Who am I?

There are six fundamental question – Who? What? When? Where? How? Why? Some of these are obviously primary, meaning they don’t need a basis for a response like the Who? What? When? Where? How? But Why? is secondary, dependent on response to the first five to provide “meaning”.

Brands need to constantly ask these six fundamental questions to clarify their purpose for existence, the target market, and their consumption. The stronger the foundation and deeper the relevance the brand communicates the greater the success and resonance with the consumer and the market place.

With the amount of literature out there on the topic of self branding. I started to think of these questions with reference to myself.

In a real time world the GPS systems is able to answer “Where am I?” to a prospective employer the relevant question is “Where have I been?”, “When have I been there?” and “What sort of results did I deliver?” in ones resume. My style, my personality and my image is the “How do I perform?”.

Years ago when I was a student working on the UNIX servers I was spooked to ask “who am i” and response would be my login id and any additional information store in my “.whois” file (I hope this is not getting too technical). To a prospective employer it has more to do with “Who knows me?”, “Who do I know?”.

As for the secondary question, Why? The difference across all the elements of – Who? What? When? Where? How? Drives the basis for the final decision. We don’t just buy brands for the function but feeling it brings to us – Joy, Excitement, Comfort and Confidence!

Brand "Me"

I have no idea how I came upon this but I have been receiving a lot of invites and forward on LinkedIn, so this afternoon Ii was surfing around and there it was. The 44th President of the United States on LinkedIn!

I loved the gesture, I don't think he really needs the visibility nor do I think anyone will request a referral from him on LinkedIn, but I do like the approachability of the worlds most powerful leader on a site like LinkedIn! That says a lot about his marketing team, not wonder they were recognized for their excellence in pulling off a successful campaign.

Microwave inspired leadership.

I have a toast or a bagel each morning and like always I placed my bagel in the small convective oven and two minutes later the bagel was toasted, like always I took it out of the oven and placed it on my plate, spread some cream cheese. As I bit into it I felt the cold insides of the bagel. Strange as I am I was inspired by the bagel to think of leadership in modern organizations and opportunities.

Most organizations have leadership like the oven. Stuff happens with the heat being turned up which obviously means people do things without an internal commitment. Sometimes what appears like a completed task is just the superficial burn from the convective heat of the oven.

The microwave on the other hand is a very unique device. There is no visible heat but yet the item being microwaved is hot/warm from the inside-out. That’s leadership in principle! Dwight David Eisenhower our 34^th president said it best.

“Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it. “

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Now the Microwave is not perfect either… over heat the food in the microwave and it looses moisture and hardens up but rarely ever visibly burning off like in the oven where as when you over heat the same item in the over and it chars.

Oh boy... & "There is only so much a Marketer can do"

The not so funny video from Domino's, is evidence when peoples values and ethics or lack of them at work can destroy the core of the brand - Domino's Reacts Cautiously, Quietly to YouTube Gross-Out Video

04/16 - Response from Mr. Doyle, should have been immediate! None the less, here it is.

SUSTAINABILITY? Brain Sensory Food & Calories in the Belly

I read about the Kroger Marketing Alliance with Feeding America - in MediaPost. Kudos to the brand stewards for strategizing and launching the initiative.

As great as the art work on the website - The Bread Art Project, I have a hard time trying to fathom the fact that there are thousands of people that starve every single day when some of us in the western world can appreciate the finer art in food.

Second harvest was about feeding the hungry, are we now taking the same food to feed the brain through art?

And is the satisfaction from viewing the art the same to a hungry child and a hungry family the same as putting a slice of bread, a toast into their bellies?

I have to applaud the creative senses of the artist but cannot resist saying "The appreciation of this art is in the stomach of the hungry".

The power of simplicity

From The Washington Post - In the age of lack of trust, food recalls, disease, excesses in information that can be conflicting at most times, etc.... nothing is more powerful that SIMPLICITY. Here is the creative for Tostitos that exemplifies the concept in the ad and the product.

A culture of FEAR

Organizations are structured like a pyramid which creates the very impetus for someone towards the top to know more than someone else towards the bottom. No organization or institution is structures like a cube or a prism partly because we need some guiding star, a leader. Our psyche is wired to that end!

The unfortunate part of the evolution is the fact that sometimes we will place our self interest ahead of that of the organization/institution. Leadership leverages or abuses the power of information combined with their own wisdom to subjugate the underlings. A culture of fear is not just one where man kills man but really one where I know more than you and I will not tell you until you fall.

Some organizations thrive on this culture of fear. Knowledge and awareness is ones strength and more one protects it the stronger one get. The boss loves the one who knows more, peers are scared for what you know and individuals that report into you look-up to you since you can always tell them what they don’t know. Systems and tools that democratize knowledge are not supported and ideas to proliferate knowledge are discounted.

The most unfortunate outcome is when these individuals that thrive on a culture of fear become role models!