Branding/PR/social media/etc. is changing. What would you do?

I have begun a series of questions on Facebook and I ask for comments. Here is the second in that series:

The branding/PR/social media/etc. business is changing radically (look at 5 years ago until today). If you could make one change in this business, what would you do?

Below are the comments:

Kenny S:  Teach the people who are creating all the brainless online work the difference between a good idea and a bad one. Or what an idea is, period. Oh yeah, and if someone’s going to create stupid, juvenile television commercials, be sure your target audience are stupid juveniles.

Alan G:  Yes, and yes. I agree with Kenny.

Kenny S:  Be sure your work is as good as your PR department claims it is- the public isn’t as stupid as they’re given credit for. That pretty much sums it up for me.

Alan G:  The customer is always right, and don’t write a check with your advertising your product can’t cash.

TT:  What do you think about the idea of Baking In your product’s branding from Bogusky’s and Windsor’s book (http://www.bakedin.com) of the same name?

TT:  Is the customer always right because they are actually always right? Or because they are the customer? Does being the customer make them right?

Kenny S:  What is Bogusky saying that we don’t already know? Define your product, find what sets it apart from others. Look for conflicts? Makes sense. What am I missing here?

Alan G:  And when in doubt, ask your customer. Truth, Lies and Advertising – John Steele.

TT:  I think (and maybe I’m wrong) that the Baked In thinking is, the marketing is built into the product itself (instead of just the commercials, websites, etc). And – as you are saying, Alan – that the customer is part of that baking in process. Which, is not exactly new thinking (as you say, Kenny) on most of the work I’ve done recently. Just wanted to see what you thought about that “product as marketing” direction. What we’ve said above is true. The question is, are we saying nothing needs to change?

Alan G:  Haven’t read Bogusky. Butt yeah, I’ll buy ” built in to product.” And customer as part of “baking” process. Still, if you’re Alex Bogusky, you gotta write a book, and if you’re Lee Clow, you don’t.

TT:  Lee’s “book” could be considered the culture of the last 20 years.

(pause)

TT:  In other words, is our audience a target to be reached? Or are we in a real-time conversation with them now?

Alan G:  Depends on the audience.

TT:  I guess I wonder if they are a target or an audience anymore. If the customer is always right, they are hardly an audience. They are part of the show. You know what I mean?

Alan G:  You’re right about Lee. Did you ever read “Inventing Desire”? And as for the audience/customer being part of the show, that raises a whole other interesting discussion. I went to a live performance in Sydney of Rocky Horror before I left in 1973. As the audience filed in to take their seats, the cast, in full costume, came out and, crawling over the seats, separated everyone in the audience from whom they came with and seated them somewhere else. It made the show.

TT:  I was at Chiat/Day when Karen was writing that book, roaming the plywood cubicles and wooden fish conference room, talking to the cool players. I was the advertising equivalent of a lineman. A blue collar grunt in the trenches. lol We thought we were the high priests of the business. A business that is very different now. We are now in a world that is exactly like your Rocky Horror experience. The audience is involved. And that is a good thing – because we are all part of some “audience.” It is less of a show now and more of an experience.

Alan G:  Did you get a bike for Christmas? But yeah, you’re right we do tend to take ourselves just a tad too seriously. Maybe Marshall McCluen was right after all.

TT: Perhaps the medium is the message, or in this case, the product is the message. Oh, and I did get that bike from Chiat/Day. It’s still in my garage.

Alan G:  Well ride the f’ing thing!

TT:  Oh I have.

Kenny S:  I will make one last comment: Saying the people in our business take themselves too seriously is an understatement. Many view themselves and their personal gain as more important than the work itself. Think they’re rockstars. It’s still rampant, maybe moreso now than ever before. Unfortunately, too many people in our business start believing the crap that their PR departments are spewing out. Just look at the work on television and online and tell me I’m wrong.

TT:  You are not wrong.

Alan G:  In the words of the Bard, “No shit.”

TT:  Or too much of it.

Thank you to Alan and Kenny for commenting on the above discussion.