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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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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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!!

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Earlier this year I spoke at a MicroCreditNH event on the topic of brand strategy…. At the event, I met Mr. Craig D. Claus … a local home designer / architect…. Craig is the owner/operator of Parsons Hill Design…. This past Saturday, I ran into Craig again at the MicroCreditNH Entrepreneurial Exchange Day, and he let me know that the information he acquired at the last event motivated him to sit down with his wife and re-think his entire brand strategy.

Although they were not able to embrace one of the 12 archetypical emotions that we espouse, they were able to envision a new brand based on the concept of “Santa Claus”…. His question was, is it archetypical ENOUGH … at least for his target audience?… Our answer was a quick and hearty YES, YES, YES!… Call him what you want; Santa Claus, St. Nick, Kris Kringle, Father Christmas, Father Frost, Joulupukki, Père Noël, Sabdiklos, Sancte Claus, Sinter Klaas — the list goes on and on…. No matter where you live or what you call him, every society has a gift-giving, philanthropic, man of mystery, loved by millions…. Santa is indeed an archetypical idea…. Powerful and strikes at those emotional heart-strings!
So, what did Craig come up with?… Well, with a last name of “Claus” he had always avoided this kind of idea like the plague…. Now he embraces it fully…. Here’s the skinny;

• Parsons Hill Design will be transformed into “Reindeer Design”
• Their new logo is a cute reindeer graphic (very christmas cookie like in appearance)…. The logo type is a round serif font like you’d find in a classic Holiday greeting card.
• Their new tagline is “What’s on your wishlist?”

Despite the fact that Craig has decided to NOT take me up on my recommendation to grow a thick white beard (wink, wink), we all think his new approach to business is going to differentiate his services like he’s never seen…. Bravo Craig!!

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I wrote the title to this post as if there is some unseen battle being waged by your brand pitted against the “internal forces” that are out to undermine it on a daily basis. Yep, that’s exactly how I meant it. Jack Trout writes in a Forbes article this afternoon;

Building a brand is often easier than keeping it from being destroyed by internal forces.

… referring to financial decisions, market space considerations and any number of other very high level internal business processes that will chip away at the value of your core brand. Being unaware of these forces (and not taking appropriate measures) is a sure-fire path to brand death.
But what about the little things? What about those pesky details in business that don’t reeeaally seem like they’re brand related? Those can sometimes be more important than the decisions made from 30,000 feet! Let me give you an example;

This afternoon, I was speaking with the CEO of a new client who is just finishing up a rebranding process and is diving into their first major creative piece (their web site). Simultaneously, out of necessity, we were asked to design their new business cards right away. Their new brand is going to be tapping into the “Sage” archetype and, as such, their messaging will be all about; knowledge, expertise, information, wisdom, etc.

With their new cards, several employees asked why we didn’t design the cards with photos like their old ones. Our explanation was that personalized design elements, like photos, generally evoke emotions such as “unpretentious, easy to approach, easy to work with” (the Neighbor/Everyman archetype) or “warm and fuzzy, nurturing, high touch customer service” (the Caregiver archetype).

Although putting a photo on a business card doesn’t dramatically steer the company’s new brand strategy away from their chosen “Sage” idea, it does indicate that there may be a more fundamental problem … the employees don’t quite yet “get it”. For this client, we have not yet performed a company wide training program on what the new strategy is …€” but we will. But almost certainly, after we have this training, there will be certain employees who still don’t “get it” and will do (and say) things that are “off brand.” When this happens, it’s up to the true believers …€“ the brand evangelists …€“ to step in and set the wayward employee straight.

Do you know who your brand evangelists are in YOUR company? Are there employees in your company that will, by their words and actions, poison the brand well?

As part of your brand management process (yes, a process), you need to seek these folks out and reward those that are in tune with your corporate brand and adjust the thinking of those that aren’t singing from the same songsheet.

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It seems like I’m biased and have been picking on Coca Cola these days. Not true. Diet Coke is personally my favorite brand of soda. HOWEVER, if I’m going to compare two brand strategies I have to give the nod to my former fave …€” Pepsi.

The two cola giants are going head to head again this spring in the “healthy”, vitamin fortified cola space. Coke launched its new Diet Coke Plus while Pepsi will be pushing its new Tava. Which is “better”? Which will see more market success? Dunno. What I DO know is how I feel about their approach to brand development.

Brand guru Laura Ries commented a while back about the danger of “massive line extension.” Referring to all the variations of Miller Beer (Miller, Miller Genuine Draft, Miller Lite, Miller Regular, Miller Clear, Miller Reserve, Miller Toilet Water … OK, I made up that last one), Laura points out that line extension can dramatically dilute the core brand. Brand managers think that by keeping the company name attached to the new product it bolsters the core brand … not so.

Fast forward: Just a few days ago, Ms. Ries wrote again in her blog about the importance of naming. Pointing out that “Seattle’s Best Coffee” is more of a positioning statement and NOT a powerful brand name. When asked “what is the best coffee”, most people will come up with a powerful brand like Starbucks or Green Mountain. The importance of naming in brand development is critical! This is why we have an entire category dedicated to the process (check out those little links in the right hand column).

Considering all of this, which new brand NAME do you think we favor? Diet Coke Plus or Tava? I say BRAVO TAVA … it’s short, easy to remember, has brand legs, isn’t a line extension and (over time) could become a market leader.

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You’re driving down the highway and a mile up ahead on the other side of a tree you spot a small section of a sign…. The only thing you see is the side of a bright yellow curve…. You immediately pull over for lunch because you’re 100% sure you just found a McDonald’s restaurant. Did you need more brand input than that?… Nope.

Here’s a similar story (possibly urban legend); It’s told that the design of the curvy Coke bottle was based on the shape of a Cocoa bean but was created so that, even when the bottle is dropped and broken into small pieces, it’s still recognizable as a coke bottle.

Seth Godin calls this Brand DNA …€” while describing his experiences of hearing two notes of a Steely Dan song or seeing just the edge of a New Yorker magazine.

A Business Times article from Malaysia refers to the LACK of this type of brand reenforcement in the world of property developers…. Pillani Pillai, a Singapore brand strategist, says that it’s “typical for a property development firm to launch 5-7 properties at a time with NO consistency in naming”…. Conversely, Kaufman and Broad homes, here in the U.S. does create strong name and style brand consistency. For instance, when buying a home in California there is almost immediate recognition that you’re driving by a K&B development when you see just the entrance sign to the neighborhood or the roof line of one of the houses.
Is your brand strategy powerfully consistent? Do you have brand DNA?… How quick will people pick up on your unique offerings?…

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A quick review of our traffic analytics shows a user of StumleUpon gratiously tagged our blog as worthy of review. As a way of saying “thanks for visiting” we’d like to give you a free special report. Called “Go Nuts in 2007″, we invite you to read about our view of the power and potential of brand strategy. This is a “must read” if you’re a business owner who is struggling with the marketing of your products/services.

To get the free special report, click here! Again, thanks for stumbling and feel free to browse our site!

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“The Show”, put on by all organizations, is sometime great! Seth describes how the show put on by the airlines is a bit thread bare. As a private pilot, I can’t claim to know everything, but I can assure you there are facts in his post that are true — and obvious, even to the most uninformed layperson. Sooooo, why do the airlines keep playing this game of charades? Because they haven’t (yet) been fully compelled to change the story or to improve “the show.”

Which leads me to the point of this post. WHAT IF you had a few exceptional employees who improved your show by breaking your rules and introduced a level of authenticity that kicked your old story to the curb? Would you allow it? Would you try to squash it like a green bug? Or, would you embrace it and encourage it?

On a flight last year I was witness to this. The crew was early to the airport and ended up waiting in the boarding area with the rest of us. They mingled, they laughed, they were friendly. NOT the usual stuffy, walk in packs, nose up with an air of superiority, “I’m better than you” kind of flight crew… if you’ve seen this, you know what I mean.

When we boarded the plane we all knew it was going to be a fun flight. By the time the crew got to the safety presentation, hilarity ensued. The unwitting attendant at the front of coach found (one at a time, of course):

• Her oxygen mask had a beanie baby in it
• When she put the mask on to demonstrate its use, the pilot used the intercom to do a Darth Vader deep breathing impersonation
• The lap belt was impossibly tied in knots
• When the safety card was opened, it revealed a big, pasted-on picture of Brad Pitt

The flight continued …

• As we taxied to the runway, the pilot informed us that we could only get the plane going fast enough if we all applauded the flight crew … Louder … LOUDER
• On landing, as we touched down, the pilot announced over the intercom “Whoa big fella, whoooooa”
• And dozens of other little touches that let us know they enjoyed what they do, they’re real people and they appreciate our business

Upon reading this post, I’m sure the attorneys at Southwest Airlines will have a coronary. Come on, if you don’t know how to operate a lap belt you really shouldn’t be out in public. Showing a group of busy business people a piece of cardboard will not somehow make things safer in the event of a crash landing.

I’m sure we could all collect a number of stories like this that have changed our experience. The question is how can this type of thinking be incorporated into a (lawyer approved) corporate psychology. That’s a tough request. The easiest first step for you is to find these story changers in your own organization and let them teach the rest of your people.

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