The Politics of Incongruity

With the DNC starting, we are clearly in the thick of campaign season, and with it an assault on our symbolic reality. Campaign managers will serve as symbolic pyromaniacs for the next ten weeks -- throwing their matches of ideas to see what catches and spreads like wildfire among the populous. With these efforts, we're going to see a lot of political and symbolic incongruity. A broad example is Biden's about face from the primary season to now partnering with Obama; or McCain running against Bush's agenda and now trying to legitimize himself among conservatives by supporting the Bush agenda. As a bit of a cynic, I'm used to these, but do find them funny.

What's harder for me to take is when an individual chooses to sum up their beliefs in bumper stickers (arguably the symbolic cue of the fantasy themes and dramas that comprise that person's symbolic reality). In the case of one of my neighbors, s/he has two bumper stickers on their car. The first says "Got Experience?" -- that was the pro-Hillary, anti-Obama drama. Fair enough. But then the next bumper sticker is Al Franken for Senate. For those not familiar with the MN Senate race, satarist Al Franken has no experience as an elected official. It's hard to take your bumper stickers seriously when they demonstrate a lack of political consistency or the good sense to remove one when that drama has died.

The problem with airlines? The customers.

Listen to the story from NPR about airfares and other hidden costs associated with a failing business model. Listen to the jackass about 3:00 into the audio portion. It's you. Yes you and your travel sites that are destroying the airlines. You and your pragmatic searches for a low cost. You're letting the terrorists win, but showing what a free market can do to the poor widdle airlines.

Don't violate the here-and-now...or don't scare people with bombs

Interesting article from Brandweek about a Dark Knight promo that bombed.

Here's the basics of the article:

A Dark Knight promotion, featuring a chocolate cake wired to look like an explosive device, prompted a local San Antonio, Texas, news station to call in the bomb squad earlier this week.
Echoing the Aqua Teen Hunger Force bomb scare in Boston in Feb. 2007, the low-budget guerilla campaign delivered some unintended results for the Santikos Theater chain.

A couple of things:
- Yes, you need to be symbolically unique, but you shouldn't be reckless (unless that's part of your brand).
- No, you shouldn't violate most general norms of your audience. The cake (as far as I know has no real safe signifier to folks to say "hey it's a joke."


There are a few of you out there that are saying "Hey, look, buzz..."if you still believe that hack version marketing, I have nothing for you. I just ask that you get out of you polyester used-car salesman suit and move on. In the case of the Dark Knight, I'm guessing that the record-setting weekend attendance wasn't from your guerrilla/dunce marketing team. It was from more traditional channels, supported by a sad story about a co-star, and an interesting use of trailers at Imax theaters last winter -- that were then propagated through YouTube.

I think the Aqua Teen Hunger Force (ATHF) version was a bit different, because its stunt, the people charged with the crime, and the "bomb" were all fairly well aligned with Adult Swim/ATHF guerilla promotion. So, it got some points for being grounded with its audience. Still a bit risky, but that's inline with the overall brand. The Dark Knight promotion seemed lazy and stupid...unlike the depth and thought provoking nature of the actual Batman text as interpreted by Director Christopher Nolan.

New Field Link: eMarketer Daily

Greetings. I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday weekend.

I wanted to call out a new Field Link. It's the HTML version of eMarketer's daily email. I've received the email update for quite some time and find it an invaluable and thought provoking resource.

A new TV and the power of the interwebz

I just recently bought a new TV and the experience has highlighted the power (and promise) of the Internet in delivering a holistic customer experience that’s consistent online and offline -- as much as it’s an experience with a company (or brand) rather than this is my offline experience and that’s my online experience. After 14 years of great service, it was time to retire my old ProScan CRT. After much research, I decided to go with a new Sony Bravia XBR. I purchased the TV at Best Buy, in part because I was going to switch to DirecTV (because they have the contract rights to the NFL Sunday Ticket) from Comcast and Best Buy would take $30/month off my DirecTV bill for 12 months; and in part, because I could see the product up-close before I bought it. The interaction with both companies provided great examples of delivering a wonderful customer experience.

Through Best Buy, I also bought a new TV stand. However, I bought it online and used the in-store pickup. No need to drive around and see if they have it or not. Go online and see which store has it. The process was great – see which stores have the product in stock, buy from that store, get a confirmation email that the store is ready for you, drive to the store, do curbside pick up, and have a delightful “blue shirt” bring out the merchandise. Total time spent in the parking lot of the store, six minutes. How awesome is that?! Anyone that has been through a major technology deployment that has hooks in to backend systems, such as inventory, commerce, or supply chaing, should be impressed. In short, they don’t make their technology or processes the customer’s problem. It was a nearly seamless integration of online and offline technology and process to deliver a unified experience. In the future, I’m thinking they shouldn’t need a confirmation email to tell you they’re ready, but now I’m picking nits.

With DirecTV, I was impressed with the personalized web portal and associated account information. The personalization includes TV listings. From that TV listings page, I can set my DVR to record. Tivo-esque, I know, but this is another unified experience from my programming provider. So, I could be away from home and reading an email or an article about a cool new show, or a news special that’s on before I get home. Surf over to my DirecTV page, log in, and bammo, set my DVR to record.

The take away, think about your customer’s experience in total, not as a collection of online and offline silos. It’s just plain, old commerce, it’s not e-commerce.

Brand Lessons with The Big K

Rockford, IL, my hometown is the source for some new store testing by K-Mart... or more accurately new testing in old stores. This effort is interestingly detailed in a recent Chicago Tribune article. You may know Rockford as the former screw capital of the world, not because of Ginger Lynn Allen, but because of its status a leading manufacturing town from the 1940s – 1970s. Towards the end of Rockford’s glory days came K-Mart. K-Mart is trying to figure out its brand identity and how to ground it in a meaningful way with constituents. In a similar way, Rockford struggles to attract new business and industries to the once proud city.

I think there are a few interesting take-aways from the article:

1. As mentioned with politics in the previous post, when it comes to brand identity, it’s a position or be positioned proposition. K-Mart had the lead from a timing perspective and Wal-Mart outflanked K-Mart pragmatically on price. Target claimed a social position based on shopping experience. That kind of leaves a righteous position, but it’s hard for any consumer to think blue light and quality together.

2. Test. I think it’s a great idea to test concepts. In this case it’s a low-risk proposition, as Rockford is not a trend-setting, high visibility hot spot. Yes, I know, the greatest power pop band ever came out of Rockford, but that’s not going to help K-Mart. So, K-Mart may want us to want them, we’re not going to surrender to their whims. Ok, back to my point about testing. Try to figure out what might work. Iterate. Rinse, lather, repeat. Progress, not perfection. Then when you’re feeling confident, notify the public. Not the other way around. Especially if you’re trying to re-brand or reposition, don’t lead with the awareness campaign, then try to figure it out. You can do more brand damage if you deliver a bad experience when you’re saying you’re new and improved. The customer is left to believe that you’ve gone from bad to worse.

3. All symbolic, or brand, identities have a shelf life. Perhaps the Big K has run its course. From it’s regional days to the high points in the 70s, K-Mart has clearly gone through consciousness creation (new, unique drama), consciousness raising (growing/expanding the identity among more people), sustain the vision (shielding the committed, staving off new visions like Wal-Mart or Target), decline (your identity loses currency in the market place and your customers seek new visions that meet their needs) and then implosion (the vision dies).

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.