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Making your Britishness meaningful

If you’re responsible for marketing at a British company, you may or may not want to rely on that heritage as a key part of your messaging. If you’re selling electronic instrumentation to the over-50 set, the fact that Lucas gauges on British Leyland products failed early, regularly and often could be an impediment to success. On the other hand, if the target market is under 30, they likely won’t know of this ehemm, pedigree, and you can feel free to lay the British stuff on as thick as you like (as I've said before, we're all Anglophiles here, whether we'll admit it or not).

The inspiration for this post is recent advertising from British Airways as seen here in the US, running in outdoor and print media. The positioning is that of a guide to local UK culture – and to "go with those who know".  Now BA has its hands full in the US, with Virgin Atlantic having the upper hand in promotional awareness. So it has to do something. Appealing to Americans with a message such as this has merit. If we aren’t experienced international travelers, we might want to go with the more "established" airline that seems more substantive than stylish.

But, the firm doesn’t make it easy to access the revelant content on its Web site – the follow-through is buried where you won't find it (unless you read on and I'll reveal the URL). It appears to be just a thin creative exercise.

Big missed opportunity

What I mean by follow-through is simple: if you visit British Airway's regular website, www.ba.com (which is what most people will do -- not follow the deep URLs in these ads), there is no obvious promotional tie back to this advertising (an easily-missed button at the bottom right of the site will take you to the promo area).  But, alas, for most casual visitors to the ba.com site, there is nothing to be seen but a reservation engine and links to buy hotel and rental car packages. 

The expected cultural and business information is there - it is just hard to find (a glossary of UK idioms and colloquialisms that dovetail nicely with the creative, travel notes, links to current attractions, etc.).  It could go further to offer a sign-up for a newsletter on UK travel.  An entire ambassador or concierge program could be built around this concept.  Visit the promo area of the Web site to see the glossary, etc.

British heritage can be an asset for you, too.

No matter what you are selling, it is possible to make your UK heritage valuable and meaningful. From software to soap to marmalade, there’s ample room for brand differentiation leveraging your British roots. Think I’m wrong?

Symbian is a cellular phone operating system builder, and a consortium of Nordic, Korean and Japanese phone manufacturers. But its original lead founder was Psion, a quirky UK maker of handheld devices that had an operating system this group could build from - and its position as an innovator in handheld devices was the gravity that brought this diverse group together. The company remains a UK-based entity – and that UK base offers it an international stage from which to project itself to handset manufacturers worldwide.

Crabtree & Evelyn is a terrific example of using pedigree to justify a premium price. Its packaging is so attractive that women of all ages (starting with my pre-teen) are immediately attracted to its products when on display.  Its soap is, as far as I can tell, soap – but its prices are definitely inspiring!

Tiptree, Wilkin & Sons have penetrated US foodstore shelves with preserves that sell at a premium price point (competing with France’s successful Bon Maman). Its packaging oozes tradition and features its royal warrants – something bound to impress US buyers as they seek to impress their guests (and feel better about themselves).  The fact that Tiptree preserves are more mainstream in the UK and premium priced in the US speaks volumes on the value of "Britishness" in US consumer markets.

Leverage your heritage for all that it's worth. Here in the US, it's worth more than you might think.

PS - thanks to the adland blog for the BA phone kiosk photo - it offers a good article on this campaign as well.

Where should your first US office be located?

I was thinking of posting advice to UK-based companies about where to locate their first offices here, and then thought better of it – didn’t want to seem too presumptuous. Then, a conversation yesterday with owners of a UK tech company brought the subject to light.

If possible, your first office should be on the East Coast, primarily for logistics reasons. Being five hours behind GMT makes it tough enough to manage a remote office. There are only three to five hours a day that you can be in contact with your key people without one of you working early or late.

So what about California (or Seattle, Washington or Vancouver, Canada)? I’ve always thought that UK expatriates that locate their remote offices on the West Coast did so to be unavailable to their bosses. With the eight-hour time difference and 5,400 mile distance, they’re almost sure to be left alone. Now, there are plenty of real business reasons to be out there – especially if your company is truly tied to the Silicon Valley or Microsoft ecosystems. But if not, then you really have to think this through.

Back to the UK tech firm... Its executives expressed frustration with their Vancouver operation. It seems that everything is moving more slowly than anticipated due to command-and control issues, and they can’t travel there easily (it’s about 10 hours in the air from London). It is a real challenge to manage this remote location.

Their rationale for locating in Canada was interesting and worth sharing. They chose Canada for cultural and economic reasons. The two principals of the firm felt (at the time) a bit more comfortable with Canadians. They spoke more like Brits. Their sensitivity to nuanced conversation was better than what they perceived from Americans. And, the deal-sealer: it’s a lot less expensive to operate in Canada than in the US. My advice to these two very smart tech execs (one of them was an architect of Digital’s VAX systems) was to relocate to Toronto. This would put them three hours closer to their operation, provide great access to most US cities by air, and access to tech talent that’s similarly priced and capable to Vancouver.

Other locales worth considering include Raleigh, North Carolina, Tampa, Florida (a favorite destination for Brits on vacation), and the NY Metro area. All of these provide excellent infrastructure, air transport and human resources. They differ in terms of costs of living and doing business, lifestyle, and proximity to your potential prospects – a decision to make based on how such factors rank in your plans. Then you have to ask yourself what kind of presence you need – virtual office (e.g. Regus), staff working from their homes or a permanent real estate solution… and that’s a post for a different day.

Lack of cultural appreciations spells disaster in any international business

There's no doubt that the British are happy to take American culture to their hearts. However, when it comes to the UK's favourite sport, football ('soccer' in US parlance), involvement of our transatlantic cousins is less than welcomed. With US sports tycoon Malcolm Glazer poised to complete a £790 million (S1.47 billion) takeover of Manchester United, probably the world's most famous football team, fans of the club are up in arms for fear of what they believe US ownership will mean.

Coincidentally, an advertisement for US beer brand Budweiser, which is running on British TV at the moment, satirically illustrates the nation's worst fears. Entitled "SoccerTainment", it offers a US vision for horrifying 'improvements' that could be made to the game. Thankfully it concludes, with deft reassurance, that things are best left as they are - "You do the football, We'll do the beer". It's well worth viewing this very funny commercial at Budweiser's UK website:

www.budweiser.co.uk

Even the gloomiest Manchester United fan would concede that Glazer wouldn't attempt far reaching changes, but there is a real fear that an American lack of appreciation for the culture of football and all its subtleties will spell disaster for the club's success.

This doesn't entirely make sense. When Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich bought Chelsea Football Club in 2003, fans feared for its future. This year the team is well ahead of Manchester United at the top of the Premiership league, even beating their record number of points along the way. Ambramovich's success is rooted in his willingness to assimilate with UK culture, both on and off the field. Now Britain's richest citizen, if Chelsea can repeat their success in 2006, the Russian will be hailed a hero.

Manchester United fans hold out no such hopes for Glazer. Whereas Abramovich's takeover was generally regarded as a fait accompli, supporters of the northern club are seeking ways to block the bid. On hearing the news, around 2,000 fans gathered in protest at the club's ground to demonstrate their dissent.

Glazer is reportedly interested in gaining control of the powerful Manchester United brand and exploiting that back in the US, and worldwide. An intrinsic part of its value lies in the historic and passionate support of its fan base and the American's scant regard for what this means is sure to cause massive upset to his business plan, should his bid ultimately be successful. Cultural diplomacy can be much harder to play than football, but it's a game in Glazer will fast have to learn if the brand he seeks to acquire is to maintain it's present worth.