Anthropologize

If I’m really really honest about what I really really really think of branding for a moment, here’s what I think (and for the per usual disclaimer, I wrote this post while brain dead and sleep deprived from working on a pitch that was only three … wait, what was that email? Two, days away.):

I read a lot about behavioral economics and cognition and think a lot about decision sciences and cultural motivations and why people make the choices that they do. I consider how many sources they consult. And what they do in the shopping aisle. What they do online. Where they click. What tools and apps they like. And what they “like.”
I know that pricing is important. Companies want people to think they can afford it, with free shipping and on clearance, because it’s worth it. Whatever it is.
And they might look for it on Google. And they might misspell its’ name. I get it.
But I really don’t think branding is about metrics.
It’s is about deciding who You Are within the world that you’ve created. Even if you don’t know you’ve created it. And then it’s about figuring out who They are. Like, IN PERSON. And FOR AWHILE.

It’s been said before and it will be said again, branding is about relationships.
So, and welcome to a new challenging part of my life, maybe it’s kinda like dating.

WE MAKE IT SO HARD.
BECAUSE WE TELL OURSELVES STORIES.
AND WE DON’T JUST LET OURSELVES BE.
We start out with a lightening bolt and then some amazingly great or terrible dates. And there’s some magic and intimacy. And then we feel like we’re swimming around blindly in this world called “Dating WTF”. And we question our feelings and our desires and we think maybe we’re failing.
But maybe we aren’t.
Maybe we’re building something. We have to let ourselves build with it. If we push to hard, we deny ourselves the time to feel it. If we don’t push hard enough, what’s the point.
Relationships are about risk-taking for a reason.
The good ones are about knowing who we are and then letting others show us that we’re totally wrong because we can actually be who we didn’t know we could be. And sometimes they’re just to remind us what we can live without.
(Much of this amazing wisdom is care of my incredible soul-sister-the-universe-gave-me-a-perfect-college-roommate and some fucking great udon in Brooklyn. And finesse by JCS).

I think the same goes for any relationship.
Even for brands.
Because what it really comes down to is this.
People want to be inspired.
They want to believe in what companies make and how they sell. They want to believe in what they stand for and trust how they make them feel.
So, these kinds of relationships are also about risk-taking.

SO. Again. Branding, to me, isn’t about science or metrics.
IT’S ABOUT DOING COOL SHIT THAT MAKES US WANT TO DATE YOU!
And saying the things that make us want to BE WITH you!
IT’S ABOUT TREATING US AWESOME.
Creating beauty.
Having meaningful conversations.
Designing things people actually want that are good for them and good for the world and good for the planet.
BEING awesome.

Sometimes I just want to scream at people in the biz and in my life, “IT’S SO EASY WHY ARE YOU MAKING IT SO HARD?! JUST BE AWESOME!!! They know they can live without you… SO HOW HARD IS IT TO JUST DECIDE TO BE AWESOME AND THEN BE AWESOME?!!”
And then I realize I sound a little bit Lloyd Dobbler, and that makes me think I’m on the right track. I mean, he did get the girl in the end.

I’ve had some really interesting discussions lately with many of the planners in my life. About the pros and cons of freelance planning, “the planning group,” the brief… etc. (Thank you Jen, Josh, Brenna and @CuriousJul- if you had blogs, I’d link the shit out of you right now).

Here are some things we decided.

1. Briefs are stupid. Brief-ings are amazing. We need to stop filling in boxes like “support” and “target” and get inspired and inspiring. Find strategic ways in, create territories to explore and then do something experiential and on brand. There are no “things” called “insights” and there is no one right way to be amazing.

2. Freelance planning is really a win win. Freelancers actually live in the world. They have time to read books and travel and see movies and facebook at midnight and shop online AND in actual stores during business hours… and they are out and about on random Tuesdays with all the NPR Moms and Oprah lovers and they can stay out late on school nights at the cool bars with the YoPros or the new brew pubs with the Craftsmen. Their curiosity takes them all over the place, and then they are psyched and fresh and energized and can show up and BE AWESOME for a pitch or a project. It’s time agencies think outside their “productivity” and “billed hours” models and develop creative contracts that will keep their planners inspired and inspiring.

3. Dedicated planners need certain things. Like flexibility, the room and the fodder to be inspired, and the ability to immerse themselves in the world of their brand. Status meetings back-to-back all day long are a bad idea. A flexible schedule, trusting management style and open expectations are the things that let them live the brand and make insightful observations that they can tie to business objectives.

What else. About planning. ??

This letter is the second one (well it might be the 5th or 8th or something, but you don’t get to see the other ones!) that I wrote to John the Anthropologist during my trip to Australia… it’s more about ME. As an anthropologist… where it all started, how it all started, and what it’s meant to me… it’s personal, but so many people ask me to tell them how I became an anthropologist, like they would ask how the leopard got her spots, or how the turtle got his shell, and I finally gave, as John said, an answer that spoke from the heart, while in the moment.

So here’s The Story of How Emilie Became an Anthropologist, Twice

“My trip is almost over. I’ve seen pretty much all that I have time to see this visit- Sydney (Opera House takes my breath away), the surfers’ beaches up the East Coast, Melbourne’s city and rocky coast and the Central Desert with Uluru breathing beneath it. Did you know it goes down 10km deep into the ground? I sure didn’t. It’s amazing.

I’m a bit distracted right now since I sat down and was inundated with all the Osama Bin Ladenness on the facebooks and internets. Nothing like shedding tears in the middle of a hostel lounge across the world. It’s not even on the radio here, so everyone is looking at me like I’m nuts! Guess I’m going to remember this crappy cup of instant coffee forever. Perfect. And I’m running out of internet time so I’ll give you the short version of The Story.

Aboriginal culture is basically the reason I became an anthropologist. I read a book when I was about 19, on a canoe trip up at camp, that was a (fictional) account of a white woman’s encounters with aboriginal people. It was like this whole world opened up in front of me. I was totally engrossed, and the ideas in that book changed the way I saw my own life. When I went back to college, I realized that maybe I could read books like that AND get credit for it. An anthropology class in the course catalog looked like it might work, so I enrolled. And the introduction to the first book I read had a description of what anthropologists are at their core (you know, because anthropologists NEVER talk about themselves in the introduction). And I can remember the damn tree I was sitting under because it was one of THOSE moments, you know? I felt like that author was describing ME. Always on the outside looking in, wanting to understand people from their own perspectives, seeing the wonder and beauty and patterns and meaning beneath the world I saw around me. It’s probably why I feel so comfortable behind a camera too- this ability to observe the world, to see it, as you are living it.

Anyway, from that moment on, I knew I was an anthropologist. And anthropology really really has given me the whole world. In Cambodia alone, between the killing fields and Angkor Wat, I saw the best and worst of being human all in one day. And I’ve lived all over the world. And seen so many things that most people will never see, or even dream of seeing. I feel so damn lucky. So that’s the short version (really!) of why my visit to the outback was so profound. I didn’t even anticipate the emotional response I would have, but I had it. I guess it’s like that desert, and those cultures, have been calling to me for a long time and I didn’t hear them properly. Seeing the desert sand waves from the plane, walking around the small town and observing the conditions of the aboriginal people’s lives, seeing and feeling their artwork, and then walking on their land. Man, it was powerful. And that ROCK. The guide explained to us the geological phenomena that created it, it’s movement, it’s dance, and it’s like you can feel it breathing underneath you. And then you realize that the people of that area have a collective memory of maybe 100,000 years and they’ve been THERE that long, in that place, with that rock… they are related. Kin. You know? I can’t imagine the loss they felt when that land was lost. They’ve been uprooted and displaced in a way that few other people will ever understand.

I felt like things had come full circle for me. And that I was walking around my calling. Being reminded of who I am and what I do by walking on it and in it and with it.

Or something. Add to that experience the fact that we had an encounter with a fatal car wreck on the freeway on the way to the national park. A 32yr old man had CPR administered and died on the side of the highway as we were there. We had a doctor on our bus who ran out to try and help, but he said that the man had died when he was thrown from the car… which flipped 4 times and was totally upside down when we arrived. So I was reminded that I was alive, and what was amazing about that for so many reasons, all in three days. Really, Australia? I think I got it.

So I’m going to have to process all of that for the next forever or so.

And that’s The Story.

When did YOU know who you really were meant to be?

Photo: Alexis Melançon; near Uluru

I wrote the following first of two letters to a new/old anthropological friend. Thanks to John for letting me share them (I asked his permission, and edited them a bit) and for asking the questions in the first place.

His question:

“I know you have plenty of experience now, but did you ever feel anxiety while crafting a project? It’s not even anxiety really, just trying to figure out how to plan for the unknown, which is usually the best part.”

My answer:

Oh hi.
Things I’m thinking about today:
1. Labor in China becoming more expensive. The renaissance of the US labor market or is Mexico about to make a killing?
2. Reece Witherspoon in some crappy rom-com that I can’t remember the title of actually saying out loud that when her friends talk about their husbands and babies as what’s made their whole life complete… that she thinks they are lying. Even if just a little bit. Now, I don’t know if I’d go that far, but I do like an independent female character in mainstream media talking about how much she loves her life. Can we add a new archetype to the female canon?
3. How is it possible that I can’t find an expose on Aldi and Trader Joe’s ANYWHERE on the Googles??
4. The local trend. Eat local, buy local… what about TRAVEL local? I have this business/website idea, tell me what you think… TWiRL. Travel With Real Locals. When I travel, I don’t just want to go to the museums. I want to go to the museums and then walk down an alley to a great little cafe that isn’t in the tourbooks or posted on the hostel bulletin board. When I travel, I feel a huge gap between the Local and the Tourist worlds that I encounter. And I’d love it if somebody. Local. Wanted to pick me up and take me along on their awesome day of marketing and museuming and picnicking in the park. Maybe like couchsurfing or craigslist. This is a tiny idea.

What think?

As a rule, I dislike disclaimers. But I gotta do it this time…

1. This is so overdue I am embarrassed. Please forgive me, I’ve been conducting ethnography on homebrewers non-stop, maybe the next time I see you we can drink beer?

2. This post is powered by Ribena. If you are familiar with the sugar content in this little beverage from heaven, you will understand, I hope, if I ramble and/or use too many exclamation points forthwith.

3. I’m in Australia (see my photo blog). So I’m gonna use words like whilst and forthwith.

OK, getting on with it-

The little workshop called Strategy for Good is taking on a life of its own. AS IT SHOULD! We keep learning so much from the organizations and strategists who participate, and we want to keep growing. For that reason, this blog post will have purposes two:

1. Long belated summary-type thoughts from the workshop.
2. Call for growth and innovation ideas.

Alright. Number 1.

Preparation for the workshop continues to be a challenge for a few reasons. One of these is most assuredly because we’re calling on two of the most do-everything/workaholic industries ever- non-profits and ad folks. Which means that I often ask for commitment, and completed briefs, whilst preparing the workshop, but it’s just not realistic to expect these things to happen. However, this time around, I did in fat get questionnaires back from the organizations in enough time to see that WE HAD A THEME!

Two of the biggest areas that folks need help with, across the board, are fundraising and social media.

Yeah. I’ll say that again.

Fundraising and social media. Kinds sounds like a question and an answer, doesn’t it?

What is awesome, though, is that the brainstorming on Saturday went far beyond the now-tired “how do we “do fundraising” using social media?” It went instead to ideas about how building relationships and fostering engagement, using all of the tools that are relevant to their organizations (websites, events, conversations, etc.), can build a loyal base of supporters… who might just give you money someday.

Examples:

1. Create a digital library and make it available to all kinds of partners as a service (for example, when General Mills calls, have videos ready for their homepage… actually, they shouldn’t even call.)
2. Host contests that allow the organization to reach out into the community (for example, when a t-shirt is your fundraising mechanism, invite design students to compete in creating it).
3. Think about adjacencies and create conversations in the digital space (for example, if you are in youth services, talk to libraries, parks, etc. via twitter… like you’re mingling at a cocktail party.)
4. Create community events (speakers on public policy, chefs using local foods, etc) for your supporters using subjects that matter to you both.

And number 2.

In order to grow, Strategy for Good needs to practice what we preach- so we’ve tuned the tables on ourselves.

We need a website- it’s going to be a blog, but we’d love it to be pretty…

We need a logo- we’re thinking simple- using the S4G concept (and hmmm… see below on where we’re growing)- but we’d love a typographer to make us a font.

We have a vision- it is to foster collaboration between two big industries that usually have some economic hurdles to their connect-ability.

Organizations with social responsibility at their core (non-profit and for-profit)

and Advertising (whatever that actually means).

So if we’re just asking people with different skill sets and viewpoints to work together to make things better… then we think we really are

Collaborate for Good

C4G

And we can see our growth heading into areas like…

Design for Good.

D4G

For example.

Make sense?

Want to help us?

Email us! hello@thinkersandmakers.com

We all know that Lady Gaga has been outspoken in the area of politics in the past. But, God bless her, she’s turned a corner that other celebrities “with power in cause related areas” haven’t turned. Or at least haven’t done so publicly before.

She’s calling some pretty impressive shots- requiring that the Executives at Target Corp. sit down with her in a meeting to discuss where they donate Target’s monies before they get an exclusive album deal.

“”Part of my deal with Target is that they have to start affiliating themselves with LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] charity groups and begin to reform and make amends for the mistakes they’ve made in the past,” Gaga told Billboard. “Our relationship is hinged upon their reform.”

I’m sure there are pop stars out there that had make it or break it deals with various retailers and partners dependent on their political lean… but this feel different.

Gaga is not just saying, no, you don’t get to sell my stuff if I don’t like you. She’s saying, you don’t get to BE someone I don’t like, if you want to make money off of my brand. And she’s Gaga. Which means that basically she’s changing the direction of a major corporation, changing the flow of a huge amount of capital in American politics, and talking to EVERYONE about it. She’s the perfect Millennial pop star. She does what she wants, when she wants, and how she wants, she makes a ton of money, AND she’s civically, socially responsibly, engaged with society.

Can you imagine if everyone did that? In every arena? It’s like Gaga’s trying to save the world or something…

I’ve been reading a lot about honey bees. Apparently, Mark Twain once said if they all died, humans would have 4 yrs to live. We’ve started to think we’re awesome because we Think Local about where our food comes from and where we fit into a bigger picture… But maybe we should also Think Bee. ??

Penguin Classics realized that, thanks to e-readers, people no longer buy books-as-reading-material. Books aren’t tools or stories anymore. So they started creating books-as-artifacts. Now books are objects and art. I want all of them.

Minnesota is really cold right now. Like, REALLY cold. It’s winter, for REAL. And when it’s winter, for REAL, in Minnesota, you start to hear a lot of things. People talk about the weather because it’s an actual topic of conversation. Not small talk. I mean, when your skin freezes after being exposed for about .2 seconds, and there were recent snowmageddons which mean you can’t park anywhere close to where you are going, or see around corners, or do ANYTHING without it being an ORDEAL, the weather is stories. And inspiring.

My friend Hilary (11lightbulbs) and I have been talking about this. The inspiring. And how THAT’S why people live in places where there are seasons. It’s not because the changing colors are pretty (they are) or because snow creates a winter wonderland (it does), but it’s because sometimes winter SUCKS.

I mean, January is GONE. I have no idea where it went. Actually, I think I have no idea where ANY of the past four January’s have gone. Other than Jan 1 (one of the greatest days of the year), I have NO recollection. It’s like I hibernate. And then I emerge, not because it’s no longer cold and snowy and kinda terrible. But because I’m OVER IT. And determined to make something of the rest of the winter and not let it get to me. Some go to Mexico, STAT, in February and March. And some tough it out, but as the days get longer again, we get up and put on real clothes (not just casual Friday, oops it’s only Tuesday? clothes) and caffeinate and make shit happen. That’s where I’m at right now.

And THAT’S why we love the seasons. If we don’t know the darkness, the hibernation, the steeping of ourselves in coffee and sleep and movies and books, we don’t know the waking up. The inspiration. The NEED to be social. Our creativity goes through the seasons, not just our trees.

So I read this article on the possibility for human hibernation. And I get it. I don’t think I would hate waking up in April 20lbs lighter. But I’m not sure I’m willing to sacrifice my experience of the darkness. The withdraw into myself. The deepening of my ideas and relationships with snow and ice and blackness and sunlight. Or the amazing winter culture that only people with winter can have. The bonding over ice dams. The Irish Whiskey. The discount at Sebastian Joe’s. Cabin weekends in the snow. You know?