Despite my feeble attempt to create a theme for this month’s Vista Group lunch, it somehow degenerated into a discussion of famous put-downs and how bad taste jokes seem to quickly follow any news of others’ misfortunes. I was reminded that the correct term for this is schadenfreude, not gesundheit. (No, I am not posting any links to Heather Mills joke pages.)

However, we did have one useful outcome - we met Natalie Ferguson, another Wellington-based entrepreneur and business blogger. Natalie’s web-design business, Decisive Flow, makes simplicity and usability hallmarks of the work she and her team do for for clients around the world.

One of our group, Lucire magazine publisher Jack Yan, is anally-retentive passionate about character fonts and was very complimentary about the design of Natalie’s blog site. The rest of us agreed it looked lovely, but also focused on the content. Natalie, who co-founded PlanHQ before focusing on her current business, writes about the day-to-day joys and frustrations of her business life, plus anything else that grabs her attention.

The other highlight of the lunch was the look on Mark Di Somma’s face when I told him the unexpected news that a company, at whose planning conference we are both presenting next week, has chosen to be technology-free for the day. No PowerPoint! Good - someone else has to completely rework their presentation and rely primarily on the power of the spoken word. Is there a word for enjoying the misfortune of others having to share in yours?

Over lunch at Vista Cafe again today, business bloggers Jack Yan, Mark Di Somma and I had another ramble around the world of branding and strategy. Between Jack’s scarily accurate impressions of UK ex-PM Tony Blair and Mark’s stories of outrageous conference speech openers. we did actually talk about some other stuff.

• Do methodical cook-book approaches to creating brands work? Is Kevin Robert’s Lovemark idea a valid branding concept or just adman hoopla? And can you deliberately turn your brand into a cult icon?
• Does your brand have the power of ‘The Nod‘? (thanks for the link, Mark). Do you see a stranger in the street and nod to each other to acknowledge being co-customers of the same brand? Think Harley Davidson riders or Mercedes SLK drivers (like Jeremy Clarkson and me, except his is the top of the range model and mine, um, isn’t).
• How lingerie branding works - think Elle MacPherson versus Trelise Cooper; the difference is more in the brand personality and not so much the product.
• This morphed into intellectual property suits and when they’re a wise move or not.

The picture shows fashion mag publisher Jack explaining lingerie branding (really). Draw your own conclusions! By the way, guys, since it looks like we’re now a regular monthly date, I’ve dubbed us The Vista Group. Do you think we’ll get sued?

Sorry - couldn’t help myself with that headline. I’ve enjoyed a stimulating lunch today with fellow business bloggers Jack Yan and Mark Di Somma. We only recently realised we all live in the same city, and this was my first meeting in person with them (at Vista on Oriental Parade, on a beautiful sunny day in Wellington; I recommend the smoked fishcakes and the coffee is superb).

There was no agenda for our meeting other than getting to know each other. Both Jack and Mark have lively bubbly personas and the conversation somehow covered how we got into blogging, the emotions we felt when visiting major battlefields, funny stories about airport incidents, and much mutual shaking of heads over timid strategy making.

We all feature branding strategy in what we do, albeit from different angles. Jack is publisher of fashion magazine Lucire, co-author of “Beyond Branding” and a consultant. Mark is a also a branding consultant, especially in business sectors facing seismic change. I focus on “the market offer” and how that is carried through into every aspect of strategy and execution.

Will anything come out of this? Who knows, but we’ll definitely meet again soon.