Marketing & branding learnings from Ivan Gurkov

Ivan Gurkov

managing partner?

@ (R)evolve

"We are people. We solve problems via creativity and goodwill. Not capital, or raw materials, or tech, but people solve problems."

Ivan Gurkov has been working in advertising since 2003. Over the years, he has developed his skills going through several global agencies such as TBWA, JWT, and through local agencies in Bulgaria as Art Director and Creative Director. His practice with local and global brands in the European markets convinced him that advertising, in its classic form, is doomed, and just the presence of an outdated type of thinking in modern media benefits neither business nor people. Therefore, in recent years, he has been devoting himself to the development of contemporary alternatives to marketing communications and branding strategies.

EDITOR’S PICK FROM IVAN

Branding’s Perfect 10 – Absolute Marketing

"There are no longer two opposing sides – buyers versus sellers, manufacturers versus consumers, offerors versus receivers. The relationship is already a partnership. People are a real force that is changing the market.?

From owners of buying power, just wallet owners with which they can buy or not, people become owners of information, they become media, critics, or defenders of brands. New economies are emerging in which partnerships with people are at the heart of the business model. Just look at eBay, Uber, Airbnb, and Kickstarter, to name a few. There are shared-economy alternatives to the banking system. Check out Lending Club and Prosper. And what about the employee-ownership model?"

The evolution of society and market relationships

FEATURED ARTICLES

South Park MBA

“The greatest quality of ads today is their quantity. This is the ideology of spam. . . . Spam is the exact opposite of the goal of marketing – to connect businesses with people. People don’t want spam. That’s why businesses don’t want spam.

Contemporary advertising management advice: Today, you do not have to place your advertising message in media with a lot of views. Today, advertising itself has to collect views. Your commercial offering and your product should collect views. Each market activity of the company must express a simple and clear promise, which demonstrates the brand in such a way that people themselves choose to engage."

The End of the Inconspicuous Purple Cow

”Think of modern communication as the availability of the brand at all relevant touch-points. We can call it ‘brand distribution’. Does every point where the brand engages people express what we want people to think and feel about us? When people see our product in the store, would they feel as the brand promises them? When one tells another person about our product, would one tell the same we would say in our ad??

Modern communication is a promise in which the brand explicitly states how it brings a change in people’s daily lives. It’s a promise and distribution of the brand at all touchpoints, available to consumers."

The New Meaning of Customer Relations

"Today, communication has a higher purpose than offering products and emotions, communication helps companies be compassionate to people.

The time of traditional marketing is over. Bulk advertising rules no longer work. In the market context of hyper-competitive companies and increasingly demanding customers, the most important factor in any brand development is to own a community. The new most important role of marketing communication is to build communities."

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