Last week we went over to Pittsboro Christian Village to shoot photographs for some brochures and a website. It’s a pretty amazing place. The average age of the residents there is 85.

We started the adventure with shots of a group of ladies grading Bible correspondence courses from inmates at prisons around North Carolina. They were in a room with windows on three sides, around a folding table, which was covered with test booklets, paper, pens, and, of course, Bibles. One lady was fresh off the mission field (after something like 60 years). They had Bibles with the covers worn thin…pages softened and grayed with use…margins covered with notes…Bibles that looked like they were older than I am. They moved through the pages like a gardener moves through his garden…fluid from plant to plant.

Their conversation was light, sweet, and soft. A little giggle over an answer that was almost right…a shared smile at an insight from an inmate as his hard life was softened by his new-found savior…a word of genuine concern over a response that indicated that “this one isn’t there…this one needs prayer.”

Later, we photographed a blind man as he worked his vegetable garden, feeling his way along. He harvested two cucumbers for us to take home. “I garden because I enjoy it, and I like to give away my harvest,” he said. Then, we took his dog, Gabby, over to visit the care home, where the residents enjoyed the company and affection.

We got a photograph of three generations of women…mother, daughter, granddaughter…sitting in the sun in the courtyard—a little picture of faithfulness. And we finished a long day with a romantic shot of a couple, married for 60 years, holding hands in candle light beside the pool in the magic light just past sunset.

The photographer wrote us a really nice note afterward. He said that he had a hard time keeping his emotions in check as he went back through the pictures…and that the experience had changed him. I know it changed me.

Historically, the idea of branding was contrary to the bank culture. The idea being that to brand something was to impose some artifice onto it, as opposed to the low-profile, three-button, wing-tipped, dry, trustworthy image that professional bankers enjoyed projecting. In fact, there was a time when marketing of all types was seen as unethical. Then came deregulation, and competition from both bank and non-bank competitors. Suddenly there were other places to put your money. Other places to get your loan. Suddenly, banks needed to be known…and to be differentiated.

While everyone seems to agree, at this point, that branding is necessary for a bank. It’s still tricky. Because a bank’s brand still has to be an authentic representation of the bank itself—it has to be the bank’s personality, with the bank’s vocabulary, and the bank’s own clothes (trade dress). A bank still has to be calm, low-profile, trustworthy, dependable. It just has to be branded so that those qualities SCREAM! Kidding.

A bank brand has to take into account the community it lives in. The people it serves. The history and vision of the bank. And, especially in times like these, a bank needs to be seen as humble, hard working, sound…anything but flashy. Probably, a bank brand needs to take into account the times when a bank should be invisible.

In the past two decades, we’ve seen some bank branding that has backfired in the past few months. Nobody really wants a fun bank these days. Or an opulent bank. Or a high-flying bank. People want banks that WON’T WASTE MY MONEY.

We’re excited about the opportunities for banks as the economy starts to lift a bit. I predict we’ll be seeing the role of community banks become much more important across the country. As people start to get back to business, will they want to be in business with Wall Street…or Bank of America? Or will they want to do business with Andy, John, Cindy, Dean, Shields, Diana, Mays, George…you know…people who are from here.

It’ll be fun to see what happens. Well, maybe fun is a little too strong a word. It will certainly be interesting.

When we do branding, we spend a great deal of time, and many tools, getting to understand the client’s differential advantage. Now, it’s generally pretty easy for folks to understand things like color palette, type palette, photography palette, voice, tone, music…all the sensory components of the brand. But it’s sometimes a little harder to grasp differential advantage. So, here’s what it is.

Differential advantage is the set of benefits you are able to provide profitably, every day, within your normal operation, that are relevant to the purchasing decision of a significant portion of purchasers of your category, that your competitors cannot duplicate as routinely or as profitably. In short, it is your home field advantage.

A great example (which we, sadly, did not develop) is FedEx. They built their entire business on a “hub” concept, where all packages came to, and departed from, a central hub (Memphis, I think). This unique operational feature enable them to deliver any package, from anywhere in the Continental United States, to anywhere in the Continental United States, over night. Thus the differential advantage, as tag line—when it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight.

This differential advantage was a leverage point for FedEx to own the premium niche of overnight business delivery. Although they now do a lot of other things—international delivery, ground delivery, KINKO’s—and although others now do overnight delivery, FedEx was able to leverage being first in this niche to build an entire brand on the overnight position.

We branded with a bank in Texas, who looked around and saw that there were a lot of banks in Texas, but not too many FROM Texas. Now, that may not mean much in Alabama or South Carolina. But Texans Loooooove Texas. So, we were able to build an entire differential advantage on the fact that they were from Texas, and their direct competitors weren’t. Blue bonnets are magic, you know.

That’s the average age of the folks we spent the weekend with. It was awesome. We’re working on some branding for Pittsboro Christian Village. This weekend, we went over for a visit. Spent Saturday evening there. Went to services there on Sunday morning. Shot off to lunch with Uncle Ducky. Back at Pittsboro for dinner and evening service. Spent the day there on Monday. What an amazing group of people!

We met missionaries from Congo and Zambia. We met folks who knew Anne’s parents before they were married (which would be, like, sixty years ago). We met retired executives.

The place is run by a retired Lt. Colonel, Gerald. He lives on the grounds with his family. So, you have this community in which the average age is 85. And then you have these four teenagers hanging around, with their friends. And everybody loves everybody. What a brand!

I gotta say, I have never done a series of one-on-one interviews in which every interview included prayer and more than half included tears. Can’t wait to write this one!

Today, unemployment hit a 16 year high. This is our company’s sixteenth year in business. So, the economy is beginning to look a lot like uncharted territory. For us, and I guess for a lot of other people. Of course, there is history. There is 1992, 1982, 1970s, 1930s…, and we can certainly learn from all of those times. But right now, we are in a time in which some things are different from those times. The banking ship that is currently stuck on a sandbar is a very different vessel than banks of any previous time. Sophisticated, fast-paced investment instruments that arose over the past 15 years (which somebody called financial weapons of mass destruction) make this mess more complicated than the one addressed by the new deal.

Also, the world economy is more connected than ever. And the Internet makes everything move faster. Here’s a question…if the Internet made the economy rise at a record pace in the 1990s, and made transactions happen at a record pace, then will the Internet make EVERYTHING happen faster…rises…falls… and will it make the peaks higher and the valley’s lower?

In any case, we find ourselves with a new paradigm. In the life of our company, we have never seen an environment like this. I wonder if its time to get back to basics. By basics I mean…as 1 Thessalonians 4: 11-2 says…

And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you; that ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing.

Quiet life. Do our own business. Work with our own hands. Walk honestly. Lack of nothing. Sounds pretty good to me.

A couple of months ago, I wrote a bank marketing trade publication article about brand personalities. In it, I talked about the five standard personalities (into which every brand falls, so far): sophistication, competence, ruggedness, sincerity, and excitement. It has always been my position that an organization’s brand personality was inherent (generally beyond the control of the organization itself), and that your personality is not inherently better or worse than any other personality. In short, the best thing you can do is discover your personality and then express it authentically. I still stand by this. But recently, I began to consider this question:

Do certain market conditions favor certain personalities?

I really started to consider this as the economic news slipped from tenuous…to uncertain…to nerve racking…to scarry…to terrifying. I began to think about the idea that one personality might be better suited for weathering a downturn (or for riding a wave, for that matter). I noticed that a lot of restaurants around here were starting to do poorly, all of which were either sophistication or excitement brands. Maybe this is because people want comfort at a time like this, not new experiences. And maybe people are more interested in surviving than in being seen.

On the other hand, a lot of rugged brands did really well during the past decade or so. When things were good, money was easy, and life was good…maybe ruggedness worked as a foil to a potentially boring existence. Well, things aren’t so boring now. In fact, life is looking a little rugged. We don’t need rugged cars, clothes, shoes, and second homes to get our fill of ruggedness. So, maybe it’s not a great time to be a rugged brand.

These days, people seem to be holding onto their money. And when they spend, the probably want to know that they’re getting good value. Value and trust are big deals. This would bode well for competence and sincerity brands. During the boom, competence was often seen as either a given or irrelevant. And sincerity was seen as goofy (unless you’re a charitable organization). Well, we will see.

Please don’t think I am suggesting that you excitement, rugged, and sophistication brands start wearing blue suits or earth tones in order to appear competent or sincere. You are what you are. But if you have a secondary personality that is sincere or competent, you might want to think about leading with that. Also, you might think about the perceived weaknesses of your style, and position accordingly. What do you think?

For the past couple of years, we have done something really cool at Christmas time. We invite our friend Carl Blair over to paint with us. It’s like art class, except the art teacher is a serious business artist. And we all get around a table and paint the artwork for our Christmas mailings.

This year, we threw C.B. a curveball. We prepped the canvases with an under coat of silver and gold metallic. He seemed to think it was cool. He did the first painting by himself. Started with the sky. Worked his way down. Then, he used the ends of the brushes (the part without the bristles) to scratch through and reveal the metallic. It was so cool. So, among other things, Carl Blair can hit a curveball.

In other news, our friend Curtis came to visit from San Antonio. He is a former (and perhaps future) youth pastor, who is using his graphic design skills right now. He has a nice time meeting C.B. at our office. In fact, God seemed to like the two of them together, because the next day, while Anne, Curtis, and I were having coffee at Starbucks, who walks in but Carl and his friend Carol. They sat with us and chatted for a while.

Then, later that night, Curtis, Anne, and I went to Flight for dinner with…Carl Blair (and our best art dealer friend, Sandy).

Curtis had the sniffles, so he stayed at the house and snoozed and relaxed while Anne and I made a Saturday run to Asheville for breakfast with the sisters. Kind of overcast day. Curtis will have to come back when he feels better…and when Asheville feels better too.

Then, we ran around, got artisan bread, listened to Revival Hymn, made black beans and rice, and generally had fellowship with Curtis. And at 4:30 Sunday morning, we got up to take Curtis to the plane. But we wanted to adopt him.

It was three days of little unexpected treasures. Silver and gold. I love that song. Don’t you?

We had a great time at the furniture market. Lots of cool discoveries.

A few years ago, the furniture business was changing. Consumers were very happy to buy not-so-well-made furniture, since the trend was to treat furniture as disposable. Fashion was the only driver of furniture purchases. And so, if you’re looking for a sofa in this year’s color, you buy the cheapest one, right. Rooms to Go wins. High Point looses.

So, retailers were becoming very price sensitive, and not too quality sensitive. As a result, many of the furniture plants in and around High Point cut back or shut down. The manufacturing was outsourced to Asia, where labor was cheap and quality was … okay … ah … labor was cheap so the furniture was cheap, so if the quality wasn’t quite there, it was close enough.

To add insult to injury, a major furniture show started in Las Vegas. Now, Vegas is a convention | trade show kinda town. And High Point is not. In fact, High Point is a little out of the way—like, you can’t get there from here…it isn’t on the way to anything, if you get my drift. So, it was lookin’ like High Point was about to become a part of the quaint history of the furniture industry. But…

A small industry grew up, repairing | finishing furniture made in Asia that was below spec or damaged in transit. This added cost to those cheap pieces coming over by the container load.

Then, since the better brands remained sort of picky about materials, wood had to be shipped to Asia, from which to make the furniture. This added to the expense of the “cheap” furniture.

Then, fuel prices went up, wages started climbing in Asian countries that did the manufacturing, and the dollar started dropping. Suddenly, those old boys in North Carolina, making furniture by hand, with pride and craftsmanship, started looking downright competitive.

Then, a major trend started among, of all people, upscale Asian consumers. They wanted furniture that was not just an American brand, but that was actually, demonstrably, made in the U.S.A. Once manufacturer told us that they had to create a special, over-sized “Made in U.S.A” label, specifically for their Asian customers.

Then, something happened in Las Vegas. Turns out that Vegas loves a party, whereas High Point loves furniture. So, at 6:00, the Vegas show closes, in order to get everyone out to the strip. In High Point, around 6:00, appetizers are served in preparation for dinner at many of the showrooms. Customers, reps, and designers sit down to dine at (and among) some of the finest furniture in the world. And the dinner conversation is … what else … furniture.

At the worst of the furniture downturn, one sad story was told of an entire town that was wiped out. The manufacturer closed the mill, people put their houses up for sale (but they didn’t sell), and left town to find work. Suddenly, that manufacturer is scrambling to get those workers back. As Scooby Do would say, rots-o-ruck.

For about as long as I can remember, I’ve been aware of the idea of strategy. Back when I played middle school football, we learned about two big strategic principles: pile up resources at the greatest area of need, and (contrariwise) deploy resources away from the point of contact, to A)trick the opponent into deploying their resources poorly (play action pass), or B)dilute your opponent’s resources in hopes of a mismatch (stretching the field with a fast, deep-threat wide receiver, in order to create opportunities over the middle).

In marketing, examples of these two tactics might be:
Concentration of resources:
• A retailer spending a majority of advertising budget between Thanksgiving and Christmas, to coincide with consumer behavior
• A manufacturer assigning a full-time rep to a single customer company, in order to cultivate deep relationships, secure the customer’s loyalty, and expand the footprint within that customer company
• Coordinating national, regional, and local advertising around specific “promotional” periods, and focusing messages on the specific offers of the promotion.

Generally, these are strength-against-strength tactics. They are very logical. And they will work, over time, given a solid product, a competitive price, and continuous, predictable demand.

Contrarian deployment:
• A retailer, recognizing the trend toward post-holiday sale shopping, saves the majority of its advertising budget for a post-holiday sale blitz
• A manufacturer who is well know in one industry, but less known in other industries, assigns a full-time rep to getting first purchases (trial) from customers in adjacent industries, while “milking” the industry in which they are established…risking that their products will become commodities in the established industry, as the threat the industry as a cash cow
• A manufacturer launches a directly competitive product with a media blitz in the hometown (or a strong market) of an established brand, forcing the established brand to “defend its turf”—the hope is that the established brand will over-react (overspend) or get distracted from their core business…creating opportunities elsewhere
• A brand with a cash advantage spends excessively in a market “owned” by a less liquid competitor, forcing the competitor to defend what it might otherwise have taken for granted…milking the competitors limited resources.

Of course, these strategies are all risky, and none of them can really be considered long-term strategies. Their purpose is to change the status quo, so it would be silly for someone to employ them who benefits from the status quo.

One problem with some upstart start-ups is that they become very good at contrarian tactics, to the point that these tactics become part of the culture. But, when they become the man, they are still culturally inclined to fight the man. They don’t know how to act like category leaders.

The job of the category leader is to promote the category. So, category leaders should use strait-forward, logical (boring) strategies, in order to signal to consumers, competitors, and vendors what the category is doing. This may seem charitable, but it really isn’t. A lot of people (probably most) want to do business with the confident leader. So, by successfully taking the leader posture, a company is effectively blocking competitors from potential customers. Think of Tide, Cheer, Crest, Gleam, Head ’n’ Shoulders, Clorox, and Shout. By being the voice vendors listen to for direction regarding how to sell to the category, a company puts itself first in line to negotiate the best deal with potential vendors. And by signaling to competitors, a leader gives itself a home field advantage.

Everybody else’s job is to take shots at the category leader, by slicing off niche markets, cherry picking high-value customers, and/or offering a mass-market alternative (me-too) choice to consumers. When number two becomes number one, the whole category can feel shock waves for a while.

We were having lunch today with Kristen, over at Lemongrass. And she mentioned that she was starting to become interested in the herbs and spices Anne and I (and her sister and mother) use to stay healthy. I think this is pretty cool, because Kristen is young enough and generally healthy enough that it might do her some real good (as opposed to what it does for me, which is to keep me from completely falling apart.

Then later, I was looking at some companies around here (some of which we have done some work for). I noticed that the company formerly known as Perception Kayak is working with an outfit called Verde PR (or something like that). It’s a PR firm out of Colorado that claims to be all about green companies and companies that are into outdoorsy stuff (not sure I see the connection, but I guess it’s a different generation). Anyhow, this gave me an idea.

We eat almost no red meat. And we take hundreds of dollars a month worth of supplements (I mean fists full every single morning). So why shouldn’t companies that are committed to that sort of thing be interested in what we can do. Especially since we have some capabilities and a track record with things like HTML, specialized web tactics, text messaging, loyalty campaigns, insider communications, and stuff like that.

So, with renewed enthusiasm, I am going to start tracking down Earth Fare, Garners, and Greenlife. Or maybe, if they’re as sophisticated as they oughta be, their spiders will find this blog post and come looking for me. In any case, wouldn’t it be cool for folks like us to get to help folks like them? Well, let’s see what happens.