Alex Steer

233 words | ~1 min

Good to see M&C Saatchi's mad PR equation is back in the adland headlines:

After long hours looking at data from Nielsen and Unilever, the Saatchi Institute was able to map the correlation between the ability of a brand to maximise differentiation and minimise deviation. The equation Saatchi proclaimed as "the answer" back in June is the formula for the curve created when the Unilever data was plotted on a graph.

Well, that's more than we got a few months back when it was first shown (with no explanation). It's unnecessarily obscure for a curve equation, though. It looks like a power law equation to me. On the plus side, it's doing a great job of winding people up, a classic Saatchi move.

If I had to guess, I'd say it maybe describes the factors that condition the extent of a brand's ability to steal market share (which normally operates on a power law basis), presumably by balancing differentiation with the minimisation of loss of sales due to short-term factors, like competitor price-cutting. If so, that's a perfectly good basis on which to think about your advertising.

As and when some detail about it actually gets published, I'll be all over it and looking to test it on data from other brands.