Ze Frank is an online weirdo/funny guy who never seems to blink and also moonlights as a brand philosopher.
In his latest video he decontructs why John Mark Karr would lie about killing JonBenet Ramsey. Ze Frank contends that Karr was trying to attach himself with a more visible brand.
It’s a strange and interesting take on marketing and branding, and well worth the 5 minutes you’ll spend watching Ze Frank do his thing. Note: some strong language follows.
Take away 1: No matter how much goodwill equity is stored up in your brand, unless enough people know and share in that goodwill it will be difficult to profit from it. Basically, your winery brand needs to scale.
Take away 2: Because of information saturation, it is easier to get that much needed notoriety by aligning your brand with more visible or controversial brands.
I saw Ze Frank speak at the GEL (Good Experience Live) Conference in NYC in 2002. Very entertaining speaker. In general, I’m in complete agreement with his definition of a brand. Love the phrase “emotional aftertaste.” Spot on.
I also agree that one of the goals of branding is to leverage this so-called emotional aftertaste, whether created anew or borrowed from another. I also agree that communication platforms (death of network tv as just one cause/example) are fracturing, making it more difficult to reach a wide audience with the same intended message. So, a brand, in order to reach an audience with the intended message, has no choice but to get more specific, both in terms of medium *and* in terms of message.
To bring this back to wine, I’m reminded of a recent podcast at Grape Radio featuring Allen Meadows in which he discussed his decision to focus not only on wines made from the pinot noir grape, but the wines of Burgundy in particular. He did this because he wasn’t so concerned with reaching a large audience. Rather, he wanted to reach a very *passionate* audience. And so his brand is a success exactly because of the conscious choice to be *more specific* in it’s range of reference. In doing so, he confirms the idea that one cannot be both an expert and a generalist.
Mega brands are feeling the same pinch. Take a look at the portfolios of some of the major consumer product companies. They are responding similarly. One of the most interesting recent examples I can think of is the sale of Tom’s of Maine to Colgate Palmolive. CP is not interested in Tom’s for it’s sales volume, which is miniscule compared to their other personal care brands. It’s interested in Tom’s for it’s perceived brand message of environmental stuardship, caring corporate philosophy, and for it’s passionate audience — three things that would take CP decades to earn, if it ever could.
Well said – much better than I could have mustered.
The challenge as I see it really is in trying to make sure the pool of passionate people is large enough to support your business. I fear that we in the luxury wine market try too hard to chase the same group of passionate customers.
Thanks so much for the comment Stratton. The Colgate example is textbook. Good stuff.
Awe shucks, just trying to pitch in
You’ve got a really nice blog going. Wish you all the best with it and look forward to keeping up.