Monday Inspiration (November 2023): Nationwide's re-brand, adapting the marketing funnel, the essential skills for being human, the Beatles are Back!

The last few months has seen a flurry of re-brands from some of the best known companies in the world. October was no different, with Nationwide Building Society launching its new brand identity, the biggest change in 30 years.

Past re-brands have shown that making a change can be risky (the BBC’s Bottom Line has a great programme exploring this in detail). Nationwide’s re-brand was met with a mixed reaction from the marketing industry... but of course marketers’ opinions won’t make a jot of difference if it leads to better results for the business:

Like the Twitter/ X re-brand in the summer, time will tell if Nationwide’s re-brand pays off. My feeling is that it is too much of a departure and dilutes what made Nationwide different. In addition to the new colour scheme (which is too similar to NatWest - I still mix the apps up on my phone!), the brand’s distinctive assets (e.g., the iconic house. The light blue and red) have been watered down and the strapline “A better way to bank” is an underwhelming and confusing choice for a building society wanting to tell consumers about its mutual difference.

Needless to say, System1 ran a test last week that revealed the new TV ad is one of the best-performing banking ads they’ve tested. It’ll be interesting to see what difference the re-brand makes in the long term.

What else was I reading and listening to in October? Here are some highlights:

A simple adaptation to the marketing funnel | Marketing Week

I noticed some of the usual nonsense last month about the marketing funnel being dead or no longer relevant. Of course the marketing funnel has its faults, but as Johnny Corbett explains in his Marketing Week article there are new and interesting ways to adapt it to make it useful for marketing strategists. 

His innovation is to combine it with Google’s more realistic but less elegant ‘Messy Middle’ to create a new ‘Managing the Messy Middle’ model:

As Johnny Corbett explains:

"For marketing to make a difference, theory needs to turn into action; and while I think we universally accept that the funnel isn’t really a funnel at all, seeing it as one does make it easier to manage.

I love The Messy Middle for its realism, and the funnel for its reliability, and I suppose in the end the old adage is true – ‘all models are wrong, but some are more useful than others’."

The Essential Skills for Being Human | David Brooks | The New York Times

As AI continues to dominate the news and media, it’s useful to take a step back every once in a while and reflect on what makes humankind so special. David Brooks wrote an excellent article in February about what we can do to stand out in an increasingly mechanised and optimised world. 

In this Op-Ed for the New York Times, he talks about what he has learned about other people that have a unique ability to connect, empathise and illuminate others. And it is this last trait that caught my imagination:

“Illuminators, on the other hand, have a persistent curiosity about other people. They have been trained or have trained themselves in the craft of understanding others. They know how to ask the right questions at the right times — so that they can see things, at least a bit, from another’s point of view. They shine the brightness of their care on people and make them feel bigger, respected, lit up.

Eras: The Beatles | BBC Sounds

I have been in love with the Beatles for nearly 30 years. If ever we wanted an example of human beings that illuminate and bring joy to others then we needn’t look any further than John, Paul, George and Ringo. So it was both a surprise and a delight to listen to the first new Beatles song since 1995: Now and Then.

Accompanying the new song is a treasure trove of nostalgia across the BBC, including this podcast series narrated by Martin Freeman. Even though I’ve seen, read and listened to nearly everything about the Beatles over the decades, it was great to relive the journey again all the back to now.