branding now, 10 dos, 10 don'ts
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Branding Now10 dos
10 don’tsGrant McCracken
grant27@gmail.comBBR 2014
Boston University, May 21, 2014
note to slide share viewers
This deck was written for Susan Fournier’s conference on branding at Boston University late May 2014
It’s a little “shouty,” expressing my frustration with the way branding how happens in practice.
I sum up the argument in the next four slides.
One brand, many meaningswe continue to act as if every brand is one thing. A very clear, simple, exact thing
Doesn’t it have to be many things? One brand, many meanings. Multiple, inconsistent, and sometimes messy meanings.
1
One brand, meanings both broad and obscurewe’re caught between two impulses: work designed to speak to the largest possible audience AND branding that makes tiny, precious, local meanings.
Don’t we have to do both? One brand with meanings both big and small, both broad and obscure.
2
The brander is the prime mover
We have worked to make the consumer a collaborator in and cocreator of the brand.
I wonder if we haven’t gone too far.
The brander is the prime mover, creating the world within which consumers, fans and content recreators work with brand meanings.
This is not a symmetrical relationship. The brand begins and ends with the brander.
3
Old media matters sometimes more than new media
We have concentrated too much on new media (mea culpa here too).
We need both old media and new media to build the brand.
Old media has a special role to play, creating the foundational meanings of the brand. (There are certain meanings we can’t make with new media.)
4
Ok, here’s the deck as I gave it yesterday
a transitional moment
• that guy at the party
• brand as bore• brand as bully
Oops, TV got better
bastard child catches up
good and bad for branding
http://www.wired.com/partners/netflix/
1. The banded brand
a brand with many layers or bands
Brand
outer-mostband, perfect
simplicity
2nd story wrapped in &
concealed by the 1st
next band, a finer signal
still
for the brand’s
deepest fans
if we build it, they will find
it
24 million viewers - 4 shows
http://cultureby.com/2014/05/big-bang-theory-theory-you-should-have-one.html
2. the “broad band” brand
the broadest meanings dearest to
the biggest segments
3. secret messages
the brand as a place the consumer can wander,
inhabit. Medieval Paris.
(The upper image is a secret image send by
Fringe show-runners to their fans.)
4. provocative
brands
annoying, actually
to win some, we gotta lose some
http://cultureby.com/2014/03/provocative-cadillac-rescuing-the-brand-from-bland-my-latest-at-hbr.html
5. brands that go into the worldwe are too mediated
brands should show up in the world
not to bang the drum but to play
http://blogs.hbr.org/2011/08/cessna-marketing-what-we-can-l/
6. brands that go into
the showthe perfect opposite of product placement
this Subaru ad incomprehensible unless you know the show
http://cultureby.com/2014/03/brands-being-human.html
7. brands that know where they
arebrands used to act like they existed unto themselves.
“context, who cares about context?”
http://cultureby.com/2004/07/site_specificit.html
8. the brand with a sense
of self mockery
RadioShack: The 80s called and they want
their store back
9. brands as creative platform
the brand as a starter-kitbrand as a platformbrand as a place to play
http://cultureby.com/2014/03/head-starts-creative-platforms-for-culture-makers.html
10. test for oxygen
Clive Sirkin, Kimberly-Clark, we give our
marketers “freedom and license”
like Ian Tait and the W+K lab after the Superbowl
Don’ts
bound to be more controversial
sorry
1. branding is not a
conversationThe brander is the
meaning maker, the arena within which the
brand lives.
Conversations are symmetrical. Brands are
asymmetrical.
2. branding is not a
collaborationthe brander is the prime mover, alpha & omega.consumers participate,
but they participate within the brand, once
the brander has put that brand in place
3. branding is not crowd sourcing
the Pharrell Williams“Happy” video feels
spontaneous and street sourced but it is in fact
carefully casted & crafted.
4. branding should not be
purpose driven
Our job is to be responsive to consumers, and to change with them
in real time.
It’s not about us. It’s about them.
5. branding is not about
storiesIt’s about meanings
“Stories” constrain us.
Meanings must be modular. Stories have narrative arcs,
characters and climaxes. Branders need to be
modular to build a banded brand
6. don’t inflict ourselves on
cultureMinnie Driver on The Riches
our most disgraceful moment ever
http://cultureby.com/2008/05/marketing-out-o.html
just say “no”to product placement
7. don’t act like it’s all about you
we are not welcome unless we have
something to contribute to culture
practice cultural arbitrage
hack culturehttp://cultureby.com/2014/04/cultural-arbitrage.html
http://cultureby.com/2014/04/hacking-culture-an-april-fools-edition.html
8. branding is not “all about new media”
old media is the major meaning maker Vince Gilligan, BB. no new media project can make meanings like these
new media essential for mediation
but the prime mover remains for most purposes old media
http://cultureby.com/2014/05/new-media-fundamentalists-how-will-they-react-to-the-revolution-in-tv.html
9. don’t do publicity stunts
Earn your media by contributing to culture. No
cheating, no stunts.
inhale culture,exhaling culture
and otherwise make the brand charming & useful
don’t be this guy
10. don’t make the
brand live in the moment
We need earliest warning possible
Reacting is not a strategy.
http://cultureby.com/2009/09/culture-in-real-time-data-visualization-and-the-cco.html
thank youthis presentation
will be up at www.cultureby.com
by end of tomorrow
Image by Alaine Delorme
Thanks again to Susan Fournier for including me in the conference
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