Bernie Sanders is Brandie Senders.

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There is one candidate who gets branding – Bernie Sanders. Maybe we should call him a brandidate. No matter. Whether you like him, love him or hate him, you have to give the devil his due – he has established the Bernie brand.

It doesn’t matter how small or how insignificant the New Hampshire primary turns out to be, Bernie’s message has resonated. Why? Here’s the key. It is so obvious that even one of the political talking bobbleheads got it right – Bernie has made the message about you instead of about him. He tells the crowds, “This is all about you.” He has engaged people who have felt left out of the process.

And they love him for it.

Brand builders think they have to build a brand only about the brand. Successful brands know they have to build the brand about what it does for its audience.

Sound too simple? It isn’t. If you don’t believe me, look at the brands that resonate versus the wanna-brands that turn into resin.

In New Hampshire (where is Old Hampshire anyway?), Bernie, an older guy with rumpled pants, scored with every key demographic group. He outpolled Hillary with women.

Will Bernie be the next President?  There are businesspeople across the country that are shaking in their Oxford boots dreading the thought. Maybe they should not fear Brandie, uh, Bernie. He understands branding better than most businesses.

There’s a special place in heaven for our branding angel, Bernie.

 If you'd like to talk strategy about your brandidate, drop me an e-line at jhenke@henkeinc.com.

Brand Opera – Find Your Own Voice

Luciano Pavarotti was the ultimate brand manager and executer. He turned around a dying category (opera) despite warnings of its inevitable demise. Not only did Pavarotti make opera popular with opera lovers, he expanded the category of opera to an entire new universe – pop music lovers.

Classic critics dismissed him as not serious enough, about music nor keeping his weight down. It was true – Pavarotti grew larger than life and larger in life at the same time.

How did Pavarotti do it?

He stayed true to his voice. When he started singing in 1961, advisors told him to hurry up because opera would be dead within ten years. Critics had no idea what was about to hit them… a Pavarotti tsunami.

Steve Jobs once famously said, “It’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.”

Pavarotti showed newbie opera fans and music critics alike the colors of opera. According to a New York Times obit after his death in 2007, Pavarotti was able to showcase his powerful voice in “elegant, brilliant colors.” His pristine sound was the voice for a new generation of pop-opera fans.

Of course, whenever you do something new, you are going to upset the establishment. And Pavarotti did. Critics were savage about his dedication, his ability to read music and his weight. He shrugged off critics who contended that he was not serious enough with charm and a smile. As Master P says, “Shake off them haters.”

Pavarotti was an unparalleled social media strategist – he did not sing at audiences. He engaged audiences. He did not just have fans. Through his talent and the warmth of his personality, he developed brand fanatics who loved him and defended him so he didn’t have to defend himself.

Do you have Pavarotti’s voice or talent? No. You have your own. So does your brand. Use it. If your brand is not authentic, you will know. If you know, your audience will know.

There will be a lotta drama in your brand opera. Stay true to your voice.

As Pavarotti said, “You couldn’t confuse my voice with another voice.”

Brands Trump Commodities.

Say what you will. Please.

That’s the lesson of Trump. He is the first politician in years to speak his mind instead of hiding behind fake patriotism and snore-inducing soundbites.

It doesn’t matter if he’s right or wrong. You know what he’s thinking. He gives you a glimpse inside the person who wants to run this country. Mark Cuban recently said that Trump’s outspokenness has been the most important development for U.S. politics in years. Mark the Shark has it right.

Trump is a brand. The other 62 Republicans running for their party’s nomination are commodities. Trump’s bold moves have turned the also-runnings into also-rans. There is an old but true marketing maxim: if you don’t position yourself, your competition will do it for you.

Trump has positioned the other Republicans as commodities. He is bold. They are bland. He makes statements. They mutter tired clichés.

A brand is a promise. Whether you like Trump’s offer or not is up to you. At least he has given, and will continue to give, you solid clues as to what makes him tick and what he believes. Like it or lump it. Donald will trumpet. You cannot please everybody.

How many times have you seen a cool ad or video and then had no idea what the message was or what they wanted you to do? Cool or not, it was a waste of money.

What does your target think of you? Have you clearly defined your positioning? Have you been positioned by your competition?

If you can positively answer these questions, good for you. You’re in the minority.

If you don’t know, you need help. Drop me a line at jhenke@henkeinc.com.

Have to leave you with a classic Trump quote: “If your business is not a brand, it is a commodity.” Ouch. That could leave a mark. Just ask the other Republican candidates.

Ben Franklin Biograffiti

The more you read about Ben Franklin, the more you realize that he was ahead of his time.

Ironically, even more than any of his inventions, he was a lightening rod. I’m reading Ben Franklin, An American Life by Walter Isaacson. I highly recommend it. Isaacson’s research is thorough and his comments on Franklin are thoroughly entertaining. Two of my favorite of Isaacson’s nuggets:

·      Ben Franklin is the founding father who winks at us.

·      But the most interesting thing that Franklin invented, and continually reinvented, was himself.

We always think our society is on the verge of ruin. How many times have you heard, “The founding fathers would be rolling in their graves.”

Well, Franklin was ahead of the good and the bad. While he invented bifocals, he was our first Dear Abby. He was the only man to have a hand in shaping the critical documents of our nation including the Declaration of Independence, and he created fictional characters to write in gossipy, salacious letters to his newspaper, which he then answered and published.

Biographies are entertaining to me. I think of them as biograffiti. We throw all these findings about the subject’s life on the wall and examine and judge every little fact and innuendo. I wonder if we’d all be proud of ourselves under the microscope. Would we like our own likeness?

Franklin’s critics contend that he cultivated his own likeness for prosperity and posterity. Today, our public servants and celebrities hire handlers to do this. Franklin wouldn’t be horrified by our present-day world. He would thrive on it.

Thrive on.

If you would like to discuss your personal or company’s brand story or perception, drop me a line at jhenke@henkeinc.com.

Thanks.

General Patton – Director of Marketing

“A good plan executed today is better than a perfect plan executed at some

indefinite point in the future.”  General George Patton

In addition to being a decent military man, General George S. Patton would have been a fantastic Director of Marketing. For all of his faults, Patton was inarguably a man of action.

Patton was prepared. He would not have considered going into a battle, much less a war, without objectives, strategies and tactics. In other words, he always had a plan.

He believed fervently that his troops had to be disciplined and well-trained. He would not send them out into the field without knowing precisely what their role was.

He was intelligent and extremely well read, but Patton did not over-research a plan. With the General, there was never analysis paralysis. He knew that to reach an objective, he and his troops had to go on the offensive. He had to provide the strategy, and then the tactics would be implemented for victory.

The biggest hesitation I hear from clients is that they don’t want to invest in a plan because things could change and the plan would be obsolete.

News flash – things always change. There is not one day in your life that goes exactly according to plan.  Patton knew that every battle changed once the shells started flying.

A plan is a road map. If there’s construction, you figure out a detour. That does not mean the map has no value.

In fact, change is the reason the plan is so valuable. Without it, you would be lost.

Patton refused to lose. He always had a plan.

If you would like to discuss strategic marketing planning, please drop me a note at jhenke@henkeinc.com.

Thanks.

What is Your Brand’s Body Language?

In one of the most-watched (almost 26 million views) TED talks of all-time, Social Psychologist Amy Cuddy said, “We’re fascinated with body language. We’re particularly interested by other people’s body language.”

People make judgments instantly about other people every day.

They do the same thing with brands. Yes, they’re judging you when you don’t even know it.

How do people see your brand’s body language? (Brandy language does not sound quite right.)

Does your logo look at them honestly? Is it simple to understand with nothing to hide? Or, is it cluttered? Badly designed? Hunched over?

Is your brand essence statement clear?

The most interesting thing I took from Amy’s TED talk is that our bodies can change our minds. It’s an internal power struggle.

That’s the key to any marketing – your internal marketing. Is it true? Is it confident? Does your team believe it?

For your body language, you can “open up” for two minutes and it will make a difference in your life. Your brand essence can “open up” your brand.

Give your brand a power pose.

If you’d like to discuss how to open up your brand and your results, drop me a line at jhenke@henkeinc.com.

Thanks.

Sales and The Imitation Game

Whenever I hear someone say they could never be in sales, I laugh. If you could never be in sales, you could never do anything.

This weekend, I saw the movie The Imitation Game. It was a WWII thriller based on the life of Alan Turing, who led the charge to break and decode the German secret code dubbed “Enigma” in WWII.

Turing was a mathematical genius who had trouble relating to people. His gift for offending people was as formidable as his gift for math. Although he was the last person you could ever imagine making a sale, he made two sales when he had to – he sold his idea to Winston Churchill and he sold his team on his process.

When he realized that the team, its goals and its leadership were off and needed fixing, Turing was originally rejected. His superior said to get the process going in his direction he’d have to go all the way to Winston Churchill to give his blessing.

What did Turing do? He wrote Churchill what must have been a very persuasive letter and was given authority to run the project his way. He immediately fired two people and offended the rest of the team, but he succeeded in getting the team to move in a new direction. Talk about an effective sales letter.

Later, when the process he was directing was taking longer than expected to produce results and crack the German code, Turing was saved from being fired when his team, who initially hated him, defended him and saved him and his ideas from their demise.

The team agreed to pool their talents and efforts and eventually succeeded. This is an outstanding example of internal marketing. If your team believes in you and the idea, you can move mountains. If not, your results will be rubble.

Sell on, players; especially if you don’t think you have to. Nobody will settle for a pale imitation.

If you want to discuss achieving sales goals and internal marketing, drop me a note at jhenke@henkeinc.com.

Thanks.

Shoot the Messenger: You Can’t Market What You Don’t Know.

How can you communicate what you don’t know? No matter how clever or creative you are, no matter how well it’s designed, if you don’t know the message, you cannot possibly deliver it.

You have to do the work. You must put in the time and research. You have to know what your brand is talking about. It sounds like a lot of effort… like you have to do the dirty work.

Here’s the beauty of it…

It’s a blast. There is nothing as much fun as learning about something and uncovering that one nugget, that one insight that makes your brand different. It’s always there and it’s usually hiding in plain sight, right under the brand’s nose.

If someone tells you to create a message without providing any background, don’t walk… run for the hills, get outta town, insert your favorite catchphrase here.

Be the brand investigator. Then, and only then, can you be the sales instigator.

If you would like to discuss uncovering brand insights, drop me a line at jhenke@henkeinc.com.

Thanks.

Where have all the characters gone?

This morning, I was working with a longtime associate who is an expert videographer, editor and producer. He mentioned that he recently worked with another editor whom I haven’t seen in twenty (ouch) years.

This long-lost (to me) editor was one of the true, funny characters I have ever met. He was creative and crazy. You never got one without the other. With every project, you knew you’d end up with a great video and end up on the floor laughing at least once in the process.

Unfortunately for me, he moved to greener pastures (swamps) in Florida. He was such a character. Where have they all gone?

The truth is, he still is a true character. I just haven’t seen him lately.

It’s true – I am older. I’m sure I’m guilty of reminiscing through a rose-colored lens. The truth is that the true characters are hiding and creating in plain sight. Don’t miss out on the true characters of today because you’re stuck looking in reverse. The rear view mirror won’t help you break new ground.

Keep moving forward. Work with characters that aren’t afraid to be themselves. They will bring your projects to life… in spite of all the danger. Your brands will not survive. They will thrive.

And you'll laugh more.

If you’d like to discuss true branding and creative character, drop me a note at jhenke@henkeinc.com.

Thanks.

My Mom Teaches Account Service

My mom is a born Account Executive. In the marketing industry, AE stands for Account Executive. Contrary to popular belief, Account Service is not an easy job. In the good old days, people thought of the job as having drinks, three martini lunches and playing golf. That stereotype has been out-of-date for at least then years.

My mom is a good AE. She nurtures, grows and doesn’t let you stagnate. She challenges you to grow, to exceed the easy, safe expectations that you set for yourself. Mom wouldn’t let me slack or settle or plateau. She always expected more and had a way of letting you know without being negative. Don’t get me wrong, there were a few times when I was too cocky and got pinned two out of three falls on the bathroom floor.

My account is not an easy one to service. It is an ongoing process – not a one-time project.

This is true about all good AEs. Don’t underestimate their value. Hug them. Mom would.

If you want to talk about A-1 AEs, drop me a line at jhenke@henkeinc.com.

Thanks.