Yesterday, I found it in my letter box: the new “brand eins”. A nice message for 2014 reached me.
Think New! With the focus on: Originality.
Thinking New,
I rather like that!
The same is true for the first few sentences in the editorial by Frau Fischer. Here is a citation:
“The publication of the coalition agreement finally made it clear for everybody: we will have to find our way into the future by ourselves. This compendium of rules and prohibitions lacks courage and literally asks the mature citizen to fight for his own free space, conquer new territory and decide what he wants to accept and what not. And it seems that the current constellation does not make any difference, anyway: politics lost the ability to dream and the best it is prepared to do is administer”
So far the words of Frau Fischer. Incidentally, I share her opinion and would add to it:
“How can you expect politics to dream when even the parties have given up on actively forming a social consensus for change and the future? If all we want is administration, then we need no politics – a more or less adequate administrative sector will do the job quite fine, thank you very much.”
Frau Fischer continues as follows: “Mind you, I do not mean this to sound like I was giving up at all.”
Here, too, I agree with her. After all, I have believed for a long time that it is rather irrelevant what politics do, talk, regulate and forbid, subsidize or put taxes on. The course of events will remain unmoved by it and the evolution will follow its own laws. For instance, if we will still burn brown coal in Germany in the future will not be decided by politicians. The only thing they will decide is how much of it is subsidized. The developments continue and all the clueless politicians can do is ask with Loriot:“But where are they going in such a hurry?”. And the politicians can look on and deliver their Sunday speeches.
Frau Fischer’s words remind me of the slogan “Define Yourself New!” by Michel Serres in his current booklet “A Declaration of Love for the Network Generation”. Incidentally, I think this book, too, is extremely worth reading.
About the magazine.
For a change, the adverts I shake out of the magazine are interesting. First, a very attractive flyer of mymuesli sails to the ground. Mymuesli now has a new target market : enterprises! “New Müsli for German Enterprises” is the slogan. In my opinion, the gadgets are horrible. Yet, the brochure is really and truly ingenious – congratulations to the marketing enterprise. To this day, the purpose of mymuesli has remained hidden to me. In fact, I would rather like to see the mymuesli balance sheet. It probably looks more like beetroot than oatmeal. But perhaps the creativity and power of duration of the founders, as well as their excellent marketing, will be rewarded with a “lucky exit”. After all, it is not a bad life you can live if you have a few million Euros on your bank account.
Apart from my-muesli, another well-designed brochure of Metaplan is striking. Metaplan has now existed for more than 40 years. As long as thirty years ago, when we founded InterFace AG, I used the colourful cards and foldable Metaplan tables. Even good old Habermas is used in this brochure (ethical discourse, etc).
Another brochure also looks special. It is from the “NÜRNBERG ACADEMY for distributive trade”. With the great slogan education needs curiosity (?). And the sub-title is just as “ingenious”: Seek, learn, win.
I wonder how much time they spent brainstorming before they came up with it. Or rather, how long their marketing service did it. Well, nothing wrong with trying, is there? We all want to find a way to acquire customers, don’t we? After all, it is no longer as easy as it used to be ….
Back to the magazine: after having at least freed it of the “mobile” adverts, I look at the “non-mobile” adverts. Many beautiful objects are made to look attractive, none of which I need (any more?). On top of wanting to make me buy great cars and beautiful watches, they suggest beautiful designs, solidarity and trustworthiness The high-tech and classical messages court me and, strangely enough, I find rather few erotic messages in “brand eins”. It seems that the rule “sex sells” does not apply here.
And since “brandeins” is apparently rather a success, each edition seems to contain a little more advertising. On top of the adverts, however, the content of the magazine also offers quite a bit of material. To start with, there is the “world of numbers”, which I always enjoy looking first. As always, the “focal point” is quite convincing. Everything has been researched with lots of love, is told beautifully and is served in a charming way. And almost all the articles either contain a positive message or else make you thoughtful.
So: if you are still looking for a present to put under the tree at Christmas Eve, I can recommend this “brand eins” edition. It is a true joker and will most likely differ from the Christmas consumption terror as a small present in an agreeable way. There are many persons who do not yet know “brand eins”, which might give them some extra pleasure at discovering something new. And when they read it, they will think well of the person who gave it to them for quite some time.
In other words – “brand eins” is a very efficient Christmas present and it might even help the readers to grow resilient.
And I will close this article with greetings to Frau Fischer and her wonderful team and my best wishes for a Happy Christmas, especially in the direction of “brand eins”.
RMD
(Translated by EG)
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