FIVE Lessons the Mouse taught me in Idea Management

I caught a mouse in my trap last night and it begged me for a minute or two before throwing it into the trash. It wanted to teach me a lesson of my life. Squeaking and rolling its eyes in the pains of the booby traps, the mouse needed to leave me with 5 major lessons that provoked me to write this piece. It's written to me. And if by chance you are reading this, you may learn one or two things but remember this was straight from the mouse to my own Muse. 

LESSON 1. Mice know how to invade new territories. INVADE

If you ever wonder how a mouse found its way into your well-locked apartment, think again. These creatures look for little cracks in the walls and together, they burrow it further bringing in their kin one at a time. You are not ready for business if you are not ready to drill a hole in the competition's. Steve Job's Apple drilled a hole in the IBM concept in order to launch the Lisa in 1984. Also in that same 1984, Richard Branson took on the almighty BA by bringing ‘Virginness’ into an industry plagued by dullness. Mice smell opportunities in distant places and launch an offensive. If you are coming into an industry with the same convention of offering, why would anyone do business with you? You gotta leave some hole in the walls so they can notice you and literarily smell a rat.  

LESSON 2. Mice know how to litter the place. They are very fertile. CREATE

There is almost no other way to build your personal branding without producing what we can see. And number matters here. How many articles have you written in your area of expertise? How many Blogs have you contributed to? How many papers have you submitted to the local institutions in your city? Every 4 week, a mouse is ready to produce new litters. You are laughing at the other lady whose work is almost everywhere online, right? Well, you need to laugh at yourself. Revolutionists write their thoughts down. They produce prototypes of their works. They keep doing it. You are as good as your last job four weeks ago.  Don’t tell us you have an idea of how to change an industy. Write it down. Post it online. That’s littering.

LESSON 3.  Mice can Infect your precious little ones. Be INFECTIOUS 

When a mouse pee on it, you better leave it. It's called the power of infectiousness. Don't do things for doing things sake. Leave them with an infectious messaging or style. To be infectious is to start something that can go places. Online, you call it viral. What's more viral than a mouse? Don't just update your Facebook page, leave it with a poison. Tweet with some infectious words and see the world at your doorstep. Learn the power of infectious messaging. Learn how to tell story that can be retold. Check your area of influence on your marketplace. Are you being infectious or you are just a sweet little something that leaves no bite. Pee on that industry and let people smell it from afar. Don't strive to litter for litter's sake. Make sure your works have a bite to it. The little Black dress by Coco Channel was a revolution that has never left womenfolk’s closets. Prior to 192O's, no one would touch a black dress except they are mourning. Coco tapped into the World War 1 fatalities and created a sexy dress women could wear to just about anywhere. That's being infectious. Smelling the opportunity and turning it into some magic. People still can't get over it as every woman worth the salt still keeps a little black dress. Infectious works create movements, cool cultures and counter cultures. They help us make sense of our world without providing an absolute answer to our many questions. They are deeply layered leaving us wanting for more. Above all, they are brutally simple like the LBD. 

LESSON 4. Mice can adapt to a new environment quite faster than fast, making them one of the animals you find anywhere on earth. ADAPT OR DIE

Like Darwin said. Only the creature that adapts in the circle of life truly survives. Things change all around us. Economies change. Consuming patterns change. Industries change. From diskette to CD, from CD to flash drives, from flash drives to clouds. Things are bound to change and you don't just stand there crying foul and blaming your stepmom for your misfortunes. There was a time we clutched our Encyclopedia in forms of books and CD-ROM. Today, the Wikipedia has changed all of that. What do you do? Change. Yea, you heard me. Change. Change your operational model. Change your office. Who needs that over-decorated reception when most of your prospects are online? Change. Change the way you see work hours for your staff. The cities are getting overpopulated. Transportations are barely enough for all. Do people have to come to work from 8 to 5pm when they can get most jobs done on their computers at home? Change. Adaptation is the no 5 rule of the mouse.

LESSON 5. Mice are the lab rats. Experiment. EXPERIMENT WITH FAILURE.

You know the popular saying about the lab rat? It's not a legend. Most laboratories of human science today have to thank the mice for allowing themselves to go through such gruesome exercises in the lab. Mice embrace experiment. So should you. You can't know if it will work if you don't experiment with it. History has it that Thomas Edison tried for a thousand times before he got the light bulb right. After many experiments with platinum and other filaments, Thomas Edison returned to Carbon filament to give the world a long lasting bulb.  

PS: I created a workbook out of this to teach the ‘how’ of each lesson. The workbook gives you detailed steps to take. These are techniques gleaned from over thousand best practices in Brand and Idea Management as taught at Orange Academy.  If you want the workbook or you want to attend our next Personal Branding workshop, send a mail to the Program Officer at Orange Academy via info@kennybrandmuse.com or info@cluborangeng.com.

Peace.

Mr Bademosi and the Story of a Fighter Brand.

That Sunday night in the peaceful town of Ondo people, all the doors were locked and the people went to bed as early as 7pm. There weren't so much to do after the dusk in the peaceful town of the Ekimogun. Dinner was served as early as 6pm and everyone my age would be putting their school bags together for the following day. I was barely in my teens and I remember we were already having our baths behind closed doors. Dinners were usually sumptuous and quite elaborate. Pounded Yam and Obe Ila asepo. For the uninitiated, Obe Ila asepo is an okra soup that has all the good things of life stewed into it. Black fish, prawns, all sorts of peppers except tomatoes. Tomatoes are for weaklings. Then went into it all the scented leaves that make an Ondo person a stubborn lot. The boys pounded the yam while the girls cooked the soup. And there were those who had to hold the mortar in place for the heavy pounding. If your fingers were mistakenly in the way, they were as good as gone. Most of us developed our muscles from pounding yam for the family.

Depending on the number of people in your family, triceps and biceps are commensurate to the number of mouths you were going to pound the yam for. My father had more than ten wives and it was a Kingdom of mouths.

When all the mouths were fed and gone, the night would begin with my father and I. He would come knocking on my door and my mother knew it's time to let go. It's the ritual of the night and I was the sacrifice.

 'Men don't sleep at night. Only women and children do.'

So our night would begin with keeping vigil for the rest of the family. I was not the only boy but I was the only boy back home. The onus was on me to keep vigil with Mr Bademosi. I would hold a Grandpa torch in one hand and a long stick in another hand. And I would be assigned a side of the large compound. Each soldier , my dad and I , was assigned to a territory. Every ant crawling by the compound was a suspect. I was trained to be paranoid of spiderwebs hanging on our brick walls. I didn't have a gun but I was meant to face any oncoming intruders. It could be a very bad night if I had taken so much pounded yam as things would go draggy and painfully slow.

This very night, like every other night, there were no impending danger or so it seemed. The street was very quiet but for the sound of a flowing stream behind our barn. And then something happened.

A pebble hit me from nowhere. It's war. This might be the night we had been prepping for all our lives. We had envisioned a night would come when we were all asleep and the enemies would come attack. They would have to meet us prepared. The hairs on my back stood taller than me. I quickly put the torchlight off and jumped into an unfinished apartment in the compound.

Then it started raining pebbles of stones. I knew the end had come. I couldn't sight my Commander in Chief. I narrowly missed a pebble aiming at my head, so I knew the enemy knew where I was hiding. I pitied my Mom. I was the only male child. I couldn't call out to anyone. I had been trained that I had to face the shit when it hit the fan. I had been trained that life is a journey and we are almost always all by ourselves. I had been warned that my primary assignment was to protect the women and the children in the compound; even if I had to die for them.

Then I stood up with the last breathe in me. I faced the battle head on. All I had was a stick, my torchlight and myself. I put one foot forward and took ten back. No one was there to help me. I had to fight.

In one quick moment a very heavy hand descended on me and dragged me further into the dark walls. He was my dad and he hushed me not to raise my stick. The Vigil for the night was over. He was only testing if I was ready for the unforeseen. I don't know if I was really ready but I gave it my best shot.

We are never really prepared for the unforeseen but we must always give it our best shot. As we begin to build on our personal brand equity in the marketplace, those pebbles are going to rain on our parades but we must always remember that we have a duty to protect our territory come what may. I have been watching two major battles against two popular brands in recent times. Apple and Obama.

Apple's territory is Innovation and it's the job of the Management to protect it. Obama's territory is THE AMERICAN DREAM . It's never over until it's over and we owe it to our brands to give it all that it takes. At Orange Academy, we have a large room we tag THE BRAND WAR ROOM. This is where our students fight for every idea they are pitching to future employers and clients. It's not about winning. It's about the fighting spirit. Life is a bitch of a battle and it's very crucial you have a fighting spirit.

Your idea is great but you have to fight for it. Your resume for the job is well put together but you have to pitch it. Your experience on the job is impressive but you have to put in the window. Pick your stick and your torchlight and yourself and go protect your brand territory. It takes a great while to build a strong territory for your brand but it is never over. When the doors are shut. When the lights are out. When the night comes, you have to stay awake working it out. One more business contact to make. One more blog to publish. One more tweet to go.

It's your territory and no one will protect it for you. Remember you don't win all the times but you must fight for it. Leader brands fight. Fighter brands fight. Life is a bitch of a battle and it's very crucial you have a fighting spirit. Have a great day ahead of you.

How to Measure Your Personal Brand Equity

I wrote this as a response to a question on our FB page : 

The QUESTION : 

Assume one is endowed with a natural skill set. How does enjoying your natural skills (like driving, swimming, cooking, singing, soccer) relate to your personal branding efforts? Do they follow the same path or they are at variance? Also what happens if there's an absence of natural skills? Yinka Ayeni /PBWKB

MY RESPONSE 

If you unmask every major brand, there's something basic and functional about their offering. However, there can be many footballers, but only one David Beckham. There can be many singers but only one Michael Jackson. Underneath all these glories and branding are the skills set. Your skill set is necessary to start a journey of branding. We don't brand lies. You must have something you are offering me. Even Paris Hilton has a Social skill set that graces major events.  She does offer something. [ you know that, right?] 

One of many ways to measure Brand equity for Personal Branding is Brand depth and breadth. If you are very good at what you do, that is depth. However if you are very good at what you do and you are in people's conversations in other fields apart from your own, that is breadth. You are relevant where you belong but you are trending outside of your local environments. 

A PB equity = BD+BB. Brand Depth + Brand Breadth 

Take Sharapova in Tennis for instance. In March 2006, Forbes magazine listed her as the highest-paid female athlete in the world, with annual earnings of over US $18 million, the majority of which was from endorsements and sponsorships. She has topped that list every year since, even after her 2007 shoulder injury. 

In 2011, Forbes listed Sharapova as No. 29 in their list of 50 top-paid athletes, the only woman on the list. In 2012, she was listed as No. 15, and was joined in the top 20 by Li Na at No. 16 and Serena Williams at No. 17. In April 2005, People named her one of the 50 most beautiful celebrities in the world. In 2006, Maxim ranked Sharapova the hottest athlete in the world for the fourth consecutive year. She posed in a six-page bikini photoshoot spread in the 2006 Valentine's Day issue of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, alongside 25 supermodels. 

In a poll run by Britain's FHM magazine, she was voted the seventh most eligible bachelorette,based on both "wealth and looks." Source: Wikipedia . 

Now, that's not Tennis. That's some Personal Branding. 
Now compare that to Martina Navratilova. Martina is arguably world's ever best tennis player but with only a brand depth in tennis. 

Sharapova has a brand breadth that surpasses tennis playing. Breadth is added when you stand for more than is functionally expected of you. 
ALL IMAGES ARE SOURCED FROM GOOGLE IMAGES. 

Red lipstick, Sex and Power. Be the Rebel in the House

I've been very curious lately as to why the power of red lipstick never dies. From Cleopatra to Queen Elizabeth 1 to Marilyn Monroe and to modern images of power women around us, the red lipstick lives on. Most women have one in their purse. This power tool has fascinated both men and women since 3,000 BC. It's a call to the inner goddess and the obsession is unfathomable.

There had been oppositions to red lipstick in the early days as the religious folks thought it resembled a flushed and aroused labia. Some even went on to say it was the devil's symbol. But this red thing lives on. Long before the emancipation of womenfolks came to the fore, the red lipstick had been a silent tool in this journey. It even became more popular when Elizabeth Arden and Estee Lauder started dispensing lipsticks from their own saloon in the 1930's. They tried to tone it down by introducing women to different shades of it. However, the bold red shade is still the most popular today.

Red is one of the strongest retail colour in Branding and it calls so much attention to itself. Red is a look-at-me, I'm-here colour that never goes unnoticed. Coca-Cola won't trade its red for anything in the world and great brands like HSBC and Virgin know the energy they are tapping into when they stay with red. It's sensual. It's rebellious and it is a power tool. For me, what I find fascinating about red lipstick is the sheer simplicity that never goes unnoticed. Sounds ironic. Simple, yet very much in your face. You overdo it, it backfires. You don't do it, you have a bland look.

That's what I call being profound. Your Personal brand can be too simple and not get the attention it deserves. You need to introduce a power tool. Some mystique. Some silent rebellion message that says ' hey, this is what I stand for, guys!'

If you are going for a Powerful persona, find a power tool that can prop you. They are usually the simplest things around you. They come in small shapes and sizes like the red lipstick.

My Ads of Fame Collection: Why do brands lie today?

We don't see great ads anymore. What we see are ads done for the clients or ads done by the agencies to bag awards. I have nothing against awards. They remind you that you are still in people's good book. Just that a large percentage of these award winning works are recycled. People doing the same thing under new names. And I have nothing against Clients, it's just that most are not in touch with reality. In these days of Google and Social Media, most ads still stink of lies. Fast broadband. Caring bank.  Shame.

In this Collection, you'll notice that the Creators of these ads had one objective in mind: to connect with their audience so they might care about their offerings. They first sought to interest their audience, then they went on to sell the offering in a simple yet profound way. Above all, they said the truth and ran away. Great ads are about truth but then truth well told. Enjoy

A Bill Bernbach's classic where truth always wins out in Advertising.  When you know you are not no 1, how do you find strength in that? Now, don't try this with today's delusional brands. They are always No 1.

This is one of the most famous of Ogilvy's ads. Way back in the 60s.  When you are selling a generic thing like a work shirt, you need to put some spin on it. Don't just use models for modelling sake [ like we have on our streets today, posing for the camera is not advertising. Smiling faces. That's photography. Do something crazy and run away ]

Way back then, Leo Burnett did stunning jobs for Kellogg's Corn flakes and this one is timeless. The product is in view but not forced into the view. The focus is on the moment. The Copy is not pretentious. It's just Corn Flakes for God's sake! What we see today are commodities ads that flaunt the number of vitamins they contain plus the name of the Chairman sitting on their board [ now, I made that last one up ]

I bet there's no Advertising book worth its salt where this Bill's work has not been mentioned. The only sad thing is no one has the gut to do such an ad. If this ad was done today, I guess the Brand team would insist that 'small' is not in their dictionary.  Why do people tell lies today, even when we have Goggle to tell us that your broadband is not actually 3.9G as claimed in your advertising.  [ Kenny, 3.9! How far? ]  There must be something sexy about telling the truth in advertising especially when you know how to turn it around to your advantage. 

Great ads have some edge to them. This was grabbed from the famous  Super bowl commercial of Apple in 1984.  

At 60 miles an hour, the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock. That's Ogilvy for you. Nothing to add.  

When you are ready to talk, close that Powerpoint.

It's amazing how 99.9% of us still don't get it.

One of our best graduating students at Orange Academy. Caroline Latona.  Here was her final defense and the Strategy was on point. However, we always warn our students that it doesn't end there. You have to be able to translate Strategy into an experience.

Consumers don't read Powerpoint or a Strategy document when they get to the shelf to buy our products. They simply SEE it, SMELL it, TOUCH it, FEEL it or HEAR it.

A brand is an experience.

There are no worse times in history of Brand Communication when the buzz word is 'Strategy'. People design Powerpoint. People flash numbers. People draw graph. And honestly, all of that is good. I'm a student of Y&R Strategic Planning and I really do know how to design engaging Powerpoint presentations.

Howbeit, my brodas and sistas, when you really mean to talk to a humankind. When you really need to pass your message across to some human being somewhere.
When you really mean business in this business of Brand Communication, you have to close that Powerpoint presentation and keep your eyes on the ball. Yea, you heard me. Powerpoint and Big Grammar don't grab balls. Hands do. Good pair of hands.

This Coca-Cola Facebook page captures humankind. It's not about the formula it contains,  it's about the story of the people who drink Coca Cola. That's not a Powerpoint. 

Since 2008, Orange Academy has helped more than 27,000 Graduates and over 600 Executive Managers find their own voice through our various programs. Again and again, we have discovered that one major ingredient that has helped shaped the best of our best is the power to turn a business strategy into an experience.  We call it Magic. www.cluborangeng.com

It means the readiness to take on new discoveries about humanity. We want our students to be very curious about everything. Curious about what make people tick. Sex, yes, sex. Money, music, laughter, friendship, colours, images, cries, stories. The list is endless.

This Samsung Facebook page reeks of Strategy. It's like a designed Powerpoint in a Social Media space. 

You want people to respond to you? Give them an experience. Full stop.

Michael Jackson: what's in the white gloves?

The famous MJ's white gloves may have been auctioned for over $350,000 ( not including fees and commission ) http://www.luxist.com/tag/michael%20jackson/page/2/. Before you cringe at such 'unholy' spend, take a look at your own hand. What are you wearing?

Now, seriously, a Personal Brand knows how to stick to a prop or a piece of clothing. This is called consistency in Brand Management. In the street language form, this is called 'your logo'. Your logo or Brand Identities are not usually some designs, it's that part of you that announces your entrance in your area of influence.

Here's how it works. A larger percentage of human brain is visually oriented and early in life we are exposed to icons, signs and images that cue us into making a sense of our universe. These are schematic patterns we have formed. Even the blinds are usually fond of associating people with scent, voice texture, etc. Steve Jobs and the black turtleneck.

You may have spent so much building your presence but you may have missed out on your white gloves. Yea, you have a song. Yea, you have a dance. What about your white gloves? These props add to your brand equity in the long run and they as important to your branding as the content of what you have to say. What they do? They simply help your universe to store you in their consideration set as the human brains process about 100 million operations per second. Yes. That's how fast the brains work and it means one may be forgotten so easily. 

You need professionals to help you map out which logo works for your brand. Try attend some of our Personal Branding Workshops in your areas so you don't to jump into some funny hats, looking like everyone else. So, go get a glove. And not just a glove, a studded white glove. 

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Every now and then, we take a few people away into a workshop that is all about them and we are not ashamed to do so as this may be the only selfish thing they will be doing for themselves. Why?
CV will get irrelevant Your company may outgrow you
Your talent and skill may face a stiffer competition Relationships may fail

The world is changing per second everyday and the only thing people will always buy when they transact business with companies will always be people. People do business with people; no one gets attracted to buildings or companies. The only thing you can do for yourself and your company to keep being in high demand is by finding your own voice or brand your frontline people so you can return more on your investments. That's Personal Branding. PB.

How do you find your voice or Persona or your core story? How do you tell it so well that it affects everything you touch positively? In the past, PB was an expensive thing to have as you would need to own a Medium in order to project your voice. Today, the world has been flattened by the Digital Media and the possibilities for PB are endless. First, you have to know what you should be about. 







Our Team, led by Kenny Brandmuse, will help you MAP out your core story, using our trusted and proprietary tools. Secondly, you have to know how to tell your own story without sounding self-praising. Self advertising is not PB. It's like a needle in the ocean. PB is more enduring.

Successful PB today include Oprah Winfrey, Richard Brandson, Barak Obama, Rick Warren, Waren Buffet, Steve Jobs, ASA, and Christien Amanpour.

Give it all that it takes

When I first got my 1st Copy writing Job at McCanns, I was living miles away from the office and my salary was barely enough for one week meal. I had a serious accommodation issue and I had just landed my dream job. Working in Brand Advertising can be rigorous and it often requires long hours of works; it's even worse if you are a cub Copywriter as you have to do all the dirty jobs.

One day, while returning from Lunch with some of my colleagues, I saw a pub house near my office. [ A Beer Parlour ] I noticed there was a little house attached to the Pub where the bartenders slept. Then I had a crazy idea. What if I offered to help these guys at night maybe I could get to squat with them for a bit? At first, they laughed at me, thinking I was joking, then they saw the tenacity in my eyes. So, on Mondays, I would move in to the Pub house after works and returned back to my far away house on Friday evenings. My job was straightforward. I had to help them do all their dishes and tumblers each and every night. Then I could go to sleep. That was how I paid my landlords. That was how I pulled through those first few months on the job. It was crazy as I had to keep that part of me from my colleagues. In fact, there were times , we would pass that Pub and everyone would imagine how the guys that lived there were surviving. It was such a tiny little room with a tiny window opened to the main road where all the vices in Yaba resided those days. When I drive by that pub today, I get a little emotional as the little room attached is no longer there. The Federal Government has taken my room away. It went with the road construction works, leaving only the Pub house.

Here's the thing. If you are lucky to find your dream job, nothing should be in your way. Not even accommodation. You've got to give it all that it takes. If you really mean to grow a career, keep your eyes away from the pay-cheque. Look at where you are going. No one is really out there to help you when you are starting a career. Personal Brands know how to help themselves. Keep your eyes on the end. Discipline yourself. Cut out some luxuries. Salaries don't grow careers. People do. When you cut your teeth and you finally find your own voice, then you can spread your wings and fly. But right now, you have to give it all that it takes.