Relevance: Making Stuff That Matters

radio’s abuse as a cheap vessel for ads instead of a priceless channel for meaningful conversation is emblematic of much of what’s wrong with marketing today.

Relevant brands seek to help people live happier lives, but they do so by addressing everyday issues, not by pandering to fashionable aspirations.

high style isn’t necessarily the same thing as high quality. It can’t seem to remember that luxury is not defined by price. Luxury is defined by scarcity. Plenty of consumers are plenty happy just to be treated well and offered a good value. The experience may not be memorable for anything other than the elegance of its utility. These days that kin

Advertising is a tax for having an unremarkable product. —ROBERT STEPHENS

Loyalty is about understanding what the brand should mean and then delivering that at every opportunity.

Idol Conversations Ever think about why American Idol became so popular? I have, and I suspect that it is because the program’s very premise was that the viewers controlled the story line—more or less, that is. In reality, American Idol won by merely creating the illusion of consumer empowerment. American Idol ’s first dirty little secret was that

It’s like Ruth Ann Manners (my mother) once told me, “Creativity is about changing someone else’s idea into your own.” Isn’t that what we marketers try to do each and every day? Why not invite our customers to join in on the fun? • Relevant brands let their best customers in on the creativity by inviting a conversation.

him to wear his hair in a ponytail, that’s what he did. If they sent him five dozen roses and asked him to wear one on the show, he did that, too. I asked Constantine about his strategy: I tried to pick up on what the fans were interested in and how they were viewing me. My brother and I would liaise every day. He’d be surfing the ’Net and getting