Dec 3, 2018
Today's guest is Tim Riches, Group Strategy Director
at Principals in Melbourne. I met Tim in
Singapore, at FutureBrand. When I joined FutureBrand's strategy
team in 2011, Tim was running the Singapore office and serving as
Chief Growth Officer for all of Asia Pacific. He left shortly after
I arrived, but in the few months we overlapped, Tim made a big
impression on me. He's a fast-talking, no bullshit, powerhouse
thinker who often seems to be offering solutions before anyone else
in the room has even fully grasped the problem.
I asked Tim about an article he wrote a few months back, titled
"The greatest change branding
agencies have faced in a generation," in which he states
"branding 101 hasn't changed ... but the shift
toward experiences has permanently altered how
people assess 'different' and 'better'." He calls out a shift in
focus-on the client side-toward a broader definition of "customer
experience" that no longer holds marketing or brand as the
exclusive "business lens" on the customer relationship. For
agencies to maintain relevance going forward, he argues, they must
be able to build bridges "between the promise of the brand and the
delivery of that promise" by creating actionable principles that
experience designers can use to deliver the pillars of a brand.
We also talked about brand strategy frameworks and how rigid or
flexible they should be. Tim has strong opinions here, which I
alluded to briefly in my conversation with Gareth Kay. (When I said a friend
referred to some frameworks as "parking lots," I was referring to
Tim.) Tim's main point is that, in order for concepts like pillars,
values, and personality traits to provide any guidance as to how a
brand (or organization) should look, feel, or behave, there must be
some coherence between them. "I don't see how you can create a
cohesive story unless there is some relationship," Tim says. "At
least trying to do that helps you show where you have disjoints and
incongruities within the thinking."
When I asked Tim about books, he justified his own love of sci-fi
by claiming "it's good fuel for the imagination, and I do think
strategists have to have imagination-not just analytical skills."
He also recommended strategists read The
Economist and at least understand the core concepts
of books like Daniel Kahneman's Thinking,
Fast and Slow and Byron Sharp's How Brands
Grow.
Wrapping up, I asked Tim for his advice to those just starting
their careers in branding. He advised junior people to stay focused
on what value looks like for each client rather than getting drawn
into an obsession with methodology. He also emphasized the
importance of having good "practitioner skills," such as being able
to run an interview, present to clients, and design and facilitate
workshops.
To learn more about Tim and Principals, visit Principals.com.au.