“Networking is an essential part of building wealth.”
…€” Armstrong Williams

As such, it makes sense that the more you network with other professionals, the more potential you have to build wealth. Sooooo … how are you networking? Do you belong to professional associations? Do you belong to any online social networkes like LinkedIn.com or Rhys.com? Are you blogging? Do you participate in any online forums? Do you belong to any e-lists or Yahoo Groups? Are you a member of any community networking groups? Are you a member of groups such as Rotary, Kiwanis or Lions? Do you have any hobby group meetings that you frequent?

Yep, the opportunities are just about endless, and there for the taking. Give yourself a gold star if you said “yes” to all of the above. A silver star to those who nodded at more than just a couple.

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A RAND corp. study urges the U.S. Military to revise their tarnished brand in Iraq (from Reuters). The 211 page study claims that military actions such as the images from the Abu Ghraib prison and the delay in getting electricity and clean water to the Iraqi people have created poor “positioning” …. AND, the situation can be solved by implementing a better brand strategy.

I can’t disagree with the recommendation. My suspicion is, however, the U.S. military won’t be able to effectively pull this off. …. for a couple of reasons:

1. First off, the news story tips the military’s hand on how they would approach this type of recommendation. The last paragraph states that the Joint Forces command will use the report to study possible responses to current urban challenges. OK, they don’t get it. “Studying possible responses” is a time killer. More importantly, taking that approach is a demonstration that the U.S. military is not structured in a way that it can heed this advice in a way similar to a failing corporate brand. Example; Take any VP of Marketing for a large corporation and put their head on a chopping block for creating a poorly positioned product brand. Their next step would be to take action … NOT “let me study some possible responses, and I’ll get back with you, maybe.”
2. A la Tom Peters, in his book Re-Imagine, these types of drastic situations require taking drastic steps. Complete reinvention … not a Kaizen-like, Six-Sigma, “incremental progress”, tweaking of the situation.
3. Finally, the effective re-branding of an entire organization requires a holistic, top-to-bottom implementation. The successful launch of the new brand would need to be permeated throughout the entire organization and be reflected in the organization’s deeds and actions. I’m guessing the U.S. Military is NOT going to completely re-invent themselves. They aren’t prepared to change their processes this dramatically … nor do I think it would be wise to do so.

What to do. What to do.

I suspect the reality is not the military’s brand is tarnished as much as the entire United State’s brand is tarnished…. it just so happens that for the past few years, the Iraqi people have only experienced the U.S. via their interactions with our military. The RAND corp. study suggests taking a “we will help you” approach to repositioning the brand. I think that’s sound advice. BUT, the military is the worst choice of organization to implement that type of strategy. Their deeds and actions don’t support the concept.

If the U.S. were to successfully pull off that kind of campaign, it would need to engage an organization large enough and with the correct “leanings” to launch a “we’re going to help you” initiative. Someone like; the Red Cross, the United Nations, the Peace Corps … heck, even the Boy Scouts of America would be in a better position to do this than our military.

(Note: Understand that this post is not a commentary on my views of whether we should pull out of Iraq or not … that’s a political hornets nest. I’m simply addressing the brand issues presented in the Reuters article.) What do YOU think?

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A couple of posts ago I ranted about The Learning Annex offering to pay $1 Million to Paris Hilton to have her teach her branding secrets. It’s been two weeks now and I’ve calmed down. Breathe in … breathe out… repeat.

Next up; Watching Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, however, is a different story. I’ve decided that HE IS a branding genius. In his first two episodes, he ’saved the bacon’ of a traditional English pub and an Ex-Pat owned English Cuisine restaurant located on the Mediterranean coast of Spain. Here’s what Gordon did in both cases:

• Came in and fully assessed the situation (Can’t fix something unless you know how it’s broke).
• He kicked some booty and effected immediate changes.
• He cleaned house. By this I mean he identified the inefficiencies, waste, redundancies, etc., and chucked ‘em in the bin.
• He simplified, BIG TIME! In each case, as the restaurant owners formerly found their success slipping away, they scrambled to pile on recipes, processes and ideas. All for naught. They would “mix it up” trying one thing one day and three more the next. They each completely lost focus and created what was, essentially, a big mess.
• He got them to focus on what REALLY creates a successful restaurant. This is the tough one … the bit that makes Gordon a restaurant branding genius. In each of these episodes, he got the owner to focus on one powerful idea. In Spain it was on “simple English fare”. In the pub, it was “real gravy”. This focus brought a beautiful simplicity to the operation.

After a couple of seasons of Hell’s Kitchen and now seeing him come to the rescue in this BBC series, I’m convinced that Mr. Ramsay possesses an innate sense of what makes a powerful brand. More to the point, he knows how to identify the essence of what people want. What better idea is there to wrap YOUR brand around?!

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Let’s start with a quote from Margaret Mead:

Never doubt that a small, group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

Now consider how most people (and, I mean the VAST majority) go through their daily grind with blinders on…. Not just physical blinders …€“ seen in people’s general unwillingness to help each other …€“ but also psychological blinders … where people seem to just not care about their fellow man and the impact they, as individuals, might have on the world.

Now consider a post by blog evangelist Robert Scoble where he talks about the services being offered by PodTech.net and the future of what we call “television”…. He tips his hand about how he views this emerging technology, NOT by talking in acronyms or techie-ese, but by pointing out that these technologies can make a difference in how we view the world…. He describes a new divide…. Not a divide between the “haves” and “have nots” but between people who are aware of what’s going on in the world and those others wearing blinders.

If you’re finding that you’ve got blinders on, please take them off for just a moment to see the world around you…. In fact, it’s possible to keep them off permanently in your business life and affiliate your marketing efforts with a worthy social cause…. Heed Margaret Mead’s advice and the world can truly be changed.

This advice has been brought to you by the liberal streak in what is normally a pretty middle-of-the-road kind of guy…. You may now return to your regularly scheduled programming.

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It was just pointed out that I haven’t posted anything up in almost two weeks…. Although this corresponds with me throwing out my back three times over the past two weeks, it’s not the real excuse.

What reeeeeallly happened is I got so busy with work, my morning schedule of blogging (while eating breakfast) was interrupted…. So, what does this mean? Why should you care?… It’s certainly not the end of the world BUT there is an eye opening factoid that may shock you if you’re an active (or wannabe) blogger;… My web site traffic has dipped for the first time in 10 months!!!!… Not a lot, but it’s a noticable hiccup in what was a linear, upward progression of monthly traffic.

Lesson:… If you’re going to commit to this whole blogging “thang” as a marketing strategy, one of the most important paradigm shifts is to write your posts on a consistant basis!

OK…. I’m rolling again and you can expect my next post to be up in less than a couple of days from now…. … I feel better …. how ’bout you?…

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Can YOUR company/product be the next hot brand of 2007? Learn how at The Learning Annex from the world’s HOTTEST brand expert … Paris Hilton!

OK, now that you’ve sprayed coffee all over your laptop and are recovering from that fit of laughter, please let me explain. It’s true, The Learning Annex has reported they’re offering Paris Hilton one Milllllllion dollars to teach a course in branding. You can read the entire article OR you can get the same chuckle I got from reading these snippets:

• “Now, others could learn something from the starlet.” …€” I think they’re using the term “starlet” rather loosely, don’t you?
• “For possibly the first time in her life, Paris is being asked to teach people to be just like her.” …€” This scares me … really.
• “The educational institute has offered Paris $1 million to teach budding entrepreneurs her secrets behind branding.” …€” Paris has SECRETS behind branding! … are you kidding me?!
• “… president Bill Zanker believes that the socialite is a perfect person to guide budding business owners.” …€” As opposed to, let’s see, maybe Tom Peters or Guy Kawasaki or Seth Godin … or even Bob Saget.
• “She’s a brilliant entrepreneur. “ …€” I’m speechless … I got nothin’ here.

I recognize my disdain for this idea is showing through in this post a bit beyond “tongue-in-cheek” but the thought of Paris Hilton being seen as a brilliant entrepreneur and holder of branding secrets is simply ridiculous…. … Paris’ primary vehicle to fame was her leaked sex tape…. Then came her big TV debut on “The Simple Life” which was nothing but a nation mocking her naivety and silver-spoon upbringing.

These forays don’t make for an ideal brand strategy formula by any stretch of the imagination!… A sound brand strategy will connect with people, similar to Paris, but the tactics will be well thought out, CONSCIOUS efforts … not a series of random fiascos.

Could it be that The Learning Annex is just tapping into this next round of Paris-gate?… Hmmmmmm…. If I’m wrong, maybe my next logical plan will be to get jiggy-wid-it on the Internet and evade multiple traffic violations. Yep, that sounds like a sure-fire path to business success!

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