Today I heard a commercial on the radio for a “guy’s show”… a sort-of trade show centered around everything male. Picture a convention center filled with cars, boats, beer, sporting goods, scantily clad girls, and rock ‘n’ roll, and you get the idea.

Then came a part of the commercial that made me laugh – and not in a good way. It went something like “… and ladies, don’t think you’ll be bored! We’ve added a Christmas craft market just for you.”

Imagine the Rolling Stones playing a show, and announcing “Hey jazz fans, don’t think you’ll be bored. We’re gonna stop rockin’ and play a few Miles Davis numbers just for you.”

If you hope to someday establish brand clarity, never ever back down from the values you represent.

Don’t apologize for them.

Don’t compromise them.

Celebrate them!

Remember what happened when McDonald’s compromised their values and added pizza to the menu?

How about that time that Coke compromised their values and replaced the Coke formula with a new, sweeter version?

If you’re putting together a “guy show”, go the distance. Add more testosterone, and subtract everything else. Burn the Christmas craft fair to the ground, and stomp on the ashes.

Don’t waste any more time and money trying to attract people who are marginal to your brand. They aren’t likely to try you… and if they do, they aren’t likely to stay.

Focus all of your time and energy on doing what you do well.

Celebrate the values that you represent.

Stop apologizing and compromising. It’s annoying as hell and it is doing you no favors.

As Roy H. Williams wrote in The Wizard of Ads, “the risk of insult is the price of clarity”.

Insult means someone won’t like you. Clarity means that everyone will understands who you are and what you’re about.

You can’t have universal love and acceptance.  And if you try to, you’ll never establish brand clarity.

Click here to order your copy of Brand Like A Rock Star now and start building a stronger brand, one that will attract more fans and more profits.

Have you signed up for the webinar “The Marketing Genius of KISS” yet? It is coming up on Monday, December 3 and I will be joined by former KISS on-line marketing leader Michael Brandvold. You can sign up right now at this link.

A few years ago, my wife and I were thinking about building a new home. We spoke to a number of builders in our community, and after a few meetings something started to become clear… any one of the builders would build us pretty much anything we wanted.

Sure, there were a few specialists, but those ones were only on the high end building expensive luxury homes.

Rock stars specialize… so why don’t more businesses?

Ozzy Osbourne doesn’t record acoustic ballads. John Mayer doesn’t bite heads off bats. Each of them does their thing, and does it very, very well.

Rock star brands specialize as well.

Consider the case of Coca-Cola. I think we can agree that Coke is a reasonably successful brand, right?

Coke makes Coke and Diet Coke, along with variations like Cherry Coke and Vanilla Coke. Frankly, they probably make too many variations for their own good, but that’s a post for another day.

Coke makes hundreds of other drinks, but they aren’t called Coke.

Coke also makes water. They call it Dasani.

Coke also makes a sports drink.  It’s Powerade.

Coke even makes mixers for alcholic drinks. They are the makers of Baccardi Mixers like mojito, pina colada, and daquiri.

Coca-Cola makes over 3,500 products in over 200 countries, but there’s only one Coke.

How can we apply this to home builders?

If you really can build any home for any one, then create several independent home building companies that share back-office functions.

One division specializes in custom-built luxury homes.

Another division focuses on the everyday homes from plans.

Yet another division builds entry-level homes with attractive price points.

And another builds cottages and recreational homes.

You see where this is going.

You can apply the same lesson to nearly any business.

If you want to make your business famous for something, choose ONE thing and do it really, really well. And if you want to do something else, start a new business that does that new thing very, very well.

Focus is essential to business. And focus is a big part of the book Brand Like A Rock Star: Lessons From Rock ‘n’ Roll To Make Your Business Rich And Famous. The book is on sale at on-line and in-store retail locations everywhere, and you can order it instantly right now in digital download or paperback.

Sometimes the fastest way to definitively establish what your brand is about is to compare it to another brand.

Home Depot’s “more doing” approach helps define Lowes’ “let’s build something together” brand identity. Coke’s heritage helps define Pepsi’s new generation. The frustrations of Windows users help define Apple’s intuitive nature.

There was a classic example this week that demonstrates how you can define your brand through the identity of others.

Abercrombie and Fitch had a problem. One of the stars of “Jersey Shore“, Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino, was wearing their clothes on the tv show. The problem is that A&F see their brand as diametrically opposed to the values of The Situation.

So they issued a public appeal to The Situation asking him not to wear their clothes on the show. They went so far as to offer him cash to not wear A&F clothing.

Brilliant.

In one single press release, Abercrombie and Fitch were able to reinforce what their brand is all about by position themselves against Jersey Shore.  They clearly stated that the show goes against their brand’s “aspirational nature”.  Abercrombie and Fitch told the world, through PR, that they stand for a set of values very different from the gym-tan-laundry lifestyle led by the characters on “Jersey Shore”.

The move got massive press for Abercrombie and Fitch, and they didn’t have to pay a cent to do it. The story was everywhere this week.

All they did was publicly contrasted themselves against a brand with the opposite set of values.

Your fast food restaurant could position itself for adults by promoting that it serves beer and wine, or it could advertise that it doesn’t have toys with the meals.

Your local grocery store could position itself against the big chains by issuing a press release with a city-wide challenge for people to try go one week buying only groceries sourced within 100 miles of your city in order to support local businesses.

It takes guts to take a stand like that, but quite often it works. Do you have the courage to try it? You will probably alienate some people, as A&F did with their brilliant PR move. But as Roy Williams pointed out in The Secret Formulas of The Wizard of Ads, “the risk of insult is the price of clarity”. If you intend to carve a powerful position with clarity, you’re going to inevitably insult a few people along the way.

Defining yourself against your enemies and taking bold PR moves are both covered in the new book Brand Like a Rock Star, available right now. If you’re uncertain about buying, download Chapter One free first right here… and then take the leap.

Four years ago, The Police wrapped up one of the most successful reunion tours with a final show in New York City. When I first heard “Every Breath You Take” by The Police, I was only thirteen. What a fantastic piece of music. So understated. So haunting. It was a great way to be introduced to the band.

A slightly older friend of mine was less enthralled. He was a long-time fan of The Police, and he was hoping to hear something more like “Roxanne”. The ballad that I loved so much didn’t connect with him in quite the same way, although he still enjoyed the song and the band.

The point is that every day, someone is experiencing your brand for the first time.

Right now, someone is tasting their first sip of Coke, a brand that turned 125 years old this year.

Right now, someone is ordering their first Starbucks coffee, a young 40 year-old brand.

Right now, someone is driving their first Ford, and they’ve been around for 108 years.

To put it into deeper historical perspective, right now someone is dining for the first time at Stifskeller St. Peter in Salzburg, Austria. It opened in 803 A.D. and has been serving food for 1208 years.

Is your brand built so that newcomers feel welcome? Is it easy to understand with clear instructions-for-use? Do you make newbies feel part of the tribe instantly? Are you able to balance your old fans with the new ones?

Rock star brands are always inviting new people to join the tribe, without ever alienating those early adopters who have loved them all along.

Chapter Seven of Brand Like a Rock Star is about how rock star brands build intentional “entry points” to welcome in new fans without alienating old ones. Order your copy now at www.brandlikearockstar.com.

Brand Like a Rock Star arrives at retail locations October 1, 2011.

Chapter Eighteen of Brand Like a Rock Star isn’t really about your brand at all. It is about knowing your competition.

I’ve worked with brands that are obsessed with their competition, to the point of distraction. It is unhealthy, mainly because they lose sight of their own product. But I’ve also worked with brands who don’t pay any attention to their competitor, intentionally. They banish their competition’s name from their hallways and refuse to even acknowledge them. That is equally unhealthy.

The sweet spot is developing a deep knowledge of your competitor. Know them intimately. Understand their motivation. Become able to predict their next move. Know them as you know yourself, but remain focused on your customers at all times.

“If you know your enemies and you know yourself, you can win a hundred battles without a single loss”

Those are the powerful words of Sun Tzu from The Art of War.

But there is another reason to know your enemy. They help define you.

Coke helps define Pepsi: Traditional classic versus new generation.

Mercedes-Benz helps define BMW: Luxury versus performance.

Taco Bell helps define Chipotle: Fast food versus food with integrity.

Walmart helps define Target: Lowest prices versus affordable quality.

So gather your team in the board room next week, and write down everything your competition stands for. Give them credit where credit is due, but don’t pull any punches. Develop a clear understanding of their values and how their (and your) customers see them. Then do the same for your brand. Do you stand for a different set of values than they do? Do your customers see a meaningful difference between your two brands?  If they don’t, you’re in for a long and expensive battle. You can either fight that battle, or develop a set of values that differentiates you from your competition.

Competitive awareness is actually about you, because understanding their values is an exercise in refining yours.

Rock star brands are ”competitively aware, but consumer focused”.  Are you?

Chapter Eighteen of Brand Like a Rock Star uses Green Day’s song “Know Your Enemy” as the inspiration for understanding your competition. With a few clicks, you can order the book right now. And if you are looking for a speaker at an event this fall, send me an email at steve@brandlikearockstar.com. October is already filling up quickly!

The discussion about rock ‘n’ roll and brands continues online at www.facebook.com/brandlikearockstar.

Then they were pioneers of grunge. Twenty years later, Pearl Jam holds a stately place among rock’s elite and their lead singer’s new solo album is a showcase of the ukulele.

Their breakout performance at Woodstock ’94 was a muddy punk rock mess. Seventeen years down the road, and Green Day has had their music adapted for Broadway.

Wisely managing change while maintaining brand consistency is a hallmark of a rock star brand.

Coke’s logo has hardly changed in 100 years, yet Coke is always finding new avenues to promote their brand. They evolve, yet retain their consistency.

Starbucks got a lot of press over their logo update earlier this year, but that was just a subtle evolution. Their consistency remains.

It is an interesting and difficult proposition for any brand: How do you evolve and change with the times, yet never lose the consistency that made you great? Here are three ways to manage that challenge:

1. Don’t change your story, change how you tell it. Whether Red Bull is telling their story at extreme sports arenas, by signing rock bands like AWOL Nation, or by sponsoring wealthy playgrounds like air races, they are telling the same story.

2. When you update your look, retains core elements. Starbucks’ new logo isn’t really all that different than their old logo, just updated. The only people who really got worked up about it were us marketing geeks. Average consumers absorbed the change quickly and seamlessly.

3. Through it all, values don’t change. Apple can evolve from desktops to laptops to phones to tablets, but their brand’s values – sleek, user friendly, cool high tech toys – never change. No matter what Apple does, they continue to sell “cool”, not just gadgets or computers.

Your brand can and should evolve. Every day is a fresh start. But if you ignore change, or fail to manage change it carefully, it could kill you.

Managing change and evolution is the focus of Chapter Two of Brand Like a Rock Star, using U2 and Proctor & Gamble as role models.

Learn from U2 and P&G by pre-ordering the book now.

In 1978, KISS was at their commercial peak. Double Platinum had just come out, and the KISS name was on everything including comic books, lunch boxes, Halloween costumes, board games, and pinball machines. They would bank over $100 million in merchandising alone between ’77 and ’79.

And then they decided to release solo albums by all four members of the band, all on one day. On September 18, 1978, the four solo records hit stores accompanied by a massive marketing campaign.

Within a few weeks, it was evident that the experiment was a failure. Quickly the KISS solo albums started appearing in record store bargain bins. The only lasting song from the era is Ace Frehley’s “New York Groove“.

Although they would go on to record one more tremendously successful album in Destroyer in 1979, the decline had begun. It would take nearly 20 years and numerous line-up changes before the original band would reunite and recapture their early magic.

In hindsight, four solo albums probably spread the KISS brand too far.

When you look around, you’ll see brands doing the same thing all the time.

This spring my favorite beer, Canadian beer Alexander Keith’s, released a limited time Ambrosia Blonde brew. It joins their five other offerings: India Pale Ale, Amber Ale, Light Ale, Dark Ale, and Premium White.  When I first started enjoying Keith’s beer two decades ago, there was only one type of Keith’s. Now there are six.

One has to wonder… do all of these new twists on the Keith’s name attract new Keith’s drinkers or do they simply split the existing fan base six different ways?

Does Keith’s Premium White do battle with other white beer or does it steal market share from other Keith’s products?

Bud Light is the #1 selling beer in America. So when Bud Light with Lime came along, did it take market share from competitors like Miller Chill or directly from Bud Light?

When Coors introduced Coors Light in 1978, did they steal market share from other light beers… or did they make the original Coors irrelevant? Coors Light is the 4th best-selling beer in America. Finding a bottle of the original Coors is rare anywhere.

I don’t know the answers, but I do believe that at some point this type of line extension spreads the brand too far.

Does Starbucks’ Via brand instant coffee extend the Starbucks line too far?

The danger is that Starbucks has built a brand based on on warm cafe environments, rich escapes from the hustle of the world, where soothing music plays while you relax. The Via instant coffee doesn’t offer any of the elements built into the Starbucks brand. You could very well drink it from a paper cup while listening to heavy metal music in a cold car while idiots cut you off in traffic. That’s not a Starbucks experience at all.

For a beer company, they risk creating fad brews that don’t match up with the image of the brand. Keith’s is built on heritage, having been brewed the same way since 1820. Their marketing is all built around the heritage of founder Alexander Keith. Would Alexander Keith have created limited-time summer blends that are best served with a slice of orange?

Here are 3 keys to successful line extension:

1. The new product must thrive in the same world as the original brand. Diet Coke can be just as refreshing on a warm day as regular Coke. They are served the same way and consumed the same way.

2. The new product cannot violate the marketing premise of the original brand. Volvo is built on safety, and any new Volvo – SUV or sports car – cannot violate that safety premise. Jeep has taken a dangerous route creating non-trail rated Jeep station wagons like the Compass.

3. The new product must have a direct relationship with the original brand, or else both will suffer. Is Bic a lighter, a pen, or a razor? Are they the current leader in any product category? New products that do not have a direct relationship with the original brand are not line extensions, but rather much riskier brand extensions.

People will always ask for Kleenex and Coke. They will always FedEx things. When your brand name represents your entire product category, you’ve won the game. If you aren’t that brand, you are faced with two options. You can be the perpetual #2 brand, like Pepsi or Puffs (the Proctor & Gamble brand of tissue). There’s nothing wrong with that. There is plenty of money to be made being #2. Your other option is to be different. You can be 7-Up (the Uncola) or Taco Bell (think outside the bun). By being different, you have the chance to become the leader in an entirely new product category. There’s nothing wrong with that either. As long as you know know which role you play, you can build your marketing strategy accordingly.
If you enjoyed this post and are passionate about music and business, please consider subscribing to Brand Like A Rock Star by email. I only publish once or twice a week on average and will never share your contact info. You can also subscribe by RSS feed using the button on the upper right portion of the page.

If you are passionate about music and business, get Brand Like A Rock Star updates by email.

If you enjoy this post and are passionate about music and business, please consider subscribing to Brand Like A Rock Star by email. I only publish once or twice a week on average and will never share your contact info. You can also subscribe by RSS feed using the button on the upper right portion of the page.

Coca-Cola’s new partnership with pop-rock band Maroon 5 will involve the selling of absolutely no soda. Maroon 5 will attempt to sell no albums.

Instead, Coke and Maroon 5 will work together to engage fans in a fresh way that demonstrates how powerful it can be when brands and bands collide.

On March 22, Maroon 5 will head into a London studio to record a new song. For 24 hours, fans will be able to interact with the band through the Coke website, providing feedback as the song is being recorded. In essence, the fans will help build the song, acting as a virtual producer on-line. To take part, fans can go to http://www.mycoke.com/ or www.coca-cola.com/music.

This experiment is a great example of how to engage consumers today.

No selling? Check

Meaningful interactivity? Check

Ability to spread virally? Check

A great story? Check

Emotional involvement? Check

A tangible end result? Check

It doesn’t have to be a major brand like Coke and a big-time band like Maroon 5 to work.

The same template could be used for a small local coffee house and an up-and-coming singer-songwriter.
Or a downtown wine store and a popular local painter. The possibilities are vast.

How will you invite your customer to make an emotional investment in your brand?

If you are passionate about music and business, get Brand Like A Rock Star updates by email.

If you’re passionate about great bands and great brands, please click here to subscribe to Brand Like A Rock Star by email. You can also download Chapter One of the new book Brand Like a Rock Star absolutely free before you buy.

Almost all great songs have one thing in common: a catchy chorus.

The chorus is the part of the song we all know, the part that gets repeated throughout.  It is what gives most songs the “hook”, as songwriters say, that sucks you in and sticks in your head.  The chorus represents the moment where the instruments all come together, and the song erupts.

Most great songs get to the chorus quickly, and come back to it time and time again.  Songs that don’t have memorable choruses or take too long to get to – or come back to – the chorus, seldom become big hits.  It’s that simple.

A brand’s core message is its chorus.

For Volvo, safety is the chorus.

For Apple, its chorus is user-friendly innovation.

For Disney, its a magical escape to the happiest place on earth.

For Coke, its refreshment.

Your brand can send a lot of messages over time, but like a great rock and roll song you need to come back to an unforgettable chorus frequently, and repeat it again and again.  And every message that you send should, in some way, compliment your chorus.

If your brand’s message doesn’t come back to a memorable chorus over and over again, your brand’s song isn’t likely to stick in any one’s head.

Brand Like a Rock Star is now available for pre-order. It will hopefully be stuck in your head after it comes out in stores October 1.