Moving On Up...To The East Side

We launched the Razor Branding blog two years ago. Hard to believe the first post was back in 2007 and now over 200 posts later, we are moving on.

Although the Blogger platform served our early needs well, we have grown up and WordPress is the right fit for how we are growing and where we are going.

The functionality and integration with our website is very exciting. As our social media presence grows it is great to be able to unite all of our efforts around our website, keeping everything connected.

As a reader of Razor Branding Blog, we hope you will make the move with us.

Please click here, check out the new and improved blog location and subscribe via email or reader to continue receiving new posts as they happen.

We look forward to your thoughts and feedback. Thanks.

As a Teenager in the 80's

I was truly devastated to hear of John Hughes' death last week. Although we have lost a number of icons from my childhood recently, Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson come to mind first, it is John Hughes who spoke to me.

He was a storyteller. More than any other film maker at the time, John Hughes really seemed to understand what I was going through.

Maybe it's because we were both born in February, just 3 days apart..well 20 years and 3 days but I think the point is still valid.

I could find myself in the group of misfits in The Breakfast Club. I actually invested a considerable amount of time and effort getting in trouble with the hopes that my all girl catholic high school had a detention program that would be as much fun.

As a writer on Some Kind of Wonderful he captured perfectly the pain and angst of being in love with your best friend and then suffering through having to watch him fall in love with someone else. The story of my life through middle school and high school. Perhaps if I had just learned to play the drums like Mary Stuart Masterson then I could have won Eric Stoltz's heart at the end too.

Sixteen Candles...Pretty in Pink...Molly Ringwald was living my life, only with better hair, wardrobe, lighting and she always got the guy in the end.

Of course I can't leave off Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Weird Science. These are the movies that really defined my generation at the time, and provide a time capsule look into life in the 80's.

I felt like John Hughes truly understood the challenges, and at times misery, of my life better than anyone else on the planet. But it never occurred to me to write him a letter and thank him. It never occurred to me that he would want to hear from a lost teenager in Louisiana.

Alison Byrne Fields did. She wrote John Hughes a letter in 1985 and thanked him for The Breakfast Club. As she explains in her blog post, Sincerely John Hughes, he wrote her back, which was so much more than she expected. But he sent a form letter, which was so much less than she hoped for. Their pen pal relationship continued for two years and I think it probably benefited him as much as it touched her.

I have an entirely new level of respect for this great man and his capacity to touch people. That a very busy director at the top of his professional game would take time out of his schedule to write to a teenager, what a gift.

While I was reading her post, I realized how much social media unites us all. A number of media outlets, including The Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and the LA Times, just to name a few, picked up on the story of her pen pal relationship and featured it on their websites.

Beyond just the rapid fire ability to share information, the social media network unites us and our life experiences in the same way John Hughes' movies did. We can relate. We share a connection that develops an emotional bond.

How will you use this power today? Who will you touch?

Jaci Russo

Sr. Partner

The Russo Group

TwitThis

Push or Pull?

There are two really only two types of marketing:

inbound or outbound

push or pull

Which one do you think your consumer will respond better to?

You will be so much more successful if you can find a way to draw them to you. Attract them to your product. Be so great that they seek you out.

This goes far beyond a smart logo and a pretty print ad. This is about having a product or service that is better than your competitor.

This is about knowing who your consumers are.

This is really about having giving your consumer a better benefit.

This is about being so great that your consumers are seek you.

It is possible. It's about having a brand that serves as an attraction engine. People see themselves (who they want to be) in your product.

The foodie that wants people to know they shop at Williams Sonoma.

The accountant who sits behind a desk all day but gets his identity from the Hog he rides.

The lawyer that believes beyond the shadow of a doubt that BMW is the best car on the road.

The designer that could never consider using anything but a Mac.

Attract your consumers. Be the brand that they want to identify with. Give them a tribe to join.

Jaci Russo

Sr. Partner/Brand Strategist

The Russo Group

9 Ways to Tell Your Brand is Struggling.

1. You think that you are your target consumer. It happens all the time. The CEO and CMO nix an idea because it doesn’t appeal to them. Unless they fit the the demographic and psychographic profile exactly, they can’t base decisions on what they like.

2. Your touchpoints are not aligned with the market. It is very easy to spend a lot of budget and not reach the right people. If you are still using a distribution or retail network when your consumers are online, you are incurring unnecessary costs and missing big opportunities.

3. You are known by your founder, and not your product. Your founder hasn’t been with the company in 50 years. The patents and processes that he created have been outdated for decades. If the only thing you have to talk about is the past, how are your shareholders going to feel about your future? Just because your company is named after the guy that started it all, you still have to find a way to grow beyond that.

4. Your media plan stays “consistent”. Habits change. New channels open. You have to be flexible enough to be where your consumers are – and realize that it changes, often.

5. Your Brand Identity is indicative of the year you were founded. If you are still using a type treatment and mark that hint of tie-dye and bell bottoms, your consumers are not going to feel confident that you have a handle on the world they live in.

6. You can’t tell the difference between you and your competitors. You may think you know how you are better, but you can’t verbalize it. You struggle with answers about price or people or service but don’t have a clearly defined reason that explains your excellence.

7. Your product is not keeping up with the times. Turn around times, terms of service, packaging, environmental concerns and technology are all evolving. If you don’t keep up, your consumers will leave you behind.

8. You would rather broadcast to your consumes instead of conversing with them. If you are waiting until this whole ‘social media thing’ blows over you are going to be blue in the face pretty soon from holding your breath. Meanwhile your consumers are developing relationships with your competition, the ones that know who they are and what they have to offer.

9. Your consumers are aging. They discovered you when you were young and they were young. It was a match made in heaven. But now they are older and are spending less and less every year. You have to create a connection with the younger emerging demographic groups or you will lose all of your customers to attrition (aka death).

The question now is, What are you going to do about it?

Jaci Russo

Sr. Partner/Brand Strategist

The Russo Group

The Impact of a Guitar

By now, you have probably heard about United Airlines smashing Dave Carroll's guitar. And then, when United did nothing to rectify the situation, Dave wrote a song and release a video on YouTube chronicling his woes.

With close to 4 million hits and hundreds of blogs and articles relaying the details of this situation, the story has been studied from all angles.

I wondered about the impact.

Does it really matter to a huge global corporation that a Canadian singer songwriter was mad at them and made a music video about it?

Well, when you read the following article by Chris Ayers, you realize just how impactful one man and his guitar can be.

Revenge is Best Served Cold - On YouTube

by Chris Ayres

"Meanwhile, within four days of the song going online, the gathering thunderclouds of bad PR caused United Airlines’ stock price to suffer a mid-flight stall, and it plunged by 10 per cent, costing shareholders $180 million. Which, incidentally, would have bought Carroll more than 51,000 replacement guitars."

We write a lot about the power of a brand and the need to monitor your reputation online. United has 180,000,000 reasons to change how they respond to these situations and develop a better plan for next time.

What do you think? How could United have responded better?

Jaci Russo

Sr. Partner/Brand Strategist

The Russo Group

PS - If you read all the way to the bottom of Chris' article, you will find an interesting tidbit about a local Lafayette, LA story...on the website of a UK newspaper. The Internet unites us all.

Which Cow Do You Prefer?

Branding is about an emotional connection that a consumer has with a product that drives them to prefer it.

The word "brand" is derived from an old English word that meant "burning stick", enabling owners of livestock to use an image to signify their ownership of the herd.

This distinctive mark on the cow differentiated it from other herders and identified them as coming from a certain breeder, the area where they grazed, and therefore a perception about the quality of the meat.

For example, the cows from the lower valley ate the greenest grass which had the most nutrients and produced the most tender meat.

As people tried the cows from a specific herd and found it more tasty, then the word would spread through the countryside that a certain herder's cows were better than others. That reputation would allow for all of the cows with that particular brand on them to fetch a higher price at market.

Compare that to the products of today and think of shirts with an alligator on the left chest or jeans with a red tag on the back pocket. The perception by consumers is these products by Lacoste and Levi are better and therefore they can demand a premium price at the register.

Their brand brings them value.

Do your consumers perceive that your product is better? Do they think that your products graze in the valley and have the most nutrients?

What can you do to differentiate your product and make it better than the competition?

Jaci Russo

Sr. Partner/Brand Strategist

The Russo Group

Why Do Consumers Pick Your Product? Is It Your Product?

Do you really know what makes your product great?

Before you start listing a series of features that read exactly like the ad of your competitor, let me stop you.

Dig deep.

Think hard.

Please tell me what makes your product better than theirs.

Please tell me what your product can do for your consumer that your competitor can't.

Wait, I know you are going to say "quality". Even though you are probably right and your product is of a better quality than every one else, please realize that you aren't the only one in your space that thinks their product is the best quality around.

Do you have a point of operational excellence?

Are you better than the other products?

Do you have a unique selling point?

This is marketing 101 but it can be a challenge. It requires a long look in the mirror and some pretty deep digging.

But it's worth spending the time to think about it.

If there is something about your product that makes it superior to the competition, then the real fun begins. How do you position it? How do you explain this point of excellence in a way that will cause your target audience to react? How do you change the conversation?

Jaci Russo

Sr. Partner/Brand Strategist

The Russo Group

Companies Make Products but Consumers Buy Brands.

Happy Birthday, Walter Landor, who would have been 96 on July 9.

He was a brand design legend and the founder of Landor Associates.

As Wikipedia explains, Walter Landor was a pioneer in the field of branding and consumer research. Landor Associates, the company he founded with his wife in 1941, has brand consulting and design offices all over the world today. His work included brands like Del Monte, Marlboro. Fujifilm,Tab. and Bank of America. He also designed the corporate identities for many airlines, including Alitalia, British Airways, Japan Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Cathay Pacific Airways, and Singapore Airlines.

Max Factor famously stated "In the factory we make cosmetics, and in the store we sell hope."

When it comes to branding, the quote could be "Companies make products, but consumers buy brands."

Happy Birthday Walter. Thank you for the gift you gave to our industry.

Jaci Russo

Sr. Partner/Brand Strategist

The Russo Group

Does Social Media Matter?

It is almost impossible to open a magazine or watch the news without hearing about Social Media and how it is helping, or hurting, business today.

What can social media do for you and more importantly why should you care?

Well to answer that question properly, we first have to discuss branding, as it pertains to business – not cattle. To understand what a brand is, we have to realize what it is not.

A brand is not a company.

A brand is not a logo.

A brand is not a product.

Quite simply, a brand is a person’s emotional response to a product. It’s the product’s reputation in the heart and mind of the consumer.

Why is branding so important? When consumers are making decisions about a purchase, they can be overwhelmed by too many choices, with no differentiation between products, and have to rely on their feeling about a company when making a selection.

Their gut feeling is shaped by the promise that a company has made and the expectation that the consumer has about the experience. When the expectation is met or exceeded, then trust will be formed. Trust promotes loyalty and loyalty leads to advocacy.

So, what is your brand?

You have to start with Focus – define the one differentiating and powerfully compelling quality that makes your brand razor sharp.

Next is Connection – connect with your audience by establishing your voice and defining your message.

Now you have to tie it together with Harmony – unify your brand by developing branded touchpoints that work to establish trust.

The ultimate goal is to change the conversation to make an emotional connection that will drive consumers to choose you.

Companies used to have only traditional media to broadcast their message. Now you don’t have to just broadcast it anymore.

With social media you can have a conversation, create a connection, develop a relationship, form a tribe, most importantly, you can build a brand.

Maybe you think that your consumers aren’t on the Internet? According to Inc. Magazine, January 2009, “In 2008, 90% of purchases were made after research online.”

So, when your consumers are researching an upcoming purchase, what will they find when they Google your name? You should find out.

Keep your ear to the ground, proverbially speaking, and listen for your name and your competitors through the use of Alerts. Utilize an RSS reader to subscribe to industry blogs and stay up to date.

Engage with your consumers in the places where they spend their time – Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Twitter, Flickr, LinkedIn, Plaxo and so many more. Learn to speak their language and have conversations with them.

You can recruit new employees and use social media to get to know more about them, what they are doing and who they are doing it with before you ever have the first interview.

Social media is revolutionizing business the same way that the invention of the television changed advertising.

What will you do with these new tools today?

Jaci Russo

Sr. Partner/Brand Strategist

The Russo Group

Are You Ignoring 1/4 of Your Potential Consumers?

Do you know your target audience?

Not just the demographic profile but the psychographic profile as well?

Focusing on consumer insight is an important first step in branding. Once you have figured out what you are saying, you really need to identify to whom you will say it.

Your current consumers. Your lost consumers. The consumers that aren't aware of you yet.

Who are they? What makes them tick?

Have you asked them yet?

A great article in Ad Age, "Millennials Are Evolving; Are You Keeping Up?" (reg. req.), recently discussed this very topic. MeganMeagher, a 25 year old Account Planner for Taxi in New York, analyzes her generation from a first hand perspective.

She realizes that there are very few companies that are actually targeting Gen Yers with their marketing. Even fewer are doing it well.

Millennials should not be ignored. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, they will be the largest segment of the population in 2015.

So, what are Millennials looking for in a job, in a product, in a country?

New York Magazine, "Class of '09", decided to ask them directly and were surprised by the answers. As Gen Yers prepare to enter the workforce with personal and national debt at an all time high, it was refreshing to hear that the people surveyed weren't bitter but actually optimistic about the future.

How can you better target Gen Yers? Unless you sell memberships in AARP, you need to focus on this segment of the population. Don't ignore 1/4 of your potential consumers. Find out what appeals to them.

Jaci Russo

Sr. Partner/Brand Strategist

The Russo Group

photo credit: genystartup.com

3 Part Series - "You", "Life", "Search"

In yesterday's blog, I discussed the Scientology video, "You".

As much as I love the video, the production values, and the message, I commented that it felt like the spot should do more to address the current brand of Scientology.

There has been quite a bit of controversy surrounding the group and it felt like the spot, "You", didn't really address the current perceptions.

And now, I have found two more videos in what is apparently a series of three "You", "Life" and "Search".

"Life" follows a similar theme as "You"

In looking at "You" and "Life", the spots are home runs.

Beautifully moving copy, written almost as prose.

Gorgeous photography that really engages the viewer.

A truly beautiful campaign with spots that I want to live in. The message touches me.

But, it doesn't make me want to be a Scientologist. The campaign doesn't overcome the perceptions that I already have.

Which leads me to believe that I am not the target audience. Since I am pretty happy to be a Methodist, married to a Catholic, they probably aren't talking to me. And we have our own set of conversations to be had.

And then I watched the third spot "Search".

Yep, this campaign, which appears to be launched online, is probably targeting a younger demographic that is still searching for themselves.

So Scientology is positioning themselves as the group to go to when you want to understand why the world is the way it is.

But that leaves me to ask the question, why haven't more people watched the videos?

Why isn't Scientology doing a better job of circulating them?

"You" has 3,742 views

"Life" has 1,307 views

"Search" has 1,372 views

Seems like even their own members aren't watching the videos. Why not?

What do you think?

Jaci Russo

Sr. Partner/Brand Strategist

The Russo Group

"You"

Branding is about changing the conversation.

The point is to creating an emotional connection that will

engage the potential consumer and cause them to act in

certain way. Once the consumer has moved from

awareness to trial to advocacy, then they will become a

member of the tribe. Assuming that the expectation was

met or exceeded by the experience.

The following video appears to be a very big approach to

rebranding this organization. Knowing that the brand is in

the heart of the consumer, they did a great job of putting the

consumer into the spot and finding a point of engagement.

The aspirational message is very uplifting and all about

being a better you...

"You are not your name, you're not your job, you're not the clothes you wear or the neighborhood you live in. You're not your fears, your failures or your past. You are hope. You are imagination. You are the power to change, to create and to grow. You are a spirit that will never die. And no matter how beaten down, you will rise again."

As an organization that is being questioned on almost all

fronts, facing lawsuits while accusations of fraud fly

through the air, wouldn't it make more sense to actually

address the challenges.

One of the first problems is that it could be a spot for a

variety of different products, such as President of the US or

State Farm or Apple or Nike.

As Adrants points out in their blog, you can't simply cast off

these things.

They are, in essence, what makes you, you.

Rather than ignore it. Perhaps PR and message

training would be a better next step?

What do you think?

Jaci Russo

Sr. Partner/Brand Strategist

The Russo Group

Looking For a Taco?

In downtown, on a very busy main street, a man built a hot dog stand.

The building is at an odd angle on the lot and there is no dining area.

It is raised about three feet off the ground so the drive through window is so high that I have to sit on a phone book or get out of the car to reach the food.

The drive through lane only holds two cars at a time and making a left turn back onto the street is the equivalent of signing your own death warrant.

But we went anyway to check it out. The food was okay. Big hot dogs, good chili, chips and cold drinks. All pretty good.

I think the hot dog stand lasted about 8 months, maybe a year. But then it closed. Everyone blamed the logistical challenges of the building and it's location.

About six months ago, a taco stand opened where the hot dog stand used to be.

They repainted the building and cut the grass, but otherwise the setup was still the same. We expected the food to be the same too.

But we went anyway to check it out. I ordered a pork taco and asked to add cheese, they said no. Okay, i respect a chef that wants the dish to be tasted the way the recipe is written, so I played along. Wow, so glad I did, because the food is fantastic. Truly great. Unlike any taco I have ever eaten before.

Who would have thought to put apples in a taco! Who knows what is in the oh so good special sauce.

Best taco ever.

But no one was going there for lunch. Part of the reason was the same logistical challenges that had closed the hot dog stand. Part of the reason was a lack of awareness.

So we started talking about them on Twitter. We started talking about them on Facebook. We used social media to share the brand.

And the most amazing thing happened. Even though the location was still the same, and it is still really hard to get in and out of the drive-though line, people starting going to the taco stand.

Because the food is great and the experience is delightful, more people started going. Within a few weeks, Taco Sisters was creating a traffic jam.

Did social media make them successful? Nope. Branding them through social media developed awareness which led to trial and then turned into advocacy. It wouldn't have worked if their taco was just like everyone else. Using social media didn't make them successful.

Edward Boches, Mullen, talks about this phenomenon in his blog, A Flip Mino, a Twitter account and a little social media knowledge will not make anyone a marketer. He discusses how Gary Vee, Kogi and Zappo's have all used social media to spread their message and connect themselves with their fans.

Can social media turn an ordinary product into success? It is more likely that social media provides a platform to make consumers aware and a clubhouse for the fans to gather and engage about the experience.

Jaci Russo

Sr. Partner/Brand Strategist

The Russo Group

Are You a Social Media Guru/Expert/Diva/Superstar?

Social media is all the buzz right now.

You think that you want it - but you aren't even sure what "it" is.

But if your competitors "have it" then you want to get some too.

So, you start looking around to figure out how to get some of those social media whatnots for your company.

And you run right into the closest social media "expert" who has a couple hundred friends on Facebook and used MySpace a couple of times.

There are close to 10,000 of these self-proclaimed guru/expert/specialist/superstar/consultants on Twitter alone.

You aren't to blame. It's not your fault. You are just looking for a guide through these very confusing new times. When you go out to find a consultant, there are a few things you should look for in your "experts":

Active: Does the agency utilize social media tools? Not did they set up a Twitter account in January and haven't done anything with it since then. The company should be active in the space.

Creators: Does the agency create content? The company should have strategic content that they have created and a strategy that goes beyond just setting up some accounts. Really, anyone can set up a facebook page - what are they going to do with it?

Thought Leaders: Are they just talking about themselves? The company should take a position on issues and actually bring leadership and ideas to the conversation.

Clients: Does the company have social media clients other than themselves? The company should have examples of social media strategy that they have created for clients.

Results: Does the company have ROI case studies for clients? Companies can't call themselves experts because they read about someone else's success. They have to have case studies that show an ROI for their client.

Toolkit: Does the company utilize social media as a solution or as a tool in the toolkit? Social media isn't a strategy. Social media isn't a solution. Social media is a tactic, like tv or radio and should be considered accordingly.

Relationship: Does the company use social media platforms to broadcast their message or engage in relationships? It is called SOCIAL media. All of it - Twitter, Facebook, Blog, YouTube, etc - is about creating and maintaining relationships. The company has to engage with people not talk at them.

Reciprocity: Does the company share resources and encourage reciprocity? Some users just count the numbers of followers and subscribers without giving back. It has to be mutual.

Cross Platform: Does the company only utilize one platform - only active in Twitter? It is a WEB of connectivity. It only works right when it is all working together. Otherwise it's like running a tv spot with no visuals.

Branding: Does the company understand branding? Every touchpoint has to work in connection with the others. They have to know how to implement a strategic message across all platforms to work together to change the conversation.

Social media is still evolving and still so new. There are new applications and opportunities created every day. We are really all just practitioners.

So, if the person you are talking to refers to themselves in third person or if at any point during the conversation they refer to themselves as a Queen or a Guru or a Diva or a Superstar...run, do not walk, away.

That is a bad sign that they probably don't know as much as they want you to think they do. And you will be very disappointed to realize that just because they are calling themselves an expert won't actually make them an expert.

I mean really, who calls themselves a Guru...

So what do you think? Any other signs people should look for in choosing a strategic partner?

Jaci Russo

Sr. Partner/Brand Strategist

The Russo Group

Baby Got Brands

Our thoughts on the state of advertising and branding today...

What About The Weight of The Books?

There is a story about an architect who designed this beautiful library.  It was beautiful and the culmination of a career.  The only problem is that it sank a few inches each year and eventually had to be condemned.  He didn't think about the weight of the books.  

I'm not sure if this story is real or not, heard it from Ted Mosby on "How I Met Your Mother."  But I want to think that it is true.  

It really applies when I think about in-house marketing departments.  By working on the same client day in and day out, there is no one there to remind them about the weight of the books.

The lack of fresh  input shows in the lack of strategy, the lack of consumer insights, and the poor creative concepts.  

Why would a company rather invest in the salaries and benefits of a full time staff rather than hiring an agency that can provide great branding, effective creative and measurable results?

I realize that I am probably offending a large number of in-house groups, but maybe it's time to face the facts.  Most of the work from in-house groups is substandard.  They aren't paying attention to the trends.  They aren't staying ahead of the curve with digital tactics.  They have to spend their time playing political games and worrying about getting a promotion.  They are hiring people that couldn't work at agencies.  With no drive for innovation and no challenge to do it better and no chance for cross industry pollination, in-house groups don't stand a chance.

Hire an agency.  They are always thinking about the weight of the books.

Jaci Russo

Sr. Partner

The Russo Group

Mind Reading - The Ultimate Super Power for Branding

On St. Patrick's Day, a leprechaun visited the Pre-K and Kindergarten classrooms at school.  Much to the delight of our daughters, the leprechaun messed up papers, turned the teacher's chair upside down and left footprints on the students' tables.  

Their visit was the center of discussion at dinner that night.  Maggie, 6, informed all of us that if you caught a leprechaun, you could have one wish.  I asked her what she would wish for and she gave it deep thought and decided "all of the superpowers".  

Jordan, 8, said there were too many things on her list to choose just one and asked if she could force the leprechaun to give her more than one wish.  (This should be great insight into her personality and how difficult the next 10 years will be for us.)

Molly, 5, said that she would want to be Katie because Katie has straight hair, no freckles, and most importantly, doesn't pick her nose.  Ummm, okay.

After I stifled laughter I started to think about super powers in the context of my job.  What super powers would be best for us to have as a branding agency that would most benefit our clients.

Mind Reading.  

Yep, Matt Portman Heroes-style mind reading.

How great would that be. Talk about consumer insights.  Real genuine consumer insights, not just what the loud mouth in the focus group thinks makes her sound cool.

But, then I realized that we are developing that power now.  Social Media gives us the power to read minds.  To eavesdrop on people's conversations.  To see them actually interacting with the products in their own lives, not just in a staged test in the lab.  To hear people around the world talk about a product...good or bad.  If they hate it, you will quickly find out why as they tell all of their friends.  If they love it, you can just quickly realize it when they turn in to brand advocates.

Branding is all about the emotional connection that a consumer has with a product or company.  Social media is the perfect set of tools to hear if that emotional connection is being formed or not.

Ahh, to be a fly on the wall and eavesdrop on all of those conversations...what an incredible super power.

Jaci Russo

Sr. Partner

The Russo Group

The “Brand” of Professional Baseball's Demise

Strikes, new stadiums, steroids, inflated ego’s, entitlement, scandals, media sensationalism, ridiculous contracts, overpriced tickets, play for pay mentalities, greed – just of few of the reasons why the brand of American baseball is slowly dieing.

Now, to be perfectly honest, I can’t claim to be the biggest fan of professional baseball, but it would be hard not to appreciate its affect on our history, culture and national identity. Names like Ruth, DiMaggio, Aaron and Mantle live on to this day, reminding us of baseball’s glorious past.

In recent years though, baseball has taken quite a beating. Sure, stadiums still get filled and jerseys still sell, but for the most part, baseball has begun to lose its luster. If you want proof of this, all you need to do is turn on your TV. It seems that every day there is a new contract dispute, allegation of steroid use or the demolition of another historic ballpark. Unfortunately, baseball seems to have lost its way. They have forgotten their promise to their fans, their history and their legacy.

But there is hope.

This past Saturday I attended the opening day ceremonies of my son’s Little League, and over the course of the next few hours, witnessed why generation after generation of Americans remain loyal to the game. And even though the world of professional baseball seems to have forgotten them, they have refused to forget the game.

The reality is, baseball does not live in million dollar stadiums, but rather, in small parks and in small towns all over the country. There, people are reminded of a time when all of the problems of the world could be solved on a baseball field. All that was needed was a glove, ball, bat and a few good friends – something I was able to experience as I watched 300 young boys line up on the diamond for the season’s first pitch.

Hats were placed over each of the player’s hearts as the anthem played on this cool spring morning – each of them dreaming of making that one great play on the field. I doubt many of them were worrying about future contracts, the media or deciding whether or not to cheat in order get ahead. No, I think they were simply enjoying the game itself.

While the brand of professional baseball may be damaged, it is not beyond repair. In order to fix it though, the powers that be must remind themselves of their promise to their fans. Their promise to not only produce good baseball, but to also protect an American treasure that each year gets further and further out of control. They must remind themselves of what it was like to play the game when it was still just a game.

Michael J. Russo
Creative Director
The Russo Group

Create an Emotional Connection For Your Brand

There are some spots that so completely sum up the brand, so totally make a true emotional connection that they perfectly accomplish the strategy.  The spot resonates and forms a bond.

This ad from Coke does exactly that.

Yet, this one does not.  I don't get it.  At all.  I don't understand how it enhances the brand or forms an emotional connection. You?

Disney Sells Them By The Dozen

Disney has done a fantastic job of extending the brand while still focusing on their core mission of family fun.  There is a natural line of progression from cartoons to live action movies to tv to music to books to theme parks to merchandise.

But groceries?

Eggs?

Really?

Like Porsche going from sports cars to station wagons, there doesn't seem to be brand logic for Disney to go from Mickey to eggs.

This needs to be filed under "What were they thinking".