“What New People in the World need CEO Residence Now...?” aka... “Lovemarks are a work-in-progress”

What the world needs now is Newer, brighter, stronger, bolder.
it's the only thing that there's just too little of
What the world needs now is Newer, brighter, stronger, bolder.
no not just for some, but for everyone.

You need High Respect and High Love. I showed the assembled CEO's at Cambridge last March my thermometer of emotional heat and commitment... Everyone enters my Love/Respect Axis - with a lover, with an experience, with a product, somewhere on this Axis.

Where High Love/High Respect is instant attraction and life-time love affairs belong... the premiums, the share, the margin, and the profits...

Lovemarks were on the loose. Lovemarks are meta-level thinking.

A Lovemark results from the fusion of Mystery, Sensuality and Intimacy. All stuff that never comes up in Management School.

Mystery draws together the stories, metaphors and icons that give a relationship its texture.

Sensuality is the five senses squeezed dry as an acute benchmark of lasting customer relationships, outstanding innovation, inspired execution.

The third signature of a Lovemark is the close-up world of intimacy. These are the moments that seal loving relationships. A broad brush-stroke won't do it. We need small but significant gestures. The perfect three words: "I love you."

Fortune 100 brands, countries, major religions, a US President, magazines, auto companies, apparel producers...

The Lovemarker addresses the big three questions: How can you hold your ground, build and win your dreams and earn the love of people around the world?

Let's start close to home and take Cambridge through the Lovemarker. It's a great question: is Cambridge a Lovemark? How can it be more Lovemark-like? Cambridge would make a great client for Saatchi & Saatchi.

Currently, I would locate Cambridge in the extreme High Respect corner of the Love/Respect Axis; but low on Love. First, let's test Cambridge for Mystery:

1.The first ingredient of Mystery is the Story, and Cambridge scores incredibly well. Every culture has a narrative tradition - story telling is the scaffolding of relationships. Cambridge has more stories than all the skyscrapers in Manhattan.
2.The second element of mystery is the unity of past, present and future - the way you fix yourself in time and space. Of course, Cambridge gets maximum points.
3.Lovemarks tap into dreams. Cambridge shouldn't be just tapping into dreams; all those intelligent young people; all that adrenalin…
4.Mystery has secret ingredients. At Saatchi & Saatchi we work with companies who make soap powder, diapers, juice…
5.Mystery requires Saatchi & Saatchi.

Let's have a look now at Cambridge's sensual appeal. The senses sustain and energize lifetime love affairs. Before they sustain, though, they must be aroused. I doubt that Cambridge has ever given much thought to its capacity to arouse the senses. But why not? Human beings have not yet evolved into disembodied heads, communicating like advanced life-forms on a Star Trek episode.
So, to Cambridge in the realm of the senses...

6.Touch. There are all sorts of ways to convey the experience of touch. Take an example from sport. There's more passion and emotion in the simple phrase "I kiss football" than in all the predictable diatribes about commitment. And if you can kiss football, why can't you kiss Cambridge? There's a great t-shirt: "I Kiss Cambridge". That's Passion.
7.Taste. I'm sure that Cambridge left all sorts of tastes in your mouths: Café food? Warm beer? A mouthful of mud? Yum.
8.Sight. How do you put visual appeal into Cambridge?
9.Sound. The choir's job on the Cambridge Lovemarking journey is to score a Number One cross-over chart topper. For the rest of us, the sound of Cambridge is the sound of silence.
10.Smell. If a computer can evoke taste, we've got to be able to give Cambridge a scent. Fresh-cut grass? An autumn evening? The Botanic Gardens in May? Plenty to play with.

-Finally, let's get up close and intimate with Cambridge. Let's see how it registers for emotion, empathy and inspiration.-

11.Emotion. What should this emotion express? At Saatchi & Saatchi we have created a simplicity tool in response to the bewildering complexity of global markets. We call the tool a Worldwide One Word Equity. Just one word, A Worldwide One Word Equity. It's nailing that single, defining word that says it all. It means a company, a brand, a product. It focuses everyone in the communications mix. Cambridge knows that.
12.Empathy. Not a good word for Cambridge. What about all the young people that don't give a toss?
13.This surely is where Cambridge should be playing at home. All the great stories about all the fascinating people...

My conclusion is that Cambridge is a Lovemark-in-Waiting. It needs a good shunt. It needs to pump up the Mystery, Sensuality and Intimacy on all fronts. In particular I would look at the appeal to women.

At Saatchi & Saatchi we have a major focus on women. Saatchi & Saatchi's Inspirational Dream is "to be revered as the hot house.”

"Make magic", said the Chicago Bulls.

You want a moment of pure ecstatic focus? Take Michael Jordan's last second goal which won the Bulls' their last NBA title.