Brand Cast, the official Brand Man podcast, launches in a big way this week.
My inaugural podcast guest Michael Simon serves as Chief Marketing Officer for Panera Bread.
In our conversation we talk about social media, loyalty programs, competitive advantage, tasty sandwiches, and oh-so-much more!
Listen right here!
I just finished watching Cameron Crowe‘s documentary about Pearl Jam (which is new to DVD and is also on various streaming services like Netflix).
Man, what an amazing film! Here’s the trailer:
As somebody who came of age in the ’90s, I knew Pearl Jam’s story a lot better than I realized. This is a band that…
+ Became the biggest rock act in the world almost overnight
+ Defined the grunge movement
+ Got dissed by Nirvana front man Kurt Cobain for not being grunge enough
+ Refused to make music videos during a time when that was the principal way for bands to promote themselves
+ Took on TicketMaster
+ Undercut bootleggers by releasing live shows on CD
+ And so much more.
Eddie Vedder, Mike McCready, Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament are great musicians and total rock gods. But especially after watching this movie, I would say the single defining trait of Pearl Jam is the authenticity of its choices, and the love and respect the band shares with its fans.
And that brings me, as always, to the subject of branding.
Last week I interviewed Panera Bread CMO Michael Simon for Brand Man’s soon-to-be-launched podcast, Brand Cast – and he talked about the distinction between “why” brands and “what” brands.
[He was riffing on the thesis of Simon Sinek’s book Start With Why.)
“Why” brands (Apple, Ben & Jerry’s, Google, and, yes, Pearl Jam) define themselves by their values first and products second.
“What” brands (Dell, Microsoft in the 90s, U.S. automakers in the 2000s) do just the opposite: they tell you about their products, pricing and features first. Values, if mentioned, are a bit of an afterthought.
But as Sinek points out, “why” brands are the ones with passionate, devoted, even cultlike followings. Like Pearl Jam, not only do they endure — they thrive.
The defining “why” brand positioning move is Apple’s “Think Different” campaign, circa 1997, which trots out everybody from Ghandi to John Lennon to express Apple’s ability to empower bold new thinkers. Note that exactly zero computers appear in this spot:
Brand Cast episode 1 is posting very soon! But in the meantime, dear reader: where does your brand fall on the why-versus-what spectrum?
Brand Man is cooking up some very cool stuff for 2012, dear readers!
All new Brand Man comic book adventures are coming soon. Here’s a sneak peek.
