Timothy Post.com

The quote in the title of this blog post comes from Mike Oliver who posted a blog entry “Brands and Identity” in response to one by Charlie O’Donnell.

Charlie O’Donnell, formerly of Union Square Ventures (think Fred Wilson) and now working at Oddcast, wrote the blog post which explores the idea that brands are one of the most effective means of expressing our identities publicly. Charlie wrote,

“But none of the terms out there are quite as direct as I’d like… so I’ve come up with something that says exactly what I feel this is… MeVertising. Its a blurring between my own identity, brand association, ad consumption, expression, etc.

It’s buying the Nike t-shirt. In that scenario, who is advertising what? Is Nike advertising on me, literally? Am I advertising that I subscribe to the Nike lifestyle, whatever that is? Am I advertising that I am a sophisticated t-shirt buyer? And I don’t even want to go into what that does to the economics of the whole thing… So, over the course of the future of this blog, I will be doing a lot of MeVertising posting, tagging things MeVertising in del.icio.us and Technorati. Feel free to do the same and join me in the exploration.”

In response, Mike Oliver wrote,

“But he (Charlie O’Donnell) is on to something here. Brands have lost control. The dynamic has shifted. Brands once managed the terms of their relationships with consumers. You were cool because you wore Guess Jeans (do they still make those?). But that model is quickly being tossed out the window. A brand is now only as influential as its consumers. In that sense, brands are extremely vulnerable. You are no longer what you wear. But what you wear (the brand) is increasingly becoming you.”

If indeed, the relationship between brands and their customers has become inverted, then that would make web badges that much valuable to those brand companies. Think about advertising in its traditional form. Advertising tried to define and create brand identity. However, if what Charlie and Mike are saying is true- namely, that brands are defined more by who uses them than by what an advertising agency wants us to believe about them, then we all become in essence, product endorsers.

Web badges are the ultimate endorsement medium, no? For me to think highly enough of a brand to display it on my blog (or hopefully in a online brand badge collection), I am implicitly signaling to everyone who sees my blog that I think highly enough of that brand that I would use it as a proxy for my public persona by putting it on my blog.

The challenge and opportunity for companies like FavoriteThingz, MyPickList, StyleFeeder, Wists, etc is to create an open platform for users to organize, display, and distribute their brand collections.

Think of social visual bookmarking as a tool to organize your brand collection.

Since that brand collection is a powerful way to define one’s public persona, the company that figures out the best way for users to organize their brands will occupy a very valuable meeting point between brands and consumers.

This is why I believe we should be calling it social cataloging, not bookmarking. LibraryThing created a fantastic tool to organize, display, and distribute one’s book collection and hence, its tremendous success.

Things are starting to get very exciting. Thanks to Charlie and Mike for making this important distinction so clear to us.

// 08.21.2006 at 8:26 pm // Tagged webwidgets