Is your Brand. . .

A

                                                                                           image - beacon skateboards

?

Earlier I came across an Ad Age article that discussed how to position your brand for future growth by "being a beacon that reflects aspirations vs. a spotlight that simply confirms realities." When I read that I was like: YESSSS!!!

Aspirations come from people. They come from the audience. They come from the customer.  The market is not a mass conglomeration of robots waiting to be told what to do, how to act or what to believe in.  The market consists of people who want to be acknowledged,  respected,  and engaged in conversation (not talked to or talked at). 

This means that what you offer should speak to the needs, wants or desires of people. It means creating real and authentic conversations with individuals.  It means co-creating with your customer base a brand-story that matters to them in their lives.  Whether that's dental floss or the latest and greatest techno-tool; the idea of who you are must resonate deep in the minds of the communities of that you are engaging.

So the article spoke about Joseph Campbell, the great American mythologist, who talked about people's hunger for stories that would feed their emotional needs and motivate them to higher purposes.

From our perspective, we are always looking at the intersection and Mr. Campbell provides a great opportuntity for culture to converge with business as we look at his work in mythology and how brands can become beacons and draw in raving fans. When evaluating what your brand really stands for, keep in mind the following 12 descriptors that reflect aspirational brand stories:

1. Creating something new.
2. Protecting and nurturing those you care about.
3. Reveling in sensorial pleasure.
4. Feeling renewed and refreshed.
5. Breaking the rules.
6. Learning more about things important to you.
7. Exploring new worlds.
8. Gaining status and security.
9. Performing at your peak level.
10. Transforming the ordinary to the extraordinary experience.
11. Relaxing and enjoying the moment.
12. Reaffirming the basic goodness of our fellow human beings.

Digital Next: Finger Tagging

From our perspective, here at Cnvrgnc, we truly believe the statement that "there is nothing new under the sun."  And from this idea, comes one of our core beliefs: "New ideas are passe. What you want is creative interpretation and great execution". This should pertain directly to the building of your brand with a focus on bringing interesting, creative and valuable ideas, products and services (that are remarkable) to the market.

Now from our little corner of the world we look at the intersection of business, technology and culture as a means to this end.

So anytime I come across a "cnvrgnc product" I always get just a little bit excited.

Ladies and Gents. . .

Graffiti Analyis 2.0 (aka - the dopeness) - Tagging, at your fingertips...

Graffiti Analysis (iPhone) - DustTag v1.0 from Evan Roth on Vimeo.

Self-professed copyright violator and vandal Evan Roth--who also happens to be an artist and co-founder of F.A.T., a Brooklyn-based R&D lab for the public domain, and artist/developer Chris Sugrue created this app that allows graffiti artists to create and database multidimensional tags.

The app is part of an ongoing study in the motion of graffiti. "What Martha Cooper did for archiving graffiti on film, and Chalfant/Silver did for archiving graffiti in video, Graffiti Analysis intends to do for archiving graffiti in code," the site explains. Graffiti artists use the app to create four-dimensional tags that can be saved as GML (graffiti markup language) files and archived at 000000book.com. The project is open source and invites others to use the archived data to create new applications and visualizations.

Genre-Bending

Cnvrgnc is about the intersection. It's about taking emerging ideas and trends at the intersection of business, technology and culture, and merging them into something different, interesting, or valuable that didn't previously exist.

In two words, Cnvrgnc is all about genre-bending.

Taking the walls between ideas and fading them to the background. Erasing the notion of "distinct categories" and offering the world something which requires new definitions, different thinking and a novel approach of how to leverage these new realities. 

I was perusing Cool Hunting's site (as I often do) and came across this footage of the Diesel:U:Music Tour 2009:Miami. I watched. I listened. I loved it.

If Cnvrgnc had a 'film short', this would be a 3 minute and 27 second clip.

Money. . .in a radical new light

About nine years ago I saw one of the most interesting and fascinating Frontline specials on culture, trends and business called The Merchants of Cool.  It explored the symbiotic relationship between the media and teenagers, as each looks to the other for their identity. If you get the chance, check out the special. Well worth it.

This was my introduction to Douglas Rushkoff who was the reporter for this 55 minute exploration into the world of "cool". He's a media theorist, writer, columnist, lecturer, graphic novelist and documentarian, not to mention a ferocious thinker.

So about a week ago I came across a talk that he gave at the Web 2.0 conference in NY during November of last year.  I listened to it and he proposes a very, very interesting (and radical) idea.  Take fifteen minutes and check out the video.  Some different and unusual tastes for your (thinking) palate. . .

Your Destiny. . .

"Watch your thoughts, they become words.

Watch your words, they become actions.

Watch your actions, they become habits.

Watch your habits, they become character.

Watch your character, it becomes your destiny."

                                                                      - Anonymous