Monday, September 5th, 2011
Soundgarden broke through the din of the 90s with its take-no-prisoners 'Grunge on steroids'' branded sound that separated it from the Nirvana standard. A decade later it's the only one really still standing, with loyal fans who still pack their shows.
A couple months ago I ran into my wife’s cousin Stephen, a natural drummer who plays in wedding bands (a rock star hair stylist by day) at a family gathering + I happened to bring up the Commodore’s song, ‘Brick House.’ With an intensity that surprised me, Stephen rebuffed it; his body had a visceral knee-jerk.
It turns out not a wedding goes by without a request for it. So while 20 years of playing other people’s music had made him some cash, it had taken its toll on his satisfaction. On his soul + what he loves as a musician. (I was glad to hear him say he’d decided to find his muse on the Boston Country music scene.
I know.)
Of course while Stephen made $100s playing it, the Commodore’s made $millions. And Lionel Richie seems happy about it to me.
Funny how, knowing full well playing others’ music will never have a big payoff, we are still fearful of being original in our businesses + lives. So we build ‘cover brands’ with safe-as-milk marketing positions + become just part of the general din.
I know from whence I speak. My company has been one at times, especially during our ‘get-it-out-the-door’ production headset we were in during the 90s. Hey, we were making good money + deadline stress aside, it was pretty easy. And our enthusiasm was appreciated.
Of course, when somebody asked me what kind of ‘advertising’ we did, I’d ride my client’s coattails: ‘oh, we do all kinds of packages, brochures, ads + merchandising for Velcro’ was my answer. And you know, they were impressed. The ‘Velcro factor’ – a real Brand that trusted us – made our little 10 person shop real.
Until the day after 17 years + 4 management changes, when we could no longer say it.
It's a true story: the inventor of Velcro, Georges de Mestral discovered the natural 'hooks' of a cocklebur lodged in his dog's coat.
We became like everybody else. I couldn’t even claim ownership of the story of Swiss inventor Georges de Mestral’s walk the woods with his dog + how the dog picked up cockleburs in his coat, which when examined, revealed ‘nature’s hook’ – the basis for Velcro™ brand products. And I wrote it (of course, based on truth). But the Velcro brand owns it.
I tell you, this realization scared the shit out of me. And what did I do? I tried to repeat my earlier success. But too many others had caught up with our ‘fastest, lowest cost’ shtick.
Thomas Marketing (as then we were known) was more of the same music everyone else was playing. We were just more transactional noise without a story or real emotion.
About this time my dear friend, Tom Potterfield, whom I’d known since he was a mere marketing mortal (rising to president at Velcro before he moved on to become president of the ITP in Palo Alto), became very ill. As it turns out, I was too.
Tom was a Bodhisattva - a great being.
As he gallantly + gracefully battled his foe, he wrote in his blog about the truths he came to understand + inspired me to battle my foe head on as was he. And it was all about truth, of understanding our strengths. And love.
With the help of some amazing clinicians + prayers I pulled through my battle. I sorry to say my good friend Tom ‘went home’ as we say in my home in the Christian tradition.
That was a year ago. And some amazing things have happened since. I decided not to become part of another agency’s Brand. I met some amazing people – via Twitter + blogs of all things – such as Lisa Petrilli, a deeply caring Chicago leadership maven who wrote of tapping our ‘inner Isis’ + who validated my need to look deeper to find my groove, my core truth – as corny as it sounds.
We created our 'chop' - a short form logo + avatar we use in social media signatures
I re-branded to ThomasBoston, created a new logo to identify the Brand + an avatar for our newly-developed social media chops.
And I decided to take another look at just what we stand for. That is, what I stand for.
My strategy was to use a website development framework to more fully flush out our Brand, knowing it had done just that for our clients the past couple years. So my designer + friend John Gallagher + I sat down to map out the imaging. I found for me too, (re)doing a website is a great way to really see a business, its strength, product holes + opportunities.
The strategically-driven process we followed bought us some very deep satisfaction. We broke down each of the sometimes complex components of ThomasBoston – the what we believe + the way we do things - to their simplest elements. Then, we ‘expanded upon it,’ as perhaps one of my most brilliant ‘bosses’ Bob Corriveau, former GM at Ingall’s Advertising taught me. And always with ‘it’s all in how you present it’ in mind (another Bob C. mantra).
The process molded some building blocks that helped define ‘what’ we do to add value. But importantly, it revealed insight on the ‘why’ I do it. And for whom.
These are not little questions.
Now I can tell you during the process we didn’t always know where we were going. But we always knew where we were. It wasn’t easy. And sometime we weren’t always even quite in the right direction. But we never gave up that sense of adventure + passion + kept moving forward. John is a real pro, innately a designer, intense, excitable + focused.
The break-through came though the night when John, as he describes it, thought “I don’t know what I’m doing anymore…so now all I can do is what comes to me.” He believed his instincts + what he knew. And did it.
When he showed me the image of the first panel of this site’s home page, I laughed the deep laugh of surprise my creatives have come to know as my heartfelt expression of joy. It was my Inner Woodstock, which I’d denied for so many years as much out of fear of not being ‘hip’ (‘cool’ for you youngsters). But there it was. Me. ThomasBoston 3.0. And his handwritten font design connected me, a huge type fan, because its design was proper - ‘on-font,’ as we call it. The process reminded me of Marian Bantjes’ TED talk: Intricate Beauty by Design. Instincts + core beliefs ruled. Though with a strategy to guide it through.
As I marveled + became one with the image (having trained myself over the years to dispassionately analyze creative solutions), I asked myself: how did we get here? Which of course, prompted me to sing the Taking Heads anthem, ‘Once in a Lifetime.’ And I saw David Byrne, the lead singer, moving + singing as only he alone could do.
Now as a professional rock + roll show goer – I even worked on the VIP Services team for LiveNation at the Great Woods for a couple summers as a part-time gig – I’ve seen literally hundreds of acts. And there’re basically 4 things that separate the Bigs like Radiohead, Bowie + Phish from even A level band Brands, such as 311 + Paramore. (Both of whom I really like too.)
Nobody could move on-stage like db. And I just don't believe he's retired.
They are individually acquired tastes
They move unlike anyone else
They’re unafraid to follow their instincts
They are emotional
And they don’t expect everybody to get them. But when people do, they learn the words + sing along as loyal fans. Because no one else will do in the niche of understanding that Brand has created. And, it becomes part of the audience’s lives. (Yes, I own just about every tune produced by Bowie + Radiohead. And damned if Phish didn’t catch me at this summer’s Boston show.)
Over the 22 years I’ve run ThomasBoston, I’ve run into lots of Cover Brands. Typically, they’re businesses that offer me-too goods + services at a low price. And they’re convinced that’s enough reason to buy, that price alone will build momentum.
While price can be a hook, there’s never any real interest, no emotional tie to their company + Brand once the fact has sunk in. And when others follow (especially with deep pockets promotional advertising), a cover Brand has no chords left to play + no hook. As my grandma Ida, a wise Finlander used to say with a smile, ‘never go fishing without a hook.’
Perhaps the greatest music Brand the world's ever seen.
