Emotional Branding: A Brief History
by Travis Scott Luther - President, Luther Media
http://www.luthermedia.com

Emotional branding is defined in a 2006 American Marketing Association Journal of Marketing as “a consumer centric, relational and story-driven approach to forging deep and enduring affective bonds between consumers and brands (50)”. In 1943, after leaving Roosevelt’s Farm Security Administration, Roy Stryker took a job with Standard oil. His assignment was to document the benefits of oil on everyday life in the United States. But Stryker wasn’t just merely documenting everyday life with the over 100,000 photographic imagines, Stryker wanted to take the kind of photos that, from what he said, “can comprehend what a truck driver, or a farmer, or a driller or a housewife thinks and feels and translate those thoughts and feelings into pictures that can be similarly comprehended by anyone” (The Photographers). From 1943 to 1950, Stryker enlisted the skills of the best photographers of the time. Stryker made sure they were well-informed about their assigned area, its people, economy and even its politics. He often gave his photographers books to read and would encourage them to look at assignments in new and different ways. Stryker felt that an educated, sensitive photographer would produce images that "would mirror both his understanding and his compassion." Through Roy Stryker, Standard Oil wasn’t just collecting a socio-geographic portrait of the time; they were in fact building a consumer-centric, relational, and story-driven approach to forging deep and enduring affective bonds between consumers and their brand. Click here to read the rest of the article....

The Importance Of Those “Little Governments of Neighborhoods”

by Travis Scott Luther - President, Luther Media http://www.luthermedia.com

Non-profits are the new frontier in self-governance and accountability for citizens of a country where the government has whittled away at the country’s social welfare and consumer protection programs.

In his 1990 preface to Strong Democracy, Barber (1984) was already saying about the 80’s that “a decade defined by greed, narcissism, and hostility to big government has produced an interest in community service and an affection for the little government of neighborhoods and towns” (pg. xxiii).

The United States government has privatized most industries in this country. This privatization has taken over social welfare programs such as health care, prison systems, and control over our countries natural resources. This corporate take over has made access to these programs and resources available to only those who can afford them instead of access being available to those who need them. Government officials have bent to pressure lobbied against them by the big businesses that now supports their campaigns. Government has removed most federal restrictions on the cost of access to these resources. Government has also reduced funding and the authority of federal safety agencies such as OSHA, the FDA, and the EPA. This has allowed dangerous drugs to be rushed to market, VIOXX for example, and corporations to continue to do business that pollutes our environment.

Citizen action groups are those “little governments of neighborhoods” Barber was speaking of when he wrote Strong Democracy. They are using their tax exempt status of a 501 (c) (3) tax shelter to set up shop and educate consumers about what they are facing today and may face in the future. Non-profits are working in the legislature to use the power of the vote over the power of the dollar to motivate law makers to act responsible. Non-profits are forming large membership rolls of supporters and are the collective voice of area voters. Non-profits can organize and control what big business still cannot buy; a citizen’s vote. As non-profits’ voices become stronger, they can shift more power from money and big business to citizenry and votes. This is because effective non-profits are getting out the vote and no politician can stay in power long without the support of their voting constituents. Non-profits are smart to organize those constituents and threaten irresponsible law makers with a drought on votes and support.

Thirteen years after Barber said coming was an accelerated interest in community service, he wrote in his 2003 preface that “the informal strong democratic forces that are both responsible for Rights Watch, Transparency International, Attac, and MoveOn, suggest that global governance is more likely to emerge in time from the work of citizens and their civic organizations rather than from governments or international agencies” (pg. xviii). Barber seemed to be on to something 13 years ago when he predicted the boom in non-profits that now sees 2.5 billion dollars a year donated from private citizens to Colorado non-profits alone. Over the last 10 years non-profits have proved themselves a necessity for consumer protection in the United States. I would predict that Barbers 2013 preface will see them populating, protecting, and educating the entire world.