Kerouac's Brand Gap.

This month marks the 50th anniversary of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road being published. I think about poor old Jack from time to time. Not the super cool, burning to live, image of him, but the sad, lonely alcoholic who died at 47 while still living with his mother. After Road was published; the fame that it brought became a monster that devoured him. Why? Maybe he just couldn’t manage his brand. He is credited for being the avatar of the beat generation, but I would argue that he didn’t create that persona.

A section of US culture felt a great void that 50’s Americana simply could not fill. America’s subconscious created the figure without a name or face. Jack brought both and filled the need along with his rude, whiplash tenderness, prose. He played a part he didn’t create. He coined the term beatnik, but it was Allen Ginsberg who put the name out there. I contend that without Allen, the beats would have never been seen as a literary movement. The thing with Allen though, is he was far too counter-culture to fill the icon role that Jack did. I think it could be said that a communist, Jewish, homosexual, pothead may even be too counter-culture for today’s mass consumption.

The brand gap? The role he filled was the archetypical cool, rugged indifference. When you actually read his work however, what you see is a deeply sensitive, perhaps frightened, wildly excitable man. In the end, I think it may have been that difference that came with his fame that wounded him the most. At the time, the world wanted one so badly that they refused to see the other.

Build Your Brand on Leadership

Today I read Tom Peters' post "The Decent Thing to Do Is the Smart Thing to Do" and it occurs to me that while this is a no-brainer, we see so many people - and companies - out there that just don't get it. Tom's point is that leadership (which I loosely define as "demonstrating love for others") makes good business sense. (If you're one of those unfortunate non-leaders that thinks "love" and "business" shouldn't be in the same sentence, you should stop reading now.)

We were taught as small children to be kind to others. To share. To help a friend. To treat others with respect. To love others. We were taught the Golden Rule, "Do unto others as you would have done unto you." We were taught leadership from the beginning. (Thank you, Mom & Dad.)

Think about those people you gravitate to. Think about the best "managers" you've had in your life. Did you like them every day? Probably not. Did you respect them every day? Probably so. I used to love and hate going to jazz band practice. Mr. Warnke pushed us so hard - he expected so much of us. Oh I would get mad at him! But we didn't want to let him down - because we had such respect for him - so we did the best that we could and as it turned out, we exceeded our own expectations. I don't know that I could explain how my respect for Mr. Warnke came about, but I do remember him showing us his heart on many occasions, whether it was seeing him light up when a student blossomed or hearing his voice crack when he shared with our band that his son's puppy had died. Mr. Warnke led with his heart. And we were arguably one of the best bands in the state, winning contest after contest.

I'm sure everyone has a similar story and I would be willing to bet that many of those stories are about a manager (actually, leader) at work. Peters shares a quote from Boyd Clarke, "I have always believed that the purpose of the corporation is to be a blessing to its employees." (Download peters_ramble.pdf) This is, to me, the ultimate measure of a company. Do you feel blessed to work for your company? In today's world, a company that doesn't add value to its employees is certain to fail. The quickest way to add value? Employ leaders. Grow leaders. Get rid of those who aren't leaders.
 
Is the point then to have a joyful company full of employees who feel blessed? Kind of. The point is actually the bottom line. Leadership in an organization bears fruit: efficiency, loyalty, innovation, service, productivity...more customers, satisfied customers, loyal customers. To have a brand that embraces leadership at every level is to have a dominant brand.

By the way, I recently attended a celebration in our state's capital, where my hometown band marched in the parade. As I cheered with the rest of the crowd, here came the Miller Rustlers marching band, with Mr. Warnke marching with them, beside them. Though I hadn't seen him for over 12 years, I stood and waved and called out to him. Upon seeing me, he came over and gave me a hug. Mr. Warnke still leads with his heart.

How to Manage Your Wood

Are you “focus on the task” person or do you think big-picture? I’m a task person, and only recently had an “ah ha” moment that made me realize I need to think before I act.

Here’s the simple story: Along with being the Director of Business Development for BKG, I am also a part owner of a now defunct nightclub and restaurant. At the beginning of the summer we decided to build a deck outside to attract an after-work crowd. So we built the deck, which I paid for ($2,000). The deck was built in two days and literally thirty days later we closed the bar. So I hired someone to take the deck apart so I could re-use the lumber for a deck at my house. Once the deck was disassembled, I loaded all the wood on a trailer and hauled it to my house where I unloaded it in a huge pile. The contractor who is going to build my deck came to my house to give me a bid and told me I needed to separate the wood by size so he can see what he has to work with. So I separated all the wood into separate piles by size.

Mistake 1) If I had been thinking big-picture instead of just being set on accomplishing a task I would have realized that a deck was not going to save the nightclub and restaurant. Mistake 2) When I hauled all the wood to my house I should have stacked it in piles as I unloaded it from the trailer; instead of trying to accomplish the task of just getting it off the trailer and putting it all in one big pile.

This is also, until recently, how I approached my position at BKG. I have the job of getting new business in the door. I would sit at my desk and call and e-mail as many potential clients as I could, trying to get them to pay attention to us. Really all I was doing was moving around that pile of wood. I decided to take a step back and rethink my sales process. I wrote down a lot of questions. Two that kept coming back to me are: When contacting these potential clients was I really providing value? Was I really giving them a reason to do business with us? The answer is “NO.” I need to provide value first which in turn will give them a reason to work with us. I need to be a thinker first (provide value) and a doer second (reason to do business with us) and stop playing with my wood so much!

Bat Boy, an obituary

Prophesize the ruin of the blessed Wall Street Journal under Rupert Murdoch, if you want. I write this obituary to mark the passing of a cult-rated standard of true brand-genius: Weekly World News, “The World's Only Reliable Newspaper,” will depart the sphere of dead-tree media with its 27 August issue. Saggy circulation (the tabloid’s, not mine) has killed my career-dream of writing truly ridiculous bullshit for its own sake.

For 28 years, this absurd little chronicle has delivered Nothing But the Truth on the world’s fattest alien babies, wicked deeds of dead celebrities, and Saddam Hussein’s secret heartbreak. But the discovery and continuing exploits of a particular animal-human amalgam gave this grocery store tabloid its most brilliant headlines and best-selling covers. And when WWN editor Dick Kulpa hit us with the chiropteran child named Bat Boy, a pop-idol of a different face entered our shared consciousness.

Bat Boy Bites Santa Claus! Bat Boy Leads Cops on Three State Chase! Bat Boy Endorses Gore! (And after graduating from a small liberal arts college in upstate New York,) Bat Boy Announces Run for California Governorship!

America’s Favorite Hybrid was everywhere. In an acclaimed off-Broadway musical. On stage in London’s West End. In a weekly cartoon detailing the life and times of the fanged grotesque after he resigned from the office of President of the United States (I’m not touching this one!). And, my fav-o, on the big screen in Terry Gilliam’s Twelve Monkeys.

“Elusive and reclusive, where he will pop up next is anybody's guess.” Don’t worry, American Media tells us, you can still read all about Bat Boy on-line! He Lives!

But those hours in the grocery store queue just won't be the same.

DVR Owners and Political Communications

I was catching up on reading last week's issue of PR Week when I was surprised by the results of a poll by The Benenson Strategy Group. The firm works with many Democratic candidates, the DCCC, the DSCC, the AFL-CIO and corporate clients like Verizon and Proctor & Gamble. The firm's principal, Joel Benenson, lead the internal polling for Clinton-Gore in 1996.

From what I can gather, the survey was commissioned by MSHC Partners, a direct mail and Internet advertising firm that works with Democratic candidates like Sen. Hillary Clinton, Sen. Chris Dodd and groups like NARAL, the Sierra Club and even the South Dakota Democratic Party.

The survey sampled 1,128 registered and unregistered voters both with and without DVR's to understand their habits and what it means for political campaigns. No surprise with a couple of the numbers.

• 60 percent of ads on recorded television are skipped by DVR users
• 50 percent of programming on TV is viewed in recorded form by DVR users

However, these next numbers left me a bit perplexed.

• 44 percent of DVR owners say TV ads are their most important source of political news
• 46 percent of non-DVR users say TV ads are their most important source of political news

Isn't that a tad bizarre? Sixty percent of DVR users say they aren't watching the ads, but they still use those ads as their main source of political news?

Since the survey was commissioned by a firm with a vested interest in the outcome, I question what this really means. MSHC has a lot to gain by convincing poltical candidates that direct mail and Internet is the way to go.

"What we found in this study is that this new technology does have an
impact on how voters get their information and while television still
remains the most influential source of information, as DVR ownership grows
it will become less efficient," said Hal Malchow, president of MSHC
Partners. "Cable television, with its hundreds of channels has also made it
increasingly difficult to reach the entire electorate, compared to the days
of dominance by three major networks. Between DVRs and cable television,
political ads are losing their punch."

Thoughts anyone?

It's All A Mystery

"I don't know where the sun beams end and the star
Lights begin it's all a mystery."

Thank you, Flaming Lips, for reminding me that the magic in life, and yes, in this business, is something a lot of us may never understand.

Couple days ago I was listening to "Fight Test," the opening track from Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, and this lyric just blew me away. Go back and read it -- or buy the album -- and think about it.

So this post is dedicated to my friends here, here, here and here who spend a lot of their time somewhere between sun beams and starlight.

Despite all the process, spread sheets, time lines and meetings, we can't always know where the magic comes from, we can't always control it. Which is why it's so precious.

Just as beautiful, by the way, is the second half of the chorus:

"And I don't know how a man decides what right for his
Own life - it's all a mystery."

Do you agree?

The Way We See It

Starbucks is kind of blowing my mind these days.

To many they represent everything that's wrong with coffee: a cookie-cutter corporate cabal co-opting the cool culture of the coffee klatch.

To others, they're role models for business.

Now come a few reasons for both parties to hope -- along with a few that could turn both of them off.

First the downside: Starbuck's bizarre embrace of Paul McCartney as the first artist to sign with the company's Hear Music -- part of a division called "Starbucks Entertainment."

For me, this is just weird -- and validates a post critical of Sir Paul I'd actually grown to regret writing. It's another brick in a position that may attract some boomers but feed the revulsion of critics --  an example of what CEO Howard Schultz finally expressed in his much-circulated memo bemoaning the "commoditization" of the Starbucks experience.

"I take full responsibility myself, but we desperately need to look into the mirror and realize it's time to get back to the core and make the changes necessary to evoke the heritage, the tradition, and the passion that we all have for the true Starbucks experience."

Along with the strange brand extensions, the hyper-streamlining of the brand experience  (drive-throughs, automated espresso machines that block customers' sight lines, prepackaged beans, tables made intentionally uncomfortable to promote turnover -- some of which Schultz acknowledged) seems further evidence the company has lost its way -- not to mention its soul.

Here are two reasons Starbucks might be getting it back -- and both are examples of letting stakeholders control the company's message.

One's been in our face for a while: the "Way I See It" bits of customer philosophizing printed on to-go cups. One recently knocked me out of my seat:

Darwinism’s impact on traditional social values has not been as benign as its advocates would like us to believe. Despite the efforts of its modern defenders to distance themselves from its baleful social consequences, Darwinism’s connection with eugenics, abortion and racism is a matter of historical record. And the record is not pretty.

-- Dr. Jonathan Wells
Biologist and author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Darwinism and Intelligent Design.

This is freaking nuts -- when have you ever read the words "abortion," "eugenics" and "racism" printed on a mainstream company's product!? That takes guts It says "If it's thought-provoking, we're willing to embrace whatever is on your mind, even though it makes us uncomfortable."

That, friends, is social media. A two-way conversation between the company and its stakeholders. It's about the way you and I see it, not the way corporate lackeys do. And it just so happens to be a great marketing tool, too.

By itself, provocative quotations on a zillion cups might not be enough for some critics. Maybe this is:

News that the company is going to release a CD of music written and performed by Starbucks Baristas. The blog "Starbucks Gossip" reports that "Off the Clock Vol. 1: New Music from Up & Coming Starbucks Artists" will be available in stores across the US and Canada tomorrow. 

To understand how huge this is, consider this: when I was a partner (yes, back in the glory days as a struggling young writer, before the advent of the cursed frappucino), Starbucks was actively shutting out both individuality (by making people cover up unusual piercings) and community (by refusing to let people post fliers in the stores).

To the extent they're actively letting you, me and employees back into the brand, that's a good sign -- because everybody wins. And if that's good enough for Starbucks, that ought to be good enough for you, too.

David Car5on Gets His A55 Kicked

David Carson, one of the high priests of the design world's cult of personality, rose to fame at a time when you could get away with being a prima-donna (the pre-Internet 90s).

Comes now this tasty bit of irony from Be a Design Group that represents an object lesson both for people in the business and for marketers who aren't clear how times have changed: even though Carson helped spur a design revolution that inspired both print and interactive artists, and even though he's hitched his wagon to new media, it's a revoluton in new media that may knock the icon off his pedestal: the pitfalls of social media, or Web 2.0.

[Art by Nate Voss for Be A Design Group, March, 2007 ]

I thought this was brilliant. Of course the comic pretty much speaks for itself. Yes,there are two sides to every story; I'm less interested in Carson's POV than I am what this comic represents: the shift of power from the fat cats to us peons. Check out the post by artist Nate Voss, which gives him -- and me -- cathartic bit of vindication. The comments are hilarious.

Thanks to Nate for persmission posting his comic.

Social Video 101

We've tagged social video as "one of the important drivers for the next major growth in brand advertising." But where's the magic? Why are so many carefully targeted, big-money entries in the genre DOA, while shiny bits of DIY genius signifying not much of anything barge into our social consciousness and take up residence?

LA-based Feed Company answers these and other troubling questions of our time in Social Video 101, A Primer. A must-read for viral aspirants with paychecks. 

Life Comes At You Fast, Indeed!

Well, filing this one under the Culture heading might be abusing the point, but Yo! You have to give Fed-X points for having the gonads to laugh at himself. Will it score the hits that Britney's latest photo spread (yes, that spread) garnered? Enquiring minds want to know!

Viral Capacity: Just released this afternoon, Kevin Federline's new spot for Nationwide has already received 900 hits.