Welcome to the Iowa City Readers: Constituent Lifecycle Revisited

I realize that we may have an increase in readership to this blog from readers in the Iowa City/Cedar Rapids area. To that end, I will repost some more in-depth entries that will apply to specific marketing and communication roles. As a start, please take a look at this post regarding student life cycles, constituent relationships and the symbolic identities associated with higher education institutions.

The Here & Now in Advertising

Brands and symbolic identities need to continue to ground themselves through changing times. Their ability to do so, without violating dominant here and now issues, are critical to sustaining or growing the life of a message. Two commercials of late have done a great job in doing this. Allstate acknowledging the recession (perhaps the most dominant here and now issue we're facing). Allstate reinforces their genesis story and the length of time they've been around and that they continue to provide "good hands" for their customers.

Hyundai's latest campaign is more impressive. They say that "we're all in it together." To back this up, they now tie future ownership of one of their vehicles to your employment status. One's fear of losing their job seems to be the greatest barrier preventing the purchase of large ticket items. Hyundai significantly reduces the risk. Additionally, they remind consumers that they have previously worked to reduced risk when they were the first to provide factory power train warranties for 100,000 miles/10 years.

With both companies, their genesis story and/or history align with ways to help consumers through the here and now, which, I think, should continue to build brand equity.

Business/Technology Break Through from 2008

Looking back, Apple was able to keep their hot streak alive. In '07 they changed the smartphone landscape with the introduction of the iPhone. In '08, they released a new iPhone, but more importantly they opened up the ability to deliver applications created by other programmers. The model is the same as their iTunes store. More details are in this Washington Post article.

Beyond the money Apple is making (30%) from each transaction, it turns out that this may be more of strategic move, rather than a short-term money-maker in a down economy. Here's what I found to be the most interesting paragraph in the entire article:

Apple won't say how much money the App Store is taking in, nor will it say how many of the 300 million downloads were free apps and how many cost money (most apps are free; the others cost anywhere from a buck to $10). Apple gets a 30 percent cut of revenue generated by apps. But for Apple right now the money isn't the point. The big thing is the race to become the dominant mobile-computing platform, the way IBM-standard PCs running Microsoft operating software -- first DOS and then Windows -- came to dominate personal computing in the 1980s and early 1990s.

Best wishes for a safe, happy, and prosperous 2009.

If they were smart...

Great post on Church of the Customer regarding CEOs travelling to DC with their hands-out for a handout.

If they were very smart, the CEOs would drive unreleased, next-generation
cars that get 100 MPG. They'd stop in a half-dozen towns along the way and
invite a newspaper editorial board writer to ride shotgun for a dozen miles.
They'd update their status on Twitter. They'd write a few posts for the company
blog. They'd shoot video on a Flip camera and talk about how they screwed up at
their first appearance, how they're selling their
fleet of corporate jets, and their plans for the future. If they behave like
real people instead of CEO machines, they might arrive in D.C. backed by some
pretty good word of mouth.

MIMA Blogger discusses the Obama Approach to interactive marketing

Interesting post from the folks at MIMA:

Obama’s seamless integration of so many interactive tools makes his approach look simple and easy. For the most part, it is. Consensus among writers from Fortune Magazine, CNN.com, Fast Company and more is that what made it work was Obama’s clear sense of knowing what his key messages and strategy would be from the beginning.

In an election-night interview with “60 Minutes,” Obama’s staff said that they knew from day one what their messages and strategy would be. They stuck to it and never wavered.

As my EVC counterparts have long said -- no random acts of marketing. Make sure your tactics are tied to your strategy and desired outcomes.

Outliers

I hope that everyone is recovering nicely from Thanksgiving. It was a relaxing and fun day for us in Minneapolis. We did not travel as we are preparing HQ for another junior agent.

I finished Gladwell’s Outliers last night. It was a great read. Using the term Outlier in it’s scientific and statistical sense, Gladwell describes stories of successful individuals, but moves beyond the Algers-esque stories of a strong individual. He looks at the socio-economic, cultural, and historic elements that also contribute to working for or against one’s success. Here's Gladwell talking about why he wrote the book:

In the case of Outliers, the book grew out a frustration I found myself having with the way we explain the careers of really successful people. You know how you hear someone say of Bill Gates or some rock star or some other outlier—"they're really smart," or "they're really ambitious?' Well, I know lots of people who are really smart and really ambitious, and they aren't worth 60 billion dollars. It struck me that our understanding of success was really crude—and there was an opportunity to dig down and come up with a better set of explanations.

I was surprised Gladwell did not explicitly acknowledge or reference Anthony Giddens’ theory of sturcturation. In a similar vein, I was surprised that Tipping Point did not acknowledge Rogers’ work on Diffusions of Innovation…while I’m at it, why Bourdieu’s work was not surfaced in the cultural discussions. Those nits aside, I really enjoyed the book and thought it is a great way to help us think more critically about the socio-symbolic construction of reality.

Some of the more interesting stories for me were those of Bill Gates early high school opportunities; Bill Joy’s college experience (some similar elements to that of Gates’ high school experience – both had, at the time, rare opportunities to program on time share clients); the Beatles early days in Hamburg, and the socio-cultural elements of Columbian and Korean co- pilots that make it difficult for them to raise questions or provide a change of course in times of emergency. Yet the most interesting for me may have been the discussion of the KIPP (knowledge is power program) in the New York City school system.

I recommend the book.

Takeaways: Culture and history continue to provide “here-and-now” phenomena that shape our symbolic reality; and the boot straps story is really kind of hogwash (sorry Ayn Rand).

iPhone Continues to Change the Game

Some cool new updates with iPhone 2.2 and apps continue to push ways in which technology can improve our lives...or sometimes can just do cool things.

• iPhone's Google app now has voice recognition for search. Don't type, just talk.
• Maps now has walking and bus route directions.
• Shazam music tagging and identification tool is awesome
• Urban Spoon is continuting to show how the web is becoming hyper-local.

So now, I can use either Urban Spoon or the Google app to find a restaurant in my neighborhood. I can use Maps to give me driving, walking, or bus directions to get there. When I'm there, if I hear a cool new song, Shazam can tell me what it is and where I can find out more about the artist or the song. Then, in our post-modern modes of communication my wife and I can tweet about the experience.

Have a great Thanksgiving.

Election Follow Up

So, long time no posts. The election was nuts for a political communication junkie. On top of that, I took a new job, as an online channel manger for Best Buy. It’s been a fascinating ride so far. Now here’s my quick recap of the election from a brand and symbolic identity perspective. My analysis is not meant to explain all facets of the election or the psyche of the electorate, or talk about spending, I just want to highlight some things that interested me and helps explain why Obama won.

Obama had a better use of technology and connected more with young and first-time voters. C’mon he even had an iPhone app that could provide localized news. Obama seemed more presidential, as he remained calm. While his election is historic and he ran a great campaign (even the conservative CNN talking heads agreed – the only big mistake was the “clinging to guns and religion” statement). However, I feel that McCain’s team did a lot to beat themselves by not grounding their symbolic vision. As I outline these items, they are not on my ethics, but rather based on where brand promises are broken.

*McCain’s “maverick” status would have worked to separate himself if he didn’t vote with Bush 90% of the time.

*McCain’s choice of Palin was a high-risk choice. At the end of the day, may have hurt him more than helped (which is out of the norm for a VP choice).

*Joe The Plumber – was not really a plumber, was not trying to buy a business, and could not afford a shopping spree the likes of the Palins.

*The key issue moved from Iraq to the economy in late summer. McCain looked erratic and indecisive (yet wanted to be the one with experience to lead). He wasn’t sure if he would be at the first debate, if he would be on Letterman, etc. At the end of the day, he votes for the bailout (like Obama). So there was no unique differentiator on the vote, and how he got there did not instill confidence as a leader or a maverick. I had a conversation with conservative friend of mine who felt that McCain could have won if he made only two different choices: Pawlenty for VP and voted against the $700B bailout.

*Economy part II: Warren Buffet endorsed Obama. Among most voters, Buffet has recognition of being a smart investor. The Obama endorsement is hard to overcome for McCain. Obama’s weakness on foreign policy and experience led to the choice of Biden. McCain’s admission of not being strong on economics led him to the choice of Palin. It’s hard to say that the nearly “socialized” economy of AK would translate to a strength on the National or International level.

The takeaways: Don’t break brand promises. When trying to ground a brand identity, make sure that are reality links to can make the symbolic tangible. You can’t be all things to all people. The here-and-now changes the landscape. If the economy wasn’t the chief here-and-now issue, McCain’s weakness on economic issues may not have mattered.

Politics brings out incongruity and some of it is laughable, but too much of it and a vision can not be grounded or reach critical mass.