The reading of the bumper stickers has commenced!

Why is it, after what CNN calls a “vigorous Debate of the issues”, I am left feeling like I just watched 2 guys read me bumper stickers for an hour and a half, and then they turn it over to the talking heads on CNN et al to debate what they just read me?

Will someone please tell me something without the B.S. Tell me a plan, how much they plan on it costing, how long it should take, how they are going to implement it.

For crying out loud. At least try to run this country somewhat seriously. OR at lest admit they have no clue. That there is just too much of a cumbersome system in place for them to possibly have all the information and they have no clue how to fix it. Then I could at least respect them.

Try to act like a CEO of the largest corporation in the world and LOOK like you have a plan and stop talking out of the side of your mouth! And, damn it, I don’t care if you were insulted by some uneducated wonk in the back of the convention or at some rally who shouted mean things. That went out in grade school. You’re a big boy running for a big office, get used to it.

Anyone?

The commoditization of Branding.

I went to a new networking group last night that a friend of mine is trying to start. It’s called the “OC Tweetup”. It’s for local people who use twitter for social networking in order that we can all get to know each other personally.

A few of us got to talking about how branding is seemingly becoming something that small businesses seem to view as a commodity. Something that should be auctioned off to the lowest bidder for service that is “good enough” because they feel they can’t afford to do it properly. Or, is it that, in a world of “I want it faster” and “I want it cheaper”, we, as a whole, have come to expect the best for very little money?

One of my colleagues suggested the next part of the lifecycle of graphic design is automated design. Where you go to a web site, answer some questions, and the computer does it for you. This sounds cool from a programming perspective. But, what about true branding by traditional, accepted processes? Could the “survey” be made to incorporate enough to understand the real target audience of the new product? Do we rely on what the new business owner thinks his customers want in a brand communication?

With many industries seeming to fall into the whirlpool-like spiral of price competition, where customer service is the first thing to be sacrificed, is it possible that the proper branding of a company or product is falling victim to the trend?

Or, is it that we just don’t expect people to pay attention for very long? So we want to create something fast, for as little money as possible, see if it takes off like a rocket and becomes the trend of the moment, make millions, and get out just as fast. And, if that doesn’t happen, at least there wasn’t a large outlay upfront on development and marketing.

It seems I see small businesses popping up all over. Whether it be a new yogurt shop, restaurant, or trendy gift shop. And, before I get a chance to go check them out, they are gone and the building is vacant.

Is this the new American Dream? Try to get rich quick, and get out quicker, but not invest anything trying? Or am I all wet?

You can do your own P.R. for FREE!!

You can do your own P.R. for free!

This is what I keep hearing. I’ve run into several marketing “consultants” of late that have bee pushing the idea that, with the current state of the internet being what it is with social media and blogging, you can do your own public relations and social networking for free. And, when it comes to traditional P.R., the same goes for that as well.

I’m here to tell you that , YES, YOU CAN!! Absolutely, you can do it for no cost out of your pocket.

That is, of course, as long as you consider time to be free when running your own company.

It takes nothing but time to write a press release and send it out via the internet, or to a publication via e-mail. And, it takes nothing but time to call each publication individually and make sure they received it. Of course, since they don’t know you, they will not take your call or return it. So, you’ll have to call them several times in order to get ahold of them.

This is what my friend Gregg at Quantum Leaders likes to call the “Mechanistic Approach”.

I, of course, prefer an approach that will actually get results.

People who are good at P.R. have spent years developing their relationships with publications. The best ones know all the editors and reporters personally and have met them at various functions, sat with them at dinners, and most likely, even worked with them as they were once journalists themselves. Sometimes, they even went to school together. So, when one of them calls the other, or e-mails, they are very likely to get a response.

Further, they are very familiar with how to write a press release in order to give the editors what they want; and, they know what will spark their interest as news and not just fluff that will never get printed.

The same goes for social networking on line. The best people have developed relationships with other social networkers and know how to push your blog or story to the top of the list on the most important web sites. Even they meet and network in person.

So, sure, you can do your own P.R. I can even teach you how if you want. But, just as I know I don’t understand the tax code and am better off hiring a CPA to save me money in the long run, I don’t think forgoing an expert for your marketing is the best solution.

How to stay organized!

If you are a small-mid-sized company that cannot afford to buy your own servers, host your own web site, and manage all your data internally, plus hire your own IT department, I have a great solution for you.

I’ve been using a corporate extranet to help my business partner and I stay organized.

If you have contacts you need to share; a calendar you need to keep track of for yourself, partners, and the company as a whole, and even clients; and you need a place to share large files amongst several people, whether across the room or across the globe, this will save you allot of headaches.

Whether you are a graphic designer, an architect, a non-profit, or just a real estate office, this will really help you save time.

You can even set up client accounts and manage their access.

Check it out!

It’s your own fault! Ok, and mine too!

Is any one Politician really any better for us than any other? Is any one likely to really bring about change? I mean, real change?

Our system is set up to make change slow. Some argue this is bad. Maybe it’s good. I don’t claim to know. Sure, it frustrates me too when government makes a seemingly simple decision so complicated. But, who knows. Knee-jerk reactions aren’t good either.

We in America like to blame people. We like to blame the latest person in office for the state of the economy. Is it Bush’s Fault, or was it Cinton before that? Will Obama fix it or is McCain more likely to?

I say neither.

It’s our own fault. All of us.

Many people seem to want to demonize politicians as liars or crooks. I think, in reality, they all are just trying to work through a really complex system the best way they can. It’s become so unwieldy, that it’s impossible to stay on top of everything. We have helped make it that complex. And, we want to hear them blame someone. So, that’s what they do. Find someone to blame.

When housing goes up 300% (give or take, depending where you live) over 3 decades and real income doesn’t even come close, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that eventually something has to give.

My father bought a house in 1985 for $30,000. He made $40,000.

A few years ago, in California, you would have had to make about $750,000 a year just to maintain that same income to debt ratio.

When I buy a house, and watch it go up in value so high that I can’t even afford to sell it and buy the same sized house across town because of the property tax increase, I don’t have to be a financial guru at some large firm in Manhattan to figure out the market is about to do something really unfavorable.

We, as a group, buy the houses at falsely inflated rates because we get sucked into the frenzy of “they are going to disappear and we will never buy one”.

Sure, you can blame the republicans for deregulation of large lending firms. Sure, you can blame Clinton for the setting up of our current global economy causing wages to decrease and jobs to go offshore.

But, when it comes right down to it. We are the ones buying into all this garbage. We vote for the laws that make it more difficult to manufacture here AND compete on price. We tell a company they have to abide by stricter labor laws and environmental laws and then go buy cheap crap made in third-world countries where the laws are looser.

And, we, as a group, buy houses we cannot afford and finance them 120%.

It’s all our fault. Everyone’s.

(this is just my 2 cents. Worth only about half a penny in today’s economy)

Criticism is a good thing!

With all the blogworld information lingering in my mind, another subject I wanted to cover was the fear that most major companies tend to feel regarding criticism of their product, service, or the company in general.

The general idea has always been that they wanted to “push” out information that was positive, in order to perpetuate and mange their reputation in a positive manner.

The world of social networking and blogging is changing all that. Companies (and individuals where they are their own brand) need to embrace negative comments on blogs and social networks as an opportunity for a discussion. And, an opportunity to win friends by fixing the dissatisfaction.

When you genuinely care and want to help dissatisfied customers (remember customer service?), you change a negative impression to a positive one.

A recent article on The Washington Post web site by Zachary A. Goldfarb validates this approach.

They also list a couple other things companies can do to use social networking and blogging to their advantage in developing their brand as one that genuinely cares for it’s customers:
- Harness your audience to do the work for you
- You are what you publish
- Digital brand-building should be thought of as a one-to-one engagement
- To develop your brand online, you need to live, eat and breathe interactive strategy

Please read this well written articleRather than re-state what Mr. Goldfarb wrote, I’ll just let you read his article. It’s not anything new, but it is well stated!

Is it customer service, or marketing?

I just got home from a weekend with fellow bloggers, marketing people, and social networking junkies at Blog World. On the ride home, I got to thinking quite a bit. The main point that resonated with me came from a session I was in with a panel of people from companies such as Dell, Kodak, Facebook, and Comcast.

Companies that really get what social networking and blogging are about, have also understood that, in today’s world, they need to go the extra mile in staying in contact with their customers. And, although it can be a battle at first, innovators within these companies have risen up to get involved. These company evangelists have fought the fears of their corporate CEO’s and legal departments and changed the way these companies look at PR, Marketing, and their customer service. They understand that the lines have blurred and all of these are important to defining their brand.

There are a few great examples of this that I found to be noteworthy.
Dell’s Blog is one.
Kodak’s Blog is another that the photographer in me appreciates

And, one I found truly innovative was how the gentleman from Comcast is using social networking to search for and answer negative comments about his company. Turning potentially negative “press” into company evangelists.

These people get it. But, so many do not. In order for companies to stand apart from their competition in the future, they will need to incorporate a social networking and blogging aspect to their marketing. Branding is no longer as simple as graphic design. It isn’t a one-way approach where a company can push material out to the world and expect it to resonate. Companies need to be transparent in their interaction with their customer and the consumer market in general.

It’s no longer enough to say you care about customers. A company has to be genuine about it and prove it. Getting involved in blogging and social networking is one way to start.

I want to Blog more. Really, I do!!

So, I find myself sitting at Blog World Expo (excuse me BWE08) this weekend. I’m surrounded by people who make their living blogging, either independently, as consultants, or as employees of major organizations like CISCO, HP, and even a wine distributor.

As part owner of a company that espouses the benefits of blogging and social media, and someone who has frequented social networking sites for over 4 years, I find myself feeling woefully inadequate next to these people.

Where do these people find the time to maintain their own blog, blog for their company, their clients, etc. If size matters, I have blog envy.

I’m a case of the shoemakers kids have no shoes. I spend so much time working, finding work, doing work for clients, I never get to my own blog.  Where do these people find the energy? I’d blame it on age, but, that can’t be it. Some of these people are older than me.

I’m not nearly as cool as these people.

Besides. I can’t focus long enough to type so much. Maybe I just need to tweet more.

The Commoditization of Branding

Recently, I have been noticing a trend on the internet that has me a little concerned. I like to call it the commoditization of branding. I’m not sure if it is in response to the idea that people who run companies just see graphic design and the entire process of branding a company as a necessary evil and want it as cheaply as possible; or if it is because anyone with software can now call themselves a designer and has started to offer their services so cheaply that people uneducated in proper marketing and branding practices simply can’t resist the price.

Whatever it is. It does a huge disservice to the company being “branded” as well as the number of marketing professionals who have spent allot of time and money going to school for such fields as Marketing and Graphic Design.

There is a reason why Universities have spent years developing programs that teach an individual to understand the need for proper market research and what to do with the results of that research. There are reasons why students of the field spend several years learning this, as well as how to understand the human psyche, why people buy what they buy, and how to create an advertising campaign around the results of such learning.

There is also a reason why graphic design students spend years learning color theory, good use of fonts, what effects certain font styles have on people, how colors relate to messaging, and what the difference between good and bad design is. Then, there is the whole education process that goes into learning how to design something that actually prints well or is usable for embroidery. Not every cool design translates into a good printed piece. And there are ways to make something look just as nice and cost less to produce.

Good branding involves all of these things. Branding isn’t simply going to a web site that acts as a place for people calling themselves designers to use a company’s brand as a contest. It isn’t just about a company picking the coolest looking design out of 20 choices because the owner or CEO happens to like it. There have been several times in my career where the owner liked a logo or branding look, but his potential clients didn’t relate to it and the company ended up choosing what resonated with their target audience.

We, as branding professionals owe it to our clients to, at the very least, explain to them what the proper process is and why they need to consider it. If they then choose to go about it as cheaply as possible, then that is their decision. However, we should remind them that the same reason they drive a high-end automobile and wear good-quality clothing is exactly why they shouldn’t skimp when it comes to investing in the image and the future of their company.

What is branding anyway?

Recently, I’ve been having discussions with clients, business associates, some of my friends and mentors about “Branding”.

It struck me. There are so many misconceptions out there regarding what “Branding” means. So many people think it is their company or product logo. It isn’t. It’s more than that.

I used to describe it to people as “All of your marketing material related to your company and your product”. Your colors, brochures, packaging, trade show materials (even the booth), even your “uniform” or the way you dress can become part of your brand. Further, the way you answer your phone could be considered part of your brand if you decide to add your tag line or slogan (a client of mine answers the phone with the company name and the slogan..”EMJ, making a material difference“)

But, recently, through discussing it with the above mentioned people, my partner and I decided the better way to describe it is “Your Reputation”. It is everything you do to represent your company. It is the message you put out there. Are you a trustworthy corporation? Do you have a reputable product, but also what is your reputation in the world?

An example of this is found in the fast food industry. Recent years have found health-conscious consumers becoming more aware of the hazards of eating too much of the wrong foods. Therefore, corporations were finding themselves, and their brand, being judged by a different set of criteria. It was no longer just about taste or value, but how responsible these corporations were to their consumers by offering them healthy alternatives. Those who didn’t step up to meet the challenge were at risk of being viewed by some as not caring about the consumer or their health. (Some may not have worried about it, maybe they want to be known for being “Bad”, that is another discussion all together).

We are starting to see the same things now with how responsible a corporation is to the environment. Are they “Green”?

I guess, to sum this up, the point is that branding is everything you do in your company that creates a perception in the consumers’ minds regarding your company.

So, What impression are you leaving?