What a brilliantly simple and elegant idea that Seth Godin as proposed! … an important part of understanding your brand is to know who is the opposite of you. Some examples:

• The opposite of Starbucks is Dunkin’ Donuts
• The opposite of an iPhone is a plain-Jane-Motorola
• The opposite of Rush Limbaugh is Al Franken

… you get the idea.

Like all things in the universe where you approach understanding, there is always opposites (good/evil, dark/light, yin/yang, etc.), so it makes sense that every brand needs to understand it’s opposite. As Seth points out, your brand’s opposite already exists, but it MAY not be understood by you and all your people may not agree on what it is.

This will now be a new part of our brand definition process. Can you describe your brand’s opposite?

It doesn’t get any better than this … simplicity leading to a deep understanding. Thanks Seth!

Go Ahead, Socialize ...

It seems that a few of my esteemed brand colleagues are a bit beyond fed up with lousy branding in the world of automobile dealerships. Here are the opinions of some of the Branding Wire Crew; Drew Mclellan, Martin Jelsema, Olivier Blanchard , Steve Woodruff, Valeria Maltoni, Becky Carroll, Patrick Schaber, Lewis Green … and now here’s my spin:

Let me preface my piece with a little bit about my background. In my former life, prior to starting my brand agency, I was employed at a national health and safety company that catered to (get this) automobile dealerships. Over the course of almost a decade I had visited and provided ongoing services to several hundred car dealers. I think I’ve seen or heard everything that can possibly happen in a dealership and some of the stories I have would curl your hair! Let’s just say there’s a reason for all those rumors and the stigma’s are not baseless. However, there are some really great companies out there who are trying to break out of the stereotypes and I commend them for their efforts. Sadly, they’re stuck in an industry with some horrific brand problems.

I’ll keep my comment(s) short with a suggestion for a field trip.

Try this; First go to a typical auto dealer franchise where price negotiation is part of the process and try to get a good deal on a vehicle. Any line will do … Ford, Chevy, Toyota, your choice. THEN go to a Saturn dealership. I’m not saying that Saturn is a better car or that they offer more value. For this exercise, these issues are irrelevant. The only comment I’m making is that they’ve removed the pain of barter-friction from their sales process. Ask anyone who has ever bought a Saturn and you’ll get a completely different view of their brand experience to any other franchise. This is a BIG DEAL! The most important and critical concept for creating great brand is knowing that you’re connecting with people. Miss that and you’re doomed.

Yes, there’s more to industry-wide bad branding than this one topic of price bartering …€” let’s not forget; bad advertising, hard selling, shady ethics, confrontational attitudes, poor creatives, and LOUDNESS… the list goes on and on.

A trip of a thousand miles begins with a single step. I look forward to a handful of dealerships (or whole franchises) that take Saturn’s lead and break out of the bad-dealership-brand mold.

Full disclosure: Until 18 months ago, when I bought a new GMC Envoy, my two previous cars were Saturns. My next car will also likely be a Saturn … yes, because of the experience in dealing with their courteous dealership staff during; the sales process, routine maintenance, roadside assistance, etc. You’ve just gotta love brand-based purchasing decisions!

Go Ahead, Socialize ...

Well, if you’ve been reading this for any period of time, you’ll know it’s not just a logo and a tagline.

Consider these other aspects:

• Shapes
• Color
• Smell

Does your brand include these?

Go Ahead, Socialize ...

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?

Go Ahead, Socialize ...

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?!

Go Ahead, Socialize ...

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!

Go Ahead, Socialize ...

As I was driving across the State last week I saw, in less than two hours, no fewer than 10 different out-of-state license plates…. [Side comment; Yes, It’s wonderful to live in a place where so many other people come for their vacations!]

Most of these stood out simply because they were different … I hadn’t seen them in a while, if at all…. I then saw a plate that really made me sit up and think about the marketing and brand strategy that goes into a State’s license plate design. If you consider how important travel and tourism is to most states, this can be a HUGE fiscal issue directly tied to a brand effort.
Each state has vanity plates and commemorative plates and special occasion plates and veteran plates and handicapped plates, etc., etc…. For the sake of this post, I’m only going to focus on the default plate design …€” the one people will see the most. After a little online research, here’s my assessment…. Let’s start from the bottom up.

MOST BORING: Some State’s just don’t get it. There are 10-15 plates that fall into this category but I’d have to give the nod to my home State of Michigan…. Yawn.

WELL BRANDED: The largest category is of States who have thought about their own brand and identity and are graphically conveying who they are…. Some good examples are Georgia (the peach) and Colorado (the Rocky Mountains). A few states have even turned their plates into artistic masterpieces…. Mississippi, for example, has a beautiful presentation.

GREAT MARKETING:… Only two States, that I could find, have taken their plate design into the world of integrated marketing…. By creating web sites and then taking the opportunity of tens of millions of “plate views” daily, Pennsylvania and Florida win the prize for best marketers…. Interestingly, Pennsylvania has apparently scrapped their old “keystone” graphic from days gone by, sacrificing the brand element for a simpler design and the use of a generic government URL.

THE WINNER: Because of it’s design simplicity, brand ties to the orange producing industry and an integrated marketing initiative …€“ driving traffic to a great domain like “MyFlorida.com” …€“ the grand prize goes to Florida!!

Go Ahead, Socialize ...