Mindshare Marketing

Next month’s issue of the Harvard Business Review features a great case study on branding.  It’s about a motorcycle brand called Hunsk and it’s struggle to maintain a coherent brand image.  I find it interesting that this is the second brand-related HBR case study in a row, but I am even more interested in the increasingly furious discussion I hear about branding.  People are finally catching on to its importance, as reflected by this case study and the four analytical pieces following it.

I encourage everyone to buy March’s issue of the HBR and read this wonderful article.  We can discuss its specifics after that.

I do, however, want to talk about brand authenticity - the idea of not just agreeing with your brand but living your brand.  When I talk to people about brand training, they ask if I’m trying to make them eat their own b.s.  The reality of branding, and the main point of the HBR case, is that you need to be your own b.s.

Here’s a great example.  Walk into any tattoo parlor and try to find an artist without a tattoo.  You won’t.  No one would give a parlor a second chance if it’s artists weren’t also customers.  It’s part of the culture and brand that tattoo parlors represent as a whole.  Imagine instead you walk into a tattoo parlor and are greeted by a clean-cut man in a business suit.  How willing would you be to sit in his chair?

This is a really basic example, but it runs far deeper than outside appearance.  Take some time to read the HBR article I mention above - they explain authenticity in a way I could never dream of bettering.

Whenever I tell people I’m in marketing, they frown.  A lot of people even go as far as asking if I like lying to people.  For the longest time, I never understood where this disdain for marketers came from.  I’m an honest person, all of my co-workers are honest, and everyone I know in marketing would never lie to their customer.  Then again, I hold people I associate with to very high standards and would never spend time with a person who knowingly misleads their customers.

This past weekend found me walking through the Southcenter Mall in Tukwila.  I go to the mall not really to shop, but to people watch and keep my eye out for innovative new advertisements.  It seemed this weekend that I was drawn towards a sweet little sports car that was being given away in a drawing.  It looked too good to be true, so I almost started filling out the entry form.  Then I saw the “or $25,000″ note and decided to read the fine print on the back of the form.

Note number 3 made me even more suspicious.

Grand Prize winner will receive a new vehicle worth approximately $25,000.00.  Color choice, make, model and options are up to the sole discretion of ETL Promotions LLC.  Or at the winners choice, $25,000.000 in cash paid in one lump sum.  Delivery, license and registration fees shall be the sole responsibility of the winner.

I walked over and read the details in the car window.  To my shock, this was not the car the winner could walk away with.  The car on display costs $33,410.  That’s a lot higher than the $25k limit on the entry form.  I started reading the rest of the disclaimer in more detail. 

Completing this form may result in sales solicitation for water treatment, home care, indoor air quality products, vacation travel, home-security, home-based business, food service, and other telephone solicitations.

What do any of those sales solicitations have to do with my interest in flashy sports cars?  I was drawn to the information box by the sexy automobile in the hall.  I picked up an entry form because of the photo of the car above the submission box.  I almost filled the form out - and I would have been stupid to do so.  This is but one example of the bait-and-switch techniques many poor marketers are using to build phone lists for their sales people.  The information on the entry forms will likely be sold to every Tom, Dick, and Harry that wants to sell me another piece of crap that I really don’t need.

Yes, though I am on the national do-not-call lists, they would still be able to call and interrupt my dinner. 

By completing this form, you agree that sponsors and co-sponsors of this Sweepstakes may telephone you, even if your number is found on a do not call registry or list.

I understand a bit better now why people shake their heads when I say I’m in marketing.  However, let me promise you that I care deeply about all of my customers and clients and will never sink to the level of bait-and-switch marketing and lead generation.  Companies like ETL Promotions LLC should be ashamed of themselves for hurting the good names of marketers everywhere and making our jobs just that much more difficult.

I’m trying to come up with a new set of words to describe the brand space and I’d appreciate your help with one of them.  So far, I have pretty good definitions for “brand equity” and “brand value.” The third one is a bit trickier.

I need a brand analogue for “political capital,” unfortunately the term “brand capital” sounds too forced.  Any recommendations?

Yes, I plan on explaining these definitions sometime soon, just not in today’s post.