“The brands we choose arguably say something about our identity – what we value in the products we use, how we perceive ourselves,  and how we want to be perceived.”

And so begins a recent PSFK article about Brand Mapping, a visual resource created by Storm Brand DNA that shows what brands people interact with at which point in their day. By visually mapping people’s interaction with brands, we begin to see patterns in how and when people engage in branded experiences and a bigger picture begins to form, one that displays how brand-interactions shape our day-to-day lives. It’s 7 AM? Whip out that Gilette razor and be “all a man can be.” 8 AM rolls around and it’s time to “Think Different” on your Mac. Forget making “Tonight Taco Night,” cause you’re having yesterday’s leftovers of Old El Paso by 1….You see where I’m going with this.

In Conversational Capital

, we discuss the ways in which brands can incorporate ritual into consumption experiences. But what this study shows, interestingly, is how people have incorporated brands into the rituals

of their lived experiences. In this way, brands have become a banal part of how we experience our time and have helped structure our daily lives. More than that, work like this supports our notion that consumption experiences have become identity shapers

and that consumers use brands to create personal narratives. As the article claims, the study doesn’t just articulate what brands we choose to buy, but also “how we want to be percieved.”

As PSFK suggests, as a “standalone visual, the information contained in this infographic might give you a limited perspective into the multitude of brands that this individual chooses.” And so it would be interesting to also graph not only which brands a consumer remembers using throughout his or her day, but also the total number of brands a consumer comes into contact with - visually, accidentally, tangentally - as their day progresses. This would no doubt extend this graph to immeasurable heights. I mean, just think about how many internet windows you have opened right now and how many brands that alone represents. It’s pretty staggering.

The big question mark remaining in this study is why. Why do these consumers choose these brands? Why do they represent something valuable to the consumer? Why Apple over IBM? Why Twitter over Facebook? Why do some brands inspire emotional investment in us where other brands fail?

Those are the questions this data leaves us with. And it’s up to us, as advertisers, to figure those why’s out.

We’ve blogged about the phenomenon of unwanted tribal

followings before, when WWD reported on the Berlin police’s ban on Fred Perry and Ben Sherman, two brands that had (unfortunately) become synonymous with skinhead subcultures. But what do you do when the worst

tribe of them all–people who are jobless and broke with no prospects for the future–want your off-the-runway style clothing?…BURN IT ALL!

So the basic story, as The New York Times reports, is that a group of trash haulers uncovered that the H

In today’s blog-news, we have the case of Mitchum and its new campaign, “The Hardest Working.” The campaign centers on a collection of online films, each featuring the hardest working professional in a given line of work. Incidentally, each of the films have been produced by Brett Ratner. (You see, guy?! This is what happens to your career when you bring Rush

Hour 2

into the world). The videos follow the hardest working people in America (a cop, a cattle rancher, a web entrepeneur, a baker, a coach, a green developer, a physical therapist and a florist), all the while glorifying the puritan-stream of the American work ethic and reminding viewers that Mitchum is the “hardest working anti-perspirant” out there. It all caps off with a contest, inviting users to submit their own videos in a bid to be declared America’s “Hardest Working Person.”

Five reasons why this is the smartest thing I’ve heard today:

1. Myth: with this campaign, Mitchum has presented some very rich stories that resonate deeply with viewers. More than that, the stories link to Mitchum’s new brand positioning, which makes them the self-proclaimed toughest, roughest sweat-stopper out there.

2. Over-delivery: The best part of Mitchum’s “Hardest Working” campaign is the very enticing ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS that’s up for grabs to the cog that can prove themselves worthy of the title of “Hardest Working Person in America.” If you nominate yourself, create a video featuring you hard at work and convince enough fans to vote, you could win $100,000 and the bragging rights of certifiably being the hardest working person in the country. (So you see? The reward is actually a total curse!)

3. Endorsement

: Naturally, part of the campaign to win the 100 G’s is selling onself. Entrants promote their own video - and, by extension, the Mitchum brand - while campaigning through social media. Mitchum therefore invites participants to endorse

its brand in the process of “get[ting] as much attention as you can.”

4. Continuity: As an extension of endorsement, participants in this little contest are implicitly rallying for Mitchum’s cause. That means that regular consumers are certifying that Mitchum is what it says it is: the “hardest working anti-perspirant in America.” This, in turn, means that gaps in continuity have been reduced between what the brand says it is, what it actually is and what consumers say it is. Tricky, tricky.

5. Tribalism: Naturally, Mitchum’s videos are hardest-hitting with the least desirable tribe

of them all: the sweaty and overworked. (Okay, that last one was a joke).

In sum, I’m a total fan of this campaign. It weaves various elements of Conversational Capital into an inventive and intuitively talk-worthy campaign. After all, doesn’t everyone fancy themselves the hardest worker out there? Before I conclude, though, I’d like to throw out my nominations for Hardest Working Person (or Thing) in America:

1. Hardest Working Spender in America: Dean Metropoulos.

2. Hardest Working (and Richest) Nerd in America: Steve Jobs.

3. Hardest Working Carmudgeon in America: Bob Herbert.

4. Hardest Working Grudge in America: M.I.A’s against NYTs reporter, Lynn Hirschberg.

5. Hardest Working Disaster in America: Gulf Oil Spill. (Runner up: this)

6. Hardest Working Bra in America: Christina Hendricks’s

In three hundred years, long after the ice caps evaporate and extraterrestrials inhabit the earth, little alien archeologists will set themselves to discovering the how’s and why’s of our society. And when they do, they’ll come across the modern publisher, Penguin classic and big red financial report in hand, and view them as we do now the Dodo. They’ll see that as desperately as the publisher might’ve tried to adapt, their evolutionary number was up.

But that shouldn’t suggest they went without a fight.

Case in point: the decidedly German publishing house, Hamburger Automatenverlag. Amongst the buroughs surrounding the University of the Hamburg, Hamburger Automatenverlag has retooled out-of-date cigarette vending machines, packing them instead with literature. Filling the automats with books, graphic novels, travel guides and, for the artsy set, tomes of poetry, the publishing house has re-envisioned a role for the vend-a-smoke, replacing what were once literal dealers of death with treasure troves of knowledge. (Okay, so that’s a totally lame, inspirational-school-poster way of putting it, but you get my drift).

So what makes this Conversational

Capital-worthy?

What Hamburger Automatenverlag has done with this initiative is over-deliver in its role as publisher by bringing the product to the people. It has intensified and modernized what is inherently a very classic delivery system, returning books to the reader’s side, thereby making them more relevant and resonant in their lives. The publishing house has found a way of clambering through the omni-presence of the Nooks and Kindles of the world to reach consumers out-of-home with the elevation of a good read. It sounds so simple - and it is - but it’s also a clearly talk-worthy approach (at least based on all the terrific endorsement

they’ve received from blogging big-timers like The Consumerist and Gizmodo).

At the same time, it’s an approach that targeted a very specific tribe: the scholars of Hamburg. It is for a specific community and therefore has natural conversation-starting abilities. More than that, the automats hold an air of RSO (Relevant Sensorial Oddity). The machines disrupt a consumer’s routine experience by holding such peculiar contents. Finally, they provide an excellent example of initiation

. By buying a Hamburger Automatenverlag book out of a vending machine, you’ve experienced an introduction to the brand that, as a form of ritual, has transformed the banal and everyday into the unusual. And so the brand has combined various engines of CC

, mixing them with a flair for the unexpected. (Plus they’re not stroking that deadly nicotine addiction of yours. Hello added value!)

All told, then, this gesture isn’t exactly industry-revolutionizing - it’s not going to save the traditional publisher from extinction - but it sure does have wheels as a conversation-starter.

[SOURCE]

The Church of the Customer recently commented on the success of beloved hermaphrodite and preposterous dresser, Lady Gaga, in all matters branding. The article, “Loyalty Lessons from Lady Gaga,” delves into the elusive source of Gaga’s success, attempting to figure out exactly how someone so bizzare and seemingly unposed for superstardom found such unbelievable success. I mean, she’s no Bob Dylan, lyrics-wise, nor is her voice her greatest asset. And it’s not exactly as though she’s pop-star beautiful. (Post-op-star beautiful, maybe). But she’s made up for these rather significant flaws by becoming one of the most aggressive branding machines out there. So how did Gaga do it right?

1. “Give fans a name”: To celebrate her fans’ loyalty, Gaga christened them her “Little Monsters.” As a matter of fact, she even tattooed the words on her arm and tweeted it. Now, isn’t that the perfect way to create a tribe

around your harebrained empire and show the love you feel for it? Yes. Yes it is.

2. “Make it about something bigger than you”: Gaga dedicates each of her shows to her fans (and each of her awards to her gay fanbase). She even recites her “Manifesto of Little Monsters” at each performance, claiming only to be the “jester” to their kings and queens. By letting her fans know that shes knows (that everyone knows) that they have the “power to make or break her,” Gaga has made her success shareable. And so, however much her success may not actually

be about her tribe, it sure does feel that way.

3. “Develop shared symbols”: The official icon of the Little Monsters is Gaga’s “Monster Claw” hand. As part of her “Bad Romance” choreography, the monstrous hand gesture has caught on with her fans, Oprah Winfrey chief among them. Now, this is exactly what we talk about when we discuss icons as markers of shared experience. What the “Monster Claw” has come to represent is something much deeper and more meaningful than a silly hand gesture. The icon has become a component of identity-making for fans, demarcating their interest in the aesthetic politics that Gaga stands for.

4. “Make your customers feel like rock stars”: Now, this falls square within the over-delivery portion of Conversationai

Capital

. Apparently Gaga will randomly select fans to go up on stage during her concert and then invite them out for a drink afterward. In doing this, Gaga doesn’t simply add value to her ticket price but also creates experiences that stand out by virtue of being so “extra.”

5. “Leverage social media”: With five million Facebook fans and three million Twitter followers, Gaga has social media on her side. But it’s not all about quantity with her, it’s quality too. She keeps fans constantly updated, whether at the Grammy’s or waiting for pizza. She even lets her fans film her concerts and then post their videos on Youtube. Clearly this woman has figured out how to benefit from social media and has subsequently enriched her brand as a result.

I’d also like to add some things to The Church of the Customer’s list:

6. Defy expectations: When they expect you to zig, zag. When they expect the ordinary, bring them the extraordinary. When they expect an ornate hair-bow-tie, psych them out with the severed head of Kermit the Frog (with a matching Kermit ensemble, naturally). Gaga may just be the prime example of why the ritual engine of CC doesn’t stack up: nothing about her lasts (and that’s precisely the appeal).

7. Relevant Sensorial

Oddity is your friend: If anyone proves our point about the importance of dazzling the senses, it’s this psychopath. Lady Gaga is the branded spectacle par

excellence. She challenges people’s tendencies to shut out their environment and has challenged the world with new modes of aestheticism.

8. This might not come up in the day-to-day workings of most brands, but when the press suggests you were born with multiple reproductive organs, OWN. THAT. SHIT. In fact, wear a strap-on on the cover of a major music magazine while proclaiming, “I want everyone to see my dick!” Do it because you don’t care what people think but also do it because it plays into the absurdity of your own myth-making.

As with all pop art whosiwhatsit, Gaga’s appeal is necessarily circumstantial. I mean, why should Gaga’s fame continue to soar when proportionately insane sideshows go by the wayside? For now, it seems that Gaga’s sticking around and that her fanbase is as loyal and fierce as ever. I’d never thought I’d say it, but brands, take note. Gaga is one to watch.

In retrospect, Coca Cola–bane of the environment–might not have been the best choice of companies to openly laud for its green credentials, as we did in a recent post. Still, reducing the carbon emissions associated with packaging is a step in the right direction and we can’t really chastize Big Red for that. But the problem remains: while reducing emissions associated with packaging is a start–a slow one, at that–it can’t be the end goal. And it so happens that one London company, Unpackaged, is proving that sentiment true.

Unpackaged revolves around the “belief that there is a better way to sell food.” Pray tell, Unpackaged: “we want to make it easy for our customers to do the right thing – the right thing for themselves and for the environment.” In a nut shell, that means eliminating all non-reusable packaging at their store, instead requesting that shoppers bring their own bags and packaging, providing only reusable bags for shoppers to purchase. What’s more, the majority of Unpackaged’s food is certified organic and fair trade where possible, showing preference to local suppliers in addition to refusing to sell air-freighted food. And they’re involved in other environmental campaigns. In sum, it’s a bottom-up approach, focusing on eliminating wastes at every possible step of production.

This is an example of a brand that hinges largely on a creative and strictly-applied founding narrative

. Since the beginning, Unpackaged’s story has been one of minimizing waste in every practical way. They have truly overhauled traditional commitments to the so-called green movement, which has far too often veered into “greenwashing”/dumb corporate initiative territory. And so I would imagine that an approach like this is definitely something to be talked about.

More than that, requesting that shoppers bring their own packaging means that Unpackaged has incorporated ritual

into their brand experience, offering consumers a hook to get conversation going. Oh, and they’re getting some very loud endorsement

from the likes of BBC, CBS, The Guardian, The Grocer, Vogue, Tree Hugger…the list goes on and on (although a new site designer wouln’t exactly be uncalled for). In turn, Unpackaged itself endorses

fellow do-gooders, linking to inspirational organizations like The Transition Movement and One Planet Living on their homepage.

Unpackaged is only one shop at the moment and, go figure, it’s all the way around the world. But that a company like Unpackaged can survive and thrive should suggest that consumers are excited and willing to brag about a company whose values and commitment seem genuine and unwaivering. From what I understand, Unpackaged is

that very company, so let’s hope we see it expand (or at least copy-catted) sometime soon!

As of 2011, the New York Times’ online content will no longer be available for free. Well, that’s the idea at least. Kind of. Allow me to explain:

See, after assuming that print was played out, the New York Times made the questionable decision to begin charging readers for access to their online articles in 2011. The paid model for NYTimes.com, importantly, would be a “metered model.” What this means is that users will be granted free access to a certain number of articles every month before they have their lights cut off. That way, the NYTs will generate a secondary revenue stream, providing “the necessary flexibility to keep an appropriate ratio between free and paid content” while staying “connected to a search-driven web.” Now, those who are already paying for the newspaper’s outrageous subscription fee will of course have access to all of the paper’s online content, but for those freeloaders who max their article limit, well, it’s off to the L.A. Times with you. Oh, the times we’ve had!

While some have argued that, yes, newspapers are a product and as such should not be given away for free, others have highlighted the opportunities that are afforded to sites that maximize their readership by offering free content. The NYTs seems to be caught somewhere in the middle, trying to generate some extra cash while keeping their audience around. But isn’t there another way? I mean, can’t someone

save free press for the masses? Who amongst us is willing to stand up and take charge?

ADVERTISERS, THAT’S WHO!

As we trundle closer and closer to 2011, the NYTs metaphorical rent-due-date, Honda is already making the best of a bad situation. See, the misers at The Wall Street Journal have been charging for their content for ages (a business magazine doing business–go figure). But on February 3rd, Honda’s advertising dollars provided the wherewithal to open WSJ.com’s content to everyone. Advertising the Acura ZDX, Honda’s one day partnership with the Wall Street Journal allowed all users to access content which was previously only unlocked for subscribers. What an awesome idea!

If more brands take Honda’s lead and provide access to sites like NYTimes.com, consumers will no doubt respond favourably. Advertising dollars finally put toward providing

services, as opposed to simply creating buzz? That’s precisely the kind of over-delivery that consumers are looking for from today’s brands. And what works perfectly about this initiative is that it goes part and parcel with the brand’s recent “Honda Helps” do-gooding.

Let’s hope we see more of this in the future. I need my free New York Times!

Cool Hunting recently posted their “Word-of-Mouth Guide to Oakland,” that focuses on what independent businesses people are talking about in the land of oak. (You can skip along to the video itself over here). Seeing as we, y’know, write a blog about word-of-mouth and everything, we thought we’d take this opportunity to delve into some of Cool Hunting’s selections and see if our Conversational Capital hypotheses stack up. And (you guessed it), they do! Let’s take a look at what I mean…

First up: Manifesto Bicycle Shop. Manifesto Bike Shop is an Oaklandian bike shop that functions with a few central credos: “promote customization, recycling and the spread of urban bike culture.” Getting people to bike, in other words, is Manifesto’s manifesto.  These young politcos focus on “urban bikes” and sponsor art openings as well as a “bike church” on Sunday mornings replete with baked goods and “old church music.” Now, that there is over-delivery. It’s an example of a brand exceeding consumer expectations by offering more than would be expected of them. Those gestures also go by the name of tribalism

, helping to form a loyal consumer base by fostering a sense of group identity around their service. I mention again that Manifesto is all about promoting customization, which in CC terms is Exclusive Product Offering

. And so it’s a big non-shock that Manifesto has managed to amass such word-of-mouth, especially with credible sources like Cool Hunting endorsing

them.

Next on the docket is a little bakery by the name of Bakesale Betty. Bakesale Betty’s “very homestyle, classic American” menu features baked goods and pastries as well as a butter-milk fried chicken sandwich that looks damn good. Their founding

myth can be found right there on their website, which tells the story of Betty’s founder (Alison Barakat), who travelled from Australia and arrived in Oakland to sell goods at a local farmer’s market. It was there that she met her husband who opened Betty’s and still to this day they continue to sell at local farmer’s markets. Oh and the video also mentions something about a weird backstory involving a Giraffe muralist. I’m not really sure, either. Just watch the video. Anyway, I should also mention that their blue wigs are exactly the type of unexpected icon

that we speak of in Conversational Capital, iconically bringing an image of–I don’t know, utter zaniness?–to the brand. Also, ha! Their website even has a jingle. Hilarious!

Then there’s Bloom Screen Printing, which supplies screen poster resources to graphic designers and fine artists who produce works not unlike the stuff coming out of The Heads of State team. The community around Bloom Screen Printing is an example of a tribe forming organically around a very specific kind of brand. BSP is a part of that community, even being spotted selling silk-screened works at Art Murmur. Oh and they promote public space, etc. So…good for them.

In sum, these business represent a number of different industries and sell a wide array of products. Each of them, however, has enriched their experience (intentionally or not) with the engines of CC. The result: making the word-of-mouth list of a site as widely-read as Cool Hunting. And so, the engines of Conversational

Capital

have, implicitly or not, been an essential part of these businesses’ success. I would say, then, that our hypotheses stack up quite nicely.

Game and set, as well as match, thank you.

Okay, so the “green movement” isn’t really the most topical subject of conversational at this point. That said, I’m willing to point out great creative work when I see it-especially when it serves the purposes of environmentalists. And so, let’s talk about some brand new, Conversational Capital

-worthy green initiatives taking place around the blogosphere.

First up: Creative Review’s compostable packaging (which, coincidentally, features Sid Lee right on the cover. Bonus points to them)! Creative Review’s new shipping packaging is fully compostable, made from something called “Harmless-Compost,” part of a range of compostable goods from Cyberpac. Now, the bag is for subscribers only, so you won’t find them on newsstands. Still, Creative Review has to package magazines sent in the mail (to protect it during shipping and for a place to put the address) and they’ve determined that the best way to do this, eco-wise, is to rid themselves of that pesky petroleum-based plastic packaging. Along with the compostable packaging, Creative Review has also thrown in tomato seeds, to encourage would-be greenthumbs to get into the garden and grow. Now, before anyone gets in a huff, the whole bag (i.e., inks included) are all biodegradable and tested for toxicity. This means that food growing out of that bag is suitable for consumption and, needless to say, that’s exactly the point. Creative Review has recieved some excellent press for this creative and practical initiative, proving that you really do reap what you sow.

Next: WhatisFresh, a New York-based website that allows users to search for the best local, seasonal and farmer’s markets in their communities. The site is divided into several categories (vendors, markets and products), which detail weekly calendars for markets in addition to listing all the farmers involved (including what they produce) and the products that are for sale. WhatisFresh is a perfect example of how social media can be incorporated into day-to-day efforts at staying green, with an easy-to-use interface that makes shopping local anything but a chore.

Finally, there’s these new Coke bottles, made partly from the leftovers of sugar cane plants. Coke has reduced the use of petroleum-based plastics for their bottles by nearly 30%, helping to reduce their carbon footprint by up to 19%. Now, while 19% may not sound like a huge deal in the grand scheme of things, it’s actually quite a lot. I mean, consider the billions of Coke bottles currently circling the globe. Now consider that the carbon footprint of 1/5 of those bottles has been eliminated. That’s some massive change! The bottles recently made their debut in Denmark, the host of last month’s United Nations Climate Change Summit and we can only hope to see them on this side of the Atlantic sooner rather than later.

What makes each of these initiatives Conversational

Capital-worthy is their ability to disrupt and exceed the expectations that we have of brands, particularly those amongst the horde of quasi-green companies that almost always leave something to be desired. Because the potency of traditional advertising and marketing has becoming increasingly reduced, brands will have to learn to distinguish themselves from the ubiquitous masses in highly innovative ways and that’s exactly what these three brands have done. That they do so on such creative yet simple terms certainly doesn’t hinder their efforts either.

But, at the end of the day, the goal is green, so congrats to these brands for making what steps they can towards that end.