Other than Coke, many would be hard pressed to find a brand that is unable to change or modify what it sells because of a quasi-fear of its customers. A well known example of this conflict, between brand managers and customers, was the 1985 launch of ‘New Coke’, which spurred protests across the country.

The video below, from the 1985 ‘New Coke’ protest, speaks to the uncommon relationship between the Coke brand and its customers.

Something stark was said in the video above, “Very disappointed, I think we have lost the American tradition…the real taste is gone. It’s not there.” When the man says ‘We have lost the American tradition’ he is referring to Coke the cultural force, not the product. We are talking about something more powerful than a sugary soda– this is the power of a brand.

Coke’s recent announcement to pull its seasonal white can due to a similar, but certainly less intense, customer backlash illustrates that this relationship is still alive and well today. A Wall Street Journal article summarized the specific complaints customers had with this white can, “…it looked confusingly similar to Diet Coke’s silver cans, [felt the] Coke tasted different in the white cans, and others argued that messing with red bordered on sacrilege.”

In fact, a 17 year old criticized Coke’s changed color, “You can’t change something that’s classic.”

That’s right—a 17 year old teenager is telling Coke’s brand managers that they can’t innovate its product because it is classic. This isn’t a teenager’s rebellious attitude— its an ethos that epitomizes an entire nation’s love affair with the anything-but-sugar-water Coke has become.

Coke’s brand is so powerfully intertwined with American culture that America is now the steward of its brand.  It can’t change its formula or packaging because it is such a cultural icon, such a mainstay in a marketplace of constantly changing tastes and preferences, that it is ‘cuffed by its caffeinated followers into a stalemate. Coke’s brand has become the property of an entire nation.

For Coke, this is the perfect problem to have.

For marketing and branding to matter again, companies have to create authentic messages that reconnect brands and, well, people.  We don’t solely buy products because of what they do—we ‘consume’ brands that align with our personal belief systems.

Chevy’s ‘Chevy Runs Deep’ is an example of a company seeking to connect with people through a messaging architecture that delves beyond the products they sell. As you can see below, Chevy articulated its environmental commitments and historic values in artistic and compelling ways.

This branding showed its flexibility with the Chevy.com/truestories campaign. More subtle, and arguably more powerful, then a waving American flag, Chevy speaks to its historic values with an authentic, humanly relevant message.

In an age of finely-tuned, high-definition commercials, the shaky, low-quality video creates a humble, documentary-esque look and feel. This down-to-earth approach shows how even a corporate behemoth can create a brand personality which looks/acts/feels like a company who cares about more than simply producing products.

‘Buy now capitalism’ has jaded consumers so much that the only way to truly reach today’s skeptics is to connect on a personal and genuine level.

That’s why branding works and why branding, when done authentically, will always matter.

Sales promotions and brand management are mortal enemies in the marketing profession.

One uses price as a value add, while the other tries to build on the qualitative differentiators that seemingly separate products.

In the case of the “Old Spice Man”, brought to you by none other than the completely repositioned Old Spice brand, brand building has certainly received the majority of the marketing community’s praise. Your Grandpa’s aftershave has become a cultural force—or is it just a marketing industry icon?

A recent AdAge.com article points to the fact that Old Spice’s latest iteration of the Old Spice Man received over 17,000,000 YouTube hits—in one week. From July 2010 to July 2011, sales were up over 100%.

While the campaign is surely creative, funny and undoubtedly a positive for the brand’s awareness, sales are down 24% since July 2011. What happened?

Sales promotions were largely eliminated in July of this year, replaced with a less attractive coupon for a bundled purchase of body wash and deodorant.  Old Spice had decided to put its brand equity to the test: would consumers still choose their brand even if they ended the 2-for-1 sales promotion they have been running for the past year?

The answer, at least thus far, is a resounding no.

The campaign is creative, out of the box and will be deemed by many to be a success. But the great irony in the entire campaign, to use social media to virally spread a campaign which was more branded entertainment then it was an advertisement, is that the product, deodorant, is about as antisocial as a product can get.

When we are looking at a commoditized market, like male deodorant or body wash, building a brand up as hip or cool doesn’t translate to the wants of a market where performance and price are the sole variables of success. Stated succinctly, 17 million weekly views doesn’t make a 22 year old college student want to pay more for a product which he will apply in private and probably never socially admit to using. Consumers create their playlists full of brands to represent themselves within a social context. Deodorant and body wash are consumed in a way that is just too antisocial for brand building to work without the compliment of sales promotions to at least match up to a competitors offering.

As with all things, any meaningful analysis begins with looking at the context and relationships of a given situation. Brand building for a company like Porsche, the power, prestige and hand-crafted excellence for a select few, makes sense in the context that building up those variables through advertising increases the perceived value within the target market’s consideration set.

Here is the fact of life that most marketers have a hard time swallowing : consumers don’t buy brands solely because they have a generally positive relationship with a brand. This assumes an almost naive assumption that simply liking a brand will trump almost all other consideration set variables. What we do as brand managers, stewards if you will, is to create a preference between two similar “rated” products.

We don’t buy deodorant because we saw a video on YouTube and “Liked” it on Facebook. Old Spice may create a loyal brand following through its branded entertainment, but without sales promotions to at least match a competitive offerings, it seems as if Old Spice has failed its self-imposed brand equity test.

I recently graduated and wanted to chronicle my journey to help at least one person on their search for a legitimate marketing career. Hopefully, some of the strategies and tips below help you on your personal quest, whether or not you graduated yesterday or 20 years ago.

1.)    Reach out to your network.

Many people bypass this step either because they don’t value the importance of a professional network or they don’t have the courage to ask for help. I wrote a list of every single marketing professional I knew and whom I knew (or assumed) respected my work ethic, skills in addition to my personality. That’s the big caveat here: people don’t recommend you solely on the fact that they like you. They are putting their word on the line to their current employer. Would you recommend someone who you knew gave 50%? Probably not.

When you are putting together your list of people you want to reach out to, make sure that you know them well enough that they can answer the following questions about you. Does he/she work hard, passionately etc.? Do I like them as a person; are they someone I would want to work with?

Granted reaching out to these professionals is a bit awkward and takes a bit of courage. This is one of the (completely personalized for each new contact) emails I sent out:

“Hi XXX,

I hope all is well! I wanted to send out a feeler to see if XXX is hiring for any entry-level account associates. I have over a year of agency experience and would be able to contribute almost immediately. Please let me know if anything that you know of is available, or if you know of any other opportunities. Thanks!”

Sure it’s not a perfectly crafted email, but the fact that I put myself on the line enough to ask is a start. Don’t be afraid to put yourself on the line.  As my baseball coach used to preach, “You can’t hit the ball if you don’t swing the bat.”

2.)    Think of yourself as a brand.

If possible, sync your twitter/linkedin/email address to the same name. Just like in marketing to a consumer, anything you can do to break through the clutter and communicate your value effectively, do it. Another tip here is to make sure that your professional pic in LinkedIn/Twitter is the same—you don’t want someone with a similar name who happens to be a travelling circus clown to fool a would -be-recruiter.

On a side note, if you have that little default Twitter egg as your picture, you are doomed.

The fact that you don’t “do” Twitter or Linkedin is a problem in today’s uber technology savvy marketing industry. If you are expected to contribute to a marketing team, many of which are increasingly turning to SM components to offer to their clients, how can you do so without even   having a presence yourself? Rest assured, employers are searching for your FB/Twitter/LinkedIn profiles to get a better sense of you. Make your FB profile private—but let other channels communicate your professional and personal side as well.

While a report on the increasing use of mobile advertisements is definitely a big plus for future employers, so is the occasional “Hiking up to my favorite beach, life is good!”.

People hire people. If you don’t convince your employer that you are both tech savvy and a well-rounded person, then they will move onto the next candidate. It sounds cold, but why wouldn’t a employer want the best person available for the job? Much of what is determined to be “the best” is simply a communication on your part about your intrinsic and extrinsic value.  Just like a company would, make sure you can communicate your value and position your brand to meet your future employers.

3.)    Focus your search.

Passion is everything. I almost want to say it again just to nail the point home. Your search should be a targeted, focused campaign. It’s kind of like the old mass marketing techniques—developing a customized and targeted ad campaign to segments of the larger market has proven to be a more effective way of reaching customers in a hyper cluttered marketplace.

If you are interested in mobile, set up an informational interview with a mobile advertisement company. Ask them what different careers exist in the field and what they would do in your position. There are plenty of good people out there who are willing to help out a young college grad like yourself find their way—but you have to put yourself on the line and at least ask for help.

Position your resume to each new company. If you are familiar with Google Adwords and are applying to a PR company, probably not a huge point of interest. Only put the qualifications that apply and resonate with that given industry subset—again, look for relevance to your target market. Just as a general tip, convert your resume to a PDF so that no matter which version of Windows (or Mac) they have, your resume will look clean and formatted correctly. In addition to that, get rid of the vague objective statement. Imagine if you had to read 120 of these a day: “I want to work for a company where my skills and personality will allow me to grow in a professional and personal sense.”

Having a mass-market pre-typed cover letter is a horrible idea. Each cover letter is telling your employer why you are unique & how you can provide value to their company. Why would you send a cover letter only describing you? It’s not about you. It’s about how you can help and flourish in their company environment. Throw the entitlements out the window—the reality is that they have plenty of skilled and passionate graduates to choose from. Make it short, sweet and explain how their business model excites you—show a brief analysis. Be determined and passionate, but do make sure to not come off as desperate. You should be looking passionately for a career, not desperately for a job.

Please stay tuned for an upcoming post where I will discuss how I used creative social media and interview preparation techniques to nail down a position I am extremely fortunate and grateful to have at Gyro.

But again, it’s not about me. Hopefully some of this can help you. Feel free to leave any additional comments that have helped you in your search for a marketing career.

Good luck.