Identity is a pretty complex “umbrella” concept that gets tossed around a lot. If you talk to someone in business/marketing, identity covers everything from a company name and logo, to an entire image or perceived set of values in the marketplace.
If you talk to a social scientist, they’ll use identity to describe a person’s expression of their individuality. Indeed, social psychologists will see identity as it relates to self-image. They will describe to you how people develop mental models of themselves at the individual level.
Years ago, your identity as an individual was pretty fixed. And, if you lived in a caste society…you basically had no chance to develop a new identity. In our increasingly homogenized global world today, however, identities are more fluid. People often struggle to discover their identity (identity crises happen). Some even look to the marketplace of ideas and commerce for answers. Savvy brands are able to step in and articulate lifestyles or create symbolic worlds that people identify with, filling a void.
Thoughts on what this says about our culture in 2010 aside, how can brands discover this magic identity juice? New age brand building will tell you to turn inside to discover how to build a great brand and unlock that hidden identity that everyone loves. Meditate…hole up in a forest and you’ll come back with a solution.
I’m all for reaching deep inside from time to time, but sometimes we just need to form a vision & start going–start reaching outwards instead of focusing on our navels. Having a bias for action instead of waiting for the field of dreams is a key ingredient in moving anything important forward. All too often mental mind models don’t translate into action plans that change the future.
You have to like a guy who writes copious manifestos and starts blog posts with intros like “Dear Old People Who Run the World” without getting kicked off the Harvard blogger A list. In terms of content, Umair address general management, business models and strategic innovation from a different angle. These are all topic areas that are very relevant to marketers/brand managers, etc. Below are a few of my favorite posts from 2009:
2. Marketing with Meaning by Bob Gilbreath: This is a pure “new edge” marketing blog from a guy who’s trying to re-imagine the purpose of marketing. Bob’s been a brand manager…he knows the system; he just doesn’t like it and is asking for change. He almost exclusively writes about advertising/promotion on his blog, but with an edgy/different spin. You’ll drink from the fire hose and come away a lot smarter if you read this deep thinking blog regularly. I recently wrote a post about Bob’s new book, you should check that out as well.
3. Murketing: This is an anti-marketing/marketing blog (what?) from a real journalist who, unlike the rest of us, actually knows how to write. The blog is a mosaic of “different” marketing related links, columns, random pictures, thoughts & funny stuff. The “Murketing guy” has also got a great book called “Buying In.”
I’ve been enjoying these three blogs thoroughly in 2009…hopefully they’ll continue serving up “awesomeness” to our feed readers (no pressure guys). I’m looking forward to newfangled manifestos and different thinking on marketing, business, capitalism & consumption in 2010.
What company is NOT in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index?
I am all for sustainability indexes and rankings as they tend to increase accountability and transparency, but when I flipped through the DJSI index and realized that British American Tobacco is included in the DJSI I had to (sadly) question the overall validity of the index. I am sure BAT has some great internal programs, and I bet that they they donate a lot of money to charity, but how can any tobacco company be considered responsible?
No company is perfect…but tonight as I watch CNN, I am wondering what companies will benefit from the huge Obama stimulus plan. Will these companies be judged according to a new, higher Obama-led sustainability standard? If so, what standard will the new administration advocate?
Why not look harder at B Corporations? These companies seem to really go beyond the CSR call of duty to:
* Meet comprehensive and transparent social and environmental performance standards.
* Institutionalize stakeholder interests.
* Build collective voice though the power of a unifying brand.
B Corporations are charting the future for corp. responsibility…go take a look at the website and check out the 170 companies who have made the B Corp. cut thus far. Many of these companies are really building sustainability into their core operations vs. just adding on another program.
Still shopping for XMAS presents…feeling like buying something that contributes to a cause over the holidays? For the next few posts, I am going to talk about m-cause holiday season gifting favorites.
For my first pick, I need to go back to my roots. Well, at least conceptually (I am originally from Oklahoma). My #1 pick this year is a Kenyan cowboy shirt from a Kilakitu. Kilakutu means “everything” in Swahili and is the name of a Kenyan clothing company that sources its materials by sifting through secondhand clothes in Nairobi. Kilakutu is the brainchild of Bartholomew “Fisher” Sullivan. Bart must be from the south…
Actually, I am not sure that I love the mixed-up, 1970s revivalist Stetson shirt style as much as I love the names of the shirts. Here are some of my favorites:
Cha_mama
Mambo_Mbotela
Akufukuzaye
The shirts are all handmade in small batches…portion of the profits from Kilakutu sales go back into a local school lunch program in Rongai.
Kilakutu is going to ship a woman’s line of cowboy shirts in 2009. We wish them all the best, and we hope they continue with the super cool names for the next collection.
Believe this GOOD video was sponsored (in some way) by the folks at Kenneth Cole.
Some encouraging stats on volunteerism in the video. Indeed, tons of great service projects going on out there. All too often, however, this work goes unnoticed….so during these challenging economic times, perhaps we will have less time to shop, but more time for other GOOD activities.
Hello everyone…I have been a bit slower out of the gate with my posts as of late. I will get back on blogging track soon. In the meantime, here are a couple of links.
The new face of giving: Digital natives are giving differently…moving forward, non-profits and other cause organizations will need to continue to adapt to the giving habits of the neXt generation.
Is Advertising the New Graffiti ? The subway system in NYC is planning to wrap entire subway cars with ads, just like graffiti artists used to do (or still do in some cities). They are also creating ads inside subway tunnels that create amazing animations as the car passes by (check out the video).
Apparently, new research shows that Web surfing triggered reward pathways that are linked to addiction…in the book, the authors theorize that the loads of digital stimuli received by our modern brains lead to social dysfunction.
So when do we all start going to Computerholics anonymous?
Hello, my name is Ryan and I am a Computerholic…yes, admit it, you are too! I am not alone here!
When will Apple & Dell start attaching warning labels onto their laptops? It is just a matter of time…
The President of CSR Wire put out a call on Sept. 30th for a new code of conduct to establish “incredible transparency” within companies. In the article, he asserts that too much of debate on the current crisis focuses on the “credit crisis” and the political nature of the bailout. He believes there has not been enough talk about systemic change.
Indeed, I believe those in the Corp. Social Responsibility world now have a big opportunity to lead the discussion around the development of even more transparent social, environmental and financial measures…though I am not sure if we can ever fully rid the world of greed & incompetence (two things at the heart of this crisis). Douglas Rushkoff notes the record number of foreclosures, credit defaults, and, now, institutional collapses is not the result of the churn of random market forces, but rather a series of highly lobbied changes to law, highly promoted ideologies of wealth and home ownership, and monetary policies highly biased toward corporate greed.
I highly recommend checking out Doug’s post…it is a MUST read. For Doug, it “all came together” while attending a pretty sick “house flipping” seminar, presided over by none other than our ex Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan & George Foreman (to name a few).
And, building on Douglas’s quote above, some commentators are even pointing the finger squarely at American consumers…George Will had this to say in a recent gloomy roundtable on ABC that I picked up from this blog post :
We’re coming dangerously close to the truth, which is the sainted American people are the problem here. That is, they have 105 billion credit cards, that’s nine per cardholder. Self-reporting, they have about $12,000 credit-card debt per household; household debt is 139% of household income. I mean, they can’t go on like this. The refusal to defer gratification is a fundamental attribute of childishness.
In the US, we have a somewhat controversial educational program called No Child Left Behind. Though the day to day execution of the program may not be perfect (or even very good), the broad idea behind the program is great…that everyone has value and something to contribute to society and therefore everyone is entitled to a decent education.
Sadly, around the global business world, we are leaving a lot of “would be capitalist” contributors behind. Indeed, despite all of our progress over the past few years, much of the world is still struggling to make it to Capitalism 1.0. Bill Gates recently discussed this over in a Time magazine article called “How to Fix Capitalism.” In this article, Bill discusses “creative capitalism”, essentially building on ideas about how to reach the world’s poorest developed by C.K. Prahalad within his landmark book entitled The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid.
So now that Bill Gates is transitioning to a focus on global health and education work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation…will we hear less about him? Or more? Bill mentioned that when he started Microsoft, he wanted to drive the movement to put a computer on every desk and in every home…now he wants to to help create a world where “no one has to live on a dollar a day or die from a disease we know how to prevent.”
Bill is thinking big again…should we take notice? Have a look at the article if you have a moment and let me know what you think.
A few years ago, Seth Godin wrote a great book called All Marketers are Liars. Indeed, the American public apparently agrees with Seth’s book title. Several recent studies show that trust in advertising is at an all time low…
A MAN LIKE ME + THE RULING INFLUENCER CLASS
With the explosion of Web 2.0 tools, e-Commerce, forums, ratings, etc., consumers are increasingly finding ways to connect with other consumers. Trust in “a person like me” is growing tremendously. I have been noticing this trend more and more in my own behavior…my wife & I will rarely pick a hotel that is rated poorly on key measures we consider important in an online rating forum.
In addition, consumers believe information coming from key endorsers & articles much more than they believe information coming from advertisements…the power of influencers is rising!
TRUST IS BUILT VIA…
–Great Products
–Sustainability/GOOD activities & awards
–Great Customer service and consumer attentiveness
IF YOU BUILD IT RIGHT, WILL THEY REALLY COME?
Indeed, products and services need to be extremely remarkable today to “deserve” Word of Mouth (WOM) & buzz. But even great products/services need kick-starting and credibility from influential people…there is some good discussion on WOM in the latest Six Pixels of Separation podcast hosted by Mitch Joel (Note: Mitch’s show is a weekly “must listen”…)
THE CHALLENGE
Building a remarkable product and then leveraging influencers to help kick-start the buzz is a great way to go, but it is not as easy as pushing out a controlled message. Building relationships with the media, consumer associations, and key consumer inflencers, etc. is delicate business and takes time…there are no quick fixes today.
…cool cause campaigns like the one new media writer/consultant Joseph Jaffe is conducting on ebay. Joseph is basically auctioning his consulting services over dinner. If you win the auction, Joseph will have a chat/brainstorm session with you somewhere in the NY/Conn area.
I thought about throwing in a bid for fun…but I will wait & see if it remains low before plunging on in. Plus, I am currently living in Geneva, so it will be hard to get to the NY area over the next few months. Click here to see where the bidding is currently.
THE (m)CAUSE: Joseph Jaffe is helping Jennifer Leggio raise money for her participation in the Nike Women’s Marathon, which is Team in Training’s largest event, to support the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
Note: Other social media notables like Chris Brogan are participating as well.
On m-cause, I discuss marketing and good causes. Sometimes I talk about life in Europe. Sometimes I talk about random things. If you want to connect further, email me at roborj@yahoo.com or connect with me on Facebook & Twitter.
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On m-cause, I discuss marketing and good causes. Sometimes I talk about life in Europe. Sometimes I talk about random things. If you want to connect further, email me at roborj@yahoo.com or connect with me on Facebook & Twitter.