It’s possible that determining the sex of a baby chick is more difficult than branding your company. Oddly enough, they both work in similar ways.

At one day old, the male and female chicks look exactly alike. While scientists can explain the minutiae of wing color, and where to find the BB-sized ovaries of the female chick, these observations don’t fly down on the farm.

The Zen Nippon School of Chicken Sexing in Nippon, Japan is known for training the most successful chicken sexers. The curriculum is simple. The student stares at the rear end of the chick and announces whether it’s male or female. The master standing nearby says “yes” or “no” and the chick is tossed in the appropriate bin.

Over a period of weeks the student gradually becomes an expert. This isn’t garden-variety deductive logic at work. It’s our unconscious mind learning through pattern recognition, colors, shapes, textures and associations. Sound familiar? It’s the same way we’re reminded by a glimpse of a shape, color or font. While you may remember the plot or the headline of an ad, great branding communicates a powerful message that the unconscious brain deciphers. There you go, chicken sexing and branding, now we all have a backup plan.

You don’t need a billion dollar advertising budget to harness the same concept. After Sony announced that it would cease floppy disk production, Ideopia pounced on this news to unseat one of its client’s competitors, whose medical device is dependant on floppies. Yippee!

The Advantage of News Tie-ins

• Built-in and sensitized audience
• Credibility of third party endorsement, e.g. “Silicon Valley News says the floppy is dead.”
• Relevancy. It’s happening now, not six weeks from now when your next ad campaign launches.

Unearth News Tie-ins for Your Brand

• Monitor keywords and trending topics in social media
• Track online publications using Google Alerts
• Keep micro audiences in mind. It may not be news for June and Ward, but it could blow the top off your industry.

Develop a Quick Response Mentality

• Create an infrastructure that can think and act quickly.
• Social Media and Web: 1-2 hours
• Print: 24 hours
• TV and Radio: 12 hours

Would you buy a bottle of wine from this hairy humanoid?

I admit it. I am a Neanderthal when it comes to wine. I like my vino cheap, and I make my decisions based on cool graphics and interesting names more than woodsy aftertaste. This is how I came in possession of a 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon ($4.99) from Sasquatch Cellars. Afterall, who better to be an expert vintner than a large, hairy humanoid.

Brand myths, like Sasquatch, can differentiate products in a commodity market. Add a clever back story, which Sasquatch Wine Cellars takes a shot at, can capture a loyal and profitable cult following. Presumably the tin foil hat crowd in Sasquatch’s case. Here’s the upshot: when you uncork your Cabernet for a romantic evening, it cannot smell and taste like benzene. It doesn’t matter how sturdy and robust the marketing is if the product stinks.

For example, a computer company may show how easy its products are to use through minimalistic designs, humanistic typography, and friendly TV characters that don’t use scary technical terms. The tone created by these elements could only be Apple. The secret, we believe, is creating a feel, a look and a tone of voice after a creative exploration of a strategy. Tone is something to be discovered not dictated.

Planned dissonance can help spark new life in a brand, but sour notes can just as easily suck it out. Ask Susan Abramovitz for more
about Harmonic Brand Stickiness, or email us your name and address to receive the Harmonic Brand Stickiness brochure.

Early in my career, I managed promotions for a classical music
station. One of our most popular promotions was a live jazz program
broadcast from the Hyatt Regency for 13 weeks in the winter. By all
accounts, “Jazz Live from the Hyatt,” was a huge success. Every week,
the atrium was packed with jazz fans clinking glasses of chardonnay, a
sprinkling of local celebrities, and a drooling drunk or two. Life was
good, or so I thought.

The net effect on our brand was decidedly negative. Because of the
event’s success, the station invested heavily in on- and off-air
promotion of the series. Too many people, we became the “Jazz Life from
the Hyatt Station.” The rationalization was that jazz, which has
roughly the same demographic as classical music, would entice new
people to try classical music.

All of the assumptions turned out to be wrong. The Denver Audience
Research Project was the first torpedo. It showed that while jazz and
classical music listeners were similar in demographics, education and
income, their preferences in music listening could not be more
different. In fact, of all the various radio formats, a jazz listener
was least likely to listen to classical music. We might as well been
pitching Cabbage Patch dolls in Muscle and Fitness magazine.

Arbitron data was just as bleak. Keep in mind, due to available
listeners, there isn’t much radio listening on Saturday evening anyway.
There was a significant blip in listenership during the broadcast that
disappeared immediately after the show. Remember, jazz fans aren’t so
keen on Boccherini. As for other parts of the day and days of the week,
there was no measurable increase in listening.

After a few seasons of “Jazz Live from the Hyatt” focus groups
showed that existing, loyal listeners to the station were confused
about the presence jazz program. Meanwhile, fringe or non-listeners had
high awareness of the Jazz programming but not much else.

While JLFH created community goodwill and heightened awareness of
the station, it was an abject failure from a marketing standpoint. Does
this mean that you should stay focused exclusively on the core of the
brand? Absolutely not. Risk taking is key to bringing new customers
into the fold, building loyalty among existing customers, and staving
off dry rot.

Photo of Khevan Onaje by Dizzy, San Francisco