Not all good brands can achieve this kind of success, being a magnet for the hipster, college crowd and being family friendly at the same time. I stop by at least three Einstein Brothers here in the valley, and each has its own niche. They have one thing in common: long lines of hungry people who stick around, too.

So what’s the lure of Einstein’s? Is it their brilliant invisible marketing, or is it a brand that classically fills a need? Personally, I’m not sure if it’s my weakness for bagels, the environment, or the coffee that pulls me back. The company says that "Marketing is a key ingredient in our business process. Our programs typically target very specific markets/regions…" Yet I don’t get postcards in the mail, I don’t see coupons, and I rarely see any advertising. Do they have a secret word-of-mouth channel?

The marketing side of me tells me it is the ambiance, not the baked goods. They have spared little in looking after the retail side of things. The menu boards are so much more friendly than, say Starbucks, their signage
gives them a mom-and-pop feel that doesn’t have "slick franchise" written all over it. The employees wear buttons with high-school like slogans ("Thrilled to Chill"), and take time to get to know you.

Then there’s my five-year old daughter, who’s a different market segment obviously. She will choose Einsteins over McDonald’s any day, making me wonder what’s their secret sauce. We have a father-and-daughter Sunday morning date. She loves reading the goofy murals about the ‘darn good coffee’ and posters that declare such things as ‘great moments in poultry’ while enjoying a cinnamon twist. But she also recognizes good customer service, that at her age is a significant thing. A former manager at the McClintock and Guadalupe store knew her by name. She was thrilled that "Uncle Ron" would come by and chat.

Tempe Einstein’s, the iconic store at the corner at Rural and University is a patently ASU hangout, with Sparky and ASU posters competing with drinks advertised as "The Cold and The Beautiful" or branding around Elmo.

The Phoenix store, at the corner of McDowell and 7th, shares the same wall as Starbucks, but if the lines are any indication of a brand’s strength, then Elmo wins hands down among the busy working crowd of doctors and women checking their Blackberries.

Even if you’re not in marketing, if you have to deal with multiple audiences, spend a few moments at Einsteins. It’s a lesson that’ll cost you less than two bucks.

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With all the attention to music, and Al Gore’s 7-Point Pledge, the use of text messaging (or sms) was more like an afterthought.

Saturday’s Live Earth event urged viewers in the US, Australia, South Africa, Japan, Brazil and Germany and the UK  to send different keywords to a short code. Keywords were "home," "ride," "share" etc.

I tried it out, and received a prompt response saying:

"Thanks. You have answered the call. U will get weekly updates. More info at http://www.liveearth.org"

That’s it?

No follow up to the double opt-in, asking me for an email address.

No redirect to a custom website or landing page.

Considering the event was riding on the music platform, there was so much more they could have done. How difficult would it have been:

• To get one of the stars to write a song and use it for viral distribution only –spread by people who opted-in via cell phones?
• Forget music. How difficult would it have been to get the 7-point pledge spread via phones?
• They could have tapped into the user-generated content bandwagon and asked citizens to create their own pledges.
• They could have beamed those pledges up to outdoor venues in the seven continents. They could have re-purposed those contributions and fed it to the media…

It was a huge, huge, missed opportunity.

Sending my phone the URL for Live Earth was so lame, considering, I already knew the web address!` (it was all over the screen on TV!) and it was not providing me any new information, or linking me to any new medium, or event.

Let’s hope they answer the call!

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For those of us involved in marketing and/or corporate communications, trying to make sure the organization is not misrepresented in the media, it’s not enough to pay attention to press releases, media kits, and getting the ‘brand police’ department to flex some muscle.

Some people’s and many organizations’ image are not managed by appointed brand guardians, designers, or copywriters, but by unpaid workers at Wikipedia. Say what you like about the ‘bias’ of Wikipedia, but there are people out there, the hoi polloi, who have absolutely nothing to gain by the work they do into the wee hours of the morning but they do it anyway.

If you’ve only gone to Wikipedia to find out "things you would have known had you paid more attention in high school" ( to borrow a phrase from the NPR quiz  "Wait, wait, don’t tell me" ) I invite you to take a peek behind the curtain to see a fascinating work in progress.

A few days back, as the news broke of BBC correspondent Alan Johnston‘s release, I clicked on the discussion tab of Wikipedia, as editors hurriedly updated information about him. (The Discussion page is a place where those who edit content talk to each other about the accuracy of facts, and importance of detail.) I bet none of these Wikipedians are connected to the BBC or to Johnston, but they were debating whether this page should be about his life, or his kidnapping, whether he was even ‘notable’ enough to merit so a page on him.

Similar discussions go on about  the much-used term "Web 2.0"  where editors meticulously remove ‘retarded’ pictures someone keeps adding, and police and other types of mild vandalism.

Now to corporate marketing: Go over to to the entry on Sun Microsystems, and you’ll see an interesting debate has taken place. On the 27th February, one editor scolded:

"Sun is THE leading contributor of [sic] open source software (emphasis mine)? this is rubbish, and reads as though it was written by somebody from Sun marketing."

What’s interesting, is that the editor says he’s not a hardcore Wikipedian, but asks someone to please step in and make the change. Someone has. The entry is now very balanced. As the editor says, allowing the simple use of the word THE, is

"akin to Bill Gates’ claiming that Windows Vista is the most secure
operating system ever produced – pure hype, and demonstrably false."

It’s the hoi polloi at work, folks. You may fire off the most creative press release one evening, or launch a campaign that’s getting rave reviews, but do you appreciate what someone with a screen name like NapoliRoma is saying about you on Wikipedia late at night?

We oughta get used to it, and rethink what our business cards say we are responsible for!

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After so much bad news out of the UK, this is wonderful!

BBC correspondent Alan Johnston’s been released in the Gaza.

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Attended a session on the Dow branding case study today at IABC‘s international conference in New Orleans,

This campaign, launched last June, was one of the most memorable branding campaigns in recent times. The Human Element ads are indelible images.

The copy is powerful in a straightforward way. It’s about "Sodium bonding with chlorine, carbon bonding with oxygen…" The close ups of faces, the texture of waves, the energy of a waterfall. This is the shall we say, bonding of words, images and ideas that you don’t usually see in corporate branding exercises.

As the presenter noted, proudly, not once was the Dow name spoken. Only a fleeting glimpse of the red diamond logo at the end. I watched it again, and couldn’t help but notice the word ‘element’ (or ‘elemental’) occurs eight times, with the big picture painted in sweeping strokes, with hints of biology (synapses) and lots of chemistry.

But branding is much more than stunning images and good copy. It’s a positioning statement that has to leap across every ‘synapse’ and connect with the other communication efforts, to touch the lives of everyone the organization comes into contact with.

Dow launched the campaign internally as well, bathing its building with giant images, revamping its web site, providing employees with the background to the concept and philosophy, and encouraging them to set up their own periodic table with pictures of people they work with.

It struck me as a campaign waiting to be integrated with other media –imagine employees creating their own human element posters, and uploading them to Flickr. Imagine them being able to tell their own Human element stories in podcasts, or on YouTube. I bet those stories would be as powerful and sincere as anything its agency FCB could come up with. Wouldn’t that be the the proof of branding via the human element?

In summary: Don’t get me wrong. It is a terrific case study. But a global company telling a global story to a global audience just can’t afford to not engage it’s own people.

This was funny: The presenter asked us what came to our minds first when we watched the commercial. One person raised her hand and said, "It made me wonder what Dow had done wrong, and was trying to cover up." Another said he was trying to calculate the cost of each of those marvelous segments of video!

On a related note: Paul Argenti, management guru who gave the keynote at the the IABC Foundation lunch today opened his remarks with a blistering analysis of why strategic communications is needed so badly. People are extremely cynical of communications, because of business communication failures from the likes of  BP, KPMG, Tyco, Enron etc. "Transparency is a strategy and a condition," he noted.

Translated: skip the tag lines, and bring back that human element!

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Walk through the networking area at the IABC International conference here in New Orleans, and you’d be forgiven if you thought you had mistakenly stepped into a new media event. Flat panel screens display models, hubs, portals, feed rooms, and video products that all promise to engage audiences more, track marketing better, and simplify PR and media relations.

In one analysis, this is the fork in the road for for communicators wrestling with the trusty old tools of engagement and the spanky new ones. Topics range from "Is corporate communications a thing of the past" to "Be Heard. Bringing a brand to life." to Building brands and community via e-marketing" to "The good the bad and the unethical." The booths for Melcrum and Ragan Communications, the American and British contenders for social media communicators’ hubs are strategically located at different parts of the room. Everything you hear or see seems to have an ‘e’ factor, a global dimension, or a PR-meets-marketing angle. The lines are blurring. The oxygen of new media fills the room.

Terrific stuff. Invigorating to say the least. The coffee pots aren’t conveniently located close to the meeting rooms, but even at 7.30 am, people seem incredibly alert. 

Alan Scott‘s session on "The Blogging Explosion" had that kind of energy. Scott, the CMO of Dow Jones‘ Enterprise Media Group laid the usual groundwork with references to the Cluetrain Manifesto etc. The four trends we should be aware of are:

• Commodization & Competitiveness
• The New Message Battleground
• Buyers Reward Authenticity
• Markets are global conversations

What was interesting, and telling, was that the presentation turned into great participation. Questions posed by members of the audience were being answered by others. When Scott referenced Bub Lutz’s blog he was corrected by someone from GM.

The blogging explosion, Scott maintained was humanizing the corporation; better, it was providing insight via text mining –gold for CSR, corporate intelligence, PR, HR, Marketing, product groups, and Sales. The disruption (or it it upheaval? Or revolution?) is easy to see because you could buy a camera or car tires without paying any attention to the carefully crafted communications from the marketing, PR and web folk at those companies. You know, folks like us…

It reminded me of the words from song The revolution will not be televised:

The revolution will not go better with Coke.
The revolution will not fight the germs that may cause bad breath.
The revolution will put you in the driver’s seat.

And our seat belts are fastened, too.

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