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Item: Concept Note

Subject: Intellectual Property for Carrot Communication

Reference: A1- 31/03/2008

Author: Ishraq Dhaly

Objective

To create an ownable platform that can be identified and established as an

intellectual property for the advertising concern of Carrot Communication

Premise

In the global context, no advertising process, whether creative or strategic, has been

ever sufficient for the ever increasing complexities of the market scenario. Whether it

is the 360 Brand Stewardship1 or InteGreytion2 or Disruption3 of the big shot groups or

the Brand Evolution4 and Brandscaping5, they all seem to give very detailed

approaches to solving the same fundamental issues of marketing.

What is interesting to observe is that all intellectual property in terms of advertising

that have been developed so far have the similarities:

1. None of them are future-proof.

2. None of them are truly global but mostly local.

3. Most of them lack functional use in the current rapidly-changing market

scenario.

4. While all the above may be true, none of them are really wrong

1 Proprietary to Ogilvy & Mather2 Proprietary to Grey Worldwide3 Proprietary to TBWA4 Registered by Kolbrener, a US-based consultancy firm5 Registered by Plunkett Communication Inc., a Toronto-based advertising agency

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This premise shapes our thought through the following flow:

Flow of Thought

Geological Surveys - Mining - Elements Core Value Extraction Fuel Energy

Consumption - Innovations Towards Sustainable Development Engineering

Architecture DNA - Evolution Life Nature Species Environment - Procreation

Deductions

If we simply reinstate the brand as species and the value extraction methodology as

the advertising process, in this big picture, we can deduce the following:

1. Other IP processes have covered this scenario with different expressions, yet

we can maintain a synergy with others while making a niche position for

ourselves by identifying with what is already out there (i.e. brand seed, brand

DNA, brand evolution, 360etc.)

2. Our already developed and in-use processes will only fit in to the big picture if

the big picture is identified in similarity with the flow of thought mentionedabove (i.e. the simile has to be a balanced fit not a force-fit)

Identification of a Single Proposition Platform

Living organisms interact with the environment around them and always strive to

evolve themselves towards a better standard of adaptability making sure that their

future is extended through successful procreation.

Expression into a Brand Perspective

Brands (living organisms) interact with the market (environment) around them and

always strive to extend their brand cycle and perception (evolve) themselves towards

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a competitive positioning (better standard of adaptability) making sure their future is

extended through successful brand experiences (procreation).

Expression of this IP in a Single Word

BLOOM

Expression of this IP in a Single Statement

Only those brands that can bloom will ensure their part in the entire brand ecology

system and will thereby move towards the future.

Realities

It will be our objective to incorporate the GTD model with the client

servicing/strategy, creative, media processes by listing out each tool that will used in

conjunction with BLOOM (i.e. templates of minutes, estimates, work orders, bills,

media plans, tracking and mapping, campaign plan, memo, misc business

communication, creative brief, creative message development plan, creative design

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development plan, engineered evolution plans, PR kits and strategies, etc). This can

be attempted and completed with only the following in mind:

1. Listing of Required Tools

2. Content Development

3. IPR Legalities

4. Implementation Roadmap

5. PR Plan

Theoretically, this complete IP with content and identification can be launched within

30 days since most material mentioned above is already in the usage pipeline.

Measurement of the Strength of the Proposition

Separate discussions conducted at IBA with 15 3rd year students, 5 advertising

personnel, and 5 unbiased individuals revealed the following litmus test results:

When asked the question is this idea/simile between ecology and brands

understandable? with a raw score of 1-5 attached to their answers (1=did not

understand at all, 5=understood perfectly) 100% scored 5.

When asked the question can you think of an example of this relationship in a

brand perspective? with a raw score of 1-5 attached to their answers (1=did

not understand at all, 5=understood perfectly) 100% scored 4 (unaided), 5

(aided)6

Words of Warning

Intellectual property development is a key word that has already caught on and weare late in the game. Developers and consultants worldwide have already thought onthese topics extensively and it is very probable that if we do not patent our IP now,

6 Respondents were asked about mining the Aarong values to aid their understanding of the question.They were also reminded about the global IP formats that are similar to this.

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someone else will soon. Below is the only reference I could find with this topic andMs. Rice seems to start on one topic and lead into another, but in any case, this waspart ofwww. blog/futurelab.net, and who knows maybe shell patent it and call it heridea! The warning is: ACT NOW!

Brand as Ecosystem

By: Jennifer Rice

Business has gone through so many fads: TQM, push marketing, viral marketing, CRM now were all about customer centricity: ifwe can make the customer central to the organization, well, thats the key to success. Yes, I confess that Ive been on thatbandwagon myself, so what Im about to say may shock you:

Stop focusing on the customer.

Stop focusing on your product.

Stop focusing on your sales techniques.

We all want to categorize everything. We want to put each element of business into neat l ittle boxes. Then we can point to oneelement and say, this is the key to all our problems. Its just like fad diets: first, calories were the problem. Then, fat was theproblem. Now its carbs. Finally, consumers are starting to figure out that its more complex than that; its more about balance.And just as there is no fast fix for dieting, theres no fast fix for business.

Right now were focusing so much on the customer that weve lost sight of the big picture. When we focus on the customer, wesee a person out there separate from us that we need to identify, label and categorize. Companies like Best Buy aresegmenting groups and assigning names. Sure, its resulting in sales. Yes, its better than trying to sell the wrong product to thewrong person. It's a step in the right direction, but it's not the answer. Its just part of yet another fad that won't deliver oneveryone's expectations, and then well all go rushing off to figure out the next piece of the puzzle to fix.

And that is the fundamental problem: focusing on the puzzle pieces and not the puzzle itself. We are artificially creatingseparation between the company and customers and between different departments within the same company when in factwe are all part of the same system. The customer is simply a component of that system; no piece is more or less important. It swhat I call the ecology of business. We need to switch our focus from components to connections. A brand is an ecosystem. Thestrength of the brand is directly proportional to the number and strength of the connections within the system. Connections, notcomponents, are the brand drivers.

It starts with the ecosystem's foundation: the company and its employees. We need to move beyond a focus on a specificdepartment (silo mentality) to a focus on the interconnections between individuals (system mentality). What are the mostcritical connections in your company? Why not have VPs over key connections instead of components? What about giving morepower and compensation to the individuals who are directly responsible for customer connections? The individuals working your

store or call center are the puzzle pieces that connect directly to your customers. They are equally as important as the CEO;perhaps more so.

And of course, how could we have a conversation about connections without mentioning weblogs? I stumbled across this long butvery good post on the subject by Colin Henderson. He quotes Ray Ozzie of Groove Networks: Weblogs can help us achieve agreater return on connection from employee, customer, and partner relationships. So by extending the role of connectioncreation deeper into the company, the overall system is strengthened.

(UPDATE) Finally, we should consider the connection between the brand system and the larger social ecosystem in which itoperates. We could call it "social responsibility" (component view) or simply see it as yet another connection that must bemonitored and strengthened. Common values provide additional points of connection between all individuals within and betweensystems. It's why companies like The Body Shop have strong brands; they see themselves in context of the larger social system,and the additional 'value connections' between individuals serve as reinforcements. "A cord of 3 strands is not quickly broken."

Im trying to figure out how to post a holistic system view I developed using a visualization tool from TheBrain. Its very coolstay tuned.

Original Post: http://brand.blogs.com/mantra/2004/11/brand_as_ecosys.html

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http://www.blog/futurelab.nethttp://www.futurelab.net/contrib008_jenniferrice.htmhttp://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=83192&p=IROL-SingleRelease&t=Regular&id=630408&http://www.ladlass.com/archives/001299.htmlhttp://www.thebodyshopinternational.com/web/tbsgl/values.jsphttp://www.thebrain.com/http://brand.blogs.com/mantra/2004/11/brand_as_ecosys.htmlhttp://www.blog/futurelab.nethttp://www.futurelab.net/contrib008_jenniferrice.htmhttp://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=83192&p=IROL-SingleRelease&t=Regular&id=630408&http://www.ladlass.com/archives/001299.htmlhttp://www.thebodyshopinternational.com/web/tbsgl/values.jsphttp://www.thebrain.com/http://brand.blogs.com/mantra/2004/11/brand_as_ecosys.html