May 4, 2005
i don’t do necrophilia for free
When I first said “Branding Is Dead”, it caused a minor (very minor) ruckus.
“Branding” is just a metaphor. “The Brand” is just a metaphor. Something to do with cattle and red hot irons. Whatever. If it works for you, great. But I find that metaphor a very dry hole these days.
One advantage of thinking it as “dead”, is that you don’t waste any more time worrying about if it’s still alive or not, or if it’s it’s dying or not. You just assume its passing as a given and move on to more interesting, less overused ideas.
In the seartch for new metaphors, Cluetrain came along and suddenly everything was about “The Conversation”. That’s fine, I like “Conversation” as a marketing metaphor, but after a while I started getting a wee bit tired of hearing the word “Conversation” every second sentence in marketing meetings. We all know you can’t really hold a real conversation with twenty million people (although the tireless Robert Scoble would like to try). As much as I love the Cluetrain, “Conversation” as an all-purpose marketing metaphor started to grate on my nerves surprisingly quickly.
Metaphors– brands, conversations etc– are like paintings. They either work for for you or they don’t. If they don’t, there’s no amount of arguing another person can do to change your mind. So when people say “You’re wrong, Hugh– branding is alive and well”, all I can say is “Maybe to you, it is.“
Not to mention, good luck selling the idea to other people, in what is already a fatigued and over-supplied market.
I’m partial to the “Story” metaphor these days. But that’s just me.
“The Story” is a narrative. Narratives have movement. They are fluid. “The Brand” is a static term. I think fluid metaphors, ones that accept “Flow” as part of their nature, simply work better.
Besides, nobody is currently offering to pay me the big bucks to help keep the ever-drearier Brand Metaphor alive on their behalf. And I don’t do necrophilia for free.
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Maybe one way to think about branding is just making people aware of the story’s author.
Associating Author < – > Story, which is both backward-looking (based on known stories) and forward-looking (encouraging anticipation of future stories).
A recurring theme in Kathy Sierra’s blog is that people want a product that is about them, rather than about whoever is creating the product. So I would say that brands, i.e. focusing on trying to get the customer to fall in love with the company, goes against that. The success of Apple as a brand, I think, is more about who the customer becomes when they buy the product and join that elite group … or cult, if you feel that way about it.
“Conversation” at least includes the end user, customer, client, whatever. I’m not sure “story” does that, but it’s important for other reasons.
Why do you have to make one metaphor the hero? I think these are all elements that work together.
I’d describe the Apple story as “Storytelling at its finest”.
The story can be about “Us” or “Them”, “I” or “Thou”. It doesn’t matter. What people like are stories they can project their own narratives on to. And that’s the art of it.
> As much as I love the Cluetrain, “Conversation” as an all-purpose marketing metaphor started to grate on my nerves surprisingly quickly.
Urgh, tell me about it. I never understood what the heck this meant anyway, but it’s quickly becoming synonymous with “I’m a Marketing Weasel™”.
Forget Just-In-Case Marketing Messages. Think Just-In-Time Information.
We are becoming increasingly resistant to marketing messages being pushed at us, even those that come in the form of friendly reminders that we’ve already agreed to receive. Case in point: Denise Wakeman asks
**Not to mention, good luck selling the idea to other people, in what is already a fatigued and over-supplied market**
Shit. Good luck? If it were hard to sell fatigued and over-supplied ideas, we wouldn’t have network TV spots, all ISP company web banner ads, consultants, SPAM, infomercials, designer diaper bags and most software. Selling it is as easy as pissing on the broad side of a barn. Waking up every morning, and feeling good about selling it is another thing.
Metaphors — the inapt leading the inept — are dead. End of story.
bmo:
Death is also metaphor
Excellent post! (Probably because it conforms to my opinions, but anyway…)
“Conversation” grated on me because it only furthers the mercantilization of every human interaction. The whole “cluetrain” group-think thing bugs me because we’re all “clueless” to a great extent, and those onboard the “cluetrain” haven’t seemed to have happened upon that particular clue. I dislike the phrase “get it” for much the same reason. They’re phrases intended to merely rearrange hierarchy in the competition for rank, rather than reduce it; which is rather surprising given the enthusiasm for a “flat” world in some quarters. Maybe it’s just enthusiasm for groovy new “memes.” Maybe I’m just a cynical curmudgeon.
And finally, the previous two comments regarding death and metaphor provided a superb “daily moment of Zen.“
A most worthwhile visit.
while you’re at it, meme is way overused and annoying as well.
Everything you need to know about this topic begins and ends with Seth. If it ain’t remarkable, all the pig lipstick in the world ain’t gonna help.
di, hell, “meme” sounded annoying the first time I heard it.
Bruce, yeah, I know what you mean.
“while you’re at it, meme is way overused and annoying as well.“
Concur. Hence the “scare quotes.”
Where the F**K did meme come from anyway? Let’s decide to kill it RIGHT HERE!
Jim Autry, retired CEO of Meredith Corp. once wrote:
“Becoming a manager has much to do with learning the metaphors; becoming a good manager has much to do with using the metaphors; and becoming a leader has much do do with changing the metaphors.“
As you suggested, Hugh, if the metaphor works then use it. If it doesn’t, kill it!
I also believe, however, that metaphors evolve. Witness the change in meaning of “the Dot Com economy” pre– and post-bust. That being said, I believe brand has evolved for many — and for the better. But there are still folks stuck in the lip-stick on the pig paradigm. Check out the rant over here: http://www.acleareye.com. And please join in. I’d appreciate your thoughts.
Hugh: I can’t think of a metaphor for how much I agree with you on this, but perhaps you can take it as read…
Hugh, yes, Death is a metaphor. But dead is dead!
Brian,
Oh, no it isn’t.…
Coordination Theory in a Flat World
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Doc Searls has a provocative post, the “
Coordination Theory in a Flat World
Follow me here for my understanding of what this flat world business is about, and what we can do about it as individuals, employees, business founders, owners, stakeholders, and as managers.
Doc Searls has a provocative post, the “