Today, I’m speaking as your brand advocate.

If I’m your brand advocate, we, in some significant way, have made a connection. Your unique message has fought through the din of chaos and clutter and found it’s way into my heart, my mind and even my soul. It’s now a part of me. So engage it with care.

I’ve had the honor of hearing and seeing some very good keynote speakers throughout my career.  Some have left me with tears in my eyes or a fire in my heart while others…  have…  well…  just left me.

On the positive, I’ve seen tremendous motivational speakers like Hajj Flemings (@HajjFlemings on Twitter) and Angel Maiers (@AngelaMaiers on Twitter), innovative business marketing and branding speakers like Michael Wagner (@BigWags on Twitter) and Liz Strauss (@lizstrauss on Twitter).

Every time,  I make it a point to get a few minutes, face-to-face with the speakers to make an introduction – often times just so they can put a name to the face “@TheBrandChef.“ And every time I approach these speakers, they are engaging, honest and forthright when it comes to offering advice or simply talking about the day’s event.

That’s TRUE brand engagement.

That’s how to build a connection to brand advocates and help build a sustainable brand in the minds of your advocates!  WHY? My personal take-away? As your advocate, I feel like I am a bigger part of the event and with the conversation and even a signed book (or whatever swag) I feel I’ve made a connection that meant something to both of us.

So what’s with the Brand Posers?

Yeah, I know, kind of negative, but I have to call ‘em for what they are. I’m talking about the people that stand up and preach brand and personal connections and engagement, but carry themselves in a way that is quite the opposite. They POSE. And they suck.

I take branding personally.  I am, after all, The Brand Chef.  So when I am inspired by a speaker from my industry (or out of for that matter), I have the passion to pursue engagement and connection at ANY level possible. When this happens, it’s electric. Not just for me, but for my work, my career and my own brand advocates. And I’d hope that for the speaker, the brand I have subscribed to, feels a bit of that spark as well.

So, on the negative, when the correlation of brand “performance” to brand engagement is SO far off, it makes me…  well, write posts like this. Because, if I hadn’t had a disappointing experience with a “Brand Poser,” I wouldn’t be relegated to vent. I wouldn’t be forced to wave my blogging fists in the air. I wouldn’t have felt dismissed, disappointed and trivialized.

Being TRULY ENGAGING takes more than a handshake and a kiss in the air by my cheek.

For every clammy palm you have to press and for every Polaroid you have to fake, there is going to be 1000 more that you’ll miss.  And THOSE are the misses that matter. The misses with the people that count, the misses with the people who care, the CONNECTIONS with your brand advocates is what will get you where you want to go. So at least make an effort.

Your accolades, your book and the Armani suit have NOTHING to do with your brand.

So as your brand advocate, I offer this miniscule seed of advice, “Pay attention to those that you look down upon, because they, like you, are climbing the same hill… And years from now, they just might know how to spit further than you.”

I have to give it to the spammers out there. They are starting to get a little more clever.  I receive BUCKETS of spam every day. Everything from “Male Enhancement” solutions to “The BEST BUSINESS INVESTMENT SOLUTION IN THE WORLD.” sure…  don’t we all

Lately, though, I’ve been receiving an email from someone that has actually done a little homework. Or at least they “seem” to have done their homework…  Check out the email below:

Immediately, the subject line, “Are you a chef?” caught my eye. Thinking to myself, “Hey, I call myself ‘The Brand Chef,’ so maybe they have some relevance to me. Maybe I should read on.”

Then, I get into the body of the email and it says they may have “job leads for chefs.”  Of course, this is where I start thinking to myself, “But I don’t need a job as a chef; I want marketing communications leads.”

But wait…  They said “after checking out {my} website…” Well, that gives me hope that they truly know who I am and what I need… so I read on. Only to be disappointed.

Now, let’s see what they might have done wrong…

First off, they didn’t actually address it to me…  I would have accepted “Andrew, Mr. Clark, Chef Clark” or anything that might have signaled that they actually KNEW who they were talking to.  That information is easy to find, even for spam bots. OH, and let’s not forget the fact that I’M NOT AN ACTUAL CHEF! I only play one on the interwebs… 

So, Why Not Delete The SPAM And Go On With Life?

The real reason I write this is that YES, spammers are getting more sophisticated. Instead of blasting emails to anyone and everyone, they have research and demographic focus and they’re starting (scratching the surface) to use it quite well.

I post this because I actually had a client that received the SAME email (of course addressed to THEIR online brand), and they forwarded it on to me asking if they should respond because, “it sounds like a pretty legit offer…”

Sorry, client. By clicking through and even looking at their site, the spammers won. It may have been a very small victory, but they received a “click-through;” a measurable sign that what they are doing is working.

Sure there is the obvious spam that you just delete before finishing the subject line, but as I mentioned above, they’re getting pretty clever.

So, my warning to my client (and to all of you) : “Please read thoroughly, ALL emails that come across your monitor, phone, whatever, for signs that it’s spam BEFORE you click through to their site – or to some executable virus or worse…”

Keep Cooking!
Andrew B. Clark
The Brand Chef*

**As a disclaimer, I was just informed this morning (by my Intern) that Cisco has discontinued the production of the FLIP video Camera.  So ANYWHERE I say “FLIP…”  Insert the words “Cell Phone.”  While it lacks the same fun and double entendre as “FLIP,” the premise still applies. If you “CellPhone” your blog (yawn), keep the following topics in mind…  Now, I’m off to catch up on current events.  Are we still in Iraq?**

Videos and podcast aren’t new to interactive marketing and communications. Some of my favorite blogs aren’t actually written blogs at all, but video blogs (or Vlogs) where the author turns the camera on and actually looks right at me and talks. Think about it. VIRTUALLY communicating eye-to-eye with your audience!

Image credit: http://blog.tmcnet.com

As technology improves and the speed of internet connections increases, the need for monster bandwidth, storage space and cost have become relatively low. Considering that, I’ve been encouraging my clients to “Flip” the model of their blogging.

I’ve sent many clients on over to The Flip Video product website for ideas on what the possibilities are and how it can bring people together. Sure, there are video samples given. That’s an obvious, but how they’re presented doesn’t feel quite so authentic. They feel like produced, planned recordings, even though they might not be.

I’m here to tell you…  Flipping Your Blog doesn’t need to be difficult, but it DOES need to be done…

Here are three simple steps to how to make the Flip Video Recorder an integral part of your blogging (and interactive marketing) process.

1. Turn the site over to the people actually using the product / brand (employees and customers):
   Sure there’s room for starched, corporate stuff, but why not make some space available to those that interact with the brand most? Allow them to upload videos, comment on other videos, tag videos and so on. Use your site as an outlet, so the experience with the brand doesn’t get capped in legal or proofreading.  The Flip Video Recorder allows the “HUMAN” side of the brand to come back to communications. The Flip is all about shooting video easily and transferring it to your computer/website in a snap. You should prove this point every day.
2. Create a YouTube channel
   Make your own space on YouTube. It’s FREE! Create a channel. Encourage people to tag their videos to your group. Flip has the “Upload to YouTube” feature, complete the circle and make the channel. You can then feed the channel right into your blog. Multiple authors and endless video opportunities can be sent to your site with very little effort. Why not harness all that free attention?
3. Make it easy to find you
   Outposts… Outposts…  Outposts! I’ve talked about this many times before, but your brand shouldn’t live solely on your website. With more outposts, the more opportunities you’ll have for cross posting, tagging and linking that all generate a little more SEO love as well as create multiple places for your target audience to find you, share your information and create a bigger, more enthusiastic brand community!

My point is this: the Flip Video Recorder is a tool that makes video, basic video editing and video sharing infinitely easier. It’s a tool for real people looking for a simple and convenient video solution. Why not take the easy road and FLIP YOUR BLOG?

So…  why didn’t I do this post using a Flip video?!?  I GAVE MY LAST FLIP CAMERA TO A CLIENT!

How would you use video to build a better blog? How could video improve your user experience with your brand?

I would love to hear your thoughts.

Keep Cooking (TRUE, engaging content)!
Andrew B. Clark
The Brand Chef

Salon.com, that ubiquitous source of blogging love that we all have grown just a little bored with recently, spouted a surprisingly great post today.

image credit: Salon.com / Timothy Goodman

Timothy Goodman, new Salon author, reflects on how social media has changed the direction in which branding professionals like me and others aim when it comes to effectively communicating to a client’s target audience. It’s no longer the Don Draper “Tell ‘em and they’ll believe it – ’cause it’s F*&n’ TV, damn-it…” generation. Social media has provided an open source sensibility to marketing and communications and Goodman brings that point to clarity very eloquently in, “How do we brand our evolving selves?” Goodman describes the Jungian classification of “Archetypal Character Traits” that they could then classify brands into and beautifully ties it into one of my favorite movies:

It makes me think about “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” when Mr. Edward Rooney’s secretary, Grace, speaks about Ferris: “Oh, he’s very popular, Ed. The sportos, the motorheads, geeks, sluts, bloods, wasteoids, dweebies, dickheads — they all adore him. They think he’s a righteous dude.” And this is exactly the role social media outlets are playing. These brands don’t have to be archetypal anymore, they just have to gainfully house all archetypes.

Integrating Carl Jung into my chosen career certainly gives it a little “Cerebral Credibility”

It (social media) has turned the tables on the “brand warriors” (not you Mark) out there.  We, as advertisers and communications specialists, have a responsibility to develop a brand for, in and around an ever-evolving target audience. It’s no longer a push marketing model. It CAN’T be a react marketing model either.

Unfortunately, I left my clairvoyance license in a bar somewhere in 1992.  I wonder if that would be doing me (or anyone else) any good today?

Thanks to Cathy J. Prince (site coming soon) for pointing out the post, and thanks to Timothy Goodman for reminding us all what the task at hand is. Keep the needle moving and we’ll all be headed in the right direction…  until they change their minds. 

Be the story.

Keep Cooking!
Andrew B. Clark
The Brand Chef

Differentiation. It’s one of the keys to good branding. Branding and marketing professionals have been beating that drum since the dawn of communication. But being “Different” in simple separation from the competition isn’t enough. Differentiation needs to add value. Otherwise what good does it do for the consumer?

Take for instance the recent “change” MillerCoors Brewing has made to their packaging. We’ve all seen the “Vortex Bottles” and the new big-mouth aluminum bottles. Sure that’s different, but the product is the same, watered down, tasteless swill. There hasn’t been any value proposition or improvement in the actual product. So unless the marketers and MillerCoors Brewing think their consumers are completely ignorant, belly-scratching mouth-breathers, there won’t be a return on the repackaging investment. Even msnMoney has called this effort for more brand awareness a “gimmick.”

“and MillerCoors fight it out. They are boosting their advertising budgets and even trying gimmicks like a “Vortex Bottle” that aerates the beer as it pours.”

Does their target audience really care about aeration of their beer? I could put even money that their target audience doesn’t even aerate their lawns!

Gimmicks don’t work.

To give you a little insight on how the beer market has changed, take a look at another article from msnMoney. In brief, it says that while beer sales over the past year have plummeted by 10% the “Craft Beer” market (think Sam Adams) has seen an uptick of 2.2%.

Why?

Beers like those that Sam Adams brews offer taste, quality and variety focused on the micro-brew-lovers palate not a feeble innovation to the “dump-it-down-your-throat faster” need… Their marketing sticks to their quality brewing process and attention to the needs of their discerning customers. No gimmicks… just great brand marketing.

It comes down to adding a value proposition to their differentiation. Sure, MillerCoors brews wheat beer and has special “flavors” like Miller Chill, but it hasn’t improved overall sales or brand awareness. In this writer’s opinion, it’s just watered down (further) their brand and left a bad taste in consumers mouths (pun intended).

So, Pull up a bar stool and join the conversation. What can commodity beers like the MillerCoors products and the Anheuser-Busch line do to compete with the Sam Adams and “Craft Beer” makers? We’d love to hear what you have to say. Maybe MillerCoors is listening in?

What say you?

Until next time…

Keep Cooking (great value branding)!
Andrew B. Clark
The Brand Chef

*This post was originally seen on the CreateWOWMarketing blog…