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"Brands are belief systems,
not logos or
You can reach David at david@thecreativealliance.com.
03.13.08 Creativity in Action This week we worked on location for two days filming a television commercial—an effort that revealed itself to be a paradigm for creativity in action. Working with a great film crew and a number of people from our client's organization became a living laboratory in which to observe many aspects of the creative process. Here are just a few observations: 1. Start with a plan, but be ready to change. Of course we began the process with a storyboard; but we were filming the entire commercial outdoors, which meant we had wind, shifting clouds and sun to deal with, along with a small herd of unfenced, meandering cattle. As the two days of shooting progressed, I saw our carefully constructed plan dissolve and evolve as the realities of our location forced a welcome shift in perspective. 2. Leverage reality on the fly. Shooting on location, even one you've scouted in advance, presents both disappointments and opportunities. The visuals we'd developed in the safety of our office became more fluid and flexible. We could either be upset that reality didn't quite fit our preconceptions, or grab the new realities and wrestle with them for new solutions. 3. Creativity is a group activity. As two days of shooting progressed, with ten people consisting of film crew, the client's team and folks from The Creative Alliance, we continually brainstormed as we worked through the shot list. Nearly everyone contributed something valuable. Like all good creative endeavors, by the end of the filming, we'd had a better product that we originally imagined. What's really cool is that I doubt anyone can remember who made which suggestion. 4. Humility rules. When faced with a difficult shot, we'd find ourselves spontaneously brainstorming, with ideas being offered from many different perspectives: ours as the creative team; the film crew as the experts in videography; and the clients who know their product and audience better than any of us. With everyone pitching ideas on how to nuance each shot, the best ideas had a chance to prevail and eventually made it onto film. Ideas always have to prevail over egos. 5. Be grateful for limitations. Our budget limited us to two days of shooting to capture enough footage for three different commercials. I hear many artists lament the limits of a client's budget, or deadlines that force a demanding schedule on a project. I've made those same complaints myself. But in reality, deadlines and budgets are an essential ingredient to the creative process. They force a rigorous discipline that requires making decisions rather than wallowing in creative indecision. The broader application: One of the great misconceptions in the world is that creativity is only for people who do graphic design, write music or paint pictures. The reality is that creativity is even more important in solving everyday issues. Everything from finding a solution to global warming to how a single parent can create balance in her life; from how a sergeant in a war zone can protect his soldiers to how a CFO can fund her company's next round of growth—these are endeavors that require immense creativity. And the stakes are usually much higher than in the relative safety of the artist's studio.
02.04.08 Hard Economic Times Bring Opportunities for Market Share Growth All the bad economic news of late may be creating a self-fulfilling prophecy of a recession. It's all about people's collective mindset regarding the strength of the economy, whether optimistic, prompting investment and spending, or pessimistic, leading to cutbacks and downsizing. In that sense, the economy is like a brand. It is infused with either confidence or doubt, and then reaps the profits or losses accordingly. The one good thing about a slowing or even recessive economy is that it is a great time for companies to gain market share. If competitors move into a siege mentality, courageous leaders can spend a little more, invest in the future, grow their brands and profit from the rewards. It's like buying stock or real estate when the market is down. The opportunity to gain market share in today's uncertain economic climate is further enhanced by the decline in advertising revenues that media companies are experiencing. If there was ever a time to negotiate a more advantageous media buy, it's now. Traditional media—TV, radio, print—are looking at a bleak future. Once the "quadrennial effect" of the election and the Olympics is over in 2008, the prospects for 2009 ad revenues are even more dismal. If your marketing mix includes mass media advertising, get ready for some bargains—but practice playing hardball, so you can get the best deal possible. Regardless of your need for mass media, the opportunity to be a positive, forward-looking brand that becomes more visible—not less—during hard times, communicates that your company is strong; that your organization has the staying power to be here for decades; that you have the financial strength to back up your promises; and that customers can expect innovation, leadership and courage from your brand in good times and in bad.
01.23.08 Lessons from Astronomy for the Blind This week, NASA released a new book entitled Touch the Invisible Sky. It is a 60-page tome with embossed images of various heavenly bodies, accompanied by large-print and Braille text, thus making astronomical study available to the visually-impaired and blind. The author, Noreen Grice, had worked in the mid-1980s at a Boston planetarium. One day a group of blind people attended a planetarium show. After the show, Ms. Grice asked the group how they liked the it, curious about their reaction. "This stunk," they said, and left the planetarium. Thus began her mission to share astronomy with the blind. Two books later, the doors to astronomy have been opened to the blind and visually-impaired thanks to Grice. The lessons to marketers and communicators are abundant: Inspiration: Grice's passion for astronomy forced her to find a way to share her field of study with others. With almost evangelistic fervor, she figured out a way to get it done. If there is any one thing that must underlie the creativity and technical requirements of our business, it is passion. If an in-house marketing department or an agency is not passionate about a product or service, it will show: predictable creative; muted enthusiasm; cleverness without purpose. On the other hand, if the passion is there, the audience will catch the contagious energy. Translation: There is always a way to speak in the language of your audience. It takes listening. It takes hearing "This stunk!" so many times that you finally figure out a way to get through to folks. You have to be humble enough to stop talking and start listening. After all, we have two ears and one mouth... Tactilization: OK, I made that word up, but think about it: Grice got her readers to literally feel the constellations. In our digital, flat screen world, the more we can help an audience feel the brand—through experiences, humor, smell, sound, touch, risk, taste—the more people will see what you're trying to say. Ambition: I guess the most wonderful thing about Grice's work is her sheer unwillingness to accept that astronomy was off-limits to the blind. It's the kind of ambition that animated all the great innovators. So when a communications or marketing challenge seems truly impossible, chances are you're closer than you think.
01.16.08 Branding is Alive and Well! Our team received the ultimate compliment this past week when a technology client for whom we had done a complete brand makeover—including visuals, messaging, the whole works—informed us that three potential buyers had been attracted to purchase the company and that the work The Creative Alliance had done contributed to their interest. OK, enough bragging about my team here, but it goes to make an important point: Brand building is powerful and profitable. Crafting a compelling brand out of the right words, messages, visuals and customer experiences results in a higher perceived value of the company or product being branded. Brands are belief systems, repositories of confidence, tools for alignment with customers. In our client's case the customer was the buyer of his company; for other clients, it's the buyer of bottled water or a corporate aircraft, or a non-profit's need for support. Whatever the transaction looks like, branding is the shared mental model that unites buyer and seller. It creates a shared perceived value of a product, service or company. The reason branding is profitable is that allows for some amazing advantages in the marketplace: A strong brand commands premium pricing. Translation: less price-cutting and greater profits. A strong brand cultivates more loyal customers. Translation: greater lifetime revenue per customer. A strong brand makes product launches easier. Translation: earlier adoption by customers and faster ROI on R&D. A strong brand increases employee loyalty. Translation: reduced HR costs. A strong brand increases the value of a company. Translation: increased shareholder value + more profitable exit strategy. Which brings us back to our client. The increased competition to buy his company, and its higher perceived value, will far outweigh the investment he made in the branding process. Thousands of dollars invested in branding can sometimes yield hundreds of thousands, even millions of dollars in profit. Given the stock market's recent instability, I think I'd rather invest in branding.
01.04.08 As featured in the Boulder County Business Report: Consider this before jumping on 'green' bandwagon You wear green on St. Patrick's Day so no one will pinch you. But try wearing "green" as a business, and you just might get pinched. While thousands of companies are jumping on the green bandwagon, it's probably worthwhile to hit the pause button and think this one through. It reminds me of the 1990s, when everyone announced they had boldly embarked upon an Internet strategy, even though most corporate leaders had no idea what the Internet was all about. Virtually every company is feeling compelled to embrace some sort of green policy. This is the result of the sea change taking place in society. Environmental responsibility is increasingly included in corporate values and mission statements. This corporate response is part of the larger cultural shift in attitudes toward the environment as a major issue. The pressure is coming from consumers, special interest groups and in some cases, a company's own employees. Fueled by daily media coverage on climate change and energy consumption, the issue of environmental responsibility, once on the fringes of society, is now becoming mainstream. One form this green focus takes is attempting to achieve carbon neutrality. The term "carbon neutral" was named the Word of the Year for 2006 by "The Oxford American Dictionary." This term suggests that a company can offset its carbon footprint - the amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses emitted as a result of using fossil fuel energy - by investing in green energy sources, planting trees and the like. Fuel consumption, recycling, zero-landfill and similar practices round out this environmentally responsible approach to conducting business. But here's the warning label: "Blindly committing to green policies before counting the cost can be hazardous to a company's health." To begin with, a commitment to environmental responsibility is best made when the company's leadership really believes that it's a moral imperative to do so. That kind of sincerity will trickle down through the organization. Here's the ultimate test: If a company can honestly say it would pursue the same environmentally responsible policies whether it was known to the public or not, then it is authentic. In the long run, consumers tend to reward authentic brands more than inauthentic ones. They recognize and shun the me-too brands that jump on the latest bandwagon, including the one painted green. If the commitment to environmental responsibility is sincere, the prospects for success are good. One approach companies should consider is going a full year under new environmental guidelines without making the company's green stance public. That would give the new green practices a chance to be embraced, adjusted and confirmed in order to find a sustainable policy fit. Before going public with your green stance, it might also be good to really think through its long-term ramifications. Committing solidly to a few things is better than a shallow commitment to broad, sweeping reforms that get shelved at the first sign of lower earnings. Also keep in mind that what appears progressive today when it comes to environmental responsibility is destined to become tomorrow's commodity. What seems like a big, expensive commitment to green practices soon will be the expected norm. No one will applaud your environmental responsibility - they'll assume it. The self-congratulatory "Look at Us ...We're Green" marketing that you see and hear these days will seem pretty antiquated in another year or two. Perhaps the greatest pitfall lurking out there is the temptation to buy carbon offset credits as part of a corporate green strategy. The purchase of these credits is handled by one of many international exchanges. The problem is that the entire carbon offset exchange is rife with fraud. A recent Financial Times investigation found that quite often no actual investments in reforestation or renewable energy projects ever takes place after a donation is made. But beyond fraud, the carbon offset concept is really a weak idea for two reasons: First, the results are far removed from the company that purchases the credits and equally far removed from their customers; and second, it is the least creative way to reinforce one's brand as environmentally friendly. It's like saying, "We're pro-America because we paid our taxes to the IRS!" A better alternative to purchasing carbon offset credits is to launch or support your own special project - one that makes a demonstrable difference, preferably close to home. This is far more engaging to employees and customers than paying environmental penance with carbon offset credits. For example, we helped one client build a strategic relationship with the National Arbor Day Foundation. No vaunted claims to offset the company's entire carbon footprint were made, but rather a tangible commitment to the environment with the planting of thousands of trees here in Colorado, and giving new trees away to customers. That is far more tangible and engaging than writing a check to a mysterious carbon offset exchange. When it comes to going green, it's vital to remember that no matter what you do, you could always be doing more. That can be used against you by activist customers or watchdog groups wanting to make an example out of your company. This was evidenced by the recent Fox News expose showing Al Gore hopping the country in his fuel-hungry private jet urging adoring audiences to use low-energy light bulbs. Now there's an inconvenient truth. The hypocrisy of the Nobel Prize winner's stance has not yet reached beyond Fox News' conservative audience, but eventually Gore's fans will call him to task for this one. Perhaps an honest and authentic approach for companies to take simply would be to say, "We're doing better than we have in the past. We intend to do better in the future. We're open to your ideas." That refreshing kind of honesty should win a lot of fans, while keeping companies away from the shark-infested waters of competing for the title of most environmentally responsible player in their respective industries. This is the kind of authentic response that just might also keep you from getting pinched for not wearing enough green.
11.21.07 Good Development Must Back Good Design We develop a lot of websites for clients here at The Creative Alliance. Consumer sites, B2B sites, e-commerce sites, brochure sites...you name it, they all have two things in common. They look good and, perhaps even more importantly, they meet strong development standards. We believe that good design is powerful—it's an important part of the user experience. But the coolest or most beautiful design efforts in the world are wasted if they're not backed by solid development. Our commitment to our clients is to deliver the best of both worlds. We help clients by building sites that conform to the latest World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standards, that provide positive user experiences, and that maximize organic search engine optimization. They're scalable. They're built to minimize maintenance expenditures and maximize ROI. Oh yeah, and they look sharp, too.
11.01.07 As featured in the Boulder County Business Report: Consider this before jumping on 'green' bandwagon Beware the Wearin' o' the Green While thousands of companies are now jumping on the green bandwagon, it might be worthwhile to hit the pause button and think this one through. It sort of reminds me of the 1990s, when everyone announced that they had a web strategy even though corporate leaders had no idea what the Internet was all about. Virtually every major corporation, and countless mid-sized and small businesses, today feel compelled to embrace some sort of green—that is, environmentally responsible—policy. This is the result of the sea change taking place in corporate culture whereby environmental responsibility is being included in values or mission statements. The pressure, of course, is coming from consumers, special interest groups and in some cases, a company’s own employees. Fueled by media coverage, the result is that ideas that were once on the fringe have become mainstream. One form this new focus on being green takes is attempting to achieve carbon neutrality. (The term “carbon neutral” was named by The Oxford American Dictionary as the Word of the Year for 2006.) This concept suggests that a company can offset its carbon footprint—the amount of CO2 and other greenhouse gasses it emits through its use of fossil fuel energy—by investing in green energy sources, planting trees and the like. Fuel consumption, recycling, zero-landfill and similar practices round out an environmentally responsible role in the global community. But here’s the warning label: “Blindly committing to green policies before really counting the cost can be hazardous to a company’s health.” To begin with, a commitment to environmental responsibility is best made when the company’s leadership really believes that its morally imperative to do so. That sincerity will trickle down through the organization. Here’s the ultimate test: if a company can honestly say it would pursue the same environmentally responsible policies whether it was known to the public or not, then it is authentic. In the long run, consumers tend to reward authentic brands more than inauthentic ones, so if the commitment to greening is sincere, the prospects are good for success. People also tend to recognize and shun the me-too brands that jump on the latest bandwagon. One approach to consider would be to go a full year under new environmental guidelines without making the company’s green stance public. That would give the new policies a chance to be embraced, adjusted and confirmed to find the proper policy fit. Before going public with your green stance, it might also be good to really think through its long-term ramifications. Committing solidly to a few things is better than a shallow commitment to broad, sweeping reforms that get shelved at the first sign of lower earnings. It’s vital to remember that no matter what you do, you could always do more. That can be used against you by over-zealous employees, activist customers or watchdog groups wanting to make an example out of you. This was evidenced by the recent expose that showed Al Gore hopping the country in his private jet rather than taking his own advice to fly a scheduled commercial airline. Now there’s an inconvenient truth. The hypocrisy of Gore’s stance may not reach beyond FOX News’ conservative audience, but eventually Gore’s own fans will call him to task for this one. Perhaps an honest and authentic approach would be for companies to say, “We’re doing better than we have in the past. We intend to do better in the future. We’re open to your ideas.” That kind of refreshing honesty should win a few fans and also keep companies out of the shark-infested waters of competing for the mantle of “most environmentally responsible” in the industry.
10.05.07 The Truth About Logo Design
09.28.07 The Creative Alliance at NBAA The National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) Annual Meeting & Convention is quite the happening. In its 60th year, the 2007 event saw an official 27,326 attendees as of the start of the three-day show. NBAA also enjoyed a record-breaking 1,152 exhibiting companies and some 115 business aircraft featured at its static display of aircraft at Fulton County Airport...not to mention more than 100 information sessions on a range of business aviation topics. Whew! Not only is NBAA sensory overload for the general aviation enthusiast, it's also a stimulating opportunity to reflect on the wide range of marketing and brand savvy displayed within a single industry. I saw some companies that were doing a great job of enhancing their image and position in prospects' minds through sophisticated, strategic branding. I also saw some companies undermining their own strength and growth potential with less-than-enlightened marketing approaches, approaches that undersell their brands and hurt their competitive abilities in the long run. At the risk of sounding too self-promoting, we were gratified to find that our clients in the aviation industry were among the best branded, and most creatively marketed. It's a reminder that in the Marketing Hierarchy of Needs (apologies to Maslow), strong and integrated branding must precede all other marketing tactics—like trade show exhibitions—for those tactics to be worth the investment.
09.07.07 The Long Tail Endures
08.22.07 The Grouch, the Mole and the Beetle This friendly, agricultural town is known primarily for its succulent peaches and other fruits. But according to the Grand Junction Free Press, "the grouch tradition began in the 1970s when the Palisade Tribune publisher and Palisade Mayor Bill Lorenzen began writing articles about how wonderful Palisade was, adding that the population was 850 people and one grouch. The chamber liked the slogan and had a sign erected off the I-70 exit, 'The Palisade Chamber of Commerce welcomes you to Palisade. Peach Capital of Colorado. Pop. 1,700 Friendly People Plus One Grouch.' ” The emphasis on the one grouch magnifies the friendliness of the town in a winsome bit of reverse logic. It's that little flaw that makes something or someone unique and memorable—two attributes of a great brand. Too often, insecure brands try to look like everyone else and lose their distinctiveness in the process. Think Cindy Crawford without that little mole above her lip. (She actually considered having it removed to fit the traditional view of flawless beauty, yet it became the "flaw" that magnified her beauty.) Those of you old enough to remember Miss Kitty from Gunsmoke know what I'm talking about. Volkswagen has this vulnerability thing figured out. One of the best billboards ever was a picture of a Volkswagen Beetle and the headline: "Zero to 60. Yes." A charming understatement that makes you drop your guard and consider the car's simple but compelling virtues. That's why when we help build brands for clients, we begin with a process of discovery: asking what fans and foes alike say about a company or a product; what employees, customers, even competitors say with conviction about the brand. In that heap of information is a diamond waiting to be discovered. And that's what great branding is all about: not fabricating a chest-thumping persona that believes its own PR, but rather an authentic discovery of what is undeniably true about the brand, including a weakness or two. That's what keeps things real. This refreshing bit of honesty is what consumers, voters and other types of customers are looking for. It breeds credibility in a world where virtually everyone is trained to filter out marketing-speak. Whether you're playing off of the "geekiness" of your highly qualified tech team or emphasizing that health food nuts won't be comfortable at your BBQ restaurant, find a flaw and explore it for leverage with your audience. OK, you can stop thinking about Cindy Crawford now…
08.20.07 Five Things to do Before You Hire a Marketing Firm But before you invest in professional services like ours, there are five things to do first. In fact, without these prerequisites, no amount of marketing or promotions will create sustained success: 2. Surround yourself with honest feedback. Think Emperor’s New Clothes here. Whether it's your board of directors, a client advisory panel, customer surveys or trusted colleagues, make the effort to gather feedback that will be brutally honest about your customer service and product quality. No sacred cows...anything is fair game for improvement. This takes a serious dose of humility at all levels of the organization. 3. Hire only positive, friendly, helpful people to interact with your customers. You can't make positive people out of negative ones. People are either born with the right stuff or develop it early in childhood. In fact, everyone you really want on your team had their character formed before they learned to tie their shoes. The trick is finding them, so like a baseball scout, always be on the lookout for great people. Introduce them to your company even when you're not hiring. That way the relationship is begun before you need to go out and hire. I'm not sure how they do it, but Chipotle Mexican Grill has managed to hire and inspire the nicest people in the restaurant business—the line cooks, the managers, everybody. Most four-star restaurants could learn a thing or two about customer relations by buying a six-dollar burrito...a really large, foil-wrapped one. 4. Get your prospect database together. Direct marketing almost always offers a better ROI than mass media for small and mid-sized businesses. The ability to reach a highly targeted prospect list with customized messaging is a powerful asset for any company. It all begins with gathering the right data, including email, and maintaining it. This usually requires that someone in your company "own" this effort, and dedicate the substantial work involved in keeping it current as new leads come in from the sales the team.
08.07.07 Minding the Brand Of course, she brought other virtues to the table. But no doubt the chocolate primed the members of our staff to feel good about her candidacy. A recent New York Times article about this psychological “priming”—the effect of “everyday sights, smells and sounds [that] can selectively activate goals or motives that people already have”—has a lot to say about branding. That’s because psychological priming operates where unconscious choices in the mind impact behavior in a give-and-take with our rational, conscious intentions. One study found that students handed a cold cup of iced coffee subsequently rate hypothetical people they read about as being “much colder, less social and more selfish” than their counterparts who had held a hot cup of coffee. Other experiments have shown that “people tidy up more thoroughly when there’s a faint tang of cleaning liquid in the air; they become more competitive if there’s a briefcase in sight, or more cooperative if they glimpse words like ‘dependable’ and ‘support’—all without being aware of the change, or what prompted it.” Just as many factors—consciously or unconsciously observed—impact our behavior, so too do the many elements of a brand influence consumer behavior. A brand is much more than a name or a tag line—it’s the myriad elements influencing and composing the feelings and beliefs that people hold about a company, product or service. Multiple cues—colors and fonts and packaging, merchandising and music and scents—will influence brand perception. In building and maintaining a brand, no detail is unimportant. They all matter—they all may have conscious or unconscious bearing—and hence require thoughtful, strategic attention from marketers.
08.06.07 SEO 101 There's a lot of talk about search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) these days. Some companies can sink significant funds into paid SEO. But organizations with both large and small marketing budgets may need to brush up on their SEO 101.
08.02.07 I'm Mad at Mad Men
07.20.07 Good Horse, Good Marketing That's true of marketing. A company that produces mediocre products and delivers poor service won't last long, even if it hires the best marketing minds in the world. The agency may end up with some great work to show off in their portfolio, but the client and their customers are no better off than when they started. On the other hand, there are some wonderful organizations with dedicated, talented people offering unique products and services, but whose outdated brand is sending a negative signal to potential customers. Or perhaps they do no marketing at all, or the wrong kind of marketing, and are leaving millions of dollars on the table. In these scenarios, the good horse (the company) is being ridden by a bad jockey (bad marketing). The good horse never gets the chance to win. The fans (customers) never get a chance to see what the horse can do. That's why smart, creative marketing is so important. It gives the good horses a chance to compete. Non-profits, small businesses, multinational corporations…if they’re good horses, they merit a great jockey. They deserve to run and win.
07.12.07 How Many Light Bulbs Does it Take to Change a Planet? From the standpoint of massive visibility with a friendly audience it was a success. But I’ve got grave doubts about the bigger questions of what good it really did—what net benefit to the planet was actually realized. The carbon footprint caused by the excessive, even conspicuous, consumption of energy was greater than all the light bulb changes and grocery bag re-use will ever be able to compensate. Here at The Creative Alliance, we’d call that a bad ROI…that is, if the real goal was to save the planet. If, on the other hand, it was an effort to revive some flagging music careers (Madonna) or make a political point, maybe Live Earth achieved something. This was a classic example of egos, ambition and showmanship replacing real substance. That’s the definition of an inauthentic brand. What’s so sad is that the event’s organizers lost the chance to really change a paradigm by having the whole thing run digitally on the Web—no massive traffic jams to get people physically transported to events, no gratuitous light shows. Put simply, this was an event that actually contradicted its own stated values. They preached to the converted and made fools of themselves to those all-important swing consumers. This is the kind of mistake big, terrible corporations and politicians are supposed to make. Fortunately, many smaller organizations are learning how to truly make energy conservation a reality by having more online events and by taking other common-sense measures. The lesson here is that BIG almost always corrupts—it’s true of corporations, of religious organizations, politics and multimedia celebrity events. The real key to success is usually found on the small scale of life, in unrecognized acts of consistency, thoughtfulness and ingenuity. That’s true of marketing and branding, too. Great customer experiences, thoughtful expressions of gratitude for a client’s business, meaningful investments in the community. These are the virtues of a truly great organization and an authentic brand.
07.10.07 What's That Buzzing in My Ear?
iPhone Frenzy Holds a Lesson for Marketers
Well, the Great Product Launch of 2007 is behind us, and a lot has been said and written about the iPhone. So let's talk for a minute not about the wondrous new toy itself, but about the smart PR behind it all. Apple's rumored 500,000 to 700,000 iPhone sales over their first weekend were driven not only by traditional marketing tactics like big advertising campaigns but in great part by generating an infectious buzz among consumers and the media. Of course, Apple has a great advantage—swarms of loyal fans just dying to see what they'll come out with next. But Apple earned that advantage in large part by developing products that are truly groundbreaking, elegant in design and are user-friendly to the extreme. So taking advantage of their position of strength, Apple wisely let frenzied consumers, giddy reporters and the blogosphere at large do much of the talking—a bunch of third-party endorsements for a product no one had even seen, generating a buzz louder than anything Apple could have achieved in the voice of its own marketing department. In fact, too much "sell" from the Apple folks could probably have dampened the excitement—having exactly the opposite of the intended effect. I'd say this a great example of using the right PR and marketing tools at the right time, and an amazing example of how a strong brand with fanatical customers can reduce a company's marketing spend. So maybe it's worth the effort to do that branding/loyalty-building stuff after all... -Dave Willis 07.04.07 Fourth of July What did you do on the Fourth? For most of us, I’d hazard to guess it was some mix of a barbecue, a parade, perhaps, some time in the sun, fireworks, with a little red-white-and-blue bunting thrown in for good measure. It requires no special genius to divine, of course – that’s the thing about the Fourth, and other national holidays. They represent some of the increasingly few times that the U.S. population shares a kind of communal experience. Throughout our history, in fact, the Fourth has been leveraged to spread messages among the populace. The launching of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad on July 4, 1828 was a forceful way of making people feel good about the march of technology, tying it to our most patriotic holiday. (Ninety-year-old Charles Carroll, the last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence, laid the cornerstone.) By selecting the Fourth of July, 1946 to grant independence to the Philippines, an American colony since 1899, the country aimed to shore up its image as a globally beneficent leader. In a communications context, a widely-shared experience like the Fourth is actually a powerful reminder of the decidedly fragmented environment in which we work and live. Now more than ever, the magic is in the mix – the marketing mix. Print communications, in their myriad formats, for general and highly-targeted audiences; websites – macro and micro; community events; merchandising; outdoor advertising; PR – they’re all essential at different times and different ways to reach our customers and prospects when they’re not conveniently lined up on Main Street to hear what we, as marketers and communicators, have to say. -Barbara Fusco 06.27.07 A New Role for Print in a Digital World The advantages of digital communications are obvious: broadcast emails cost a fraction of snail mail...search-driven marketing is the key to getting the right eyeballs to look at your website...today’s YouTube-esque environment demands that you’d better have a good video clip to accompany your message or risk boring your audience. 06.08.07 Creativity is Not a Commodity The answer to this question is a resounding "No." The tools that seem proprietary today will become user-friendlier commodities tomorrow. And it's not even about the tools. It's about the creative ideas, concepts, applications, configurations and connections that make those tools useful to help people reach their goals. Creativity is the one of the few things in our business that will never become a commodity. Like integrity and reliability, creativity can never be exhausted. There's always room for more. 05.24.07 As appeared in Rocky Mountain News' Business section on May 19, 2007. Sharpening Their Brands By David Heitman A great deal of attention was given recently to the unveiling of Barack Obama's new presidential campaign logo. The simple O-shaped mark, while no graphic design award winner, is certainly a big improvement on political candidates' usual typographical treatment of their last names. That's a convention (if you'll pardon the pun) that politicians have used for decades, with the addition of some patriotic swooshes or stars for good measure. But Obama's logo is a real logo in the traditional sense of the word. The notable exception to using last names as logos, of course, is Hillary Clinton. She's avoiding the word Clinton at all costs for obvious reasons. Instead, she has adopted the use of her first name, suggesting a friendly informality to balance her ambitious persona—a conscious effort at what marketers would call "re-branding." From a creativity standpoint, she's opted to use the conventional typographical treatment of her first name. So, score one for Obama with his new logo. This logo business is a harbinger of things to come. The 2008 campaign promises to be the most hyper-marketed, media-saturated, consciously branded, user-generated in history. The visibility and recognition that currently drive money to the various candidates will narrow the field for both political parties, months before the first primary. The attention leads to money, which leads to media attention, which leads to more money. It's a cycle that now controls the entire process. It's important to note that brands—political or otherwise—are not merely logos or ads or clever slogans. Brands really exist in only one place: the minds of consumers. Brands are belief systems. And since candidates embody those belief systems, they become icons, almost logos in themselves for the hopes, aspirations and self-identification of their followers. And like any logo that goes through multiple rounds of revisions while being designed, the candidates also go through rounds of revisions, including plastic surgeries during congressional recesses, hairstyle updates and revised publicity photos. But here's where the candidates fail in branding: trying to appeal to everyone. By trying to attract a sufficiently large base of voters to get elected, the politicos end up standing for very little. They and their opponents all sound remarkably similar, like tired consumer brands with no real personality, offending no one but inspiring no one either. They could all take a cue from Simon Cowell of American Idol fame. The reason people find him intriguing and refreshing is that he actually says what he thinks. Sure, he hurts people's feelings, but his opinion matters because he's not trying to please everyone. That's the secret to a great brand. Stand for something. Defend that turf at all costs. But leave the rest of the territory to someone else. The reason brands fail is that they, like presidential candidates, try to appeal to everyone. Successful brands—whether they appeal to the high end or the low end of the socioeconomic order; whether they appeal to large business or small business; whether they target young consumers or retirees—have a narrow focus and they stick with it, even if they have to begrudgingly yield market share to competitors going after other segments. So why don't politicians do this? Sadly, they lack the moral clarity to risk losing the support of people who might disagree with them if they actually took a stand. Large corporate donors don't want to be viewed as extreme (either right or left), so they back the middle-of-the-roaders. It seems this is the only way to get elected these days, but it's a sad statement that also helps explain the narrow margins of the past two presidential elections that have left the country in a state of discord and disunity. The blandness of the presidential candidates' brands should be a clear warning to them that they are doing something wrong. That's because great brands inspire passion. (Talk to anyone who owns an Apple computer, a Toyota Prius or a pair of Crocs.) The lifeless brands of today's presidential candidates have rendered political passion almost dead. Public outrage—the kind that would have fostered a successful candidacy like Robert Kennedy's or Ronald Reagan's—has been lobotomized into passivity by Internet blogs and talk radio. That's where all the energy is going. There's no political action on the streets. The public debates once found in the town meeting, the college campus or the downtown soapbox have all but disappeared. What little energy remains is mostly negative, i.e., people that hate George Bush or can't stand Hillary Clinton. And that's why I think Obama will be the next president. He's not hated. Plus he has a cool new logo. David Heitman is the president of The Creative Alliance, a branding and public relations firm in Lafayette. He can be reached at david@thecreative alliance.com. 05.18.07 User-Generated Content—Risk and Reward But think back for a moment to this year's Super Bowl advertising bonanza. Three major advertisers, each of whom ponied up $2.6 million per 30-second spot, turned over the production of their ads to their customers. General Motors, Doritos and the NFL opened the door for people—anyone—to submit a video for use as one of their $2.6 million spots. To much fanfare and media attention. Thus, the real success of these user-generated efforts is not the Super Bowl ads themselves. GM, Doritos and the NFL all had a guaranteed audience of 200,000,000 eyeballs just by paying their $2.6 million. The real coup was the pre- and post- Super Bowl hype they generated. Every major news show, business periodical, TV talk show, and radio news program has taken on this subject. The multiplier effect of taking a creative risk on user-generated ads has paid big dividends for NFL, Doritos and GM: they spent less money and are getting four to five times the visibility. That's quite a return on the risk of allowing some control of the brand into the users' hands! 04.26.07 Speaking Truth to Power Ultimately, I believe that business people appreciate some refreshing honesty in our politically correct culture. Standing for something, especially when folks realize we have their best interests in mind, can be a refreshing bit of honesty for our clients. Likewise, when I receive honest feedback—even a critique—it is certainly humbling, but gratefully received. What do you think about speaking truth to power? Email me with your comments. |
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