Meeting Brian Sweeney the Kiwi end of the Lovemarks team was interesting. We had a good-spirited dialogue about Lovemarks. As in, we were both willing to hear each other’s points of view. I found Brian more than willing to acknowledge criticism and essentially his position was that the book is a work in progress. It will be interesting to see what happens next.
I suggested that Kevin and Co try out blogging as a way to develop thinking. Jack Yan (who was at the lunch with me)and I both thought that a public debate with Kevin and Brian would be a welcome next step in the dialogue.
I don’t think Lovemarks presents a vision of the future beyond brands. In some ways, it epitomises what I dislike about branding practice: too much promise, not enough coherence. I despair of many of the examples used; surely we as a species can do better things with our time than pretend that Cheerios are an efficient way to improve parenting?
That said, I am interested in a genuine dialogue about whether marketing can make itself truly relevant to helping humans get beyond our current unsustainable chaos. For me, that may involve moving beyond the Punch-and-Judy of polemics into a place where there’s a greater willingness to admit uncertainty and possibility.
So, in the spirit of transparency and openness, I hope Kevin and Brian will treat this as an open invitation to more face-to-face conversations, with or without an audience…
By the way, Tony Goodson has been writing some provocative thoughts on Lovemarks lately.
