Image via Brooklyn.GoogaMooga.com

After what was reviewed by many as an event failure last year, the 2^nd annual Great GoogaMooga festival took place in Prospect Park in Brooklyn this past weekend with promises of several improvements meant to alleviate many of last year’s problems. While promoter Superfly was not at fault for the rain that caused the cancellation of Sunday’s programming, the fact that the event was not called off until hundreds of people were already in line and waiting to enter was frustrating for attendees and vendors alike. The one hundred-plus food and restaurant vendors were left “holding the bag,” with their already prepared foods and lots of it, after preparing additional offerings rather than running out of food as they did quickly during GoogaMooga’s first year. The vendors immediately put out a ‘cry for help’ in New York Magazine by mid-day Sunday (check out the power of social media here), collectively asking the public to patronize their restaurants instead, as their booths had been washed out. The management’s gross incompetence and level of brand mismanagement will hurt the future of GoogaMooga. 

On the other hand, Williamsburg’s weekly Smorgasburg Food Festival has been very successful, offering a variety of local treats in an outdoor setting. Although the food is expensive and lines are long for the most popular offerings, people are willing to pay for the overall experience—unique, artisan, locavore eats in a fun, sunny weekend setting. They do lots of things right, and establishing a sense of community is one of them. Smorgasburg began as an offshoot of the popular outdoor weekly market The Brooklyn Flea, and has expanded in an organic way, rather than starting big. People have watched Smorgasburg grow, and are committed to supporting the local New York based food artisans.

Ultimately, the problem with GoogaMooga is that the promoter failed to fulfill the brand promise, and didn’t come close to delivering what they had committed to, with a resulting damage in brand identity and equity. In its first year, attendees faced food and drink shortages, overcrowding, and frustratingly long lines. In its second year, GoogaMooga put its consumers last, and they felt it. 

This year's Palm Springs Photo Festival was a blast. In addition to giving my talk on branding (kindly attended by photographers and a posse of wonderful artist representatives), we also went to a few amazing symposiums. I had the opportunity to learn even more about the museum aspect of the fine art market from an illustrious panel of experts, and to meet and review portfolios for some incredibly creative and talented photographers from all parts of the world.

Thanks, Jeff Dunas! You guys do a great job! Oh, and we saw an amazing Roger Ballen show at the divine mid-century Palm Springs Museum of Art. He is obsessed with birds. Me, too! Check the show out here.

           Photograph by Roger Ballen, Gasping 2010, Palm Springs Art Museum

Two days before the Vancouver, Canada leg of my 3-week, 5-city trip last month I realized that I had forgotten my passport in New York. I was in San Francisco, and needed it to be overnighted to me before leaving for my flight. My passport made it to a FedEx location in New York before the end-of-day cutoff, and just as FedEx promised, arrived at my San Francisco hotel at 8:30AM the following morning on the dot. FedEx made me a promise, and delivered. You just don't get the same feeling of confidence from any other carrier.

Just like Q-Tip and Kleenex are synonymous with cotton swabs and tissues, FedEx is synonymous with fast, assured delivery. When a company is synonymous with a category, it is considered in the branding world to be a coined term. When we sneeze, we ask for a Kleenex, because they are the brand that defines the category.

FedEx has successfully built a credible, sustainable brand with very few blips over the years. When they do make a misstep (as everyone does), and our package gets stuck in Nashville or New Orleans, we're so upset that we vow never to use their service again. But, ultimately, we return to them, because we know that they are fast, reliable, and (almost always) on time. 

Thank you, Fedex. Vancouver was beautiful!

          image via campusentrepreneurship.wordpress.com

          Image via freakingnews.com

Ah, yes, talk about brand identification. What is about Queen Elizabeth and those corgis? If you see a corgi with or without a crown, you think about Queen Elizabeth.

In the film, "The Queen," we saw her with her headscarf and stout boots taking the dogs out on the Downs. When Thomas Struth photographed her for last year's Jubilee (Sixty Years a Queen), he talked about her relationship with the dogs at his portrait session with The Queen and Prince Phillip. Struth was at Buckingham Palace to shoot the official portrait, which of course turned out to be beautiful, formal, and a bit unsettling. He said that neither The Queen nor her husband smiled nor were animated at the shoot. Then at the end of the sitting, he took a photograph of them with the dogs, and described Queen Elizabeth's exclamations of pleasure. He said he wished that he had been able to bring the animation they showed for the dogs into the photographs. Perhaps she thinks it's not queenly to show her weakness for those corgis, but really now, the corgis are more closely alligned with her in our consciousness than Prince Charles. See a corgi, think Queen Elizabeth. That's a brand! And they certainly deserve crowns, too, don't they? 

This coming April, Beth is going on a little speaking tour to the West Coast. For you solopreneurs, entrepreneurs, product developers, and other business and brand minded folks, she will be speaking at the Renaisssance Entrepreneurship Institute in San Francisco on the evening of April 18th. Then she will be doing one-on-one consulting in SF and LA (and anywhere else along the coast where her brand and communications skills are needed) until April 28th, when she heads out to the desert and Palm Springs. She will be speaking about how to develop your point-of-view as a photographer at the prestigious Palm Springs Photo Festival on April 29th, and doing one-on-one portfolio reviews on the 28th and 29th for photographers who will be spending time at the festival. Hope to see you along the way!

          Image from a recent talk at the Association of Photographers in London

In my frequent talks about branding, and in speaking with my clients, I always start out by saying that your logo is not your brand. Your logo is an expression of your brand, providing a means to connect the consumer to your company or product. It is a symbolic expression of your brand, but it doesn't define it . It's a tool, one amongst many, that help the consumer to identify, connect and viscerally relate to who you are.

In its twenty-year existence, NY1, the all-news channel dedicated to New York City and the greater metropolitan area, has become an institution. We turned to it for our Hurricane Sandy coverage and to watch Mayor Bloomberg's testy news conferences, Neil Rosen's take on the movies, and Shelley Goldberg with her ageless blonde pageboy to tell us where to take our kids this weekend. And who doesn't love to watch key news anchor Pat Kiernan read the newspaper headlines to us every weekday morning? It's our morning tea, coffee, and weather person all rolled into one.

Last week, in an effort to make viewers aware of their ownership and the channel's exclusivity to TWC subscribers, Time Warner announced that they would be rebranding NY1, changing the name to TWC News and getting rid of the simple, yet iconic, blocky blue logo. The New York internet media reacted immediately, and not very happily. Gawker posted an article titled "NY1 to be Rebranded as 'TWC News' Because We Can't Have Nice Things." But anchor Pat Kiernan went on air and tried to assure viewers that nothing will change, saying  that the "logo is less important than the content."

In some ways, he is right, but not entirely so. What he was trying to say is that the anchors and content of the channel will stay the same, no matter what the logo looks like. At the same time, he was saying that there is going to be a brand disconnect between the station, its history, how it is known and loved by its audiences, and the new name and logo. He was asking you to stay put and not abandon NY1 no matter what happens at the corporate level. What he was really addressing was the issue of brand mismanagement, and a lack of sensitivity at the corporate level.

Time Warner might want to consider a name like TWC/NY1 News, or NY1: News From Time Warner. There are a number of options that would be evolutionary, not revolutionary, and that would hook the old NY1 into the bigger landscape of the Time Warner brand. Pat was saying, 'we're still here' and we will be, Pat, no matter what the logo looks like. That is not always the case for a brand, but in this case, we just can't give up our morning coffee and you.

After showing up two hours late to a concert at the massive O2 Arena in London last week, Justin Beiber arrived on stage to face boos and harsh criticism from his young fans--many of whom were upset because they were going to be forced to stay out late (past their bedtimes) in order to see his whole show. That same week, Justin was caught on video threatening and yelling profanities at the paparazzi. He also fainted at another concert, and then cancelled an upcoming show on his international tour. Now it seems like we're all just waiting for him to follow along behind many other troubled pop stars, and mysteriously check into rehab for 'exhaustion.'

So is this the beginning of the end of Justin Beiber's career? Probably not. 

In general, I would say that brand mismanagement hurts your brand equity. But for celebrities, this is (yet another) indulgence, or off-brand management, that would not work for brands at large. Because Hollywood loves a comeback story, celebrities can mismanage their brand in a profound way -- the public and the entertainment business is okay with it, because we are as interested in seeing stars come back as we are seeing them fail. Take Robert Downey Jr., for example. Hollywood, the media, and the public have all embraced the handsome, reformed drug addict turned Oscar nominee back in the fold as a respectable and credible actor and box office draw.

So, who then is the other 1%? They are the stars who go beyond the pale, like Mel Gibson. When Mel Gibson said that the Holocaust never existed, he effectively shut the door on his Hollywood career, particularly in an industry where many of the key players are Jewish. The public and the industry were offended, and could not disassociate themselves fast enough. It was not simply self-destructive behavior. It was aggressive and wrong-headed, destruction turned outward rather inward, unlike many stars who crash and burn personally only to return to Hollywood success. Was the public upset when Hugh Grant was caught with a prostitute? Yes. But we forgave the charming Brit, and all rushed to see him in Notting Hill with Julia Roberts.

Ultimately, I'm not worried about Justin Beiber. His young, adoring fans will forgive him. Eventually he will stop acting out, and have another act in his career. Keep in mind, though, that the entertainment industry plays by its own rules. The scenarios I’ve described are not acceptable for brands at large, where it’s essential to be endlessly vigilant about every point, communication and way they intersect with the public and their investors. Can you say “BP”?

          Image via justinbiebermusic.com

A very enjoyable part of my time over the past many years has been spent assigning lifestyle photography, or in developing brand strategy and providing creative direction for lifestyle photographers and photo agencies that represent lifestyle creatives. As a brand strategist and trendwatcher, I'm always paying attention to the marketplace, in particular to the ways in which brand touch points are connected or disconnected where they intersect with their varied audiences and customers. I'm also very sensitive to the language aspect of branding, as my clients well know. Your brand name, the category you use to describe your brand, and the language you use to describe your brand can be as potent as any tool in your arsenal.

On to the category of lifestyle stores. The rise of the uber-lifestyle brand at retail really came to prominence about twenty years ago, with the push forward of stand–alone stores for brands like Calvin Klein, Donna Karan, Ralph Lauren, and Anthropologie. These brands created highly cultivated destinations that offered an encapsulated view of a particular kind of life, one where you could carry the brand home in many forms -- from women's fashion to homewares, like bedding and tableware, to fashion accessories –- all in one place, and not presented in the fragmented department store environment. These lifestyle brands offered product options at different price points, so that you could bring home a twenty dollar cup or a thousand dollars gown. They offered an easy, transporting experience where consumers could easily envision themselves as part of the romantic Anthropologie or minimalist Calvin Klein lifestyle and aesthetic.

Today I was walking down Madison Avenue in NYC, where I passed the well-known card shop and e-tailer, Papyrus. Right there in the window they claimed to be a lifestyle store. I thought to myself, “They are a shop that sells different kinds of paper goods!” feeling quite surprised by their claims. Then I read their window signage, only to find that their definition of lifestyle means that they offer custom printing as well as a full-line of Cranes papers. The outcome: I was let down, and I felt misled.

Folks, this is not what you want when you put your brand out there in public. A basic tenet of brand strategy involves never promising something that you can’t deliver every time. Papyrus is clearly not a lifestyle store. They are a gift and card shop with additional customer friendly services.

The moral: I’m reminding you to think carefully and analytically before you put your brand out there, so that you know what you stand for, and communicate it accurately. This will help you to attract and retain loyal customers. 

With guest blogger, Cedric Littman, The Cheese Advisor

The Virgin Megastore in Paris has closed.  There has been bad publicity, and the unions have said that there are "too many unanswered questions." One union said,  "We are in a fighting mood. We're not going to go quietly.”

This looks pretty bad for Virgin, a company that presents itself as customer friendly, even customer centric. Virgin’s brand and notoriety has been partly built upon the adventurous exploits of its founder, Richard Branson, who attempted an Atlantic crossing on a balloon and is booking flights to the moon. The Virgin Megastores were the retail face of a brand that was considered to be visionary in its day.

          Image via Reuters

The Virgin store in Paris was bought from the Virgin Group ten years ago, although it was imperceptible to the consumer. Why did Virgin allow its name to be used by another company over which it seems to have no control? Even worse, the company they sold it to later sold it to yet another company, so that the retail operations were further and further away from the core brand, and not under the Virgin brand umbrella and management.   

The Virgin group also sold its retail operations in the UK, the US and Ireland, and all of the outlets have closed with at least one of the parent companies going into liquidation. At its height, the French store, on the Champs Elysees, must have been a substantial asset as it was on one of the world’s most famous thoroughfares. But now one of the most visible Virgin stores, as well as the whole chain, have closed with a loss of 1,000 jobs. How did Virgin make such a mistake?  Surely they saw the demise of traditional music retailing on the horizon, otherwise why would they have sold their retail operations? The real question is why they allowed the new owners access to the Virgin name, logo, store design, and brand equity.

This cautionary tale makes it clear that brands equity should be protected by a little, or a lot, of forethought. Even those of us with smaller brands need to take control and take charge of our brand. We may not face the same problems as the Virgin Group and we may never sell part of our operation, but good brand management is key no matter whether you are a solopreneur, a small business, a non-profit or anyone who puts a product or service or offering into the marketplace. As Beth often says in her talks, perception is all. There is the fact of your brand (where you really are in the marketplace right now) and then there is where your audiences think you are. Although they are a thriving company, the closing of the Virgin Megastores (albiet by a third party) would leave their audiences with the perception that the company is out of step with their needs, and that the business itself is in trouble.

The message: Protect your brand equity. Learn how to do it from an expert, and then don’t forget to continue to pay close attention to your brand as time goes on. After all, you have too much to lose. 

How many of you are on Pinterest these days? It has become a vital tool for those of us who are highly visual, or in a visual profession, and who want a fluid and easy place to park their online image “scrapbook” for easy reference. Personally, I’m obsessed with it! In a funny way, I find that how I approach collecting images on specific topics and areas on Pinterest has much in common with the way that I edit photography for portfolios, books, websites, etc. I like to begin with a huge pull of images, frequently in the many hundreds, and then I am able to tunnel down into the core visual through-line in a photographer’s work. Now I'm doing the same for myself, and it’s a pleasurable exercise in collecting and editing.

Many American brands and retailers are also very much on board with Pinterest. In interviews, they state again and again that Pinterest is driving sales in a quantifiable way that they don’t necessarily see in other social media. It allows consumers to paste and share products in an appealing way, and to go back to their scrapbook, have a holistic view of the things that they love, and then to easily purchase the products they’ve pinned. Sometimes it’s not so easily quantifiable, as consumers frequently use Pinterest as a research tool which might then indirectly drive a purchase through looking at their own, or other pinners, collection of aspirational fashion or home décor or design images. Pinners are also repinning other images they find on Pinterest, or pinning from all over the online universe. Magazines have a strong roll to play in this environment, as they provide a great source of many aspirational images that then drive a more down-to-earth purchase.

Interestingly enough, in the course of my own time spent in pursuing images for my Pinterest board, I’ve found that it’s really difficult to pin from European home décor magazines. Whereas most American magazines have made a major push into providing ancillary and original content on their websites, most of the European magazines I visited online are far behind. They seem to see the online environment as one in which they should hold back content and force (or frustrate) the consumer into buying the print magazine. I’m curious to know how that’s working for them. Is World of Interiors more successful at retaining their print subscribers with their opaque website than a comparable magazine like Architectural Digest, which is making at least some content of value available? I don’t know, but I can say that in the new Pinterest world, I find myself more interested in interacting with brands that make my pinning most inspirational and easiest.