Seth nails it:  Tom Chappell sells out

The gonzo motorcycle masters at Ducati — quite possibly the stewards of the world’s greatest brand — have started blogging, and it just makes perfect sense from every angle.  Ducati goes to market using something called "tribal marketing", which is shorthand for applying the majority of their marketing spend not on silly pieces of advertising in order to lure in people who come from an unfriendly world view, but on things and activities which amplify the natural world-of-mouth tendencies of the tribe of desmo, the Ducatisti.  It works.

Federico Minoli is a dream blogger for a passion-driven company like Ducati.  He is to Ducati as Bob Lutz is to GM (and you know that Lutz is the heart and soul of GM’s Fastlane blog), except that, unlike Lutz, Minoli’s setup at Ducati also gives him the power to call the shots that bring to market the essential product goodness which he knows so well.  They’re both great marketing and product minds, and it’s a delight to live in a time where it’s so easy to hear them thinking out loud.

Blogging is an essential part of the modern marketing mix.  B2C, B2B — I think it’s critical to both.  If your marketing site doesn’t have some sort of RSS feed, fire your CMO.  Or at least accelerate their firing process.

And…. so as not end on a down note… Forza Ducati!

photo via Flickr

A while back I wrote about BMW’s initiative to build a "new" 1972 2002tii, a tangible brand mantra, from original parts.  This is a very pure form of brand building which comes from a position of strength: if you got it, it ain’t braggin’.  Flaunt it.

Honda has it, too.  That’s why this stunning commercial, called Impossible Dream, is in fact an exercise in tangible brand mantras.  They’re simply reminding us of all their soulful technical achievements. Here’s more about the making of the commercial.  Turn up the volume, and smile.

gladwell.com

The best piece of Super Bowl marketing today won’t be found on a TV. 

In terms of keeping it real, delivering something unique and remarkable, and just plain being interesting, nothing can hold a candle to Ben Roethlisberger’s blog.

Marketing can be, could be, should be, a mouthpiece for The Truth.  It’s very hard for a synthetic piece of advertising to live up to that ideal.  Sure, Rothlisberger’s blog isn’t something every player could produce, but it’s a worthy standard of measure.   If you’re a fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers, do you feel more soulfully connected to the brand if you read this or this?
The answer is clearly the latter.  Why?  Because RSS combined with
authentic, human content signals a new paradigm of marketing
communications.   

If you’ve spent any time at all wandering the halls of metacool, you know that I actively shun cynicism and empty criticism.  Design thinking, after all, is all about being generative, optimistic, and forward-looking.

But sometimes I just have to wonder what’s wrong with a universe where things like this can happen: Ferrari Barbie

Enzo would not be pleased.

A while back I mused that "Nano is the new Turbo".

I was wrong:  Zepto is the new Nano.

My wish for 2006 is that some marketer, somewhere, brands something "Zepto", and that a competitor quickly ups the ante to "Yocto".  I really want to own something called "Yocto".  Yocto Yocto Yocto

As usual, Seth and I are in violent agreement.  Substitute "design thinker" for "architect", and you’ve got the blueprint for the stuff that creates good, generative marketing: Great Marketers are Architects

Yesterday in the class I teach at the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford (aka "the d.school") we had a fascinating discussion about how Ducati creates meaning in the marketplace.  The starting point for the discussion is a Harvard Business School case by Giovanni Gavetti which asks the question "to cruise, or not to cruise?"  In other words, should Ducati enter the lucrative market for cruiser motorcycles at the risk of diluting an intensely meaningful brand built up over 60 years?

For me, the best part of running this class is the support I get from the folks at Ducati North America and some local owner’s clubs.  Not only did we have a wide variety of Ducati motorcycles on display for the class, we also had the pleasure of having Ducati North America CEO Michael Lock provide us with his thoughts and insights about the process of creating and celebrating meaning.  If the measure of a good teaching experience is the learning you glean from the process, then for me this session was a bumper crop.

And the roar of those Desmos wasn’t half bad, either! 

Here’s hoping that the new Ducati Hypermotard concept (above) makes it to market.  It’s a stunning, gutsy, and… wow!