One Dimensional

I like the whole idea of one.  Do one thing; do it well.  Boil it down to a core essence, the primary fulcrum, and focus on that relentlessly.  Obsess.  Become famous for it.  Own something.  I just wish I could act on my convictions.

Many companies and people are attracted to this notion, but very few live by it.  They hedge.  They diversify.  They extend.  They unfocus.  They seek multi-dimensionality and typically arrive at non-dimensionality.  

I see so many businesses stuck in this quagmire.  Somewhere in history they traded their single-minded focus for a multi-front campaign.  They spend decades honing their core business and competency, then assume that over the course of 3-4 years they can recreate that magic in a new category or channel or country.  And they usually don’t.  They end up with average.  And rather than retreating or forging ahead they hold, then they extend again and again and again until the company is more average than great.  Starbucks.  Campbell Soup.  Burger King.  KFC.

My generation of leadership inherited this mess.  Sins of the father and the diversify movement.  We are beholden to Wall Street to grow …. so we shutter to think what shedding all this revenue would mean.  And truth be told, many of these ancillary lines can’t even be divested.  Who wants to buy PowerAde from Coke?   What CEO is willing to admit the millions poured into these average brands has been a bust?  That not just the revenue, but the asset, needs written off?

Agencies do this too.  Rather than accept that their resources should be leveraged against a core competency … say creative… they invest bodies and mindshare against disciplines where they are average at best.  The net effect is that clients see them as average.  That the weak link breaks the chain.

And we do it as people.  Our personal lives are hallmarked by over commitments in the numerous areas we strive to master.  Husband.  Dad.  Friend.  Brother.  Son.

Oh I know this is idealistic.  But isn’t that the point?  To shoot for the moon and at least hit the ceiling.  The construct is focus, simplicity, subtraction.   Uni-tasking... not multi-tasking.

I just wish I could act on my convictions.  

How about you?

Confession of the Bad Self-Editor

I started my career with very little written correspondence. A couple of letters a day to clients, usually nothing more than a slightly revised form letter. "Thanks for your interest..."

Now we all write all the time. Email and text if nothing else. Personal and professional. Considered and rushed. Life has become an endless stream of writing. I'm still learning.

For the last 4-5 years, many branding experts have been proposing that branding is storytelling. And while storytelling is verbal, it is also written. I'm still learning.

The hardest part for me is editing. It's not practical to have another person edit all your correspondence. But truth be told, I hate editing. It's my arrogance that gets in the way, but I'm still learning.

Most times I'm left with the task of self-editing (by choice or practicality). Lately, this is the mental checklist I use.

Grammar and Spelling: Obvious yes, but it still bites me occasionally. Learning not to rely 100% on spellcheck.

Flow/Plot: For business writing, set the context and then present in a logical flow. I learned this at P&G and it haunts me still today.

Simplicity: Delete. Delete. Simplify words. Simplify concepts. Delete. Trim. Always less than one page. Always less than 10 slides.

Voice: I find that I tend to write like a know-it-all. Everything is written in a persuasive voice. I'm learning that today's audiences are often better reached in a more conversational, "walk with me" voice. Back to that arrogance thing again.

I'm ok at the first two points, but the last two are blind spots for me. Complex, verbose, buzz-word writing shows expertise. Right? Wrong. Arrogant, self-important voice impresses the audience. Right? Wrong. So at least I'm self-aware. Now what?

Any advice? I'm still learning.

The Persuader

"It's all so cool...that it's easy to lose track of why we are here."

There are lots of exciting new marketing channels and ideas floating around these days. I feel we are in a re-invention period for our craft, perhaps the largest shift since the ascendancy of television in the 1950's. A season of exploration and experimentation full of great hope and "coming of age" energy. It's all so cool...that it's easy to lose track of why we are here.

In the end, we are hired to persuade. To convince a targeted audience to prefer our brand and buy it repeatedly. Lose site of this objective at your brand's risk (and your own).

Don't get me wrong, there are different forms of persuasion. Persuasion doesn't have to be clumsy, predictable and heavy-handed. It can be subtle, enticing and elegant. Persuasion plays in different disguises....but it must play.

Why build a community on social networks? To build relationship. Why relationship? To open a channel of interactive dialogue. Why dialogue? So we can listen, understand and ultimately craft product and messages that are persuasive. To persuade. Yes ultimately community is about persuasion.

If this feels exploitive and manipulative to you, don't worry. The consumer knows what you are trying to do. Do you?

Habitual Purchase

We gathered in the lobby for a social lunch.

"Where are we going?" I asked. "Any ideas?" he replied.
"How about x?" I offered. "No." he replied. "What about Y?" I volleyed. "Nah."
"Then you decide." I snipped. "Oh, I don't care." he said.

Most purchases are made from habit. If we stopped to rationally discuss and weigh every decision, nothing would get done. We'd find ourselves in internal and external dialogue similar to the one above. Habitual purchase is convenient and expedient. It's how we navigate life.

Habit is a wonderful "cheat" for marketers. Once our brand becomes a habit, human nature kicks in (and we kick back). But don't confuse habitual purchase with true brand loyalty or affinity or preference. It may just be convenience. Habits aren't even conscious decisions.

Habit may have been born in brand preference. A decision long ago, perhaps weighed carefully, resulted in repeated behavior. But the trap is to assume that this initial brand preference is still active. That they still love your brand. That they are even aware of your brand. I have talked to many consumers that can't name brands that they use regularly. (What brand of toilet paper is in your house? Paper towels? Spices? Air freshener?) If they can name them, they can't tell you why they use them.

The question is....what will happen when the consumer awakens and makes a conscious choice in your category?

As a new brand, half the battle is just getting that unconscious, habitual shopper to awaken and re-examine the category. But it's not easy to do. People are busy and most are fundamentally happy with their habitual choices. How do you interrupt? How do you insert doubt into this happy routine? I personally feel this is one of the primary roles of creative. To awaken, to start a new consideration.

As an established brand, the challenge is diligence and intellectual honesty. Do you know how your consumers really feel about your brand? Is there passion? Is there still a point of difference? Or do they just buy from habit. Most of our biggest brands are over 50 years old. We are on the 3rd or 4th generation of consumers many of whom learned to shop categories from their parents. A habit passed down through generations. I bet that if we compared our parents pantries with our own, we would find many of the same brands. We inherit more than our good looks from our parents. And the same is true at work. Institutional habits are often even stronger, and more deeply rooted than individual behavior.

What's the point? A brand built on habitual purchase is vulnerable. Better figure out where you stand.

Emotional Consequences

It was a long trip. Travel home was a grind. I was tired. Weary. Road worn.

As I neared my house there was a growing sense of anticipation and yet, hesitation. Had I been homesick? No, but yet I wanted to get home. Then again, re-entry was not always pleasant.

I walked in the door and was overcome by a sense of familiarity. Sound, smell, touch, sight. Then I was noticed. I was greeted, touched, accepted, loved. I felt belonging. Contentment. Happiness. At peace. Connected.

Your brand has an audience. Their days are grinds. They are weary. They are worn. How do they feel as they near your brand experience? How do they feel in the moment? What is your brand's emotional consequence?

When consumers interact with a brand, there is an emotional consequence. Brand failure, even in the most insignificant categories, can cause frustration, anger, even embarrassment. Brand success can lift spirits and turn a bad day around. What’s interesting is these emotional consequences are often not just directed at the brand, but at the user. Ever felt like a sucker for buying a brand? Ever felt more confident about yourself when using a brand?

As a brand builder, the goal is to marry your brand to a positive emotional experience that enhances the user’s day and their self opinion. In short, interaction with this brand makes me feel ______. So when I want to feel that way, I reach for the brand. This is the essence of the emotional benefit.

Unlike with functional benefits, it is often much easier to differentiate your brand with its emotional benefit. When I was young, Nike and Adidas were functionally marketed brands with little differentiation. Nike figured out the emotional benefit of running (and fitness in general) to its users, and the rest is history.

While functional benefit remains precedent to emotional benefit in my opinion, it’s the MARKETER that is typically the author of emotional benefit strategy. Net, this is where we earn our keep in brand construction.

The Unity of Freedom Has Never Relied on the Uniformity of Opinion (JFK).

INDIVISIBLE is a precious word that the Left and Right seem to ignore in their self-serving rhetoric. Civil discourse has been replaced with flatulent, garrulous braying. Personal gain over public progress. It's distasteful and has pushed many from the political process.

Just because politicians have a live microphone ...doesn't mean they speak for me. Same goes for the political talk-heads.

America is ultimately about unity and common cause; has been since our start. We stand united here in the United States. Together we have always been stronger. Have we lost track of this?

Let's start a new discussion that respects different views and seeks progress on our common problems. I think we understand each other's positions, how do we move forward? The unity of freedom has never relied on the uniformity of opinion (JFK).

America, Still the Shining City on a Hill.

NOTE: I wrote this little rant about the state of the American political process. But guess what? If you replace America with the name of your organization, I bet some of these points will hold true.

The Beginning of the World

I think marketing as we knew it has died. Drowned in a sea of technology that has fundamentally changed the way people interact with media and the advertising it contains.

I came of age in the prime of prime time. TV was king and all young marketers aspired to make 30 second commercials and blast the middle class into submission with zillions of GRP's. With rare exceptions, that is no longer a viable plan. The audience is just not there and when they are...they just don't care.

When the internet arrived most marketers took their tv strategy and reapplied it to banner ads. Lured with the potential of micro targeting, we poured our money into ads that framed the content that fueled the audience. Just like tv right? Wrong. The consumer had tasted freedom and they wanted no part of these ads. They learned to circumnavigate them, to not even "see" them...much less click on them. Seth Godin had it right years ago, it's a permission based medium and the consumer has the power.

So welcome to the new beginning. The birth of marketing on the Internet. The flood waters have receded and Noah is unpacking the ark. Shallow, tag line marketing didn't make the boat. What has survived is content. Real content. Stuff people want to read, watch and talk about. "Content is king" was a phrase fashioned to define how to draw traffic to a website in the late 90's. Well guess what? The phrase also applies to our marketing.

For decades we have lived as a parasite on media. The speed bump between programming. Those days are done. Marketing must become the programming. The paradigm is that we are now the broadcasters. Entertain, educate, engage or prepare for extinction.

It's with this conviction that I commissioned this campaign for a safety brand. Yes a boring safety brand. Please review here http://bulwark.com/451/ I'm proud of this work for a lot of reasons, but this morning, I am most proud of it because it is a step into the new world. The new frontier few are exploring.

Marketing is dead, long live marketing.

PS: Thanks to my friends at Fitzgerald + Company in Atlanta for helping make this strategy a reality (I'm talking to you Llneveldt)

Go Figure

Just the facts ma'am:

The US population is 311 million.
The top rated broadcast TV show typically has an audience of around 20 million.
The top rated cable show typically has an audience of 7 million.
The largest daily newspaper is the WSJ with 2 million circulation.
The largest paid magazine is Better Homes and Garden with circ of 7.5 million.
The largest radio audience is Rush Limbaugh at 15 million weekly.

The great American mass audience...is now a myth. Collectively we have very few unifiers in media. Yet we keep paying to play on these mass vehicles, and try to build "mass" brands. Godin is right, it's about tribes and niches.

Coca Cola has 40 million "likes" on facebook. Is it a community? No, but the 'like' gives Coke posting privilege on the "likers" wall. Twice the reach of the typical #1 show on tv...and with prudence they can engage them repeatedly weekly for months, even years. At very little cost.

What is the value of that community?

One spot on American Idol reaches 20 million people and costs about $400k. No the editorial context is not the same...but then fb has twice the reach and marginal cost.

How can we not be spending LOTS of time learning how to build these communities? Learning to engage in a way that eliminates media cost? It's not free...you have to have content...but it's dramatically less than paid media.

Nobody has all the answers, but we all have to be asking the questions.

Higher Motives

If we treat social media as another place for transactional commerce ...we're missing its potential... and we're missing why people are drawn to our brands in the social environment in the first place.

People don't go to facebook to shop. Yes... for us there is a commerce motive...but we can't be too heavy handed in that pursuit.

The potential of social media is authentic interaction.
The hope of authentic interaction is relationship.
The benefit of relationship is empathy.
The power of empathy is relevance.
The promise relevance is preference.
The payoff for preference is repeated purchase.

It's kind of like sex.
You can't let your wife see your motive, better yet, have a higher motive.