Linkin Park: how to repackage and reinvent a brand

 

Linkin Park’s new album A Thousand Suns is a great demonstration of how a brand can be redesigned, relaunched and reinvented from a position of strength to appeal to both existing and new customers.

Linkin Park could have kept to the same formula of their first few albums which sold 10’s of millions of copies but they have chosen to create a brand new sound while continuing to carry many of their existing brand values of social injustice, rebelling against the corporate and government machine on one side and personal passion, hurt and emotional pain on the other side. It’s a fearless and even darker album than previous ones, it’s more electronic, less rocky and more rap orientated than ever before and in places more beautiful and uplifting while in others still containing the same anger but less passionate screaming that they have always been known for.

They have dramatically changed their product parts. With the use of recorded, world-weary speeches by scientist Robert Oppenheimer, political activist Mario Savio and Martin Luther King Jr they have stepped up their political and social overtures that were coming through on their Minutes to Midnight album which itself was a different sound from their original albums which made their name. There is a sense of anger and fight all over the album. It will make you think and wonder about the world and why other bands of similar standing are not looking to challenge injustices in the same way that Linkin Park are highlighting. Not many artists have the guts to change their entire sound and in effect their brand design and consumer appeal and shake their existing fans from their comfort zone as well as surprising non-fans.

The album’s sound and feel will be hated by many existing fans expecting another Hybrid Theory or Meteora but be embraced by more open minded ones. It will be loved by many new fans that once dismissed Linkin Park. It will make people think and re-examine their prejudices about them in the way that many marketers will wish their brand could be re-examined and re-thought of. They have redesigned their brand and created a whole new target audience without fear of failure – will it work? Only time will tell. Music message boards around the world are split 50/50, the critics are mostly pleasantly surprised by it. Personally I love it!

New York v Singapore Airport: what do they say about their respective country brands

Singapore recently won the Best Airport In The World honour at the international Skytrax World Airport Awards in the passenger category. If there was an award for worst airport it would have to be New York. What Singapore does understand and New York does not understand is that an airport is like a brand’s packaging and design. The first impression of a country is its airport. It’s the gateway to all the other brand values of that country.

I realized this even more on a recent trip to New York and then coming back home to Singapore.

Contrast and compare New York’s JFK and what is says about America’s brand and Singapore’s Changi airport and what it says about the Singapore’s brand.

After a 20 hour flight from Singapore and arriving in New York I am met by a 2 hour wait just to get through immigration. There are 9 lengthy rows of visitors queued up and only 1 row of Americans lined up trying to get into the country and yet they both have 10 separate entry points. What made this worse was that there were plenty of officials sitting around in booths that could have been used to deal with people chatting to their fellow colleagues in full view of everyone queuing who are getting increasingly agitated.

Bearing in mind visitors must have had to go through either getting a visa or registering on the new visa waiver website before this point. Visitors still then have to have all their fingers and thumbs finger/thumb printed – from both hands. Then a photo is taken. Then you’re allowed in. By this time you’re luggage has been offloaded from the conveyer belt and if you’re lucky is still there. Then you queue up again to go through customs. At that point you have to find a cashpoint (one for the terminal), there are no shops, no cafes in the arrivals terminal. Then you have to find your rental car (you have to take 2 more trains to find it), then you have to escape New York….slowly. It took 3 hours to get out of New York through the snail like traffic.  

After a 20 hour flight from New York and arriving in Singapore I am greeted by no queue’s, dozens of entry points (for everyone, there is no separation of visitors/residents) as well as electronic unmanned arrivals points for residents and employment pass holders (amazing invention which very few other airports use). I have entered Singapore from airplane to luggage collection in 4 minutes. I am greeted by open shops, restaurants, cashpoints and rental car outlets as well as a convenient taxi rank.

Checking in at Singapore airport takes minutes and your bags are whisked on their way for you. Checking in at New York airport takes minutes and then you’re told you must take your own bags to a secondary point where you queue up for 30 minutes while the officials put all your bags through a security device very slowly. Well one of them was doing this while 5 sat around behind the security screen and chatted to each other in full view of the queue. Bearing in mind most New Yorkers appear to be 10 times the size of a typical Singaporean and move 10 times slower you can imagine how long this process took.

Once in departures waiting at Singapore airport is a pleasure. Once in departures waiting at New York airport is a bore. There is everything at Singapore airport you could wish for, open shops, food courts, restaurants, cafes, information venues, wi-fi. There is nothing at New York departures. A smattering of tacky souvenir shops, no cafes, no restaurants, no wi-fi, one closed bar, one shop selling drinks but no tea, one convenience shop that didn’t take a card and nothing else.

So which of these airports accentuates their respective country brand? Which one communicates positive modern values? Which ones says that they are an efficient and dynamic country who put visitors first? Which one welcomes you and makes you feel comfortable? Which one communicates very positive brand values and which one makes you wish you never arrived in America?

EPL v La Liga: football’s real battle in Asia

Watching my beloved Newcastle United hammer 6 past a hapless Aston Villa last weekend in a bar in Singapore at 10pm really brought home how important football is to Singaporean’s and Asians in general. The great thing about watching the English Premiership (EPL) here is that any kick off in England is evening here so I can do a full day’s activities and then sit down in a bar or at home and watch any EPL match. I actually get to watch more of Newcastle’s game here than I would in the UK. Why? Because in the UK all the Saturday 3pm games are not allowed to be shown live on TV whereas here I can watch every single one of them on 10 different channels live. So I can watch every home and away Newcastle game to my heart’s content! Seeing the EPL’s leading goal scorer Andy Carroll become a star here is uplifting and ironic as he would never even contemplate how far his goals have an effect. I might even get to see a Singaporean where the new Puma Newcastle top and not the plethora of ManU, Liverpool and Arsenal ones usually seen in the Malls here. Though I think that might take more than just one victory! There is a ranging battle here between the two broadcasters, Singtel and Starhub, that make the battle between Sky and BT in the UK look like child’s play. Starhub used to have the EPL and now Singtel do. But Starhub do have La Liga, home of the new World Champions and also arguably the two most famous clubs in the world Barcelona and Real Madrid. Unlike the UK there is no sharing of matches. It’s a choice, either you sign up for Starhub and La Liga or Singtel and the EPL or if you’re mad, both! I have both! The marketing is amazing though with both claiming that their league is the World’s greatest, fastest, most thrilling, exciting and other such superlatives. It does though have a knock on effect as the number of Madrid and Barca shirts being worn in Singapore grows so the battle lines intensify. Let the best league win!