Band, I mean Brand Recognition...

I was driving to work this morning, the deep blue sky lifting my spirits as the road rolled under my wheels. It was the perfect day for listening to some good music. So, I plugged in my iPod and started listening to a playlist made up of two of my newest albums. I had a great time, then I started thinking about how I found out about these bands.

Pinback and Rilo Kiley were discovered on a trip back from Battle Creek Michigan. We often drive to Battle Creek, since flying would take almost as long and driving gives us more control of our schedule. So, after we solved the puzzle of the missing iPod interface in our rental car, Red plugged in her iPod and played the roll of DJ as we rolled through the barren land between Van Wert and Anna, Ohio. Red kept saying, "Oh, you'll love this" and I did. It's really no surprise. Red is one of my NetFlix friends and we we both follow each other's del.icio.us feeds. The truth is, we are connected at the net.

Later that night I get a text message from Red with a list of the bands I liked most. Ten minutes later, I've bought their latest albums through my favorite online store and I'm rocking to music that is far more hip than I am.

Imagine how quickly this all happened. We at WonderGroup talk about the Actualized Brand Model. That is moving from a brand being recognized to understanding the brand's relevance to realizing some psychological reward to having an ongoing relationship with the brand. All of this happened in just a few hours on this trip. Red introducted me to a brand (the bands), I liked them, I felt good that I was listening to "new" music and I bought the albums and I'm telling everyone about it.

I tell this story to say this; Red was able to predict my response to a particular band because she thoroughly knows my taste. She's aware of how I have rated hundreds of movies and she knows what sites on the web have connected with me.

If you think about a band as a brand you've got to admit, the first step in developing a fully actualized brand has changed drastically. I did not need a critic telling me what music was good. I did not need to wait for a radio station to spin a disk. I had an advocate, that understood me, based on online activity, recommending something I would like.

As we move though Web 2.0 into Web 3.0 we as marketers must aggressively look for opportunities to deliver content based what the consumer's online actions have told us they like. In other words the brilliance of Netflix, StumbleUpon, Digg and del.icio.us should be applied where ever possible.