badda Bing, badda boom
Monday, July 13, 2009 at 9:27AM 
A couple of years back, I read a pretty damn good book called the 22 Immutable Laws of Branding by Al Reis. Now, the book was originally published in 1998, and considering the dramatic changes in the market since then, some of the ideas in the book are dated but many are spot on (even 11 years later).
In the book, the third law is the law of publicity. Mr. Reis says that most of the advertising agencies in this country are committed to the concept of building a brand with advertising - which is, as an approach: doa (dead on arrival). He goes on to say that "Today brands are born not made. A brand must be capable of generating favorable publicity in the media or it won't have a chance in the marketplace." Now the question is just how do you generate publicity? The best way, according to Mr. Reis, is by being the first brand in a new category.
Hence the problem with Bing. Google beat it to the punch - as the first (successful) company of search. Since Google first came on the scene in 1998, articles, publications, and blogs have talked about Google until they've become blue in the face. Now with Bing is anyone talking about it? Is it generating any buzz (other than it being compared to Google?) There was no ad campaign (like Bing has) they just came out doing what no one else had done before and people talked and talked and talked about it some more (who is Google, what's a Google, why Google . . .) and in the process a powerful brand was born.
This brings to mind another failure by Microsoft - the Zune. In this case they were once again following the leader (Apple) after the launch of the iPod. The iPod generated TONS of publicity because it was the first of its kind. There was nothing in the market like it. The publicity that it received was unreal.
In business you have to play offense. This means huddling up with your team creating plays and then taking action on the field (looking to score). If all you do is play defense you'll always be reacting to what the other team does. And if defense is your whole game plan when are you ever going to position yourself to put numbers up on the scoreboard?
Reader Comments (1)
When we think of our relationship with a brand as 'friendship,' we can see clearly the difference between ADVERTISING a brand and BUILDING a brand.
Advertising continually tests our loyalty and will abandon us at the first sign of trouble. It labels insiders and outsiders. Its parents have a big house with a pool and if we're nice to it, we might get invited when the parents aren't home.
Brand-building, by contrast, sticks by its friends through thick and thin. It's a scene we want to be part of, the only 'test' is participation. Anyone can be in the club. It turns outsiders into insiders. It lives in a house with great smells coming from the kitchen, music playing all the time, and is full of stuff of which we ask 'What's THAT?" Its parents are the parents we wish ours would be.
Thanks for the post!