A Kardashian handing a can of Pepsi to a battalion of police officers, which somehow diffuses racial tensions.
NatWest Bank’s Mr. Banker mansplaining to female customers.
Budweiser today giving out rainbow beer glasses during Pride Week.
Big, monolithic brands lack such purpose that their ham-fisted attempts to stand for a mission create more backlash.
You can see it– a bunch of marketers in a glass-walled conference room, listening to a pitch from their ad agency.
I would have loved to be in the room when North Face marketers agreed to deface Wikipedia (go Google it for a laugh), which backfired gloriously when they were caught.
If you’re not a large corporation but want to have a brand that actually stands for something, I’ve got good news for you.
When you attempt to serve everyone, you serve no one.
If you don’t have a clear niche, you can’t have a mission– with Nike, Disney, and Red Bull being rare exceptions.
I see a lot of entrepreneurs who vaguely say they want to “change the world” or “give back”.
Two of them, former specialists in our program, I caught red-handed stealing from me, all the while espousing virtue.
Decide on a cause you authentically care about and find a way to get businesses to pay for it– then you have congruity between your mission and how you make money.
I look at what Phil Randazzo, Omari Broussard, and Enrique Marin are doing to help veterans get jobs as digital marketers.
We need more people who are truly helping people– creating jobs, for example, as their core mission, not a stunt by their PR agency.
Have you focused down to a niche of who you care about– then made your marketing a by-product of your operations?
If you are struggling for business, I’ll bet it’s because you think sales and marketing are your issues– but you have it all wrong.
