Back in December I posted an entry entitled, “What carbs can teach us about branding.” With the holiday feasts around the corner, I thought it would be good fun to walk through brand relationship strategies using snack isle brands as examples.
To briefly recap, businesses—for-profit and nonprofit alike—typically manage a family of products and programs, and the perceived relationships between those offerings and the “master” brand matters. That’s ultimately how credit and equity accrue in the right places.
With that in mind, snack isle mainstays Mars, Nabisco, Pepperidge Farms, and Entenmann’s provided a clear set of examples to help frame thinking around brand relationships, which exist on a continuum from product-focused to master brand-focused.
So what does this mean in the world of social media?
Social media provides marketers and brand stewards myriad new opportunities to engage those that matter most in meaningful, two-way dialogues. Some say the price you pay for this increased engagement is a loss of control. While you can’t control the conversations, you can work to control the brand context in which they take place.
Social media involves people just as much as programs and products. How you connect to and leverage the power of your people will play a huge role in your success online. And with brand diffusion a continuing threat, managing how your social media outposts are positioned verbally and visually is vital.
I’ve been MIA for a while. Getting a new EP recorded, CDs and vinyl pressed (one-sided white vinyl!), gigs and radio appearances booked, promo packages together– it’s a ton of work as you all know. But I think I’m coming out of the woods a bit and want to get some thoughts down on the exciting re-emergence of patronage via new, arts-focused, micro-funding platforms.
Perhaps best known as a driving force behind the European Renaissance, arts patronage has played a vital role in advancing culture for centuries. And beyond the visual arts, patronage has impacted the work of some of the greatest writers, scientists, and composers we’ve ever known. Nowadays, however, there’s a lot less in the way of direct-to-artist patronage. But since I’ve only taken one art history course, I’ll stop there and leave the history lesson to others.
It’s been a hectic fall. I attended my first Musicians for Music 2.0 meet-up, found my way to Music Hack Day Boston, tapped into some super smart brains on Twitter, started writing about what I was seeing and hearing, and read seemingly a dozen articles a day on the business of music for about 4 weeks straight.
And all the while I’ve been hard at work on the new Longwalls EP; recording, mixing, and wondering… wondering what the hell we were doing! Everything I was reading and hearing was having a real-time impact on what I thought about promotion, distribution, making “records,” managing a little label, and being in a band. It got pretty overwhelming at times and a fair amount of sleep was lost. But as I get ready to finally unplug for a week, I realize all the thinking has lead to a bit of clarity. Some things I’m thinking about heading into a new decade of music making…
With the holidays upon us it’s officially open season on carbohydrates. But instead of bemoaning inevitable holiday weight gain, let’s take a moment and see what our sugary friends in the snack isle can teach us about brand relationship strategies.
Most businesses manage a family of offerings, and the perceived relationship between those “sub” brands and the parent or “master” brand matters. From financial firms with multiple fund lineups to non-profit arts organizations in the performing, presenting, education, and retail businesses, a strategy for managing the relationships between parent and product brands—so that credit and equity accrue in the right places—is a must.
“It’s hard to get someone to understand something if their paycheck depends on them not understanding it.”
I’ve been thinking about that quote all week. I forget exactly where I heard it, but it’s been stuck in my head ever since last weekend’s Music Hack Day in Boston. The event brought hackers together from every corner of the globe to develop new music applications to advance the future of music. And amidst all the hacking, music’s future and past briefly clashed, making for some compelling moments during the Sunday afternoon panel discussions.
They sure do Mr. Gent. In fact, most of my favorite music is in some way “local.” From post-punk to punk-punk, new folk to new country, I by and large listen to music made by people that I in some way know– or that at least I might have the to chance to get to know. Sure I’m a bit spoiled living in Boston, and if you live in NYC or LA a whole lot of music is in some way “local.” But the point is this: for those out of touch with their local scenes, get in touch! Plugging in to your local scene is beneficial to you and your community–and the music is way better than you might think.
Use ‘Brand Judo’ to flip negative perceptions into memorable campaigns.
One of the all-time greatest examples of a brand turning lemons into lemonade may also be one of the first. Advertising aficionados will remember the 1960s Volkswagen Beetle campaign. As competing automakers built ever bigger cars for growing, post-World War II families, Volkswagen’s Beetle was seen as too small, too ugly and too German. The now-legendary campaign played up the small and ugly perceptions with headlines touting its status as a “lemon” and clever copy that then drove home the benefits of driving a small, German (rebranded as “well-made”) automobile.
For entrepreneurs and their communications staffs, this concept can apply to the management of their company’s brand. “Brand Judo” can be described as the practice of turning negative brand perceptions into positive ones. The practice of Brand Judo can help undermine your opponents’ marketing campaigns and insulate your brand from ongoing or potential attacks. Campaigns rooted in the practice of Brand Judo have the potential to be compelling, differentiating, fun and, best of all, sticky; they can help your message cut through the din. What’s more, in this age of transparency, you can’t afford to try to hide what’s real–big or small, warts and all–so don’t even try. What to do? Make the most of your inner lemon before someone else does.
Is the social media explosion a “big bang” that’s creating a whole new brand communications paradigm, or is it part of an ongoing evolution where focused brand-building principles are not only still relevant, but more important than ever?
The more things change…
Social media is indeed changing the ways though which brands can be built and expressed––and how they connect with, and influence, key constituencies. But successful brands have always been––and will continue to be––the ones that are understood and valued by their constituents, deliver on their promise, are differentiated in the competitive landscape, and are enthusiastically recommended by engaged brand advocates. No sea change here.
What’s evolving is the nature of brand discourse––from predominately one-way, out-bound organization-to-constituent monologues, to two- and three-way conversations among your organization and constituents, the latter often talking to each other beyond your hearing. This has significant implications around how your advocates proselytize, where you put your brand communication resources, and how you build trust and relationships.
