Asymmetric Biz Cult Episode 4: A Look At Branding
We take an interesting look at branding, new media, internet strategy, business strategy, and all kinds of crazy stuff.. What’s interesting about this episode, in my view anyway, is that it’s branding in light of disruptive technologies… which is, dare I say, interesting stuff. See I have certain contentions about how branding is likely to change inside of the social media space… to use slightly vogue-ish buzz phrasing.. My contentions enter into the “prophetic,” in the sense that they supply an analysis of the systemic forces of our world and how the “disruptions” would effect the systemic.. and how the systemic effect the human. My analysis takes us through the fields of psychoanalytic theory, globalization, industrialization, the French revolution, comparative mythology, philosophy, politics, as well as business management, marketing, and branding.. With this analysis we paint a new picture of new possibilities… that’s probably a little unlike anything you’ve quite encountered before… even if you’re an expert in some of these areas.
This might be a part one of a 3 part series:
We talk about the notion of people building there identity around brand identification, which has a particular relationship to post modern ideas of identity as well as race matters. The modern, most enlightened, ideas of race talk about race as being more about ethnic identity then biology. Understanding the roll identity plays in our lives is therefor probably important for how we think about brands, and so an exploration of this stuff would seem to make considerable sense for a follow up episode.
When one takes a good look at psychology types one can say the sort of metrics which we inherit from the legacy of a Newtonian based industrial engineering, and management science is a “mature expression” of certain psychology types. (mainly an extroverted thinking sensation type.) So that the way we think about things like brands and brand management, along with business more generally, is not really an expression of a “whole person.” (what of introversion, feeling, and intuition?) When one understands the natural way the psyche works to seek equilibrium, one understands there being a certain gravity in the human psyche that suggests a movement towards underrepresented psychology types.. So, as a for instance, instead of relying entirely on a metrics based analysis, maybe we look deeper into intuition insides of certain contexts… So what I’m interested in is how can we evolve “the other half” of our beings, for strategic advantage.
All of this is tipified when you look at the issues of the psychology of the fine artist and commercial artist’s process. Essentially, what would Salvador Dali’s, Max Ernst’s, or John Cage’s approach to the issue of branding be if branding was there painting / composition?
It just so happens that the branding process for Asymmetric Biz Cult has been a process of a dialog with the unconsious, which is very similar to the sort of process you would find in surrealism. It’s exactly what we see in the work of Jackson Pollock. This seems to me, interesting… if amazingly out there and experimental.
For further reading we recommend:
Gurrilla Publicity
The Unusually Useful Web Book
And of course Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra, (particularly the chapter on the three Metamorphosis of the Spirit.)
Some of the Leftist cannon:
Thedore Ardono
Michel Foucalt
Karl Marx
Noam Chomsky
Howard Zinn
Cornell West
You might also like to check out this linke on brand management.
I put these guys in because they to provide us with a certain cultural critique that I think is valuable for thinking about disruptive technologies.. which might sound utterly bizarre but.. you might be surprised.. For instance Foucualt very good at talking about power relationships.. fundamentally social media seems to me to be about power diffusion.. Howard Zinn and Cornell West will often talk about collective action as a force for social political change… which social media empowers. Theodor Adorno and Noam Chomsky have talked about how the media, and power, control the flow of information through our culture / society.. understanding there critiques can help us to understand what happens when that control breaks down. Tom Friedman has suggested that Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto predicted certain aspects of modern Globalization… So wether or not your own political temperament has to say about the value of the American Left’s intellectual foundations, it does seem that these foundations to have some value for trying to figure out where to skate so that we might meet the puck at that future date…
How’s that for a New Hippy Capitalism?
For podcasts I have 2 amazing recommendations:
The Managing the Gray episode on Channel Fragmentation and Brand, with Guest Host Chris Penn (Episode 19)
Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Podcast on What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20.
I also recommend Design Matters, on the intersection of branding, graphic design, and culture.
