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BRANDS

It is a cliché to say that BRANDS are the life blood of today. Indeed everything is a brand. Look how Great Britain has changed - first under Thatcher, then Blair and now Brown! I look forward to Cameron with much interest.

We ourselves are brands who have a definite life cycle. Think of two contrasting sportsmen in David Beckham and Jonny Wilkinson.
Their active sporting lifecycles are short. How will they develop their brands when they are no longer playing? What of Gascoine and the late George Best, two once great soccer icons? Post Beijing, how will Chris Hoy and Rebecca Adlington market themselves?

What about great consumer brands?
Will the Germans enhance and build Rolls Royce and Bentley? Think of the enduring Coca-Cola and the revitalised Lucozade
and Ribena brands. What about the renaissance of Skoda,
now owned by VW and will TATA (from India) really put the fizz in Jaguar? Brands are omnipresent and we are influenced by them every second of the day - the clothes we wear, the food we eat,

 the cars we drive, the restaurants we frequent, the sports teams
and sports men and women we follow and of course the
leaders we choose. Great brands are enduring and exhibit long term style. As the great Coco Chanel said “Fashion goes but style stays forever”

For my part I have been privileged to work with many great brands from Coca-Cola to Johnnie Walker, Smirnoff Vodka, Chivas Regal, Irn Bru, London Pride and many others. In my corporate career I of course have also had failures but that is the price of success and hopefully one learns from each. I was privileged to be in charge of Baileys Irish Cream for a number of years in its formative stage and to have launched Piat D'Or, Malibu, The Classic Malts, Johnnie Walker Blue Label and many others. I believe that everything is a brand. - Think about it.
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