Who says Rambo offers nothing more than some ripped deltoids and a glistening chest bathed in baby oil?  Who says Rambo, the American military anti-hero of the 1980’s and beyond, offers nothing of importance — or remotely educational?  Who ever said he would never give us anything good for branding fodder?

Okay, probably a lot of us…  But, I was watching “Rambo: First Blood Part II” this afternoon and a powerful, yet understated scene caught my branding eye.

It was meant to build some romantic foreshadowing, but in an (almost) unexpected tender moment, I watched as über-stud, Rambo, explained to Co Bao (Julia Nickson) how he found himself heading into yet another predictable mêlée.

Rambo: “…to survive a war, you need to become war.”
Co Bao: “Is that why they pick you? ‘Cause you like to fight?”
Rambo: {mutter} “mwaauhhm…  I’m ‘EXPENDABLE.”
Co Bao: “Expendable.  What mean ‘expendable?’”

And then, the most powerful analogy I’ve ever heard rolled eloquently from Sylvester Stallone’s twisted, razor-thin lips…

Rambo: “It’s like…  someone invites you to a party and you don’t show up…” {Wait for it} “… it doesn’t really matter.”

Of course, the movie goes on and Rambo proves that he’s in no way, shape or form (so-to-speak) expendable.

(VIDEO—Feed readers and Facebookers, click here to see the video snippet…)

If anything, through great character development by David Morrell, Kevin Jarre, Stallone and some unknown by the name of James Cameron; Rambo epitomizes the TRUE Brand criteria that I so often talk about.

Rambo’s TRUE Brand:

Truth/Transparency: He is a patriot.  That’s all.  He knows only black and white truth and honesty.
Relevant: The writers made sure that Rambo’s relevance was central to all (four) in the series.  In Rambo II, it was Vietnam POW’s that, in 1985, were STILL struggling to be heard and recognized for the terror and hell they had and were still going through.
Unique: C’mon, man.  How much more unique can you get.  Rambo was the first live-action G.I. Joe with a 1980’s, Reagan-era “We’ll kick-your-ass-now-and-ask-questions-later” attitude.
Engaging: Budget… $44 million…  Earning: $300 million (And THAT’s just part 2!) If Rambo didn’t engage his audience, his critics, his enemies, I don’t think Sly would be considering doing Parts 5 and 6…

Expendable…  Not-so-much.

How does your brand stand up to Rambo’s “Expendable” brand?  If someone invited you to a party and you didn’t show… would it matter?

Food for thought.  Or as Rambo would say… “Whouul-ih-murur?”

Keep Cooking & Happy New Year!
Andrew B. Clark
The Brand Chef

This post is for my fellow Midwesterners that have, over the last 60 hours, braved the cold, wind and driving snow from one of the worst blizzards seen in this area in almost a decade.

Last time Iowa had snow like Tuesday and Wednesday’s storm was 1992. I was still cuddled warm in my dorm room at Coe College and didn’t see the need to venture out in the gale winds.  We had plenty of TopRamen,  plenty of Keystone Light, and cable television to keep up safe, warm and entertained for the two days we were snowed into our dorms.  Heck, I didn’t even need to shower if I didn’t feel the urge (although roommates made it evidently clear that one was needed.)

This time, circumstances were different. I’m now a “bonafied” grown-up with responsibilities like a family, home, and a real job.  I have a mortgage to pay, I have children to protect and keep warm and fed.  I even have a dog that needs to be cared for – a long leap from the last blizzard that crippled the area.

So, how did I get through it this time?

Winter-time brands, baby…

Here are 16 brands I’d like to thank for getting me through “Death Storm 2009:”

• Jeep - My trusty Liberty was sideways a few times, but that was probably operator error … probably?
• Toro - Without my trusty snow blower, I would STILL be shoveling through the 4′ drifts.  I *heart* Toro!
  
• Old Navy - “Economical” Winter coat…  ’nuff said.
  
• Thinsulate - mmmm…  toasty warm snow pants for the kids (and dad).
• Encore Movie Channels - what a great way to decompress from 4 hours of pushing snow…  some mindless classics (Die Hard, Step Brothers, and soooo many more…)
  
• Cartoon Network & Nickelodeon - although the kids spent most of the time outside (crazy!)
  
• Apple Computers - without = SOCIAL MEDIA PANIC…  No blog Posts!  No Twitter? No Facebook? The end of civilization as we know it!  Cats and Dogs living together…  complete, mass-hysteria!
  
• Pillsbury - two words: Christmas Cookies!
  
• Pork - The Other White Meat - The kids and I made “home-made” pizza… Between you and me, nothing goes better on pizza than oodles of Italian pork sausage!
  
• Skittles - Can you say “Taste The Rainbow?” and, no they didn’t go on the pizza… dessert…  ?
  
• TownHouse Crackers - a perfect part of a late-night snack… (kickn’ Web site as well!)
  
• Shullsburg Cheese - and what else to top those crackers?  Say Cheese!  And they’re a Midwestern brand to boot!
• KCCI TV8 - my favorite weather tracking team…
  
• Iowa DOT - the folks in those big, yellow trucks that kept burying the end of my driveway… but I’m DARN glad they’re there to get the city moving again!
• Aspercream - ’cause I’m not 18 any more… (OR: go out strong and don’t let them see you limp back in.)
  
• Serta - the best way to end the day…
  

So, by the list, you can pretty much tell what I did over the last 60+ hours.  Brands defined my day…

What brands did you depend on to make it through the storm?  Were there some that you counted on more during the storm than any other day (Toro, Aspercream)?

Here’s hoping you all are happy, safe and warm. Just think…  this Winter just started.

Keep Cooking (warm thoughts)!
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

This is how geeky I’ve become in my old age.  Star Trek (yes, the movie) made me think of a great brand engagement solution – well, maybe not specifically Star Trek, but the DVD I purchased this week, TWICE.

Let me explain…

Last night, I found myself standing in line at the customer service counter at a local “Big Box” store - for the second time in as many days. It seems as though a shipment of the new Star Trek DVDs had been damaged; and about 200 upset geeks, including me, found themselves watching Spock, Kirk and Uhura jump from present day to past, to the movie climax, to witty sexual innuendo, to exciting battle scene… about every six minutes.

While it made for an entertaining montage of the flick, after about 30 minutes, I’d had enough (my wife and kids were sick of it after about 10).  So, at 7:30pm on a Wednesday night, I stood in line.  Waiting.  Frustrated with every progressing minute that I wasn’t able to get my geeky fanboy Uhura fix… (mmmmmmmm Uhura).

Then, the social media marketer in me came to the surface (I’ll have to talk to my psychiatrist about this).  I looked around, and in the crowd of nerds, geeks, dweebs and extra terrestrials of all sorts, I saw one dominant feature (besides loose, black, funky sweat pants).

Mobile phones… PDAs, iPhones, Droids… you name it, they were EVERYWHERE!

All I could hear was the clickity-click of sweaty thumbs texting away on mobile devices from the doorway to the service counter. I even had my CrackBerry out so I could update my wife with how long the line was.

I could just imagine what all of the others were texting…

“Honey, the line at Big Box in insane…  get the kids ready for bed… #sorry “

“I can’t believe how long the line is at Big Box! WTF! #Fail“

“Just spent the last half hour waiting for Big Box to replace my #StarTrek DVD! F.”

“Did I leave the popcorn going in the microwave? #nasty“

“Beverly said my sweatpants need to be washed…#luckytobedating“

Poor Beverly.  Now she’ll have to deal with Morgan’s fermented redolence for another night because he’s standing in line…

Then, I looked up to the service counter.  The poor girl behind the register (yes, only one) was darting back and forth from the phone to the counter faster than a hamster on crack and RedBull. She had six DVDs in one hand, a phone tucked precariously on her shoulder, and was trying to talk one poor nerd girl down from the ledge – convincing her that “Big Box” was going to replace her DVD, she just needed to show a receipt… (I could hear the nerd girl’s cerebral cortex shatter like a Faberge egg.)

Oh man, I felt for the customer service girl, though.  I’d been in similar situations.  But when I worked in customer service (20+ years ago), there wasn’t social media.  There wasn’t an army of social media militants standing at the counter organizing their chaos through bluetooth devices.  There was just me, irate customers, a cash register and a phone…  How archaic was that?!?

Then I looked again.  SHE was in the same situation I’d been in 20 years ago! (remind me to check my own cerebral cortex.)

SOCIAL MEDIA TO THE RESCUE!

So, what if…  just go with me on this one… “Big Box” realized the situation and circumvented the ire of the “World Of Warcraft” generation and addressed the issue using…  wait for it…

TWITTER!

It would be a simple implementation.  If “Big Box” had someone monitoring their brand, they would see the conversations going on (I wrote a post about it a few weeks ago).  With that knowledge, they could,

1) address the issue directly to the people making the complaints, or

2) create a hashtag “#” to focus the conversation and keep everyone engaged with solutions as they are developed.

How?

I see it done like this:

“Big Box’s” social media monitor (yeah) tracks a series of red flag statements rolling through the Twittersphere, specific to a certain store.  With speed and efficiency (good luck with that one), they send the message down to store management and then on to the service center to post solutions, instructions and apologies for any inconvenience to their store’s Twitter account under a specific hashtag, like “#BBSouthStarTrekDVD”

At the same time, somewhere around service counter a sign could be posted stating the issue and that “Big Box” was doing what they could within the store to accomodate the customers and solve the issues.  But (and this is the cool part), if they had questions, comments, etc., they could join the conversation with the store and other customers by just using Twitter and #BBSouthStarTrekDVD !

Simple?  I think so.  I think MANY of my co-nerds would have been satiated by just this small gesture.

By the time I got to the counter, in my mind, I’d been promoted from customer service dweeb to “Big Box” CEO and was looking to shop for my next home in the Hamptons; so I didn’t get the chance to offer this advice to the girl behind the counter.  But I think she was a little too busy anyway.

What could your company do to utilize hashtags on Twitter? Could customer service issues be solved with a simple tweet-or-two?  Or do you think it’s still about what Morgan had for breakfast this morning (that quickly found its way onto his sweatpants)?

What other departments could benefit from tracking conversations about your brand?

Food for thought.

Keep Cooking,
Andrew B. Clark
The Brand Chef

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Yes, I said it. As “The Brand Chef,” that’s something I never thought would come out of my mouth.  But in a recent meeting with a friend, I closed my laptop, pushed my chair back and looked him straight in the eye and said these exact words:

“Your marketing can’t fix crazy…” (and this was in reference to HIS company!)

Now, this could either be a lesson on how to shoot yourself in the foot during a casual meeting with a friend; or it could turn into a logical discussion on branding versus marketing.  This discussion could cover how, because branding is at the core of a company’s culture, business and communications model, your brand isn’t something that you can just decide to give a “face lift.” Marketing, on the other hand – what many people think of when branding comes up in a conversation – can be changed to suit an ever-evolving brand…

Here’s the difference: Marketing is the strategic communication effort that results from a TRUE core brand promise, targeted to a specific audience, with the goal of enticing engagement with that brand.

So, to say it again, just for affect:

“Your marketing can’t fix crazy….”

You see companies, almost on a daily basis, “rebranding” themselves.  But deep-down, without a TRUE brand strategy, the marketing that results is guaranteed to reflect what is going on inside the company - for better or worse…

Based on the conversation that ensued after my “shocking” statement, my friend and I came up with five simple takeaways.

Marketing can’t fix…

1. … a company that has changed its “brand strategy” 5 times in the last 5 years. This happens when deeper brand issues stall out the progress marketing should be making.  Instead of stopping and performing a TRUE brand evaluation, the CEO or CMO simply jump the track to find a different way.  Different doesn’t fix what’s broken.
   
2. … a company’s inability to make brand-based decisions. Unfortunately a company with this problem usually slows or destroys its marketing efforts simply by not being able to take action.
3. … a broken marketing communication system by only using “internal staffers.” Few “Internal Marketing Departments” have enough perspective to do all of the brand evaluation and execution without outside counsel. Trust me, I’ve seen many companies try and many have failed.
4. … a company with a lousy product or service (even at a discount). In this economy, when people are looking for value, quality still is at the core of our decision-making process.  If your product or service is at the bottom of the quality scale in that category, you’d better re-think more than your brand.
5. … a program with an insufficient budget. The phrase “money talks and B.S. walks,” for this point, is painfully applicable.  Plan all you want.  Scheme big dreams and map out creative strategies until your face turns fuchsia.  None of it will succeed unless you have the resources to support it.  How many campaigns have gotten out of the starting blocks in a blur, only to fall to its knees a quarter way through the race because it’s out of funding?

TRUE Branding (Truthful/Transparent, Relevant, Unique and Engaging) is the core to building a successful marketing communications program.  With strategic marketing you can analyze a company’s TRUE Brand position, develop a successful plan and implement a program to raise awareness and engage your market. But remember, branding takes time and sometimes painful effort. It shouldn’t be viewed as a quick fix, or a “face-lift.”

With that, I’d like to send a big “Thank you” out to my friend for letting me vent to (at) him.  Although the coffee was good, I appreciate the conversations that make me think and evaluate how I can better help clients and their brands.

Next time, the coffee is on me.

Keep Cooking!
Andrew B. Clark
The Brand Chef