After my house was recently broken into, I had an incentive to throw all the rest of my old stuff out (what was left of it anyway).  In the process, I realized that I had a lot of old T-shirts that had sentimental value…but were on their “last legs.”  So, why not turn them into something like a laptop bag?

Fast Forward a couple of years

I really like the T-Shirt Art recycling idea.  Admittedly, I already have a functional laptop cover, but I could think of loads of ideas for old T-shirt products.  I’m hoping that Hello Rewind gets some traction & then moves beyond Laptop bags.

And a good cause embedded as well…

Hello Rewind is working to employ victims of sex crimes in the production of the laptop bags.  The team works with women formerly sex trafficked in New York City so they can learn new skills and support themselves.

By purchasing a Hello Rewind laptop sleeve, you help sustain their mission.  So, if you are in the market for a laptop bag, check these guys out!

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“Ordinary” memes (e.g. new social and political ideas, film & book buzz, etc.) that propagated so efficiently through our culture in the 20th century were driven (in part) by the big media companies.

This is still the case in the early 21st century.

A lot has been written about the rise of self publishing + grassroots content creation and the age of the social web.  Sometimes, however, we should take a step back and recognize that big media conglomerates still have a strong hold on modern culture.  Indeed, popular culture reflects competition between memes (stories, ideas, jingles, etc.) that can be easily repeated and spread (see this book for more on this theme).

At the end of the day, big media still has big money to build & distribute the big memes of our day.

Below is a top-line list of the big, consolidated media companies that, in many ways, direct most of what we watch, listen to & read.  These giant companies are vertically integrated, controlling everything from production to distribution.  They own TV stations, radio stations, newspapers, magazines, cable channels, movie studios, music labels & even consumer goods divisions.  And yes, they even control much of the Internet (see stopbigmedia.com for details). See freepress for a full break down of each media giant’s holdings; I’ve only listed a couple below per company.

• TimeWarner:  Consists of Warner Bros., New Line Cinema, CNN and currently does around $50 Billion in Revenue.
• Disney:  Controls Touchstone, Miramax, ABC, ESPN, etc. and does roughly $35 Billion in revenue
• Vivendi Universal:  A European media powerhouse that controls, among many others, USA network and nets $20 Billion in revenue
• NewsCorp:  A $25 Billion powerhouse with 20th Century Fox, Fox news, Sky TV, TV Guide, etc. under its umbrella
• Bertelsmann:  A German based media group controlling Barnes & Noble, BMG music, RCA, etc. ($20 Billion in revenue)
• Viacom: Paramount, CBS, MTV, Simon & Schuster, and much, much more…

Disney is a very interesting group that really creates everything once they have a big idea–including consumer goods. Disney’s consumer & retail group does around $2.5 Billion in revenue and they have big plans to transform their current shopping experience.  Over the next 5 years, their vision is to transform 340 retail stores into “Imagination Parks” where interactive entertainment, recreation and commerce all merge to create theme park like shopping (see this article for more). Interestingly, Steve Jobs, who knows a thing or two about transforming the retail environment into an experience, is providing a lot of input into this transformation from his new seat on the Disney board.

Disney could easily become a consumer goods powerhouse in the next century…

Traditional Brands as Publishers–Competing in the Big Leagues?

With companies like Disney already making big $$$ in the consumer goods space, more & more traditional consumer brands are realizing that they can become like the media giants.  Heck, for years marketers have created content…why buy air time from the guys listed above when they can subtly (or not so subtly) immerse a consumer in their brand?  One stand-out example here comes from Blendtec.  Blendtec’s Will It Blend series lauched on YouTube & became so popular that people started shelling out hard earned cash to buy the first 50 episodes. (see this article for more)

So, marketers from every type of category are learning how to become publishers…what this all might mean for society, consumer culture, & the 21st century will be covered in a later post.

Media conglomerates have played a big role in the evolution (or devolution in many cases) of modern consumerism over the past century.  What role will the “new kids on the content block” play?

eMarketer recently reported (via PWC) that worldwide roughly 420 Billion was spent on advertising in 2009…by 2013, this # is expected to rise to $470 Billion.  This number does not include trade spending and other forms of marketing spend, however.

Interestingly, Forrester reports that today 70% of all marketing spending is locked into trade funds and other non-traditional areas.  If you factor in this estimate and consider that the PWC study only looked at 48 countries in their ad spend survey, then annual marketing spend on driving/influencing consumer behavior across all touchpoints could easily be in the neighborhood of 1Trillion USD.

Let’s just put 1 Trillion USD into perspective:

• 1 Trillion USD would fund the military might of all NATO countries combined or all US military activity since 9/11
• 1 Trillion USD is greater than the entire GDP of Australia
• 1 Trillion USD would cover everyone’s rent in the US for 3 years
• 1 Trillion USD would buy you every stock on the Toronto stock exchange

See this video from Mint.com for details on 1 Trillion USD.

All this spending happens annually in order to stimulate Global consumer demand, influence purchase intent and grow brand equities. Consumers are footing the bill in a big way today for marketing today…

Additionally, the annual 1 Trillion $ marketing spend is bound to embed brands deeper & deeper into the culture.  J. Twitchell notes that 10% of a 2 year old’s nouns are brand names. More people recognize the Golden Arches vs the Red Cross.

Many young marketers enter the business fray and are excited about the prospect of leading projects and working on big brands with loads of marketing budget. For the most part, I don’t think many even really consider how their promotional programs intersect with culture. I know from my own experience that the fast paced nature of today’s global marketplace combined with intense business pressure does not allow for much reflection. Every so often, however, between the business reports, meetings and discussions, moments arise where marketers almost do a double take–like when you stumble upon people making parity videos of your ads on youtube, etc.

Some would argue that we live in a post-marketing age.  I would argue that we clearly live in the golden age of marketing and brands. In this marketing age, much of our shared experiences come through brands and the advertising/storytelling that brand teams & agencies create.

Like it or not, the marketing orientation is here to stay & will even increase as even the slow to adopt commodity sectors join the marketing revolution.  Even Google, long a poster child for a brand that has been built without much consumer marketing spend, started advertising in the Super Bowl…

There is a lot of power in $1.0 Trillion. There is a lot of responsibility tied up in the $$ as well.  Where will this all go in the future? How ubiquitous and embedded does marketing promo become & how will that impact our culture going forward?

Thoughts?

We know that we should stop focusing on day to day business, so we can devote more attention to building a brand that’s relevant for future generations.

We know we should get around to planning properly for future competitive contingencies.

We know we should really fix that leak that’s been drip, drip, dripping away.

We know we should get off of social networks & build or do something that matters.

Traditionally, according to this site, procrastination has been associated with perfectionism, which is a tendency to negatively evaluate outcomes and one’s own performance, intense fear and avoidance of evaluation of one’s abilities by others, heightened social self-consciousness and anxiety.

So, though procrastination is often masked by lazy inaction…at the heart, it’s really about being afraid.

Instead of mastering the art of procrastination and being an eternal perfectionista…we should just get on with it.

Why not start today?  What’s stopping us?

Today?

Like many of you, I was horrified, inspired and amazed at different times throughout this tragic week.

Horrified:  Watching the horrific tales of desperately trapped people unfold during the Haitian earthquake was gut wrenching.

We’ve all seen tragic events unfold on TV over the years & we’re used to seeing graphic coverage.  But what was it about this specific disaster that gnawed at me so hard?

Was it watching the poorest country in the W. Hemisphere get hammered by a disaster (again) & then being reminded that the country has more or less been exploited/abused since it was founded?

I don’t know…

Amazed: Watching how new technology galvanized the aid effort was amazing.  Mobile donation campaigns, Twitter updates, Video uploads, remote people identification methodologies via crowdsourcing…wow.

The Extraordinaries, a crowdsourcing social venture, worked around the clock after the quake hit to adapt their tools to enable people to help identify missing persons.  2,000 volunteers have been sorting through thousands of photos taken by journalists, relief workers, missionaries & anyone else documenting the crisis on the ground.

Check out the site at http://haiti.beextra.org…what an empowering tool!  Today, we can even donate our time to help people in a remote crisis (not just reach for our wallets).

Inspired: Watching so many good people go down to Haiti to help was inspirational.

Speaking of inspiration…it was also Martin Luther King day this week.  So, as I was going through a couple of his speeches online, I came across a great post from Change.org about King’s 1967 speech to the SCLC.  I liked it so much that I’ve copied it below for you (with a couple of modifications for brevity) to help reflect on Haiti & where we go from here.

By 1967, the triumph of the 1964 Civil Rights Act had had time to sink in, and the challenge of addressing poverty and injustice during a rapidly escalating war was leading to increasingly radical activism. The 1967 SCLC address was King’s chance to boldly affirm his positions on economic justice, nonviolence and power.

“Audacious Faith In The Future:” King begins his speech with an affirmation that true freedom can only begin on the inside, and that as long as people – in the case of this speech, the African-American population – remain slaves to the limits of their own self-conception, they can never be truly free. He wrote:

No Lincolnian Emancipation Proclamation or Johnsonian Civil Rights Bill can totally bring this kind of freedom….the Negro must boldly throw off the manacles of self-abnegation and say to himself and to the world, “I am somebody. I am a person. I am a man with dignity and honor. I have a rich and noble history. How painful and exploited that history has been. Yes, I was a slave through my foreparents and I am not ashamed of that. I’m ashamed of the people who were so sinful to make me a slave.”

This is the part of the speech that I believe brings up the most important questions we must ask ourselves as we ask about the state of our moral universe and where we go from here.

What does a child believe he or she can be?

What about n Iraq? In Haiti? On the south side of Chicago?

They are owed, at the very minimum, the plausibility of their own triumph.

My great fear today is that we are beginning to lose faith in the future. This economic crisis has destroyed ten years of economic progress in America, we’re told. A generation of Americans is expected to have a shorter lifespan than its predecessor, largely because of our addiction to cheap food and our broken health care system. And in most parts of the world, the story is worse.

If we let this be the story of our time, we will cede the optimism that even in our darkest hours has aimed our compass towards progress. This is why I spend so much time telling a different story – of an entrepreneurial spirit that believes and acts as though all people have agency; of a global generation that is coming into its own as a force for good in the world; of the people who are quietly building the infrastructure for a more just tomorrow.

Because what King knew was that, in the long run, the contradictions of this nation and indeed – of human nature – could not stand in the way of the boldness of our experiment in liberty, equality and creativity. He believed that when you give people the foundations to be successful, they usually are, and that when you give people the chance to be good – to themselves and to others – they usually will be.

The Ethical Superstore is still very young…launched in Nov. 2006, they’ve recently merged with Natural Collection (a competing online ethical shop) and offer a big portfolio of products across a range of categories (ala Amazon.com).  You can find energy efficient gadgets & electronics, beauty, sports & outdoor, etc. etc.  They also have a great gift giving guide.

The site is well designed, and you really feel like you are on a major eRetailing site vs a small niche player.  You can shop by brand, ethical concern, price, etc.  The company’s brand selling line is compelling as well:  “Buy What You Believe”.

I’m predicting that there will be substantial growth in the ethical space over the next 5 - 10 years.  Of course, there will always be a fringe element of “deep greens” who object to the online sales model that involves energy intensive shipping around the world.

Realistically, however, the deep green team needs to realize that eCommerce is not going away.  In fact, quite the opposite is occurring…eCommerce is booming, while traditional retail channels stagnate.  At least responsible online retailers like The Ethical Superstore try to minimize the impact of what they deliver in every way, shape & form, while they provide new opportunities for people to discover products that line up with their values.

Keeping that Ethical, Purposeful Edge

Clearly, The Ethical Superstore will need to innovate and dig deeper to differentiate themselves against the big online players who are (no doubt) watching this space.  They’ll need to focus on innovation as a core component of their strategy in order to stay 1 step ahead.  I suspect they realize this & they will continue to find new ways in which they can delight their community with exciting new 21st century services that the big online retail players cannot (or will not) provide.  They will also need to keep their edge when it comes to discovering ethical brands.  Currently, they sell from the likes of Cafedirect, Ecover, Traidcraft, People Tree, Green & Blacks, Divine, EcoZone, Solio and others.

I wish them loads of luck as they build this ethical shopping category online.  If you want to find out the latest news from The Ethical Superstore, then follow their blog. They also have a facebook group where you can learn about new products, discounts and promotions

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Given the tough business climate, mind bending tech. changes & dire need for innovation in the next decade & beyond, some (like Forrester) propose that we ax the command and control “Manager” part of the traditional Brand Manager title and go with something more relevant like “Brand Advocate.”  Ad Age followed up with a similar article on this topic near the end of 09.

Brand Managers today in many companies are really business managers that guide a multifunctional business team (e.g. Finance, PR, Supply Chain, etc.).  Marketing promotion is just 1 part of their job (remember the 4Ps of marketing).  Brand Managers create the strategy for the business, making decisions about how to run their business & build their brand.   Like my good friend Dave Knox writes in this excellent post, a Brand Manager in many cases is a General Manager in training…he/she is at the center of everything that happens on a brand.

GOOD

Good Brand Managers are fun, open & inspire their teams as they lean forward to discover new ideas.  They get out front & show that they want to build future focused products & their brand for the next generation. They work together with trend, consumer research, and design agencies to envision the future, so they can  build something that makes sense.  These guys & gals are visionaries with a lot of courage.  They are Builders first, managers second…

BAD

Other Brand Managers can tend to focus too much on how they will close the financial year. They operate with so much discipline & care to deliver the right numbers that they lose sight of the future.  They don’t take risks…and they aren’t willing to adapt to technology.  They spend too much time on internal “horn blowing” and developing processes for yearly evaluations instead of following up on what’s happening in the culture and working out how they can build a better future for people. These folks wind up killing the “golden brands” built by earlier entrepreneurial heroes.

There are good & bad brand managers in every company.

“Brand Building” the 21st Century

P&G invented the “Brand Manager” term back in the 1930s when the industrial era was moving full steam ahead and command & control was in vogue (check out the McElroy model that spawned Brand Management at the end of this post–via Forrester).

So, as the new century emerges, it will be interesting to see how Brand Management evolves and what (if any) title emerges to take its place.  I personally like the idea of the Brand Builder.

Brand builders create the classic, seemingly untouchable brands/products that form the foundation of a company.  Brand builders aren’t just 20th century leaders seeking internal influence and power; they prefer constructing and transforming the future.  While they thrive on understanding what’s happening now in the online social spaces and in the culture, they don’t meekly conform to the fleeting whims of online crowds…instead, they think longer and deeper to consider the impact of their products on future generations.  They are reflective, curious and tend to motivate other people.  Brand builders would rather put messages into the culture that help & inspire.  Builders think about driving the evolution of culture…not devolution.

As Umair Haque puts it in his recent manifesto, today’s builders are igniting the distant grandchild of yesterday’s industrial revolution: an institutional revolution for a post-industrial world. They are forging the new building blocks — from ethical investment, to deep journalism, to socially useful finance, to universally accessible communication — that a rusting economy, society, and polity so urgently demand.

It’s easy to get into the mode of “just trying to find newfangled ways to move product” via promotion.  Brand builders would like to see more focus return to the Product part of the 4Ps. Brand builders want to create sustainable & responsible growth that matters…not just another boring line extension that clutters the shelves and people’s lives.

The 20th century Brand guy/gal thinks “I” & “we”. The 21st century Brand person thinks  “all” — people, communities, and society.

Let’s hear it for the 21st Century Brand Builder.

Humility is Dead…

Like some of you out there, I enjoy watching the Apprentice.  It’s interesting to watch cut-throat competition and “The Donald” say “you’re fired” to smart people every week.  Watching “The Donald” push people past their limits is sadistically fun…humility was certainly never rewarded on the show, however.

Humility is a virtue that is rarely discussed today in popular culture.  You hardly ever hear anyone talk about it on the left, or on the right.  Even conservative former drug czar Bill Bennett somehow forgot to mention humility in his Book of Virtues a few years ago.

Why don’t we hear many cultural commentators or business leaders talk about humility?  Probably because it just doesn’t fit into our self-affirming, “you can be anything you want to be when you grow up” culture…or does it?

Long Live Humility…

Jim Collins uncovered a somewhat counter intuitive finding (from our culture’s perspective) around humility in his landmark book Good to Great a few years ago.  Collins discovered that the most effective leaders were characterized as humble and strong-willed instead of brash and full of Trump-like hubris.

In his most recent book How the Mighty Fall Collins delves into the reasons why promising organizations and countries fall.  Stage 1 is, fittingly, Hubris Born of Success.

So, humility seems to be a virtue that business folks and even marketers (like me) might want to pay a little more attention to.

Humility is a little tough to pin down, however…and today, we see loads of false humility (which is really just pride).  Wikipedia notes that “True humility” is distinctly different from “false humility,” which consists of deprecating one’s own sanctity, gifts, talents, and accomplishments for the sake of receiving praise or adulation from other.  How many times have we heard PR consultants say that in order to “fix” an egregious error with the public, a celebrity needs to go onto Oprah and confess his/her “transgressions” only to see that same celebrity up to the old tricks the next week….clearly they did not mean it.

Kant sees humility as “that meta-attitude that constitutes the moral agent’s proper perspective on himself as a dependent and corrupt but capable and dignified rational agent.”  Aquinas defines humility as consisting in keeping oneself within one’s own bounds, not reaching out to things above one, but submitting to one’s superior (tks to Wikipedia for the philosophical help here).

As humility is so counter to the prevailing culture today, adopting a more humble stance with regards to advertising/marketing promotion might be somewhat radical or breakthrough.  People long for hints of humility & authenticity today and flock in big numbers to brands that try to “keep it real.”  When Dove made a radical departure from traditional beauty advertising with a campaign like Real Beauty a few years ago, the brand shook the entire beauty industry (click here to check out Real Beauty if you have somehow missed if over the past few years).  Some might accuse Dove of pursuing false humility while others would say that Dove has stuck with its purpose led campaign for years (instead of using it as a “one shot deal” for publicity & buzz).

Don’t get me wrong…of course I believe a healthy dose of self-confidence is good.  And, we should all stretch our capabilities and use our talents.  Additionally, we all have to apply for jobs and write those dreaded resumes with loads of puffed up language about ourselves.  But, when the smiling self-help guru legions continually try to sell us on “being proud,” maybe we should listen to see if they ever mention anything about humility (at least once).  If they don’t, we should get suspicious…humility is a virtue for the ages and it deserves to be rediscovered.

So what do you think about humility?

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Robert Louis Stevenson

While there’s still a lot of negativity in the system (left over from 2009) I’m hoping you are ready to rip & roar in 2010 and beyond.

I’m an optimist, so I believe 2010-20 will be a more purposeful decade as people look beyond superficiality and get back to basics.  Below are a few themes I’m chewing on while conjuring up the 10 year plan.

1. Love & Create…Never (ever) Hate

2. Work to live, never live to work.  Relationships are the only thing we take with us when it’s all over.

3. Cultivate abundance.  Stop bean counting and build something useful for people, communities, and society.

4. Remember that humility and character count…don’t believe everything that the current “ME” culture tells you.

5. Pray. Plan, then execute the plan.  Adjust when necessary.

6. Inspire and be inspired…

Speaking of inspiration, thanks to all those who gave me loads of content to mull over in 09.   Big OkieSwiss love from m-cause…Represent in 2010, ya’ll!

Like many of you out there, I enjoy reading the lists of people I respect and trust.  It’s rewarding to get a sneak peak into what a favorite tech or marketing blogger is buying.  Really, who wants to plow through online retailer gift recommendation lists when you can get solid tips from that trusty blog guy/girl you “know”. After enjoying their posts all year you realize that you are interested in the same topic areas/products…so the gifts they recommend are likely to be very relevant. 

Content marketing online is Über powerful stuff!

One thing to always remember, however, is that holiday lists are often peppered with affiliate links.  So, if you click through a helpful link to an online retailer site and make a purchase, you just might be giving that trusty blogger an additional side gift…below is an example of an affiliate network that you can sign up to as an online publisher.

For the most part, I think it is good to help out bloggers from time to time by clicking through a link to make a purchase.  After all, many bloggers write for free and help you discover topics/ideas, etc. that you might have otherwise missed.  Bloggers have expenses too…someone has to pay for all that web hosting, etc.  What’s wrong with helping someone out who, for the most part, adds value to your life at their own expense?

Back in June, the FTC made it mandatory that all affiliate links (even links to Amazon book recommendations) be disclosed by bloggers.  Below are some fun examples of honest disclosure from “big” bloggers.

• Frank Kern goes to absurd lengths to entertain his followers even while disclosing, using tactics such as this: “<<—– BIG scary affiliate link!”
• Chris Brogan says “If you buy this from me, I get some beer money (not enough for a pony).”

The FTC regulation is new and its hard to monitor.  Unfortunately, there are still plenty of bloggers who don’t disclose their affiliate programs very well.  Or, they do it in a weird kind of way that makes you think they have something more sinister lurking around the corner to hide.

Disclosure is a Really Good Thing…

CDNow developed affiliate marketing way back in 1994 and Amazon has been one of the biggest drivers of the practice on the web (staring back in 1996).   Today, however, people are more cynical and much less trusting of what people recommend on their websites.

So, bloggers just need to start telling the truth about their affiliate connections as per the FTC regulation.    Being honest and admitting that you are going to make a few $$ on a product should not be a problem and will help you to continue building trust with your audience.

And, have fun with it please.  Don’t act guilty or sheepish.   Come out of the affiliate closet boldly; it might even be good to add in a little humor when you tell us you are on the take.

Another idea would be to appeal to my m-cause driven guilt…tell me that you have to put your blog hosting fees on your credit card because you can’t pay your mortgage due to the housing crisis or something like that.  Finally, you can always help the common good a bit by donating 50% of your affiliate cash to a great cause.

Happy (online) shopping this year!  If you are interested in checking out a great article on this topic, head on over to Copyblogger and read this.

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