AK Cabell

BRAND SABOR

AK Cabell — Thu, 22 May 2008 12:58:03 GMT

I live in Baltimore City, and when I drive miles down MD-45, York Road, it takes me into the world of suburbia, Baltimore County. And sometimes I just want to be there because it smells really, really good out there.

Yes, I said it smells good.

Because I know that if I keep driving I will hit the epicenter, which is Baltimore County's version of Potomac, aptly called Hunt Valley (still known by old-school natives as Cockeysville). I’ve run smack into the town that houses the one of the largest spice distributors and makers in the world: McCormick Company’s manufacturing plant. You know McCormick’s well: they’re the giant seasoning, extracts and spices brand. They make the kinds of seasonings your mother used in those delicious cakes and cookies you only ate on Thanksgiving and never savored again for the rest of the year. Trust me; you can smell the nutmeg heavy in the air out in Hunt Valley.

But if you’re Mama or Nana was too busy making a spicy rub for her jerk chicken or making an elaborate arroz con pollo, and wasn’t even thinking about cookies, she probably wasn’t using McCormick brand seasonings to flavor it up. She was either concocting her own recipe from her garden of herbs and spices, or, maybe…just maybe…

…She was at the supermarket searching high and low for some Badia stuff.

Voted on by Hispanic Business Magazine as one the Top 500 Hispanic-Owned brands in 2007, Badia has been gracing the shelves of both small, international food stores in Hispanic and Caribbean communites as well as national chain grocery stores. Their mission statement on their website packs a punch:

“Badia strives to be the strongest ethnic line of spices in the marketplace, with the most competitive prices and an exceptional selection of products for consumers to choose from.”

The strongest ethnic line of spices in the marketplace? Yeah, no kidding. For me, you win, hands down. (A hot debate topic, but definitely not a good topic on an empty stomach: others argue for the Goya brand in this category.) I first met the Badia brand at a dinner party in Brooklyn and I can happily say we have been friends ever since.

My only gripe? Limited distribution! Badia is not available in the Midwest or even the West Coast at all. I mean, can your brand be “the strongest” line of ethnic spices if distribution is limited? I’m hoping I can get a podcast interview with the marketing team or even the CEO to find out more about this.

Because I mean, really…

Shouldn’t everyone be able to enjoy a dish with a little Chimichurri steak sauce on it?

Come on now, people…taste the love.

BRAND SWAGGER

AK Cabell — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 01:32:43 GMT

    Given the endless amount of negative imagery concerning the African American male (and on the heels of the whole LeBron Vogue cover, nonetheless), when positive black reflection is done right, you must tip your slightly tilted fedora. Or raise your glass. Either way, mine is nodding towards the Sean John brand these days.

    (Okay...My locs were blown back a bit from their website, too. But I digress, because...)

    I just finished watching MTV's documentary of Sean Combs revolutionary NY Fashion Week show (which was back in February), "The Story of a King." Beautifully shot, tastefully edited and also, a nice little inside peek into the real Sean Combs: a workaholic perfectionist.

    Combs own statement from his company's press release reads: "I am so excited that this documentary is airing at such a crucial moment for the Sean John brand as this year marks our 10th anniversary. What better way to emblazon the current success of the brand and to recognize our unbelievable past."

    It really was a revolutionary vision: to have an entire high end NY Fashion Week runway show solely featuring African American male models. Early in the doc, even his hired fashion team couldn't get it right. I do believe that when we demand that our image be respected as we embrace our heritage, embrace our looks, we gain control of who we are. This documentary was self-affirming. Ah, marketers, ad world--take note!

    I get the feel that Combs being a Harlem brother is not shy of leaning the brand towards a Harlem Renaissance look, a time when black men--be it numbers runner, literary stars or jazz musicians--enjoyed the sheer sophicated look of a good suit. It's possible I'm romantacizing here, after all--I'm a whippersnapper who only read about the Harlem Renaissance (and so did you!). But because Combs himself is always impeccably dressed, his brand doesn't have to scream: it speaks softly and says, "I am a power-player. All eyes on me."

    (Which is why I don't understand the first t-shirt on the website. But the second: I AM THE BLACK AMERICAN DREAM is much better. Still: his brand doesn't have to scream.)

A BRAND NUBIAN (Or, "The real reason for this blog")

AK Cabell — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 01:05:05 GMT

    Brand spanking new blog on--you guessed it--brands!

    And why, say you, are brands important OR not important at all?

    Being a writer and observer since I was nine, I've had my own fascinations with certain subjects that I didn't think anyone would be interested in. Branding was one of them. So I'll give you one of the stories from my own family.

    I grew up in a family with six brothers and sisters in Seattle, Washington in the eighties during the Reagonomics era. My father, the only breadwinner, was always trying to find ways to cut costs. To say we were on a bugdet was almost laughable. My father had extreme ways of cutting costs, including making his own sandles, buying any and everything from second, third, fourth and fifth hand stores, and making unusual low-cost grocery store selections. Sounds thrifty, doesn't it? The only problem was, my father would take on these extreme cost cutting measures and then abandon them halfway through only when he got sick of it. Thankfully, my mother's organic garden was really the only thing that worked from this sustainable lifestyle my father was striving for.

    So one day, my father came home from Stock Market, the big grocery store in the South End of Seattle and announced that was giving up buying his favorite beer, Miller High Life. No, that beer was getting way too expensive, he said. And then he pulled something out from a bag that made us kids run back into our makeshift bedrooms and stifle our laughter; but we were horrified at the same time. Even my mother stared at him in disbelief.

It was a carton of beer. A solid gray carton with the big bold letters in black: BEER stamped right on the front. And on the front of each single can of beer the same word was there: BEER.

    It was official. My family had gone...generic.

    So we crawled back out, determined we would watch this new entity that had descended upon our family very carefully.

    And when the sun went down behind Mt. Rainier, and my father sat in his favorite, janked-up Archie-Bunker looking recliner, and the last dish had finally been washed, we could wait no longer to get the verdict.

    I think it was my sister Olivia who had the backbone to actually ask:

    "So, uh...Daddy? How's your new beer?"

    My father clicked open a fresh, cold new can. He sighed, reared back in his chair, and took a sip. He licked the foam from his lips and was silent for a moment. And then he said:

    "Well. I guess it is what it says it is. Taste like pure sh*t."

    Now mind you--my father continued to buy these generic products from this Stock Market store--gray box, black letters. He would buy products for us that we'd better eat if we knew what was good for us: CEREAL, PEANUT BUTTER, BREAD.

    But when it came to his little favorites? It was brands all the way.

    The point of this blog is this: We can't escape them even if we wanted to. They're in our hair. They're in our closets. They're stamped on our vehicles. They're stamped on our kids clothes.

    They are the reason why you got that look from your grandmother or aunt when you tried to buy her a different kind of cold cream or different pair of stocking than the ones she normally buys.

    They are brands.

    Sadly, some personalities are even shaped by them, even complete lifestyles are shaped by them. Our behavior surrounding brands defines how we feel about quality product and essentially, helps a corporation ascend. And the shareholders bank accounts bulge.

    And I feel that no other community is personally affected by brands more than African Americans and Hispanic markets.The black US and Latino combined consumer spending power is currently estimated at $1.4 trillion. Right, no typo there--$1.4 TRILLION. From tweens to the coveted 18-35, to our baby boomers, to our seniors. Yes, we need to be in the forefront of brand marketing discussion.

    This blog will review current brands, have podcast and video interviews with brand marketing experts, and we'll look at folks who have managed to successfully brand themselves, whether you like 'em or not (i.e., Oprah, LeBron James, Michael Jordan, George Foreman, Tyra Banks, ZANE).

    From my end, you will get the US scoop on which brands are hot, but we'll also look at which brands get the gas face (remember that eighties lingo?)--in other words, what brands have utterly ripped the African American and Hispanic communities apart? We'll look at what brands you feel should never get black and brown dollars again.

    We'll also get the international black and brown p.o.v. from Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America, and Europe. What brands are hot, what's not, what brands are on the rise, and what brands have that dreaded word "globalization" shadowing them?

    I'll try not to bombard with you with thousands of posts and I will try to answer each comment. If this is a blog-journey you want to take, Then read on and prosper, I think it's a brand new day for you.

BRAND ROYALTY

AK Cabell — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 01:08:01 GMT

It seems no millennium era NBA player ranks higher up the blogospere than LeBron James—oops, sorry KING James. His immense talent has garnered him saint-ly status among fans and his net worth makes the folks on Madison Ave drool. His publicity meter is back up to fill tilt with the new Vogue cover in which he poses for the April “Shape” issue with supermodel Gisele Bundchen, (the cover is a little odd, it actually looks like Gisele is pulling away from LeBron-obviously I'm no art or photo director/editor, but I think it still would've been cool to have LeBron in a suit and tie or something else classy because if he's in shape he's in shape. I get it that she's the model, he's the athlete. But I would've liked to have seen something different. And down from the soapbox I come) only the third man in Vogue Magazine’s history to be placed on the cover. And he appears on the cover of ESPN Magazine’s April issue for the fifth time.

But what I find even more fascinating about LeBron James are his skills off the court. Business wise, that is. When James fired his original agents, brothers Aaron and Eric Goodwin to hire his own marketing firm made up of himself and three childhood friends from Akron, Ohio, LRMR Marketing and Branding, the sports world looked at him with eyes wide shut. You could feel the sports writers, analysts and bloggers cringing. I found it intriguing that a young black man with enormous athletic talent and starpower could use his status to develop his brand—himself—and do this with loyalty and respect for his childhood friends. Naturally, everyone gets a little rich a long the way. And we’ve all read instances where the celebrity will set up businesses for friends or even go into side ventures once they actually blow up. But LeBron did something a little different. LRMR doesn’t just want LeBron to be a “"global icon”—they want to hire other athletes for the same purpose.

So MTV Cribs and endorsements be damned: what many critics still consider a ridiculous move for an NBA megastar, let alone a ROOKIE—to turn over your entire career to your buddies, your buddies who didn’t go to Harvard Business Schools—is still an impressive, bold move to me. Smart? Don’t know yet. Remember it was the Goodwins who secured that nice little 90 million dollar NIKE endorsement in the beginning. Hardly small potatoes. But I do know that LRMR plans to build “partnerships” instead of just endorsements by seeking equity stake in various corporations which isn’t novice or dumb by far.

And yes--their website. Sigh. Let's just hope this gets a makeover SOON. It's already been a little too long. Maybe they're searching for the right content writer. (Hint: LRMR--I'm available!!!!)

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