Date: December 29, 2000

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The Industry Standard's "IDentity" conference was held on
November 30, 2000, at The Palace Hotel, San Francisco, CA
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Dear Clients, Partners, and Fellow Marketing Revolutionaries:

Well, valued readers, I hope this isn't too soon to be sending you yet another conference report. I've been sensitive lately to overloading you with too many too soon -- knowing how much of a load it's been on *me* these past several weeks, keeping up with the damn schedule!

Yes, it's been a busy conference season, indeed--certainly my heaviest travel time of the year. So, I thought it best to hold off till after the Christmas holiday, when things tend to slow down for most of us, before sending the next in the series.

This is my report on a great first-time event called "IDentity," which took place recently in San Francisco. Though it's been a few weeks now, I think it's still very timely information for anyone involved in marketing, PR, and branding in our New Economy.

So, herewith for your reading pleasure, the report as I filed it to Conferenza.com earlier this month, plus a selection of the best quotes from the event. I hope it provides some helpful insights for you, as this crazy Year 2000 finally draws to a close (and the real millennium begins!)....

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Marketers Rush The Palace Gates

by Graeme Thickins
grt@gtamarketing.com

Did someone say the conference business is slowing down? Don't tell the almost 700 marketing types who literally lunged into the opening session at The Standard's latest conference concept-- the first one of its confabs focused on marketing and branding. I damn near got mowed down just sauntering in with my coffee.

Drawing a much larger crowd than expected (especially in these times), The Standard appears to have either picked another winner, or just experienced more blind luck--as even they admit they had with the launch of their original iB2B event in March, at the height of all that hysteria (and barely more than two weeks before the Nasdaq bubble burst).

This situation, however, was different, because the conference wasn't focused on a specific class of Internet business, or The Standard's usual audience of CEOs and senior execs, or even on the Internet for that matter--but rather on a horizontal business function or discipline (though one admittedly much affected by the Internet). The result was a first-time event that seemed a success by almost any measure--even if it did occur in one of the worst weeks ever for stocks of technology and New Economy companies. (Perhaps IDentity's legacy will be the event that marked the bottom?)

A strong mix of speakers and panelists included the heads of two of the web's biggest players--potentially, anyway: the online store of the country's biggest retailer, and the online services venture of a certain, ah, large software company. Also on the dias were two former CMOs of Coca-Cola, several execs from major ad agencies and identity firms, a legendary evangelist turned VC, a leading 'Net advertising expert, and brand chiefs from a couple of large traditional companies, as well as token(?) representation by a few of their newer, pure-play Internet brethren.

Content highlights and insights were plenty -- one of the most memorable being an assessment of the current state of marketing made by Laurie Coots, CMO of TBWA/Chiat Day, who declared: "We're off our game." Her take is that the Internet hysteria of the last couple years -- Super Bowl commercial excesses, et al -- distracted marketers. "Now it's time to get back to work," she said.

What is a brand? We heard several good definitions, including the favorite of Peter Sealy, UC Berkeley professor and former Coke marketing head: "The commercial value of the trust consumers collectively put in a product or company." Another one: "It's a promise, and it only exists in the hearts and minds of consumers," courtesy of TBWA/Chiat Day's Laurie Coots. And perhaps the most compelling: "A simple story, simply told," offered up by Yahoo's Jerry Shereshewsky, in describing his own company's very successful brand.

New Branding Mantra

But a factor often missed, attendees were told, is that brands are about people. They're the storytellers, one speaker said. And it's the employee experience that is increasingly defining a brand in our economy, others put forth--that is, culture.

Those who came for insights into brand ROI likely left disappointed, as about the only memorable takeaway was that the profession is still searching for "a meaningful set of metrics." And a session on brand valuation also failed to shed much new light on that related subject.

A trend now in branding is a return to simplicity, avoiding the complexity and brand clutter of the past. Simplicity is hard work, we were told, but necessary for today's world.

IDentity attendees also got to hear the CEO of WalMart.com speak about how this major retail brand is now faring on the web, with its newly re-launched site--at least its third try, it seems. The new site is about simplicity and ease of use, CEO Jeanne Jackson said. But the main story was this: Jackson said what will make the new site succeed is a focus not on whiz-bang technology features, nor the quantity of "skus" (products) they put up -- but on categories or departments where "breadth of assortment" matters.

Geeks Do Branding, Over and Over and...

A panel called "Identity Crisis" examined another major case study, that of Microsoft's MSN online service--which too is in its (yawn) third iteration. Yusef Mehdi, MSN vice president, described the three phases in the life of the brand. The first, starting in 1995, was to build an online service. Second, in 1997, MSN set out to deliver multimedia, in a phase he called "content is king"--from which efforts like Carpoint and Expedia emerged. And, finally, in 1999, Microsoft made the decision to reposition the site as "a portal to get things done." The target, MSN decided, should be "the unfulfilled 'Net user." But the company learned it had no identity, and only 3% unaided awareness. So, it set about trying to decide "what was the soul of MSN?" Mehdi said.

In what could only be described as a meeting in which many of the marketers in attendance would have liked to be a fly on the wall, Bill Gates himself and 300 others gathered in a big room one day, Mehdi told us, to hammer it all out--to decide "who we are," he said. They couldn't be another AOL or Yahoo, they knew. The result was they decided what Microsoft is good at is software and services, so they would focus MSN on search, shopping, and email. "Our brand would be the shopping experience," Mehdi said, "The ultimate you could do on the web."

They also set about changing the logo, against Steve Ballmer's initial wishes, just because the old one was "so cold." The new butterfly logo is now everywhere, and the star in all new advertising, on and off line. Recent Media Metrix numbers have shown that MSN is experiencing faster growth than its competitors, and unaided awareness has gone from 3% to 18%. The essence of the brand came out in a followup moderator question, when Yusef Mehdi said, "We won't be an ISP. We won't be hip or trendy -- because that goes out of style. We will be lasting and adult-savvy." Got all that now? (Note to marketplace: there *will* be a test.)

Who's Running This Conference, Anyway?

The exhuberance (pushiness?) of the assembled touchy-feely multitude was most indicative in the session in which Guy Kawasaki presented his "Top 10 Lessons of PR." Always a popular and humorous speaker, Guy decided to give his standing-room-only crowd, in this the most packed of the conference sessions, even *more* than the billing: not only his top-10 on PR, but his same take on evangelism and business development as well! (If you'd like to get all these, just email me.)

Halfway through the latter, as the session was running over, John Eckhouse, The Standard's managing editor of events, tried to end it, and was roundly yelled off stage so Guy could finish. The popularity of the legendary evangelist among marketers appears not to have waned, even as he's moved on to run his own venture, Garage.com -- which he carefully pointed out has evolved from its "incubator" positioning, now being thoroughly trashed in the marketplace, into what he calls "a venture capital investment bank." It seems mere words still very much matter in this identity and branding game.

The IDentity conference closed with an interesting case study by Volvo and two of its agencies on "The 360-Degree Brand," an example of what new technologies and online promotion can do personalize a brand: specifically, their recent sports car introduction, exclusively on AOL. To date, they said it's their most successful ever. (Volvo scored major branding points, with an audience that happened to be a dead-on demographic for them, too. I'm actually thinking, hey, I could drive one of these things now myself! And I never thought I'd say that...)

Secret Ingredient

A recap of the event followed by host Phil Terry, CEO of Creative Good, who was entertaining and thought-provoking throughout. Terry closed by saying he "believed in the power of passion," and challenged attendees to return to work Monday and start developing "a personal mission for yourself." They don't teach passion at Harvard Business School, he said, but encouraged us to use it to "help make all this work, for the good of everyone."

The Standard's first try at a marketing event, what some untrained observers might call only a niche play, was a respectable start at what will likely become a recurring event. At least two sessions were far from winners, and some moderators in others failed to keep panelists on topic, or to deliver on the promise of the (sometimes convoluted) session descriptions. And the event was a bit too much to cram into a single day--which cut into the schmooze factor as well. But, overall, based on the reactions I heard, this event seemed to win in the most important way, by satisfying customers. And, after all, that's how you build a brand-- which The Standard would seem to know something about with its meteoric success to date. Can they keep up their touch? Stay tuned...

Selected Quotes from the "IDentity" Conference:

"A recent study showed that 43% of online shoppers
don't succeed in buying what they're seeking. About
40% of those succeed in getting the product into their
basket, but then can't get out of the store! It's like
there's a guard there who says, 'You can't buy till
you tell me your password'."
- Phil Terry, CEO, Creative Good

"My first experience on the web was at Gap.com, and
we found there that use of leading-edge technology
slowed down sales. So, we parted with the fancy stuff,
went to more selection and ease of use, and it worked."
- Jeanne Jackson, CEO, WalMart.com

"We didn't know anything about community
when we launched iVillage."
- Robert Levitan, CEO, Flooz.com
(speaking of his previous employer)

"The IPO was the end-game for a lot of companies...
Many thought name recognition was the main thing,
but branding is much more than that. It's this:
What is the promise? How will you deliver on it?
And how will you merchandise to support it?"
- Laurie Coots, Chief Marketing Officer -
North America, TBWA/Chiat Day

"We have a robust, strong brand--but not exactly the
one we want for our future growth businesses....We
haven't abandoned our old logo, but we as a company
misinterpreted how to use identity. Our logo hasn't
been different for 16 years!"
- Steve Block, VP/Brand Management, AT&T

"If you learn how to work with a community, you'll
have an army of evangelists who'll never let you down."
- Laurie Coots, Chief Marketing Officer -
North America, TBWA/Chiat Day

"We observed, in many startups over the past couple
years, business development people who didn't know
how to say no things that weren't on strategy--they
were doing bad deals."
- Laurie Coots, Chief Marketing Officer -
North America, TBWA/Chiat Day

"Product development and marketing
are becoming more entwined."
- Phil Terry, CEO, Creative Good

"How do we ignite consumer excitement?
We capture that 'first time' experience."
- Yusef Mehdi, VP, MSN

"We've taken advantage of the 'viralness' of
the web. People tell others about things!"
- Jerry Shereshewski, Direct Yahoo, Yahoo!

"We feel we can deliver on service, for a variety
of audiences. Our strategies are to be content driven
and distribution neutral, to provide interactive
programming--since more than 50% of our viewers
are online--and, thirdly, one mission, many screens...
that is, beyond just the TV."
- Cindy Johanson, Senior VP,
Internet & Broadband, PBS

"We use what we call 'web markers' within
our programming -- URL titles at the bottom.
We're treating our TV programming as an
executive summary of the web site."
- Cindy Johanson, Senior VP,
Internet & Broadband, PBS

"Part of the blowup this last few months is
because we got away from *people* -- not aligning
them with the company, with all the mergers and
bringing cultures together. One of our portfolio
companies, Motley Fool, has a very definitive,
positive culture inside the company---which they've
successfully extended outside to the customer."
- Judy Neuman, Operating Partner, Maveron LLC
(a VC firm focused on consumer businesses)

"A brand personality is extremely hard to change.
The consumer's always been in charge."
- Jerry Shereshewski, Direct Yahoo, Yahoo!

"We've spent very little in advertising--we're the
misers of the business. But we've integrated all
the other media very well."
- Jerry Shereshewski, Direct Yahoo, Yahoo!

"What's branding? Building the myth, the story--
that's what it's all about!"
- Jerry Shereshewski, Direct Yahoo, Yahoo!

"When I was with Eddie Bauer, none of us had ever met
him--he was long dead. But we proved you can build on
the story, if it's real. How do you do that? By keeping
an archive and history, handed down directly from the
leader, and pushing that out to the organization."
- Judy Neuman, Operating Partner, Maveron LLC

"Eddie Bauer didn't start to license its name till
decades after building the story -- so the deal
with Ford was a natural alignment. You can't do
brand extensions prematurely."
- Judy Neuman, Operating Partner, Maveron LLC

"Stewardship of the brand is extremely critical.
Sombody's got to be in charge."
- Jerry Shereshewski, Direct Yahoo, Yahoo!

"Hopefully, what we've been going through lately with
the economy will bring discipline to marketing practice."
- Judy Neuman, Operating Partner, Maveron LLC

"Do we allow advertising online? Yes, even with a
call to action--which we never do on TV. But we
have to online."
- Cindy Johanson, Senior VP,
Internet & Broadband, PBS

"This is a time of heartache. I've worked with
entrepreneurs who've given their all for two
or three years...Now, together with traditional
companies, we will make it work. People slamming
each other is not the answer."
- Judy Neuman, Operating Partner, Maveron LLC

"How powerful simple is, but how *hard* it is to do."
- Phil Terry, CEO, Creative Good

"The *employee* experience is being ignored by too
many companies. It's directly tied to brand!"
- Phil Terry, CEO, Creative Good

"PR has radically changed in recent years. It used
to be that ink would solve everything, but it's the
exact opposite now. Today, if you get *buzz*, then
you'll get ink."
- Guy Kawasaki, CEO, Garage.com
(and formerly Chief Evangelist, Apple Computer)

"Be one thing to *all* people. You should be so
lucky as to do just this. All things leads to crap!"
- Guy Kawasaki, CEO, Garage.com
(and formerly Chief Evangelist, Apple Computer)

"Cut the crap! No more press conferences, no more
launch parties, no more news releases!....There,
I just saved you a quarter of a million dollars!"
- Guy Kawasaki, CEO, Garage.com
(and formerly Chief Evangelist, Apple Computer)

"Companies spend too much on marketing, and not
enough on user experience."
- Stephen Dull, Partner, Customer Relationship
Management, Andersen Consulting

"How do I work with these new, non-marketing
oriented tech startups? I don't tell them what
a brand is, but what it can do."
- Sergio Zyman, CEO, ZMarketing
(and former CMO at Coca-Cola)

"The brands you prefer are the ones that have
the most *meaning* to you, over time."
- Sergio Zyman, CEO, ZMarketing
(and former CMO at Coca-Cola)

"The clarity of message is critical. The Harley
brand is clear. They're not in the motorcycle
business, but *lifestyle*."
- Ken Cooke, Chief Creative Officer,
Siegel & Gale

"The question today should be 'Who owns the
responsibility for consistency across channels
for your brand?' Before her current role as CEO
at eBay, Meg Whitman's title in a previous job
at Disney was simply "Mickey's Manager."
- Adam Klein, President, Ask Jeeves
(and formerly Meg Whitman's boss at Hasbro)

"Is is possible today to have a consistent global
brand on the 'Net? Yes, it has to be! Strategy
should be centralized, but brand execution must
be distributed locally."
- Adam Klein, President, Ask Jeeves

"This new domain name thing (the new upper-level
domains recently approved by ICANN) is going to
cause major disruption."
- Doug Wood, trademark attorney,
Hall Dickler Kent Goldstein & Wood

"What new technologies can we expect to make the 'Net
more brand-friendly? We need three things, and they're
all right around the corner: instant on, navigation
that's like the remote control, and full-motion video."
- Warren Littlefield, President,
The Littlefield Company

"The Internet is now joined by wireless and interactive
TV as new platforms. Millions of IP addresses will be
multiplying into billions."
- Rich LeFurgy, Chairman, Internet Advertising Bureau,
and General Partner, WaldenVC

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I hope this report provided some insights for you, and I'd
enjoy getting your feedback.

Again, if you'd like to be among the first to receive my reports in
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Now that the event season is slowing down for a while,
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Just email me, and I'm there.

your faithful, somewhat-over-traveled (yet
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and 'buzz-seeking-missile' conference reporter,
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Graeme Thickins, Founder & Principal Consultant
GT&A Strategic Marketing Inc.
*Twin Cities *LA *SF *Anywhere
Voice: 952/944-1672
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And Editor-in-Chief:
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Check out our home page for past conference coverage, and also
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Watch for more of our conference coverage soon, including
Jupiter's "Ground Zero 4" in LA, and Line56 Magazine's
"Line56Live! New York"....

And, hey, if you have opinions about other events I should
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