled the other side of a two-way mirror.

What’s bang in fashion are depths and ethnography.

It’s true, there are a number...

What’s the best way to describe a brand positioning?

A: In 1-3 well-chosen words

B: In a well-written sentence of up to 10 words

C: In a well-linked paragraph of up to 50 words

D: In a well-told story of however many words it takes

So who chose A?

There are all those classic examples:

Coke = happiness

BMW = driving pleasure

Apple = self-express...

“I’ve always had a thing about train tracks”.

So said a friend of mine as we walked up Snowdon over the weekend, alongside the Snowdon Mountain Railway.

That sounds ripe for an insight, I thought. “Why do you think that is?”

“I don’t know really” came the answer, as ever.

And despite the fact that we were only a quarter of the way through...

I have to confess I don’t always make it the whole way through marketing books.

If I scan along the shelf above my computer, I can see a number where the creases in the spine stop before halfway.

On the bedside table are a few more with bookmarks at various points. Top of that pile currently is ‘This Is Marketing’ by Seth Godin. I’m on page 160 and I’ve...

It’s time to accept the truth about purpose.

The debate may rage on about the emptiness of some of the statements or the hypocrisy of some of the organisations or the retro-fitting of some of the advertising.

But as a concept it has clearly won.

Company visions and missions remain, but they now gaze enviously at purpose, with its shimmering Sinek...