From embellishment to efficiency
Triad is an agency that has been involved in scenography for more than ten years without making much of a hullabaloo about it. But just recently the term scenography has been heard bandied about more often. Why?
Lutz Engelke: One reason is that it is great to find a name for a concept that previously did not have one. And now it has an official name, spatial communications can be thought about on two levels: as a real space you can enter and experience and as the theory that immediately springs up around the term. At the ADC, for example, a separate category ‘spatial communications has been set up at our request.
What has been the result of this discussion?
Engelke: The advertising and communications industry has finally understood that there are new communications formats beyond two dimensions, which emotionally convey products, brands, and topics with a whole new quality. The current discussion has caused a minor shift in the way we talk about things. The ‘experience' thing was considered unconventional in the nineties, when encountered at exhibitions, for example, but is now thought of in terms of efficient communications. That is the way scenography and spatial communications are going.
The advertising industry has understood this and taken steps into three-dimensionality. What about the companies, your customers? What motivates them to invest in brand worlds?
Engelke: Quite simply the need for efficiency. If someone invests a lot of money, they want to see communications value added in return. And there is a perceivable trend towards centralising communications within companies again. Dr. Oetker, Hilti and Wall are perfect examples of how communications in the head office as B2B can be directed with more precision than with standard trade fair presences and with much more intensity than was possible with conventional advertising.
Is there a trend towards replacing trade fairs and conventional promotion with brand worlds as the means of brand communications?
Engelke: Replacing is the wrong word. I would call it an incipient change in awareness. Companies, many of which have been on the market for decades or even a century, are discovering their own history. And they reflect their own brand within this history. Jan Pauen: Brands are also always very much connected with the growing importance of corporate identity (CI). Scenography can enable both customers and employees to experience this directly. The use of brand worlds at company head offices ranges from sales support through intensification of marketing to improvement of internal communications. Experiencing the company's identity and communicating your own know-how makes for good motivation. This type of communications has an internal effect but also creates value added in external B2B communications. The Dr.Oetker Brand World, for example, was primarily aimed at B2B communications. Now, due to the great interest it has aroused, it is open to the public. We are currently having the same discussion with Hilti in Liechtenstein.
Are changing consumer habits the root cause of increased investment in brand worlds?
Engelke: Absolutely. Target groups have to be addressed much more selectively today. Ten years ago it was enough to amaze customers; they were more easily emotionally enticed. Today enticement has to be turned into persuasion - and staged with much more intelligence and brand orientation. Brands project orientation and confidence, which are more important than ever today. For example, Dr. Oetker interprets its brand world as a clear signal towards discounters. Quality is not just the best recipe but usually costs a little more.
Are brand worlds arguments against price competition?
Engelke: Definitely because, as I said before, they communicate quality. This takes us back to CI. If the quality claim is communicated credibly, employees will be proud to work for their company. This creates a core of identity and also a quality statement. You can't create experience worlds based on bargain hunting. They would be cheap, ephemeral, and shoddy.
Why ephemeral? The slogan "Geiz ist geil" (literally, meanness is a thrill) aimed at bargain hunters has been around for three years and still works.
Pauen: That's true. It works well for a certain market segment but talk to brand traders in the food, fashion, and consumer electronics sectors. Why else would Sony go and develop its own Sony Style Stores? Why are shop-in-shop systems on the increase in the retail trade? Because in retail, something is happening that is deadly for brand traders. The brand is fading and consumers are comparing products, mainly by price. That is lethal for quality brands.
Engelke: Don't forget that it is the leading slogan of a company that is trying to benefit from the spirit of the age. But it's no substitute for the long-term success of brands associated with quality standards.
Isn't there a danger that consumers may be oversaturated and lose interest despite all the sophisticated brand communications?
Engelke: There is that danger but the market is already responding. Look at the exhibition stands at the IAA. The material was less overwhelming and visual excess toned down. That is already efficiency rather than experience. The industry's intellectual ability to take a critical look at its own message is often underestimated. Every message is also a sign of responsibility - for the product and benefit, product and society, product and business location. I have faith in market forces. Inflationary over-embellishment is over. We have started learning from each other. That is where we are now.
Pauen: The term to watch out for is intelligent communications. It has an important role to play. Communications can be intelligent in that efficient use is made of budgets or that target groups are addressed with emotional quality.
Where are these aspirations taking us?
Engelke: Ten years ago many of the professions in our sector, which are now subjects taught at universities and academies, did not exist. The entire sector is going professional, inside companies, too. That will separate the wheat from the chaff. There will be companies that spend their communications budgets with an awareness for quality while others still crack nuts with sledgehammers. It is precisely this point that separates the sector into two camps.Interview: Annic Kolbrück
m+a report Nr.7 / 2005 vom 27.10.2005
m+a report vom 27. Oktober 2005