Strategy

Brett Favre’s brand = sort of sad, can’t let go Has Been?

August 7, 2008

Unless you’ve been in a cave, by now you know that:

• Brett Favre was one of the most revered quarterbacks of the last 20 years
• He broke records left and right, and is the only 3 time MVP in National Football League history
• Has a Super Bowl ring
• Played one season (his first) with the Falcons but really has always been a Packer
• Tearfully retired with glory and honor at the end of the 2007 season

Now that’s the way to end a career and control the legacy of your brand.  If the story had stopped there…that is how Brett Favre would have been universally remembered.  Even people who dislike the Packers or Brett himself could not deny or really sully his greatness.

But…Brett messed with his own brand story.

Note:  I don’t know if Brett has more good games in him.  This post isn’t about the viability of his playing skills or if he retired too early.  It’s about being mindful of managing your brand.

Brett Favre retired at the end of last season.  His tearful press conference was the perfect end to the brand story about an ordinary guy who just loved the game. 

But, for whatever reason, Brett couldn’t leave it alone.  He put the Packers in the unenviable position of having to be the villain and trade their legend to the Jets.  The Packer fans are angry that their team traded their hero, the Packers organization has to feel a whole lot less love towards him for making them the bad guy, Brett has to be secretly disappointed that his team didn’t want him back but has to put on the fake smile as he dons a Jets ball cap at the press conference and…the brand gets muddy.

Now, for a lot of fans…Brett has become the guy who couldn’t walk away.  Couldn’t be decisive about his own career.  Wasn’t a Packer to the end.  Sort of a sad story — the man who couldn’t quite step out of the spotlight. 

I’m not saying it wasn’t his right to decide to come back.  I’m suggesting that he had, through his choices and actions, created the perfect brand story.

Until he didn’t anymore.

What do you think?  Will Brett’s choices change the way he’s remembered?  Will his brand now be marked with an asterisk?

Update: Rush Nigut adds his thoughts to this debate from a perspective that only a great business attorney could bring to the conversation.

Check out BizBox’s well-written take on Favre’s decision.

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You sell or else

July 30, 2008

When I think of the legends of our business, I immediately think of David Ogilvy.   

He was responsible for much of the iconic ad copy and "characters" we all reference as the pinnacle of advertising in the 50’s and 60’s.  (I love Gene’s story about an impromptu conversation he had with Ogilvy in the company’s cafeteria.)

His book, Ogilvy on Advertising is still one of the best.  If you haven’t read it, you should.  If you have, you should read it again.

Thanks to the exhaustive archives of YouTube, here’s a little glimpse into how Ogilvy viewed advertising.  He didn’t have much respect for creativity just to be creative.  He believed that the job of advertising (and I would guess he’d extend that to all marketing efforts) was to sell something.

Hat tip to Efraín Mendicuti for sharing this on his excellent blog, The daily stuff and the not so.  Efraín makes the point that if as you listen to Ogilvy you substitute interactive marketing for direct response, you can see what Ogilvy would think about the digital world we are cutting our teeth on today.

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Recession proof your business – FREE book!

July 29, 2008

Imagine what it would be like to sit down with 38 great minds in business, sales and marketing and hear from them exactly what to do and not to do during a recession.       

Well, that’s basically what Scott Aughtmon has done for us.

He interviewed 38 top experts in business, sales & marketing and asked them 3 questions:

• What’s the common mistake most businesses make in a recession?
• What are the methods you would use to survive and prosper in a recession?
• What moneymaking opportunities do you see available for business owners during this time?

Then he created two e-manuals that reveal their answers and give us their simple methods to help our businesses survive and prosper in a recession.

And…thanks to Scott, I have 10 sets of the books to give away.  Plus, there are some bonus giveaways which make this even better!  Here’s how you can win the books, valued at $57.

• Comment on this post (one entry)
• Tweet about the book giveaway (include URL)  and send me a screen shot (one entry)
• Post about the giveaway (include URL/link) on your blog and send me the link (two entries)

I’ll put everyone’s name on a slip of paper and let my daughter draw one out of a hat.  You can’t get more impartial than that!  The drawing will be held Tuesday, August 5th Thursday, August 7th (thanks to my travel woes) so you have one week.

The experts that Scott interviewed include the likes of Jay Levinson, Michael Gerber, Laura Ries, Ron McDaniel, and Debbie Weil among others. 

I’ve read the books and they are packed with smarts and good counsel.  But if you don’t want to take my word for it…how about these endorsements?

"When times are tough, there is no ‘one’ answer. ‘Succeed and Prosper in a Recession’ provides many answers and it provides them through the insights of America’s marketing masters. If you can’t get the answers from this ebook, you haven’t figured out the question, much less the problem. This book is a winner that will help you win."

Jeffrey Gitomer

"Scott Aughtmon has compiled just the right advice for just the right people and at just the right time. Surviving and prospering during a recession will never be a piece of cake. But it will be a whole lot easier if you’ve read the wise counsel in Scott’s book. I recommend it to the skies, recession or no recession."

Jay Conrad Levinson

"What a refreshing, uplifting break from the doom and gloom that’s all around us. Reading this book is like getting an instant MBA from people who have made millions of dollars for themselves and others — regardless of the so-called economic climate."

David Garfinkel

If you just can’t wait or don’t win the free copies, you can read more about the book and order your own copy here.  And yes, there is an affiliate program and no, I am not participating. 

I don’t make a buck and you get smarter.  Doesn’t that work out well for you!

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How do you start a conversation?

July 25, 2008

Quite a while ago, I celebrated my 1,000th comment.  It was your good fortune that the 1,000th commenter was David Reich.  I invited him, to celebrate the milestone, to write a guest post.

Fast forward to earlier this month and ironically, I was David’s 1000th commenter.  So he kindly returned the favor and extended an invitation to me.

There are lots of blogs out there.  Many of them contain brilliant content.  But very little conversation.  They are a digital lecture.   They don’t invite discussion or opposition.  They just talk. 

I suspect the blogs that actually encourage and nurture conversation are the ones that will be around long after the lecturers have faded away.  So we’ll get to enjoy David’s wisdom and insights for a long time to come.  Why?

David is a gifted conversationalist.  He makes us feel welcome and asks questions that make us think.  And we caught up in the conversation and jump in.  As my post is in celebration of David’s 1,000th comment, it seemed fitting to talk about the art of conversation.

Come on over to David’s blog and let’s talk about how you initiate a conversation with your customers.  Because most businesses are getting it all wrong.

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Are you simplifying things for your customers?

July 23, 2008

Everything about our lives is complicated, noisy and overcrowded.  Which is why we are so drawn to simplicity in design and process.  A large part of the iPhone’s success is because of it’s simple elegance.

Check out this slideshare presentation based on  John Maeda’s book The Laws of Simplicity.  Watch it with a critical eye aimed at your own business.

I think the big question for all of us today is how are we making our clients’ lives simpler?  What are you doing to evoke an iPhonic reaction to working with you?

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How is your website holding up against search engine optimization?

July 21, 2008

You can’t attend a marketing conference or talk to anyone about their company’s website without hearing the words "Search Engine Optimization" or SEO.  But the truth is, many business owners or marketing professionals can’t define what SEO is all about, beyond that when done well, it will result in an increase in ranking on Google.

They also don’t have any idea what factors contribute to SEO success or failure.  Well guess what…we don’t have to understand the complex algorithms.  Heck, I’m pretty sure most of the employees of Google don’t understand them!  You just need to know what areas within your site that need some tweaking.

Here’s a free way to see how your site measures up.   Go to HubSpot’s websitegrader.com, which will give you useful and detailed information about your site’s SEO power and where you can crank it up even more.

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You learn by listening (build a blog #1)

July 21, 2008

I spent part of last week with a client team who is about to enter social media by launching a blog.  They asked me what the most important thing they could do to ensure that their blog was a success. 

I said…anyone with a computer can launch a blog.  Few are going to do it right.  And few will still be blogging in 6 months.

Why?

The software is easy and in some cases, free.  If not free — then cheap.  I pay a whopping $15/month for my Typepad account and I have the high powered, design your own version.

But just because you can click a few links and have an empty blog doesn’t make you a blogger.

Before you can do it right, you need to have some idea of what right looks like.  And you learn that by observing others who are already successful.

When we create/launch a blog for clients, the first thing we make them do is listen.  Think of all the important things we had to learn throughout our lives.  Walking, talking, reading, riding a bike.  The first step in any of those efforts was to see it being done.  We had it modeled for us.  Then, we slowly began to mimic that behavior until we were able to do it on our own.

Blogging is no different.  You learn by listening/reading those who are already successful.  So if your company (or you) are thinking about launching a blog, start right.  Start by making a list of 20 blogs in your category.  Pick some of the big, popular ones and some less well known. 

Begin noticing (and recording) some of these elements.

• How often do they publish new content?
• How do their posts look?
• Do they use visuals?
• How long are their posts?
• What else, besides their posts, are on their blogs?
• Do they have advertising?  How does that impact your reading?
• What’s on their sidebar?
• Who do they link out to?
• How often do they link out?
• Who links in to them?
• Do they allow comments?
• Do they get comments?
• Who/from where are their commenters?
• Do they respond to comments, if so…how?
• Do you see any pattern or themes in their posts’ content?
• Do they use multimedia like video clips or slideshare?
• Who is on their blogroll?  Do they have one?
• What do you like about their blog?
• What don’t you like about their blog?
• How well is their blog branded and tied back to their business?
• Does their blog seem self-serving?

You get the idea.  Listen.  Observe.  Question.  That’s step one. 

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Is hip hop a buzz kill?

July 17, 2008

Okay….how would you (or should you) blend these elements:

• Hip hop viral video
• ice cream
• the Colony Collapse Disorder that is plaguing the Western Bee population

Haagen-Daz is doing a little cause marketing and they have mashed up those ingredients (think figuratively for those of you who went right for the blender visual) to try to create some buzz for the honey bees.

In my post at Marketing Profs Daily Fix, I wonder about the effectiveness of the tactics and the inconsistency within the campaign.  I’d love to get your take on the video and overall effort.

Click here to take a look and jump into the conversation.

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If you can’t say something nice…

July 16, 2008

I had dinner with some friends the other night and I arrived first.  After about 15 minutes of alone time, the waitress finally came over proceeded to tell me that they had over-filled her section and she was swamped.  I assume that she told me this to explain why she had not stopped by until now. 

We didn’t get great service as you might expect.  But we did get an extra helping of TMI!

Do you do this?  Do you share information with your customers or clients that they really don’t care to hear?  If you don’t, my guess is that your employees do.  They don’t mean to undermine your company – they’re just being friendly or trying to over-explain.  But the damage is done, none-the-less.

Here are some classic "over sharing" remarks that can really tarnish the way a client thinks of your organization:

"Yeah, he’s so forgetful.  (Or disorganized) But somehow, he always pulls the project through."

"We are so buried with work, I don’t know how we’ll get it all done."

"We’re always worried about machine #1.  It’s constantly breaking down."

"You’d never know it, but they really can’t stand each other.  It’s a wonder they can work on the same team."

You know the expression "ignorance is bliss?"  Your customers do not want to hear about your problems.  All is does is cause them to doubt your capabilities and wonder if perhaps your competitor has their act together more than you do.

I’m not advocating lying or even spinning the truth.  If there’s a problem on their project or product, by all means, tell them.  Full disclosure.

But do not air your internal dirty laundry.  Make sure you and your employees understand the difference. 

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I have a stomach ache…I think I had a bad brand for dinner

July 15, 2008

We have a new minor league hockey team (Anaheim’s farm team) moving to Des Moines.  I am embarrassed to tell you that the new team’s name is….The Iowa Chops.

I know…and from a branding perspective, it gets even worse.  They have given their team name even though someone else owns the name!  Read about who owns the rights on the name and why that makes this an even bigger branding mess.

Check out my post at IowaBiz.com (which is back in business, thanks to it being acquired by the Business Record!)

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