Dying on the Vine: Don't Build Your Brand On Borrowed Land
Twitter announced recently that they will be shutting down Vine, the 6 second video sharing platform “indefinitely”. But what becomes of the stars that Vine made? And why should you care?
What are the stars of Vine saying to themselves these days?
Don’t build your brand on borrowed land.
Twitter announced recently that they will be shutting down Vine, the 6 second video sharing platform “indefinitely”. But what becomes of the stars that Vine made? Well, some of them have gotten internet-famous enough to have parlayed their multiple 6-seconds of fame into work in independent film, cable, TV, advertising, or are taking on longer-form projects than Vine allowed. Apparently, millennials, just like Bumbles, bounce. (Sorry for the pre-Thanksgiving Rudolph reference…)
But there are scores more not-so-stars who will be hung out to dry. Those with hundreds or thousands of followers cultivated and nurtured over years of posting video content snippets. All them will go poof very soon.
It’s not like it hasn’t happened before. Think of all the individuals, bands, companies that poured blood and sweat into MySpace internet-eons ago. The volume of content being generated is larger than ever and the pace of change is faster than ever. So when change comes, having your content host and your associated following disappear can be a painful wake-up call.
Building an email list, a documented following that is independent of any specific platform is the gold standard of content developers, marketers and entrepreneurs. It takes a lot of time, effort and money to get folks to give you their email address. Twitter knows this and is happy to shackle you to it’s platform. It makes gleaning the emails of your Twitter followers all but impossible.
When Twitter goes belly-up, and it will eventually, all those retweets, hearts and follows won’t mean dookey.
The only thing that will matter are the personal networked connections you have made. The ones where you know each others email addresses. And those you might have, dare I say it, talked to on the phone.
While it’s pretty safe to say that email will be around for while, in cyberspace nothing lasts forever. So when the current circus folds up its tent and drives out of town, you won’t want to find yourself standing around still dressed like a clown.
photo credit: el toro @ flickr.com
The Hunt
Successful brands are always watching. Analyzing the market and spotting where the opportunities are.
All over the country people are actually walking around for once. Heads still buried in their smartphones, they are hunting for something. Pokemon.
Deep down in our DNA we are all still hunters and gatherers.
One of my favorite things about working in fashion, branding and design is trend hunting. Exploring the retail world, stores, cities, cultures, digital environments, observing human behavior. Finding the patterns is challenging, fascinating and intoxicating. If this is happening, what will that cause? What’s next?
Successful brands are always watching. Analyzing the market and spotting where the opportunities are. They get out there and walk around. They know that nothing stands still. What are the macro societal trends? What micro consumer trends are being created from them?
Sure, you can buy a McKinsey & Co. report, but there is nothing like finding that one insight, that one Pokemon of trend hiding in the corner that can make your day. And maybe your third quarter, too.
photo credit: Chase Elliott Clark @ flickr.com
Pick A Lane
I met with a woman last week who just patented an invention. It’s incredibly simple. It's the kind of invention that you look at and say “of course!”.
I met with a woman last week who just patented an invention. It’s incredibly simple. It's the kind of invention that you look at and say “of course!”.
The invention has implications for food and beverage, entertainment, travel, spectator sports, quick service restaurants, for CPG. The list goes on and on.
She landed a meeting to pitch it to the largest beverage brand in the world. Let’s call them Big Red. She laid out the 50 ways they could use it. They loved it. They said “of course!”. So it was a shock when the meeting resulted in zip. Nada.
The reason wasn’t that it’s a stupid invention. It’s brilliant. The reason Big Red passed was because they were presented with too many options. No one knew where to start. Even Big Red, who has more resources than God.
She learned the hard way that "less is more". Next time she will pick a lane. One consumer, one occasion, one fulfilled need. The next client will know exactly how to put their feet in the starting blocks. They will see a simple picture of what winning looks like. And how to start.
photo credit: {Robyn} @flickr.com
Make Your Mark
So often we want to create something new. Something out of nothing. Like a business, or a brand, or a blog. But we are paralyzed.
Long before I entered the design and branding arena, I was a painter. I worked on a large scale, usually about 5' x 6'. I’d sit in my studio and contemplate the expanse of white canvas in front of me. What do I do first? What if I blow it? It could be paralyzing.
Over time I discovered the key to unlock this limbo. You just make a mark. Any mark. You just have to disrupt the white of the canvas. Because after you've made that first mark, you have something to react to. To build upon.
So often we want to create something new. Something out of nothing. Like a business, or a brand, or a blog. But we are paralyzed. The answer is the one I found painting. Make a mark. It doesn't matter if it sucks. Because you're going to keep making marks and over time those first marks will be replaced with something better. Something approaching your vision.
I can't tell you that starting isn't the hardest part. It is. But you just have to make one mark and then the journey of creation begins.
photo credit: Anders Lejczak @ Flickr
Out Of Your Comfort Zone
To grow, you have to let go of worrying what people think of you. Let go of perfectionism. Let go of that ego a little.
Yoga hurts. That’s what my wife’s t-shirt says anyway. It’s funny because if you’ve done yoga, you know it’s true. What yoga does is make you hold a pose that hurts a little, feels good a little and puts you right on the edge of your comfort zone.
The goal is to maintain a feeling of peace when you are in the middle of doing something hard. It’s a great analogy for business. Our professional work can be trying. Learning to maintain a sense of balance and calm in the storm is what we all strive for.
However, just outside our comfort zone is where we grow, where we learn, where new things happen and new opportunities appear.
To grow, you have to let go of worrying what people think of you. Let go of perfectionism. Let go of that ego a little. Don’t try so hard to fit in. Because winning in business is about standing out.
It’s about moving out of your comfort zone.
What Makes You, You?
What is it that makes you human? Are you bearing your soul a little in your work and in your brand? Tell your story and embrace your narrative.
We are inundated with marketing speak. Jargon like “360º campaigns”, “to the next level”, “world class” and “surprise and delight”. We all use them sometimes. The danger is becoming a business ‘bot, or worse - you may be missing the opportunity to make a human connection with your audience.
I was chatting with an entrepreneur who is having trouble crafting her brand message. She is an avid horse-back rider and was wondering if she should leverage the phrase “unbridled passion” in her communications. Her friends were saying “Don’t do it, people will think you have an equestrian business!”
I encouraged her to embrace it. Her love of horses is what makes her human. It lets us into her soul a little. She approaches her consultancy with the same energy and love that she does her horses. It’s a great story, it’s her narrative and it’s authentic.
What is it that makes you human? Are you bearing your soul a little in your work and in your brand? Tell your story and embrace your narrative. It’s what makes you, you.
And it’s your customer’s way in.
The Moment Brands Dream Of
A few weeks ago, I attended the Virtual Reality Summit in NYC. I was struck, not with how advanced the technology is - but rather with how no one really knows what to do with it.
A few weeks ago, I attended the Virtual Reality Summit in NYC. I was struck, not with how advanced the technology is - but rather with how no one really knows what to do with it.
There is a saying in Silicon Valley, “It’s a technology looking for a problem.” They don’t really know how to use it, or what to use it for. They just know that when someone puts on a VR headset, they don’t want to take it off. And when they do take it off, they all say the same thing, “Wow.”
I’m reminded of a day eons ago when I took a box-shaped Apple mouse in my hand and clicked around in Mac Paint for the first time. At that moment, I knew I was witnessing a watershed moment in art, design and communication. I knew everything was about to change. This is where we are with VR. It will be huge. For entertainment, education, medicine, design, science, communication, all of it.
This is the kind of moment brands dream of. The opportunity exists for brands to design immersive sensory worlds and architect experiences of unimaginable scope. But amazingly, brands are sitting on the sidelines. They need to get in there and start imagining, experimenting, and pushing pixels around. Because everything is about to change.
The Un-Sexy Solution
Sometimes the best solution isn't the sexiest. Sometimes sexy can distract you from actually getting the job done.
If you ever want evidence why our species has survived so long, Google Images for the phrase "There, I fixed it." You'll find thousands of pictures of hilarious solutions to some of life's challenges. And a lot of duct tape.
Those pictures always reminds me of my days at Gap. I was amazed when I realized that the $16B goliath ran entirely on Excel spreadsheets being emailed around the globe. Unsexy, but it got the job done.
The tech explosion has introduced myriad apps, sites and hardware that are really sexy - with more features than you could explore in a lifetime. You can get lost in the sea of functionality, interfaces and connectedness. Last week I saw a cutting board that has wifi. Really.
But, sometimes the best solution isn't the sexiest. Sometimes sexy can distract you from actually getting the job done. Sometimes a scuffed shoe doesn't need a rechargeable handheld oscillating brush with a touchscreen. Sometimes it just needs some spit and a rub on the back of your pant leg.
Curiosity Not Passion
Curiosity invites exploration and experimentation. Following fascinations can lead you into new worlds.
I was sitting in a lime green room with a drop ceiling. My guidance counselor said, “You should follow your passion”. I thought, OK, great! The only problem was I didn’t have one.
Passion is a word that carries the weight of certainty. Passion burns with a lot of heat. But passion can also run out of fuel before the destination is reached.
If she had asked me instead, “What are you curious about”? That was a question I knew the answer to. I had a bunch of answers to that one.
Curiosity is evergreen and self-perpetuating. Curiosity invites exploration and experimentation. Following fascinations can lead you into new worlds. One interest fuels another and they expand into the realm of possibility.
Even now, we are prodded from every angle to follow our passion. The media says it. The business book authors say it. They say it on Shark Tank. I am certain that there are thousands of brilliant businesses, products and careers that were never launched because someone hit the “passion” wall.
I'll bet curiosity has launched thousands more.
Idea Muscles
Get that idea muscle to the gym. Lift some. Inspiration isn’t magic, you have to put in the work.
It’s been a while since I worked out. Things are starting to get a little soft. I know when it's time to get back at it because it gets progressively harder to entertain the thought of actually doing anything physical. A body in motion…
I found that coming up with creative ideas works the same way. The more I don’t do it, the harder it becomes. Creative thinking is like a muscle. Just like lifting weights, there are exercises I do that make it stronger. When I don’t do them, my creativity sits on the couch and orders in pizza.
Inspiration doesn’t pop in your head like a lightbulb. You have to go out and hunt it down. I feed myself with graphic design on Pinterest, branding trend on Medium, hit my retail go-tos in Manhattan. Whenever I get a thought, any thought, I click to my Google Sheets tab and write that sucker down. I brain dump. I have to get 5 ideas down before I can take a breather.
If you’re stuck, if you are feeling a little vacant, get that idea muscle to the gym. Lift some. Inspiration isn’t magic, you have to put in the work.
The Road To Innovation Is Short
The pace of business today is brutally fast. To compete, it is critical that companies embrace innovation as a core competency.
Faster Pussycat
The pace of business today is brutally fast. To compete, it is critical that companies embrace innovation as a core competency. They must engage in it constantly - iterative design, research and development flowing through a never-ending pipeline.
12 Degrees of Separation
In the pre-Industrial Age, the distance between the maker and the product was very short - maybe literally an arms length away. The maker also had a direct line to the person who was going to use it. In fact, they probably lived in the same town.
But since then, with larger companies, the concept and the final product can be more than a dozen functional divisions removed from each other, all in the same company. Strategy, finance, consumer insights, trend, product development, merchandising, marketing, sourcing, manufacturing, distribution, retail, the list goes on.
Game of Telephone
For companies, innovation and product development can be like the game of telephone. There are so many people and phases in the process that the original idea gets lost in the chain of communication by the final stage.
Small = Agile
So, how do large companies win in innovation? By mimicking what small companies do. Small equals agile. Smaller companies have shorter chains of command, short decision making matrices. They have shorter timelines. They have limited resources, so they are highly motivated to be efficient. Stakeholders have greater autonomy, so if they want to do something, they just can go ahead and do it. They don’t have to get 15 stakeholders, 5 divisions, and 3 VPs to agree first.
Distance is Death
The problem is distance. Distance leads to crumby innovation. This pertains to physical distance as well as lengths of time. They both lead to the dumbing down of ideas by degrees.
The traditional innovation approach is to gestate an idea in an R&D group, then hand it off to a Product Development team, who in turns hands off to Sourcing and then a Manufacturing group, etc.
As an innovative concept creeps down the road from one functional department to the next, little by little, the purity of an idea is chipped away. Sacrifices are made for materials, cost, factory efficiency, shipping, retail realities. At times the “innovation” that reaches market has little resemblance to the original concept - if it makes it there at all.
To preserve an innovative concept, the distance between the idea and the final manifestation of it has to be as short as possible.
New innovation approaches call for cross-functional teams to be present throughout the entire process. Multiple stages of review and approval can be condensed and happen simultaneously. This constant representation of disciplines in the pipeline insures that the concept remains pristine and that any divergence is immediately apparent to all stakeholders. This increased transparency has been proven to drastically reduce innovation mortality rates.
Idea Sex
Cross-functional teams can also be great for innovation concept generation. An example of this happened at 3M. Cross-functional teams were reorganized to share physical offices and departments. One day, the adhesive product development team, let’s call them “the glue guys”, was looking to develop a stronger glue. In the formulation process they mistakenly developed a glue that was weaker than the original and could be removed very easily.
It just so happened that the glue guys where working in the same room as the “notepad guys”. The notepad guys were looking for new ways to pin up notes on a board. And the glue guys had this new glue that was removeable. But it was just sticky enough to put a note up on the wall. It was because these two groups were shacked up with each other that the Post-it Note was born.
Fittingly, the Post-It Note has since become the go-to tool for innovation brainstorming sessions around the globe.
Start With Why, Not How
Historically, innovation started with what the factory can do. Some new technological invention would happen in machining. Then you would figure out what products you could make with it. It would start with: “we can make this” – “now, what can we do with it”. Pringles came from tennis ball cylinder packaging in just this way.
New theories and processes for innovation are more “needs driven”. They start with a problem that needs a solution and then precipitate the development of machining or technology to bring it into existence. You start with the problem and end with how-to-make it.
Gantt vs. Slinky
There are different ways to get to a given result. Some are linear, some not. Let’s say you are mapping out an innovation project. Start by imagining the project as a Gantt chart. Imagine a linear progression of a project from start to finish encompassing all the sequential stages. The steps are laid out in overlapping progress bars in two-dimensional space.
Now visualize the innovation project as a Slinky. Imagine a project’s progression seen on its side as a curly-que, more circular in structure, continuously overlapping itself. Does it veer up or down? In three-dimensional space, the “end” result may not be in the linear direction out to the right it - might in fact be above or below. Or even behind.
Insight + Context = Innovation
The principles of Design Thinking are also being brought to bear on innovation. Design Thinking employs empathy for the context of the problem. It leverages creativity in the development of insights and concepts, analyzing various solutions and then applies them to the problem.
By using observational techniques, Design Thinking can uncover problems and issues as well as opportunities that are not immediately apparent. This kind of approach to innovation encourages us to believe in possibility and to think in the abstract. It succeeds with a less linear and more iterative approach.
The New Thing
The market is constantly being saturated with re-makes, re-hashes and sequels to established products and services. In order to break through the noise, truly innovative solutions are necessary. Adopting a new approach to how you shepherd your ideas through the product development pipeline will help retain the integrity of your concepts. It will insure that you hit the market with true disruptive force.
Remember, we put a man on the moon before we put wheels on luggage. Innovation is not always linear. But the road to it is short.
Image credit: Christian Heilmann @ flickr.com
It's All About You
Your brand narrative needs to capture your passions, but what's key is how you will fulfill your customers desires. Great brands weave the two seamlessly together in a motivating and emotionally evocative way.
I met with a prospective client recently. She’s a Harvard educated powerhouse, an accomplished musician and recording artist, has a wellness brand and is exploring starting a museum - from scratch.
In our meeting she shared the personal motivation and meaning behind her music, her wellness practice, her museum idea. She shared how they were all integral to one another, synaptically connected. Her musical/creative/wellness/education narrative was important to capture in branding them!
While capturing her philosophy does fit into the equation, I am encouraging her to shift her focus. The motivations of the customers for each of these businesses are quite different. One wants to buy a song. Another wants to de-stress with body work. Another wants to take the kids someplace that will fascinate them for an afternoon.
Your brand narrative needs to capture your passions, but what's key is how you will fulfill your customers desires. Great brands weave the two seamlessly together in a motivating and emotionally evocative way.
photo credit: flickr: rafa_luque
You Are A Package
These days, the physical and digital worlds are packed with brands to choose from. Your goal is getting picked. Becoming someones favorite. How will you make it from the shelf to the cart?
I’ve done a lot of work in consumer packaged goods. The biggest challenge is getting consumers to choose your product from all the others on the shelf. Recently, in working with entrepreneurs and mid-sized businesses I have noticed how many of the guiding principles of CPG translate directly to their branding challenges. Here are three:
Shelf Pop: When you are on display, as an individual or business, you have to know what your competition looks like. What shape are they? What colors do they use? Iconography or photography? Bottle or box? You need to differentiate yourself in a way that makes you jump off the shelf when a purchase decision is being made.
Communication Hierarchy: At most, you get 3 levels of communication. Brand, variant and flavor. You have to make hard choices about what you want your customer to know. What motivates them? A functional or an emotional benefit? Are you going to make them look sexier? Make them smarter? Define what your label says.
Shopper Journey: How do customers shop for you? Impulse buy at checkout? Always right next to the sunglasses? Are you with your competition or are you charting new territory in a different aisle to stand out? Create an intuitive path to help people find you.
These days, the physical and digital worlds are packed with brands to choose from. Your goal is getting picked. Becoming someones favorite. How will you make it from the shelf to the cart?
You Are A Media Laboratory
The digital marketing guru Gary Vaynerchuk said “Every one of you is a media company.” Today we need to add “…and a media laboratory.”
The digital marketing guru Gary Vaynerchuk said “Every one of you is a media company.” Today we need to add “…and a media laboratory.”
The explosion of social media and our ability to communicate with huge audiences at the touch of a screen is not news. But the number of new media “shiny objects” is growing and more are launching every day.
Streaming video is currently The New Thing. Everyone is rushing to figure out how to best leverage the plethora of platforms. While it used to be just YouTube channels or Vimeo, now it’s Snapchat, Vine, Periscope, Blab, Facebook Live, Amazon Video Direct, the list goes on.
In addition to honing product offerings and messaging, brands and entrepreneurs need to continually evaluate new platforms to determine if they can facilitate their ability create value for their audience, or are ultimately just a time suck.
Because today every one of you is a media laboratory.
photo credit: flickr.com: George Redgrave
Snackable Content + You
All we really want is more time. By creating snackable content, you show your audience you value theirs. And they'll thank you for it.
These days everyone is busy. When people are asked what one thing they want more of, they invariably say “time”.
Things are changing because we are all in such a hurry. Even eating is changing. Studies now show up to 1/5 of all meals eaten in the US are eaten in the car. It’s the decade of the snack!
Because we have less time, content is getting shorter. It started with blogs vs. books, then twitter vs. blogs, songs vs. albums, Snapchat vs. YouTube, Periscope vs. webinars, Vine vs. Vimeo, you get it.
But shorter doesn’t necessarily mean better. In fact Noah Kagan wrote in the Huffington Post that “The longer the content, the more shares it gets, with 3,000-10,000 word pieces getting the most average shares”. Google also ranks longer, more in-depth articles higher in search results. In general, long form content is intended to educate, inform and foster deep thinking while short-form content helps your business connect and engage with its audience.
But there are real benefits for you to be creating snackable content. It takes less time, so you can do it more often. It builds the content creation habit. It’s more shareable, so your chances of broader exposure are higher. Most importantly, consistency increases engagement. By keeping it short, you can publish more consistently and in doing that, you’re showing your audience that you value their time.
And all we really want is more time.
photo credit: flickr.com: Uncalno Tekno
5 Reasons Your Brand Should Be On Pinterest
Although only in development in 2009, Pinterest quickly grew to become one of the most popular platforms for sharing visual content. According to Alexa, Pinterest is now the 29th most visited website in the world, (13th in the U.S.) making it second only to Instagram as a visual discovery network. While less than half of online brands include Pinterest in their list of their digital marketing tools, more businesses are investing in the platform every year, particularly those in industries that rely heavily on visual appeal, such as interior design, fashion and travel.
1 - Influence Purchase Decisions
Visual content is a critical part of almost any digital marketing strategy, particularly in the case of B2C businesses. Content such as infographics and other visual presentations have been proven to have a dramatic influence on purchase decisions, and many Pinterest users rely on the platform. Engagement levels with visual media, such as the images and infographics on the virtual pin boards, are particularly high, with the majority of users having made a purchase after viewing a product presentation on the network.
2 - Use Social Selling
Many social networks have chosen to integrate e-commerce features, allowing users to make purchases directly through the network in question. Pinterest is no exception, and the new Buyable Pins feature will allow your customers to make purchases using the Pinterest app, available for devices running iOS or Android in the US. Pinterest provides its own checkout and payment system as well, and it doesn't cost anything for retailers.
3 - Strengthen Your Brand
Appealing imagery provides a powerful way to strengthen your brand and give people something to recognize and remember you by. Best of all, you don't even need to have a particularly active profile that needs to be updated on a regular basis. You can simply populate your pinboards with as little or as much content as you like but, provided your content is useful and engaging in nature, it will eventually get noticed. Of course, Pinterest is not without its strong social element either, since it gives you the opportunity to comment on pins, particularly those where your brand is mentioned, in order to become part of a fast-growing social community. It’s worthwhile to note that 39% of retailers report that they have changed their social networking behavior in some way due to Pintrest.
4 - Increased Content Exposure
Pinterest has grown incredibly quickly to enjoy millions of views per day, and while it's certainly not up to the level of Facebook or Twitter, it is one of the most far-reaching visual platforms of all. Simply put, there are few better places to get more exposure for your visual content than Pinterest. In fact, some brands even get more traffic to their websites from the network than from Facebook. Pinterest also makes for an invaluable accessory to any blog or website that relies heavily on visual appeal, such as fashion, retail, food or travel. As Pinterest continues to grow at an unprecedented rate, the increased content exposure it affords is hard to pass up.
5 - Boost Search Rankings
Sharing your content and talking about your products on the mainstream social networks can be an effective marketing tactic, but it's not going to do much for your exposure in the search engines which are, after all, where most Web traffic originates from. However, by properly optimizing your Pinterest profile and the content you post, you can make a significant impact on the search engine results pages as well as on the website's own search engine. You can get a better idea of which keywords to target by using the automated suggestions provided when you search for a topic using the on-site search function.
Final Words
As a growing social network with a relatively unique purpose, Pinterest is a promising platform for marketers. A solid visual content marketing strategy, powered by the likes of Pinterest and Instagram, can help foster engagement with your brand and increase conversion rates. Best of all, the platform is also completely free to use, and it doesn't require anything near the time investment demanded by marketing on Facebook or Twitter.
360º Branding: The Growth of Virtual Reality
With the Oculus Rift slated for release on March 28 and various competing devices set to follow suit in the coming months, brands are starting to consider the marketing potential afforded by the new technology. Although it might take some time to become truly mainstream, the growth of virtual reality (VR) promises to revolutionize home entertainment and provide advertisers with new opportunities for reaching out to their target audiences.
From a practical perspective, VR has major implications for consumer interaction with brands. Some of the world's most popular brands have already adopted VR to create virtual experiences for their customers. For example, car manufacturer Volvo allows potential customers to take virtual reality test drives, while hotel chain Marriott uses VR to 'teleport' people to various branches around the country. The possibilities are endless. There's little doubt that the growth of VR can benefit businesses across a broad range of industries including hospitality, travel, e-commerce, fashion and real estate among many others.
E-Commerce
Brands involved in particularly visual industries, such as travel or fashion, have been among the quickest to start experimenting with VR technology. To date, their utilizations of VR offer a immersive, yet somewhat unimaginative experience to shoppers similar to physically being in a shop where you can interact with products on offer. For example, US-based marketing and business consultation firm Sapient revealed its VR experience whereby users could virtually walk around a store and add items to their shopping carts. But this just skims the surface of what is theoretically possible. Imagine virtually trying on a pair of Nike shoes while standing in an Olympic Stadium surrounded by thousands of fans chanting your name. You get the idea.
VR will be of particular interest to e-commerce brands selling products that require a degree of configuration and customization, such as fitted kitchens or bathrooms. In such cases, consumers using VR technology will be far better equipped to visualize products as though they were in the showroom itself. Similarly, VR presents great potential to automotive brands by allowing consumers to take a closer look at vehicle interiors, while estate agents will be able to provide virtual walkthroughs of the properties they have for sale – all from the comfort of your couch.
Storytelling
Ever since its inception, VR has primarily been seen as a technology aimed towards creating an immersive experience in video games, but there's no reason why brands can't use it as well to create deeper and more meaningful experiences for their customers. As is the case with any new medium, filmmakers and publishers alike have started considering the potential of VR for the purposes of storytelling. However, creating a VR 'movie', while undoubtedly an interesting concept, requires very different methods to filming in 2D. Unsurprisingly, major streaming services such as Hulu and Netflix have been quick to adopt VR and experiment with its possibilities. For example, Netflix collaborated with Oculus to create an app that allows users to walk into a virtual living room and watch content in VR.
Remote Work
Virtual reality also has some interesting implications for people's professional and academic lives. For example, brands may be able to use the new technology to help facilitate remote working and improved collaboration by approximating physical interactions. For example, rather than having to be physically present at a business meeting, VR could allow teams spread out across the globe to collaborate by way of virtual avatars a VR meeting room – or any imaginable location.
Immersive Experiences
Although VR has undoubtedly made enormous strides in the last couple of years, the technology is still very much in its infancy. Like any new technology, VR might be extremely successful or it could go the way of the 3D TV and prove to be little more than a passing fad. Nonetheless, brands would do well to take VR into consideration and review its potential for advertising and consumer interaction.
After all, if ever there was an opportunity to really create a truly immersive brand experience, this is it. Brands now need to think of creating entire sensory worlds, rather than layering onto an existing one like a retail store, a billboard, a bus or event. They can now bring to ‘life’ an intentionally controlled, orchestrated and designed experience. They can create a completely branded reality.
photo credit: University of Texas Knight Center for Journalism @flickr.com
Naming: Personal Brand vs. Business Brand
One of the most difficult and important decisions for an entrepreneur is how to brand their company. Should they use their personal name or create a company name? As individuals brand their solo or small enterprise concerns and engage in inbound marketing and content development choosing a name becomes a future-defining milestone.
It's a hot topic.
It’s a particularly hot topic in the digital marketer and personal brand coaching arena. So, Iet’s outline some of the pros and cons of the personal vs. business brand conundrum. In my book, the main three are scalability, flexibility and sellability.
One of the major pros of personal brands, those named after the person, is that they are flexible. A personal brand can evolve with you as you grow and change. As a beginning entrepreneur, you can start off as a marketing guru and then evolve to selling small batch cosmetics if you want to. Personal brands are also ideal if you want to start a speaking career. They are perfect for one-person industries, coaches, trainers, authors, artists, designers and strategists.
There are drawbacks.
The cons of a personal brand are equally significant. Many people don’t realize what they are until it’s too late and they are too far down the path of development. First, the name won’t immediately communicate what it is you do. A tagline can help here, but it is necessary to use it absolutely everywhere - and it’s generally a mouthful. So, you’ll need to work long and hard for people to associate your name with what it is you provide. Initially, it’s also a challenge for SEO and SEM, an important consideration.
The most formidable challenge in a personal name brand is that it is tough to scale. Other employees may help you with specific tasks but they are inherently not ‘you’. Customers will always want to deal with ‘the name’. What if Guy Kawasaki’s or Gary Vaynerchuk’s second-in-command showed up for a podcast interview? Disappointing, right? It’s also hard to sell a personal brand. You can’t sell ‘you’ and you obviously wouldn’t want to sell your name.
Trading time for money.
Lastly, with a personal brand you are essentially trading time for money - unless you develop a huge library of independent and evergreen products that will be your main revenue source.
One great thing about a “business name” brand is that it can communicate what it does easily in the first mention of its name. This makes attracting customers, marketing, SEO and SEM easier. Much easier. Business brands are easily scalable. They are ideal if you ever decide to seek funding or bring on partners as you can offer an equity stake in the name. Banks tend to like them better too. And who doesn’t like easy access to capital to grow? As the flipside to personal brands, business brands are much easier to sell when you want to exit.
On the downside, a business brand is harder and more complex to build. It needs to be more plan-fully executed and can’t morph its offer as easily as a personal brand can. It’s harder to differentiate a business brand from the competition - which is why all that up-front business planning is so important. But the name can help telegraph that differentiation. Also, with a business brand any employee has the full potential to do damage to your brand once it is out of your hands. So business brand names are good for scaling but bad for control as they grow.
It is necessary to develop a “brand personality” whether you are a business brand or a personal brand. A brand personality that consumers can identify with and come to trust is critical no matter what your scale is – and I’d venture the bigger you are, the more important it is. I’ve expanded on this topic in my article “Big Brand Punch”.
Mixing the two.
There is one more option: mixing the two. Create a business brand name - and spread the word about what your business offers and become the highly visible “lead” individual for that business. Think Elon Musk, Richard Branson, Steve Jobs. By blogging, speaking, interviewing, writing and attending conferences the awareness of ‘you’ grows as you grow your business. But be sure to include others in your business as soon as possible to dilute undue reliance on you and your appearance as the only manifestation of the brand.
Plan for the future at the beginning.
Naming a business ultimately comes down to what the ambitions are to scale and if the founder will eventually want to sell and exit. For the entrepreneur, there is no definitively right or wrong answer and a course correction is never completely out of the question. They just become more cumbersome, costly and confusing to the customer as time goes by.
Big Brand Punch: Personal Branding & Brand Personality
We hear it all the time.
“I’m working on developing my personal brand”.
Why are people striving to become more like brands, when corporate brands are desperately looking to humanize themselves. Aren’t these divergent movements?
It‘s about survival.
It used to be a business was a specialist worker, a butcher, a cobbler, a carpenter, a cook. With the industrial revolution, businesses scaled and became companies: Woolworths, Macy's, Proctor & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, Ford.
Many companies have emotional equities that grew out of the personality of an original founder. The result of this is an unshakable authenticity. For example, Colonel Sanders of KFC, Martha Stewart or Ralph Lauren.
Brands that don't have visible founders strive to invent brand personalities and archetypes through characters, celebrities or humor like the Marlboro Man, GIECO’s gecko, Tony the Tiger, Ronald McDonald or Michael Jordan for Nike.
Why do they do it?
Brand authenticity is very hard to accomplish without “a face” associated with it. Someone to believe and to believe in. Not having a face creates mistrust. In fact, for most people, the term "faceless corporation" is associated with greed, resource pillage and disregard for human needs and dignity in the pursuit of profit. Think BP, IBM, Citibank, Exxon, Comcast, Merrill Lynch. While brands with faces; Virgin, Apple and Tesla, create a sense of ease, familiarity and foster a deeper level of trust.
When it comes right down to it, people trust and identify with brands with human characteristics. It’s what we do as humans. We anthropomorphize things. What is the value in bestowing human characteristics on a non-human entity? Simple. Studies have found that brands that adhere to brand personality archetypes are twice as successful than those that do not. [Boom, drops the mic.]
So how do companies define a personality?
Science. Corporations and brand strategy agencies use consumer insight research, macro and micro socio-economic trend, focus groups and behavioral audits to uncover the human characteristics a brand possesses. "If X-brand walked into a party, What gender are they? What age? What are they wearing? What are they drinking? Talking about?” “If X-brand was an animal what kind of animal would it be?" Brand strategists have been sharpening these exploratory research techniques for decades and know exactly how to dig into our psyches. I know, I’ve been in the focus group labs where it happens.
Big branding gloves.
Brands also utilize a variety of strategic brand positioning tools. The most common being a “brand pyramid”, where the aspects of a brand are mapped in a pyramid shape. The bottom layers establish the functional attributes and benefits. The upper layers clarify the emotional benefits, brand personality and brand essence, the singular fundamental idea that captures what is at a brands emotional core.
Additional strategic brand foundation tools include mission and vision statements, brand values, positioning statements, aspirational consumer target maps – the list goes on. This work can fill volumes. The purpose of this strategic foundation is to assure the consistency and efficacy of brand equities, messaging, advertising, packaging, visual design – essentially every brand touch point. They also set in stone the ethos of what a brand stands for, who it’s customers are, what it delivers, what problem it is solving.
Focused brand strategies and finely tuned brand personalities resonate with consumers. Brand loyalty and affinity are achieved by making the brand feel like an old friend. This is where brand evangelists are made. If you do it right, it can be very lucrative. Just ask Apple. Nike. Rolex. BMW. Some consumers even associate their own personal identities with brands living in that rarified air.
The game changer.
There was a time when workers used to be defined by their jobs and brand affiliations. It used to be: he’s an IBM man, she’s a P&G gal, those are Met Life guys.
With the changes brought about by the internet and the dawn of the global economy, millions have been swept out of employment with corporations and set adrift. They no longer have a workplace, external brands, geography or affiliations to help them anchor their identity. The only hope of survival is self-employment in a new digital world with no roadmap, no borders and no limits. We are becoming a nation of free agents.
But while it has erased so much security, the internet has also leveled the business playing field. Now an individual can have all the media reach, technological capability and infrastructure any large company.
Fighting above your weigh class.
Reclaiming Americas Soul: Our Social/Industrial rEvolution
I was listening to a TEDx talk by a trend consultant friend recently and she mentioned how she thought that our consumption model is broken and that America is missing its soul. I think she’s right. But, how did that happen? Where are we headed now and what does it mean for the brand landscape?
America came into its own during the Industrial Revolution. Our factories, workers, products and standard of living was the envy of much of the world. Other countries wanted to be us once. Whether they really want to admit that now or not.
We lived the Industrial Model.
But, over time our desire to own more and more things in order to attain our ever-inflating image of prosperity, drove us to need products to be less expensive. Less expensive because Americans middle-class wages have stagnated for the last 30 years, as former Labor Secretary Robert Reich pointed out in his eye-opening video “The Truth About the Economy”. Sadly, our wages have not kept pace with our appetite to own more things.
So, we out-sourced our production overseas. But the price we paid was dear. Entire industries in the US crumbled. Furniture making, textiles, steel production, automobiles, electronics, the list goes on and on. Physically and culturally it decimated our heartland. Look no farther than Detroit, but we all know the list is much longer.
We began to discover that not making things hollows out your soul.
We’ve become a nation of middle-men and service providers. In fact, 86% of jobs in America are in services and 14% are in goods production and manufacturing. But there are huge numbers of our population who don’t have the skill sets or the desire to become white-collar workers. So the collective pride of the worker begins to die along with their cities.
The white collar workers find their work rooted in technology. Entire industries are living in the digital domain. Employees, initially enthralled by the computer and its magic have become surrounded, ruled and overwhelmed by the technology they once coveted.
At the same time, big box stores became the norm and Mom & Pop businesses disappeared from Main Street. Every town in America looking like every other town - the same collection of retailers, only with different weather.
But there is a renaissance happening.
People have begun to want to create something they can touch. Something you can’t send in an email. There is a new makers movement, a movement of people wanting to get back in touch with making actual things. Reviving dying trades, artisan skills, mills and factories. There are printers, wood workers, bicycle makers, textile designers and manufacturers, blacksmiths, craft brewers and jewelers.
People driven by a need to create. Their souls are fed by it. To produce and distribute goods bound by an ethos of sustainability, craftsmanship and local trade. Market places, pop-up stores and curated websites (digital, I know) are springing up with a decidedly anti-chain, pro-Mom & Pop, pro-local personality bent. Consumers want a human face and a name to go along with a product. For it to come from a place that they know how to find on a map. And most importantly, todays consumer wants these products. They value a true story.
Witness the Social/Industrial rEvolution being born.
Big brands are desperately trying to find a voice for themselves that is credible in this new model. Trying to use social media and acquisitions to make themselves appear much smaller, with a human face and a genuine narrative. Take Clorox’s purchase of Burt’s Bees for example. But for the most part the consumer public is seeing through the facade. The only way to sound local is to be local. The way to appear small is to be small. The way to be hand-crafted is to get your hands dirty.
This new model is built on quality over quantity, knowing where its materials came from, knowing where it was made, knowing a little about the person who made it. With all the digital connectivity we have at our disposal, what we have come to miss most of all, and want to get back is connection.
Physical and emotional connection is the heart of the Social/Industrial rEvolution.
This rEvolution is about being true. Brands that embrace this evolution and live by its ethos will win a place of honor in consumers lives. Because we want to feel we are once again makers, doers and creators. We want to truly own our success. We want to play a part in reclaiming Americas soul.
-----------
ADDENDUM: On the flip side of this coin we have the "4th Industrial Revolution" which is the digital evolution of our society and economy. Thanks to John Hawthorne, for sharing this article that comes at our societal evolution from a different perspective.
Image Credit: Anna Zoromski/Miles @ flickr.com