We are a society of fiercely independent, boot strapping cowboys of innovation.  Want to succeed in our world?  Blaze your own trail, find your own calling, lead by example.

We like our information quickly, thank you, and plenty of it.  It should be available overnight or yesterday, even if we have to pay extra.  If it doesn’t work, we throw it out.

We communicate in sound bites of 9 seconds or fewer.

We cram more and more into shrinking time windows fueled by caffeine.

But take the words “Starbucks” and “coffee” off a familiar and iconic logo, and we go ballistic.

Why?

The Economist posits that, in our rapid-fire society, the more choices we have, the more we seem to value the familiar.  The communities that we do have, with which we’re familiar, become almost sacred.  Mess with them and you rock our entire world.

This is worth stopping to consider.

As in…stop.  And consider.  The more choices we have, the more we value the familiar.

So where’s the balance?

What’s the perfect marriage between being familiar to your community…being sacred…and embracing experimentation to raise the bar and stay relevant?

This is tough.  Here’s my take.  Please share yours in the comments.

Purpose/Why
Obvious, but worth repeating.  The people, brands and communities we cherish the most have a rock solid purpose, or “Why” with which we can relate.  They know what they’re about, they have standards and although they may experiment, they’re doing it within a framework with which we can relate.  A solid “Why” becomes a litmus test used constantly to evaluate new partnerships, new ideas and new messages.  It’s a living, breathing part of the entity and we respect the hell out of them for being so…them.

Communication
We’re all entitled to experiment and even make mistakes every once in a while.  The balance between consistency and innovation lies in our ability to communicate with our communities about what’s going on behind closed doors.  Communities are very willing to understand but we don’t like to be blindsided and we can tell when you’re not telling the whole truth.  We may complain about changes but we’ll respect you more in the morning if you stand by your well considered decisions rather than caving into our petty gripes.

Need an example about what not to do when communicating with your communities?  Just look at the Gap logo debacle.

Commitment to Quality
Name one non-profit organization or one brand to which you are fully committed that, at its core, is NOT 100% committed to the quality of their work.

Can’t do it, can you?

Nope.  That’s because we know high quality when we see it.  We can feel it.  Does this mean everything about that particular organization is perfect?  No.  But at the end of the day, the product, service or experience on which they are willing to put their stamp is top notch.

By virtue of being committed to quality, these organizations are committed to innovation and to evolution.  This doesn’t always involve the latest technology.  Perhaps it’s a new methodology or embracing a new partner or community or customer group.  But it does include pushing the boundaries to be the best.

Ask Yourself:
Take a look at your own brand, be it your personal brand, your non-profit brand or your company brand.  Do you feel like you have a well-defined purpose that guides major decisions?  Do you communicate honestly and frequently with your constituents?  Are you truly committed to the quality of whatever it is that you do?

Are You:  Tipped Too Far Toward Innovation?
Are you familiar to your stakeholders?  Sacred?  Or are you mixing it up too much and too frequently so no one knows what to expect from you?

Are You:  Tipped Too Far Toward the Familiar?
Do you push the boundaries of your own brand to constantly innovate and evolve?  Or do you rest on your laurels of being familiar and comfortable?

Where’s the balance for you?

My social media outpost of choice is Twitter.  Let’s chat!

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Image credit to Mark Smallwood

I’ve always loved Keen shoes.  My first pair, bright orange, purchased around 5 years ago is still hanging tough.  I should probably toss them, but I just can’t bring myself to do it…that’s how much I love those shoes.  I’d always imagined that any company that makes such a cool shoe must be a pretty cool company, too, but I didn’t realize just how inspiring they were until I visited the Keen headquarters recently.

The Hybrid Life

Keen is one of those companies with a deep-rooted purpose that rules everything they do.  Their initial product, the Newport, was a hybrid shoe…a sandal that offered toe protection.   But this Hybrid shoe was designed for people who enjoy what CEO James Curleigh has dubbed “The Hybrid Life”.  To Keen, the Hybrid Life is a call to create, play and care.  And this Keen does in spades.

The Accidental Environmentalist

Curleigh considers Keen an “accidental environmentalist”.  In looking for ways to decrease their raw materials cost, they’ve turned to using scrap aluminum from which to fabricate grommets.  They discovered a source of scrap polyester and nylon and repurposed them into cool bags and wallets.  As a reward, Keen is now heralded as a “green” company.  The original intent, to hear Curleigh tell it, had more to do with input costs than waving the environmental flag but Keen wears the badge with pride.  It’s obvious that this thirst for creating new and different products with stellar design is at the very root of the Keen culture.

Customers Don’t Always Know What They Want

So often you hear marketers say, “Find out what your customers want and deliver it.”  Curleigh doesn’t buy into this philosophy as a leading business principle.  “Who knew they wanted a sandal with a toe?”  Keen had a vision, created a product, took it to market and asked people to join in the movement.  And it worked.  Keen explained to consumers what it was like to walk a Hybrid Life in Keen Shoes.  Their message spoke to those that both enjoyed the outdoors and resonated with the call to create, play and care.

Hybrid.Care

When the tsunami hit in 2004, Keen wanted to help.  They looked at their small advertising budget of about $1 Million and knew the money could be put to better use in tsunami recovery efforts.   They took a risk and donated the budget to tsunami relief efforts and ran a small ad explaining to customers why they weren’t going to be hearing from Keen for a while.  That risk paid of in spades with media attention and widespread recognition for their generous donation.  It was a living example of what Keen was all about.  Since that time, Keen has donated over $5 Million to non-profit partners that share “a philosophy of caring, conscience and sustainability.”  For Keen, the “Care” component of the Hybrid life goes far beyond a cause marketing effort, deeply entrenched in the Keen brand.  I doubt Keen would even consider this cause branding because they’re a cause crusader.  They don’t need a label for it, being such a part of their living example on a daily basis.

If I loved Keen shoes before, consider me a Keen disciple now.

What do you think of the Hybrid Life?  Do you love Keen shoes like I do?  What other examples of companies like Keen have you witnessed that has effectively woven cause and community into the very fabric of their being?

Think of Ning as a customizable Facebook.  A “create your own” online community, if you will.

The free version will allow you to create your own network and invite friends in about 5 minutes.  And it’ll drop ads onto your community.  For a mere $24.95 you can upgrade and go ad free (my preference).  However, with Ning, you go it alone.  If you’d like personal responses to your inquiries, you’ll pay $10/month for a personal account and $100/month for a professional account.

Once you’ve created a community, the site’s your oyster!  Feel free to customize all the tabs at the top, add or remove features to your community or create subgroups within the community.  These subgroups can be open to anyone or they can be permission-only to restrict access and content.  You can remain the moderator of these subgroups or you can give moderator rights to another member of the community.

The interface is customizable, you decide what people see on any given page.  Want videos front and center?  You got it.  Prefer the Forum up top?  No problem.  Again, you designate who is abje to view and post.

Like Facebook, each member gets their own page that they can customize as they’d like and can find “friends” within the community.  Also like Facebook, you have the flexibility to create events and have people respond to them.

Online communitites are a great way to activate your customer base assuming you’re providing an online forum for something in demand.  And think outside the box on this one.  Pass up the opportunity to offer just a “Company x’s Customers” community and instead use this portal as a place to figurevout what people really want out of your industry.  Then provide some great content, find some great moderators to help your content stay fresh and away you go!