It started as a childhood aspiration. Young Timothy was determined to join the world of professional bike racing and be like his hero, Greg LeMond. At the tender age of 12, Tim began shaving his legs and has not stopped for 24 years. He definitely stands out in a world of hairy-legged men.
“Shaving is the number one way we identify ourselves as cyclists in this world. It is the badge of seriousness, dedication, passion or belief. Shaving sets us apart from the unwashed masses of non-cyclists (or those dirty little mountain bikers who don’t shave).”
The right aspiration, relentlessly pursued, results in a difference the world can see!
So, what is the right aspiration relentlessly pursued that any of us must choose if we are ever to be different enough for the world to see?

• We all know that in a noisy world “different” is what gets you noticed.
• We all know that being different, just to be different, doesn’t take you far.
• We all value the authentic difference that comes from passion, belief, soul and spirit.
• We all marvel at the power of communities, formed around meaningful difference.

What is the equivalent of “shaved legs” in your industry, profession, or business? What will it take for you to get the razor out?
There are many “right” answers to this question. I bet you have some ideas, experiences, and insights.
Care to share?

A comedian who simply tells jokes is trying to sell the audience a clever story and a punch line. Their compensation: laughter. On a good night their warehouse of punch lines “sells” like hotcakes. On a bad night, they’re left with an inventory of jokes no one wants.
Some brands are punchlines. Their sales process reads like the directions from a shampoo bottle: Offer a sellable service or product. Announce the offer with as much advertising showmanship as affordable. Hope for the best. Make a few quick sales. Repeat as often as possible.
“Punchline brands” are about:

• The price.
• Quick wins with as little risk as possible.
• Best guesses about product demand.
• Basic transactions – the money.

Improv is different.
Improv is a collaborative endeavor requiring not only a team but participation from the audience. Improv’s payoffs include connections with the audience as well as the laughter. There isn’t a script so it involves more risk, but the impact is much deeper. These laughs are of the “you had to be there” variety …. – the dialog can be repeated, but the magic of improv is unique to each individual.
“Improv brands” are:

• Delivered by teams.
• Transformational not just transactional.
• Powerful in their ability to form connections and positive expectations.
• Riskier but more sustainable since they create relationships.

Improv brands create unique stories. Be prepared to be surprised. That’s part of the power of relationships.
Improv brands value design. People feel emotional and aesthetic patterns even when they can’t articulate it. Good design drives successful brands.
Improv brands create meaning – …. in addition to money. Meaning is about life-changing aspirations that get us going in the morning. Making meaning is the most powerful motivator.
So, what kind of brand do you want? One that creates an interactive relationship with your clients? One that is sustainable and continues to give “you had to be there” moments even after the sale? Or just a joke?

Warren Brown is an automotive journalist for the Washington Post and he’s participating in a “ride and drive” exhibition put on by General Motors for their 2007 model cars.
By handing over the keys, GM is breaking out of their neurotic habit of sending PR types and spin doctors along to be the talking heads at new vehicle introductions. They are trying mightily to be “the new GM.” The new GM is eager to let product quality speak for itself.
Not only does Warren get to take the new Saturn sedan out for a spin by himself, but GM has freed their engineers and designers to do what they love and do best …. – happily answer any questions these journalists and industry analysts ask about their market-ready vehicles.
Reporter Brown says this is “the first genuinely likeable, got-to-have, give-me-that-one sedan to come from Saturn.” He also thinks GM executives are about to be sorely disappointed!
I have to agree with him, for three reasons:
First: GM will learn that quality doesn’t say as much as they hope — and they’re hoping for a lot. GM saw its U.S. auto business lose $10.6 billion last year!
Quality doesn’t say “I’m the one– you’ve got to buy me!” GM executives said their objective was to give consumers more than they expect. That message of quality might have resonated 20 years ago, but not today. Now it just says, “Count us in!” Great product quality simply serves as “table stakes” in today’s marketplace – essential to success, but not sufficient to guarantee success.
The Japanese have a word for this type of quality: atarimae hinshitsu. It means “taken-for-granted quality.” The marketplace may think, “GM is finally serious about getting me as a customer.” But that’s not the same as getting the sale.
Second: GM will eventually learn that product quality is not the whole story. Saturn meant to lead the way by offering a different kind of car company to go with the different kind car they were selling. I’m not convinced GM has that kind of story to tell… yet.
That may be why the current Deutsch/LA ads are so goofy …. GM cars levitating out of traffic. Chief Creative Officer, Eric Hirschberg, says he’s trying to create the same sort of community feeling among owners of GM cars that Harley Davidson owners feel for each other. Huh?
Third: GM will learn there is more than one kind of quality. Robert Pirsig called it “romantic quality.” Again, the Japanese have a name for it: miryoku teki hinshitsu. It means the “bewitching” or “enchanting kind of quality.”
I truly want GM to succeed and I am glad they are adding “quality” to their vocabulary while delivering that promise in their cars. They just need to expand their definition of what quality means.
So, how much for a good Japanese dictionary?

Mary Minnick is not a “pat-you-on-the-back-atta-boy” kind of leader. As much as I need that kind of “parental encouragement” every now and then, being the corporate “mom” isn’t her style of leadership. And that’s the “real thing” her brand needs.
Minnick is the president of marketing, strategy, and innovation at Coca-Cola Co. – …. an audacious title, for an amazing woman, in a career which almost wasn’t.
She’s a Coke lifer who, at times, acted more like a “short timer.” She advocated “non-carb” beverages back when doing so was considered career suicide. Along the way she was told she “–pushed too hard, alienated everyone in North America” and “–nobody wants to work with you anymore.”
Dejected, she took the LSAT and applied to law school. Luckily, Sergio Zyman, the head of marketing at Coke, saw in Mary what others didn’t and convinced her to stay.
On another occasion, former Coke CEO Douglas N. Daft showed his support for Minnick by replying to requests to have her reassigned: “This woman will be there longer than you. She has my full support.”
Here are four “somethings” I love about Mary and any leader who steps up to grow their brand.
Mary leverages her chronic discontentment for the good of the brand. She told investors last December, “I tend to be quite discontented in general.” And “It will never be fast enough or soon enough or good enough.”
Too many business leaders have lost their hunger. Not their hunger for more money, but the hunger for intellectual, emotional, and relational challenges of the marketplace. Brands stop growing when the hungry stop leading.
Mary embraces the pain of a changing marketplace. The evidence is abundant even for an American brand icon like Coke. Consumers are flocking to a new breed of coffees, juices, and teas — all categories where Coke has been weak. According to BusinessWeek, PepsiCo Inc. has blown past Coke in stock performance, earnings growth, talent development and buzz. Pepsi now has a market value equal to Coke. Ten years ago, Coke was three times bigger. Brands stop growing when their leaders stop listening, observing, and growing with their customers.
Mary doesn’t “work around” the problem. Minnick doesn’t apologize for her direct approach: “Historically, we had a culture where putting the hard issues on the table made some people uncomfortable.” Mild-mannered people, talking in soft mild-mannered tones about wicked problems, will not save the brand. Brands stop growing when leaders prefer unity over brutal facts and accountability.
Mary knows transformational innovation when she sees it. Coke has been unusually prolific by launching more than 1,000 new drinks or new variations of existing brands worldwide in the past 12 months. Some, like the brisk-selling coffee-flavored Coca-Cola Blak, have been hits. But Mary knows that, in the long run, new flavors and brand extensions won’t be enough to make Coke a growth company again. She’s pushing to transform Coke from a soda-centric organization offering “me-too” products, to an innovative organization creating categories while identifying consumer trends.
Transformation is easy to talk about — hard to do. That’s why many tweak their brands rather than transform their brands. Brands stop growing when leaders let their organization suffer from “hardening of the categories” rather embrace real change.
Who are the “Marys” in your organization? Hungry brand owners who aren’t afraid to face the brutal facts and change with their customers are key to sustainable companies.
Listen to them, promote them, and don’t let them leave for law school.
Technorati tags: marketing href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/Coke" rel=tag>Coke Mary Minnick management

So, what are you to do when your products elicit that kind of response? Celebrate!
That’s exactly what the folks at Crocs, Inc., are doing. They’ve seen Crocs go from selling 1,500 pairs of shoes and a revenue of $24,000 in 2002 to last year’s sales of 6 million pairs with total revenues (including shoes, accessories, and clothing) hitting $108.6 million. In May, the financial gurus at Crocs projected 2006 sales to reach over $200 million.
This is a narrowcast, networked marketplace where many competitors compete flooding the world with way too many messages. You know that.
Old school mass-market thinking has to be adjusted and, in many cases, flat out abandoned. You know that.
You must, as Hugh so aptly puts it, “choose your slice carefully”. You know that too!
But how?
Embrace the hate to find your love. This is tough – it means risking disapproval. Many businesses would rather remain in the mediocre middle – where customers have no strong feelings about them, pro or con. The result is a camouflaged brand that no one sees or remembers. Example: Banks and jewelry stores …. especially in shopping malls!
One person’s object of desire can be another person’s object of distain. I am a huge Dan Pink fan. I know he’s right when he says, “Even the most mundane, utilitarian objects in our lives have been turned into objects of desire.” Example: One-third of the Whirlpool focus group rejected the design of the wildly successful Duet washer/dryer combination.
People unite around ugly as much as beauty. Want to build a community around your brand? Then let people unite and defend you. Example: “Ugly” is part of the social appeal Crocs. Jesse at HeadButler says, “When two Croc-wearing strangers meet, they tend to feel they’re old friends. These Crocs – they’re not only long-wearing and comfy, they’re the MySpace of shoes.”
Ugly can be temporary, while people adjust to “your kind of beauty”. I ask seminar participants what they think of the Scion xB. Nearly everyone says “it’s ugly”. Then some brave soul whispers, “I think they’re cute. At first I thought they were ugly but they kind of grew on me.” Initial reactions and lasting impressions are different things. The designers of the Scion xB dared to go for a “different kind” of beauty – one that takes time to be appreciated. Toyota asked: “Why be conventionally beautiful when you can be beautifully interesting?”
Build a brand worth being loved, desired, and even hated!
By the way, I still think Crocs are ugly.
Technorati tags: Crocs Dan Pink Gaping Void branding marketing

I was standing in the lobby of my bank (when was the last time you were actually in a bank lobby?) and she was my teller. I was asking for a little consideration. I felt compelled to give her a bit of personal history with my request, “I’ve banked here for 18 years. In spite of six buyouts and name changes I have stayed. So, can you please arrange to have ALL of today’s deposit available immediately rather than your standard 24-hour clearance policy?”
The “brand-killer” replied, “I’m sorry, but I can’t. The computer system is designed to allow only $200 to be immediately available until the rest of your deposit clears …. – no matter who you are.”
So, that was that. I sensed this bank’s brand was dying and was sure it would be dead before I got back to my car — there was nothing that could save it.
Then something remarkable happened: A co-worker, overhearing the conversation, interrupted with a “defibrillator” to shock the bank’s brand back from certain death. “You can cash this gentleman’s check, then make a cash deposit — all the funds will be available right away.”
Suddenly “the patient” had a steady pulse and was stabilized. I decided not to move my business elsewhere.
Financial services in general, and banks in particular, drive me crazy. I’ve had several as clients and have yet to find one brave enough or creative enough to do what it takes to be brand owners. When asked how they are different from their competitors, a bank’s standard answer is, “It’s our people!” Gee– I’ve never heard that one before. But I digress.
Who will save your brand? It will be someone who:

• Knows the brand well enough to identify when its dying in the eyes of your customers
• Knows that it’s OK to creatively solve problems in a moment of need
• Knows rules are occasionally acceptable to break when it’s in the interest of saving the brand
• Knows that work is more fun if you do what’s right for the people you serve
• Knows how to own the brand for themselves

When your brand goes “code blue” you can’t wait for the CEO to authorize the next big advertising campaign – you need “first responders” to save your brand.
I advise my clients to hire, develop, and coach their “first responders.” Remember, the brand you save may be your own.

Following are five pragmatic questions often asked of any new idea. If you are building a new brand or re-imagining an old one, refrain from asking these questions upfront:
Question #1 …. “How will we do it?” There is no emotional energy inside many companies because they were seduced by this simple, seemingly innocent, question. You suppress other, more important, questions when you ask “how” too soon. Start by asking passion-generating questions like:

• What makes this worth doing?
• Is this something I want to do?
• Is this something we ALL want to do?

What feels like a delay in action is an opportunity for the team to own the branding mission at a deep level. I’ve been in organizations that were “making great time, but going nowhere.” Their brands were DOA in most cases.
Question #2 …. “How long will it take?” The speed of today’s marketplace makes it tempting to go for a quick fix rather than crafting a brand for the long haul. Don’t underestimate the time it takes to create and fully operationalize your brand ownership vision.
Question #3 …. “How much will it cost?” It’s easy to rationalize brand-destructive actions: “We don’t produce things we really believe in because it takes too long or it costs too much.” Their brands become more infamous than famous.
Question #4 …. “How do we measure it?” Pragmatic efficiencies can kill brands before they have a chance to establish themselves. It drains the human “something else” from a product or service. Optimization cultures have a hard time holding off on this question – then they wonder why no one dares to innovate. Great brands often start with crazy ideas that are, initially, immeasurable.
Question #5 …. “How have others done it successfully?” Start out with this question and you’ll look just like your competitors. Brands are not built on “better sameness.” There are many brands stuck in the mediocre middle that began with the best practices of others.
Again, I’m not arguing against pragmatism – these are all valid questions. They just shouldn’t initiate the brand creation process:

• Determine what you want to do
• Focus on how much time, effort and treasure you will commit to your vision
• Put your humanity into it
• Create your unique difference

There will be plenty of time to be practical once you know what you really want to do. Don’t kill your brand with premature pragmatism — give it a fighting chance.
NOTE: The ideas in this posting are mine. The inspiration comes from a wonderfully provocative book by Peter Block, The Answer to How is Yes.

That’s not to say there were no Masi bikes being sold in Australia, but you’d need a micrometer to measure a market share that small. So what’s a challenger brand owner to do?
First: Define yourself for yourself – and no one else. Tim and Masi bikes have a self-referential identity, which means they don’t modify it very much for the rest of the world. Instead he’s confident enough to invite the world to partake of the unaltered Masi brand.
Tim writes, “I am a life-long, dyed in the wool jersey bicycle geek. I am now living out a dream as the Brand Manager of the bike I lusted after since I was 12 years old; Masi Bicycles. If you ever saw the movie ‘Breaking Away’, then you probably recognize the name Masi as the bike ridden by the movie’s hero, Dave. Since seeing that movie in 1982, I have been a compulsive bike geek with little hope of salvation.”
It’s tempting to let the market define you, your products, and your company …. especially when you are an unknown entity. But do so and you lose your difference.
When Cirque du Soleil first ventured beyond the friendly confines of French Canada to perform for U.S. audiences, they changed their name to “Circus of the Sun”. Why? “Well, U.S. audiences might not like our French name.” Shudders! Cirque du Soleil quickly learned the wisdom being true to their difference.
Second: Stay close to your “hard core” users. In Tim’s case this means the Masi Bike community, in particular, and the bike geek community, in general. Tim wades right into these communities looking for arguments, hugs, and beer parties. Why? So he can hear and help lead the conversation. It’s not surprising to see that he blogs and invites the raving fans and ranting critics into his conversation. So when Tim landed among the Aussies, he already knew how to speak bike geek with a distinct “Masi accent.”
Third: Never settle! Challenger brand owners know there’s no victory in achieving a “They’re OK” preference. They won’t rest until they convert all whom they encounter into “I didn’t know what I was missing!”, “Now I can die happy!”, “I want a tattoo of your logo!” fanatics.
How do you achieve THAT? Simple: Let your passion show. Don’t tame it with market research, brochures, and PR releases. Treat it like a wild lion and let it out of its cage. Tim’s very good at that.
In fact, that kind of passion can attract and convince even before the brand is experienced. Here’s a quote from one of those Aussie store managers who bought a Masi frame based solely on Tim’s passionate recommendation:
“I knew this was going to be an amazing bike to ride from the talk you gave at the Masi show in Brisbane. It delivers everything you promised and a whole lot more– I want to say thank you for giving me an opportunity to experience the best frame on the marketplace.”
A challenger brand manager’s work is never done. And the final chapter of Masi Bicycles reinvention has not yet been written. But Tim Jackson is a brand challenger from which we could all learn a thing or two.

Maybe so, but Robert isn’t so sure.
There seems to be enough left of branding to “irritate” Johnnie Moore, agitate Alan Mitchell and ignite Neil Boorman’s earthly branded goods.
I’ve met a few business leaders who wished branding were dead. “It’s confusing. Everyone tells me it’s important but can’t tell me what I should do. I’m spending money and getting what in return?” Most would love to “put out a contract” on branding and be done with it once and for all.
I’d like to keep branding around, but agree, things have got to change. Here’s how I am learning to keep branding alive:
First, recognize the term “branding” is not the problem. Our broadcast world and mass-market mindset has often connected this term with manipulation, lying and trickery. Abuse of a term does not argue for non-use – it argues for correct use.
Second, realize branding isn’t about branding, branding is about ownership. Branding represents the fascinating human instinct to mark what we own. Change the question from “How do we brand?” to “How do we mark our work, our organizations, and the things we create?”
Third, consider “brand ownership” as a framework for applying branding to the very real and new marketplace we all face. Do so by using the five brand ownership forces along with the question they raise:

• Difference: What is the creative difference we offer? Scion xB designers said, “We’d rather be interesting than beautiful” and marked their brand as different, ugly/cute, and successful.
• Invitation: How do we invite people to be a part of this? Saturn said, “We’ll sell our cars at one price nationwide” and marked their brand inviting to a segment of car buyers that dreaded the process.
• Relevance: What practical usefulness are we creating? Starbucks said, “People need a place that isn’t work and isn’t home” and marked their brand as a relevant “third place” for today’s lifestyle.
• Truthfulness: What happens when the truth is told here? CEO Darwin Smith said, “We can’t stay in the paper manufacturing business and succeed.” So Kimberly-Clark marked their brand with truthfulness, sold the mills, and went full force into the consumer market.
• Engagement: Who here really believes in what we are doing? Even Hugh Macleod said, “I don’t like branding. I don’t like brand theory.” So, he marks his career brand with what fully-engages his considerable talents– and I’m glad he did.

To paraphrase a quote from Mark Twain: “The rumors of the death of branding have been greatly exaggerated.”

- well, maybe not 1,000. I haven’t counted them all, but he definitely generated more than a few postings and comments in the blogosphere.
What’s remarkable is the way he did it: By refusing to have a conversation. First he allowed comments at his blog (contrary to his historic pattern), then he turned comments off again giving this explanation.
Howard Rheingold’s shoes came to my non-linear mind. I have often puzzled over Howard’s question, “Why doesn’t everyone paint their own shoes?”
Why doesn’t every marketing blogger allow comments on their blog? Why doesn’t everyone paint his or her own shoes like Rheingold? The simple answer is: We aren’t all the same …. though I wish more of us would paint our shoes.
Seth has his own unique brand ownership fingerprint – just like yours varies from mine. This is where the genetic material for “purple cows” begins.
Temperament varies. Seth confesses to being a bit compulsive when he reveals that his obsessive nature would compel him to answer every comment.
Season of life and career vary. At this point in his career, Seth doesn’t have the time to answer every comment.
Style varies. Seth says he doesn’t want his thinking and writing to be influenced by those leaving comments.
I know lots of you are thinking, “But this is inconsistent with what Seth teaches!” Yeah. So? I know we like our marketing gurus the way some of us like our theologians and politicians: Consistent. But where’s the fun in that?
“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.” so said Emerson. If we want the marketplace and the blogosphere to be a “human place,” expect inconsistency. It’s what people do best!