You are currently browsing the monthly archive for January 2009.
Introduction
A few weeks ago, a brilliant marketer and former colleague of mine, Dee Papit, commented on my article about the “Branding of Barack Obama.” Her reference to Obama’s use of the Internet and social networking led me to reflect on the way he and libertarian candidate Ron Paul bypassed the smoke-filled rooms of power to connect directly with supporters. I thought I’d share a few of my thoughts on the cultural evolution that made these events possible and continues to reshape competition in the new century.
The Seeds of Change
In 1960, Ford didn’t need a better idea. They had manufacturing capacity, supply chain efficiency and a distribution network. The investment required to build this kind of capacity was an enormous competitive barrier and it successfully choked off the efforts of all but three of the world’s most powerful companies. By a wide margin, General Motors was the largest company in the world and industrial powerhouses like Ford, Chrysler, General Electric and U.S. Steel were all in the top 10.
It was an age of consolidated power. Three networks controlled all television programming. A handful of Hollywood moguls controlled mainstream film. IBM controlled 70 percent of the computer market, and the only phone service you could buy came from AT&T. In the ’60s, the scale that such companies operated on made it nearly impossible for smaller companies to compete. Fortunately, the ’60s also laid the groundwork for all this to change.
The rebellion by young people in the 1960s, punctuated by the popular slogan “Power to the people,” didn’t disrupt established power bases overnight, but it did establish a pattern of independent thinking that led to the proliferation of entrepreneurship. As more young people questioned authority, we saw the rise of cultural classes that would begin to reshape our world at the end of the twentieth century. Most notable among these were the hippy, the artist and the geek.
Hippies and their ilk openly questioned the motives of big business, big politics and anything that came out of an assembly plant. Their back-to-nature message set the stage for the rapid rise of the organic movement, but it also coincided with the spread of the creative class.
In the ’60s, the creative community came alive with writers like Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Maya Angelou, Ken Kesey, Gloria Steinem, Truman Capote and Harper Lee; musicians like Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, The Velvet Underground, Jimmy Hendrix, Bob Dylan and Neil Young; and artists like Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschenberg. These influences worked their way into film and television. They also inspired advertising leaders like Bill Bernbach to usher in the era known as the “Creative Revolution.”
At the same time creativity was on the rise, the growth of technology was accelerating, sparking new innovations in the ways people worked and communicated. “Geeks,” a derogatory term for social outcasts who tinkered with technology, would soon become a badge of honor as young geniuses like Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs, Adam Osborne, John Draper and Bill Gates turned their parents’ garages into the primordial pool of the evolution of technology. This growing subculture of basement businessmen was greatly influenced by social activists like Fred Moore, cofounder of the Homebrew Computer Club. In the 1970s and beyond, Moore and others around him pushed for the democratization of technology. This led to an increased number of these garage geeks breaking away from corporate confines to start their own, venture-backed businesses.
Throughout the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s, anti-establishment attitudes, increased emphasis on creativity and expanded democratization of technology provided fertile conditions for the incubation of changes that were to erupt onto the scene in the late 1990s. The rocket fuel that propelled the final stage of transformation was the Internet.
Ironically, the Internet was born out of the US Department of Defense in the 1960s. It was originally known as the ARPANET and developed through the ’70s and ’80s, but it wasn’t until the launch of the Mosaic browser in 1993 and Netscape in 1994 that the “Information Superhighway,” as it was called, came into popular use.
In the latter half of the 1990s, the Internet would go from a largely unknown plaything of geeks, phreaks and researchers to a middle-class mainstay. With this change, virtually any individual or business had an equal shot at capturing the attention of a global audience. While the dot-com bust in 2000 purged the new economy of many of its weakest businesses, the transformation of the economy continued, altering the landscape, weakening large institutions and emboldening challenges to the status quo.
Aided by technology and a strong will to break away from mainstream institutions, independent enterprise has flourished. The Sundance Festival launched the era of the independent filmmaker, while cable access broke down the dominance of the Big Three Networks. AT&T’s breakup led to the vast expansion of communications options, including the development of mobile telephony, texting and smart phones. IBM’s dominance in computers gave way to dozens of new companies, like Apple, Microsoft, Oracle, HP and Dell. Electronic publishing, paired with distribution through online retailers like Amazon.com, would allow any author to bypass the major publishing companies and self-publish their book. And thousands of innovative new businesses, from eBay to Google, would change the nature of the way we trade and promote goods and services, democratizing access to online markets and advertising.
So where does all this lead? It is bringing us to a time when anyone with an innovative idea and the conviction to pursue it can compete in a global marketplace. We are seeing small branding boutiques pull choice assignments away from global giants. Multinational banks are crumbling, even as small community banks thrive. And political candidates like Ron Paul and Barack Obama are able to raise millions of dollars from small donors, while bypassing the traditional paths to power.
Only time will tell what lies next along this path, but it is certain to lead to greater diversity of opportunity and unprecedented competitive freedom.
I’m often wary of reading business books, especially books relating to branding and marketing. Most are shallow and repetitive, squeezing 200 pages out of a concept that was better told on the back cover.
So I picked up the unfortunately-titled “Yes!” with a great deal of apprehension. But I was wrong to judge this book by its cover. Though it may look like a self-help book or a new audio CD from Tony Robbins, “Yes!” is a well researched and succinctly written exploration of the art of persuasion. The authors, Noah J. Goldstein, Steve J. Martin and Robert B. Cialindi, explore a wide range of methods for influencing audiences.
If you’re in the business of encouraging people to do things, as all marketers are, you will find this book to be very useful. Buy it at Amazon.com.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr in Grosse Pointe
I was seven years old on March 14, 1968, when the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. came to my hometown. As I sat in my living room, Dr. King drove to Grosse Pointe High School with the police chief in his lap. When the chief heard the car might be shot at on the way to the speech, he insisted on sitting on the reverend’s lap to protect him. [Why don’t any of the articles about this event mention his name? A guardian angel in a long black Ford.]
At the high school, protesters surrounded the building and hecklers frequently interrupted the speech. Dr. King said later that, “ [it was] the worst heckling I have ever encountered in all my travels.” A number of people, however, welcomed the Reverend with enthusiasm. Dr. King received an ovation several minutes long when he entered the hall and the audience interrupted his speech not only with jeers, but with applause – a reported 32 times.
Reading about the event as an adult, I’m saddened, but not entirely ashamed of my neighbors. It was members of the Grosse Pointe Human Relations Council who invited Dr. King to speak. They were part of a growing movement of local residents who were committed to racial equality.
I realize now that I was one of the lucky ones. My father was active in city politics, where he worked for civil rights with the Access to Justice campaign and helped elect the first black mayor of Detroit. It wasn’t until much later in my life that I came to understand the significance of that day and the events that surrounded it. I think about how far we have come and how far we still have to go.
(see comment for an update)
For more information:
http://www.shelbyuticanews.com/Homepage-Articles/2007/01-17-07/GF-MLK.asp
http://www.tbwt.org/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=88&Itemid=41
http://www.gphistorical.org/mlk/index.htm
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/149555/when_martin_luther_king_jr_rode_to.html?cat=8
Transcript: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Grosse Pointe Speech
This week brought a handful of media calls asking about brands in the news. “Does Super Bowl advertising make economic sense?” “How can Detroit Automakers restore their brand?” “How will Steve Jobs’ leave of absence to address a serious illness affect Apple’s Brand?”
That last one got to me. A human being says he is too sick to work, and all the media can ask about is what the affect will be on the stock price.
Steve Jobs gave birth to Apple in 1976 and restored it from near-certain death in 1987. He requested no salary upon his return and held no Apple stock. He didn’t do it for economic gain. He was crazy enough to think he could change the world – and he did.
He revolutionized the computer industry, the music industry, the phone industry and the animated movie industry. He brought tools for creativity to everyone, with software for editing video and photography, words and music. He built marketplaces where musicians and programmers could bypass intermediaries to sell their work. Along the way, he built a small army of brilliant and creative thinkers who go to work every day thinking differently.
So for a little while, this army will carry the torch – as they should. They will let Steve Jobs rest and recover – as we should.
Be well Mr. Jobs. We wish you the power to be your best.
