Can crowds create brands as well as the pros?
For a few moments, I loved the idea of using crowdsourcing to brainstorm new brand names, business names and taglines on namethis.com.
The website for the business behind this, kluster.com, is the coolest I’ve seen in months, and everything from the front page to the jobs page has more sharply-defined character than a Raymond Chandler novel.
But can great brands be unearthed by the unwashed masses, or must they always be the domain of marketing genii? I have a half-day brand brainstorm workshop scheduled for a new client tomorrow morning, so this question couldn’t arise at a more pertinent time for me. Especially since I’ve been managing writer’s block by reading about namethis.com on Australian Anthill.
To an extent, any new brand does require a lot of new ideas thrown up on a whiteboard. Every brand brainstorm should include a free flow of ideas, guided by a moderator who is quick and experienced enough to encourage the workshop participants to follow some trains of thought into wilder flights of fancy in the hope of unearthing a golden nugget or two.
The moderator’s role is crucial. A good moderator is always on the lookout for groupthink, fatigue, cynicism sarcasm and other common symptoms of asking inexperienced communicators to do something as new and threatening as invent a new brand.
Namethis.com lets you write a brief, then just collects a single date/time-ordered list of user submissions, which appears to be the online equivalent of a brainstorming session without a moderator. Browsing through some of the active projects there I can see clear evidence of each of the symptoms of an unhealthy brainstorm, especially groupthink.
Another problem is that branding brainstorms can be much more effective if everyone in the workshop starts from the same point and heads in the same direction. A detailed brief helps, and none of the examples I found on namethis.com had what I’d call a good brief – they seemed to reflect the same level of emotional investment as the $99 dollar investment it takes to submit a request for brand names.
It can often help to work together on defining some of the elements of the brand – dimensions of personality, colours, sounds and practice with a few “if this product were a <product category> it would be a <brand name>” questions to make sure everyone is starting from the same point. There is no opportunity to do that on namethis.com
Finally, I do think that some products – like yet another bogus weight-loss pill – are open to guerilla criticism on a site like this. I’ll be interested to see whether and how the site moderator or the pill merchant take action on my suggested product name, “Eating A Healthy Balanced Diet and Exercise Didn’t Work For Me“.
In the end, namethis.com probably represents appropriate value for $99.00 – your chances of turning up a gold nugget brand are about as likely as spending that $99.00 on 15 minutes of a good professional creative’s time. But you may have to spend a little more than that to get the result you need, either way.
9 Responses to “Can crowds create brands as well as the pros?”
Leave a Reply
Additional comments powered by BackType
I've been watching the crwodsourcing fad slowly rise and, it seems now, quietly retreat over the past few years with a lot of interest. The proclamations were the same as the 'desktop publishing revolution', that finally anyone could do it.
But the problem is anyone can't.
'My Kid could paint that' is a common criticism of pretty much every area of creativity I work in. The truth is usually that yes, your kid could have done that; but there is no fucking way your kid could have gone through the mental processes and routines, or been able to distinguish the ephemeral gold ideas from the also-ran's flying through their brain in order to come to that conclusion.
The difference between creative industries and most others is that people often believe that they can be creative (in a professional sense), and that they do it well. I'm pretty sure ship captains, actuaries, and surgeons don't suffer the same criticism purely because it takes only a few seconds to realise you don't have a single clue what you're doing.
Unfortunately, it seems crowdsourcing creativity needs quite a few more seconds to come to this realisation.
I think this kind of thing is precisely what's wrong with advertsing and branding these days.
Collectively, the industry has forgotten that we're here to shape opinion, not follow it.
The poor quality of work that's around now is a consequence of trends like this. Focus-grouped to death, brainstormed into oblivion, rationalised to kingdom come. You know why everyone hates ads? Because everyone had a hand in doing it.
The best ideas come from magical places. A boardroom – real or, in this case, virtual- flourescent-lit, with ample supplies of crisps and warm coke and an even more ample supply of ordinary punters off the street isn't a magical place.
That place is in an individual's mind. Newton and Einstein didn't need moderators, that's for sure.
Your derogative term 'marketing genii' is indicative of the problem. In this subjective business, everyone thinks they can have a go. The people to whom it should be left up to are derided as prima-donnas.
So call it crowdsourcing, focus-grouping, whatever. Nothing original ever came from a committee.
But I would say that, wouldn't I? I work in advertising.
Yeah, true, “marketing genii” was a bit derogative. Sorry.
I meant to lump together all the different decision-makers involved in creating advertising professionally these days to keep the story rolling along, but (a) that's part of the problem; and (b) in that lump of genii there's only one or two people right at the coal face doing anything creative, one of whom would be you, Sacha.
The advertisement and branding has been taking the new leap in todays world.
I remember years back when i had started my career when it was so simple and straight forward make it happen, basically it was closed box where all possible ways defined to select the best ones on case to case basis.
But now times are changing, innovations, creations and doing the same thing in different way has become the theme..
It has been real good to see this industry mature day by day…
It is getting tougher and tougher to get good brand names. I will give a try to namethis. Thanks for the tip.
Brand names always stands and has its position ..
Brands are important .. in any field.. people respect that ..
At the moment namethis.com, which is operated by Kluster, is not forwarding rewards to winners. I suggest you don't waste your time there. It is scandalous that they are allowed to operate.
tom222…You’re right about the winners not getting paid. Do not expect to get any more correspondence from these losers. Just another take the money and run project.