Tom Asacker

W.C. Fields on attitude

"Attitude is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than what people do or say. It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill."

One of the intellectual stumbling blocks that many people are running into with my new book is found in the title of Chapter Four: Positioning is Passé. I think it's because they have morphed the notion of positioning - which was originally a game of manipulating advertising messages to occupy a unique "position" in the customer's mind - into something else. Perhaps this (from the AMA):

Positioning refers to the customer's perceptions of the place a product or brand occupies in a market segment. In some markets, a position is achieved by associating the benefits of a brand with the needs or life style of the segments. More often, positioning involves the differentiation of the company's offering from the competition by making or implying a comparison in terms of specific attributes.

So tell me again. What "position" did Jobs carve out with the iPod? What specific "benefits" did he articulate? What comparisons did he make? And ditto for Shultz's Starbucks. I don't remember an ad exclaiming, "We brew better!" Do you? And Carl's Jr.? Help me with their competitive "position" again (pun intended)?

Positioning is passé. Yup, you read it right. Things are simply moving too quickly. So instead of trying to occupy a unique "position," develop a unique attitude. One that will alienate half of the world and turn on the other half. Here's cultural anthropologist Grant McCracken's take in a recent blog post:

At some point, almost all the important players in the world of marketing embraced the Hegarty trade off.*  They stopped trying to appeal to everyone all the time. They gave up climbing to ever cheerier, cheesier heights of good humor. They surrendered the “fun in the sun” creative that made advertising the laughing stock of the educated world. Most important, they released marketing from its minstrel pursuit of the maximally agreeable.

Or how 'bout this, from BusinessWeek's David Kelley:

Judging from the dozens and dozens of comments received by this blog both condemning the original Paris ad and Carl's Jr. and the ones telling the naysayers to "lighten up," I'd say CKE was on to something.

Think of it this way. I was dining recently with the head of product development of Chrysler who was talking about the company's success with the 300, Dodge Magnum and new Dodge Charger. I told him that as I drove up on the Magnum wagon, I commented to my wife that I really liked it and would consider it for my next set of wheels. My wife immediately commented how much she seriously disliked the car's looks. "Looks like a gangster's car," she said. My dining companion said. "Perfect." At Chrysler, he explained, they are looking for 60%-70 of people to really like a design, and the other 30% or so to seriously dislike it. The danger, he said, is in creating products about which 90%+ of the public simply shrug their shoulders out of apathy.

Okay 70/30. Whatever. But the message is pretty clear and compelling: Forget about trying to carve out a unique position. Instead, uniquely express that position.

Steve Jobs on design

"In most people's vocabularies, design means veneer. It's interior decorating. It's the fabric of the curtains of the sofa. But to me, nothing could be further from the meaning of design. Design is the fundamental soul of a human-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service."

I'm a big proponent of the importance of aesthetics and design to business success. One of my products (designed during my stint as a high tech business owner) even won an I.D. magazine design award. So I had to dig pretty deeply to discover what was bothering me while perusing my recent issue of Graphic Design USA.

Here it is. Most of the award winners, in categories ranging from annual reports and advertising to brochures and direct mail, are nothing but veneer. Deceptive, superficial show; a façadeto.

You read it right . . . deceptive! Most are creating false expectations. Expectations of encountering happy, funny, caring human beings. Or products and services that will blow us away. And you and I both know what we typically encounter.

Do I have a point? Yes I do. Read Steve Jobs description of design again: It's "the fundamental soul of a human-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service." The fundamental soul . . . that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service. Is that how you'd describe your latest ad or direct mail piece? C'mon.

McDonald's ads used to shout, "We like to see you smile?" Now it's, "I'm lovin' it." Really? Have you been to a McDonald's lately? Have you seen anyone smiling or lovin' anything? Veneer! My former bank portrays themselves in TV ads as the most sensitive, empathetic group of folks alive today (The descriptor "former" should give you a hint to the reality of that noise). Veneer!

I'm with Eames as design relates to business: "Design is a plan for arranging elements in such a way as best to accomplish a particular purpose." Now I'm not bashing designers or ad agencies. My guess is that no one has explained the purpose (a.k.a brand) to them. So they do the best that they can do, right? Even if it's a huge waste of the client's money.

The purpose of advertising, announcements, brochures, logos, direct mail, et al is to create an expectation. Period. Expectations that the company - and its partners - must be strategically poised to deliver on (also referred to as the experience). The experience of choosing and consuming a beverage. The experience of listening to and internalizing a sales presentation. The experience of being with a real estate, investment, law, accounting, medical, etc. professional. The experience of choosing a Sony. The outer layer. The one that touches the customer. That's what's critical today.

Don Marquis on influence

"In order to influence a child, one must be careful not to be that child's parent or grandparent."

You want to be his or her peer. Right? Read this article on "branding" Toronto from yesterday's Toronto Star (emphasis mine):

Toronto's "story" is that of a major city with unlimited potential, offering unlimited fun, unlimited culture and unlimited variety.

In short: Toronto unlimited.

Developing and launching that two-word tag line cost $4 million. But this investment could return many millions more if, as hoped, it sparks a tourism and development boom in Canada's largest city.

Despite having a great deal to offer, Toronto has had difficulty attracting its share of tourists. SARS devastated the community's reputation for a time, but erosion in the number of visitors coming to this city was evident even before that.

Experts concluded that a big part of Toronto's problem was that it lacked a compelling "brand" or "story." The city was without a special sense of place that could be captured simply with a memorable slogan and logo.

Officials from the city, province, private sector and federal government pooled their efforts, and their money, in a 13-month quest to find Toronto's brand. They held international focus groups, surveyed thousands of people, and consulted the industry experts.

Finally, they revealed their creation this week, along with a high profile advertising campaign bombarding residents of Chicago, New York and Washington with the "Toronto unlimited" message.

Now ask yourself: What would influence you to visit Toronto? One of those high profile ads, or these four lines from a recent Tom Peters blog post?

Toronto!

In the 60s I dated a woman getting a degree at the University of Toronto. The school was great, but the city was the pits. Today, Toronto is a glorious, "with it" global metropolis. Bloor Street, where I am, is as good as the Mag Mile in Chicago.

In my mind, Toronto could have saved most of that $4 million by hiring Ben and Jackie at Church of the Customer. Right? And that's what a $17.99 investment in my new book - A Clear Eye for Branding - would have saved them. As Robert Morris wrote in a recent email to me:

I am grateful to you and to A Clear Eye for Branding for encouraging me to challenge my core assumptions, premises, and (yes) biases about marketing, branding, and everything else that goes bump in the night.

Please challenge yours.

Daniel J. Boorstin on celebrity

"A sign of celebrity is often that their name is worth more than their services."

When I was in Vegas last week I noticed a few changes at the larger casinos. First, you can no longer put a coin or token into a slot machine. Instead, you feed in a bill and, when - and if - you win and cash in, the machine spits out a redeemable ticket on which your winnings are posted and bar-coded. The machine simulates coins dropping by producing a clang . . . clang . . . clang . . . sound. Alas, it just didn't feel the same to me.

I also noticed celebrity images on poker chips. The Palms Casino has chips picturing reality-TV star Nicole Richie, model Brooke Burke, Survivor winner Amber Brkich and motorcycle builder Jesse James. The Hard Rock has chips featuring Coldplay, Motley Crue, Billy Idol and Lenny Kravitz.

Popular culture has been a draw on slot machines for a while. Think Wheel of Fortune, Star Wars, Kenny Rogers' The Gambler, etc. But this is even more ridiculous . . . and fun! Imagine telling your friends that you have just won ten Pamela Andersons. And I'm sure that some day soon, you'll be able to pay a premium to have your own mug etched on chips. Or perhaps, the beautiful face of your newly discovered good luck charm!

Reggie Jackson on China

"I was reminded that when we lose and I strike out, a billion people in China don't care."

My guess is that they'll care sometime in the near future.  Did you hear the news? China's Haier just bid $1.28 billion for Maytag. Nothing to worry about, right?

Here's what I don't understand. A few years ago I was asked by a client if I would entertain sitting on a board of a large Chinese manufacturer. "They're looking for expertise in brand development," was the reason I was given.

I started wondering, "What would prevent the Chinese from buying other international talent; like star athletes, product designers, game developers, film makers, etc. Doesn't talent follow the money?"

Earlier this year, Lenovo Group Ltd. bought the PC-making unit of IBM. TCL Corp. has been active, buying the cell phone making assets of France's Alcatel SA and the TV-making assets of France's Thomson. Oil company CNOOC Ltd. has expressed interest in U.S. oil company Unocal Corp., and China's Minmetals Corp. has considered Canadian mining firm Noranda Inc.

What does - or doesn't - this all mean? My gut tells me that it means a lot! Am I missing something? While your contemplating future scenarios, here's an interesting article on Haier from McKinsey: click here.

Goethe on personality

"Personality is everything in art and poetry."

And now that we've officially transitioned to the "feelings economy" (at least in the U.S.), personality is everything in business as well. Check out this post from AdPulp:

Spike Jones at Brains On Fire likes to order music from CD Baby, the independent musician's friend in distribution. Any site that sells discs by Garaj Mahal is okay by me. But what Spike points to is the extraordinary customer service touches, evident even in their packing letter.

Spike,

Thanks for your order!

Your CD has been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow.

A team of 50 employees inspected your CD and polished it to make sure it was in the best possible condition before mailing.

Our packing specialist from Japan lit a candle and a hush fell over the crowd as he put your CD into the finest gold-lined box that money can buy.

We all had a wonderful celebration afterwards and the whole party marched down the street to the post office where the entire town of Portland waved 'Bon Voyage!' to your package, on its way to you, in our private CD Baby jet on this day, Monday, August 9th.

I hope you had a wonderful time shopping at CD Baby. We sure did. Your picture is on our wall as 'Customer of the Year'. We're all exhausted but can't wait for you to come back to CDBABY.COM!!

Thank you once again,

Derek Sivers, president, CD Baby
the little CD store with the best new independent music

Once again, it's not what you do. It's how you do it that counts today.

Steve Jobs on graduating from college

"Stay hungry, stay foolish."

Read his entire Stanford commencement speech (click here).

Then print it out and read it with your children.

Roger Ebert on movies

"A movie is not about what it is about. It is about how it is about it."

And so is a car, a credit union, an airline and a map. That's right . . . a map! Would you pay $7.99 for a folded paper map of the U.S.? How about $19.99 for a laminated version? You would if it was a Unique Media Map.

I saw my first one at a little shop at the San Jose airport Saturday. (If you click the small image above, you'll get a feel for what I'm about to describe.) Each map is hand-drawn and painted in a watercolor technique that visually comes alive. You experience a three-dimensional, bird's-eye view that helps you visualize both the individual landmarks and overall landscape of the area.

A map! Just a map. How many darn maps have we seen in our lifetime? My goodness, if it can be done with a map, it can be done with anything.

Edward O. Wilson on information

"We are drowning in information, while starving for wisdom."

This just in (okay . . . two months ago): Information fogs the brain

The flood of emails, cell-phone calls, and text messages that bombard modern workers can lower their IQs twice as many points as smoking marijuana, a new study says. And they didn't even consider reading blogs! Researchers at the University of London found that trying to work while checking messages temporarily knocks about 10 points off a person's IQ. (Smoking pot, by contrast, results in a loss of four IQ points.)

Ummm . . . anyway . . . what was I just saying? Ahh, forgetaboutit. I gotta grab a few more chocolate chip cookies and check out some more of my favorite blogs. ;)

George Will on the future

"The future has a way of arriving unannounced."

Here's an excerpt from Chapter Four of A Clear Eye for Branding:

Look, times are pretty strange. People will go out of their way and pay a premium for products and services that are important to them, to their self-definition. But in categories or for things that don't matter to them emotionally, they're basically looking to save time and money. Why do you think that brand power has shifted away from fast-moving consumer goods companies and local merchants, to the big-box retailers?

Because of a larger selection and lower prices?

Exactly. An expectation - based on experience - of saving time and avoiding a bad decision on stuff that simply doesn't matter much. Stuff that's "good enough."

Yes, but I've even noticed some of those retailers getting into high-end stuff.  Luxury items and designer products.

And why shouldn't they? They've earned the customers' trust, and now they're going to try to go deeper into those relationships with stuff that does matter - whether it's aesthetically pleasing items or a range of services.

And now this from USA Today: Wal-Mart aims to clean up stores, improve goods

Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) said Friday it needs to clean up its stores, treat employees well and bring in more upscale goods like organic food and trendy clothes to revive sales and profit growth. Executives at the world's biggest retailer said their "game plan" for this year involves targeting wealthier shoppers who may buy basics like food at Wal-Mart but look elsewhere for fashionable items like clothing and housewares.

Once you get a visceral understanding of what a brand is all about and why people choose the ones they choose, you'll be able to see this kind of thing coming. Hurry up, before it's too late.