Vitaly Demin Senior Strategy Consultant Read about Vitaly

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April 2010

Recently AT&T launched a marketing campaign involving a change of their slogan to "Rethink Possible." The question right there is "How do you expect to connect to your audience with such a phrase?" Will people really be reacting to this and trying to rethink possible, whatever that means? Why not create a line that would relate to something specific, like new technology or great customer experience?

All messages that companies send to their existing and future customers, especially slogans, are supposed to establish a psychological connection with the brand based on what this brand and the company stand for. They are meant to make people better understand what the brand has to offer to them to make their lives better. This discussion poses a very serious question to the whole industry of branding and marketing: How can such abstract phrases like “Rethink Possible” create any kind of connection in the customer’s mind? What is in this phrase that people can connect to? What does “Rethink Possible” even mean?

Speaking of slogans, they have to be as clear as possible. Connection with a slogan HAS to be a one step process for people. In this case with AT&T we are looking at two steps, and may be even three. First, the consumer has to think of what “Rethink Possible” means. Second, he has to somehow connect it to something inside his mind. And may be there’s one more step to it – to understand how this line relates to the AT&T’s brand and business.

So instead of a one step process of psychological connection, we’re looking at three steps which by no means is a place a company wants to be. Businesses that understand the psychology behind it, do a great job on marketing and are much more successful. Below are some examples of perfect slogans that require no further thinking and establish a 100% one step connection both with the consumer and the business of the company:

• Nokia – Connecting People
  
• Interbrand – Creating and managing brand value
  
• Coca-Cola – Open Happiness
  
• BMW – The Ultimate Driving Machine
  

This eBook is a brief insight into the core of the executive management of Sony Corporation, the core that is unfortunately filled with one of the most perilous human qualities – arrogance.

For a very long time now Sony has been known as an organization permeated by arrogant attitude toward their suppliers, their distributors and now their customers. This culture is felt everywhere in the world. I remember having meetings with Sony people in Moscow Russia when I consulted the largest electronics retailer in the country. These meetings were very adversarial and not a most pleasant experience. Also, as I worked with electronics retailers in Kuwait, Emirates, India, England, US and other countries, the opinions I received about Sony were the same. Nobody liked them and nobody wanted to do business with them because it was just too painful. Obviously, they could not stop carrying Sony products in their stores but some of them did try to reduce the assortment. Sony rarely partners. They dictate.

This work is an attempt to show how corporate arrogance affected the decisions Sony made along the way, the decisions that led to mistakes, mistakes that got them dethroned from the position of being the best and the most admired consumer electronics company in the world.

I hope this eBook helps other companies see a bigger picture of how decisions that are made inside their organizations affect their brand, their customer loyalty and profitable business growth. Very often top managers do not realize that many of wrong decisions are made not due to the lack of knowledge about the problem but due to the mentioned above human flaw – arrogance.

The 2nd edition includes financial updates from 2010 as well as other recent events associated with the Sony organization.

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