Tom Asacker

George Will on American football

"Football incorporates the two worst elements of American society: violence punctuated by committee meetings."

Lighten up George! And anyway, Sunday's Super Bowl ads are sure to entertain sans violence. We'll just have to tolerate some sophomoric humor, dizzying special effects, and a little bit of sexual innuendo (if we're lucky). 

Tune in below for some light-hearted Super Bowl ad trivia, a link to some great chili recipes, and our very surprising game predictions (not).

Thomas Moore on wisdom

"Wisdom and deep intelligence require an honest appreciation of mystery."

Interbrand has just released The 2007 Brand Marketers Report, its annual survey on brands and branding.  In the survey they asked the experts to tell, in their own words, what they believed to be the most critical aspects of successful branding.  Here are the ranked "aspects of success" that received more than 10% of the total responses.

1. Consistency (36%)
1. Understanding of Customer

2. Understanding of Customer/Target (18.2%)
2. Relevance

3. Message/Communication (14.7%)                           
3. Differentiation/Uniqueness

4. Creative/Design/Brand ID (12.8%)                         
4. Key Stakeholder Buy-In

5. Relevance (12.4%)                                                
5. Creative/Design/Brand ID

6. Differentiation/Uniqueness (12.0%)                        
6. Consistency

7. Key Stakeholder Buy-In (10.9%)                              
7. Message/Communication  

Consistency is more important than understanding the mystery of why customers choose what they choose? Well, so much for crowd wisdom; at least collective brand expert wisdom. 

How would you rank those 7 aspects? If you want to see what I think, simply highlight the invisible text under each ranking. 

Oscar Wilde on questions

"Questions are never indiscreet, answers sometimes are."

I receive a lot of questions via email.  Most involve marketing, selling, customer relations and media.  Every so often, someone will ask for my opinion about innovation or employee relations. A while back I received a question about design; more specifically, the human dynamic of design within a business enterprise.

"Dear Tom.  I keep hearing a lot (and you say so yourself) about the increased emphasis on design in business. But how do you do it?  How do you get "designers" to think more strategic and get involved in business decisions - and "non-designers" to think more like designers. After all, we come from two different school of thoughts and we use different methods for achieving results. Business people seek to fuel growth by building from bulletproof, reproducible and reliable systems. Designers work by imagining something new, different and better every time - a fundamental difference in the way each side thinks about creating value.  How do you do it?"

Although I once managed an award-winning design process at an innovative and fast growth company, I don't feel comfortable providing an answer.  My limited experience with design management was over ten years ago; a life-time in today's quickly changing world of business.  So, instead of taking a risk at providing an "indiscreet" answer, I reached out to my friend Jens Hilgenstock.

Jens lives and breathes everything design. He studied management, art history and sociology and holds a masters degree in business from the University of Trier, Germany. During his studies he volunteered in reorganizing the legendary 1920s design school Bauhaus in the East-German city of Dessau, right after the fall of Berlin Wall.  Jens played a key role in building up Germany's leading design management consultancy in the mid 90s and later joined German Rail, where he was responsible for the brand and design strategies group wide. With the turn of the millennium he founded a pioneering consultancy focused on the organizational aspects of brand and design strategies. Jens currently lives in Spain from where he works as an independent adviser.  Here is Jen's response:

"Dear reader.  I think you have already come to the most important conclusion: design is not management, management is not design. In my experience as a design manager, I found that this is the most fundamental and single most important lesson one can learn. Go from there.

I find it very helpful to look at the difference in the processes. Management - not necessarily leadership - is built on command and control.  And the process often has the underlying assumption that you can reach an objective in a rational and linear way. In design the processes are slightly different. Nobody would assume that they are strictly rational and, when you look at them, they are not linear either.

You meet a manager in an elevator, you ask him where he is in a certain project and, if he is a good manger, he will be able to give you a pretty precise answer. Addressing the same question to a designer, he will tell you, "No idea, ask me again when I am done."  The quality of design processes is only measured at the end. So what can you do to manage design processes, to direct them and to improve the quality?  You can produce many "ending points" - develop prototypes fast and go with them to the next step (the IDEO-method).

Another thing is crucial though: as design processes naturally deal with a lot of insecurity, you should abandon any unnecessary insecurity from the very first second.  In other words: how you start a project is crucial. Start bold!  All the information has to be on the table.  All the roles have to be defined. The time table should be completely clear. Do not expect designers to bring in some crazy creativity that solves all your unaddressed problems. Communicate the objectives precisely and then: let go!  A good briefing and a bold start are the best that you can do for you and your design team. Be prepared and then let go.

Integrating design into a management setting it is very much about extremely precise project management. Remember, design process are open processes; they only allow you to judge the outcome.  Let them get there how ever they have to get there. And again . . . START BOLD.

"Be prepared and then let go."  Perfect advice for business, and for life. Thank you Jens.

Carl Sandburg on wondering

"Where was I going? I puzzled and wondered about it til I actually enjoyed the puzzlement and wondering."

That's the feeling I sometimes get as I traverse the blogosphere, devour the business media, and deal with my daily routines.  This week I was puzzled and wondered about a few things.

• How could Ford Motor Company manage to lose $35 million dollars per day during 2006 (and that includes Saturdays and Sundays)?  And how strange is it that the Ford loss for 2006 happens to almost exactly match the profit Toyota earned in 2005?
• I wonder why I've been receiving telesales calls to remind me to view online content.
• Wow! In only three years, people have legally purchased and downloaded more than 3 billion tracks from iTunes.
• There's a session at the World Economic Forum in Davos tomorrow entitled, "Brands: Today's Gods?"  I don't buy it.  But if you do, you can buy a pair of Blackspot sneakers and become a stockholder in the Blackspot Anti-Corporation.
• Why are people so fascinated with celebrity? And I'm not just talking about Paris Hilton-type celebrity.  Very rational business people pay a lot of money to be at conferences with the likes of Jack Welch, Tony Robbins and Richard Branson.  I just received an email from the folks at the TED Conference informing me that I would no longer be able to shell out $4,000 to attend their annual conference.  Instead, I have to become a TED member at the everyday low cost of $6,000 per year.
• I wonder how a Swedish construction company beat out all U.S.-based companies for the $998 million contract to design the new, open-air stadium at the Meadowlands sports complex in East Rutherford, N.J.?

William James on common sense

"Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing."

Two pieces of "branding" news caught my attention this morning.  One appears comon sensical, and the other non sensical. First, the practical.

Crayon maker Binney & Smith (who?) has changed its name to Crayola; its iconic brand. See, I don't even have to get into why this was a good move.  It just makes sense.  On the other hand . . .

..

In the NBA's largest naming-rights deal ever, Barclays, a British bank with no branches in the U.S., is paying more than $300 million to put its name on the Brooklyn, N.Y., arena that will be the new home for the New Jersey Nets basketball team.

Yo!  Brooklyn fans are going to think the stadium was named after Charles Barkley.  A smart way to spend $300 million?  Forgetaboutit!

Edwin Louis Cole on drowning

“You don't drown by falling in the water; you drown by staying there.”

That quote sounds obvious, but obviously it's not.  Check out Zimmerman's Pick-N-Click-Ads.  This just blows my mind!  Here's some of the agency's web copy found under the link called "Strategy:"

"We've assembled a team of advertising professionals, each with over 25 years of automotive advertising experience, that have mastered the art of marketing strategy down to a science. Now, we're opening up the lab to you! Simply decide which of our focused strategies you'd like to employ and pick and click your way to sales success!"

Did you read that GM, Ford, VW, Audi, et al.?  Success is simply a "pick and click" away! 

Leo Burnett on marketing

"Fun without sell gets nowhere, but sell without fun tends to become obnoxious."

Here's a great example of "plaid branding" using an upcoming Super Bowl ad, courtesy of our friends at AdPulp:

K-Fed's "Rappin' Patty" On Superbowl Sunday

The Wall Street Journal (paid sub. req.), in what may be a first for the paper, is running a piece on K-Fed.

Nationwide Mutual Insurance has tapped Kevin Federline, soon-to-be ex-husband of pop star Britney Spears, to star in its 30-second Super Bowl spot, a move that guarantees the insurer acres of free publicity.

The spot, which will run in the game's third quarter, is set up to look like a rap video featuring Mr. Federline, wearing a baseball cap and wireless headset. Among the lyrics he raps: "Ain't got no more time for Miss BS; and PS, now I'm rappin' patty. Yeah number one. With a shimmy shake too...lovin' that special sauce from me."

As the camera pulls back, the punch line is revealed: Mr. Federline is seen working the drive-thru window at a fast-food joint. "Life comes at you fast. Be ready with a Nationwide annuity and you could be guaranteed income for life," a voiceover intones.

Mohandas Gandhi on culture

"A nation's culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people."

In 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated while on a trip to support lowly sanitation workers. Today, one of the most popular items in the official line of New York City apparel is the Sanitation Department caps.

As strange as it sometimes appears, capitalism is the most efficient way to allocate resources.  The question for this special day is: how do we honor Dr. King's life and message of compassion, and modify the system so that it also represents the hearts and souls of our people? 

Winston Churchill on change

"To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often."

In our recent "7 Predictions for 2007" show, I stated that "plaid is the new black" in marketing.  If you're interested in learning more, here's the link to my latest article, "Plaid is the New Black & White."  Do let me know your thoughts.

Dr. Seuss on why he watches GuruBBQ

"I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells."

Are you awake?  Good. On pages 86-87 of "A Clear Eye for Branding," I wrote:

Go Deep

Here's how business used to work. You introduced a few new products or services and then you tried to sell them to as many people as possible.  You went wide.  See?

This way of operating finally produced way too many similar options and not enough time for people to evaluate and choose among them. It also tended to dilute the strength of the brand's relationship with its customers. It was simply too easy to switch to something new and better.

Today, it's all about going deep, with relevant products and services and particularly information, into a unique subculture.  Let the group define itself by its people's desires and behavior, and then introduce your brand into that subculture and get to work helping them.

One of Tom Peters' three MVP Companies for 2006 is Jim's Group. Go to Jim's home page (click here) and take a look at his list of franchise opportunities (left column); to wit:

Jim's Mowing Canada, Jim's Mowing UK, Jim's Antennas, Jim's Bookkeeping, Jim's Building Maintenance, Jim's Carpet Cleaning, Jim's Car Cleaning, Jim's Computer Services, Jim's Dog Wash, Jim's Driving School, Jim's Fencing, Jim's Floors, Jim's Painting, Jim's Paving, Jim's Pergolas, Jim's Pool Care, Jim's Pressure Cleaning, Jim's Roofing, Jim's Security Doors, Jim's Trees, Jim's Window Cleaning, Jim's Windscreens.

Looks like Jim read the book. ;)