Conformity or Not?

Now let's repeat the non-conformists' oath:

I promise to be different! (repeat)

I promise to be unique! (repeat)

I promise not to repeat things other people/write say! (repeat)

Good!

-Steve Martin

I find so many people want what others have. I get requests "Make me a video like that one." - What they don't understand in life is that what makes us or our business special, is being unique. - Making the choice to blend in means you don't have faith in your concept or business. Success isn't about safety. - If what I create for you looks like what everyone else has, you don't get recognized. However safe it makes you feel to have what everyone else has, its death in advertising and business.

One of the most important things you do in business is getting the word out why you are different from your competition. The only thing higher on the list is your value proposition.

When it comes to faith, look at Jesus. He was never safe. Regardless of what some of my friends believe, Jesus was a radical of the highest order (and a salesman). But, we've dumbed down our faith to conforming and the status quo.

Its the same for anything else. Life, love, business, or your faith. We need to be radically on the edge in everything we do if we want to make a dent in the universe.

I probably need to learn more of that too.

The Value of Social Media

Twitter? LinkedIn? Facebook? MySpace?

Social networks remind us that between 83-87% of all goods and services are sold via the old fashioned method of social networking. Even if there were no Internet, what we do know is that the bulk of sales for any business happen because of a relationship or more importantly in the world of branding: a perceived relationship. 

Brand.Relationships are about emotion - that same warm and fuzzy feeling that happens when you have a valued friend. A well run branding campaign generates the same emotional feelings with the customer. A good brand should feel like a valued friend.

The advertising community is twittering about the fact that Ashton Kutcher was the first to reach  million friends on Twitter. They are filled with Twitter envy and are trying to grapple with one important thing. Aston did this entire stunt without paying an advertising agency. Ouch!

Social networking is at the heart of selling products and services - not advertising. Advertising is cold, impersonal, flashy and usually lack substance. Branding is about a relationships - in a very real sense Brand.Relationships are not about what the customer knows, but who the customer knows.

Do your customers know your brand?

What General Motors can learn from Jack Northrop

Many years ago I had the privilege of working with GM’s new interim chairman, Kent Kresa. Sure, I know the guy probably doesn’t remember me, but that won’t stop me from telling the world that both of us share a connection – we both worked at the company started by aviation pioneer, Jack Northrop.

General Motors has stumbled in many ways. However, since marketing brands is our business, we’ll stick to GMs use – or misuse – of advertising. GM has poured tens of millions of dollars into advertising; advertising that does nothing to sell cars and trucks. As we like to ask, “If advertising is so great, then why don’t advertising agencies advertise?”

GM has a great product. My father had GM cars, I had GM cars, my son had a GM car. They are solid and outlast any other brand. GM vehicles are a great value for the money. Yet, their advertising is failing to sell a great product. Therein is the problem: advertising rarely sells products.

One of Jack Northrop’s strengths was building a genuine atmosphere of family with his employees and customers. Funny, that is how most companies are built and sustained. When customers feel an authentic relationship with the product they tend to talk about the product to their friends. More than 87% of products are sold by word of mouth and relationships. I remember being at Northrop and the Division General Manager, Bruce James, knew just about all two thousand of us by name. That carried over into the relationship with the customer.

General Motors has lost the connection with the customer. The brand is dead, or soon will be if the management and marketing team does not dump traditional advertising and go back to the foundations that build brands – relationship marketing; they need to use the same methods of building authentic Brand.Relationships® we encourage our customers to use.

General Motors needs to build the team and family atmosphere internally. It is not just a job; it is a family affair. Jack Northrop knew that his employees from management to contracts to engineering to manufacturing were his strongest assets. The attitude must then naturally extend to the marketing. 

When you care about a product, you’ll likely go to bat for the product. You tell your friends. Basic stuff. GM needs to leverage their satisfied customers. Not in traditional, sappy TV spots and print ads, but in new and innovate ways. (You want to know how? That is why you hire us. I’m not going to give away the store.) Branding is, after all, managed word-of-mouth – and what we do better than anyone else. And, It gets results.

What the Advertising World Can Learn from Ansel Adams

Many years ago a friend of mine decided to take a photographic walking tour during her visit to Yosemite National Park. Armed with her instamatic camera she began snapping photos as the tour guide pointed out scenic photo opportunities. Not long after the tour began her camera jammed. An older gentleman stopped to help her and fixed her camera. Unfortunately, the tour group had gone on far ahead of them. So, the older gentleman spent the remaining portion of the day with her, showing her the sites and helping her take photos.

The following day, my friend decides to visit the one-hour photo shop at Yosemite to get her pictures developed. Meanwhile, she decided to check the gift shop and began looking at coffee table books of Yosemite. She picked up one amazing pictorial display book by Ansel Adams and thumbed through the pages. Then, finally turning the back page over it revealed a picture of the photographer. To her surprise the man in the photo was the same man that helped her on the trail; for one afternoon, she had been tutored in photography by the great Ansel Adams.

She later explained to me that, “Those were the best pictures my instamatic camera ever took.” --- Cameras do not take pictures. Photographers take pictures. The camera is just the tool. An instamatic camera in the hands of a great master can create great works of art. An expensive camera in the hands of another less able person can create really bad pictures.

The buzz in the advertising industry seems to be about different platforms. What about cel phone delivered advertising? How should we handle advertising over the Internet? Angst over what should be done with all emerging platforms is rampant. What should we do?

Their concern should be more about content and message --- less about platform. The ad business continues to crank out advertising with messages that do not attract attention. The message about that brand does not have a hook that engages the viewer and leave them remembering the value proposition that ultimately leads to a sale.

Ansel Adams just needed an opportunity – an instamatic camera – to take a picture. His message was solid, regardless of the tools he used: a lesson to be learned. Keep it simple, with a message that grabs the customer and leaves them remembering why that message is critical to them and leads them to a purchase.

Hagel for President? Not Unreasonable.

Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel has been attracting attention as a potential candidate for the presidency of the United States. Hagel is a moderate Republican from the Heartland and his Nebraska bred values are reflected in his politics. Nebraska is famous for a great football team and its one-house, non-partisan legislature. In this heavily red state (no pun intended), it is not common for a Democrat to seek and win office. Other well known Nebraskans are former Republican Governor and very effective Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns as well as Democrats: former Governor and Senator Robert Kerry and current US Senator Ben Nelson. This pragmatic state is home to rural agriculture, insurance, and one of America's richest men, Warren Buffet who still lives in the same home he had when he started business in Omaha. Nebraskans are more apt to elect the best person for the office and not fall hard along party lines.

Hagel could end up as a serious contender as an independent candidate for president. We've had some serious discussions with our moderate Democratic friends in the media industry. There are strong feelings from reasonable Democrats and Republicans that are tired of the arguing from the far sides of both parties; we all want to get back to a civil system in which positive discussion over issues leads to results and not self-serving political results. If anyone can pull it off, Hagel will be the one.

The surface problem with Senator Hagel is that extreme conservatives (and even some moderates) have painted him as soft on war and even questioned his loyalty as a Republican when he challenges the president. This criticism is easily stripped away when his positions are examined. Chuck Hagel is thoughtful, not afraid to confront an issue, and make the appropriate choice based on the right thing to do and not party loyalty. With the memory of the passing of Gerald R. Ford fresh in our memory, it is hard not to make a comparison. Hagel is intellectually honest, respected by many on both sides of the isle. The Nebraska Senator and Vietnam vet probably stands the best chance of uniting the country, winning or bringing the most positive conclusion the war, and setting our country on the best possible course.

Of course, we always try to introduce our media and advertising spin to the blog. This is really our biggest concern. We're rather sure that Bush isn't stupid, but his on-camera public presentations are laughable. Certainly, President Clinton is glib, but lacked the same ability to gain the confidence of the American people and not come off as an infomercial host. We've been longing for a president that can inspire the country with a Reaganesque flare. – Hagel needs to inspire the American voters while the Republicans and Democrats are sparring. Hagel's soft-spoken bull-dog like persona must be transformed into inspirational speaker and cheerleader for America. If we were his campaign director we would be ordering a full compliment of VHS tapes from the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California and start Chuck studying the master of communication, himself.

Here are the things that need to be done as Hagel "brands himself" for president. We have experience at this, we did the advertising work for one independent Nebraska candidate and "freaked out" the Republicans so much, they sent an adviser from Des Moines, Iowa in an attempt to fix the problem – our candidate was up in the poles and attracting voters at a cost of about $.50 (fifty cents!) per vote versus the Republican's more than $15+ per vote. In fact, toward the end of the election the Republican candidate wanted to jump ship from his advertising agency and hire us. Then again, we get paid on results and not a fee for service. We may be small, but we get results for national clients.

The objectives should be:

• Voters must understand at least 3 key factors that differentiate Hagel from the Republican or Democratic candidate.
  
• Voters need to clearly understand why voting for Hagel is important to them as a citizen.
  
• Any and all advertising should be genuine, testimonials by people that tell his story for him. It is just more credible. Not his mother! If I see one more warm and fuzzy commercial with a politician hugging the kids and playing with the dog, I'll vomit. It is contrived.
• He has to make personal and genuine connections with voters, much like we do for our clients in the music industry.
  
• Don't use social networking and myspace unless genuine contact can be made with users.
  
• Use weekly, on-line chats with Chuck and encourage a personal blog that doesn't look managed.
  
• We need to repeat this because advertising agencies are clueless. The message has to be created from the perspective of the voter. It is not who he is, but what he means to the individual voter.
  
• No attack ads, even to answer false accusations.
• Grassroots! Word of mouth is the least expensive. Personally, I would never waste a dime on broadcast advertising. It does not get good results for the cost. In fact, we eliminate broadcast for most of our clients and boost their sales as much as 800%. There are much more effective methods.
  

Hagel's Blogspot Space
Hagel's Congressional Web Site