Revolt: A movement owner's manual

“But I suppose the most revolutionary act one can engage in is... to tell the truth.” (Howard Zinn, “Marx in Soho: A Play on History”)

When I received this book over the post, I was a little bit surprised. Its scrapbook style seems to replicate the old-fashioned (leftist) political pamphlets of my university days, I guess to give the reader “That Revolutionary Feeling”… The usual marketing gimmick?

More than that, luckily. “Revolt” has the ambition to be the manifesto of a new way to do marketing. In my view, it represents the tangible proof of the increased importance that CSR and Millennials are having in shaping brand and communication strategies.

We live in the world of “Brand Purpose”, where corporations are moving more and more in thinking of brands as tangible signs of their “citizenship” (real or pretended…), where the border between “Brand Management” and “CSR” are progressively blurring. Tesco “Serving Britain’s shoppers a little better every day”, Santader “Simple, personal and fair banking”, Red Bull “Energise the World”, Sensodyne “To nourish life’s happiest asset, a bright smile!, Ikea “To create a better everyday life for the many” etc.

It is the new “Branding Philosophy” introduced by Jim Stengel, ex Global CMO of P&G. His research demonstrated that the 50 star brands - in terms of consumer bonding, value creation and profit – of the past decade, have a clear “Sense of Purpose”. “Purpose” leads companies to create more meaningful products and services, align the different internal teams and help them to improve the dialogue with consumers.

It is also the World of Millennials. They will represent 50% of the global workforce by 2020, and they will soon outnumber Generation X. In the US, they are already the largest generational cohort, 92 million US Millennials, compared to 61 million Generation X'ers and 77 million Baby Boomers. Obviously, they are already tangibly influencing how brands are developed and managed.

Studies all over the world show that Millennials are influenced by a brand's social responsibility efforts when it comes to purchase decisions and likelihood to recommend a brand to others. They are willing to try a new product if the brand supports a good cause, as long as the company is honest and transparent about it. Scepticism is always just round the corner… Finally, they are heavy users of digital content and social media, and very vocal either to praise or criticize brands and corporations. Therefore, a strong Brand Purpose is not just about the 'feel-good' factor, but actually translates to bottom line growth…

In this context, I believe “Revolt” is definitely – in my awareness, at least - the first “Marketing Manual” for Millennial marketers.

Similar to other marketing manual, “Revolt” has the ambition to introduce a “New Marketing Paradigm”.

The premise is that business success is about having people on your side. They will create a “Revolution” based on your business proposition and they will be the “Army” pushing it forward.

The authors believe that “Revolutions” are built around seven basic elements. The words used to identify those elements obviously reflect the revolutionary spirit of the book. “Fight”, “Mindbomb”, “Allies”, “Change” etc. Again, beyond the words nothing completely new compared to the current “Marketing Paradigm”. 

Nevertheless, the significant amount of case histories in the book demonstrate that the implementation of these elements in real marketing campaign is very different from the past. “Tactics” more than “Principles” are the most “revolutionary” aspect to consider for the future, I believe.

Unique compared to the average book on marketing. Warmly recommended.

“Revolutions are something you see only in retrospect.” (Alan Greenspan)