Popularity, the Beatles, and what lasts

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Major events of 1969 include the inauguration of Richard Nixon, the moon landing, and Woodstock.  It was a time of profound change and cultural transformation.

Quick.  What was the most popular song in 1969?  Surely something by the Beatles, who released Abbey Road that year, or at least the Rolling Stones, right?

Nope.  It was “Sugar, Sugar” by the Archies.

The Beatles barely cracked the top 25, with “Get Back” (#25).  The Rolling Stones did better, with “Honky Tonk Women” (#4).  But in 1969, two groups enjoyed the distinction of having two songs each in the top dozen songs of the year: Sly and the Family Stone and Tommy James and the Shondells.

In a recent blog post, the brilliant, inimitable Seth Godin discusses the downside of popularity, noting that “in general, the search for popular is wildly overrated, because it corrupts our work, eats away at our art and makes it likely we’ll compromise to please the anonymous masses.”

In your products, services and communications, what are you doing to be popular?

Marketing gurus will give you all kinds of logical, linear, left-brain ways to measure, categorize, understand and increase your popularity.  Tap into the marketing blogosphere, and you’ll be assaulted with a dizzying array of tips ‘n tricks to increase and accelerate your popularity.

What are you doing to create amazement and delight?  This is where the right brain comes in.  It’s your greatest resource for finding the aha! the points of connection and wonder.  The things that will touch hearts and buckle knees.

And yes, as Godin suggests, it will take courage to forgo popularity and embrace originality.

But when was the last time you listened to Tommy Roe (#6), the Foundations (#9) or, indeed, the #1 Archies?

What does a whole-brain brand look like?

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What does a brand that fully embraces both left- and right-brain thinking look like?  (Okay, besides Apple.)  Warby Parker, an upstart eyewear company, has created an exceptionally smart, integrated, whole-brain brand.  In just over a year, WP has emerged as a cult fashion resource, a force for good in the world—and a great place to buy a monocle.  Here’s how:

Left-brain breadth

The four founders met as MBA students at Wharton, so it’s no surprise that Warby Parker packs plenty of traditional business acumen, including:

  • Strong value proposition: High quality at a low price has perennial appeal, and WP offers top-quality all-inclusive glasses at a low price.  How does $95 sound vs. $400?
  • Updated business model:  By selling online direct to consumers, they eliminate the large markups that exist at multiple points in the conventional eyewear value chain and pass the savings on to consumers.
  • Distinctive product: WP focuses on a core range of retro/classic styles with strong preppy-funk appeal.  Think Winklevi.
  • No risk:  Taking a page from Zappos’ playbook, WP offers free shipping and returns.  Going Zappos one better, they’ll send 5 pairs to try on at home for free for 5 days, no purchase necessary.
  • Convenience: Don’t have your prescription?  No problem.  Give them your eye doctor’s name and they’ll track it down.

Right-brain depth

Warby Parker’s left-brain elements alone are not unique.  Other companies sell directly online at lower prices (39dollarglasses) and even offer innovative styling (Zennioptical).  Trendsters can also find reasonably priced glasses elsewhere with vintage/retro cool and plenty of personality (SEEeyewear).

It’s Warby Parker’s integration of right-brain elements that makes the brand so distinctive and compelling, including:

Deeper stories:

“The industry is controlled by a few large companies that have kept prices artificially high, reaping huge profits from consumers who have no other options.”

Like Apple, Warby Parker embodies the Rebel archetype. Since the technology has been around for 700 years, WP asks, why should glasses cost as much as an iPhone?  A modern-day David, WP takes on entrenched eyewear Goliaths like Luxottica, which owns top licensed brands (like DKNY, Prada, Ralph Lauren), sunglass brands (Ray-Ban, Oakley) and even major retailers (LensCrafters, Pearle Vision, Sunglass Hut).

Human impact:

“We believe that everyone has the right to see.” A simple statement, but bold for an eyewear firm—and it’s backed by action.  Warby Parker donates a pair of glasses with each pair sold, partnering with non-profits to distribute them where needed.  To date, WP has donated over 30,000 pairs of glasses to people in 36 countries.

Real people:

“We want to be friends when this is over.” As Neil Blumenthal describes in a recent Tedx talk, the founders make their friendship a priority, with monthly check-ins on its status.   The company’s name, inspired by two Jack Kerouac characters, reflects their playful spirit.  Warby Parker is run by interesting, genuine, multi-dimensional people, and it shows.

Whole-brain smarts

Plenty of creative, values-driven companies have crashed and burned, and right-brain inspiration alone is no guarantee of success.

It’s the interplay and integration of left- and right-brain thinking that makes it work so well.  The stacked bar-chart comparing WP’s cost structure vs. competitors and the tweedy model, complete with monocle, mustache and full-arm tattoo.  The large-hearted glasses donation program and its savvy, intelligent execution.

Whole-brain thinking is what makes brands iconic.  More often, it’s the right-brain piece that’s missing.

What brands do you see that embody both right- and left-brain thinking?  Please submit your suggestions below.  And, as always, comments welcome!

How foolish and self-destructive can you get?

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No, not Charlie Sheen.   It’s Dove, the personal care brand.  If you’re female, you know it and quite likely have a soft spot in your heart for it.  With its Campaign for Real Beauty, Dove has for years taken a stand against the toxic media messages that make girls and women feel bad about their appearance.  You know, the messages that make you feel you should be ashamed unless every part of you is model-perfect.

Like your armpits.  Huh?  That’s right, your pits.  They’re ugly.  But don’t worry, there’s a cure for your secret source of shame.   Dove deodorant!  Specifically, Dove Ultimate Go Sleeveless.  That’s right, Dove.  Champion of self-esteem for girls, champion of real beauty.  Dove, producer of short films like this:

Big vs. little picture

On one level, I get it, I really do.  Dove deodorant needs to make their numbers like everybody else.  And deodorant is a particularly tough category: mature and crowded, with little room for expanded usage. In classic CPG tradition, they mined their research for something that could differentiate them in a logical, linear way.  They may have thought they stumbled on a potential goldmine: a new dimension of benefits heretofore untapped—attractiveness!  Inspired by Unilever research showing 93% of women think their underarms are unattractive, they introduced Dove Ultimate Go Sleeveless this month.  With its unique moisturizing formula, Dove promises to give you prettier pits in five days.

Left-brain reasoning (analysis, logic, categories and details) was on their side in many ways.  According to a WSJ article, Unilever’s research showed women experience underarm problems ranging from breakouts to embarrassment requiring a change of clothes.  “One in three said they feel more confident when their pits are in good condition, leading Mr. Dwyer (U.S. Marketing Director for Unilever’s deodorant business) to say, ‘How can we give them that confidence?’ “

You can’t have it both ways

But Dove isn’t everybody else, numbers or no.  Dove has stood for something bigger and more important.  According to the brand’s own website:   “The Dove mission is to make women feel more beautiful every day by challenging today’s stereotypical view of beauty and inspiring women to take great care of themselves.”

In other words, Dove has stood for challenging why women should even consider linking their confidence with the state of their armpits.

Dove has rightfully won a place in the minds and hearts of women by taking a stand on a social issue that matters.  And it’s built its brand in the process, with one in three U.S. households using a Dove product.

Right-brain thinking is all about the big-picture: what inspires, connects, and moves us—the kind of thinking that led to the Campaign for Real Beauty in the first place.  Brands need both, clearly, but few brands have exhibited the right-brained vision and wholehearted courage Dove has to stake out and protect a relevant, believable piece of controversial, higher-ground turf.  Such thinking is particularly rare in the bland, commoditized world of mass-market personal care products.

But they risk all of that if they behave like opportunists, trying to cash in on the kind of manufactured anxiety the beauty industry specializes in–which Dove has admirably worked to combat.  Other brands, other deodorants can trumpet their ability to beautify armpits with nothing to lose.  Dove has a lot at stake: its credibility as anything more than a shallow umbrella brand for products with moisturizing formulas.

Have they  come to their senses?

In the course of writing this post I’ve been back and forth on the Dove website.  Over this short period I’ve found the site changing–error messages frequent–and at this point there’s very little about Ultimate Go Sleeveless.  Just some fairly innocuous copy about delicate underarm skin and how the product helps, though they do sign off with a salute to pit beauty:  “Goodbye sleeves.  Hello beautiful underarms!”  Have they yanked the more controversial elements of their campaign?  I hope so.

Full disclosure: I have some skin in this game.  Early in my Brandland career I managed Dove, when it was just Dove Beauty Bar.  I’m proud to have played a role in opening an early door to what the brand’s become by evolving the advertising from a functional emphasis to a story of personal authenticity and emotion.  Together with my wonderful Ogilvy creative team, we produced a low-budget test commercial focused on the story of one middle-aged woman with pudgy cheeks who experienced herself as beautiful when she switched to Dove.  It racked up the highest ad scores in Lever Brothers’ history,  and I persuaded risk-averse management to run with it. It was hugely successful in ways too numerous to mention here.  So I’m not neutral on the subject of Dove.  But not just because it’s “my” brand.

It’s our brand, and at a time when so few brands really matter, it has mattered.  We deserve better, and Dove deserves better than a foolish short-term ploy by a pit bully.

Bach to the future!

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Brands advertise to stand out.  They advertise on TV, which dwarfs other media in cost, because it offers the opportunity for impact through sight, sound and motion.

So why do most ads end up sounding alike, literally?  Given the high cost and the huge opportunity, why do marketers use such a limited range of music?   Spend an evening or two listening to the music in ads and you’re unlikely to hear anything beyond contemporary (rock, hip hop, rap, country, maybe a little jazz) and oldies.  This includes music used in its original or adapted form as well as music written specifically for commercials.

Name that tune?

Can anyone tell me which brand used “The Age of Aquarius” recently?  I know I’ve heard it, but darned if I can remember the brand.

Okay, now what about “Rhapsody in Blue”?  Chances are you’ll recognize it as the theme song for United Airlines.  Yes, that’s probably because United’s used it consistently for years, but isn’t that the point?  Using something distinctive that goes the distance and becomes associated with your brand?

There is an extraordinary range of music available that’s already gone the distance.  It’s called (drum roll)…classical.  Instrumental and choral music by great composers has already stood the test of time and is bursting with possibility.

Decades later, brands that used classical music still own a little real estate in our heads.  Ask any American-born boomer, “What’s the cereal that’s shot from guns?” and he or she will probably start humming Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture before telling you it was Quaker Puffed Wheat and Rice.  The plaintive lament “No more Rice Crispies” sung to the famous tenor aria in I Pagliacci may be the only opera some boomers know, but it sold a lot of cereal—and still lingers in memory.

Today, brands occasionally use classical music, but they rely on the same safe, popular warhorses everyone else does, so it might as well be “The Age of Aquarius.”  Great music?  Sure.  But have a little more originality and sense of adventure, people!  And a little more brand sense.  Is trotting out “Ode to Joy” one more time really going to make you stand out?

Your stealth weapon

One barely-tapped resource is choral music.  Once you get past the glorious but overused big three (“O Fortuna” from Carmina Burana and the “Dies Irae” movements from either Mozart’s or Verdi’s Requiem) you only have, say, 400 or so years of repertoire and tens of thousands of movements to choose from.  No problem finding something distinctive and ownable.

Full disclosure: I am a choral music geek.  A lifetime alto, I am honored to sing with the Newton Choral Society, one of the Boston area’s top choral groups, under its extraordinary director, David Carrier.

While you may be tempted to dismiss this entire genre as fringe-y or elitist, think again.  According to a major recent survey by Chorus America, “more than 1 in 5 households have at least one singing member, making choral singing the most popular form of participation in the performing arts for both adults and children.”  Wouldn’t you like to resonate instantly with numbers like that?  Well-chosen choral music could be your stealth weapon.

Make it sing!

Looking for something commanding and exciting? Why not the zippy part from the 6th movement of Brahms’ Requiem?  Need heart-breaking poignancy?  Consider “Plorate filii Israel” from Carissimi’s Jephthe.  The possibilities are endless, and there are knowledgeable, imaginative (underpaid) experts available to guide you.

To those in charge of making brands extraordinary, a creatively chosen classical soundtrack is a swift road to being distinctive—and I personally encourage you to be a choral music pioneer.

To my fellow choral music enthusiasts, what pieces would you recommend, for what purposes (emotional situations, brands, etc.)?  Please leave your comments below and share the challenge with others!  For grins, feel free to include musical puns, too.  Perhaps “Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen” (How lovely is thy dwelling place”) for Century 21 or Sherwin Williams?  Yes, the possibilities are endless.

Connecting for beauty

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Most social media-driven crowdsourcing efforts leave me cold, I’ll be honest.  The wow factor of the mechanism or the participant count often seems more impressive than what’s actually being done.  So I was quite skeptical when I clicked on a recently released TED talk by composer Eric Whitacre about his virtual choir initiatives.  As a lifetime alto, though, I was intrigued.  I dare you to watch this and come away unmoved.

What does this have to do with marketing and brands?  Quite a lot, actually.

The power of soft

First, it reminds us of the power of soft, kind things: beauty and human connection.  In the virtual choruses shown here, people share their time and talent out of love.  They love singing, and they love singing with other people.  This is a global act of collective gentleness.  It is additive, not divisive.  They are not seeking individual fame, nor is this a contest.  It is the antithesis of “American Idol.” And it is deeply moving.

When was the last time you focused on gentleness in your marketing efforts?  When everyone aims for the brash and exciting, the result is a blaring, a racket.  Energetically, it feels harsh and thin, with a remarkable sameness to it all.  A brand that hums softly may stand out.

When did you last focus on authentic human connection?  Most brands, if they venture into this terrain at all, do so with family relationships and/or serve it up Hallmark-style with a side of treacle.  It feels staged, and we all feel a little manipulated.  As Whitacre says toward the end, “human beings will go to any lengths to find and connect with each other.”  Surely brands can benefit by helping foster and reflect genuine human connections of all kinds–especially those that transcend neighborhood, country and tribe.

Expanding our repertoire

Another takeaway: we marketers should expand our repertoire, literally.  We can stand out by tapping a broader range of music, starting with choral and classical.  Choral music is not even on the radar screen of marketers and ad agencies.  (I’m not talking show tunes, or “Glee.”)  I’ll have more to say about music in my next post.  For now, consider how swiftly Whitacre was able to tap into a passionate, world-wide cadre of choral enthusiasts.  From the look of it, most of them the young, text-happy Facebook crowd marketers try so hard to woo.  Yes, they probably also listen to Lady Gaga and rap, too.  Both/and, multidimensional people–fancy that.