06.29
[This post was originally published on FutureBrand's FBlog.]
Recent IPOs from LinkedIn, Groupon and Pandora have all eyes on the “social media” industry. While that label may be useful in contrasting from more traditional brick-and-mortar businesses or the dotcom darlings of the early 2000s, it does the companies it refers to a disservice by failing to recognize diversity within the group. Facebook, Groupon, Twitter, LinkedIn—while they all allow us to connect with each other online, they are otherwise quite different businesses. (In fact, doesn’t it feel a little funny to refer to Twitter as a “business” at all?)
The success of LinkedIn is based on a simple tenet of brand strategy, and something that Facebook, Twitter and even Google mostly lack. Namely, LinkedIn has a niche.
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10.27
Last week I was honored to be asked to present to a group of French business students called Le Club des étudiants français de Shanghai. I was asked to discuss “branding,” but keep it high-level and light rather than getting too didactic or detailed. When one of the club’s founders invited me to speak, he thought it would be fun if I introduced myself in French, which I can’t even pronounce correctly much less speak. At first I declined, citing the stereotype that Americans are monolingual. And then I realized that would be an interesting way to kick off a conversation about brands. Here’s basically what the presentation (above) covers:
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05.23
noir55 is a new, “hidden” category of Semantic Argument that combines two things I like: hardboiled crime fiction (private detectives, crime, murder, Hammett, Chandler, Black Mask, etc.) and extremely short stories. The idea came to me after I realized an inordinate number of my entries into the New Times 55 Fiction contest fit this theme.
I’ll post things I’ve written as well as anything relevant that I can get another author’s permission to publish. As it has almost no relevance to the rest of Semantic Argument, the posts won’t show up on the homepage, but will always be accessible from the category dropdown on the right. Eventually it could be its own blog, but that seemed like a bit too much trouble at this point.
Two formats that seemed easy to tackle are the 55 Fiction format and Twitter’s 140 character limitation. Each story will be posted with title and either “(55)” or “(140)” to indicate which format’s been followed. A new Twitter account, @noir55, has been set up for the shorter stories.
Send me a story and I’ll post it here.
05.18
My favorite writing competition has returned, and submissions are due by June 14. I’ve already sent in a handful (with leftovers from my 2002ish submissions). I’ve written about this competition before, and have included it as an example in multiple posts about the joys (and effectiveness) of constrained creativity. So this time I’ll just provide a link to the rules and a new example.
Keep Some Distance
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11.12
A few months back I read a post by Ed Cotton about Mission Street Food called “What brands can learn from Mission Street Food.” Aside from making me really anxious to go eat there (which I haven’t yet), it made me think of Kogi BBQ (which I have tried), a Korean-Mexican fusion “restaurant” that hawks its tasty tacos out of a truck window in LA and Orange County.
I decided to write a companion post—partly because I really liked Ed’s post and partly to demonstrate (to myself, if no one else) that SoCal has its own foodie-friendly offerings. This post starts with stealing Ed’s format but at times descends into blatant plagiarism. Sorry Ed (sincerest form of flattery and all, right?).
Here’s how it works.
MSF “leases” a Chinese restaurant on Mission Street for two nights of the week and invites guest chefs to come in and create menus and prepare meals.
What Can Brands Learn from MSF?
1. The Power of Surprise
MSF is based on a pretty smart assumption, people like to try new restaurants all the time, which makes it hard for a single concept to gain traction and gain a group of loyal customers. In a world of hyper-instant gratification, people are constantly demanding for and seeking out the new.
How does your brand surprise its audience?
What are you doing to prevent brand fatigue?
2. Partnerships and Collaboration
MSF partners with a Chinese restaurant to host the events, it gets access to its kitchens and staff and it also partners with guest chefs every night. MSF is really a facilitator to the process.
Who is your brand collaborating with to add value?
3. Understanding the Audience
MSF gets who it’s audience is and what they want. They know this is an audience that is easily bored and is looking for culinary surprises. They know they are prepared to trade off ambience for food quality.
Does your brand know its audience?
Do you know what they are looking for from you now?
4. The Concept of Value
MSF gets value right. This is of course not about low prices, but instead the combination of price and quality. The interesting items on the menu are priced perfectly to acknowledge the audiences understanding of value. There’s no sense you are paying for the priviledge of eating there.
Does your brand have its pricing right?
Do you know what people are prepared to pay?
Do you have value add and do you know what it’s worth?
5. Giving Back
MSF gives back profits to local organizations and non-profits giving diners another reason to eat.
What is your brand giving back?
How are your causes tied to your brand?
How open are you about your contributions?
6. A Story
MSF has enough layers to build a great narrative including its original incarnation as a taco truck.
What’s your story?
How do you share it?
How are you building on it?
Here’s how Kogi BBQ works.
As mentioned, Kogi BBQ sells food out of a truck window—actually multiple trucks, all in Southern California. But unlike your average taco truck, Kogi tweets (@kogibbq) to let potential customers know when and where they can find a truck in their area. The result, in the words of an LA Times article, is “a social-networking juggernaut, drawing 300 to 800 people each time it parks (often several times in an evening) and spawning a burgeoning cyber-hippie movement affectionately referred to as “Kogi kulture.”
So…what can brands learn from Kogi BBQ?
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08.25
One of my favorite blogs to check regularly is The Ad Contrarian (thanks for pointing it out, Ewan). As suggested by the name, posts on the blog regularly take a devil’s advocate point of view on popular trends, like Twitter, or the web in general. I’m not sure how I missed it for so long, but I just recently came across a series of posts targeting one of TAC’s favorite gripes: branding.
Before I go further, let me say that part of the reason I enjoy the blog is because I respect the point of view of its author (Bob Hoffman of Hoffman/Lewis). In fact, I often agree with him. While I understand his frustration over “branding”—I’m easily annoyed by misuse and overuse of both the word and the concepts behind it—I did think these posts took aim at a bit too big of a target. As one commenter put it, he may be throwing out the baby with the bathwater.
Anyway, here’s a summary of one of TAC’s posts and my response. You can follow the links below to see a few more of his posts, and you’ll see I’ve commented on those as well. It’s worth reading everyone else’s comments, too (many enthusiastically agree with Bob’s point of view). Would be curious to hear your stance, as well.
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