BMW & Gaywheels.Com

Adage.com reports that "BMW of North America is under fire from a gay-advocacy auto Web site for advertising in gay and lesbian magazines."

It's an interesting issue demonstrating the need for a brand identity to be consistent and recognizable both internally and externally. Your symbolic identity needs to be grounded in reality, or stated differently, must have plausible reality links. You have to walk the talk when trying to bring your brand to life. In this case, Gaywheels doesn’t like the hypocrisy of placing ads in gay or gay friendly publications when the company doesn’t have domestic partner benefits for its employees. As Gaywheels points out, BMW is violating the "here and now" phenomena with their ad messaging. It’s like Wal-Mart saying something was made in the USA and it was actually manufactured in China, or trying to be both "everyday" and the low price leader only to try and upscale store.

The article and the controversy also demonstrate the increased difficulty in branding in the information age. Customers and communities can quickly research and share information regarding products or services.

Flash Mob Redux: The Wasik Interview

A follow up to the Flash Mob/Wasik post. Sanctioning Agent received a transmission from the fine folks over at Vulture Droppings (the Vulture is associated with Gyro World Wide). Vulture interviewed Wasik, providing more interesting insight.

I see that I’m now a post-modern participant-observer, as I’m reporting on, and participating in, a here and now phenomenon of viral.

The behavior/phenomena was there, but did the term provide a symbolic lens raising self awareness?

The Best Day Is…

Tuesday...wait..Wednesday...no Friday. Send it on FRIDAY!!

DMNews reported on a study conducted by ExactTarget finding that e-mail sent on Friday gets the highest open rate. Hat tip to Craig at LOHAD.

Any of my friends and former co-workers who have suffered through email campaigns should enjoy the post.

Chief Agent Matt Arnold to Present at MIMA

I will be presenting Translating Your Brand Online at a MIMA (Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association) event next month.

Check out the MIMA site for the most current details. As of today's posting, here are the details:

When:
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
7:30 am - Registration and breakfast
8 am - Presentation
9:15 am - Networking

Where:
Minneapolis Club
729 2nd Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55402

Cost:
Members $30
Non-Members $50
Students $20

I hope to see you there.

Flash Mobs: Deep Structures and Ephemeral Life Cycles

This month’s Harper’s has a very interesting article by Sr. Editor Bill Wasik. Wasik is also the inventor of the Flash Mob. While, I’m not sure I agree with all of the “science” Wasik seems to apply after the fact, it’s fascinating when it comes to:

1 .Deeper structures- humans’ need to fit in and at the same time experience deindividuation;
2. Co-option of a youth culture to appear hip by marketers;
3. The shelf life of a fad or trend (as it relates to “hipsters”); and
4. The way communication organizes.

The article chronicles hipsters participating in flash mobs. Wasik points out that the current hipster interested in scenesterism, has strong likes, employs rapid adoption of product or entertainer, and abandon the same product or service faster than they picked it up – never to be taken up again.

The article also highlights how Ford & Sony had a Flash concert series co-opted the trend and then wonder why/how they didn’t quite get their target market at the event.

I won’t repeat the entire article, but think it demonstrates the need for a strong brand identity that a person or organization can truly own. Why? Because media outlets continue to fragment and retribalize humanity AND to tell and frame your version of the story means that your brand must be authentic, unique and grounded in reality. PR and an authentic brand continue to be of the utmost importance. All of the awareness campaigns in the world can’t generate advocacy for your product or service. An authentic brand needs to embrace the deep structures of symbolic identity and human organizing while rejuvenating through new ephemeral channels. Ford is failing. No concert can change that. Ford seen as co-opting surface-level cues makes it worse. A brief aside, Ford, who has been touting the safety of its Volvo line and engineers, just failed the crash tests for its new Fusion.

If Microsoft Designed the iPod Package

Interesting and funny video, from Microsoft of all places.

http://www.ipodobserver.com/story/25957

Student Lifecycle: Symbolic Identity & Relationship Management

I recently attended a software user group conference for the higher education sector. I had breakfast with consultants, sales reps and customers that use CRM (customer relationship management, or constituent relationship management) in higher education. I was impressed with the technology that some institutions are using to support their communication tactics with constituents. However, I was more surprised that they weren’t looking at what motivates their constituents to continue to advance with a particular institution. The technology was/is the driver, rather than the enabler, of strategic processes.

While educational institutions don’t necessarily need to run themselves more like a business, they can take advantage of best practices from a communication and marketing perspective. The key components for creating value (for the institution) are to improve relationship management techniques; building relationship equity with students throughout their lifetime (think: awareness to bequeathing). In grad school, I worked in the development office and my manager said “if there’s a will, we need to be in it.”

Taking a holistic approach to a constituent, you can continue to engage the right students, providing a brand-right experience that benefits both the institution and the students. At all touch points, a college or university needs to make a meaningful connection with students, while they are prospective students and applicants through the rest of their lives.

This preliminary model shows the key stages of a student’s life as it relates to the institution; and demonstrates the other components that support meaning, motive, emotion and identity. College life is a great way to look at symbolic identity, because the connections one makes with an institution can be so dramatic. Many students take on symbolic identity for a lifetime – a Hawkeye, a Badger, a Bulldog, a Gopher. Some even take on an identity associated with their extracurricular or fraternal organizations while in college.

At each stage (prospect, applicant, student, graduate, alum), the institution needs to build relationship equity, by leveraging brand equity, and positively address the value exchange of the relationship – the student needs to feel it is worth the effort to continue. Continuing can mean, responding to marketing materials, applying, persisting, and donating. Value can be driven by righteous (institution or degree reputation for quality), social (reputation as caring or humane institution), or pragmatic (efficiently moves the student towards life goals) reasons.

In the model, the smaller circles should be seen as driving gears that continue to drive the flywheel. At times it may be an arduous task to get the larger, inner circle moving, but when it works well, it moves forward and gains momentum – more applicants become students, more students persist to graduation, more graduates give back to the institution. When this is working well, it is like the breakthrough that Collins talks about in Good to Great.

So, institutions need to better understand the dramas and symbolic realities that help:

• Get the right students in the institution
• Keep those students, persisting towards graduation
• Cultivate long-term relationships with the institution after graduation (donations, volunteering, etc.)

Small improvements can have a major impact on the symbolic and financial equity in the institution. What would a 3% increase in student persistence mean at your institution? What would a 5% increase in donor population mean for your institution?
At all stages, manage the constituent experience.

• Talk with the right “prospects” – understand the goodness of between the student and the institution from a Symbographic perspective.
• Reinforce and amplify your message by providing a surround-sound approach with cue givers and influencers (friends, families, guidance counselors, alumni interviewers, etc.).
• Understand the retention value of your students.
• Have a customer-centric, contextually relevant, approach.
• Engage students for a lifetime; don’t just contact them when you need money for the new library or business building.
• Continue to ground the unique identity of your institution – colleges can become educational commodities, if they’re symbolic identity is ignored.
  

Don't Be Evil?

Google agrees to pay $90 million in click fraud settlement.

Worldview & Frames: The Case For Symbographics

"Their worldviews and frames were there before you were," says Seth Godin in All Marketers Are Liars. That's great insight for marketers. At Sanctioning Agent, I've been saying this for quite some time. That's why Symbographic research is so important. The symbolic identity and symbolic vantage point among communities is the moving target for a segment or constituency group. Demographics, psychographics and sociographics, while valuable, are more static. Symbographics are the moving targets. Take demographics, it's really, really hard to change race, ethnicity, gender or age.

Godin talks about worldviews and frames. Worldviews, according to Godin are the values, beliefs and biases one has - the lens through which they see the world. Regarding frames, Godin is referring to George Lakoff's definition of frames (which comes out of Lakoff's work on cognitive metaphors). Godin takes the "hot donuts" example of Krispy Kreme, which until the Atkins revolution meant decadence and love, but now in a low-carb world, means fat. Krispy Kreme's stock is crashing. Only a few years ago they were darlings from a brand and stock perspective. What changed? The worldview through reframing. A side note on worldviews and symbolic realities - the seeds for a vision's destruction are sewn at the time of it's creation. The Marlboro man was rough and tumble (after it was targeted at men, trying to get away from the notion it was a feminine cigarette). When the real Marlboro man dies of lung cancer, the immortal/tough nature of the brand takes a hit. What happens in Salem when folks realized people weren't witches? What about the potential of Kobe Bryant as a spokes person for McDonald's, Sprite and Nutella after his Colorado court case?

Godin, also argues that marketers need to share stories that people can believe in and that the stories need to be authentic. This aligns with what Walt Fisher has been saying for years with his Narrative Paradigm theory. Essentially, humans are storytelling animals. We construct our symbolic realities through stories and sets of stories. Humans judge a story on two factors: (1) narrative probability (could it happen?); and (2) narrative fidelity (does it ring true to one's own experience?). The case for authenticity, in a symbolically created world, is reinforced by the Symbolic Convergence Theory's principle of "reality links." We need to continually ground symbolic visions in terms of reality links. Your State Farm agent needs to be neighborly; your Avis customer service rep needs to try harder.

Symbographic analysis is the key to understanding your targeted constituencies, helping construct an authentic story that is grounded in their reality, and telling (framing) an authentic story. These stories, dramas, sagas, etc. all have a shelf life - they're organic. Some stories burn out quickly and others have more sustainability. How are you tracking the Symbographic characteristics of your targeted communities?

In short:

• The worldview was there before you.
• Be authentic, you can't be all things to all people.
• Ground your stories and make them believable.
• Symbographic analysis helps you understand your audience, their world view and helps you shape the stories you need to tell.
• If in doubt, contact a professional.
  

Jim Collins: Social Sectors & Brand

Today, I had the pleasure of having brunch with my wife and John and Betty Cragan. John and I talked about “Good to Great and The Social Sectors” by Jim Collins. This is a follow-up/ extension to “Good to Great.” One of the big ideas in the monograph is the importance of brand. Brand is not just a for-profit concept.

Collins highlights three areas for making a social or non-profit great – focus on what you’re passionate about, what you’re best at and your resource engine. Your resource engine deals with time, money, and brand. These are also the components of his “hedgehog” element – a relentless, yet elegantly simple, focus on what really matters for your organization. Because the social sector doesn’t have “rational” markets for valuation purposes, it is even more important to manage brand identity (emotional connection to the organization and reputation). A winning brand strategy and unique symbolic identity needs relentless focus.

The hedgehog concept of passion, what you’re best at, and the resource engine align nicely with the quick symbolic identity test I ask clients:

• Are you symbolically unique?
• Can you ground that identity, making it real for your constituents?
• Is it a profitable place to play?

I recommend the monograph highly. Excerpts can be found at www.jimcollins.com.