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October 24, 2004

Bits, Books, Blogs and Brands - Living Beings, Not Dead Objects

Recently, I talked to two bloggers I respect a ton (Scoble and MacLeod) about our book. Sure it was flattering that they both liked the book but what was really interesting was that these seperate conversations both launched into parallel, very intesting discussions about where technology, media and brands are going. And that these same themes seem reflected in numerous synchronous discussions around the blogsphere.

What am I talking about? I'm talking about a common theme of dynamism. Of the whole being more than the sum, of involvement, of interaction, of creative destruction that keeps things alive. Embracing this - or dying if you don't - seems to be something cutting across a number of dimensions lately - companies, technology, communications, brands (and, what the heck, books too).

* Companies: Maybe it's just because I've become a venture capitalist but it seems to me that a great way to drive an industry and build a great business is not just as a huge monolith, but as a community of smaller companies founded on a great idea, all working hard to push their own form of change, all moving quickly, nimbly, responding, growing, evolving... or dying and being replaced. Maybe this has always been true but lately it feels like the pace (not just hype around "internet time", the flexibility, and the dynamism has increased. Technology has definately played a part in this.

* Technology: One of the things that Scoble and I talked about (and that we talk about at Ignition all the time) was how software has changed. How it is no longer this relatively static thing that you bought in a box, installed, learned, customized and then lived with for as many years as you could. Because of the internet, because of the improvements in the core hardware, because of web services, and, at least in part, because of what the idea of open source represents, our expectations of softare have changed. We want it to be a living thing, something we can make our own, something that can keep changing, something that is, well more like a service, a relationship than just some static stuff on disk. The movement in this direction has had a huge impact on business, in the enterprise and the small/home business. There is still a long way to go to make this easier. But it is interesting. Blogs themselves are maybe both a sympton and a stimulous to this change (I can tell you that software companies big and small track what is being said in their space on the blogsphere - it is a key part of the new playingfield).

* Blogs: Robert gave Rich a bit of a hard time for saying that blogging is the only way to market, but heck blogging truly has become serious marketing. And it is (and it should) changing the way companies think of how to interact with customers. From Scoble, blogs are important because "watching blogs gives you an indication of what the greater society is doing and talking about... blogs can feed the conversation and amplify it... if you integrate bloggers into product development they feel ownership of the product or service as it comes out... word-of-mouth networks are becoming more and more efficient... blogging is cheap... blogs build much stronger relationships between customers and the company." Sounds right to me (this is definately what has happened with this blog - but blogs are also a responsibility - don't have one unless you are willing to embrace it).

* Brands: Blogs are becoming important, even critical, to brands and, heck are becoming brands in their own right. So it is especially pointed to hear, amidst all this, it turns out Scoble and MacLeod are having a dialogue of their own - about you guessed it - brands. MacLeod (and Doc Searl) both assert that branding is dead. Scoble disagrees. He says that now "branding is about starting, keeping, and capitalizing on, word of mouth." Johnnie Moore, who was listening in, highlights that we should avoid playing semantics. He makes the apt distinction between the notion of "branding" as just this abstract art of logos etc exclusive to experts, marketers and other such charlatans and the notion of "brands" as useful shorthands for ideas that we can all circle around, pro or con. Well, good points all, and here's my two (or actually five) cents, based on what seem like key aspects or qualities that brands need and how they are behaving today:

** Extensibility/Dynamism - Branding is more alive than ever and if it isn’t alive then it’s a dead brand. I could not agree more that that products/brands/companies are converstations but this whole process is making branding more accountable than ever. Companies are learning this. I guess branding is now inclusive of all the formal ID stuff but much more than that. It always has been but folks just didn’t really pay enough attention

** Identity/Personality: Scoble and Gapingvoid, and tons of other blogs are brands. They are people. You get a sense of who they are by experiencing and interacting with thier output. Consumers now expect this. They are rewarding blogs for doing this by turning them into brands. Company brands can do this too. When they become split personalities, or manic depressive, they need either to go on medication or committ suicide.

** Authenticity: No one likes a fake, and when you see one it is obvious. So be yourself. You'll feel better this way and so will the people trying to get to know you. Blogs are informal, personal. More brands need to be this way they should be honest and when it makes sense they can even be informal (Decker does a nice job of highlighting this), but it has to be you.

** Relevance/Welcome: Brands (messages, products, companies)have to matter, to someone. We you put a brand out there it doesn’t matter how loud it is. It can’t be noise (thanks Evelyn), has to be music, at least to your target's ears. Recently re-watching Ken Burns' Jazz made me think of this powerful quality - he called it "Welcome." Jazz was music originally by African America but inherently is was welcoming to all America. Brands need to say "Welcome, come on in, be a part of it."

** Value/Substance: Finally, brands have to be worth it. We don't have a lot of time or patience. For all the marketing jargon and "branding principles", even the ones I just spouted above, cannot be left in the abstract (agree with you Alain). They have to be made concrete, real and valueable for the true situation and goals you face.

* Books: Finally, what does any of this have to do with book publishing. Strangely enough, a lot. Of course we want everyone to buy our book, and of course we are proud of it. But it is also the symptom and result and a case for all of the above. In the conversations with Scoble and MacLeod, it struck me that writing the book was a continuation of a set of ongoing learning conversations we've had for years. That the blog, which started as marketing of the book became part of what the heart of the book is all about anyway. That whatever brand it has or will have is the result of both of these things. And that all of this is about dynamism, interaction, real values, learning and evolution.

Boy, it is fun to be in busines today!

Posted by johnza at October 24, 2004 03:31 PM

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