High Visibility: Transforming Your Personal and Professional Brand

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TRANSFORMING YOUR PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL BRAND

Third Edition Irving Rein, Philip Kotler, Michael Hamlin, and Martin Stoller

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Copy right Q 2006, 1997 by The McG raw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rig hts reserved. Manufactured in the United States of America. Except as permitted undet· the United States Copyrig ht Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced o r dish·ibuted in any form or by aoy means, o r stored in a database o r retrieval system, without the prio r written permissio n of the publishe r. 0-07- 148313-6 The material in th is eBook also appears in the print version of this title: 0-07- 145680-5.

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To Martin Stoller, student, coauthor, and friend

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contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

IX

P R E FA C E

XI

PA R T 1

Foundations of High Visibility Marketing

1

CHAPTER 1

The Branding Proposition

3

CHAPTER 2

Commanding a High Visibility Premium

15

CHAPTER 3

How the High Visibility Industry Works

33

CHAPTER 4

Distinguishing High Visibility Sectors and Hierarchies

67

CHAPTER 5

Who Are the High Visibility Consumers

91

PA R T 2

Strategies for Achieving and Sustaining High Visibility

135

CHAPTER 6

Strategies for Marketing High Visibility

137 vii

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HIGH VISIBILITY

CHAPTER 7

Misconceptions of Brand Building

161

CHAPTER 8

The Four Steps of Brand Transformation

199

CHAPTER 9

Delivering the Brand

249

CHAPTER 10

Publicizing the Brand

281

CHAPTER 11

Sustaining the Brand

307

CHAPTER 12

Managing Brand Identity in an Ever-Changing Marketplace

345

INDEX

359

acknowledgments

A

book on a subject as complex and all encompassing as personal and professional branding is accompanied by a great deal of support. We are particularly indebted to Ben Shields who not only edited and researched the book but who was also instrumental in developing many of the new ideas. Our researchers, Nicholas Lalla and Jill Greenfield, were a great help in the researching of the material and suggesting topics for exploration. Charisse Villamor and Allen Liberato also conducted research and provided some early drafts of cases. Gregory Pang was helpful in the last stages of the manuscript in doing the detail work that is so critical to a finished product. Rita Lutz was always available to support the book project. Irving Rein would also like to thank Northwestern University’s School of Communication for the leave that released him for time to complete the book. We also would like to acknowledge the help of Epixtar Corporation, a U.S.–based call center services company, for conducting the phone interviews in Chapter 6. We are also grateful to the personal and professional brands in all sectors of life who continue to discover and invent new ideas and sometimes outlandish responses to the need to be well known.

ix

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preface

T

he search for high visibility is a worldwide phenomenon. It wasn’t so long ago that visibility seeking was limited to high profile entertainers and sports stars. But today, as more sectors—such as business and the professions—have come to rely on visibility building, there has been an incremental leap in the number of visibility aspirants. As more aspirants have sought to become brands, competition and the pace of market fragmentation have increased, threatening both visibility aspirants and established personal brands. In High Visibility we address the growth of visibility seeking and the contribution of visibility and strong personal brands to competitiveness and opportunity generation in a systematic format. The reader can expect a discussion of how people are seeking to become compelling brands, how culture and trends have affected brand building, and the problems and solutions for achieving brand recognition. Central to the book’s foundation is the concept of transformation, the process that aspirants typically undergo to become personal and professional brands. We take the reader through all the stages of the transformation process, including brand generation, testing, refinement, realization, distribution, and sustaining. When done reading the book, aspirants and established brands alike should not only understand the drivers of transformation but also the transformation strategies that are likely to be most effective in their particular cases. When we wrote the first edition, our primary goal was to convince a very skeptical marketplace that high visibility marketing and communications were becoming a sophisticated industry. The first edition was well received for presenting new insights into how visibility is achieved. It also xi

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HIGH VISIBILITY

drew criticism from some for not taking a stronger position against the perceived machinations of the visibility-building industry. Some critics saw the marketization and industrialization of the celebrity industry as an ominous trend. They found it acceptable that physical products are marketed by a highly sophisticated industry, but they did not want to see people marketed as celebrities. Our aim was to analyze what was happening, not judge it, although we included some criticisms of the current state of the industry that we observed. Times have changed. In the years that followed, which included a second edition, visibility seekers have increased in number. In addition to person marketing with its support system of agents, media, and “product” developers, we are seeing more people struggling to develop personal brands on their own. They are buying books on how to succeed in business, how to stand out in a crowd, and how to develop as a brand. The acceptance of the marketplace of person branding has been remarkable. Our aim is to interpret this trend and show the methodologies by which personal and professional branding are accomplished. This new edition is substantially changed from the first two. The critical sections on transformation have been reworked and updated to reflect the changing marketplace. Another important change has been the integration of technology into the book and particularly the use of the Web and other nontraditional communications channels by visibility aspirants. Most importantly, the book now reflects the different motivations and needs of the various seekers of high visibility. Visibility means different things to different people, and the quest for visibility often depends on sector, potential audiences, and personal goals. A well-known actor will use different strategies than a local small-business owner. However, while the costs and scope may vary by sector, they are both in the personal and professional branding business. In this edition, we discuss the vast range of visibility seekers and their special requirements and needs. It has been a special pleasure to reconceptualize this book, which has drawn so much feedback and has occupied an important part of our professional lives.

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PA R T ONE

foundations of high visibility marketing

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CHAPTER 1

the branding proposition

S

ir Richard Branson, chairman of Virgin Corporation, head of more than 150 enterprises, is launching his Virgin Mobile cellular phone service in Sydney, Australia. He is riding shotgun in an armored carrier, streaming headlong into the center of the business district. A quick right turn and he breaks through a Virgin Mobile banner. Branson, dressed in combat gear, alights from the carrier and in a symbolic gesture cuts the chains constraining four actors garbed in competitors’ themes and slogans.1 The crowd gets it. This is a new era for mobile technology on the continent of Australia. A confident Branson leaps back onto the armored carrier and conducts a full-scale sales presentation. Jennifer Lopez, pop music and film star, is the head of multichanneled brand that is well known for its clothing and fragrance line but also includes restaurants. In 2004 her total business operation grossed $300 million.2 Squeezed in between dance rehearsals and album promotions, she races to a brainstorming session on her new clothing line. The cable channel MTV is filming, and it catches Lopez in the creative process.3 Lopez was clearly the leader as she quizzed designers, made comments about consumer tastes, and clearly established herself as the boss. When the session’s over, she exits to her next scheduled appearance, which can range from a meeting on her jewelry line or a discussion with her personal manager about a tour. Stephen Glass, who was exposed and dismissed for fabricating stories for the political and social commentary magazine the New Republic, is making a dramatic return on 60 Minutes after five years of anonymity. He sits across from correspondent Steve Kroft and is 3

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HIGH VISIBILITY

explaining how he came to become a consummate liar. Glass, who by now has graduated from Georgetown Law and is beginning a new career, is eager to explain his psychological need to please that ended in his dismissal. He is promoting his book The Fabulist, a thinly disguised novel about a Washington reporter who fabricates his stories.4 By first re-creating himself and then promoting the new Glass, the former journalist is joining a long line of seemingly disgraced celebrities who have managed to find an avenue back either as writer, religious convert, motivational speaker, or radio talk-show host. As the lights go off and the camera shuts down, 60 Minutes moves on to the next story, and Glass is moved offstage to possibly contemplate the next step in his strategy to reemerge. The chairman, entertainer and fashion designer, and former journalist turned lawyer and fiction author are worlds apart, but they share a very powerful bond: high visibility. For Richard Branson, high visibility is a strategic tool that has made his personality inseparable from his products. His privately owned Virgin Group has businesses ranging from planes and trains to music and mobile phones. He, like Donald Trump (The Trump Organization), Bernard Arnault (LVMH), and Oprah Winfrey (Harpo Productions), has used his celebrity status to sell his wide array of products and services, including broadcast stations and television programming, airlines, mobile telephony, and soda pop. Branson manages a whole support system of policy planners, ad agencies, and media advisors who work behind the scenes to orchestrate the production of his image as a quirky, yet accessible exhibitionist. Branson’s public image is the result of careful crafting by hardworking ghost writers led by his main spokesman Will Whitehorn and Branson’s own meticulous preparation, practice, and willingness to take risks. Richard Branson’s transformation is as deliberate as the manufacture of his products and the delivery of his services—calculated to use his high visibility to bring the buyers to his brand. Jennifer Lopez is a study in high visibility too. She has pursued it for most of her life, desiring it so intensely that she has conscripted an army to help her capture it: coaches, costume designers, press agent, nutritionist, choreographer, trainer, sponsors, venue agents, and an overall management firm that handles her brand. In the process, she has become a multichannel brand, undergoing a series of transformations from dancer to actress to singer to fashion designer. Aided by her “support system,” her name is marketed throughout the world as her movies, albums, and clothing propel

THE BRANDING PROPOSITION

5

her J Lo brand into high visibility. Her transformation into a powerful brand is no accident; all that is in doubt is how successfully she can translate it into the rewards she seeks. For author Stephen Glass, high visibility was invaluable as a superstar journalist; but once discredited, it was unintentional, undesirable, and instantaneous. Though it was thrust upon him, Glass slipped into his new role of repentant journalist as if he has played the part all his life. The endless parade of celebrities in distress across society’s landscape has taught him the script before the events unfold: the agonizing voyage for forgiveness, the book, the talk shows, and the Hollywood film. The wheels of the celebrity-making machine are unstoppable when it comes to crisis. Glass, shifted to another level of visibility, is transformed—from high-profile journalist to public curiosity. Glass’ story, while lamentable, demonstrates the resiliency of the visibility model. In the new celebrity world of second chances, he has managed to come back by using his past problems to create more visibility. And while his efforts were not a complete success, he did receive a book contract, a coveted appearance on 60 Minutes, and possibly a return date with the media in a new role. For the chairman, entertainer, and former journalist, high visibility has different impacts and different rewards. For Branson, high visibility means not only more sales of his products and services but also national prestige as a knighted member of the Queen’s court. For Lopez, high visibility is the magnet that enables her to extend her brand into different sectors of the entertainment and fashion industries. For Glass, visibility is both a curse and a means of salvation.

THE IMPORTANCE OF VISIBILITY This book is about how people go about seeking higher visibility in their social circles, professional sectors, or broader geographical arenas. It examines the techniques they use to enhance their visibility. It’s about how people use transformation theory and practice to build a successful brand in their chosen fields. And it’s about what can happen when high visibility is not handled properly. Historically, there have been a number of terms that describe the high visibility search. They include fame, star, icon, and celebrity. The terms imply a standing out from the crowd and the ability to command attention or receive a premium for services. However, with ever-escalating levels of competition in all sectors, it became obvious that these terms are inadequate to

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HIGH VISIBILITY

describe the means of attaining high visibility. There are two reasons why. First, for most sectors, attaining visibility has become a highly sophisticated process. Second, all kinds of people today are seeking to become brands. We know of brands from the product world: Nike, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, and thousands of others. We know of brands from the place world: New York, Silicon Valley, Venice. We know of brands from the cause world: Greenpeace, Red Cross, Smokey the Bear. It’s no wonder that people are seeking to build their personal brands. Commercial marketers have taught us how to build brands. They create stories about the product, advertise the product, develop events around the product, and write news stories about the product. All this to deeply imprint the product in the minds of some target audience so that it is well understood, recognizable, desirable—and recalled when buying decisions are contemplated. Each person is different and will have an image in his or her social and professional circle whether or not he or she has done any conscious brand building. But an increasing number of people are turning to conscious brand building. The salesperson who wants to rise higher and get the attention of senior management. The professor who wants to develop a specific expertise to gain respect and some high-paying consulting engagements. The singer who develops a certain look and style so that he or she can stand out from the crowd of a thousand other singers. When a person succeeds in sculpting a distinctive brand, that person is well known to the target audience, has long-term staying power in the marketplace, is clearly and meaningfully differentiated from competitors, and enjoys a corresponding pay premium for his or her well-knowness. Aspirants can find themselves in a number of stages in their search for visibility. They may be an aspirant just starting out in a sector, a local star who is already established, a celebrity who is known far and wide, or even an icon who has risen to the top of a sector. In every case, the ultimate goal for all these high visibility aspirants is to develop and sustain a strong and identifiable personal and professional brand image. To become a brand requires not only differentiation from competition and recognition by the marketplace of such a status but also undertaking the process of transformation that will enable them to create a powerful personal and professional brand. Why is high visibility so important, and why are so many individuals seeking it? In an increasingly competitive marketplace, it is the single factor that explains the difference between a competent surgeon and one who earns seven figures and appears on talk shows to plug his or her latest

THE BRANDING PROPOSITION

7

book. It also can spell the difference between a first rate but modestly successful business consultant and one who is paid $100,000 for a keynote speech. Understanding the high visibility process can also explain how some performers are in the spotlight and how they fade almost instantly while others reappear in a new sector. A principal benefit of visibility is gaining attention. In an age when people, places, and things can be mass manufactured and easily made into commodities, name recognition becomes one of the few saleable factors that can bring a premium in a competitive marketplace. As Terry Lundgren, chairman and chief executive officer of Federated Department Stores, Inc., observes of the fashion sector, “You’ve got a better chance getting in the door with a product under a celebrity name as opposed to an unknown designer name.”5 High visibility is a differentiator that can fill concert halls and jam professional meetings. Despite these advantages, high visibility is not without controversy. There are a number of objections: • “I don’t have the self-confidence to do it.” • “If you have the talent, the marketplace will discover you.” • “Visibility exposes you to a terrible downside including derision from colleagues and friends, intrusion on private life, and threat of scandal.” • “My professional business sector does not allow celebrity generation.” • “High visibility will pull the leader away from his or her primary task: running the company.” • “I’m just a small player. Only movie and sports stars can afford it.” All of these objections have largely been answered by the marketplace. For example, there is little evidence that aspirants can rely simply on lucky breaks to emerge in a sector. Elvis Presley was cleverly managed by Colonel Tom Parker, George W. Bush relied primarily on Karl Rove for his transformation, and Microsoft CEO Bill Gates was transformed by a platoon of advisors and image consultants. The objection that visibility will distract from job performance is a caution to the decision-making process that determines the pursuit of high visibility. The decision to use visibility as a leveraging tool depends on the sector, goals, and the desired positioning of the organization that will become symbolized in the leader’s visibility. Bad judgment on the part of the board, egocentric behavior by the leader, or fall-off performance6 after achieving a high level of visibility

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HIGH VISIBILITY

are questions of management and need to be viewed as teachable and controllable issues. While strategic use of visibility is still an issue for some aspirants, society has already voted for personal and professional branding. Imagine if books, music, sports, movies, television, or even video games had no identifiable stars. What would happen to the revenue for all these industries? For example, 2.295 billion books were sold in 2004, generating $28.6 billion in revenue.7 Worldwide music sales in 2004 exceeded $29.4 billion with a 26.3 percent increase in music DVD sales.8 Domestic and foreign box office receipts of Hollywood films were over $25 billion last year.9 The sports industry is a $375 billion industry10 that is largely dependent upon brand names such as David Beckham and Shaquille O’Neal. There’s little question that names like Stephen King, Julia Roberts, and Yao Ming are major contributors to audience interest. In the business and professional world, Jeffrey Immelt of General Electric, lawyer Alan Dershowitz, alternative medicine Dr. Andrew Weil, and Harvard economics professor Jeffrey Sachs are examples of the power of personality branding. Star power fuels sales worldwide, and without it major industries from film to heart surgery would become mere generic products with little appeal. This increasing reality encourages the development of new stars and the need to sustain old ones. But not all brands have a worldwide audience, or need one. University professors, politicians, and preachers make lectures, speeches, and sermons available for download and playback on iPods because it connects them to clearly defined audiences 24/7. Bloggers and podcasters become sensations with little investment, positioning themselves as expert authorities on gadgets, a particular music genre, or Michigan politics. The ultimate purpose: Visibility creates adherents, customers, and fans and generates opportunity. Without it major industries from film to investment banking would become generic products with little distinctive appeal. But so too would the real estate agent in Des Moines who competes with a bev y of agents for buyers’ attention and business. And the increasing premium attached to visibility coupled with advances in technology that make communicating relatively easy and inexpensive mean that more and more people are competing to be seen. It is no wonder that personal and professional branding has spread into every sector of American life. So great is the value of visibility that transformation practices now reach into business, sports, entertainment, religion, the arts, politics, academics, medicine, and law. Visibility is what every aspiring actress wants and what every unknown professional seeks. It

THE BRANDING PROPOSITION

9

is the crucial ingredient that makes lawyer X the most sought after in town, talk-show host Y the most popular in her market, and surgeon Z the most highly paid in his city. This is the new world of high visibility, where individuals with basic skills in their field can be elevated to a level of visibility unimaginable at any other time—and be compensated with unimaginable rewards. For some people, the search for high visibility is not deliberate but accidental or the result of some wildly outrageous talent. The tales of stars that are discovered on street corners or simply marry well abound in popular culture. Celebrity makers and storytellers make the process even more elusive by describing the celebrity transformation as if it were a magical event. These modern-day “Merlins” do not accurately reflect what is happening in today’s celebrity culture. High visibility has married business—information and entertainment channels can now transmit images at a rate and capacity never before known or understood—resulting in opportunities for those aspirants who want to use their name as a brand and as a marketing tool. The search for high visibility is a reflection of the pressures of a crowded and competitive marketplace. A name can give a product greater recognition and credibility to attract and retain new business. The rush in most businesses and professions to create a brand distinction around a name is going to further increase as companies acknowledge the power of visibility and its ability to create free news coverage and dedicated customers. When Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., became the target of antiexpansion communities and prolabor forces were appalled at the company’s treatment of its employees, criticism mounted at the increasingly powerful worldwide giant. After a period of denial, CEO Lee Scott was chosen to lead the Wal-Mart counter-charge against its critics. An expert in logistics, he was such an unlikely candidate for the brand spokesperson role that a Wal-Mart director said of him, “I don’t believe Lee ever thought so much of his job would include communicating with the outside world.”11 As a result of the board’s decision to make Scott the leader of Wal-Mart’s aggressive reemergence as a corporate citizen, he spoke to a wide variety of audiences, elicited interactions with high profile critics, and all of this was coordinated with leadership meetings, advertisements, and appearances on television.12 In the end, Scott’s visibility campaign redefined Wal-Mart, which needed a singular voice that could be identified, held responsible, and serve as the ethical face and contact person for this retail empire. Despite the obvious rewards of visibility seeking such as in the Wal-Mart example, the pursuit has pitfalls—anyone who has been associ-

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ated with a highly visible person knows there can be intrusions and even threats. Becoming visible means that the media will not only glorify acts but magnify sins. In extreme cases such as Martha Stewart or Michael Jackson, the lights glare and threaten to ruin careers. In interviews, stars often question the limelight, and some stars seem destined to fill slots in tabloid TV shows and newspapers as hopelessly bedraggled and entangled in media controversy. Such disasters notwithstanding, most of the complaints appear insincere. In interviews with well-knowns, high visibles in all sectors chose visibility over ordinariness. This choice is not surprising since we are a star-based culture in which the rewards and benefits of high visibility overshadow anonymity. When comedian Chris Rock arrives at Cold Stone Creamery after closing—bangs on the window, and begs for his own custom ice cream creation—the store opens. For the rest of us, it is back home for low-fat supermarket brand ice cream and defrosted Christmas cookies. The very appeal of visibility has nurtured a strategic change in visibility marketing. Depending on the sector choice, there are many options for the seeker and manager of visibility making. Aspirants can set off on their own—self-teaching, managing, and publicizing their own career. The advent of infomercials and the Internet has introduced cost advantages never before available to the beginner. A step up is using coaches, agents, publicists, and other professionals on a selective basis. In some situations the pursuit of visibility is fully industrialized with a team of experts managing every step of the ascent. The strategic steps of the personal and professional branding process are the subject of this book. Two themes dominate throughout: First is the change process—the process of transforming people into the desired product; and second is the equally important proposition that the visibility search can be systematic and not dependent on happenstance.

THE PYGMALION PRINCIPLE Flower girl becomes a lady. When Henry Higgins, the main character from George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion made so memorable by Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady, realized his breakthrough, he was beside himself. Why was Higgins so excited?

THE BRANDING PROPOSITION

11

Because he realized that he had successfully transformed a coarse cockney girl into a well-spoken, well-mannered fixture of high society. Higgins, undertaking the remanufacturing of Eliza Doolittle on a gentlemen’s wager, was motivated not by greed but by pride, by the desire to show Colonel Pickering that he could do the undoable. The rewards—for himself and his pupil—were mostly intangible: vindication, self-discovery, broadened horizons. Today, the stakes in transformation have soared. Still, similar Pygmalion principles are at work: that people can be transformed into personal and professional brands. The notion of transformation goes back to antiquity. In Ovid’s ancient myth, Pygmalion, a young man who hated women, was “bent on forming a perfect woman and showing men the deficiencies of the kind they had to put up with.” 13 Visualizing the perfect woman, he began to sculpt her. As she took shape, he began to fall in love. But because the stone statue could not respond, Pygmalion grew morose. This drew the attention of the goddess of love, Aphrodite, who was intrigued by this new kind of lover. One day, as Pygmalion lovingly caressed the statue, Aphrodite brought the stone to life. As is the custom in such tales, the two lived happily ever after. Fortunately for Pygmalion, there was divine intervention to ensure a happy resolution. In Shaw’s modern recasting of the myth, divine intervention is replaced by human intervention, namely the actions of a transformer, Henry Higgins, professor of phonetics. In Shaw’s view, transformation is enabled by changing the subject’s language and appearance and conducting some strategic staging. Shaw had advanced the idea of transformation—but only so far. In his Pygmalion, the transformation was an amateur venture. The transformer, Higgins, undertakes his task on a whim, a wager. Today, there is an entire industry that manages the business of transforming unknowns into brands, sculpting virtually every element of personality, appearance, and character that is possible. For example, “lifestyle designers” have recently emerged who “for as much as $450 an hour”14 serve as image consultants to aspirants who seek an identity uplift. Even white-collar criminals who have a marketable redemption story can engage the services of a specially designed speaker’s bureau that will represent their interests (www.theprosandthecons.com). This new version of Pygmalion is industrialized and operates not by whim but by design, not for pride but for profit. In fact, the ability to transform people into brands has become so sophisticated, and the rewards of high visibility have become so awesome, that the Pygmalion principle is now at work in virtually every area of life.

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THE POWER OF VISIBILITY Most Americans are invisible. Each of us has a small network of people who know us, in our workplace, our neighborhood, our place of worship. It might be fifty people, a hundred, or five hundred—a far cry from those whose high visibility earns them the privilege to vacation on private islands, slip in side doors at theaters, glide about in stretched limousines behind smoked glass, and book entire restaurants for an undisturbed meal. For most of us, life rarely holds such pleasures. But what is happening in society is this: As our power to distribute images expands, the ranks of the highly visible are growing rapidly, and those who understand the transformation process utilize it to enhance their opportunities and rewards. Thanks to modern communications technology, society’s capacity to create visibility has grown a thousandfold. Television, radio, film, cable, magazines, billboards, satellite dish receivers, and now the personal computer, Internet, cell phones, and other mobile technologies— all help make it possible to transmit images worldwide or to target very narrow markets. Inspired by the modern concepts of product distribution, enabled by transportation and sophisticated communications and marketing tools, we have developed the ability to create, in Daniel Boorstin’s terminology, well-knowness15—and to blanket the world with it. When Boorstin first proposed his theory of the power of communication technology to create “artificial fame,”16 the practical knowledge about how it could be accomplished was far less sophisticated than it is today. Little was known about how particular individuals could be forced through the visibility-generating machinery or about how to take maximum commercial advantage of their resulting celebrity. In the last half-century, many of the processes that Boorstin first suggested have become knowable and doable. We now can answer crucial questions about branding: What exactly are the roles of consultants, mentors, coaches, advisors, agents, managers, promoters, and headhunters in the celebrity-making process? How is audience appeal measured, and how are audiences attracted and used? How is the highly visible brand engineered and delivered to audiences? How do the common misconceptions of great talent, magnetic charisma, the right attitude, incredible luck, electric personality, and perfect timing obscure the path to high visibility? What are the strategies needed to transform visibility seekers into brands? How is high visibility sustained over time? What are its rewards? Its costs?

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The focus of High Visibility is on answering these questions and, in doing so, analyzing and applying the role, impact, and processes involved in creating and marketing personal and professional brands.

THE URGENCY FOR HIGH VISIBILITY In today’s highly competitive society, becoming well known is a necessity in many sectors. A lawyer in a large law firm is centered on his or her performance in various places where he or she is on display—in court, bar conferences, media interviews, professional association dinners, trusteeships, and directorships for charities and universities. The importance of venue performance is repeated in accounting offices, locker rooms, diocesan headquarters, charity boardrooms, and legislative hallways. Today for the visibility-conscious professional, a distinctive brand is the ultimate accomplishment. Well-knowness has evolved into brand identity, and brand identity in today’s society means power and money—not just to its possessor but also to businesses, institutions, political parties, causes, entrepreneurs, and charities. High visibility has become a marketable commodity that has attained tremendous commercial value around the world. People in all walks of life no longer find it strange to consider making radical changes in their lives and images in order to gain a high profile and its inherent power. To be marketed successfully, individuals need to obtain control of their images and make decisions based on a thorough understanding of the high visibility industry. This book is structured to take the reader through the process of understanding, managing, and delivering visibility. Chapter 2 will discuss the importance of the visibility premium; Chapter 3, how the high visibility industry is constructed; Chapter 4, the relationship between visibility and marketing; Chapters 5 and 6, the consumers for the visibility marketplace; Chapters 7 and 8, how aspirants are transformed; Chapters 9 and 10, how the visibility image is distributed; and Chapter 11, how visibility is retained.

NOTES 1 _____, “What Happens When Richard Branson Comes To Sydney . . . .” www.capital.com.au/html/monthly2.htm, viewed June 12, 2005. 2 Lola Ogunnaike, “For J. Lo, Multitasker, A New Taste for Privacy,” New York Times, March 1, 2005, p. E3.

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3 _____, “Jennifer Lopez Beyond the Runway Fashion Show,” www.dexigner.com/ fashion/news-g3742.html, viewed July 4, 2005. 4 _____, “Stephen Glass: I Lied for Esteem,” CBS News, August 17, 2003, www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/05/07/60minutes/main552819.shtml, viewed on June 12, 2005. 5 Teri Agins, “With Her Own Line, Pop Star Rides Rise in Celebrity Fashion,” Wall Street Journal, June 9, 2005, p. A1. 6 See Ulrike Malmendier and Geoffrey Alan Tate, “Superstar CEOs,” 7th Annual Texas Finance Festival Paper, February 2, 2005, ssrn.com/abstract=709861; David Yermack, “Flights of Fancy: Corporate Jets, CEO Perquisites, and Inferior Shareholder Returns,” AFA 2005 Philadelphia Meetings, March 2005, ssrn.com/abstract=529822; Edward P. Lazear and Sherwin Rosen, “Rank-Order Tournaments as Optimum, Labor Contracts,” Journal of Political Economy 89(5), 1991, pp. 841–864. 7 Hillel Italie, “The same old story for publishing: More books, fewer sales,” Associated Press, May 16, 2005 (Lexis Nexis). 8 _____, “Worldwide music sales drop 1 percent in 2004, despite music DVD growth,” Evening Standard, January 17, 2004 (Lexis Nexis). 9 Greg Hernandez, “MPAA’s Chief: 2004 Healthy,” Daily News of Los Angeles, March 16, 2005, p. B1. 10 _____, “Man U possibly the first of many takeover bids,” Toronto Star, May 17, 2005, p. EO2. 11 Ann Zimmerman, “Wal-Mart Boss’s Unlikely Role: Corporate Defender-inChief,” Wall Street Journal, July 26, 2005, pp. A1, 8. 12 Ibid. 13 Edith Hamilton, Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes (Boston: Little, Brown, 1940), p.108. 14 Robert J. Hughes, “Who Did Her Personality?” Wall Street Journal, July 15, 2005, p. W1. 15 Daniel Boorstin, The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events (New York: Atheneum, l961). 16 Boorstin, p. 47.

commanding a high visibility premium

CHAPTER 2

F

ew would argue that Oprah Winfrey, the self-made owner of Harpo Productions, receives a premium for her services—Forbes named her No. 1 on its “Celebrity 100” list.1 Her own television show reaches 21 million regular daily viewers in 130 countries, and she also produces Dr. Phil. She publishes O magazine, manages a stake in the women-centered cable network Oxygen, and edits another magazine, O at Home.2 The Oprah Book Club created dozens of literary bestsellers and has established new authors and reestablished old ones. Her personal charity “Oprah’s Angel Network” builds goodwill by providing grants for scholarships, schools, and homes for underprivileged children, and an interactive resource Web site, Oprah.com, attracts 2 million viewers a month. Her empire has made her a billionaire and arguably the most visible woman in America. The Winfrey brand did not start with a bang. When she moved to Chicago from Baltimore to launch a morning show, there was little foreshadowing of her success. The initial word was that she was difficult to work with and her erratic behavior might short-circuit her career. It was not very long, however, before her image began to take shape and her brand became distinct from the competition. Winfrey every morning like clockwork delivered an upbeat, enlightening, and usually useful message to what became a devoted audience. Winfrey’s style—which is based on honesty, sincerity, and empathy—connects with an audience worried about their children, confused about how doctors treat their families, and baffled by Wall Street’s jargon on financial planning. She finds the experts and is often willing to become a test case for their experimentation, and she continues, despite her enormous wealth, to appear engaged by the latest fad of diet experts, the twist on recipes by gourmet cooks, and the comforting advice of financial 15

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planners. Winfrey has not only branded a middle-class lifestyle programming but, because of her careful staging and ability to manage exposure– “You don’t see her doing commercials or selling Oprah perfume”3–she demands a premium from the marketplace.

WHAT DEFINES A HIGHLY VISIBLE PERSON? As a result of her high visibility, Winfrey attracts tremendous attention wherever she appears in public. People turn their heads to see stars such as Winfrey who “stand out from the crowd.” Many of us have had our lives enhanced and disrupted by celebrities. People often define their lives by where and when they have encountered them. Who are these people that command such attention while most of us scarcely even cast a shadow? There are many person-types that are somehow associated with visibility: heroes, leaders, legends, idols, stars, superstars, icons, and celebrities. In earlier times, low visibility, for most citizens, was generally regarded as the normal state of affairs. The exceptions—victorious generals, daring heroes, popes, mystics, religious leaders—were people elevated into high visibility by their deeds, birthrights, or leadership of institutions. These heroes were well known for their merits: fighting the Romans, delivering the rain, saving a nation from bankruptcy. The leader was well known for his or her “charismatic” appeal and ability to inspire. It is not that these heroes and leaders lacked rudimentary understanding of promotional techniques. They understood very well that images and symbols had power, and they employed them effectively to exert control over their publics. It was not by accident that Richard became the Lion Hearted, William became the Conqueror, and Napoleon was indelibly enshrined in the public memory by the artist Jacques-Louis David, who in his paintings so glorified the military leader that Napoleon became a fixture in schools and museums worldwide based on David’s theatrical portrayals.4 In the lexicon of history books and heroic images, these are famous people who are permanently immortalized in our cultures. Today, the terms that we use to describe the highly visible—celebrities, stars, superstars, icons, business gurus—are very different. Intrinsic to their meaning is the fact that high visibility, that is, well-knowness, has become a viable commodity all by itself. It can stand by itself, independent of accomplishment, sacrifice, or heroics. This disconnect of achievement and visibility made terms such as celebrity less desirable to sector aspirants.

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The term celebrity, for example, comes from the Latin celeber, meaning “much frequented” or “thronged.”5 The Oxford English Dictionary defines celebrity as “a person of celebrity, a celebrity person, a public character”6—hardly an illuminating definition. Some definitions emphasize numbers, such as “a celebrity is a person (or name) who is known by a larger number of people than average.” The Celebrity Register hints at a popularity dimension when it suggests that “a celebrity is a name which, once made by news, now makes news by itself.”7 Another definition uses the same theme but with the twist of anonymity: “A celebrity is a person who is known by people whom he does not know” or is “a person who is talked about.” Most of the definitions concentrate on reputation, praise, and popularity. In some cases, the definition revolves around the short-lived, ephemeral quality of celebrity. There is the implication that memory is a crucial dimension, that celebrity tends to be fleeting, less permanent than fame or greatness. The traditional definitions of celebrity and other visibility terms fail to illuminate the core essence of high visibility in the twenty-first century: its growing commercial value. Can the high-profile name help sell McDonald’s hamburgers, Omega watches, or Suntory Whiskey? Can he attract a large audience to the charity ball? Can she draw media attention to her own pet political cause? These questions not only demand that highly visible people play a critical profit-generating role in all sectors but also suggest that visibility seeking is a widespread and growing goal in our society. We think of a person with high visibility as someone whose name has attention-getting, interest-drawing, and profit-generating value. This terminology allows us to consider at once the well-known mutual fund manager, the star attorney, the local mayor, the situation comedy star—all as players in the high visibility marketplace. It encompasses Dr. Tim Johnson, whose medical practice now reaches millions on network television; Michael E. Porter, the definitive authority on competitive advantage; and Deepak Chopra, the otherworldly guru to the stars. It includes Rudolph Giuliani, whose faltering reputation was recast on September 11, 2001, as a leader of international prominence, and Diane Keaton, who is an actor that has risen, fallen, and risen again. The use of the term brand in the person marketing field is a natural outcome of the search for a premium for one person’s services.8 First, it is a more encompassing and acceptable term for people in sectors such as business and the professions who are uncomfortable with terms such as celebrity, star, or icon. Second, the concept of brand has more marketing theory, tools, and applications from the commercial world in contrast to prior visibility terms, which had been developed with historical figures and entertainers.

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Third, as high visibility became more of a profit-generating and managed institution and the relationship between products and people became more apparent, branding has become a defining term that signals a successful aspirant’s quest for visibility in his or her sector. The bottom line is that an increasing number of people are deciding to work on becoming meaningful brands to specific target publics.

WHY THE PREMIUM? Why is high visibility so sought after? Because attaining it generates substantial rewards for the personal and professional brand and the members of their support systems.9 The highly visible personally achieve a degree of privilege, power, pay, and perquisites that make achieving and sustaining visibility compellingly attractive. Many of the high visibility brands are talented, intelligent, and deserve to be at the top of their field. The difference is they have decided to convert their skills into a highly visible brand that differentiates them from the competition. Consider, for example, the pay differential or premium that a film celebrity confers—that is, the difference between what a celebrity earns as a celebrity, and what a he or she would earn in his or her best use as a noncelebrity. For example, what would Adam Sandler earn if he could not be a comic actor? This pay differential has two economic drivers. First, high visibility often rewards aspirants merely for choosing to compete in high risk/high profit sectors. An athlete with certain physical skills might excel equally in soccer or skateboarding. Soccer superstar David Beckham, specializing in the more globally visible sport of soccer, earns a premium—mostly from endorsements—over what he would have earned in the less internationally visible sport of skateboarding. Second, high visibility earns a premium because aspirants are better known than other members of their professions or sectors. It could be argued that Beckham is not the best player in soccer, but his premium is based on a number of factors—his male model looks, his fashionable movie star outfits, his ability to marry an international symbol of pop culture like Posh Spice, and his not inconsiderable ability to perform under pressure during penalty kicks. This Beckham package was so attractive to Real Madrid that the Spanish football team reportedly paid English Premier League mega-club Manchester United (MU) “a sum of $41 million for his services.”10 There are other players that Real Madrid could have bought with comparable or superior talent for less money. But in terms of

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marketability, visibility, and worldwide fan base, Beckham is a special brand. It is calculated that because of Beckham’s enormous fan base and brand recognition that Real Madrid, despite their status as arguably Europe’s premiere championship team, needs him to fulfill their strategic plan to become a global brand. It was estimated by the marketing consulting firm FutureBrand that “Beckham could shift 5 million of those [Man U.] fans to Real’s side.”11 Beckham receives a premium for his services because he converts fans from other teams, fills stadium seats in Japan, connects with other Madrid stars Renaldo and Zinedine Zidane, and in doing so redefines the world soccer economic model.

How Much for a Pretty Face? There are few professions that are branding their services more effectively globally than plastic surgery. Americans in 2004 spent $8.4 billion on nearly 9.2 million cosmetic plastic surgeries and procedures.12 Botox injections alone more than doubled from 2001 to 2003 in what could only be considered a gold rush to correct nature’s mistakes.13 In South Korea, “Parents make their kids get plastic surgery,” according to Dr. Shim Hyung Bo, because they “realize looks are important for success.”14 In Japan, students, working women, and homemakers commonly pick out new body parts from glossy catalogues.15 In response to heightened interest in and mainstream acceptance of plastic surgery, the field has become fiercely competitive. In such an environment, what choice does a plastic surgeon have but to increase his or her premium? According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, the average cost of a face lift in 2004 was a little over $5,000, a tummy tuck close to $5,000, and breast augmentation over $3,000–fees that do not include operating room facilities, anesthesia, or other related expenses,16 which could easily increase the price by over a third. Prices, of course, can vary wildly depending upon the visibility—which can include the location, specialty, and celebrity clients— of the plastic surgeon. In order to create a premium, there are a number of specific strategies that can be used. First is using the media to drive business, and this means giving doctors exposure through various media outlets. Reality shows such as Extreme Makeover and MTV’s I Want a Famous Face use plastic surgeons to remake show participants. The surgeons who appear in such media venues have the opportunity to broadcast their work to a wide audience and have a built-in promotional vehicle. What is critical is that the surgeon be located in a place where it is likely that he or she will be discovered. This strategy is inappropriate for a plastic surgeon working in Oklahoma City while places like Beverly Hills and Palos Verdes are literally crawling with producers. It is more likely that the surgeon in local markets would appear on the local news, write a newspaper column, or be available for call-in radio shows.

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The second strategy is targeting the markets that have historically paid the visibility premium for services. There are a couple of restrictions here. The first is working in a community where there is discretionary income and the second is working in a community where there is a demand for the services. Places like New York, London, Paris, Tokyo, and other metropolitan cities are more likely to produce these opportunities. This strategy might include joining the right country club, giving to the proper charity, and spending the requisite time to build relationships and obligations. A third strategy is using traditional advertising and nontraditional communications channels like public relations, Web sites, and various other forms of paid promotions—even billboards, as practitioners do throughout Asia—to attain and sustain visibility. This strategy is the most common, and it requires not only niche marketing but also being able to distinguish an individual from a large number of competitors. The fourth and final strategy is to create an image around a service that is distinct from others—for example, building a spa-like environment or featuring some service that competitors do not offer, or leveraging the goodwill associated with a celebrity endorser. In some cases, female plastic surgeons appeal to their gender by not only claiming they have a special relationship with them but also creating environments that reflect a feminine perspective. In the end, all of these strategies require choices and a certain amount of time and money. After graduation a plastic surgeon faces business building, niche marketing, and visibility generating to establish a practice. Each generation of plastic surgeons finds themselves in a more competitive market with patients who are very particular and of whom almost 50 percent have multiple procedures. A cosmetic plastic surgeon who is board certified is probably able to do very good work. How much they can charge over the generic fee for their services is almost totally related to their ability to create a premium.

This is no less true of other sectors, although the performance statistics are measured differently. What Diane Sawyer receives for a speech for a major convention versus what Topeka’s top newscaster commands constitutes Sawyer’s visibility-generated premium. What celebrity syndicated radio financial advisor Bob Brinker commands for his services versus what another well-trained and experienced financial planner charges is Brinker’s visibility-generated premium. The premium is sometimes subjective but nonetheless real to the buyer. Santiago Calatrava, the high visibility architect who designed the Athens Olympics Sports Complex, the Milwaukee Art Museum, and numerous other award-winning buildings and bridges, can demand a

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premium for his architectural services based on his name and achievements. A real-world test of such a premium is the proposed 115-story Fordham Spire overlooking the Chicago River and Lake Michigan. The developer is paying Calatrava a large premium for his services and also charging the buyers a premium to live in Calatrava’s building.17 While there is skepticism as to whether the proposed spirelike, tallest building in the United States will ever be built, the decision to pursue the project revolved around the architect’s reputation and whether it truly will bring in extra dollars and buyers willing to pay for his visibility. We are generally quite willing to pay this “visibility premium,” to reward those who take the risks to become the well-known people we so love to revere or revile. It is largely the size of this premium that motivates so many aspirants to join the quest for name recognition despite the high risks. Forbes’s annual “Celebrity 100” list18 shows that the rewards to aspirants who succeed are tremendous indeed, not just for them but also for the people surrounding them. At such astronomical salaries—Judge Judy Sheindlin earns $28 million per year; Major League Baseball player Derek Jeter makes $25.5 million a year; movie director Steven Spielberg, $80 million a year; and model Heidi Klum, $7.5 million19—parents, spouses, lovers, children, all benefit from the pay, privileges, and reflected glory (as well as inevitable envy, jealousy, and resentment). Also dependent upon their prodigious cash flows are those who develop and promote them. Publicists, agents, coaches, personal managers—all derive their incomes from helping produce and sustain their success. All said, high visibility confers economic and psychological benefits to members of a far-flung (and continually expanding) support system. But visibility is not merely a reward unto its possessors and their intimates. It also helps to meet the crucial public need for icons, role models, and reference persons. Highly visible people provide stories, entertainment, diversions, uplifts, and moral instruction. Through them, we enjoy vicarious emotions and experiences rarely found in our daily lives. Historically, magazines with well-known people on the cover attract more attention than such cover subjects as buildings, computer equipment, and even luxury items like exotic automobiles.20 The well-known face is likely to deliver more sales, encouraging higher premiums for well-known people. On a more basic level, most of us would hate living in a society without names or brands. Recall the “no-name” entities of the past: the “no-name” NBA champion Detroit Pistons; generic peanut butter; no-brand gas. Such commodities are strongly identified for their very lack of identifying characteristics. But how many people would like a genuinely

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no-name government, unidentifiable TV stars, or a wholly generic life? The very idea strikes a strong chord of uneasiness and distaste in our visibilityadoring world. Finally, high visibility meets the needs of institutions for representatives and advocates. Charities, schools, sports teams, and institutions of all stripes compete for attention, funds, and markets. To the extent that they can adopt, create, or flaunt some well-known (and, one hopes, dramatic) personality as a brand extension, they can more successfully achieve their goals. In such cases, the person becomes an icon for the entire institution. Thus, Oracle benefits when CEO Larry Ellison decides to become a business star. Revlon cosmetics sell better because actor and spokesperson Halle Berry and her qualities mingle with the perceived qualities of the product. Universities seeking funds tout the names of their Nobel Prize winners or celebrated graduates to give donors a sense of the exciting and prestigious. In many cases, universities use sports coaches to personify their marketable qualities. The contribution that high visibility can make to institutions is clearly displayed in the large number of television preachers who make up the “electronic” ministry. Celebrity evangelists such as Trinity Broadcasting Network founders Paul and Jan Crouch, Kabbalah spiritual leader Rabbi Eitan Yardeni, and Liberty University founder Jerry Falwell invested heavily in the recognition of their names. They are every bit as leveraged into promotion as film and sports stars. Where would they be—what would they be earning—if they were only as visible, as well known, as the local corner minister or parish priest? The same could be said for cult religious leaders such as Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard and Unification Church founder Sun Myung Moon who attracted—and in turn were boosted by—huge media exposure. Despite his death, Hubbard’s message endures through celebrity members such as movie and television stars Tom Cruise, John Travolta, and Jenna Elfman. And Moon’s worldwide ministry is so influential and controversial that its followers have come to be identified as “Moonies.” How does this affect the impact of these leaders’ messages of religious faith? Personal name recognition is essential for spiritual leaders, and it is virtually their paramount marketing tool. How many audience members even know the names of the celebrity preachers’ organizations? How many contributors say, for instance, “I donate to the Crystal Cathedral?” Not many. The vast majority say, “I give to Robert Schuller,” who speaks weekly to a vast television audience from the Crystal Cathedral. The contributions flooding into Schuller and his compatriots reaffirm the power of people

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standing for whole institutions and the importance we have come to place on person-images.

Branding the Donald His name is everywhere—Visa cards, labels of bottled water, every building he develops, the personal coat of arms he created for himself, his own successful TV series The Apprentice, and his latest venture, Trump University. Billionaire Donald Trump has been the ubiquitous Samson of American real estate for more than two decades. In America, Trump is synonymous with wealth, prestige, excess—and stands at the pinnacle of American business with ventures in real estate, gaming, entertainment, and personality branding.21 How did Trump build such a strong brand around his name? His launching pad was his New York real estate ventures where he expanded upon his father’s prominence. What made Trump stand out was his relentless pursuit of visibility and a set of personality characteristics that defined his brand. Instead of hiding behind his desk and quietly planting stories about his next real estate venture in the business section, Trump was brash, aggressive, and always self-serving. His first marriage with Ivana Marie Zelnickova was actually a break-out move on his part. For the first time, he and the glamorous Ivana were visible at all the right parties, charity events, and other high visibility venues. His subsequent breakup and marriages to Marla Maples and Melania Knauss reinforced his image of luxury, excess, and materialism. Trump, like English and French kings, could afford to attract and discard beautiful women because he had supreme power, money, and celebrity. Another link to his brand identity was his building of his signature Manhattan skyscraper, the Trump Tower—a shimmering bronze icon that through its sheer audacity placed Trump in a league apart from his competitors. He was reminiscent of a new breed of entrepreneur, aristocrats who were accountable to no one and unlike Louis XIV actually made a living. That combination created a halo effect for his other ventures—golf courses, gambling casinos, and hotels. All could charge the visibility premium because they encompassed and distributed his brand to his customers. While he’s had his setbacks—near bankruptcy, chronic financial problems with his casinos—he has enough brand equity to overcome obstacles that others would find daunting. His reality television show The Apprentice has enjoyed overwhelming popularity because Trump is willing to exhibit his style to a mass audience. When he waves his arm and pronounces “You’re fired” to a crushed aspirant, audiences find this thrilling, while in more ordinary circumstances they would be appalled. The brand is no more evident in his ability to attract new business. He has multiple projects in Chicago and Las Vegas and seemingly has plans for

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many others in cities across the United States. His name is so visible that his ex-wife, Ivana, has brand-named a competitive condominium called “Ivana” in Las Vegas. Whether Trump is giving an online lecture on “The Trump Way to Wealth,” appearing as a guest on Days of Our Lives, or promoting a $100,000 “Live Like Trump” sweepstakes, he has perfected a brand that is differentiated, demands a premium, and has multiple uses.

Perhaps most important is the fact that high visibility serves the same function for Trump that it serves for people in all walks of life. The most visible lawyer in the small town; the most well known young manager at the national sales meeting; the most recognized ingénue in the regional theater troupe—each will advance further in their careers than their peers as a result of their higher visibility.

High Fat Brand Extension Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, founders of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, sell a super premium product with their super premium names. They originally positioned themselves as two New Yorkers who landed up in the clear, pristine Vermont land of healthy cows. For years ice cream lovers were inundated with Ben and Jerry’s market positioning as unpretentious do-gooders who sold the wackiest, richest, and self-proclaimed healthiest ice cream in the world. Today, after being bought out by food giant Unilever for $326 million, they still serve as goodwill ambassadors all over the world for Ben & Jerry’s.22 A customer can buy Ben & Jerry’s in the United Kingdom, Iceland, Malta, Israel, Hong Kong, and many other countries.23 As a testimony to their ability to use their visibility as a brand extension, they have started up a Ben & Jerry’s partner shop, a store that not only combines an ice cream counter with a catering business but is also operated by Second Chance/STRIVE, which is dedicated to restoring the long-term unemployed back into employment. In addition, the two have promoted innovations in environmental preservation, reducing global warming, voter registration, and other global-conscience activities.24 What Ben & Jerry did is remarkable. In building the Ben & Jerry ice cream brand, they were unrelenting in focusing their attention on two goals: The first was to build an ice cream brand that was novel and consistent with purity and free of preservatives. They invented, packaged, and institutionalized the fantasy of mixing ice cream with chocolate bars, fruit, nuts, fudge, caramel, and every other possible topping. Second, early in their venture, they incorporated into their business objectives a social mission initiative that gave their entire enterprise a motive greater than profits. While ice cream will never qualify as a health food, they managed to brand theirs as a socially responsible dessert. Moreover, no matter the financial ups and downs of their enterprise, they were consistent and always on message, and they were not only

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able to sell their company for a premium price but they were also able to maintain and expand the visibility of their name.

HOW IS THE PREMIUM ESTABLISHED? Robin Saunders invented a new premium category. A former Florida State University dance student, she built a counter-brand in the staid profession of investment banking. After moving to London, Saunders proceeded to partner with powerful financiers, make sensational and often bold deals, and establish herself as a star player in a heretofore male dominated industry. In contrast with the traditionally austere London financial world, Saunders stood out. The combination of her remarkable financial skills, affable sociability, and unerring taste in clothes and jewelry differentiated her from the good ole boys network. While it engendered both admiration and hostility from competitors and the media, it was a successful union of skilled financial strategies and visibility. No one had ever really seen this strategy executed in such a glamorous manner. She worked nonstop on deals, sailed on Prince Rainier’s yacht, and was credited with generating nearly $25 billion in transactions.25 After much success, some of her deals collapsed, and there were predictions of her ultimate exit from the exclusive club she redefined. That was not going to happen. Saunders is emerging again as a premium brand. She continues to pursue major financial deals with the promise of high rewards and receives attention even in her pursuit of a comeback, as a headline from The Observer exclaims: “City Intrigued as Golden Girl Plots Comeback.”26 Sector stars, whether in banking, law, medicine, or sports, benefit from the combination of their sector performances and the expansion of Hollywood-like treatment by their audiences and the media. The Hollywood model is the marriage of entertainment and fame building to create and sell highly visible star culture, which may include products with a varying shelf life, strong emphasis on personality, style, and substance, and luxurious, sometimes excessive lifestyles. These products often appear to be manufactured under mysterious circumstances by shadowy figures working for high rewards. In the Hollywood model, the emphasis is on product development, coaching, story building, drama, public relations, and capitalizing on free media. While popularly and critically perceived as more of an ephemeral curiosity than a genuine industry, the Hollywood model is drawing upon a

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huge system: celebrity restaurants, private clubs, boutiques, funeral homes, hotels, doctors and dentists, dressmakers and tailors. Few places illustrate the depth of the visibility industry’s support systems better than West Los Angeles. A trip through Santa Monica’s Upper Rustic Canyon resembles a television commercial for the state of the art in military tactics applied to home protection: ominous warnings of killer dogs, roving guards, and piercing alarms. To keep the lines of communication secure and free from fan interference, unlisted phone numbers and answering services abound. Traveling celebrities own private planes and arrange for limo-to-runway service never encountering the everyday inconvenience of travel. These support services are becoming available to visibility aspirants in all sectors and are driven by the premium that they can extract from the marketplace.

THE SPREAD OF THE CONCEPT In Hollywood, person marketing is an established, institutionalized form of life, the accepted way that highly visible persons are created in the entertainment sector. But crucial to the growth of the visibility industry worldwide is that, just by the force of its presence, the Hollywood model of visibility building causes pressure for imitative behavior in Aspen, Colorado; Tallinn in Estonia; and Fishguard, England. Hollywood’s visibilitygenerating strategies—widely portrayed in Hollywood films and network television—have been absorbed throughout the world. The ubiquitous and popular reality show American Idol, the rise of Britney Spears from pop celebrity into a risqué MTV generation idol, and Will Smith’s universal likeability—all are lessons in brand development, Hollywood style. All contribute to the public’s awareness of, and predisposition to use, Hollywood techniques. Much PR activity came out of New York, but it was Hollywood that codified and disseminated PR more efficiently than any other institution in the world. While Hollywood films were seeding the global consciousness with notions of fame building, the support systems that Hollywood helped develop were expanding, spreading visibility building know-how across the country. PR firms, agents, local promoters and managers, publicists—these agencies, formed in part to serve the entertainment sector in local markets, naturally sought to apply their skills to clients in sectors besides entertainment. These two factors—the awareness of visibility building as a practice, and the availability of the expertise to accomplish it—spread the Hollywood model, raising profiles of more and more sectors of life.

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Moving aggressively, the ad agencies, PR experts, publicists, dressing consultants, image designers, and charity coordinators have since permeated almost every area of global culture. The result is that the once dominant Hollywood star-making model has been superseded by its offspring—a worldwide, multisector system to generate high visibility and create brands. It is a system already well entrenched in the sports and political sectors, and it is growing rapidly in the business, religion, science, academic, and art sectors. The trend seems clear, illustrated by everything from the publicity campaign for Asia discount airline carrier AirAsia CEO Tony Fernandes to the society page profiles of architect Frank Gehry: The proficiency, penetration, and saturation of the visibility industry is a testimony to the speed of the Hollywood model’s dispersion and the need of the marketplace for their techniques.

Mel Gibson’s Premium The Passion of the Christ was a surprising box office hit. The movie, which cost $30 million to produce, has grossed worldwide over $600 million.27 The movie’s superstar director, producer, and principal investor was Mel Gibson, who won double Oscars for Braveheart and is a certified action star of his generation. His task was to market a religious film on the crucifixion of Christ, which is R rated and subtitled in Latin and Aramaic. The financial and cultural success of the film is not only an example of guerilla marketing but also an example of how a star’s brand can gain attention and create controversy for a film that might otherwise be overlooked. To the general public, Gibson’s commitment to Christianity was not well known. To meld his personal brand with the movie, he appeared on talk shows, gave many media interviews, met with religious leaders—in doing so, he conducted a form of trench warfare to gain attention for the film. The film was attacked on three counts: anti-Semitism, violence, and historical accuracy. All three accusations served to generate free publicity and word-of-mouth visibility for the film. The debates by themselves—which usually included Mel Gibson versus rabbis, some Christian leaders, media figures, and even Hollywood insiders—created anticipation for the film. In the world of predictable storylines, where biographies are carefully vetted, lifestyle pieces are painstakingly crafted, and images are often chiseled to a plan, the specter of Gibson laying bare his innermost beliefs was compelling and different. “What will he say next?” was the tease that kept people interested in the film and its promotion. In response to a question by Diane Sawyer on Primetime on whether he was crazy or a genius, Gibson chose to answer in a colorful, if unrelated way, “I think I’m somewhere between Howard Stern and St. Francis

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of Assisi on the scale of morality.”28 Gibson kept the film in play with an all-out blitz, brewing media controversy and stirring audience interest. What would the film have grossed without Gibson? While it is impossible to know the answer to that question, it could be surmised that it would have been a lot less. Religious movies have not historically been box office successes.29 In the competitive age for media space, high profile generates interest. For the public, often barraged with a multitude of conflicting images, Gibson’s brand was able to lift his product out of the ordinary and transform it into a special event.

Fueling the cycle is the public’s belief that achievements are not achievements unless they are reported in the media. The media, even at the most local level, has become the validating mechanism for accomplishment, a sort of society-wide imitation of the high school football quarterback’s rifling of the local paper’s sports section to see if he’s mentioned. For many of us, the public reporting of the achievement becomes more important than the achievement itself. Not only is the Hollywood model moving out into local markets but local markets are becoming increasingly sophisticated in transforming the ordinary into the visible, and the visible into the highly visible. As a testament to the go-go nineties, New York City publicist Lara Shriftman and socialite Liz Cohen decided to test the limits of celebrity making. Young, rich, and well connected, the two ran a successful PR firm that launched a variety of products—from mobile phones to $1,000 pumps. What if they could find an unknown person, cloak her in designer clothes, deliver her to the most exclusive parties, limo her to movie and theatrical premieres, and, in general, leak to the press her hotness and prominence? The subject was a twenty-five-year-old English woman named Alice Larkin, who worked in a Betsey Johnson boutique. In a short period of time, she was giving quotes to gossip columnists, being interviewed on her hairstyle by Vogue, and was arguably an A-list star.30 What did everyone get out of this? For Larkin, the answer is easy—access to unimagined social events, the potential for lucrative modeling, and perhaps a coupling with a wealthy socialite. For the two transformers, it was a demonstration of how visibility can be built with craft and networking. In the end, it came crashing down when Larkin broke up the marriage of a well-known socialite couple and was unceremoniously dismissed from the New York social scene. Larkin did marry the husband and perhaps that was the premium.31 In this age, creating a star may well be easier than controlling one. While transforming shop girls into stars is a fairly mild manipulation of the system, using similar techniques in such sectors as politics has trig-

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gered intense controversy. After all, manufacturing stars for entertainment purposes seems far less offensive than manufacturing elected leaders. The same concerns exist in other high visibility sectors such as science and medicine, where pressure on individuals to achieve well-knowness has spawned such aberrations as lawsuits between French and American researchers over who should receive credit for discovering the AIDS virus. In this spread of personal and professional branding throughout the global culture, an important change has occurred. Visibility building in its original form relied on systematically refining aspirants who had been randomly discovered. Today, however, we are moving from this “discovery” model to a breeding model, to a system that transforms unknown aspirants into highly visible individuals in much the same way that Sumo wrestlers are grown in Japan or ballerinas are built in Russia. All over this country, from Fame-type high school talent banks in New York City to ice-skating schools in Denver and gymnastics camps in California, we are breeding the highly visible rather than discovering them. For example, for decades, towns that wished to brand themselves to stimulate commerce, inventoried their assets and then selected or discovered talent. A central element in the standard formula was the iconic female symbol of the town: 1. Stage a competition to select the local beauty queen. 2. Have her pose with avocados, prize cattle, or other local attractions. 3. Promote the beauty queen in an elaborate stage show featuring local talent. 4. Promote the now beauty icon to the local media as a centerpiece for stories about the region and its products. 5. Repeat the formula to achieve the next level of visibility–whether it be state, regional, national, or global. Today, however, the Pygmalion principle has transformed fishing derbies and strawberry festivals across America. The most important changes are being made in the participants themselves. Future anglers and strawberry queens are identified in elementary school and herded into clinics and summer camps for training. In some places, seminars are conducted to instruct town leaders in talking to the media, and acting lessons are given to the most archetypal, quaint, colorful members of the town, creating, on demand, a visibility showcase. Festival organizers are combining manufac-

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tured characters with the marketing formulas designed by consultants, selecting the most appropriate festival colors, designing logos, and manufacturing cheap peripherals for on-the-spot sale to tourists. Ultimately, the whole spectacle can be packaged for sale to regional and state television, with T-shirts, beach balls, and logo-imprinted Frisbees available for sale through late-night direct-response TV commercials.

TRANSFORMATION AND THE QUEST That aspirants can be molded and transformed into successful brands and command a premium for outsized performance is a key concept in our visibility culture. The changing demands of a broader, more saturated, and savvier marketplace are both an opportunity and a warning to prospective aspirants. In such a competitive environment, those seeking and those who have attained visibility are commanding a premium from a marketplace that values and is willing to pay for their products and services. At the same time, easier entry into the visibility industry and a recognition by aspirants that the premium is worthwhile has created unprecedented competition. In order to attain and sustain the premium, aspirants must understand the structure of the high visibility industry. The next chapter addresses how this people-as-brands industry functions.

NOTES 1 Edited by Peter Kafka, “The Celebrity 100: Sorted by Pay Rank,” Forbes, www.forbes.com/lists/2005/53/Pay_1.html, viewed June 18, 2005. 2 Edited by Peter Kafka, “The Celebrity 100,” Forbes, www.forbes.com/maserati/ celebrities2004/LIRO0ZT.html?passListId=53&passYear=2004&passListType= Person&uniqueId=O0ZT&datatype=Person, viewed June 18, 2005. 3 Quote from Jim Andrews, IEG Sponsorship Report editorial director. See Angela Phipps Towle, “Celebrity Branding,” www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/ television/feature_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=2030984, viewed July 5, 2005. 4 Annette Grant, “Life is Short, but Good Publicity Lasts Forever,” New York Times, June 26, 2005, p. 27. 5 The Wedgewood Dictionary of English Etymology (London: Tribner & Co., 1872), p. 60. 6 The Oxford English Dictionary (London: Ely House, l970), p. 211.

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7 Earl Blackwell and Cleveland Amory, The Celebrity Register (New York: Harper & Row, 1963), p. V. 8 Chris Grannell and Ruwan Jayawardena, “Celebrity Branding: Not as glamorous as it looks,” brandchannel.com, January 19, 2004, www.brandchannel.com/brand_speak.asp?bs_id=76, viewed July 5, 2005. 9 See Robert H. Frank and Philip J. Cook, The Winner-Take-All-Society (New York: Free Press, 1995), for a discussion of how the premium economy creates powerful distortions in the marketplace. 10 Michael Elliott, “Brand it like Beckham: The World’s best-known sports star follows the money,” Time, June 23, 2003, www.time.com/time/columnist/elliott/article/0,9565,460400,00.html, viewed July 4, 2005. 11 Ginanne Brownell with Emily Flynn, Hideko Takayama, and Ronna Kelly, “Brand It Like Beckham,” Newsweek, June 30, 2003, p. 88. 12 Jennifer Warner, “Cosmetic Procedures Become Even More Popular: Focus Shifts to Nonsurgical Cosmetic Procedures like Botox, Restylane,” WebMDHealth, March 18, 2005, my.webmd.com/content/article/102/106655.htm, viewed June 18, 2005. 13 _____, “A Body of Work,” USA Today, July 29, 2004, p. 8D. 14 Chisu Ko, “Peer Pressure Plastics: Kids gotta have it too,” Time (Asia), August 5, 2002, www.time.com/time/asia/magazine/printout/0,13675,501020805–332098,00. html, viewed August 10, 2004. 15 _____, “Cosmetic surgery remaking face of Japan,” Associated Press, October 9, 2003, www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1065703777168_18/?hub= SciTech, viewed August 10, 2004. 16 _____, “2004 Average Surgeon/Physician Fees: Cosmetic Procedures” from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, www.plasticsurgery.org/public_education/loader.cfm?url=/commonspot/ security/getfile.cfm&PageID=16163, viewed July 5, 2005. 17 David Roeder, “Calatrava Spire Faces Some Tall Obstacles,” Chicago Sun-Times, July 27, 2005, p. 77. 18 See www.forbes.com/celebrity100/ for the Forbes “Celebrity 100,” edited by Peter Kafka, June 15, 2005. 19 See Forbes’ “The Celebrity 100: Sorted by Pay Rank,” www.forbes.com/lists/2005/53/Pay_1.html, viewed July 5, 2005.

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20 _____, “1,574 Covers,” People, April 12, 2004, p. 186. 21 Dan Roth, “The Trophy Life,” Fortune, www.fortune.com/fortune/subs/article/0,15114,607690–2,00.html, April 5, 2004, viewed July 19, 2004. 22 Michael Kinsman, “Ben & Jerry’s Real Scoop on Business,” San Diego UnionTribune, April 3, 2004, p. C1. 23 www.benjerry.com/our_company/international, viewed August 8, 2004. 24 See Kinsman. 25 David Fairlamb, “Going South at Germany’s WestLB,” BusinessWeek, August 13, 2003, www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/aug2003/ nf20030813_6631_db039.htm, viewed October 14, 2005. 26 Richard Wachman, “City Intrigued as Golden Girl Plots Comeback: Robin Saunders is burying Boxclever blues with a mega-deal,” The Observer, June 19, 2005, p. 3. 27 www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=passionofthechrist.htm, viewed June 13, 2005. 28 _____, “Primetime Live Mel Gibson’s Passion,” Primetime Live (ABC), February 16, 2004 (Lexis Nexis). 29 For example, the 1988 The Last Temptation of Christ directed by Martin Scorsese grossed domestically a little under $9 million. See www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=lasttemptationofchrist.htm, viewed June 13, 2005. 30 Vanessa Grigoriadis, “Welcome to the Dollhouse,” New York Magazine, December 7, 1998, www.angelfire.com/celeb/millers/ny_power_grrls.html, viewed July 29, 2004. 31 entertainment.iwon.com/celebgossip/pgsix/id/08_31_2002_6.html, viewed August 9, 2004.

how the high visibility industry works

CHAPTER 3

T

he ballroom door opens. It’s 10:00 P.M., and Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft, has arrived to address hundreds of top executives who have been waiting patiently in the Maurya Sheraton Towers in New Delhi to hear Gates speak on his company’s latest global initiative.1 Gates, the richest man in the world, has given his computer company’s seemingly faceless identity a brand. Much of the new brand stems from Gates’ transformation as he altered his image to provide a face for the cutting-edge products of Microsoft. Originally, he was perceived as the iconic computer genius, appearing in public in lumpy suits, hunched over, trying desperately to see through his smudged glasses. Today, after years of Microsoft success he looks like a successful CEO of a dominant but userfriendly company. He not only dresses more fashionably, he moves with studied self-assurance. He expresses his ideas publicly with confidence and seeming ease. Bill Gates, once the shyest man in the world, now meets with heads of state, trades jokes with David Letterman, builds a $50 million technologically perfect home, is a world-class philanthropist, and publicly expresses his feelings for his late mother. Gates’ high visibility has become one of Microsoft’s principal weapons in redefining the company not as a monopolistic behemoth but as a warm, facilitating force in our lives. For support, Gates has it all—speechwriters, event managers, photographers, PR staff, marketing experts, drivers. Some might consider Gates to be somewhat extravagant, assembling so large a personal staff. But he has good reason. As Microsoft’s chief visionary, he is committed to high visibility—a commitment requiring that his image be distributed on television and in print, through interviews, live and Web-cast speeches, guest columns, expert testimony, and charity appearances. By assembling 33

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different experts, he takes advantage of the opportunities offered by a powerful industry. It is an industry that serves more consumers than WalMart, employs more people than the airlines, and is as important to the national economy as agriculture. It is an industry that is everywhere yet is mostly unseen.

WHAT IS THE VISIBILITY INDUSTRY? The classical meaning of the term industry is a collection of people, materials, equipment, and processes that together produce an output that has value to a market. Just as the auto industry consists of workers, tools, and designs that turn materials into cars, the visibility industry consists of specialists who take unknown and well-known people, and design and manufacture their images, supervise their distribution, and manage their rise to high visibility. Consider these examples of the industry at work: • Senator John Kerry, upon deciding to run for president, did not set out on his quest alone. His campaign was run much as a national corporation is, with a Washington headquarters coordinating the operations of field offices strategically situated throughout the country. Supporting Kerry were press secretaries, professional speechwriters, media coaches, advertising agencies, career political consultants, TV commercial directors, fund-raising experts, direct-mail specialists, and many others whose job it was to increase Kerry’s well-knowness and design an effective image. • Francis Yeoh heads the $4.2 billion YTL Corporation, arguably Malaysia’s most international company with interests in power and utilities, cement, real estate development, hospitality, and e-business. When YTL took over Wessex Water in England from scandal-plagued Enron, Yeoh hired the Three Tenors to perform in Bath in a gesture of thanks designed to generate goodwill among his new customers, who were nervous about the flamboyant Asian.2 Yeoh relies on more than hiring celebrities to project a positive image of his vast company. While many managers in Asia shun the spotlight, Yeoh hired PR consultants, speechwriters, and event organizers to coordinate media exposure, assure that his public statements have relevance and impact, and place Yeoh and YTL in every important gathering of

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influential public- and private-sector leaders. The effect is for Yeoh to brand his conglomerate through his identity. These industry specialists, working to fulfill the public’s great demand for their product, help make the visibility industry one of the largest anywhere. Star power drives many of our industries. Such items as record and book sales, concert revenue, and $1 billion in ticket receipts for movies like Titanic and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone3 are the more obvious indicators of the industry’s size. Car sales (Britney Spears for Toyota Vios and Pierce Brosnan for BMW), stocks and bonds (Charles Schwab and Warren Buffett), cosmetics (Liz Hurley for Estee Lauder, Uma Thurman for Lancome), and the vast majority of other products and services offered in our culture are equally as dependent on celebrity endorsement. It is impossible to put an exact number on the industry’s gross sales, total employment, or taxes paid because they are so intertwined with the products themselves. But we know that if it disappeared tomorrow, dropping dramatically in audience interest would be the music industry, television programming, professional sports, lecture circuit speakers, and leader-driven churches. Law firms and ad agencies, dependent on “name” partners, would suddenly be competing just on their merits. Charities, lacking spokespeople, would experience declines in contributions. The fashion industry, dependent on “name” designers, would atomize. The entire consumer goods and services sector, so celebritized in recent years through the use of endorsers, would have to find a whole new way to attract consumer attention. But the visibility industry does exist, and its function is clear: to design, create, and market faces as brands and to produce and sustain them in all sectors. The worldwide distribution of personal and professional brands from John Kerry to Francis Yeoh demonstrates the industry in its present state, but it did not reach this level of sophistication overnight. What are the stages through which the visibility industry evolved? What are the subindustries and occupations that make it up?

THE EVOLUTION OF THE VISIBILITY INDUSTRY The industry has evolved through four stages: the cottage industry stage, the industrial stage, the factory stage, and the decentralized stage

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1900

Figure 3-1:

1920

1940

1960

1980

1990

Cottage Industry Stage

Late Industrialization

Early Industrialization Stage

Decentralization Stage

2000

Evolution of Visibility Making

(see Figure 3–1). The first three stages represent increasing degrees of centralization and sophistication. The fourth reflects the diffusion of communication and technology. Each still exists, to a greater or lesser degree, in the contemporary world.

Cottage Industry Stage Throughout modern history, before the well-knowness of celebrityhood had replaced achievement-oriented fame, high visibility was created by small mom-and-pop operations that, together in a patchwork, formed a cottage industry. The few professionals that existed were usually in the service of royalty and the church, hired to spread the glory of their employers. Fame seekers in the cottage industry stage were largely on their own. Today, many aspirants are striving for high visibility in the same relatively primitive way, using the cottage industry resources shown in Figure 3–2. Typically, “talent” is recognized in a young female vocalist, who is encouraged by family and friends and eventually trained by coaches. Along the way, she arranges for a composite of semiprofessional photographs, and she prepares write-ups of her background, previous engagements, and abilities. She contacts venue managers who own or manage bars and nightclubs, and she asks for a chance to sing. If turned down on all fronts, she may alter her style and start again; or, in extreme cases, she may even begin singing for free on the streets of large cities where crowds gather to hear free entertainment. Most likely, our aspirant will drop out of the visibility industry altogether—a product that did not make it off the drawing board.

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Family and Friends Teachers Aspirant

Venue Managers

Audiences

Photos Write-Ups

Figure 3–2:

Cottage Industry

Still, some modern aspirants do use cottage stage strategies quite successfully. Considered “auteurs” in the arts, entrepreneurs in business, or gadflies in politics, they rely on their own energy and initiative to put their own master plans into action. John Sayles, the critically praised director of independent films such as Matewan, Eight Men Out, Lone Star, and Sunshine State, has perfected cottage industry strategies in the film sector. Maintaining complete creative control of his films, Sayles, in addition to writing and directing, has a hand in production and editing and even appears in small parts. He also maintains economic control of his product, often funding the low-budget projects out of his own pocket, getting actors to work for deferred payments, and going on long publicity tours to pitch his films. Despite these competitive disadvantages, Sayles has achieved critical acclaim as well as high visibility among a widening public. Even international brands can utilize cottage industry tactics. Nobel laureate Professor Milton Friedman was well known for his barebones operation. He had a longtime secretary who handled his arrangements, and he never used an agent. Both Sayles, and to a lesser extent Friedman, illustrate the major characteristics of the cottage industry stage of visibility making: 1. The aspirant’s major backing and support comes from colleagues, family, and friends, and organizational support comes from tiny staffs. 2. The aspirant is heavily dependent on self-training, self-initiative, and perseverance. 3. The aspirant initially may lack both an understanding of the nature of markets and information about what the market is looking for and makes little if any use of visibility industry specialists.

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4. The extremely low cost of entry encourages a flood of aspirants to compete for the available slots. It is a buyers’ market, with the aspirants’ being dependent upon venue managers whose selection criteria are highly subjective. 5. Successful products or services are the key means by which aspirants move up the celebrity pyramid. 6. Word of mouth is important in spreading the aspirants’ reputation because their use of media is underdeveloped or sporadic. 7. The aspirant arranges for venue appearance without the use of intermediary specialists.

Early Industrialization Stage In the second stage of the industry’s development, specialists emerge— talent agents, personal managers, publicists, professional coaches, and financial managers—who are able to judge aspirants’ talent, develop their potential, solicit interest from venues where they can perform, and negotiate salaries and fees (Figure 3–3). In this stage, the first specialist an aspirant may retain is an agent, publicist, or lawyer. If the aspirant begins to achieve some visibility, he or she might hire a personal manager to handle his or her personal and financial affairs. The personal manager in turn might hire publicists, professional coaches, business managers, accountants, lawyers, and investment specialists, and he or she might also manage the aspirant’s relationship with the agent. The publicist, in turn, will work with the communications media to disseminate the aspirant’s image and name to

Talent Agent Communication Media Personal Manager Aspirant

Publicist Professional Coaches

Audiences Venue Managers

Financial Manager

Figure 3–3:

Early Industrialization Stage

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39

venue managers and audiences. The hope is that this promotion activity will help the aspirant’s talent agent locate more opportunities for his client. All of the specialists above also exist in the industry’s next level of evolution, the factory stage; in the early industrialization stage, however, they simply have not yet reached full professional status. The soliciting of these specialists’ help, and the coordination of their efforts—that are central to this stage—are often handled by the aspirant. Decisions and strategies evolve moment to moment, more on an as-needed basis than as a result of a comprehensive strategic plan. Visibility development in this stage is definitely more the work of firefighters than architects. Although not fully developed, early industrial stage tactics can be very successful. Consider the late celebrity trial lawyer Johnnie Cochran, who utilized industrial stage tactics. Cochran’s visibility was so powerful, observed an opposing counsel, that “when he shows up in a courtroom he has impact. . . . That celebrity appeal adds a value to the case that is very, very difficult to counteract.”4 Among his many strategic moves: 1. Cochran expanded the normal distribution of a lawyer’s traditional mom-and-pop product—personal injury defense—by opening branch offices. While some large law firms have used early industrial stage strategies to provide services in corporate law, Cochran’s strategy stood out because the branches revolved specifically on his own name and fame. 2. Cochran used market pricing strategy to capitalize on his visibility premium and attract clients to his branches. 3. Cochran appeared on a number of stages—law schools, television shows, political events, legal conferences—to build his visibility all over the country. 4. Cochran used professional publicists as spokespersons and to help manage his personal and law firm’s image. 5. Cochran carefully assembled a consortium of specialists around personal injury law that had enough brand equity to justify the slogan as “America’s Law Firm.” 6. Cochran’s industrial stage tactics built around his visibility were so effective that his law firms retained and actively promoted his name after his death as a powerful marketing tool for new business. Another example is Asian-based software entrepreneur Joey Gurango, a former Microsoft executive who is branding himself as an entrepreneur

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and commercial software outsourcing expert. After several ventures in the software application industry and his stint with Microsoft, he founded a new firm—WEBWORKS OS—specializing in commercial software outsourcing services. Having recognized the value of high visibility from his time with commercial software vendor Great Plains and later Microsoft, Gurango immediately hired a public relations firm that would be responsible for promoting his personal brand.5 He also negotiated a joint venture agreement with a firm specializing in event management to promote him as a successful entrepreneur and public speaker who trains would-be entrepreneurs. Gurango is prominently featured on the WEBWORKS OS Web site (www.webworksos.com), and bimonthly electronic newsletters feature his perspective on software development trends. International news releases are distributed via PRWeb. He is also a regular columnist for ComputerWorld Philippines and Enterprise magazine, providing additional hits for potential clients who “Google him.” As a result, Gurango’s strategy is to shape a global brand that distinguishes him as an authority in technology entrepreneurship and commercial software outsourcing services. For aspirants ranging from lawyers to entrepreneurs, the early industrialization stage model of visibility development incorporates the following features: 1. Aspirants design their own self-promotion strategies, frequently taking advantage of linkages to existing institutions, and often using pricing and marketing techniques. 2. The stage is marked by the emergence of a limited number of specialists such as talent agents, personal managers, publicists, professional coaches, business managers, and venue managers. 3. In many cases, the specialists operate on a need-fulfillment basis, dealing with crises as they occur; they run small-scale operations, and they vary greatly in their level of competence. 4. Aspirants are often early entrants into sectors they’ve pioneered, and as a result, they are able to attain media coverage that would not be available in a more mature market. 5. Much of the aspirant’s opportunities are controlled by venue managers, who conduct fairly active searches for qualified clients.

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Late Industrialization Stage Two key developments characterize visibility in the late industrialization stage: The operations of industry specialists grow more sophisticated, with master organizations appearing to coordinate their services, and the control of the celebrity-marketing process passes from the aspirant into the hands of others. New specialists emerge such as costumers, photographers, hairstylists, makeup artists, communications experts, psychologists, marketing researchers, and commercial marketers—all ready to assist in the process of transforming unknowns into knowns, and translating that high visibility into profits. Concurrently, the specialists who emerged in the cottage and industrial stages—agents, personal managers, publicists—are improving their craft and becoming more systematic and knowledgeable. Professional associations form to protect and promote specialists’ interests and offer training; a few even initiate licensing and certification procedures. Some specialists, notably agents, build large firms with national and sometimes international coverage and connections. Various complementary specialists link themselves into networks and embark on joint ventures. Transformation budgets grow larger, and more sectors of the society now draw upon the machinery of the industry. An excellent example of the late industrialization stage of visibility is the Washington Speakers Bureau (WSB). Many think of WSB and other big-name speaker bureaus as little more than agents for management experts and retired CEOs, former government officials, and inspirational speakers, among others. While agent services are the principal part of what these large bureaus do—pushing up speaking fees to the delight of speakers and the consternation of organizers—WSB goes much further. Operating on the same principle that made Detroit the assembly line car capital, WSB’s factory employs specialists to market speakers but also to help event planners and organizers to conceptualize, plan, and implement events. Although most speakers come to WSB as well-known figures in their own right, earning a living by making keynote speeches and day-long seminars is a whole new universe. Often these aspirants are provided the training necessary to make them compelling speakers able to hold an audience. Personal appearance consultants are brought in to remake an outstanding business school professor into an energetic speaker able to deliver meaningful content to widely varying audiences. News and feature stories are commissioned with public relations agencies, and speakers are drilled on how to deal with media, and answer or deflect tough questions. The bureau offers a complete service that emphasizes testing procedures, strategic market planning, and targeted implementation.

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Visibility makers now use the same celebrity factory techniques to launch business leaders, politicians, artists, sports figures, and many others. The factory system’s purpose is straightforward: to launch aspirants in much the same way that professional marketers work for major consumer goods companies to launch new products. The system is geared to target the aspirant’s potential audience and characteristics, the aspirant’s brand concept and story are refined and positioned for the market (value proposition), and dress, appearance, and behavior (often referred to as extended identity6) are designed to reinforce the aspirant’s role and type. In its late industrialization stage, the industry has most if not all of these characteristics. 1. The industry has attracted a large number of specialists including agents, personal managers, publicists, and specialists that characterized the industrial stage. 2. The various specialists have organized professional associations to protect and promote their interests, and in some cases have established rating, licensing, and certification requirements. The result is higher (though not formidable) barriers to entry and an increase in specialist skill levels. 3. Rather than being controlled by the aspirant, strategy and tactics are handled by independent managers, or by large vertically integrated firms that have national and international coverage and connections. As a result of this expansion, these firms are prepared to spend larger budgets to launch or support aspirants because visibility can translate to a return on investment. 4. Brand development has professionalized sectors including entertainment, sports, politics, art, business, and religion. 5. Aspirants and celebrities alike at this stage routinely give away not 10 percent of their income but up to 35 to 40 percent of their income to support the various specialists who surround them. In fact, speakers’ bureaus like WSB typically receive 15 to 20 percent of professional fees they generate for their speakers by arranging engagements. If the bureau puts in a lot of coaching, training, and promotion for an up-and-coming aspirant, the fee could be as much as 35 percent. When an event organizer acting as a bureau goes even further and produces

HOW THE HIGH VISIBILITY INDUSTRY WORKS

Industrial Stage Personnel plus Market Researchers

43

Media

Product Planners Specialty Coaches

Aspirant

Venue Managers

Audiences

Advertising Specialists Publicity Agents

Venues

Venue Consultants Business Managers

Figure 3–4:

Late Industrialization Stage

an event, additional fees and profit sharing may be involved. In the late industrialization stage, visibility production begins to echo even more subtle aspects of modern manufacturing and marketing. There is less random guesswork and more marketing research and design, and decision making is guided by projected return on investment. As a result, there are fewer errors and more planning. Packaging, pricing, advertising, and distribution are all fully integrated into a strategic process intended to achieve a visibility premium. In an ideal late industrialization stage, the visibility industry has identified consumer needs, developed a corps of experienced managers, and established a repertoire of visibility-generating formulas based on experience, financial analysis, and research (see Figure 3–4). In all these ways, it resembles traditional business practice. Its ultimate objective is to generate substantial returns to stakeholders involved in the personal brand-building process. In the visibility industry’s next stage, however, tradition is augmented by innovation and dispersion.

The Decentralized Stage During most of the industry’s early years, each visibility sector was largely concentrated in a special location—be it city, state, or region. Just as Las Vegas represents gambling to high rollers, aspirants in other sectors had to journey to these locations if they entertained any hope for success. Among them, two cities in particular were almost unavoidable: for the aspiring film actor, Hollywood; for the aspiring businessperson, fine artist, sculptor, ballet star, stage actor, or opera singer, New York (see Figure 3–5).

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NY (theater; art; ballet; opera)

LA (film) New Orleans (jazz)

Figure 3–5:

Decentralization Stage

Today, New York, Los Angeles, and London remain major cities for certain visibility sectors, but thanks to modern communications technology, along with tremendous increases in information and transportation speeds, the industry has evolved into a fourth stage: decentralization. In the decentralized stage, other cities begin to enjoy reputations as headquarters for visibility activity in specialized sectors (see Figure 3–6). Chicago is a great market for breeding commodities traders, actors, and personal injury attorneys. San Francisco leads in the sprouting of highly visible lifestyle gurus. Berlin is recognized for its symphony orchestra. Prague attracts aspiring technology entrepreneurs. Tokyo is a center for anime artists, and Seoul is where the latest, hottest fantasy role-playing and online strategy games are developed.

Seattle (public art)

San Jose (IT; (iceskating venture capital) and skiing) Denver San Francisco Colorado (new therapies) Springs LA (film) (bicycling) San Diego (swimming)

NY Chicago (comedy Washington showcase; (national commodity politics) brokers) Nashville (country music)

(theater; art; ballet; opera)

Austin (IT; music)

Figure 3–6:

Decentralization Stage—Later Stage Cities

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With prestigious regional theaters establishing themselves everywhere, the young drama actor no longer needs to live in New York, London, or Paris. Fashion designers don’t have to work in Paris or Milan either. Opera singers can train and perform in Dallas, Pangkor Laut, or Bath. Sports aspirants can emerge out of scores of colleges and training centers in Serbia and Montenegro (basketball), Russia (tennis), Brazil (soccer), and the Dominican Republic (baseball). In one of the clearest demonstrations of decentralization, technology and the wide diffusion of support services allow aspirants to attain visibility from virtually any geographic base they like. MTV makes local celebrities in Moscow, Bangkok, and Tel Aviv regional and even internationally known artists; management gurus deliver keynote presentations via streaming video and podcasts; and world-renowned surgeons using video conferencing technology participate in sensitive operations half a world away with a worldwide audience. Not only is the visibility industry spreading out in space, it is also spreading out in time. In the past, aspirants drew the industry’s attention when they came of age. Today, moving from the discovery model to the breeding model, the industry extends the production cycle of new high visibles backward, beginning the transformation process at ever earlier ages. This evolutionary development, combined with new strategies to sustain the lifespan of celebrity careers, allows an ever greater potential for visibility’s rewards. At the same time, it’s never too late to begin to leverage celebrity as people live longer and take on whole new careers two, three, and more times over a lifetime. Clearly, the developing of visibility is a fast-growing industry. Each year, more and more people become involved in producing powerful personal brands, more ways are found by businesses and institutions to use them, and more satellite industries spring up to service them. From the agent training academies of Creative Artist Agency (CAA) and International Creative Management (ICM); to the burgeoning business in celebrity endorsements (the Gap’s endorsement contract with singer Lenny Kravitz and Reebok’s multiyear deal with Yao Ming); to visibility specialists such as stylist Sharon Gault, who can command a starting fee of $2,500 per day for commercial shoots7; to event management specialists earning fees of $20,000 to produce a one-day, high-profile conference, the visibility industry is booming. Unlike the growth profile of traditional industries, all four stages of the visibility industry still coexist today: personal and professional branding still operates as cottage industries in most sectors, in the early and late

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industrial stages as the aspirant profile matures, and in an increasing number in the decentralization stage. Although the level of sophistication of the visibility creation process varies from sector to sector, overall sophistication is on the rise. Successful aspirants rarely remain in one stage; as cottage industry strategies propel an aspirant to higher visibility, industrial stage strategies will be attempted. A successful early industrial stage aspirant may be absorbed into a late industrial stage system, or an unsuccessful aspirant may move through the stages in reverse.

THE INDUSTRY’S STRUCTURE Just as the auto industry depends on the tire, steel, glass, and paint industries to help produce cars, the visibility industry draws upon several industries in order to turn unknown aspirants into its products. Figure 3–7 shows the major participating subindustries whose services the industry must coordinate in order to produce and promote personal and professional brands. Not every subindustry utilizes every sector, of course. Religious aspirants have been slow to turn to agents; some aspirants who have, such as business executives, do not yet contract for manufacturers to reproduce their likenesses on dolls and lunch

Publicists PR Firms Advertising Agencies Marketing Research Firms

Newspapers Magazines Radio TV Film

Theater Music Halls Dance Halls Movie Studios Sports Arenas

Publicity Industry

Communication Industry

Entertainment Industry

Representation Industry

Visibility Industry

Appearance

Agents Personal Managers Promoters Endorsement Industry

Legal and Business Services Industry

Souvenir Manufacturers Clothing Manufacturers Games and Toys Manufacturers

Figure 3–7:

Costumers Cosmeticians Hairstylists

Lawyers Accountants Investment Counselors

Coaching Industry Music Teachers Drama Teachers Speech Teachers Modeling Teachers

Structure of the Visibility Industry

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boxes. But as high visibility continues to spread, new sectors make use of more of the subindustries all the time. What are the subindustries?

The Entertainment Industry The entertainment industry consists of all the organizations involved in producing entertainment and entertainers. Working within it are actors, actresses, directors, producers, makeup artists, wardrobe advisors, film editors, musicians, photographers—all dedicated to advancing the art of illusion. The traditional media of film, radio, and television are not the limits of the entertainment industry. Today, the visibility industry makes increased use of such entertainment venues like museums (as platforms for charity appearances), county fairs (to afford in-the-flesh exposure to audiences), basketball games (to perform during half-time), and many others. The industry has deep roots in Hollywood—now emulated in Tokyo, Hong Kong, New Delhi, Sydney, London, Berlin, and Paris—and many of the component industries (whose descriptions follow) began as support services of the entertainment sector.

The Representation Industry The representation industry includes all those who solicit for or negotiate engagements for their clients for a fee, typically a commission. Formerly confined to the entertainment and sports sectors, the ranks of the representation industry are swelling as its activities spread rapidly into every sector of life. The members of the representation industry operate at very different levels of skill and creativity often due to undefined boundaries and an ever-shifting set of circumstances and players. The standard for power and definition in the representation industry was established by Jules Stein and his protégé Lew Wasserman, designers of the entertainment giant MCA. Under Wasserman, MCA packaged movies, television programming, music, and all sorts of consumer products, and it took over ownership of broadcast stations and Universal’s movie studio. Other agencies expanded the MCA model such as Michael Ovitz, former CEO and cofounder of Creative Artists Agency (CAA). Ovitz not only was the king of packaging talent and stories to the networks and studios, he also brokered billion-dollar deals involving Sony and Matsushita. Although Ovitz struggled through a series of humiliating reversals as an executive, entrepreneur, and investor–deal maker after leaving CAA, like Stein and particularly Wasserman he had a vision of the representation industry that generated great wealth for both his clients and the agency.

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An updated view of a successful agent is portrayed in the HBO series Entourage, where actor Jeremy Piven plays the aggressive, fast-talking, and consummate deal maker Ari Gold. In this depiction, the agent is highly successful, and every moment of his life is dedicated to his client’s and his own advancement. Of course, not all agents or managers achieve this level of success for their clients. Woody Allen portrayed (if comically exaggerated) the less successful type of agent in Broadway Danny Rose. His character represents a stable of woeful performers, including a blind xylophonist, a one-legged tap dancer, a parrot who sings “I’ve Gotta Be Me,” and a fumbling hypnotist who can’t snap his subjects back out of their trances. Rose barely makes a nickel for his clients, or for himself. Although fictional, Rose illustrates the wide range in skill levels of all the different types of representatives: agents, personal managers, and promoters.

The Agents Agents get jobs for their clients—often a large group of clients who may each only command a small part of the agent’s time. For all but the most highly visible, aspirants tend to need agents more than agents need aspirants. This is because agents function as filters, buffers between aspirants and those who employ them. Their compensation is a percentage (often 10 percent but in special cases going as high as 35 percent) of the clients’ earnings. In more recent times, agents have moved toward more professionalism by holding conferences, staging anniversary banquets, starting newsletters such as ATA (Association of Talent Agents), and generally attempting to upgrade their public image. • An agent’s most important function is to find work for the client. This includes scanning opportunities; phoning or visiting booking agents, venue managers and producers; and making the case for the client, negotiating the terms, and facilitating the client’s appearance at the time and place of the engagement. • Agents also feed information to their clients about what is happening in the client’s sector. Whether it is advice on which teams are looking for players, or where clients should eat or be seen at, agents must be conversant with the sector’s rules and conventions. • Agents also provide advice and coaching help so that clients become more marketable. Agents offer pointers on effective dress, speech, deportment, and strategy. The agent may urge their clients to obtain more training from specialist coaches.

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• Agents will also try to arrange introductions to the right people. Most agents have a network of acquaintances and influential people to whom they may introduce the client. • Agents may also arrange publicity for their client. The agent may invent events or stunts to create greater client visibility, or the agent may recommend a publicist for the client to employ. • Agents will also attempt to line up other opportunities for the client. They will try to generate endorsements and/or book trade shows, speaking engagements, commercials, and other exposure opportunities. All six functions—finding work, passing on information, advising and coaching, arranging introductions, publicizing, and finding other opportunities—are rarely performed by most agents. Most agents try to sell their existing clients as they are. It is the rare agent who takes such interest in his clients to put in the time to improve the product as well as sell the product. Nevertheless, as the visibility industry becomes more sophisticated, “total service agents” become very important to their clients, playing the role of surrogate father, mother, brother, or sister, offering friendship and guidance, and handholding. In the entertainment and sports industries, firms create partnerships, and they produce and serve as product packagers for their clients. This integration trend is likely to spread to other sectors as business and professional aspirants expand market opportunities.

The Supreme Representative The late sports visionary and IMG founder Mark McCormack was regarded as “The Most Powerful Man in Sport.” 8 His name and organization became a personal brand for comprehensive sports representation that still endures today. His career began representing golf luminary Arnold Palmer, and that partnership—sealed with a handshake—defined modern sports representation. IMG today still represents McCormack’s initial clients—aside from Palmer, they include such sports legends as Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, JeanClaude Killy, and John Havlicek—as well as new superstars like Tiger Woods and Maria Sharapova and more than five hundred other athletes. It also represents companies and organizations in a variety of ways. Clients such as Brooks Brothers, the International Olympic Committee, and the Nobel Foundation provide testimony to the promotional and marketing impact of IMG, as well as its evolution. Today, IMG employs 2,100 people 9 working in seventy offices in thirty countries, and it is the largest independent producer of sports television in the world, distributing content to over two hundred countries covering more than that many sports.10

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The firm does much more than represent athletes and negotiate their contracts. A subsidiary, IMG Licensing, is the largest trademark and licensing company in the world, generating $5.6 billion in worldwide retail sales of clients’ licensed merchandise.11 In addition, approximately eleven thousand athletes of all ages from seventy countries attend its sports academies annually. As part of the integration trend in the representation industry, IMG and Creative Artists Agency (CAA) formed a partnership in 2003 in three key areas: lecture representation, entertainment property licensing, and corporate client marketing.12 There is a new supreme representative at IMG: Ted Forstmann, who bought out McCormack’s family after his death. The new emphasis is on replacing McCormack’s sports culture leadership with more traditional business practices. Bob Kain, president, said of the transition, “We grew up on a gut feel. We are now much more of a corporate environment.”13 The new structures of many representation organizations are a long way from the simple handshake and agreement that began IMG’s rise to global power. However, the tension between the necessary handholding and insider relationships that built empires like IMG and the strictly business model have yet to be resolved. When Tom Cruise in the film Jerry Maguire is forced out of his agency and starts his own smaller firm, he has one client. The defining moment of their relationship was when his client was injured during a critical National Football League (NFL) game and Cruise sprinted down to the field and telephoned his client’s moment of recovery to his anxious wife. “Show me the money” can come in different packages, and representation is still about personal relationships.

The Personal Managers These specialists represent fewer clients than agents but do so more comprehensively. Personal managers often orchestrate their clients’ complete lives: answering their mail, investing their money, buying their real estate, planning their schedules, placing their children in schools, even hiring the gardener and firing the maid. A personal manager is less regulated than an agent and can charge up to 15 percent for services. The traditional role of the personal manager was expressed by Danny Goldberg, chairman and CEO of Artemis Records and president and CEO of Sheridan Square Entertainment: “I was part negotiator, part public relations man, part idea man, and part therapist.”14 Sid Bernstein described his personal manager role for the late singer Laura Branigan this way: “wet nurse, shrink, accountant, and handholder.”15 The role of personal manager has been evolving in the last decade as they, like larger agencies, have moved into producing. Large management firms such as Brillstein-Grey Entertainment and The Firm not only provide

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traditional personal management services but produce films, television shows, and take co-ownership stakes in their ventures. The expanding reach of management companies is evidenced by Brad Grey, formerly of Brillstein-Grey, who once was the co-owner of a production company with Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston and now is chairman and CEO of Paramount Studios.

The Promoters These individuals and firms arrange and promote events, be they firetrap club performances of unknown rock groups, financial seminars in convention centers, or world heavyweight title fights in Las Vegas. The promoter does not work for the client on a permanent basis but has contacted the client or the client’s agent for that particular engagement. Promoters are primarily interested in signing and promoting performers who will attract a profitable audience or in some cases simply fill a hole in the schedule. The key difference between promoters and traditional agents and personal managers is that the promoter is taking on substantial risk by financing or guaranteeing the production of aspirant performances. Promoters will raise the money from investors, sponsors, and audience members, hire the necessary personnel, produce the event, and hope that their profit projections are accurate. Agents, personal managers, and some promoters work primarily for the aspirant, or “seller.” They should not be confused with booking agents, venue managers, and casting directors, who represent buyers. Booking agents run their own businesses and are hired to find talent for theaters, concert halls, or business conferences, and they receive a commission for their services. Venue managers work for the venues and are salaried employees; they often contact the performers or their agents directly. Casting directors find the right people to cast in specified roles for film studios, theaters, and advertising agencies.

The Publicity Industry The promotion industry includes a host of individuals and firms that are skilled in boosting aspirant visibility through the skillful generating of publicity. Populating this industry are personal publicists, public relations firms, and advertising agencies, all of which rely heavily on the work of market researchers. Personal publicists were, in fact, the first celebrity promoters—individuals with a flair for writing and for generating attention for their clients. Originally called “press agents,” they were employed to get their clients

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“ink,” and this meant feeding the columnists, planting “legitimate” stories, and even creating stunts. Many were former journalists, whose ties to their ex-employers helped their clients gain publicity. Public relations firms are another important arm of the promotion industry. PR firms were started to defend and promote individuals, corporations, and public-sector organizations to the public, legislators, and other influential interest groups. The World Health Organization (WHO) engages Weber Shandwick to communicate the impact of obesity on Europeans. The firm also helps the pharmaceutical industry promote stem cell research by disseminating public opinion surveys. Today, large public relations firms such as Weber Shandwick, Hill and Knowlton, and BursonMarsteller strive to raise the visibility of individuals, organizations, cities— and countries—using such tools as press relations, product publicity, corporate communications, lobbying, and client counseling. Others focus on managing and alleviating crisis reporting, such as when a company is alleged to have engaged in illegal acts. Newer firms are changing the meaning of “full service.” The Susan Magrino agency, for instance, has PR, brand development, and event management divisions. There is also a more targeted form of PR that specializes in individuals in addition to companies. These smaller PR firms take on aspirants and established stars and celebrities and provide them with access to various forms of media, event management, and marketing and other promotional opportunities. An aspirant may for a monthly retainer buy a firm’s time to establish a position as the high visibility taxicab owner in a metropolitan area or to generate awareness for an author who wishes to expand to opinion columns and become a desirable speaker. This is a vital area for aspirants who wish to break down the barriers in their sector and is particularly appealing to professionals, small-business owners, and local and regional entertainment and sports talent. Advertising agencies constitute the largest branch of the promotion industry, responsible for touting hundreds of thousands of products, services, persons, places, ideas, and causes. As one of the largest subindustries, total expenditures of all media in the United States hit $141.1 billion in 2004, an increase of almost 10 percent over the previous year.16 The industry is changing rapidly and fast moving into the digital age as Americans spend more time on the Internet. According to Knowledge Networks, Americans surf the Internet for 15 percent of their total media time, a number other researchers say is underestimated and could be at least 30 percent. The Internet marketplace is growing with blinding speed, as Forrester Research predicts online brand advertising to be as much as $12 billion

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by 2010—up from $5 billion in 2005.17 The rapidly evolving advertising marketplace represents a real opportunity for aspirants with limited budgets to break into markets that were previously far too expensive. For the advertising agency, it signals a major shift in how profits will be generated and the importance of balancing the traditional advertising profile while moving into the new media environment. The ad industry is staffed with media experts, art directors, marketing researchers, account executives, and others. Many advertising agencies are now accommodating the new media age with Web site managers, Internet advertising experts, and software engineers. The advertising industry is also one of the largest employers of highly visible people, using them in four basic ways: • Actors, dramatically demonstrate a product or service • Spokespeople, employed over a long period of time to promote products and services, often become very closely identified with the advertisers • Testimonial providers, having used a product or service in their careers, attest to its quality or value • Endorsers, when not necessarily having used a product or service, lending their names or likenesses to the products Person advertising, while fast growing, presents a whole series of controversial issues. From the aspirants’ point of view, endorsements can create overexposure, tarnishing their images with their audiences. From the advertiser’s point of view, should the image of the product be risked on the fallibility of a single person? Nevertheless, endorsements and testimonials have become so lucrative that a special branch of the publicity subindustry has emerged to manage them. Although the various components of the promotions subindustry partially rely on creativity and improvisation, they depend more on proven techniques, formulas, and research, gathering information about audience demographics, needs, perceptions and preferences, venues, media costs, and geographical markets. For this, they often rely on marketing research specialists to provide information.

The Communications Industry How do we know highly visible people? In many cases, we know them entirely through the media. Images, products, and stories—most of what

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we consume of the person’s product—are distributed through media channels. The finest strategy, deftest timing, most brilliant story use—all will fail without the help of the channels of the communications industry. Countless aspirants have had all the elements of transformation and marketing operating in sync, only to fail spectacularly because they failed to come across effectively through the media. Former first lady and now Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton was regarded as intelligent, dynamic, hardworking, and disciplined by colleagues and close friends, but on TV, she was often perceived as cold, detached, and manipulative. These perceptions of her made it difficult for her to rally popular support for her activist approach to being first lady. As a senator, she has been careful to present a softer, more accommodating image to other senators and voters alike. Network television, cable, radio, film, newspapers, magazines, and the Internet have each developed specialized ways to take advantage of the evergrowing public interest in personalities. Magazines such as People and Us, national live telephone call-in shows such as Rockline and Larry King Live, “infotainment” TV venues such as Entertainment Tonight, and the scores of TV talk shows, official Internet sites and countless other Internet blogs, podcasts, and chatrooms, all cater to the industry’s needs. Those who understand these forums have tremendous advantages; those who don’t are constricted to live encounters and small local markets.

A Model Mom Kathy Ireland became well known as the 1990s supermodel who regularly appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated ’s popular swimsuit issues. Today her name is more familiar to working women than to adolescent men. Her brand, Kathy Ireland Worldwide (KIWW), is positioned as “a best friend to working mothers”18 as she sells office apparel, home furnishings, and other products designed for the working mom. The former model has made a science out of two concepts—the great reach of media and the Internet, and the appeal of a powerful brand linked to physical attractiveness and a strong maternal image. The story of her transformation and success is rooted in her identification of her target market: mothers who are busy, looking for balance, and desiring to retain their feminine individuality. In doing so, Ireland is particularly skilled at filling every channel of communication with her name and merchandise that can reach her target audience. She distributes her personal message through the global reach of her award-winning Web site, kathyireland.com, which is interactive and enables Ireland to not only communicate with her target markets but also to find out what they want. In addition, her products are distributed in thousands of retail stores, online, and through her book,

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Powerful Inspirations: Eight Lessons that Will Change Your Life.19 Ireland has built important strategic partnerships—she calls them “cherished brand partners”—that serve to extend her brand. They include such firms as online retailer FurnitureFind.com, Arrow Home Fashions, Tinwood Ventures, and Alta Window Coverings. She is also highly visible in not-for-profit activities20 and is often booked as a motivational speaker by women’s and other groups. She finds her target audiences through both new and traditional channels, and she sells them the product because her familiar name, Kathy Ireland, is now a premier brand that has attributes that are credible and linked to her core family market.

The Appearance Industry With image so critical to personal and professional branding, the appearance business is one of the industry’s fastest-growing components. Makeup specialists always were important to the entertainment sector, and they have rapidly branched out into other sectors such as businesspeople who are demanding a greater share of the grooming business’ services. The alteration or enhancement of appearance is now handled not merely by hairstylists and makeup artists but also by clothing stylists, color consultants, image coordinators, dermatologists, and plastic surgeons. A competitive environment has fueled a race to look younger and better in all sectors. The marketplace is forcing the aspirant who wants to remain competitive to spend more money and go beyond cleansers and moisturizers. More than just the transformation of facial appearance and body shape is industrialized. Maintaining your physical appearance now includes trips to the nutritionist and a personal chef. Nutritionists can charge anywhere from $250 to $300 per session while personal chefs cost $1,000 to $3,500 per week. If you decide a personal shopper can save you time and make better decisions, they can cost from $500 to $750 per day. There are, of course, personal trainers that range from $100 to $250 per hour for a house call, and this can be an every-other-day experience to maintain the image.21 Wherever one travels or lives, communities of would-be professionals advising would-be aspirants abound. Together they support a global image industry that enables aspirants to match the appearance requirements of their sectors.

The Coaching Industry Who is it that actually designs an aspirant’s transformation? Depending on the sector, the strategy design may be in the hands of an agent, personal

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manager, campaign manager, gallery owner, family member, or the aspirant. Singers need singing lessons, politicians need speech lessons, tennis players need serving lessons. Of course, not everyone who seeks to improve a skill aspires to be highly visible; but many do, and this critical task of improvement falls to the coaching industry. The coaching industry is expanding at an extraordinary rate for several reasons. As visibility sectors have become better understood than before, more information has become known about which images succeed and which fail. The rise of media has reduced but not eliminated aspirants’ chances to hone their images in low-cost, low-risk, small venues. Accidentally finding someone to help you perfect your baseball swing, polish your courtroom presentation style, or improve your bedside manner has given way to sifting through a huge market for formal coaching services. In any city, one can find lifestyle consultants for sports aspirants, presentation coaches for executives, freelance singing and dancing teachers for entertainers, and image consultants for lawyers. Of course, many of the coaches and trainers who supply these services still operate in the cottage industry stage, but the size and sophistication of the coaching sector is growing. Salaries for experienced speech consultants range from $100,000 and upward. A customized speech can easily cost $5,000 to $10,000, and the hourly rate for advice is between $250 and $500 per hour, depending on the sector, location, and situation. With so much profit potential, some coaches have founded schools to train the most talented or the most moneyed: Communispond trains public speakers, Julliard trains singers, Second City trains improvisational comedians. Driven by economies of scale, it is inevitable that a franchise system of coaching will emerge on the model of Berlitz or McDonald’s, where particular styles of training are proprietary features.

The Legal and Business Services Industry Most aspirants do not know much about managing themselves as businesses; few have the time to learn. According to Rita Tateel, president of The Celebrity Source, “Time is their most valuable commodity. There are so many people that want a piece of a celebrity’s time that they have very little of it to share.”22 Considering that many are suddenly confronted with the need to manage large amounts of money, invest it wisely, develop legal entities such as corporations, and prepare estate plans, it’s not surprising that most aspirants turn to lawyers, accountants, and investment advisors. The standard visibility earnings curve demands it. There are a number of

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issues that are critical to the management of aspirants that revolve around the issue of protection. Not unlike a lottery winner, they are subject to elaborate stock deals, unusual Bermuda insurance packages, or startup companies that are the friend’s of a friend. In all these cases, it’s the legal and business services industry that has to talk the client out of leaping into a treacherous arrangement and in doing so must make sure they keep their job by not insulting the now-established brand. Seeing the potential in this area, some law and accounting firms have specialized in providing services to entertainers, sports figures, and politicians. Many established brands have, in fact, turned over all aspects of their finances to be managed by firms that for an often considerable fee “receive all their income, pay all their bills, manage their myriad investments, purchase their insurance, pay their taxes, and even shop for their houses and find them good deals on their cars.”23 But financial managers go beyond even these functions. As Marvin Snyder, a former tax accountant who had acted as business manager for Ed Asner, Lily Tomlin, Kenny Rogers, John Ritter, and many others, described it, “The business manager serves many purposes. He is a personal advisor and a psychiatrist, because when you deal with money you’re dealing with something that seems to be a disruptive force, something involved with the celebrity’s marriage, family, children, girlfriend. Depending on how strong a relationship you have with the client, the celebrity may divulge things to you that he doesn’t talk to other people about.”24

The Endorsements and Licensing Industry With the visibility industry growing more sophisticated, no longer can aspirants themselves pursue endorsement deals, record contracts, or rights agreements. Expert help is crucial. This is because the image of a star, like the proverbial hog in the slaughterhouse, is cut up and used in many ways. Tools-of-the-trade endorsements are used when stars endorse items used in the course of their work—for example, Anna Kournikova endorsed Adidas and Yonex products. Non-tool endorsements involve products they don’t depend on—for example, Kournikova endorsing Omega watches, Lycos, and Berlie lingerie.25 The other major use of star images is as an attention-getting device displayed on manufactured goods. These practices can generate profit far above a star’s main activity. Venus Williams, with a competitive record that places her at the top of her profession, earns millions of dollars per year, but the bulk of her gross worth comes from product endorsements and other media outlets. Her brand is

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delivered through endorsement contracts with American Express, Reebok, Wilson, McDonald’s, a reality show on ABC Family with her sister Serena, and an interior design and decorating company named “V Starr Interiors,” based on her full name, Venus Ebony Starr Williams.26 A similar strategy is that of rock star Lenny Kravitz, who is not only a prominent endorser like Williams but has also become a designer of private homes and is considering launching his own décor line. By maximizing their high visibility to enhance income and create new business opportunities, Williams and Kravitz illustrate an effective visibility model using their major performance platforms, tennis and music, as launching pads, demonstrating that high visibility can be a beginning, and not an end. Manufacturers of products from clothing and perfume to video games and coffee mugs show little interest in low visibility aspirants and often license brand names to sell their products. In these instances, companies pay a fee to stars to attach their name to their products. As mass marketers, companies prefer the faces and names of stars, such as Celine Dion perfume and The Olsen Twins’ fashion line for Wal-Mart. The overriding consideration for the product developers and retailers is the ability of the name to ensure consumer interest and trust in the brand without the expense of a large-scale advertising campaign.27 When successful, the strategy can almost merge the product’s perceived qualities with the star’s ( Joe Montana for RZ Trainer; Jimmy Buffett for Margaritaville Restaurant and Nightclub; 50 Cent for Reebok). Other manufacturers create games centering on stars—John Madden’s football video game series—or manufacture dolls and toys with their likenesses—Hilary Duff and Shakira have popular dolls. The operating principle: the power of visibility. A lunch box bearing the likeness of a children’s TV star will far outsell a comparable generic product. The key from a marketing standpoint is that the person’s likeness will draw the attention not just of their fans but also of many consumers who are not members of the main audience, yet are still liable to be influenced in their purchase decision by their familiarity with the star’s image. While there is controversy over whether a star’s association with a product will sustain over a long term, there is little question that a high visibility face attracts attention. The edge is that when Snoop Dogg endorses Nokia, people take notice, and there is a greater chance that they will spend more time listening to his message.28 The use of endorsements and licensing has expanded dramatically precisely because it is a powerful way for a manufacturer or service provider to distinguish its product and service from those offered by competitors.

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It is not a substitute for a good product, significant pricing advantage, or a timely breakthrough. It is about attention, visibility, and competing in a market accustomed to relying on well-knowness to distinguish particular products from a competitive array of offers featuring similar attributes.

Selecting the Right Endorser The decision to use a star for a product endorsement is loaded with possibilities and dangers. An endorser brings to the product two advantages. 1. Name recognition: The endorsement of a product by a famous name creates attention. 2. Name association: The star’s qualities are often intermingled with the product’s. Once a company decides to hire an endorser, a number of issues arise. What is it about the endorser that will produce a favorable image and increased sales? Historically, a company considers product fit a critical factor. When actor Samuel L. Jackson endorsed Barclays, a large U.K. bank, he was initially portrayed talking intellectually walking down a country lane. The advertisement, part of Barclays’ “Fluent in Finance” campaign, was in many cases successful in opening new accounts and winning awards but was dropped as the bank didn’t want the Hollywood tough guy to become the face of the brand.29 There is also the risk that the endorser will be accused of using steroids, abandoning his or her family, or engaging in some other unacceptable social behavior. Despite the potential downsides for celebrity endorsement, companies are willing to gamble on controversial but high reward endorsers such as in the case of conservative fashion brand St. John Knits International Inc. making star temptress Angelina Jolie the face of the company. In analyzing the choice, Allen Adamson, managing director of Landor Associates, observed, “Maybe she’s not as nice as some of her fans would like her to be. But in branding it’s better to have a bit of an edge, because you get more attention.”30 A company or an organization by associating with an endorser is tying its product to that image—and vice versa. When it works, the rewards can be great, such as in the case of golfer Arnold Palmer, who successfully endorsed Valvoline Motor Oil for years. Since the decision to buy oil is largely male, Palmer represented a recognizable low-key, trustworthy everyman, and that sold oil. Likeability and knowability are also important considerations.31 Individuals who score high on both of these scales should yield impressive endorsement results. A survey commissioned by Golf World Business magazine clearly demonstrated that Arnold Palmer remains the most-liked golfer anywhere. He was ranked at the top of all three categories: familiarity, likeability, and credibility. It’s not surprising that at age seventy-one Palmer agreed

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to a twelve-year endorsement contract with Callaway Golf.32 Similarly, Priceline.com signed William Shatner as spokesperson because he is an internationally revered cult figure. Priceline.com made their commercials featuring Shatner—including one in which the plot was a competition for the job of spokesperson with fellow Star Trek icon Leonard Nimoy—a prominent feature of its Web site. Tour de France champion and cancer survivor Lance Armstrong has made a string of endorsements for products like Coca-Cola, Subaru, Nike, and Bristol-Myers Squibb—Discovery Channel spent more than $27 million on Armstrong in 200533—and these endorsements are successful even if a limited number of American viewers actually watch his sport. His personal story is so compelling and inspiring that his image has transcended his sport and has made him an American icon. However, even a blue-chip, sure-thing storyline can be threatened such as when a book was published alleging that Armstrong had used performance-enhancing drugs,34 which was later followed by an alleged charge from a French newspaper that he used the drug EPO during his first Tour de France victory.35 Still and rightly so, many agencies consider facilitating celebrity endorsements a major component of their service offerings. Another factor that influences the selection of an endorser is cultural trends. While for decades, controversial personalities were thought to threaten a product’s credibility, there is a clear trend today toward utilizing unconventional endorsers. Despite his reputation for defamatory lyrics, rapper Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” was so appealing to Apple that it used the lyrics in an iPod commercial before it had acquired the rights to do so. Eminem and his recording company sued Apple, and the legal dispute generated controversy. Celebrity madam Heidi Fleiss, after being accused of conspiracy, tax evasion, and money laundering, continued to endorse a line of lingerie and sleepwear. As markets become increasingly diversified, a wider array of types of celebrities has potential for product endorsement. The traditional “nice” endorser has been joined by bikers and rappers to create a more accurate reflection of current audience lifestyles and values. Another crucial factor in endorsement is exposure management. In some instances, a popular personality will find many product lines that are interested in paying for their “hotness.” As tempting as these situations may be, they could easily lead to audience wear out. What constitutes overexposure? There are two issues here—when products conflict and when the buyers grow tired of the endorser. The prudent company will monitor both factors and pay particular attention to long-term endorsements that may no longer pull for the products. The use of endorsers has also become an issue in sectors like medicine, law, and business as well. The intense competition among hospitals has produced an array of advertisements heralding star liver specialists and heart transplant miracle workers. Many hospitals feature pictures of their stars and claim that the doctor has branded minimally invasive gall bladder surgery. In

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the legal profession, names appear in most channels: print, cable, the Internet. There is hardly a sector of life that has not been influenced by personality endorsements, and they will continue to expand because it is a powerful weapon in competitive marketplaces.

The Visibility Service Industry Many new businesses have sprung up to serve the visibility industry. One such firm is Celebrity Service International, Inc., which operates in both the United States and Europe and whose main function for over sixty years has been to closely track the movements of celebrities in various sectors. Their service is access to celebrities. Subscribers are entitled to receive tracking bulletins, access to a telephone research service, a Hollywood event date book, and an online directory, which includes an extensive list of entertainment industry businesses.36 Other companies will help arrange—for anywhere from a few thousand to up to $100,000 a week—a vacation in a home owned by a highly visible. Overseas Connections is one such firm, and it operates three Web sites listing the alternatives.37 Richard Branson’s Necker Island Villa in the British Virgin Islands, Jane Seymour’s St. Catherine’s Court Manor at Bath, England, and Mick Jagger’s Villa in Mustique, in the Caribbean38 are among the homes available. Another firm directly generated by the visibility industry is Celebrity Impersonators by Elyse, a modeling and talent agency that provides looka-likes to ad agencies, weddings, and corporate outings. Other businesses sustain themselves by playing off the visibility world: publishers who specialize in “Where Are They Now” type books or such items as the New York Celebrity Locator, which will tell fans where their favorite star resides; even purveyors of high-quality goods who solicit a star-based clientele (such as the Manhattan butcher who is in such high demand that there is a long waiting list to become his customer). Even more numerous than these specialists are the businesses and entrepreneurs of the visibility support industry. As people rise in visibility, they acquire two types of support personnel, one for when they are at home and the other for when they are away. The home-office staff consists of the agent, personal manager, PR person, and others whose roles are fairly defined and who operate out of a fixed address. Still, the highly visible are, by nature, mobile and generally travel a great deal. In the case of international brands, the money may be available to transport their home support staff wherever they go, but because many cannot afford the huge cost of bringing their staffs with them, a whole cottage

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industry has sprung up to service their needs on the road. Ranging from seamstresses to dentists, these individuals offer discretion. Because today’s more aggressive media routinely discard old-fashioned rules of fair play, the highly visible live in constant fear of the indiscriminate information leak. The treatment of a common venereal disease, for example, could end the sports hero’s pursuit of lucrative endorsement contracts; a children’s television star’s insomnia relieved by an ordinary prescription of sleeping pills could chill career prospects; the world-class model coping with an outbreak of acne could face a flood of canceled modeling contracts. For these simple problems, as well as to fulfill unusual or illicit requests, brands—both at home and on the road—rely on special support personnel to keep secret potentially embarrassing, or threatening, information. Accompanying this growing service sector are the personnel of limousine companies, bodyguard and security firms, exclusive resorts, four-star restaurants, health spas, and many others whose clientele is made up largely of the highly visible. In total, their contribution to the overall economy is incalculable. What’s changed about the visibility industry is that it’s now become more transparent. Once perpetually hidden from view because its infrastructure did not want to expose the tricks of their trade, it is now everywhere. On talk shows all across the country, stars, their personal managers, and support staff personnel are happy to reveal their secrets of success. In fact, the support staff has become highly visible themselves such as in the TV shows Extreme Makeover, which features star surgeons and dentists, and Rock Star: INXS, American Idol, and Fame, which encourage the average viewer to make the star. In this star-driven culture, children’s camps solicit and encourage budding stars to be discovered by talent scouts, basketball coaches, and space scientists. As a result of these trends, the public is increasingly tantalized by the allure and innerworkings of the industry. The visibility industry has now woven itself so deeply into the fabric of our economy and culture that it cannot be ignored. Each year at the Academy Awards, the president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences intones, “We are members of a great industry.” Yet, the at-home audience is often skeptical. They understandably feel that no one who spends time, acting, or hobnobbing with the stars should be speaking about the rigors of working within an industry. Building automobiles and selling life insurance are industries. Shooting a film on the French Riviera is fun and simply doesn’t seem to have the earnestness and regularity of an industry. The fact is that the movie business is an industry, part of the far larger entity called the “visibility industry.” Before one may

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fully comprehend this industry, before one can learn to operate inside it, one must understand where visibility brands exist, where they fit, and how long the spotlight lasts.

NOTES 1 _____, “Bill Gates’ INDIA Visit: The. NET Emphasis,” Dataquest, September 27, 2000, www.dqindia.com/content/ebiz/etrends/100092701.asp, viewed August 10, 2004. 2 _____, “Asia’s Power 25,” Fortune, August 9, 2004, p. F–10. 3 Chris Isidore, “Hollywood shrugs off slump: First decline in U.S. box office in 12 years not a worry as big hits, DVD sales continue to roll in,” CNNMoney, February 27, 2004, money.cnn.com/2004/02/19/news/companies/ oscars_studios/, viewed August 10, 2004. 4 Megan Kamerick, “Johnnie Cochran Brings Big Name to N.O. Plaintiff Legal Firm,” New Orleans City Business, October 13, 2003 (Lexis Nexis). 5 Author interview, November 9, 2002. 6 David A. Aaker and Erich Joachimsthaler, Brand Leadership: The Next Level of the Brand Revolution (New York: Free Press, 2000). See discussion of Brand Identity, Core Identity, and Extended Identity. 7 See Crystal Wright, “Become a Celebrity Makeup Artist,” www.makeuphairandstyling.com/home/become_a_makeup_artist.cfm. 8 Rob Hodgetts, “Kingmaker: Mark McCormack,” BBC Sport, news.bbc.co.uk/ sport1/hi/front_page/2367813.stm, November 1, 2002, viewed August 14, 2004. 9 Brett Pulley, “The Barbarian at the First Tee,” Forbes, July 4, 2005, www.forbes.com/celebrities/global/2005/0704/050.html, viewed July 5, 2005. 10 www.imgworld.com/, viewed August 14, 2004. 11 network.imgworld.twiihosting.net/publish.sps?syndicatorguid={EEE2D9C8– 6E5C–45B4–96B3-EFB68003EAE8}&rmasiteinstanceguid={771F6397– 1F79–44F3–813B-A75F039A004B}&rmapageid=25&SectionID= 5868, viewed August 16, 2004. 12 www.imgworld.com/history/2000.sps?iType=5415&icustompageid=8810, viewed July 5, 2005. 13 See Pulley.

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14 Jon Pereles, “A Rock Manager’s Day: Study Of Life on the Run,” New York Times, July 14, 1986, p.14. 15 Sarah Crichton, “The Making of Laura Branigan,” Harper’s, July 1983, p. 22. 16 _____, “U.S. Advertising Market Exhibits Strong Growth in 2004: TNS Media Intelligence/CMR Reports a 9.8% Increase for Full-Year Ad Spending,” www.tns-mi.com/news/03082005.htm, viewed June 20, 2005. 17 Fred Vogelstein, “Yahoo’s Brilliant Solution: By figuring out how to make brand advertising work online, Terry Semel is on the verge of creating the 21st century’s first media giant,” Fortune, August 8, 2005, pp. 48–49. 18 www.kathyireland.com/MediaCenter/index.htm, viewed June 20, 2005. 19 Kathy Ireland, Powerful Inspirations: Eight Lessons that Will Change Your Life (Galilee Trade, 2004). 20 _____, “Kathy Ireland: A Brief Biography,” www.1greatcelebsite.com/ Kathy_Ireland/biography.htm, viewed June 20, 2005. 21 www.eonline.com/Features/Features/Maintain/ss3.html, viewed August 20,2004 22 George McQuade, “The Art of Working with Celebrities Is Not As Easy As It Looks—There Are Rules to Follow,” ArriveNet Member Editorials, June 13, 2005, editorials.arrivenet.com/ent/article.php/4802.html, viewed July 5, 2005. 23 Donald R. Katz, “Smart Money,” Esquire, January 1986, p. 37. 24 Author interview with Marvin Snyder of Dusty, Snyder, Inc., February 11, 1984. 25 _____, “Anna can keep winning off the court: Endorsement dollars should keep flowing to Kournikova while she struggles for first pro victory,” CNN, July 8, 2002, money.cnn.com/2002/07/05/commentary/column_sportsbiz/anna/, viewed July 11, 2005. 26 _____, “Venus Williams has designs on decorating business,” Associated Press, November 12, 2002, www.venusandserena.homestead.com/news111202.html, viewed August 14, 2004. 27 Teri Agins, “New Reality: With Her Own Line, Pop Star Rides Rise in Celebrity Fashion,” Wall Street Journal, June 9, 2005, p. A1. 28 For more information on the ability of celebrities to attract attention, see Louise Story, “Forget About Milk and Bread. Give Me Gossip!” New York Times, June 13, 2005, p. C1. 29 _____, “Last campaign to feature Samuel L. Jackson,” Marketing Week, May 13, 2004, p. 12.

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30 Teri Agins, “A Fashion Conservative Teams Up With Tattooed Starlet,” Wall Street Journal, September 14, 2005, p. B1. 31 Likeability and knowability are discussed in detail in Chapter 5. 32 _____, “Golf Notes September 6,” Golf Today, www.golftoday.co.uk/news/ yeartodate/news00/notessept6.html, viewed August 16, 2004. 33 Paul Hochman, “Logo on the Go,” Fortune, August 8, 2005, p. 22. 34 David Walsh and Pierre Ballester, L.A. Confidentiel: Les secrets de Lance Armstrong (La Martiniere, 2004). 35 Samuel Abt with Lynn Zinser and Lawrence K. Altman, “Armstrong Is Accused of Doping,” New York Times, August 24, 2005, p. D1. 36 www.celebrityservice.com/services.html, viewed August 16, 2004. 37 David Kirby, “Want to sleep in Charo’s bed? Simply make a reservation,” Chicago Tribune (Classifieds), August 16, 2002, www.chicagotribune.com/ classified/realestate/renting/chi–0208160355aug16,0,5308461.story?coll= chi-classifiedrenting-hed, viewed August 16, 2004. 38 To view “Celebrities Home for Rent,” visit www.travelersdigest.com/ celebrity_homes_2.htm.

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distinguishing high visibility sectors and hierarchies

CHAPTER 4

I

magine a New Year’s Eve party thrown by a wealthy Southern Californian. The guests include: • Rod Stewart, popular but aging balladeer • Serena Williams, world top-ranked tennis player • Finn E. Kydland and Edward C. Prescott, Nobel Prize–winning economists • Dr. Paul Ridker, one of the world’s leading experts on arterial inflammation1 • C.K. Prahalad, prominent business strategist and author • Diane Sawyer, TV journalist • Usher Raymond, R&B superstar How might the other guests at the party behave? Many of the younger guests would be starry-eyed, hovering by Williams and Usher. Slightly older guests would pay attention to Sawyer because of her popularity as co-anchor of the ABC News show Primetime. Still-older guests would respond to Stewart, reliving, through his presence, memories of the past. Although Kydland and Prescott are Nobel laureates, they will be listening more than talking; few guests will have heard of them. Senior executives in the crowd will want to speak with Prahalad, a best-selling author. Hardly anyone will notice Dr. Ridker, although among researchers in his field, he is known far and wide, indeed. The New Year’s Eve party illustrates several important points about visibility. Each sector of society—entertainment, academia, business, sports, journalism, the professions—has its own constellation of highly visibles. 67

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These people are not always known outside of their sectors, but within their sectors they command recognition, respect, and rewards. Personal and professional brands in certain sectors—notably entertainment, sports, and politics—will be visible to a broader public beyond their own sectors because their performances reach more people and generate more news. The superstars in these three sectors—Clint Eastwood, Beyonce Knowles, Tiger Woods, Mia Hamm, Hillary Clinton, George W. Bush—will tower over stars in other sectors no matter how high the others stand within their own sectors. Such is the status hierarchy among sectors. Many visibility seekers overlook a central consideration of how to tailor themselves to particular sector conditions. A good marketing plan requires that aspirants in a given sector consider its unique opportunities, rules, and restraints. Too often, aspirants rush into their quests for visibility without surveying the territory. Avoiding false starts and poor plans involves understanding the visibility sectors and hierarchies.

The Visibility Sectors People gain visibility in a number of ways: through occupational achievement, demographic leadership, distinctive personality and lifestyle, inheritance, accident, and sensational behavior. Occupational achievement is the most common route. Every field has a pyramidal structure with most members, especially the new ones, standing at the base. At the middle level are practitioners who have attained some level of skill and repute. A few stand at the very top: in office productivity software, Bill Gates; in mass communication, Rupert Murdoch; in fashion design, Vera Wang; in financial markets reporting, Michael Bloomberg, who converted his financial star power to become mayor of New York. Every field, no matter how visible or obscure, produces its own brand leaders. High visibility is also achieved by leaders of demographic groups, which include women, men, blacks, Hispanics, gays, socialites, and others. Each group has a need for leaders, even icons, through which to present itself to the world and to set an example for its members. Rush Limbaugh is a brand name in the New Right’s traditional-values movement; Martha Burk, chair of the National Council of Women’s Organizations (NCWO), is one in the women’s rights movement; American Association of Retired Persons (A ARP) CEO William Novelli serves the same purpose for the senior citizens’ movement.

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Some people attain high visibility through their unusual personalities or lifestyles. Jim Carrey first rose to fame because he displayed unusual physical comedy skills in the television show In Living Color and films such as Ace Ventura, The Mask, and Dumb & Dumber. Buckminster Fuller—best known for his geodesic dome—excelled in many occupations (architect, businessman, mathematician, engineer), but he never became preeminent in any one of them; his visibility rested on a personality that continuously challenged the status quo. Bob Dole, Burt Reynolds, and Ralph Nader all received critical acclaim in their careers for their work in politics, film, and consumer advocacy, and they shifted into the role of high visibility media personality. Dole became a spokesperson for erectile dysfunction, Reynolds was the host of ESPN’s Reel Classics Sunday night movies, and Nader resurfaced as a perennial candidate for president. Another lifestyle sector with its pantheon of heroes is the “counterculture.” Over the years, this subgroup has included Bohemians, beatniks, hippies, punks, and cyberpunks. The conservative trend of today’s culture has actually accentuated this sector’s visibility opportunities especially among the young, but it endures. Abbie Hoffman, Alan Ginsberg, Ken Kesey, Ram Dass, and Timothy Leary were all celebrated for their promotion of new values and unorthodox lifestyles in the 1960s and 1970s. Today, the alternative culture of good health and natural living is celebrated by such highly visible stars as Dr. Andrew Weil and Dr. Bernie Siegel. Most of the earlier generation lifestyle stars relied on self-promotion skills, amplified by the praise of their followers, rather than on the services of professional publicists. But today it is not unusual for alternative stars to routinely appear on network talk shows, speak at highly visible venues, and write best-selling books. Other people acquire well-knowness derivatively through being born into a well-known family. Prince William is one of the world’s most popular royals in part because his mother was the late and extremely popular Princess Diana. All members of the Ford, Rockefeller, and Kennedy families gain instant visibility; a few enlarge their well-knowness because they skillfully build their inheritance (Fidelity’s Abby Johnson), or misuse it (Max Factor heir and convicted rapist Andrew Luster). Visibility seekers cannot create inherited fame; managing it to their best advantage is something they can do. Another route to high visibility is to be an arbitrary beneficiary—or victim—of coincidence. W. G. Sutter discovered gold in California. John Bobbitt became visible as the victim of his wife’s slicing vengeance, a tale that persists because it evokes unspeakable revulsion. In contrast, some

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people attain visibility because they are proactive in placing themselves into positions to respond to a situation. Economics professor and author Robert J. Shiller predicted the speculative bubble of the 2000 stock market crash in his book Irrational Exuberance,2 which was published almost simultaneously with the bursting of the bubble. Finally, some people gain visibility by performing sensational acts. David Blaine executes elaborate street magic—such as enduring starvation and isolation while suspended in a glass box over the River Thames for forty-four days—and comes across more as a rock star than a magician. Others thirsting after celebrity have climbed office towers, dogsledded to the North Pole, or sailed around the world in a rowboat hoping for a book contract or at least a headline in the local newspaper. Some even commit murder to gain attention, a motive frequently cited by psychologists to explain the actions of many assassins. Each path taken to high visibility has certain implications. Inherited or accidental celebrity provides an initial kickoff; sustaining and expanding it is often difficult or impossible. Sensation-staging tends to produce very brief periods of high visibility but often involves high long-term costs. For most people who deliberately seek high visibility, the intentional routes are obviously more productive. (One can deliberately achieve leadership of a demographic group, but no one can “create” wealthy parents.) Of all the possible sectors to become visible in, some are better candidates for deliberate brand-developing strategies than others. Ten sectors in particular contain the bulk of brand-developing activity: entertainment, sports, politics, culture, business, religion, science, the professions, academics, and technology. At the top of the list stands the entertainment sector. Here, high visibility is axiomatic: Entertainers earn their living by attracting attention. The better known they are, the larger their audience, and the greater potential for a premium. Not surprisingly, entertainers were among the earliest users of the machinery of visibility seeking. Needing to constantly manage their image with audiences, entertainers depend heavily on publicists, agents, managers, and coaches. In sports, aspirants must possess certain minimum physical and mental abilities before they can even hope to compete. Still, there are many strategic decisions athletes must make to position themselves for the greatest visibility. One involves the market the athlete chooses to attack. For example, large marketplaces such as baseball in America, soccer in Argentina, cricket in India, and hockey in Canada are excellent places to target visibility campaigns. Although former Manchester United goalie Tim

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Howard was a major story in England, he did not receive the same visibility in his home country of America. In contrast, Australia, a land of beach lovers and surfers, has found an icon in their champion swimmer, Ian Thorpe. Politicians, who need well-knowness in order to win elections, use all available visibility-generating resources, including political consultants, public relations experts, media contacts, advertising agencies, marketing research firms, and political-party resources. Entertainers may have their bodies reworked and their stories changed at will; their publics almost expect it. But politicians must be extremely careful about how much of their image-making strategy is revealed to the public. Members of the art and culture sector—consisting of writers, poets, artists, intellectuals—also use self-marketing strategies. Compared with the past, when artists and writers often labored anonymously (often becoming well known only posthumously), today’s art environment is active in branding, and many institutions use artists to improve their images, producing new opportunities for artists and writers to earn commissions and gain exposure. An example is the economist Robert Kuttner who is a prolific author and has benefited from the arts and culture machinery. He is the cofounder and coeditor of the American Prospect, a quarterly of liberal politics and policy, with a special emphasis on democratic foundations.3 But his biggest venues are his regular column, “Economic Viewpoint,” published in the international business magazine, BusinessWeek, and books such as Everything for Sale: The Virtues and Limits of Markets.4 Aside from print, his commentaries are aired on National Public Radio in America. Kuttner’s exposure through these highly visible communication channels has raised his profile, making him not only a popular speaker on economic policy but also a branded economic authority who explains economic issues in easily understandable terms. Even in the highly conservative religious sector, success depends to some extent on image building among one’s peers and superiors. Because religions are organized hierarchically, every sect produces local, regional, national, and sometimes international “well-knowns.” The aspirants at each level compete for the limited positions at the next level: Priests compete for the post of bishop; bishops for archbishop; archbishops for cardinal. But even in this highly conservative sector, success depends to some extent on image building among one’s peers and superiors. Transformation in the religious sector, however, has to be handled delicately. Institutional codes of propriety have to be observed; besides, making worshippers aware of celebrity making may invite only condemnation.

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The business sector has seen an evolution in its complement of heroes and leaders. Once it was considered dangerous and undignified to pursue fame building. But today, despite criticism of CEOs who focus more on image building than substance, the trend in modern business is for chief executive officers and other senior managers to pursue visibility as a means of generating opportunity for their companies—and themselves. In this sector, it is critical that business interests and the leader’s visibility strategies and communication channels are carefully aligned. Ed Zander, CEO of Motorola, is a good example of a top executive who does this well. Zander is skilled at building his visibility within the Motorola community and also at communicating his vision to the broader technology market and its key analysts. Visibility will only continue to grow as an important instrument of the business leader despite occasional criticism of celebrity CEOs. So too will the trend toward focused visibility in specific segments. These developments are fairly recent. A quarter century ago, David Finn of the PR agency Ruder, Finn, Rotman, Inc., felt compelled to argue in the Harvard Business Review that, to boost their own and their companies’ stocks, business leaders should seek the public limelight rather than shun it: That a great many business leaders do care [about society’s welfare], there can be little doubt. The problem is that they hide their human qualities behind a mask of corporate anonymity. . . . Leadership [means] exercising the courage to create an environment that reflects a top executive’s image of the way he or she wants to do business. It means resisting the temptation to be inconspicuous and anonymous in order to avoid reporters’ questions and public gossip. Sometimes corporate leaders act as if they feared a raised eyebrow more than a deficit.5 The science sector has a long history of spawning well-known names: Galileo, Copernicus, Newton, Pasteur, Freud, Curie, and Einstein. Visibility building in science is accelerating, as Margaret Mead, Jonas Salk, James Van Allen, Judah Folkman, Stephen Hawking, and many others have been partially aided by celebrity industry techniques. Even though their discoveries originally inspire their well-knowness, the value of visibility for scientists’ sponsors is so huge that more and more visibility development is taking place. As competition for vanishing research funds increases, institutions are encouraging, or actively building, the visibility of their scientists. The expansion of the sector has also produced celebrity science

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whistleblowers such as Dr. David Graham, medical officer at the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, who became a media star in his opposition to Cox–2 drugs. Transformation and image building are expanding rapidly throughout the professions as well. Frank Gehry (architecture), David Boies (law), and Mehmet Oz (heart surgery) are successful examples of this trend. Their pursuit of high visibility is not compensation for lack of talent but rather a reflection of a new competitive reality: Possessing the skill qualifications is no longer enough to guarantee high levels of visibility. The entire academic sector has become more visible as educational institutions seek higher visibility and the media search for experts. University public relations departments pound out press releases extolling research findings, unusual classes, and faculty appointments to commissions and foundations. Slowly, the range of permissible visibility-generating activities available for academicians is widening. The nuclear physicist who not long ago would have been hired by a university only to staff the department now is profiled by the alumni magazine, lectures to wealthy alumni, and is trotted out to impress prospective freshmen. Lawrence Lessig, a professor of law at Stanford University, is well known as an intellectual property expert in the new-media environment.6 Aside from the usual academic papers published in prestigious journals, Lessig maintains a Web site (www.lessig.org) that provides access to research, news, and a blog (www.lessig.org/blog) that offers Lessig’s perspectives on new books, politics, and law. He also writes a monthly column for Wired magazine, and he has published a number of books including Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace.7 Lessig frequently testifies as an expert witness in celebrated court cases, further reinforcing his brand as the cyberlaw authority. As a result of all this credible exposure, he dominates the cyberlaw space and repays Stanford with his visibility.

Branding Barbeque Chicken Pizza Wolfgang Puck, an Austrian coal-miner’s son, is one of America’s most branded and influential chefs. Puck’s cornucopia of skills in the kitchen has turned into a cluster of businesses whose revenues exceed $219 million a year.8 His reach, though, extends far beyond his own restaurants: Spago in Beverly Hills, Granita in Malibu, and Chinois on Main in Santa Monica, and his chain of fast-food outlets and frozen food products. Using distribution channels such as cookbooks, videos, his informative Web site,9 and frequent appearances on television’s Late Show with David Letterman, Good Morning America, and The Food Network, Puck has grown into a familiar smiling face

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to millions of Americans who have never even set foot in his collection of restaurants. Capitalizing on the free exposure of media and delivering his message in many different channels, he expanded the reach and impact of the groundbreaking cooking pioneer Julia Child. Puck has packaged himself as a visionary—inventing a signature cooking style that combines and reverses normal expectations of food ingredients and recipes. One of his trademarks is a personal-sized pizza bedecked with delicacies ranging from caviar to smoked duck. In addition, he has de-emphasized the ethnicity of ritual cuisine on Passover and Christmas, expanding their appeal by infusing the traditional food with an eccentric, unmistakable flair: Tex-Mex turkey. Rising to the top of his sector, Wolfgang Puck has inculcated ordinary dining with a new perspective—branding incongruous eating experiences. In doing so, he has spawned a school of branded chefs including Emeril Lagasse, Bobby Flay, and Rachael Ray. Some bang the pots louder than others, tell jokes that have sexual overtones, or reveal intimate details of their life while cooking. They still owe their blueprint to Wolfgang Puck.

IMAGE MAKING IN THE SECTORS One can view the various sectors in three general groups based on the intensity of their image-making activity. The first group consists of those sectors whose members do the least to seek or promote public visibility, usually because traditionally, image making has been perceived to offer little in the way of financial, social, or ego-related reward. But with institutions now making greater use of personalities, new conflicts have been created. Members of this group now have to make conscious decisions about seeking visibility and trading off costs and rewards. A research biologist may earn a large supplemental income by becoming a science “popularizer” in the media but at the same time risk losing the esteem of professional colleagues. Members in these sectors must decide whether they are trying to please themselves, their colleagues, or the general public, for these three audiences cannot always be satisfied simultaneously. A second group consists of sectors whose members could benefit greatly from high visibility, but where organized image-making machinery is in the maturing stage. This is the case with doctors, lawyers, architects, and other professional groups. Architects stand to gain more clients if they go on public-speaking tours, write articles for the right magazines, gain high office in their professional society, and in other ways market themselves and their practices. Although these sectors are catching up quickly to entertainment and sports, their image-making activity is likely to be

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sporadic, even amateurish. Aspirants often attempt to promote themselves without the benefit of professional guidance, as is typical of the cottage industry stage. They may occasionally buy the services of a marketing researcher, marketing consultant, or public relations firm, but not with enough continuity or commitment to expenditure. The third group of sectors consists of those whose members derive substantial benefit from image making and where sophisticated machinery is already in place. One such sector, of course, is entertainment, whose members benefit from successful image making. Another is the business sector, in which many chief executives would benefit from image creation and for which image-creating resources are available (speechwriters and media and appearance consultants, for example), but in which there is still some resistance to using them. It’s getting more difficult to differentiate the sector and the intensity of the image-making activity as the rewards of visibility become more attractive. For example, CNN medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta is a highly visible practicing physician. He holds two important positions: chief neurosurgeon at Emory University Hospital and Grady Memorial Hospital, both located in Atlanta. But it is Gupta’s role as CNN medical correspondent that provides his real visibility—to millions of households. The youthful looking Gupta, who rarely dons a doctor’s white coat on television, thus emphasizing his approachability, has become the face of authority in health matters. The combination of CNN’s reputation as a first-on-the-scene news network and Gupta’s seemingly torn-from-the-medical-journals analysis of medical issues has created a medical brand that is compelling in its immediacy. Aside from his work on CNN, Gupta is a columnist for Time magazine and a medical reporter for TNT’s ER.10 Perhaps the strongest testament to Gupta’s brand status is his successful crossover from medical authority to mainstream personality. In 2003, People magazine called him one of the “Sexiest Men Alive,” and USA Today enshrined him as a “pop culture icon.”11 Transcending the intensity of his traditional sector, he has given a young and empathetic face to the staid and often frightening image of medical practice. While intensive transformation and image-building activity is accelerating in all sectors, it is doing so at different rates, for the following reasons: 1. Image making can contribute more in sectors with low or ill-defined skill requirements. For example, people with little or no skill can enter politics; image makers in this case can be of great

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assistance. Modern artists can also benefit from image making; the skills required to compete in this sector are so variable that we often need filters such as art critics to differentiate among them. On the other hand, a violinist, whose craft is evaluated on more specific criteria, cannot hope to become famous unless possessed of a virtuoso level of skill. 2. Image making can contribute more in sectors that command a high level of public and media interest. People have a high interest in entertainment, sports, and politics; aspirants in these sectors command more media coverage. The media need much material to fill their daily time and space requirements. Dramatic imagemaking stories are an accepted tradition in these sectors. On the other hand, the public has little interest in such very specialized sectors as flower design competitions, quilt making, or dogsled racing; and these sectors do not reward their leaders with nearly enough money to justify image-making activity. However, individuals within these sectors can become highly visible through more intimate, specialized, and sometimes more cost effective communication channels such as word of mouth, trade publications, sector-specific events, and Web sites. 3. Image making can contribute more in sectors in which many aspirants compete for too few positions. So many able actresses compete for roles in Hollywood that image-making investments can often make the difference. Conversely, so few people compete to become the leading scholar in the history of Liechtenstein—for which the financial and other rewards are comparatively minimal—that any competent individual could achieve this reputation without much image-building activity. 4. Image making can contribute more in sectors that require an extensive amount of promotional activity for success. For example, politicians cannot win elections simply by converting a few voters into supporters. The workload required to reach the necessary numbers of people is so great that politicians need image-making help—to research public attitudes, write strong speeches, produce events, and prepare television, radio, and newspaper advertising. 5. Image making is likely to expand in sectors in which image-making professionals can earn more. Professional transformers and image

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makers concentrate on sectors in which their skills command high prices or where their own visibility can generate substantial opportunity. Because entertainment, sports, and political aspirants compete for high stakes and image making can contribute to their success, image makers are more common in these sectors. As sectors such as the professions, business, and religion become more industrialized, they too attract more image-making professionals.

THE TOWER OF POWER High visibility does not have a single fixed dimension. On the contrary, the degree of well-knowness among the highly visible varies greatly. Usher Raymond is far better known than the leading expert on arterial inflammation, just as Serena Williams is more visible than any Nobel laureate in economics. Raymond and Williams stand higher because of their sectors’ visibility and broad appeal across market segments. To understand the visibility hierarchy, we need to recognize that wellknownness has two major dimensions: space and time. The first question asks how far the aspirant’s well-knowness reaches. Is it only local visibility, or is it regional, national, or even international in scope? The second question concerns how long an aspirant’s well-knowness lasts? Is it for only one day, a week, a year? Is it for a generation? Or is it forever? These two dimensions combine to create at least twenty types of high visibles (see Figure 4–1). Type 1 is the person who made news for one day in his town, such as a swimmer who rescued a boy from drowning. Type 8

Levels in the Visibility Hierarchy

Visibility Reach International

4

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Regional

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Local

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One Day

One Week

One Year

One Forever Generation

Visibility Duration

Figure 4–1:

Visibility Hierarchy

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is the person whose name makes news around the world for a week; for example, Dr. James Goodrich and Dr. David Staffenberg, who separated the heads of conjoined twins. Type 9 is the local person who enjoyed high visibility in his community for a year; a good example would be the town’s mayor that year. Type 15 is the person who achieves high visibility in one country that lasts a generation; an example would be cricket star Subhashchandra Gupte, who was well known in the British Commonwealth but not elsewhere because cricket is principally played by former British colonies. Type 20 is reserved for those rare souls who have achieved the peak of fame: They are known all over the world, and their high visibility lasts forever. Generally, they have been borne along by perpetual institutions such as religions, cultures, or nations: Jesus Christ, Buddha, Herod, Catherine the Great, or George Washington. Clearly, Type 1s have the least visibility, and Type 20s have the most. Furthermore, a high visible’s fame increases as he or she moves from the lower left of the hierarchy to the upper right. However, it is not possible to compare the relative fame between someone in the upper left or lower right. Is someone whose name reaches the whole world for one day better known than someone who is remembered forever in only his or her local community? More reach and more duration mean more fame, but their relative impact cannot be compared easily.

VISIBILITY REACH The reach, or space over which an aspirant’s name is known, can be portrayed as a pyramid (see Figure 4–2). The base of the pyramid consists of many invisibles. Just above these are people with local visibility—those who

International Visibility National Visibility Regional Visibility Local Visibility Invisibles

Figure 4–2:

Visibility Reach Pyramid

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are somewhat well known in their own local areas. Above them are people with regional visibility whose names are known beyond their own immediate areas, such as throughout the South or on the West Coast. Above them are still fewer people with national visibility, who are in turn overshadowed by people with international visibility who are well known in two or more countries. In the typical visibility sector, the base of invisibles is very broad, and the higher levels thin out rapidly until only a few people are left commanding the highest visibility. The shape of the pyramid also alters as the sector matures. In an emerging sector, such as mountain climbing, many amateurs would be found, with just a few professionals who are well known primarily to the amateurs. As interest increases in the activity, more aspirants enter the base. This aspirant invasion means that the pyramid will develop more interim levels of visibility. Profit-seeking entrepreneurs will enter the sector to promote events, launch trade magazines, and organize fan clubs. They will try to immortalize certain mountain climbers, to create legends that will inspire others. Eventually, the sector will stabilize with a certain breadth (number of entrants) and height (number of visibility levels). The highly visible in most sectors are well known only to members of those sectors. Robert J. Biggins, president of the National Funeral Directors Association, is very well known in the funeral industry but virtually invisible to members or audiences of other sectors. The general public has very little interest in the elites of these sectors. But other sectors have high cross-sector appeal; their elites will be widely known. For example, actors and athletes who reach the top of their respective sectors are likely to be well known to a very high percentage of the general public. The activities in these highly visible sectors have inherent interest to the general public, a major reason why transformation and image-making machinery operates full time to create events and news about aspirants in these sectors. Now let’s take a closer look at the people who occupy each level of the pyramid.

Local Visibility Every community, no matter how small, has its own visibility pyramid— people who are better known than others. It includes the leaders of the community’s major institutions: the mayor, leading banker, lawyer, physician, businessperson, football coach, and social host. Others are well known because they fill out the community’s story needs, such as the local “bad girl,” “bad boy,” “Scrooge,” “playboy,” “philanthropist,” “eccentric,” “young

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widow,” and “leading athlete.” Conveniently, the local visibility process is abetted by the local media who constantly search for stories to tell. In the past, most local aspirants did not seek visibility; they acquired it as a by-product of their occupations or lifestyles. But increasingly, local aspirants are turning to professional transformers, image consultants, and marketing professionals to help increase their well-knowness. Local aspirants who aim for higher levels of visibility, though, frequently have to leave their communities to succeed. The local singer or painter often moves to the larger cultural centers, and the local politician to the state capital or to Washington, D.C. Local luminaries are in many ways more meaningful models for the people in their communities than those who are well known on the national level because they are accessible to the people around them.

Regional Visibility Every major city contains well-known people that span its borders. A good example is radio and television newscasting, which by its very definition is region based. Each city has its newscasters, who are well known within the city and surrounding areas. Other regional aspirants may be drawn from the ranks of business leaders, politicians, artists, fashion trendsetters, and small-college athletes. Regional aspirants who aspire to higher visibility can use their regional visibility as a stepping-stone. Michael O’Leary, CEO of Ryanair, a low-cost, no frills Dublin air carrier, has high visibility in Ireland, which is launching his reputation as a competitor in the worldwide airline industry. His regional identification is so strong that he can use it in Europe as a lever to service more airline routes. Some aspirants make the jump from regional to national not by climbing the ladder within their sector but by crossing over to a more popular, active sector, at the same time using their regional base to acquaint larger markets with themselves. A good example is regional star and personal injury lawyer John Edwards, who began operating in the political sector as a less-than-one-term senator but elevated himself to national visibility by running for the Democratic presidential nomination. Using his national run for political office, he began to establish himself as a strong national political celebrity. In doing so, he became even more highly visible as a candidate for vice president. Although he wasn’t elected, his name became familiar to many Americans. In moving from the legal sector to politics, he managed to move from local to regional to national prominence.

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National Visibility Three types can be pinpointed. The first are sector types: well-known to people within their sector but hardly recognized by others—including national heads of associations and major corporations. Also found on the national level are extra-sectoral types, who are well known to many people outside of their primary sector. Typically, they occupy a high position in one of the highly visible sectors, particularly entertainment, sports, or politics. Even here, a distinction can be drawn between those perceived as primarily national stars and national superstars. Mark Teixeira, first baseman for the Texas Rangers, earns close to $4 million a year and is a star, but New York Yankee Alex Rodriguez is a superstar who earns $25 million. In the literary sector, successful novelist Jonathan Franzen is a star, while multisectored, legal brand name John Grisham is a superstar. Melvin Gordon, chairman and CEO of candy maker Tootsie Roll, is a business star, but Michael Dell, a college dropout who dominates the PC industry, is a business superstar. A third type of national visibility is the accidental celebrity, one who took a seemingly unintentional route to high visibility. Among them are people who have committed a sensational crime, participated in an unusual event, or won a major contest. For most of these accidental national celebrities, however, high visibility is short lived, and its rewards are insignificant. Examples are convicted murderer Scott Peterson or Mandy Block who was hit by a bat as she circled the bases at Milwaukee’s Miller Park in a sausage costume.

International Visibility Because of changes in communications technology, people who were once merely visible to their national market now have access to the global market. The Germans now know many of the names in the Indian film industry as a result of the rapid expansion of Bollywood and increased attention from global media. Similarly, U.S. citizens now are becoming increasingly familiar with global sports stars such as Belgian tennis player Justine Henin-Hardenne. Chinese basketball superstar Yao Ming has become a brand that has attained a worldwide audience. His status as a former No. 1 draft pick of the National Basketball Association, coupled with his access to a billion-person market, has brought him lucrative endorsements with such global brands as Apple computer, Visa, and Nike. These endorsements work to further extend his celebrity. The Beatles in the early 1960s are an outstanding example of cross-sectoring international visibility-building

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hysteria. The difference today is the ease in achieving such reach and the large number of distribution channels worldwide that facilitate such strategies. Major film and music stars (and, increasingly, television performers seen in foreign markets) may achieve international prominence as the medium in which they are distributed is exported all over the world by communication satellites and the Internet. Current political and religious leaders such as Jacques Chirac, Tony Blair, and Pope Benedict XVI also enjoy an international prominence because they head major world institutions, and are multichanneled throughout the globe.

VISIBILITY DURATION The highly visible differ not only in how widely they are known but also in how long they are well known for. There are one-day, one-week, one-year, and one-generation people who become visible in a specific time frame. In rare instances, there are people who become legends and are remembered for all time.

One Day Pop artist Andy Warhol once observed that in the future, everyone will be a celebrity for fifteen minutes, an allusion to the explosion of print and broadcast media, which must incessantly fill their space and time with people stories. Reporters—and bloggers alike—are always looking for interesting stories about people; to them, everyone and every story is potential grist for the news mill. It takes only a reporter or a dedicated blogger to create a one-day phenomenon. The man who rescues a boy from drowning; the woman who wins the state lottery; the educator who wins the best-teacher award—all are known for a one-day event. They will get a headline in the local newspaper or sometimes in the national press. After that, their visibility quickly fades and they are forgotten by the public at large. But the one-day phenomenon remembers. They don’t easily forget that they were once the talk of the town, recognized by others in supermarkets or because of a flood of media coverage. And some of their friends remember too. But the main feature of one-day visibility is that it is usually nonstrategic: that is, it is not easily translated into material advantage or reward.

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Recently, the media have been shifting to interviewing and featuring a higher proportion of unknowns in all sectors, rather than just wellknowns. As audiences develop an insatiable appetite for new faces, they become more interested in seeing “ordinary” people who have accomplished or been involved in something novel. This fits Andy Warhol’s speculation that more people will have a chance to be instant celebrities in the coming years. Why are there one-day stars? The main reason is that certain stories have to be continuously played out to the public, for a wide variety of purposes. In any news day, there are slots for human-interest stories, medical breakthroughs, unexpected disasters, or heroic rescues, or even the category “someone you should know.” The media needs to find people daily to fill these roles. The result is an avalanche of people and events that are recognizable for a short period of time but then easily forgotten. But for the person featured—the brave fireman, the innovative doctor—the story is over in one day; there is no profit advantage to anyone, either the medium or an institution, in sustaining the event or person.

One Week Some people are thrust into the public spotlight for more than one day, especially if they are part of an unfolding drama that transfixes the public. The woman who is on trial for murdering her lover; the man who has advanced virtual reality; the politician who is steeped in scandal—everyone wants a daily report on the progress of the trial, recovery, or investigation. Eventually, a resolution is reached. The public is satiated, satisfied, or disgusted. And one-week stories go back, if they can, to their ordinary lives. Reality series, talent shows, corporate board CEO overthrows—all have been a bountiful source of one-week storylines. Often, once the event has concluded, these seven-day wonders fade as well. The actual length of the “one-week story” depends on several factors. The media will draw out the saga if it continues to sell and new developments occur. If it is a favorable story involving an important institution, it may last longer, as the institution drives the story forward for its own commercial purposes. One-week visibles have more commercial viability for branding purposes than their one-day counterparts. The mere length of the story and the fact that often some major institution is involved in the storyline creates opportunity for branding purposes. Noted criminals, defamed politicians, embittered spouses, frustrated CEOs—all at one time

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or another have hit the public-speaking circuit, become television or radio personalities, or fronted for products.

One Year Each year, some people stand out as the personalities of the year, managing to evoke extremely high levels of media attention or public interest. They make the cover of the Time “Person of the Year” issue, or People magazine’s “Most Interesting People of the Year” issue, or they are among the few chosen for the year’s major Nobel Prizes. Clearly, 1927 was Charles Lindbergh’s year, as 1984 was Michael Jackson’s with the release of his album Thriller. In the political world, Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris had her year, as did Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean. In the literary world, Anne Rice of vampire fame had her year, and so did Friday Night Lights author H. G. Bissinger. The entertainment industry’s nod to one-year celebrity is usually an acting award such as the Golden Globe, Emmy, or Oscar. Oscar winners bask in the glory and enjoy the benefits of being the year’s winner, including increased media coverage and a hefty increase in their standard fees. One-year personalities usually retain their visibility for more than one year—but in one of those years, they achieve a peak of public recognition that is usually not repeated, but has potential for launching a platform for a permanent brand. Major time landmarks—month, year, decade—are important in the minds of audiences, just as is the desire to know who is on top. This supplies the media and institutions with the incentive to promote certain people as the month’s, year’s, or decade’s most prominent. That’s why the drivers use a variety of selection criteria: those who made it big quickly; those who took decades to make it but finally are recognized; those who head a sector that has just discovered; and those who had a special event occur in a long career.

One Generation A small elite enjoys visibility for a whole generation. They are the generation’s heroes, movers, shakers, idols, and icons. From Elvis Presley to Nelson Mandela, they define their eras. During their eras, their future status as permanent celebrities may be widely assumed. But predicting who will gain a lock on the memory channel is not easy. History provides a perfect case: that of Antonio Salieri, the villain of the film Amadeus and one of the most popular music composers of his day and age. A contemporary

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of Mozart, Salieri had hoped that he, and not Mozart, would live in people’s memories. But he was mistaken. Hardly anyone in subsequent generations heard of him or of his music, a circumstance predicted by Salieri who, upon learning of Mozart’s death, extolled, “It is a pity to lose so great a genius, but his death is a good thing for us. If he had lived longer not a soul would have given us a bit of bread for our compositions.”12 Salieri, indeed, was a one-generation symbol. Sometimes, the generational images are kept alive by institutions. Stanford University classmates Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, founders and namesakes of one of the world’s largest technology companies, HewlettPackard, died a number of years ago, and retired much earlier. This is a fact. But their company, by continuing to use their names, promoting their principles in its advertising, and constantly chronicling their humble origins and the founding of Hewlett-Packard in a Palo Alto garage, has continued to fuse their image with the company’s. While the name was changed in a merger with Compaq Computer to HP, management continues to capitalize on the entrepreneurial roots of the company and its founders on its Web site, which includes a virtual museum tour of the founders’ career. Skillful promotion can extend one-generational earning power. Though her great hits were in the seventies, Patti LaBelle capitalized on her generational star power by reemerging as a nostalgic tour performer reprising her great hits such as “Lady Marmelade,” promoting her own fashion line on the Home Shopping Network, and speaking and appearing at company and association functions. Often the heroes of one generation try to stretch into the next by changing their style and content, not always with success. The singer Sting began his career with the enormously successful English rock band The Police in the early eighties and made a successful transition into a viable solo performer after the group disbanded. Although his career has spanned decades and encapsulated varied musical genres from rock, to pop, to jazz and world beat, Sting has remained popular and marketable to fans from his early Police days until the present generation. Collaborating with young pop performers like Craig David and acting in cameos for prime-time series like Ally McBeal have extended Sting’s reach. Nevertheless, while Sting has never fully regained his former market share, he is among the most persistent and innovative of the generational icons.

Legends Legends remain famous beyond their time; indeed, their visibility lasts for all time. But the process through which legends are created is changing. In

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the past, many popes, kings, presidents, and generals came and went; only a few achieved immortality. These were people whose ideas or deeds shaped history, who inspired awe among the “mere mortals.” They seemed to be gods or at least demigods. Their visibility has often been built upon fictions that cannot be separated from fact; nor does it matter. John and Jackie Kennedy were portrayed as the contemporary equivalents of King Arthur and Lady Guinevere in Camelot, but the reality is closer to B. B. King’s song lyrics “She Don’t Move Me No More.” We have a need to venerate certain people, to turn them into legends, even myths. But today, as heroism gives way to branding, people will begin to enter the memory channel as legends as much as a result of their marketing savvy as their achievements. Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones are certainly highly talented and will undoubtedly become legends as much for the successes of their brilliant image-building tactics as for their blues-based rock ’n’ roll music. Ralph Lauren, who branded a preppy style clothing line and branched out into eyewear, home furnishings, and restaurants, is guaranteed legend status. Unlike Ransom Olds, who lent his name to a now-extinct automobile, Oldsmobile, Lauren took advantage of his branding opportunities, creating the Polo signature and staying consistently within his brand’s conservative image.

The Up-and-Down Legend of Jack Welch He has been called “a heroic form of CEO,” “the world’s greatest business leader,” “the manager of the century,” and “CEO of the century.”13 When the General Electric (GE) CEO retired in 2001 after forty-one years of service and twenty years as the chief executive, he had grown by some estimates a $25 billion company into a $130 billion company.14 As a result of his success, when Welch retired, he was rewarded with a lifetime compensation package that included “access to company aircraft, cars, office, apartments and financial-planning services.”15 He was paid $7.1 million for his autobiography, Jack: Straight from the Gut, which he donated to charity.16 The legendary former CEO was a popular and well-paid speaker at business conferences all over the world. And organizers were happy to retain him. Having Welch in a lineup of speakers guaranteed the success of most any meeting. Welch seemed permanently enshrined as a business legend. But on March 4, 2004, Welch’s reputation began to unravel. The Wall Street Journal reported that top editors of the Harvard Business Review had made a written request to their publishing press, the Harvard Business School, that editor Suzy Wetlaufer be removed from her position.17 The editors claimed that Wetlaufer had lost the confidence of editors as a result of an affair with one of her interview subjects—Welch—leading to a review of the magazine’s

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ethics policy. A week later, a follow-up article announced that Ms. Wetlaufer had resigned, citing a controversy regarding a conflict of interest in her leading the publication.18 This second article also said Welch had helped Wetlaufer fight to keep her job, a move that likely exacerbated the situation at the Review, and raised questions about Welch’s judgment. Things would soon get worse. Welch’s marriage to his second wife, Jane, broke up, and in court filings details of Welch’s expansive retirement package became public knowledge, angering GE investors. The package included a laundry list of amenities, most notably a Manhattan GE-owned apartment, security, and a wide range of tickets to events and country-club membership fees. The apartment was said to rent for $80,000 a month, and the use of the GE jet was estimated by experts at $291,869 monthly.19 As the revelations peaked and pressure mounted, Welch announced in an editorial page letter published in the Journal two weeks later that he was asking GE to eliminate everything in his retirement package except for what was considered the usual office support customary for his predecessors.20 For use of other company facilities and services, Welch said he would pay GE up to $2.5 million a year. The act did little to revive Welch’s reputation, however, because it appeared to be done under duress. Meanwhile, the messy divorce battle continued to be waged publicly with the effect that other well-known CEOs came under scrutiny. Welch eventually reached an agreement with his second and now former wife and married his former editor, Suzy Wetlaufer. For some, the legend of Jack Welch was tarnished forever because of the controversy. For many others, it was a short-lived downturn in a highly successful career. Welch has worked hard at rebuilding his image. He wrote a second best-selling book with his new spouse Wetlaufer,21 embarked on a grueling publicity campaign, and continued appearing at major universities and conferences for high-level executives. He has also softened his image in his public appearances and is more willing to speak of his personal feelings, struggles, and relationship issues. Welch’s reputation is likely to sustain for two reasons: 1) His achievements at GE were permanently enduring and enabled him to maintain credibility with his core audiences under duress; and, 2) He adapted to the changing communication circumstances by capitalizing on what he does well—writing, speaking, and advising.

In a society divided into many classes, specialized occupations, and diverse interests, it is hardly surprising that our analysis focuses on the different visibility sectors, for each has its own rules and conventions that must be factored into any aspirant’s marketing strategy. The entertainer is free to endorse popcorn, appear on Entertainment Tonight, and own a private jet. In contrast, the scientist will be hard pressed to justify any of these activities and will probably want to continue publishing in the traditional

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journals to maintain sector credibility. As society’s values and interests change, so do the sectors with the most visibility-generating potential. One-week aspirants need to be carefully managed to break out of their status as mere media curiosities, and the brand of the year needs to worry about overexposure and lack of long-term visibility. All of these factors should be weighed in the personal and professional branding plan, but above all else, aspirants must realize whom their marketing is ultimately directed toward: an audience. Potential brands need clients to seek them out, people to watch them, consumers to buy their products, and fans to talk about them. The next chapter places the audience into the marketing equation.

NOTES 1 Alice Park, “Heart Mender: After cholesterol, the most important cause of heart attacks is the killer Paul Ridker identified,” Time/CNN.com, www.cnn.com/ SPECIALS/2001/americasbest/science.medicine/pro.pridker.html, viewed October 6, 2004. 2 Robert J. Shiller, Irrational Exuberance (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000). 3 _____, “Robert Kuttner,” Leigh Bureau, www.leighbureau.com/ speaker.asp?id=192, viewed August 24, 2004. 4 _____, “The School of Cooperative Individualism: Where the idea of liberty thrives!” www.cooperativeindividualism.org/kuttnerbio.html, viewed August 26, 2004. 5 David Finn, “Public Invisibility of Corporate Leaders,” Harvard Business Review, November/December, 1980, p. 107. 6 _____, “Lawrence Lessig,” Leigh Bureau, www.leighbureau.com/ speaker.asp?id=117, viewed on August 25, 2004. 7 Lawrence Lessig, Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace (New York: Basic Books, 2000). 8 Wolfgang Puck Worldwide, Inc. Company Profile, biz.yahoo.com/ic/56/ 56519.html, viewed October 6, 2004. 9 Puck has a Web site combining personal image building, dinner menu samples, and current events (www.wolfgangpuck.com). 10 _____, On CNN TV: “Anchors and Reporters,” www.cnn.com/CNN/ anchors_reporters/gupta.sanjay.html, viewed June 28, 2005.

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11 Ibid. 12 Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Eric Bloom, vol. V (New York: St. Martin’s Press, Macmillan, 1954), p. 941. 13 Robert Walker, “Overhauled: Why Jack Welch Isn’t God,” robwalker.net/ html_docs/welch.html, viewed August 26, 2004. 14 Harris Collingwood and Diane L. Coutu, “Jack on Jack,” Harvard Business Review, February 2002, p. 88. 15 Matt Murray, Joann Lublin and Rachel Emma Silverman, “Welch’s Lavish Retirement Pact Angers General Electric Investors,” Wall Street Journal Online, online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB1031522344613392915,00.html, viewed August 6, 2004. 16 _____, “Welch Has Book Deal With HarperCollins,” Wall Street Journal, February 4, 2004, p. 1. 17 James Bandler, “Harvard Editor Faces Revolt Over Welch Story,” Wall Street Journal, March 4, 2002, p. B1. 18 James Bandler, “Harvard Editor’s Deal Further Irks Review Staffers,” Wall Street Journal, March 11, 2002, p. B1. 19 Murray. 20 Jack Welch, “My Dilemma—And How I Resolved It,” Wall Street Journal Online, September 16, 2002, online.wsj.com/PA2VJBNA4R/article_print/ 0,,SB1032130853752348115,00.html, viewed October 6, 2004. 21 Jack Welch and Suzy Welch, Winning (New York: Harper Collins, 2005).

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who are the high visibility consumers?

CHAPTER 5

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ommy Hilfiger, Ralph Lauren, Donna Karan, and Michael Kors all evoke in consumers images of their designer fashion brands. In a high-stakes industry defined by fierce struggles for the minds of an ever-shifting marketplace, Hilfiger is among the most strategic and highly visible. His pursuit of an identity for his brand is all about audience. The rise of Hilfiger was slow and deliberate. Starting with a $150 stake in an Elmira, New York, jeans venture, Hilfiger rose through a partnership with Mohan Murjani of Vanderbilt jeans to eventually form his own Tommy Hilfiger Corporation.1 Targeting the young consumer, Tommy Hilfiger clothing was priced at the low end of designer clothes and was positioned as conservative or preppie American. He adapted to the 1990s by adding a hotter, urban look to the line and moving into women’s clothing and perfume. Hilfiger’s search to create name recognition for his clothing brand was always intense and consumer centered. He reached his audiences by targeting image opinion leaders such as fashion writers, designers, and entertainment celebrities. In the 1990s, Hilfiger dressed prominent rappers such as Snoop Doggy Dogg and LL Cool J and helped create a television show entitled Tips (a trends, influences, and personalities report) in which he was featured interviewing recording and film stars on their wardrobe choices. But that was last century, and now Hilfiger found himself in a struggle to attract a new and ever-shifting audience. Traditional designer fashion houses such as Hugo Boss and Calvin Klein and new celebrity-driven fashion lines such as Sean “Diddy” Combs’ Sean John and Russell Simmons’ Phat Farm presented stiff competition. In searching for the new wave, Hilfiger was caught in the middle and had difficulty appealing to either audience. As 91

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a consequence, his gross revenue and net profits began to decline, and there were questions about the future of his fashion line.2 Hilfiger’s response was to introduce the H Hilfiger collection, a sophisticated line of work clothes designed for professionals. He also added Karl Lagerfeld’s gallery business to reposition himself as a competitor to Ralph Lauren, Perry Ellis, Liz Claiborne, and other conservative brands. In order to revive his cutting-edge personal brand, he became the host of The Cut, a reality series about aspiring designers. The show’s announcement gave Hilfiger a burst of publicity and allowed him to showcase his new consumer focus. Hilfiger understood that the combination of adapting his personal visibility and his product line to the changing cultural trends of his target audience was necessary to reignite his company’s fortune.

THE ALL-IMPORTANT CONSUMER No industry can exist without customers. In modern-day manufacturing and marketing, finding the customers and matching them to the right products has become an all-consuming passion. It is a passion so complete that many products are now fine-tuned to the most subtle variations in customer needs, desires, and expectations. The results can be impressive, as the discovery and segmentation of markets assumes a sophistication that is mathematically precise. Ask BMW for a comparison of buyers for a 330i and a 760i, and a mountain of data emerges to distinguish the two buyer groups on the basis of attitudes, lifestyles, and buying approaches—with estimates that project the numbers and needs of automobile buyers ten years into the future. Ask the Red Cross how Americans feel about making charitable contributions, and they produce a Harris poll on age groups, income levels, and the status of competing charities. Ask the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) how many people tune in to the first fifteen minutes of one of its programs, and accurate, comprehensive information spews forth. But ask the data collectors if former Spanish prime minister José María Aznar can transition to the role of elder statesman after his party was voted out of power three days following the tragic Madrid bombings, whether former investment banker Frank Quattrone, convicted on criminal charges of obstructing justice and barred for life from the securities industry, can regain a measure of the visibility he once enjoyed, or why actor John Travolta made a spectacular comeback after being written off by critics and the computer screens go blank. “Audiences are too fickle,” say the analysts. “They change their

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motivations all the time. There are too many variables. You just can’t predict which brand they’ll buy.” Often, the so-called experts’ discussions on audience perceptions and attachments degenerate into esoteric discourses on magic, charisma, presence, or luck. The aspirant cannot afford to be distracted by these misconceptions. In order to effect the transformation that will bring the aspirant and the market together, the aspirant must fully understand the market by answering the following questions: Who are the consumers— the audience members—that make up my market? What kinds of people are they? What do they want and get from me? The relationship between well-known personalities and audiences has always been controversial. The cliché that “only the public can make a star” expresses the popular myth that audiences capriciously decide whom to celebrate. While it’s indisputable that audience tastes do change, and that some visible people are unceremoniously abandoned and others launched without warning or apparent cause, the relationship between the visible and the fan is far more understandable and predictable than common wisdom claims. To best predict consumer preferences, image makers must understand the different levels of interest and intimacy that audiences bring to their relationship with their clients.

Michael Moore Brands Outrage Michael Moore is inexorably linked to controversy, and his success in marketing this image has made him a highly recognizable brand. The director of such documentaries and films as Roger & Me, Canadian Bacon, and Fahrenheit 9/11, Moore is so strongly associated with an anti-big business confrontational style that the term “Moore-esque” is used to describe other movies, books, and public opinions that have his stylistic imprint. Branding imparts a set of identifiable attributes that make a product distinctive to and easily recalled by its audience. It is therefore a significant sign of star power when the personal characteristics of an individual and his or her body of work become the standard of comparison in the field. Moore has achieved that level of brand awareness by focusing on historical events and adding an often argumentative, theatrical, and disturbing edge. He editorializes his chronicles, but unlike his other overtly partisan counterparts, markets them through mainstream media channels and hires professional public relations experts like Chris Lehane—former vice president Al Gore’s press secretary—to orchestrate his work to the media.3 He screens his documentaries in large commercial venues including the Cannes Film Festival, leveraging celebrity endorsements, often scandalous claims of

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improper, immoral or criminal activity, and quick-cut editing and professional camera work to sensationalize historical and political events. Moore also generates free media publicity by aggressively arguing on talk shows and other public forums his films’ point of view while refusing to appear with critics.4 He is so well branded that in the 2004 presidential election he became a lightning rod for Bush detractors and the focus of some supporters of Democratic candidate John Kerry. As a result of all the attention, for a time many thought Fahrenheit 9/11 was a sure Oscar winner after capturing the Palme d’Or, Cannes’ top honor. His failure to win the Oscar is a backhanded testimony to the power of his brand as it clearly infuriated many of the voters. In managing to successfully combine his brand with two seemingly opposing objectives—the making of historically based documentaries and box-office appeal—Moore has discovered a new distribution channel for controversy—mainstream movie houses—and his name and product could be labeled the “mass distribution of outrage.”

THE AUDIENCE INVOLVEMENT SCALE Ultimately, the visibility marketing costs must be recouped, whether by encouraging audience members to purchase records, attend sermons, buy tickets to games, undergo cosmetic surgery, or attend a seminar. Because of this, the visible person’s ability to move audiences from low levels of interest to more intense levels of involvement is critically important to the marketing plan’s success. To show how different types of audiences can best be used by the industry, the Audience Intensity Ladder (see Figure 5–1) places audience members on a scale according to the intensity of their involvement. Even though those people on the extreme ends of the scale—people who have no interest in high visibility at all, and fanatics obsessed with it— are of potential use to the industry, image marketers are far more concerned with those whose interests are somewhere in between. Just as aspirants occupy a status pyramid based on higher and higher visibility, so can audience members be placed on a ladder of increasing interest in, involvement with, and dependency upon branded personalities.

“Invisible” Consumers Everyone has an Uncle Fred or Cousin Jane who not only disdains the latest pop stars but who seems to live behind a visibility-proof shield. A mention of former Friends star Jennifer Aniston or Tonight Show host Jay

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Ensnared Entourage Insiders Interactives Collectors Seekers Watchers Invisible Consumers

Figure 5–1:

Audience Intensity Ladder

Leno invites only blank stares, indifference, or even hostility. Fred and Jane symbolize the least-useful audience on the ladder: invisible consumers, who are indifferent to media packaging, dislike identifying with personalities, or lack the capacity to idolize. They may have had heroes during childhood and adolescence, but they “grew out of it,” seemingly slamming the door on star worship forever. But invisible consumers are not nonconsumers. In reality, the star interests of invisible consumers are just so far out of the mainstream as to appear invisible. The bulb collector who worships the host of a PBS gardening show, the technology hobbyist whose leisure reading includes the latest insights into HDTV display technology and dreams of meeting Dado Banatao, the creator of the first IBM-compatible chipset, and the student of early Scandinavian communities in Minnesota who yearns to meet John Carter who has written the definitive work on book collecting are all star consumers but in less well-known sectors. Other consumers hidden from brand developers are those who worship in unusual ways or places. These people may not go to the movies, but they are first in line at the women’s club luncheon honoring a pioneer traffic-flow designer. They dislike entertainers, yet they seek out locally

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celebrated ministers. They appear visibility-less, but they are really just invisible because of their sector’s obscurity. A person who is truly devoid of all interest in all high visibility is rare.

Watchers Many people will consume high profile personalities if the price charged and commitment required is low. These are watchers, people who may flip the remote to five or six television channels a night, who read Newsweek, or who go to an occasional blockbuster film or play. Their visibility-consuming behavior is passive. They are observers, not aggressive seekers. With the increase in such celebrity-based programming as Access Hollywood and The Ellen Degeneres Show, the ranks of the watcher class have swelled. Watchers, already predisposed toward personality worship, can be seen by the marketer as prime targets, ready to be maneuvered into becoming active visibility consumers.

Seekers Watchers who feel a stronger attraction to personalities may move from casual/accidental viewing toward more intentional contact. They begin to seek out star performers. They eagerly attend their favorite singer’s concerts, politician’s speeches, and artist’s gallery openings. When it’s not possible to experience the performance “live,” they settle for the next best thing: the singer’s albums, the politician’s book, the artist’s poster reproduction. Of course, not all such purchases are made by visibility seekers; Brazilians may listen to “Madalena” because they love the song, not in conscious homage to singer Gilberto Gil. Yet the visibility appeal of performers is the main reason why many do buy recordings, especially when they choose the Gil CD over a different performer singing the same piece. Seekers, as active consumers, spend the most money on personality brands. This earns them the undivided attention of the visibility industry, whose tracking methods are based on sales. It’s a fair exchange: In return for their higher expenditures, seekers receive a reward, whether it is enjoyment of the sacrifices that their worship entails, enhanced self-image, or improved fantasy life. Seekers drive to concerts in rainy weather, wait in long lines for playoff tickets, and wolf down hurried dinners in exchange for closer seats at the Marketer of the Year dinner. Each act demonstrates commitment, earning the seeker a psychological return on his or her investment.

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Collectors The class of audience members known as collectors not only attends events but also consumes physical reminders of the person and the event. The souvenirs and memorabilia they treasure include everything from Kennedy half dollars to a No Doubt T-shirt to a business lecture program autographed by CNBC SquawkBox host Mark Haines. Manufacturers and retailers of personal and professional brand merchandise give collectors ample opportunities to express their dedication. Collectors can obtain merchandise at events, through mail order, or via high-tech delivery systems. Why do collectors collect? On one level the motivation is fairly straightforward: to express appreciation for the experience, to preserve it by giving it a physical manifestation that keeps the experience tangible and fresh. Although some collectors are less fans than investors, buying out of an expectation that an item will multiply in value, many collectors would never dream of parting with their prizes. They gain great enjoyment by communicating with others who feel the same way. The attendance and enthusiasm at collector “swap meets” are evidence of the strength of this attraction. Ultimately, collectors achieve a sense of physical closeness to the brand that seekers do not experience—and offer the marketer a chance to multiply the earnings.

Interactives One step up the ladder, interactives are distinguished by their need to receive communication from the star, and to occasionally send it back. Not satisfied with anonymously watching the concert, attending the race, or buying the T-shirt, they want their idols to recognize them as people. Seeking reinforcement and comfort in the company of those who feel as intensely as they do, interactives at this level in the past have banded together to form clubs, but today that tradition is transforming. The climate has changed for the often self-organized group of interactives that, through membership, sought a more personal relationship with a star, to a more indirect system employing current-day technology. This “technoadoration” is fostered through the vast number of personality-based Web sites available on the Internet. Although the popularity of the organized club is changing, interactives may still pursue a closer relationship with their idols by chatting online or by maintaining unofficial Web sites dedicated to them. Many stars have come to realize that these “chats” and Web sites may

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be used to market themselves and their product to build an interactive base. The Internet has become so important that highly visible people in all fields regularly update their sites with personal information and experiences, so that their interactives keep returning.

Online Visibility Diaries Blogs were born from the desire for self-expression, the desire to interact with like-minded individuals, and the drive to personally argue a perspective. But they also service another purpose: to blunt the perceived bias of traditional news organizations that while committed to impartiality decide subjectively which news and opinions they publish or air. Blogs are Web logs or Web journals that are updated daily, hourly, or even every few minutes. They typically focus on a specific area of interest.5 Many movie stars and pop musicians utilize blogs to communicate directly with their fans, and so do political partisans, CEOs of large corporations, and physicians. Singer and songwriter Moby is credited with bringing techno music to the mainstream audience. He is both a successful artist and businessman. His success is derived in part from the development of innovative ways to interact with and develop a loyal cadre of fans. Much of this effort revolves around his interactive Web site, where Moby blogs, announces and makes awards, rewards fans with collectibles for their insights and loyalty, and allows them to trade information among themselves and with the artist. At the mobyhotel, virtual guests check into their own rooms and interact with other guests. The site also provides links to related commercial sites “teany” and “littleidiot.” Forbes named the site one of the best celebrity blogs.6 Magazine editors employ blogs because they actively involve readers in discussing and arguing points of view. For example, when readers subscribe to BusinessWeek, they gain access to Web-only content, including various blogs. Individuals employ blogs to argue personal viewpoints, from the arts to public policy, and in so doing often raise their own visibility. University of Tennessee law professor Glenn Reynolds is a good example. Reynolds’ blog, instapundit.com, provides links to other blogs, traditional news reports, and other online content. Instapundit.com has become a switchboard for global political perspective, and it is frequently visited by traditional media reporters for quotes and story leads. All the attention has helped Reynolds in other ways. He owns a small record company called WonderDog Records that he promotes on his bio, which also includes information on his own part-time music career. Blogs are another example of how technology can drive visibility making. In the case of blogs, new stars are born and are often faceless, anonymous writers, who are able to identify key market areas and become spokes-

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persons. The danger for the traditional brand makers is that the supply and demand curve is out of balance. Bloggers are becoming such rapid stars that they threaten to flood the market and diminish the value of agents, promoters, and other marketers.

Insiders Near the top rung of the audience intensity ladder are those who move from communicating with the star through interactive-type activity, to an even closer relationship. In the 1970s, today’s insiders were often known as “groupies.” These audience members may cross the barrier that separates celebrities from audiences and achieve visibility in their own right, such as the case with Cynthia Plastercaster. (Ms. Plastercaster achieved her celebrity by casting the genitals of popular male entertainers in a mixture of plaster and alginate, which are now available online on her own interactive Web site, complete with Flash animation.) In the seventies, some groupies were known to sleep with stars, offer them drugs, or hound and harass them until admitted—however briefly—into their inner circles. Mostly, though, insiders seek to achieve the ultimate form of identification, to penetrate their idol’s security shield and see the world from the star’s perspective. The insider’s compulsion to be close to the brand is observed in all sectors of life. When management brand Michael E. Porter agrees to a corporate presentation, a selected group of insiders are often given access to a private conference. The barrier of convincing a family to share their home for a film is often overcome not only by a fee but special access to informal relationships with stars. A good example of how profitable the insider relationship can be for stars was Major League Baseball’s party starring Alex Rodriguez and Barry Bonds, who for $7,500 a piece allowed each participant a five-minute conversation with each player. The list of insider targets is endless. Chief surgeons, astronauts, business executives— all have the potential to attract devoted followers who seek intimacy and brand connection by association.

Entourage Entourage members are audience members who move inside stars’ innermost circles, playing significant roles in their lives or occupying legitimate, authorized positions in their support systems. Although some of the entourage is culled from the ranks of insiders, most players are those who, in the performance of ordinary functions in the star’s life, have become fans.

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In the process, they show such a compelling combination of loyalty and attachment that they earn special entourage status. This list includes barbers, hairstylists, clothiers, and landlords, as well as brothers, sisters, agents, and business managers. In return for their dedication and service, these special friends often receive privileged information that boosts their egos and self-esteem or gives them a degree of power. The barber who knows that the religious leader is thinking of running for office. . . the executive assistant who knows who’s being promoted to vice president. . . the singer whose mother accompanies her to after-hour concert parties. . . the politician’s communication consultant who becomes the first to know the senator is switching positions on the Iraq War. . . in a society obsessed with the belief that knowledge is power, such disclosures can make for a substantial return on the insider’s investment of time, dedication, and service. One special sort of entourage member who associates with a wide range of stars is the visibility connector. By virtue of their social status, connectors know everyone whom the star is likely to want to meet, and they broker favors and arrange introductions within the high-visibility network. Connectors include everyone from the owner of the hottest L.A. nightclub, to the trusted bartender at the exclusive resort, to the wealthiest socialite philanthropist in the state capital. The tasks of landing a celebrity for a charity, providing discreet lodgings during Derby Week, or finding a private school for a star executive’s child often fall to connectors. The rewards are the same for the connector as for the Beverly Hills dentist who charges highly visible clients double for bonding their teeth: discretion and personal service is rewarded by ego-boosting contact and, often, opportunities for profit. By orchestrating relationships between highly visibles, connectors can, like insiders, attain star status of their own. In return for their persistence, dedication, and sacrifice, they reach a level of involvement about which those lower on the intensity ladder may only dream.

Ensnared The watcher sees the movie; the seeker buys albums; the interactive writes e-mail; the insider has lunch; the entourage member takes telephone messages; and the connector throws parties. Each successive rung of the intensity ladder is marked by increasingly strong—and intimate—consumer involvement. The final class of audience member, the ensnared, is marked by the intensity of the relationship. Unfortunately, it is so intense that the relationship can become negative, threatening, or even fatal.

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Within this class are many subclasses. The first consists of the obsessed: ensnared who are guilty of such indiscretions as disrupting a star’s dinner, endlessly calling a private residence, gate crashing a party, or incessantly hounding a celebrity for autographs. Most of the obsessed remain invisible, but some channel their obsession into their own peculiar form of worship. Nicole Kidman accused Matthew Hooker, a Los Angeles area man, of allegedly showing up at her house and threatening her. 7 Sheryl Crow testified that Ambrose Kappos stalked her for fifteen months, which made him a one-week celebrity in the process (Kappos was eventually acquitted and apologized to Crow).8 Far more dangerous to the star’s image is the second type of exploiter, the muckraker. Unlike the obsessed fan, the attitude of the muckraker is calculated and professional. These are the journalists and others who make their livelihood by exploiting the visible. So pervasive is visibility seeking in today’s society that muckrakers are thriving in all sectors: • Paul Burrell, former butler and confidant of Princess Diana, exposed her life secrets and future plans in his book A Royal Duty.9 • A. J. Weberman, stole and analyzed garbage from Bob Dylan’s home, allegedly for the purpose of “compiling a concordance of every word from every song Dylan has written.”10 • Kitty Kelley, authored unauthorized biographies on brands such as Frank Sinatra, Jackie Kennedy Onassis, Nancy Reagan, Elizabeth Taylor, and George W. Bush. She received special status in this category when she became the subject of a muckracking unauthorized biography.11 • Political consultant Richard Morris turned the Clinton candidacy into a treatise on Machiavelli in his book Behind the Oval Office: Winning the Presidency in the Nineties.12 • The San Francisco Chronicle leaked grand jury testimony on the alleged steroid use by baseball stars Jason Giambi and Barry Bonds. The muckraker has evolved a modus operandi: looking for inconsistent or excessive behaviors and exposing the manipulative strategies employed by well-knowns and their handlers. Muckrakers are at most career threatening, but other, psychologically disturbed exploiters can be extremely dangerous. These are the destroyers. Some are content merely to send the celebrity worshipful letters,

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threatening suicide if not responded to. Some stalk the star, professing undying love and commitment, or file highly publicized paternity lawsuits. Others actually adopt their appearance and mannerisms, going as far as impersonation or passing bad checks in the star’s name. The destroyer often blurs all the lines between private delusion and public reality. According to Dr. Lawrence Z. Freedman, a researcher of aberrant personalities, “Killing is a peculiarly and intensely intimate act.”13 These exploiters are people often so possessed by the star that they attempt the ultimate act of consumption: murder. It was the obsession to achieve intimacy with actress Jodie Foster that fueled John Hinckley Jr.’s attempt to assassinate the late former President Ronald Reagan; Mark David Chapman’s compulsion to become John Lennon was held to be his motive to murder. In fact, Chapman’s identification with Lennon was so complete that he taped Lennon’s name over his own on his employee ID badge, adopted his handwriting, and married an older Japanese woman.14 Although aiding fans who have deteriorated into destroyers can involve complex psychiatric treatment, the origins of the phenomenon are relatively easy to understand. In a star-intense culture, the ultimate selling strategy is to foster audience identification. Product marketers understand the process well: measure consumers’ self-images, demographics, and psychological needs, then provide them with products that embody characteristics that match them. Honing their power to produce brands with whom audiences strongly identify, image marketers use sophisticated communication systems to duplicate the product-marketing process and to monitor audience feedback to produce ever more seductive, compelling messages. Unfortunately, having enticed the audience toward strong identification, brand developers and marketers can lose control of the process. While products have many of the same qualities of a person, the passion that inflames fans is not like the passion we have for our Norelco razors or Amana freezers. Marketing and advertising can impart to a freezer the qualities of reliability, compassion, and likeability, but it’s not the same as inspiring fans to immerse themselves in the “charisma” of country singer and entertainer Reba McEntire or conservative television talk-show host Bill O’Reilly of the O’Reilly Factor, or to passionately despise talk-show celebrities Howard Stern or Rush Limbaugh. In a marketing culture that is driven by more sales and commitment, it’s not always easy to draw a line and signal “stop here.” This accounts for the well-known person’s sometimes mixed feelings over having reached the top of their sector and the accompanying vulnerability that they feel.

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SCALING THE LADDER Fans at different levels of the intensity ladder receive different types of rewards. They also receive far different treatment by the industry. While watchers are measured and valued because they are critical to television viewing ratings, seekers are even more prized because their purchases of tickets and other merchandise are direct revenue to the venues and stars. To date, the industry has largely failed to cultivate invisible consumers and watchers into active seekers—to get the buyers out of their armchairs and into the stores. It has also lagged in developing profit-earning worship opportunities for higher-intensity fans. But this is changing: • In the religious sector, evangelists are adept at moving passive viewers up the ladder. For example, the process may begin with an offer of a free pamphlet, which upon acceptance by the viewer, leads to a request for a $1 donation, which prompts a “personalized” direct-mail appeal, which ultimately results in total involvement with the evangelist and his or her cause. • In the entertainment sector, TV and radio stations now routinely maneuver audience members up the ladder. For example, MTV, seeking new sources of revenue, has begun to feature wellknown celebrities in their reality shows including The Osbournes, Newlyweds, and The Ashlee Simpson Show. Follow-up newscasts support it with glowing reviews and incessant patter by video jockeys—eventually capturing and converting audience members from watchers to seekers and beyond. Involvement-seeking fans of The Apprentice can buy the DVD online and even download an application to appear on the show. • In the sports sector, teams have begun to expand the spring training concept of “fantasy” camps, which allow baseball fans of the collector and fan classes to actually train with their sports idols. The Chicago White Sox have combined the fantasy camp with investment seminars: A fan may now play baseball with legendary retirees such as outfielder Harold Baines and write it all off as a tax-deductible business expense. For the club, the business is so lucrative that it has spawned spin-off enterprises such as the Chicago Fantasy Baseball Camp Inc. These developments hint at a new era in audience building, making the accurate, sensitive measurement of audience involvement ever more

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necessary to the aspirant or celebrity marketer seeking the competitive advantage. Despite these trends, the visibility aspirant must gauge whether the investment necessary to move invisible consumers to more visible levels provides a reasonable return on investment. And when resources are extremely limited, whether they should be concentrated on a specific market or demographic niche that represent the greatest promise to the aspirant.

MEASURING VISIBILITY POWER The search for why some personalities can attract a market and others fail is universal. The most common method has historically been gut instinct, which is based on experience and intuition. There is always a premium for the brand designers and developers who have “the magic touch” that can spot a talent or hole in the market and fill it without elaborate testing. However, as the visibility market has matured, it is unavoidable with the large amounts of money and reputations at stake that there is a demand for other measurements that can support decision making. Aspirants and image marketers have available five traditional methods to measure their drawing power with audiences. The first is paid attendance: box-office receipts, numbers of concert tickets sold, attendance at political fund-raisers, registrations for a seminar or conference, or contributions to celebrity-fronted charities. The marketer adds up the box-office receipts, factors in how much was spent on promotion and advertising, considers the drawing power of the venue (Broadway versus a loft stage), and comes up with a rough concept of a star’s power to draw audiences. Suppose, for example, that French singer Patricia Kaas’ manager wants to measure the intensity of Kaas’ appeal to her audience, to help discover what can be done to improve it. Discovering a formula to maintain a large, loyal audience would be invaluable. Even a formula to deliver a small but prestigious and influential audience would be an advantage. Such formulas, however, are not revealed by the pure numbers. Popularity measures such as box-office receipts also tell nothing about the best use to which a celebrity may be put: as an endorser of sportswear, political causes, or vacation cruises. Clearly, better measures than raw attendance size are required if person-marketing strategies are to be improved. A second indicator is the Q Score. Developed for the entertainment sector, the Q Score purports to measure how much a star is liked or disliked by the public and how familiar the public is with the star—critical

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information for advertisers and producers trying to hire the most effective stars to endorse their products, star in films, or host TV shows. Under the Q Score system, a star is graded by the public on a scale of six indicators, shown below.15

Q Score System Indicators In your opinion indicate: The performer is. . . 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. N.

One of my favorites Very good Good Fair Poor Someone you have never seen or heard of

The method: “Performer Q studies are conducted as follows: Studies are fielded every six months in January and July. Each study measures over 1,700 personalities, whose names and descriptions are submitted by full-study subscribing clients. Individual orders are also accepted. Each personality is rated by a nationally representative sample of 1,800 children, teens, and adults.”16 The entire syndicated report on all the personalities costs $22,000. Data on one personality can be purchased for $1,250.17

The Q Score is intended to give star users information to help make intelligent choices. The most extreme case would be choosing between a Drew Carey, with one of the highest Q ratings (30), and Woody Allen, who is near the bottom of the scale (6). Both have high familiarity ratings: They are well known to the public. Carey is well liked, Allen is not well liked, overall. But when selecting stars as endorsers or entertainment draws, these two measurements need interpretation. The real story lies in the demographic analysis where Allen may have acceptable appeal—despite controversy resulting from his marriage to the adopted daughter of his long-time partner Mia Farrow—to aging baby boomers who love his movies and overlook his behavior. Carey, on the other hand, appeals to a younger market but without the sophistication and urban appeal of Allen. The advertiser, political committee, charity, or other star-user must know what kind of impression the star makes on audiences. The Q factor sheds some light on this. But familiarity and likeability are only a part of what makes up the celebrity’s all-important image.18 Companies are now turning to the Internet to research indicators such as a polarizing personality, specific relationships between a star’s attributes and the products, or

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in general more open-ended types of responses. For example, Hanes, in testing for its advertising campaign for Michael Jordan, asked five hundred consumers to look at star pictures with accompanying names and rank them using a number of criteria that included style and approachability.19 All of this is intended to match the product with the star and to do it as accurately and insightfully as possible. The third traditional indicator used to measure popularity is polling research that attempts to detail actual audience perceptions about brand images. Potential subjects include athletes, actors, astronauts, comedians, cooking experts, corporate executives, emcees, journalists, politicians, and singers. With elaborate pretesting and posttesting designs, independent research firms scan public attitudes about believability, compatibility with causes or products, overall communication skills, and potential to change public attitudes. Poll results can help buyers of talent steer away from athletes who are held in low esteem, actors with little warmth, charity spokespersons without credible sincerity, or corporate executives thought to lack leadership qualities. But the findings from polling, while sophisticated, are still limited. They cannot explain, for instance, why William Shatner has been a hit as a celebrity spokesperson for PriceLine, the popularity of brow-beaten comedian Ray Romano, or the long-lived usefulness and agonizing decline of prickly and controversial newscaster Dan Rather. Polling and other measures might help make the decision between Johnny Depp and Hugh Grant as possible leads for a feature film but tell nothing about why either attracted the following necessary to become stars in the first place. Even such popular entertainment survey polls measure a star’s audience pull only in a specific role; they do nothing to predict the vehicle or role in which he or she would be most successful. The fourth standard indicator consists of the rating services, primarily Nielsen and Arbitron, that measure the number of TVs or radios tuned to a particular media broadcast. If the numbers show that Lou Dobbs Tonight dramatically outdrew Hardball with Chris Matthews, a possible explanation is that Lou Dobbs is more well known than Chris Matthews. But such an assumption is just a leap in logic. What about such crucial elements as the shows’ formats, timeslots, types of guests, press reviews, network or independent distribution, or preceding “lead-in” shows—none of which are measured by rating services? The fifth indicator consists of the vast accumulation of subjective, incidental measures that together form a folklore of popularity measurement. These include:

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• • • • • • • •

Size and number of fan clubs Number of letters or e-mails Speaking invitations Posters, calendars, and videos sold Mentions in the media of attendance at high visibility parties Imitation, emulation, and trend setting Membership in All Time, All Pro, Hall of Fame groups Mentions in gossip formats—People, USA Today, Seventeen—as well as in the professional press—Fortune, Time, AMA Journal—and gossip-based blogs and chat groups • Number of magazine covers • Unique visitors to an Internet home page

Caught in the Web There are millions of Web sites worldwide, and all in their own way are seeking attention. A Web site is a distribution channel that can be produced for little money or at great expense. It is easy for people seeking visibility to find themselves overlooked in such a broad and almost infinite universe of information, unless they are creative in their use of the channel. Although unconnected, Patrick MacDonald, Bill Wells, and Jackie Chan have at least one thing in common: They all use Web sites as a tool to distinguish themselves from competing brands and to build loyalty and recall among their audiences. MacDonald’s strategy is to maintain a Web site that features his work and academic and professional achievements.20 The site is accessible through a link from the La Salle University Web site, which encourages students to publish on the web. MacDonald’s site is aimed at prospective clients and pitches his services. For MacDonald, who is pursuing a career as a professional freelance digital artist and Web site developer, a home page on the Web represents an opportunity to market himself to his target audience. Containing a resume, a portfolio, reference sites, and even personal information—he married his best friend—the site projects MacDonald and his work to anyone interested in contracting freelance creative work while presenting the artist as genuine and authentic. MacDonald can even check statistics on hits, generally provided as a service by organizations that host Web pages, to gauge the popularity and attractiveness of the site—and his work. For Bill Wells, a Texas-based injury trial lawyer, a home page is a chance to further establish national presence for his practice. His Web site opens on a formal picture of Wells wearing a blue suit against a two-color background of olive green and rich, deep forest green. Upon opening his past case file, he has one paragraph summaries of past trials, which are intriguing and give the viewer a sense of his achievements and what they might expect. Wells is

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competing against many lawyers who practice in the same field and how compelling his Web site is will affect future clients and how well regarded his firm is. Containing background information of his past legal experiences, his Web site (www.billtwells.com/) is aimed at both capturing the attention of potential clients and increasing the prestige of his firm. For Jackie Chan, movie star, an official Web site becomes a direct link to his fans. Containing photos, video and audio clips, updated news and upcoming projects, Chan’s site (www.jackie-chan.com/) puts him in constant touch with his action-loving audience, which according to market analysis, are among the principal users of the Web. Chan’s Web site seeking a visibility edge is structured as a full-service, interactive Web site with his own personal diary, letters he answers from fans, a “kids’ corner,” and an animated Flash introduction that previews his martial arts skills. It has never been easier to market yourself to so many potential audiences. The problem, however, is that standing out has never been harder. In all three cases—a job site, a professional practitioner site, and a movie star site—there has to be a hook and a target audience that will pull attention away from countless other competitors. In the future, the effective person-marketer will need not only to construct a Web site but also to strategically select and design material that will stand out from the Web crowd.

There are many informal indicators of a star’s appeal to audiences other than performances. A small patch from Madonna’s satin dress in her video “Material Girl” is offered at $55 on eBay. A signed Britney Spears greatest-hits CD is listed at a healthy $76 and as a more depressed sign, an autographed poster of a “sexy and naughty” pose is worth a mere $20. In the bargain basement of celebrity memorabilia is a vibrator for $10 allegedly the property of Paris Hilton found on the set of reality television show The Simple Life. Teasing out value from these kinds of indicators can be somewhat difficult, but the infinitesimal patch from Madonna’s dress and a long history of certification could be an indicator of her popularity. Indicators as indirect as baseball-card exchange ratios tell much about fans’ celebrity interests. For example, it would take more baseball cards of Seattle Mariners star Richie Sexson to obtain one of St. Louis Cardinals superstar Albert Pujols—a challenge for Sexson, and a testimony to Pujols’ premium. We can estimate that Pujols’ outstanding performance for a championship team combined with the fact that he is threatening to be the first Triple Crown winner in almost a half a century elevated his popularity and helped him transcend the relatively small St. Louis market and establish national appeal. A Mickey Mantle 1952 Topps card has brought as much as $25,000, way beyond what any current ballplayer could demand in the

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marketplace. Mantle is an all-time Yankee legend, and combined with the rarity of the card, collectors have placed a high value on its worth. However, neither the exchange ratio nor auction prices can scientifically establish appeal. It’s the kind of conjecture that cannot be quantified but is nevertheless an indicator of a performer’s popularity. Another informal indicator is the amount of money the marketplace is willing to pay for performances. Forbes magazine ranks celebrities by their wealth and fame for a given year.21 The Forbes methodology involves computing celebrity earnings from June of the previous year to June of the present year. It includes fees earned strictly from entertainment contracts. It does not include deductions in the form of fees paid to managers, talent agents, and attorneys or other support fees. Estimates compiled by Forbes are based on such third-party published sources as Billboard, Pollstar, Adams Media Research, Nielsen SoundScan, and Nielsen BookScan. Celebrity rankings are generated by combining earnings with other media metrics: “Web mentions on Google; press clips compiled by Lexis-Nexis; TV/radio mentions compiled by Factiva; and the number of times a celebrity’s face appeared on the cover of 17 major consumer magazines.”22 It should come as no surprise that the top-ranked celebrities are Mel Gibson, Tiger Woods, and Oprah Winfrey and that leading the category of speakers are Bill Clinton, Rudolph Giuliani, and Jack Welch. While the Forbes rankings don’t tell us how gifted, how deeply fans care, or what the long-term effect of their performances will have upon popular culture, they are a snapshot and an indicator of present-day worth. Discovering who is celebrated and why can involve studying something as informal as restaurant walls. In a widely practiced tradition, the walls of the Palm restaurants are covered with celebrities’ faces. But the Palm’s walls are especially interesting, proving how deeply celebrity has invaded all sectors: Building on a staple of sports and entertainment figures, the roster features highly visible lawyers, publishers, businesspeople, clerics, editors—even fashion designers and aerobics instructors—a recognition by the restaurant’s management that these images have their own power to attract a clientele. All of the foregoing indicators help the visibility industry understand and predict appeal to audiences. The problem is in attempting to draw from numbers alone any conclusions about the various stages of brand development. Traditional ways of measuring audiences can determine their level of interest in an existing brand, not the underlying motivations that predispose consumers toward any given aspirants in the first place.

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THE GREAT DINNER PARTY A different way to gain insight into audience preferences and motivations is to reproduce the fan-worship response. In this hypothetical Great Dinner Party survey, interviewees would be given the following instructions: You have been invited to three dinner parties, all scheduled for the same night. For logistical reasons, you can attend only one. Of the hosts listed below, choose the one whose party you would attend, and give the reason for your decision. 1. Britney Spears: Popular entertainer 2. George W. Bush: President of the United States 3. Warren Buffett: Legendary investor and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway The survey might reveal the motivations behind the respondents’ choices. Some possible answers: 1. A desire to see a hot yet controversial entertainment figure: Select Spears. 2. A desire to meet the most powerful politician on Earth: Select Bush. 3. A desire to learn from or pay homage to a business and investment star: Select Buffett. In an actual test of the scenario, respondents were asked to name the celebrities they would most like to have dinner with, and why.23 The answers revealed a wide range of motivations: • Curiosity (“I want to know how Michael Jackson feels about what he’s going through.”) • Desire to debate (“Napoleon tried to take over the world.”) • Raising self-esteem by being in their presence (“I have a lot of respect for Mariah Carey.”) • Thirst for knowledge (“Jim Cramer is intelligent and knows a lot about the stock market.”) • Romance (“Brad Pitt has beautiful eyes.”)

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• An elegant experience (“Maurizio Pollini is the greatest pianist in the world.”) • Desire to prove you can hold your own with the experts and attain special insider information (“Rosemary Clooney was a great role model and a fabulous singer.”) The dinner party scenario was designed to reveal the mechanics at work behind our attraction to celebrities. On the most fundamental level, the scenario demonstrates that such mechanics are knowable. Why is this so important? Because if the reasons why stars attract fans become known, the range of strategies open to the marketer widens, and the optimum strategy becomes clearer.

A BRAND’S DIAGNOSIS Another source of insight into audience preferences are brands themselves. Conventional wisdom holds that well-known people are unable to analyze their audiences. It’s true that when asked about it, they often describe the relationship in romantic, vague ways: “I have a love affair with my fans” or “I just feed off their energy.” In keeping with the specialization of the industry, many brands are leaving the audience analysis to their agents, managers, and producers, but not always. One star, pop singer Bobby Vinton, proved especially adept at analyzing his audiences’ attraction to him. When asked why people come to hear him sing, Vinton immediately broke his audience down into three major categories.24 The first audience, according to Vinton, is nostalgic in their attachment, having grown up with his music in his top–40 radio days when he recorded such hits as “Roses Are Red” and “Melody of Love.” The second group is people of Polish origin who identify with Vinton’s ethnic background. Vinton solidified his trademark as the “Polish Prince” when he appeared over a quarter-century ago with then-Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley at a large ethnic rally where he was informally crowned. Vinton’s third audience encounters him in his current incarnation as a Branson, Missouri, attraction, highlighted by the establishment of his own Blue Velvet Theatre, which gives the feeling of old Hollywood with hand-painted mural ceilings and Italian Renaissance touches. Along with such Branson perennials as Charlie Pride, Andy Williams, and Pam Tillis—artists who also once appealed to a younger audience—the Branson

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audience’s attraction to Vinton is part of the town’s nostalgic image, which audiences expect from their performers. Both dinner-party surveys of fans and more individual analysis, such as Vinton’s, make clear that, contrary to industry folklore, the causes of a particular brand’s appeal to audiences can be uncovered. But in order to be of real use to marketers, audience analysis still needs to be more detailed, more textured. One way to get at the more subtle factors that drive audience attraction is to look not at the characteristics of single individuals but at those of whole segments of society—to analyze audiences using the same type of information that manufacturers use to identify and categorize target markets: demographics and psychographics.

AUDIENCES, DEMOGRAPHICS, AND PSYCHOGRAPHICS Demographic and psychographic analysis, already put to use by the entertainment, political, and religious sectors, is a potentially powerful tool for all marketers. Demographics are used to divide the public into measurable categories such as sex, age, region, institutional identification, and political persuasion. Psychographics, a newer tool, are used to divide the population into categories according to attitude, values, and lifestyle. Terms used to describe psychographic characteristics are “achievers,” “need driven,” “societally conscious,” and “followers,” among others. Both demographic and psychographic categorizations are used in the effort to measure and describe political candidates’ appeal or to identify likely contributors to religious causes. Breaking down an audience into its demographic and psychographic components can help brand developers identify existing audiences and to possibly discover new ones.

GENDER AND THE AUDIENCE A look at a major demographic category, gender, shows the relationship between psychographics and measuring brand power. Current-day research indicates that males and females often bond to different brands, but that the differences are beginning to narrow. For instance, more women are interested in sports and more men follow fashion trends than in the past. Thus, it’s also clear that there is tremendous potential in raising brand involvement of both sexes. Demographic and psychographic data can provide

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celebrity manufacturers with fundamental manufacturing and marketing information as well. How can record labels most efficiently determine and target the audience for positioning a Tim McGraw-type singer onto MTV type formats? How can corporations seeking the most visibility value from a CEO select that person with the right characteristics to appeal to a target business sector? As the market in general becomes more segmented, the power of these kinds of demographic differentiations becomes more important. Conducting demographic and psychographic research before the dollars are spent can preserve shareholder confidence and boost the value of a company.

AGE AND THE AUDIENCE Another useful demographic category is age. Many product and person marketers use people’s age brackets to develop and position their brands. The perfume market is a good example of how age affects demand. Star branded or promoted perfumes are now almost one-third of the top one hundred perfumes. Significantly, in this category, age is the principal driver as “most celebrity fragrances [are] pitched towards consumers 16–28 yearsold.”25 And when people move out of that age zone, product desirability can quickly fade, and the perfume manufacturers need to be able to provide new products designed for the age group twenty-nine years old and up. In this sense, products such as cars, cell phones, and clothing lines are beginning to resemble popular music in trends, and the visibility connection is critical in the movement between demographics. Obviously, many star fans are young; they often idolize the hot male or female entertainers, making them into pop culture fixtures. To young boys and girls, star worship is part of the solution to the problem of growing up. As the objects of a fantasy relationship, the stars that adolescents dote on fulfill a real need, enabling them to say, “This is my special person.” Young fans feel this way not only as a reflex (“My parents can’t stand them; therefore I like them.”), but because actors such as Ashton Kutcher and Jude Law are the right match for young females: slightly older, more experienced, physically attractive, and nonthreatening because of their inaccessibility. The teen female market’s per-capita spending is high enough on star-linked music, movies, clothes, and other products that this market is one of the many that the visibility industry uses demographic analysis to track. This market is so lucrative because there are more than 18 million girls aged ten to nineteen in America and they spend over $75 billion year.26

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In a market so rich with potential, it is no wonder that entertainment companies manufacture young male symbols on demand, produce reality-based teen movies such as Mean Girls, and blanket the market with designer fashions like Juicy Couture.

Jessica Simpson Meets Marilyn Monroe Jessica Simpson is a popular entertainer whose market is primarily youth centered, with a sprinkling of envious moms and dads. She is in her mid– twenties and blonde, and she has a physical presence that echoes Marilyn Monroe. She is a popular singer, sometime endorser, star of her own reality show, and she has her own perfume and fashion line, JS by Jessica Simpson. In a marketplace loaded with attractive female and male entertainers, Simpson has managed to stand out. It is safe to say that Simpson’s talents are a triumph of versatility, rather than excelling in one area in particular. She is a better than competent singer, an adequate dancer, is just beginning to emerge as an actress, and has sufficient but sometimes erratic interview skills. Yet, in all fairness to Simpson, she has branded a powerful image and has clearly defined herself as a premiere teenage phenomenon. She has had success distributing this image on her MTV reality show Newlyweds with celebrity singer and husband Nick Lachey. Her stage appearances and interactions with Lachey provide her even more visibility to her market, and she has managed to differentiate her image from her main competition such as Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and Mandy Moore. What makes the Simpson brand work? Her image is that of a beautiful woman who has normal shortcomings and who produces a strong identification with her target female audience. She further markets her beautiful-realgirl image to a male demographic by appearing capable of drinking beer, watching Monday Night Football, and playing poker on Friday night. It’s as if Marilyn Monroe were coming home on the weekends and playing touch football in the backyard with the boys and then hitting the local bar for a game of darts. Target markets change over time. It’s unlikely that teens of Monroe’s generation would have resonated with such a down-home, realistic style. Reality shows, Paris Hilton, and in-game interviews with Carmelo Anthony have changed all that.

The young boys’ market is attracted not only to movies and television but also to sports figures, superheroes, and new-media technologies such as video games. They buy New York Yankees caps and Los Angeles Lakers jerseys, talk in Internet sports chat rooms, and emulate quarterback Peyton Manning’s unerring passes on Madden 2006, or Zinedine Zidane’s fancy

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footwork in FIFA 2006. The comic book stars Spider-Man and Batman are the high visibility characters who can sell posters, holograms, and T-shirts. Tracking this group’s tastes is important to visibility-industry subdivisions ranging from electronic merchandise to fashion apparel. A good example of exploiting the young male demographic group is the marketing of the Nike Air Jordan, basketball star Michael Jordan’s personally endorsed shoe—a branded campaign considered responsible for the financial rescue of Nike shoes. Until the Jordan campaign, sports footwear was routinely endorsed by celebrity athletes, but rarely was it dramatically and emotionally portrayed. The Air Jordan marketing campaign changed this practice, and it is an excellent example of analyzing market needs and imbuing a product with qualities that meet them. It featured the basketball star leaping and bounding to spectacular dunk shots, then defiantly and confidently facing the camera. The unbridled talent and heroism appealed to fantasies of young fans. It was personality-based advertising that superseded mere product-based advertising—and it was spectacularly effective because it tied the product and star’s personal drive and achievements into one symbol. It provided a synergy so powerful that it continues to serve as an umbrella for Jordan’s throwback shoes and a wide assortment of endorsements and licensing including a clothing line.

PSYCHOGRAPHIC SHIFT: THE AGING FAN In our increasingly global society, age plays a large role in how we perceive our peers. As a person matures, we expect his or her choices in personality brands to mature, too. The fifty-year-old who still worships Shaun Cassidy and the sixty-five-year-old who finds punk rock originator Iggy Pop irresistible may be disparaged as cases of arrested development and stunted emotional growth. For most of us, aging gracefully in terms of visibility admiration means shifting from entertainment and sports stars to those in the religious, academic, business, fashion, and other more “serious” sectors. Still, even within entertainment sectors there is aging-related shifting: from rock music to adult contemporary, or from the Rolling Stones to Kenny G. A number of changes in brand involvement are expected of the aging fan: 1. The move to a new set of brands more closely reflecting “mature” interests and values.

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2. A lessening of impulsive tendencies: less willingness to leap onto stages, to listen to repeated playings of the same song, or to dye one’s hair in emulation of one’s idols. 3. Greater longevity in fan loyalty and less fickleness in tastes. 4. The onset of nostalgic cravings for stars of one’s youth and willingness to search for them. 5. Far less vulnerability to manipulation. The strategies of the image makers that are so effective on young fans—staging events, designing images, floating phony stories—are expected to be far less successful on older fans. Most adults realize that society expects them to alter their behavior toward the star culture—but that doesn’t mean that they always do. Because of the industry’s power to expose people to such pervasive, persuasive messages, star worship among maturing fans no longer abates on schedule. Changes in distribution channels, such as the move of soap operas from daytime to the more widely watched prime-time formats such as Desperate Housewives, and the huge support such shows receive from the media, help extend the lifespan of brand involvement from youth right on through middle and old age. Still, the trend is for older audiences to narrow and de-intensify their involvement with celebrities. But to some degree even this statement is misleading. Many adults remain almost as intensely involved with popular culture brands as when they were children. Instead of papering their walls with Orlando Bloom posters and wearing Angel perfume, adults consume Chanel perfume, carry Louis Vuitton handbags, watch Emma Thompson films, speculate on Martha Stewart’s next career move, or attend celebrityfronted charity events. Teens seem unembarrassed to worship their stars in groups: to attend the concert in mobs, or rush en masse to imitate the newest celebrity-spawned hairstyle. Adults, however, more conscious of public scrutiny, prefer more discrete consumption: reading Soap Opera Digest, watching Entertainment Tonight, or devouring the latest best-selling exposé. Many adults, however, do experience a shift in visibility interest. Why is this so? Perhaps it is because, when we are young, it seems as if our individual horizons are limitless. We believe that we can grow up to be astronaut Neil Armstrong, football star Michael Vick, or Apple cofounder Steve Jobs. But as we age, and the realities of life assert themselves—as our sense of the possible narrows—such cheerful fantasies can no longer be

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sustained. We eventually shift to adopt new ones who parallel our new interests, who are more serious, more representative of mainstream adult life and values. A recent example is that of the management consulting company Accenture retaining pro golfer Tiger Woods as its spokesperson. Leveraging the tag line, “Go on. Be a Tiger,” an integrated, tri-media campaign aligns Woods’ reputation for hard work, focus, and commitment to continuous improvement with Accenture’s own brand of professionalism. According to Accenture, the association with Woods “encapsulates the benefits we bring to our clients.” The successful endorsement campaign is meant to appeal to decision-making executives of prospective clients. As an indication of the substance of the attributes associated with Woods’ character, it should be noted that the widely admired golfer interviewed key Accenture partners before agreeing to represent the organization. The interview process was meant to determine whether the organization would fit with Woods’ own visibility goals and if it would reinforce his image as a hardworking professional.27 This Accenture strategy is a new wrinkle in star marketing. It essentially positions a golfer’s values and dedication to his craft as the model for an idealized working relationship of a consulting company. And even more significant, it is not aimed at a retail market but aimed at executive behavior. Demographic and psychographic analysis may be the fastest, least ambiguous route to mastering some of the basics of efficient visibility marketing. Analyzing the preferences of different groups can make the brand developer far more savv y at constructing viable brands and at matching them to target audiences. In an episode of the award-winning and hypertrend-conscious HBO series Sex and The City, the character Samantha Jones executes some fast demographic analysis by tutoring the character Smith Jared—who was aspiring to move from waiter to model to actor—advising him to wear designer sunglasses and on how to behave during an appearance on TRL to maximize his teenage appeal.28 Understanding the model’s teenage audience’s needs, public relations executive Jones knows how to pick the right clothes, the right script, and the right venues. Packaged to satisfy the audience’s expectations, the model makes the leap to a film career. Jared has the looks and appeal; the other image components are added to make him a sustainable star. Awareness has been on the rise in the entertainment sector; but demographic and psychographic methods can also boost the profitability of brand development in other sectors. Analyzing audiences can help gallery owners seeking the right types of artist to promote, government agencies audi-

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tioning for appealing spokespeople, and charities looking for a leader empathetic to donors.

FORGING THE AUDIENCE BOND Monday morning, 6:00 a.m., eastern standard time. Today show host Katie Couric is talking with her producer. What’s the menu for the week? The basketball rookie dominating sports pages across the country; the author who’s popped up on every talk show; the actor whose profile adorns half the covers on the magazine stands. The week to come will see the chef demonstrating a recipe and promoting a new restaurant, the celebrity lawyer representing the latest high-profile murder case, and the business executive struggling to reinvent himself after being acquitted of fraud and riding out embarrassing revelations pertaining to both his professional and personal lives. There is no question that many of the most desirable channels are crowded and represent a challenge for an aspirant breakthrough. It is also true that aspirants depending on their sector can find smaller and more targeted distribution channels that can reach selective audiences. Once a channel target is identified, creating the attention strategies that will draw interest is critical. In this section, we isolate a number of hooks that can be utilized in a wide range of channels.

Room in the Channel Because audience interest and enthusiasm are not unlimited resources, each sector has the capacity to support only so many highly illuminated aspirants. Thus our baseball rookie of the spring season is highlighted because he fills a traditional niche in media coverage. The media do not have the logistical capacity to elevate too many hot-hitting rookies at a time. Effective person-marketers understand the concept of scarcity and work hard to move their aspirants into the front row. A good example of the “room-in-the-channel” factor is the rush for visibility by medal winners after each heavily televised Olympics. Invariably, a few athletes become marketable, while others complain of neglect and mistreatment. Selection is dependent, of course, on the athlete’s being able to marshal the right strategy mix: talent, coached charm, luck, timing, and story. But, understandably, limitations on the media’s coverage capabilities, and on audiences’ appetite for star athletes, restrict the number of aspirants who have an opportunity to capitalize on their victories.

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Brushed by Greatness Another factor that excites fans about stars is a special event or outstanding performance that draws the audience member closer. The trigger that can make a star especially hot for a particular fan can be hearing a song that strikes a personal meaning, being bumped by a television star in a hotel lobby, or eating in the same restaurant with a celebrated business leader. Even people whom the fan had never before noticed can imprint themselves on the fan’s consciousness with just a touch.

A Brand-Building Moment In 1999, the underdog U.S. team beat China in the finals of the Women’s World Cup (WWC). Brandi Chastain made the penalty kick that whizzed by the Chinese goalkeeper and sealed the victory for America. When Chastain ripped off her shirt in elation—in the same manner that male players do—she also marked her own place, and not just her team’s, in soccer history. It was a moment that was at once a statement of women’s new-found power in sports and life and forever linked Chastain with her skill and brashness as a symbol of that connection. It was an iconic moment not unlike Michael Jordan’s 1998 championship winning shot against the Utah Jazz and Boston College’s Doug Flutie’s Hail Mary pass that beat Miami. These seminal events are etched permanently into the public’s mind. However, because of the symbol of women’s liberation, this public display may have more staying power than the other two athletic events. Although years have passed, Chastain still uses that moment and image to market herself, her sport, and a cause she believes in. The payoff has been lucrative endorsements, a successful book, and a new career as a motivational speaker. She is an author of It’s Not About the Bra,29 in which she recounts her experiences and writes of the lessons she learned. She is an endorser for such global brand names as Nike, Volvo, Power Bar, and 24 Hour Fitness. 30 As an inspirational speaker,31 she speaks to audiences about identifying and dealing with challenges to excel in any chosen field. While many athletes have had similar successes, few women athletes have so clearly leveraged the image of their success to build a highly visible personal brand.

The strategy for the person-marketer is to stage situations that will provide personal contact between celebrities and fans. Entertainers ranging from South American singer Shakira to American actress Alyssa Milano engage in online chat sessions or write their fans “personal” notes with the aid of signature-copying printers or send them e-mail. Others attempt to foster close contact through show tours, shopping-mall and bookstore

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appearances, and talk-show dates. Talk-show appearances constitute an especially subtle use of the “brushed–by-greatness” strategy. The fan sees a relaxed, supposedly nonperforming star. The scene is reenacted every night at 11:45 or so. When Julia Roberts admits to Leno that she likes watching soap operas just as millions of regular Americans do, it is hard not to like her. She becomes more real, accessible, almost like a regular person. As a result, without even being in the star’s presence, the fan has been touched.

“I Married the President’s Daughter” Aspirants can generate intense audience interest by linking themselves with a highly visible person or institution: the young lawyer representing a large company in a big case; the aspiring political consultant writing speeches for New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson; the sophomore halfback carrying the football for the top high school team in Texas. Being elected pope, buying a football team, or marrying the heiress to a film-company fortune are natural associations that can make aspirants attractive to audiences. The “I Married the President’s Daughter” strategy is essentially isolating the institution or person of high visibility and becoming a partner, coproducer, or benefactor.

“Good Evening, Our Lead Story Is. . .” Because the media control an enormous audience, person-marketers try to draw media interest, knowing the media’s need for stars to humanize and to symbolize complex issues and stories. For example, in the 1990s, the aging population and the rising cost of health care stimulated the debate over euthanasia. Needing an instantly recognizable symbol of the highly emotional feud, the media chose to highlight controversial physician Jack Kevorkian, whom they branded “Dr. Death.” Later, the media used similar strategies in isolating faces for medical controversies such as the biotechnology and stem cell research debates. In 1996, Professor Ian Wilmut of the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh successfully cloned a sheep with DNA taken from an adult cell sheep. This time the sheep, named Dolly, became an international “celebrity.” Like Kevorkian, Dolly and Wilmut captured air-time on news shows, documentaries, and talk shows, thus becoming the media’s all-purpose symbol on the explosive issue of cloning. In the mid–2000s, because human stem cell research was banned in the United States, British researcher Austin Smith of Edinburgh University’s Institute for Stem Cell Research became the face of the movement, in part because

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he felt that the issue shouldn’t be left to “the lottery of politicians or public opinion.”32 Look at how the media packaged the Boston Red Sox–St. Louis Cardinals World Series in 2004. The Boston Red Sox, the perennial loser associated with the Curse of the Bambino, had not won the World Series since 1918. Entering the series, the Red Sox were ready to promote their accessibility, team star quality, and the leadership skills of management in putting the team together. In doing so, players and club personnel were articulate and enthusiastic, and in general they answered questions artfully. However, the power, drama, and media coverage were not on the team’s performance but on the principal storylines of breaking the curse, the fan’s religious fervor over the club, and the general ambiance of the Red Sox Nation. They were good storylines and reflected the longing of the fan base for a final breaking of the curse. However, the team’s skills were generally neglected as they swept a St. Louis Cardinals team that had won a major league high of 105 regular season games and that was loaded with star players. In the end, there was room for only so many important media-driven storylines. Examples of how the media can single-handedly create a star can be seen in the flood of coverage that is routinely unleashed on individuals that have somehow come close to death or have been victims of a despicable crime. People not only watch what the media present to them but automatically assume that the very action of its transmission by the media makes the information, person, or story “hot” and very important. The lesson for the person-marketer is clear: It is critical to market your product to the media.

Made-By Accessories Sometimes people become hot because the audience becomes fascinated with their trademarks. Whether the trademark is an object or accessory, or an odd wrinkle in behavior, the strategy is to take advantage of fans’ desires to identify and bond with stars. Some cases—Imelda Marcos’ shoes; Arnold Schwarzenegger’s “I’ll be back”; Humphrey Bogart’s staccato speech— appear to be inadvertent. Others—Donald Trump’s hair; Madonna’s coned bras; David Beckham’s diamond studs—are clearly intentional, designed to differentiate the star and propel him or her into the audience’s consciousness.

“What Did You Do in the War, Daddy?” Often audiences will be attracted to personalities by the force of an event: General Douglas MacArthur, who dramatically staged his return to the

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Philippines; Linda Tripp, who offered compelling testimony before the independent counsel investigating President Clinton’s relationship with Monica Lewinsky; female racecar driver Danica Patrick, who made a spectacular debut in the Indianapolis 500—events like these become platforms that can enable stars to build more lasting relationships with an audience. All six of these strategies potentially generate audience interest in people, but what successful person marketing requires is raising this interest up to higher and higher levels of intensity, to achieve the optimum bond between audiences and brands. The most powerful means by which to accomplish raising this intensity level are the design and delivery of the storyline.

The Alibi In l935, Dave Garfinkle, owner of a Minneapolis barbershop called The Artistic, inadvertently became a celebrity because of his role as a witness testifying in defense of suspected bootlegger Kid Cann. Cann was accused of murdering a Minneapolis newspaper reporter who was investigating his business activities. Garfinkle and other witnesses stood up and testified to Cann’s presence in Garfinkle’s barbershop at the time of the killing, thus establishing an alibi—and he was acquitted. When the newspaper stories broke, Garfinkle became a classic celebrityby-association. His barbershop became instantly dubbed “The Alibi.” Over time, the facts of the case became blurred with retelling, but Garfinkle’s moment of visibility had been established and sustained by the inherent drama of the story. Garfinkle’s story reads like a piece of fiction: trial, scandal, drama, association with celebrities, and local visibility. It has some of the dark drama of The Godfather and Once Upon a Time in America. The case of The Alibi is an early demonstration of the one concept that increasingly dominates the personality-marketing process: stories have great power over an audience. For Garfinkle, the curtain eventually came down on his visibility after a run of a half century. Unfortunately, even though Garfinkle’s story had an impact on the people of Minneapolis and was for a short time of major interest across the country, he was never able to translate his well-knowness into earnings. That was because in the first half of the twentieth century, it wasn’t even a remote possibility as there was no marketing channel to deliver the storyline and no sustainable media channel like Star, the National Enquirer, or the television show Celebrity Justice to support it. Today, a story such as Garfinkle’s might well earn a large advance from Random House, sell to ABC as a TV movie, or turn “The Alibi” into the first of a nationwide chain of franchised spas. In today’s visibility market, the dramatizing of reality has become a central piece of the marketing machinery.

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WHAT IS DRAMATIC REALITY? If there is one thing that serves more than any other to involve audiences with personal and professional brands, it is the storyline.33 The conscious design and promotion of storylines in people’s lives—up to the point of creating realities more dramatic than real life—constitute one of the industry’s major foundations. Often, not content to merely wait for real life to supply drama, brand developers, realizing the power of drama to propel aspirants to high visibility, have begun to stimulate it. Dramatic reality consists of either the highlighting of the dramatic elements in people’s real lives or deliberately and strategically mixing of their real lives with fictional story elements. Its purposes are fourfold: • • • •

To stimulate the audience’s attention and/or imagination To reinforce the person’s credibility To heighten the audience’s interest in the person To create in the audience’s consciousness that it has the illusion of a relationship with the person

The ultimate goal of dramatic reality is to make the audience’s involvement with brands more commercially exploitable. Examples of the strategic use of dramatic reality abound: • The every-person syndrome: This strategy is to promote a film star on talk shows and in other media in order to build a portrait of the star as a “real,” just-plain-folks person. The portrait begins to blur as Tom Cruise (the person) and Tom Cruise (the star) become interchangeable in the audience’s minds. • The serious star: This strategy is to tie the actor and theme together in a film that has a socially conscious, serious message. The entire storyline is usually fictional, but its evocation of real life helps color the actors as multidimensional, identifiable people. Susan Sarandon’s role as the heroic mother in the family drama Lorenzo’s Oil and Charlize Theron’s portrayal of a prostitute turned serial killer in the drama film Monster enhance their credibility as not just reading a part but as fully committed to the social implication of their work. • The identity crisis: Stars appear to become so wrapped up in their characters that they lose their acting identities and become “real.” It is entirely possible that submerging into a character day

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after day can produce that result. On the other hand, it often becomes a very marketable story product. In the boxing film, Cinderella Man, Australia-based Russell Crowe plays the role of Jim Braddock, the Irish boxer who unexpectedly won the world heavyweight championship. On a U.S. publicity tour for the film, he allegedly threw a phone at a hotel concierge in frustration. It spawned headlines such as “Cinderella Man in Godzilla Tirade.”34 Though he eventually apologized for his behavior, it was the second Cinderella Man related incident, and it was not unnoticed by the media and fans that it could be a result of his merging his character with Braddock’s. An “identity crisis” was used to promote Ann-Margret’s performance as Blanche DuBois in TV’s version of A Streetcar Named Desire. She received publicity out of her claim that during filming, her character “had completely taken over.”35 As she reported to Life, “One morning I started crumbling. I had to call my doctor. ‘The walls are closing in on Blanche,’ I told her, ‘and I’m Blanche.’ ” Quoting the film’s director as saying, “Her emotional investment was overwhelming,” Life went on to report: “At no point was the line between acting and reality more difficult than when Blanche is raped. . . . Only the director and camera crew were present during the scene. Other staff members sat out of sight, wincing at the screams and crashes. ‘It was devastating,’ says Ann-Margret. ‘It was too real.’ ”36 In some cases, the strategy blends reality and fiction so well that the star takes on a credibility that may not be earned. The visibility world blurs into real life, and we become part of it. Many audience members overlook that Cameron Diaz is only an actress and not Mary Jensen of There’s Something About Mary or that former Chrysler chairman Lee Iacocca is only a businessperson and not a man of the people. When Iacocca received a tumultuous welcome by New Yorkers during a Statue of Liberty celebration, even Cardinal John O’Connor was moved to remark on the gap between image and reality: “I just think the people see and hear what they perceive to be authenticity.”37 What has sparked the rise of dramatic reality is the crossing over of the lines between real and scripted life and audiences becoming conditioned by the strategy. The more proficient storyline designers become—the better the methods of teaching aspirants to “act naturally,” the more precise their use of demographic and psychographic analysis—the more seductive and persuasive dramatic reality becomes.

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The underlying principle that makes dramatic reality so effective was described by philosopher Don Ihde.38 According to Ihde, the more transparent a message-delivery system gets—the less its imperfections (telephone static, TV picture interference) interfere with its use—the less aware we are of the way that the technology alters the communication process. The more the sound quality of phone calls has improved, the less we are forced to think consciously about the subtle ways that the telephone changes the way we converse. Similarly, the more sophisticated that person-marketers become at creating dramatic reality, the less aware we are that the “reality” presented to us was invented over lunch at the Polo Lounge of the Beverly Hills Hotel.

WHAT MAKES DRAMATIC REALITY WORK? What permits dramatic reality to function is the audience’s increasing dependence on having information transmitted in a story format. As these stories become repeatedly imprinted in the public’s consciousness, visibility developers are almost forced to convey information about their clients in a formulaic and designated story form. Aware of the power of dramatic reality, often the first question that the perceptive developer asks an aspirant is: “Tell me about yourself. Any unique experiences in your past, any tragedies? Any interesting family angles? Were you tutored by any colorful characters?” Developing the aspirant’s ability to engage audiences is based on discovering the storylines that best foster fan bonding and attachment. Other methods are available to marketers to make visible people appear more authentic by adding texture and making them more familiar. The first is to broaden sector appeal—promoting the person in so many sectors that different stories have a chance to catch on with different target audiences. Media business star Ted Turner’s involvement in yachting and baseball helped build a multidimensional image of himself. By starring in the talk show Live with Regis and Kathie Lee that, by definition, reached an adult audience, writing children’s books and thereby boosting the value of education, endorsing a clothing line at Wal-Mart and reaching valueconscious consumers, Kathie Lee Gifford was able to try out different versions of a dramatic reality that also accommodated her singing career, cruise advertisements, and role as a labor law activist against sweatshops. She continues to broaden her sector appeal by writing a musical entitled

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Hurricane Aimee and returning to television on the entertainment industry show The Insider. A second strategy is to broaden channel distribution, to ensure that the stories reach the widest number of fans within one sector. Tom Hanks, acting in dramatically contrasting films that demonstrate breadth of character—Philadelphia; Forrest Gump; Saving Private Ryan; Castaway—making fun of himself on Saturday Night Live, describing on Larry King what it was like to work with Madonna, and discussing his love of nature in an interview for the Nature Conservancy magazine, reaches many different types of entertainment fans, each vulnerable to bonding with different stories. In the investment sector, the appeal of syndicated radio talk-show host Bob Brinker is broadened by his public-speaking performances, investment newsletter, and Web site. Another advantage is that delivering the brand’s image through a wide variety of channels helps create the perception that the brand has a deep, multifaceted character. He or she becomes more knowable, likable—and dramatically real. Implementing this strategy may even entail finding whole new venues for the aspirant (The Daily Show with John Stewart, Late Night with Conan O’Brien) or starting new, highly visible institutions (Alonzo Mourning Charities; Elizabeth Taylor’s AIDS Foundation). A final strategy is to bring a denser story to the public, making sure that the PR staff continually reveals additional details about the star’s life and career. The outline of the person’s character is filled in by discussing his or her fishing trips, loves lost and forgotten, meetings with the queen, and special moments with his or her children. If the story is compelling enough, it serves the vital function of “holding a place” for the star in the audience’s consciousness during those periods when the star is temporarily out of sight.

ELEMENTS OF DRAMATIC REALITY In the best-selling biography Robert Schuller: The Inside Story, the story is told of the celebrity evangelist’s trip into the unknown as a newly ordained minister heading to the promised land of California39: There was snow on the ground that February day as Bob and Arvella Schuller loaded their old Chevrolet with their few meager belongings and lovingly tucked three-year-old Sheila and baby Bobby into the back seat. Their breath hung in puffs of

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steam as they carried their things from their little parsonage. This was it. There would be no turning back now. . . . Just before their departure, a denominational representative had phoned him to say that there were simply no halls to rent for their new church. “. . . There’s bound to be some place where we can hold services for the church,” Bob determined. “I know it can’t be impossible.” Without another word, he grabbed a white paper napkin from the table, pulled a pen from his pocket, and began to write. . . .40 It’s an inspiring and compelling story, imbuing Schuller and his quest with high drama. The audience sees itself in Schuller’s shoes—on a mission, alone, facing the unknown. There is mystery: What did Schuller write? There is suspense: Where would he find a church? It’s a perfect illustration of how dramatic reality is one of the most potent of the celebrity-audience attachment strategies. Yet it is also one of the least well utilized and understood. Clearly, certain combinations of stories and character types have great power to draw audiences into deep involvement with brands. But although we know that stories have lesson-giving power, often serving as models of behavior, little analysis has been devoted to understanding what makes them work. Examining stories for their persuasive power, it is possible to break them down into their key components to help achieve the best match between story and aspirant. Most visibility stories contain a mixture of six major elements: • Drama: A beginning, middle, and end revolving around some sort of conflict • Adversity: A roadblock that has to be overcome • Crisis: Sickness, drugs, divorce, or other events that bring the adversity into focus • Mentors: Trainers, advisors, parents, or agents who provide some form of guidance • Unrelenting talent: Some skill that simply must be used or understood • A final reward or climax: Public acclamation, a tremendous audience, charity work, or even a noble death In Schuller’s case, the elements virtually leap out of the story:

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The drama: The search for a place to preach, his eventual selection of the last possibility Schuller had written on that fateful napkin— a drive-in movie theater The crisis: His poverty and inexperience, the absence of parishioners (“His self-confidence was shattered, he had already spent all the money, the advertisements had run.”) 41 The adversity: The local clergy’s opposition to his preaching in a drive-in (“One pastor came over eight days before the opening service and proceeded to lambaste Bob for holding services in a ‘passion pit.”’)42 The mentors: The “heroic” support of Dr. Norman Vincent Peale (“Bob admits to grabbing onto Norman’s coattails.”)43 The unrelenting talent: Schuller’s “booming theatrical preaching style”44 The final reward: Worldwide celebrity, culminating in the construction of the Crystal Cathedral Interwoven together, the six elements in Schuller’s story form several classic themes or storylines. Many others are equally common. In fact, the storylines that use these six elements have become so stereotypical that they can be categorized as follows.

THE TWENTY-TWO MAJOR STORYLINES Listed here are twenty-two of the most popular storylines, followed by the names of some of the people most closely associated with them: 1. First of a kind: Jackie Robinson, astronaut Sally Ride, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Oprah Winfrey, Condoleezza Rice, Senator Barack Obama, Tiger Woods 2. Talent wins out: Enrico Caruso, Barbra Streisand, Jodie Foster, Serena Williams, Johnny Depp 3. Success/adversity/success: Judy Garland, Bob Dylan, Tina Turner, John Travolta, George Foreman, John McCain, Lance Armstrong

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4. The fatal flaw: Bill Clinton and sex; Mike Tyson and rage; Jimi Hendrix and drugs; Richard Nixon and paranoia; Tonya Harding and obsession; Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown 5. Restrained from greatness: Loretta Lynn, Mary Kay Ash, H. Ross Perot, Bill Murray, James Lovell, Al Gore, Barry Bonds 6. A great rivalry: Artists Picasso and Braque; swimmers Ian Thorpe and Pieter van den Hoogenband; survivors Richard Hatch and Susan Hawk; Bill Gates and Scott McNealy; Michael Eisner and Michael Ovitz 7. Mom or Dad’s footsteps: Julian Lennon, Hank Williams, Jr., archeologist Richard Leakey, Liza Minnelli, Natalie Cole, Kate Hudson, Gwyneth Paltrow, George W. Bush 8. The big break: Russell Crowe and Gladiator; General George Patton in Italy; Jim Carrey in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective; Jon Stewart in The Daily Show; Britney Spears and “Hit Me Baby One More Time”; Kelly Clarkson in American Idol 9. The accidental meeting: Anna Nicole Smith and late husband J. Howard Marshall; Robert DeNiro and Martin Scorsese; actress Shirley MacLaine and director Hal Wallis; Diana Ross and the Jackson Five 10. The great teacher: Roman Polanski and Nastassja Kinski; Ion Tiriac and Boris Becker; Bill Belichick and Tom Brady; Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather 11. Moved by religious power: Pat Buchanan, the Osmonds, Chuck Colson, Ray Lewis, Timothy LaHaye, Pat Robertson, Amy Grant 12. The great sacrifice: Sacco and Vanzetti, Jesus Christ, Vincent Van Gogh, Hillary Clinton 13. The incredible feat: Cal Ripken, Jr., breaking the consecutive baseball games record; Watson and Crick discovering the DNA strand; head coach Otto Rehhagel and the Greek national soccer team winning the 2004 European Championship 14. Young dramatic death: James Dean, River Phoenix, Marilyn Monroe, Buddy Holly, Rudolph Valentino, Martin Luther King, Jr., Kurt Cobain, Princess Diana, Jim Croce, Malcolm X, Pat Tillman

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15. Small person takes over big job: Harry Truman, Pope John XXIII, coach Jeff Van Gundy for the Houston Rockets, Danny DeVito 16. The pure archetype: Clint Eastwood, baseball manager Tony LaRussa, sex symbol Tyra Banks, designer Vera Wang, General Douglas MacArthur 17. Revenge: DreamWorks Jeffrey Katzenberg, Jackie Collins, Kobe Bryant, director Robert Altman 18. Needs to prove something: Spike Lee, Michael Moore, Michelle Wie, Sofia Coppola, Arnold Schwarzenegger 19. Risks all: Donald Trump, poker champion Johnny Chan, Olympic wrestler Rolan Gardner, easyGroup founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou 20. Pawn in a game: Anita Hill in the Clarence Thomas Supreme Court nomination hearings; L.A. detective Mark Fuhrman in the O. J. Simpson murder trial; Colin Powell and Iraq; football coach Tyrone Willingham and Notre Dame trustees; CIA agent Valerie Plame and the CIA leak 21. Outrageous behavior: Larry Flynt, Christina Aguilera, Oscar Wilde, Henry Miller, Paris Hilton, rapper Lil’ John, politician Alan Keyes, basketball star Ron Artest 22. Tumbling from the top: Former AIG CEO Maurice Greenberg, Michael Jackson, Backstreet Boys, California Governor Gray Davis, Russian oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky When trying to match aspirants to the most useful storylines, some generalizations can be drawn: • Certain aspirants are better suited than others to play the roles necessary to bring certain kernel stories to life. • Few brands use only one story; rather, they use many different stories to appeal to different audiences. • With the media transmitting more images—of clothes, faces, walks, hairstyles—marketers are able to tell and reinforce a story more effectively. • With the decline of traditional family units and communities, we are relying more on visible people—not grandparents and neighbors—to embody, to make real, to transmit our stories and moral tales.

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The key is story control—selecting the story, refining it, and managing its distribution. Is the story appropriate to the sector and aspirant? Is it memorable? Can it be widely distributed? Are the channels efficiently used? Are relations with the press maximized? These are the questions that the successful story crafters ask. If they don’t, someone else—the unfriendly media, the professional muckraker—may do it instead, with far less favorable results. Ultimately, successful visibility marketing demands perceptive audience analysis. The aspirant must not only create interest among potential fans but also move them up the ladder to intense worship. For visibility seekers, this means developing the stories that will bond them to their markets. For visibility marketers, it means understanding which stories are the most appropriate ones for their clients to express. Once aspirants understand their audience’s perceptions and how to generate intense audience interest, the next step is to understand the visibility-marketing process to meet the audience’s demands.

NOTES 1 Susan Martin, “Tommy: All Over Town,” Buffalo News, September 23, 1996, p. 9A. 2 Jennifer Malloy, “Tommy Hilfiger Delays 2005 Filing on Probe,” Associated Press Online, June 15, 2005 (Lexis Nexis). 3 Jason Zengerle, “Will Michael Moore Turn On the Democrats? Crashing the Party,” The New Republic Online, www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=20040719&s= zengerle071904, posted July 12, 2004, viewed June 7, 2005. 4 Christopher Hitchens, “Unfairenheit 9/11: The Lies of Michael Moore,” Slate, June 21, 2004, www.slate.com/id/2102723/, viewed June 7, 2005. 5 NotePage, Inc., “Weblogs, Defined, Explained, Understood,” www.softwaremarketingresource.com/article21.html, viewed September 13, 2004. 6 Arik Hesseldahl, “Media: Best Celebrity Blogs,” Forbes, www.forbes.com/2003/ 04/01/cx_ah_0401celeblogs.html, April 1, 2003, viewed September 16, 2004. 7 Emily Farache, “Alleged Stalker: I Just Wanted a Date,” Eonline, www.eonline.com/News/Items/0,1,8322,00.html, May 24, 2001, viewed September 7, 2004. 8 _____, “Sheryl Crow recalls ‘eerie experience’ backstage,” us.cnn.com/2004/ LAW/11/22/sheryl.crow.stalker.trial/index.html, viewed November 23, 2004.

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9 Paul Burrell, A Royal Duty (New York: Putnam Publishing Group, 2003). 10 ______, “Dylanologist,” Newsweek, April 12, l971, p. 123. 11 George Carpozi, Poison Pen: The Unauthorized Biography of Kitty Kelley (New York: Barricade Books, 1991). 12 Richard Morris, Behind the Oval Office: Winning the Presidency in the Nineties (New York: Random House, 1997). 13 ______, “Dossier,” Esquire, December 1983, p. 189. 14 ______, “Lennon’s Alter Ego,” Newsweek, April 12, 1971, p. 123. 15 “Syndicated Performer Q Study,” copyright 1995, Marketing Evaluations, Inc. 16 _____, “Performer Q,” Marketing Evaluations, Inc., Web site, www.qscores.com/performer.asp, viewed November 26, 2004. 17 Ibid. 18 Based in part on information provided via e-mail by Caryn Portnoy, manager, corporate communications, Marketing Evaluations, Inc., November 30, 2004. 19 Christopher Caggiano, “Star Gazing,” CMO Magazine, June 2005, p. 42. 20 Patrick MacDonald, “Patrick MacDonald Designs,” portfolio.pmddesign.com/resume.htm, viewed June 7, 2005. 21 Edited by Peter Kafka, “The Celebrity 100,” Forbes, June 18, 2004, www.forbes.com/celebrity100/, viewed September 17, 2004. 22 Ibid. 23 Fifty random calls were made by Epixtar contact center representatives to U.S. businesses and institutions to solicit responses to the question, “Please name the celebrity you would most like to have dinner with.” Calls were made April 17, 2005. 24 Author interview with Bobby Vinton, Pacific Palisades, California, April 2, 1984. 25 Cathy Horyn, “The Sweet Smell of Celebrity,” New York Times, June 30, 2005, p. E5. 26 www.girlsintelligenceagency.com/, viewed December 16, 2004. 27 Interview of former Accenture partner Frank Holz, November 30, 2004. 28 _____, “Sex and the City episode guide,” HBO Web site, www.hbo.com/city/ episode/season6/episode81.shtml, viewed September 24, 2004.

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29 Brandi Chastain, “It’s Not About The Bra,” www.itsnotaboutthebra.com/, viewed September 15, 2004. 30 Michael Hoffman, “Stars’ Q-rating depends on success, personality, appeal,” sanjose.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2001/09/03/focus2.html, August 31, 2001, viewed September 21, 2004. 31 Keynote Speakers, Inc., Web site, www.keynotespeakers.com/Speakers/ Chastain_Brandi, viewed September 15, 2004. 32 _____, “A Stem-Cell Research Pioneer,” BusinessWeek, August 13, 2004, www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/aug2004/nf20040813_9702_db_ 81.htm, viewed December 1, 2004. 33 The concept that people use stories to manage the impressions they make on others was clarified by Erving Goffman (The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, London: Penguin Press, 1969). Such researchers as Dan Nimmo and James E. Combs (Mediated Political Realities, New York: Longman, 1983) and others have explored the idea that the media enhance and even alter stories while transmitting them to audiences. 34 Alison Gendar, Barbara Ross, and Tracy Connor with Lloyd Grove, George Rush, Nicole Bode and Nancy Dillon, “Cinderella Man in Godzilla Tirade,” Daily News (New York), June 7, 2005, p. 3. 35 Carol Wallace, “Is This Trip Necessary?” People, August 15, 1983, p. 99. 36 ______, “A Fine Madness,” Life, March 1984, p. 73. 37 Martin Gottlieb. “All Around Town, Iacocca Is the People’s Choice,” New York Times, July 4, 1986, p. I4. 38 Don Ihde, “The Technological Embodiment of Media,” in Communication Philosophy and the Technical Age, edited by Michael J. Hyde (University of Alabama Press, 1982), pp 54–72. 39 Michael and Donna Nason, Robert Schuller: The Inside Story (Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, 1981). 40 Nason, pp. 45–46. 41 Nason, p. 49. 42 Nason, p. 49. 43 Nason, p. 49. 44 Nason, p. 49.

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PA R T TWO

strategies for achieving and sustaining high visibility

Copyright © 2006, 1997 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Click here for terms of use.

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strategies for marketing high visibility

CHAPTER 6

Dressed in a black pullover more Melrose than Madras and posed with the easy confidence of someone used to working with photographers and stylists, Chopra has the look of a guru who has arrived. —Time1

“I

was treating disease, not healing the body,” New Age guru Deepak Chopra said about his early career as an endocrinologist at Boston Regional Medical Center.2 Chopra, unhappy that he seemed to make so little difference in the health or well-being of his patients, had problems of his own, growing increasingly dependent on alcohol and cigarettes to keep himself going. Then, a lecture by transcendental meditation guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi turned him toward the ancient Indian science of Ayurveda that would help transform Chopra from disillusioned professional into what Time magazine called the “New Age Supersage.” Chopra recognized that there was a growing market for spiritual self help. In his new career Chopra earns millions of dollars a year in book royalties and speaking fees on the basis of his message that we live in a world that is essentially a charitable and accepting environment in which “love, health, and happiness are possible.”3 In promoting his philosophy, Chopra has relentlessly combined the power of book and magazine publishing, television, his own formidable PR machine, and the star power of many of his television and movie star adherents to catapult him to the top of New Age Spiritualism. Chopra’s transformation is based on a fundamental truth: While many aspirants seek high visibility, those who employ strategic marketing have a better 137

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chance of achieving it. This process is undertaken by agents and managers, by large institutions that have a need for highly visible people, and by individuals who desire to be well known themselves. They can scan the full range of sectors, choose one that is viable for their purposes, and transform their representatives or themselves into a product that the audience covets. In many ways, the process is not unlike what companies do to promote their products. They too study a sector’s audience, then search for the right attributes and characteristics to distinguish their clients, or themselves, from the competition. Sometimes the distinguishing characteristic can be intuitive, yet telling. In Garson Kanin’s novel Moviola, an aging movie mogul tells his associates: Tell you what I want. You, Alan, and Freddie, you—you like that name “Alan”? Alan Bolt? Nothing. Let’s get a name for him, somebody. Make up a list. Check it with Max. Max is good on names. A long one. That one is too short. It’s over before you know it. I like long names. They look bigger on the billing. People think they’re getting more for their money.4 Every aspirant hopes to find the right mixture of style and substance that will catapult him or her from invisibility to high visibility. The same visibility principles apply to aspirants in all sectors whether it concerns substantive issues of content or stylistic elements of name, appearance, and voice. Visibility transformers need to analyze the talents and attributes that the aspirant possesses as well as those that the sector expects, and transform the person to bring the two closer together. This is how the Pygmalion principle has evolved. It worked for Professor Higgins, and the fundamental premise is still operating.

TRANSFORMATION AND THE CONCEPT OF MARKETING Some people naturally develop the skills, traits, appearances, and behaviors that audiences value or desire. Sometimes, these individuals obtain high visibility almost effortlessly. But for most others, high visibility and its rewards must be actively pursued. The key feature of this pursuit is change—change from the status quo to the prerequisite characteristics for high visibility.

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There is a clear relationship between the steps involved in launching a brand of shampoo, software, or stereo and the visibility marketing process. Procter & Gamble does not simply put detergent powder in a box, give it an arbitrary name, establish a large advertising budget, and ask retailers to carry it. If companies were that casual about launching new products, the failure rate of new products would be even higher than its current level of above 80 percent.5 Instead, a company such as Procter & Gamble gives careful thought to the people who make up the detergent-using market (the “audience”). They consider how people use detergents, the benefits they are seeking (whiteness, soapiness, fresh smell), their feelings toward competitive brands, consumer reactions to different package sizes, colors and possible brand names, and retailers’ expectations and requirements for carrying the brand. In recent years, the company has expanded that philosophy and has moved out into communities to experience how consumers actually use their products.6 Good marketing work requires careful marketing research, product design, packaging, pricing, promotion, and distribution. Major manufacturers follow this marketing process with a certain degree of rigor, whether they are producing soap, soft drinks, or shirts. The same process is followed by service businesses such as airlines, hotels, and restaurants too, for they need to know what the public wants or will accept, what their competitors are doing, and what will constitute a winning service. The fact is that launching a personal quest for high visibility is very much like launching a new product or service. To some extent, one must be transformed. And a successful transformation demands the understanding and mastering of the marketing process. For too long, specialists who worked behind the scenes in assisting aspirants failed to apply marketing principles. Mike Gormley, former national publicity director of Mercury Records, displayed such a nonmarketing focus in this description of a typical record company publicity meeting: “We get together every six weeks. We’ll go over our sales figures. If we decide the group is getting ‘no action’—meaning no air play or sales—we’ll drop them. If promotion doesn’t get results, you don’t just throw away more money.”7 Gormley’s implied attitude toward investment spending on groups— that once an act has failed to find an audience, the best remedy is to find a new act—is shared by many skeptics. Underpinning this attitude is the idea that a group or act is only so malleable. Such skeptics usually raise two objections to the idea that visibility seekers can be transformed and marketed like products. The first is that products are moldable but people are not. The second is that even if people were moldable, marketing would produce only limited results. Both views are flawed.

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Can People Be Shaped into Products? The observation is often made that products don’t have to be transformed at all; they can be designed from scratch and shaped into exactly what buyers want, whereas human beings can be “stretched” only so much. In this view, a builder can build a Colonial, Spanish, or whatever style home a buyer wants—but the seeker of visibility is a real person with inherent characteristics that cannot be easily altered. In the skeptic’s view, the lawyer aspiring for high visibility cannot be rebuilt into a clone of celebrity women’s rights attorney Gloria Allred even if potential clients abound. There is no way to turn the young actress into a version of Meg Ryan, even if the public longs for a Ryan type. Conventional wisdom holds that a human being is limited and can be slightly altered. The truth, however, is that the limits of “stretchability” are constantly expanding. Many different visibility support industries are now addressing what were once “givens” about an aspirant’s limitations. These support groups provide cosmetic surgery, coaching, interpersonal skill building, psychiatric counseling, and the vast array of services resulting in “the makeover”—a term once limited to cosmetics but that now refers to the complete transformation of aspirants, be they fast-track executives, ambitious members of Congress, or promising artists. Our young actress may not wish to become the new Meg Ryan, but if she has the potential, the technology exists to transform her into a replica of Ryan should she change her mind.

The Ultimate Stretch In 2003, Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected governor of California. Schwarzenegger, who made his mark in world popular culture through films such as the documentary Pumping Iron and ultimate tough guy roles in The Terminator and Predator, demonstrates two powerful concepts of visibility making: the power of entertainment visibility and the willingness of audiences to overlook traditional political credentials. Schwarzenegger was not the first entertainer to rise to high office. Movie song-and-dance man George Murphy became a U.S. senator from California in the 1960s and the same state saw the astonishing rise of screen actor Ronald Reagan to the California governorship and presidency. More recently, the dramatic and sometimes troubled four-year career of professional wrestler Jesse Ventura as governor of Minnesota fell into the same category. In each case, the entertainment premium attracted audiences, which enabled these highly visible individuals to successfully graft a political agenda onto an already established brand.

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Schwarzenegger is a native of Austria who came to America and began his career as a near-penniless body builder and calendar pinup boy. His screen persona was of a comic book superhero speaking in a rough, robotic foreign accent and featured otherworldly, animation-driven tricks. Schwarzenegger was the personification in the 1970s and 1980s of someone who could clean up the town, destroy tanks with a glance, and make even Superman look indecisive. If Americans could have voted on a least likely candidate for major office in the United States, Schwarzenegger, who could barely be understood, bragged about his prowess with women, gave interviews on steroid use, and played largely menacing figures in his films, would likely have been at the top of the list. How did he translate his movie persona into a political persona, to become the overwhelming favorite for election to the governorship of California, the largest state in the United States? From the very first, Schwarzenegger had an ability to couple his exceptional physical condition with political savvy. He married into the staunchly Democratic Kennedy family, served as chair of the Council on Physical Fitness, and supported the Special Olympics and the Inner City Games, a kids’ sports foundation.8 In all these activities, he demonstrated his willingness to step out of his movie roles and support deeper and more worthy interests. He further imprinted his move to the political side by backing a bill to offer after-school care to children.9 When Republican leaders called on Schwarzenegger to run for governor in a contentious 2002 recall election, it marked the actor’s formal transformation into a political powerhouse. He had already banked years of goodwill through his films and advocacy work and understood how to manage the media and the public. For example, instead of announcing his candidacy in front of the statehouse and fielding questions from media, he appeared on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. He was interviewed by a fawning late-night talk-show host, supported by a live enraptured crowd, and was seen by an enormous national audience. The lesson—he functioned best in a controlled environment. It is sometimes easy to dismiss movie stars like Reagan and Schwarzenegger who cross over from entertainment to politics as simple benefactors of the entertainment premium. While there is certainly an advantage, they are the exception, not the rule. As illustrated by Schwarzenegger, building support in the community particularly with an emphasis on youth programming paid off. In the end, Schwarzenegger had the stretch and the willingness to move in new directions from the stereotypical actor role. He capitalized on his brand awareness and the Californian’s longing for a toughtalking leader to emerge as an overwhelming winner in the gubernatorial race. However, like all endeavors, the true end is performance on the job, and Schwarzenegger, who rose to power on the strength of his brand, will always be faced with converting that advantage to a long-term relationship with his constituency.10

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It may be that people have become more easily transformable than traditional products. After all, Mountain Dew cannot be turned into Lipton tea; and as Volkswagen found out with its ill-fated upscale Phaetons, its mainstream performance brand cannot be easily turned into Bentleys. Some performers, however, have shown the ability to transform themselves— sometimes radically—over and over again. Al Franken began as a comedy writer, expanded into performance and stand-up, and finally added politics to his menu of activities. Media gadfly Ben Stein is the ultimate multitasker, with degrees in economics and law and careers as a presidential speechwriter, columnist, book author, film and commercial actor, and the host of his own quiz show Win Ben Stein’s Money. One way people do differ from products is that products are easier to manage. A box of detergent sits on a supermarket shelf. It does not talk back. It does not take drugs, assault reporters, or dismiss its managers. People, on the other hand, often display a variability and inconsistency that complicates efforts to transform them and build strategic images. Former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, in many of his encounters with the public or media, had his advisors paralyzed in fear of what he might say. Surgeons, executives, lawyers, singers—all have their off days and will inevitably lapse into some behavior potentially lethal to even the most carefully constructed image. Yet, traditional products also have performance problems. Manufacturers of new computers or aircraft pray before a test demonstration that their machines do not break down. Thus, whether handling a person or a product, care must be taken that both perform up to their advertised potential.

Can Marketing Make a Success Out of Anyone? Marketing is primarily a process of examining a product in relation to a market and determining how to maximize the product’s potential—that is, its need-fulfilling ability. This does not mean that an aspirant can be marketed into any desired level of visibility in any market sector. The best marketing advice for any political candidate may yield only limited results; he or she may still lose. In most elections, however, a marketing approach can make the difference between victory and defeat. In the type of transformations and brand-building campaigns waged by most aspirants, small differentiations can be played to great advantage. Marketing’s potential contribution to the quest for visibility varies in different sectors. In the hundred-meter dash, visibility goes to the swiftest, and marketing could make no difference in who wins. (It will make a big

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difference in the victor’s commercial reward, however.) In other sectors such as business, law, medicine, religion, academics, politics, and entertainment, where there are thousands of aspirants with the baseline minimum qualifications, marketing’s impact can be substantial.

THREE MARKETING STYLES FOR LAUNCHING ASPIRANTS The idea of marketing oneself is not new. For many aspirants, undertaking a quest for visibility has involved a number of strategies. One of the most popular, as succinctly expressed in Moviola, was a form of personal marketing: “You’re doing it the wrong way, honey,” said an aging movie mogul to a new star. “There used to be a nice actress from the stage, Ina Claire, and somebody once said to her, ‘Do you really have to sleep with all the producers and directors to make good?’ And Ina Claire said, ‘Of course you do—if you haven’t got any talent.’ ”11 For Ina Claire, and for real aspirants of the time, there was a grab bag of strategies that were learned through trial and error. A systematic approach to marketing oneself—to assessing one’s strengths, weaknesses, and best positioning concept—was not widely known or understood. Today, not all marketing professionals would approach the quest for visibility in the same way. Most would agree that marketing principles could help aspirants in their quests. But what are the best ways to apply marketing? There are three distinct marketing styles: pure selling, product improvement, and market fulfillment. Suppose a female pop singer, unable to obtain booking engagements on her own, hires an agent to help market her. The agent faces three basic strategic options: 1. The pure selling approach: Here the agent presents photos and tapes of the singer to several venue managers to persuade them to book her. She is satisfied if he or she succeeds, and she is extremely satisfied if the venues are prestigious, visible, or well paying. In the pure selling mode, the agent sees the client as a

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fixed product that simply has to be sold, as is, to the “best” market that can be found. 2. The product improvement approach: Not content to work with a fixed quality, the agent here takes an inventory of the singer’s characteristics and suggests ways in which she could improve her songs, appearance, personality, and other modifiable characteristics. The agent is taking a value-added approach, adding value to the performer’s ability to attract the market’s interest. 3. The market fulfillment approach: Deciding that the singer does not possess the minimum skills of flexibility to be sold as is or molded into a viable product, the agent declines to help her specifically. Instead, he or she scans the market to see what kind of public entertainment needs exist and are not being adequately satisfied. The scan may reveal that the market is ready for another Norah Jones–type singer. The agent then searches among the abundant pool of minimally qualified aspirants for the one who is most promotable into this role. Finding the right person, the agent proceeds to develop her systematically into the product the market wants.

The three marketing styles are in use in all nonentertainment sectors. In the political sector, the pure selling approach means trying to attract more votes for an as-is candidate; the key is to create in the voters an attraction to the qualities and characteristics that the candidate already possesses. In the product improvement approach, the candidate is transformed—trained to speak more effectively, dress more in line with the audience’s (voters’) expectations, and express views shown by polling to be already popular. The third approach, market fulfillment, is used, if discreetly, by political machines and parties who analyze what the public wants in the way of public officials and find candidates who meet voter desires and expectations. Today’s political parties are becoming more sophisticated—moving steadily toward the market fulfillment approach, searching for potential candidates who can fulfill market expectations. Striving for success in the marketplace, political parties and other visibility-using institutions move from pure selling to market fulfillment. Of course, some experienced brand transformers still claim that they rely on “gut instinct” for selecting highpotential entertainers, politicians, business executives, or religious leaders. Some do have better “feel”—in actuality, a better intuitive understanding

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of the marketing process—than others. But with the stakes riding so high on the launch of a major aspirant, brand transformers have increasingly turned to such modern marketing tools as audience analysis, focus groups, and public opinion research, in which they deeply probe a selected group of consumers to reveal their views on products, services, or celebrities. It is ironic that as brand transformers adopt more of traditional industry’s tools, traditional industry adopts more of the visibility industry’s tools. Today, industries launch new products as if they were humans, using showbusiness techniques. New soft drinks, the latest computer processor, and new digital copiers are introduced at gala “premiere” events that would be the env y of any aspiring performer. The Apple iPod was not only an innovation but was marketed as an emotionally driven, cute, lovable, and personal friend. Whether it is people seeking the greatest reward from their careers or businesses promoting products and services by treating them as if they had personalities, the marketing process is the new foundation.

STEPS IN THE MARKETING PROCESS Market Analysis Visualize a visibility-marketing agency that operates on the ideal marketing model. Who would be the agency’s hypothetical clients? Some are promising aspirants, some are minor celebrities seeking to expand into larger markets, others are major stars at the top of the pyramid who want to maximize their potential, and still others are established brands in decline who need to extend their commercial value and relaunch themselves. In order to market its clients intelligently, the agency must master market analysis. To do so, it must constantly monitor the changing environment to identify new opportunities and to anticipate new threats. This undertaking involves three separate tasks: environmental scanning, market segmentation, and market selection. Each step has its own written and implicit rules—making each a discipline all its own. An effective agency must pay careful attention to the execution of each step and subroutine because each has its own implications and role in determining the ultimate success of the brand.

Environmental Scanning Scanning the environment for signs of new opportunities and threats can be casual, as when reading newspapers, listening to talk on the street, and

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making inquiries about interesting developments. It can also be more formal, as when the agency sets up an intelligence department to screen and sort information to feed back into the company. Our cultural environment consists of so many streams of material that no one organization can monitor them all. There are, however, five focal areas of the cultural environment that are especially important to monitor: demographics, economic trends, technological changes, political and legal trends, and sociocultural trends. • Demographics: An agency needs to monitor pertinent facts about the population, such as its size, age distribution, racial and national composition, geographic distribution, and marriage, birth, and death rates. These give the agency a better picture of what, how many and where people are in different aspects of the marketplace—enabling the agency to specifically target the audience, identify appropriate communication channels, and develop compelling brand identities and value propositions. • Economic trends: Unemployment, inflation, and income levels and distribution have a significant effect on the media habits of the population, and the amount of disposable income different groups have. Together, these effects can provide both new opportunities, and new threats for the agency to consider. • Technological changes: As technology has evolved, the ability of aspirants to achieve visibility has widened considerably. As new venues have emerged, aspirants have had to learn to improve various parts of their image—as when film changed from silent to “talkies,” and actors had to rely on their voices as well as their appearance, or when Richard Nixon ignored the need to adjust his appearance for a televised debate and appeared sweaty and uncomfortable next to the cool, confident John F. Kennedy. The Internet has emerged as an extremely accessible tool for selfpromotion, but it is also a source of blistering attacks and scandal. Numerous celebrities, including Pamela Anderson and Paris Hilton, have experienced the notoriety associated with wide Internet distribution of sex videos, although the notoriety, by generating publicity, may actually have helped further and sustain their visibility. Politicians and their supporters use Web sites extensively to argue issues and respond immediately to their

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opponents. And new communication channels are constantly emerging as a result of rapid technology innovation and innovative application of technology: blogs, RSS, Podcasts, Webinars. It is important to monitor, assess, and quickly capitalize on promising new communication channels. • Political and legal trends: An agency must be aware of legal and political changes that affect the entertainment industry. A change in censorship laws or in business laws governing studios and distributors creates new challenges and potential for an aspirant, including the ways that aspirants are able to use their talent within a given industry. The political climate is another important aspect to environmental scanning, as different political views can either create or limit the opportunities of aspirants. • Sociocultural trends: A multitude of new opportunities is created as members of the market shift their interests, but it is necessary to observe which styles and/or trends the culture embraces and which ones they reject. A good illustration is found in the Vietnam War era, during which the emerging political consciousness of young people ushered in new types of entertainers such as Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, and swept others away. Today, a large group of people who have been labeled “soccer moms”— that is, women who are raising children in a time of increased terrorism—are looking for an emphasis on safety and security in all entertainment activities.

Market Segmentation A market consists of all of the people who have actual or potential interest in some class of product or service, and each market is further divided into submarkets. Visibility communicators such as publicists must not only watch the broad demographics, economic trends, technological changes, political and legal trends, and sociocultural trends but they must also monitor the markets and submarkets—for example, the filmgoers’ market, the sports fans’ market, the voters’ market, the art appreciators’ market, and the worshippers’ market. Just as a public relations firm through economies of scale and division of labor is capable of this analysis, so are individual visibility seekers who have most likely already selected a market sector, such as

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law, entertainment, or business. For example, lawyers need to monitor not just the broad law market but all the smaller markets that make up law: the large and small firms, the courts, and the legislatures. Even relatively narrow markets exhibit considerable variation. The pop music market, for example, consists of submarkets who consume rock, jazz, blues, country, hip-hop, and other genres. Even within a submarket, such as rock music fans, preferences for certain types of music such as heav y metal, folk rock, alternative, or punk rock or even for individual performers will differ. Likewise, the broad business market contains an almost infinite variety of specialties; an example here is the securities industry, whose many variations include commodities, municipal bonds, equities, and options, among others. The overall heterogeneity of markets means that visibility seekers must carefully select a target market upon which to concentrate. A massmarket approach—trying to appeal to all music listeners or all sports fans—is too broad a strategy in such a fragmented and competitive marketplace. It leads to overgeneralized thinking and wasteful spending; it does not suggest how the aspirant should shape oneself or one’s material; and it does not indicate which venues the aspirant should pursue. The unavoidable truth is that today’s markets are individualized. It is increasingly difficult to reach a mass audience with one media vehicle, or even several; at the same time, it is becoming increasingly easy to reach a targeted audience with a single communication vehicle, such as an infomercial or a customized Web site. The lesson is that the more precisely the visibility seeker defines the target market, the easier it is to design the necessary transformation: to build the appropriate image and launching plan for the aspirant. Given limited resources, it would be far better for a boutique owner seeking local visibility to try to generate the attraction of high-fashion clothes buyers rather than all clothes buyers in the entire community. If the lawyer aspirant is skilled as a litigator, it would be better to concentrate on building in an area that requires frequent courtroom appearances rather than one that emphasizes researching and preparing legal documents for insurance companies. In the selection of the aspirant’s initial target market, two extremes must be avoided. If the target market is defined too broadly, it may be impossible for the aspirant to craft a distinctive image. The resulting image might be too diffused to inspire audience attraction and loyalty. Then again, if the target market is defined too narrowly, there may not be enough people (clients, voters, fans) to appeal to, and the aspirant might become overtyped and frozen in the role. Thus, initial target market selection must avoid image diffusion and image freeze.

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To target the right market, aspirants have to creatively segment it. Any market can be segmented in several ways; the key is to weigh different factors that might shed light on important audience differences. A hip-hop performer may have great appeal to the teenage market—but which teenage market? Teenagers differ in such characteristics as age (early, middle, and late teens); sex (male and female); income (low, medium, and high); education (vocational, basic, honors); and geographic region. They also embody psychographic or lifestyle differences, ranging from conformity-oriented conservatives to rebellious, antiestablishment individualists. Finally, they vary in their product use and purchase habits: They can be heavy consumers, medium consumers, and light consumers of hip-hop music. The politician’s market consists of voters. But no politician can appeal to all the submarkets within the electorate. They must target specific constituencies just as an aspirant seeking visibility within a large corporation must identify subgroups and key individuals upon which to target an imagebuilding strategy. No one can please everyone, and to try to is dangerous on a number of levels: (1) The aspirant’s concept can become fuzzy; (2) it can be too expensive to communicate to broader audiences; and (3) the aspirant may mistakenly give unprofitable segments the same level of attention as profitable segments. Figure 6–1 illustrates the variety of market segments that emerge when applying different variables to analyze a market. Using only three variables (sex, age, and race), we can distinguish at least eighteen target markets making up the teenage market. A new performer can try to appeal to the black female early-teen market, the white male late-teen market, or any of sixteen other segments. The performer may even try to appeal to a macrosegment, such as black females, or all females.

Female Male Late Teens Mid-Teens Early Teens White

Figure 6–1:

Black

Asian

Segmentation of Teenage Market by Age, Sex, and Race

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MARKET SELECTION Visibility seekers have to think very carefully in deciding on the best initial target market to attack. For this task several considerations come into play, including the market’s size and growth rate and the audience’s purchasing power and accessibility.

Market Size Seeking the greatest possible rewards, many aspirants try to appeal to large market segments. Political aspirants on the national level are not going to go far by choosing to appeal exclusively to minority voters; there simply aren’t enough of them for reward (election). Then again, bigger is not always better; limited resources or the value of appealing to small, influential markets may come into play and help shape market size decisions.

Market Growth Rate A market’s rate of growth is important, especially if the aspirant expects to entertain the same group for many years. Consider the plight of a young corporate lawyer just starting a quest for visibility. The lawyer would need to take a long, hard look at a market segment that was attracting a large number of competing lawyers. In contrast, the science aspirant might be able to gain visibility quickly in a fast-growth area such as stem cell research in places where it is allowed, especially in those areas where the supply of similarly educated scientists has not yet caught up with demand. Other things being equal, aspirants would be more successful if they targeted audiences that are experiencing steady and sustainable growth.

Audience’s Purchasing Power If older teenagers spend more money on concerts and recordings than younger teenagers, performers could clearly earn more by targeting the former group rather than the latter. If urban couples have disposable income to spend on paintings and sculpture, and they have a great disposition to do so, art aspirants would be advised to market themselves accordingly.

Degree of Accessibility into a Given Market Some markets are overcrowded with aspirants, with the result that each new aspirant finds it harder to break in and draw a market share; in others, entry

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costs may be very high. The recording, promotion, and national distribution of a new album, for instance, can easily cost more than a million dollars, an amount that few new performers can afford. Accessibility may also be a problem because of audience or gatekeeper prejudices against certain types of aspirants. A northern urban lawyer, for example, might encounter resistance in some sections of rural America’s courtrooms, while engineering-trained plant managers can be blocked from breaking into the MBA-dominated financial hierarchy of their corporations. Even where the market is accessible the aspirant still needs to feel comfortable and capable of displaying the behaviors necessary to appeal to it. A comedian accustomed to younger audiences in urban improvisation clubs might have difficulty making the transition to entertaining older audiences in Florida’s retirement belt, even if the latter audience is larger, growing more rapidly, and spending more on entertainment. An aspirant who wants to attain high visibility on the speakers’ circuit must be able to analyze the different audience segments and deliver a presentation that is interesting to as many of them as possible and that meets the expectations of those segments. These considerations will not all favor the same target market. An executive offered a high-visibility position in New York might be far happier remaining in a region where they are more established. In the same vein, a performer might feel more comfortable entertaining an older group, although he or she might be able to make more money entertaining a younger one. The aspirant might prefer working in a small but highly accessible market to fighting for entry in a larger but less accessible one. There are always trade-offs among desirable ends. Nevertheless, market selection must be carefully done because it sets the stage for the next step in the marketing process: bringing the aspirant and the market together.

MARKET BEACHHEAD: DRIVING INTO THE MARKETPLACE Any marketing theory is only as good as the image maker’s ability to make it work. The market beachhead plan initially launches the aspirant. It is this plan that ultimately brings aspirants and the market together. Understanding the three major drivers that bond aspirants and audiences is critical to getting the beachhead plan off the ground. These forces that initially drive or restrain an aspirant’s ascent to high visibility are audiences, backers and the communication media.

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Driver 1: The Audience Some aspirants are initially launched toward high visibility by their audience. Aspirants who resonate with audiences increase their potential for repeat performances. One of Asia’s most prominent—and financially successful—consultants and speakers is Ron Kaufman. His big break came in 1990, when Singapore Airlines (SIA) hired him to help create and launch its internationally respected Service Quality Centre. Word of Kaufman’s success at SIA spread by word of mouth, and other companies began asking him to speak before their employees. His successful speaking engagements created more demand for his services and helped build momentum for his career. Once Richard Tan, president of Success Resources, which organizes the National Achievers’ Congress, invited him to present alongside some of the world’s most popular speakers, his ability to relate to audiences made him a star attraction. Today, Kaufman books appearances at least a year in advance, but when he enters the Changi International Airport, he is still greeted by many of his original audience that helped propel him to high visibility. Kaufman’s experience illustrates a key principle: Often it is the audience that dominates the process of marketing. In some cases, the response can be instantaneous. Legendary pop psychologist Leo Buscaglia activated his high visibility by making such a powerful, direct emotional appeal to his audience that on one occasion, a publisher in the audience was moved to sign him to a contract. The resulting exposure helped put five of Buscaglia’s books on the best-seller list at the same time and helped him to become one of the most sought-after lecturers in the country. His series of popular videos made him a perennial star on PBS and one of their star fund-raisers.

Driver 2: The Backers Backers are the second driver that can initiate a quest for visibility—either individuals who act as patrons or whole institutions.

Patrons and Mentors Some aspirants are initially supported and guided by patrons or mentors. Patronage is an ancient practice. Caesar sponsored Mark Antony. The great musicians Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven had their patrons. The art world is often dependent on patrons—George W. Bruen was patron to Thomas Cole, Vincent Van Gogh’s brother Theo supported him, and Peggy Guggenheim sponsored Jackson Pollock. In today’s high visibility world, there are fewer patrons and many mentors. For example, in politics Brent

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Scowcroft mentored Condoleeza Rice, and in the academic world E. Roland Christensen did the same for Michael E. Porter. In professional football, Bill Parcells as head coach of the New York Giants and Jets mentored the now very successful New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick. Patrons and mentors perform many critical services for aspirants. Among them are these: • Advising and guiding them on the best way to develop themselves • Encouraging them to believe in themselves and not give up • Introducing them to sector decision makers who can help their quests The key difference between patrons and mentors is that the former typically fund aspirants so that they can live decently, pay for training and materials, and pursue their “art” without having to work at something else for a living. Mentors may provide some financial help, but their contribution is largely of serving as role models and confidants of the aspirant. Not all aspirants find a patron or mentor willing to do this for them; nor does all this support necessarily produce a successful aspirant. No amount of financial and guidance effort can compensate if the aspirant fails to eventually attract audience or media support.

Institutions Another way that aspirants may first be introduced to an audience is through the help of an institution. Corporations and nonprofit institutions have developed elaborate programs to build up “stars” because the better known their leaders, the more potential for a recognizable brand identity. Political parties also strive to discover candidates with star power because they can attract voters. And despite the high costs of star player salaries and the threat of players leaving the organization, sports teams often have a vested interest in building up the visibility of their players so they can capitalize on their drawing power. By driving the visibility-making process to create icons, institutions benefit from the association by: • Building more awareness of the institution: Many institutions are relatively obscure. One way of becoming better known is to promote their association with someone who already has high visibility. For example, actor Harrison Ford is a member of the

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board of directors of Conservation International.12 Former President Jimmy Carter is the brand name for Habitat for Humanity, and the organization has benefited from the frequently broadcast images of Carter pounding nails in newly constructed homes. • Building a specific personality for the institution: The institution may have an unclear or unfocused image that leaves audiences lukewarm. By publicly promoting one of its inside personalities, it can broadcast its values and personality. The energetic James D. Wolfensohn helped make the staid World Bank a much more engaging institution to many of its constituents during his tenure, and James Dimon, president of JP Morgan, gives the well-endowed but somewhat tired image of the bank a sense of vitality. Billy Beane, general manager of the Oakland A’s, is the brand name for the ball club and is known for his shrewd trading and computer analysis of players; he is also known iconically as a management genius in the best-selling baseball book Moneyball.13 • Changing the institution’s image: Finally, some institutions have an image they would like to shed or revise. An iconic figure can help further this goal. MIT-educated Marjorie Yang, chairman of Esquel, is the company’s public persona, providing an otherwise stodgy textile and garments firm an engaging face. The outspoken Yang is more than willing to address major competitive issues in a public manner, and that association provides Esquel with brand capital. When the traditionally hapless basketball program of Texas Tech University hired controversial former Indiana basketball coach Bobby Knight, it was a clear signal to players and fans in the southwestern part of the country that the university was no longer an underdog. One of the best ways for an institution to reprofile itself is to find or create an icon out of someone with the currently desired qualities. Not only does the institution gain from “iconizing” one of its members; the “icon” also gains. More visibility can mean more income and/or power in the form of endorsements, grant opportunities, or invitations to sit on boards of directors, for instance. Or the icon might cooperate simply out of a wish to help his or her institution. The downside is that both the icon and the institution assume some risk in the process. The branded personality becomes more typecast, has more visibility-related responsibilities and burdens, and may suffer harm to

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his or her reputation if the institution has a scandal or declines. The institution has even more to risk: Its icon may also be involved in a scandal, badmouth them, or fail to create the expected level of interest or affection. Moreover, the personality’s aura could overdefine the institution and make it difficult to reverse the image later when a new one is needed. The main point, however, is that an institution can be a major force in promoting or expanding the aspirant’s prominence—a strong driver and ally in the effort to gain visibility and its rewards.

Driver 3: The Communication Media The media can play a crucial role in driving an aspirant’s marketing plan by discovering the aspirant before the audience or backers appear. A fast-growing trend in aspirant development is making direct appeals to the media without the intervention of professional brokers. As a result, aspirants are self-financing their skills and auditioning for the large number of star-driven venues. Instant stars have been launched in such surprising areas as interior decorating, medicine, boxing, inspirational speaking, and dating prowess. Reality television shows such as American Idol and Survivor shortcircuit the visibility process by delivering the aspirant directly to the marketplace. MTV, the music-video cable network, operates on the same principle of elevating unknown aspirants into instant celebrity. Maxim and Cosmo magazines do the same for lifestyle and fashion aspirants, as does People for aspirants of all types. Unlike backer launchers, media launchers are not committed to any specific aspirant but instead are looking for aspirants that can build their market share. The large number of these programs has spawned an “up-from-the-street” star path that demands strong auditioning skills and an understanding of what the media considers attractive, controversial, or compelling.

Driver Sequencing The three drivers, audience, backers, and communication media, can combine in a variety of ways to implement the marketing plan. Here are three of the possible patterns: • ABC pattern: Here the aspirant is initially audience launched—for example, a state senator who first appeals to a county constituency, or a field manager who is extremely popular with employees. Ultimately, as the size of the aspirant’s audience

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increases, more powerful backers take notice. Their efforts raise the aspirant’s visibility dramatically, bringing him or her to the attention of the media. Jared Fogle, who gained visibility eating six-inch Subway sandwiches to lose weight, began innocently eating the sandwiches on an amateur basis. His efforts attracted the attention of Subway, who launched him as the company’s spokesperson for its healthy foods campaign. • BAC pattern: Here the aspirant first finds, or is found by, a backer, whether a patron or institution who supports him or her, provides an audience opportunity that is successful, and then generates media attention. Jenna Jameson, a mainstream adult film star, has backed actresses such as Krystal Steal, Jesse Capelli, and McKenzie Lee to replace her live enactments as she begins to move into other ventures.14 Barack Obama, the leading candidate for an Illinois senate seat, was chosen by the Democratic National Committee to be a keynote speaker at its 2004 convention, which instantly catapulted his visibility onto a national stage. In the latter case, while the backing came after the candidate had had some success at the local level, institutional backing was critical in creating a completely different level of exposure. • CAB pattern: Here the communication media decide to publicize a person; this draws an audience; then a backer appears who offers to help. Consider Irish humanitarian Christina Noble, who began a crusade to help abandoned and abused children in Vietnam in 1989. Her story was compelling. She borrowed money for her airfare and arrived in Vietnam with no contacts or assets save her determination to assist children in need. The media soon picked up her story, and as her visibility grew significant sponsorships followed. Ultimately, she formed an internationally recognized foundation complete with directors, prestigious legal counsel, and a blue-ribbon list of sponsors. Now, CNN International runs the foundation’s commercials as a public service, a significant boost to Noble’s continuing fundraising efforts. Twenty years on, the Christina Noble Children’s Foundation has expanded its operations to serve children in Mongolia.15 These three linear sequences are admittedly oversimplified. An aspirant might attract a backer, audience, and communication media all at the

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same time. The aspirant likewise may cycle through several backers; or he or she might draw a small audience, find a backer who arranges for a larger audience, then find a new and more powerful backer. Many patterns are possible, but all involve the same three drivers: audience, backers, and communication media. From this model we can draw certain conclusions: 1. Aspirants who lack audience impact will generally not get far, no matter how strong their backing or communication media support. 2. Aspirants lacking backer support may be handicapped in the early stages of their career and will need high audience impact to overcome this deficit. 3. Aspirants who lack media support need an extremely loyal audience, one that will search out information about the aspirant, and find his or her products, without the help of the media. 4. Aspirants who appeal directly to the media for visibility have long odds but the possibility of a large payoff. 5. Aspirants who have audience impact, backer support, and communication media support will go the furthest. A marketing plan should provide and account for all three.

MEMORY LOCK: THE MARKETING OBJECTIVE A central function of a visibility marketing plan should be to lock a brand’s image into the long-term memory of the audience. We call this the memory lock. Of the thousands of past Major League Baseball players, only a few are remembered or revered. Ask most people to name the most famous baseball players and they will probably respond by naming Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, and Hank Aaron. In film Humphrey Bogart, Katharine Hepburn, and Cary Grant are imprinted. If asked to name the greats of opera, most people will remember Enrico Caruso, Jussi Bjorling, and Maria Callas. All of these brands have earned a permanent place in the memory channel—the ultimate sign of personal and professional branding success. Historically, there were several classic routes into the memory channel: 1. The “first or the most”: Some people have established a place in history by being the first to do something. Charles Lindbergh

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earned a permanent place in history as the first to fly a nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic. Balloonist Steve Fossett has flown the most miles in that sport’s history;16 Roger Bannister was the first to run the four-minute mile; the Beatles won a record six diamond awards, the most in music history.17 The Guinness Book of Records thrives on publicizing people who achieved the first or the most. 2. Connected with a great event or performance: Abraham Lincoln’s fame rests partly on the fact that he freed the slaves and led the nation during a great war. He would not have become as celebrated a president if he had served during peacetime. Paul Revere owes his fame to his allegedly fateful ride when he warned colonists, “The British are coming.” Bogart’s role as Rick in the classic film Casablanca or miler Roger Bannister’s record-breaking achievement permanently enshrined them into memory lock. 3. Lending the name: Brands often are memorialized by sponsoring or lending their name to something that lasts—a museum (Hirshhorn Museum), a college (Bob Jones University), a foundation (The Ford Foundation), a prize (Nobel Prize), a street (Madison Avenue), a city (Lincoln, Nebraska). Another is to become an expression in the language such as “in like Flynn” (actor Errol Flynn), “Ruthian homer,” or “Napoleonic leadership.” Most aspirants cannot count upon such circumstances. Far more valuable is the marketing approach—deciding what sector to attack, which markets to appeal to in that sector, and whether to use pure selling, product improvement, or market fulfillment. This is the modern approach to achieving a memory lock. Launching aspirants by using the marketing approach also involves putting the performer into test markets to see how well he or she performs and what “product” improvements could be made. If the test market results are good, the marketers will develop an extended distribution, specifying the markets where they will introduce a product and at what times. A publicity plan must be developed to maximize the likelihood that consumers will hear about the product, get to believe there is something special about it, and “buy” it. If enough buyers are satisfied, their word of mouth and repurchasing will move the product from newly launched status into that of an accepted staple. Sooner or later, visibility will become eclipsed, and valiant efforts will be made to arrest the decline or launch a comeback.

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Thus, the visibility life cycle closely resembles the standard product life cycle—with stages of introduction, growth, maturity, and decline. But for the visibility seeker, there is far more to active strategy making than has been even hinted at here. Activating the high-visibilitymarketing process requires a wide range of skill and the mastery of many specialized techniques, and the first of these is for the visibility seeker to understand what the seven misconceptions of brand transformation are and how they can be reinterpreted into an effective brand identity.

NOTES 1 Ptolemy Tompkins, “New Age Supersage,” Time, December 30, 2002, www.time.com/time/asia/magazine/article/0,13673,501021230–402038,00. html, viewed August 24, 2004. 2 Author interview, March 31, 2000. 3 Tompkins. 4 Garson Kanin, Moviola (London: Pan Books, 1980), pp. 311–32. 5 Karen Blotnicky, “Reducing Your Risk in the New Product Market,” Stratford Beacon Herald, April 10, 2004. p. 6. 6 Sarah Ellison, “P&G Chief’s Turnaround Recipe: Find Out What Women Want,” Wall Street Journal, June 1, 2005, pp. A1, 6. 7 _____, “The Wacky World of Pop Promo,” Chicago Daily News Panorama Magazine, October 16, 1976, p. 4. 8 www.tiscali.co.uk/entertainment/film/biographies/arnold_schwarzenegger_biog/6, viewed August 20, 2004. 9 _____, “Schwarzenegger and the American dream,” BBC.com, news.bbc.co.uk/ 1/hi/entertainment/film/3131155.stm, viewed August 20, 2004. 10 Vincent J. Schodolski, “Schwarzenegger Loses Some Muscle,” Chicago Tribune, June 30, 2005, p. 19. 11 Kanin, p. 393. 12 Conservation International, www.conservation.org/xp/CIWEB/about/bod.xml, viewed August 25, 2004. 13 Michael Lewis, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2003).

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14 Matthew Miller, “The (Porn) Player,” Forbes, July 4, 2005, www.forbes.com/ celebrities/global/2005/0704/040.html, viewed July 5, 2005. 15 The Christina Noble Children’s Foundation, www.cncf.org/, viewed August 25, 2004. 16 Steve Fossett Challenges, www.fossettchallenge.com/, viewed August 25, 2004. 17 _____, “Beatles Make History with a Sixth Diamond,” May 5, 2005, www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/mndwebpages/beatles%20make% 20album%20history%20with%20a%20sixth%20diamond, viewed on June 15, 2005.

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eter Cohan, a Boston-based author, consultant, and investment advisor, has become a financial brand in a cluttered marketplace. He has earned this reputation not only by doing solid work—his stock picks have consistently outperformed the market—but also by making sure that potential clients and benefactors know about it. He does this by undertaking a strategic marketing communications program that ensures that his name appears often and meaningfully before a targeted constituency composed of clients, journalists, professors, news producers, former students, and colleagues. In any given week, this audience can expect to receive up to two to three e-mail messages that contain a quotation by Cohan in BusinessWeek or Fortune’s “StreetWatch,” news of his latest appearance on CNBC’s Squawk Box, an opinion piece advising investors what to watch for or avoid, or an announcement of his latest book. Cohan has combined technology and the immense power of the business news media to brand himself as a consultant newsmaker. Instead of relying solely on conventional methods (advertising, networking, writing for Harvard Business Review, seeking referrals), Cohan has used multichannel communications as his principal tool. This multichannel platform—books, a newsletter, personal appearances, regular e-mail updates, and a blog—serves Cohan’s strategic purpose: It moves him a step closer to the top of the business expert advice chain. Cohan clearly puts personal and professional branding strategies into action, marketing himself to appeal to his investor audience and to potential business clients. The strategy pays significant dividends. He is regularly quoted in national newspapers (the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Boston Globe), magazines (BusinessWeek, Fortune, Forbes), and online 161

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investment media (TheStreet.com, SmartMoney.com), and he appears frequently on national television (ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, CNBC, Wall Street Week).1 Together with his e-mail updates, this high visibility generates significant new business in the form of consulting opportunities both in the United States and abroad. In doing so, Cohan’s success not only demonstrates the value of self-promotion but also how visibility seeking continues to escalate. His tactics illustrate a crucial shift—highly visible people have begun to transform, market, distribute, and promote themselves, taking charge of decisions about their own visibility, viewing themselves in the detached way previously reserved for decisions about products.

PEOPLE AS BRANDS Advertising expert Rosser Reeves was among the first to employ the idea of marketing people as brands. In 1952, he applied his expertise at selling Anacin to the selling of presidential candidate Dwight Eisenhower. Reeves used clever jingles, contrived man-on-the-street interviews, and created repetitious slogans to package the dowdy general. Reeves’ admitted strategy was basic: Survey the public to discover its needs and desires, then deliver commercials that showed Eisenhower clearly voicing the public’s concerns. These early commercials, featuring a chant of “I like Ike,” seem primitive by today’s standards, but they broke new ground in treating people as products. In the past, person-based advertising was usually centered on promoting entertainment figures. It was conventional to promote a movie with a photograph of actress Lana Turner in a revealing sweater; it was unprecedented to sell business leaders, presidents, and preachers with the same strategies. Following Reeves’ ad campaign for Eisenhower, Madison Avenue began to more seriously adapt product advertising methods to nonentertainers. In addition, Reeves’ approach encouraged people to begin looking seriously at strategies to persuade audiences to believe in the authenticity of such personal brands. In the last half century, the branding process for individuals has increased incrementally. A major addition to the entertainment and politician mix has been sports stars who began to appear in product advertisements, endorsements, and increased promotional tie-ins with teams. Sports figures have benefited from new-media branding techniques as well as from the higher level of discretionary income among consumers and the sense that individuals could reach markets that sports teams and leagues could not. In addition, doctors and dentists began advertising as a way of

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developing their own brands as individuals, law firms began promoting individual lawyers as law firm “stars,” and large and small businesses began reaching out to target audiences with personal branding strategies for their executives. While there was some resistance to this burgeoning personal branding movement, it continues to gain momentum. In undergoing the transformation process, an aspirant needs to be realistic. The driver is often the need to compete in a crowded marketplace. The problem is that within this marketplace, the sectors differ, and audiences have varying expectations. Reaching them requires a more sophisticated and finetuned strategy than ever before. Moreover, the degree of transformation is on a continuum and is not some absolute set of expectations. Aspirants may decide on the basis of their sector and their skill base that minimal transformation is what is suitable and that a full–bore campaign that is waged largely through the media would only alienate their target markets. On the other hand, some sectors may demand major changes and full-scale makeovers in order to meet marketplace expectations. In other cases, aspirants may fall somewhere in between and in doing so adjust to a marketplace with mixed transformation expectations and willingness to accept it. At this point, it is critical that anyone making a decision to become a personal brand in a sector understand full well not only audience expectations but his or her stretch, reach, and willingness to adapt to necessary changes. Once an aspirant has made that decision to go ahead with the transformation process, it is important to make an accurate assessment of the available methodologies. The concepts of personal and professional branding of individuals are a conglomeration of sometimes successful but often misunderstood strategies. This state of affairs is not unexpected as working with people can not only take unexpected turns but also create misconceptions that often become folklore. In this chapter we look at seven critical concepts that have permeated personal and professional branding for the last half century. They all have merit and when used properly can serve as building blocks for a transformation of an individual brand.

Is Richard Hatch a Mentor? When Survivor exploded across the television screens of the United States, audiences found it engaging and watched in record numbers. One of the first major stars was original Survivor winner Richard Hatch, who after outmaneuvering his somewhat guileless teammates and opponents, emerged a marred, but bona fide celebrity. As a result, Hatch became an instant celebrity with endorsements and all the personal problems that followed.

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In the wake of Survivor, an avalanche of reality shows has followed. The context has varied and has included a host of other heretofore unforeseen scenarios, among them: find a love mate, have your body and face reconstructed, redo your house in a poor neighborhood, find out if you can stomach disgusting insects, and swap wives with a stranger. What has happened in many of these shows is that the everyday people who have won—such as American Idol’s Clay Aiken, Kelly Clarkson, and Ruben Studdard, and the Apprentice winners Bill Rancic, Kelly Perdew, and Kendra Todd—have become celebrities out of literally thin air—the television airwaves. In creating these personal brands, reality shows have served to demystify the transformation process because not only have the contestants become well known but also Merlins such as the America’s Next Top Model’s Tyra Banks, American Idol’s Simon Cowell, and the myriad doctors and dentists appearing on Extreme Makeover. These television show participants and judges have all found that their core businesses have been enhanced in one way or another by the television exposure no matter how bizarre the circumstances. The rise of the reality show does not indicate that all sector leaders— business people, scientists, architects—will feel more comfortable being made over. On the other hand, the reality show creates a more acceptable environment for aspirants to submit to a public relations counselor’s strategy, have their face and body redone to match their sector, and to be more willing to take chances on public exposure to achieve maximum visibility in their sector. Even more importantly, reality shows change the rules about who does the talent evaluating. The aspirant is able to go directly to the producers and skip agents, managers, and other filters. This means that in some sectors people with the skills to make an impression upon an audience can be judged by the marketplace, and the power of some sectors’ brand gatekeepers is reduced. While the aspirant still has to market to the producer, the convenience of doing it in a shopping mall or at a Holiday Inn in contrast to the often convoluted and difficult problems associated with reaching the professional talent filters is a major change. In addition, aspirants on reality shows also have to market themselves to viewers at home to achieve high visibility, and this is a more direct feedback mechanism between buyer and seller. Reality shows have moved the transformation of individuals to new levels, and in many cases they serve to mentor a whole new generation of aspirants.

THE SEVEN MISCONCEPTIONS OF THE PERSON BRANDING PROCESS The application of the transformation process to the branding of individuals is revolutionizing all sectors. This change is being made possible by the

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visibility industry’s assumption that the characteristics and elements that make an object into a promotable product can be found in, or added onto, human aspirants as well. The procedures of finding these minimally qualified aspirants and selecting the most promising ones to transform are among the least scientific processes on which the industry still relies. Seven long-lived misconceptions about the process of becoming a brand cloud the systematic creation of highly visible people. They are that the aspirant must have the “right” attitude, “pure” motivations, “natural” ability, necessary “talent,” inborn charisma, good timing, and the lucky break. Before aspirants begin transforming themselves to achieve high visibility, they need to separate the facts of transformation from these misconceptions.

THE RIGHT ATTITUDE High visibility marketers always look for clues to an aspirant’s potential to be repositioned and marketed as a personal brand. One of the first questions asked is: Does the aspirant have the right attitude? Is he cooperative? Is she driven enough? Will he be willing to make sacrifices? Will she stay with the program? These attitudes are thought of as inherent parts of an aspirant’s personality—either they have it or they don’t. Closer to the truth, however, is that attitude is a shapeable, strategic element—one that aspirants must carefully understand. The attitudes that aspirants need to display may depend heavily on their sectors and are closely related to market analysis. The successful aspirant is not always the most driven or talented but the person whose attitude demonstrates the necessary qualities for success in that sector and who can produce them on demand. In most sectors, the people who search for the raw material of unknown aspirants speak with a sort of folk wisdom about attitude. In their conception, the term means, “Do you want visibility badly enough to endure the rigors of learning, practice, long hours, and the tempestuous behavior swings of your coaches, mentors, and support staff?” But this view is too narrow. Although aspirants require commitment, they must also display attitudes seen by the sector’s power structure as compatible with audience expectations—as well as nonthreatening to the sector decision makers’ own agendas. An example of how attitude management can aid the quest for visibility is the interviewing process conducted by executive search firms, in which aspirants for senior positions are selected from a pool of highly

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qualified individuals. There are potentially thousands of such qualified executives for every top management job. The role of an executive search firm is to evaluate and interview perhaps hundreds of these individuals and recommend a handful for final interview by the prospective employer. Highly qualified applicants are graded ultimately not on the basis of their credentials but on their ability to project themselves as worthy, credible corporate leaders with high visibility potential. Through self-presentation, the aspirants express their attitudes to their interviewer. The care and design of their appearance is far from trivial and provokes an immediate impression. Successful candidates—especially at this level—dress carefully for interviews. When answering questions, aspirants display a mature attitude, downplaying the intensity of their desire for a much sought after top-management position. Many, seeing through the interviewers’ loaded questions, speak of the central role of teamwork and cooperation and the importance of being able to motivate and manage a large organization. They tailor their responses to generate positive feedback from the interviewers, and they attempt to position themselves as serious and deep but not tedious, responsible but not obsessed, old-fashioned in virtue and bottom-line orientation but not unwilling to be flexible. All sectors have attitudes, rules, and expectations that are often silent but potent. The aspirant who doesn’t analyze the expectations—professionalism, consistency, compliance, adaptability—of sector evaluators is conceding a major advantage to more marketing oriented competitors. In the final analysis, aspirants need to shape their attitude strategy as they shape the other more obvious elements of the visibility plan.

“PURE” MOTIVATION It has become a cliché of popular self-help literature that the search for excellence is all-consuming and sufficient for becoming a leader in a sector. According to this line of reasoning, high visibility is not sought after but rather is a by-product of the aspirants’ efforts to be “the best they can be” at a particular activity. In reality, however, most aspirants actively seek visibility and are driven by many different motives.

Human Motivators Parents, coaches, and close friends have a major influence on an aspirant’s motivations. Most parents do not start out with the attitude, “You know, I

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could make a fortune with my six-year-old!” But the rewards of visibility can corrupt parents’ attitudes toward it, causing them to drive their children to achieve it. The little girl showing up with her mother to audition for the community production of Annie illustrates this problem. Though the child does the singing, it is the mother who inspires, begs, or orders her to do it and who arranges for the voice and dance classes, braces, summer at Interlochen music camp, scheduling, pressed and starched dresses, coiffured hair, and cute bow at the waist. Whether young aspirants can take this artificial motivation and replace it with a genuine motivation of their own may well determine whether they can withstand the pressures of transformation.

Situational Motivators Where aspirants are born, what schools they attend, and the media or local events to which they are exposed all influence the strength and nature of their motivations. Harvard University has been historically advantaged in visibility because of the strong and long-lived accomplishments of its faculty and students. However, the university is a sophisticated machine in maintaining its stature. For example, the university environment, by showcasing alumni success and promoting the faculty’s intellectual prowess, makes its students more comfortable in seeking visibility. Harvard president Lawrence H. Summers orchestrates media interest in the university to champion new programs, attract promising students, and focus attention on the university’s faculty. The Office of the President maintains its own Web site (www.president.harvard.edu), which provides access to Summers’ speeches and interviews, as well as photographs of special university events, such as the visit of congressional leaders. The result is that Summers’ visibility becomes a window into Harvard’s achievements, and even when it backfires—such as it did when he commented at an MIT conference in January 2005 on women’s low representation in tenured faculty positions in engineering and science—the intense scrutiny symbolizes the university’s prominence and advantage over many of its competitors. Despite the decentralization of many visibility sectors, large cities, as major media markets, are still more likely to motivate aspirants in entertainment, sports, and broadcasting. Aspirants who live in special visibility centers such as Nashville (country and western music), Aspen (skiing), San Jose (IT), and New York (finance) are exposed to specialized motivations as well. The intense high school football atmosphere of Texas has produced a disproportionate number of high school, college, and professional stars. In

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baseball the warm weather states and Caribbean countries such as the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico have produced many more high visibility players than other regions.

Media Motivators Also affecting aspirants’ motivations is the power of media to magnify perceptions of opportunity and the rewards of visibility. The compressed, dramatic nature of media makes certain sectors seem romantically attractive when viewed through such programs as MTV’s Laguna Beach or even HBO’s Unscripted as well as celebrity charity events, capsule interviews, and the endless media portrayals of stars surrounded by opulence. The parade of star models—motivational speaker Anthony Robbins addressing thousands in a packed coliseum, singer Neil Diamond launching his latest makeover in a new video, hip hop artists wearing the de rigueur bling bling—magnified by the media whets aspirants’ appetites in all sectors. Even more powerful is the standard of excellence that the media portray. In sports, business, and other sectors, those who are mostly the top in their specialty are widely covered by the media. The aspirant sees only the best and the most skilled: basketball star Tim Duncan of the San Antonio Spurs, CEO Marjorie Scardino of Pearson PLC, or new anchor Brian Williams of NBC Nightly News. For most aspirants the bar is higher as viewing the best becomes commonplace, and as a result a media savvy audience has high expectations.

A Main Motivator: Money In the folklore of visibility, many aspirants are thought to be entirely motivated by the love of the activity that only incidentally brings them visibility. This is likely true of many young aspirants. Benjamin Bloom wrote that children who are introduced by their parents to various visibility sectors (music, art, dance) at first find the pursuit of success to be challenging and fun.2 Even many older aspirants in politics, religion, sports, and other fields continue to be primarily motivated by the joy of accomplishment—not by the other rewards it brings. But many aspirants’ motivations do change. This conversion, from the pursuit of visibility for achievement’s sake to reward’s sake, is the natural result of the commercialization of the industry. Personal and professional branding is, after all, a business, revolving around the profit motive. Ultimately the rewards of high visibility are so attractive that while it is customary for many aspirants to claim that they

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are only motivated by a pure love of their craft, the money factor is often lurking in the background. This development is not unexpected, but the rewards can become so great that motivation can be dulled, creativity can begin to dissipate, and the popularity of a sector can be directly affected. The difference in monetary rewards among sectors can determine the activities that young people choose to pursue. Money often is key in aspirants’ decisions to choose figure skating over freestyle walking, neurosurgery over a general medical practice, or hedge fund management over running a short-term Treasury bond fund. There are still purists who select a field out of genuine, unshakable love for it, content to stay in a lowvisibility sector—writing serious political commentary for a relatively small target audience or laboring anonymously as a software application project manager—but such aspirants are under great pressure to move to more visible and rewarding sectors. As high visibility itself has become a commodity for industry, law, and other professions, the pressure to achieve star status as a route to financial reward, and not personal satisfaction, increases. So widespread is the emphasis on brand generation that a whole new class of folk heroes is being created. Lester B. Korn, cofounder and former chairman of executive recruiters Korn/Ferry International, said in the mid–1980s, “I expect to see the day when, just as most Americans can name ten or fifteen major entertainers or athletes, they can name an equal number of corporate executives.”3 That day arrived sooner than even Korn believed, and despite some notoriously high-profile scandals, CEOs understand and continue to actively seek out the financial rewards associated with high visibility. Public relations firm Burson-Marsteller reported that “50% of a corporation’s reputation is attributable to that of its CEO.”4 Another sector in which motivation has been strongly altered by money is the art sector, which was long known for limiting the number of highly visible artists, elevating painters and sculptors to star status only after their deaths. But beginning in the 1980s, newly minted art aspirants with scarcely a dry canvas were being hailed as virtual name brands. Neoexpressionist artist Julian Schnabel was promoted by his gallery owner, Mary Boone, who used a number of visibility-building techniques. According to Newsweek, these included: “mounting shows at which most of the paintings were sold before the opening and were then exhibited to the public with the name of the purchaser proudly posted alongside.”5 Boone also was strategic in planting stories and giving interviews on Schnabel’s art in popular magazines. The result was an increase in the prices paid for Schnabel’s captivating, but little-known work from $3,000 to more than

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$60,000 per canvas. When the art fervor died down, Schnabel shifted to a related and a potentially high money art sector: He directed a number of films including Basquiat, the life story of Jean Michel Basquiat, a troubled painting star,6 and Before Night Falls, a filmic biography of Cuban novelist Reinaldo Arenas.7 In the closely related world of fashion design, Ralph Lauren’s high visibility premium to consumers of all types is the key ingredient in producing sales of over $3 billion for manufacturers of clothes, shoes, furnishings, and cosmetics that bear his imprint.8 Even in such formerly visibility-less sectors as academics, aspirants are motivated to achieve visibility to enhance the image of their home institutions and increase endowments. At Stanford, Princeton, Columbia, and other highly visible private universities, academic superstars have been strategically used to increase prestige. This strategy involves hiring brandname professors who will attract other professors and students and will stimulate alumni gift-giving. Institutions are urging their brand-name professors to cooperate with public relations staff, write for popular journals, and appear on television and radio talk shows. The pressure is subtle but unmistakable: If young professors want to succeed in the new academic world, they need to offer their institutions opportunities to promote them. Large state universities and their faculty are also using similar strategies of promoting their faculty brands. When University of Michigan professors Venkatram Ramaswamy and C.K. Prahalad coauthored The Future of Competition, Ramaswamy traveled throughout the world to promote the book and the university’s business school. The reputation of the university received benefits at many levels when BusinessWeek named the book one of the top ten business books for 2004. In addition, the alumni magazine had new material to promote, the board of regents could justify their superstar salary strategy, alumni could boast about their soaring business school reputation at cocktail parties, and the media had storylines to write about. It is inevitably a calculated risk by universities to personality brand their institutions—they must be willing to pay increasingly higher prices for well-known academics and hope they will deliver visibility in key sectors. The motivation for visibility operates at differing levels of intensity. In the most extreme cases, someone will lie (New York Times reporter Jayson Blair) or doctor his or her résumé (football coach George O’Leary) to become highly visible. As sectors become more diverse, and money and opportunity continue to dominate activity within them, the relationship between visibility and money becomes an important driver.

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THE NATURAL In this age of person branding, a special emphasis is placed on the ability to develop and polish those characteristics that enable aspirants to be perceived as talented. In most sectors, aspirants must possess the minimum abilities before other factors of visibility development become important. That is why, in evaluating their potential for visibility, aspirants must consider their sector’s minimum ability threshold. In some sectors, the level required to compete is relatively low—for example, in rock music or abstract painting. In other sectors, such as opera or surgery, the threshold is so high that aspirants who can’t attain it should try another sector entirely. Aspirants need to measure these unimprovable characteristics: A baseball player should have good hand-eye coordination; a business leader should have a reasonable facility for business math; a fashion model should have height. All aspirants need to carefully consider whether their natural or trainable abilities surpass the threshold minimums, and if so, whether they have the resources to achieve transformation. Of course, visibility seekers have been taking informal inventory of their attributes for decades, but with the growth of the industry, the process has become more sophisticated. Interviewers no longer grill business aspirants primarily on their college grades but increasingly on their ability to project an appropriate image. Medical tests are now routinely conducted on potential track-and-field aspirants to determine if they have the basic heart-pumping capacity to withstand training and competition. Training camps that act as discoverers and developers of potential sports stars dot America. Music, dancing, and computer camps are supplanting the old YMCA summer camps. These camps filter and winnow out the aspirants with good tone and pitch; flexibility and balance; logic and analytical skill. Their goal is to identify those who meet or surpass the minimum-ability threshold, to justify the investment that is now required to compete. In the high-money sports sectors, specialized training camps have become even more crucial to obtaining scholarships than playing in the regular high school season. The theme that underlies many of these developments is discovery, and in many cases, breeding. Discovering aspirants who already exceed the minimum mental and physical requirements for their sectors gives a brand developer the advantage over the competition, and if that fails, growing them is a viable alternative. Law firms recruit those who’ve made the law review; in politics, local parties look for candidates who’ve demonstrated leadership in other fields; in TV news, stations review tapes of anchors from

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small markets. Funneling these natural minimum abilities into appropriate sectors and then developing marketing and communication skills is how naturals become brands.

NECESSARY TALENT Many aspirants believe that merely by possessing a good attitude, motivation, and basic abilities, they can begin climbing the visibility pyramid, but these three elements will barely gain one entry to most sectors. To effect the transformation required to achieve high visibility, an aspirant needs talent. Talent is one of the most misunderstood factors in the person branding equation. Almost universally, it is believed that talent is God-given— bestowed at birth, fixed, un-improvable. For all who aspire to high visibility, no other misconception is more of an obstacle. The fact is that talent is not usually fixed but instead is an enhanceable product of such controllable forces as training, role modeling, expectation management, mentoring, and strategic positioning. Talent in many sectors can be dramatically enhanced and improved.

What Is Talent? The seminar organizer winds up his introduction, and Nick stands and smiles at the assembled group of mostly young, midlevel managers that have gathered to hear him speak for a day on modern branding. A new author and successful marketing consultant, Nick was formerly a journalist with a national publication, and he has been a foreign correspondent. Now, he’s trying to remake himself into a brand-name consultant. He begins his presentation by explaining why the rules of marketing and branding are changing and why corporations that fail to adopt new rules face trouble ahead. Then he explains how the new rules work, and finally, how successful organizations are reaping the benefits of leveraging these new rules. The participants follow his words carefully and take copious notes. Nick has charm and career credibility, which the participants seem to appreciate. But in the end, Nick is just another consultant trying to make the big time. He does not come from a prestigious university or organization, hasn’t broken out with a new concept or idea in a book or an article, and hasn’t yet surrounded himself with a star publicist and manager. He now faces the ultimate question: Does he have the talent to become a major business guru? Will he become the next Peter Drucker? Tom Peters? Jim Collins?

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On any given day, there are thousands of Nicks speaking in workshops, conferences, and seminars from Atlanta to Sydney—many with strong ideas and excellent presentation skills, if not always striking, physical presence. But only a few will make it to the peak of the business sector as a consultant. Are the most successful consultants the most talented—or are they the most strategic in choosing their area of expertise and learning and adapting to the sector’s demands?

The Talent Threshold Principle The talent threshold is the minimum skills necessary to execute the requirements of a sector. Talent’s definition varies not only from sector to sector but also within sectors. Within the religion sector, “talent” includes the ability to master one of the popular archetypes (fire-and-brimstone preacher, wise old rabbi, serious-but-humane minister), maintain a weighty tone in conversation, analyze a biblical text, and compose appropriate remarks for funerals, confirmations, and weddings. In the higher reaches of television preaching, additional talents come into play: advanced public speaking and theatrical skills, and an ability to communicate parasocially through the media. Parasocial communication skills are particularly important because, by effectively mimicking the characteristics of face-to-face communication in a media setting, the performer can inspire an audience to feel a strong personal bond. An aspirant with the threshold abilities appropriate to a sector can achieve “talent” by mastering learnable skills that can be taught by advisers, coaches, and teachers and perfected through practice. What talents does a minister really need in order to appeal to a suburban congregation? Not merely a spiritual soul and empathy with parishioners. Today a minister needs to communicate effectively during sermons, weddings, and funerals—and during business lunches, media appearances, and charity fund-raisers too. An understandably agitated minister once sought help with this talent area. He had recently moved from a small Oregon church to a prestigious Midwestern one. In his large new quarters he found he could hardly be heard and his throat was aching with the strain. His voice, which had filled the room in the cozy western facility, now sounded like a weak sparrow’s chirping. The solution to his talent deficiency? A series of consultations with a speech therapist on how to breathe properly and change the method of articulating certain sounds. He remanufactured his voice to meet the new talent specifications. This is a small but telling example of how the process of transformation is diffusing throughout the culture. Not many years ago, the minister would not even have considered seeking help, let alone been able to find it

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and successfully execute a transformation. Mastering the ability to sound authoritative on the six o’clock news, impress business associates with practiced eye contact, and parry hostile questions from the press have become standard talent-enhancement practices in all sectors of public life. The development of talent is guided by standards set by a sector’s professional members. Critics, producers, analysts, journalists, venue managers, and judges, as well as fans, peers, and admirers all help set the criteria, and they may not all agree. For example, people frequently argued about who had the better operatic voice, Luciano Pavarotti or Placido Domingo? True, an opera star is evaluated by a set of criteria quite unique to that form of music: The quality of voice, timbre, and clarity, as well as factors such as interpretation, projection, and ability to convincingly embody the role are judged by traditional, well-known standards, even if the judges may not all agree. Standards in other sectors may be even more ambiguous. An example is performance art, which consists of mixed media and live enactments using such contributing art forms as dance, painting, theater, video, music, sculpture, and mime. Because the fundamental characteristics of performance art include a wild variety of styles, subject matter, and means of presentation, its audience seeks out inconsistency, unpredictability, and novelty. It is a sector that has a complex hierarchy of participants, evaluators, and professional critics. Different “schools”—the German, the visual, the technological—vie with one another for audience support. Nevertheless, as diverse and complex as this emerging sector is, its talent requirements can be identified, and aspirants can be transformed in order to embody them. The most perplexing talent issue is in the professions where certain surgeons, trial lawyers, and mutual fund managers receive outsized rewards for their efforts and seemingly equally talented competitors operate at a less compensated level. It could be argued that the star professionals have outsized talents that are so obvious that the public is willing to compensate them lavishly. In truth, in some cases that may well be accurate as a surgeon may make an astonishing breakthrough or a trial lawyer’s handling of a seemingly impossible case is a brilliant interpretation. It’s also true that in many cases many professionals are capable of highly qualified work that is based on talent minimums that are often understood by medical associations, bar associations, or other certifying bodies. In these cases, the professionals that stand out not only have mastered the minimum talent threshold but have understood the visibility premium that may include interpersonal skills, communication competencies, and a strong sense of networking and team building. None of this impugns the talent level or

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amount of training that preceded the visibility, but clearly identifies additional factors that will lift professionals into another category, and visibility is the catalyst.

Assembling the Building Blocks The rags-to-riches story of best-selling author J.K. Rowling demonstrates that the skills necessary to succeed in a sector are not only talent driven but also demand strategies that satisfy both target audience and sector expectations. Rowling’s story is not one of overnight success or critical acclaim. At her parents’ urging, she studied to become a bilingual secretary, a “wonderful career”9 in their view. Bored as a secretary, she moved to Portugal to teach English where she began to develop a story idea on a wizard, married, gave birth to a daughter, and divorced.10 Back in England, Rowling resumed working on her story and held a number of low-paying jobs. Supporting herself and her daughter on welfare and part-time work as a French instructor, Rowling shopped in maternity stores “so she could cadge a free diaper in the changing room,”11 and wrote in long hand in restaurants to keep warm. Rowling’s self-marketing efforts, despite her desperate circumstances, revealed a great deal about the interrelationship between sector talent and audience expectations. Rowling convinced the Scottish Arts Council to provide a grant to the impoverished single mom and previously unpublished author to complete her manuscript. Then she managed to sell the categoryshattering manuscript, entitled Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (retitled Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in the United States), to U.K. publisher Bloomsbury for about $4,000.12 While the amount was small, the investment in an unproven author with an odd manuscript already rejected by several reputable publishers was a major milestone and launched her career. What made her success so remarkable was that not only did Rowling have no experience in publishing, she also had no formal training as a writer, and her work received mixed reviews from critics. Yet so accurately did she analyze her audience—children—that she successfully transformed herself into the most financially successful and popular novelist in history. Rowling redefined a market that was owned by fellow English children’s author Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and that had become dominated by Maurice Sendak and Judy Blum, among others. However, no one was able to redefine the field as Rowling did. In a marketplace so much more cluttered than Carroll’s, she created a storyline that captivated a children’s audience searching for escape and fantasy. Moreover, she understood that

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the parents in this often dangerous and insecure world were the gatekeepers to the children’s market, and she wrote a book that was acceptable and appealing to parents and the older peers of the children. Her books are so dominant that the New York Times Book Review created a separate children’s books list to give other writers a chance to become “best-selling” authors. Rowling’s transformation to an iconic children’s book author included the following key features: 1. Drive: Despite a dearth of credentials, Rowling convinced an arts foundation and publishers to underwrite her work at critical junctures. 2. A well-timed concept: The fantasy and innocent world of Harry Potter was well timed for a realistic and not-so-innocent society. Furthermore, the market was ready for a promotion that encouraged children to read again and prompted parents to participate in the process. 3. Persistence: Rowling refused to give up after receiving a number of rejections of her manuscript. 4. Endurance: Rowling was able to complete her transformation by following up with subsequent books even though the pressure to follow up a best seller is considerable. 5. Adaptability: Rowling was flexible in her willingness to allow adaptations of her work to film and other media ventures. In addition, she used her personal Web site to create familiarity, and at the same time, she managed her exposure so she did not become too familiar to audiences. 6. Reward: Rowling is a billionaire and has sold 265 million books.13 She has gone from cadging diapers to owning multiple homes in England, Scotland, and Australia.14

Talent Gatekeepers Sometimes the mass paying audience has little, if anything, to do with determining what constitutes talent in a sector. In these cases, the sector’s professional members such as its critics, producers, agents, managers, and venue operators decide what talent is. It is a layer of filters that talent must breach in order to reach their target audiences.

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Often the talent criteria set by the sector’s gatekeepers are either different or more stringent than those of its paying audiences. This can create some unusual problems for aspirants, who first must tailor their transformation to appeal to the sector’s professional gatekeepers, then modify themselves in order to appeal to the masses. In the business sector, aspirants may rise to leadership by developing the talents considered important by their bosses; once leaders are installed, however, their audiences change dramatically. High-level subordinates, shareholders and directors, government regulators, and reporters often have different ideas from those of CEOs of what makes for a talented chief executive. A musician who makes a hit single in an isolated recording studio, after trying again and again to get the song right, may be immediately faced with the need to perform live in front of a stadium audience of thousands or a TV audience of millions. It’s clear that aspirants have to possess the minimal talent criteria and be able to communicate to the various audiences in order to develop the brand. However, there is an additional ingredient in the brand development mix that is critical and something that is more malleable and teachable than commonly perceived: charisma.

NATURAL CHARISMA In our culture, charisma is thought to be just as critical a prerequisite for high visibility as talent—and just as fixed at birth, just as un-improvable. (Charisma is a Greek term that stems from early Christianity, and it meant, literally, “gift of Grace.”) In the modern era, social scientist Max Weber redefined charisma as having more than a religious connotation. In Weber’s view, charisma derives from a person’s office or status, as well as “from the capacity of a particular person to arouse and maintain belief in himself or herself as the source of legitimacy.”15 Though this statement referred to what he termed “charismatic authority,” it slowly began to encompass leadership in general and eventually was adopted by all visibility sectors. Charisma began to imply a mysterious appeal. Even inanimate objects could have it; a car, if popular, could also have it. Soon, the term was used to describe popular things and people anywhere. It’s now common to find salespeople, PTA chairpersons, doctors, manicurists, or hot dog stand owners being referred to as “charismatic.” The reference usually is to personality, a “certain something” that sets some people apart. Popularly, the term encompasses such ambiguous concepts as style, charm, looks, and the indefinable “presence.” Like the Supreme Court

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justice who said that he could not define obscenity but, “I know it when I see it,” many who evaluate and select aspirants in the various sectors claim that, while they can’t define charisma, they know it when they see it. This view, which pervades the entire visibility industry, is typified by the following expert advice from a popular magazine’s article on how to become more popular: Charismatic people come on stage or into a room and you can’t take your eyes off them . . . Anyone can improve his presence with a little concentration. Vibrancy, enthusiasm, and animation all create presence. Cultivate these qualities. The pelvis is a source of energy and drive—a personal nuclear power plant available to feed vitality to the rest of you. By connecting your upper and lower body into one line, you release a force that will enhance your charisma.16 This self-help mysticism did not appear in a gossip newspaper or occult pamphlet but in Success magazine, targeted to a wide audience of businesspeople. Other authors such as D.A. Benton, author of Executive Charisma, argue that deliberate gestures “reveal a person with clout” and that charisma becomes a natural outcome of such physical activities. They include (1) the “double-handshake,” in which one powerful person simultaneously shakes the hand and holds the upper arm of another; (2) the pause people make as they enter a room to provide a picture of power; (3) the refusal to use Blackberries and other hi-tech accoutrements to create the impression in conferences that they have complete control of the information and if on the small chance they need information, they’ll get it somehow; and (4) the way people slouch when they are in meetings, demonstrating that they are not there to try to make an impression, which of course the slouch actually does.17 In interviews with casting directors, charisma always surfaces as one of the most powerful in the mix of factors that make for a successful pursuit of visibility. Casting director Dick Kordos claims that charisma often determines whether an actor will be cast and that he knows when it’s there.18 To hear the pros tell it, something in the aspirant’s manner transmits a sense of the unusual or the exciting, and that often gets translated into charisma. As in the Benton example, even in fields where more sophisticated selection criteria would be expected, charisma is defined just as ambiguously. For instance, political leaders often use the term to describe a candidate they think has extraordinary potential. Many political types celebrated

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the abundance of charisma in Bill Clinton and bemoaned the absence of it in John Kerry. Clinton was “electric,” “caring,” and had a “commanding presence.” Kerry, on the other hand, “seemed remote” and “indecisive,” and he failed to communicate that he was a “man of conviction.” Clinton was an expert at Benton’s double-handshake and holding the upper arm of the person he was greeting. He knew how to pause in the middle of the speech, seem reflective, and drop an anecdote of a personal nature. In addition, Clinton had excellent eye contact, moved around the stage area in a relaxed manner, and was able to express his ideas in a clear and audience-centered fashion. Kerry, on the other hand, tended to speak at his audiences often in a shrill voice and with a tremor that implied that either he was fearful or the audience should be. When he attempted to demonstrate his toughness and masculinity, he appeared in a camouflage outfit in a rural setting, holding a shotgun and looking like he would rather be eating lobster terrine in an exclusive restaurant in Boston. It is hardly surprising that voters had different perceptions of their personalities. In most sectors, aspirants are lamented for their lack of charisma or lauded for possessing it. Seldom, however, do talent evaluators recognize that charisma actually originates from within their own expectations.

The Roots of Charisma: The Audience As part of our cultural heritage, we are taught to gravitate toward people in whom we perceive such qualities as competence, ability, assertiveness, friendliness, intelligence, and empathy. We’re also subject to captivation by negative qualities such as arrogance, rudeness, and disdain for authority. Both positive and negative qualities, projected by aspirants either singly or in combination, are often enough to cloak the aspirant in charisma. What makes for charisma is the discovery by audiences of their own favored traits and behaviors in aspirants who already possess the talent minimums. It is commonly believed that charisma alone is sufficient to become a brand, but that is not true. Unless aspirants possess their sector’s threshold minimum abilities and can hone them into sector talent, the issue of charisma is rarely a factor in branding. The businessperson must be able to coordinate subordinates’ activities; the basketball player to make the layup; the politician to remember lines. If the aspirant has the talent threshold for the sector, it is then and only then that charismatic strategies become important. Providing that their talents and skills are at the threshold for their sector, one way aspirants can project charisma is to learn the subtleties of sector behavior. For celebrity lawyer Mark Geragos, it’s his ability to project

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“the quick-witted lawyer offering up pithy legal analysis to Larry King”19 and doing it looking directly into the camera with confidence and conviction. For rapper Eminem, it’s staying true to his rebellious image—and projecting an unexpected wholesomeness at the same time—by producing music videos that attack “institutions” such as Michael Jackson. His very contradictions produce credibility and allow him to transcend the music sector’s implied superficiality. For Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, it’s his defiance of conventional behavior both in and out of the office. His personal brand and his company’s positioning are symbolically united in his willingness to make brash statements and redefine traditional CEO public lifestyle standards. Even in so sacrosanct a sector as piano virtuosity, the tiniest details of behavior can pay off in enhanced charisma, and ignoring them can have the opposite effect. As former International Creative Management president Lee Lamont recalls of celebrated client pianist Emanuel Ax, audiences were put off by the pianist’s manner of walking on stage. “He looked like a cute teddy bear,” said Lamont. “But when he sat down to play, you were drawn to listen to him. So part of my job was to say, ‘Perhaps there’s a better way of walking on and off.’ ”20 An even more intense charisma comes from the aspirant’s ability to go beyond a sector’s behavior and personality expectations and develop a trademark twist or spin. These personal touches can be as innocuous as an unusual storyline or a quirky speaking style. Tech superstar Steve Job’s faded blue jeans and turtleneck, singer Avril Lavigne’s Doc Martens, and Donald Trump’s comb-over represent small gestures that have paid large charisma dividends on little investment.

Mastering Charisma Given aspirants who possess the minimum ability requirements and can develop those abilities into sector talent, charisma can be approached as a set of behaviors to learn and master. Person marketers know so much about audience expectations that with a sound marketing plan and a flexible aspirant, charisma can be programmed. Where do these audience expectations about charisma come from? From everywhere—parents, myths, literature, religion, high school. The result is that we all have expectations about what the charismatic person will sound, look, and act like. These expectation cues give the visibility industry its blueprint. The charisma seeker must be evaluated. How well does he or she display the behaviors and personality traits that constitute charisma in the particular sector? In the political sector, a professional would observe a

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videotaped simulation of a politician entering a room of voters and study it for strengths and weaknesses. How well does he or she project the images appropriate to success in politics? The performance is often rated and studied through focus groups or reenactments before a variety of voters. In this scenario, the videotape simulation might demonstrate that the candidate enters a room without a purposeful stride or fails to make eye contact for an appropriate period of time with each guest. Further study might reveal that the aspirant does not project his or her voice with the requisite authority, or lacks the assertiveness deemed appropriate for elected officials. The candidate’s ability to remember names—a hallmark of perceived charisma in politics—would be tested and improved. A session would be devoted to dress, grooming, and movement. When the testing and evaluation phase was completed, and the training, coaching, and behavior modification were concluded, our candidate would be able to light up the Carlsbad Caverns—or at the minimum, qualify for the run-off.

Charisma Engineering A whole subdivision of the visibility industry is devoted to helping aspirants develop charisma. Organizations range from such companies as the aptly labeled Charismedia, to speech specialists like Lilyan Wilder, to online charisma development tutors like John M. Curtis, to wardrobe consultants, public relations counselors, lifestyle coaches, and image specialists. In the business and political sectors, employing these organizations to engineer charisma is rapidly becoming as common as taking tennis or golf lessons. But even these firms, while capable of instilling the behaviors that make for a charismatic appeal, often fail to understand what makes the appeal operate. Central to any charisma engineering effort must be an understanding of the basic charisma-enhancing techniques: • Accurately analyzing audiences, to uncover and leverage their expectations, biases, and desires • Building identification with an audience—revealing to audiences some key factor about oneself; making eye contact; using people’s names; addressing audience values; smoothly blending in accounts of dramatic reality and kernel stories and appealing to audience feelings If the aspirant has analyzed his or her audience and mastered these techniques, the next step is to apply strategic choices. Consider the case of

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the president of a small public relations firm who sought the assistance of professional image makers, complaining that her voice was too low and didn’t command respect in meetings. Her model for dealing with the public was a rival who was a high-profile, dramatically dressed public relations company president. Subsequent probing revealed her real concern: that she lacked charisma. Analysis revealed that charisma in the PR sector consisted of several knowable behaviors—the ability to project authority, either know or imply contacts, appear witty and analytical, select stylish clothes, and seem highly interested in client problems. An additional set of factors included appearing at targeted, highly visible events, connecting to the right social groups, and seeming to have endless energy to do all of it. A twelve-week program was developed to intensify charisma for this aspirant. It began with scrutinizing all her public appearances, including meetings, lunches, speeches, and employee one-to-one meetings. On the basis of these observations, the aspirant was coached on how to speak effectively but also advised to alter her signs: change her hairstyle, drive an upscale European car, and refine her mannerisms. These components of charisma were underscored with lessons on communicating in small groups and making effective presentations. Further enhancements included such strategic choices as selecting a high-profile charity with which to ally herself, networking as a member of the board of the local museum, and serving as a panelist for area PR conventions. For this aspirant, charisma was shown to be no mysterious force but rather the distillation of the classic behaviors and images associated with success in her sector. However, once she made the transformation, the aspirant’s task was not over. Enhancing charisma is a long-term process. Sectors continuously evolve, and their success criteria changes. These changes need to be closely monitored, and when necessary, aspirants must modify their behavior, stories, and signs. The public relations aspirant, therefore, continues to receive professional image counseling, refining her speaking style, dress, story use, and other transformation cues.

Radical Redesign Our PR firm president was significantly transformed in order to achieve her goal, but generating charisma can involve even more extreme measures. After former New York City mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani annulled his first marriage, he married popular actress and television personality Donna Hanover. Hanover’s credibility with New York’s liberal establishment is believed to have been crucial to the now-conservative, Democrat-turned-

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Republican Giuliani’s election as mayor on his second attempt. However, Giuliani eventually enraged Hanover and her supporters when his affairs with a press aide and a “very good friend”—future third wife Judith Nathan—became public. The increasingly public nature of the friendly affair—they marched together in the St. Patrick’s Day parade21—contributed to Hanover’s seeking and obtaining a court order barring Nathan from Gracie Mansion, the mayor’s official home22 and later resulted in a bitter public divorce. While personal controversy undermined the mayor’s moral authority, he was also under fire for his handling of public controversies involving minorities and the police. Giuliani was further embarrassed when he was successfully sued by New York magazine after ordering the magazine’s ad campaign—“Possibly the only good thing in New York Rudy hasn’t taken credit for”—pulled from city buses.23 Although Giuliani blamed his fight against prostate cancer for his decision not to run for the U.S. Senate against Hillary Clinton, polls showed that the once popular mayor would have had a difficult time winning that race.24 Indeed, at the time Giuliani’s political career appeared to be over. However, his behavior during and in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks provided the opportunity to redesign his image completely. In the uncertainty that followed the attacks, Giuliani expertly communicated the role of an inspiring leader in catastrophic circumstances. To his credit, Giuliani was placed in an emotionally charged and difficult situation. His reaction was mature, reasoned, and sympathetic. The public saw in him the possibility of not only surviving the tragedy but emerging with new confidence and a renewed sense of self-worth. In doing so, he modified his image from one of a downtrodden political leader to a spiritual mentor able to rally the diverse, cynical population of the world’s best-known urban center. His personal appearances strengthened faith in his leadership under fire, and his willingness to stand up to critics of America and the city was inspirational. He added a number of details to further define himself through the media. He appeared poised and alert despite many sleepless nights. He was sensitive to the victims’ plight and the sorrow of their friends and relatives and demonstrated stamina and resolve by attending multiple funerals and memorial services daily.25 Also, he focused on the important concerns of the community, tailoring his message, signs, and symbols to the resoluteness with which the city would rebound. So successful was his rehabilitation that if Giuliani had run for a third term, “he would have won in a landside.”26 As a result of his performance under fire, Giuliani revived a

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reputation that many thought was irretrievably tarnished. He has become a best-selling author, a highly paid international speaker, and a frequently sought after expert on crisis issues. So much can now be learned about a sector’s expectations, and so much done to transform aspirants to meet them, that little stands in the way of creating charismatic personalities. New methods and technologies can change faces, pummel bodies into sensual perfection, or make someone appear thoughtful, sensitive, and intelligent. Still, aspirants need more than a bag of voice and surgical tricks; a broad plan to guide the charisma-seeking effort is just as important. The following are four basic strategies.

Strategy 1. The Impressive Stranger Visibility aspirants are, by definition, not well known. While the audiences they encounter might be vaguely familiar with them (“He’s a Wharton man” or “I heard she trained with Nick Bollettieri”), their appeal to audiences has usually not been boosted by “preselling.” Their reputations do not precede them. It is this invisibility that allows “the impressive stranger” to develop charisma. The executive promoted to headquarters from the field, the divinity school graduate, and the TV anchor recruited from St. Cloud, Minnesota, usually find audience expectations to be quite low. In the awardwinning independent film Lost in Translation, little-known actress Scarlett Johansson was the romantic interest of well-known comic actor Bill Murray. Her performance was surprising and exceeded the expectations for her performance, and as a result she rode the wave of the impressive stranger. Merely by meeting their sector’s behavior and personality standards, unknowns can project charisma. Of course, this only works as long as the aspirant continues to operate at low visibility. Once they begin rising in visibility, charisma seekers have to shift to one of the following charisma-generating strategies.

Strategy 2. Charisma Presold So widely distributed are images and information that many audience members “know” aspirants by reputation before they ever meet them. Such preconceptions strongly influence perceptions of charisma. For example, an extraordinarily wealthy corporate takeover specialist, having reached the summit of the commodity sector, developed a desire to achieve visibility in the national political and social policy sector. His staff members, who considered him to be shy and withdrawn and as a speaker a mumbler with no eye contact, were greatly surprised when the wizard’s first public

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speech received an overwhelming response from an audience of junior financial analysts. The audience members not only responded enthusiastically to the speech but also raced to the platform to touch him and receive a personal word. The key was preselling. Having been fully informed of the financier’s genius at staging corporate raids, the audience had granted him charisma before even laying eyes on him. Every remark took on cosmic significance as he methodically worked through a speech that would put most audiences to sleep. But who were the audience members? Mostly they were young Wall Street financial wannabes who saw in the low-key, whispered delivery a humble and restrained figure with a storehouse of internal information. The wizard didn’t need excellent eye contact, varying vocal inflection, or a square jaw. His charisma flowed from his audience’s knowledge that he had exceeded the success criteria of his sector as almost no one else ever had, and they were willing to suspend normal critical judgment. The wizard’s success is a dramatic example of the principle. However, in most cases the added advantage of being presold is more modest but certainly can help set the foundation for a successful encounter. In order for it to work, the aspirant needs to understand and maximize the associations to which they are connected. Not only a person’s reputation but also the reputation of the office, group, institution, venue, or distribution channel can deeply alter the way audience members process the impressions they receive. We respond differently to an IBM salesperson than to a salesperson from an unknown computer company. Although aspirants can always destroy this foundation of granted goodwill through poor performance, with the worldwide ability of the media to deliver images, preselling the aspirant to audiences becomes a crucial tool for visibility generators.

Strategy 3. Charisma through Audience Mastery Another form of charisma is acquired by understanding the conventions of a sector’s communicator-audience relationship. In all performance venues, audiences have become trained to expect certain strategies and tactics. Clinton Sanders pointed out that folk singers acquire a “charisma of performance” when they project themselves to the audience “both verbally and through facial expression, as being seriously concerned with emotional and technical artistry.”27 He specifically cited the ability of the performer to define the situation by explaining the music’s history, amplifying various songs’ backgrounds, and then describing whatever is unusual about the piece.

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The preceding example can be broadly applied. The success of a political rally is often determined by the speaker’s ability to use a particular cadence, discover and amplify the right themes, cite particular names and institutions, and use gestures and facial expressions that fit the crowd’s positive expectations. In the same way, the success of a business conference is typically dictated by the principal speaker’s presence, the authority of his or her delivery, and the ease with which he or she responds to questions. What creates charisma for executives giving media interviews? There is conventional wisdom on how to accomplish this goal. First, the interviewees demonstrate mastery of the details of an issue and communicate a sense of easy familiarity with it. Smoothly, they define the issue and redirect it firmly toward their own agenda. To accomplish this, they establish strong interpersonal rapport with the interviewer, appearing neither condescending nor cowed. They use the interviewer’s first name, repeat questions thoughtfully, and risk using humor to appear at ease and personable. Most importantly, an interviewee knows what the key questions are going to be and how to answer them. The goal of these strategies is to break through the confines of the one-to-one situation and deliver a message to the viewing audience. When used together, the techniques give businesspeople, or any aspirants, mastery over their audiences. Organizations like QVC have branded interpersonal skills that appear one-on-one but are mass communicated and include many of the communication cues connected with intimacy and familiarity. That charisma can be engineered by helping aspirants meet audience expectations is demonstrated by the experience of the late Big Twist, a blues singer and titular leader of Big Twist and the Mellow Fellows, who was mired at the level of regional visibility. The aspirant was able to ignite intense fan attraction but was unable to parlay it into national stature. A powerful singer backed by a quality band—all of the requisite elements for national visibility—seemed to be in place. Why didn’t he have a major recording contract? Why wasn’t he on the big networks? Where were the Rolling Stone interview and the Saturday Night Live appearance? Analysis revealed that Big Twist’s major weakness was a tendency to withdraw, shutting down communication with the audience while on stage and failing to project a coherent image in media interviews. In comparing the aspirant’s characteristics with the sector’s expectations, it was apparent that what the singer really needed in terms of product development was to demonstrate more presence by mastering the appropriate conventions of this sector. This entailed achieving a distinctive physical image, aggressively talking to the band and interacting with the audience during performances,

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and considering such other sector conventions as spectacular lighting and special-effects technology. In addressing his problem with media interviews, it was apparent that he spent most of his time answering “yes” or “no” to questions that could have been used to build a compelling story and to communicate that the singer was the right type. The strategy decided upon was not to fabricate a new story but to build up his real one: his colorful origins; his struggle to form the band; his unusual musical experiences. The aspirant had a number of experiences that lent themselves to modification into dramatic reality. He had left home at an early age, played in rough, tough bars in the South, and had numerous interesting associations and encounters with well-known celebrities. By rehearsing his stage and media styles as well as practicing his storytelling, the singer began to develop the hallmarks of blues charisma. By mastering the conventions of his sector, he radiated a consistent dramatic character. Big Twist was so good at his craft that he was the model for John Belushi’s character in the film The Blues Brothers, and the wild beerthrowing bar scene at the beginning of the film was based on Big Twist and the Mellow Fellows. Unfortunately, he died before the completion of his attempt to transform himself into a major star.

Strategy 4. Charisma through Counterprogramming Should the first three strategies fail to generate perceptions of charisma in audiences, aspirants have a high-risk alternative: intentionally failing to meet audience expectations. In this strategy, the aspirant deliberately constructs a character type calculated to surprise, provoke, or even shock the audience. In the political sector, audiences have been conditioned to expect politicians who are smooth, slick, and polished, speak in vague generalities, never take risks, and restrain the authentic emotional content of their speeches. During President George W. Bush’s campaign for reelection in 2004, he countered conventional wisdom with an in-your-face, Texas cowboy, swaggering style that was in marked contrast to his opponent’s conventional speaking style. While the style aggravated his Democratic adversaries, his relaxed “I’m at home in your home” demeanor found acceptance among voters looking for comfort and security. He set the table for this nonclassical style with his acceptance speech at the Republication National Convention in 2004. Although Bush’s speaking manner is often the subject of ridicule by critics, according to political columnist Joel Klein, Bush “came alive when [he] gleefully skewered John Kerry’s foolish claim to be the candidate of ‘conservative values.’ It was the pivotal moment of

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the speech. From there, Bush went on to his favorite topic—his decisiveness in the war against terrorism, the need to stand firm, the need to be plainspoken. This was a very effective speech.”28 Immediately after the convention, surveys suggested that Bush received a significant jump in the standings, something his Democratic rival failed to achieve with his acceptance speech. In business, the use of counterprogramming can quickly thrust a person and his or her company to high visibility. The late Dave Thomas, founder of Wendy’s, turned advertising sector conventions inside out. Establishing Wendy’s at a time of intense fast-food competition, Thomas made hard work and personal marketing the centerpiece of his efforts to launch the company. Defying modern business advertising practices, Thomas played the role of the concerned, average, small businessperson. He used a number of unconventional strategies: speaking directly into the camera, using plain language, and telling “personal” stories. Similarly, although Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton was never an official spokesperson, unofficially he was a symbol of the company’s humble origins and its work ethic. He turned off light bulbs, drove a plain truck, and drank coffee with his buddies till the very end. Walton’s personal brand infused credibility in his target market customers as it validated his plain, low-priced stores. Thomas and Walton appealed to audiences by eagerly demonstrating everyday involvement within their companies and, through their audiencecentered and not-me-centered image, conveyed compassion and commitment. Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, Apple’s Steve Jobs, and Dell’s Michael Dell are more recent examples of effective CEO spokespersons in the technology industry. The technology industry lends itself to high visibility CEOs because the products are often faceless and the CEO is able to brand the company’s name. How do you personalize a chip inside your computer? The value of a CEO’s high visibility is that it gives storyline, commitment, and value added to that hardworking but boring, silicon-encased bundle of transistors.

Warren Buffett: The Billionaire Next Door Warren Buffett, the legendary CEO of Berkshire Hathaway and self-professed nontechie, also serves as his company’s spokesperson. Known worldwide as the “oracle of Omaha,” he is self-deprecating about his star power. Buffett has said of his drawing power, “At our annual meetings, someone usually asks, ‘What happens to this place if you get hit by a truck?’ I’m glad they’re still

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asking the question in this form. It won’t be long until the query becomes, ‘What happens to this place if you don’t get hit by a truck?’ ” 29 Buffett has branded making money with righteous living and has spent his entire career building a financial empire around his persona of hands-on stewardship combined with a strong personal ethic of corporate integrity. The centerpiece of Buffett’s audience-centered approach is in sharp contrast to slick Wall Street fund managers who travel in stretched, black limousines, spend weekends in the Hamptons, wear $10,000 custom-made suits and $1,850 handmade shoes, and never shake the hand of a worker or a farmer. Buffett, on the other hand, holds public court in Omaha, where he stages his annual meeting during which he listens to his shareholders and eats with them, serving the products that they own and offering special shareholder events. The picture of Buffett on stage with his partner Charlie Munger is of two older, friendly, not affected, straightforward guys who are going to talk horse sense amidst a financial world of horse manure. The shareholders are accustomed to Buffett’s style as they receive his much anticipated annual shareholder letter, which is a combination of financial wisdom, personal observations on life and religion, and a detailed invitation to the annual meeting. When you go to Omaha, almost everyone claims to know Warren, and the results of his approachable, no-nonsense strategy are impressive. Shares of Berkshire Hathaway increased from around $30,000 a share in 1996 to approximately $85,000 a share in 2005.30 He is sought worldwide for his counsel, has received many awards, and has taken Benjamin Graham’s theories of intelligent investing and given them a populous twist that the author never envisioned. As for Buffett, his stockholders better hope that this good ole boy stays in good health.

For charisma to be developed, it must be audience-based. This is not to say that aspirants do not embody it; they do. But we now know that figures “light up rooms” not by glowing with a primal force inherited at birth but by understanding and transforming themselves to meet audience expectations. Charismatic figures are well skilled at communicating the right behaviors, signs, and mannerisms to audiences.

GOOD TIMING “The reason she made it and I didn’t,” lamented the unsuccessful aspirant, “was her timing was right.” Like talent, timing is a pseudomysterious force. Like charisma, it disguises more than it reveals because what timing often consists of is being alert and ready to act.

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Examples of timing’s effect on aspirant development abound. In politics, Jimmy Carter arrived on the scene just as society was reexamining its values in the aftermath of Watergate. TV news spoof anchor Jon Stewart rose to national prominence as audiences began to tire of traditional talking heads. Soccer star David Beckham became a global endorsement machine on the cultural shift of metrosexuality, a lightening up of the macho male athlete, which might include sharp dressing, creative hairstyles, purses, and movie star-like appearances. Beckham symbolized the movement as a male who could show a fashion consciousness and drive twisted kicks into the net. Often, people who appear to have gained high visibility in mysterious ways had merely made intelligent choices about timing. Consider author and political pundit William F. Buckley: At age eighteen I was an officer in the infantry, so I had sort of formal authority over a fair number of people. And then when I was a sophomore at Yale they had a shortage of Spanish teachers. So, since Spanish is my native language, I was appointed to the faculty. So at age 21 I was a member of the faculty at Yale. That year I was elected chairman of the Yale Daily Review, which in those days was a preeminent extracurricular activity at Yale. That sort of catapulted me into the public view. [Since] my position was pretty conservative, I was all the more noticeable. And then I wrote my book the year I graduated. As I think back on my own life, there was never a point where I really became a celebrity, having been that almost from the age of eighteen in whatever circles I moved.31 At several key junctures in Buckley’s early career, he executed welltimed decisions that he casually tosses off as mere happenstance such as writing a book upon graduation. The fate of an aspirant often depends on how the timing issue is viewed. Comedian Richard Kind found himself sought after by many venues—television, theater, film—but he had to be careful which vehicle he elected to use in his quest for higher visibility. As a star performer in Chicago’s prestigious Second City theater—producer of such stars as Elaine May, John Belushi, Ed Asner, and Bill Murray—Kind had watched others leave Second City and plummet to obscurity. He faced a dilemma: stay and maintain his visibility, risking the loss of his promising upward momentum, or leave to seek national visibility and risk becoming the victim of a poor role or vehicle choice.

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Clearly, for Kind as well as for aspirants in all sectors, timing is intimately bound up with risk. Virtually any move that Kind made involved risk, and its success depended on how well timed it was. Kind needed to ask himself the following questions: 1. Where do I want to be on the risk-innovation curve? Do I go for a great leap in visibility, risking much, if not all, of my current stature? Or do I spend more time at Second City, risking a decline in the market’s view of my value as a potential star? Do I pioneer the opening wedge of a new trend, such as a new kind of comedy TV show or a particularly daring film role? Or do I want to ride a proven wave to a secure, but lower, level of reward? 2. When will the window of opportunity open for my particular strength, which is improvisational comedy? Can I develop new strengths if needed? 3. Will the vehicle I select close off access to other vehicles? Could television stardom eliminate any chance for film roles? What if the vehicle I select fails? Can the vehicle increase my visibility in other sectors? Eventually, Kind made the move to TV, starring in such comedy shows as the Carol Burnett Show, Mad About You, and Spin City. He regularly makes guest appearances on Scrubs and has appeared in Unscripted and was the cousin in the now legendary Curb Your Enthusiasm episode in which Larry David discovered his mother was buried without his knowledge. While Kind obviously has the talent threshold to succeed in comedy, he also had a strategic understanding of how important timing was for his move to Hollywood. Such timing risks can be daunting. An aspirant may try to move up too quickly, with necessary skills still undeveloped, and valuable associations not yet made. Similarly, failing to act may strand the aspirant in a worn-out vehicle or cause audiences to perceive him or her as a has-been. In the early 1990s, Saturday Night Live viewers were confronted with a brand-new cast of young comedians. Comic actors such as Adam Sandler and the late Chris Farley, who had been performing before “club” crowds, were now performing for millions. They improved their craft on the job, gaining experience and producing better and better television performances. But did they jump to film too early in their careers? The answer is no. When they moved to film, they took their audience with them, and it was

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inevitable that older critics would find their humor juvenile. Sandler, after some supporting roles in mediocre films such as Coneheads and Airheads, quickly hit the jackpot with Billy Madison, which became a teen cult sensation. The film launched his career, which included starring roles in Happy Gilmore, Big Daddy, and Anger Management. Farley was less successful than Sandler, but he still achieved starring roles. He also appeared in Airheads and Coneheads and finally experienced a measure of success with Tommy Boy before he died at thirty-three. In the examples of Sandler and Farley, their timing decisions to move to film from television were good judgments because they were able to take with them the audience that they had built during their appearances on Saturday Night Live. That they had varying success is a consequence of other issues rather than timing.

THE LUCKY BREAK The “lucky break” is a fixture of visibility folklore. Many nonvisibles blame bad luck for their misfortune and credit the success of the highly visible to “just being in the right place at the right time.” Actually, however, in many cases luck is merely what is credited when the aspirant is the beneficiary of a fortuitous accident, with no strategy involved. It might be walking down the street encountering Steven Spielberg searching for change for the parking meter, or pitching a one-hitter while Atlanta Braves general manager John Schuerholz happens to be in the stands. Luck in these cases is perceived as merely happenstance and usually the subject of much envy. A claim of luck is also used to mask strategies that successful professionals would rather not discuss. Disney CEO Michael Eisner initially disliked the hit ABC television show Lost. In fact, he complained to author James Stewart, “Lost is terrible. The pilot was two hours; it was broken into two one-hour shows. Then the show goes off a cliff. There’s no more plane crash! Who cares about these people on a desert island?”32 The show—after a contentious struggle at ABC about whether to even broadcast it—became a hit, even taking the rating edge off of American Idol and giving Disney bragging rights because their affiliates were happy and ABC television prime-time programming appeared to be on the right track. Lost made its way through ABC to primetime, but we will never know if it was luck, willpower, or strategic planning. Another popular use of luck is as a way to maintain friendships and professional relationships. To claim that you’re lucky implies that you’re not better than the other person. It’s far more useful in interpersonal

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relationships than acknowledging your superiority as an artist or dealmaker to a hapless competitor. In many ways, the lucky excuse masks skill and accomplishment and may well be the principal use of the term in the visibility world.

Manufacturing Luck Luck is often positioning. So-called luck can often be created by doing little more than intentionally placing yourself wherever it is most likely for luck to occur. Garry Marshall, producer of the classics Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley and director of such films as The Flamingo Kid and Pretty Woman, tells the story about how he cast the blonde female lead in his film The Flamingo Kid. After an extensive search for the right athletic girl to play opposite Matt Dillon, Marshall attended the Carl Reiner Celebrity Tennis tournament, a tournament in which the Dick Van Patten family participated. The Van Pattens were a show-business family with a reputation for good tennis-playing sons with attractive acquaintances. One of the Van Patten boys’ girlfriends, Janet Jones, caught Marshall’s attention. As he approached the court, Jones’s back was toward him. “I turned to my wife,” Marshall recalled, “and said, ‘If that girl turns around and has a face to match that body, she’s it.’ ” 33 Jones was cast in the film and went on to appear in the film A Chorus Line and to play the lead in American Anthem. She later married hockey legend Wayne Gretzky, and continued as an actress and a fitness expert. Once when recounting this story to a college acting class, Marshall clearly upset his audience. Though the talented Jones had done some modeling and had been a regular on Dance Fever, her acting experience was minimal. Where was the traditional accompanying story of sacrifice, years of waitressing and auditioning, and dues paying in regional theater? How, the students wondered, could people get so lucky while they were studying, sacrificing, and preparing for their sector in the traditional manner? The fact is that Janet Jones had positioned herself strategically. She was living in the right town to be discovered and associating with people who were likely to be known by sector decision makers and appraisers. Marshall was only half joking when he said that he used a celebrity tennis tournament as a casting call. There are many beautiful blondes in America but not many who were in the Van Patten family network. The fact is that luck is usually preceded by positioning, which is often accomplished simply by finding the right locale. A person living in New

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York City who is aspiring to visibility in business, after analyzing the relative opportunities in different specialties, might be better off entering finance or publishing than the petroleum industry or the coal business. Likewise, it may be much harder to get into summer stock in the Berkshires than it would be in Minnesota, but it’s far more likely that Broadway talent appraisers will see you in the Berkshires. As an artist, you will get much luckier if you exhibit at New York’s Soho arts scene than if you work the suburban malls or rural art fairs of upstate New York. Selecting the right schools, mentors, friends, and entry-level jobs are also part of the positioning that precedes luck. “Do I work for CNN for free as a summer intern or on a construction job for $25 an hour?” “Do I go to Washington as an aide for a member of congress at considerable inconvenience, or do I stay home and work at my mother’s friend’s travel agency?” “Can I endure the ranting, raving, and competition of a highpowered tennis camp, or do I go hiking in the Grand Tetons?” “Do I take a low-paying, nontenured position at Yale, or do I take a guaranteedtenured, well-endowed lab position at a less regarded university?” These are the dilemmas that are often posed when positioning is necessary to produce luck. Making the right trade off often has profound implications and is a strategic issue not usually a matter of chance. Making strategic decisions about positioning can also produce tremendous “luck.” Unknown college dropout Lili Fini decided that Los Angeles was a lucky platform. As People tells the story: Lili got an administrative position at the Carnation Co. and began dropping in at pricey [Los Angeles restaurant] Ma Maison with her friend. “We thought of it as our local diner,” she says. The move paid off. Pierre Groleau, one of Ma Maison’s owners, noticed Lili right away. . . . Groleau decided to set up a blind date between Lili and [movie studio head] Dick [Zanuck], his recently divorced friend and weekly tennis partner.34 The two were later married. Not long after, Lili Fini Zanuck spotted a movie script she liked, coproduced the film with her husband, and went on to produce such acclaimed films as Cocoon, Driving Miss Daisy, Mulholland Falls, and True Crime. She was also producer of the seventy-second Annual Academy Awards. The lesson is if you want luck, eat in most of the week, skip Burger King, and dine in a high-profile restaurant as frequently as possible.

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Luck and Dramatic Reality Often, the place where luck plays the biggest role is in the way aspirants talk about it. Luck is almost always a key element in all brands’ stories, and even the most cursory look at some of those stories makes it clear that luck should be handled with the objective of making aspirants look as if they had not planned, used strategy, or manipulated reality. Using luck in this manner produces such traditional celebrity storylines as: • “Good thing I went into podiatry just before this running thing started.” • “Of course I married Sandra for love; her modeling career had nothing to do with my magazine job.” • “They needed an expert on booster rockets, and I was the only disciple of German rocket genius Wernher von Braun.” Beneath the claim of serendipity there is usually a story of clear purposefulness. Celebrity editor and author Michael Korda, editor-in-chief of Simon and Schuster and author of numerous books including Another Life: A Memoir of Other People, wasn’t merely lucky; he was the beneficiary of a company strategy that encouraged the creation of highly visible editors. Of course, the predominance of positioning-oriented luck doesn’t preclude the possibility of genuine dumb luck. Even if the aspirant is the beneficiary of dumb luck, that moment of unexpected entry will need strategic positioning to achieve permanent visibility.

Dr. Phil Reinvents Ann Landers From 1998 to 2002, The Oprah Winfrey Show’s Tuesday episodes rated 24 percent higher than the rest of the week. The reason: Tuesdays were the days Dr. Phil McGraw dispensed his trademark “straightforward, cut-to-the-chase”35 advice. Now he’s got his own show, and the clout to demand that he never have to go head to head in the same time slot with Winfrey, his benefactor. Before McGraw—now known as “Dr. Phil”—became a television selfhelp guru, he was a little known Texas psychologist. He and his partner Gary Dobbs ran Courtroom Sciences, Inc., a successful litigation consulting firm that assisted trial lawyers by staging mock trials and performing behavioral analysis in preparation for jury selection and mediation. There was little evidence that a major guru was in the making. How then did he end up with four best-selling books and Dr. Phil, a show of his own that is syndicated in 96 percent of the country?36

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When Winfrey hired McGraw to help her win a case against Texas cattle ranchers—they sued Winfrey after she warned viewers that beef is unhealthy— she was so impressed with his advice on the case that she invited him to appear on the show. McGraw was certainly lucky that the case was down in Texas, but he positioned himself to be discovered by aggressively pursuing Winfrey. Furthermore, when the opportunity to appear on television occurred, he was ready. From the onset he impressed the talk-show host as well as her audience with his no-nonsense, blunt type of folksy therapy. Dr. Phil understood that the public was tired of self-help experts who were evasive and used jargon. “People are sick of being handled. They’re sick of being spun,”37 he said. Dr. Phil was right. A virtual avalanche of condescending self-help media figures doled out their advice in a take-it-or-leave-it style. Dr. Phil recognized that the audience was ready for more proactive and practical advice. Dr. Phil has amassed a cult following because he understood the fundamentals of visibility and transformation. The media was looking for a television version of Ann Landers, and Oprah’s viewers—mostly women—were impressed by the strong but sensitive male figure. Dr. Phil was able to redefine Landers’ bluntness with the advantage of real-time television appearances, actual encounters with troubled viewers, and a conspiratorial tone that implied that conventional psychologists were too esoteric and reluctant to give concrete advice. Furthermore, Dr. Phil effectively used his strong communication skills, emphatic staccato voice on diagnosis, piercing eyes that indicated certainty, and general body movements of authority and self-assuredness to link with the audience. Dr. Phil has continued to transform, moving into physical fitness and diet areas, and he has specifically targeted the family market.

As an attractive and potentially rewarding achievement, high visibility is naturally the subject of much speculation. Concepts such as talent, charisma, and luck are deeply embedded into the culture of visibility and have created a set of widely held beliefs and practices. That they are useful is not an issue. However, as discussed in this chapter, using them in a strategic manner is critical because they are often misunderstood and misused. What is often missing is a strong understanding and implementation of the change process that underlay and is so vital to visibility generation. The next chapter focuses on the four-step branding process of transformation.

NOTES 1 e-Mail interview with author, December 22, 2004. 2 Benjamin Bloom, Developing Talent in Young People (New York: Ballantine, 1985), p. 508.

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3 Judith Dobrzynski, “Business Celebrities,” BusinessWeek, June 23, 1986, p. 100. 4 Nicholas Varchaver, “Glamour! Fame! Org Charts! How Fortune 500 CEOs went from being executives to celebrities to executives again,” Fortune, November 15, 2004, p. 136. 5 Kim Foltz and Maggie Malone, “Golden Paintbrushes,” Newsweek, October 15, 1984, p. 83. 6 Amei Wallach, “Artist Uses Film to Paint Life Portrait . . .,” Los Angeles Times, August 15, 1995, p. F1. 7 Designboom, www.designboom.com/closeup/schnabelwork.html, viewed February 1, 2005. 8 www.hoovers.com/polo-ralph-lauren-corporation/—ID__40369— /free-cofactsheet.xhtml, viewed July 14, 2005. 9 Betty Jimenez, “JK Rowling Biography,” PageWise, ks.essortment.com/ jkrowlingbiogr_reak.htm, viewed June 28, 2005. 10 Ibid. 11 JFO McAllister with reporting by Jeff Chu, “The Shy Sorceress,” Time, June 23, 2003, www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,1005059,00.html, viewed June 28, 2005. 12 Jimenez. 13 Edited by Peter Kafka, “The Celebrity 100,” Forbes, June 15, 2005, www.forbes.com/lists/2005/53/CRTT.html, viewed July 6, 2005. 14 McAllister. 15 Max Weber, Economy/Society, edited by Roth Gunther and Claus Wittlich, vol. 1 (New York: Bedminster Press, 1968), p. 213. 16 Therese McNally, “Steal the Spotlight: Show Biz Secrets That Will Make Your Next Speech a Smash Hit,” Success, April 1986, p. 49. 17 Alynda Wheat, “Power Moves,” Fortune, July 22, 2003, www.fortune.com/ fortune/subs/article/0,15114,465631,00.html, viewed February 1, 2005. 18 Class appearance by Jane Heitz, May 14, 1985, and Dick Kordos, Kordos & Charbonneau, May 16, 1985, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. 19 Diana Walsh, “Legal styles collide in Redwood City: DEFENSE: More behind Geragos than celeb power,” San Francisco Chronicle, May 31, 2004, www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/05/31/ MNGOA6UISU1.DTL, viewed February 1, 2005. 20 _____, “How Stars are Made,” Newsweek, February 24, l986, p. 74.

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21 _____, “The Women in Giuliani’s Life,” CBS News, May 11, 2000, www.cbsnews.com/stories/2000/05/11/politics/main194350.shtml, viewed July 7, 2005. 22 Eric Pooley, “Mayor of the World,” Time, Person of the Year 2001, www.time.com/time/poy2001/poyprofile.html, viewed July 7, 2005. 23 Ibid. 24 _____, “CBS Poll: Happy Days for Hill,” CBS News, February 27, 2001, www.cbsnews.com/stories/2000/04/06/politics/main180935.shtml, viewed July 7, 2005. 25 Pooley. 26 Ibid. 27 Clinton R. Sanders, “Psyching out the Crowd; Folk Performers and Their Audiences,” Urban Life and Culture, vol. 3, no.3, October l974, p. 268. 28 Joel Klein, “Tearing Kerry Down: The challenger’s only hope is to get as nasty as the Bush campaign,” Time, www.time.com/time/election2004/columnist/ klein/article/0,18471,692822,00.html, viewed February 1, 2005. 29 Timothy L. O’Brien, “The Oracle of Omaha’s Latest Riddle,” New York Times, April 10, 2005, p. 1. 30 money.cnn.com/quote/quote.html?shownav=true&symb=BRK.A, viewed July 12, 2005. 31 William F. Buckley interviewed by Melissa Pate and Tad Mayer, unpublished research paper, Northwestern University, October 1985. 32 James B. Stewart, “Disney Behind the Scenes,” Wall Street Journal, February 10, 2005, p. B1, excerpted from his book Disney War (New York: Fantagraphics Books, 2003). 33 Author interview with Garry Marshall, August 29, 1986. 34 Susan Reed and Jeff Yarbrough, “Dick and Lili Zanuck Pledge to Mix Matrimony and Moviemaking From Here to Eternity,” People, August 26, l985, p. 76. 35 _____, “The Tough Love of Dr. Phil,” PR Newswire, August 25, 2002, www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/micro_stories.pl?ACCT=617800&TICK= NEWS&STORY=/www/story/08–25–2002/0001788890&EDATE= Aug+25,+2002, viewed January 21, 2005. 36 Ibid. 37 Marc Peyser, Vanessa Juarez, and Ana Figueroa, “Paging Doctor Phil,” Newsweek, September 2, 2002, pp. 50–56.

the four steps of brand transformation

CHAPTER 8

C

hristina Aguilera, the former teen idol and Britney Spears rival who first rose to prominence during the late 1990s dance-pop rage, shocked the business and fans alike when she released her second album, Stripped. On its cover was a topless Aguilera, obviously no longer the teenager who sang “Reflection” for Disney’s Mulan just two years earlier. The once sweet, innocent Staten Island native was rebranded as “an unadorned, unfettered and fearlessly outspoken artist who liberated herself, her soul and her music.”1 The Mickey Mouse Club alumnus strengthened her new image by posing for Rolling Stone, clutching an electric guitar and wearing nothing but a pair of leather boots. But Aguilera’s first attempt to implement a market fulfillment strategy actually began two years earlier, when it was clear that like Britney she had peaked in the teen segment and had begun to decline as an entertainmentsector leader. The part-Ecuadorian Aguilera recorded a Spanish-language album called Mi Reflejo in a bid to redefine and distance herself from Spears by moving into the lucrative Latin pop boom dominated by Ricky Martin, Enrique Iglesias, and Jennifer Lopez. Unlike those artists, however, Aguilera had to sing the lyrics phonetically because she doesn’t speak Spanish.2 Nevertheless, the transformation appeared to work initially, and Aguilera won the Best Female Pop Vocal Album in the 2001 Latin Grammy Awards.3 Despite the success of the album, the Latina concept was seemingly more of a brand extension of Aguilera’s teen pop princess persona than a permanent career transformation. During this period, she also extended her brand further by producing a successful Christmas album. However, if Aguilera hoped to capitalize on her teen image and prosper long term, she needed a more dramatic transformation to reposition her career. 199

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Aguilera learned from her experiences when she found herself in competition with Spears again in the earthy, raw female singer market. After the release of her album Stripped, she modified her public image to live up to the promise of the track “Dirrty” by changing her wardrobe and appearance, having her nickname “Xtina” tattooed on her neck, showing off piercings in exposed and normally covered places, and declaring in an interview how “makeup artists hate me—because I’ll show up at shoots all bruised and whatnot,” adding, “I like to play rough. Handcuffs are fun.”4 This time, the transformation of an innocent teen to a free-spirited adult found a target. She won MTV’s TRL Evolution Award in 2003, beating out Britney Spears, *N Sync, and Missy Elliott for the honor. She remains highly visible today, but she has backed off from the extreme attentiongetting strategies of her tough girl transformation. The transformation of Christina Aguilera was clearly deliberate, and it represented the state-of-the-art techniques of branding. In many respects, Aguilera was following a tried-and-true transformation playbook, not really setting a new social trend but following in the footsteps of Olivia NewtonJohn and Madonna in redefining themselves from young and innocent to adult and sexy. Not unlike the development of Federal Express, Apple, and Google, Christina Aguilera was changed and fitted to an evolving market. In the process of transformation, she used a number of proven branddevelopment techniques that have become common in visibility seeking. Aguilera not only changed her appearance strategies but altered her behavior as well. Her dramatic reality storyline was enhanced by public quarrels with rivals, especially Britney Spears and Kelly Osbourne, who called Aguilera a “cow” and her music “crap” at the MTV Europe Music Awards.5 There was also a much-publicized clash between Aguilera and rapper Eminem, with both artists bashing each other in original songs. Despite all this, an entertainer refitting herself to a new set of marketing expectations is, after all, hardly news; what is news is the thoroughness and efficiency of the changes and the spread of the transformation style to other sectors of life. The idea of transformation is not a new one. People commonly undergo changes in image, occupation, geographic location, and lifestyle. What is different about transformations undertaken in pursuit of high visibility is that they involve audience- and market-centered strategic decisions that revolve around public image. The brand image needs to be acceptable to a target audience, and unfortunately, many well-known people have characteristics that, if exposed in their unrefined state, would damage their relationships with their audiences—or prevent a meaningful, sustainable relationship from ever developing. One problem is that the process of elim-

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inating unwanted traits calls attention to them. In Aguilera’s case, she no longer wanted to be seen as a cute, wholesome teenager, but the process of discarding that image initially called attention to her success as precisely that and raised the question of whether she could ever be more than a teen sensation. It has become conventional wisdom among image planners and their clients that disclosure of a change process compromises an aspirant’s image. This problem is particularly acute in such sectors as business, law, politics, the academe, and medicine where getting transformation help can be considered a sign of weakness and a lack of authenticity. As a consequence, in some of these sectors the transformation and brand-building processes are rarely seen in full light by the audience. The late William E. Simon, a former secretary of the treasury and among the most visible leaders of the conservative movement throughout his life, said it clearly: I have never been interested in merchandising myself or perpetuating a public image. Indeed, it is always difficult to ascertain just what your image is and it is almost impossible to improve or diminish how people view you other than through direct personal contact. I simply work hard and try to be successful at what I do—whether it’s as a businessman, a banker, an author, philanthropist or father and husband. I’m not attracted to the kind of society that competes for positions in “Suzy’s column,” and I’m not out to prove anything. In the end, it only matters to me that those whose friendship and partnership I value in life think well of me—and benefit somehow from our association.6 Of course, to the cynical outsider any suggestion that Simon did not seek to leverage his national stature and his record as secretary of the treasury is disingenuous. The simple act of an associate’s handing a prospect a business card with the partnership name “William E. Simon & Sons L.L.C.” immediately communicated the idea that this partnership has an important attribute other firms cannot emulate: the well-known and respected Simon himself as its founder and its legendary clout master. Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper demonstrates the subtleties of who transforms and under what circumstances. In his mayoral campaign, his fundamental position was of somebody who could not be influenced or corrupted by the political process of running for office. In doing so, one of the critical television ads entitled “Suits” depicted the mayor trying on a variety of suits—such as a cowboy suit, a gangster suit and a red, white, and

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blue Uncle Sam suit—and declaring, “Everybody wants me to look more ‘mayoral.’ But, I’m not a professional politician.”7 Translated, that means, I’m not going transform and be somebody else. The irony is that while Hickenlooper may well have been an outsider, he needed transformation strategies in order to complete the brand positioning of “the outsider.” On the basis of this ad and other similar campaign strategies, he won by a thirty-point margin in a crowded field. Most politicians downplay any work done on their images, claiming that they are basically “naturals.” Naturals, not unlike Robert Redford’s home-run-hitting movie character, supposedly need no embellishment to succeed in their sector. Some people desire to be seen as naturals even in fields that emphasize transformation. Female impersonator Chili Pepper, in as transformation-intense a sector as there could be, claimed that “there has never been a transformation for me. I’ve always looked the same and done the same things.”8 Ironically, as many highly visible people in professional and business sectors are trying to shift the media’s focus away from how their transformations were brought about, creative writers, reporters, and analysts in entertainment, sports, and other sectors are giving it more attention than ever before. From the basketball movie Coach Carter, which documents the transformation of an urban high school basketball team, to programming on the celebrity channel E, interest in transformation seems unlimited. As a result, transformation processes have become much more knowable to the general public and more acceptable as a means to personal and professional branding. There are many degrees of transformation. In the case of a highly skilled lawyer, it may be small details that include appearance and in-court behavior and refinement. A business executive who has only an engineering or financial background and needs to lead a major organization might need extensive lifestyle work, speech coaching, appearance changes, and modification of interpersonal skills. The level that is required can vary, but what cannot vary is the final stage of actualization. In the end, no matter how minimal the transformation, the aspirant has not only to buy into the brand but become it.

THE FOUR PHASES OF TRANSFORMATION There is little question that aspirants and brand developers undertake transformation processes, and the strategies are wildly varied. A more effective

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and systematic process adapts concepts from marketing and communication and uses long-term development strategies. In most cases, successful transformations take place over a period of time, preceded by planning, patience, and persistence. A development plan to transform aspirants into highly visible personal and professional brands requires the four stages of careful brand generation and regeneration, testing, refinement, and realization.

BRAND GENERATION AND REGENERATION In each sector, certain roles are played. In the entertainment sectors, for example, are singers, dancers, comedians, and other specializations. For most aspirants attempting to transform themselves, the choice of specialization is limited—because it has already been made. A doctor generally is not going to change roles and become a politician simply because a market opportunity presents itself. By the same token, the doctor does have the option of becoming a different type of doctor. He or she may change types, becoming a sports medicine specialist, a pediatric specialist, or an expert in a very specialized procedure. The doctor may even write a book on a new diet or become a media malpractice expert for trial lawyers. The same principle applies to all sectors—from executives to politicians to scientists. In the brand-generation stage, aspirants and their transformation teams (managers, agents, friends, spouses) must brainstorm to generate different possible brands that will appeal to the intended target audience. The idea is to select or invent a distinct combination of factors that will distinguish an aspirant from competitors. Certain aspirants may not accept the need to alter type and character. It’s not uncommon to hear, “I don’t need to change. I am what I am, and that’s what I will be to the audience.” An example would be an ideological politician who does not hide or sugarcoat ideas but presents them to all who will listen. This is the mark of a leader rather than a marketer, although such a person may in fact lead very few. This type of politician searches for his or her natural market rather than adjusting ideas and comments to appeal to various voter groups. The politician in this example is interested in pure selling, not marketing. Most aspirants, on the other hand, would accept the need for some adjustment or transformation: “I am capable of being and feeling many different ways, and I will choose the type and character that will lead to the most success.” This attitude, which Erich Fromm has labeled the

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“marketing orientation,” has predominated among aspirants in the older visibility sectors for years and is gaining ground in the professions, arts, religion, and other newer sectors. An example of marketing consciousness in the religious sector was the recognition by Bishop Thomas Dexter “T.D.” Jakes of a high profile book’s potential in promoting his ministry via other communication channels to potential adherents. In 1993, he wrote Woman, Thou Art Loosed, a book about women’s issues.9 Jakes described the book as “an investment, and a very frightening one, because it took every penny that I had to get it out there.”10 That “investment” proved to be a wise one, and the first run of five thousand copies was sold out in two weeks.11 This initial effort to raise his visibility led to other opportunities, including TV programs, conferences, and an R-rated movie of the same title, which achieved a respectable No. 6 slot the week of its release. Jakes’ congregation has grown dramatically: Today he heads a twentyeight-acre, 35,000-member megachurch called “Potter’s House” in Oak Cliff, Dallas. He was named “America’s Best Preacher” by Time in 200112 and was included in that publication’s “25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America” in 2005. In the magazine’s characterization of Jakes, he was called “The Pentecostal Media Mogul”—“a master of pop psychology . . . who represents a new wrinkle for Evangelicals, the new-Pentecostals, who combine intense spirituality with a therapeutic approach.”13 His self-help book He-Motions: Even Strong Men Struggle14 was a best-seller, while his record label Dexterity Sounds/EMI Gospel received a Grammy in the forty-sixth Grammy Awards.15 Jakes has been successful because he combined his talent with the opportunity to become a sector leader and was willing to adapt himself and his ideas to the realities of the marketplace. He fused popular culture and religion and adroitly used multiple communication channels to broaden his audience and credibly project his message. His decision to become a speaker on the self-help lecture circuit and to receive fees for his appearances was also an outgrowth of his market orientation. Jakes and other religious leaders such as Joel Osteen have become modern versions of rock stars. They break out from their competition by evolving into popular culture stars not unlike Neil Clark Warren, founder of e-Harmony, whose television ads for his Internet dating company have branded him as a principled matchmaker who is only interested in committed couples. Marketing-oriented aspirants like Jakes have the desire, and often the flexibility, to shape their characteristics to the marketplace. Actors provide the best evidence of the adaptability and stretchability of one’s personality;

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they can play many roles and perform as different types of people. Most actors, of course, can be “recognized” from one performance to another. But great actors such as Robert De Niro, Meryl Streep, John Malkovich, and Renee Zellweger are highly moldable, demonstrating a wide range of character plasticity. As a result, it’s often hard to recognize them from one film or play to the next. Such ability to alter type and character, as we’ve seen, isn’t limited to the entertainment sector, although other sectors can leverage high visibility to become a bona fide part of the entertainment industry. The literature of social psychology confirms a wide range of roles or types that all people play in their daily lives. This is not to say that every aspirant can play any role or type. Illiterate, inarticulate twenty-year-olds would find it hard to pass themselves off as doctors, lawyers, or executives. The starting point in brand generation is the person, with his or her particular looks, intelligence, moods, talents, and personality. The degree to which the aspirant can learn to stretch these characteristics limits the potential roles and types that he or she can play. Some identity characteristics, because they are mostly fixed (height, race), are given, but many others may now be modified or completely changed. In fact, some people accept the changes so thoroughly that they overidentify their real selves with their created characters—losing their identities in the process. The brand developer’s task in the brand-generation stage is to help the aspirant to go through three steps: defining the target market, selecting the appropriate type to play, and fully developing the character.

Defining the Market Aspirants cannot transform themselves until they decide on the target market in which they covet success. As discussed in earlier chapters, each market has different characteristics and requirements. The three principal areas that aspirants and their supporters need to examine are audience size, marketing requirements, and available resources.

Audience Size All sectors are not created equal; some are better candidates than others for supporting visibility seekers, and for rewarding them. Consider a young female singer who could perform for either folk music or country audiences. Currently, she would have a better chance of achieving high visibility in country music. Although folk music has a loyal audience, it is not nearly as

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large as the potential audience for country music. In fact, country and western music, as performed by such artists as Shania Twain, Kenny Chesney, and Gretchen Wilson, outsells some of pop music’s best-selling genres. Country Music Association executive director Ed Benson said of the genre’s staying power, “Country Music held its own and even enjoyed growth during a very tumultuous period for the music industry over the past five years.”16 Assuming that she has the stretch potential, an aspirant who desires visibility is far better off selecting country music fans as her target market than trying to break out in the smaller folk music target market. Consider the same issue in the sports sector. A capable athlete has a far better chance of achieving national renown in such audience-intense areas as football, basketball, gymnastics, golf, or tennis than in minor sports such as fencing, crew, or kickboxing. Though interest varies from country to country, only the sports with money potential can create a Maria Sharapova, who earns millions and is comprehensively covered by the media. Contrast Sharapova’s success with that of an equally skilled athlete, 2000 Olympic gold medalist Stacy Dragila, who as a women’s pole-vault star is limited in demand and cannot compete with Sharapova for lucrative compensation or endorsements. Sharapova, by choosing tennis, entered a sector where 157 women have earned in excess of $1 million (as of July 2005)17—a marketplace that is driven by sector demand. To achieve the greatest rewards, aspirants must enter sectors with the most intense audience interest but also the most competition. In considering audience size, there are factors other than current marketplace attractiveness. There are cultural trends that emerge that enable aspirants to anticipate that a sector is going to develop and being an early entrant with the opportunity to define the field can be a real advantage. Dragila, for example, was the first ever Olympic gold medalist in the pole vault and as a result received outsized attention in an otherwise unrecognized sector. It is also true that if an aspirant is willing to be a sector star and sacrifice some of the benefits of the larger sectors, competition is often less intense and the chances of becoming highly visible can be greater.

Marketing Requirements While there may be tremendous interest in a sector—pop music, porn films, pop psychology, economic forecasting—special features may make the marketing of a personality brand particularly difficult or easy. For example, a sector may be very attractive but may already be oversaturated with competitors. When singer Hattie Titus tried to break into stardom through the Motown factory, she encountered only frustration:

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I was a member of a singing group in Detroit called the Bluebirds. We were signed up on a smaller recording label called D-town. . . . Among the singers in Detroit a rumor had started about Berry Gordy and his need for new talent. He threw a big party at a lavish place in which anybody who was anyone showed up. I was introduced to Berry and then he turned around and announced he had a new singer. Everyone (including me) thought he was speaking of me. But he wasn’t, and that blew my little acquaintance with Motown.18 Though Titus was talented and had stage presence, her type was already filled by a young singer named Diana Ross. If Titus wished to break into high visibility with the help of Gordy’s organization, she faced what seemed like an insurmountable obstacle. To be successful, she needed to change her type, move to a new geographic location, or find a subsector of popular music in which the competition was less intense. A similar problem exists in the large corporate business sector, where other constraints may limit visibility. The fact is that most positions in the corporate world do not lend themselves to high visibility. A senior executive at computer giant HP who wanted to be publicly noticed when former chairman and CEO Carly Fiorina was running the company may well have been frustrated. Until she left the position, Fiorina was often in front of the camera as the company’s principal spokesperson, and she was known for being unwilling to share that spotlight with associates. The majority of people in larger corporations who desire visibility are going to find it in two ways: The first would be in various subareas where, for example, a software engineer can become a visible expert to a narrowly targeted customer base, such as network security or open source. The second would be in the wider community through leading local charities and associations, managing the church baseball team, serving on the park board, or heading up the citywide United Way drive. While serving to build the image of the company, such building of the manager’s public brand also translates into higher visibility for the aspirant within the company. BusinessWeek refers to this as the “visibility quotient.” As Andrew Sherwood, a corporate recruiter, said of an IBM manager who actively sought visibility outside the company, “He claimed that his image at the company was so improved that he recouped his expenses several times over.”19 For many aspirants, the best opportunities for visibility in the business world are not in the boardrooms of Fortune 500 firms but rather in the far more numerous insurance companies, real estate firms, fashion

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boutiques, or car dealerships. These smaller businesses can define their own relationship with the media and the public—and can often finance it for relatively low cost.

Resource Availability When considering a range of possible concepts, the aspirant has to take into account the availability of funds and sufficient expertise. In certain sectors, these resources can be inexpensive and home grown, as in the case of novice artists in New York City. An example is the P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center in Queens, an affiliate of the Museum of Modern Art, which scouts for fresh new artworks that capture the city’s contemporary art scene. The works are then exhibited in a giant show titled “Greater New York.” As a result, “hot new artists”20—those who are in the process of generating personal brands—whose submissions are chosen are saved from having to endure great costs or exerting immense efforts to break into the scene as a result of the publicity the show generates. In sports, Major League teams provide summer camps, inner-city tournaments, and playground equipment, and they routinely send coaches and players around the globe for instruction of youth. In order to build the classical music audience, music companies and symphony orchestras provide equipment and instruction in elementary schools around the country. These initiatives demonstrate that in many sectors the funds and instruction are available but need seeking out by the aspirant. In some sectors, costs, time, and support staff are at a high premium. Sectors such as opera, Formula 1 racing, and medicine require advanced training and lots of financial support. As a consequence, the resource filtering process is critical for entry, refinement, and advancement. In these cases, families might invest in development, which frequently occurs in the sports sector. Danica Patrick, for example, the Indy Racing League driver, was sent to Europe by her family at great financial sacrifice. In the sector resource race, the old cliché the higher the risk, the more reward is something for aspirants to carefully evaluate.

Selecting the Type The second step in the brand-generation process is to define the social type that the aspirant should present to the target audience. In his book Heroes, Villains, and Fools, Orrin E. Klapp defines hundreds of types of people found not only in American society but almost universally.21 Klapp classifies them into three major categories: heroes (winners, independent spirits, charmers); villains (rebels, rogues, sneaks); and fools (incompetents, boasters, weaklings). From

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this repertoire of social types, as well as some subtly shaded subtypes, visibility seekers should choose the one that they can most effectively project to the target audience. Consider an attractive young woman who has chosen the role of actress and who has the intelligence and range of talent to play either a “seductress” or “ingénue” type. Her visibility adviser thinks she has greater potential as the former than the latter and selects material to move her in that direction. “Seductress” and “ingénue” are social types; in fact, according to Jung, they are archetypes—a collective representation of a type of being that lies in the unconscious of all people. Archetypes remain in our unconscious, occasionally becoming crystallized through chance meetings with people who match these idealized characteristics. Often audiences, seeking to “type” or peg an aspirant, project an archetype onto the living person whether that person is consciously living out the archetype or not. One of the most perfect personifications of the love goddess archetype was Marilyn Monroe, who consciously adapted her appearance and behavior to bring the archetype to life. As Penny Stallings documents, “At the insistence of her mentor, super-agent Johnny Hyde, Monroe had her jaw remodeled and the tip of her nose bobbed at the age of twenty-three. Love hadn’t blinded Hyde to the fact that Monroe would have to improve on nature a bit before she would be ready for stardom.”22 According to Edward Whitmont, “Her identity with the archetype, and its consequent compulsiveness, made her the companion of many male figures, to the exasperation of her various husbands.”23 Eventually, the archetype’s compulsive power took almost full possession of Marilyn Monroe as a person. An aspiring actress knows that she cannot become an exact replica of Marilyn Monroe, nor is she interested in being a throwback. Most aspirants intuitively realize that subtle distinctions are necessary. Both Jayne Mansfield and Mamie Van Doren consciously typed themselves after Marilyn Monroe, representing alternative personifications of the love goddess. The archetype of love goddess has further evolved in the new century. With raised consciousness and the new equality, today’s love goddesses embody far more toughness. Jennifer Lopez and Angelina Jolie are also “love goddess” types, but although the look may be similar, the attitude has changed. No longer the “dumb blonde,” today’s love goddesses are complex, aggressive, and independent—characteristics not valued in Monroe’s era. When the Monroe goddess archetype is evoked, it is more likely to be in the form of Anna Nicole Smith who through her exaggerated behavior parodies Monroe’s brand.

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The aspirant’s need to adopt a type, or live out an archetype, is found in many sectors of society. A politician who is challenging an incumbent can adopt one of several archetypes: “white knight,” “underdog,” “dark horse,” “thinking person,” “angry American,” or “idealist.” The challenger will need to consider which type has the greatest vote potential and whether he or she has the stretch and adaptability to reach it. Consider how differently this problem of typecasting was handled by two politicians, former senators Bill Bradley and John Glenn, who both had strong images from their prepolitical lives.24 After Bradley was elected to the Senate, he faced the problem of countering the negative impact of his star-athlete past. His solution was to decline to discuss that past and to prove himself a loyal, hardworking member of the Democratic team. His strategy was to specialize in narrow, technical issues, where he could exhibit his expertise and enhance his reputation as being substantive. It’s true that Bradley would probably not have been elected to the Senate without his sports background and that his celebrity opened many doors for him as a Senate newcomer. However, in establishing a type, he purposely emphasized scholar and not athlete. In contrast, Senator John Glenn of Ohio failed to reposition his t yping as astronaut hero. When running for president, he clearly was waiting for the film about the early astronauts The Right Stuff to launch his candidacy. “They’re waiting for that movie,” said a strategist for his opponent, Walter Mondale, with disgust for the unfocused John Glenn presidential campaign. “They’re hoping that it will sell John Glenn to this country like E.T.” 25 But the film had a mixed message that did little for Glenn’s flagging presidential aspirations. Although he was portrayed as heroic, he was also perceived as a goody-two-shoes who desperately wanted fame. Sometimes an aspirant is too successful in choosing a type. After all, the need may arise to completely shed the type, and type erasure is not that easy. As a consequence, many aspirants become “stuck” in their initially adopted type; and they suffer from overtyping and rarely succeed in escaping. NASCAR driver Tony Stewart and the NFL’s Randy Moss could have difficulty shedding their typecasting as bad boys; Paris Hilton could have a hard time escaping from her bad-girl t yping, although her apparent business acumen and drive can help. On the other hand, aspirants who avoid type choice suffer from undertyping. By failing to select a clearly recognizable type, they reduce their chances for immediate identification. The lesson is that aspirants have to carefully steer between the extremes.

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Developing the Character After choosing the specific type to play, such as the tough-guy type of businessperson or the girl-next-door type of singer, the third step in brand generation calls for filling out the type with a rounded, believable character. “Tough guy” is only an abstraction; it must be fleshed out, made whole, and given texture. That vastly different characters might exemplify tough guys is clear from the striking differences between film tough guys Colin Farrell and Vin Diesel, and between business tough guys Maurice “Hank” Greenberg (former AIG chairman) and Michael Eisner (former Disney CEO). Richard Dyer, in his book Stars, listed nine qualities that can contribute to creating an effective and believable character26: 1. Particularity: The person should have characteristics that are distinct. 2. Interest: The person’s concrete traits should command interest. 3. Autonomy: The person should not be perfectly predictable; he or she should create “the illusion of life in front of us.” 4. Roundness: The person should not be one-dimensional but rather should have many traits, not all of them apparent at first. 5. Development: The person should reveal change or new aspects over time. 6. Interiority: Characters should communicate their thoughts or attitudes not only through their words but also through their actions; observers should be able to discern these attitudes without the characters’ explaining them directly. 7. Motivation: The person’s behavior should be motivated, rather than appear random or habitual. 8. Discrete identity: The person should be seen in part as playing a role and also be seen as having a self apart from the role. 9. Consistency: The person should carry an overall consistency in spite of multiple traits and development over time. These qualities provide important value-added dimensions to personalities. At their core, visible people appear to be much like many other competitors for visibility. For example, there are many aspiring CEOs

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who have MBAs from respected business schools, significant experience in business, and an attractive family and engaging lifestyle. Because these qualities appear in so many others, they do not provide competitive advantage in terms of meaningful differentiation. Dyer’s nine qualities all contribute to developing a unique character that other aspirants will find difficult to emulate in the same way, at least as long as they are fully developed and communicated well. An excellent and perhaps extreme example of developing character is Daria Morgendorffer, the cartoon creation of MTV artists and writer Glenn Eichler. Morgendorffer first appeared as a minor character in the MTV animation Beavis and Butthead. After four years of playing Beavis and Butthead’s only girl friend, Morgendorffer—with her typing already well set and with a growing fan base—earned her own show. Morgendorffer wore a uniform: short pleated skirt, stockings, combat boots, thick round glasses, lipstickless lips, and a bland vocal effect,27 which complemented her description as “a blend of Dorothy Parker, Fran Lebowitz and Janeane Garofalo, wearing Carrie Donovan’s glasses.”28 It was not incidental to her typing strategy that Morgendorffer was—by choice— an “invisible” teen in Lawndale High, with no other friend than her equally sardonic classmate, starving artist wannabe Jane Lane. More important, Morgendorffer demonstrated that different characteristics are important in communicating character. Although she was a complete fabrication, Morgendorffer shed light on the sculpting of a multidimensional character as Dyer defines it. Besides her plain physical appearance, she had many of the traits that make a character three-dimensional. Morgendorffer was surrounded by people who totally misunderstood her—workaholic parents, a fashion-conscious younger sister, a teacher who insisted she had low self-esteem, and the rest of Lawndale High’s superficial students—but she couldn’t care less. In her personal life, she struggled with emotional issues such as guilt, especially after she ended up dating her best friend Lane’s boyfriend. Morgendorffer also demonstrates autonomy through her notorious unpredictability. Like a real-life quick-witted, angst-ridden teen, she drops random wisecracks in reactions to different situations, albeit always in accordance with her typing. Abby Terkuhle, then president of MTV Animation, said of Morgendorffer’s character: “I think our audience relates to Daria because she’s smart, she’s direct, she says what people think but often don’t say themselves. And she’s cool.”29 In the area of character development, Morgendorffer grew and changed during the show’s four-year run. From being completely

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apathetic, she developed relationships and dealt with real-life issues. Aside from guilt over betraying her best friend, Daria slowly realized the folly of her self-righteousness and self-inflicted isolation—a manifestation of her fear of rejection. In one episode, a friend told Daria after a fight, “I shouldn’t have bit your head off.” Daria replied: “Don’t worry about it. I was tired of that head anyway.”30 In the end, Daria became the catalyst that convinced best friend Lane to reconsider applying for art school,31 suggesting that Daria herself was reexamining her pessimistic view of life and the world. Brand generation involves choosing a specific type within a given role and then making the type distinct and memorable by creating a unique character. That even an inanimate object like Morgendorffer can do this so convincingly demonstrates how complete the development process can be and how important each step is.

Brand Regeneration To help understand how brand regeneration might operate, consider the possibilities that faced singer Donny Osmond. He had enjoyed a productive career as a member of the Osmond family group, and later as a partner in Donny and Marie, which spawned a variety TV show. He later went on to develop a solo singing career of his own, as did his sister, only to face a host of new and unexpected obstacles. When the direction of pop music began to change in the early 1990s, Osmond became a singer looking for an audience. What new concepts were generated to help Osmond remain highly visible? Since Osmond still enjoyed high name recognition and could be counted on to draw attention across the country, a primary regeneration choice was relaunching him as a Broadway musical performer who sings, acts, and dances. The opportunities for marketing Osmond were excellent because of the similarities between his old TV show audience and the musical theater audience. A second choice might have been to move Osmond into the prime-time TV sitcom sector following the sector-shifting strategies used by other performers. He might have even been repositioned as a cable-TV talk-show host, or a commercial spokesperson. As is true for anyone else in any sector, if Osmond had decided to pursue any of these possibilities, each choice would have to be weighed for the degree of transformation required, and the expense necessary, to make his brand redefinition credible and compelling. Ultimately, he was launched into the musical theater sector quite successfully. Osmond managed to breathe new

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life into his career as the lead in the acclaimed traveling show, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Banking on his Broadway success, Osmond released This Is the Moment, a collection of Broadway tunes, in 2001. The album launched a sustained comeback. In late 2004, he released a semioriginal album featuring the all-new “Osmond—the inspirational balladeer.” His transformation was described as a shift from the child star who was “a little bit rock ’n’ roll” to a middle-aged singer who is “a little dance-pop, a lot of torch and absolutely no rock ’n’ roll.”32 Just as athletes must generate new brand concepts as their abilities decline, so does the need for brand regeneration arise when a person has been overtyped. Mark Hamill, a young actor who had begun his career starring in one of the most successful films in history, Star Wars–Episode IV, became overtyped by continuing to star in subsequent episodes. Hamill’s problem was to generate a new brand concept to overcome the seemingly indelible imprint of “Luke Skywalker” on the audience’s conception of Hamill. Although he appears sporadically on TV, does voiceovers for Justice League villains Joker and Solomon Grundy, and has coproduced his directorial debut, Comic Book: The Movie, he’s never been able to generate a new brand. How might an actor change type? The goal is not impossible. Following a consultation, the various contributors to the brand development process—including agents, PR people, mentors, venue managers, and others—might agree that the actor should be evaluated in a number of different roles. Does he have political potential? Can she start a business around her name? What types of game shows might be interested? Can either launch a career as a professional speaker? Like brand generation, brand regeneration is essential to the pursuit of high visibility. Ronald Reagan, who played a multitude of boy next door types, evolved to become General Electric’s spokesman on modern living and, ultimately, president of the United States. To make it work, the people involved in the regeneration process need to be open-minded, not limited by preconceptions or conventional thinking, and not overly protective of the original brand identity that they also helped develop. Is there room in the skateboarding marketplace for another name given the brand monopoly of Tony Hawk? Having absorbed Alicia Keys, Kelly Rowland, Mary J. Blige, and Ashanti, can the R&B music sector absorb yet another female artist? The way to answer all these speculations is through brand testing.

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BRAND TESTING Once the aspirant has selected the most promising brands, the next step is to test them for feasibility: Can the aspirant convincingly become the role and type? Will the result attract a sufficiently large audience? And most importantly, is the brand believable and credible? In many cases, brands are tested and refined in small steps, which can lead to major successes. Robert “Bob” Thompson is the founder and president of Mid State Auto Auction in tiny New York Mills, Minnesota, which is in the isolated northwestern corner of the state, 160 miles from Minneapolis and 80 miles from Fargo, North Dakota. Despite this obscure location, Thompson has branded his auto auction as a destination for auto dealers to sell and buy cars in the upper Midwest. Thompson first tested his skills in Minneapolis where he sold stainless steel and aluminum cookware door to door, a field that receives daily feedback from the customer and an on-the-spot test of his presentation. Early on, he began to hone his counter-salesperson approach, which was founded on his open, trustworthy, and knowledgeable persona. He eventually moved back to New York Mills and opened a small used-car lot on rented space from the adjacent railroad. From this successful base he opened an auto auction in a former creamery where he put into place an accommodating and persistent sales force, an unusually hospitable friendly environment, and numerous special services such as auto repair and detail work for the dealers at reasonable prices. Despite the lack of hotels, restaurants, and all the rest of the accoutrements of most highway exit stopovers, the dealers shipped their cars in great numbers because his brand had been built over time with constant testing and on-the-ground customer feedback. And not only did dealers sell and buy cars, but they were buying an experience from Thompson that was created, tested, and implemented with brand consistency. There is little question that Thompson found a market where there was none. His vision of his business was to serve as a redistributor of cars across the upper Midwest and plains. Each step of the way, Thompson’s type and character was paramount because dealers responded to his credibility and adaptation to their concerns. As a testimony to his brand’s credibility, Thompson became a national director of the prestigious and exclusive National Auto Auction Association and moved from the creamery to a stateof-the-art facility a few blocks away. For most of us the risks and costs involved in testing a brand depend on the sector’s expectations and conventions. Most sectors of public

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life offer inexpensive, low-risk venues in which to test whether a brand is workable and attractive to audiences. When Anna Paquin, who first won broad acclaim as Holly Hunter’s angry young daughter in the film The Piano, decided to reposition herself on Broadway, she appeared in The Glory of Living, presented in the small off-Broadway MCC Theater. This allowed Paquin to try out her new role in relative safety and seclusion. Later, she moved to more visible venues, subsequently appearing in the London production of This Is Our Youth before returning to Broadway for Roulette, this time at the popular John Houseman Theatre. The number and range of trial venues are vast. The trial can be as simple as former football giant William “The Refrigerator” Perry appearing on local radio and television shows to test his media personality before appearing on the David Letterman and Johnny Carson shows. His brand was the gentle giant with unusual agility playing for the ferocious Chicago Bears. To test this brand in a small market, Perry, then approaching the peak of his popularity, appeared at a tiny take-out establishment, Hecky’s Bar-B.Q. in Evanston, Illinois, so that his planners could gauge public reaction. The experiment yielded encouraging results. Said Hecky, “I got a million dollars’ worth of advertisement for $300”33 (the contractual fee for which the forward-looking Hecky had signed Perry before he achieved visibility). Twenty-five hundred people showed up at the corner rib restaurant to see “The Fridge,” evidence of a successful test. Ideally, aspirants should test their brands at higher and higher levels of exposure. For instance, many politicians, trying some new ideas or even a new image, first appear in small, non-media-covered rallies to test for a reaction. A good example of this graduated-level testing strategy is comicbook artist and businessman Todd McFarlane, the creator of the graphic novel Spawn. McFarlane began developing and testing his brand—an avantgarde illustrator rendering complex three-dimensional drawings that allow his characters to credibly show emotion—in high school by drawing original comic-book heroes and testing them informally. When a professional baseball career didn’t materialize after college, McFarlane began submitting and in real terms testing his work to comic-book editors, eventually receiving around seven hundred rejection slips.34 After trying to break in on his own material, he repositioned himself by landing a penciling job—an initial concept step in creating a comic book—for an eleven-page backup story for Marvel’s Coyote. McFarlane was then asked to pencil several issues of Marvel’s Incredible Hulk, DC Comics’ Detective (a Batman title), and two issues of Batman: Year Two, increasing the visibility of his style. This work provided the opportunity to refine his

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emotionally driven brand, test it in a team environment, and deliver it to a broad marketplace. McFarlane raised the visibility stakes further when he began work on Marvel’s Amazing Spider-Man. His covers for Amazing Spider-Man helped catapult the title from the No. 9 to the No. 1 best-selling spot, and the sales figures and fan acceptance became the ultimate test of his brand. As a result, Marvel moved him to the next level—writing, penciling, and inking the now classic insecure superhero Spider-Man. His first issue sold more than 2.5 million copies.35 McFarlane was confident enough in his brand to leave Marvel, and he began to publish Spawn—an independent comic book that achieved an unprecedented $24 million in sales,36 became a movie and an HBO series, and generated a lucrative merchandise business. In the end, it was continuous brand testing that allowed McFarlane to develop the support and following for his innovative technique. In his case, what seemed like luck was clearly a systematic repositioning with an informal but effective testing base. Another highly useful technique is to test the brand with focus groups: people who are invited to discuss in detail a product, person, place, organization, or idea. Usually six to ten people meet for a few hours in a comfortable setting and are paid a small fee for their time. The invitees are often selected to match the characteristics of a brand’s target market, be it a demographic or lifestyle group, or some mix. The discussion is led by a moderator and is recorded for later analysis by skilled interpreters. Focus groups are commonly used in the political and entertainment sectors to generate feedback on a concept. In most cases, the focus group is used to react to specific proposed products and images, after which a concept can either be refined or discarded. Aspirants who can afford focus group testing will find the experience to be a valuable resource. Other testing procedures are used for different components of the brand. An aspirant can test a new look by appearing at basketball games, charity affairs, parties, or conferences attended by opinion leaders. Many planners often search for such events to use as a test situation because they are crowd controlled and a simulation for a larger breakout. New brands can also be tested on family members and friends for the same reasons. In small business and the professions, much of the testing is done informally through on-site exposure. It might be an ad in a local suburban newspaper that positions the visibility proposed dentist as having a certain set of personal attributes and professional skills. Or it could be a small-business aspirant appearing at a trade convention with a set of personality-driven brand characteristics that can be tested by the number of encounters,

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follow-ups, and eventual sales. Testing comes in many different forms. What is essential is that the aspirant treats the encounter as a test and develops some sort of metric to evaluate whether it’s a response from a focus group or the number of column mentions in the local newspaper. Brand testing can defy the logic of publicity and media exposure. Under normal circumstances, aspirants seek the greatest reach possible. In testing, however, the aspirant desires a small, controlled exposure. Depending on the target audience and the goals of the aspirant, media vehicles such as the New Yorker magazine might be too highly visible to serve as a test-marketing device for an experimental brand; any medium used for testing should be local, with the lower circulation and entry cost that can help aspirants test a new image, story, or brand without serious consequences if it is rejected.

Testing Gracious Living in Prison Many successful personality brands have relied on test situations as they evolved. Martha Stewart, who for most people suddenly emerged as the latest cooking and homes guru, began testing her original concept in the 1970s by offering catering services. The former stockbroker’s initial effort grew into a $1 million business over a decade.37 It was in 1982 that she wrote her first book, Entertaining,38 which became the first in a string of Stewart bestsellers. Stewart transformed into a complete multimedia icon when she partnered with Time Warner to publish Martha Stewart Living and produce a TV show of the same title. Up until that point, Martha Stewart’s brand was of a driven, innovative businesswoman. However, a constant threat to her brand was a dark side that was perpetuated by her alleged bad treatment of staff, friends, and spouse.39 Despite these criticisms, it is fair to say that Stewart was enormously successful and was on the A-list of entrepreneurs who made it in the last part of the twentieth century. It all seemed to come apart when Stewart was convicted of obstructing justice in an investigation into insider trading and was sentenced to prison. In many ways, this was the ultimate test. She was taken out of her privileged surroundings and like a reverse Cinderella sent to a place with minimal square footage, a stripped-down bed, and subpar cafeteria food. Stewart used this period to test her new brand, which was that of a redeemed star who had endured five months of repentance and was now reborn as a new version of herself—still creative, innovative, but nicer. During her prison stay, a number of announcements were released about her increased net worth, her plans for a revival of her syndicated lifestyle show, and her own version of Donald Trump’s The Apprentice on NBC.

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Upon her release from prison, Stewart’s publicists promoted a series of stories about her generosity in prison, her teaching lifestyle skills to fellow inmates, and their apparent reverence toward her. In retrospect, the Stewart team used the prison term as a period to transform Stewart’s attributes, test new concepts, relaunch her career, and regenerate her brand. Stewart not only survived the scandal and the perils of prison but was also able to integrate that experience into her new brand positioning. The evolving Stewart is now more personable, more willing to discuss her family, and has broadened her brand identity to potentially move in on the Oprah market.

BRAND REFINEMENT Once aspirants have found and tested an effective brand, they need to carefully refine it. Refinement is a term that often suggests a polished individual who has good taste and judgment. In the branding world, its meaning is to change the aspirant’s stretchable characteristics to meet the expectations of the sector and the market. Change can be as subtle as an appearance alteration for a sports star doing a product endorsement, or as major as a physician developing communication skills and other behavior and material attributes to enable a public relationship with a segmented media audience. In many cases the refinement process is conducted by coaches, trainers, and consultants who are retained for specific tasks. The retinue of advisers may include political consultant Karl Rove or media presentation consultant Karen Friedman. Or it could be someone like Jay Hunt, a stylist and personal dresser to celebrities such as Claudia Winkleman, Emma Forbes, Gaby Roslin, and Amanda Bryram.40 The consultant industry has become increasingly specialized in part because aspirants in fields as diverse as ballet and football expect to hire specialists who work exclusively in those sectors. The refinement principle itself is based on honing specific skills once considered natural attributes of lucky people. This ability to markedly change a person’s brand publicly was illustrated by innovative media consultant Jack Hilton who proclaimed, “I can make virtually anyone more acceptable and more palatable on television.”41

Coaching the Required Skills The necessary advice required to raise visibility, for a price, is available for aspirants in most sectors. Experts can teach aspirants to walk, talk, sit, argue, cross-examine, reflect, preach, paint, or drive race cars. The strategy is to coordinate these coaching skills to produce a cohesive product.

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To help ensure that the aspirant’s brand is refined—and made distinct— as thoroughly as possible, seven areas must be addressed: Signs and symbols Name Appearance (face and hair, stature, clothing) Voice (tone, accent, diction) Movement (gesture, walk) Behavior Material Like Richard Dyer’s “star qualities,” these areas help to meaningfully distinguish one personality from other talented, credentialed individuals. They serve as key components of extended brand identity, and are therefore integral to the success of a brand.

Signs and Symbols One way an aspirant communicates type and character is through signs and symbols. According to the late sociologist Erving Goffman, people “infuse [their] activity with signs that dramatically highlight and portray confirmatory facts that might otherwise remain unapparent or obscure.”42 Whereas signs are tangible objects, symbols communicate to the audience what character attributes they represent. Signs and symbols enable aspirants to enact behaviors that will elicit the desired responses in others. Consider someone who wants to project the type of “tough guy.” No matter what the sector, the aspirant must choose signs that communicate this type and that identify the aspirant as having a distinct character. The signs include clothing, gestures, facial expressions, walk, accessories like sunglasses, chains, and jewelry, and other elements. In Western culture, the tough guy is conveyed by a black leather jacket, a sneer or growl, and a swaggering walk. Even in Bulgaria, the burly, former interior ministry chief secretary Boiko Borissov acts and dresses like a tough guy—black leather jacket, stubble, and all—to reinforce his symbol as “The Sheriff” and “The General.”43 Symbols are particularly useful for organizations that wish to make specific impressions on their audiences. Purdue University’s marching band, one of the oldest and largest in the country, features the Golden Girl, the lead twirler whose image includes a gold-sequined outfit and gold boots, and, most prominently, long, blond hair. These signs add up to a complete impression. According to Bill Moffett, former director of bands, the Golden Girl represents “what Purdue stands for, and young girls and Americana everywhere.”44

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By choosing the appropriate signs and symbols, aspirants convey their types to the audience. Some signs by themselves, however, may be ambiguous. A black leather jacket may evoke an image of a tough guy, but it can also conjure up a metrosexual movie star or a person who appreciates fine goods. A diamond stud in one ear of a black leather jacket–clad star might reinforce the tough-guy image in today’s culture; but it can also communicate financial success and worldliness. A fist can signify an act of defiance or challenge; it can also signify a person in pain. The aspirant should also be careful to avoid clichés—overused, stereotyped symbols that appear imitative and don’t impress audiences. CEO Joe Moglia of TD Ameritrade was for sixteen years a football coach before he became a hard-charging business executive, using the unusual set of signs and symbols of his former profession.45 In his years as a coach including two as the defensive coordinator for Dartmouth College, he developed a set of precepts that were based on his coaching experiences. He brands himself as a business leader with the values, work ethic, and philosophy of a successful football coach. His book Coach Yourself to Success: Winning the Investment Game46 shows him on the cover dressed in a business suit holding a football, which symbolizes the unification of his brand. In addition, when he gives interviews and discusses his business philosophy, he uses the language of football terminology and translates it into how he runs his company.

Name An individual’s name is a particular sign that can convey a great deal about the person. For this reason, many aspirants change their birth names in pursuit of high visibility. In the entertainment sector, name changing is an established tradition; in other sectors, such as business and politics, name changing may produce more costs than benefits. In the 1980s, candidate Gary Hart suffered adverse publicity when it was revealed that he had changed his name from Hartpence to Hart—a clue, according to a number of critics, that Hart wasn’t “authentic” enough to be president. In business and the professions, name changing is not customary, but professionals can take on nicknames such as Jack Welch’s “Neutron Jack” or South Carolina lawyer Bill Green’s “The Heavy Hitter.” In sectors in which name changing is more acceptable, aspirants should choose names that are congruent with their characters. Certain names, either given or chosen, would be clear liabilities for a planned character. A male actor whose first name is Fran might not be considered to play the character of a tough guy. An actress whose name is Zelda Dinkelheimer

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might have credibility problems trying to become a love goddess. Neutral names, on the other hand, such as John Smith or Jane Adams, would not necessarily impede success in playing these types, but they neither reinforce aspirants’ types nor create distinctiveness. A name change can have a dramatic effect on the audience’s perception of an aspirant. For example, can there be a more appropriate name for a suspense master than M. Night Shyamalan? The writer-director-producer who is known for suspense thrillers (The Sixth Sense, The Others, The Village) and surprising, paradoxical endings was born Manoj Nelliyattu Shyamalan in Madras, India.47 While his last name carries with it enigmatic undertones—ideal for the sector he has chosen—he retained his first initial and dropped his middle name in favor of the suspenseful and unusual “Night.” Shyamalan’s name changes repositioned his identity and made him seem more likely a producer of such foreboding films. Magician Chris Angel was born Christopher Sarantakos, a name that may have served him well if he aspired to be a writer. But his goal was to become a mass-media entertainer, and that sector rewards easily pronounced names that are associated with their craft. Following are the original and new names of well-known individuals. How many of us would know these stars if we saw only their birth names at the left? Charles Lutwidge Dodgson

Lewis Carroll

Thomas Cruise Mapother IV

Tom Cruise

William Board

Billy Idol

Larry Zieger

Larry King

Susan Abigail Tomalin

Susan Sarandon

Gordon Matthew Sumner

Sting

Jeff Atkins

Ja Rule

Alicia Augello Cook

Alicia Keys

Joan Sandra Molinsky

Joan Rivers

Allen Konigsberg

Woody Allen

Bette Joan Perske

Lauren Bacall

Catherine Dorleac

Catherine Deneuve

Melvin Kaminsky

Mel Brooks

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Margaret Hyra

Meg Ryan

Bernard Schwartz

Tony Curtis

Henry John Deutschendorf Jr.

John Denver

Truman Streckfus Persons

Truman Capote

David Green

David Ben-Gurion

Robert Zimmerman

Bob Dylan

Henri Donat Mathieu

Yves St. Laurent

Larry Johnson

Maurice Starr

Richard Starkey

Ringo Starr

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Some of these aspirants changed their names to fit sector expectations, conceal their ethnic origins, or shorten their names. Aspirants within certain sectors change their American names into foreign names to gain character and credibility. They believe that an ethnic name carries more weight in their sector, and this is the very reason why American ballerina Alice Marks changed her name to Alicia Markova. Young American violinists might go further if they change their names to Russian or Eastern European names such as Horowitz, Perlman, and Oistrakh. The aspirant whose name is a liability needs to generate a list of possible new names, just as a company does for a new brand of soap or ice cream. Thus an American ice cream company chooses a name “HaagenDazs” that suggests northern European origins for its ice cream, even though the words are meaningless in any language. Once names are generated, they have to be evaluated according to certain criteria: • Memorability: Names that are easy to remember and pronounce are preferred. Generally, shorter names are easier to remember, as are those that call up pictures, such as Tiger Woods, Courtney Love, Alicia Keys, and Michelle Branch. • Suitability: Names should reinforce the aspirant’s chosen character. Some people are fortunate to be born with names that project their later images: Oscar de la Renta as a designer or Henry Louis Gates, Jr., as an academic. Many others need to change names to achieve suitability, as in the case of Mark Vincent’s changing his name to Vin Diesel. Such name changes help to round out the desired image.

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• Distinctiveness: The Baldwin brothers can easily be confused. There are over half a dozen Smiths in the National Basketball League, but only one Dwyane “Flash” Wade. Birdie Kim, professional golfer, once known as Ju Yun Kim, changed her name to distinguish herself from the other six Kims on the circuit.48 In this example, she managed also to turn her name into a nickname. An example of a name change that meets all three criteria—memorable, suitable, and distinctive—is that of the former Steveland Morris Hardaway, a young blind musician who auditioned for Berry Gordy, was signed to a contract, and was given a new name on the spot—Stevie Wonder. Ideally, one or a few names will pass these tests. If not, the original name may have to stand. Currently, more aspirants with ethnic names are keeping them: Monica Belucci, Famke Janssen, and Nelly Furtado, among others. In sports, players often stick with their names but acquire or create nicknames that give them memorability: Babe meant Babe Ruth; Gabi, Gabriella Sabatini; Ronaldo, Ronaldo Luiz Nazario de Lima; and Pelé, Edson Arantes do Nascimento. Aspirants have to decide whether their names are signs that support or subtract from their intended characters and whether the sector will support a change.

Appearance Many of the cues to character are visual, including impressions that come from an aspirant’s face, hairstyle, stature, and clothing. Despite the accusations that appearance changes are superficial and lack substance, aspirants must now respond to a marketplace that is accustomed to reading skill and competence through visuals. What are the audience expectations for business leaders, surgeons, or fashion designers? Each sector has its own set of rules and acceptable variances from those rules. So a business leader who is trying to invigorate the culture of an organization might find that to do that, he or she needs to look youthful, lose weight, and adopt a fashionable hairstyle. After all, a business leader asking for exceptional performance from a staff needs to demonstrate vigor, energy, and discipline. A leader’s appearance is only one aspect of what can reshape an organization’s self-image, but in an increasingly competitive environment, it has become a key factor. Certain types require certain faces to play them. A woman wanting to be cast as a seductress most likely needs to have well-defined features, clear skin, and straight teeth. On the other hand, a tough-guy type permits

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a broad range of faces: They can be weathered like Viggo Mortensen’s, baby-faced like Keanu Reeves’, handsome like Colin Farrell’s. In politics, business, or religion, the appearance latitude is even greater. Evangelical celebrity Rick Warren, author of the best-selling book Purpose Driven Life, heads the 22,000-member Saddleback ministry in Lake Forest, California.49 Warren’s usual appearance is unlike the typical button-down suit and white shirt evangelical. He preaches in casual clothes to identify with his suburban, Southern Californian community. Many of the techniques that change appearance come from the old Hollywood factory system, whose fashion designers, makeup artists, and body rejuvenators were the best at their trade. Their laundry list of innovations, according to author Penny Stallings, included “lip gloss, false fingernails, hair sprays, setting lotions, toupees, body makeup, many hair dyes and lighteners, hair weaving, cold cream, skin freshener, and false eyelashes, not to mention various kinds of prostheses for augmenting body parts.”50 It was in Hollywood that it became common to fix noses, straighten teeth, eliminate body hair—to generally create people who met the character expectations of the movie-going audience. Today, appearance modification is common in many nonentertainment sectors. The refinement of politicians often includes the use of appearance transformation techniques. John Howard’s image consultants started working on the Australian prime minister’s physical appearance years before his reelection in 2004. By then, there was no trace of the “awkward, nerdy-looking guy with thick glasses and unruly eyebrows”51 who became a politician in 1974, only an “impeccably groomed and fit 66-year-old.”52 Howard won resoundingly over his rival Mark Latham, who unlike Howard, resisted similar appearance refinement. While there have been many advances in cosmetic surgery, body type has been historically fixed, and in some instances not much has been done. Danny DeVito, Roberto Benini, Jonathan Taylor Thomas—five feet tall, five feet two inches tall, and five feet four inches tall, respectively—are going to remain quite short, which, because of their intelligent counterpositioning, has worked to their advantage. Other performers with unalterable physical characteristics may require adroit camera work to disguise such features. Characteristics that can be changed—breast augmentation, buttock implants, chin lifts, and cheekbone surgery, for instance—can cause even first cousins to fail to recognize the visibility aspirant. And even more tellingly, what was once considered unfixable such as height is now being adjusted surgically in countries like China, which means that being a small character actor may well become a choice, not a preordained brand positioning.53

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The appearance factor has woven its way into audience consciousness worldwide. The image of Pamela Anderson’s body covered with only three lettuce leaves, coupled with the succinct line “Go Vegetarian,” packed a powerful one-two punch in the conservative Philippines. This seemingly disconnected message was the unusual product of the marriage of an animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and Pamela Anderson’s well-known voluptuous body.54 The message was that if you want this body, stay away from meat! The campaign was a textbook case of how to scan a market—protecting animals—find a niche that is untapped—eating healthy—and then please and startle the consumer with an unexpected presentational style—the well-known Anderson removing her clothes to create publicity for a cause. However, wearing clothes can have virtues. Aspirants have many opportunities to transmit messages about character through adroit clothing choice. Color, style, fabric, texture, and other elements can all be manipulated to create distinct “looks.” Chefs normally wear white uniforms—unless they are trying to project the image of a different type of chef. Television star chef Bobby Flay on the cover of his DVD wears a short-sleeve plaid button-down shirt, which suggests his informality and “regular-guy image” that helps distinguish him from his competition. Each role and type has a cultural dress code, and depending on whether they are seeking to meet audience expectations or strategically break them, aspirants need to obey or ignore these codes accordingly. For example, clothing can be used to alter impressions of size. What can a short business executive do to appear to possess authority? James G. Gray, Jr., an image and wardrobe consultant and author of The Winning Image: Present Yourself with Confidence and Style for Career Success, observed, “The small person needs to appear more authoritarian to maximize status and minimize lack of height. They also need to create a presence. I always suggest high authority, dark clothing—a pinstripe suit, a white, buttondown shirt—because contrast is very important for a small person. It adds dimension and depth.”55 At the same time, the businessperson must show some flexibility within the cultural code, depending on the event. Attending a large company picnic in a pinstripe suit would probably draw negative comments. However, although adjusting one’s clothing to different settings is called for, dress consistency is just as important. The media analyst who wears a regular tie one day and a bow tie the next will send inconsistent signals, which, when magnified by the media, can dilute image impact. A model of consistency is financial analyst Jim Cramer; on his hit MSNBC cable show

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Mad Money, Cramer is a whirling, high energy exponent of fast-response investing. He reinforces his style by not only moving quickly around the stage floor and pounding the table but also by projecting an informal, almost chaotic appearance, which is characterized by a rumpled, seemingly sweatdrenched rolled up sleeve dress shirt with an askew tie. Ideally, the sector, skill base, and appearance should reinforce each other in a meaningful and consistent manner. Irene Valenti is president of Valenti International, which her advertisements bill as a “top match making specialist.” One of her ads presents her wearing a pink tailored suit, matching ankle strap pink high heels, and a French manicure. The background shot is of an upper-class foyer with seemingly classic oil paintings in the background.56 The appearance and message are perfectly coordinated. If the client wants a discerning and class-based match, the president serves as an appropriate facilitator of the possible connection and is a visual representation of the brand. When clothes are used to define character as in the Cramer and Valenti examples, they become an extension of the aspirant’s personality and brand positioning. In their best possible use, they become trademarks: Elton John’s platform shoes, George Will’s bow tie, Mary Kay’s pink Cadillacs, and Bill Gates’ oxford shirt and sweater vest.

Voice “You see this creature with her kerbstone English, the English that will keep ’er in the gutter to the end of her days,” says Henry Higgins. “Well, sir, in three months I could pass that girl off as a duchess at an ambassador’s garden party.”57 The aspirant’s voice—tone, accent, and diction—is another important conveyor of character. One of the reasons pro wrestling star Jesse Ventura won an improbable election for governor of Minnesota was his voice. Despite his overexposure as almost a pro wrestler cartoon character, the deep, hoarse, monotone resonance of his voice carried authority. It gave his sometimes unfocused, generalized statements a sense of gravity and seriousness that his critics would argue was undeserved. In contrast, a frequent criticism of former president George H. W. Bush was that he often spoke in a flat, pinched tone, which seemed inconsistent with the rest of his appearance and his role as president. Most politicians, in fact, now question their own vocal impact. Fortunately, training can alter voices, admittedly within limits.

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Accent is also important. To be candidates for national anchor positions, TV newscasters must shed their Southern drawls or Boston accents; the Midwest accent is the broadcaster’s norm. Foreign accents can be a liability in some careers, while in others, they can be an asset. The former secretary of state Henry Kissinger sounded more profound and worldly because of his German accent and worked hard to keep it; the same words uttered in unaccented, American English would not make as deep an impression. Arnold Schwarzenegger may not sound polished, but his robotic, accented pronouncements carry simultaneously a threatening and yet softening comical tone and leaves the audience frequently in a state of suspension on his positions. Another dimension of voice is diction, the ability to speak the language precisely and with appropriate word choice. We saw how Eliza Doolittle was doomed to be a flower girl all her life if stuck with her Cockney dialect. Diction is still perceived as an indicator of class origins and, thus, character. Many aspirants of lower-class origin consciously learn middle-class language as they rise in visibility. Conversely, middle-class actors who want to play “street” characters need lessons in language downgrading, and foreign athletes playing in America need language upgrading. With the increasing importance of media to personal branding in all sectors, a premium is placed on language skills, and voice trainers have emerged as a subindustry.

Movement What is the relationship between movement and character? In most sectors of visibility, movement has three general dimensions: First, aspirants’ movements need to be natural, to show that they are at home in their sectors; second, their movements need to communicate a sense that they are in control over whatever situation is at hand; and third, their movements need to create a personal style. In the business sector, one enters an office and immediately begins to collect impressions from people’s nonverbal cues: How comfortable does he seem in his environment? Does she have a brisk walk that suggests youthfulness and determination, or is it a slow, shuffling style, communicating that she is unhappy in her job? An example of how all three dimensions work together in a different sector is daytime television host and comedian Ellen DeGeneres and her interaction with TV DJ Tony Okungbowa, who plays a variety of popular music. After DeGeneres finishes her monologue, she gives Tony the fourword cue—“Tony, make me dance!”—and she gyrates through the audience

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and then onto the set again to her center stage chair. In response, Okungbowa shimmies his upper body to the music and laughs at seemingly every nuance and beat of the entire extravaganza.58 The seemingly innocuous setup for the interview establishes DeGeneres’ character as a cool, youthful interviewer with no pretensions and her sidekick as an uncritical Greek chorus. In the sports sector, consider how movement varies among professional basketball players. They can be slashing and darting like Allen Iverson, ponderously intimidating like the “Gentle Giant” Shaquille O’Neal, or graceful and disciplined like Sue Bird. Yet in spite of these movement differences, all three players express an alertness, an awareness of contact, as they orchestrate the relationship among the court, the bench, the officials, and the spectators. They point, rally the crowd, connect with coplayers, and, even in packed stadiums, manage to close off distractions and listen to the coach discuss strategy. All three have mastered the key movements that help them dominate their sector.

Behavior That an individual’s behavior communicates character was a precept of the great acting coach Konstantin Stanislavski. Sonia Moore explained the Stanislavski approach: It is important for an actor to see the character he builds in terms of actions. In two and a half hours on the stage, an actor must project “the life of a human spirit”; during every moment, therefore, he must use actions which will express that life. [In the Stanislavski System], if an action helps to express the character, it is artistically right; if it does not, it is wrong. An action cannot be accidental or superfluous. The choice of actions must be guided by the main idea of the play and of the role.59 In achieving their transformations, aspirants should portray their character convincingly, not just on stage but rather in all facets of life. Still, the acting principle applies: Certain behaviors are culturally consistent with certain characters, others not. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is not going to curse, gorge himself, or dance in discos. It is appropriate for him to act with dignity and coolness, even aloofness. But this would be counterproductive behavior for other highly visible people.

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Dan Brown’s Alter Ego It is a natural tendency for readers to imagine the author of a novel as someone who is so like—or at least close to—his or her protagonist. Such is the case with Dan Brown, author of Angels & Demons and the Da Vinci Code, and the man responsible for the “Da Vinci Delirium.”60 His novels have been translated into forty-two languages and have so far sold over 18 million copies,61 and the Da Vinci Code is the subject of a movie starring Tom Hanks. It is arguable that no other fiction author has ever had a bigger and more controversial idea than Brown. It’s not hard to believe that such a convoluted and provocative concept—an often sinister connection between the occult, science, and the Catholic Church—would stem from a flamboyant, irreverent, wild-living writer. But those who imagine the author to be as thrilling and compelling as Robert Langdon—the fictional Harvard symbologist who, in Brown’s novels lives through more adventures than anyone would ever want to bargain for—will be disappointed to find that Brown is his star’s antithesis. The best-selling author lives quietly with his wife Blythe in bucolic Exeter, New Hampshire. He writes his twist-ridden plots in his secluded loft, far from his stories’ exotic locations. He plays tennis occasionally, and like many deskridden executives, he takes hourly breaks from writing to do a few sets of stretches, sit-ups and push-ups. Would Brown be better off reconciling his own behavior with that of his protagonist to increase his visibility? In the fictional book sector, the author doesn’t have to be his character. Since his profession is writing and he rarely surfaces except to promote his books, the behavior and product connection is not as critical as it is in other sectors and subsectors. On the other hand, behavior is more important in the self-help book sector where Suzanne Somers is a living embodiment of her work and the audience demands it for credibility. The fictional Langdon’s behavior, perhaps not so ironically, is fully developed through the Internet, video games, and other modern technology innovations as if he were a real person.

The definition of culturally acceptable behavior changes over time. In business, the range has widened considerably. More organizations are adopting the independent behavior of entrepreneurism. Even office romance is increasing, as more companies tacitly ignore such behavior, as long as the parties are discreet and the affairs don’t involve pressure from a superior and don’t take place in conjunction with other more high profile controversies. In politics and even in many religions, divorce among leaders is now routinely accepted. Film stars as well find more liberal public sentiment toward their public behavior. In the 1950s, when Elizabeth Taylor drew Eddie Fisher away from Debbie Reynolds and broke up their marriage, her popularity fell. Ingrid Bergman’s career plummeted when she abandoned

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her husband and child to live with director Roberto Rossellini. Today, the public’s attitude toward these affairs of the heart is generally different. Actors and actresses not only live together out of wedlock but also raise families: Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell are unmarried with four children (two of whom are Hawn’s by her first husband and one is Russell’s from his previous marriage). Still, there are limits to public acceptability, and failure to heed cultural taboos can be disastrous for the aspirant. A highly visible person can use an unexpected behavior to shape an entire institution. The CEO of Sun Microsystems, Scott McNealy, regularly plays hockey.62 The multimillionaire skates in grimy, run-down rinks where he is accepted as an equal. His teammates are often Sun employees who understand that McNealy is to be banged around just like everyone else. The message to his employees and competitors is not hard to translate—rough, driving, casual, and nonconventional. While other CEOs of computer companies are portrayed as shopping for antiques or playing platform tennis, McNealy is smashing software engineers into the boards, and it is a message to competitors such as Microsoft to watch out. Highly successful sculptor Michael Heizer modified his behavior in order to project a character more consistent with his artistic work. The Nevada-based artist, who commutes from his high desert enclave to New York and Los Angeles to do commissioned work and network with the art community, used to be a fixture at dinners at Odeon and parties at Chateau Marmont with Hollywood celebrities. But suddenly, he gave up the celebrity social life. “They’re [the dinners and the parties] frivolous, I’m not,”63 explained Heizer. The artist, who was partly responsible for taking sculpture outdoors in the 1960s, no longer felt the need to brush elbows with the stars frequently to maintain his aura. Besides, elegant parties and dinners were contradictory to his image as a serious artist who “just want[s] to be left alone.”64 Heizer has adopted a low-key, worn looking rancher persona that reinforces his outsider artistic credibility. While in some cases such a shift to insulated, unconventional behavior might hinder the development of high visibility, in Heizer’s case it resulted in realigning his character with critics’ and buyers’ expectations of his artistic purity.

Material Material is the content that the aspirant brings to the public. Preachers need attention-getting material for their sermons. They need to incorporate controversial interpretations, inspiring stories, community concerns, or political issues to help refine their image with congregations. Actors and actresses must also choose their material carefully. If actors play comedy

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roles early in their careers, this material may get in their way later when they want to switch to drama. Politicians must likewise develop their material carefully. Their messages—speeches, press conferences, statements, and advertisements—must carry the content and tone that will win the most votes. Businesspeople must credibly demonstrate strategic foresight, and a unique perspective of what constitutes competitiveness in their industries. The importance of material can be seen in the refinement of Daria Morgendorffer. Her performance material—scenes, dialogues, and her online diary—allow her to exhibit a number of human feelings. In addition, Morgendorffer is given communication settings that feature her relationships with cartoon characters that are real people with three-dimensional qualities. Her writers and artists instill Morgendorffer and her supporting characters with feelings with which the MTV generation can identify. Heizer also conveys his character through adroit—and strategic—choice of material. His most famous work, “Double Negative,” consists of a 1,500foot-long, 50-foot-deep, 30-foot-wide trench between the facing slopes of the Mormon Mesa, northwest of Overton, Nevada,65 which he constructed from 1969 to 1970. The work negates the traditional view of art as a process of creation because it was constructed through subtraction and entailed displacement of about 240,000 tons of rock.66 Heizer’s material is essential to projecting a certain character: a reclusive artist with a dark view of the world—a character that has proved extremely effective with benefactors in the art sector, who are now underwriting his newest project, City. An illustration of how material can influence the public’s perception of a sector is the example of Clyde Kuehn, a recently retired judge on the appellate court of Illinois’ fifth district. Upon his retirement and movement into a private legal practice, the downstate Illinois judge received a front page Chicago Tribune profile discussing his style of authoring opinions on cases. Unlike most other judges, Kuehn spent much of his time painstakingly forming a legal opinion that often resembled the writing of a “detective novelist, newspaper columnist, a poet”67 more than a cold, distant legal document. The judge had his reasons as he felt that his getting deeply into the cases gave him a perspective that enabled him to come up with judicious decisions. While there are critics of this style, there is no question that the judge’s material was of such unique and differentiated quality that it thrust him into the public sphere as an innovator and someone who counted. Aspirants and mature personal and professional brands alike need to undertake considerable work to develop and refine into a fully believable character. They must understand the role, choose the most fitting type of

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person to project, test that brand, and distinguish themselves from competitors by developing a convincing identity through the choice of signs, name, appearance, voice, movement, behavior, and material. This is a process that never ends. Personal and professional brands must periodically reassess their public images to see whether the brand they are trying to transmit and the one the audience receives are the same, and whether the intended brand remains relevant to the target constituency. When the public brand departs too much from the intended one, work must be undertaken to repair or revise it. Image makers must help aspirants both monitor their images and improve and expand them.

BRAND REALIZATION The question of how extensively and permanently the aspirant is transformed is central to the pursuit of high visibility. Drafting the blueprint and selecting the right signs, name, appearance, behavior, and other factors are only part of the creation of the brand. To complete their quest for high visibility and bring the blueprint to life, aspirants have to make real the transformation within themselves. The completeness with which one believes in one’s own transformation method is often determined by how credible the transformed self is with audiences. The four primary means by which aspirants can be helped to realize their transformation are behavior modification, mentoring, situational transformation, and acting-based transformation.

Behavior Modification The most common means aspirants use to achieve transformation is behavior modification: the skilled use of rewards and reinforcements to effect changes in behavior. One reason behavior modification is so popular is that it’s a process with which we all have experience. In addition, it can be an efficient way to improve skills because the learning environment can be completely controlled. Trainers instruct aspirants to conduct meetings with authority, sing in a certain manner, walk with long strides, use certain debate tactics, or greet patients in a particular way. When the aspirants perform the “right” way, they are rewarded with smiles, applause, and encouragement. In contrast, when the right behavior is not produced, the response is silence, criticism, or even rebuke. Gradually the aspirant modifies the behavior, adopting the characteristics of the role, type, and other brand-related requirements desired.

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Unfortunately, even when behavior modification is successful, some aspirants do not feel comfortable with the new self—the transformation has not been made “real.” Perhaps the changes felt superficial or the transformer was unskilled in the process. The danger with behavior modification is that the aspirants will not discover their new brand by themselves, and without the constant stimulus for change from behavior modification, they will revert to the old character. Aspirants may be told that they are transformed, yet they may still sense a discrepancy between their new selves and the never truly abandoned old selves. Equally importantly, the targeted market might also sense the discrepancy. When this happens, a deeper transformation technique might be tried.

Mentoring In mentoring, the aspirant is presented with one or more persons to emulate. This can be done in two ways. The mentor may work directly with the aspirant as a coach, teacher, or adviser whose talents and behaviors the aspirant is taught to mirror. According to Mark Morrison, “a mentor relationship involves someone of talent and ability who is attracted to and nurtures someone of talent and ability, and it is reciprocal.”68 The alternative is for aspirants to study the film clips, recordings, speeches, or writings of established personalities and model themselves after those individuals. Direct mentoring is typically more effective, but also more costly. A mentor who is on the scene can show a great deal of patience, add encouragement, and set the pace for change. In a typical example, a political aspirant might engage a mentor to specifically debate a candidate for a statewide office. The essential elements of the mentoring relationship should include the mentor’s demonstrating and discussing various forms of argument and strategy and viewing the candidate on videotape. A key component is asking the candidate to determine which content, language, and style changes are most effective and comfortable. This relationship turn is critical because the candidate is making choices as to which particular character options are working. In this manner, the process is encouraging buy-in of the transformation, and coercive elements that may be used in behavior modification are not necessary. The end point of mentoring in this case should be a candidate’s feeling fully empowered about his or her communication skills and probably over time be able to act without the watchful eye of the mentor. Ideally, the aspirant will find a mentor who will place the aspirant’s interests above his or her own. “Mentors are people who are willing to give

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away a lot of what they know in a noncompetitive way,” said psychologist Marilyn Ruman.69 The result can be a more carefully conducted transformation—not the rush to market that may characterize transformations supervised by those with a financial stake in the aspirants’ success. With the indirect type of mentor transformation, the role model may never even know of the relationship. American Idol champion Fantasia Barrino demonstrated wide vocal flexibility to win the competition. While other contestants excelled in some genres and failed in others, Fantasia changed styles to suit the particular song assigned to her. This is because in the years leading to her AI audition, Fantasia had observed and learned by listening to diverse types of music, including that of Monica, Brandy, Aretha Franklin, Pink, and Aerosmith. While hardly the transformation method of choice, electronic role modeling and other observation of brand leaders is often the only option. One danger of mentored transformations is that it can lead to an excess of imitation. This was the case with former tennis champion Andrea Jaeger, who was mentored by her father, an ex-boxer. Jaeger, noted as a combative and explosive tennis player, was both highly criticized and admired for her tactics. Her style may well be explained by the mentoring and rolemodeling process conducted by her father. Jaeger acknowledged: “My dad and I are so much alike, it’s a joke. We’re both hot-tempered and we’re both stubborn.”70

Situational Transformation Situational transformation places aspirants in unfamiliar situations to help develop their new brands. For example, instead of undergoing behavior modification or mentoring, the aspiring comic goes right onstage and performs. This is the highest realization risk and the rewards can be great, but the downside of immediate and glaring exposure can be overwhelming. The success of this strategy depends upon the person’s ability to read the environment quickly, call upon past experiences in other areas to strengthen the performance, and to look for ways to connect quickly with that target audience. For example, in almost all sectors it is essential to get a response whether it’s a laugh, a puzzled look, or a spontaneous recognition of a common experience. It all serves to bond and to move the personal brand experiment forward. Situational transformation could also be called the lightning connection as all the elements of an impromptu performance are enacted at high stakes.

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In person branding, situational transformation is reminiscent of the sink-or-swim method of swimming instruction. Poetry readings in clubs and coffeehouses across the country provide the opportunity for insurance agents, nurses, or police officers to get up on stage in a realistic setting and test themselves under fire. In the business sector, the same principle applies. The young commodities broker is told to appear on cable TV and pitch the firm’s track record and services, or the product manager is thrust into the spotlight during a liability crisis or product recall. These aspirants instantly need to analyze their markets, prepare their material, and deliver it. While it is difficult to predict what situations any aspirant might be thrown into, developing the skill of reading audience responses, quickly comprehending material, and being able to respond are important behaviors that can be transferred to many sectors. There is some evidence, for example, that avid video game players develop improved visual skills that enable them to more quickly process visual information.71 It’s not much of a stretch to believe that many of these players will react well when thrown into unexpected circumstances. In many cases, the pragmatic need for rapid adaptation to high visibility can be a powerful transformer. However, situational transformation is not mutually exclusive from other realization techniques as behavior modification and mentoring can help prepare aspirants for opportunities. The downside of situational transformation is that the aspirant may not be prepared for the visibility spotlight, and failure could damage any future attempts at person branding.

Acting-Based Transformation All of the foregoing methods attempt to instill certain behaviors and values into aspirants: In behavior modification, the aspirant is encouraged to develop behaviors through a system of rewards and punishment; in mentoring, the aspirant emulates a role model; in situational transformation, the environment forces the aspirant to experience, absorb, and reproduce the appropriate behavior. With acting-based transformation, the agent of change is primarily within the aspirant, with the transformer attempting to draw out of the student the maximum flexibility and adaptability to change. The director or transformer has a blueprint type in mind—the role—but it is the aspirants who must place themselves in the frame of mind in which transformation can most effectively be achieved. In acting-based transformations, the aspirant is encouraged to achieve a state of mind in which his or her own style—composed of actions that are

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automatic or “second nature”—can be viewed objectively, isolated, and at least partially set aside. In one sense, aspirants are being asked to suspend their real self to take on a set of attributes—such as behavior, voice, and appearance—that constitute the new desired brand. Then the coach and the aspirant select the actions that will most convincingly project the new character and rehearse it often enough that it becomes habit. The real test of the acting-based transformation is its authenticity. It is usually the marketplace that will determine whether the role playing is convincing to watch the movie, invest in the financial seminar, or attend a charity event. In the film The Candidate,72 Robert Redford’s character demonstrates the complexity of the acting-based transformation. He undergoes in the film an extensive role-playing transformation during which he is told how to dress, how to walk, what to say, and even how to react to adversity and handle his family problems. However, immediately after he is elected, he desperately huddles with his trusted adviser in a side room and plaintively pleads, “What do we do now?”—the ultimate nightmare for any personal brand, sponsor, endorser, licenser, or even lover. The Candidate example illustrates the problem with this method: In selecting the actions that express the new character, the aspirant may take on only the surface characteristics of the new self. The authentic character of the aspirant may remain unchanged. Acting-based exercises can create a persona, but they were not designed for true change. That distinction between expressing the new self and believing that one is the new self is critical. Aspirants who use acting-style transformation must be monitored for proof that their transformations are deep and complete.

THE THREE DEGREES OF TRANSFORMATION An incontrovertible fact of the branding process is that the trip through transformation is often accompanied by self-doubt and the need for major adjustments. The aspirant has to come to grips with a wide variety of change issues: Why did I transform? How do I relate to people in my new status? Will I be able to handle this new brand? The central idea that connects these questions is: Who am I now? The degree to which an aspirant can be transformed depends on the person’s stretch potential and drive, the resources available to assist in the transformation, and the sector’s requirements for success. Let’s consider the three major degrees of transformation—minimal, moderate, and extensive.

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Minimal Transformation Zhang Ziyi is a Chinese international actress who initially achieved high visibility through minimal transformation, which was the result of her being cast in a role that fit her personality and skills and did not necessarily require much direct refinement. She was discovered by the film director Zhang Yimou while he was looking for models for a shampoo commercial. In casting for his film The Road Home a year later, he said about Zhang, “I remembered her at the auditions as I needed a completely fresh person for the central role, of a girl falling for a teacher. I cast her. She couldn’t act very well at first, but she learns fast.”73 The response to the film was positive and critics were impressed with her performance. As New York Times critic Stephen Holden said, “Ms. Zhang’s intensely concentrated performance conveys a current of stubborn, obsessive passion lurking behind Di’s girlish wide-eyed innocence.”74 Zhang prior to this performance had an up and down career in which she quit dance and competitive gymnastics but won a national dance competition. Her breakout performance in The Road Home was a natural role, and director Zhang characterized the young actress’ performance in the film as a growth experience. He later praised her improving skills in subsequent films.75 Zhang was not initially on Ang Lee’s list when the internationally renowned director went casting for talent for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. After seeing her in The Road Home, however, Lee was convinced Zhang fit the role of Jen Yu (the young, high-flying martial artist). Her attention-getting performance in the film was praised by critics and Lee himself, who said, “In real life, she [Zhang] is the hidden dragon.”76 Zhang’s natural attributes fit the role so well that she had little need to transform herself to achieve a new brand positioning. Her gymnastic and dance skills were easily adaptable to the illusion of magic that was central to her film role. Her next role, appearing with Jackie Chan in Rush Hour 2, allowed Zhang to extend her brand as a demure martial arts expert and expand her target market to include Chan’s male-dominated audience. What followed were a series of Chinese-based films that emphasized her martial arts skills. In the next stages of Zhang’s career, she became viewed as more of a skilled actress and less of a natural fit. In moving to more dramatic roles such as 2046 and Memoirs of a Geisha, her characters demanded a wide set of emotions that weren’t required of her previous work. In describing her attitude toward her characters, she said, “I always look for [lives] I wouldn’t lead myself. I go to school, I come home, I make a film, I come home . . . because in my own personal life there would not be the possibil-

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ity to feel these kinds of experiences.”77 In doing so, Zhang in her film roles has succeeded in modifying her brand, which demanded better language skills and a stretch to characters well beyond her largely physical roles. Such subsector and sector shifts require an investment in brand generation, testing, and refinement. Shifting sectors always creates new problems. In redefining a brand, will the aspirant lose core followers? Can the aspirant find an image that positions her for new and different audiences? Typically, each successive transformation step will be more deliberate and painstaking than the previous ones. More is at stake because “personal brand equity”—the value of the brand—built up over the years may be lost as a result of a poorly managed shift.

Moderate Transformation An example of moderate transformation is that of Christie Hefner, chairman and chief executive officer of Playboy Enterprises, Inc. Hefner, of course, benefited from the family name. But just as important to her business success was the transformation she underwent during the seven years it took her to rise from trainee to president. The process included what her associates called “the most sophisticated on-the-job training of anybody they knew.”78 Said Hefner, “I think on the basis of education and learning, I’ve been profoundly transformed.”79 The transformation included such obvious strategies as changing her name from her mother’s (Gunn) to the family name of Hefner. More profoundly, she refined her skills and other indicators of leadership through role-modeling training and viewing her public performances. Says Hefner, “I think it really was as simple as doing, then watching, the effect of what I did. [I’d] give an interview and watch the tape and think, ‘That didn’t seem to come across the way I wanted it to. Why didn’t it?’ ”80 After reviewing tapes of her press interviews for style and appearance, she’d discuss her “performance” with advisers. It is obvious that Hefner is not only aware of her transformation and able to speak eloquently about it but also that when confronted with the need to make a significant transformation, she managed to retain control over the process. The concept behind Hefner’s transformation was well thought out, appropriate to both the business sectors in general and the Playboy situation in particular, where the need for competent management was matched by the importance of maintaining the Hefner mystique. Playboy’s theme had for years been that of the innovator, but the company’s fiscal condition had deteriorated severely in the 1970s. A new brand concept was needed to

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restore investor confidence and public interest. The concept of a female taking over Playboy—and the daughter of the founder, at that—was serendipity at its finest. However, to make it work, the only candidate for the job had to be transformed. A moderate transformation, allowing for the credible projection of the brand to the audience, was the appropriate strategy. Today, Playboy Enterprises, Inc., although it has had financial successes and failures, has grown into a legitimate, international multimedia publishing, entertainment, and licensing company.81 Christie Hefner has over the years become an industry leader, innovating and leading in many areas of Playboy’s empire. In doing so, she not only managed to replace her father as the head of the company but has expanded the role of women to running more than 60 percent of the organization’s divisions.82

Extensive Transformation Stelios Haji-Ioannou is an example of extensive transformation as he has made the choice of high visibility and built a consumer-centered brand that fully integrates his personal and corporate interests. He is the founder and chairman of EasyGroup, a conglomeration of discount based enterprises of 14 brands including an airline, cruise line, movie houses, and pizza delivery service. All of them are trademarked with the “Easy” label and set low prices and use computers to predict demand. The airline, EasyJet, is the flagship of the company and is now the fourth leading carrier of passengers in Europe.83 His ventures have not been without risk as there are estimates that he has lost as much as half of his fortune in pursuing his discount mission.84 Despite these setbacks, Stelios has branded his companies and himself as revolutionary risk-takers who in the end will not only persevere but change the business practices of their competition. In his transformation, Stelios has switched sides and become the ultimate valueseeking customer. Stelios did not start out or even appear as a promising prospect to run a discount empire. He was the son of one of the crown princes of the shipping business and seemed destined to follow in his family’s footsteps as aristocrats of the global transportation industry. He already had a fortune, and he was a successful businessman who had started his own shipping giant Stelmar. But that wasn’t enough; he sought to have impact, and with it, high visibility. His inspiration was encountering in business school the exploits of Virgin’s Richard Branson and realizing that a businessperson could use visibility to build a brand. His vehicle for high visibility was conceptualizing a low-priced, no-frills brand of different products and services. Stelios

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believes that his customers want a good value at low cost. As the leader of the company, he creates value by sharing customer experiences. As a result, Stelios can be found in one of his large economy cruise ships sitting in a windowless cabin and exchanging jokes and experiences with his customers. Or in one of his more famous episodes, he led eight of his employees on airline competitor Go’s inaugural flight wearing EasyJet’s trademarked orange suits and handing out free EasyJet tickets. Stelios says of his critics who do not share his vision, “People who are used to affluence need to start thinking like the common man.”85 His style and transformation have not gone unnoticed. Laura Haynes, director of the brand consulting company Appetite, in responding to the risks of such brand synergy, observed, “Heroes have feet of clay and one mistake can have a disproportionate impact across all parts of the business. Having said that, building a business around a personality rather than a product or service makes it easier to stretch into new areas. Stelios is also doing something more subtle. His personality is part of the brand, but there are other aspects to it, such as the idea of taking on the big bad guys.”86 Stelios is willing to stretch his brand seemingly across all businesses and become the ultimate lifestyle brand. In his persona, he embodies what his company represents and uses the resulting visibility to open new markets, challenge established brands, and seemingly have a great time doing it.

Making the Strategic Choice For most aspirants, the choices about how deeply to transform are crucial. But although these choices may seem intimately wrapped up in the individual aspirant’s unique situation, the actress, entertainment executive, and discount founder underwent some degree of transformation. The choices were in some cases more strategic than others, but there was a sense of an interaction between change and audience feedback. In a marketplace so competitive, the high visibility aspirant who is willing to consider the importance of change no matter how minimal or extensive is going to have an advantage. The choices that are discussed in this chapter do not suit every aspirant, sector, or audience. The high visibility aspirant is best served by auditing his or her current situation and then applying the appropriate choices. The techniques of transformation are evident in all sectors and levels of our culture. At a twenty-five-year Midwestern class reunion of one of the authors, the star surprise was the appearance of an attractive alumna who now lived in California. As a high school student, she had been shy, withdrawn, and certainly not memorable. In fact, she had described herself

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as “somebody who really didn’t know who she was.” In her modern reincarnation, she was dressed in California contemporary, tanned, trim, with radiant, highlighted hair. She talked about having left her Orthodox Jewish home shortly after high school and discovering herself in New York City and later in California. So dramatic a change was her new self from her old self that her former high school classmates were overwhelmed. The transformation of the Californian didn’t occur overnight, and it was not specifically arranged to surprise her former acquaintances. She had been evolving for a long period, something that we all, to some degree, do. The fact is that we are all capable of transformation. “What do I want to be now?” used to be a question only for entertainers and the very rich. If they faced great difficulties adjusting to changed identities and transformed lives, it was seen as divine justice, a fair price to pay in return for their inordinate wealth and fame. But high visibility is now available to more of us than ever before. How we build our visibility in the channels of distribution, convey our brands through the media, and sustain our visibility over time are the subjects of the final chapters of this book.

NOTES 1 _____, “Christina Aguilera: Biography,” www.christinaaguilera.com/bio.html, viewed January 19, 2005. 2 _____, “Christina Aguilera: Bio,” www.mtv.com/bands/az/aguilera_christina/ bio.jhtml, viewed January 19, 2005. 3 Christina Saraceno, “Christina Wins Latin Grammy,” www.rollingstone.com/ news/story/_/id/5918656/christinaaguilera?pageid=rs.ArtistArticles& pageregion=mainRegion&rnd=1108956812210&has-player=true&version= 6.0.12.1040, viewed January 19, 2005. 4 Robert Abele, “Stripped Teaser,” Maxim Magazine, January 2003, www.maximonline.com/entertainment/articles/article_5011.html, viewed February 15, 2005. 5 Jon Wiederhorn, “It’s Justin’s Night As Christina, Kelly Osbourne Fight At MTV Europe Awards,” www.vh1.com/artists/news/1480240/11062003/ aguilera_christina.jhtml, viewed February 15, 2005. 6 William Simon interviewed for High Visibility by Jane Steiner, December 1985. 7 _____, “North Woods Advertising Propels Denver Mayoral Candidate to Landslide Victory,” www.northwoodsadv.com/news/article.asp?recordid=115, viewed January 25, 2005.

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8 Benjamin Pohn, “Story of Chicago’s Very Own Man-Made Woman: Chili Pepper,” unpublished research paper, Northwestern University, December 6, 1985. 9 T.D. Jakes, Woman, Thou Art Loosed: Healing the Wounds of the Past (Shippensburg, Penn.: Treasure House, 1994). 10 _____, “Preacher Offers Solace to Shattered Souls,” edition.cnn.com/ SPECIALS/2001/americasbest/TIME/society.culture/pro.tdjakes.html, viewed February 2, 2005. 11 Ibid. 12 www.penguinputnam.com/static/packages/us/tdjakes/about.htm, viewed July 6, 2005. 13 _____, “25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America,” Time, February 2, 2005, www.time.com/time/covers/1101050207/photoessay/13.html, viewed February 2, 2005. 14 T.D. Jakes, He-Motions: Even Strong Men Struggle (New York: Putnam Adult, 2004). 15 _____, “Bishop T.D. Jakes’ Potter’s House Mass Choir Nab Grammy,” www.emigospel.com/artist/artist_news_story.aspx?aid=67781&iid=312708&tid =227, viewed March 3, 2005. 16 _____, “Country Music Has Strong Year in 2004 with Double Digit Sales Increase Over 2003,” www.cmaworld.com/news_publications/pr_common/ press_detail.asp?re=393&year=2005, viewed January 27, 2005. 17 “Million Dollar Club” (as of July 11, 2005), www.wtatour.com/global/includes/ TrackIt.asp?file=/global/Pdfs/rankings/2005/millionaires.pdf, viewed July 14, 2005. 18 C. M. Titus, “Magic: The Maintenance of Motown,” unpublished research paper, Northwestern University, December 12, 1985. 19 John Byrne, “How To Toot Your Own Horn,” BusinessWeek, November 3, 1986, p. 156. 20 Carol Vogel, “Talent Call: Hot New Artists Wanted,” New York Times, February 3, 2005, www.nytimes.com/2005/02/03/arts/design/03grea.html?hp, viewed February 3, 2005. 21 Orrin E. Klapp, Heroes, Villains, and Fools: Reflections of the American Character (San Diego: Aegis Publishing, 1972). 22 Penny Stallings and Howard Mandelbaum, Flesh and Fantasy (New York: Bell Publishing, 1978), p. 33.

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23 Edward C. Whitmont, The Symbolic Quest (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969), p. 100. 24 Jeffrey Kwatinetz and Jill Obmascik, “Bill Bradley and John Glenn: From Celebrityhood to the Senate,” unpublished research paper, Northwestern University, December 9, 1985. 25 Joe Klein, “The Right Stuff,” Rolling Stone, November 4, l983, p. 79. 26 Richard Dyer, Stars (London: British Film Institute Educational Advisory Service, 1979), pp. 105–107. 27 Emily Nussbaum, “Requiem for Daria,” slate.msn.com/?id=2060921, viewed February 1, 2005. 28 _____, “Toon Teen Daria Stars in Her First TV Film,” Associated Press, archives.cnn.com/2000/SHOWBIZ/TV/08/25/daria.ap/, viewed February 1, 2005. 29 Ibid. 30 Nussbaum. 31 Ibid. 32 Scott Galupo, “Donny Has Lots to ‘Say’,” Washington Times, January 18, 2005, www.washtimes.com/entertainment/20050117–093101–2698r.htm, viewed February 2, 2005. 33 Hecky Powell interviewed for High Visibility by Michael Sable, unpublished research paper, Northwestern University, December 23, 1985. 34 _____, “Todd McFarlane Complete Biography, Spawn.com, www.spawn.com/ info/todd/bio.long.aspx, viewed March 15, 2005. 35 Ibid. 36 _____, “Namco and Todd McFarlane Sign Licensing Agreement,” www.soulcalibur2.com/namco_tmp_announce.html, viewed February 23, 2005. 37 Peter Montoya, The Personal Branding Phenomenon (U.S: Personal Branding Press, 2002), p. 27. 38 Martha Stewart, Entertaining (New York: Clarkson Potter, 1982). 39 Jerry Oppenheimer, Martha Stewart: Just Desserts: The Unauthorized Biography (New York: William Morrow, 1997). 40 _____, “Expert Profile: Jay Hunt,” www.bbc.co.uk/health/profiles/jay_hunt.shtml, viewed February 3, 2005.

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41 Martha Hawtrey, “Jack Hilton: A Study of the Packaging of Celebrities,” unpublished research paper, Northwestern University, November 11, 1985. 42 Erving Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (London: Anchor Books, 1959), p. 26. 43 Rozalia Hristova, “The Big Story: Black Jacket and Black Belt,” www.sofiaecho.com/article/the-big-story/id_3885/catid_29/brojid_73, viewed February 23, 2005. 44 Clifford Terry, “The Golden Girl,” Chicago Tribune, October 23, l985, p. 3. 45 Sinclair Stewart, “TD Ameritrade CEOs a Brokerage Odd Couple,” Globe and Mail, June 24, 2005, pp. B1, 9. 46 Joe Moglia, Coach Yourself to Success: Winning the Investment Game (Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley, 2005). 47 _____, “M. Night Shyamalan,” www.ropeofsilicon.com/director.php?id=172, viewed February 7, 2005. 48 Dave Anderson, “Birdie Helps an Unknown Player Make a Name,” New York Times, June 27, 2005. 49 _____, “The 25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America,” Time, February 3, 2002, www.time.com/time/covers/1101050207/photoessay/index.html. 50 Stallings and Mandelbaum, p. 38. 51 Kathy Vozella, “Elections 2004: The Personalities,” www.pr.mq.edu.au/ macnews/ShowItem.asp?ItemID=300, viewed February 23, 2005. 52 Ibid. 53 Rob Gifford, “Chinese Risking Surgery for More Height,” NPR Weekend Edition, December 5, 2004, www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php? storyId=4203681, viewed July 12, 2005. 54 Jerome Aning, “Pamela Anderson Stars in Vegan Ad Campaign for Filipinos,” Inquirer News Service, September 27, 2004, news.inq7.net/nation/index.php? index=1&story_id=13068, viewed July 6, 2005. 55 Quoted in Beryl A. Reed, “Dress Codes for Candidates: How to Look the Part,” Campaigns and Elections, Summer, l981, pp. 40–45. 56 Advertisement from Smart Money, December 2004. 57 George Bernard Shaw, Pygmalion (New York: Pocket Books, copyright 1916), p. 11.

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58 Lola Ogunnaike, “He Toils, He Spins (on Daytime TV), He Makes ‘Ellen’ Boogie,” New York Times, February 7, 2005, www.nytimes.com/2005/02/07/ arts/television/07tony.html?th=&oref=login&pagewanted=print&position=, viewed February 10, 2005. 59 Sonia Moore, The Stanislavski System: The Professional Training of an Actor (New York: Viking Press, 1974), p. 66. 60 David Smith, “Veni Vidi Da Vinci,” The Observer, December 12, 2004, books.guardian.co.uk/departments/generalfiction/story/0,6000, 1372682,00.html, viewed February 10, 2005. 61 Ibid. 62 Kevin Maney, “CEO Fluid With Stick, Keeps Puck in Traffic,” USA Today, April 1, 1996, Section B, p. 1. Also see www.sun.com/aboutsun/media/ceo/ mgt_mcnealy.html, viewed on June 29, 2005. 63 Michael Kimmelman, “Art’s Last, Lonely Cowboy,” New York Times, February 6, 2005, www.nytimes.com/2005/02/06/magazine/06HEIZER.html? pagewanted=print&position=, viewed February 11, 2005. 64 Ibid. 65 _____, “Double Negative: The Work,” doublenegative.tarasen.net/ double_negative.html, viewed February 11, 2005. 66 Ibid. 67 E. A. Torriero, “Clyde Kuehn,” Chicago Tribune, July 4, 2005, p. 1. 68 Mark Morrison, “Mentors,” Los Angeles, June, 1984, p. 284. 69 Morrison, p. 234. 70 Barry McDermott, “Oh Were It Only a Racket,” Sports Illustrated, April 9, 1984, p. 41. 71 _____, “Study: Video Games Hone the Mind,” CBS News, May 28, 2003, www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/05/28/tech/main555921.shtml, viewed July 14, 2005. 72 The Candidate, Warner Brothers, 1972. 73 Roger Clarke, “Film: Hidden Heroine on the Warpath,” The Independent (London), September 24, 2004, pp. 10–11. 74 Ibid. 75 Nestor U. Torre, “Zhang Ziyi Stars in Seven New Films,” Philippine Daily Inquirer, October 2, 2004 (Lexis Nexis).

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76 Ang Lee, quoted in “Zhang Ziyi: Biography,” www.askmen.com/women/ actress_60/98c_zhang_ziyi.html, viewed February 11, 2005. 77 Elizabeth Weitzman, “Chinese Actress is an Emerging Star,” Seattle Times, August 31, 2005, p. G3. 78 Lally Weymouth, “The Princess of Playboy,” New York Times, June 21, 1982, pp. 32, 37. 79 Nina Harlan, “If Christie Hefner Didn’t Exist, the Playboy Promotional Department Would Have Invented Her,” unpublished research paper, Northwestern University, November 11, 1985. 80 Ibid. 81 Eric Herman, “Refinanced Debt Helps Playboy Boost Profit Outlook for Year,” Chicago Sun-Times, March 11, 2005, p. 69. 82 Susan Thea Posnock, “The Real Women of Playboy,” Folio, March 1, 2004, p. 40. 83 Georgia Flight, “Easy Does It All,” Business 2.0, August 2005, vol. 6, no. 7, pp. 68–74. 84 Luisa Kroll, “Easy.com, Easy Go,” Forbes Global, December 20, 2004, vol. 7, no. 22, p. 32. 85 William Underhill, “Next: No-Frills Pizza? The founder of EasyJet has plans for cruises, buses, phones . . .” Newsweek International, May 10, 2004, p. 44. 86 Richard Cree, “Stelios Haji-Ioannou,” Director, February 2004, vol. 57, no. 7, pp.46–51.

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delivering the brand

CHAPTER 9

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ersonal and professional brands reach different audiences through a variety of distribution channels. In traditional marketing, distribution channel refers to any specific way in which a product or service can be delivered, or communicated, to a market. This concept is just as valid when applied to the ways in which images of an individual’s brand—regardless of their field—are delivered to audiences. Suppose Governor Jennifer Granholm of Michigan wanted to inventory all the ways her image could reach the public. Her week might consist of: Monday—Hold a press conference; meet with interest groups; PR staff to upload press statement to the governor’s official Web site and send the monthly e-mail newsletter to subscribers and other supporters. Tuesday—Deliver policy speech; interview with local newspaper; meet with environmental advocates; volunteers distribute flyers summarizing the governor’s public policy positions to supporters. Wednesday—Walk in local parade; speak to meeting of a university board; appear on radio call-in show; PR staff to pitch feature stories to select media contacts, begin development of next newsletter, discuss blog strategy, and decide which speeches should be made available for podcast. Thursday—Meet with local mayor and other key officials; interview with a television news program; appear on a talk show; political consultant arranges survey to gauge receptiveness to the governor’s public policy statements.

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Friday—Host lunch for supporters; speak at a religious institution; appear at night ballgame. Saturday—Attend wedding of a major donor’s daughter; walk through inner-city neighborhood and meet with minority leaders and trade unions. As our schedule shows, aspirants to high visibility have a variety of choices available to them when designing and managing the delivery of their personal brands to audiences. Brands are distributed in four major distribution channel categories: formal performances, managed impressions, mentions, and products (see Figure 9–1). Increasingly, it is the nontraditional communication channels such as blogs, e-newsletters, podcasts, events, and satellite radio that determine the success or failure of an aspirant’s communication strategy. Formal performances consist of planned presentations made by visibility aspirants to their audiences, ranging from the televised testimony of former defense secretary turned political lobbyist William Cohen, to a live concert by Diana Krall, to the highly publicized summation by lawyer Thomas Mesereau, Jr., during Michael Jackson’s well-publicized trial. Formal performances include face-to-face performances (those presented before a live audience) and media performances (such as television, print, and the Internet). Managed impressions are the images that brands transmit to audiences through such channels as talk shows, press interviews, appearances at charitable and other events, and in public places, advertisements, pitched news stories and news releases, and photographs. The purpose of managed

Performances

Managed Impressions Brand

Audience Mentions

Products

Figure 9–1:

Brand Output

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impressions is to maintain or attain a certain level of public awareness, create or maintain a certain image, or raise the brand’s “fees.” Managed impressions include the brand’s “fee development” efforts, before, during, and after formal performances. The brand distributes informal, or free, impressions to the audience in order to stimulate the demand for their formal, or paid, performances. Local radio station disc jockeys who emcee the veterans’ parade send managed impressions to raise their own visibility with potential listeners. The result is greater popularity for their formal performances—their radio shows—with the payoff of a larger audience and, consequently, higher ratings. Managed impressions are not necessarily unrehearsed or relaxed ones but rather those that stimulate demand for the formal performance. Another type of image distributed by brands consists of mentions, impressions that are transmitted by reporters, gossip bloggers and columnists, feature writers, and media sources. Some mentions are unarranged and authentic. Many, however, are distributed by the brand’s staff in such a way that mentions appear to be authentic and spontaneous. The final form of distribution is through products—physical objects carrying the image of the brand (photos, dolls, cartoon strips) or mentioning the brand (buttons, bumper stickers, brand names and symbols). Such merchandise sales play a key role in the financial success of brands. In the motion picture industry, movie-affiliate merchandising began in 1937 with the movie Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs. That model in many respects defines the entertainment business today. The income stream from products is so attractive that when Arnold Schwarzenegger negotiated his contract for Terminator 3, it included a 20 percent share of merchandise and computer-game sales.1 These performances, impressions, mentions, and products can be delivered by different distribution channels. Jennifer Granholm can deliver a speech at a political rally, in a television studio, on a street corner, or in a neighborhood banquet hall; jazz vocalist Diana Krall can perform in a concert hall, in an outdoor arena, over television, or on a recording. Managed impressions and mentions can be carried to the public through every available communication channel. Lobbyist William Cohen can appear on Larry King, hold a news conference, and write an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal. Person-branded products also reach the public through conventional, or traditional, distribution channels. The Who’s Pete Townshend abandoned the standard record distribution system in favor of pioneering the distribution of a full-length album, White City, on videotape. The publisher

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produced tens of thousands of copies of the video, stocked them, then shipped them (via rail, truck, or air) to recording wholesalers in different cities, who stocked them and then shipped them to retailers, who stocked them and then sold them to customers. The retailers included record stores, department stores, mass merchandisers, catalogue houses, and other distribution channels. The future of branded product distribution became even more unconventional when rock star David Bowie packaged “his future royalties into an asset-backed bond issue.”2 The $55 million in bonds were supported by the future royalties on three hundred of his songs. Other brands have since followed Bowie’s first-mover example as bonds were issued for James Brown, Ashford and Simpson, the Isley brothers, and are also being discussed for the song catalogue of Bob Marley and other artists.3 Bowie’s ability to attract capital in the bond market on his name is one more indication of the expanding network of channels. The Internet has also given rise to limitless possibilities for distributing person-branded products. In addition to conventional strategies such as sending ten thousand copies of The Da Vinci Code to reviewers and book stores, the publisher, Random House, designed an online code-breaking game for the avid fan. The Web site enables readers to emulate Langdon as they work their way through a labyrinth of clues and other code-breaking hurdles. A music score that combines medieval notes with Hollywood-style adventure chords methodically encourages the Langdon emulator to feel the thrill of chasing what is essentially a bizarre mixture of fact and fiction. Product extensions such as the Langdon online quest not only multichannel the brand but deepen the reader’s commitment to the author’s other projects.4 Aspirants have different degrees of control over their brands and the channels through which they’re distributed. Generally, they have more control over face-to-face performances than those transmitted over traditional broadcast channels. With transmitted images, someone else filters and manages the image mixture. In television, directors and camera crews decide on the camera angles, sound effects, and what to include and edit out—decisions that deeply influence the impressions received by audiences. However, by the same token, these processes often can give aspirants better control over their packaged performances than their live ones because of the improvements editing offers. In the case of such direct-to-the-consumer distribution channels as direct mail, e-mail, and fax campaigns, a real estate agent, an investment advisor, or an architect can develop marketing material that is designed to appeal to the very focused interests of a specific demographic group.

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The architect, for example, can develop an e-mail campaign designed to appeal to prospective clients and in doing so illustrate his work, provide testimony to his skill and cooperation, and request feedback on his branding presentation.

CHANNEL CHOICE Channels must ultimately produce an encounter with an audience. The many possible venues include churches, stadiums, conference centers, hotel function rooms, virtual conferences, online chat rooms, and courtrooms. How does a visibility seeker use channels? The answer depends on the sector, the level of the aspirant’s position, cost, demands of the peer group, and expectations of the audience. Consider two aspirants, one a young minister, the other a high school football coach. What elements do they need to consider when developing an image-delivery strategy? In beginning a career quest for high visibility, most aspirants start with a small menu of choices. For a young minister just leaving divinity school, the channel choices include: 1. Church in a small town 2. Smaller church in a big city 3. Public service work 4. Teaching position For the football coach, there are similar choices: 1. Start as assistant or head coach in high school 2. Start as assistant in college or professional ball 3. Work at specialty training summer camps Once aspirants have chosen their initial distribution channels and located available venues, they are faced with another set of options: how to communicate their brands effectively to audiences. Without images to carry, channels themselves are of little use. Ministers preach sermons and develop an interpersonal style with parishioners, all part of refining their brand with audiences. They also have mass-audience possibilities: through publications, church assemblies,

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articles in national journals, work in civic organizations, radio and television broadcasts, online syndication, and charity leadership. Most religious organizations have specially designed Web sites that can serve as a window into the personal brand of the minister. These are their channels of appearance, their ways to reach their markets and make impressions. If well designed, these interventions move them into play with wider audiences. If very well designed, the interventions will distinguish them from their competitors. They will come to the attention of more powerful “casting directors”: church boards and bureaucracies, and the media. A football coach also needs to formulate a channel-mix strategy. The factor dominating his brand is probably the win-loss record, but the coach can go further in creating an identity that will enhance his ability to deliver the image to potential audiences. The aspirant could develop a specialty as a quarterback coach, create the image of an innovator by developing a trademark defense, establish a reputation as a provocative lecturer at football clinics—or develop a distinctive physical appearance as the New England Patriots football coach Bill Belichick did by appearing on the sidelines in a skimpy, worn grey hooded sweatshirt that indicated his zeal for preparedness overshadowed any stylistic niceties. A coach may also avail himself to the media—as a translator of inside terms or as a warm, personable interviewee. Like the minister, the coach must select the right channels to deliver the image to different audiences. The aspirant may be forced to develop messages specially tailored for head coaches, alumni, media, community supporters, or business contacts, with each message requiring a different channel, and each channel possibly requiring its own fine-tuned message.

SEQUENCING THROUGH CHANNELS Most aspirants begin in the most accessible channel available in their sector. The aspiring businessperson runs for vice president of the fraternal lodge; the lawyer obtains the chair of a bar subcommittee; the dancer gains a position with the local dance troupe. It is often here that aspirants meet their severest test. Many learn at this stage that they don’t desire the scrutiny of high visibility. The aspiring vice president finds he or she doesn’t connect with large audiences; the lawyer is ignored at meetings; the dancer is relegated to the back row. Rejected, some aspirants try to generate a new concept, enter a new channel, or undergo advanced transformation. Some hang on for several years in beginner performance channels, having

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exhausted either their flexibility, their transformation resources, or both. Many more give up, quit the chase, and accept a future of invisibility. The optimum strategy is to upgrade the channels while refining and polishing one’s brand. For most aspirants, it is very difficult to skip the interim low-visibility channels. It is improbable that a beginning football coach could immediately become a color commentator on network college football broadcasts, or that the young minister will quickly lead the Congress in prayer. However, by timing their channel moves to match their transformation rate, aspirants can smoothly sequence through more powerful channels, moving up to those that offer more status, greater prominence, larger audiences, and higher earnings.

CHANNEL INNOVATION AND CHANGE Even aspirants who are successfully transformed require a sound channeluse strategy to succeed in their quests for high visibility. For this, the aspirant needs to understand how distribution channels evolve and change, and how one differs from another. The channels available to distribute brand images change all the time, with new channels emerging as old ones vanish. Consider the changing distribution channels for comedians over the years, as shown in Figure 9–2. Prior to 1945, professional comedians could perform in vaudeville houses, carnivals, nightclubs, movies, and radio shows. After 1945, vaudeville and carnivals disappeared at the same time that

Pre-1945

Post-1945

Vaudeville houses

Television

Carnivals

Business conventions and trade shows

Nightclubs

Comedy theater and comedy houses

Radio

Nightclubs

Movies

Movies Internet

Figure 9–2:

Comedian Performance Channels

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television was emerging as an important channel. Early in television history, comedians such as Milton Berle, Red Skelton, and Lucille Ball emerged as stars. As business conventions and trade shows grew rapidly as showcases, comedians provided businessmen with a few evening laughs between the seriousness of the meetings. In the 1960s, improvisational comedy theaters spread, based on the successful model of Chicago’s Compass Players and Second City, expanding opportunities for aspiring comedians. In the late 1970s, comedy nightclubs decentralized across the country, with many new comedians performing in the hope of becoming the next Robin Williams. The role of comedians expanded in the decades of the 1980s and 1990s not only as performers but also as writers and producers of television and film comedies. In the twenty-first century, comedians and other actors often found themselves involved in voice acting in animated films such as Finding Nemo, Shrek II, Shark Tale, and The Incredibles. Some other visibility sectors have experienced declines in popularity and a corresponding drop in available channels. For example, the channels for serious poets have shifted over the years. In the early twentieth century, poets routinely performed across the United States via the Lyceum and Chautauqua circuits. During these preelectronic media years, they found large audiences in town halls, churches, civic auditoriums, and widely distributed poetry books. Today, poets more typically find a much smaller, young adult audience in clubs, coffee houses, and university venues that are in cities or college towns, and while there are still poetry sections in bookstores, the market is not as vigorous as in the earlier era. Although many mass poetry channels have been redirected by the entertainment industry and particularly by the growth of a modern form of poetry—popular music—there is an opportunity for aspiring poets through new media. At the other extreme, some sectors undergo an explosion of interest, often because of major media events. Business news, for example, received only moderate amounts of media coverage until the economic slumps of the 1970s, when increased unemployment led to a greater interest among readers in economic and business information. Newspapers—the traditional channel for distributing images of business stars—experienced stiff competition from specialty television shows that had grown out of the development of cable TV. The result was the emergence of numerous new distribution channels to communicate with a consumer business audience. One of these new channels was the targeted business magazine. The venues that made up this channel—magazines such as Money and Kiplinger—multiplied quickly, catering to the growing public demand for information on business news and investing. The dot-com boom further

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fueled interest in business consumption. Today, business magazines and television business networks also provide online editions that contain content exclusively for Web users. Others, such as TheStreet.com, are available only on the Internet for a subscription fee. Many of these sites feature blogs, providing the opportunity to personally interact with writers and editors. Three major factors contribute to the rise and fall of different distribution channels. The first is the creation of new performance channels by new technologies. Cable and satellite television and the Internet are important new channels available to aspirants of all types. Both have the advantages of appealing to highly targeted demographics and enabling segmented interaction. The Internet has grown into a lucrative channel for retailing products as well as communicating an aspirant’s brand. The second factor is economics. Some distribution channels become too expensive for their patrons’ pocketbooks. Many premiere nightclubs, such as the Copacabana and the Stork Club of New York City, folded because of their high costs and declining audiences. These clubs showcased entertainers whose premium salaries had to be passed on to customers. When television came along, audiences found it cheaper to watch their favorite performers in their living rooms than pay to see them in nightclubs. The same economic drivers are operating in the decline in attendance in movie theaters as viewers find it less expensive to rent movies in their own homes, and now even the at-home DVD industry is beginning to erode as video-on-demand has become more affordable and accessible. A third contributor is changing audience tastes. In the 1940s and 1950s, jazz clubs thrived across the country. In the 1960s, casual cafés flourished, featuring folk singers such as Woody Guthrie, Phil Ochs, and Joan Baez. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, rock enlarged its audience as people flocked to outdoor rock concerts, including the famous Woodstock Festival. In the 1980s, country-and-western music began to penetrate northern, urban markets, and country-music bars arose in great numbers. In the 1990s, alternative rock became fashionable among the suburban and college-aged audience. In addition, classics of the 1960s and 1970s became more popular than ever, bouncing back to compete for airplay time with the current hits. The new millennium is seeing a revival of R&B and the institutionalization of hip hop, and the popularity of nu metal—a subgenre of heavy metal music that mixes aggressive, hip-hop influences with heavy metal’s angst-ridden vocals5—is growing. Changing market tastes affect all sectors including sports where many consumers have been attracted to more individualized sports over team sports and medicine where doctors are

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reaching patients through print, media ads, and Web sites to appeal to an audience becoming accustomed to new technology.

CHANNEL ATTRIBUTES Aspirants need to understand the special characteristics of each channel, concentrating on those that best suit their abilities and can best advance their brand profile. To select the best channels, they need to consider the following questions: • How much visibility do I now have? • How much risk am I willing to assume in pursuing higher visibility? • How high up the visibility pyramid do I eventually want to go? • What is my time frame for reaching each successive level of visibility? • How much will channel access and use cost? An aspiring singer might find nightclubs to be a near-perfect distribution channel. With their small audiences, nightclubs afford the opportunity to experiment without risking broadcast of a costly poor performance to an audience of thousands or millions. Given a small catalogue of material, the singer can function well in a format that requires a music set of forty-five minutes’ length. The informality of nightclubs also gives aspirants the chance to polish conversation skills, as well as maintain control of the tone and content of the subject matter. Because the act is repeated nightly, aspirants can quickly perfect their act and gain confidence in the medium. Consider, alternatively, the higher-risk talk-show distribution channel. On the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, singers will receive about seven minutes of exposure, three in singing, and four in chatting with Leno. Because singers will likely sing only one song, they cannot present a full picture of their singing capabilities. They must choose the song carefully because it may be their only break. Performers must also select their wardrobe wisely because it communicates their type and character. Unable to set the agenda for the conversation, they must be skilled at smoothly integrating the material they need to present into the flow of conversation. If they’ve failed to choose material well, they may fail to meet audience expectations. If they do well, they may gain access to other mass-market channels that can simultaneously distribute their image to mass channels.

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Politicians also assess the attributes of different performance channels. They much prefer giving a controllable speech to holding a live press conference. In a press conference, they may be thrown a question that is unanticipated or embarrassing. Richard Nixon, in his successful bid for a second presidential term, sought an interview format that would have the appearance of spontaneity but be fairly well controlled; the solution was called the “Hillsboro format,” a custom-designed distribution channel in which Nixon appeared before a panel of citizens who asked safe questions. One of the most bizarre examples of controlling media for the purpose of impression making occurred in France when an eighty-year-old politician, an honored member of the French Resistance, ran for political office. Because he was almost senile, he avoided all contacts with the press. Speeches were ruled out, as were public appearances. Instead, his sponsors put out press releases quoting his words and showing a picture of him taken some twenty years earlier. They were essentially marketing a reconstructed image, one that varied greatly from his real self. The campaign was purely one of managed impressions. The outcome: He won the election. Aspirants have to decide whether a particular channel will advance their interests or compromise them. Many well-known actors refuse to appear in television commercials because they feel that it will downgrade their image when they appear to be selling their visibility instead of advancing their art. Some established brands refuse interviews with certain magazines. Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte will damage his credibility if he grants an interview to Hustler, as will renegade rock group Korn by appearing in sedate Seventeen or Tiger Beat. Wellknown fine artists would be unlikely to accept a commission to paint a graphic on the side of an office building. Some actors, such as Robert DeNiro and Paul Newman, assiduously avoid TV talk shows. In Newman’s case, he differentiates his image by brand-naming a salad dressing, popcorn, and pasta sauce, with the profits going to charity. Other brands embrace similarly unorthodox communication opportunities with success. A good example is Sean “Diddy” Combs, who is always willing to innovate his channel distribution to generate free publicity for himself and his companies. Different distribution channels have different attributes. Figure 9–3 lists five attributes and illustrates where two performance channels of a lawyer—office and courtroom—rank. Brief audience exposure time, high conversational intensity, low performer control, one exposure only, and high visual impact characterize a lawyer’s typical presentation in an

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Office

Courtroom

Audience Exposure Time:

Brief

Extensive

Conversational Intensity:

None

Much

Performer Control:

None

Much

Repeat Exposures:

None

Much

Visual Salience:

None

Much

Figure 9–3:

Comparison of Two Performance Channels

office. The courtroom provides the lawyer with extensive audience exposure, low conversational intensity, high control, repeat exposures, and visual impact. Through trial and error, aspirants with different skill levels in respect to these attributes match themselves to channels where they can be most effective. Most stockbrokers, for example, traditionally distribute their brands through narrow channels that reach very small audiences—cold-calling clients from lists of prospects or appearing before local investment clubs. The disadvantage of this approach is that although it emphasizes strong interpersonal contact, with feedback and immediate response, it lacks efficiency, reaching limited audiences for the resources invested. Among the first to solve this problem through channel innovation was broker Ira Epstein. He created a TV program, the now-defunct Stocks, Options, and Futures, in which Epstein appeared as the Dr. Phil of finance, fielding questions from his audience and moderating a panel of experts. Epstein effectively marketed his name: He achieved well-knowness as a financial guru and developed large numbers of potential clients who were identified through their requests for a free newsletter. In adapting the traditional strategies of TV talk-show programming, Epstein adapted a mass-market channel to his own purposes. The Ira Epstein & Company Futures Web site (www.iepstein.com) is similarly capitalizing on a new technology-driven communication channel to communicate Epstein’s value proposition and develop meaningful relationships with clients.

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MANAGING THE PERFORMANCE CHANNELS Aspirants at different points in their quests for visibility face different channel concerns. Aspirants who are just starting out are usually forced to take advantage of any channel available to them. Opportunities are few and must be aggressively pursued. The aspiring actor will audition for new roles whenever possible; the newly ordained minister will watch for notices of churches in need of an associate minister. By contrast, established brands may reject all but the most proven channels for fear of communicating the wrong impression to audiences. Both aspirants and brands are seeking to build a record of successful performances. Decisions they all must make regarding channel management are: • What brand image do I want to reinforce? • How much time do I want to devote to performing (as opposed to brand testing, transforming, resource development, and other tasks)? How should I distribute this performance time over the available channels? • In which markets and through which venues do I want my brand image distributed? • To build the audience, do I want to distribute mostly formal performances or managed impressions? • What brand-carrying products do I want to license?

Impression Management Some aspirants crave public attention. They will pop into highly visible restaurants, arrive in limousines at important parties and events, attend charity fund-raisers, and make appearances that will keep them heavily photographed and written about. Other aspirants avoid meeting the public, preferring to wear disguises or appear in places where they will not be recognized or that cater to their privacy.

Appropriate Channels Some aspirants find channel management easy because they are skilled or comfortable in only one distribution channel. Consider a company president who wants to represent a company product in an advertising campaign but is overweight and physically awkward. The president may want to avoid

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visual channels and work primarily in recording studios making voice-overs for commercials. On the other hand, the president and the audience may be so comfortable with his gentle, fatherly image that TV becomes the natural distribution channel. At the other extreme is the multitalented star such as Beyonce Knowles, who can easily leverage multiple channels: concerts, music videos, movies, and TV talk shows. Frank Sinatra’s choice of distribution channels in the latter part of his career was highly selective and determined by money, favors, power, and friendships.

Performance Times Established brands often face an abundance of performance opportunities. But many want to maximize the efficiency of their public time, both to avoid overexposure and audience wear-out, and also to leave time for working on new material and conducting their lives. Time, therefore, and not money, is often the brand’s scarcest resource and must be guarded carefully. Andy Warhol demonstrated an ingenious solution to this problem when he accepted multiple lecture engagements in different cities for the same evening: he sent lookalikes to stand in for him. Warhol assumed that few people knew what he really looked and sounded like and that his clones would perform as well or better—one response to the problem of needing to be in more than one place at the same time. Political candidates, as election time approaches, are particularly hard pressed to use their time efficiently over the wide range of audiences available to them. Candidates for major office typically hire a campaign scheduler to organize the candidate’s appearances each day to maximize exposure. Performance time versus family or social time is a critical issue for brands who have ultimately made it. The star plastic surgeon who before becoming well known could count on a fairly consistent number of procedures and surgeries a week now finds himself or herself faced with lucrative media appearances, lecture tours, high profile parties, and other demands that draw away from the plastic surgery performance stage. In the end, surgeons like all visibility seekers must determine their priorities. Are money, maximum exposure, or family time important concerns? Is preserving family and friend time a principal driver? And in this mix of often competing elements, what compromises is the surgeon willing to make in order to maintain visibility and a reasonable performance time career? The answers depend upon the surgeon’s balance of priorities and how he or she inevitably makes difficult choices. In addition, any time decision should

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be weighed against possible decline due to physical stress, poor performance, and stretching beyond the core competencies of the sector.

Regions and Venues Even after aspirants decide on the amount of time to devote to formal performances, they must decide what particular cities and venues to accept. Should pop psychologist Richard Carlson appear at Radio City Music Hall, or at Whittier College? In which five cities should General Motors chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner debut GM’s new automobiles? Should these appearances be simulcast over the Internet? All of these decisions will be influenced by comparing financial offers, market size, and channelperformer fit.

Packaged-Products Management In the case of entertainment aspirants, many of their performances can be recorded and turned into products—CDs, DVDs, and MP3s and other downloadable media. Various offers also come their way for licensing their names to produce T-shirts, posters, and other products. They may likewise be invited to appear in commercials for replay in many locations. All this output must be negotiated and managed. In other sectors, traditional packaged products may not exist because the necessary distribution channels have not been sufficiently developed. Only recently, for example, have brands in the professions—lawyers, doctors, real estate developers—begun to package themselves for distribution on instructional cassettes and in selfhelp books. Thanks to the Internet, even these professionals can leverage a readily available, powerful yet cost-effective distribution channel. An example is the traditional prescription drug distribution channel, which was largely defined by the pharmaceutical companies and targeted to a specific market of doctors, nurses, and druggists. A major change occurred when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration loosened its stringent controls on television advertising for prescription drugs. For the first time, pharmaceutical companies were able to bypass the traditional channel and communicate directly to the consumer using the media. What followed was a virtual avalanche of endorsements ranging from former gymnast Bart Conner for Celebrex and former presidential candidate Bob Dole for Viagra to Olympia Dukakis for Lidoderm. The direct consumer channel became even more personal when well-knowns such as Lorraine Bracco became, for example, the centerpiece of a Web site for the antidepressant

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Zoloft. In a short period of time, highly visible people seemed to fill every possible communication channel including press interviews and television talk shows, which often included emotional personal testimony as to how the product aided the star spokesperson. While there has been some criticism of the effect of personal branding directly to consumers in this fashion, it does illustrate that not unlike perfume or clothing lines, the consumer is likely to give even a medical product more attention. Channels make it possible to deliver branded people to audiences regularly and meaningfully. Nontraditional channels make it possible to do so extremely cost effectively. Approaching channels sequentially and using them strategically therefore can lead to extremely efficient and productive use of the brand’s resources. This is because all channels are not created equal. The face-to-face, small-scale, “live” channels—kaffeeklatches, teas, sales meetings, public speeches, and nightclub appearances—although useful for building visibility, are not nearly as potent as dominant channels in the new media visibility-delivery system. The media are collectively the ultimate amplifier and distributor of brands—the maker or breaker of most aspirants’ quests.

USING THE MEDIA: BREAKING OUT Because media make up the most powerful of all channels, they are crucial to personal and professional branding. Other channels are capable of moving brand images out of the warehouse and into the marketplace, but none approaches the cost-effectiveness and audience impact of the media for both mass-based and segment-focused brands. On any given day, the public is inundated by the barrage of messages from film, television, radio, magazines, newspapers, and the Internet. For most highly visible people, the coverage of their activities, performances, lifestyles, and problems is routine. The star may be pleased with the amount of coverage or may even seek to dampen it, depending on the purpose it serves and the point where the brand is in the career cycle. In contrast, an especially hot star can cycle through the media with such impact and saturation that consumers may think, for that short period, that artist Cristo, Starbucks chairman Howard Schultz, or Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice are the only people in the world worth discussing—or criticizing. When sports owner Malcolm Glazer made his controversial purchase of the Manchester United soccer team, his name appeared in almost every mass media forum in the world. Was he the star of the moment? Of the month?

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Of the year? Or was he only hot until the next business mogul bought a sports team? For that small number of aspirants who break out into high media exposure, the opportunity may come only once—and it needs careful management. To break out means to burst into high visibility, to suddenly open up large new markets. Using media to break out into audience awareness can produce a flood of opportunities. The downside is that many aspirants who are in the warehouse, ready to ship, are defective (incompletely transformed or tested). The danger flows from the media’s tendency to amplify and highlight any aspirant’s unusual features, including defects. The stakes in a media breakout, therefore, are often enormous, and they must be approached as methodically and strategically as transformation itself. As an example, consider the meteorlike ascent of Ross Perot to presidential contender in 1992. Originally, Perot was an audience-driven candidate, the choice of disenfranchised voters who resisted what they considered to be the old guard in both the Democratic and Republican parties. Perot’s performance in the polls suddenly turned him into a mediadriven candidate because the media saw him as refreshing material. They needed Ross Perot and his elaborate economic flip charts to build the drama of the race. He fit well into a traditional story slot: the vigorous, visionary, confident, and wealthy candidate. With the help of the mass media, Perot broke out. But eventually the negative features of the media-driven breakout stymied the Perot story: • Every aspect of his life was examined and his flaws revealed. • He lacked the coaching and preparation to master the media barrage. • His support staff—writers, PR people, and policy experts—were not able to provide timely information to the media and thus were not managing the media but reacting to negative news reports, making him appear defensive and vulnerable. Perot finally and fatally stumbled when he impetuously decided to bow out of the race. By this time, he had contradicted himself repeatedly and seemed thoroughly confused. Moreover, when he decided to make a bid for office once again and reentered the campaign, he compounded his mistakes by selecting a seemingly unqualified and befuddled Admiral James Stockwell as his running mate. This example makes it clear that once the media usurp the person, the media themselves begin to make the decisions

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on how the other two drivers—audiences and institutions—will view them. In Perot’s case, the media began to drive the other drivers by placing into contention such arguably goading questions as: Can Perot handle himself in the media spotlight? Media-driven campaigns run the risk of the star’s being publicly defined, psychoanalyzed, and finally drawn and quartered by media opinion makers. Perot resurfaced again in an even more ill-advised run for the presidency four years later, forming the Reform Party and naming entrepreneur and author Patrick “Pat” Choate as his running mate. Unfortunately for Perot, support among his older, upper-income voters had dwindled, and he received just 8 percent of the vote.6 He was no longer taken seriously and is now remembered not as much for being a resolute visionary as for being a rich and unpredictable Texan who ran for president and lost—twice. Perot is an example of the price the media exact for driving aspirants to high visibility and a caution to aspirants: The reason Perot found his trek through the breakout phase so perilous is related to the economics of managing visibility news. The media treats well-knowns as investments that need to be nurtured, sustained, managed, and, in a final phase, sometimes discarded. As a result, media-driven breakouts generally follow a sequence. The media initially play up the reasons the aspirant deserves attention, the aspirant’s humble origins or struggle, insights on how the aspirant dresses or eats, and problems the aspirant is facing in his or her visibility sector. Many of the storylines are drawn from the list of twenty-two major stories discussed in Chapter 5 and are used to drive the breakout. The more mature phases of an aspirant’s breakout often devote space to the tribulations. Stories of intrigue (Robert Blake and his murder trial), episodes of excess (Tyco’s Dennis Kozlowski and bacchanalian parties), or outbreaks of gossip (Mary-Kate Olsen and anorexia) satisfy the media’s need to perpetuate the story. After an appropriate interlude, the aspirant may be rebuilt, using such kernel stories as a comeback from trials and tribulations (Blake is found not guilty), the rejection of excess (Kozlowski might be born again and cleanse himself ) and the achievement of stability (Olsen is discharged from a treatment facility and enrolls in New York University). Despite an aspirant’s best effort, some phases of the media breakout will advance inexorably, but that doesn’t have to be the case. In any stage of the breakout phase, there is a need for understanding of the situation, examining of the brand’s strengths and weaknesses, willingness to remedy any inconsistencies or to reestablish a stronger connection with the public, and the advancement of a committed, strong, and realistic storyline to the target markets.

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The Rules for Breaking Out As our examples demonstrate, the breakout needs to be carefully managed: 1. Breaking out needs to have a purpose. Climbing up the side of a tall building or sending out a controversial press release can accomplish a breakout, but such sensationalism will hardly sustain a branding quest. Effective breakouts will be directed toward some ultimate, strategic goal: to generate an audience, sell products, or distinguish the aspirant from competitors. 2. Breakouts need to be preceded by careful preparation. The aspirant needs to have tested his or her brand, refined it, and been thoroughly coached before the media are encountered. 3. The aspirant needs to recognize that each phase of the breakout is part of a standard media cycle, and to anticipate upcoming phases. A failure of many campaigns is to see each breakout phase as an end in itself and not anticipate the transition to the next phase and the support that is needed. 4. The timing of the breakout is now changed as bloggers or other Internet Web sites may initiate the chain of events instead of the traditional media. As a consequence, that creates a higher element of chance that the story is incorrect or that the main idea is improperly delivered. In real terms, the new game players need to be reached and accounted for in any story, delivery, or mix. 5. During the breakout, the aspirant needs to take the initiative in defining topics and setting the agenda. Leaving these tasks to the media will almost always lead to serious problems. 6. When the breakout begins to subside, that’s often when the real work begins. No campaign can sustain itself at the feverish rate of an intense breakout, and the aspirant needs to find and effectively use distribution channels that will disseminate the brand’s image at a reliable and sustainable rate.

Chronology of a Meteor The opportunity for a media-driven event can occur as suddenly as the ascent of shaggy-haired, sometime actor Brian “Kato” Kaelin.7 Kato became a household name as a consequence of occupying the guest house behind

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O.J. Simpson’s Brentwood, California, estate. Kaelin, a self-proclaimed friend of Simpson, lived rent free on Simpson’s property. At Simpson’s murder trial, Kaelin claimed to have heard strange thumping noises in the backyard on the night Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were murdered. Kaelin became an instant celebrity who broke out in the media and who enjoyed over a year of fame, all for being in the wrong place at the right time. Over the course of the Simpson trial, Kaelin appeared on the front page of the New York Times and most other major newspapers in the country and became the object of feature stories in countless magazines, consuming incalculable chunks of television news time. His movement through the media constitutes a textbook case of how the media need and use the highly visible.

Breakout Stages Stage 1. The Explosion onto the Scene In the first stage, the anonymous aspirant explodes into the public’s consciousness through a media barrage, with the coverage focusing initially on a significant accomplishment or event. In this case the rationale was provided by the serendipitous situation of a freeloading aspiring actor who possibly possessed knowledge that could incriminate his friend O.J. Simpson for murder. In the months that followed the murders, Kato received as much media attention as the victims of the crime. Stage 2. The Questions As investigators began to search for the information needed to prosecute the ex-football star, they focused on the preliminary testimony of Kato Kaelin. Kaelin told the investigators that he had heard mysterious thuds behind the guest house—around the time that investigators believed Simpson returned from the grizzly murder scene. Also, the infamous bloody glove was found in the pathway behind Kato’s residence, corroborating the prosecution’s assertion that Simpson was indeed the person who made those noises the evening of the homicide. Stage 3. “I Do Not Have Ulterior Motives, Really” Kaelin dodged accusations that the only reason he arrived on the scene with such a story was to ignite his acting career. He had to transform his image from being a jobless, freeloading opportunist to an honest, upstanding entrepreneur. The instability of his lifestyle, however, undermined his attempts to rehabilitate his character—the American public wanted a responsible free spirit. Stage 4. The Testimonials If it was tough for people to shake their negative image of Kato Kaelin, it wasn’t for a lack of effort on his part. Kaelin’s friends denied rumors that he and Nicole Brown Simpson were having an affair. He also enlisted the aid of his

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ex-wife, who testified that even though they were divorced and she was now living in Wisconsin, Kaelin had never neglected responsibility for his then twelve-year-old daughter. This testimony struck a responsive chord with many American women, who eventually saw him as an example of the New Age sensitive man. A media circus followed Kato everywhere he went: the shopping mall tour, television appearances, private parties, even the gym. Suddenly he had become one of America’s most eligible bachelors. His benign, disarming smile stood out among the serious and unhappy Simpson trial participants—Kaelin was the happy one. Stage 5. “Get Me Legal Counsel” When Kaelin took the stand for the prosecution’s side in what was called the most popular court case in U.S. history, he stood steadfast by his story, pleasing the large television-viewing audience. USA Today hailed his style, reporting that Kaelin’s testimony “had more one-liners than the average TV situation comedy.”8 Legal experts disagreed over whether Kaelin’s testimony helped the prosecution or the defense. While he did support the prosecution’s timeline, testifying that he saw Simpson hand-load his baggage into the limousine on the night of the murders, he did not say Simpson was upset or agitated before or after the homicides. Kaelin appeared credible throughout the court case, and his comical performance lightened the intensity of the courtroom, making him a marketable commodity. Stage 6. “Get Me an Agent, Joey” Kaelin was no longer the only person who realized his marketability, and Hollywood agents lined up to represent him. Offers poured in. He turned down hair-care commercials, a surfer-dude sitcom role, and an Arab sheik wanting to buy him. However, Kato did accept an offer as host on an L.A. radio talk show. Audience members called with their thoughts on just about everything— from their philosophy on dating to their belief in UFOs. Kaelin, who had been a radio host in college, found a niche where he had some expertise. He surprised L.A. commuters by abruptly quitting the radio slot. His station manager observed that Kato actually found working too tough. Stage 7. Cashing Out Brian “Kato” Kaelin rose from being a no-name, part-time actor to big-time celebrity—accidentally. But the visibility of the world’s most famous house guest soon declined, despite appearing topless in Playgirl magazine, packing shopping malls, and discovering the quiz and dating game shows. After enjoying a brief surge of visibility during the civil trial of Simpson, Kaelin attempted to find other venues that would continue to provide him exposure. He landed small roles in quickly forgotten movies and TV shows, and he even attempted to break into the lecture circuit with his “The 16th Minute: What to Do When

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Your 15 Minutes of Fame Are Up.”9 While Kaelin was given many opportunities to permanently establish a marketable persona during his breakout, his sometime lack of discipline and inability to understand his own positioning handicapped his visibility potential. However, he reemerged as the host of National Lampoon’s Eye for an Eye, a satirical criminal justice courtroom reality show—a venue that takes advantage of Kaelin’s past association with the legal environment and showcases his upbeat, humorous, interactive style.10 If his comeback continues to flourish, he may not have to be content with the recognition of becoming a standard question in the 1990s edition of the Trivial Pursuit board game.

BECOMING VISIBLE: ATTACKING THE FILTERS It is obviously in the best interests of the brand aspirant to understand how the media gather their information since a first step in breaking out is learning how to get into the media’s coverage patterns. The media have many techniques or procedures to retrieve information, but the primary means are from facts, events, their competition, insider sources, environmental scanning of fads and cycles, experts, public relations firms, and a myriad of Web sites. Aspirants have to contend with and take advantage of the media’s tendency to turn to specific sources for their information. These sources of visibility news—public relations practitioners, gossip bloggers, promoters, agents, venue managers—understand the flow pattern for information. A story can be pitched and published at the local level with the objective of channeling it upward to the news wires and the national media. Conversely, it can be pitched at the national news level and be allowed to percolate down through channels to local media. As an aspirant rises in visibility, the usual transition is from local newspaper attention and radio talk shows to magazine articles, local television, and, finally, national television. The digital environment is another version of that flow pattern as Web sites and blogs can force a storyline into both local and national venues instantaneously. This growing pattern not only serves to scoop traditional news filters but it also inhibits the ability of the establishment news providers of material to directly influence a story. In the business sector, business aspirants often try their skills at the local level before moving up to regional and national media venues. Typically, the practice is to rehearse and polish their brands on public access channels or local weekend morning television or radio interviews before moving up to higher-risk venues. In this strategy, each local performance

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is recorded and then scrutinized for content and style behavior that may need to be strengthened or reworked to match audience expectations. The goal is to prepare for the media by rehearsing: learning to answer questions crisply and directly, telling the essential story, focusing on business and not on personal matters, and maintaining eye contact with the host. Many aspirants in this situation need to build self-confidence through practice, and they need to review and improve their performances in order to feel comfortable before a more skilled interviewer. In a sense, the local level serves as a tryout or test market for such sectors as business and religion. By being available to local markets, aspirants are not only practicing but also positioning themselves to be distributed by more powerful, national media. Of course, in the new-media environment where Web sites can break out a story through insider sources, even the most polished attempt at moving up the venue hierarchy can be thwarted. Aspirants can also help their causes by understanding how and why the media deliver certain information about highly visibles to audiences: • The media process information on the basis of local priorities, needs, attitudes, and prejudices, and at the behest of specialinterest groups. • The media have evolved a menu of story types that have proven to be reliable audience pleasers. Aspirants who understand these story archetypes have a better chance of attracting media coverage. • Competitive pressures influence the information the media present to its audiences. If one venue in the media is covering a certain type of human-interest story, it is likely that other media venues will seek out a similar human-interest story to cover. • The proliferation of media channels from twenty-four-hour news networks to daily star-based programming to Web sites and blogs updated throughout the day has created more demand for news about people. These media outlets are in constant need of news and programming material to fill their channels. And wonder of wonders, they find it. At the peak of breakout, chaos seems to reign. The media cover the highly visible from so many angles, and in such force, that the aspirant may seem overwhelmed by instant attention. It is at this point that decisions involving strategic delivery of the brand must be made. Given the uncertainty that invariably accompanies a breakout, such decision making is more

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easily said than done. The aspirant is suddenly faced with a tempting array of distribution channels, many of them equally powerful and in direct competition; certain venues need to be turned down, and others pursued. During the breakout period, the aspirant feels that the need to respond will never end. It is true that certain elements of the media cannot be controlled during the breakout. Rumors, gossip, badly edited interviews, and missed appointments are often the side products of over-commitment and a compressed time schedule. In the breakout phase, relationships can become strained, resulting in new alliances and uncertainties: the longtime manager is pushed aside; the professional coach replaces the family mentor; or the spouse finds a divorce lawyer. The good news is that many aspects of the breakout are controllable and manageable.

DISTRIBUTION STRATEGY: CASES That breakouts do not simply materialize out of thin air and that they can be controlled to a great degree will be seen as we examine the delivery of personal and professional brands in four different sectors.

Distributing an Entrepreneurial Team Chicago-based Kim and Scott Holstein are pretzel-loving entrepreneurs who strategically managed their brand through channel sequencing. The couple developed and marketed an impressive and growing variety of handmade, stuffed pretzels under the brand name “Kim & Scott’s Gourmet Pretzels.” The name choice was a decision to personalize the product, and it allows the couple to integrate their strong persuasive and theatrical skills to sell their pretzels. At startup, the couple had no experience in the food industry, but they had a business concept built around a fun snack food. To test it, the Holsteins gathered local culinary experts in an informal focus group discussion to gain insights and feedback on the feasibility of marketing their products. The expert advice and feedback were encouraging, and the couple first began to sell their pretzels—initially baked in their apartment— to a variety of retail environments “from a movie theater to a corporate cafeteria”11 sometimes using relatives as recruited sales representatives. As awareness spread, neighborhood restaurants and coffee shops became customers, along with local hotels, sporting arenas, and universities.

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To expand distribution, the Holsteins displayed their pretzels at tradeshows, and they actively sought out large accounts with major retailers such as Sam’s Club, Barnes & Noble, and Borders, always anchoring their pitch not just on the quality of their product but also on their storyline based on how they met. Kim and Scott positioned themselves as the modernized Ben & Jerry’s, associating the product with their commitment to spiritual values and wholesome ingredients and always making a personal connection with the consumer. They also developed a sophisticated public relations strategy that was media based. Articles began to appear in print and broadcast that recounted how the couple met, started the business, and grew it into an innovative, successful enterprise. They were featured in Restaurant USA, and they distributed news releases cheaply through PRWeb, an online public relations service that is targeted to small- and medium-sized businesses and works on a voluntary contribution model. As a result of direct personal networking, exposure in trade shows, and consistent distribution of news about the company and its founders, the Holsteins’ business began to evolve into a brand. Their product line expanded, and ranged from chocolate-stuffed pretzels to spinach and feta stuffed varieties. And the company moved production into a large warehouse. Having developed a successful company based on their personal brand, the couple’s next goal was to develop a direct, mass customer base. “We were national, but not selling directly to consumers, which had always been our goal,”12 said Kim. Despite their business and communication successes, the couple felt that their stuffed pretzels were becoming too associated with the large chains that retailed them and they wanted to regain control of their product and brand distribution. Following the Restaurant USA interview, Kim & Scott’s Gourmet Pretzels capitalized in the fall of 2001 when they learned of a search for new vendors and products by home-shopping channel QVC. QVC is a retail machine that “reaches 84 million households in the U.S.,” and the competition to get on the channel is very intense.13 They applied to be reviewed, and from 1,300 vendors screened, six hundred entries, including the Holsteins, were invited to participate in a contest intended to identify new on-air vendors. Once again, the Holsteins prepared carefully, taking QVC’s on-air-guest classes to help them learn how to project a positive, compelling image on television. As a result, their first appearance resulted in sales of 120,000 dozen orders for Three Cheese Stuffed Pizza Pretzels in just fourteen minutes of airtime, completely selling out their on-hand inventory.14

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Three years and millions of pretzels later in January 2004, Kim & Scott’s Gourmet Pretzels were featured in a QVC special as the perfect snack to complement the upcoming Super Bowl. They received 40,000 orders in one day, amounting to 1 million pretzels that had to be delivered to households across America within seventy-two hours.15 An ABC7 Chicago feature followed in March, reinforcing the modern Kim & Scott’s Gourmet Pretzels legend. The distribution of the Holsteins and Kim & Scott’s Gourmet Pretzels brand is purposeful, strategic, and effective. Their example shows how channel innovation and testing are crucial to the successful launching of a brand. They began in face-to-face venues, moved to wholesale and retail markets, and finally refined their concept, enabling their move to a national platform. In a twist, extending their brand even further, they opened a trial restaurant facility that sells different variations of pretzels including pretzel sandwiches. These strategies are a textbook case of moving their brand through distribution channels and using their personalities as the face of the product. In doing so, they are now a national brand that is a signature product of QVC.

Distributing a Comeback Whatever happened to actress Jane Fonda? A virtual comet in the last half of the twentieth century, she was first and foremost the daughter of distinguished actor Henry Fonda, was a 1960s sex symbol who rivaled Marilyn Monroe, made a controversial splash during the Vietnam War when she became known as “Hanoi Jane,” literally invented the exercise niche, and just as improbably became media mogul’s Ted Turner’s seemingly complacent spouse and a born-again Christian, and all of this in one lifetime. In an era when such transformation specialists such as Madonna and Bob Dylan have morphed into many different market-centered positions, Fonda may well be the queen of reinvention. The latest comeback of Jane Fonda revolved around her autobiography My Life So Far,16 in which Fonda adopts a whole new brand concept— author, counselor, and confessor. It also coincided with the release of her film Monster-In-Law, in which she stars alongside Jennifer Lopez. Her multiple appearances on television shows and interviews with the press unveiled a mature and far more philosophical Fonda than ever before. Her marketplace positioning is complicated by the many generational changes of her audiences. There are a number of older movie fans and political supporters who remember her in past roles and are curious as to what

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happened to Fonda. A far larger market is of people who may have known her for her role in the 1980s as a fitness specialist with her bestselling workout videos and not much else. There is even a vast Generation Y market that may not even know she existed. To make the comeback situation even more difficult, Fonda’s memory lock for many of the people who knew her is negative and in some cases even hostile. To these people, she is the woman who made a two-week visit to North Vietnam during the war. Her radio broadcasts during the trip and a widely distributed photograph of her sitting atop a Vietcong antiaircraft gun seemed to support the enemy, earning her the disdainful title “Hanoi Jane.” Given the varied marketplace expectations and knowledge, the question becomes, how do you launch a comeback for what is essentially a mixed and in some cases spoiled image? The relaunching of Fonda was a multichanneled, refinement-based strategy that was predictably met with mixed results from both the media and the marketplace. The Fonda that was interviewed by 60 Minutes, Tim Russert, and other television shows was often dressed in a subdued fashion, usually in casual slacks and appeared more as a smart, society matron than as a former sex symbol from the movie Barbarella. Her manner was usually tense as she sat alertly and seemingly vulnerable and open to any comments by the interviewer. What gave her interviews credibility was that she did not overstate her positions, she used emotional terms to describe her many transformations, she was painfully honest about her relationships with her three former husbands, and in doing all this she never lost her composure. Comebacks like Fonda’s can usually be measured by the results. The hardcover book was a mixed success,17 and the movie was attacked by some critics, but it did relatively well at the box office.18 However, Fonda was more successful in redefining herself as a serious, reflective symbol of an aging star who had finally and publicly come to terms with her past. She also set herself up for more books and media opportunities given her new positioning.

Distributing an X-Rated Entertainer Jenna Jameson is an X-rated entertainer who strategically managed her brand’s distribution through a variety of channels. Jameson is arguably the most famous adult star in the world with a primary audience of males eighteen to thirty-four years old, and she has easily the most brand recognition among nonporn consumers. Her initial channel was as a stripper in Las Vegas, and it was these live performances that began her public encounters. She then moved from limited distribution nude magazines and softcore

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lesbian films to her main performance platform—hardcore, mainstream adult films. Much of her high visibility was enhanced by the technical innovation of DVD, which allowed her fewer than fifty movie output to be cut into many configurations and distributed all over the world.19 The second major phase of Jameson’s distribution strategy was to market her brand in a channel mix that broadened her image from porn star to cultural icon. Jameson has her own Web site, clubjenna.com, which allows her to personalize her brand. She has appeared on numerous talk shows, taped a voiceover for the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City,20 and has appeared in advertisements including a five-story-high billboard overlooking Seventh Avenue in New York.21 A major component of Jameson’s success is that she is the first porn star to cross over to distribution channels that are usually only available to what could be termed as “legitimate stars.” Seka, the “Platinum Princess of Porn,” preceded Jameson in the 1970s as a porn star and pioneered many of Jameson’s strategies by appearing on the Today Show and Saturday Night Live and creating her own mail-order business, taking advantage of the “collector” class of fans by making available her used panties, posters, films, and Seka-endorsed novelties. Jameson also sells sexual aids and bobblehead dolls, but she has taken the crosssector concept even further with what her manager calls “one-stop shopping” and the writing of a bestselling book entitled How to Make Love Like a Porn Star: A Cautionary Tale,22 the ultimate in self-help advice. The difference between Seka and Jameson is that the market for porn stars has changed dramatically with the ever-growing sexual revolution and the fierce competition among news channels to be first and most sensational. The entrepreneurial Jameson has capitalized on these cultural breakthroughs by using the technological revolution and as a result is rapidly becoming a mainstream brand.

Distributing a High-Profile Priest Andrew Greeley is a Roman Catholic priest who writes popular novels that combine religious themes with human dilemmas. He is also the controversial theologian who distributes himself through the lecture and media circuit, promoting his books and ideas through such channels as talk shows, newspapers, radio, and the Internet. To most viewers, Greeley is a fixture of the permanent media environment and a well-defined brand. But how did he reach this position? The Holsteins, Fondas, Jamesons, and Father Andrew Greeleys sectors could not be more different, but their distribution strategies are

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similar in many ways.23 These brands function within sectors that have their own sets of rules, conventions, and restrictions. Greeley specialized in counter-marketing himself, pioneering the distribution of his brand through channels not previously used in the religious sector. Originally a theologian and academic, Greeley diversified into broader, more visible and profitable markets. Greeley’s progress in the last half century reveals a steady march through the various levels of distribution channels. In the early 1950s, Greeley was known only to friends, family, and fellow seminarians. He was just another able student, without any apparent desire for high visibility. It was in 1960 that he began to be known by what one would consider an “audience”: the members of his parish and diocese, and liberal Catholics he attracted through his work with the Catholic Action Movement. This was Greeley operating in the cottage industry stage, using his connections with institutions to generate moderate visibility among a core audience. Five years later, Greeley branched out into a new sector, academics, obtaining his doctorate in sociology from the University of Chicago, conducting original research on the Catholic school system, and distributing his findings through the media. He began to coalesce his brand—scholarly, controversial, outspoken priest—and to distribute his image among the national audience of non-Catholics. By 1975, through his syndicated newspaper column, Greeley was firmly established as a media figure as well as an editorial commentator on the broader social scene. Through his continuing research, he began not just contributing to but also influencing the cottage industry of religious controversy. With his national newspaper forum, he was able to set the agenda for discussion, and lead it. In the beginning of the 1980s, Greeley distributed himself in highly visible nonreligious channels: Time, Newsweek, and others. The force behind this new momentum was his book The Making of the Popes,24 which described the political maneuvering that undermines the papal selection process. At this point, the distribution of Greeley’s image, fueled primarily by his story, achieved critical momentum as one popular media channel after another picked the story up, transporting it to wider and wider audiences. Greeley assumed the qualities of a name brand, with major media venues depending on him as a reliably controversial guest. At present, Greeley stands at the top of what can only be termed a one-person sector. He is a theologian-academician-popular novelist—and a distribution and marketing innovator. His novels are now national and international best-sellers, translated into many languages and dominating

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new book displays in shopping malls and airport bookstores. His bookauthoring range is wide as his autobiography, Confessions of a Parish Priest,25 became a best seller as has his latest Nuala Anne McGrail mystery, Irish Cream, which has a “fey, Irish-speaking woman blessed with the gift of second sight” solving a traffic homicide.26 The distribution of Andrew Greeley demonstrates how channel innovation and testing are crucial to the successful launching of a brand. Greeley began in face-to-face venues, moved to local and regional markets, and finally refined his brand, enabling him to move his image through national and international channels. He continues to monitor the cultural and social environment—and he is as prolific as ever—a stout critic of the Iraq war, a valued insider analyst of major Catholic issues of the day, and a prominent novelist. A problem for many aspirants is stepping back and planning their path to the top of their sectors. In each of our case studies—those of the Holsteins, Fonda, Jameson, and Greeley—while wildly different in motivation and content, the effective management of distribution channels was crucial to moving their brand image through to audiences. The problem for most aspirants is one of choices: “What can I do?” “When do I do it?” And, “How do I do it?” The management of distribution resources is essential to gaining momentum for the aspirant’s quest because there is no visibility without a connecting voice to the audience. But even intelligently distributed aspirants cannot sustain their distribution without support—and the most essential support for most aspirants comes from public relations.

NOTES 1 Edward Jay Epstein, “Concessions Are for Girlie Men,” May 9, 2005, slate.msn.com/id/2118243/, viewed July 7, 2005. 2 _____, “Bowie Royalty Bonds Strike Chord,” Chicago Sun-Times, “Business” section, December 6, 1996, p. 51. 3 Vipal Monga, “Beyond Bowie,” IP Law and Business, May 20, 2005; Karen Richardson, “Bankers Hope for a Reprise of ‘Bowie Bonds’,” Wall Street Journal, August 23, 2005, p. C1. 4 Clara Chow, “Dan Da Man,” The Straits Times, www.danbrown.com/novels/ davinci_code/articles/nobreaking.htm, viewed July 7, 2005. 5 _____, “Nu Metal,” www.answers.com/main/ntquery?method=4&dsid= 2222&dekey=Nu+metal&gwp=8&curtab=2222_1, viewed July 14, 2005.

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6 _____, “Perot, H(enry) Ross,” MSN Encarta Encyclopedia, encarta.msn.com/ encyclopedia_761555236/Perot_H(enry)_Ross.html, viewed July 14, 2005. 7 Richard Russakoff researched and drafted the Kato Kaelin case. Also see Bill Boyarsky, “The Spin/Bill Boyarsky: The O.J. Simpson Murder Trial; A Casebook on Overnight Fame,” Los Angeles Times, March 22, 1995, p. A16. 8 Gale Holland, “ ‘Kato’ Tells His Tale With Flair/Both Sides Hurt and Helped,” USA Today, March 23, 1995, p. 3A. 9 Mike Toth, “In Conversation with Kato,” Sportsnetnews, June 24, 2004, www.sportsnet.ca/nfl/columnist.jsp?content=20040624_122831_1580, viewed March 9, 2005. 10 _____, “National Lampoon’s Eye for an Eye Continues to Clear Major Markets,” ArriveNet, June 27, 2005, press.arrivenet.com/ent/article.php/ 659722.html, viewed July 7, 2005. 11 Scott Holstein quoted by Alexandra Kaptik in “Strategies for Securing a Home-Shopping Spot,” www.startupjournal.com/columnists/casestudy/ 20030401-casestudy.html, viewed March 9, 2005. 12 Ibid. 13 Alexandra Kaptik, “How Do You Get on a Television Shopping Network?” Wall Street Journal, March 17, 2003, p. R4. 14 Scott Holstein quoted by Alexandra Kaptik. 15 _____, “Shipping One Million Pretzels to Feed a Super Appetite is Not a Problem for Memphis Firms,” Memphis News Bureau, February 14, 2005, www.memphisnewsbureau.org/newsroom /000075.html, viewed September 20, 2005. 16 Jane Fonda, My Life So Far (New York: Random House, 2005). 17 “Hardcover Nonfiction,” New York Times, July 10, 2005, www.nytimes.com/2005/07/10/books/bestseller/0710besthardnonfiction.html, viewed July 10, 2005. 18 www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=monsterinlaw.htm, viewed July 7, 2005. 19 Vanessa Grigoriadis, “Girl on Top,” Independent (London), September 5, 2004, p. 11. 20 Ibid. 21 Dinitia Smith, “Off Camera, Cashmere and Crosses,” New York Times, April 15, 2004, p. F8.

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22 Jenna Jameson with Neil Strauss, How to Make Love Like a Porn Star: A Cautionary Tale (New York: Regan Books, 2004). 23 Mary K. Deeley, “Andrew Greeley as a Celebrity: A Study in Point of View” unpublished research paper, Northwestern University, November 1985. 24 Andrew M. Greeley, The Making of the Popes 1978: The Politics of Intrigue in the Vatican (Kansas City, KA: Andrews and Mcmeel, 1979). 25 Andrew M. Greeley, Confessions of a Parish Priest (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1986). 26 _____, “Irish Cream by Andrew M. Greeley,” The Andrew M. Greeley Web site, www.agreeley.com/novels/irishcream1.html, viewed March 24, 2005. Andrew M. Greeley, Irish Cream: A Nuala Anne McGrail Mystery (New York: Forge, 2005).

publicizing the brand

CHAPTER 10

I

mmigration lawyer Gregory Siskind understood the publicity potential of the Internet, and he set up a Web site to brand visarelated legal services in 1994. The site, www.visalaw.com, offers prospective immigrants to the United States a supermarket of legal services, useful documentation, and other practical information. Visalaw.com typically gets 200,000 hits per week originating in sixty different countries.1 It is an important generator of new clients, and it has contributed in a very strategic way to the fast growth of Siskind’s firm, Siskind Susser Haas & Chang, which has expanded to nine offices around the world, including Toronto, Beijing, and Buenos Aires. Now considered an expert in Internet marketing, Siskind has authored a book, The Lawyer’s Guide to Marketing on the Internet, in which he discusses his experiences and strategies in nontraditional marketing communications.2 Carlos Ghosn, the first westerner to head a major Japanese company, Nissan, promoted himself and his plans for the automaker—once given up for dead by analysts—to a skeptical Japanese public through a carefully crafted strategic communications program. Soon after his appointment, Ghosn appeared in a televised news conference to declare his one rule: “No sacred cows, no taboos, no constraints.”3 He granted interviews to Japanese broadcast and print media, projecting himself as a serious executive “more concerned about making Nissan profitable again than being culturally sensitive,”4 but at the same time allowed himself to be photographed in a kimono. His 281

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autobiography and a number of books helped reinforce his brand, and his life was serialized in a special six-issue comic book series for the manga-loving Japanese male. Leaving little to chance, Ghosn volunteered to give eight hours of biographical information to help in the comic book’s development.5 The combination of his reviving Nissan’s fortunes and his effective communications strategy helped lower hurdles to reforming Nissan and made Ghosn not only a brand name both inside and outside Japan but also the CEO of Renault SA, Nissan’s parent company. Actor Al Pacino has a full arsenal of publicists. When he makes a film or appears in a theater, his publicity is often generated from his PR staff, the studio’s, and the theater’s working together. He also employs a publicist to manage his appearances when dealing with newspapers, magazines, and other media. The publicists not only deliver Pacino’s image to his various publics through these channels but also works to manage all public aspects of his brand. The increasingly competitive market for opportunity and the corresponding need for visibility have encouraged the explosion of the publicity industry. Whether aspirants for high visibility self-promote, use an agency, or have a worldwide network of support, their public brand image is a priority concern. The role of public relations is essential to consistently communicating and protecting the image of the brand. Managing public relations professionally provides a degree of control in determining how the aspirant’s brand is perceived, and it is a much more cost effective communication strategy than traditional advertising.6 With the maturing of the visibility-marketing process, the reach of PR has steadily expanded beyond its original client list to include aspirants in all sectors. Despite the explosion, controversy continues over the use of publicity. Stars in entertainment and sports expect a lot of promotion but demand that it be favorable. The business and professional sectors find publicity a necessary, competitive advantage, but they sometimes worry about being viewed as manipulative and inauthentic. The public relations profession is thus in a chronic good-news–badnews position. The good news is that the list of skeptics is getting smaller because clients in all sectors are growing to accept the importance of public relations and using it. The bad news is that with the expanding media environment, there is more publicity being generated and the ability to

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break through the clutter demands innovation and effective targeting of segmented markets.

WHAT IS PUBLICITY? Publicity serves as the voice of the personal and professional brand, without which the person is unknowable to the consumer, and all the work of transformation is of little value. Professional publicists are adept at this service. Publicists are people hired to communicate information between their clients and the public. It’s normal for both established brands and aspirants to hire PR firms to help control the distribution of their images. This role may involve only issuing occasional press releases or staging conferences, or it can be as comprehensive as developing, controlling, and implementing an aspirant’s entire visibility strategy. How much is being done for the client is often difficult to gauge due to the confidentiality that the publicist’s behind-the-scenes role demands. (Imagine how the public would feel if every time a piece of PR-generated “news” were broadcast, “PR” flashed on top of the screen, or if every time a religious leader or corporation president read a speech drafted by a staff member, a note was added giving credit to the ghostwriter.). However, even the confidential relationship is changing as the public has become fascinated with the making and delivery of the brand’s image. For example, when George Steinbrenner, the owner of the New York Yankees, decided that he would prefer that his public pronouncements were filtered through another source, he chose his trusted publicist Howard Rubenstein. In turn, Rubenstein was quite willing to discuss with the New York Times his relationship with Steinbrenner, saying that he spent “usually two hours a day”7 working with him. He then chronicled how he takes notes of Steinbrenner’s comments, makes suggestions, and then reads his reactions back to Steinbrenner.8 In his openness and transparency, Rubenstein is redefining how a relationship between a high visibility client and a publicist can work to shape and adapt his or her messages to the public. Publicists serve as the voice of brands not only by getting them audience attention but also by helping construct their stories and define their image. When singer Billy Joel came out of rehab for alcohol abuse and began promoting his second children’s book, New York State of Mind, there was a storyline. It was dictated by Joel’s need to reassure the public of his

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recovery and skills following a series of embarrassing auto accidents and a second round of alcohol-related rehabilitation.9 Whatever the fundamental stories are, publicists must amplify and distill them for public consumption. The story may be accurate; it’s just that the PR filter most often favorably positions the story—a natural outcome of the business arrangement.Unfortunately, this may keep us from fully understanding or identifying with the brand as a three-dimensional person. Where is the brand? He or she is often somewhere amidst the itinerary, takeoff, and flight of his latest PR-assisted regeneration. To the media, he or she may be just one more quick media stop and a reasonably interesting feature story. But to the public searching for the authentic personality, there is a range of responses from absolute belief in the presentation to skepticism as to anything that’s being written or said. As a result, the relationship between publicists and their highly visible clients is often marked by tension because the clients, while benefiting from the relationship, will frequently be uneasy about surrendering their voices to someone else. This problem is magnified when the publicists become so proficient at serving their clients’ needs that they go beyond brand amplifying into brand redesign. “Who am I?” ought to be determined in consultation with the client, not solely by the account executive. It is a major mistake for aspirants or established brands to not monitor and build a cooperative relationship with their voice.

WHY IS PUBLICITY NECESSARY? Publicity exists because the media need news—news that is often free and has the potential for credible coverage of brands. The publicist strives for consistency and control of what the news features. Of course, because publicists don’t own media, they do not exert direct control over what is published or broadcast. But they are expected by their clients to influence what is published, and this is executed by pitching stories, arranging interviews, writing compelling briefings and news releases, and networking with members of the press. A successful publicist is also adept at communicating his or her client’s brand as a reliable source of credible and newsworthy content to journalists and communication channel managers. Publicity exists to control what is communicated, and publicists exert that control by coordinating, refining, and delivering images of the brand to targeted segments through selected communication channels. In the past,

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a new product usually required an ad campaign to get consumers’ attention. The manufacturer had to pay for this attention. Consider the process involved in launching a new software application today. The software application developer’s PR firm writes a “news” story highlighting the fascinating new ways the application can improve enterprise efficiency and productivity. The “story” is run as news—creating valuable “free” publicity for the product, supplementing a concurrent ad campaign, and freeing up advertising money for other direct communications, such as an event designed to sell the application directly to prequalified end users. The same process is at work in visibility publicity. Certain sectors— notably entertainment and sports—have always enjoyed generous free coverage of their stars, but as more sectors become fixtures of media coverage, more opportunities develop for brands to exploit the coverage publicists create. At the same time, it becomes increasingly difficult for the public to discriminate between what is publicity-generated coverage and what is authentic news. For publicity to be effective, the news it creates should be accurate, and it should not appear to be artificial or self-serving; otherwise, it could harm the brand. Stories should not look or feel like something that was fed to a reporter, but instead they should look like something initiated and written independently. This requirement means that the publicist must give the story a legitimate hook that warrants news coverage and that a journalist can “sell” to his or her editor. In many cases, the hook relies on dramatic climaxes in the storyline. For example, adding to a press release that a Silicon Valley high-tech venture capitalist is also a bona fide scientist with multiple patents for a breakthrough digital display technology increases the chances that the press release will be picked up. Getting that story out raises the venture capitalist’s visibility and credibility to startups and fund managers alike. Publicists spend much of their time working to give their material an authentic feel. At the same time, they know full well that the client may not appreciate a hook that, while successful in generating coverage, calls into question aspects of the brand’s image. The more prestigious media channels want harder news, more controversy, and more emotional impact for their stories. A storyline about a star’s redecorating his or her condo is probably not going to make the Wall Street Journal. This push and pull between the need for attention-getting material and the clients’ desire to have it and still shield themselves from any self-revealing exposure is at the center of much of the publicists’ difficulty in representing their clients.

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WHO HANDLES VISIBILITY PR? There are many different sources of PR services. An individual brand may employ a publicist to work exclusively on his or her account. In some cases, a publicist may form a small firm that handles the media communication strategies of a number of stars. “I tell people we’re not personal publicists anymore, we’re individual media strategists,”10 says Stan Rosenfield, who runs an independent firm that represents actors like Robert de Niro, George Clooney, and Will Smith. In contrast to small publicist operations are large PR firms that specialize in serving an exclusive set of well-known clients. These firms, such as Rogers & Cowan and PMK/HBH, are structured much like traditional firms, with office managers, researchers, and account managers. A full-service specialty house can mount very large campaigns, exploiting established connections to obtain quality PR exposure and generally serving as the brand’s spokesperson. Multifaceted public relations firms, such as Hill and Knowlton and Burson-Marsteller, also represent brands. These firms represent many different levels of personal brands, in different sectors. Typically they have a variety of clients in entertainment and business, as well as representing products, public-interest groups, and nonprofit institutions. An aspirant in the political, business, or academic sector often feels more comfortable with these multidimensional firms, possibly because they lack the showbiz profile of the celebrity-intensive organizations. PR services are also provided within movie and record companies, religious organizations, universities, medical facilities, nongovernment organizations, corporations, and other organizations that understand the benefits of making people visible. These organizations promote key individuals not for their own exclusive benefit but rather for the profit-making interest of the corporation. Their promotion strategies can vary. Apparel retailer Gap, Inc., employed actor Sarah Jessica Parker to promote its clothing line through print ads and TV commercials. Even firms outside the traditional consumer-products sector use this strategy. Architect Helmut Jahn has employed an assistant for publicity and marketing to assure that his image was promoted through PR channels as a way to keep the firm’s name before potential clients. Venues also manage their own publicity, promoting brands for the purpose of making money for the places where they appear. It may be a dance club, a Six Flags theme park, the Hyatt cocktail lounge, or the Rose Bowl. Although rarely generating original PR, such performance sites can give the brand’s official story a boost if the publicist is

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supplied with the appropriate information and the lead time necessary to communicate it. In an era in which the cost of producing high-quality information and distributing it publicly has been reduced by technology innovation, self-publicity is increasingly viable. Many cottage industry aspirants begin with Web sites, blogs, and other low-key promotional channels that can reach targeted audiences with the help of e-mail lists and other easily available resources. The advantage of this strategy is that it places the self-promoting aspirant in total control of his or her material and often allows for very fast changes in strategy as opportunities arise. In many cases, however, it is inevitable that as the aspirant attains brand stature and managing a larger organization becomes a priority, publicity falls into the hands of publicists. In the end, the aspirant must realize that good publicity requires cooperation and exchange of information no matter who is executing the plan. When novelist Michael Crichton goes on an author tour, the host institutions do not generate Crichton material from scratch. Material may come from the in-house PR staff at HarperCollins Publishers, or even from freelance PR professionals the author himself retains. In this sense, publicity is a cooperative venture that needs careful orchestration and planning.

WHAT DO PUBLICISTS DO FOR ASPIRANTS? The relationship between an aspirant and a publicist varies on several levels: needs, costs, and situations. Some aspirants need complete strategic communication plans and employ PR firms to execute them. Others want just a specific, narrow base of support. Following are the publicist’s ten major functions. 1. Stage press conferences: This includes arranging for a time and place, writing a press statement, alerting and following up with the media, and then coaching the aspirant on how to answer anticipated questions. 2. Prepare press kits: Packaged information highlights the key ideas that the aspirant wants televised or printed, including selected quotations, suggestions on story angles, and background information.

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3. Write speeches: If an aspirant has to appear at an awards dinner or on a talk show, PR often writes the script. Because many aspirants often do not have the time or skill to write their own material, their presentations frequently are ghostwritten. The writer researches the topic, interviews the aspirant, and tries to create an authentic-sounding presentation. Problems may arise if there is tension between the publicist’s material and the aspirant’s own voice and tone; worse than an unprepared client is the client who is clearly mouthing someone else’s words and doesn’t understand them. 4. Plan and execute publicity tours, travel itineraries, and talk-show interviews: This function gets to the heart of PR’s role in person marketing. Publicists are the brokers of the branded personality product, offering news or persons to venues or shows that need them. PR’s tour-planning role also demonstrates PR’s expertise at distributing the product to the market. After all, there is serious competition to get an appearance on Late Night with Conan O’Brien. The aspirant pays PR to have the connections that will make it happen: Publicist: Do you want Johnny Depp? Host: Sure, but I want to talk to the inner Depp. Publicist: No way—he’ll only talk about his new film. Host: Forget Johnny then. Publicist: Hold on, I’ll talk to him. 5. Track the movement of the client’s image and gather feedback from venues and media: One way PR firms chart their success is by subscribing to clipping and Internet-based services that scan the whole universe of newspapers, magazines, and Web sites and compile files containing every single mention of the aspirant’s name. “You won’t believe it,” says the publicist. “We got your story into the Washington Post!” Believe it. You paid for it. A more formal—and expensive—way of tracking image is the conducting of formal surveys, such as those politicians commission regularly to gauge voter perception. 6. Hold hands: This is a critical function, which is hard to measure but vital. One PR executive at Rogers & Cowan was described by a rival executive at another firm as a “hand-holder.” Though the description may well have been a put-down, the ability to handhold is not an inconsiderable asset. Aspirants often need

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assurances, smiles, and intimacy if only on an hourly basis. Whether singer Mariah Carey is upset on her promotional tour or basketball player LeBron James is being hassled by his coach, the PR representative can listen and provide counsel. The disdain for hand-holding is due to the condescending associations with such an act. In a world in which it is very hard to evaluate with any precision what you’re doing from day to day, a hand-holder supplies the important service of confidence building and ego maintenance. 7. Provide or arrange for skills improvement: This newly developing area for PR firms could best be described as “product development.” Rosenfield has employed Carole Hemingway to prepare controversial clients for interviews and press conferences in which sensitive personal questions are certain to be asked. Hemingway, a Los Angeles–based former journalist and talk-show host, performs her role by conducting mock interviews that can last up to several days, complete with full lights and cameraperson. The simulated interviews are then played and dissected until the client has fine-tuned his or her answers and achieved an engaging demeanor, including scripted anecdotes if appropriate. Hemingway also teaches clients how to transition from a sensitive subject back to the project being promoted and how to make themselves appear thoughtful and sensitive under media scrutiny. Though some PR firms have their own experts, it is not uncommon to subcontract such product development engagements to outside consultants. And the range of specialists is ever-growing and allows the aspirant to access many different services. For example, following the late industrialization model, consultants now exist with specialties as narrow as the preparation of authors for media tours. 8. Manage special projects: In the quest for visibility, large numbers of promotional materials must be developed and disseminated. A common request is for an approved biography. Frequently a PR firm or agency will hire a writer who will write a custom-designed biography of the star, complete with memorable quotes. The format may be “as told to,” “written with,” or ghostwritten, but there is often a danger that it will become an extensive press release in book form. The Trident Media Group, which is a literary book agency, has a number of writers who are available to

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ghostwrite a star’s story. The arrangements might include advances, split royalties, or a set fee. According to Steven Schragis, who began Carol Publishing, now Kensington Publishers, primarily a celebrity book publisher, “There are thousands of very good ghostwriters out there. If you’ve got a celebrity ready to cooperate, getting a ghostwriter is like booking a flight to Los Angeles.”11 9. Coordinate major events: The larger PR firms are equipped to handle the logistical problems of such large venues as the Cannes Film Festival. Dennis Davidson Associates, a London-based public relations firm, utilizes its public relations and event management teams to manage many of the festival’s needs. These tasks include not only traditional media events but also car and room rentals, restaurant reservations, parties, and arrivals and departures, as well as security issues.12 10. Implement the strategic marketing plan: In traditional product marketing, the marketing communication staff selects the target markets and designs strategy; PR then helps put the plan into action, writes the press releases, and arranges for talent. Most PR firms now offer marketing communication capabilities so that they have more influence and control over the whole marketing process. In developing these capabilities, PR has moved its influence closer to the decision-making point. PR firms, by adding market researchers, running their own focus groups, and encouraging full-service planning, are making and recommending fundamental strategy decisions.

HOW PUBLICITY BENEFITS HIGH VISIBILITY CLIENTS PR is essential because all aspirants in the visibility-marketing process need distribution of their image. The role PR plays in the visibility industry involves enabling, designing, managing, and protecting the brand image. Because brands are always in danger of having their shelf life shortened, skillful handling of the media is crucial for longevity. The very reason PR exists is that media space is limited and so is the amount of time available to get a brand launched. So there is a need for skilled execution in an environment of intense competition. While operational tasks of PR can vary

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widely, the aspirant often requires a communications specialist who knows how to get things done and understands the market. It may be the need to nurture the fragile career of a young actor, the difficult promotion of the concert in the park, or an entire marketing plan for regenerating a medical practice. Each of these tasks benefits from the brand-development skills of PR. PR also sculpts brands by playing on the saleable factors of a name. It is unlikely that the chief executive’s philandering, the TV producer’s notorious unfairness, or the senator’s temper tantrums will be voluntarily offered up by the PR staff. PR staffs usually focus on getting the complete and accurate story out, accentuating positives, noting triumphs, and extolling conquests. But image making frequently involves more than just highlighting and focusing on the attractive characteristics of the aspirant. PR also protects its clients from negative reports: a singer’s tax problems, an actor’s indiscretions, or an athlete’s drug habit, sometimes persuading reporters to not use the items, sometimes planting corrections or denials, or counseling the brand on whether to respond at all.

Interacting with the Media The media have always had a strong interest in a person’s triumphs and failures. Audiences have great interest in reading about other people, and people-centered news and features can dramatically impact the success of a publication or network. The invention of the portable video camera and mobile phones with cameras has brought a new dimension of immediacy and drama to capturing a controversy. In just a few seconds, with a single gesture or a crucial comment, a career can be saved or destroyed. In a typical situation, the brand under pressure is besieged by questions. An accusation, an unfortunate slip of the tongue, or a recalled product has the potential for generating negative publicity. As a result, the entire brand may come under scrutiny and is expected to defend a behavior, event, or position.

The Setting The media have three major advantages: 1. The media often take the position that they represent the people. In doing so, they place the brand in a precarious position. The media’s persona as the “voice of the people” places the guest in the position of often appearing to be on the witness stand—answering questions under distress. This is a clear advantage for interviewers such as Aaron Brown, Lou Dobbs, or Nancy Grace. In the end, the personality is the defendant, and the media voice is the prosecutor, appearing to act on behalf

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of the audience. Despite the media’s often probing attacks, brands are usually willing to be placed in this potentially dangerous situation in return for the visibility and the opportunity to state their case. In preparing for media interviews, it’s important to recognize the difference between the role of the interviewer/interviewee and the credibility of the media. There is no question that large numbers of viewers are suspicious of what they read or see in the media as evidenced by a report by the Pew Research Center which found that 45 percent of Americans believe little or nothing in their newspapers.13 Despite the media’s credibility gap, they have the advantage of place, time, and situation, and they often report as if they have the moral imperative. Recognizing these advantages and preparing for what is essentially an appearance in public court is good advice for agents, managers, and their clients. 2. The media have the final word: editing. The industry is set up so that the performance is subject to a final review by a media producer or editor. A thirty-minute interview often ends up as a twenty-five-second sound byte on the evening news or a few column inches in People. The seeming randomness of the selection and potential for manipulation are problems for highly visible people. This is also true for print, where much of a journalist’s feature may be cut to make room for an advertisement or other breaking news. 3. The media ask the questions. It is far easier to ask than to answer. Faced with a difficult question, the brand has two key options: ■ Delay or ignore answering to buy time. ● Strength: The controversy may disappear in the flood of competing news stories. ● Weakness: The media may wonder why an answer is not forthcoming, and so they will investigate, allowing the problem to grow. ■ Answer quickly to forestall any accusations of hiding the truth. ● Strength: The media may be satisfied and back off. ● Weakness: The media may not have even cared, but now they are in hot pursuit because of an inadequate or provocative response. However, because news travels so fast in the modern world, brand managers have much less time to develop a strategy for responding to tough questions than in the past. Delay can quickly result in an out-of-control situation that results in a crisis. This is because media often dominate the issue when the brand fails to respond promptly, and the result is an information vacuum that is defined by them.

A Quick Guide to Defense To avoid losing control of the communications agenda, the individual brand and the media strategists should discuss possible vulnerable areas in advance.

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If possible they should set up a simulated video interview in which pointed questions are addressed to the brand or spokesperson. 1. Ask three types of questions: obvious, probable, and off-the-wall. ■ Obvious: Why did you write the book? ■ Probable: Did your child custody case in which you lost your child influence your point of view? ■ Off the wall: I noticed you were an undergraduate at Berkeley when the school closed down because of the Vietnam War. If you could get inside President Lyndon Johnson’s mind at the time, would you have signed off on the Tet Offensive? In preparation, always ask a good variety of questions that fit into all three categories, even making the person feel uncomfortable. Do not flinch from creating embarrassing situations in the simulation because such a situation could arise during an actual interview. It’s far better that the interviewee be upset in a simulation than be unprepared when confronting Mike Wallace on 60 Minutes as he begins to intone: “Are you trying to tell . . .” 2. The types of questions that are apt to be asked fall into clear categories that can be understood and planned for prior to an interview or simply in preparation for impromptu exchanges with the media. For example, some questions simply ask for explanations, and other questions are more aggressive and are intended to put the person on the defensive and elicit a particular response. Some questions are also thinly veiled personal attacks, “either-or” traps, or suspicious secondhand purported leaks by unnamed sources that cannot be substantiated. These interview strategies also have variations—but they can be effectively handled with training and practice. For example, it is unwise to answer an either-or question, so the interviewee needs to restate that type of question in terms that he or she can answer fairly and reasonably, or deflect the question and shift to the aspirant’s principal message. Question: “Your behavior in your last movie toward the director was either sabotage or you were mentally ill at the time. Which is it?” Answer: “There’s lots of misinformation about how movies are made . . .” A secondhand leak should never be substantiated, and there are a variety of reasonable responses: “I can’t comment on an unverified report.” “This is new information, and I will get you a response shortly.” Or pass over it with a reminder of past credibility and a hint of outrage: “You know me, that makes no sense.” 3. The style of answering is extremely important and should be practiced in a video simulation. Crucial teachable skills include speed of delivery,

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vocal inflection, and body movement. Careful attention to these three factors can heighten the effect of a well-reasoned defense. Bear in mind that different venues demand variations in style. For example, press conferences differ from telephone interviews in eye contact, audience size, and feedback. An architect addressing a press conference on a proposed design for a trade center has the advantage of being able to read and react to the audience’s responses, judge and adjust to their interest level, and use a model to convey the magnitude of the building. The same architect in a phone interview relies primarily on verbal, highly descriptive information that is conveyed through the tone, inflection, and enthusiasm of the voice. While the press conference is a larger audience with more reach and potential gain, the phone interview is more controllable and can allow for a more complete response to a question. 4. The best defense is the truth. In the world of media, evading an issue is difficult and will inevitably lead to further problems. Everything a person says or writes can be archived. An effective defense requires meticulous preparation: thorough audience analysis, tight command of the material, and a succinct delivery. Managing the media involves a combination of strategy, style, and a positive attitude toward meeting the public. It also mandates that the individual brand not only understand the fundamental principles and realities of a situation but that he or she is able to articulate them well.

A brand can come under attack because of scandal, poor performance, an inadequate image, or an inability to communicate with the media. It is PR that is usually responsible for improving, or even salvaging, the reputation. The response may be as dramatic as Steve Jobs’ appearing at the MacWorld Expo—and being received like a rock star—following his appointment as acting CEO of the then-troubled company in 1997, or as mundane as the brand’s arranging to meet with a previously shunned smalltown reporter. Since it has experience with limiting damage, PR is accustomed to managing the communications agenda under a wide variety of situations and seemingly uncontrollable circumstances. In this same vein, PR can help clarify conflicting and potentially damaging stories. Many sources develop information on brands: It might be a game manufacturer, a chewing-gum sponsor, a weekly magazine, or the barber of a close friend. Some of the information may be contradictory, wrong, or damaging. The damage-control headlines inspired by publicity have included “Has Martha Stewart Changed?” “A Mother’s Tale of Her Son’s Addiction and Recovery: The Personal Story of AJ McLean,” “Blake Jurors Want Apology from Prosecutor,” “Nike After Knight,” “Is Bob Iger Ready for His Close-up?” “Singer Bobby Brown Was a Victim in Nightclub Brawl,

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Manager Says.” PR usually acts as a clearinghouse and final word for precision and accuracy on the brand’s image. Despite the obvious value of publicity-managing firms, some users still feel guilty about retaining their services. As a result, the PR industry is constantly attempting to improve its own image as it produces images for its clients. In a study of the credibility of forty-five occupations, public relations personnel were ranked at the bottom.14 The public relations field constantly deals with the PR tag term “spin,” which has multiple interpretations ranging from outright lies to delicate and nuanced interpretations. In some cases, clients find themselves appreciating the results, but, at the same time, they have a nagging suspicion that the method of attainment may have been too managed. To some critics, PR greases the skids, smoothes the waters, and puts out the “right” story. But for aspirants who employ its help, PR serves as an advocate, a counselor, a third party—putting out the storyline or defense that, were it to come directly from the celebrity, would appear not only self-serving but inadequately presented.

PR’s Mixed Image Public relations’ mixed image can be partly explained by its evolution. Historically, PR has been perceived as entertainment-industry dominated. Many publicists were ex-newspaper writers who climbed over the fence to promote clients. News reporters have long disdained turncoats who found it expedient to sell their souls to the devil and flood their former newsrooms with promotional material. As early as 1893 a Boston Globe staff booklet advised that “any item is a puff which is of more interest to the firm or person mentioned than to the general public.”15 It was during this period in 1906 that Ivy Lee published his “Declaration of Principles” that proposed that public relations practitioners need to expand their responsibilities beyond the client. By 1908 the American Newspaper Publishers Association was already tracking the activities of the ever-growing public relations sector. It was Edward Bernays in the 1920s who began organizing and systematizing a body of literature for the public relations industry. Bernays, in his book Crystallizing Public Opinion, gave professional structure and psychological underpinnings to PR, providing a powerful counterattack to the criticism of PR as an unregulated supplier of pseudo-news.16 Public relations textbooks over the years began to adopt social science theories. The legion of promoters, writers, press agents, consultants, and gossip-column seeders, armed with growing respectability, gradually grew to view themselves as members of a profession. Still, no amount of theorizing could dramatically change the reality of stunts, fabrications, and tricks so exalted in public relations lore.

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The dramatic and macabre staging of Rudolph Valentino’s funeral by publicist Harry C. Klemfuss and other agents is one of the classics. Every detail from Valentino’s faked history of love affairs to posed real-time pictures of the funeral cortege fueled the mile-long crowd that turned out for the event. Similar promotions admittedly continue today. For example, the Monday Night Football and Desperate Housewives cross promotion in which actress Nicolette Sheridan leapt seemingly naked into the arms of football player Terrell Owens and media pioneer and politician Silvio Berlusconi’s never-ending efforts to become highly visible on a global scale are sometimes accompanied by exaggeration, hyperbole, and some distortion. The marketplace, however, has changed dramatically from those early days of fabrications and stunts. The increasing number of communications channels and the weariness of media-savvy audiences to overt publicity stunts and obvious attention-getting devices have altered the marketplace. We are now in an era where consumers are often the determinant and judge of what they will watch and subsequently buy and believe in. As a consequence, PR is in a stage of transformation, involving a shift in power from producer to consumer, and in this process the communication strategies are by necessity becoming more audience-centered and credible.

PR’S EMERGING SECTORS Traditionally, the PR business has been associated with the entertainment sector, a strategic combination that determined a large number of their practices. The pervasiveness of PR is a crucial aspect of how the Hollywood model affects other sectors. Entertainment-style PR is moving into formerly low-key sectors such as medicine, law, religion, science, and business where it is using storylines, exploiting free media, and developing icons. As a result, some of the higher octane entertainment-based publicity practices have been combined with new media, marketing, and technology to produce an ever-changing set of communication tools. Consider, as an example, the evolution of sports publicity. The image of today’s sports figure is developed with the same professional finesse that actor John Wayne received. Before television began to widely distribute such sporting events as the Masters and the NCAA Final Four, PR treatment was limited to a few professional sports and schools with intercollegiate programs. Much of the work, while occasionally brilliant, was haphazard and amateurish. Today, with the widespread availability of televised sports images, sports stars enter our consciousness incessantly, raising unlimited opportunities for promotion. Seeking to capitalize on this trend, sportinggoods companies use athletes to endorse their equipment. Teams employ

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PR to produce the most attractive images of their players while corporations sponsor golf and tennis tournaments to humanize themselves. Part of the support staff of emerging sports stars are their own PR specialists who will rework their images into a total package that complements their blazing fastballs or overpowering net play. This means that a pitcher may get speech lessons, media-encounter training, dress-forstardom advice, and identification with his or her very own charity. Sports image making is becoming increasingly industrialized. Media organizations such as Magid Associates have even begun to aggressively target college athletes for training as spokespersons and public relations vehicles for their schools. The student-athlete, whom the university now sees as an important brand resource, is taught how to give postgame interviews, relate to local media, appear before alumni and donors, and, above all, protect and augment the university’s image. Athletes now move through media channels using many of the same promotion strategies as movie stars. Take the case of seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong, a cancer survivor. When Nike learned of his Livestrong program, a division of the Lance Armstrong Foundation that serves as a resource center for cancer survivors, the company donated $1 million to the foundation and offered to manufacture 5 million yellow Livestrong wristbands to be sold at $1 a piece, with proceeds going to Armstrong’s cause.17 The bracelets were introduced by Nike and Armstrong in May 2004. In September of that year, most every athlete in the Athens Olympic Games wore the wristbands, and a Nike spokeswoman reported that the company had sold 12 million bands,18 way beyond the initial 5 million target. Although Nike did not profit from the effort, the buzz surrounding the project generated substantial goodwill that enhanced Nike’s prestige and, indirectly, its revenues. For dramatic counterpoint, consider the fate of 1932 speed skating gold medalist Irving Jaffee, who ended up in Depression bread lines. In 1932, PR served only a few sports stars, and speed skaters were not among them. Contrast Jaffee’s career with that of current speed-skating media stars Allison Baver and Apolo Anton Ohno. Both have comprehensive, professionally maintained Web sites. Baver’s Web site includes a response form journalists can complete to request an interview. Ohno has been featured in Forbes as one of sponsors’ favorite endorsers, and he has coauthored an autobiography, A Journey,19 for young readers. Today, PR touches every facet of American life, providing an everincreasing amount of information that is published as “news.” A survey of 33,911 television reports aired from 1998 to 2002 showed a rise in the use

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of “feed” material from third-party sources from 14 to 23 percent, while the percentage of stories substantiated by a reporter or correspondent dropped from 62 to 43 percent.20 In practice, the trend for the media is to subcontract more of their news-gathering material to PR and produce less of it themselves. As a result, news channels have become highly dependent on PR’s output. On Monday, a thirteen-year-old baking wiz—representing flour manufacturers—makes the rounds on local radio. On Tuesday, a research scientist—funded by a chemical company—appears on the six o’clock television news and describes how a certain mosquito repellent has more resistance power than its competitors. On Wednesday, a well-known actor speaks at a national trade show introducing a health care product, eats at a local restaurant, attends an art opening, and makes charming, off-thecuff remarks to senior citizens. Thursday finds the attorney general’s office releasing a study on gang crackdowns. As for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, it is the usual potpourri of sports interviews, film reviews, political and social commentary—all generated by PR. Evidence of public relations’ move into nonentertainment sectors is everywhere. The business press, for example, has been flooded with dramatic-interest stories. When former Sony CEO Nobuyuki Idei stepped down to be replaced by Howard Stringer, media reports focused on the appointment of Sony’s first non-Japanese CEO and compared his appointment to that of Nissan’s Ghosn. Storylines included Stringer’s strategies for reviving the company’s struggling electronic appliance business, winning over displaced senior executives, and boosting employee morale. For most of us, PR has seeped so subtly into the fabric of our lives that we scarcely realize it’s there—whether it’s a disk jockey at a grade school fund-raiser, a parade for disabled factory workers, or a TV weatherman speaking to golden-agers about snow predictions. There are additional concerns with PR’s movement into nonentertainment sectors. Whereas in entertainment, the outcome of many events can be controlled such as the ending of a play or movie, in other sectors, control of endings is a major problem. Expectations are frequently unfulfilled in sports as evidenced by tennis star Andy Roddick’s first round defeat in the 2005 U.S. Open. American Express designed an advertising campaign around Roddick that was set to air throughout the tournament and was accompanied with an elaborate publicity launch. It was a roll of the promotional dice that marks certain sectors and sports in particular. After Roddick’s loss, American Express spokeswoman Judy Tenzer repositioned the campaign saying, “The campaign isn’t about winning or losing; it’s about celebrating the Open.”

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She added in a seeming admission of the gamble, “In sports like in life, you have good days and bad days.”21 What Roddick demonstrates is that happy endings cannot always be preordained as in the entertainment sectors. The same is true in other sectors. In the promotional campaigns for new pharmaceutical drugs or automobiles, they can suddenly be recalled, destroying millions of dollars of promotion. The handling of promotion in different sectors calls for awareness of not only the rules, language, and style but also the need to prepare for uncertainty.

Selling the Story What are PR’s options in building an aspirant into a brand? Most of the strategies involve developing and getting key messages that support the desired brand image into play. This means finding a strategy to convince journalists to use a story and help them get their editors to buy into it. One simple tactic is to write a legitimate story and simply distribute it to media contacts. When Melanie Bloom lost her husband, NBC correspondent David Bloom, to a pulmonary embolism while he was embedded with the Third Infantry Division during the Iraq War, the story quickly dominated news worldwide. The drama of his three orphaned little girls and resolute wife rebuilding their lives didn’t require embellishment—the story stands on its own as inspirational and compelling. It also has enough media crossover and relevance to be used without distortion and requires only a minimum of PR intervention. The second approach is to embellish a legitimate story. Here, PR highlights a factor, exaggerates a key element, or invents a motivation. The evangelist from a middle-class background is portrayed as dirt poor in order to appear closer to his people. A country singer who misses her husband is said to sing her lyrics with more passion. A bright corporate president is supposedly sleeping just four hours a night, flying his own Lear jet, and longing for his spouse, all in pursuit of closing a merger. The strategy is to highlight emotionally charged features that help audiences identify with the highly visible. The use of positive action terms is a conscious stylistic device. For example, in a film’s press release, such terms as “a pleasant, easy style,” “budding careers,” “the audience loved it,” and “enormously successful” are routinely kneaded into the prose. The core vocabulary of publicists’ power words includes “emerging,” “developing,” “hot,” “legendary,” and “multitalented.” The vocabulary becomes so much a part of our audience experience that “critical praise” seems like one word.

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Another stylistic device of publicists is to tie the basic brand storylines into natural opportunities, meaning any media need, from seasonal to culinary. Thus we have stories about the stars’ birthdays, favorite summer vacations, foods, hobbies, and charity commitments. Every year at Christmas, stories appear on what the holidays mean to celebrities. “Angelina Jolie Turns Santa for Beirut Cancer Kids.” “Oprah’s Christmas Spirit.” “A Very Tom Hanks Christmas.” “Celebrities Talk About Christmas Memories.” A third method is to contrive a story, either making up one of its key elements, inventing an entirely new one, or selectively suppressing aspects of the story that do not match the strategy. The story can be as simple as denying the rocky state of the candidate’s marriage during the campaign, insisting that the cost-cutting company president has no plans to bust the union, or stating that the reason the priest took the leave of absence was to research a new book, not because of accusations of child molestation. To combat rampant rumors about Queen Elizabeth’s decision not to attend the wedding of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles, a palace spokeswoman said: “The Queen’s prime concern is that the civil ceremony should be as low key as possible, in line with the couple’s wishes.”22 The real truth was more likely that the queen wanted to make sure she stayed on the correct side of public opinion. Polls suggested support for the wedding, but little affection and mostly apathy for Parker Bowles.23 The queen’s decision to make amends by hosting the reception was a political balancing act. A variation on contrivance is the reverse negative. PR is always looking for a hook on which to build a story, one that features a client suffering, enduring, and resurfacing healed. It’s a storyline so powerful with audiences that People magazine devotes substantial coverage to it in its “Coping” section. No longer in denial, The Sopranos’ Lorraine Bracco speaks out for the first time about her secret struggle against depression. Bruce Willis talks about his ex-wife and her new husband, and the secrets to a happy divorce. Under the reverse negative, Bracco and Willis can make visibility-generating, instrumental value out of a plain negative. C. Fred Bergsten is an economist who has made a career out of exploiting the reverse negative. He heads the Institute for International Economics, a prestigious Washington, D.C., think tank, and chairs the Shadow G–8, which advises G–8 leaders on their annual summit meetings. His visibility strategy is to unleash a barrage of pronouncements on important business and trade issues, and in doing so, generate massive personal publicity. If he is incorrect, he delivers such a positive and charming explanation that he appears untouchable. When he mistakenly forecast that the world economy would slip into the control of oil cartels, it set off alarms

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throughout the globe. Bergsten, an expert in the reverse negative, explained: “Several times when I’ve been wrong, . . . I honestly believe that predicting dire outcomes helped prevent the outcome.”24 His public statements— delivered on a daily and wide-ranging basis—provide the media with a regular and steady source to quote. He is the modern-day version of Socrates; however, instead of taunting the people in the streets, he works through all of the media distribution channels. The reverse negative operates from the cynical but plausible premise that the only bad press is no press. When David Letterman irreverently chided Madonna on his show, she retaliated by loudly displaying contempt and disrupting the show by attacking the late night host as a hypocrite. The uncomfortable interview received nationwide attention and became a favorite “chat” topic on the Internet. This is the key to the reverse-negative strategy: keeping the name in play. The downside risk is the danger that media and the audience will concentrate on the negative connotations—a risk that, in Madonna’s case, was well worth taking. Despite the controversy—or perhaps because of it—Madonna has since reappeared on David Letterman’s show to promote her album American Life and then her children’s book Mr. Peabody’s Apples. In both instances, Madonna was well behaved in comparison to her earlier appearance, perhaps in keeping with her new, mature image. As a result, she successfully reversed a reverse negative.

Building the Buzz “How can we get and sustain attention?” has always been the fundamental agenda for PR. What hasn’t been done? Can we put a new twist on an old idea? Stories and scandals are generated and then regenerated. The classical appeals—the elements of shock, suspense, sympathy—are the stock strategies of PR. This is not to denigrate the importance of credibility, authenticity, or legitimacy, but the first thing you have to do is to pull that consumer away from something else. Whenever venue managers get together, whether they’re nightclub owners, sports team managers, conference organizers, publishers, or executive recruiters, the subject inevitably turns to who’s “hot.” The discussion sounds like a combination weather report and occult religious service as magic terms pepper the conversation: “good aura,” “generates a power,” “lights up the place,” “hard to describe,” “compelling concept,” “a love affair with the audience,” “strategic foresight.” What is usually being described is some visible person who seems to be in high demand. Do you remember when Beverly Hills 90210’s Luke Perry was a teenage idol? Or how about the

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flood of publicity over the defensive back-kick returner-wide receiver-outfielder Deion Sanders? In politics, everyone said that the person to watch was Senator Phil Gramm of Texas. What was a New York party without Marla Maples? Evangelist Jimmy Swaggart once brought down the thunder. It is the job of PR to make brands hot: to get people talking, to create momentum, to build buzz. Buzz is really a configuration of elements that gets and sustains attention. It generally involves a formula drawn from six key elements of PR choices: • • • • • •

Audience: The specific needs Story selection: The right story Timing: When to do it Positioning: Where to do it Placement: What sector, venue, and channel Staging: The exact launching vehicle

The situation dictates how the elements are mixed to create the buzz. In most cases, a particular choice may be crucial. An example is how manager Chuck Binder and his client Sharon Stone refocused her career, emphasizing story selection, positioning, and staging. After settling for supporting roles for ten years, Stone and her new manager decided to pursue major directors and films.25 When many Hollywood actresses turned down the bisexual killer role in Basic Instinct, Stone, after many auditions and relentless pursuit, landed the role. Following the enormous publicity generated from her sexually explicit role, Stone achieved a new level of visibility—eventually starring in films such as The Quick and the Dead and Diabolique, and being nominated for an Oscar in Casino. As Stone’s career has progressed, she has managed to broaden her image in more serious endeavors and create a buzz about them. For example, she used the high-profile plenary session of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, to make a much reported dramatic plea to raise money for the fight against malaria in Africa. It was the right story for the right audience, and the timing was ideal since it was a heavily covered conference. There was a new glow about Stone that in many ways redefined her previous actress-siren persona and restaged her as a more serious, committed social activist. In some cases, marketing dominates the buzz-building process. When rock singer Bruce Springsteen first surfaced, he was marketed as the new Bob Dylan. The similarities with Dylan were extolled: They looked alike and sang

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alike, and both were real poets from the streets. When this positioning failed, PR constructed a follow-up campaign based on a newly generated brand identity for Springsteen: blue-collar rock singer. In this phase of Springsteen’s marketing, all six buzz-building elements were used together. • Audience: The public desire for an authentic-seeming music hero. • Story: That Springsteen, man of the streets, sang of his real life and friends from New Jersey. • Timing: His record was promoted heavily, first to the trade and the media, and only then to the general public. • Positioning, placement, and staging: For his new public debut, a nightclub was selected that was purposefully too small to handle the crowd, creating the impression of excitement and intense popularity. As a result of this carefully orchestrated buzz-building strategy, Springsteen simultaneously appeared on the covers of Time and Newsweek and had a top-selling album. It would not be the last time. After a seven-year hiatus during which he produced no new material, Springsteen emerged in 2002 with The Rising. The album was positioned as a collection of new songs inspired by 9/11. It was described as “the first significant piece of pop art to respond to the events of that day.”26 In keeping with his image, Springsteen wrote most of the songs from the point of view of the working class, and he dealt with the tragedy’s effect on their lives. While the tone of the album was sad, it also offered the optimism that his audience sought. Not surprisingly, some critics suggested Springsteen’s new album was motivated by commercial interest. Springsteen, however, claimed he was simply being there at a time “when people want to see [him].”27 Illustrating the timelessness of the strategy, Springsteen in marketing The Rising used all six buzz-building elements again, capitalizing on his previous positioning as an authentic music hero and appealing to an audience that was experiencing pain and loss from the tragedy. As a result, Springsteen once again landed on the cover of Time magazine,28 this time under the headline “Reborn in the USA.”

WHOSE VOICE? For the highly visible, how to manage the relationship with PR is a critical issue. By giving the highly visible a voice, PR can help define their brand’s

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relationship with a target audience. At the same time, the many advantages that PR offers are sometimes offset by the possible trade-offs of loss of control of the brand image. In the end, it’s up to the entire brand team to agree on the fundamental premises of the campaign and how it will be communicated to the various marketplaces. It is understandable that sometimes aspirants feel that their brands have been designed by strangers, but the fact is that PR plays an integral role in driving aspirants to a sector’s peak and help sustain them once they are there. This critical phase of person marketing—sustaining visibility— is the subject of Chapter 11.

NOTES 1 www.visalaw.com/about.html, viewed July 2, 2005. 2 www.visalaw.com/gsiskind.html, viewed July 2, 2005. 3 Tim Larimer, “Asian Corporate Finance and Business Strategy: Japan, Nissan and the Ghosn Revolution,” Chazen Web Journal of International Business, Spring 2003, p. 5, www2.gsb.columbia.edu/journals/files/chazen/Nissan.pdf, viewed April 6, 2005. 4 Ibid. 5 Todd Zaun, “Look! Up in the Sky! It’s Nissan’s Chief Executive,” Wall Street Journal, December 27, 2001, p. B1. 6 Aaron D. Allen, “Public Relations Versus Advertising,” Article Warehouse, June 18, 2004, editorials.arrivenet.com/bus/article.php/1228.html, viewed July 2, 2005. 7 Richard Sandomir, “Voice of the Boss and a Voice of Reason,” New York Times, July 1, 2005, p. C16. 8 Ibid. 9 _____, “Billy Joel Checks Out of Rehab Center,” Associated Press Online, April 12, 2005 (Lexis Nexis). 10 Scott Robson, “Buzz Brains Unite,” Variety Magazine, February 21, 2005, www.variety.com/ac2005_article/VR1117918324?nav=publicist, viewed October 16, 2005. 11 Tomas Kellner, “Celebrity 100: Under Cover,” Forbes, July 7, 2003, www.forbes.com/free_forbes/2003/0707/096.html, viewed July 2, 2005.

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12 For a complete list of Dennis Davidson Associates’ Cannes Film Festival services, log on to www.ddapr.com/event_man/cannes.html, viewed March 23, 2005. 13 Nicolas D. Kristoff, “A Slap in the Face,” New York Times, April 12, 2005, www.nytimes.com/2005/04/12/opinion/12kristof.html?n=Top%2fOpinion%2f Editorials%20and%20Op%2dEd%2fOp%2dEd%2fColumnists, viewed April 16, 2005. 14 Jennifer Harper, “Supreme Court Justices Rank Highest in Credibility, Index Says,” Washington Times, July 8, 1999, p. A8. 15 Silas Bent, Ballyhoo (New York: Horace Liveright, 1927). 16 Edward L. Bernays, Crystallizing Public Opinion (New York: Boni and Liveright, 1927). 17 Tim Maloney, “Armstrong Sweats the Details,” June 11, 2004, www.cyclingnews.com/riders/ 2004/interviews/?id=lance_armstrong042, viewed March 17, 2005. 18 _____, “Nike CEO: The Athlete of the Year Was . . . Lance Armstrong,” September 21, 2004, www.bikebiz.co.uk/daily-news/article.php?id=4664, viewed March 17, 2005. 19 Apolo Anton Ohno and Nancy Richardson, A Journey (New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2002). 20 Marion Just and Tom Rosensteil, “All the News That’s Fed,” New York Times, March 26, 2005, www.nytimes.com/2005/03/26/opinion/26just.html, viewed March 29, 2005. 21 Stuart Elliott, “Rethinking Roddick’s Mojo after First-Round Defeat,” New York Times, September 1, 2005, p. C3. 22 _____, “Queen Denies ‘Snub’ Over Wedding,” BBC News World Edition, February 23, 2005, news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4289225.stm, viewed March 18, 2005. 23 _____, “Prince Charles to Marry Camilla,” BBC News World Edition, February 10, 2005, news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4252795.stm, viewed July 9, 2005. 24 Helene Cooper, “C. Fred Bergsten Is an ‘Eminent Person,’ As He Will Tell You,” Wall Street Journal, December 28, 1995, p. 3. 25 Suzanna Andrews, “FILM: The Ultimate Question: Can Sharon Stone Act?” New York Times, January 16, 1994, Sec. 2, p. 11.

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26 Josh Tyrangiel and Kate Carcaterra, “Bruce Rising,” Time, August 5, 2002, www.time.com/time/archive/ preview/0,10987,1002987,00.html, viewed March 22, 2005. 27 Ibid. 28 Time, August 5, 2002.

sustaining the brand

CHAPTER 11

A

nita Roddick is one of the richest and most famous women in the world. Her brand is built on an unusual proposition: that natural oils and scents can be married with environmental awareness and sold at a profit. Her story began in 1976 when she borrowed $6,000 and opened a small environmentally sensitive toiletries shop located between two funeral parlors in Brighton, England. Since then, The Body Shop International has grown into Britain’s most successful global retailer, with 2,019 stores in over fifty countries. Launched on the principle of dedicating the business “to the pursuit of social and environmental change,” The Body Shop’s vitamin E creams, banana hair conditioners, and peppermint foot lotions have found a niche in a market formerly neglected by other cosmetics companies.1 In shunning lavish packaging and traditional methods of advertising, Roddick relied on carefully scripted high visibility through her travels to Africa, Asia, and Latin America and through her wide array of social and environmental protests. With the fervor of the environmentalist movement heightening public awareness, Roddick marketed The Body Shop’s ecofriendly products to the public by undermining the glamour of miracle-cure claims made by mainstream cosmetic companies. In the mid–1990s, however, the success of The Body Shop slowed. Unsubstantiated allegations of environmental negligence, new competition in the form of the Limited-backed Bath & Body Works, and a failed attempt to privatize the company—which Roddick characterized as “the worst mistake the company made”2—tarnished the image of The Body Shop and its founder. Roddick came under scrutiny when critics attacked her claiming that her cause-before-financial-gain campaign was insincere and nothing more than a strategy to market her products.3 The combative entrepreneur-turned-big-business-executive fought 307

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back, setting up a Web site to respond to critics’ claims and to gain control of the communication agenda by connecting sympathetic people and encouraging them to demonstrate their support on a large-scale basis.4 Roddick stepped down as chairman of The Body Shop in 2002, but she still spends around eighty days a year working for the company as a consultant. She has used the extra time to write a number of books, including two autobiographies, Business As Unusual: The Triumph of Anita Roddick and Body and Soul: Profits with Principles—The Amazing Success Story of Anita Roddick and The Body Shop,5 which have helped sustain her visibility. She remains immersed in high-profile human-rights and social-justice issues, such as third-world poverty and the treatment of prisoners. She also donates significant amounts of the wealth she continues to insist embarrasses her. Amnesty International, for instance, received almost $2 million from Roddick to support its Human Rights Action Center. As a result of her work—and the exposure she generates for it—Roddick was conferred the Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire honor for “services to retailing, the environment, and charity”6 and was included in Time Europe’s Heroes 2004 roster. Roddick, who built and sustained one of the most successful personal brand stories in retail history, is now in the soft-landing phase of sustaining her brand as she continues to advise her company, write books, support causes, and receive awards.

THE RISE AND FALL OF VISIBILITY Once a product’s market share is established, defending it becomes the issue, and different strategies come into play. This also applies to the branding of individuals: the forces and strategies that create them are not the same as those that sustain them. The process of sustaining visibility—stretching the individual’s period of high visibility in order to prolong the rewards—is an essential part of the branding process. Anita Roddick’s experience as a business entrepreneur illustrated only one in a wide range of possible career patterns. Some other examples are illustrated in Figure 11–1: • Aaliyah Primary career: Very short. Visibility durability: Very high because of youthful, shocking, story-intense death, leading to legend status.

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• Michael Richards Primary career: Intense but brief, threatened by the end of the Seinfeld show. Visibility durability: Undetermined, career regeneration stymied by lack of ability to sector shift into leading role in film and television. • Victoria Beckham Primary career: Intense and modestly continuous, curtailed by the break up of her group, the Spice Girls. Visibility durability: Promising; the coverage of her marriage and family with soccer star David Beckham maximizes her exposure; her visibility will be strong as long as she continues to shift sectors to keep her in the public eye. • Jimmy Carter Primary career: Rocket launch and gentle descent; as the thirty-ninth president of the United States, his brand while tarnished in the last years of his office, was reignited through civic and humanitarian channels. Figure 11–1: The Rise and Fall of Visibility

Visibility durability: Legendary; one of the few former presidents who enhanced his reputation by combining his religious beliefs with a commitment to hands-on public service.

Jimmy Carter’s career is an example of near-perfect sustainability: a surprising ascent to a long-lived, high visibility plateau as president followed by a lifelong, post-career in the humanitarian sector despite losing his bid for reelection. But Carter’s experience is comparatively rare. There was a time when former WorldCom CEO Bernard Ebbers was the biggest name in the telecom industry; when presidential aspirant John Anderson was a top draw on college campuses; and when Olympic track star Marion Jones was a top sports endorser. Unlike Carter, these brands rose to the very pinnacle of their sectors, enjoyed the rewards of high visibility, and lost

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them. Today, these figures exist in the twilight of visibility afterlife, intermittently surfacing in the media, enjoying little benefit from their once-powerful names. In each case, strategic errors contributed to their failure to sustain highly visible careers.

THE MEASURE OF LONGEVITY Each visibility sector is governed by its own rules, conventions, and informal understanding with its audiences. In some sectors, longevity can be simply measured by physical endurance and ability. A professional running back can count on a very short career while a professional designated hitter may go into his forties. Some sectors are defined by age, such as mathematicians, videogame creators, and music video VJs who often peak in their twenties. Most television writers have difficulty working beyond fifty years of age because of implied social and occupational norms. In contrast, there are sectors that are more resilient to decline factors, such as book publishing, where author Studs Terkel is working successfully into his nineties writing oral histories. In some sectors such as music, longevity is defined often by genre, as it’s unlikely that a punk band is going to be working into their eighties like blues star B.B. King. Longevity can also be influenced by other outside factors such as economic conditions, scarcity of talent due to technological innovation, or, in the case of business executives, an upsurge in hiring seasoned, hands-on veterans over new business school graduates. It’s not very often that visibility aspirants think about how long they will endure in the limelight based on the factors of sector decline. In considering a visibility career, the excitement, journey, and rewards generally outweigh issues of longevity. However, there is an implicit risk/reward relationship in most high visibility endeavors. In many cases, the faster the climb, the quicker the descent. This admonition is not to dissuade anyone from pursuing the profession of daredevil or teen star, but to encourage aspirants to realize that built into many visibility sectors is an inevitable decline dynamic that may be avoidable if identified and countered. Sustaining visibility involves both how visible a brand remains, and for how long his or her visibility can be extended. Longevity can be measured simply in units of time: years in office, months on the record charts, or seasons as a starter. Visibility, as we’ve seen, can be measured too in terms of awareness and recall, financial return, and other measures. Both longevity and visibility must be maintained to stave off decline.

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VISIBILITY LIFE CYCLES A brand’s position on the visibility pyramid and length of stay are not fixed. How does a person’s well-knowness change over time? Let’s consider a hypothetical case. Figure 11–2 shows the path of an aspirant’s well-knowness over his or her life span. We see that this person achieved a low, though not negligible, level of visibility by the age of twenty; by age forty, the person’s visibility had risen to a high level; it remained there until age sixty; and thereafter the brand was increasingly forgotten. This is the standard visibility life-cycle pattern, with its four stages of emergence, growth, maturity, and decline. Many other visibility career patterns exist. The most frequent patterns are shown in Figure 11–3. The steady-rise-to-the-top pattern (Figure 11–3[A]) characterizes many of the leaders of major sectors. Nike’s

Visibility High Medium Low Age 20 Emergence

Figure 11–2:

30 Growth

40 Maturity

Decline

The Standard Visibility Life-Cycle Pattern

A. Steady-Rise-tothe-Top Pattern

B. Overnight Pattern

C. Two-Step Pattern

D. Meteor Pattern

E. Phoenix Pattern

F. Wave Pattern

Figure 11–3:

Other Visibility Life-Cycle Patterns

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Phil Knight, DreamWorks’ Steven Spielberg, the New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, and MIT’s Professor Nicholas Negroponte exemplify this pattern of attaining increasing visibility during their professional careers and never fully disappearing from the public’s eye. In the overnight pattern (Figure 11–3[B]), someone acquires instant high visibility because of a major deed or event. Paul Revere, Neil Armstrong, and Pope Benedict XVI all moved from relative obscurity to sudden positions of lasting fame because of circumstances that captured the imagination of the world. In some cases, associational celebrities such as Jacqueline Bouvier and Sir Denis Thatcher achieve overnight and lasting visibility through their marriages to highly visible spouses. In the two-step pattern (Figure 11–3[C]), an aspirant achieves a modest reputation, remains at that level for a long time, then breaks into a high level of visibility. For many years New Zealander Peter Jackson had a niche-player’s reputation as the horror-film writer and director who made his mark in Hollywood with the film Heavenly Creatures. Jackson was positioned to move quickly up the visibility pyramid when New Line Cinema backed his $400 million film adaptation of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Likewise, author John Grisham was a small town Mississippi general practice lawyer who was also elected to the state’s House of Representatives. When he wrote A Time to Kill and The Firm, he was thrust into high visibility, which positioned him for a long-lasting run as a legal fiction brand leader. In the meteor pattern (Figure 11–3[D]), someone gains fame very suddenly and loses it just as quickly. Runaway bride Jennifer Wilbanks dominated media coverage for one week, but after turning herself in rapidly sunk into obscurity until the obligatory TV movie and book deals emerged for a possible short comeback. Jessica Lynch, who rose to fame when she was captured in Iraq, became a war hero when a global audience witnessed her “dramatic” rescue, which was captured on night-vision camera by embedded media. Soon, Internet auction sites were offering Jessica Lynch mementos— from an oil painting to fridge magnets—to her adoring public. Book and movie deals served to heighten and extend interest in her story. But as media looked more closely into the details of her rescue, it became clear that many of the facts surrounding her story could not hold up to scrutiny, and her image began to fade. Figure 11–3(E) represents the phoenix pattern wherein the person achieves fame, sinks into relative obscurity, then has his or her image remarketed. Billy Idol, highly visible in the punk music sector of the 1980s, virtually disappeared, then reemerged fifteen years after his last hit with a

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new album titled Devil’s Playground and a redefined family-man image.7 Diane Keaton who had achieved iconic status with her role in Annie Hall in the 1970s came back in the next century with a new image as a seductive senior citizen in Something’s Gotta Give. Finally, Figure 11–3(F) represents the wave pattern, wherein the person rises, falls, rises, falls, and possibly rises and falls again in public visibility. This pattern is common among politicians who rise with one administration, fall, then rise with another. Newt Gingrich, at one time the highly visible Speaker of the House, dominated his sector for over a decade. Even as House Speaker, his fortunes wavered as his relentless pursuit of the Democrats and his personal life background caused his image to rise and fall. He resigned his House seat under pressure and was low profile until he reemerged as a frequent guest on panel shows, the author of a book entitled Winning the Future,8 and was newly positioned as a political critic. AOL founder Steve Case, football player Doug Flutie, and actress-turned-writer Carrie Fisher have all rode the wave pattern.

CAUSES OF DECLINE The patterns of longevity are invariably threatened by decline. To avoid a career downslide, brands must understand the factors that can cause it. The following are ten of the most widespread contributors.

Unplanned Obsolescence Changes outside a brand’s control can initiate a decline. MTV has forced nonvisually oriented rock groups out of visibility contention. In the business sector, local merchants must compete with televised shopping services that have created new spokespersons. The advent of widespread Major League Baseball telecasts has all but destroyed the minor-league baseball player’s opportunity for more than local visibility. Online bloggers threaten to eliminate traditional media personalities such as gossip columnists and political journalists as they compete for audiences and influence.

Lack of Adaptation As sector trends evolve, so must a brand’s strategies. In the business sector, many old-style “seat of the pants, gut instinct”-type managers have been displaced by new, strategy-minded MBAs. The formerly maligned com-

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puter experts are now among our most visible entrepreneurs. In tennis, the traditional baseline ralliers have been overshadowed by the shift to an aggressive power serve game. The old-style comedian finds stand-up venues disappearing and more opportunities in comic acting. Increasing specialization in academia and in business circles requires that aspirants to visibility stake out niches in which they specialize.

Delinkings Brands who have risen to high visibility as part of a group, or with the key help of another party, often find themselves in a perilous position. The parting of a lead singer from a popular band . . . an aspiring boxer’s rejection by celebrity promoter Don King . . . a trade of a star player to an inferior team . . . the departure of a top editor from a publishing house leaving a stable of writers without direction . . . a branded bond manager departing the company for a partnership in an online mortgage startup—each is a potentially career-threatening “delinking.”

The Macaulay Culkin Effect One legacy of the diffusion of the Hollywood model throughout all sectors is audiences’ growing preoccupation with youthfulness. Highly competent business-sector aspirants can age themselves right out of visibility contention. Qualified news anchors may lose their positions to inexperienced journalism-school graduates. Child actors, rising fast on the basis of their precociousness, may find their careers terminated by age fifteen. Macaulay Culkin reached the zenith of his career in Home Alone at the age of ten. Occasionally, the reverse is true as aspirants in the religious sector may not even have a chance at high visibility until they reach a minimum age.

Declining Ability In sectors with significant physical-ability requirements, aging can make it impossible for the brand to perform up to standards or expectations—one reason why there is so much lying about age in certain sectors. Lawyers who can no longer withstand the rigors of a five-month trial . . . aging sports stars in all areas . . . members of the Blue Angels aerobatics team whose reaction times slow below minimum tolerance . . . rodeo stars who can no longer wrestle the steer . . . dancers who lose flexibility and endurance—all are examples of declining ability.

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Poor Performance Repeated failure to satisfy audience expectations can trigger an unstoppable decline: former CEO Philip Purcell of Morgan Stanley was accused by shareholders of underperforming in his leadership role; Ashlee Simpson, sister of Jessica, has been criticized for her questionable singing skills and a lip-synching meltdown on Saturday Night Live; and NBA superstar Chris Webber with his guaranteed maximum contract has failed to maintain his all-star level of play. The reasons for poor performance can include overconfidence, lack of practice, illness or injury, unanticipated circumstances, or lack of ability or motivation.

Venue Erosion The disappearance of the forums in which aspirants appear can be devastating: Haute couture designers fight the “fast fashion” trend favoring companies that can deliver new collections every four to six weeks; sitcom actors face a network shift to dramedy; university professors find their research areas no longer supported by foundations; psychologists and psychiatrists find their talk therapy practices reduced by the pharmaceutical industry.

The Uncontrollable Ego Under the pressure of high visibility, a brand’s self-confidence often grows into cockiness or arrogance. Sometimes this is due to the large entourages of obsequious support personnel that surround the brand. As actor George Clooney has said, “When you’re 25 and on top of the world, everyone tells you you’re great. And the danger is, having not gone up and down a few times at that age, you really believe it.”9 Visibility lore is replete with stars whose inflated egos decimated their ability to process information and make objective decisions—or listen to those who could. The rock star who demands lavish, often uneaten food and drink after the concert and fills the backstage with a retinue of hangers-on and party supporters . . . the sports star who doesn’t practice and blames the media when his or her performance is substandard . . . the artist who speaks in the third person and in comparison to only the Dutch masters. Underlying this high visibility phenomenon is a distancing from reality. An example is a CEO of a major accounting firm who was so blinded by superstar treatment that he marveled at how the entire office staff would appear instantaneously when he spotted a piece of dust on the carpet.

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After this demonstration of absolute power, he exclaimed, “Aren’t people wonderful?” The highly visible even in these small moments can easily lose touch with reality, and it can affect their job performance if the behavior becomes habitual.

Self-Destruction Distinct from poor or uneven performances, brands can intentionally act against their own best interests: multimillionaire Howard Hughes, filmmaker and aviation designer, virtually disappeared in a cloud of mental instability locked up in a penthouse in Las Vegas; baseball stars Dwight Gooden and Darryl Strawberry and football star Lyle Alzado damaged their careers through various forms of drug abuse; French artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec ended his life and career at thirty-six because of alcoholism.

Scandal Scandal—whether true or false—can destroy or severely damage a visibility career. Former Fannie Mae CEO Franklin Raines’ alleged role in the Washington-based mortgage finance company’s misstatement of earnings has overshadowed some of his previous achievements such as cofounding the Institute for Corporate Ethics at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business.10 Sports figures alleged to be involved with drugs such as Barry Bonds and Lance Armstrong may suffer too—and potentially damage the reputation of their sponsors in the process. Threatened with a lawsuit by a former security aide for sexual harassment, former New Jersey Governor James McGreevey resigned and announced that he is “a gay American”11 guilty of an adulterous relationship. Former Disney CEO Michael Eisner, at one time credited with saving the company, was the center of a board of directors’ attempted coup that charged he overstayed his tenure, was threatened by talented understudies, and exercised poor judgment in dealing with partners and producers.12 Though these patterns and causes of decline can seriously damage or destroy a career, the damage need not be permanent. Many brands, encountering decline, hit upon counterstrategies that allow them to trace career patterns as rhythmic as a sine wave. They rise steadily to prominence, encounter one or several of the factors cited above, decline to invisibility, then rise again. Sustaining visibility requires knowledge of how to retain the audience. A primary means is through the control of exposure.

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MANAGING EXPOSURE By far the most important factor in sustaining visibility is carefully managed exposure—how often, in what ways, and in which places the aspirant’s brand is distributed to audiences. Because audiences’ appetites for visible people are not infinite, to sustain visibility the aspirant must achieve a balance between a recognition level that is too low to produce well-knowness and a level that is so high that it satiates audience demand, destroying fan interest. Governing all exposure strategy is the law of diminishing returns: In the early stages of attraction, fans can absorb a barrage of images and still not be satisfied; over time, however, too much exposure becomes counterproductive. Money spent to expose the aspirant early in his or her career, while not seeming to pay immediate, adequate returns, may be money well spent building the audience base and the aspirant’s personal brand. Visibility marketers must understand the principle of investment spending, that more money must be spent to generate a unit of well-knowness than needs to be spent to sustain it. In other words, it is often more expensive to attract and educate audiences than to keep them. Of course, the reverse is also true: If funds are expended too quickly or without a strategic plan, each additional dollar spent on exposing the aspirant may begin to return less than a dollar in rewards. Former celebrity couple Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck, overexposed over multiple channels—from movies to magazine covers to music videos—not only wore their audience out but in some cases irritated them, resulting in a painfully high profile movie flop. Michael Armstrong, former AT&T CEO, was similarly overexposed, as was his “vision” to usher AT&T into an era of new-economy revolution. “If you were making a movie and said ‘Get me a CEO’ to the casting director, he’d give you Michael Armstrong,”13 author and Yale School of Management Dean Jeffrey Garten observed in his book The Mind of a CEO.14 He might have looked the part, but Armstrong’s decision to become highly visible in glossy magazines, news conferences, and major business papers while his company was sinking into a financial quagmire only served to undermine his attempts to turn around the company. His high exposure level conflicted with the performance of his company and the disconnect only brought attention to the company’s problems. Conversely, too little exposure forces audiences to engage in their own form of “investment spending”—pouring time and energy into a search for new brands. A lack of exposure on television of such high-visibility candidates as professional lacrosse players can force potential fans to turn to other

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aspirants who are more widely distributed. A fan living in a region that idolizes stock-car drivers may become caught up in such worship but then move to a region where the absence of racing or media coverage forces him or her to abandon these aspirants. “Serious” stage actors, limited to small venues, may never play to enough of the public to energize mass appeal. An aspirant has to be aware of how to provide the minimal amount of exposure to satisfy, but not overwhelm, audience demand.

STOOPING TO CONQUER: COUNTERSTRATEGY Sometimes, a decline in sector visibility is strategically advantageous. The mobster planning to run for union leadership and seeking enhanced respectability will gladly surrender visibility within the criminal sector in return for broader support among the larger audience of union members. Rock star Ozzy Osbourne traded some of his visibility among older fans of his 1970s group Black Sabbath in return for mainstream, and far more lucrative, support from a younger and larger audience. The success of his reality TV show The Osbournes turned him into a rock icon for a new generation. He enthusiastically credited his plastic surgery for reaching a new demographic, “I’ve had a face job and new nose. It boosted my confidence to no end.”15

Strategic Underexposure At some point, aspirants obtain the optimally sized audience for the resources they have to invest, balanced against the rewards they desire. But how can this equilibrium be maintained? One way is through strategic underexposure: deliberately maintaining a small audience because of its relatively low maintenance cost and the exclusivity of the smaller band of followers. The rock band Phish enjoyed fan loyalty for more than two decades by allowing fans to feel part of a very exclusive group. They employed the Grateful Dead brand strategy by initially keeping the size of their audience relatively small and playing many select venues. Phish perpetuated fan support without letting it either die out or balloon to the point where the aura of uniqueness could be destroyed—a lesson that past stars such as Boy George and M.C. Hammer could have used. But overexposure and underexposure are not the only dangers to longterm visibility. Conflicting exposure and confusing exposure can be just as harmful.

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Conflicting Exposure Trying to attract two dissimilar audiences at the same time can alienate both. As a senator from Arizona, John McCain in his presidential primary campaign tried to appeal both to his liberal constituency by emphasizing his nonpartisan position on a number of key issues such as campaign finance reform and fiscal responsibility, and to a more conservative audience by emphasizing his military background and social views. The strategy is a high-stakes gamble and can result in upset audiences in both camps that feel he’s not really committed to either one of them. Similarly, the late Pope John Paul II galvanized liberal Catholicism with his human, down-to-earth appeal—while simultaneously alienating it with dogmatic, traditional pronouncements and rulings aimed at the mainstream Catholic constituency.

Thump Goes the Atkins Diet It is ideal when the brand’s star and the product are harmonious. When the non-beef-eating Cybill Shepherd endorsed beef for the Beef Industry Council and relentlessly blue collar football coach Mike Ditka endorsed foreign-made Toyota trucks, they were unfortunate examples of conflicting exposure. Dr. Robert Atkins and his diet empire was in contrast viewed as a marriage made in exposure heaven. Atkins was a walking, talking example of his own product. In publishing thirteen books, founding the Atkins Center for Complementary Medicine, and making many media appearances, he was the leader in the diet world. He won many awards and honors and even the skeptical Barbara Walters named him in her television special as “one of the ten most fascinating people of the year” in 2002.16 His message was clear: a highprotein, low-carbohydrate diet will help people lose weight fast and probably keep it off forever. It was with considerable shock that Robert Atkins was found dead on a Manhattan sidewalk in April 2003. A medical report stated that he was medically obese at six feet tall and over 258 pounds and had a history of heart attack and congestive heart problems. Atkins’ widow has been aggressive in disclaiming the idea that her husband was a victim of any diet and claims that his physicians verified that his health problems were completely unrelated to his eating habits.17 Nevertheless, the Atkins brand has come under pressure in part because of the disconnect between Atkins’ final appearance and his professional brand. To be sure, the low-carb diet was under medical scrutiny, competitors such as the South Beach and the Zone diets ate into Atkins’ position, and the relentless medical and media scrutiny on low-carb diets played its part. For those and other reasons, declining sales of books and products began to put pressure on the Atkins empire.18 However, Atkins’ brand had been out of favor

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before, and his high-visibility-driven appeal found a way to keep the brand vibrant. It is inescapable that the unfortunate circumstances of the death of Atkins contributed to the low-carb diet demise. With the loss of the iconic Dr. Atkins, Atkins Nutritionals, Inc. repositioned itself as a provider of nutritional information with such initiatives as press releases on the dangers of sugar and obesity and the opening of an online Atkins University.19 They even altered the long-standing diet formula to focus on blood-sugar levels in the body instead of carbohydrate intake.20 Unfortunately, these changes failed to ignite the brand once again, and Atkins Nutritionals filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.21 The company may yet reemerge as a sector leader, but the loss of its high visibility founder coupled with the decline in the low carb diet trend makes it a steep climb back to the top.

Confusing Exposure Making different appeals to different audiences causes problems; making them to the same audience is also dangerous. Jeff Vinik, former Fidelity Magellan Mutual Fund star manager, built a large, loyal following with aggressive stock investments, but then he thoroughly confused his investors by taking a large position in bonds. He left the fund shortly thereafter, subsequently opened and closed a successful hedge fund, but never regained the visibility he achieved at Magellan.

Exposure Balancing In entertainment, exposure may mean promotional activities such as talk shows, interviews, and charity appearances, as well as formal performances, such as appearing in concert or in games. In sectors such as business, academia, or the professions, exposure means conference appearances, speeches, trade show visits, cocktail party attendance, articles in journals, or even a popular blog. Clearly, there is a quantity-quality trade-off in managing exposure. Is it better to be seen by fewer members of the right audience or by many members of the wrong audience? A wide receiver in college may start every game and be seen by hundreds of thousands of fans, then sit out the bowl game with injuries and escape the notice of a dozen pro scouts who could control his fate. A young priest may have the smallest congregation in the county but be the youngest member of a highly visible national council. To sustain visibility status, the football player, the priest, and all other aspirants must balance audience-building activities and audience-satisfying activities, and they must appreciate the differences between them.

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Most fans meet their brands parasocially—not in the flesh but rather as images distributed through communication channels. Nevertheless, the evidence is strong that fans adopt brands through almost the same psychological process that governs their adoption of friends and other intimates. Thus, logic dictates that aspirants must make themselves known to fans before they can expect audiences to care enough to buy a product on their name value, elect them to office, or come to see them pitch or play tennis. Exposure management means balancing the amount of energy invested in generating an audience against the reward that can be reaped from that audience. Ideally, the aspirant controls the process by developing and adhering to a proactive strategic communications program. Often, though, aspirants find themselves reacting to negative exposure (harsh reviews, poor performances, bad decisions) by generating positive exposure (press conferences, photo opportunities, charity appearances). But reacting to negative exposure generally causes the aspirant to appear on the defensive and is counterproductive. Many times avoiding negative exposure is a matter of adhering to a well-planned communications program that provides the frequency and relevance necessary to maintain positive awareness. But balancing exposure depends on many factors. One, of course, is sector conventions. In the business sector, activities that build visibility overlap with performing the job. Corporate vice presidents do not take time off to campaign for the promotion to CEO, but instead, as part of their day-to-day activities, they work to position themselves as successors. VPs who wish to rise often stage-manage their business dealings to generate positive visibility. They make trade-show and media appearances, write articles, become involved in charitable work, and make sure that they are seen around town at popular events and gatherings. Film actors deliver images of themselves through a strategic mix of channels in order to remain visible to their audience. Partly, this is done through intelligent venue selection (choosing good roles and projects) and producing quality performances. Unfortunately, it’s impossible for actors to have good films released every three months. To remain in the public’s sight, they engage in publicity-generating activities as well as participate in new business ventures, charity work, and other activities that keep their names in play. In balancing exposure, an aspirant also faces practical constraints such as stamina, family requirements, or limited funds. They have only so much energy to expend on promotional activities; spend too much and there’s nothing left to sustain them through their major roles, whether it is conducting a shareholder’s meeting, giving a sermon, or playing in the big game.

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Exposure management is also affected by the fact that aspirants don’t have equal skill distributions: They don’t do everything well. A politician may be wonderful at addressing small groups, yet wooden before large audiences. An artist may be dynamic among collectors at an opening, yet inarticulate in interviews. One of the visibility industry’s growth sectors is the business of developing strategies to cope with such inadequacies. When putting a CEO with limited conversational skills on a publicity tour, planners may send along a self-contained media presentation so that he or she will not have to talk too much. The goal is to balance the audience’s desire to see the brand with the need to minimize skill deficiencies. Another consideration is possible conflicts. A politician may get great exposure appearing before veterans’ groups, yet cancel out or diminish the exposure value by offending liberal voters, as in John McCain’s earlier example. These types of conflicts are examples of trying to attain the balance between adapting to a voter group and maintaining a set of strongly held values. Exposure decisions are also affected by an aspirant’s individual goals. One aspirant may say to his staff, “Maximize my income at all costs. Take the highest-paying venues, no matter what the majority of my fans think.” The popular singer may decide to appear in China for millions of dollars, irrespective of the damage done to the loyalty of her socially conscious listeners concerned over human rights abuses. Another aspirant may also desire maximum income, yet reserve enough unpaid promotional appearances to keep the media friendly. Still another aspirant may take the longterm view, arguing that to generate strong audience loyalty, a great deal of investment spending is necessary to shore up audience support: charity work, telethon appearances, acting lessons, plastic surgery, promotional gimmicks—anything that increases visibility, likeability, or longevity. Finally, in managing exposure, timing is critical. When should the promotional appearances end and the paid performances begin? In some sectors, timing has evolved into a science. Politicians follow well-tested schedules when deciding how far in advance of the election to begin campaigning. In other sectors with less-rigid schedules and less-measurable outcomes, timing is more hit or miss. Entertainers, for example, often alternate between both types of activities many times in a single day. When the TV networks introduce their fall schedule, network executives who are usually reluctant to be visible are for those few days interactive and forthcoming, and their appearances are carefully staged for consumption by advertisers and media.

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SIX KEY RULES OF SUSTAINING In each sector, certain events or processes invariably signal a decline in visibility status. In politics, it’s losing office. In sports, it’s being benched. In entertainment, it can be scandal or low ratings that lead to cancellation of vehicle or venue. In business, it’s demotion, a board decision to require sharing of power with other senior executives, or firing. In the legal profession, it’s losing cases and difficulty attracting profitable clients. In medicine, it can be status in the hospital, dried-up referrals, or not being reappointed to the country club board. Such outcomes are largely the result of aspirants’ making bad decisions or failing to adapt to changing conditions, but the exact causes are rarely understood. Politicians lose office because they get fewer votes than opponents. But why? Was it a failure to scan the environment accurately to stay in touch with voters’ needs or values? Or failure to anticipate and counter opponents’ strategies? Football players may become injured because they spent the off-season riding motorcycles in the mountains; comedians may lose venues because they didn’t prepare material appropriate to the changing sociocultural environment; businesspeople may lose visibility because they merged when they should have divested. A high-profile lawyer may have relied too often on risky courtroom strategy or joined the board of a financially troubled firm. A doctor may not have paid close enough attention to informal communications among his patients and their networks of friends and associates. Many forks lie in the road to a sustained visibility career. Each is a decision, based on rules the aspirant must clearly understand. Rule 1. The more popular the sector, the more violently will a person’s visibility status fluctuate—and the sturdier the aspirant will have to be. Insular, less-visible sectors such as accounting and landscape architecture, without noticeable public opinion to contend with, afford their brands far greater stability. A singer is more likely to oscillate up and down the visibility pyramid than is the more stable business sector’s chief financial officer; the race-car champion needs more resilience in the face of adversity than the landscape architect. Rule 2. Aspirants must understand their sectors’ fundamental visibility conventions.

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In the academic sector, an unwritten rule is that star faculty should not overreach and be controversial in areas of nonexpertise; those who do can become ostracized at their home universities. Artists who become too well known to the general public risk losing the support of the trendsetting art establishment that is the ultimate guarantor of their visibility status. Entertainment stars may mistakenly believe that there is no such thing as too large an audience, only to find that they no longer stand for anything inherently compelling to important segments of a market. In business, for up-and-coming executives, it is generally more important to become known for a specific specialty and perform in a specific function so that they can gain more traction for visibility in an organization. Rule 3. Aspirants must realize that an audience’s expectations are directly linked to its perceptions about the status of the brand’s career. Depending on whether the aspirant is perceived as rising, at a plateau, or on the decline, audiences have vastly different expectations about the quality of their performances, behavior, and lifestyles. A best-selling author who appears on ABC’s Good Morning America is perceived as a rising star, and therefore the audience has fixed performance expectations; authors who stutter, freeze, ramble, or repeat themselves may not only disappoint Charles Gibson but be perceived as unworthy of the appearance. Consciously striving to meet the audience’s expectation level is critical to long-term visibility. An aspirant needs to have a realistic appraisal of their performance skills and be willing to listen to unbiased sources as to their progress and position on the status ladder. Rule 4. Aspirants must understand the audience’s preconceptions about brand behavior and age. Through years of media exposure, venue attendance, and worship, audiences have developed a sense of how visible any aspirant should be after so many years of visibility seeking. The public “knows” that a comedian working the Comedy Store in Los Angeles at age twenty-two is on schedule. An equally skilled comedian working the same venue at age forty-seven may run head-on into fatal audience doubts: Why hasn’t this aspirant made it? Is this a has-been trying for a comeback? In the same way, the music group warming up audiences for headline bands will, while still fairly new to the scene, be perceived as eager and properly positioned. But it’s a status the group soon outgrows. In failing to break through to visibility status

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within so many years, a group no longer fits the age stereotype. If they still seek visibility, the group faces important strategic decisions, some involving major brand identity changes. They can redefine themselves as a nostalgia band and succeed in satisfying specialized audience expectations. Or they can also move to a part of the country where audiences’ age expectations are different. Finally, they can reposition themselves as the purest band in their particular genre, publicly eschewing popular success and appealing to the connoisseur audience. Similarly, the aspiring architect who fails to get a major commission by age thirty-five may suffer image problems throughout the architecture sector. These effects may even spread beyond the sector; our culture is so conscious of prestige that the commission-less architect may be turned down for a school board appointment, an officer’s position with the architectural association, or be relegated to rendering original designs produced by high visibility partners into electronic files. Rule 5. Once aspirants achieve visibility, managing their brand and all its components becomes critical. The once unknown who now live in their own visibility world are under different pressures. An often make or break issue becomes how to manage professional versus private time. The once-obscure middle manager transformed into the highly visible CEO of a software company not only has to work a full day but has to select among obligations for maintaining visibility in social and media settings. The television star who relied on parents and friends for counseling and financial advice is now surrounded by publicists, personal managers, and lifestyle coaches who are not related. A trip by a high-profile lawyer to the Bahamas is often complicated by streams of phone calls and other interruptions to family life. Effective aspirants at this stage need to understand, prioritize, and make decisions about what sacrifices they will make to maintain their status. In many instances, professional and personal issues are in conflict and need to be balanced, and relationships with support staffs need to be regularized and monitored. Rule 6. Shifting from one sector to another, in order to stretch out visibility, requires different strategies from those used in pursuing visibility in the first place. Today, it is common for sector-leading brands to capitalize on their prominence by shifting into other sectors, such as politics (Tennessee Senator Bill Frist shifting from physician to politics) and philanthropy

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(Bono becoming involved with Jubilee Plus and other civic organizations to push for debt relief for and poverty alleviation in third-world countries). Or it can be from one medium to another (ReganBooks’ Judith Regan moving her publishing and media group from Manhattan to Los Angeles so she can focus more on television and film projects), or to exploit their names by selling merchandise (Hilary Duff’s Stuff clothing line, which also includes backpacks and watches). However, each move made in the pursuit of visibility in new sectors can initiate a decline in visibility in the primary sector. A violation of Clausewitz’s military dictum always to hold a firm base, sector crossover is fraught with hazards. Even to the public, certain sector shifts are considered dead giveaways that a brand’s decline has begun. In local markets, the aging athlete who advertises toupees or outsized suits might as well take out a full-page ad announcing his decline. The Hollywood A-list actress who appears in a road show of Annie Get Your Gun in Tulsa and the novelist who accepts a teaching position at a community college are popularly perceived as taking the face-saving route to a gentle career landing. Though any of these efforts may, given the circumstances, be strategically sound, the appearance of decline can trigger a chain reaction resulting in steeper decline. That’s why aspirants must understand the mechanics, and politics, of shifting sectors.

SHIFTING SECTORS The problem confronting a visible individual contemplating a sector shift is that personal brand equity is not always transferable. High-level business and political celebrities, such as New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Ralph Nader’s vice-presidential candidate Peter Camejo, and other prominent personal brands are able to shift smoothly back and forth between the peaks of both sectors. Between other sectors, however, transitions are not so easy. Aspirants shifting out of their primary sectors usually have to take a cut in visibility. The Hollywood director who has peaked in film and wishes to move to theater will probably have to start anew with less power, pay, and privilege. The reasons are pragmatic: to avoid alienating the leaders and filters in the new sector and to allow time to climb the learning curve. Athletes often express a desire to “go out a winner.” For brands in all sectors, it’s a laudable goal—for, like a disease, a decline in visibility is best diagnosed early. Brands who can see warning signs of their own decline are well advised to begin their sector shift while still near the height of their commercial value. The casts of the popular Friends and Sex and the City were

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moving quickly to start their endorsement and film careers even before the shows ended; they struck while their names were highly marketable. As a general rule, brands who see their visibility plateauing or beginning to decay ought to first consider a move to a new role within their sector. This tradition is well established. Musicians become record producers; actors evolve into directors; politicians convert to lobbyists, law firm partners, or consultants; businesspeople become entrepreneurs, consultants, or business school professors. The reasons are simple: The brand already knows his or her new subsector, is familiar with its power structure, and is already well known to the people within it. Film director Ron Howard, extremely successful as an actor in the sitcom genre, found himself at a crossroads as he grew out of his roles in The Andy Griffith Show and Happy Days. Eventually, he decided to invest in learning the craft of filmmaking at USC. Later, in partnership with Brian Grazer, he founded Imagine Films—leading to his direction of films such as Parenthood, Apollo 13, and winning the Academy Award for Best Picture and Director for A Beautiful Mind. His decision provided a far better fate than that of trying to continue his acting career by shifting into “psycho” or “criminal” roles in low-budget films.

The Mechanics of Sector Shifting There is considerable risk involved in abandoning one sector for another. Declining brands give up much of the recognition—their brand equity— they still retain, and the psychological pressures can be tremendous. That’s why highly visible people should divorce themselves from the past and realistically access their proposed new sector’s success criteria. Do they have the necessary attributes to make it? Do any of their old skills help, or hinder? What about their support staff—is it appropriate for transfer to the new sector, or is a makeover in order? In product marketing, these kinds of judgments are made all the time. What conditions are necessary for the product to succeed? Does it have the required attributes? Can they be added? Brands in decline need to make similar objective assessments. Is there a fit? What does the brand bring to the sector? There are practical business concerns as well. Can I afford the investment required to make the shift? Can I get the support I need? Working against them is the force of inertia. Their existing support staff—agents, managers, associates—will probably lobby hard to remain in the old sector, on their own turf, where they are comfortable and believe they have the best chance to remain employed.

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Brands who need or want to shift sectors do benefit from the public’s perception that highly visibles are more multidimensional than ordinary people, and they enjoy high recall among their audiences. Why are so many sports, entertainment, business, and other stars routinely mentioned as candidates for high positions in other sectors? Why are Charles Barkley and Warren Beatty often mentioned as possible high-office political candidates? Why did Clint Eastwood win a landslide victory as mayor of Carmel-bythe-Sea and former Nebraska football coach Tom Osbourne win a seat as a congressman? It’s because in our culture, high visibility has a utility all its own. As a prerequisite for high office, visibility is often as important as qualifications, and all things being equal, the familiar usually wins out. Nevertheless, taking advantage of the public’s acceptance of sector shifting is no guarantee that the shift will be successful. Such unsuccessful shifts as failed presidential and senatorial candidate Alan Keyes from conservative political activist and media commentator to elected official, Chev y Chase from film acting to talk-show hosting, and former Gucci creative director Tom Ford from designing to filmmaking, demonstrate that name recognition is not a guarantee of a successful sector shift.

What’s in a Name? One fairly low risk strategy is to shift sectors by proxy, sending the brand’s name into a new sector while the person remains in the old one. The key is to lend one’s name to an enterprise that is reasonably close in image to the identity one has already developed. Model and yoga devotee Christy Turlington and her Nuala and Maha brands, yoga-inspired clothing lines she launched with Puma, have a logical connection. Sean Combs’ Sean John clothing line, a component of his nearly $500 million in annual sales company Bad Boy Worldwide,22 plays on his “dapper rapper” image so well that Combs won the Best Menswear Designer award at the 2004 Council of Fashion Designers of America Awards.23 Country music legend Kenny Rogers is well suited for branding a U.S.-based chicken chain, “Kenny Rogers Roasters,” and has so much global name recognition that there are more than eighty stores in six countries in the Asia-Pacific region. Dick Clark’s line of cosmetics played on his image of eternal youthfulness, and, although disappointing, it was a logical risk.

Mass Marketing An excellent sustaining strategy is to take a product or performance that was previously marketed to an exclusive audience and market it to a mass

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audience. Carroll Shelby, a top race-car driver in the 1950s, had been forced into retirement because of health reasons. His first sustaining strategy was to shift into race-car design, a career for which he became celebrated in its own right. But the audience interested in “consuming” Shelby race cars was very small. So Shelby executed another sustaining move, merging his European elan and romantic racing-sector aura with Ford Motor Company’s American mass-production know-how to produce the Shelby Mustangs— muscle cars for the man in the street. The marketing strategy was so timeless that Chrysler was able to transfer the same elements to market Shelby Chargers in the 1970s, and again in the 1980s, to market a model called the GLHS Dodge Omni (literally, the “Goes Like Hell Shelby”).24 In the 1990s, when the Cobra Mustang debuted, it was still compared to the performance standard set by the Shelby Mustangs four decades earlier. As testimony to his enduring visibility, the Newport Beach Classic and Collector Car Auction staged a three-day event to sell many of his “prized automobiles and related memorabilia.”25 In 2005, Ford unveiled plans to develop the first Shelby-branded Mustang in thirty-five years. Called the Ford SVT Shelby GT500, the car was planned to be marketed as a “performance powerhouse [that] re-creates the iconic image and legendary dominance of the original Shelby Mustangs of the 1960s,” and one that will reinstate the Shelby as an enthusiast’s choice.26

DELAYING THE DECLINE So far, we’ve discussed strategies intended to sustain a brand at a near-peak level of visibility. But even with the best-timed moves, this isn’t always possible. A number of strategies exist to stretch out a brand’s commercial value during decline. Underlying all the strategies is the principle that for the brand forced to shift sectors, the less extreme the necessary transformation, the better. It only makes sense for sector shifters to choose new sectors that make the best use of the skills, stories, characteristics, and audiences that sustained them in their original sectors. What are the most popular sector shifts in such circumstances?

The Book The book is one of the brand’s most enduring institutions, a channel with a long tradition of serving brands in all sectors. Whether it’s the memoirs of a CEO, the reminiscences of a Broadway star, or the authorized biography

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of a president, the book serves similar purposes. It rewards stars by keeping their names in the news, extends their commercial value by generating income, and serves as a vehicle for the strategic revision of history, giving the authors or subjects the last word, the chance to place into the memory channel the most favorable story possible, to consign themselves to immortality. It can also be extremely profitable, sometimes earning brands more than they earned in their primary careers. Jose Canseco, former Major League Baseball star, wrote Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant ’Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big27 to not only build his bank account but to justify his place in baseball history. Another approach to preserving memory is the sentimental, philosophical approach of actress Goldie Hawn in her biography A Lotus Grows in the Mud.28 An even more complicated biographical memoir is the multimedia scrapbook concoction of Elvis Presley’s wife and daughter, Priscilla and Lisa Marie, who attempt to reposition the satiated image of the star with insights into his softer side in their book Elvis By the Presleys.29 Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz’s Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time30 attempts to permanently enshrine the coffee-drinking experience into a seemingly noncommercial passion for mystery and romance orchestrated by an unlikely conductor.

“To Pledge, Call . . .” Jerry Lewis is possibly the most successful fund-raiser in the history of celebrity foundations. Over a thirty-year period, Lewis has made the Labor Day MDA telethon a fixture and in doing so has inextricably linked himself to the cause. Charity work among highly visible people is expected and often has the advantage of not only helping other people but also keeping the name in play and fostering goodwill. In many cases, the association is heartfelt and can generate huge sums that would not have been donated without the influence of the name. The relationship between charities and stars has become so industrialized that charities searching for suitable stars to enhance their fund-raising potential can access celebrity brokers such as Celebrity Connection or Damon Brooks, who arrange for celebrity participation.31 Because of the inherent visibility premium, some brand managers and publicists see charity work as a visibility opportunity and part of the branding process. Speaking about the value of charity work as a visibility builder, Britain’s well-known publicist Max Clifford admitted that he encouraged “stars to do stuff for charities even if they don’t want to. If they do it because

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they genuinely care, then that’s a wonderful bonus, but sadly that’s not usually the case.”32 Maria Pedro, celebrity manager of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), is appreciative of the numerous awareness benefits that highly visible people can bring to a charity. However, she concedes that celebrities can also use the charity system: The charity market is part of the celebrity-marketing process. Many celebrities are absolutely committed and selfless in giving their time, but some may only be interested in relaunching or repositioning their careers, or gaining access to other celebrities. But, just because someone’s motivation is not altruistic doesn’t mean it can’t work for us. We don’t care, frankly.33

Foreign Markets That wildlife naturally migrate toward available food and water has not escaped the notice of many brands who, in decline, move to foreign markets where the supply of authentic American culture has not yet exceeded local demand. One of the chief exploiters of this is David Hasselhoff, whose singing career attained a level of legitimacy in Europe that it never approached at home. In Germany, where he was named Most Popular and Best-Selling Artist the year he released his first album, Hasselhoff is hailed as a vocal genius. A trip there for him must seem like a trip over the rainbow. A different version of this scenario was played out by American model Carol Alt, who, looking for a new career, was reinvented in Italy. There, Alt shifted sectors and became wildly popular in Italy’s movie industry, starring in such films as My First Forty Years and Bye, Bye Baby. For Alt, the move to Italy led to fame, a return trip to America as an airline passenger in Howard Stern’s film Private Parts, runway shows, and a television series. Alt has been described as a “seasoned Supermodel,”34 and she shares her secrets to aging gracefully in her book, Eating in the Raw: A Beginner’s Guide to Getting Slimmer, Feeling Healthier, and Looking Younger the Raw-Food Way.35 Many American music aspirants now make the trek overseas. One highly successful group, Foreigner, launched itself on the novelty of the mixed international pedigree of its members. American aspirants going to foreign countries have an additional advantage: the promotional and story value inherent in their exotic experience when they return home. This works for aspirants coming to America too. Pop singer Ricky Martin and actress Penelope Cruz used this foreign flavoring strategy in America.

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Thailand’s “queen of pop”36 Tata Young is being marketed in Australia, which is seen by her record company, Sony BMG of Asia, as a first step in a global strategy. A different marketing strategy was played out by the Sir Douglas Quintet, a pop group from Texas formed during the 1960s. Finding it impossible to break out of the crowded local scene, they faked being from England—and rose to nine-day wonderhood on the strength of their charttopping “She’s About a Mover.” A similar promotional tactic was staged by other American bands from the same era of the “British Invasion.” The Knickerbockers, Beau Brummels, and the Buckinghams deliberately dressed and talked like the British in an attempt to attain the same level of visibility enjoyed by the Beatles. The Turtles would even “hang out at bowling alleys and order tea with plenty of milk, speaking in fake English accents and trying to pass themselves off as Gerry and the Pacemakers.”37 It’s not uncommon for business executives to experience levels of visibility in a foreign country that would be much more difficult to attain back home. Take, for example, the country manager of a contact center in Manila, Philippines, with global headquarters in the United States. Back home in the United States, the mid-thirties manager might be an up-andcoming star, but he would likely be one of several. In the Philippines, however, he is at the top of his firm and therefore a highly respected individual. Many executives leverage this visibility to project themselves regionally in their sector, creating other opportunities to speak, write, or shift employment. A good many of these executives become so used to the level of attention they receive as a foreign executive that the risk of returning to the United States and sinking into relative “cubicle obscurity” becomes great—so great, in fact, that they go to great lengths to remain outside the United States, including quitting their jobs.

“Do You Know Me?” Another popular sustaining strategy is to capitalize on media and commercial exposure. Innumerable brands have extended their commercial value for decades through the timely linkage of their names with products. New York Yankees slugger Joe DiMaggio linked his graceful athletic prowess with Mr. Coffee; former boxer George Foreman’s name has become synonymous with Salton’s Lean Mean Fat Reducing Grilling Machine, and Hall of Fame QB and Fox NFL television analyst Terry Bradshaw has endorsed the antidepressant Paxil. While entertainers and sports figures have historically dominated this practice, businesses and professions are

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rapidly moving into this visibility-generating area. Medical clinics such as Dreyer in Aurora, Illinois routinely showcase what they term “stars” in television, radio commercials, and print advertisements. In one particularly arresting commercial, the star physician is filmed “riding in the backseat of a car with a family.”38 In some law firms, the term “business development” means appearances on television programs such as Good Morning America, Inside Edition, and Celebrity Justice, and cable news channels.

Big Man on Campus Another strategy for reviving a deteriorating career is the academic connection. Faculties of Los Angeles–area universities are rife with “adjunct” professors of entertainment-related subjects; Washington, D.C.–area institutions feature aging politicians and lawyers; and many universities have a variety of boards that are loaded with once-powerful business stars seeking a soft landing. The university connection is popular because it is mutually beneficial: It cloaks the brand with academic respectability and spices the university’s image with notables the contributing alumni actually know. And like the best decline-management strategies, it also functions as a legitimizing process. It’s a lot more dignified for aging stars to say they’re teaching a course at USC than to admit that they’re playing pinochle at a retirement village.

Just Stopping By . . . In past decades, one of the strangest brand afterlives could be found in America’s restaurants and casinos. Fading sports and entertainment stars such as boxer Joe Louis and baseball player Willie Mays were given room and board, and often a salary, just to play golf, sit around the bar, and generally rub shoulders with guests. Today, the brand needs to work a little harder. The new strategy is “just stopping by,” as illustrated by ex-football players appearing for pay at Monday Night Football parties at sports bars and restaurants. A variation on this tradition is found at shopping center openings, all-star games, corporate banquets, and cruises (“just swimming by”). Celebrity Cruise Line loads up with former film stars Arlene Dahl and Gloria De Haven and such novelties as Burt Rutan, a rocket plane entrepreneur. The Internet has made it easier for venue owners and event organizers to book stars because their Web sites and those of their agents make it possible to electronically identify an appropriate personality for a specific event and even begin the process of booking an appearance.

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The Lecture Circuit When former Pittsburgh Steeler running back Rocky Bleier retired from football, he became a staple on the lecture circuit, motivating audiences on his return to sports stardom after sustaining major injuries in Vietnam. Bleier is among many highly visible sector stars who use speakers bureaus to stay in the public arena. The list of speakers includes a wide range of sectors from business to entertainment and international politics to experts in alternative medicine. The fees can range from $5,000 to $250,000 per appearance, and while some brands are highly sought after by speakers’ bureaus, others must convincingly pitch themselves for representation. The rewards of the lecture circuit besides the fees can be substantial in two ways: (1) Speaking engagements keep the brand’s name alive in places that extend his or her personal brand through association with other well-knowns and by putting him or her in front of influential audiences; and (2) Speaking engagements are a channel to market books, seminars, and other products.

Downsizing Markets In ancient times, the man who returned to his native village from a journey to the capital was a hero. Today, local, cable, and satellite markets happily reabsorb those who’ve tumbled from the pyramid’s peak. National news anchor Bill Kurtis, departing from CBS Morning News, returned to local TV station WBBM in Chicago, where he earned a larger salary for broadcasting to only a fraction of his former audience. Ultimately, he left WBBM to make documentaries in often exotic places. He made a perfect landing by resurfacing on the Discovery Channel, and he currently hosts A&E Network’s Cold Case Files and American Justice. All across America, local markets employ downsized stars who imbue local institutions with the flavor of their celebrated pasts: baseball players who represent banks and car dealers, former movie stars who host the local afternoon-TV movie, and former radio and television stars who front suburban real estate housing developments.

DECLINE DYNAMICS All of these strategies share some important characteristics. Each is based on an exchange: the brand accepting a variety of rewards in order to let the candle burn a little longer and the institution paying money or lending its

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prestige to the brand in exchange for whatever commercial value remains in the brand’s name. It all works because of memory filtration—that is, human nature’s propensity for recalling the positive and forgetting the negative. We remember Jim Palmer for his record as a Hall of Fame pitcher with the Baltimore Orioles, not for the long-struggling end to his baseball career. Bill Clinton’s transgressions blurred before a barrage of new, improved images including a memoir and numerous speaking trips around the world. We downplay the late Ray Charles’ womanizing and struggles with heroin addiction and remember him as a premiere artist in synthesizing rock and roll and blues. Helping our selective memory are institutions’ memorysuppression strategies: displaying their brand names in favorable situations, controlling events, and supporting the brand with coaching and public relations training. And it often succeeds. Watching their TV commercials and exposures in other venues such as charitable pursuits, we think that athletes like Arnold Palmer or Cal Ripken, Jr., are still on top of the world. This combination of forgetfulness and image engineering has turned The Comeback into an institution.

Comebacks Any number of events or decisions can send a career spiraling into decline. On the positive side, most setbacks, properly evaluated and managed, can actually energize a brand’s comeback. For example, Earvin “Magic” Johnson’s basketball career was cut short when he was diagnosed as HIV positive in 1991. His reputation suffered a blow as his once overwhelmingly favorable image was threatened by the disclosure. He transformed his image by appearing the following year on the Dream Team in the 1992 Olympics, beginning a series of successful business and community-based ventures, and becoming a frequent media guest. Johnson’s image was recast as a highly visible AIDS activist and as a vigorous survivor of the disease. Some of these scenarios have become virtual scripts. Iran-Contra felon Oliver North features his criminal convictions as part of his comeback as a conservative politician, syndicated columnist, and host of Fox News’ War Stories. Likewise, actor John Travolta, resurrected by director Quentin Tarantino in Pulp Fiction after years of minimal exposure, uses his past film and TV personas as well as his struggle to regain prominence and recognition as a serious actor to add dimension to his work. Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth, who was cast in a villainess image on The Apprentice, predictably attracted many commercial opportunities after she was fired

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from the reality-TV show including a role in NBC’s Passions, a book, and a signature fashion line. Even a group as torn apart by constant feuds and bickering as the heavy metal group Motley Crue can reunite. A quarter century later, they toured, launched an album, and appeared on a VH1 series. But the fact remains that in the vast majority of cases, brands don’t manage their declines; they are managed by them. Sometimes the decline is slow, predictable, and inexorable. Other times, it is swift, unpredictable, even ruthless. Despite the threat of decline, there are some astonishing examples of long-term sustaining. Doctors Martin and Arnold Brohner are podiatrists who have been in practice for over fifty years. The older brother, Martin, is in his early eighties, and the younger sibling, Arnold, is in his late seventies, making their sixteen-hour days remarkable. Together, they have constructed a podiatry practice that illustrates how decline can be averted by word of mouth, total brand management, and maximizing their already-established status as a high visibility medical duo. They’ve avoided decline by developing innovative medical techniques, adhering to a set of principles, and through their personalities and treatment record have sustained over decades. Jack La Lanne, now into his nineties, has managed to maintain his visibility since the Depression. The self-proclaimed “Godfather of Fitness” uses his age as a metaphor for how well his fitness routines will work. And he has a complete product line including a juicer, water exercise video, and corporate retreats and seminars. He has been able to transform his fundamental message over decades and adapt to every distribution channel and cultural shift. The doctors and La Lanne are not alone in remarkable sustainability. The Atlanta Braves outfielder Julio Franco is still playing baseball in his late forties, when other players are enjoying golf and having hip surgery. Tony Bennett, approaching eighty, is still singing love songs well after the crooner age had disappeared. And Dr. Ruth Westheimer is still giving sex advice on the radio, writing books, and making guest appearances for audiences that are half a century younger. While long-term and uninterrupted sustainability is desirable, declines can appear in many forms both major and minor. Whether their declines are brought about by crisis or poor management, most distressed brands attempt comebacks. Celebrity publicist Lizzie Grubman, seeking commercial credibility again after serving her sentence for assault charges and leaving the scene of a hit-and-run accident in 2001, discovered that with her credibility tainted, she needed to find an effective comeback vehicle.

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Her response was to offer seminars and talks on public relations and image marketing, and to distribute her image in new channels such as an MTV reality-TV show. Called PoweR Girls, the show follows Grubman and her four protégés as they put together star-studded events in Manhattan, the Hamptons, Miami, and Los Angeles. Although Grubman has not yet fully recovered, she appears to be on the way to a significant comeback. Some brands engineer comebacks that propel them past their old visibility levels to new heights. Minnesota Vikings reserve quarterback Sean Salisbury was an average football player struggling for playing time who reemerged in a completely new role as a far greater star as an NFL analyst on ESPN. Bond financier Michael Milken served time in prison; upon returning, he established himself as a charity star with his own foundation. Singer Tina Turner, delinked from the husband with whom she performed as a successful duo, languished in obscurity for years, then attained international visibility on the strength of style changes, new strategic linkages, and a dramatic storyline as a survivor of difficult times. Other brands achieve similar comeback success by shifting sectors entirely. Fairly well-known actor Ronald Reagan came back to become extremely well-known President Ronald Reagan. David Letterman attained local visibility as an offbeat TV weatherman, quit, failed in his network morning talk show, and came back as a durable leader in the comedy sector, becoming a highly popular late-night talk-show host.

Comeback Strategies One of the most important considerations when mapping a comeback strategy is to assess how tangibly success is measured within a sector. Marathon world-record holder Paula Radcliffe, devastated after she was forced to drop out of the race in the modern Athens Olympics due to dehydration, simply had to train and win her return race at the New York Marathon later that same year to make her comeback. Architects need to build award-winning buildings; businesspeople need to exceed Wall Street profit predictions; boxers need to knock out their opponents. In the entertainment, art, religious, and other sectors where the criteria for achieving visibility are not so clearly defined, the mix of available comeback options is far more complex. The following are some possible approaches.

Appeal to Nostalgia In every sector, in every generation, forgotten brands will return to meet the public’s need for living embodiments of the past. The key to success

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through this strategy is to do what you did and make sure the timing is right for your return. Donna Summer should sing dance music. Kirk Kerkorian should raid corporations. Kathy Bates should play menacing characters. In this way, old audiences can be retapped.

Emerge through a New Channel Former brands can come back by distributing their stories or images through new channels. G. Gordon Liddy, after a jail sentence for his participation in the Watergate scandal, became a highly paid celebrity circuit speaker and radio and talk-show host. His Web site has become a site of commerce for his brand as appearances can be booked online. Jamie Foxx, frenetic television and film comedian, auditioned for and won the role of Ray Charles in the film Ray, and redefined himself as a major, serious film star. As an example of a reverse of Foxx’s reemergence, actress Linda Blair, most famous for her role in The Exorcist, resurfaced through a new distribution channel—television—as host of the The Scariest Places on Earth. Similarly, with his boxing days numbered, Oscar “Golden Boy” De La Hoya has diversified his visibility by producing his own musical album and starting a career as a fight promoter. The noted fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi, after a major business setback in a partnership with Chanel, used new channels to manage a comeback. He was a talk-show host on the cable network Oxygen, coproduced a one-man off-broadway show, and designed a clothing line for mass merchandiser Target. Mizrahi despite his short-term problem was determined to keep his name in play and in doing so not only emerged through new channels but in a contract with Bergdorf Goodman was able to move back into the higher end of fashion.39

New and Improved A brand in decline can alter—or just pretend to alter—some key talent or characteristic. Singer Sinead O’Connor, best known for her rendition of the Prince song “Nothing Compares 2 U” and ripping up a photo of Pope John Paul II on television—one of many contrived acts meant to stoke controversy—announced her retirement in 2003. But after two years of attempting to “live a normal life,”40 O’Connor reemerged as a more mature, lucid singer targeting a “more spiritualized market.”41 More than a decade after his last Grammy, Carlos Santana released Supernatural, an album of collaborations with highly visible artists such as Lauryn Hill, Rob Thomas, Eric Clapton, and Dave Matthews. In a strategy to contemporize Santana’s image, the dream-team approach placed his music in a fresh perspective. The result was a best-seller and eight Grammy awards.

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Ride a New Vehicle Career setbacks or declines due to poor venue or vehicle selection may be reversed through the selection of a new vehicle. Drew Barrymore, who began her entertainment career before she was one-year-old by starring in a dog food commercial, is not only an example of versatility but of remarkable transformation skills. At the age of seven, she costarred in the childhood classic E.T. In her early teens she took up various forms of drugs and established a bad-girl image by appearing as a teenage vamp in Poison Ivy and posing nude for Playboy. Then, in an abrupt vehicle change, Barrymore reemerged repackaged as America’s sweetheart, starring in The Wedding Singer, Never Been Kissed, and Woody Allen’s Everyone Says I Love You. Barrymore subsequently became even more versatile by producing and starring in two highly successful Charlie’s Angels movies and playing the love interest of a Boston Red Sox fanatic in Fever Pitch.

Create a Controversy Controversies are one of the most powerful ways to reawaken audience interest in a declining visibility career. Joan Collins mastered this technique with the strategy of writing about the macho and sadistic men who abused her throughout her career. Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen in sports, Senator Barbara Boxer in politics, and perhaps the best example, Gunther von Hagens, whose “art form”—plastination—showcases human cadavers in a skinless, action-oriented state, consistently use controversy as a vehicle to retain visibility.

Promote Your Problems What would morning TV be without its endless parade of fallen stars recounting their trials and tribulations? Of course, this technique is more popular in certain sectors than in others. Religion and business are ambivalent about it, but country music thrives on it. Willie Nelson, Wynonna Judd, and others take advantage of the “lost-loves-and-sorrow” character of country music to externalize the tribulations of their own lives. Business leaders often turn the process of facing and dealing with business problems into a speaking, writing, or teaching career. It has become almost fashionable for physicians, lawyers, and other professionals to discuss the obstacles to a medical breakthrough or why the jury was poorly selected for their client in the media.

Catch the Cultural Wave Declining brands can reinvigorate careers by hooking up with popular trends or social movements. Fading entertainers such as Carmen Electra

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have extended their careers by starring in fitness videos that target healthconscious consumers. Former Chicago Bears Hall of Fame linebacker Dick Butkus agreed to be the coach of a high school football team for a reality television series. As governor of South Carolina, David Beasley was in fashion as he generated tremendous media coverage with his aggressive worldwide campaign to attract new companies to his state.

Bring Back Your Old Vehicle Many brands find renewal through reviving their greatest success. One version of this strategy is the farewell tour. Sometimes declining brands say farewell, disappear, then return to say farewell again, as demonstrated by the multiple swan songs of the Rolling Stones, Kiss, and the Eagles.

Sudden Death The comeback strategy of sudden death should not be considered casually. It is, however, a powerful device for reactivating faded fan attraction and maximizing the value of a name. The list of brands who have become mainstays of fan worship after their deaths is impressive: Elvis Presley, James Dean, Jim Morrison, Malcolm X, Kurt Cobain, Tupac Shakur, Eric “Eazy E” Wright, Billie Holiday, Sid Vicious, Jackson Pollock, Marvin Gaye, Jerry Garcia, Marilyn Monroe, Sal Mineo, Jimi Hendrix, Huey Long, and Princess Diana. Indeed, some become far more visible in death than they ever were in life. Mexican-American pop singer Selena, who was “poised for mainstream success”42 before she was murdered by a fan, achieved high visibility after her death. The subject of several biographical books, an episode of E! True Hollywood Story, and a movie in which she was played by Jennifer Lopez, Selena was thrust into Latina icon status. By dying young, brands freeze their images for eternity, saving generations of fans from the disappointment of seeing their idols slowly fade away.

Family Extension A far more hopeful strategy for a comeback is procreating and breeding successors. Auto racing is one of the prime examples as four-time Indianapolis 500 winner A.J. Foyt has produced another generation of racers: son Larry Foyt of NASCAR and grandson A.J. Foyt IV of the Indy Racing League. In NASCAR, racing legend Dale Earnhardt spawned Dale Earnhardt, Jr., and in drag racing perennial champion John Force found an eventual replacement through his daughter’s husband. In the music world, Julio Iglesias is now being slowly replaced by his son Enrique Iglesias. In business, media baron Rupert Murdoch, whose father Sir Keith was a

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powerful newspaper publisher, has been in the middle of a dispute over which children from two different marriages will eventually succeed him.

Dizzy and Denny No one declined more gracefully from visibility than baseball player Dizzy Dean. A former St. Louis Cardinals pitcher, Old Diz spent his post pitching years spinning baseball yarns on national radio and television. There was Dean, fracturing the English language, having a wonderful time. Dean’s descent was exposure management at its finest: taking advantage of his storytelling talents, his audience’s expectations and nostalgic longings, and his full repertoire of anecdotes, reminiscences, and wistful ramblings. Contrast Dean’s decline with that of similarly celebrated pitcher Denny McLain of the Detroit Tigers, the last pitcher in baseball to win thirty games in a season. At his peak, it seemed as if no force would ever dislodge McLain from honor in the memory channel. His long-term sustainability seemed guaranteed. But soon after leaving the majors, McLain began transforming—at high speed and in the wrong direction. His weight ballooned; he became involved with gambling and alcoholism. Eventually, he was indicted for extortion, racketeering, drug dealing, and conspiracy, and he was tried, convicted, and sentenced to a long jail term. After returning from prison, he never regained national prominence—working first as a Detroit radio personality and then again going to prison for stealing from his meat company’s pension plan. More than three decades after his death, Dean has been immortalized on an official Web site and several online shrines, as well as in trading cards alongside other baseball icons. McLain, on the other hand, though still living, is in the memory channel for two contradictory achievements: “He was the last 30-game winner of the twentieth century and that he spent a lot of time in prison.”43 As the Dean and McLain cases illustrate, sustaining visibility can be as difficult as attaining it. Each was in an excellent position to manage his exposure profitably over time. When a visibility career is over, usually there are offers to choose from. Dean used a method of distribution that took full advantage of his talent and experiences. The opportunities for McLain were just as promising: endorsements, broadcasting positions, and business associations that made use of his name. Yet, in the end, one was rewarded by his visibility, while the other suffered. In any high visibility pursuit, the end game is usually the balance of rewards and costs, and the ability to sustain is as good a measure as any.

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NOTES 1 William D. Montalbano, “Speeches and Creams,” Los Angeles Times, March 28, 1996, part E, p. 1. 2 Nissara Horayangura, “Roddick the Radical,” Bangkok Post, “Outlook,” March 6, 2004, peace-foundation.net.7host.com/article_details.asp?aid=Articles_BCKV, viewed April 4, 2005. 3 Maryann Bird, “Anita Roddick: Nothing Like a Dame: A rebel with a fistful of causes, the Body Shop founder users her energy and wealth to battle for justice,” Time (Europe), October 11, 2004, www.time.com/time/europe/ hero2004/roddick.html, viewed May 17, 2005. 4 _____, “About Dame Anita Roddick,” www.anitaroddick.com/aboutanita.php, viewed April 4, 2005. 5 Anita Roddick, Business as Usual (London: Thorsons Publishers, 2001); Anita Roddick, Body and Soul: Profits with Principles—The Amazing Success Story of Anita Roddick & The Body Shop (New York: Crown, 1991). 6 Bird. 7 Josh Tyrangiel, “Nice Day to Start Again,” Time, March 21, 2005, p. 74. 8 Newt Gingrich, Winning the Future: A 21st Century Contract with America (Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing, 2005). 9 _____, “Q&A with George Clooney,” E!Online, “Celebs,” www.eonline.com/ Celebs/Qa/Clooney/intrview4.html, viewed July 8, 2005. 10 Terence O’Hara, “Study of Fanny Mae Cites ‘Perverse’ Executive Pay Policy,” Washington Post, March 31, 2005, www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/ A14462–2005Mar30.html, viewed July 8, 2005. 11 _____, “New Jersey Governor Quits, Comes Out as Gay,” August 13, 2004, edition.cnn.com/ 2004/ALLPOLITICS/08/12/mcgreevey.nj, viewed April 11, 2005. 12 James B. Stewart, Disney War (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005). 13 Quoted in “Fallen Idols,” The Economist, May 2, 2002, www.economist.com/ opinion/displayStory.cfm?story_id=1109770, viewed April 13, 2005. 14 Jeffrey E. Garten, Mind of the CEO (New York: Basic Books, 2001). 15 Mark Caro, “Plastic Surgery: It’s all rock ‘n’ roll,” Chicago Tribune, March 16, 2005, p. 1. 16 atkins.com/atkinslegacy/atkinslegacybio.html, viewed on May 28, 2005.

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17 Jenifer Johnston, “Diet Wars Get Dirty,” Sunday Herald, February 15, 2004, p. 15. 18 Soma Biswas, “Atkins Struggles on Low-revenue Diet,” Daily Deal, April 7, 2005; Dominic Rushe and Lois Rogers, “Atkins Mania Is Just Wilting Away,” Sunday Times, December 12, 2004 (Lexis Nexis). 19 _____, “Atkins Nutritionals, Inc.; Weight loss company’s online feature about nutritional approach now available,” Food & Drug Law Weekly, February 18, 2005. 20 Ellis Henican, “Atkins Sugar-coats Drift to Zone,” Newsday, March 25, 2005 (Lexis Nexis). 21 Melanie Warner, “Atkins Diet Saga Now at Chapter 11,” New York Times, August 3, 2005, www.nytimes.com/2005/08/03/dining/03diet.html?ex= 1126929600&en=a0d571dae4d00497&ei=5070, viewed September 15, 2005. 22 _____, “Sean ‘P. Diddy’ Combs and Bad Boy Entertainment Form Joint Venture With Warner Music Group,” Market Wire, April 14, 2005 (Lexis Nexis). 23 Kellie Ann Zupet, “Hip-hop’s Viagra; Sean Combs’ is up for everything— including fashion,” Hamilton Spectator, July 10, 2004 (Lexis Nexis). 24 John Holusha, “Shelby’s Cars Return to Aid Chrysler’s Image,” New York Times, June 23, 1986, p. 19. 25 John Eaton, “Wheel’s Mailbag,” Denver Post, June 3, 1994. pp. H–01. 26 John Luft, quoted in “Carroll Shelby Teams with Ford to Introduce Ford Shelby GT500 Concept at New York Auto Show,” The Auto Channel, March 24, 2005, www.theautochannel.com/news/2005/03/24/020155.html, viewed April 13, 2005. 27 Jose Canseco, Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant ’Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big (New York: Regan Books, 2005). 28 Goldie Hawn, A Lotus Grows in the Mud (New York: Putnam Adult, 2005). 29 Priscilla Presley and Lisa Marie Presley, David Ritz (editor), Elvis By the Presleys (New York: Crown, 2005). 30 Howard Schultz, Pour Your Heart into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time (New York: Hyperion, 1999). 31 Buzzy Gordon, “The Match Game,” The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, February 14, 2003, www.jewishjournal.com/home/preview.php?id=10065, viewed September 22, 2005.

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32 Andrew Smith, “All in a Good Cause?,” Guardian Unlimited, January 27, 2002. observer.guardian.co.uk/life/story/0,6903,639825,00.html, viewed April 15, 2005. 33 Ibid. 34 _____, “Carol Alt,” E!Online, www.eonline.com/On/Model/Themodels/Alt/, viewed April 21, 2005. 35 Carol Alt, Eating in the Raw: A Beginner’s Guide to Getting Slimmer, Feeling Healthier, and Looking Younger the Raw-Food Way (New York: Clarkson Potter, 2004). 36 Christopher Lawton, “Asian Acts Make a Global Play,” Asian Wall Street Journal, “Networking,” March 31, 2005, p. A7. 37 Jack Madani, “Pop and Rock Music in the ’60s: A Brief History,” www.spectropop.com/hmadanibrief.html, viewed April 21, 2005. 38 www.dreyermed.com/shell.tpl?navigation=news.html, viewed on May 27, 2005. 39 Geraldine Fabrikant, “Excuse Me, I’m Not Through Yet,” New York Times, May 29, 2005, p. 6. 40 Sinead O’Connor, quoted by Barry Jeckell, “Sinead O’Connor to Retire from Music,” www.billboard.com/bb/daily/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id= 1873145, April 24, 2003, viewed April 18, 2005. 41 Alex Mar, “Sinead Goes Reggae,” Rolling Stone, February 15, 2005, www.rollingstone.com/news/story/_/id/6988028/sineadoconnor?pageid=rs. Artistcage&pageregion=triple3&rnd=1113792966470&has-player=true& version=6.0.12.1040, viewed April 18, 2005. 42 Jared Hohlt, “Selena,” Slate, March 27, 1997, slate.msn.com/id/3435, viewed April 18, 2005. 43 Nick Acocella, “From the Big Time to the Big House,” ESPN Classic, espn.go.com/classic/biography/s/McLain_Denny.html, viewed April 22, 2005.

managing brand identity in an ever-changing marketplace

CHAPTER 12

B

usiness executive Ed Brill and wellness doctor Steven Lamm are the avatars of the next era of personal and professional branding, incorporating the qualities that suggest the future of person marketing. Ed Brill is an executive with Lotus Messaging Sales, a branch of the IBM software group. Unlike many other high-powered corporate successes, he works out of his house, is the author of his own blog (www.edbrill.com), and has as many as sixty thousand blog customers. Through his frequent blogs, he writes about Lotus technology, worldwide travels, and networking with Lotus users all over the world. His blog is ranked in the top 0.1 percent of weblog readership by Technorati.1 He has become a highly visible executive who is recognizable to Lotus customers wherever he travels. He recognizes the challenge of maintaining his position: “The blog world is self-selecting. If I’m not writing about interesting things, no one is going to comment, no one is going to post.”2 He illustrates an absolutely undeniable trend of brand management: Technology can be used in any sector to move messages, and channel capitalizers such as Brill have a big edge in the visibility world. Dr. Steven Lamm understands that achieving visibility in the professions requires a new rule book. He fills the regular media channels by appearing as the in-house doctor for ABC’s The View, and he has made numerous appearances on television shows such as Oprah and Lifetime Today. A real breakthrough in concept, however, was writing with Gerald Secor Couzens a book with the bawdy title The Hardness Factor.3 The punchline of the book is that a male’s general health and his ability to sexually perform are as one. In his book, Dr. Lamm prescribes antioxidants, special meals, and exercises, all intended to enhance the hardness factor. He 345

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benefits from the changed traditional boundaries of manners, taste, and appropriateness in conjunction with the increased access of media and technology to targeted audiences. Attracting attention in this communication climate often takes the bluntness, audacity, and risk that would cause most of Tom Brokaw’s Greatest Generation to blush. Brill and Lamb are successful examples of adapters to the new visibility environment. They stand out in crowded, competitive fields because they have combined their talents with visibility practices and principles. To successfully capitalize on an ever-changing visibility environment, aspirants must focus on two critical issues. First, no matter how the competitive environment changes, aspirants must pay close attention to the fundamentals of high visibility marketing as they are the centerpiece of any plan. Second, aspirants must be aware of the future challenges that impact the process of attaining visibility and be prepared with powerful responses. In this chapter, we address both of these issues by summarizing five key principles of High Visibility and responding to the future challenges of visibility.

THE PRINCIPLES OF HIGH VISIBILITY Principle 1. Visibility Pays Visibility clearly produces large and varied rewards for its holders. Tennis star Maria Sharapova, while her main performance arena is the professional tennis circuit, is able to sell her image to sponsors such as Canon, Nike, and Tag Heuer for millions of dollars a year. She appears in magazine cover stories as a model, and when she appears on the tennis court, the combination of her physical attractiveness and tennis skill make her the central attraction. As a consequence, she receives special treatment when it comes to hotel rooms, restaurant tables, theater seats, and social invitations. Her more serious pronouncements about her Russian citizenship receive instant news coverage, dwarfing the outcries of decades of protesters. Sharapova demonstrates that high visibility pays off handsomely for those who achieve it in terms of power, pay, and privilege. For the aspirant, the market will continue to pay, but differently. For example, visibility aspirants must target smaller and more numerous market segments to be successful because larger markets are fragmenting, making them harder to capture. For three decades of his career (1930s, 1940s, and 1950s), singer, movie actor, and radio and television star Bing Crosby appealed to audiences in every channel, place, and profession. For entertainment aspirants, entry was very difficult, the talent filters were

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remote and select, and the premium was limited to only a few performers working in a smaller number of venues. In contrast, the opportunities and rewards in the new visibility environment are wide-ranging with many and varied talent filters, and the premium is available to a far larger number of sector aspirants. In addition, the visibility premium has been enhanced as media have expanded and markets are increasingly willing to pay up for brands.

Principle 2. Knowing the Talent Threshold Visibility seekers must become experts on their own product—themselves. The talent threshold is a function of what sector you select and the minimum requirements to become a legitimate aspirant. “Who are you and what do you do well that other people will admire or pay for?” is an obvious but critical question. While it may be unrealistic to be an opera singer, a less powerful voice might still lead to an acting career. The inventory of skills ideally begins early in life, and its usefulness is dependent upon good self-evaluation and trusted parents, friends, and advisors. Even at the stage of breaking through, there are dangers in misjudging the talent threshold. As visibility seekers move closer to becoming pure products, they are more likely to be kept isolated from the information gathering and processing techniques and analytical models used by product managers, headhunters, studio heads, team coaches, agents and packagers, and other industry leaders. Consequently, aspirants must cope with the pressure of deciding if their talent base is adequate and which moves are being recommended in service of the interests of others rather than their own.

Principle 3. Transforming the Brand Successful transformations are well thought out, systematic, process centric, and strategic. While the right attitude, pure motivations, natural ability, extreme talent, inborn charisma, good timing, and lucky breaks may be helpful, they do not guarantee sustainable visibility. Most aspirants need more than wild ambition, inherent admirable qualities, or blind luck. The key elements of transformation are based on brand generation, testing, refinement, and realization. The transformation only comes alive when it is extended through effective communication and strategic use of channels. This visibility framework encourages aspirants to systematically assess and test their visibility potential and employ a strategic process to achieve visibility goals.

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A key element of transformation is for the aspirant and their managers to determine how much change is required. Depending on the sector in which the aspirant is active, the degree of transformation may be minimal, moderate, or extensive. Minimal transformation may be as simple as acquiring presentation and speaking skills for an executive. Moderate transformation may involve a strategy to project an academic researcher as a thought leader in his or her field by drawing attention to the aspirant’s research breakthroughs in journals, newspapers, books, Web sites, and blogs. An extensive transformation may involve a career shift such as that from actor to politician and is often accompanied by a wide and detailed range of refinement strategies. In any transformation, it is essential that the aspirant develop and follow a blueprint, welcome feedback, and be willing to adapt to sector and audience changes.

Principle 4. Distributing the Brand It has never been easier for aspirants to be seen, and it has never been more difficult to be seen. In the past decade there has been an explosion of communication channels: cable TV, the Internet (e-mail, blogs, Web sites, online syndication, webinars), magazines and books, conferences and other events, CDs and other audiovisual materials including on-demand webcasts. As these channels have proliferated, traditional communication channels, especially hardcopy print and network broadcast, have declined in impact, but they have not disappeared. In this fast-moving distribution climate, there are two issues visibility aspirants should consider in developing a communications strategy. First is impact. Since there are so many available channels, aspirants must choose the ones that will differentiate them from their competition and reach and connect with their target audiences. Consider the consultant who wants to communicate with a group of top executives in his or her target market whose companies may find his or her product or service useful. Aside from the difficulty of gaining access to say, thirty top executives, it will take considerable time to meet with each individually. However, by organizing a breakfast briefing with an appealing subject—cases on how successful companies address important issues, research results, etc.—the consultant has a much better chance of getting a good number of those thirty executives to attend the meeting. Certainly the chances are much better than if the consultant simply sent a fax, a brochure, or placed an ad in a newspaper. The briefing also provides other advantages: (1) credibly positioning the consultant as an expert conveying valuable knowledge;

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(2) validating the worth of the meeting and the consultant through the presence of a group of high-powered executives, and (3) providing a showcase and trial period for more elaborate venues such as keynote speeches, lecture circuit appearances, or other breakout channels. The second issue is innovation. The innovative visibility seeker will either deliver messages through new channels or find ways to mix or reinvent old channels. Shopping center cable channels are an excellent example of how selling goods was brought to mass audiences in a new manner, which as a side benefit, also created new brands. In 2004, presidential candidates Howard Dean and Wesley Clark used blogs to create an identity and bypass traditional political communication strategies. Actor Paul Newman reinforced his rugged character by becoming a racecar driver, and he added depth and sensitivity to his personal brand by creating a line of pasta sauces and donating profits to charity. MTV came to the aid of tsunami victims by holding a massive free concert in Bangkok, which also served as a rich vehicle to promote its VJs. Individuals that consistently seek out new, innovative ways to communicate will be most successful in communicating their personal brands in ways that create sustained awareness and recall.

Principle 5. Sustaining Visibility A strong personal brand identity ideally can endure for decades. More likely, the fast-changing tastes of audiences and the technological innovations that create more competition make that task increasingly more difficult. To be successful, aspirants must adapt to the growing maturity of the marketplace, competitive threats, changes in social mores and values, proliferation of communication channels, and other factors that serve to challenge brand resilience. How frequently and how radically the identity is transformed to sustain depends on the aspirant’s sector. Child actors and entertainers must manage their transitions to adulthood, then to middle age, and finally to their senior years. In many cases, these are extensive transformations that require new acting skills, major appearance changes, and locations to other parts of the world. On the other hand, a fashion designer such as Miuccia Prada may require only minimal refinement of her identity to sustain, as her visibility endurance is based on new handbag and texture styles. Sometimes a subsector or sector change is an effective measure to sustain visibility. In sports, it is common for athletes to become broadcasters or coaches, or perform other related support services as agents, advisors, or insurance brokers. Business executives may transition from functional experts to top executives to business school professors. A realtor like Tom

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Hopkins may shift from successful real-estate agent to highly paid motivational speaker and author. Child givers frequently alternate parenting responsibilities and reemerge in both old and new sectors. In today’s marketplace, the movement between sectors is more frequent as mobility and economic conditions force changes in previously stable sectors. As a result, the most nimble and flexible aspirants will survive.

THE HIGH VISIBILITY CHALLENGES The visibility industry has become so sophisticated and specialized that aspirants have to be aware of the ever-shifting dynamics of their culture and sector. It’s an interesting conundrum that all aspirants face. Becoming visible was never really that attractive other than in entertainment and sports for most of the world’s history. Now, however, the change in how products are packaged and sold, a far more demanding marketplace, and the innovation of channels of distribution to reach previously unheard of targets and sectors has conspired to make high visibility a necessity. At the same time, the prevalence of so many individuals marketing themselves on so many channels, often to the same audiences, has increased pressure to innovate with meaningful, relevant, and influential strategies to attract adherents, admirers, and opportunities. The visibility seeker faces a number of critical challenges in this new competitive environment and while no one can predict with certainty the future, some issues clearly need to be understood.

Challenge: To Break through a Cluttered, Fragmented, and Global Marketplace The crowding of the branding marketplace suggests that the next group of aspirants will need to upgrade their audience analysis to gain a competitive edge. The premium for visibility is still attainable despite the competition if the aspirant is audience centered. In order to appeal to new audience dynamics, the visibility seeker needs to go beyond merely generating attention and awareness and invest heavily in signs and symbols that are instantly recognizable to specific target audiences.

Response: Segment and Target More Specific Audiences The rules of reaching mass audiences have changed for all products—people, places, and things. There was a time when it was sufficient to talk about broad

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groupings of markets such as young people, old people, sick people, and people who like to play sports. In recent decades, this has evolved from more refined segments such as eighteen- to thirty-four-year-olds to baby boomers, tweens, soccer moms, and EverQuest players. In this process, the markets have become more specific and consequently demand deep penetration and a more active relationship with the product. The visibility seeker, in order to take advantage of these segmentation trends, needs to develop concepts that are tailored to specific groups rather than mass audiences. In the fragmentation era, Dr. Lamm has segmented middle-aged males with virility issues, and Warren Buffett has tapped into risk-averse conservative investors. Buffett’s annual shareholder meetings that turn into interactive celebrations and the NBA’s sending star basketball players to remote countries to run personalized camps are examples of this trend. As targets become more difficult to reach and consumers become used to more interaction, the successful high visibility seeker will turn to strategies of eventizing, chat rooms, and other communications devices to unite and solidify a market. A successful aspirant will not only need to target specific markets to become highly visible but he or she will also need to prepare carefully in the development stage. Future virtuosos, whether in violin, ballet, tennis, or gymnastics, must start their training as children, go to the right camps, and impress the omnipresent talent scouts who are looking for the next marketable aspirant. Some scouts will continue to operate in the productimprovement mode, searching for candidates with the most commitment and flexibility for transformation. More and more coaches and brand developers will operate in the market-fulfillment mode, widely scanning for candidates with the right characteristics to fit a predetermined role. Some sectors, such as rock music, are fully industrialized, with a whole set of talent scouts, agents, personal managers, coaches, publicists, and financiers. And this corporate-type activity is growing in other sectors such as art, politics, business, academia, and religion. All of this is fueled by the demands of the marketplace to be more tailored to the needs of specific sectors.

Challenge: To Manage and Balance the Demands of the Private-Public Self As a transformation process occurs, the aspirant discovers that there are public image pressures that did not previously affect his or her life. In many cases, the media seems to be everywhere, dinner with the family in a restaurant is interrupted by fans, or there are conflicting requests for public

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appearances during the week that demand meeting large numbers of opinion leaders or relationship seekers. It is essential that in becoming a brand the gaps between privacy and public behavior are resolved to prevent burnout and allow for a balanced life.

Response: Prioritize Public and Private Goals and Aspirations The public-private boundaries are not new. In the Virginia Law Weekly, actress Katharine Hepburn in an article entitled “The Predicament of the Public Figure” observed that when she began her career in 1932, she had no problems preserving her private self. In contrast, in 1965 she complained, “Today . . . both the public and the press feel that they have an absolute right of access to the most intimate details of your life.”4 Forty years later, a clearly harried star, Brad Pitt, faced with Diane Sawyer’s intense questioning on Primetime took the fifth. He claimed that his unwillingness to discuss his separation from Jennifer Aniston and his alleged relationship with Angelina Jolie was a small part of his privacy that he wished to retain.5 Whether or not he would have been on the show if there were not a raging controversy is a matter of speculation. Regardless, those who are visible in any sector are more vulnerable to intrusion than their predecessors, and managing that increased scrutiny is critical to success. In every sector, there are implied rules that concern exposure levels. For example, IBM’s Ed Brill appears on the Internet on a regular basis, speaks to select audiences that are prescreened as Lotus users, and is virtually invisible to the general media. It is Brill’s choice as to how much exposure outside his visibility universe that he wishes to have. He is managing maximum exposure in a targeted business circle and focusing less on a more general audience. In contrast, a Major League Baseball player has far more exposure to the general public because he plays every day, and he is on all channels including cell phones and Web sites. The player’s choices for privacy are because of his occupation more limited than Brill’s. However, the baseball players will need coping strategies to recharge, connect with family, and still meet the exposure expectations of a highly visible sector. In many ways, knowing the demands of the sector and being candid as to how much reach and sector crossing is desirable will help control the exposure. Katharine Hepburn was right. The public/private issue that high visibility brands face has never been more complicated and invasive. It is the outcome of the expansion of opportunity and reach of the personal and professional brand sector. It is impossible for the highly visible to have it

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both ways—maximum exposure and absolute privacy. The aspirant who begins to deal with these issues early in their career and is simultaneously able to maintain exposure and establish zones of privacy will have more potential to endure.

Challenge: To Achieve Visibility More Cost Effectively In a visibility marketplace with so many different sectors and varying entry and sustaining rules, the difficulty in managing costs such as time and financial support becomes a potentially serious deterrent. In such an environment, visibility seekers need to find strategies to enter and sustain in marketplaces by generating more resources or learning to operate with fewer.

Response: Skillfully Use Resources to Distribute the Brand to Target Audiences More Cost Effectively The proliferation of media channels and visibility sectors has made the costs of entry into many sectors much cheaper. In sectors such as media criticism, financial advice, and even popular singing, there are many more players because entry has become more democratic and less expensive. The television show American Idol enables aspirants who would usually have to work first through local venues or engage agents to now drive down to the local shopping mall and audition. While there are still sectors such as opera, investment banking, and medical fields that require longer and more expensive preparation, even in many of these areas barriers to entry are beginning to fall. In entering a sector, looking at the cost of the entry points and the demands of sustaining once there is critical. Innovation is a solution to cost factors in sectors in which it is expensive to compete. One emerging response is to integrate personal visibility with other products to be more cost effective. For example, Dale Harrow, director of the automotive design department at London’s Royal College of Art, observes, “Somebody like Patrick Le Quement at Renault is setting the course for the company as a whole. Designers are now being credited with the product. We’re in an interesting period where the personality of designers is being used as a way of supplementing and supporting the brand and the vehicle.”6 Similar connections are being made in the field of architecture, cosmetics, and the hospital-doctor relationship. The merging is a form of brand synergy centered on knowable personalities and products that need identity.

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Another solution is the increasing availability of free media in an everwidening number of channels. The rise of public relations and the surging demand for information developers who can package and attain free media can contain visibility costs. This strategy has become important for two reasons. One, there is mounting evidence that traditional advertising and other forms of communication that signal being paid for are not resonating with savvier audiences. Two, the media culture because of demand and the proliferation of channels is continuously looking for stories. There is no better source for emotionally driven, audience-centered, and attractive material than highly visible individuals. In an increasing number of cases, aspirants are capitalizing on the free media opportunities by using their own communication strategies. This is a development that simultaneously has created more information for the media and the marketplace than ever before, but has also redefined what information the public will receive as illustrated in the next challenge.

Challenge: To Integrate Technological Decisions with a High Visibility Strategy Technology will expand and provide more channels for visibility seekers. In the change process, audiences will shift channel allegiances far more often, leaving aspirants adjusting to reach them. The sheer force of technological innovation is radically changing the visibility universe and understanding the persuasive powers of different channels is essential in this marketplace.

Response: Evaluate Technology on the Basis of the Target Audience The market for new technology will inevitably grow, and visibility seekers in the future need to be aware of how to best use new media. In the past, there have been three inadequate responses to technology: avoid it completely, rely heavily on one channel, or subcontract it out with little control. None of these responses are sufficient as all brands will increasingly be forced to integrate technology into all aspects of their transformation development. The level of technology integration in brand distribution depends largely on the visibility seeker’s sector and the audience they’re trying to reach. For example, pop singer and actress Lindsay Lohan is in the highly competitive entertainment sector and targets a younger, MTV generation audience. She uses Web sites, cell phone ring tones, and teen-oriented movies such as Mean Girls to reach her market. In contrast, large medical

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practices are rapidly integrating electronic medical files to completely manage the practice and the patient on a more micro-level. In addition, many doctors are using Web sites, blogs, and other new media to reach new markets and improve communication with established ones. In the new technology marketplace, audiences have numerous channels to access and a major test for aspirants is to discover them and develop compelling material to deliver the brand.

Challenge: To Make the Right Sector Choice There is a clear risk/reward component of seeking high visibility. As a general rule, the more lucrative and higher profile sectors are the ones that at the entry level are the hardest to enter and pay the least. A development in the twenty-first century is the ignoring of those sector barriers and an overcrowding into fashionable, hot sectors such as media and law. There is something very commendable and glamorous about seeking a visible career in a competitive sector with high demand. However, if a career decision leads to a default outcome that was not anticipated and ends in anonymity, it was not a strategic choice. Seeking high visibility is not so much different from deciding what college to attend or who to marry. It takes a certain amount of understanding of the marketplace and an examination of the aspirant’s willingness to take a leap into what appears to be the unknown.

Response: Inventory your Talent Threshold and Be Realistic It is a phenomenon of the times that film schools all over the country are jammed with aspirants seeking to become the next Martin Scorsese. The chances of that occurring are incredibly remote. Still, the powerful forces of media and culture have literally driven aspirants who in prior decades would have pursued novel writing or who would have become local lawyers to strive for the very small chance that they will succeed in the difficult sector of filmmaking. Aspirants looking at this set of circumstances will obviously have to judge their talent threshold accurately and how many resources they can allocate to such a sector. For many of these aspirants, who have strong skills but can’t make it to the top of the pyramid, there are other avenues in which to seek high visibility. The decentralization of high visibility offers increasing opportunities to visual artists in many fields that are just beginning to develop. It may well be more strategic to cross over into those fields that utilize similar film-related skills on a smaller scale, with less competition, and more potential for visibility at the endpoint.

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Surveying the visibility potential of any given sector is inevitably going to be done at earlier levels. It was, for example, highly competitive in heart surgery in the past, but it has given way to other surgical specialties with the advent of new drug treatments. Some physicians have turned from traditional specialties to become experts in heretofore little known subspecialties such as weight reduction and holistic medicine. New stars are being developed in these fields at an increasing rate and these successful brands were strategic in anticipating new entry points and possible opportunities. In the new marketplace, there is probably nothing more critical than the aspirant knowing who they are. It may be a lot to ask from a fifteen year-old or for that matter anyone. However, given the costs, windows of opportunities, and multiple channel decisions, getting good advice on your potential and being realistic is essential to attaining high visibility.

CONCLUSION In a global communications world where products become commodities almost overnight, maximizing your personal and professional brand is often a key to a successful career. The concept of achieving visibility has become a far more industrialized and sophisticated practice than in the days of Henry Higgins. The principles of transformation are the vehicle for responding to changes in the marketplace, audience expectations, and cultural trends. Understanding your identity, translating it into a brand, and then moving it through the development processes of refinement, realization, and distribution are critical. Effective visibility seekers need to constantly scan their sector, be willing to change when trends shift, and be fully committed to their transformation.

NOTES 1 www.edbrill.com/ebrill/edbrill.nsf/dx/myjob.html, viewed on June 6, 2005. 2 Michael Krauss, “Highland Park blogger read around the world,” Chicago Sun-Times, June 6, 2005, p. 68. 3 Steven Lamm and Gerald Secor Couzens, The Hardness Factor: How to Achieve Your Best Health and Sexual Fitness at Any Age (New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 2005).

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4 Jane Ellen Wayne, The Leading Men of MGM (New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2004), p. 226. 5 ABC Primetime, June 7, 2005. 6 Bradford Wernle, “Designers become car stars,” Automotive News, June 21, 2004, p. 20.

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INDEX

Aaliyah, 308 Ability and obsolescence, 314–315 Academic connections, 333 Accessibility, market selection, 150–151 Accessories channel strategy, 121–122 Accidental celebrity, 81 Acting-based transformation, 236–237 Adaptation, lack of, 313–314 Advertising agencies, 52–53 Age of audience, 113–118 Agents, 48–50 Allen, Woody, 48 Allred, Gloria, 140 Alt, Carol, 331 Anderson, Pamela, 146, 226 Angel, Chris, 222 Ann-Margret, 124 Appearance sector, 19–20, 46, 55, 224–227 Aguilera, Christina, 199–201 Archetypes, 209–210 Armstrong, Lance, 60, 297 Armstrong, Michael, 317 Arnault, Bernard, 4 Art sector, 71, 169–170 Atkins, Robert, 319–320 Attitude and branding, 165–166, 203–204 Audience age, 113–118 analysis of, 112 bonding with, 118–122 brand-generation stage, 205–206, 208–210 charisma, 179–180, 185–187, 189 distribution channel, 257–258 gender, 112–113 high visibility and branding, 6, 8 market beachhead plan, 151, 152 market selection, 145, 150

visibility industry, 36, 38–43 (See also Consumers; specific topics) Audience Intensity Ladder, 94–104 Ax, Emanuel, 180 Aznar, Jose Maria, 92 Backers, market beachhead, 151, 152–155 Balanced exposure, 320–322 Barrino, Fantasia, 235 Barrymore, Drew, 339 Beachhead plan, market, 151–157 Beane, Billy, 154 The Beatles, 81 Beckham, David, 18–19, 190, 309 Behavior, 229–231, 233–234 Belichick, Bill, 153, 254 Ben & Jerry’s, 24–25 Benson, Ed, 206 Benton, D.A., 178–179 Bergsten, C. Fred, 300 Bernays, Edward, 295 Bernstein, Sid, 50 Big Twist, 186–187 Blair, Linda, 338 Blier, Rocky, 334 Blogs, 98–99 Bloom, Benjamin, 168 Bloom, David and Melanie, 299 Bo, Shim Hyung, 19 The Body Shop, 308–309 Bonding with audience, 118–122 Bonds, Barry, 99, 101 Booking agents, 51 Books, 329–330 Boorstin, Daniel, 12 Borissov, Boiko, 220 Bowie, David, 73, 252 Braddock, Jim, 124 Bradley, Bill, 210 359

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INDEX

Brands and branding, 3–14, 161–198 attitude, 165–166, 203–204 building, 6 charisma, 177–189 consumers, 111–112 discovery and breeding, 171–172 distribution of, 348–349 motivation, 166–170 person branding, 162–165 personal, 8–10, 22–23, 29, 68 premium extension, 24–25 Pygmalion principle, 10–11, 29–30, 138, 228 stages of, 203–237 talent, 172–177 as term, 17–18 transformation, 11, 199–247, 347–348 visibility industry, 46–63 well-knowness, 12–13 (See also Publicity) Branson, Richard, 3, 4, 5, 240–241 Break-out, media, 264–270, 271–272 Breeding, person branding, 171–172 Brill, Ed, 345–346, 352 Brinker, Bob, 20 Brown, Dan, 230, 252 Buckley, William F., 190 Buffett, Warren, 188–189, 351 Buscaglia, Leo, 152 Bush, George H.W., 227 Bush, George W., 7, 68, 187 Business services sector, 46, 56–57, 72, 146–147 Calatrava, Santiago, 20–21 Canseco, Jose, 330 Carter, Jimmy, 154, 190, 309 Casting directors, 51 Celebrity, 5, 16–17, 77, 81–88 Chan, Jackie, 107, 108, 238–239 Channels (See Distribution channels) Character development, 211–213 Charisma, 177–189 Charity fund-raising, 330–331 Charles, Prince of Wales, 300 Chastain, Brandi, 119 Child actors, obsolescence, 314 Chili Pepper, 202 Chopra, Deepak, 17, 137 Clifford, Max, 330–331 Clinton, Bill, 109, 122, 179 Clinton, Hillary Rodham, 54, 68, 183 Clooney, George, 315 Clothing, brand refinement, 226–227 Coaching sector, 46, 55–56, 219 Cochran, Johnnie, 39 Cohan, Peter, 161–162

Cohen, Ben, 24 Cohen, Liz, 28 Collectors, 95, 97 Combs, Sean “P. Diddy,” 91, 259, 328 Comebacks, 335–341 Communication sector, 46, 53–55, 151, 155 Competition, increasing, 5–7 Conflicting exposure, 319–320 Consumers, 91–133 Audience Intensity Ladder, 94–104 bonding with audience, 118–122, 126 brand diagnosis, 111–112 demographic analysis, 112–115 dinner party survey, 110–112 dramatic reality, 123–131 importance of, 91–92 psychographic analysis, 112, 115–118 Q score, 104–106 visibility power measurement, 104–109 (See also Audience) Cost effective marketing, 353–354 Counterprogramming charisma, 187–189 Counterstrategies, 318–322 Cramer, Jim, 226–227 Crowe, Russell, 124 Culkin, Macaulay, 314 Cultural sector, 60, 69, 71, 146–147 Daley, Richard J., 111 David, Craig, 85 Dean, Dizzy, 340 Defensive publicity, 292–294 DeGeneres, Ellen, 228–229 Degrees of brand transformation, 237–242 Delinking and obsolescence, 314 Demographics, 68, 112–115, 117–118, 146 Destroyer, ensnared, 101–102 Diana, Princess of Wales, 69, 101 Dinner party survey, 110–112 Discovery, person branding, 171–172 Distribution channels, 249–280 attributes, 258–260 audience bonding, 118–122, 126 brands, 348–349 case studies, 272–278 channel choice, 253–254 choice of, 253–254, 261–262 defined, 249 innovation and change, 255–258 management of, 119–120, 250–253, 261–264, 270–272 media utilization, 264–270 sequencing through, 254–255 strategies for, 272–278

INDEX

Downsizing markets, 334 Dramatic reality, 123–131 Drivers, market beachhead, 151–157 Duration, visibility hierarchy, 77, 82–88 Dyer, Richard, 220 Economic trends, 146, 257 Edwards, John, 80 Ego and obsolescence, 315–317 Eisenhower, Dwight D., 162 Eisner, Michael, 192 Elizabeth II, Queen of England, 300 Ellison, Larry, 22, 180 Eminem, 60, 200 Endorsements sector, 46, 53, 57–61, 332–333 Engineering charisma, 181–182 Ensnared audience, 95, 100–103 Entertainment sector, 46, 47, 70–71, 75, 103 Entourage, 95, 99–100 Environmental scanning, 145–147 Epstein, Ira, 260 Event channel strategy, 119–122 Exposure management, 60, 317–322 Face lifts, 19–20 Faculty branding, 170 Fame, 5 (See also specific topics) Farley, Chris, 191, 192 Filter management, 270–272 Finn, David, 72 Fiorina, Carly, 207 First of a kind, 128, 158–159 Flay, Bobby, 226 Fleiss, Heidi, 60 Flutie, Doug, 119 Focus groups, 217 Fogle, Jared, 156 Fonda, Jane, 274, 275 Foreign markets, delayed decline, 331–332 Formal performances, 250 Forrester Research, 52 Forstmann, Ted, 50 Foxx, Jamie, 338 Freedman, Lawrence Z., 102 Friedman, Milton, 37 Fromm, Erich, 203–204 Fund-raising, 330–331 Garfinkle, Dave, 122 Garten, Jeffrey, 317 Gatekeepers, talent, 176–177

361

Gates, Bill, 7, 33, 68 Gender and audience, 112–113 General Electric (GE), 86–87 Generation of brand, 203–213 Geragos, Mark, 179–180 Ghosn, Carlos, 281–282 Gibson, Mel, 27–28, 109 Gifford, Kathie Lee, 125–126 Gingrich, Newt, 313 Giuliani, Rudolph, 17, 109, 182–183 Glass, Stephen, 3–4, 5 Glazer, Malcolm, 264 Glenn, John, 210 Goffman, Erving, 220 Goldberg, Danny, 50 Gordy, Berry, 207 Gormley, Mike, 139 Graham, David, 73 Granholm, Jennifer, 249 Gray, James G., Jr., 226 Greeley, Andrew, 276–278 Greenfield, Jerry, 24 Grey, Brad, 51 Grisham, John, 81, 312 Groupies, 99 Growth rate, market selection, 150 Grubman, Lizzie, 336–337 Gupta, Sanjay, 75 Gupte, Subhashchandra, 78 Gurango, Joey, 39–40 Haji-Ioannou, Stelios, 240–241 Hamill, Mark, 214 Hanes, 106 Hanks, Tom, 126, 230 Hanover, Donna, 182–183 Harrow, Dale, 353 Hart, Gary, 221 Hasselhoff, David, 331 Hatch, Richard, 163–164 Hawn, Goldie, 330 Haynes, Laura, 241 Hefner, Christie, 239–240 Heizer, Michael, 231 Hemingway, Carole, 289 Hepburn, Katharine, 352 Hewlett, Bill, 85 Hickenlooper, John, 201–202 High visibility (See Visibility; specific topics) Hilfiger, Tommy, 91–92 Hilton, Jack, 219 Historical event channel strategy, 121–122 History and visibility duration, 84–88 Holstein, Kim and Scott, 272–274 Howard, John, 225

362

INDEX

Howard, Ron, 327 Hubbard, L. Ron, 22 Human motivators, 166–167 “I Married the President’s Daughter,” 120 Iacocca, Lee, 124 Icons, 5, 16, 17 Idea, Nobuyuki, 298 Idol, Billy, 312–313 Ihde, Don, 125 Image diffusion, 148 Image freeze, 148 Image management, 250–253 IMG, 49–50 Impact of channel, 348–349 Impression management, 250–251, 261 Impressive stranger, charisma, 184 Industry (See Visibility industry) Innovation, 255–258, 349 Insider audience, 95, 99 Institutions, 153–154 Intensity Ladder, Audience, 94–104 Interactive audience, 95, 97–99 International reach, 77, 78, 81–82 Internet (See Technology and Internet) Invisible audience, 94–96 Invisibles, visibility reach, 78 Ireland, Kathy, 54–55 Jackson, Peter, 312 Jackson, Samuel L., 59 Jaeger, Andrea, 235 Jaffee, Irving, 297 Jakes, Thomas Dexter, 204 Jameson, Jenna, 156, 275–276 Jobs, Steve, 294 Joel, Billy, 283–284 Johnson, Earvin “Magic,” 335 Jones, Janet, 193 Jordan, Michael, 106, 115, 119 Jung, Carl, 209 Kaas, Patricia, 104 Kaelin, Brian “Kato,” 267–270 Kain, Bob, 50 Kanin, Garson, 138 Kaufman, Ron, 152 Keaton, Diane, 17, 313 Kennedy, John F., 146 Kerry, John, 34, 94, 179, 187–188 Kevorkian, Jack, 120 Kid Cann, 122 Kind, Richard, 190–191 Kissinger, Henry, 228

Klapp, Orrin E., 208 Klein, Joel, 187 Klemfuss, Harry C., 296 Knowability, endorsements, 59–60 Korda, Michael, 195 Kordos, Dick, 178 Korn, Lester B., 169 Kournikova, Anna, 57 Kravitz, Lenny, 58 Kuehn, Clyde, 232 Kurtis, Bill, 334 Kuttner, Robert, 71 La Lanne, Jack, 336 LaBelle, Patti, 85 Lackey, Nick, 114 Lamm, Steven, 345–346, 351 Larkin, Alice, 28 Lecture circuit, 334 Lee, Ang, 238–239 Legal sector, 46, 56–57, 72, 146–147 Legends, 85–88 Lehane, Chris, 93 Lemont, Lee, 180 Leno, Jay, 258 Lessig, Lawrence, 73 Letterman, David, 301, 337 Lewis, Jerry, 330 Licensing sector, 46, 53, 57–61, 332–333 Liddy, G. Gordon, 338 Lightning connection, 235 Likeability, endorsements, 59–60 Local reach, 77, 78, 79–80 Lohan, Lindsay, 354 Longevity, 310 Lopez, Jennifer, 3, 4–5, 199, 209, 274, 317, 340 Luck, 7–8, 9, 192–195 Lundgren, Terry, 7 Lynch, Jessica, 312 MacArthur, Douglas, 121 MacDonald, Patrick, 107 Madonna, 126, 301 Managed impressions, 250–251, 261 Mantle, Mickey, 108–109 Market, 145–157 analysis of, 145 beachhead plan, 151–157 brand-generation stage, 205–210 defined, 147 downsizing, 334 segmentation of, 145, 147–149, 350–351, 354–355 selection of, 145, 150–151

INDEX

Marketing strategies, 137–160 audience bonds, 118–122 brand-generation stage, 206–208 fulfillment approach, 143, 144 market beachhead plan, 151–157 marketing style, 143–145 memory lock, 157–159 person-branded products, 140–144, 251–252, 263–264 steps in marketing process, 145–149 transformation, 138–143 universal success, 142–143 visibility launch, 138–139 Marshall, Garry, 193 Mass marketing, 148, 328–329 Mastering charisma, 180–181 Material, brand refinement, 231–233 McCain, John, 319, 322 McCormack, Mark, 49–50 McFarlane, Todd, 216–217 McGraw, Phil, 195–196 McLain, Denny, 341 McNealy, Scott, 231 Measurement, consumer power, 104–109 Media break-out, 264–272 channel strategy, 120–121, 264–270 market beachhead plan, 151, 155 motivators, 168 plastic surgery transformation, 19–20 (See also Publicity) Memory lock, 157–159 Mentions, 251 Mentoring, 127, 152–153, 234–235 Mizrahi, Isaac, 338 Moby, 98 Moffett, Bill, 220 Moglia, Joe, 221 Mondale, Walter, 210 Money (See Premium) Monroe, Marilyn, 114, 209 Moon, Sun Myung, 22 Moore, Michael, 93–94 Moore, Sonia, 229 Morgendorffer, Daria, 212–213, 232 Morrison, Mark, 234 Motivation, 166–170 Movement, physical, 228–229 Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus, 85 Muckraker, ensnared, 101 Muckrakers, 101–102 Murjani, Mohan, 91 Names brand refinement, 221–224 endorsements, 57–61, 116–117

363

memory lock, 158 premium, 23–24 shifting sectors, 328 National reach, 77, 78, 81 Newman, Paul, 259 News, and publicity, 284–285 Nixon, Richard, 146, 259 Noble, Christina, 156 Non-tool endorsements, 57 Nonconsumers, 95 North, Oliver, 335 Obama, Barack, 156 Obsessed, ensnared, 101 O’Connor, John, 124 O’Connor, Sinead, 338 Ohno, Apolo Anton, 297 Okungbowa, Tony, 228–229 O’Leary, Michael, 80 One-generation visibility, 84–85 One-week visibility, 83–84 One-year visibility, 84 Osbourne, Kelly, 200 Osbourne, Ozzy, 318 Osmond, Donny, 213–214 Ovitz, Michael, 47 Pacino, Al, 282 Packard, Dave, 85 Paid attendance, visibility power, 104 Palmer, Arnold, 59–60 Paquin, Anna, 216 Parker Bowles, Camilla, 300 Patrick, Danica, 122 Patrons, 152–153 Pedro, Maria, 331 Performance channel strategy, 119–120, 261–264 declines, and obsolescence, 315 formal, 250 management of, 119–120, 261–264 memory lock, 158 Perot, Ross, 265–266 Perry, William “Refrigerator,” 216 Person-branded products, 140–144, 251–252, 263–264 Personal branding, 8–10, 22–23, 29, 68 Personal managers, 50–51 Personal visibility, 16–18 Phish, 318 Pitt, Brad, 352 Piven, Jeremy, 48 Plastercaster, Cynthia, 99 Plastic surgery, 19–20 Political trends, 146–147 Polling research, visibility power, 106

364

INDEX

Porter, Michael E., 17, 99, 153 Power measurement, 104–109 PR (public relations), 26–30, 52, 295–296 Prahalad, C.K., 170 Premium, 15–32 benefits of, 21 earnings, 109, 168–170 establishment of, 25–26 PR cycle and transformation, 26–30 reasons for, 18–25 Presley, Elvis, 7, 330 Presold charisma, 184–185 Press agents, 51–52 Prioritize goals, 352–353 Private vs. public self, 351–353 Professional branding, 8–10, 22–23, 29, 68 Professional sector, 73, 74–75 Promoters, 51 Promotion, visibility duration, 85 Pseudonyms, 221–224 Psychographic analysis, 112, 115–118 Public relations (PR), 26–30, 52, 295–296 Public vs. private self, 351–353 Publicity, 281–306 benefits, 290–296 defined, 283–284 emerging sectors, 296–303 necessity of, 284–285 PR, 26–30, 52, 295–296 relationships and responsibility, 286–290 voicing, 303–304 (See also specific topics) Publicity sector, 46, 51–53 Puck, Wolfgang, 73–74 Pujols, Albert, 108 Purchasing power, market selection, 150 Pure selling marketing approach, 143–144 Pygmalion principle, 10–11, 29–30, 138, 228 Pyramid of visibility reach, 77–78 Quattrone, Frank, 92 Radcliffe, Paula, 337 Ramaswamy, Venkatram, 170 Rating services, visibility power, 106 Reach, 77–82 Reagan, Ronald, 102, 140, 141, 214, 337 Reality, dramatic, 123–131 Reality TV, 155, 163–164 Realization of brand, 233–237 Reeves, Rosser, 162

Refinement of brand, 219–233 Regeneration of brand, 213–214 Regional distribution channel, 263 Regional reach, 77, 78, 80 Religious sector, 27–28, 71, 103 Representation sector, 46, 47–51 Resources, brand-generation stage, 208 Rewards of visibility, 346–347 Reynolds, Glenn, 98 Richards, Michael, 309 Roddick, Andy, 298–299 Roddick, Anita, 307–308 Rodriguez, Alex, 81, 99 “Room-in-the-channel” factor, 119 Rosenfield, Stan, 286 Rove, Karl, 74 Rowling, J.K., 175–176 Rubenstein, Howard, 283 Ruman, Marilyn, 235 Salieri, Antonio, 84–85 Sanders, Clinton, 185–186 Sandler, Adam, 191–192 Santana, Carlos, 338 Sarandon, Susan, 123 Saunders, Robin, 25 Sawyer, Diane, 27, 352 Sayles, John, 37 Scandal, 316 Schnabel, Julian, 169–170 Schragis, Steven, 290 Schuller, Robert, 22–23, 126–128 Schultz, Howard, 330 Schwarzenegger, Arnold, 140–141, 228, 251 Science sector, 72–73, 74 Scott, Lee, 9 Sectors, 67–89 about, 6, 8 appearance, 19–20, 46, 55, 224–227 art, 71, 169–170 business services, 46, 56–57, 72, 146–147 choice of, 355–356 coaching, 46, 55–56, 219 communication, 46, 53–55, 151, 155 cultural, 60, 69, 71, 146–147 emerging, 296–303 endorsements, 46, 53, 57–61, 332–333 entertainment, 46, 47, 70–71, 75, 103 image-making activity, 74–77 legal services, 46, 56–57, 72, 146–147 licensing, 46, 53, 57–61, 332–333 motivation, 169–170 premiums, 18–19 professional, 73, 74–75 publicity, 46, 51–53

INDEX

reach, 77–82 religious, 27–28, 71, 103 representation, 46, 47–51 routes to visibility, 68–74 science sector, 72–73, 74 shifting, 326–329 sports, 103 visibility hierarchy, 77–82 visibility industry, 46–63 Seekers, 95, 96 Segmentation of market, 145, 147–149, 350–351, 354–355 Selection of market, 145, 150–151 Selena, 340 Self-destruction, 316 Sequencing, market beachhead, 155–157 Sexson, Richie, 108 Shandwick, Weber, 52 Sharapova, Maria, 206, 346 Shatner, William, 60 Shaw, George Bernard, 10–11 Shelby, Carroll, 329 Sherwood, Andrew, 207 Shiller, Robert J., 70 Shriftman, Lara, 28 Shyamalan, M. Night, 222 Signs, brand refinement, 220–221 Simon, William E., 201 Simpson, Jessica, 114 Simpson, O.J., 268 Siskind, Gregory, 281 Situational motivators, 167–168 Situational transformation, 235–236 Size of market, 150 Smith, Austin, 120–121 Snyder, Marvin, 57 Spears, Britney, 199–200 Special event channel strategy, 119–120 Spielberg, Steven, 21, 192 Sports sector, 103 Springsteen, Bruce, 302–303 Stallings, Penny, 209, 225 Stanislavski, Konstantin, 229 Star appeal, 108–109, 125 Stars, 5, 16, 17 Stein, Ben, 143 Stein, Jules, 47 Steinbrenner, George, 283 Stewart, Jon, 190 Stewart, Martha, 218–219 Sting, 85 Stone, Sharon, 302 Storylines, 128–131 Stringer, Howard, 298 Submarket, defined, 147 Summers, Lawrence H., 167 Superstars, 16 Sustained visibility, 307–344

365

counterstrategies, 318–322 decline, 313–316, 329–341 key rules, 323–326 longevity, 310 management of, 60, 317–322, 349–350 rise and fall, 308–310 shifting sectors, 326–329 visibility life cycles, 311–313 Symbols, brand refinement, 220–221 Talent, 172–177 Talent threshold principle, 173–175, 347 Tan, Richard, 152 Targeting, market, 145, 147–149, 350–351, 354–355 Tateel, Rita, 56 Technology and Internet blogs, 98–99 brand distribution, 252 as distribution channel, 256–257 environmental scanning, 146–147 integration, 354–355 web sites, 107–108 Tenzer, Judy, 298–299 Testing of brand, 215–219 Theron, Charlize, 123 Thomas, Dave, 188 Thompson, Robert “Bob,” 215 Timing, 82–88, 189–192, 262–263 Titus, Hattie, 206 Tools-of-the-trade endorsements, 57 Townshend, Pete, 251–252 Transformation brands, 11, 199–247, 347–348 as central concept, xi, xiii charisma, 182–189 image-making activity, 74–77 marketing strategies, 138–143 plastic surgery, 19–20 premium, 26–30 Pygmalion principle, 10–11, 29–30, 138, 228 talent, 175–176 (See also specific topics) Travolta, John, 92, 335 Tripp, Linda, 122 Trump, Donald, 4, 23–24, 218 Turner, Ted, 125 Typecasting, 208–210 Tyson, Mike, 142 Underexposure, 318 Valenti, Irene, 227 Valentino, Rudolph, 296

366

INDEX

Van Patten family, 193 Ventura, Jesse, 140, 227 Venues, 51, 263, 286, 315 Vinik, Jeff, 320 Vinton, Bobby, 111–112 Visibility benefits, 7 challenges of, 350–356 as commodity, 18–25 connector for, 100 importance of, 5–10 objections, 7 power of, 12–13 principles of, 346–350 seeking, 17 urgency, 13 Visibility industry, 33–65 defined, 34–35 stages of, 35, 36–46 structure of, 46–63 Voice, brand refinement, 227–228 Voicing publicity, 303–304 Walton, Sam, 188 Warhol, Andy, 82, 83, 262

Warren, Neil Clark, 204 Warren, Rick, 225 Wasserman, Lew, 47 Watchers, 95, 96 Web sites (See Technology and Internet) Weber, Max, 177 Welch, Jack, 86–87, 109 Well-knowness, 12–13 Wells, Bill, 107–108 Wetlaufer, Suzy, 86–87 Whitmont, Edward, 209 Williams, Venus and Serena, 57–58 Wilmut, Ian, 120 Winfrey, Oprah, 4, 15–16, 109, 195–196 Woods, Tiger, 68, 109, 117 Yang, Marjorie, 154 Yeoh, Francis, 34–35 Zander, Ed, 72 Zanuck, Lili Fini, 194 Zhang Yimou, 238 Zhang Ziyi, 238

A BOUT

THE

AUTHORS

Irving Rein is a professor of communication studies at Northwestern University. He is an internationally known expert on public communication and popular culture and a consultant to highly visible individuals and corporations. Philip Kotler is the S.C. Johnson & Son Distinguished Professor of International Marketing at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. He is one of the world’s foremost marketing experts and the author of Marketing Management, the most widely used marketing book in graduate business schools worldwide. Michael Hamlin is the managing director of TeamAsia, a strategic marketing communications consulting firm. He is an international corporate and personal brand consultant and is based in Asia. Martin Stoller was a clinical professor of organizational behavior at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. He consulted internationally with corporations on persuasion and visibility issues.

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