Every once in a while, every marketer should ask themselves “What if everything I know is wrong?” It prevents complacency.

But to break out of the mental best practices box, you may need some outside stimulus to spark your contrarian thinking. One good way to generate that spark is a look at the New York Times/Freakonomics blog. (Additional plug for Freakonomics: Steven Levitt is a really nice guy; I know because my wife was once his kids’ nursery school teacher.)

That’s where I ran across an “unbranding” post about Gucci and Jersey Shore. Supposedly all kinds of luxury brand marketers are sending designer purses to the notorious and controversial Snooki. But what they’re sending are samples of their competitors’ products, not their own. They want to keep the proverbial ten foot pole between their brands and Snooki. This is a one kind of unbranding – protecting your brand by hiding it and shifting the blame to the competition.

What would I find, I thought, if I Googled the word itself? The results were surprising; there is a whole, unexpected range of marketing activities defined as “unbranding.” For example:

There’s the elitist, maximize-your-PC version of unbranding, in which products have greater value and prestige simply because they have no brand name.  (After all, brand names are part of that lowlife activity called “marketing.” Eeuuuh!) The Note To CMO blog says: “Think about the difference between what’s happening in organic food and most other industries: perceived value increases if the product carries no label. “Un-brand” loyalty is dramatically enhanced when you know the person who produces it personally, and see them every week. It’s a bit like how the PC industry was pre-Apple.”

There’s distract-your-attention version of unbranding, which the world’s largest coffee shop chain used to counter pushback against a cookie-cutter Starbucks on every corner. They opened 15th Ave Coffee and Tea shops, with no Starbucks branding at all. According to Thought Gadget, “It’s all about overcoming consumers’ defenses to your brand…in simple terms, persuasion knowledge means consumers know that you are trying to seduce them, so they filter every message accordingly.”

And there’s the sweep-it-under the rug version of unbranding. Philip Morris became Altria, to lessen the taint of tobacco. Iraqi civilian shooting Blackwater became Xe. And financially disgraced AIG became AIU.

Who cares? Why did I think that this relatively rare activity called “unbranding” was worth my attention, and yours? Because it’s exactly the opposite of what marketers do in their daily work. So as a remedy for complacency it’s a valuable mental exercise. Instead of thinking of how to build your brand, consider how you’d defend it by calling attention to competition, or give it elite status by minimizing branding, or overcome negatives by creating an alternative brand, or just plain replace your brand.

A truly powerful brand is one that can pre-empt a letter of the alphabet for its very own. Only a few have ever done it.
•    Dual “Ms” may be the most famous candy brand in the world, from Mars Incorporated.
•    Everyone knows the cereal called “Os,” from General Mills.
•    And in the past few years, with the iMac, iTunes, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad, Apple has claimed the letter “i” as its very own.

Now iNquiring minds want to know what the notoriously secretive Apple will come up with next. The rumor mills are already grinding away, spewing out fantastic new product scenarios based on nothing but BS. Not to be outdone, we asked the R&M staff to iMagine what’s coming up from Cupertino.

Some of my colleagues say the next big thing will be iPhone-like devices dedicated to single apps – contemporary digital equivalents of the old Ronco Inside The Shell Egg Scrambler and the Pop-Up Hot Dog Cooker from Hammacher Schlemmer. For example:
•    The iDo, for engaged couples trying to keep track of (and constantly communicate to their wedding guests) their long, long bridal registry wish lists at way too many stores.
•    The iLike, an extension of the Netflix software that predicts which movies you’ll like. Enter your profile, then enter information about a person, a car, a vacation destination or whatever. Stop thinking. Let a machine help determine your most deeply held opinions.
•    And the iLid, for California other states where marijuana is legal, sort of. Learn about the strength, price and nearest retailer for your favorite semi-legal smoke.

Other R&Mers disagree. They point out that Apple customers have a problem. What will they do with the next big thing from Apple, now that they’ve already got an iMac on their desk, an iPod in their pocket and its bud in one ear, their iPhone in their hand at their other ear and a new iPad tucked under their arm? There’s no room left for something new.

Since its customers already have their hands full (literally), my colleagues believe that Apple will be moving into implants. If you can’t get customers to buy any more portable hardware, build your new products directly into their bodies. We’re looking forward to:
•    iEar. Think of it as the next generation of cochlear implant, implanted directly into the side of your head, bypassing your iPod and delivering iTunes directly into your ear.
•    iPeds replace your flesh and blood feet. They meld the latest in high tech artificial limb prosthetics with a Tom Tom GPS, for walkers everywhere and especially wilderness hikers, who will never get lost again. Think it’s ridiculous? Another company is already just one step away, with GPS functions built into eyeglasses.
•    iClops, for Apple’s more spiritually-inclined contemplative customers. It’s an inward looking third eye implanted in the middle of your forehead, giving you mystical powers and insights into the secrets of the universe.

•    And ultimately there will be the iBorg, with a Mac built right into your brain. Now Apple lovers everywhere are looking forward to saying “I’m half man, half Mac, and all “i” could ever want to be.”

Thanks to my daughter Ellie, who inspired all this by first coming up with the idea of the iClops.

Unless you’ve been hiding under a deep dish pizza here in Chicago, you know that Transformers 3 is filming in town.  Stuntmen have been parachuting off of the Trump Tower, guys in military uniforms have been conducting mock machine gun battles in the streets, all while Director Michael Bay and crew blow up stuff on Wacker Drive. It’s been pretty cool and we’ve got a great view of the carnage from our office.

But it seems some are questioning the tax incentives that have made productions like this possible. This excellent article by Kathy Bergen at the Tribune sums up the issue nicely. I would encourage you all to read it. However, its certainly clear to me that the jobs created and the amount of money spent in Chicago on productions like this far outweigh any potential negatives. And, full disclosure, as an actor I’m delighted to see it. Other productions are in town now and more are coming soon.

So all that is awesome and great for the local economy!

But I would argue that the hidden, non-quantifiable, long-term benefits are even better for the marketing of Chicago. Visit Chicago today and you’ll see a modern American city (with some noticeable exceptions of course like our mass transit system), with a beautiful lakefront, an inviting downtown, and gleaming skyscrapers. It’s a place where anybody would love to make a film.

But it wasn’t always like that and not so long ago either. Everybody has seen the “Blues Brothers” of course, but if you haven’t seen it in a while, go back and watch it again. You won’t see today’s Chicago in that film. You’ll see a tough, gritty, dirty city with old guys living in tenements asking for their Cheese Whiz. In many ways, it’s the Chicago I remember growing up with.

So what changed? Well the “Blue Brothers” introduced the nation to Chicago. And despite the grittiness of the movie it made our culture shine. The music, the cuisine (“Wrong glass sir.”), the neighborhoods, Lower Wacker Drive, the architecutre, and Wrigley Field were all things prominently featured that made people want to come here.

Chicago looked cool! Even today, thirty years later, I have friends from out of town who want to visit this place or that because they saw it in the “Blues Brothers.” If you’re from Chicago, tell me you haven’t taken pride in driving a visitor down Lower Wacker Drive just like the Blues Brothers did. People from all over the country now know what’s located at 1060 W. Addison. The Blues Brothers are such a part of our cultural fabric that you can’t imagine Chicago without it. That’s pretty powerful stuff for a movie.

Now am I saying that the “Blues Brothers” is responsible for the transformation of Chicago to what it is today? Of course not. But it was a critical factor. And many of the movies shot here since were also critical factors in the evolution of the Chicago brand. These productions and future ones are vital to the city’s growth.

So to Michael Bay, Ron Howard, Stephen Soderbergh and our Hollywood friends I say thank you, please come again, and please encourage others to shoot here. Chicago’s reputation flourishes and its brand beams the more you’re here.

Oh, and one other thing…while you’re in town, could one of you guys please call my agent?

More and more companies are changing their well-known names into sets of meaningless initials: CA, CDW, UPS, BP, KFC and more. If it’s their own internal and external marketing people advising them, they’d be better off listening to the real experts on company names: their own customers.

The brevity of initials and acronyms is supposed to improve communications. But frequently it does just the opposite. Imagine an agency president making a new business presentation to your company. He says: “We work to build our clients’ marketing ROI, by leveraging their USP. And it’s our SOP to reply to client requests ASAP…usually by COB.”

Right ideas, wrong language. The same thing can happen when companies try to substitute a set of initials for a meaningful brand name. The overall effect is vaguely ridiculous, because the acronyms trivialize the importance of the ideas.
•    KFC used to be Kentucky Fried Chicken. For a while, responding to the potential negatives of “fried,” they tried to convince us it meant Kitchen Fresh Chicken. Now KFC doesn’t mean anything at all.
•    A well-own technology services company used to be Computer Discount Warehouse. Then, to move away from “discount” and to communicate their consulting capabilities, they became just CDW.  C, D, What?
•    Home Shopping Network is now HSN. The rush to shrink was a little premature, since Home Shopping Network wasn’t exactly a household word to begin with. Does HSN now mean…the Huh? Shopping Network?

Even worse are the automakers who choose their model names from a bowl of alphabet soup, with names like CR-V, RAV4, GLK, SRX and CTS. Might as well just number them 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.

Companies switch to initials for what seems like good reasons. They think they want to:
1. Take advantage of a broader definition of who they are and what they offer.
BP used to be British Petroleum. Then it became Beyond Petroleum. Now there are many meanings for BP, few of them positive.
UPS was once United Parcel Service. Now they’re just three lonely initials that might suggest some kind of upward movement. Or maybe not.
2. Try to make people forget what they’ve done in the past.
The notorious Blackwater security firm, a name with uncertain meaning, became Xe, which means nothing at all.
3. Align with what customers already say.
Just recently, the 166 year old YMCA (Young Men’s Christian Association) rebranded itself as just the “Y” – what people have been calling it for years anyway.  This one was the right thing to do, a marketer’s dream in action, to “own” a letter or letters of the alphabet. But it only works if there’s an enduring, interactive customer relationship.

The recent YMCA rebranding shows the right way, and the right reason, to change a company name. It’s customers who condensed the name down into Y; the company merely came along later and confirms what customers already have done. Other examples include IBM (International Business Machines), AT&T (American Telegraph & Telephone) and AOL (America Online).  You can’t make your customers do this for you. But you can encourage them, as Miller/Coors has by continually reinforcing Miller Genuine Draft messaging with the initials MGD. Some day the brand may be MGD, all by itself.

Actual names offer these marketing advantages:
•    They differentiate from competition.
•    They build on company equity, sometimes decades-long.
•    They can deliver a relevant message – products and services offered, quality of service, and so forth.
Switching to initials offers virtually no advantages; they’re like talking to yourself, unless customers are part of the creation process, as with the Y.

Initially, it may seem like a good idea. But the rush to shrink the company name into a trendy sounding set of initials can end up meaning less recognition with less relevance.

Read these three names – do they sound familiar?
1. Declan Mcmanus.
2. Ralph Lipschitz.
3. James Osterberg Jr.
Never heard of them? Actually you have – because all three overcame obstacles to marketing success.

As a rule, changing a company, brand or product name is risky business for marketers. But sometimes it can be necessary, and it can make an immediate measurable improvement in marketing. A recent Wall Street Journal article reports how some luxury hotels have increased their business in hard times simply by dropping one word -“resort” – from their names, in response to corporate sensitivity about extravagant spending on conventions and meetings.

What were they thinking?
They were right. But many marketers change names for the wrong reasons.
•    Brinks, the home security company, became Broadview. This one was necessary because they had to give up the Brinks name. But did they really have to choose such brand blandness?
•    Here in Chicago, we saw the Sears Tower become the Willis Tower (but you can call it “Big Willie”)– ego-tripping on the part of the new owner of the (former) world’s tallest building.
•    In an exercise of inexplicable corporate silliness, Radio Shack changed its name to The Shack. Now I think of a rundown building, or maybe a basketball player.
•    And in yet another demonstration of high-tech business mumbo-jumbo, Gavitec AG became NeoMedia Europe AG.

The Ballantyne Hotel & Lodge and the Renaissance Orlando – neither of them named “resort” any more – are only two examples of name change for the right reasons.
•    The New York Times reports how a venerable Canadian history magazine had to change its name to dodge online porn filters. (Bet you’ll click through to this one.)
•    A detailed case study shows how leading non-profit changed its name to Legal Momentum, to overcome confusion about its mission.
•    A professor at the University of Florida makes a case for marketing delicious (but negatively-perceived) goat meat as “cabrito.”

As for Declan, Ralph and James Jr:  Celebrities become brands. The wrong name is a barrier to brand success. So to market themselves more successfully, they became Elvis Costello, Ralph Lauren and Iggy Pop.

As regular readers of the RandM blog can tell you, Robinson & Maites art director Ashley Bradarich won the Miss Illinois USA 2010 pageant the weekend of November 21^st. In a year when Chicago saw an almost endless string of competitive disappointments, this was one heck of a breath of fresh air … much like Ashley herself.

It seemed as though the Cubs and Sox were pretty much headed south before the summer heat and humidity got to the Midwest. Oh sure there were flashes of brilliance and hope provided by the likes of Mark Buehrle and Gordon Beckham. Unfortunately, whining and uninspired play got a bit excessive on both North and South sides of the city. There seemed to be a general lack of focus.

Just as things seemed to be going nowhere including into post-season play, the 2016 Olympic Selection Process grabbed the front pages. This was a stone-cold lock. There was no way on Earth that the most crafty and mighty political juggernaut could lose. Just show up and claim the prize. Lo and behold, a first round exit. The silence on Daley Plaza was deafening.

In the weeks that followed, the city licked its wounds, sought out scapegoats for the Copenhagen disaster, and turned its attention to football. This season would be a cakewalk. Kyle was exiled to the mountains and Jay was crowned king. Then Brian went down, the wheels came off and Kyle’s in the hunt for a playoff berth. What a year!

Focus, Preparation, Brand-building

With competitive disappointment following disappointment, you can see why Ashley’s win was such a refreshing change for the folks at R&M. They got to watch a nearly year-long effort to capture a prize that had eluded her 12 months ago when she finished as 2^nd runner-up in the Miss Illinois USA 2009 pageant.

As Ashley prepared for the 2010 pageant, she exhibited the traits we see in the best marketers. First she was relentlessly focused on the goal. Like many marketers she may have wandered off line on occasion, but she always returned to the task at hand. The best marketers we have met have been just as focused on their customers and their needs.

Second, she went through quite a bit of preparation to “get in pageant shape.” Diet, exercise, wardrobe and styling were not elements thought about just a few weeks before the event. To her co-workers it became apparent that the pageant business is hard work, months of hard work. The total package has to be put together. It helps when you are starting with quality ingredients.

Finally, she built her “brand” by having a real understanding of what the customers (read that judges) needed. They didn’t just need a pretty face. They needed a representative for Illinois with charm, intelligence and personality. The task for her, and for most marketers, is to make the essence of the brand instantly recognizable and believable. They are the support points for the benefit. And she understood that the benefit most relevant to the judges was not to pick the prettiest contestant but to pick one that would make them look good for selecting her. It is classic premium brand marketing. And Ashley is one premium brand.

The folks at Robinson & Maites cannot wait until the Miss USA pageant next spring. By the way, they are also looking forward to the Stanley Cup playoffs. Go Blackhawks!

I think we marketers are all in the discovery phase of how to effectively use social media marketing to build brands.  It’s just not something that there’s much history with yet.

But I will say this…if Comcast is crediting Twitter with helping increase its customer satisfaction rate by 9% in the first quarter, then that should make all of us stand up and take notice.  Especially considering that “improved customer satisfaction” and “cable companies” rarely appear in the same sentence.

To brand or to discount? That is the recession question. Many marketers choose to discount and protect their share from their discounting competitors and generics. But they may do so at the expense of branding, eroding the product’s image and perceived value.

However, you can give consumers generous incentives while maintaining your brand’s integrity. Here are a few tactics to consider:

Tie-ins – Offer your mustard brand with their hot dog brand and get secondary signage in the store for both, while you share the offer costs. It may still say “Save!” but consumers see it more as a partnership of two quality brands.

Same for retail – Spend $50 at The Sports King, get a $10 gift card at The Vitamin King. By splitting the difference, you’ve turned the traditional 10% retail discount into a 20% offer at the same cost. And it’s a gift card, not a discount. (See “Premiums” below.)

Sweeps – Don’t make them visit your website or create a Youtube video to win. Make them buy your product, or at least, visit your store. Put the prize announcement on or in the product package.

Sweepstakes are totally accountable with the fixed costs of the prize, administration and delivery. And unlike coupon redemptions, 99+% of sweeps participants go unrewarded – just like the lottery. Plus, a sweeps can reinforce your brand’s image. Regarding the “No Purchase Necessary” law, have a write-in postcard alternative.

Premiums – Keep the full retail price, but offer something free or greatly discounted with purchase.

Liquor brands offer free custom glasses with purchase. Cheerios offered a free Pez dispenser in the box. Pez probably supplied it for free to get the candy-refill sales. It also worked famously during the Great Depression when theaters gave away collectible glassware. Caution: Make sure your premium is in high demand. (See “Tie-in” above.)

Purchase decision assurance – Some auto makers are offering guaranteed relief should you lose your job during this recession. Source an insurance provider.

20% more – Give consumers a bonus size box with more product. Your cost is some repackaging and the extra product, while the consumer perceives this as a far greater value than your cost of goods. They also perceive it as a bonus instead of a discount.

Buy-one–get one – Or buy one, get one at half-price. Again, you’re giving the cost of your goods, which is far less than the value the consumer perceives. If a 99¢ sponge costs you 20¢, you’ve given the consumer a 99¢ deal for 20¢.

Bundle – The consumer perception is you can sell for less because you’re selling more stuff. It’s more of a deal than a discount. And you can extend your brand’s trial or line extension sales – get this flavor with that flavor, get two yard lights with our mower, get our eye liner with our nail polish.

Gift Cards If You… – Gift cards sound like ‘gifts’ rather than discounts. And they have greater dividends. For one, consumers have to return again and buy more (and 50-70% of purchase decisions are in the store – impulse). Second, they have to earn the gift card by purchasing the qualifying item or dollar amount.

Cause – Don’t discount. Instead, offer to help those suffering in this recession. Plus, it’s a write-off. Most importantly, it’s doing the right thing.

Here at R&M, we’ve done strategic brand development for a number of companies. We always thought it was pretty challenging, until we read the recent news about the nation of Nigeria’s rebranding initiative. According to Reuters:

“Nigeria is hoping a new patriotic slogan emblazoned on T-shirts and baseball caps can restore self-confidence and overturn its battered reputation.

Africa’s most populous nation is known for corruption, is poor despite decades of oil production and is increasingly used as a drug transit route and for e-mail scams and online fraud.

Under the slogan “Nigeria: Good People, Great Nation,” Nigeria hopes to eschew that image and “entrench a culture of moral re-armament,” President Umaru Yar’Adua said in a speech.”

The Nigerian government plans to get their own citizens to embrace the idea first. That’s a smart first step . But they’ve still got a tough row to hoe, trying to change citizen mindset and behavior in a way that will overcome a reputation for corruption and disfunctionality. In fact, BBC reports that one of Nigeria’s rebranding team had his cell phone pick-pocketed as he arrived at a campaign event.
This is not the first time Nigeria has tried rebranding; brandchannel.com offers a white paper by a Nigerian journalist about his country’s efforts.

Most marketers’ rebranding  initiatives are relatively easy, compared to rebranding an entire nation

• When Philip Morris became Altria, their goal was to avoid being “labeled” as nothing but a tobacco company.
• When New England Life became New England Financial Services, their objective was to assure understanding of a broader offering than insurance alone.
• When Michigan and California “rebranded” as part of their tourism campaigns, all they have to do is leverage the attractions that are already there.

Nigeria may be failing to make the distinction between brand image – what it looks like, and brand identity – what it is, or people believe it is.

A brand is more than just what you say it is. It’s what you are. It includes the features and benefits of your product (or nation), the behavior and attitude of your customer contact people (or citizens) , the experience that customers (or visitors or business partners) have when they buy your product. And when brand image doesn’t match up with brand identity, all the rebranding slogans in the world won’t work for more than a few months.