The BIG Kahuna

Today is an exciting day for me. One of our client’s American Profit Recovery just started to get passionate about what they do. A few months back we designed their collection agency?blog and trained them on how to use. Not much happened. Then I gave them a bit of the BIG Kahuna’s mind…I was, let’s just say forthright.

Together with our PR guy they started to blog regularly, passionately and with good content. This is their post today…a YOUTUBE VIDEO! I feel like a proud blog parent.

Good job guys, be yourself and have fun. Keep showing how you are the only DIFFERENT collection agency out there!

Gosh there is just something so un-American about taking from those who have become financially successful and giving it to those who haven’t. I just can’t get by it.

Just curious to see what people thought about the Obama infomercial? Did it help leverage his brand identity of change? Was it over the top? Did it hurt him? Give me your opinion.

I wanted to send out a BIG Kahuna thank you to Drew McLellan and Gavin?Heaton?for putting together the Age of Conversation 2. First and foremost these guys didn’t see a red cent from this. And they had to listen to a lot of whining I’m sure.

Here’s where you can buy the book

All the profits go to Variety, the Children’s Charity.

Sometimes you just have to stand back and say holy shite! While I was on YouTube searching around I came across a video made specifically for me (sort of). I was VERY afraid. Check it out:

Attention: Agent Scott at Brand Identity Guru Dot-Com

My first thought was, wow, I can’t believe this company CiSense made a video for me. And they never told me about it, I was supposed to just find it….very cool.? Read about the campaign they set up here:

Secret Missions for the Blogosphere

I’m now bummed that they didn’t send me the secret letter? I wonder why?

Anyway, what a great idea to get people motivated to check out your new company and service.

The service looks really interesting I’m going to read more about it but the strategy and creative was way cool. Kudos to CiSense!

Boston, MA, October 28, 2008 –?We’re part of a unique collaboration via the Internet, involving 237 marketing professionals who blog from 29 states throughout the U.S. and from 14 other nations from Australia to the Ukraine. Scott White, of Boston, joined online with other bloggers to write The Age of Conversation 2, a book that is being published this month. All proceeds from sales of the book, available in hardcover and soft cover editions, as well as a downloadable e-book, will be donated to Variety, the international children?s charity.

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Scott White is the ?BIG Kahuna? at Brand Identity Guru. He writes a blog called The BIG Kahuna (http://www.brandidentityguru.com/wordpress).

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The book has an unusual story behind it, involving online connections between people around the world who have never met each other.

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White contributed an essay titled Vanilla Is, Well?Vanilla, which asks ?Why do 90% of companies try and be everything to everyone? Do you think it benefits you to be part of the ?norm?? Blending in only shows how weak you are, standing apart shows why you?re different and better. Which club do you belong to??

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?Blogging has become a new way for professionals to share and discuss ideas,? White said. ?Collaborating on a book about conversation is a perfect way to share among ourselves and among others who don?t read blogs. And we have the added incentive of helping a charity that does important work around the world. I am thrilled to be a part of this project.?

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Nearly two years ago through a chance online conversation, Drew McLellan and Gavin Heaton decided to invite fellow bloggers to participate in writing a book about conversation and how it impacts us in marketing, in business and in life in general. ?Blogging, after all, is about conversation,? McLellan said.

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More than 100 bloggers from the U.S. and eight countries responded by contributing essays on conversation. The book, published in the summer of 2007, earned $15,000, all of which was donated to the international childrens charity Variety.

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?Gavin and I were overwhelmed with the response,? said McLellan ?Almost as soon as the first book was published, we heard from bloggers asking when the next book would be published so they could contribute essays.?

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The Age of Conversation 2 will be available as a downloadable e-book beginning October 28, at a cost of $12.50, of which $10 will be contributed to Variety. Beginning on the same date, orders will be taken for a limited number of printed books in hardcover ($29.95, with $6.04 to charity) and soft cover ($19.95, with $8.02 donated to charity).

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Purchases can be made online at http://stores.lulu.com/ageofconversation. ?More information can be seen online at www.ageofconversation.com.

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Well I’m finally freakin’ published. Thank God it’s only one page from me and 237 of my friends. That’s right a book from the leading branding, marketing, advertising, word of mouth marketing and social media types. Each of us got to write one essay, of course mine will stand out because I’m sure 90% of the authors wrote about social media and word of mouth….because that’s hot.

Not me! I wrote about the most important thing any company can do…. Build a brand identity. Here’s a snippet from my essay:

Why do 90% of companies try and be everything to everyone? Do you think it benefits you to be part of the ?norm?? Blending in only shows how weak you are, standing apart shows why you?re different and better. Which club do you belong to?

Then of course I go on to give?my BIG Kahuna wisdom. The book, The Age of Conversation: Why Don?t They Get It??goes on sale today, October 28, 2008. You can get the book?in three ways? an ebook, hardcover, and softcover.

We only have a few days left for your much needed votes (voting ends Oct 31st). Press the VOTE FOR ME button.

We are the only true branding agency in this competition as far as I know. So support us please.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, now is the time to be smart with your branding and budget. But sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words…Tom Fishburne says it well here:

Tom goes on to say:

We’re all going to feel pressure to cut, cut, cut but I think it’s even more important than ever to be thoughtful about what needs to be trimmed (and remember not to spoil what needs to grow).? The best barbecue is cooked slow. Read the full story here.

I’d go even further and say let your competitors cut while you invest more. Now is the time to be aggressive in your branding, marketing and advertising. Just be smart about it and invest in tactics that will generate good return on investment.

You know that carpenter that neglects fixing up his house? That’s been us, sadly, and for way too long. We’ve had this website Branding Agency since 2002. Sure, we still get compliments on it because it stands out but times have changed, we’ve changed.

The new site will incorporate social media, word of mouth marketing, public relations, social networking/forum and a few other surprises.

So look for a new branding?blog and corporate?website?design in the next month or two. We hope! At least we finally have the concept down…It’s time to retire “Brand Operation”.

Yea, laugh all you want but I’ve loved the Saw movie series. The original Saw was mostly an underground movement that did extremely well. Hence Saw’s 2-5.? I’m not going to bore you with writing a movie review because this is a branding blog. All I’ll say is that if you want a movie series brand to continue you have to be creative in your approach.

The newest Saw is basically a repeat of Saw’s 2-4. And they’ve killed off the villian and inserted someone (a new brand) we have no connection with. If there is going to be a Saw 6 they better figure a way to bring back the bad guy we loved so much. But he’s dead….or is he?

But alas, Saw has run its course and in one word, dead. I will miss you Saw!

For many years we’ve been telling our clients and anyone that would listen that your branding touches everything, all the time. I’ve been screaming at clients on their internal policies and procedures. If you set up policies and procedures that work against your brand identity you’re basically shooting yourself in the head. Here’s a great example of that from? George Silverman:

From a recent Hilton email:

.. But Time is Running Out

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We don’t want to lose you as a valued member. Please act by June 01, 2008 to keep your HHonors account open. If no activity is recorded by that time, the remaining point balance will be forfeited and your account will be closed. Prior to your account closing, you may redeem your points for any eligible reward. For a complete listing of HHonors rewards,

To which I replied:

If you really don?t want to lose a valuable member, don?t apply this pressure. Just keep the account open and don?t hit me with arbitrary requirements.

Read the full story here.

Hilton, change your antiquated policies and procedures or people like George and I will help spread the word…

When you build a brand identity you need to consider the future. Strong brands can?lower their price by making a less expensive product. Take for instance Mercedes. They make super high-end luxury cars and they also sell the?C-Class for $33,000.

In this case the average Joe can afford the luxury of a Mercedes.

Now let’s talk about selling up with a different brand identity. Hyundai is known for their affordable, dependable, long?warranty cars. They typically sell for below $19,000. ?Now they’re marketing a new car called?”Genesis“. They are selling this car for $42,000. That’s not a typo, Hyundai is selling a $42,000 car!

If you read the specs the car sounds awesome….but it’s still a freakin Hyundai. See the difference? Easy to say you’re driving a $33,000 Mercedes, harder to say you have a $42,000 Hyundai.

What do you think? Say the Hyundai is faster, safer and a more comfortable ride. If you could have either of these cars, free of charge which would you take?

Martin Bishop wrote a great article on Ringo Starr. Basically Ringo has told his fans to get lost? That’s right, he wants no more contact.

Here’s some of?what Ringo had to say:

“This is a serious message to everybody watching my update. Peace and love. Peace and love. I want to tell you after the 20th of October please do not send fan mail to any address you have. Nothing will be signed after the 20th of October. If that is the date on the envelope, it’s gonna be tossed. I’m warning you with peace and love I have too much to do. So no more fan mail. Thank you, thank you. And no objects to be signed. Nothing. Anyway, peace and love, peace and love.”

You can read the entire story here.

Watch it here

I guess if you just want things to end telling your fans to get lost will do the trick. Martin brings up the analogy that if your company decides to start using social media (blogs, networks etc.) you’d better be careful what you wish for.? Good idea.

Why? The average Joe (pardon the pun) who regularly visits Dunkin’s is not going to Starbucks for coffee. I see these as completely different target markets. Am I off? Can someone explain it to me? Seems like a ton of advertising cash is going to this campaign?

Wouldn’t Dunkin be better served targeting the average Joe the plumber?

We are coming down to the wire. The voting ends at the end of?October, so please give us your vote today. Just press the big green button that says Vote For Me. You can vote once a day.

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Taken from Adfreak by David Gianatasio :

BzzAgent is yammering on about word-of-mouth ROI again, issuing a new report called “Calculating Your Communication Dividend.” Players in this space devise new “formulas” or “metrics” every few months, but the “dividend” is always the same: They get some play in the media. The numbers, buzzwords (bzzwords?) and pseudo-scientific mumbo-jumbo make my head spin. BzzAgent now claims that the “profit” on an eight-minute brand conversation is 38 cents.

Excuse me, an eight-minute brand conversation!?? How can these BzzAgents possibly keep verbal exchanges going that long? Agent: “Nike makes good sneakers.” Human being: “Yup.” End of conversation! Who is going to hang in for more? I’m sure the WOM crowd would claim I’ve misunderstood the whole concept, but that just reinforces my point. If these guys can’t effectively communicate their basic raison d’?tre, how can they compel tipsy bar patrons to switch mixers or try the salted peanuts? That’s my two cents on the subject. At the very least, it’s worth what you paid.

I can’t agree more. Never mind the fact that in my opinion people sign up for BzzAgent only to get FREE STUFF. Then they very possibly?report bogus information. How is this tied to the branding of the companies that use BzzAgent?

It’s been a while since I wrote on my continuing series of “When Naming Goes Bad” but here ya go, branding at its finest:

Manjunk

From the Manjunk website:

Developed by a man for men, Man Junk is a combination of world-class ingredients and relentless attention to detail. Any product that’s made to clean your neck, back, buttocks or legs isn’t going to provide the specific levels of odor fighting and skin treatment that Man Junk does.

I had no idea my personal Manjunk reeked that bad? All these years of using the same soap to wash my entire body? What was I thinking? I need this product like I need a 5th blade on my razor.

Here’s a better more appropriate name for this product:

MANJOKE

Shel Israel wrote an interesting article on measuring influence versus popularity.? You can read it here.

A couple of snippets:

But numerical totals actually tell you extremely little about influence. People could be coming because they hate what you are saying and want to keep an eye on the opposing side.

That’s true, I do that all the time. So all the visits to Andy Sernovitz, Seth Godin and Brains on Fire are really meaningless from a popularity perspective. They hold no influence.

He goes on to say:

Let’s do a reverse example. Suppose I were a political blogger and I had an audience of just three followers. Those followers were very engaged because they read everything I posted. They commented often. They took what I said and quoted me to other people in other conversations. But there were only three of them. Therefore I would be ranked lower than chopped liver in all the ranking systems. The catch is that those three readers were the President of the US, and the heads of China and Russia.

Interesting point, those three followers are pretty powerful. Of course as a blog owner we have no control who reads?our content. The trick is to stay on brand and deliver content targeted to the right readers. I would imagine you’ll weed out the non interested readers. It’s the same old song and dance…develop your brand identity, live it, love it and be passionate.

So why the headline? Testing Shel’s theory (read his article to learn more).

Remember to vote for us!

And here’s why…branding

Apple’s products don’t have brand image problems like Microsoft’s?Vista. So no matter what Crispin, Porter + Bogusky does it won’t matter because it’s just advertising. And even if they win every award in the freakin world if the product sucks, or service is bad, or internal policies at Microsoft are misaligned guess what…

Now Apple’s new ads are killer:

1. The new ad where they say why don’t you call it Vista anymore? Why is it just Microsoft? Apple is killing Microsoft. They are manhandling them.

2. There’s a pile of cash and the Mac guy says…why don’t you fix Vista versus spending all your money on ads? Brilliant.

No amount of advertising is going to make people buy a crappy product…go get em Apple!