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.