GETTING THE MESSAGE - Part I

Traditionally ad and marketing companies are retained to create positive images and messages that are then pasted over the top of whatever product a company is trying to sell. That is known as branding. A favorable representation, a facade, an illusion, a feeling….. call it what you will, it has very little to do with a company and, often, only a tentative relationship with a product. It has nothing to do with operational and organizational development of the business whatsoever so there is no need for it to be complete, accurate or even true. Imagine talking the same approach towards your accounting functions. Actually don’t imagine it. There are lots of great examples of financial branding, the best of which is Enron. The question isn’t why branding has become so much less effective in recent years, but why it lasted as long as it did?

People Don’t Change!

No they don’t, but the circumstances in which they continue to behave with total predictability do. There are social and cultural changes underway that are changing consumer behavior and undermining the power of the brand. The first of these is the psyche of the American consumer. Dating back to the birth of true consumerism in the 50’s, the public has been generally trusting of big companies and willing to believe the representations that they make about their products and themselves. Well let’s just think of that as the age of corporate unaccountability. Not all companies behaved irresponsibly but, if financially motivated to do so, they did and with impunity. Also, when those same companies represented job security, decent pay for hard work, a health safety net and a solid pension, nobody asked too many questions.

I won't run down the list of events that have been exposed and have eroded this sense of confidence, but multiple, high profile scandals have reinforced the notion that corporations are in business to benefit a very small number of wealthy stakeholders at the expense of employees and the general public. People have stopped trusting business and this is bad news for branding.

And Now Ladies and Gentlemen,

may I bring you the INTERNET. Reasonably skeptical consumers can gather information about a company that would, previously, not been of interest or even available. How do you treat your employees…. BIFF! What’s your safety record like…..BANG!. What’s your record on waste disposal and child labor…..WHAK! Executive pay scales, pending litigation, fair trade, sustainability…….. Ouch! That hurts and that’s before you even get into peer generated product reviews and social networking.

And One More Thing....

I am starting to feel like a bully but there really is one more thing. There is a significant shift in the values and preferences of today’s consumers, and these are being expressed in the choices they are making. Emerging values center on a bunch of intangible qualities like awareness, independence, individualism and sustainability. How the hell do you brand to those people. They actually pride themselves on being brand resistant. That’s called “awareness” and it's a problem. Where are all those nice people who just wanted to look rich and have stuff get bigger? The point is that things are changing. Not all over the country and not at warp speed but a new generation of values coming down the pike. It’s not a trend or a fad and its not going away because it's being driven by very real economic and social considerations like the cost of gas and the fact that Del Mar is falling into the ocean. This shift is going to continue until it represents the dominant cultural code that drives behavior across our whole lives. That is huge.

So What Now?

There is an answer – of course there is and I am going to call it

Conscious Consumer Engagement...... It's the next big thing, Seriously!

Tune in to Getting the Message – Part II for more on that.

Branding Only Works on Cattle

Jonathan Salem Baskin is the author of the book "Branding Only Works on Cattle." He is scheduled to speak at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco in October which is how I came across him.

This is pretty gripping stuff from a strategic copy writing and values messaging perspective. It actually starts a conversation with the elephant that has been working its way towards the center of the room for some time. If patience was my virtue, I would be anxiously anticipating the arrival of said book but it's all just too exciting and, having read an overview of the book, I am going to extrapolate with my own perspective on this subject.

Branding is a collection of fairly established practices and methodologies that were born with the consumer age and then formalized into the ad, PR and marketing industries. The incorporation and departmentalization of the knowledge at the heart of these industries created, somewhat paradoxically, a structure that is too rigid to respond to the constantly shifting landscape of consumer behavior, values and preferences. Until recently, the decline in the relevance of branding has been gradual because the cultural change that precipitates it has also been gradual. Styles and trends have changed, as they do, but the basic tenants of consumer behavior have stayed very much the same for the last several decades.

So something is definitely up. From my spot in San Francisco I can actually see and feel things shifting and changing around me. It's very exciting and makes me think that I am at the center of something very important that will change our lives in ways we have only just started to imagine. That sounds rather lofty and inaccessible but, in a way, that is what business is dealing with in the shape of the new, conscious consumer. These people simply aren't responding to all the good old tricks, so what has really changed?

The Consumer - Ummmm....No. People don't change, unless you are talking about tracts of time that take us back to the reptilian state. We still do whatever we can to project strength and superiority to our peers. Now we do this through the way we consume. The ego is alive and well and the driver of all discretionary spending. Eckhart Tolle is definitely on the case but he as a ways to go.

The Economy - I would hate to rule it out. There is quite simply a lot less money around so people are putting more thought into how they spend. Either they REALLY need it, or they REALLY want it. The thing is, if you're not on the really needed list then you better be on the really wanted list or you're history.

Cultural Codes/Values - Gotcha! This is really where it's at. People still want to feel good and look good but, by today's standards, a Prius is better looking than a Mercedes Benz. Status markers point to how conscientious, global, sustainable and aware you are rather than to how wealthy and successful you are. Purchasing has become experiential and consumers want to be engaged emotionally and feel that they have a relationship with a brand that reflects their own personal values. That is a significant shift and the basis of the argument that branding has had its day.

So has it? Of course not. When you ditched your bell bottoms I doubt that you gave up completely on the idea of wearing trousers. Branding is like anything else. It will always be a component of business but it will have to change to remain relevant and contextual. Its not dead but it is having a life changing experience. Its being turned inside out and upside down. It can no longer be a message created in isolation of the entity that creates the product that it represents. You can't slap it over the top of a corporation like too much makeup on an ugly woman. Branding has to go inside and tap into an authentic component of the values that represent the company. If those values aren't there, or aren't consistent with the values of the consumers, then the work must be done to address that before effective branding can be achieved. Branding is going to be more about the character of the corporation and how compelling and engaging the voice of that character can be. It's going to have to be respectful and tell the truth because consumers are smart and have a lot of information at their fingertips. They will check and woe be the brand with the great curb appeal and the garbage piled high in the back yard.

Amazingly gifted strategic copy writers enter stage left. This goes back to an earlier post where I talked about the huge, upcoming demand for talented strategic thinkers who understand the macro business picture and can steer a company towards the articulation of an authentic and compelling voice. It's a somewhat unique, hybrid skill set that is going to be prized and, hopefully, richly rewarded moving forward.

Check out
http://tickets.commonwealthclub.org/auto_choose_ga.asp?area=2
for information on the event and come and say hi to me if you make it.

Winning WORDs

I was recently invited to a dinner party where I had the pleasure of spending the evening with a fellow word junkie. He told us about something called Mensa New Word Definitions.

Without further ado, here are a few of the highlights:

MENSA New Word Definitions

The Washington Post's Mensa Invitational asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition.

Here are this year's winners. None of them get through spellcheck.

Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.

Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, infortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.

Foreploy: Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid.

Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period.

Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.

Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.

Karmageddon: It's like, when everybody is sending off these bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer.

And the pick of the literature:

Ignoranus: A person who's both stupid and an asshole.

Linguistication

Linguistication. You wont find this one in the Oxford, or any other English dictionary. It's a made up word that means to make up a word by combining parts of existing words..... Ha! And yes, I made it up. Its a hybrid created by combining the words lingua - Latin (now the Spanish 'lengua') word for language and the word mastication which means to chew up.

I find that there are times when things combine to create something new and there is no word, or no word that I know of, to describe it. An old favorite is hydroquesting. This means to attempt to gain the attention of the bus boy carrying the water jug while keeping your eyes on the person you are having a conversation with and avoiding the appearance of being completely distracted. We have all been there and it seemed like something that should have a name. Now, in my small world, it does.

Linguistication is pretty common among writers of all descriptions from literature to sitcom. The Andy Griffith had some great ones. Barney was a master linguisticator. Executizing and therapized stand out for me.

My hope is that you will have some lingistications of your own to share and I look forward to receiving them.

Tag - You're It

Tag lines are one of my favorite things to work on. Discovering and capturing the essence of a company and condensing it into 2 or 3 worlds is a fascinating process. If you get it right, you start to receive these amazing phone calls from clients who want to tell you about how their tag line gave them a fresh perspective on some challenge in their business or just helped them get through a tough day. I live for that sh..! A great example is a project that I did for a super gal here in San Francisco. She has a moving company that handles relocation's of large estates and unique homes, aka, folks with lots of money. Her name is Breeze

Moving sucks! Everybody knows that and for most of us it's really just a matter of shunting our Pottery Barn and Ikea collections from one place to another. Art installations and master closet remodels have never featured in my own moving experiences but they show up on a daily basis for Breeze. I get stressed out just thinking about it.

I spent some time working with her to understand how she felt about her business and the experience that she wanted to give to her clients. We came up with a new tag line... "Moving Gracefully". It spoke to the aspirations of her clients as well as how she navigates her way through all the crazy logistics that she has to deal with. She loves it and called me one day to tell me how about how she repeats it to herself when stuff goes wrong and stress starts to ramps up. I love that her tag line is a tool that she uses to improve her own experience of running her business. Thats what a really good message should do.

My tag line is "Find Your Voice" Thats what I help my clients do and it's what I try to do every day in my own life. Its my mantra - whats yours?

Tell the Truth

Consumers are looking behind the face of your brand and checking out the quality of your corporate character using information now available to them on the internet. So will that happy meal make them happy or give them diabetes and should they "Just do it" in tennies put together by small children with bleeding fingers?

There are a lot of moving parts here but lets keep the focus on the consumers. Thats me and you. We are getting to be a pretty sophisticated bunch and we're pissed. Smoke is literally coming out of our ears after being lied to for years by big tobacco but what did we expect from those guys. More recently and far worse are the grand deceptions perpetrated on us little guys by big business and the government. They have left many of us minus a secure retirement, likely minus a home and certainly getting nasty looks from the locals on most of our overseas vacations. As a result, we are suspicious and unwilling to be lead into more strife just because we believed what we were told.

We are using the internet to research consumption options and peer to peer forums such as social network sites to gather feedback on our choices. We want to hear what you have to say but we're not taking your word for it any more. Companies need to project clear, compelling and most importantly, authentic messages to engage us as customers.

These messages should be the basis of your positioning and the foundation of your brand. Remember that consumers are looking for an emotional connection as part of the buying experience. If your not the cheapest option (and if your not Walmart then your probably not) then you better be the one providing the greatest feeling of connection and shared values to your customers.

You are going to need more than a great writer to help you get to the heart of the matter and articulate these messages. You need a good listener and a strong conceptual thinker who can translate the essence of what you are into a voice that will connect you to your customers. This is beyond branding and positioning. Your real product here is a set of respectable values and a straight talking approach to your customers. It's what we're all in the market for and we'll deal with the mark up to get it.

WHO DOES THAT?

I left a career in strategy consulting to become a freelance writer..... who does that? On first glance it might appear that I gave myself a demotion or developed the type of delicate constitution that abhors the rough and tumble world of business. Not so! I believe that the ability to craft authentic, compelling and articulate copy that allows companies to respond to the shifting interpretation of value within today's marketplace is going to be one of the most sought after skills in business. Actually, I think it's going to be the next generation of change management to sweep through the corridors of corporate America. "Times they are a changin" notes Bob with his unfailing ability to clearly point out the obvious. So while consumers, you and me, remain the same and basically respond to a set of cultural codes that drive our behavior across multiple areas of our lives...... those codes have shifted and what is emerging is a new set of values that we want to be associated with through the way we consume. Check out my article on "The Conscious Consumer" to get a closer look at whats changing and what companies need to do to engage these folks.