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 sat back in my chair at Caribou this morning looking over a dark roast and a french toast muffin (a MUST try, by the way), thinking about the next post for The Brand Chef blog. I’ve written extensively about branding, personal branding and social media marketing. Heck, I’ve even thrown in a Get-Going Groove of the day compilation and put up a page dedicated to it (great traffic there, thank you!)… But I wanted to get away from the regular routine.

So, today I decided to expound on the social media world’s fascination with BACON.

Yep, Bacon! It’s the American blogger’s food-porn aphrodisiac. If it came between naked pictures of Kaley Cuoco (Penny on “Big Bang Theory”) and bacon, I truly worry that the bacon would get more views. Maybe Kaley’s photos would have a lower bounce rate, but that’s a whole different blog (and innuendo)…

Anyway! I honestly can’t go a single day without seeing a tweet or a post or a photo (notice the bacon bra?) of something to do with bacon. It’s everywhere!

So, why bacon? Why? WHY!?!

1. Bacon Emotes True Passion - Starting out with the obvious, bacon is… FREAKIN’ bacon!

You can whisper “I have bacon” in a crowded room and it’s pretty certain that you get a glorious, harmonizing response of “yummmmmmm…” similar to those Tibetan Deep Throat Chants.  (video)

that aside, the draw to bacon is so powerful, some retailers and hotels have been branded JUST by the bacon they serve!  I’ve read of entire restaurant menus dedicated to bacon, but to have an endorsement like this,

“if Bacon had a God he would live at The Roger Smith Hotel!” – Chris Brogan

makes an impact for bacon’s case that knocks you off your feet.

2. Bacon Has Spanning Relevance - While I really don’t need to go into the origins of bacon, I would assume that it took some grunting relative of ours about 10 seconds to figure out the salting and curing of the fatty back parts of pigs turned a generally disgusting part of the animal into one of the most succulent slices of meat human kind would ever stumble upon. It can be fried, diced, baked, grilled and even made into ice cream. So how can bacon NOT be relevant to every social and economical demographic under the sun?

3. Bacon Is Ultimately Unique – It has a taste like no other meat product.  It’s kind of a cross between glazed ham and beef jerky.  The sheer individuality of bacon makes it the most utilitarian meat source on the planet. And just try to search for “Bacon Recipes.” You’ll be reading (and drooling) for days…

4. And Bacon Is Soooo Engaging – How can one food, one simple, solitary slice of meat become the biggest meme of the 21st century?  How can bacon, a fat, salty slice of cholesterol become more consistently popular than Justin Bieber or Britney Spears put together?

Let’s just put it this way, have you ever been unhappy eating bacon?

UH OH…  look what I just did…

Can you hear it?  Sizzling like fat on a 400˚ griddle…  my branding brain did it again.

Even when it comes to writing a silly post about the popularity of bacon, I pull in the TRUE Branding formula.  It’s inevitable. When it comes to branding, like bacon, there has to be truth, relevance, uniqueness and engagement.

I haven’t asked pork producers but this could all be a big conspiracy to sell more pork product, but I’m sure they’re not complaining.

How would YOU like your brand to have the fan base bacon has? Imagine having your brand, your product, your name associated with everything personally rewarding and ultimately sinfully satisfying as bacon.

Try it.

Keep Cooking (until it’s crisp and satisfying.)
Andrew B. Clark
The Brand Chef

And with a hat tip to my blogging buddy @AdMavericks (Josh Fleming) I give you another tribute to BACON!

Life spins around us pretty fast. It’s astounding that when we sit down to write, create, work, or whatever; the world comes to a screeching halt. Of course the distractions, the annoying emails, the tweets and post alerts seem to continue, but when creating really matters, you freeze. My last post talked about the need to conquer this writer’s block. If you don’t want to click back to read the whole post, here’s an excerpt:

It kills me every Wednesday night. While I’ve known all week that I have a personal deadline set to post every Thursday morning; I wait until Wednesday night (or later) to actually start writing. I take notes, jot ideas, scribble and doodle all week, but when it comes to Wednesday, I open TextEdit and just sit.

CRAP…

Suddenly, tonight, a voice in my head said “What the hell are you doing? Just start writing, you moron!” So I did. I wrote, “You’re going to die anyway.” and POW, the words started rolling.

So I challenged you to write the title of a future post for me – to kick-start some of the juices. And to my surprise, you stepped to the challenge (yay).

Now we – more to the point, YOU – get to vote on which title will be my next post! Read the entries below and vote for your favorite. You have until the end of the day (6:00 pm CST) Monday, June 21st to make your decision.

I will take the most popular title and interview the person that submitted it to get “the full story.” Who knows? It may reveal something about one of our fellow community of readers or it may just be cool to hear how they came up with the title. Any way we look at it, it’s going to prove to be interesting and challenging.

So, vote away! I look forward to seeing the results!

Keep Cooking! (free-flowing creative that saves the world!)

Andrew B. Clark
The Brand Chef

Can you say your brand is unique?  Can you say you’re a pioneer?

It seems like a simple concept, but when it comes down to it, it takes a commitment to a TRUE brand.  Often times people ask what it takes to become “viral.”

My answer:

“You can’t  Being “viral” is entirely based on the community you’ve created…”

Here’s a great example:

(Facebookers and feed readers need to click here to see this great video.)

Okay, maybe they’re all stoned.  But they all seem to be “drinking the same Kool-Aid” – tainted or not.

This guy’s belief in his unique value inspired others to engage.  Can you say your brand is this infectious?  How can you make it so?

Keep Cooking (unique ways to engage your audience)
Andrew B. Clark
The Brand Chef

Having worked in the restaurant industry through most of my adolescence and into my early 20’s, I was well aware of the old adage that went something like:

If a single upset customer tells 10 friends about an unsatisfactory experience, it’s conceivable those 10 friends could perpetuate that report to another 10… and so-on, and so-on… eventually damaging the restaurant’s brand bad enough to put it out of business.

Or, as Máma Brandcheffio said:

“Piss off one customer and you’ve lost 100…”

So, at a very young age, I was forced to learn two very important aspects to marketing.

1. Word-of-mouth marketing is very powerful.
2. The customer is always right.

WHAT? The customer is ALWAYS right?

Máma Brandcheffio used to tell me:

“Even if the customer is wrong, THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT.”

Even at 15, that concept incensed me.  Today it seems like a complete disregard to human civility (See last week’s post) and is entirely defeatist in nature.

Luckily, I came to my senses.

Chew on this:

Originally, one disgruntled customer could, with good effort, affect the opinions of 100 others with their own word-of-mouth marketing.  In 1983, that was a pretty big deal. With 100 potential customers talking about poor service or a fuzzy hamburger bun, over several days, maybe months, the reputation of the restaurant could be damaged enough to warrant inspections, improvements or to be ostracized out of business all together.

That was 1983 word-of-mouth. (Yawn)

Today, our “upset” customer can take a photo, text a gripe to their iPhone or Tweet it to thousands or tens of thousands before your gazpacho reaches room temperature! If “viral” enough, those thousands can make an instantaneous decision to re-tweet it to their lists reaching thousands more!

Word-of-mouth marketing has reached light speed!

Restaurants, from local and regional to major chains, are taking a “more than cautious” approach to social media marketing.  They want to make sure it’s not a “fad” before jumping in.

Have they lost their minds? Maybe in 1983 that’d be okay, but this is 2009!

Not only are social media tools like Twitter and Facebook the fastest growing user-based tools on the Web, they have moved the “Customer is always right” paradigm entirely into the customer’s control, forever altering the approach to marketing communication and public relations.

Restaurants may not want to get involved in a “marketing” sense, but can you imagine how fast they will have to scramble when the “Chris Brogan” of the restaurant industry sends a damaging Tweet or photos of one of their cooks, in uniform, picking their boxers out of their ass as they walk into the kitchen?

Mmmmm, appetizing…

To put it simply, social media WILL affect your restaurant. Ignoring it is not an option for today’s restaurants, no matter what size.

It’s better to use basic social media tools and participate in a brand management program.  Otherwise, you can watch your brand (and your future) carried away in the beak of that ubiquitous little blue Twitter icon.

Food for thought.

Andrew B. Clark
The Brand Chef