Machine Candidate: Will It Play In Peoria?

Over a quarter of a century later, the research principles still apply. This Newsweek article features the work of Cragan and Shields -- dealing with "dramatism," which was the working term for Symbolic Convergence Theory (SCT), before SCT had a name.

The theory, application and research methods have all been refined, but it's interesting to see it's early form. Modern versions of these applications and methods are part of Sanctioning Agent's SymbolicID process.

Is Freedom Just Another Word for Many Things to Buy?

Interesting article from Sunday's NY Times (hat tip to Christopher). One of the authors of the article is Barry Schwartz, who has previously examined the impact of "choice" in today's climate. We continue to see a paradoxical relationship with choice, as we see brand extensions and offerings sometimes confusing and irritating consumers. Too much choice can end up meaning too much noise in the channel, so to speak, and some product cannibalization.

In a normal trip to grocery store, I too become frustrated with my traditional brands (Colgate, Coke, Minute Maid). I used to buy Colgate, red and white tube. Simple. It was easy and it was a social decision, as I was raised in a Colgate house (I was horrified at my first sleep over to find my friend's family was a "Crest" family). Then there was Colgate gel - hmm, gel or paste. Gel was OK, but Colgate paste was a friend.. Now there's Total, Lumenous, Simply White, etc. I need a mapping wizard to bring me from the old to the new. The same with Coke. Before it was Coke. Coke was it. Now, there's Coke, Diet Coke, Caffeine Free Coke, Caffeine Free Diet Coke, Cherry Coke, Coke with Lime, Diet Coke with Lime, Cherry Vanilla, Diet Cherry Vanilla, Zero, Coke Mascarpone, Coke Mascarpone with Hazlenuts etc. Minute Made, (part of the Coca-Cola company) has done the same thing, From one to many - with or without pulp, added vitamins, added calcium, etc. Perhaps we should debate the merits and faults of brand extensions later.

Perhaps too many choices prevent us from building communities around brands. Beyond frustrating consumers, we continue to cultivate a post-modern isolation. Without a strong parent or umbrella brand (and its brand equity), I think the bastardization of 1:1 marketing may be devaluing a brand rather than enhancing it.

However, I can see where choice, done in a manageable way, can help a consumer increase their connection to a brand. It is the pro-side of novelty (vs. redundancy). A great regional/micro brewer in the Twin Cities is Summit. Summit has a handful of varieties available at any given time they have about three to five beers on the shelf of the local liquor store. There are four beers available year-round and there are four seasonal brews - one for each season of the year. Like pitchers and catchers reporting to Florida and Arizona, a true sign of spring, for me, is the ability to buy Summit Mai Bock. The redundancy (reinforced experience, brand foundation) is enhanced by this manageable novelty a seasonal brew.

At times it's hard to argue with The Boss, "there's 57 channels and nothing's on."

Are the Olympics Relevant?

This article from MediaWeek, made me think "are the Olympics relevant?" Personally, I think so, but I think they represent a devalued entertainment currency. The explosion of other competitions (X-Games, for example) and speed of other media outlets seems to have taken the wind out of the ratings sale for NBC. I knew Bode Miller failed before each event, I didn't need to watch. However, if there were events that I like (biathlon, hockey, snowboarding and speed skating). Outside of hockey, these are all novelties for me. I don't get to see these every day.

NBC's Web site had excellent traffic, but the TV ratings lagged. TV ratings in general are a different beast compared to thirty, twenty, even ten years ago. By understanding the needs of viewers and advertisers, I think NBC could reshape the Olympics as a viewing experience. It will be interesting to see how viewers, sponsors and advertisers embrace Bejing 2008 and Vancouver 2010.

How would you reshape the Olympics to make it more relevant?

Fast 50: Demographics

Information from Fast Company regarding their "Fast 50" and other trends. All of this can be found in their latest issue which also looks back at the first ten years of the publication.

Blog Update: Comments Enabled

Feel free to leave comments.

New Media

There's an interesting post and discussion at Fast Company regarding Craig's List. http://blog.fastcompany.com/archives/cat_publishing_broadcasting.html

Remember "new" media is not just replacing the "old," it changes the way we communicate. The laws of communication don't change, but the rules of context do. This applies to almost all technology, if you don't understand the process, technology can help you automate your screw-ups.

What do you want to accomplish? How does your media approach (tools and process) work towards that end?

You can't be all things to all people.

Report: One Size Doesn’t Fit All

Righteous, Social and Pragmatic "Dramas": An Introduction

We live in symbolically created world -- sometimes they overlap and sometimes they don't. Our symbol systems and world views can be segmented into seven symbolic visions or dramas. This is the foundation for Symbographic research. These dramas provide a lens through which we can see the way communities, tribes, organizations, customers segment and organize. The visions are righteous, social, pragmatic, social-righteous, social-pragmatic, righteous-pragmatic, and no vision. From a brand perspective, the no vision a dangerous place to be, as the market will position you.

Righteous visions are those that deal with issues of quality and excellence and may have a religious fervor. "If you want it done right, you do it yourself."
Social visions are those that deal with issues of people, service, humane ways of doing things, or peer group influence. "It's not what you know, it's who you know."
Pragmatic visions are those that deal with issues of price and emotional detachment. Pragmatic heroes want things done that are cheap and easy. "I just need the fastest, cheapest option available."

These visions can change from product to product or service or issue. You may purchase your gas for righteous reasons (only the highest octane is good enough for my vehicle) and, yet, are pragmatic when it comes to your choice of beer (free is for me, or it's all the same, I'm not going to spend that much on it).

So, value is created not by price, but by symbolic perception. The brand equity may be for social reasons or righteous reasons. Even pragmatics can pay a bit more for something they won't have to worry about.

My uncle, mentor, and former professor, John Cragan, uses two quick reference points to help drive these concepts home. Bananas and Oil.

If you've ever participated in a road race or fun run, you're familiar with the fruit and water tents at the end of the race. Now thinking about the people coming to the tent after the race:
The righteous runner says "Potassium. That's what I need to avoid cramping."
The social runner says "Look at all of my fellow runners gathering, seems like a great chance to hang out and talk."
The pragmatic runner says "Hey, free fruit."

When it comes to motor oil:
The righteous car owner says ""I'll do it myself." (they might even enjoy this task)
The social owner would say: "I'm having my trusted auto mechanic do it for me" or "we've always taken our cars there."
The pragmatic hero would say: "I'm going to Jiffy Lube because it's quick, cheap, and easy."

Think about this from a market segmentation perspective. Look at the communities forming around brands, products, services, politics, etc. You can get a much clearer picture of your personas or lifestyle marketing. Do your Symbographic research and then look for the breaker variables when it comes to the demographics and sociographics of the communities you're trying to reach. As McLuhan said, the world is re-tribalizing. Our tribes are now forming around (mass) media and identity and are not bound to simple geography. Utilizing a Symbographic lens, you can better understand where your constituents derive meaning, motive, emotion and identity in their lives. You might be trying to sell social benefits to somebody that just needs a pragmatic solution.

*The above is based on the work of Bormann, Cragan, and Shields developing Symbolic Convergence Theory (SCT).

What's Symbographic?

Part of the Sanctioning Agent SymbolicID™ process, Symbographic™ research is a key component in determining the symbolic identity of a community or constituency. Let's quickly look at some other "graphic" research terms and the types of "fact" they are addressing:

• Demographic - Where do your customers live? What do they look like?
• Sociographic - What do your customers do? How do they spend their time?
• Psychographic - What are your customers attitudes and beliefs?
• Symbographic™ - What symbolic visions or dramas are your customers participating in? Where do they derive, meaning motive, emotion and identity in their lives?

By looking at the dramas and symbolic structures that provide meaning in your customers' (internal and external) world, you can more effectively communicate with them. I like to use Symbographic research to determine the prevailing dramas or visions, and then use the other "graphics" to look for the breaker variable that will tell provide more valuable insight on a particular customer segment's community.

Symbographic visions in action: Doggie Daycare
My wife and I take our dog to Downtown Dogs. We know the owner, we trust her and our dog gets a good workout on days that we can't walk her - we can even watch her in action via the web cams. When you're in the parking lot Downtown Dogs, you'd be hard pressed to provide a pure demographic segment or sociographic segment that is meaningful. You can't segment by cars, as there are BMWs, Land Rovers, Camrys, an old Civic or Escort, a US commodity SUV. Sociographic would also be difficult, as the only common bond is that the customers most likely work in or near downtown Minneapolis. However, from a Symbographic perspective we see more of social-righteous drama guiding the customers' view of dog care. I will post more about symbolic/dramatic visions in the future.

Understanding the Symbographic nature of a community is key to understanding the ways in which you can engage in more meaningful and relevant communication with your constituents and own your identity™.

Cool New Sites

Two new sites that I’ve found fairly interesting for different reasons:
1. A new real estate valuation site – Zillow (http://www.zillow.com)
2. A new community meets commerce site - Squidoo (www.squidoo.com)

Part of the Squidoo team includes Seth Goodin (Purple Cow, Idea Virus, etc.) and Heath Row (Fast Company). Sanctioning Agent is building a "lens" on Squidoo about symbolic identity.

Communicating with Communities: The Importance of Novelty & Redundancy

People have an inherent need to share and organize information about the world around them. Information sharing creates, stabilizes and sometimes, if taken too far, destroys relationships (person to person, person to organization, organization to groups). As humans participating in organizations and communities we seek an optimal level of information to understand our environment and function well in organizations.

Simply stated, optimized information sharing is realized when we balance redundant and novel messages. Redundancy is repeating what is known, and is used to counteract the effects of noise in the communication channel. Redundancy establishes a known foundation for those receiving information and messages (from facts to the oft-repeated symbolic stories, redundancy provides a foundation for current and future communication episodes). However, if there are no new, unique or fresh messages, entropy sets in. That is why we need novel messages - ones that are fresh, distinctive, new or unique.

We need to introduce new things into our systems to keep the system alive. Yet, if there are too many new messages there will be information overload. This is true when it comes to communicating with desired communities and constituencies. What are the accepted beliefs and norms that may be considered "redundant" and what are the novel messages and ideas that will further engage that same group? What foundations are in place to develop a new campaign? What novel messages will make your campaign symbolically unique?

Presidential $pin

From the GAO via MediaWeek

The Bush Administration spent $1.4 billion in taxpayer dollars on 137 contracts with advertising agencies over the past two-and-a-half years, according to a Government Accountability Office report released by House Democrats today.

Green Giant, indeed.

Not Slippery When Wet – Lexus Misses Mark

A strange campaign from Lexus has made its way into the Minneapolis skyway. What appears to be tire marks on the floor lead up to a sign that looks like a highway warning sign that reads “not slippery when wet.” The tire marks continue to a mounted sign on the skyway sign promoting the new Lexus all-wheel drive model. I hope they didn’t pay too much for this work. Well, frankly, if they paid for it they’ve paid too much. Why would they have their car driving in the skyway and then up a wall? Oh, right, because the skyway is always wet and the car didn’t slip as it drove up the wall. No wait, the warning sign is warning us that it is not slippery when wet. So why do I need an all-wheel drive car? It also looks like the tires ran over the highway sign, so I guess that says something about the powerful engine. The tire marks seem like it was a clown car that may have driven up the wall. I want to leave a fez there in honor of the Shriner that drove up that wall and then disappeared. Perhaps the poor driver missed the Not Yield sign or the Not Stop sign. I expect such poorly executed campaigns from failing behemoths like GM or Northwest airlines.

Next campaign: Lexus we drive you up the wall. All your base are belong to us. Rabbits.

Whopperettes

I've been a big fan of the CPB work for Burger King. I think they've hit another homerun with "The Whopperettes." Great extension from TV to Web. It's unique, it supports the campaign, gets you involved in a Broadway production of Whopper (I wonder if they're in talks with Andrew Lloyd Webber or Joe Mantello) -- helping you make it your way and recalling the nostalgia of "have it your way" and yet they balance that with novelty, so campaign remains fresh too. The King/NFL spots also did a great job of balancing novelty and redundancy -- the old NFL films music (you could almost hear John Facenda's voice), famous football play, and then BAM!!! It's the King via CGI making the big play.

Kudos CPB and BK.

http://www.whopperettes.com

Innovation and the Importance of Understanding Community

A (somewhat) brief thought about the importance of understanding a desired community when launching a new product, idea or service (an innovation). Everett Rogers work on the subject, in my opinion, is still the best. While Geoffrey Moore or Malcolm Gladwell have repackaged some of the ideas, I think Rogers provides the best framework for the understanding of how innovations may or may not be adopted through communities, which may be symbolic or geographic.

One of the key things to take from Rogers work (and that of Cragan & Shields) is to understand the types of “talk” that occur when an innovation is adopted. Like Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, there is a hierarchy of talk, or human communication associated with the diffusion of an innovation. The talk evolves from awareness (hey, look at that a new blank), to utilization (I’m using the new blank); to opinion (this new blank really freakin’ works); to advocacy (hey, have you used blank? Oh you should, it’s the best darn thing since sliced bread). A real life example for me and my wife is Netflix. We’re Netflix evangelists.

So, what does this mean from a communication and branding perspective? Beyond the basic premise that effective brands or symbolic identities can not be all things to all people (I repeat, can not be all things to all people), your campaign surrounding innovations needs to become more sophisticated in its understanding of the communities you serve, or wish to serve. Your communication needs to be aligned with the elements that resonate with the community. That’s why a simple features and benefits discussion my take you through to awareness, but might not help you get your new product, service or idea to the advocacy stage. Additionally, you should be aware of the sociographic and psychographic components of audience groups across a traditional adoption curve (for example, innovation seekers are different than late majority or active resistors).

Implied in my admittedly simple model, is that the population decreases as you move through the hierarchy of innovation. Many may be aware of an innovation, less have used it, and even fewer will become advocates. But, powerful word of mouth advocacy for your innovation can exponentially increase the productivity of your marketing campaign.

In short, when trying to launch an new product, service or idea be prepared to develop your campaign to meet the needs and expectations across the hierarchy (y-axis) and the adoption curve (x-axis). Avoid the commodity-esque campaign of lather, rinse, repeat which erodes brand equity. The campaign needs to be aligned as the message is amplified for current and potential customers.

Sanctioning Agent’s SymbolicID process and Symbographic research can help you understand the drivers, motivations, symbolic identity and emotion associated with your targeted communities. What are the secret handshakes for your target community? Who are the opinion leaders and cue-givers within that community?

Commodity Threat Level: Brand Advisory System

The image and text below is based upon an ad that I placed in a recent theatre program. I was hoping to capture the absurdity of the Homeland Security threat level system and highlight the growing threats of commoditization in the brand world.



Current Threat Level
January 23, 2006 – Sanctioning Agent raised the national threat level for brand commoditization in November 2005. The country remains at a high risk, Code Orange, for commodity attack.

Sanctioning Agent will continue to closely monitor and analyze threat information and share that information, together with guidance for protective measures, with non-profit and private sector authorities as well as the general public as part of the sustained national effort to prevent commodity attacks and protect our symbolic brand identities.

Recommended Activities
Everybody should establish a brand identity preparedness kit as well as a communications plan for their organizations, and stay informed about what to do during an emergency brand situation.

Learn More About Brand Preparedness
Visit Sanctioning Agent

Yum! to sponsor Kentucky Derby

For the locals, this sponsorship deal may make sense with the Louisville connection, but does this make sense for anyone else? I'd say no. Mediocre, low-brow fast food restaurants and the pomp and circumstance of the Derby don't seem to be a congruous fit. Additionally, do you really want to be reminded of horses when you think of Taco Bell? Try our horsemeat, mint julep Gordito -- Yo quiero Giacomo.

I think it's a false start for the organizers.