I, Michael Penny, support freedom of speech. Say what you please unless it inflames racial or religious hatred.

There has been recent publicity surrounding a drink called Cocaine, the newest energy drink to make everything you do last longer. It joins the market of other ‘turbo’ drinks like Red Bull, Monster and Mother. Cocaine is currently plastered on a huge billboard on Parramatta Rd. So what’s more tasteless, the name or the drink? If you’re going to ban something, make it the contents of the can, not the ad, because many of these drinks list more chemicals than Michael Jackson’s toxicology report.

Anyway, many free speech advocates believe a civilised society can self-regulate itself with regards to what is said and isn’t. Alternatively, people’s tastebuds will eventually do the talking for us and consign unsavoury products (and bad advertising) to the waste bin.

Make A Splash recently presented a seminar to a group of lawyers who were seeking to improve their firm’s branding and market themselves to a specific target group. Now aside from certain challenges lawyers face in marketing themselves, the biggest dilemma posed was how do each of them differentiate themselves from a competitor. I heard numerous remarks such as “The firm down the street does exactly the same thing as us. Estates, personal injury, conveyancing, some litigation. How do we differentiate ourselves? What makes us the preferred choice?”
Lawyers and many of us, including advertising agencies, operate in a world where we don’t offer a unique product or service. And because of this we need to manufacture something unique about our business, no matter how difficult it is. We often cite the example of the 3 major supermarkets. Woolworths is the fresh food people. Coles lets you save every day while IGA is full of local heroes. On the surface, these 3 supermarkets seem to offer similar products (albeit in varying line numbers and quantities) at similar prices. Yet apparently, Woolworths is fresher, Coles is cheaper and IGA has better service. See it doesn’t always matter what the reality is. It’s about giving your client and customer the perception that your business has particular features and benefits that your competitor doesn’t.

Clients often ask me whether or not their brand needs a profile on social networking sites like My Space, Facebook or Twitter? My first instinct is to say yes. On face value, it’s the latest step in a media evolution that started with Jesus’ soapbox and continued with Guttenberg’s printing press. It’s the medium of the moment so absolutely embrace it. It’s an opportunity for a brand to engage with a consumer in their own playground and allows the public to air positive thoughts about your product.
But what if it’s not all positive. What if people want to share negative experiences or competitors are looking to sabotage your business. There is a certain level of control you have to relinquish when you enter this realm but then again that’s what makes it so much more real. And in this age of ever increasing consumer cynicism, exposing your brand and being more vulnerable may be the key to effective 21st century marketing.