Information's Political Implications

Interesting juxtaposition of articles in the news today. 

The first is CNN's report of the ongoing information debate between the nations of Google and China. If you're reading this page you've probably already read this article.

An article also published today but not nearly as widely distributed is RadioWorld's 'Whatever Happened to Shortwave Radio?' which states that:

For all its transmission expense and audio problems, analog shortwave radio has one clear advantage over the Internet and domestic radio/TV: It cannot be easily blocked — even when states try to disrupt its signals using jamming transmitters. 

Food for thought.

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Isn't the Kindle just a fax machine?

Can anyone explain to me why anyone would buy a computer that only has
one function and that cannot even wirelessly access the web?

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A Maxima By Any Other Name

I drive a car that would make the most desperate of high school seniors blush, wince & flee: a gold 1992 Nissan Maxima. My wife and I bought it off a used car lot in 1995 for $10,000 and have been driving it ever since. And while it's been relegated to the status of 'station car,' at close to 200,000 miles it is mechanically perfect - its unseemly exterior of dents, dings and rivers of rust notwithstanding.
When dropping my son off at school recently there we saw a 2010 Maxima. 'It's been totally redesigned,' I told my astute 9 year-old pointing the car out to him. His response: 'Then what makes it a Maxima?'
I had been stabbed in the back by own son with none other than the old knife & handle paradox: If John has a knife, then he changes the blade, then later changes the handle, is it still John's knife?
The first Nissan Maxima dates back to 1976, when the Nissan brand was still sold under the Datsun name in the US. But it wasn't until the third generation (1989 - 1994) that the Maxima truly came of age. Powered by a 3.0L V6, the 1976 Maxima was the first Japanese to exceed Japan's width restrictions making it a comfortable sedan for the US market. Power plus comfort equals what is to this day is marketed as a '4-door sports car.'(1) 
So what exactly makes the totally redesign Maxima a Maxima? Consider the following:
When is a Harley-Davidson not a Harley-Davidson? The correct answer is: It depends on whom you ask. To many hog loyalists the answer might be: When it was NOT built between 1969 and 1981. Those where the years that Harley-Davidson was by under the ownership of AMF. That was the first break the heritage of company ownership by the decedents of William S Harley and the Davidson brothers. In 1981, the company was purchased back from AMF by a group of investors that included Willie G Davidson - an innovative bike designer in his own right who also happened to be the grandson of co-founder William A Davidson. And that's just part of the answer which gets exponentially more complex when you take the issues of hard tails, Panheads and suicide shifters into consideration.
When is a Porsche not a Porsche? Remember the 928, that front engine V8, rear transmission powerhouse that was intended to supersede the 911 line of rear-engine designs? Loyalists ignored the car (despite the 928S being faster than the 911 Turbo of the time). Porsche halted production of the 928 in the mid-1990s after a 17-year run. (The 911 series, by comparison, has been in production since 1964.)(2) It was not until the vexing success of the Cayenne that Porsche again attempted to foist another front-engine design on the public with the introduction of the 2010 Panamera.(3)
When is a Gibson Les Paul not a Gibson Les Paul? I know guitarists who consider the Epiphone Les Pauls to be Gibson Les Pauls. In my book, however, a Les Paul is only a Les Paul if it was the product of the Gibson Kalamazoo plant - a fact that has been the source of much personal stress given the fact that mine was not thereby leaving me at grave loss for words when I'm asked about my guitars.

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In each example above, the product identity is determined not by a nameplate, but rather by a heritage, a product mythology - a product narrative that has different meanings to loyalist clans. And while clans may have conflicting definitions, what each clan shares is a believe a specific product narrative that clearly marks the boundaries of what qualifies as a Harley Davidson, a Porsche, a Les Paul.
The Maxima has been in production since 1976 when it was introduced as a small, convenient, economical sedan. With each generation the car grew in size, power, and in technological prowess that at one point in its evolution included the most coveted headlamps in the industry.(4) Now in its seventh generation, not only is the 2010 Maxima bigger, faster and better handling than mine, but it sports a redesigned body of beautifully sculpted lines reminiscent of  Luigi Serge, and its amenities equal those of the European sports sedans - the other '4-door sports cars.'
That, my friend, is what makes a Maxima a Maxima.

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Incentive Plans & Measuring Purchase Intent

CNNMoney.com reported that "Toyota's new incentive plan appears to have piqued the interest of buyers looking to snag a good deal....

Auto and advertising industry trades have been abuzz as news of massive recalls flowed, then ebbed, the flowed again in all media imaginable, everyone wondering what effect this will have on this hitherto untarnished brand.

The article referenced above quoted and Edmunds study that indicated that '"purchase intent" surged 40% to a 14-month high [this past] Tuesday.' 

All professionals whose work includes market research, ie planners, can tell you that there is no way to measure purchase intent short of interviews or surveys. In the Toyota case for example, at the very least I'd need to know what was an individual's purchase intent was before the recalls, after the recalls, and since the incentives were announced before even beginning to understand what the real effect on purchase intent the newly announced incentives have had. The sampling strategy of individuals surveyed would have to take into account the sales patters of specific models down to the zip code level. Asking about Buffalo Springs, TX about their Prius purchase intent would likely present results as useless as asking Upper East Side Manhattanites about their purchase intent for the  5.7 liter, 32 valve, king cab V8 Tundra (despite this group's apparent perverse fetish with the H2). 

Hours after this was reported, I was sitting in a meeting the topic of which was what online behavior to use to measure shifts in brand perception. I freely offered up what I thought was the obvious and honest answer: "Short of a survey, there's no way to measure shifts in perception." That was not the answer the room was looking for. Rather, I was lectured about online 'success events' and the use of proxies. This was a lecture I did not need, having used success events and proxies to assess attitudes - let us just say - more than a few times in the past. The fact remains, however, that while those may both be adequate ways of assessing the correlation between online behavior and perception, this is a far site short of concluding that there is a causal link. I took the imprompteau lecture for what it was: an invitation to stand down and be quiet.

Even the Edmunds article disclaimed this methodological weakness by stating that their the relationship between the success events monitored and intent to purchase was only correlative.

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My bruised ego aside, what I really wanted to talk about today was what the veritable spate of product recalls mean for the Toyota tribe.

The first car I owned was a gray, 1976 Toyota Celica. I acquired it in 1986 with about 200,000 miles. I put about another 90,000 miles on it before I had to have it towed to the junk yard. Clearly I had an affinity for the car and a positive brand experience. Still, I have never considered purchasing another Toyota.

Since 1976 when the Celica was introduced, Toyota has grown into a collection of unrelated clans with few shared values. The Prius clan shares few values with the Avalon clan, which shares few values with the Tundra clan.  As a result, by the time I needed a new car I was no longer clear as to which clan within the larger Toyota tribe I belonged. (Nissan has done a better job of avoiding this conundrum. It will be interesting to see how Kia avoids this trap as they follow in the footsteps of their Asian brethren clans.)

The Toyota brand, however, has maintained one key value important to all of its clans: quality.

This value has now been called into question, and the larger Toyota tribe is at risk of splintering as a result.

Enter the incentive plans.

Incentive plans are not intended to repair damaged brand perception. Rather, they are intended to boost sales in the short-term, the implicit message being 'we know that our product is not worth list price, but it's certainly worth list price less all these discounts and deals we have for you.' It's a butts in seats play, not a branding play.

The desired effect of this butts in seats play is that Toyota will reclaim some of it's lost market share in the short-term. This is extremely important for automotive brands: the vehicles sold today will be on the road for the next decade - each vehicle an itinerant testimonial.

The more cars Toyota can get on the road now, the more time it buys itself to leverage these new buyers into loyalty and advocacy programs while, at the same time, fixing it's brand image in above the line and social media. But this tactic only works if the deals and discounts are temporary and soon forgotten by consumers. The longer that product discounts drive a butts in seats strategy, the more likely it is that Toyota will become a brand associated with deep discounts rather than with high quality.

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Branding with Lidia Bastianich

After my introduction to XM Radio's Muzak station on my way to JFK Thursday morning followed by the ritualistic airport security strip-down and boarding cattle call, at long last I sunk into my window seat, 'The Crying of Lot 49' on my lap. 

 

There was an aura on the plane that was just altogether wrong for an early-morning business flight. Everyone was energized and seemed to be signaling to each other with subtle looks and gestures, communicating in a silent, sublime language I did not know. Clearly I was on the outside of some inside joke making its way around the cabin. 

 

When the woman seated next to me arrived, she was kind enough to ask if the carry-on she stowed beneath the seats in front of us was bothering me. The question, I feared, was the part of the cabin-wide inside joke being perpetrate on me. Clearly she was in on it. 

Then began the perplexing parade. One after another, people boarded, paused by our aisle in deference to the woman next to me, and then proceeded in perfect single file to their assigned seats. There were hugs and handshakes, smiles and giggles, all peppered with intimate pleasantries exchanged in Italian. 

When at last we pushed back, the kind woman next to me dozed off while reading ‘The New York Times.’ I promptly turned on my reading lamp, opened my book, and fell fast asleep for the next hour. 

 

It was not until I awoke that I took notice of something familiar in my aisle-mate's face. Though I had never seen it as I was seeing it now - bespectacled and in profile - I was seated next to a dozing Lidia Bastianich! 

 

There was no inside joke. Rather, I was the outsider seated amidst a tribe of chefs and the tribal leader was right next to me. 

 

The account planner in me was shocked into vigilance, my flight transformed into a clinical testing environment. I was both test subject and object. 

 

The objective of the study: To observe the effect celebrities (branded people) have on the behavior and attitudes of their fans (their brand loyalists). 

 

Observations: 

1. Lidia’s presence spontaneously caused me to evaluate my physical appearance. 

• I was dressed in what I’ve come to call my 'agency uniform - jacket and dress shirt over blue jeans. I consciously deemed my attire appropriate for the occasion. 
• I was deeply satisfied when I noticed the specular highlights in my shoes. 
• I happen to be wearing French cuffs and I was conscious of a desire that Lidia would take notice of, but not comment on this fashion detail. 
• When I went to the men’s room, I noticed that the left side of my collar was awry, and was relieved that Lidia was seated to my right. 
• I was unshaven, but unconcerned as I felt this made me look more European. 

2. Under normal circumstances I might be between 30% - 50% propensed to engage in conversation with someone seated next to me on a flight. Lidia’s presence in the next seat increased my propensity to 100%.

 

3. My conversation was singular in its purpose: to convince Lidia that I had a personal connection to her, to demonstrate to this branded person that I was brand loyal. 

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In the aggregate, this behavior is attributable to a single need on the part of the test subject: to convince the tribe leader that he was worthy of tribal membership.

After I introduced myself, our conversation focused almost exclusively on my tribal credentials: how my wife - Italian and Irish I made a point of emphasizing - had introduced both my me and my son to ‘Lidia’s Italy; my wife’s family of five children, serious cooks all; the fights she and her siblings have had over gravy and tomato sauce; the picture I have of my son making his first tomato sauce at the age of four. Clearly, this was my rite of passage and I didn’t want to screw it up. 

 

The experience left me thinking about the idea of ‘earned brand membership’ and how important this idea is to a brand. It is this that an iPod more than an MP3 player, a Rolex (or Swatch) more than a time piece, Starbucks more than coffee, a Hugo Boss sweater more than a garment to guard against cold. Put another way, it is tribal membership that makes a product into a brand.

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