Rapper Q Da Kid sprays himself with a deodorant spray, then steps out onto the dirty streets of New York City. In a run-down backyard, he meets his opponent - a rival rapper who is already waiting for him, arms crossed and grim-faced. The occasion: a rap duel in which the best rapper is to be crowned. The surrounding hip-hop fans are eagerly awaiting the verbal acrobatics with which Q Da Kid will attack his opponent. But Q Da Kid doesn't utter a single word - instead, he lets the freshness of his deodorant escape with a commanding gesture. The opposing rapper is no match for the powerful freshness of the deodorant: he topples backwards and Q Da Kid is euphorically celebrated as the winner by the bystanders.
In the latest commercial for deodorant brand Tag, freshness is glorified as the latest status symbol for hip-hop fans. Tag is aimed specifically at a young and urban target group, making it the first hip-hop deodorant spray. As novel as the niche positioning of a deodorant spray is the way in which Tag is marketed to the target group of hip-hop fans: The deodorant brand has its own rapper, Q Da Kid, whose main task is to promote the deodorant spray. This is a new marketing strategy that can be described as star branding and we will certainly be hearing a lot more about it in the future.
Star branding is about brands creating their own music stars in order to use them for advertising purposes. The principle is similar to that of casting bands: up-and-coming musicians are built up as stars in order to appeal to a clearly defined target group. The star cult surrounding the musicians is used to make the brand products known to the target group. The connection between musicians and advertising thus takes on a new dimension: unlike conventional advertising contracts, in which established stars advertise a brand, brand stars merge completely with the respective brand - like a personalized brand logo. Q Da Kid, a 20-year-old up-and-coming rapper from New York, is the first brand star to emerge from the tag marketing machinery - with more musicians already in the pipeline.
Pioneer Procter & Gamble
The tag deodorant spray belongs to the Procter & Gamble umbrella brand, which has a long tradition of innovative marketing: Procter & Gamble was one of the first companies to sponsor radio shows in the 1930s and also produced them itself. As Procter & Gamble mainly produced soap at the time, the ongoing radio stories became known as soap operas. In the early 1950s, the company transferred the soap opera concept to television and, more recently, to the Internet in the form of web series. For more than half a century, Procter & Gamble has been cleverly using a marketing strategy that is currently the subject of intense debate under the buzzword branded content.
The purpose of branded content is to create an advertising environment for one's own products that is precisely tailored to the respective target group. With Tag Records, Procter & Gamble has extended the branded content concept to music and, at the same time, transferred it from the broadcasting medium to stars: it is no longer just content that is branded, but also the actors who act in it. Star branding thus represents the next stage of branded content: Brand stars personalize the brand and thus bring it to life.

The Tag brand stands above all
In order to attract brand stars, Procter & Gamble has founded its own rap record company called Tag Records in collaboration with the record company Def Jam. The president of the new label is rapper and producer Jermaine Dupri, known for his music with Mariah Carey, Jay-Z and Usher. Dupri's task is to find new, as yet undiscovered rap talents and build them up as tag rappers. To this end, casting events are organized throughout the USA at which hopeful rap talents can present themselves. Up-and-coming rappers also have the opportunity to upload their songs to the Tag Records website. The best rappers are signed by Tag Records - and then undergo a complete makeover to adapt them to the Tag brand.
As Procter & Gamble is primarily concerned with marketing the deodorant spray, the rappers are not marketed as independent artists. Instead, they act as figureheads and brand ambassadors in the service of Tag: as part of the recording contract, the rappers appear in deodorant advertisements, promote Tag deodorant at concerts and are also available as brand faces for advertising purposes.
The music career of the tag rappers thus becomes one endless commercial. Adam Weber, Brand Manager at Tag Records, explains: "What we're doing is different from the usual endorsement deals, where artists promote a brand. Normal endorsement deals have a beginning and an end. With us, the rappers are associated with Tag deodorant throughout their career. Tag's message and the artists' message become one and the same." Star branding according to the Tag model is therefore based on the complete fusion of artist and brand personality. Brand stars are nothing other than brand logos made of flesh and blood: just as the Michelin man stands for the tire brand, the Tag rappers act as living figureheads for the deodorant spray.
Colossal advertising expenditure for sound carriers
For the rappers who work for Tag Records, their existence as living advertising figures is worthwhile in that they can count on the concentrated marketing power of Procter & Gamble and Def Jam. The Tag Records musicians' albums are promoted with the kind of colossal effort that is normally unimaginable for unknown rappers just releasing their first album: "We take a new artist and give them the kind of publicity that only the most famous hip-hop stars get," enthuses Dupri. "Normally, rappers have to sell tons of albums to get to this level. We, on the other hand, give our artists this platform from day one. There's never been anything like it in the music industry." The deal is therefore worthwhile for both parties: Procter & Gamble has a vehicle with the rappers to market the tag deodorant spray to the target group of hip hoppers, and the musicians become superstars overnight.
Tag Records is currently producing Q Da Kid's first album. Two pieces of music can already be heard in advance on his MySpace page. There are no obvious references to deodorant in the lyrics - but there is no question that Tag has a massive influence on the lyrics: Anything that is not in line with the brand image of the deodorant spray is radically weeded out. It is also to be expected that Procter & Gamble will sooner or later try to subtly incorporate the deodorant and the associated theme into the music tracks in order to exploit the full marketing potential of the brand stars: as music is omnipresent in the lives of hip-hop fans, the brand messages will become an integral part of their everyday lives - the ideal situation from a marketing perspective.
Integrating advertising messages into music tracks is also interesting from the music industry's point of view: as the rampant exchange of music via the Internet means that less and less revenue is being generated from CD sales, the music industry has to look for new business models. One possibility would be to finance music advertising along the lines of free newspapers: Record companies give out the music for free and place advertising in the lyrics.
Influence on song lyrics will increase
Brand messages are already widespread in music today: Ever since Run DMC rapped about "My Adidas" in 1986, brands have been a permanent fixture in hip-hop songs: Tim Dog raps about his Timberlands, 50 Cent about his Bentley, Kool Keith sips Dom Perignon, and Busta Rhymes calls for the Courvoisier to be handed over. It is not known whether these are paid advertisements or pure fan testimonials. However, it is to be expected that the weaving of brand names into song lyrics will increase significantly if the tag model of star branding catches on. The only difficulty lies in linking the advertising messages to the respective artist and music genre in a meaningful way. Jermaine Dupri has already got the hang of it. As he says on the Tag Records website: "Tag deodorant fits perfectly with rap. Because we rappers all have one goal: we always want to be as fresh as possible. That's why we now have Tag: you just spray it on - and you're fresh."
Max Celko

Züritipp will soon have new management. After a good two years, Thomas Speich is handing over the reins. Reto Baumann and Sara Guntern will now be in charge of the Tages-Anzeiger's cultural agenda. The management post will be split into two: Baumann, who was previously responsible for the Züritipp website and has been a high-profile music journalist for many years, will now be responsible for the content section. Guntern, previously responsible for the daily tips and data collection, will take over the organizational and administrative tasks.
Thomas Speich from Oberland is changing jobs within the company. He will become an advisor to the new lifestyle free newspaper "20 Minuten Friday".

As President of Swiss Marketing (SMC), I would like to extend a warm welcome to the readers of Werbewoche. I am convinced that our professional association has a lot to say on topics relating to training and further education. In future, we will be publishing our own Swiss Marketing articles here every four weeks. Because Swiss Marketing is the number 1 in marketing, networking and training. Young people in particular are aware of the great importance of further training as an investment in an exciting professional future. Swiss Marketing is responsible for the organization of all important examinations in the field of marketing and sales: MarKom admission examinations, professional examinations for marketing and sales specialists with a federal certificate, higher professional examinations for marketing and sales managers with a federal diploma. If you have any questions, please visit our website www.swissmarketing.ch, link Higher Vocational Education and Training, or contact our secretariat directly ([email protected]). I look forward to many contacts and feedback on our articles.
Uwe Tännler, President Swiss Marketing
From financiers and marketers on the management board

Finance professionals and marketers have different tasks and also do not. They are all called upon to help achieve the company's goals and naturally do so within the framework of their different disciplines. The ultimate corporate goals are always related to a market; without a market, there is no company.
If a company cannot exist without a market, why can management exist without marketers? We all - including marketers - know what a CFO is today. But do we know what a CMO is? In the wake of the current mortgage crisis, we are perhaps more likely to think of collateralized mortgage obligations than the Chief Marketing Officer. Take a look at the executive job advertisements. How many CFOs are being sought and how many CMOs? Can you imagine a listed company without a CFO? No? But why do many of these companies not have a CMO? What is the ideal route to the position of CEO? Is it marketing or finance?
Marketers must seriously ask themselves why, in a market economy, it is not the market specialists who almost automatically become company managers. Is it because marketing is still too often seen as mumbo-jumbo, something that is practiced intuitively but partially defies rationality? Or is it because it is easier for financiers to monitor marketing than vice versa? I confess that I don't know the answer and merely have a few suspicions.
However, I would like to point out one difference between financiers and marketers: They have different continuing education behaviors. For financiers, it is almost a matter of course to attend a training event at least once a year. I hear different things from marketers. Do willingness to learn and self-image of learning play a role when it comes to filling the position of CEO? I apologize for concluding this column with another question rather than an answer.
Dr. Peter Petrin: Vice President Swiss Marketing (SMC) and Director of the SIB (Swiss Institute of Business Economics)

Jana, Iduna or Men's Care: in future, all care products from Migros will be offered under the new umbrella brand I am. The brand name says it all: "I am who I am." People who are true to themselves have a positive aura and can better show off their natural beauty without having to conform to the usual beauty ideals. At the center of the introductory campaign created by Exxtra Kommunikation is a trendily styled film spot featuring the world-famous hit "I am what I am" by Gloria Gaynor.
The name for the new basic skincare line was developed in-house at Exxtra, then tested and now implemented. The logo and the new packaging for the ten product ranges originate from Germany. The standardized range includes lines such as I am face, I am young, I am bathcare, I am for man. In order not to confuse existing consumers, individual products have been supplemented on the packaging with the words Jana Quality or Iduna Quality from the old brands.
Film 30 sec.
Film 60 sec.
For the film, a small crew from Wiener Klappe worked with a street casting, because they "didn't just want to show beautiful models", as consultant Julia Brun from Exxtra says. The people portrayed in this vignette film wear their own clothes and were not styled. The commercial therefore has an almost documentary style and shows "real people in real situations". I am sees itself as an uncomplicated, comprehensive and high-quality skincare line in the mid-price segment.
The subsequent print campaign will also be based on images taken during the filming of the music video.
Andreas Panzeri

Have you noticed it too? Ringier's Cash Group, which usually sends out a Cash Media Report with its Mach Basic publication, failed to do so for the first time last week. Why do you think? Did the title perform badly?
Oh where, just the day before the Mach Basic publication, Ringier spokesman Stefan Hackh was "very satisfied" with the new Wemf result when asked. And indeed, Dayli has 85,000 readers a day. Not bad at all for a paper that is only two years old.
Nevertheless, the result is probably the reason for the Cash Group's considerably quieter demeanor. In the reports twelve and six months ago, those responsible still loudly trumpeted the fact that the print reach of the young free business newspaper reported at the time did not correspond to the current level at all, but was around 50 percent higher thanks to an increase in circulation in the meantime - with a projected 127,000 print readers. And now there are 42,000 fewer readers. It's really difficult to explain this.
It is therefore understandable that the Cash Group is now taking a dive - and also covering a few tracks: for a week now, the Cash Daily media data on www.cash.ch has been missing the very document on which the (obviously incorrect) extrapolation for the 127,000 readers was derived.

Insurance provider Allianz Suisse entered the direct sales market in August with the Allianz24.ch website. A nationwide campaign with the motto "Open 24 hours" is now being carried out to position the new brand. Part of the online campaign is a competition that invites customers to calculate their premiums, according to a press release from the My Sign agency.
In addition to the online competition, customers are targeted with promotional campaigns, petrol pump and poster advertising and direct mailings.
The My Sign agency is responsible for the realization, concept development and design of the campaign.
Responsible at My Sign: Reto Baumgartner (Executive Board), Urs Koller (Executive Board).

Everywhere, all over the world, people know that champagne comes from France. Everywhere? Almost everywhere: A small Gallic, er, Welsh village resists the giant with the rooster in its coat of arms incredibly steadfastly. What is its name? Champagne, of course! The village of 700 inhabitants sees no reason to give up its protected trademark "De Champagne Suisse" and is demanding that the Federal Council finally take action. With a postulate and a parliamentary initiative, the defenders of the products from the village of Champagne want to increase their pressure on the Federal Council. Their aim is to have their concerns included in the negotiations on an agricultural free trade agreement with the European Union.
They also want to pave the way for a revision of the federal law on the protection of trademarks and indications of source. "This matter is not only a Vaudois problem. On the contrary, it threatens all homonyms," all namesakes, FDP National Councilor Isabelle Moret told the media in Bern on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the producers from Champagne do not give up their fight against France. They did not intend in any way to give up the brand "De Champagne Suisse". France had given the village an ultimatum to this effect until Monday - under threat of legal action. The trademark was registered in June by the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property: The trademark "De Champagne Suisse" for pastries and non-alcoholic beverages does not run counter to the bilateral treaties with the EU and the agreement with France on designations of origin.
Because of the Bilateral Agreements between Switzerland and the EU, the winegrowers of the village in Vaud have already had to give up the name "Vin de Champagne" and redesign the labels and advertising material. Since then, they have been fighting for recognition of the former designation. The French should beware of the fat, round villager who fell into the wine barrel as a small child. Otherwise they will soon be left without sandals. And in general, the play is not over until Troubadix has sung.

A challenge for Startbahnwest: Gasverbund Mittelland (GVM) has commissioned the Zurich agency with the natural gas trade fair presentation at this year's Auto Basel.
Startbahnwest took the Auto Basel motto "A new dimension" literally and designed an oversized object. In the hollow space of the floating object, the vast environmentally friendly world of natural gas was staged in such a way that it invites visitors to "immerse themselves and discover", as the agency writes in a press release on Wednesday.
Startbahnwest is responsible for the entire presentation, from the trade fair and object design to the projections at the natural gas stand and the accompanying communication measures.
Auto Basel 08 takes place from September 18 to 21. All the car brands represented in Switzerland will be showcased on an exhibition area of 20,000 m2.

Responsible at Gasverbund Mittelland: Kurt Schmidlin (Head of Marketing), Linde Meneghin (Marketing Project Manager), David Linder (Assistant Head of Marketing)
Responsible at the agency Startbahnwest: Hartmut Vetter (strategic planning), Nicole Schnell, Denise Heusser (consulting), Rüdiger Flothmann (CD), Christine Manger (AD), Gesine Dittrich (graphics), Natasa Maricic (text), Joely Tafanalo (DTP). Object design: Claim Planungsgesellschaft, Berlin.

The video portal YouTube is responding to criticism from politicians: under pressure from US MPs, the website has now announced stricter controls on content and tougher action against films that incite violence. The company, which has been owned by Google for several months, banned such content last week with a change to its terms of use.
Google spokesperson Henning Dorstewitz told the German press agency DPA on Wednesday that the changes are a reaction to religiously motivated calls for violence and hatred, but also to violent videos from youth gangs, for example.
Previously, the company had only outlawed "drastic or gratuitous violence" and even left some videos from the Al Qaeda terrorist network online. US politicians, above all Senator Joseph Lieberman, took action against this.
However, YouTube does not search for potentially banned videos itself, but responds to complaints from users. "Trained employees" then check whether the film violates the platform's terms of use, said Dorstewitz. A "case-by-case decision" is made each time.
He emphasized that the right to freedom of expression is fundamentally more important to YouTube than questions of taste. "However, we do not tolerate videos that clearly violate the law or the terms of use."
YouTube is the world's leading video portal. It is freely accessible. All registered users can upload files and thus make them available to a global audience. All you need to register is an e-mail address.

NZZ Campus and the Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research (IPMZ) at the University of Zurich are organizing a series of events this autumn on the subject of media, power and quality. Discussions will focus on the relationship of the media to power and the powerful at home and abroad, the independence and credibility of the media for their readership, the economic future of quality titles in the competitive Swiss media market and the opportunities offered by online media. The aim is to bring together experts from journalism and academia.
The first media talk on September 23 will be dedicated to the future of quality titles, their credibility and how they deal with power. Markus Spillmann, editor-in-chief of the NZZ, and Otfried Jarren, professor of journalism at the IPMZ, will take part in the discussion. The discussion will be chaired by Casper Selg, editorial director of "Echo der Zeit" on Swiss Radio DRS. Further information is available at Nzzcampus.ch to find. The series is the result of a collaboration between NZZ and IPMZ on the occasion of an NZZ supplement on the occasion of the 175th anniversary of the University of Zurich.

No one reading this will doubt that brand management and the constant evolution of a brand's content and form are crucial to its prosperity and longevity. Tons of paper and thousands of posts on the web are dedicated to the intricacies of brand management. But when the substance of the brand is under scrutiny, people prefer to argue extensively about its form in order to avoid an urgently needed debate about brand content.
This has recently been the case with the time-honored founding party of the modern Swiss Confederation, the FDP. The party has been losing substance and voters for some time now. So the party has been working diligently and anxiously to give the brand a new face and a new name and to merge with a partner, the "Liberals".
With verve and meticulousness, those involved pounce on the most unimportant and wrong things. They are thinking loudly and publicly about whether the FDP should become the FLP (Freisinnig Liberale Partei). This makes the columnist's heart happy, because once again it is being demonstrated for all the world to see that people enjoy arguing about the form and the name when they can't think of anything to say about the content.
There is not a single sensible or comprehensible reason to turn the FDP into an FLP. Giving up an established name or tinkering with a familiar brand without need is always wrong. The FDP is not suffering from its name or its logo, but from a rampant atrophy of its brand personality.
It has no tangible identity, no stringent program, no clear convictions and no characters with whom one could identify. At the moment, it simply lacks everything that could turn a brand into a Lovemark. Because only Lovemarks manage to generate "loyalty beyond reason", the greatest asset a brand can create.
Instead of defining the role of the FDP in a modern, globalized society in a very pragmatic and tangible way, the party takes refuge in a bizarre name debate that neither interests nor affects anyone and overshadows the urgent need for discussion about the sensitive and controversial characteristics of the FDP brand.
But instead of just complaining, here is a very practical indication of the basis on which a substantive debate could take place.
Even if there are politicians who would rather see "visions" located in a university psychiatric clinic, it would not hurt to define the basic convictions on which the FDP brand is based, the mission it is committed to and the values it represents.
It is not a detailed party program, but a pragmatic and action-oriented brand platform that does not get lost in generalities, but concentrates on the essentials.
Instead of blaming this content on the voracious party apparatus as usual, a debate on the actual actions that a high-profile liberal brand personality should trigger would be appropriate. The actual target audience of a party, the electorate, would certainly reward this. The spectacle of a party caste preoccupied with itself, which makes public name-dropping the main activity of its political action, would then be superfluous, and voters would be in for a welcome surprise that they have hardly dared to believe in.
In view of the widespread lack of direction in the liberal-liberal camp, the hope of abandoning the name change exercise and returning to substantive discussions and the resulting political action is an illusion.
If the FDP really were a brand, as it would like to be, then there would be no way around positioning itself in terms of content with a clear, distinct profile. But it is probably more than a guess that it will not do so and will therefore remain "just" a party.