Professional sports is like making and selling cars. There are brands, products, manufacturers, distributors, facilitators, customers, etc. In both sports and autos there is also value in brand equity, thus longevity, icons, and communities.

Brands - Evasive entities.

Brands can be cultivated through time or they can be explosive by way of a stigma. They can die out slowly, be rekindled, or disappear into thin air at the blink of an eye.

The brand of Jose Canseco seems to dangle in time like a squirming bug on fly paper despite desperate attempts to wash out its own legacy with revenge, spite, vindication, and self-justification.

Years after his futile fall from baseball greatness due to addictive steroid use in Major League Baseball, Jose Canseco sought to vindicate himself by exposing others of their shared crime with steroid use. A clear attempt for self-vindication, Congress fell right in to the trap of doing the “just” thing by bringing the accusations to public light, and at the expense of others such as Mark McGwire, Raphael Palmiero, and Sammy Sosa. It’s just devils bickering at devils. Real law would beat Canseco in the knees with a billy club, burn his books, and chase him out of town. But not Congress.

Three years later, Canseco now expresses his regrets for writing the book and exposing his ‘friends’.

In Shakespeare’s writings the protagonist is often a tragic character, which I respect. But Canseco is not tragic, he is pathetic. He cheated, betrayed his friends, and now he professes his regret. It’s pathetic because he can’t undo the damage already instigated and he doesn’t seem to realize it, nor his own habitual pathetic behavior. Or maybe he does, I don’t know.

Despite all this, sports columnists are writing about it and bloggers are blogging about it, thus keeping the Canseco brand alive. I don’t know who follows Canseco but Major League Baseball is not going down because of this. Not even the strike of ‘94 killed baseball.

Hands down to T. Boone Pickens.

Earlier in the day Tuesday I received an email from PickensPlan with the subject, “What you do right now matters to the entire Army”. It was an invite to their e-Rally after the election tonight. The email prompted me to RSVP for the rally.

Three days ago I received a similar email from PickensPlan with the subject, “3 days until the e-Rally with T. Boone!”. It was the initial invite to their e-Rally after the election Tuesday. The email prompted me to RSVP for the rally.

Tonight after the McCain/Obama town hall debate, the first commercial run was T. Boone Pickes himself inviting viewers to come discuss.

The 2 emails were complete with information and a call to action, but not overwhelming. They were a god blend of text, imagery, and video. The emails rallied 40,000 RSVPs prior to the debate. Curious to know how many attended and were possibly added.

There are some key practices being applied here that we want to see from car dealers and believe can be accomplished.

Automobiles can be vital to peoples’ interests and identities. Dealerships that can reflect this in their sales process gain an edge on the competition. Some examples include…

# Build a cause and engage the audience
A cause for a dealer can be something local, ideally something popular, entertaining, and/or beneficiary to the community. For instance, we are working with an auto group and their sponsorship in auto racing.

# Plan and coordinate events that involve attendee input
Planning and coordinating events can range from e-rallies as Pickens did to webinars and on-site events from training, education, to entertainment.

# Develop an effective capture method strategy that uses multiple media types to engage, such as TV and email.
Using multiple media types such as television and email to engage your audience and ensure their participation can be an effective way to capture peoples’ attention and sometimes their imagination.

Of course much of this is easier said than done, but Pickens really has its act together with utilizing these tools constructively.

Pink Floyd pianist/keyboardist Richard Wright passed away today. Apparently he had a short bout with cancer.

Richard Wright was one of the original founding four members of the Pink Floyd in 1965 and aside from a brief period as only a “session” musician when Roger Waters essentially ousted him, Wright has been with Pink Floyd through its entirety from Piper at the Gates of Dawn to the Division Bell.

The Pink Floyd brand is an awesome example of residual equity where the investments you made long ago continue to pay off. Not just monetarily but in all fashions. People know Richard Wright. Maybe not by first name but certainly by association with one of the world’s more popular rock bands of all time. Wright exemplifies the power of a lasting brand and the character necessary to succeed.

When Floyd originally set out to play music, they were categorized as a blues band but with some psychedelic flavor. But it was Floyd’s breakaway from the Blues resemblance that ultimately helped push the envelope of Pop Rock at the time and set themselves apart from the British Invasion of which several other bands of longevity such as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones were formed.

So shouts out to Richard Wright, his family, and remaining members of the Pink Floyd. Your influence on Art, Pop Music, Rock-n-Roll, and society all together is one of extraordinary force. Wright’s passing should be one of celebration and acknowledgment for a true contribution.

Peace be with you, Richard. You were Pink Floyd as much as Pink Floyd was you.

More details are being revealed on ESPN.com regarding the $20 Million marketing package supposedly dangled before Brett Favre by the Green Bay Packers. Recall that I originally wrote on this a couple weeks ago, commenting on how strong your brand must be to be offered $20M for not competing against your former employer.

Part of this “marketing” package was that Favre would have his own blog on the Packers website. I don’t know if that means on Packers.com, the NFL-provided Packers site, or if the Packers have another site. I checked the Packers.com site and there is a sub-menu for “Blogs” under the “News” tab, but it’s a pretty limited blog. Entries are up to date but definitely no sizzle and from what I see you can not comment on it. Almost seems more like a “Latest News” bit.

I am curious to know what the Packers have in mind for a Brett Favre blog. How involved would he be? What would it set out to accomplish? Is there much risk in such a blog tarnishing the legendary reputation of Favre? I find such scenarios fascinating because they push the envelope a bit. Plus the idea of a mega-corporation like this including a blog in such a package says a lot for the general value of blogging.

Another consideration here which I think speaks highly of Favre is that he has now taken a job with the Jets. I respect Favre in that playing football truly is his motivation. He does not seem particularly concerned with his legendary status, the Packers organization, or a $20M Blog Marketing package. That says a lot about Favre and is probably a (good) omen to his destiny. Favre is driven my the spirit of playing football and that should take him farther along than any of these other dangling lights and distractions.

You know you have a good Personal Brand when people want to pay you to stop competing. How would you feel if someone wanted to pay you $20M to stop doing what you love? Well, reportedly, that is what the Green Bay Packers have considered putting in the cards to keep Brett Favre off the field.

Now while Favre is a living legend quarterback, I can understand why the Packers are not interested. They have a future to consider. Favre on the other hand does not, at least not in the NFL. He is done. But is it worth $20M to keep him from competing against you? Seems to be a lot of stock put in to a single human being for a team sport.

And what does Favre have to consider? Sure he could come back for another season or two but the chances of winning a Super Bowl are pretty slim. So what is Favre in it for? It can’t be for the money, otherwise he would take the $20M. Does Favre have some  self-indulgent disease that requires he be in the limelight all the time? His move here is pretty selfish if you think about it. He isn’t thinking about the distraction he is causing the Packers’ organization here. Frankly, he is putting his own reputation on the line.

The Packers are doing what is in their best interest, as they should, but I don’t think offering to pay $20M to keep him from competing is the right way to achieve this. If Favre wants to play and you don’t want him then let him go do his thing and muck up some other organization. Offering money to keep him out sets the wrong precedent. The last thing we need are super star athletes thinking if they retire and then threaten to come back and compete they can collect. That just isn’t right.

So while Favre is putting his legendary reputation in jeopardy, Green Bay is squirming to have their cake and eat it too. It’s almost like divorce.

So Oliver Stone is releasing another flick, this one titled, “W.” Guess what it’s about…

Well, apparently, in Stone’s words, the film asks: “How did Bush go from being an alcoholic bum to the most powerful figure in the world?”

Is this really the best question to be asking, let alone pouring millions of dollars into to make a profit? Stone appears to more interested in his own narcissist conspiracy theories than a true empirical study. Based on reviews and feedback I have seen, Stone may even be putting his own reputation on the line with this flop.

But who knows, maybe the American people will eat it up. No doubt the rest of the world will. I do question the impact this will have on Stone’s legacy. Oliver Stone makes good movies and is certainly a credible name brand, but he is not flawless and this W. movie could very well be a sign of the times for Mister Stone.

Here is the trailer. You decide how you think this will affect the Stone brand.

We all have our problems and our vices. But we still have a role in life. You don’t make it to the White House by being a drunken bum, let alone by being an arrogant dumb ass. There is an element of Providence in that life achievement and to toss it out there as some sort of extreme and mistaken good fortune demonstrates an inability to comprehend, or at least an element of denial for acknowledging a Supernatural aspect in life.

This is bad branding for Stone. I think he will be the fool with this product.

A couple weeks ago there was an ad on television of a Texas gentleman by the name of T. Boone Pickens. It was a good ad on the subject of Alternative Energy Sources. It started off with sound bits and slow-moving imagery of presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama. The advertisement alternated between the two making statements about the United States’ energy situation. Then Pickens himself chimed in.

Pickens is a senior Texas oil man apparently. As Senator Joe Lieberman has stated,

Pickens is somebody who’s in the oil business. He arrived in time to tell us we can’t drill our way out of this problem. He’s for using oil and gas as a bridge to what he, quite directly, says is the “non-hydrocarbon energy future.” He is ahead of us in Congress, so I thought his testimony was educational and, I hope, motivational.

In the ad, Pickens stated that America needs more than talk about our present energy situation and Alternative Energy Sources. We need action. But not just any action. A Plan of Action. And that is exactly what Mr. Pickens has…a plan and it is called PickensPlan.

PickensPlan is no joke. It is a “less than 10-year” plan to save America more than $300 billion dollars a year by shifting our exiting energy usage into new areas and replacing it with alternative energy, primarily Wind Power. I won’t bother re-iterating it here because you can visit the official site and watch a 6-minute video about it, or you can watch it right here, right now.

Now this leads to the other reason I am psyched about PickensPlan for Alternative Energy Sources. Whoever is behind PickensPlan from the Online Marketing standpoint is friggin on his game. PickensPlan starts its Alternative Energy Sources message with its website on the social network Ning. It has a straight-forward video that puts everything in perspective right there on the home page. It is clear and simple. PickensPlan also has a blog where they are reporting on their progress daily. If you look at the bottom of their blog, or in their email campaigns you also see links to places like their MySpace page, their Facebook profile, their Twitter, their LinkedIn page, their YouTube, etc.

Pickens has it. They get it. I don’t know how much they are investing into this and how many people or organizations are involved but whatever they are doing is working and working quickly. In just their first 2 weeks of rolling out, more than 150,000 people have joined the cause and T. Boone himself is hitting the big time networks, Washington, and the Web with his TRUE plan to save America with Alternative Energy Sources.

There is a subtlety in this AT&T ad with Bill Kurtis “finding the Internet” on a deserted island with an Amelia Earhadt plane replica in the back drop. See if you can identify it.

Notice when he shows his laptop screen that you see Microsoft Outlook. Every time I see the commercial on TV I chuckle because while I get the point in showing the screen, there is nothing on the screen to indicate an Internet connection.

Apparently, someone picked up on that because the other night when that add came on and Bill showed the screen, the visual was different and appeared to be downloading email messages. I noticed this of course and was quite humored by the fact that they enhanced the ad.

One of my favorite brands today is the Bill O’Reilly brand. This guy sets new precedents in numerous areas:

1. What it means to be a True American
2. Journalistic Integrity
3. Knows how to keep it real
4. Personal Branding
5. Corporate Loyalty
6. Has fun

His show, The O’Reilly Factor, explores important topics empirically with balance and fairness.  He holds crooks accountable and calls spinners out on their own game, backing himself up with facts. This is what sets O’Reilly apart from his counterparts.

His website is rich with quality information, free for the curious and only $5/mo for member access, revenue he reportedly generates for charitable purposes. He also effectively brands ancillary artifacts such as t-shirts, coffee mugs, hats, jackets, etc. Revenue again for charitable contributions.

Bill is passionate. He is personal. He is personable. He is marketable. He is profitable. All things which are marks of a good Brand.

While O’Reilly is a controversial figure to some, that controversy breeds his success. The realistic and understanding mind must have a sincere appreciation for what he does. I think O’Reilly has done more for this nation of United States then most Americans in history. At the risk of putting O’Reilly on a pedestal, O’Reilly is a legend of his own time. A true Patriot.

Thank you Bill.

With all the talk of online automotive marketing these days, it’s easy to get the impression that when you communicate with your customers online, you’re doing so in a vacuum. Online customers become a crowd full of strangers without faces or names or personalities. They don’t seem like the same real live human beings that come into your dealership and buy vehicles.

Consistency is arguably the most important aspect of branding, and that doesn’t just apply to your website. Yes, you want every page on your site to give the same impression. But you also want to give the same impression on the website as you do in the dealership, in your emails, and in any offline media advertising you purchase. Here are some things to think about.

Does your website scream “cheap”? if a customer comes to your website, is the first thing they see a huge flashing banner telling them about a sale or a discount? There’s nothing inherently wrong with this, but is that the same impression they’ll get when they come into the dealership? If they go to the website and see huge yellow flashing discount signs and show up at the dealership and find somber salespeople in suits, you’re not giving a consistent message and you’re bound to make people uncomfortable.

On the other hand, is your site too serious? If you run a dealership that focuses on great pricing and your website gives no such impression, you could be leaving money on the table by turning off your ideal customers when they show up at your website.

Do your emails give the same impression as your website and your dealership? Emails are a great way to communicate your brand. Give your outbound emails an audit. Do your signatures promote the same values that your site promotes? Would somebody receiving your email be surprised when they walk in the door?

One of the best ways to get answers to these questions is to find someone impartial and objective to give your impressions about your different media types. Ask them what they think — you might just be surprised by their answers.