Drugi jezik na kojem je dostupan ovaj članak: Bosnian
The ARK Regional Branding Symposium will be held in Belgrade on May 12, organized by the Branding Experts Association (BEA), non-profit association of young marketing and branding talents.
The guest of the first ARK Symposium will be Martin Lindstrom, who is considered the best branding expert in the world. Lazar Džamić comments on the subject of knowledge that Martin will share, but also about why he is coming to this event.
You read Martin’s work. At one point he believed in Big Data as a key to everything. What are your impressions of him and how has his thinking evolved?
Lazar Džamić: Martin and myself amongst many others believe that data can enhance intuition and creativity. Data can inspire creativity with insight, add nuance to it, allowing it to prove itself, lessen the risk of jumping into the unknown and save it, sometimes, from itself and unproductive enthusiasm. I say sometimes, because there is no creativity without risk. It is important to realise that there is a huge difference between freedom and chaos: freedom has rules and data often defines those rules and creativity in business, marketing and advertising…
It is not important what data we are talking about. Martin talked about Big Data, now he’s got his sights on Small Data (an older concept that got its name after the emergence of Big Data), we could add Thick Data from anthropology and ethnography or Rich Data as a new composite of them all). The business world never lacked new concepts that could be sold! Most importantly, there is never one solution, there are always more – there should be more because of the modern world and its challenges, not only in business, it’s far too complicated for a simple solution.
Martin is a person who always sees things in a different way and tries to stimulate businesses to be more creative in their response to a challenge. He is a renowned practitioner worldwide, has a wide range of knowledge and experience of modern business and of marketing challenges, one can learn a lot from him about how best to respond to those challenges.
Do you think that Martin’s visit to Serbia is important for the profession? Do our markets have potential for ambitious projects and are we able to appreciate knowledge?
Lazar Džamić: Any big name visiting Serbia, in this field, adds momentum to professional development. It is also an acknowledgement that we have started thinking about some more advanced concepts. You never know who might be inspired by attending one of these gatherings to improve and develop their knowledge. It happened to me several times.
Those competing in the market, especially abroad, value the profession more than ever. Without a shadow of a doubt. They can’t survive without it, likewise their global competitors. Also, by using knowledge, newer or smaller businesses improve their chances for success when competing against slow, bloated and ossified domestic traditional businesses. Knowledge gives you a competitive edge.
For all those whose success is based on political protection, monopoly and other non-market principles knowledge is a just a small prestigious bauble, or they are not interested at all… for now.
You teach at FMK, you are an educator – it is obvious that you like to work with the youth. What did you first think of when you heard that these youngsters managed to give form to that raw idea in the period between May and December? What made you believe that these young people would be able to pull it off?
Lazar Džamić: Young people can pull off anything. The moment young people stop moving the goalposts we will be finished as a civilisation… I know it is not easy here, because you are pitting yourself against a mountain of stupidity, ignorance and negligence, but that’s in your job description. If you had no hurdles you wouldn’t be young, you’d be one of the bloated officials or half dead pensioners. You are young whilst you got something to fight against.
Your team is worldly wise, they know how business is done abroad, you are smart and keen to do well. That’s why I believed that you’ll be able to achieve something. I must say, I enjoyed the process much more than the actual result. It is good there’s a result, but gaining experience is much more enjoyable…As for your project, its whole raison d’etre was to learn and bring knowledge to Serbia.
We leave you to conclude
Lazar Džamić: If there ever was the time to ethically reassess all of the marketing industry and business it is now. Without it we are heading towards a precipice in a supermarket trolley. Privacy and data protection and their role in creating so called emphatic media are crucial. All that we do in our business has repercussions because we deal with people, their emotions, dreams, anxieties and needs. Here is your new topic for ARK.