Microsoft’s Dilemma

There was an interesting article in the June issue of Fast Company about Microsoft giving its $300 million consumer branding account to Crispin Porter.  The article does a good job of doing the following:

1. Highlighting the Problem:
Microsoft’s problem is not simple ad messaging.  It’s over extended the brand by trying to be all things to all people

2. Highlighting What Shift Needs to Occur:
Meaning Microsoft may have to do more than just make customers aware that it is a massive force behind much of the digital tools in their lives

3. Highlighting the Impact on the Customer:
What needs to happen is that Microsoft must make people willing – even eager to cede that much control to a single company

7 Things We Can Learn About Branding From the Mafia

The Guardian reports that when the letters of jailed Cosa Nostra boss Bernardo Provenzano were found they were full of insights into his leadership style. The 7 rules he applied to his business could be used as a how-to-manual on how to manage brands.

Rule 1: Submersion
When a company is failing, the first step is to take it below the radar. “Our aim was to make Cosa Nostra invisible, giving us time to regroup.”

Brand Implications
Sometimes specifying what a brand is not, is as important to the integrity of the brand as specifying what it is.

Rule 2: Mediation
“Be calm, clear, correct and consistent, turn any negative experiences to account, don’t dismiss everything people tell you, or believe everything you’re told. Always try to discover the truth before you speak, and remember that, to make your judgment, it’s never enough to have just one source of information.”

Brand Implications
When repositioning a brand different people with different interest will need to be consulted before a course of action can be taken. Understanding the implications of a new position must be measured, weighted and given the consideration to align numerous interest.

Rule 3: Consensus
“Let me know whatever [the people] need,” he wrote to his adviser, “they must expect nothing but good from us.”

Brand Implications
Part of rehabilitating a brand is to open the lines of communication with your consumers. Persuade people that they need you. JetBlue was successful at this when they listened to customer complaints and issued a passengers bill of rights. The CEO made himself accessible through social media channels and as a result JetBule enjoys the #1 customer satisfaction ranking among U.S. airlines despite their missteps.

Rule 4: Keep God on your side
Part of the Mafia’s bid to reclaim the people’s trust and rehabilitate Cosa Nostra with its traditional followers was to assume a mantle of piety.

Brand Implications
When reintroducing your brand present it in a pastoral role – trustworthy and authoritative. Part of winning consumer confidence is attaching your brand to a higher calling. Clorox is doing that with its GreenWorks brand and Haagen-Dazs is doing the same by calling attention to the importance of bees to the making of ice cream.

Rule 5: Be politically flexible
“Links were to be forged behind the scenes with politicians who had no trace of connection to scandal or sleaze.”

Brand Implications
Changing alliances gives brands the flexibility to grow. Nike recently launched an eco-friendly shoe, Jordan XX3 which required a new manufacturing process, materials and partners. The result is a change in business practice but not philosophy. Nike still delivers on the promise of performance and technology but now in an eco-friendly way.

Rule 6: Reinvention
“When I got out of prison,” Giuffrè recalled, “I found Provenzano a changed man; from the hitman he once was, now he showed signs of saintliness.”

Brand Implications
Once known for low prices and even lower worker wages, environmental issues has become a chief initiative of Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott, who laid out three environmental goals for the company: to be supplied 10 percent by renewable energy, to create zero waste; and to sell products that sustain not only company resources, but the environment. To achieve this, last month Wal-Mart formally introduced an environmentally minded packaging scorecard that evaluates suppliers based on the sustainability of their packaging and rates them against their competitors.

Rule 7: Modesty
During his career, Provenzano transformed himself from a hired thug, to business investor, political mastermind and, ultimately, strategist and leader. To emphasize his humble character and present himself as a simple man of the people he would write letters full of spelling and grammatical mistakes, and always signed off with the same humble apology: “I beg your forgiveness for the errors in my writing …”

Brand Implications
When a homemade commercial posted by a high school student for the ipod touch started getting major hits on Youtube, Apple executive bought the rights and aired it as an official Apple commercial. When you credit others for the success of your brand you engage people in ways that they seek you out, hence advancing your bottomline.

Reading in Fundamental

Over the past couple of months i’ve read the following books:

• Truth, Lies and Advertising : The Art of Account Planning (Jon Steel)
• Negotiation: Readings, Exercises, and Cases (Lewicki, Saunders, Minton and Barry)
• Career Warfare: 10 Rules for Building a Successful Personal Brand and Fighting to Keep It (David D’Alessandro)
• Path of Destruction: A Novel of the Old Republic (Star Wars: Darth Bane) (Drew Karpyshyn)
• The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists (Neil Strauss)
• The Devil’s Banker (Christopher Reich)
• Who Moved My Cheese? An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life (Johnson and Blanchard)

What’s interesting is that each of these books touch on some aspect of presenting one’s self to the public.

• The Game is about developing your personal brand to attract attention
• Truth and Lies is about reading other people’s brands because often what people say is not what they mean
• The Devil’s Banker is about concealing your personal brand to mask your underlying motive
• Who Moved My Cheese is about reinventing your personal brand and adapting to your surroundings
• Path of Destruction is about the process / discovery of understanding your brand and and creating niche for yourself
• Negotiations is about exercising your brand in various ways

As someone in the business of branding, the process of uncovering insights, developing a proposition and then presenting a brand to the world is not much different. At some point in time each of these books have given me a new perspective on launching a new brand or rethinking about how to present on old one.

Project Runway

The show Project Runway isn’t so removed from branding.  The process is the same. Create a theory, source the raw materials, build a prototype and test, test, test.  The best designers are those with a clear vision and a unique style that standout from the competition.

The winners in branding and fashion apply practicality, functionality and flexibility into their designs that each and everyone of us as potential consumers can see ourselves owning.

Classic 18th century meeting 70’s sheek, or 80’s punk 2.0 – the inspiration is endless.  If you have a few mindless minutes and you want to zone out feel free to click over to the bravo channel.

Apple Applies For Patent To Avoid Long Lines

What’s the shortest distance between two points — the iphone. This week Apple applied for a patent that would let iPhone owners bypass long lines by placing orders at coffee shops and other retail outlets right from their phone. They would then be alerted via their mobile device when their order is ready.

Apple is putting into practice the idea of branded utility where companies use technology to find ways to add meaningful value to consumers lives. Starbuck’s gave us a place to get online and hear new music and Yahoo answers our questions — hopefully Apple will allow us to cut long lines.

But even more importantly as a brand, Apple is pushing the boundaries of use for mobile e-commerce. If Apple wins the write to patent a wireless system by integrating with a store’s order processing system they will give us (the consumer) the convenience of online shopping in a physical space.

This would redefine the shopping experience for consumers, while increasing the brand value of companies that employ the technology like Starbucks or say McDonald’s.

Let’s hope for all our sakes this technology becomes a reality.