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THIS IS MERCURY1 Page 1


Hello… We would like to tell you about us, who we are and what we are about.


Mercury1 ______________________________________________________________

Mercury1 is a Systemic Thinking brand consultancy. That means that we think of a brand as a system. Not any system, but a dynamic and organic system of meaning that needs to continually communicate this meaning in order to survive. Our job is to help you find, define and strategically create the best possible meaning for your brand. We do this so that youre brand can survive and thrive in its highly competitive environment. We are inspired by things that are ingenious (like humans going to space) and we are human-centred in our approach to brand strategy development. People are systems as well and the reason why we create brands in the first place. There is only one way of telling you what we do and how we do it. We need to tell you a story…

“A brand is a system of meaning”


The Complex Challenge…

In a galaxy, not far away, in the world of brand building, in a plush corner office, in his ivory tower, the famous business man, CH.Cockburn was taking a briefing from his top investigator. Mr Cockburn had had a long and illustrious career and he was known all over the world

as a man who was not only incredibly shrewd, sharp as well as sneaky, but also someone who does not believe in the concept of a brand. “Hogwash!”, “Snake Oil Salesmen”, “Should be burnt at the stake”; he would scream and shout when people mentioned brands and people who created these brands. Someone had told Mr Cockburn that there was a very arrogant young man called John. John was the quintessential brand Man. He was a brand man who had seen it all, who had done it all and had done it for a long time for a whole range of brands.

“Yes Mr Cockburn, John is especially self-assured and he has gone on record to say you belong in a museum Mr Cockburn sir – but he is rather successful”; said Ms Smart. “Hmmm, I think we need to teach John a

lesson and put this brand nonsense to bed for once and all”; said Mr Cockburn. “Get me something imbued by the 4Ps and embraced with a low price… something that used to be great and is struggling… let’s see him suggest some emotive brand campaign”; sneered Cockburn. And so the trap was set for John.


One day not long after that…

John was invited to a meeting with Mr Cockburn

and at this meeting he was presented with the

sneaky brand challenge.

“Solve my brand problem John!”

said the confident, Mr Cockburn.

“What exactly is your brand

problem” asked John.

“I have no idea!” retorted Mr

Cockburn.

Arrogantly and slightly condescendingly John said… “This is easy! Everyone

knows how to solve brand problems.”


“You solve it by making the brand different, and by

building in lots of emotional stuff and looking for

that human truth thing… and of course… a “brand”

new advertising campaign.” John immediately went to work; he drew up a 124

slide presentation and briefed the cavalry. So they

proceeded to do all of these things, they made the

brand as different as possible; they built in lots of

touchy-feely stuff; they thought up an amazing

human truth and created a mesmerising advertising

campaign.

They even added an incredible viral component

(even though everyone asked… “What on Earth is a

viral component?”) Everyone got goose bumps…

except Mr Cockburn… he just smiled. He had seen all

of this before.

Shortly while after the amazing advertising campaign, Mr Cockburn went

back to John. With a sly smile and a

grunt Cockburn said… “You know that

big brand problem… well, my brand still

has a problem… it is not going away.”

“In fact I think the brand is

now doing worse than

before.”


John went red, then blue – he was

embarrassed. He was broken. “But…

this is IMPOSSIBLE! This cannot be…

this worked only a few years ago…

and it worked for brand X and for

brand Y… and Z”.

Broken, bent and confused John

walked away… he had lost his edge,

his niche, his thing.

Sitting on a rock, feeling sorry for himself, John sulked. “What is wrong?” asked a mischievous little girl called Nombulelo. Not

looking up once, John explained with dramatic effect what had happened… he had failed to solve a big brand problem. He told the little girl all about how they made the brand incredibly different, all the emotional stuff, how big and incredible the human truth was and of course… the incredible advertising campaign and viral component. Looking like a stylish little Atlas carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders Nombulelo asked… “What on

earth is viral?”

John hung his head, he wanted to cry. “The shame, the shame” he whimpered.


“That… sounds like a WICKED problem Mister”. “A WICKED brand problem that is Mister”. Consoled by his intrigue, John looked up. “And what is that?” John asked with a knitted brow. Animated and all fired up the little girl continued.

“And everyone knows that a wicked problem is where the problem is not defined, and neither is the solution… it has multiple possible solutions, and that you can only really know the problem, when you know the solution.

You cannot solve a wicked problem with conventional thinking… only through special kind of thinking. A wicked problem has no right or wrong only good and bad solutions… wicked problems are usually unique and it is usually a symptom of a bigger problem”. John cocked his head, squinted and said… “Where on earth did you learn that?” “The internet of course… they have speaking about it since the 70s you know!” said Nombulelo grinning.


“So… how do you solve a wicked brand problem?” asked John? “Simple really… just understand that a brand is a system… it has elements and it interacts with other systems within its environment… if you understand the system and its environment you might be able to solve the problem… everything works together mister… so if one element is sick, the whole system is sick.

It is called systemic thinking. Understand the system… understand the problem.” “Don’t you old people surf the web?” grinned Nombulelo.

John was humbled and felt enlightened - His mind was spinning and churning and he decided that, from this day forth… I am going to be…a systemic brand thinker. He got up, dusted off his shoulders… and planted a grin on his face.

“I now know how to solve that big brand problem”.


John stormed into the offices of the gloating Mr

Cockburn, looking him square in the eyes he said…

“I know what your big brand problem is

Cockburn”.

Mr Cockburn nearly choked on his cigar, no one

stormed into his office, not even him.

“O really, what is my big brand problem?”

Smiling John asked him a series of questions:


“That… is what is wrong with your brand… the elements of your brand are not in place… your brand system is… well… sick… that is your unique wicked brand problem”.

“Because the elements of your brand are… well sick or absent, your brand cannot successfully survive within its environment… it cannot effectively engage with people”.


“Is this the answer to all brand problems?” asked the somewhat embarrassed Mr Cockburn. He suddenly realised he was wrong and John was indeed right.

“No… this could be the answer to your wicked brand problem… It is unique for every brand” said the John. “Well then solve it!!” said the passionate Mr Cockburn. “The thing is… We need to do it together” replied the humble systemic thinking John. “Let’s start thinking about your consumer… as a human being.”


A brand System: {Proprietary The Human Brand Theory™ model}

John had realised that every brand is unique; it has its own set of challenges that needs to be overcome. There is no one golden set of rules, just a way of thinking about brands. In the end,

a brand is a system of meaning. It was

his job to control and maintain that meaning.


With that… he suddenly realised that the future was looking great…

[The End]


What do we do? ___________________________________________________________

Brands have wicked problems.

So we help brands grow through helping them understand and solve their

wicked brand problems. We do this through using clever systemic brand

thinking that is human needs centred and trying to understand the brand

system. In the end, we strive to create the meaning behind the brand so

that we can help the brand tell a compelling story to the people that really

matter the most in the system… your audience.

We believe that the future of successful brands is to make them as human

as possible. Humans are complex systems that also interact with their

environment in order to survive and thrive.


What do we offer? __________________________________________________________

Simply put… We offer wicked brand problem solutions. We do not think about our service offering as a range of line items like brand strategy or positioning strategy or blue print development or communication strategy, we do all of that stuff, but… we like to focus on your wicked brand problem. We try understanding what the wicked problems are in your brand system and then we strive to solve them strategically. We feel so passionate about this that we even developed our own systemic brand thinking methodology – we call it the Human brand Theory™. It is unique, simple to use and based years of research into brand success development. We have been solving wicked brand problems for longer than 10 years and we have done this in various categories, on brands of varying sizes and value and on brand problems varying in complexity.

Remember, every wicked brand problem is unique, there is no one set answer.


What makes us different? __________________________________________________________

There are quite a few things that make us different


Our collective experience __________________________________________________________ Collectively the Mercury 1 team has over twenty years of experience in

brand- and communication strategy development and implementation.

During this time, we worked on a wide range of brands and categories:


Who is Mercury1? __________________________________________________________

Andre le Roux is a Strategist, Mentor and brand

Theorist who has been working in the brand

strategy industry for more than 10 years. He is

passionate about the science of strategy. Andre

likes to think of himself as brand theorist that is

constantly searching for new ways to create more

powerful and impactful brands that truly will

make a difference in the lives of all stakeholders.

He is a guest speaker and avid writer.

“I am a thinker and explorer and I love to find new ways of building better

brands through using systemic thinking.”

Thys de Beer is an admitted advocate (non-

practising) the head of brand Strategy at Vega

School of Brand Leadership, as well as the head of

the Honours in Brand Leadership at Vega Cape

Town. He has been in the industry for over 10

years and is currently busy with his Master’s

Degree researching the role of design thinking in

brand strategy. Thys is an intellectual that is

looking to change people’s perceptions about the power of the brand.

“I am an Alchemist; I love the power of collaboration and discovering

insights that help to build authentic brands”

“Together we have authored and develop a systemic

brand thinking methodology to build better brands –

The Human brand Theory™”


Just in case you want to make a few notes __________________________________________________________


PLEASE CONTACT US

Andre le Roux:

[email protected]

083 625 4348.

Thys de Beer:

[email protected]

082 565 5508

Follow us on:

www.mercuryonestrategy.blogspot.com

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