TAKEAWAY: In a multi platform media world, it is all about extending the brand, giving it longer digital legs. Now a Harvard Business School study reinforces what we knew: we have preconceived ideas about the performance of our favorite brands. Message: don’t disappoint.
A casual dinner conversation with my long time friend, Dr. Hans Gasser, publisher and general manager of the Austrian financial daily, Wirtschafts Blatt, CEO of WirtschaftsBlatt also President of the Austrian Newspaper Assiciation turned to what is important for us in the media business today.
It is all about the brand, Dr. Gasser told me without hesitation.
“Once we lose our brand association, when what the brand stands for, which in the case of the Wirtschafts Blatt is credibility, authority, seriousness, then it is all gone.”
We all agree with that statement, and now, a Harvard study reminds us of how brand creates deep rooted perceptions that the audience uses to gauge quality. Regardless of what the actual product may be like, readers come to the material with a preconceived idea of what the brand stands for.
Dr. Gasser is right: we can’t disappoint, because regardless of how strong a brand is, smart users are going to realize that perhaps “the brand” may be slipping or lowering the bar.
But let’s turn our attention to the Harvard study:
In an International Herald Tribune
Trio of platforms premieres in Moscow: print, online, iPad app for Moscovskiye Novosti
Can the Reincarnation of Moskovskie Novosti Live up to the Legacy Established by its Once Acclaimed Predecessor?
http://russiaprofile.org/culture_living/34177.html
And, speaking of brands…..
What happens when the Apple brand combines with the White House brand (one of the most powerful in the world)?
Read here: President Obama has an iPad. Need we say more? But, is it the iPad or the iPad2? Maybe his is called simply iPadONE.
http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/03/28/barack-obama-has-an-ipad/?source=yahoo_quote
Of interest
The best Children’s Book on the Ipad
http://gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/28/the-best-childrens-books-on-the-ipad/?partner=yahoofinance
– How live blogging has transformed journalism
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/mar/28/live-blogging-transforms-journalism
TheMarioBlog post #741