Marketing Pop Culture

Nike and the "continually curious" organization

At it's core, the Nike brand has been about authenticity, particularly to the athletic enthusiast.  By staying tuned to what the core enthusiasts are into--music, slang, dress codes, athletes they admire, etc.--and fully understanding what it means to be immersed in that lifestyle, the brand has been able to grow its market share by giving us regular folks the impression that a bit of that magic dust will rub off on us.  Just buy some Nike apparel and you'll at least feel like a world-class athlete.

It was thanks to a post by Ed Cotton that I learned about Wednesday's profile of Nike CEO Mark Parker in the Wall Street Journal.  Ed pulled the following quote:

"I have a personal interest in popular culture and the influence of culture on the consumer landscape," says Mr. Parker, rattling off the worlds he turns to for inspiration: interior design, cuisine, art and music among them.

Yes, I'd say that it is highly unusual for a CEO to be interested/invested in pop culture.  However, this is  crucial to professional success at Nike.  In their book, Chasing Cool: Standing Out In Today's Cluttered Marketplace, Noah Kerner and Gene Pressman quote former Nike CMO Scott Bedbury on this very point:

"If you were the head of Nike Basketball, you damn well better know what's going on in the minds of young basketball players--the music they listen to, their vernacular, how they define success, what they fear, what they dream.  The bulk of it is just about getting out there and wandering around.  And anybody in the marketing group at Nike was penalized, if not put into early retirement, if they didn't get out there, if they weren't continually curious."

So here's a corporate culture that breeds and rewards continous curiousity.  So its outreach to  influential influencers is not, as I see it, simply coolhunting, as the Journal article tries to suggest.  Rather, these choices made with far more insight into pop culture than most brands will ever have.  Nike is reaching out to people who will matter to its core.  The ripple effects that reach the mainstream are enough to keep it elevated above just another apparel brand.  At the end of the day, what the company has done is that it has made its employees--and here's my acknowledgement of Grant McCracken's work on my own thinking--"listening posts" that help it interpret changes in the cultural landscape.

Now, speaking of both Grant and Nike, you'll want to check out this post.  He talks about his experience with the Nike+ running shoes that lets upload your jogging mileage to the Web.  Suddenly, you're no longer involved in a solitary activity.  The cool insight here is how the company leveraged technology to tap into its consumers' competitive spirit.

Too often companies feel like they have all the answers within their walls.  But that only makes for muddling along in the middle of the market.  Just in case you haven't figured it out, there's no money in the middle anymore.

So, brand managers, would YOU trust Diddy with your brand?

In light of today's announcement that Diddy will be acting as CMO for Ciroc vodka, I think this question is absolutely critical.  Another: Where are the Ciroc brand managers?  Are they so afraid of--and, perhaps, inept at--marketing to urban audiences that they will hand over their brand to an outsider?  Things like this make me think about a brand's courage, about whether or not is has a compelling position, etc.  Is Diageo admitting that they have absolutely no clue about how to speak to urban audiences?  Seems like that's the case, and it seems desperate.

We should all watch this to see if Diddy can significantly impact sales and create more value for the vodka.  I have my doubts, but am open to being pleasantly surprised.

In the meantime, one of the causes of my concern is his launch of his own "Unforgivable" fragrance.  By the looks of this video--all ego and cliche--the fragrance might be better named "Coercion".  See for yourself.

Interbrand: "All Brands Are Not Created Equal"

Brands which place high importance on managing the economic value of their intangible assets, and primarily their brands, consistently outperform basic economic measures.

---Interbrand's 2007 Best Global Brands Study

Hat tip to the folks at the ANA for highlighting this and providing a succinct overview of the contents.  You can also go directly to the Interbrand site and download the PDF for a deeper dive.

Spoiler: The #1 global brand belongs to Coke.

Facebook and brands in socially networked environments

So it’s only been a month since I’ve really been active on Facebook (FB) and I like what I see.  First, let me say that I’m on both platforms. FB is a different kind of experience than MySpace, largely because it seems easier to navigate and customize.  The one big drawback of FB is that you have to be a user in order to see pages.  That limits its usefulness as a business building platform, since your page is not open to the world. 

But once you’re in, you find that FB is highly flexible.  In fact, thanks to the News Feed section, which give updates on what’s happening in your network, you learn a lot:: Who’s become friends; who’s modified their profile; and who’s added new applications.  It’s the latter that strikes me as interesting.

The big question is: What’s the role of a brand within a socially networked environment?  Is it enough for a brand to have lots of friends?  Even giving this only the most superficial of thought, the answer would seem to be no.  After all, having lots “friends” doesn’t necessarily mean that a brand has high engagement.

Which is where FB applications come in.  I haven’t subscribed to many, but I like the idea behind them, particularly as they work within FB.

Comics and Brand India

Seems that India will not be satisfied conquering the world of business and technology.  While browsing the racks at my local comic shop, I came across Devi.  Yet another story of--what else?--good versus evil, right?  Yes and no.  What's exciting here is that this is one of the first offerings from Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Comics.  The debut Shakti line focuses on mining and re-imagining Indian mythology, and is backed and supported by Indian heavyweights author Deepak Chopra and Oscar-winning filmmaker Shekhar Kapur.  According to reports, a separate Directors Cut line will feature stories by filmmakers John Woo, Guy Ritchie and Kapur, who will develop stories and content that can be turned into global franchises.

Once again, the East has taken a page from the playbook of the West: Embrace your rich cultural history, put the best creative minds and together with significant financial support, and repackage it for global consumption.  Now, no one can say what the ultimate success of this venture will be.  However, what I think this will do is add yet another nuance to the ongoing conversation about Brand India for mainstream Western audiences.

Tags: Brand India, Indian comics, Virgin Comics, Sir Richard Branson, Deepak Chopra, Shekhar Kapur, Devi

"What we do in this life echoes in eternity!"

Couldn’t resist the Gladiator quote, but it’s particularly relevant to marketers now that we’re past all of the World Cup frenzy.

So, tell me: What was France’s Zidane thinking when he decided to head butt Italy's Materazzi in the sternum?  That this is a valid response to whatever Materazzi said?  That he wouldn’t get caught?  Whatever.

First, if you’re the star player who’s planning to retire after this World Cup, assume everyone is watching your every move.  Imagine Michael Jordan thinking that no one would see him slug an opposing player in the vicinity of a basketball court during the NBA Finals.

Zidane’s human, you say?  A momentary lapse of judgment?  Again: Whatever.  Zidane is one of the best penalty kickers in the game.  But his red card meant that he had to sit out when his team needed him most.

So, what do you think the first thing that the French will remember about Zidane?  Not only did he lose the World Cup for them, but he tarnished his career.  Peep this quote from the New York Times:

What could have been a glorious coronation of the soccer career of the French captain Zinédine Zidane became a shameful departure Sunday when he was ejected from the World Cup final for committing an astonishing act of unsportsmanlike behavior.

Assume every day is your last World Cup.  How do you want your brand remembered?

To quote another favorite film of mine: “Thus endeth the lesson.”

Tags: Zinedine Zidane, Marco Materazzi head-butt, World Cup, Gladiator, The Untouchables

Warning, Brand Marketers: Play At Your Own Risk

Today, Stuart Elliott reported in the New York Times:

General Mills will let its two principal agencies, Campbell Mithun and Saatchi & Saatchi, determine the media in which ads run and which agencies will create them, in a bottom-up approach. Previously, the approach was top-down as brand managers at General Mills coordinated those efforts, working not only with the principal agencies but also with agencies that produced online, retail and minority campaigns.

The goal is "to make sure a campaign, from the get-go, is media neutral, going to the best place for that brand," Mr. [Mark] Addicks [General Mills' CMO] said. Media neutral means that ads run where they belong most, rather than in outlets predetermined by tradition or the size of a commission.

First, I commend General Mills’ CMO for recognizing that he has a problem. Here’s a man who’s investing over half-a-billion dollars a year on his various brands and he’s seeing that the returns just aren’t there.  However, everyone take note: This is a stop-gap measure at best that—I predict—won’t effectively address the real problems that the company’s marketing organization is working to overcome, i.e., to “adapt to the new-media landscape as it tries to reach consumers using nontraditional approaches like the Internet, e-mail marketing and branded entertainment.” Mark, it’s no longer simply about getting the media placements right.

Caught by the Catchy Song? Here's Why. . .

Futurelab highlights a recent study that attempts to explain what makes a song “catchy”. As one commenter notes, it doesn’t necessarily denote a good or bad song, just one that sticks in your head.

Of course, the immediate question is this: How can a marketer more purposefully select songs/sounds that offer a better delivery vehicle for a brand message or call to action? Apparently, there’s been some considerable thought devoted to “sonic branding.”

Tags: sonic branding, Futurelab