Dispatches from the New World of Work

Mud Season. Not.

It's (still) "mud season" in Vermont, courtesy this winter's abundance of snow. Cars and trucks, in particular, look like flying mud balls.

While on my speed walk yesterday, I passed through the Equinox Hotel parking lot—Manchester VT. They are undergoing, under new owners, a massive renovation. The contractor is Bread Loaf Construction, probably VT's best, out of Middlebury.

Bread Loaf folks aren't as smart as they think, as I see it. That is, they apparently don't know it's mud season. Every contractor's truck in the parking lot—and the FedEx and UPS trucks, too—confirmed the "mud ball" image I just pointed out.

Except for Bread Loaf's. There were two BL trucks in the lot, both sizeable pickups. Both, in BL tradition, painted fire engine red.

And neither—and here I do not exaggerate—had the tiniest trace of dirt or mud or even dust.

Later in the afternoon, I was having a long interview with a top dog at the ad agency TBWA\Chiat\Day, and, not surprisingly, the topic turned to branding. Out of my mouth, unbidden, popped "Branding is a squeaky clean bright red contractor's truck in mud season in Vermont." In fact, we talked about the fact that branding is, well, about ... Everything. On the one hand, that's not very helpful. On the other hand, it reminds us that nothing, absolutely nothing, is irrelevant to individual branding—or branding of a construction company in VT or Megacorp Inc. As a quote from David D'Alessandro, in Career Warfare, goes, "It's always showtime."

(I know, I know—I should have taken a picture. Sorry.)

Branding Books and More

Johnny Bunko trailer

This promotional video for (our Cool Friend) Dan Pink's new book, The Adventures of Johnny Bunko, is pitch-perfect. It's hip, it has a sense of humor, but most importantly it captures the energy and the message of the book. Dan might as well have thrown down the gauntlet. The challenge is not whether you can create a splashy video for your new book or product, it's whether you can communicate quickly and effectively the distilled essence of its brand. Don't forget, it has to be compelling enough for your friends to want to share it.

The Beatles Intergallactic Brand

It's been generally believed that the Beatles brand has broad and enduring appeal, but now it's time to market test its "universality." At 7 p.m. EST (12 midnight GMT) NASA, the US space agency, is beaming the Beatles song, "Across the Universe," well, across the universe. It's the first song to be sent into outer space, to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the Beatles' recording of the tune, which appeared on their "Let It Be" album. (This year is also the 50th anniversary of NASA.) The song, one of John Lennon's finest, will be aimed towards the North Star, Polaris, where nearby residents can hear it in 431 years. (If they like it we should know by 2870.) Thousands of Beatles fans across the world are expected to play the song at precisely the time of launch or watch the send-off on NASA TV.

But what IS it about the Beatles brand that 40 years later it can still generate this kind of attention on Planet Earth?

Gorillas and Chocolate

What does a drumming gorilla have to do with chocolate? Well, the UK's mega-chocolate business with the salmonella-blemished brand, Cadbury, have certainly made a connection, given the iconic status of their current TV advert, in the UK at least. If you haven't seen the advert yet, Cadbury have posted it on the web after a million-plus hits on the various versions posted on YouTube.

At a seminar we presented this week, our client's marketing director asked his audience of twenty or so business-to-business bankers the above question at the start of his presentation on their brand. After several brave attempts from his audience, the presenter explained the answer he had got from Cadbury's advertising agency when he asked them how they had sold the drumming gorilla approach to Cadbury at their first pitch.

Their first point was that TV viewers these days won't and don't accept their viewing being interrupted by ads. They either don't watch them, or, worse, switch channels. So, to have any impact, the advert itself had to be entertaining. Secondly, this advert was focused on restoring the Cadbury brand reputation, not their chocolate. It shows a gorilla taking great pleasure from playing the drums, Phil Collins-style. Having got the audience's interest, and a full eighty or so seconds into the ad, they get to the tag line about the joy of eating Cadbury's chocolate.

This may be ho-hum stuff for many of the aficionados of this blog, but the advert (and the explanation thereof) certainly grabbed the attention of that seminar audience. It helped them think afresh about how their work brought their bank's brand to life in their dealings with staff and clients.

Has the approach worked? Well, it got my attention when I first saw it, and I bet I know what the last advert on Saturday night will be just before the whole English population watches the Rugby World Cup final—come on, England!

OOPS! How Did That Happen?

It's been a bumpy few weeks for the UK's public broadcaster, the BBC. Following a couple of rather unfortunate PR spats [http://media.guardian.co.uk, free registration required], the Director General has sent out an email to all employees encouraging them to be vigilant and to report any lapses in the high broadcast standards that they set for themselves.

What a double-edged sword the BBC's management faces. On the one hand, the integrity of the corporation must be one of its most precious assets and lapses of trust cannot be tolerated. Yet on the other hand, their people (employees and contractors alike) are facing unprecedented professional competition. Attracting audiences has never been tougher, and it is easy to see how such pressure drives people into situations of experimentation and risk-taking. Tom's axiom SAV (screw around vigorously!) comes to mind.

Whilst I am certainly not in favour of sloppiness or lax standards, I am in favour of innovation and creativity. My main worry in this situation is that anxiety about public criticism will lead talented people within the BBC to play safe. What a pity that would be, as I, for one, would hate to see the BBC marginalised.

But this double-edged sword applies to any organisation that can find the public spotlight trained on their actions. Risk assessment these days often seems to me to end up meaning that organisations play far too safe—for example, the ultra-cautious attitude that many schools in the UK now take towards children's venture expeditions. (Many of them simply don't offer such expeditions any longer.)

So, is it possible to have a risk-taking large organisation, or is that an oxymoron? Who knows of any large organisations that have grappled with this dilemma successfully?

Market Research? (For good or for ill.)

Brand Trump
Brand Martha
Brand Dubai (Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum)
Brand Apple/etc./etc./iPod (Steve)
Brand California Reborn (the Guvenator)

Surely these are among the more stunning Branding-Worldchanging stories of the last 20 years:

How many are the product of careful market research?
How many are the results of visionary insaniac dreamers?
How many are at least partially the product of rather well-developed egos?

(Are there any market-research driven stories of a similar magnitude? Starbucks???)

Brand Bleed-through

A confession first ... I came late to the Apple brand and I fell hard. I love the design, and the products always work beyond my expectations! I have one iPod for running, one for biking, and a waterproof one for swimming! I didn't feel the need to stand in line for the iPhone on Friday, but I had one in my hands early Saturday nonetheless. It is as beautiful a design as I have come to expect from Cupertino.

Then things when south. My experience with AT&T/Cingular has not enamored me to their brand. The simple iTunes activation was just that—until we got to the AT&T part. Disaster. My pre-approved credit authorization at the store wasn't accepted online. I called the help line. Long wait only to be informed that I had to return to the store. (Seems the long wait had to do with them being overwhelmed with the volume of customers ... don't they read the business press? DUH.) People at the store told me to call AT&T support. I asked to speak with a supervisor at AT&T help desk. She had several calls in the cue for her. (Big surprise.) I hung up. The store tech called back with a workaround, but I would have to sign up with a Tennessee phone number (where I bought the phone) and I live in Michigan. No thanks. Eventually I just ignored all the pre-authorization work I had done at the store and started fresh with the activation. It worked. Final glitch: The AT&T/Cingular service map clearly showed I was in their service area. Well, my front room is, but the kitchen apparently isn't (I have a small house!). Signal strength is terrible. Enough bitching.

Here is the issue to me. By entering an insane agreement with AT&T as the sole carrier for the iPhone, the Apple brand is intimately connected to them. I believe after the early adopters, sales will fall if AT&T doesn't get their act together. I am greatly surprised at Apple, as I have found they are really careful not to release products before their time. I would have thought they would have made sure AT&T was ready. So now I will sum it up this way ... great iPod, lousy phone service.

A New Brand Touchpoint?

When we work with clients on branding issues here at tompeters!company, we emphasize the importance of contacts between any member of an organization and the customer. We refer to them as "touchpoints." Since an organization's brand lives in the client's or customer's mind, the experience they have with members of the organization goes a long way in determining whether they ultimately buy the product or service again. In a world full of choices, the brand acts as a sorting device. Lately, I have noticed a new force in determining whether a buyer is attracted to the brand. A lot of the conversation among my friends lately is discussion of an organization's labor practices and executive compensation. The topic comes up often. For instance, many of my friends have abandoned the Circuit City store after their decision to fire all their sales associates and offer them the chance to reapply for their jobs at a lower wage. And here in Michigan, people frequently talk about Ford, as that company continues to ask for concessions from labor while compensating Mr. Mulally at astronomical levels ($28 million in the first four months of 2007) and provide Mark Fields expense money so he can commute from Florida to Dearborn weekly. Amazingly, he used to fly Ford corporate jets each week, and his flying commercially is seen as a concession! What a sacrifice!

I am not suggesting that sales will plummet for the companies in the above examples, but I do see the impression companies make with their treatment of employees as a new force in the brand wars. So tp.com bloggers, let me know. Is this a touchpoint for you? Do you consider or are you swayed by an organization's business practices when you make a brand choice? Have you ever chosen a different source or product because you don't like how a company acts in areas unrelated to the transaction itself? Any examples?

Life Is Good

Richard Branson has a big ego, which can be off-putting. (My one contact with him was unpleasant; it gave new meaning to the word "condescending.")

But God bless him!

Branson has succeeded again and again, and is often on the side of the saints. For starters, his idea of fun is going head to head with someone who has him by 100,001 pounds. As the New Yorker explained in a wonderful profile ("Branson's Luck: The Business World's High Roller Is Betting Everything on Biofuels," by Michael Specter, May 14), "Branson likes to enter a market controlled by a giant ... British Airways, say, or Coke or Murdoch. Then he presents himself as hip alternative."

He gets pissed off at something stupid (pathetic airline customer "service") and on a dime starts an airline, or whatever. (NB: I happen to believe that all, as in ALL, successful innovation, product or process, is the product of pissed off people.) With a fortune measured in the billions, he commands a payroll of about 55,000 feisty folks in 200 very independent companies. (E.g., Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Blue of Australia, Virgin Limousines, Virgin Money, Virgin Active health clubs, Virgin Galactic space travel.)

Branson is his brand, but as told here he enjoys his nutty stunts, and engages in them even when out of camera range; going back to his hotel after a recent party that included the Google founders, half Branson's age, said car was full, so Sir Richard simply hopped in the trunk. The profile also calls him the "anti-Trump." Around the office, "Branson's nickname is Dr Yes, largely because he has never been able to bring himself to fire people, and often has trouble saying no to even the most ridiculous and unsolicited ideas."

As I read the Branson profile I not only let my mind wander to DaimlerChrysler (see immediately above), but also to Howard Schultz, Starbucks founder. I like Schultz and his company. But it seems to me that when one hears of its future, it's almost always in terms of Howard's goal of making it to 100,000 shops, or some such. Branson is surely happy when his businesses succeed and grow (though not awash in tears when one fails, as long as it was a good try), but his primary goal is the fun of doing something cool to twit a giant or, more recently, saving the world.

In short (and long), I wish there were many more like him.

They Smelled the Coffee at the NYTimes

Our friend, colleague, commenter, and blog post-er, Mike Neiss, is quoted in today's New York Times in Joe Nocera's column titled, "A Double Shot of Nostalgia for Starbucks." Mr. Nocera quotes from Mike's post titled, "Wake Up and Smell the Coffee." The Times article explores the two sides of Howard Schultz: the man nostalgic for the Starbucks past, and the man who only cares about opening more retail outlets than any other store in history. For me, though, the most damning fact for the ubiquitous coffee chain is a "survey of 20,000 people by phone and in person that showed that Dunkin' Donuts now had higher customer loyalty than Starbucks." Yikes.

Wake Up and Smell the Coffee

Just when I was beginning to wonder whether another great experience was going to surrender to the short-term gains of operational excellence, Howard Schultz gave me faith. I love this memo to his executive team laying out his concerns that the Starbucks brand is in danger of commoditization. I started noticing this some time ago, and I often mentioned to my colleagues that Starbucks was beginning to feel a lot more like a fast food restaurant than a cool place to hang. I support being a good steward of the business by watching costs, but not at the expense of losing the brand equity gained by being distinctive. Starbucks recently took another hit when the coffee at fast food staple McDonald's won a taste test conducted by Consumer Reports. While I wouldn't argue that the Starbucks brand is in its death knell, I would argue that efficiencies and economies of scale have introduced a virus in need of serious care. And it looks like Howard Schulz just might be the healer they need.

As I make this note, I am sitting in my local coffee shop. The owner told me about a new shipment of Peru Norte Especial beans he just got in and how he had roasted it to City+ to bring out its subtleties. Like an expert sommelier, he described it in wonderfully delicious detail. I can smell the breads baked on site and hear the wonderful hissing of the espresso machines. Howard would like this place. Oh, and by the way, I am sending in this dispatch using the FREE wireless connection from this wonderful coffee shop. Now this feels like a third place! Go get 'em, Howard!

Renewing the Brand Promise

Clearly what happened last week with the JetBlue travelers was not fun. People were stuck, stranded—unable to get answers, to their destinations, or even off the planes! A lot of people were/are angry and upset. I understand all those sentiments. But I tip my hat to David Neeleman, founder and CEO. The letter he published to his flyers was authentic and forthright. I don't know of too many businesses that haven't made mistakes, some bigger than others. JetBlue is admitting their errors, putting in place methods and processes so that this doesn't happen again, and they are trying to do everything to bring their brand promise back to life.

JetBlue understands where they failed, but they are renewing the brand promise and owning the problem of improving the customer experience. I would love to hear your thoughts about this letter.

Virgin Brand Hit

I admire Richard Branson. Actually, I am awed by his business savvy, drive, and style. This month's Fast Company (Sept '06) highlights his customer service mindset. [Subscription required.] My experiences with Virgin Airline have been above average. I believe the brand lives in the mind of the consumer and is based on these experiences we have and the dealings we have with the organizations' employees. Yesterday, Virgin brand took a real hit as I watched one of their employees in action at Logan airport.

I was sitting in the Northwest Airlines World Club with my dear friends and colleagues from tpc!UK, Richard King and Madeleine McGrath. Virgin apparently has some kind of agreement that allows them to share the space with Northwest. Overall, the World Clubs do a nice job. Open bar, cappuccino machines, free snacks, free wireless, and friendly staff. As we were enjoying the amenities, the Virgin hostess set up a hot buffet with a pretty good spread. There was no indication that this was for Virgin customers and was set up just a few feet from the NWA snacks. Rick and I stood up and got in line. Then the Virgin Food Police sprung into action. In a very stern voice, she let us know that the food was for Virgin customers only! She even physically grabbed a plate full of food from an NWA patron! Later she walked around with ice cream going table to table making sure that she only offered it to the right people. We openly wondered what Sir Richard would have thought about the display of Virgin hospitality. I even found myself watching how many Virgin customers were helping themselves to NWA crackers and stale cookies!

I certainly have no problem with Virgin's doing something exclusively for their customers. They paid for it, they are entitled to it. But a sign might have helped. Or perhaps a separate seating area. But not the food security force. The episode left me feeling that these are not pleasant people to do business with.

Also, a quick note to NWA execs. While sharing your World Club with another airline might help offset cost, your crackers and cheese looked pretty cheap compared to the other airline's buffet. That is not doing your brand any favors, either.

Sure, It's Just a Slogan ...

It'll certainly never compete with "Just Do It!" or even HP's "Invent." But I do take a shine to Northface's "Never Stop Exploring."

(Moreover, the quality and design of their stuff is phenomenally good and consistent, to my mind.)

Media Sightings, of a Different Sort

Over at YouTube, someone named Chartreuse has grabbed three and half minutes from Tom's Re-imagine! video and posted it. It's a segment about how cable network TNT got rid of professional wrestling and re-branded itself as all drama all the time. Tom introduces the piece.

In a vaguely related vein, someone named Roxanne gets someone to videotape her as she walks along a Hawaiian beach and calls it Beach Walks with Rox. In episode #11 she references one of Tom's posts about competition. I'm not quite sure what I think about all of this but clearly there's something going on here. The beach, sound of the waves washing over the sand, palm trees. It's kind of mesmerizing. And she's up to episode #173, so she's not kidding around.

Rock and Roll

I had the opportunity to catch a true rock & roll legend when he played a local coffeehouse recently: Roger McGuinn, the multi-talented founder of the Byrds—the band that virtually invented "folk-rock" in the 60s with hit songs like Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man," and Pete Seeger's "Turn, Turn, Turn." McGuinn is currently on a mission to promote and preserve many of the great American and British folk songs by featuring his recordings of them on his "Folk Den," where you can download them for free.

But McGuinn's performance got me thinking how successfully the Byrds BRANDED themselves in their glory days of pop superstardom (before McGuinn took the band in a country rock direction). Few of the top bands over the years have created such a radically unique sound AND look. The Byrds' signature was McGuinn's "jingle-jangle" electric 12-string guitar sound and their ethereal harmonies, but they ALSO had that "8 Miles High" cosmic-cool image (highlighted by McGuinn's granny glasses). Their Brand Promise? "We will [fill in the blank] your mind!" (I can still smell the incense.) Too many modern bands create their brand exclusively through their music. But the design-savvy Byrds had the mysterious stage presence, trippy album covers, and psychedelic logo working for them, too. Check out their "Fifth Dimension" album jacket.

So are there lessons here if you want your brand to be a star? How about (1) distinguish the brand on as many "dimensions" (and sensory levels) as possible, and of course (2) "think design." Maybe we can all learn something from McGuinn and the Byrds.

Worm In The Apple

I'm using Firefox's new "tabbed browsing" feature, which enables me to have multiple start pages every time I launch the browser. Each page loads, and can be accessed by a tab at the top.

One of my start pages has been—until 5 minutes ago—apple.com. I've had apple.com as one of my start pages so I can access Apple information and, I admit, because I feel affinity for the brand. But I recently started hearing voices every time I fired up Firefox, and I quickly discovered it was because Apple's start page now automatically plays their "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" TV ads.

This is pretty irritating, so I've removed apple.com from my array of start pages. The lesson: It's never a good idea to become so proud of your advertising that you think people will enjoy seeing it when they don't have to. It's like when people make their guests watch boring home videos.

Beatles, Stones, & Cubs

A colleague was recently complaining about the powerful personalities on his sales team. He compared it to the Beatles, and contrasted it with the Rolling Stones. His point was that the Beatles were John, Paul, George, and Ringo, and the Rolling Stones were the Rolling Stones. He claimed that the powerful individual personalities in the Beatles were a major reason they broke up in 1970 and the Stones still play today.

I don't agree 100% with the analogy (after all, there are Mick and Keith), but the point is well taken. How do the individual personalities fit into the overall brand, and not overtake it?

I attended the Cubs' home opener at Wrigley Field today, and I couldn't help but think of this. The Cubs are my friend's definition of the Rolling Stones. In the energy at the park (despite the sub-40 degree temperature) I sensed a continuity with Cubs games I attended in the late 60s. The players change, but it's still the Cubs. When Matt Murton, in his first home game as a Cub, made an amazing double play throw from left field, the fans cheered as they would have cheered a Billy Williams throw from left in 1969 or a Moises Alou throw from left in 2003.

How does the brand transcend and outlive the players? (And then, ask yourself why the players make so much money!)

Who Does Own Your Brand?

There's an article in today's business section of the New York Times describing Heavy.com, titled "A Web Site So Hip It Gets Laddies to Watch the Ads." Half of the appeal is that the community of users also contribute to the video-heavy content. But what was most interesting was the attitude of marketers at Burger King who have let these same users create ads (of a sort) for Burger King, without their control.

Gillian Smith, Burger King's senior director for media and interactive marketing, said the program with Heavy was 'a calculated risk.' Ultimately, the company concluded that people who were likely to be offended by this sort of video were not likely to spend much time on Heavy.com and besides, it no longer had the ability to control its brand imagery the way it had in the past. 'Anyone could have purchased a king mask, which we sell online, done exactly the same stuff and put it up on their own blog,' Ms Smith said.

Clearly the wave of the future. Let your customers create the advertising.

Query of the Day

Would you buy a $500 bottle of wine from Wal*Mart? (Should you be the type, you could now do so at Wal*Mart's experimental high-end store in Plano.)

Chocolate ... and More

I fell in love with Tom Peters when I saw him on a webcast with Kevin Roberts of Saatchi & Saatchi, back in December '04, talking about Lovemarks. I, too, am incredibly passionate about branding and delighted when I come across a company that "gets" the customer experience and knows how to have fun.

My new love is Graffiti Zoo, a chocolate and spice company. I discovered Graffiti Zoo while touring the chocolate exhibit at the History Museum in Atlanta a week ago. At the end of the exhibit, there was a room full of chocolate ... lots of different brands offering lots of different flavors. Not your everyday M&Ms, but unique products not sold in your typical grocery store. As I strolled with delight contemplating eating everything in sight, Graffiti Zoo jumped out at me—its name and packaging struck me in a unique way. Unlike most other chocolates that were in the form of bars, this chocolate was in a little white bag with simple black and white text. "Hmmmm, I wonder what's inside?" I thought. And, "Where does the name Graffiti Zoo come from?" Then, I saw that they "donate a percentage of [their] profits to The Conservation Endowment Fund of the American Zoo & Aquarium Association. ... the CEF has greatly advanced the mission to serve & protect the wonders of the natural world." Not only am I a certified chocoholic, but also a lover of animals and nature. It's a match made in heaven! Then I explored their different flavors: Zebras, Espresso Geckos, Barking Dogs, Bohemian Tree Frogs, Chilean Fire Ants, Moroccan Elephants, and, the one I picked, Pink Flamingos ("Crunchy Milk Chocolate, with the Tropical Flavors of Red Cherries & Fresh Coconut"). Mmmmmm ... those didn't last long.

I was so excited about the product, I decided to send some to my parents (I inherited my sweet tooth from my mother). I ordered several different flavors and had them shipped directly to their home (I considered stopping off at one of the local retailers, but I was afraid I'd eat it all before I could get it shipped). Two days later the box arrived at their doorstep. My mother couldn't wait to tell me it arrived ... packaged in a black bag with 3 different colors of tissue paper and a bright blue bow, each flavor of chocolate individually wrapped inside, each with its own story. I asked my mother to share her favorite, which it turns out is from the package of Moroccan Elephants (smooth milk chocolate with the passion of orange zest & spicy ginger):

The tree frog & elephant were an unlikely pair, as they traveled the world together. The elephant lumbering quietly along, with the frog riding high in the air. The tree frog would perch on the elephant's ear and whisper so softly, "go this way my dear" ... pointing out the trees & succulent leaves for the elephant to munch upon ... Because the poor elephant, as smart as she was, had misplaced her spectacles & could only see fuzz. Her world was a blur, but it didn't deter the elephant from exploring new lands. ... So off they went, to travel the world for they were the best of friends ...

I hope you’ll discover Graffiti Zoo, too.

Who Has to "Be the Brand"

I was speaking yesterday morning to a group of HR-types about how to encourage employees throughout a company to support a brand strategy, i.e., how employees can "Be the Brand." One participant asked about how to deal with outside contractors who represent your company.

Then, later in the day I received a telephone call from Sears that really brought home how important this is.

A woman called saying she was from Sears, and that she could offer me a special deal if I would extend the service agreement on my hot water heater. I was actually interested, because it's 5 years old and I sense it's starting to have some problems.

I noticed that she started referring to Sears in the 3rd person—"they," "them," "they're," etc. Then she asked, "Is the hot water heater that thing in your basement that heats the water up?"

The answer to my audience member's question is simple: Help the contracted employees understand your brand and what it is you do for your customers. Your customers will not evaluate contracted employees with any less scrutiny than they evaluate your "real" employees.

Bottoms Up!

With imagination, one can add value to, literally, anything. While we know that, we seem to ignore it when we fret ceaselessly over what happens as we lose our underwear factories to China. Answer: Turn to water! Consider this news item from AOL last night: "With 600 brands to choose from, bottled water now outsells soft drinks. However, instead of buying a beverage made from a secret formula (Coca-Cola), we're spending $100 billion annually worldwide to drink what pours from our own taps. ... In 2005, the Beverly Hills company Bling H20 introduced its limited edition spring water selling for $34 a liter that's become a Hollywood signature."

Not the basis for a "sound economy," you rebut! Well, it has been for about the last 60 or so years as branding of mundane stuff has become the main engine of value-added. Perhaps the only news is not water, but the fact that, in a wildly competitive global economy, we now have to brand ourselves to survive. You know, the "brand you" bit.

Brand Galapagos

How frequently the payoff pales next to the promise! You hear of a product, from an ad or a referral, and then you're let down when you actually experience it.

I've been hearing about the Galapagos Islands for years, building up a fabulous image in my mind. Ecuador and Celebrity Cruises had a tall order to fill, living up to my expectations. They did it!

Ecuador has preserved the national park in an admirable way, and I can't rave enough about this as a vacation destination. You are inches from sea lions, penguins, giant tortoises, iguanas, countless birds, etc. My son and I snorkeled by a (safe) shark and played with a sea lion in the water. Of the 80 people on the ship, half were kids, and I never saw one kid who looked bored or distracted, even while hearing an explanation of how marine iguanas protect their territories.

And, in a great example of "symbiotic" branding, Celebrity Cruises created an experience that perfectly complemented the nature experience. The cruise experience perfectly fit into the character of the destination. Great Brand Harmony. Highly recommended. Their naturalists were some of the best guides I've ever seen.

I've marketed some of the world's best vacation destinations in my career. Galapagos (and Celebrity) should be a model for all. Go there!

Anyone else witness some great vacation brands over the past few weeks?

Brand Thought For The Day

Don't think of your brand as being about the relationship your company (or product) has with the marketplace.

Instead, think of your brand in terms of the relationship your company (or product) has with individual customers.

For most of us, this is a much more useful perspective.

Brand Cacophony: Guitar Center

Ok, I may be 46, but this post does not prove I am guilty of Ted Nugent's "If it's too loud, you're too old" comment. I have played music at all volumes for 34 years, used to be a recording engineer, currently have a recording studio in my basement, and play in a band that includes two 17-year olds (my son and nephew) and a 20-year old. So I can credibly make this point without being accused of being too old to "get it."

Guitar Center is a chain with 151 stores. Although I prefer the local "boutique" I've shopped at since age 15, there are numerous occasions where it makes sense to shop at Guitar Center. I bought a guitar amplifier there about 6 months ago, and it was difficult to audition the amp since the store had a radio station blaring so loud over their mega-sound system, with ceiling speakers all over the store. But, I managed, and bought the amp, because I really wanted it.

Recently I was in Guitar Center, trying out this very cool effect called a "looper" that lets you make instant digital recording loops of your playing and layer phrases on top of each other in real time. However, unlike with a basic guitar amp, I really had to be able to hear this piece of equipment, which was once again difficult with the uber-loud radio getting in the way. I mentioned to one of the store managers that it was hard to hear the looper with all the noise, and he looked at me like I was crazy. (Even though we practically had to shout over the radio to hear each other.) I asked him if it was hard to sell guitars when it's so hard to hear them, and he curtly said, "no, we do it all day long."

So, what does this tell me about Guitar Center? In addition to the obvious (it's hard to shop there), it signals to me that they are more interested in superficial rock and roll "culture" than helping real rock and rollers make music. There are 200 guitars hanging on the wall (most of them out of tune) and you can't really hear the subtleties of any of them. The cacophony in their store does a lot to spoil their brand for me. Am I reading too much into the noise? I don't think so.

What's really funny is that my son says he heard a radio ad for Sam Ash, a major Guitar Center competitor, coming out of the Guitar Center sound system one day. Serves them right.

Think I bought the looper?

Who Woulda Thunk?

"The Good Goliath," an Op-ed column loudly applauding Wal*Mart appeared in the ... New York Times! By John Tierney, 11.29. Consider: Wal*Mart is arguably the #1 lubricant for the welfare-to-work revolution, offering 1st jobs to many, many, many under-skilled workers. (W*M has 5 to 10 applicants per job.) Wal*Mart pays less than Costco, but the average W*M shopper has an income of $35,000 vs $74,000 (!) at Costco—thence, to sell higher-end stuff, Tierney argues, one needs higher skilled workers. Wal*Mart saves the average regular shopper $800 a year on groceries alone. Tierney says he obviously "gets it" that union critics and local merchants have big problems with the giant, but concludes, "Why would anyone who claims to be fighting for social justice be so determined to take money out of the pockets of the poor?"

(As a long time/continuing fan of Wal*Mart, though not a mindless defender, I was delighted to see this piece, especially in the gray lady.)

"We"

A few months back, I asked this question on a post:

When thinking about themselves and you, how many of your customers think "We," and how many think "Us" and "Them?"

The readers of tompeters.com had some great comments and insights about this concept. I've spent a lot of time since then thinking about the idea of a "We" relationship. I've had hundreds of conversations with people, integrated the idea of "We" into my client work, and I'm deep into the first draft of a new book on the subject.

What do you think? What are the features of a "We" relationship?

Stretching the Beatles' Brand

John O'Leary, who didn't play with the Beatles, but DID play with some of their contemporaries, gives us this entry:

40 years ago this month the Beatles—already the biggest rock & roll band in the universe—recorded the song "Yesterday." This sweet, melancholic tune—featuring Paul McCartney's plaintive voice accompanied only by acoustic guitar and string quartet—was such a radical change in musical direction for the Beatles that they were afraid to release it as a single in the UK, fearing it would compromise their rock & roll image. Eventually, they released it as a single in the US, and it became a #1 hit, one of the most critically acclaimed ballads in pop music history, and the most recorded song of all time! Interesting turn of events: the group had mixed feelings about releasing a new product, fearing it might dilute the brand, yet it wound up extending the brand. This and subsequent Beatles songs—many of them exquisitely crafted and stunningly creative—earned the band new fans who saw them not so much as cute mop-top rockers, but as pop art Picassos. Pretty good story line here. "A mega-successful organization at the top of its game throws caution to the wind and breaks its own mold with a revolutionary line of new products." One question: why is this the exception in business? A better question: what can your company learn from this?

Toyota Rules

Tom Friedman (New York Times) is, I believe, our best opinion writer by a country mile. He's also author, most recently, of The World Is Flat. (He's no knee-jerk liberal; TF strongly supported the war in Iraq, though he's less keen on the subsequent nation-building bit.) In a June 17 column [subscription required], he suggests, with tongue apparently nowhere near cheek, that to save America, Toyota must buy GM: "Indeed I think the only hope for GM's auto workers, and maybe even our country, is with Toyota. Because let's face it, as Toyota goes, so goes America." Among other things, Friedman points out that while GM has doggedly stuck with gas-guzzling SUVs and Hummers in the face of surging gas prices, Toyota is championing major moves toward fuel efficiency, including a strategic (not cosmetic) push into the likes of hybrids.

Agree or hoot, it makes for provocative reading.

We

Tom shared his "Power of We" presentation with us a few days ago. Here's something I've been thinking about for a while—ponder this:

How many of your customers would regularly talk about themselves and you as "We," as opposed to "Us" and "Them?"

I Just Don't Understand

I've written a lot positive about Starbucks ... and will continue to do so. But the fact is that I am one of those "line intolerant" people ... and for the life of me I can't understand why so many people tolerate the long Starbucks lines (even though handled well ... for a line), when short lines, equally good coffee, and decent seating are sometimes (often in urban areas?) 100 yards away.

Was on Newbury Street in Boston this morning, popped into a Starbucks; line was about 15 deep ... I ran for the exit. 2 blocks away was Torrefazione. Line 3. Latte Triplo great. Biscotti better than Starbucks'. Seating fine and available (contra S'bucks), with much more daylight (big deal) (and outside seating available).

Why?????????????????????

It's the "Culture Thing"

I've continued to think and read about mergers and marriages, and then this morning a client sent me this quote from the New York Times:

"On Wall Street, a world dominated by multibillion-dollar deals, seven-figure bonuses and exotic financial products like weather derivatives, the success of a firm might just rest on the most intangible and least financial element of all: culture."

Mr. Purcell resigned yesterday from Morgan Stanley—that "culture thing" seems to have got in his way. In 1997, he merged Dean Witter with Morgan Stanley. The NYT article says, "They were like oil and water, and in the end, Mr. Purcell just could not blend the two."

Along with the culture problem, I am not so sure that Morgan Stanley has been able to distinguish themselves in the financial market. They tried to serve everyone, and now they appear not to be serving anyone well, including the culture.

What's your take?

Customer Intimacy

Blogs are getting us up close and personal with our customers. Some blogs are product fan sites, and let the raves and rants about a product live under one roof. Some corporate blogs, by brave companies who get blogging, let their comments become an ongoing conversation with their customers. The line is blurring between the people who make things and the people who buy them. Blogs live right on that blurry line.

I've been thinking about it here and wondering if we just need to come up with a new word. Maybe "customer" just doesn't describe the partnership you have with the people who love your product. It's too cold.

If you really want to know about a product—where do you go first to read up on it? The official corporate site, the corporate blog, the opinion sites, a fan blog site?

Internal Marketing

Recent recommendation to a client: "We need to start marketing to ourselves with as much care as we market to our outside customers."

Does your organization focus any of its marketing efforts within the company, helping people who work for the company to understand how to "Be the Brand?" What is the relative balance of resources devoted to internal vs. external marketing? If you do any internal marketing, how is it received by the employee population?

Brand: the Word

William Safire did a brilliant piece about the word brand over the weekend in the New York Times magazine. (We link instead to the same article in the Houston Chronicle), putting Tom right into the middle of the discussion. He quotes the contribution Tom made to the word in "The Brand Called You," in Fast Company in 1997. That article continues to speak to many people, and it has recently been translated into Indonesian and posted on permagnus.com.

Safire suggests the word has been overused. He wants to unbrand it. His discussion goes beyond the word itself to the concept and its relevance. Thoughts?

What Exactly Is A Brand?

On BusinessWeek Online, Christopher Kenton wrote this piece a few weeks back which seems to have had quite the blog half-life, getting picked up, picked apart, picked over and rehashed umpteen times.

Here's where it started:

"Your brand is your name, your logo, your trade dress. You own it. There are clearly written laws to protect it. It is tangible enough to put a price on it. And yet, an entire generation of marketers has found a way to obscure the obvious, to make the brand more fantastic, to make it hard enough to understand that you need consultants to help you figure it out."

Here's where it's going:

Let's step back and consider the concept of brand again. What is one the most fundamental attributes of a strong brand? Consistency. A consistent presentation across time and medium. So why are we so incapable of applying the same concept to our own profession?

Kenton's blog is Marketonomy: Unforgetting The Laws of Marketing.

Don't Throw A Wild Pitch

Follow-up to our baseball blog the other day ...

A radio interviewer asked me yesterday what I thought major league baseball would do to address its image problem. I told him what I think they would do and what I think they should do.

Baseball has a big marketing/branding problem, and I won't be surprised if they address this marketing problem with traditional marketing solutions, i.e., try to advertise their way out of this mess.

That would be the dumbest thing they should do. According to an article in the Stanford Humanities Review, 1 out of 25 Americans will attend a major league baseball game this year, with many of those people attending multiple games. Many more millions will watch games on TV.

Instead of trying to buy their way out of the problem with ads, MLB should focus on creating the most amazing during—the—game experiences they can for these millions of fans. Think "what would make a 10 year old talk about this game for the rest of his life?" and then do it! Then, ask the same question about 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70 and 80 year olds—and deliver on those dreams also! Humanize the players—make them accessible, having every one give at least 10 autographs per game. Put magic back into the experience of a live major league baseball game.

Promises can't fix their problems. The best thing to do counterbalance the idea of heroes who cheat is to create WOW! memories through real live, genuine WOW! experiences. Great brands are built with great brand harmony, and baseball should take advantage of the millions of fans who will be spending afternoons and evenings at ballparks this year, creating incredible experiences of brand harmony that create incredible memories—diluting the effects of the steroid crisis. But will they?

Cadillac Cool

The Escalade is putting the "cool" back into Cadillac, according to USAToday.

Decades before Lexus or Acura, Cadillac was the gold standard for American presidents, movie stars and titans of industry. But the 102-year-old brand fell on hard times in the 1980s and 1990s. The rollout of the Escalade three years ago enabled it to make a stylish splash in the world of $50,000-plus luxury SUVs.

Brands Lost In Translation

In the past two weeks, I heard about two unusual branding efforts in China. On CNN, I saw a piece about Buick being embraced by the Chinese as a very cool, sexy car—not exactly the way Americans think of the sedate sedan. I also heard about the Playboy brand and logo being adopted by Chinese women as a quasi-feminist brand. Wondering if this going on in any other brand categories and especially wondering why these brands are not translating in conventional ways.

More than Consistency

A client and I were discussing brand harmony a few days ago, and he held up Apple as a great example. He said that he loves how "consistent" all touchpoints with Apple are, from the products to the stores to the advertising, etc.

He's right that Apple is an example of great brand harmony. But I told him that I think he's selling them short when he focuses on "consistency." What makes the Apple brand powerful is not how consistent the different touchpoints are, but how well they complement each other.

Think of some of the great examples of harmony in art. Consistency would be if King Lear's three daughters acted the same. Boring! What's interesting is the juxtaposition of Cordelia against Regan and Goneril. Are the songs on Miles Davis' Kind of Blue consistent with each other? Who cares! Do they complement each other? Yes, in a really interesting way.

When I walked into the Soho Apple Store in NY the other day—with my iPod Mini in my pocket—and saw a class being taught in a big open theater—and thought about the cool iPod Shuffle ads I'd seen all day—my Apple brand impression wasn't strengthened by the consistency of these experiences, because they weren't consistent. They all said different things. What strengthened my feeling for the Apple brand was the way all of these experiences blended together in my mind, complementing each other and telling me a powerful, compelling story.

"Consistent" is for assembly lines. "Complement" is for great brands.

What is Brand Equity?

I was speaking recently with a marketing professor from a top business school. He is a person I respect very much.

During the course of our conversation he said, "Wal-Mart has no brand equity." I almost choked on my wine. I asked him what he meant. He said that brand equity should create a price premium, and Wal-Mart's strategy has been to focus on low prices. In his mind brand equity always creates a price premium.

Yes, strong brands can get people to pay more. But, isn't paying a premium just one example of the kinds of behavior a strong brand can encourage? What if a brand gets no price premium, but encourages more frequent purchases, a greater share of spending dollars, or referrals? Isn't that a strong brand? Wal-Mart gets a disproportionate share of both wallets and shopping visits, and has millions of loyal customers. It has changed consumer shopping behavior, in a significant way.

So, can you have brand equity with no price premium? Or do you agree with the professor? (Any conversation about Wal-Mart can be incendiary, so please try to separate your answer to the brand equity question from any Wal-Mart rants, which you are also welcome to include in your comments.)

What Really Counts?

In a post a few days ago, I chided Rance Crain of AdAge for claiming that the problems with mass marketing can all be attributed to bad ad creative. I posited that this is, at most, a peripheral issue.

So what does count? Great marketing requires brand harmony, where all experiences a customer has blend to tell an understandable, compelling, differentiating story. So, what is the key to telling this brand story?

It can only happen if all employees in the organization are prepared and eager to "be the brand" as they do their jobs. More and more, I have come to believe that the keystone of the whole process is the set of beliefs within the employee population. Are there competing beliefs or one shared belief? Are the beliefs about the past ("what we've been") or about the future("what we intend to be")?

Summed up— do the employees have "a shared belief of what we intend to be." ??

On this rests the success of your marketing.

Steve & "Corporate Culture"

With HP's visible troubles front & center, there's much talk about "corporate culture." Steve Jobs has his own perspective, re Apple. Apple's Good Times these days, he says, are a product of the world ... FINALLY ... catching up with Steve & Apple. (I agree.)

Here's Steve:

"The great thing is that Apple's DNA hasn't changed. The place where Apple has been standing for the last two decades is exactly where computer technology and the consumer electronics markets are converging. So it's not like we're having to cross the river to go somewhere else; the other side of the river is coming to us."—Steve Jobs/
Fortune/02.21.05

Brand Slam

Through no fault of your own, someone drags your brand through the mud. What do you do?

Imagine how it feels to read the following headline if you were the person in charge of handling the Cub Scouts' PR coverage: Cub Scout Leader Arrested in BTK Killings and that picture ... ugh!

Quote/s of the Day

Addressed a couple of thousand KFC franchisees yesterday. I dusted off a couple of quotes from my old friend, former Burger King CEO Barry Gibbons:

"When we did it 'right' it was still pretty ordinary." (Barry Gibbons on his "Nightmare No. 1")

"I thought, 'What a dreadful mission I have in life.' I'd love to get six-thousand restaurants up to spec, but when I do it's 'Ho-hum.' It's bugged me ever since. It's one of the great paradoxes of modern business. We all know distinction is key, and yet in the last twenty years we have created a plethora of ho-hum products and services. Just go fly in an airplane. It could be such an enlightening experience. Ho-hum. We swim in an ocean of ho-hum, and I'm going to fight it. I'm going to die fighting it."—Barry Gibbons

Here are a couple of other pithies on this topic of the limits of normalcy:

"To succeed, we must stop being so goddamn normal. In a winner takes all world, normal = nothing."—Kjell Nordström & Jonas Ridderstråle, Funky Business

"I don't think there's anything worse than being ordinary."—Mena Suvari/American Beauty

For Now!

Dell rules.
Great "business system."
I applaud.
Pathetic innovators!
Consider it a waste!
Newsweek/02.21.2005: "Dell finds it hilarious that HP and Sony fund researchers to come up with new ideas."
TP to MD: You'll not be around 20 years from now! R&D and Re-imaginings count over the long haul.
Come to think of it, nothing new in PCs (save Apple!!!!) in years & years. I don't buy that the PC world is "mature."

The Purple Hotel

If you grew up on the north side of Chicago or in the north suburbs sometime in the last 40 years, you probably remember "The Purple Hyatt" in Lincolnwood, Illinois, a shrine to Sixties Kitsch Style. I actually remember going there to visit family friends when I was about 6, circa 1965. Even then I could tell it was tacky!

By the time I worked at the Hyatt corporate office in the early '90's, The Purple Hyatt had become "The Purple Radisson," and no one at Hyatt could mention the hotel without a sigh of relief that it was no longer associated with our brand. After all, this hotel was sort of a local joke.

But I drove by there yesterday, and saw a twist on the branding of this property that is, at the least, amusing. The hotel is no longer The Purple Hyatt or The Purple Radisson—it's The Purple Hotel. Why apologize for an architectural anachronism? Embrace it!

What Matters!

"Hipness is the only asset that matters."—Paul Saffo, futurist, on Apple

Thesaurus of WOW!

"They" hate it if you call them "bankers." "They" love it, on the other hand, when you ask to see their #s—stupendous. "They" are ... Commerce Bank. These absurdly fast growing, insanely profitable "retailers," rewriting the rules of East Coast retail banking, sent me a copy of their booklet, "Traditions." It explicates their "Wow the Customer Philosophy." At the end there's "A Collection of Commerce Lingo." I won't define (use your imagination), but simply offer a small sample: "Fans, Not Customers." "Say YES ... 1 to say YES, 2 to say NO." (A staffer has to get a supervisor's approval to say "no" to anything.) "Recover!!! To Err Is Human; To Recover Is Devine." "Leave 'Em Speechless." "Positive Behavior." "Positive Language." "Kill A Stupid Rule." (Get cash rewards for exposing dumb internal rules "that impede our ability to WOW!") Make the 'WOW! Answer Guide' Your Best Friend." "Buzz Bee." "CommerceWOW!Zone." (A K-12 financial education program.) "Doctor WOW!" "Ten-Minute Principle." ("Stores" open 10 minutes before posted hours, stay open 10 minutes after posted hours—and the hours, such as open 7 days a week, are already incredibly generous & tradition-shattering.) "Wall of WOW!" "WOW! Awards." (The annual recognition ceremony—Radio City Music Hall, with the Rockettes, in '05.) "WOW! Patrol." "WOW! Spotlight." "WOW Van." "WOW Wiz." (A service superstar.) Etc.

Not your father's bank! Or yours (or mine), for that matter. In a word ... WOW!

NB: Commerce's market cap, via organic growth, has grown at a compound annual rate of 48% from 1993 through 2003. Moving beyond New Jersey, the bank (current assets: $30 billion) will stretch from Boston to Metro D.C.-MD-VA by 2009.