Brand Story

Accidental Branding, Or Is It?

Ben McConnell, co-author of Creating Customer Evangelists, has a great interview with David Vinjamuri at the Church of the Customer blog. Vinjamuri is the author of a new book, Accidental Branding. It's worth reading.

I've written many times about what branding is and I think Vinjamuri gets it. It's not necessarily about budgets, campaigns, or advertising. At its core, branding is building a successful business. And maybe a little bit of luck.

The premise of Vinjamuri's book (I haven't read it yet) is that motivated entrepreneurs can build great brands without any branding know-how. They find a problem, then solve it. They create a new experience/product/service and choreograph the interaction with their customers. They ask questions like how would I want to feel when I enter my store? What would I want the employees to say to me? How should I feel when I use the product? They micromanage the experience to create memorable customer interactions. Which, of course, is the nuts and bolts of branding.

Favorite quote from the interview:

"What lesson would you engrave in stone for entrepreneurs?
Learn how to tell your story really well. I call it ‘building a myth’ because like a myth the story has to be easy to remember and share, dramatic, and it has to have a lesson contained within it. That shareable founding story is what consumers use to convert people to your brand."

I'll be adding this book to my nightstand soon. In the meantime, here are a few related links:

Buy the book here.
Download a free chapter here. Another free chapter is here.
Read more about Accidental Branding at Brand New, The Marketing Spot, and Egg Head Marketing.

Where's The Sausage? The Brandstory Review.

One of my favorite web logs is David Taylor's BrandGymBlog. David's no-nonsense approach to marketing is one that really appeals to me, so I'm a regular visitor to his site. A couple of months ago I got a copy of David's latest book, Where's the Sausage: Branding based on substance not spin. It's a serious marketing book wrapped in a short parable.

Though I really like David's thinking, I'm generally not a fan of business parables. Too often they use silly characters, absurd situations, and overly simple solutions that don't always transfer well to real business situations--like this book. Books like this include a lot of "what", but not a lot of "how". And when I heard that WTS? was a parable, that's what I expected to get. But then, you can't judge a book by it's cover.

To be sure, the story isn't high literature. But this book contains a generous helping of useful marketing ideas, ways to get insights from your customers, and smart thinking (the how in addition to the what). And the characters ring true more often than not.

It's the story of Bob Jones, salesman at Simpton's Sausages who is asked to spend a year as a brand consultant before being promoted to Sales Director. He's unenthusiastic about the opportunity and immediately sees through the typical marketing BS that comes from his boss and agency contacts. Rejecting their approach to branding (and rebranding), he finds his own way as he manages the neglected sausage brand. He records his feelings several times a month (in a blog or journal) and includes much of what he is learning from his experience. The story is okay, but the real power of the book is in the chapter summaries and ideas Bob uses to rethink his product—all of which (I assume) come from the BrandGym play book.

Among the observations Bob makes:

• A brand should drive the whole business, not just the image wrapper of communication    
    and brand identity.
• A new logo can't cover up the shortcomings of a poor product.
• Many brand extensions are brand ego trips offering nothing new.
• True insight doesn't come from focus groups, it comes from immersing yourself in your
    consumer's world.
• Having little or no funds for conventional marketing can be a great stimulus for creativity.
• Communication that has only emotional sizzle and not product sausage is 'sponsored
    entertainment'.

Add to that the simple exercises and processes that Bob takes his brand through (and that the reader can do with their own brand) and you have a decent little marketing book. Thanks David.

If you're looking for a quick read peppered with smart thinking, you'll like Where's the Sausage.

More Where's the Sausage? Links:
Other reviews of the book can be found here and here.
David's description of the book is here.
Buy it at Amazon.
Read the BrandGym blog.
Video of Hugo Gaines (the book's star marketing,um, expert).
Video of David talking about the book.
Buy David's other books here, here, and here.

Made to Stick—A Few Story-related Thoughts

I recently finished reading Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath (I know, I'm a little late to this party). Anyone involved in telling brand stories (marketers, advertisers, customer service agents, CEOs, PR people, bloggers) should not only read, but ingest, what the Heaths have to say about communicating messages in a way that makes them "sticky".

They retell a variety of stories to make their points: from urban legends to familiar advertising tales like Subway's Jared and The American Legacy Foundation's Truth campaign.

In crafting stories that stick, the authors recommend that you create messages that are Simple (not dumb, but the core of the idea), Unexpected, Concrete (using details to hook the message into memory), Credible, Emotional (the need for analysis is the enemy of stickiness), and follow a Story line. The use the acronym SUCCESS to help you remember the steps.

From the book:

"[Stories] ...naturally embody most of the SUCCESSs framework. Stories are almost always Concrete. Most of them have Emotional and Unexpected elements. The hardest part of using stories effectively is making sure that they're Simple—that they reflect your core message. It's not enough to tell a great story; the story has to reflect your agenda... Stories have the amazing dual power to simulate and to inspire. And most of the time we don't even have to use much creativity to harness these powers—we just need to be ready to spot the good ones that life generates every day."

Chip and Dan note three types of story plots that resonate best. They are: 1. The Challenge Plot (underdog, rags to riches, willpower): think Southwest Airlines, Pepsi Challenge, or Richard Branson. 2. The Connection Plot: think Coke's Mean Joe Green or Hallmark. 3. The Creativity Plot (solving problems in new ways): think ZipCar or Post-its.

Great stuff. I highly recommend this book.

From a branding standpoint, don't miss what the Heaths have to say about the curse of knowledge and how to overcome it. Hint: well-told stories can help.

Check out these other Made to Stick links:
1. Good PDF summary of the main points of the book.
2. Chip and Dan's Blog.
3. You can read a book excerpt here.
4. Reviews from Brand Autopsy, Time, USNews, BusinessPundit. One more here.
5. Podcasts from HBR, Ducttape Marketing, and 800-CEOREAD.
6. An interviews from Guy Kawasaki. Another interview here.
7. The Made to Stick Change This manifesto.
8. The Made to Stick SlideShare.
9. And of course, you can buy the book here (recommended).

The Best Business Books of 2006

I'm a sucker for books. Spy novels. Detective stories. Short story anthologies. Histories. Politics. Religion. And, best of all, business books. I read as many as I can, and I buy more than that.

So I look forward to seeing which books will make the "best of" lists at the end of the year. My favorite list is published by Strategy & Business. Check out their list here (free registration required).

Of course there are lots of other "best" lists, including BusinessWeek, Amazon, Financial Times, and the guys at CEO-READ (Todd, Jack, and Kate).

My list of 2006 books isn't necessarily a "best" list, but rather a list of this year's business book concepts that interested me most:

Mavericks at Work by William Taylor and Polly LaBarre
Success Built to Last by Jerry Porras, Stewart Emery, and Mark Thompson
Citizen Marketers by Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba
Purpose: The Starting Point of Great Companies by Nikos Mourkogiannis,
L.L.Bean: The Making of an American Icon by Leon Gorman
Tribal Knowledge by John Moore

Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got some reading to do.

UPDATE: Does this book scare anyone else as much as it does me?

Tribal Knowledge—John's Bookshelf

I recently finished reading John Moore's Tribal Knowledge—a pretty darn good book of marketing ideas drawn from John's experience at Starbuck's. Lots of little nuggets to get you thinking about small improvements you can make in your marketing. He doesn't spend a lot of time developing any of the ideas in-depth, so it's a quick read.

Throughout the book John references several other books that are worth checking out. Along with the 40+ books listed in the Starbuck's Executive Bookshelf, John quotes from the following in the pages of his book:

The Macintosh Way by Guy Kawasaki (twice)
Built to Last by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras
The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding by Al and Laura Ries
Purple Cow by Seth Godin (three times)
Pour Your Heart in It by Howard Shultz (twice)
A New Brand World by Scott Bedbury (twice)
The Age of Paradox by Charles Handy
The End of Advertising as We Know It by Sergio Zyman
18 Immutable Laws of Corporate Reputation by Ronald Alsop
Servant Leadership and Servant as Leader by Robert Greenleaf
Journey to the East by Herman Hesse
The Abilene Paradox by Jerry Harvey

He also makes passing references to Tom Peter's The Pursuit of WOW, Orbiting the Giant Hairball by Gordon MacKenzie, and Who Moved my Cheese by Spencer Johnson. I'm sure there are others I missed.

Lots of good stuff here. Pay close attention to Tribal Truth #4, a BrandStory favorite.

Way Worthy Read—Tribal Knowledge

I've been waiting anxiously for the publication of John Moore's Tribal Knowledge for several months. His blog is the first I began reading regularly—nearly 4 years ago. I don't have my copy of the book yet, but to whet my appetite, John released a short ChangeThis manifesto with a few of the ideas he shares in his book. It's a very worthy read. Check it out here.

The fundamental principle of the manifesto (with which I wholly agree): "A business can't sustain itself on image, no matter how much money is dumped into sporadic, heavy-up advertising campaigns. Companies that put their money behind their brand and not their business fail to realize that the business is the brand. And to realize the full potential of the brand, one must work on and work in the business every day of every year. You cannot create a brand before you create a business—the process is simultaneous. As you build your business, you create your brand."

You can learn more about the book at John's Tribal Knowledge site.

And, in case you can't get enough Starbuck's lore, another terrific book about the genesis of Starbuck is Howard Shultz's Pour Your Heart Into It. It's one of my favorite Brand Stories. But be careful, reading it may infect you with an entrepreneurial bug. Let's hope John's book has the same effect.

Life After the 30-Second Spot: The BrandStory Review

Last week I heard a few minutes of NPR's On The Media, where Bob Garfield laid out a doomsday scenario for broadcasters (transcript here). Bob said:

"A little over a year ago, we floated a theoretical chaos scenario. It goes like this. Mainstream media, especially network TV, lose so much audience, they can no longer attract the advertising revenue they need to sustain their content, leading to still more audience defection, then more advertiser defection, and so on into the toilet, all before the on-line brave new world is ready to take over. In this past year, plenty has happened to add to the chaos. TiVo and DVR usage is rising, with Forrester Research estimating that by 2008, one in four households will be DVR'ing their favorite shows and skipping past commercials. ITunes has started selling hit TV shows for $1.99, and now all the networks are offering free streaming content on their websites. More options for us, and more jeopardy for the old model."

Sounds like the premise for Joseph Jaffe's recent book, Life After the 30-Second Spot, which lays out the same nightmare and about ten different alternatives to traditional, interuptive advertising.

Joe's not the first person to argue that the 30 second spot is on life support and that consumers are about to pull the plug. Even he admits that the death of the 30 is, by now, a cliche. But it is coming. And marketers who are willing to take a few risks and try new ways to reach their audience may actually look back and agree with Joe that "there couldn't possibly be a better time to be working in this business."

Jaffe's book outlines (in detail) many causes of death for the 30 second spot: fragmentation, commoditization, information overload, clutter, crappy advertising, better educated consumers, and so on. Then he lays out a few ideas for rethinking the way marketers engage consumers. My favorite quote comes from Chapter 9: Re:think Advertising: Make Advertising Relevant Again. Jaffe writes,

"There's a rather putrid stench emanating from the world of advertising right now. And if you can't smell it yourself, then you're either used to it or you've lost your sense of smell altogether (in which case, it's time to consider another career)."

Here, here.

Jaffe goes on to detail newish areas where marketers can get their message and brand in front of consumers: Internet, gaming, experiential marketing (emphasis on physical contact with the brand), search, consumer generated marketing, and more. But Jaffe doesn't just provide his thinking on the matter. He also includes several short essays by other marketing experts to back up his thinking. Some of these extra essays are better than others, but all provide food for thought. It's not that there's a lot new here, but Jaffe wraps it all up very well in one place.

Clearly the jury is still out on the effectiveness of some of these avenues. Do gamers really respond to ads displayed on their PS2s? Do gift bags stimulate trial or simply eat up placement fees?  Did subservient chicken or BMW films really sell anything? Some of the ideas Jaffe lays out will work better than others. But the fact remains, the 30 second spot isn't working like it used to, so why not try something different (and hopefully effective)?

Overall, this book is a good read. I get the feeling that Jaffe's just scratched the surface and has even more to say on the subject. If you're looking for an overview of where advertising/marketing may be headed in the future, check out Life After the 30-Second Spot.

Also of interest:
Joe Jaffe's Blog, Jaffe Juice.
Get a free chapter from Jaffe's book, here.
Buy the book from CEO-READ, here.
The first half of Jaffe's podcast with American Copywriter.

Full disclosure: Mr. Jaffe practices what he preaches, when it comes to consumer generated marketing. I got my copy of the book on the condition I would read and review it. I agreed, noting that if I didn't like the book, I would say so (I've done that before). Mr. Jaffe had no hesitation, saying, "...all I ask is an authentic review."

My Review of Whatever You Think, Think the Opposite

A few weeks ago, CEO-READ put out a call for willing book reviewers. They offered to send a book to anyone who would read and review it.

I volunteered and they sent me a copy of Whatever You Think, Think The Opposite by Paul Arden. Boy do I wish I could recommend this book. But I can't. It's a waste of the paper it's printed on.

You can read my review here.

Thanks to Todd and Kate for the opportunity to contribute to CEO-READ (one of my favorite blogs).

What's Missing From This List?

This morning's Wall Street Journal includes a list of the five best books about advertising—books so good they practically sell themselves. Here's the list compiled by Jerry Della Femina:

1. "The 100 Greatest Advertisements 1852-1958" by Julian Lewis Watkins (Dover, 1959).
2. "Confessions of an Advertising Man" by David Ogilvy (Atheneum, 1963).
3. "Bill Bernbach's Book" by Bob Levenson (Random House, 1987).
4. "A Technique for Producing Ideas" by James Webb Young (Advertising Publications, 1940).
5. "Reality in Advertising" by Rosser Reeves (Knopf, 1961).

I have no argument with the list. I've read two of them (and parts of a third) and agree they are terrific books. In many ways, they are still relevant today. Good thing. Notice all of the books on the list are at least 19 years old? And all of them deal with ads and personalities from the sixties and earlier. What does this say about advertising today? Or for the past 40 years?

Primal Branding Interview

Interesting interview at Being Reasonable with Patrick Hanlon, author of Primal Branding. One gets the feeling that Marc doesn't buy Patrick's premise. I haven't read the book, so I can't comment in depth, but don't all brands have creations stories (some are just less compelling than others)? I'd be interested in hearing other thoughts about this book before I pick it up myself.