I’ve been watching the Euros with my teenage kids and beyond commenting loudly on the match itself together, we find ourselves putting the world to rights on a variety of issues, some of which are topics we also debate in the office.
We now draw the line with youngest daughter on anything to do with Justin Bieber but some of the topics we chat about during games as a family are directly connected to things we see in games – from why do Ford sponsor the Champions League but Hyundai-Kia the Euro Championships? – to wider issues like why do we have so many different cereals from ‘Brand K’ in our cupboard when we generally eat Weetabix most mornings? And then we chat about these topics in other categories, like why do Apple only have the iPhone and why don’t we all have Samsung phones when we have Samsung TVs at home?
Which made me think about the work many of us are doing in our day jobs to understand brands…
We all know people relate to, and communicate with each other using words and descriptive, fluid language rather than ratings on a battery of defined statements, helpful those these can be. In the same way, whenever I talk with my kids about brands, it always comes down to what they tell me they, and their friends, like and dislike about a brand/service/company – truly spontaneous and un-fatigued information that I’ve found reveals more of the real ‘why, how and wow!’.
Next chance I get, I’m going to collect spontaneous ‘likes’ and ‘dislikes’ on a few hundred brand buyers and see what tumbles out!