Politics is a Position or Be Positioned Proposition

Last weekend, Al Franken won the Minnesota DFL nomination to be their candidate for the U.S. Senate race against incumbent Norm Coleman (R). While Franken won on first ballot, his campaign has been weakened by income tax problems and a satire piece for Playboy magazine. What I find interesting, is that it seems as though the Coleman campaign knows more about Franken than Franken’s campaign. The way Coleman’s campaign and surrogates have been able to keep Franken on the defensive is another example of how you can be positioned by your competition.

With all symbolic realities (brands, politics, etc.), it’s a position or be positioned game. If you can’t carve out an identity and ground it, you run the risk of having your competition do it for you.

Going "Code Blue" for Beer

An interesting article from the New York Times regarding Coors Light and their 360 campaign leveraging social media. Now, I'm not a fan of their product, but I do appreciate the effort to get their message out in a 360 degree manner...or as I used to say "surround sound"... but that might make me sound rather analog.

For instance, consumers ages 21 and older will be able to send friends “Code blue” alerts on Facebook.com, inviting them to meet up for a beer — a Coors Light, natch. They can even use Facebook maps to direct their potential brew crew to a nearby bar. The Facebook feature, or application, is scheduled to start early next week.

I think that the number of agencies involved in pulling off this campaign and representing the brand reinforce the need to understand and own one's symbolic identity.

Thanks to John for the link.

Zappos & Culture: Walking the Talk with an Online Shoe Store

Great article about Zappos and their policy to pay employees to quit.

It’s a small practice with big implications: Companies don’t engage emotionally with their customers—people do. If you want to create a memorable company, you have to fill your company with memorable people. How are you making sure that you’re filling your organization with the right people? And how much are you willing to pay to find out?

Hat tip to Christopher for the link.

Minnesota's Sesquicentennial

This week the State of Minnesota is celebrating its Sesquicentennial. I think it’s another great example of how we live in a symbolic reality with competing converging and diverging interpretations of symbolic fact. The material facts are pretty simple with this one, the State of Minnesota (as it was charted and brought into the United States) is marking its 150th anniversary. The symbolic facts can generate a little more positive or negative energy depending on your vantage point. Also the symbolic facts are those that are up to the audience member and convey emotion, identity, meaning, and motive for action. As this article by Kara McGuire in the Star Tribune points out, the history and its meaning are quite different for Native Americans than it is for the descendents of European settlers and immigrants. For Native American tribe members, the emotion is much different than that of the proud politician. The motive for action is clearly different as well – rather than music and banners, one might want a somber reminder of the deaths of their forefathers.

In another article/editorial from the same paper, we have another perspective on the celebration – more specifically why the celebration can’t be too loud and that loud noise could break some buildings. Given the bridge collapse last August, the State doesn’t need to remind its citizens of how tax dollars have or have not been spent and how that spending has protected, or not protected us.

So, one basic element, a 150 year anniversary, can be seen as a celebration, a dark reminder, or a potential hazard. There are many more items that come to mind for people who have lived here for generations and for those of us “outsiders” who were born elsewhere. The way these symbolic facts generate emotion and identity can bring constituents together or drive them apart. A skilled communicator can help position the positive elements of the state’s rich history and not have their story derailed by competing interpretations.

Great Example of Symbolic Cues

On Seth's blog, there's a link to an interesting brand application. The app serves up one iconic logo at a time. Your job is to type a one word description. I'd love to see the data they're getting on these brands.

As Seth point's out, "It's a simple game where you pick one-word associations to go with major brands. The result pages are actually pretty inane, but the magical way each and every one of these brands compels you to think is fascinating."

That magic is the power of a symbolic cue. In this case, it's in visual form, but look at how that one "short-hand" element can denote and conjure up meaning, motive, identity, and emotion. Those cues can represent themes that chain out positively or negatively...or not at all. If you've never seen one of the logos, you may have no connection to it and it doesn't chain out.

Takeaways: We live in a symbolically created reality and we our symbolic reality "retribalizes" us in ways that transcend geography (the old tribalizer).

Facebook

Some digital metaphors don't hold up in the analog world. Similar to cc or bcc on emails. Hey everyone, get a load of the message I'm going to send Jim...better yet get under my desk while I yell at him and don't give him a chance to respond.

This video has a similar, but funnier vibe to it.



Hat tip to Elise.

Charlie Rose by Samuel Beckett

This video was sent to me by two associates in the past two weeks -- one a former board member of a theatre company, the other a current co-worker in the online marketing space. Equally enjoyable for the interactive and post-modern theatre fans.

Happy Birthday iTunes

Happy Birthday iTunes!!

Think about how iTunes is helping shape and change the way we consume media...all in the past five years. Think about the way television programing and the music industry have changed (for better or worse) in the wake of iTunes. It is pretty impressive the magnitude of change that we've seen in the past five years. Personally, I use iTunes for my music, numerous podcasts, buying TV shows, and I even use it to watch movies rented from the iTunes store. My iMac at home, and my iPod and iPhone, continue to give me more freedom when it comes to choosing which media I'm going to consume and when I chose to consume it. As I write this, I'm watching an episode of "Frisky Dingo."

Thanks Apple.