You pay money to be a walking billboard for Mikey. You strive to represent Mikey ideal. You craft your self-image based on models and sports stars in Mikey ads (even if you're a pudgy smoker with a lazy eyeball and a ten dollar-a-day twinkie habit).

IMAGE IS

But your adoption of Mikey image runs far deeper. You're not just a Mikey customer, you're a Mikey PERSON.

If someone bad-mouths Mikey, you set them straight. If someone speaks well of a non-Mikey product, you respond with autonomic contempt. If someone converts to Mikey-hood, you embrace them into fold.

If it were a cult, it would be called programming.

If it were an ideology, it would be called brainwashing.

If it were a religion, it would be called a conversion.

But it's a shoe. It's called branding.

THE NEW WORLD ORDER

In any field, there are two brands and a bunch of off-brands or wannabes. Democrat and Republican are brands. Reform, Libertarian, Green Party and whoever else are merely Other.

It's a Yin Yang interdependence thing. Note how Democracy is diminished without Communism for counterpoint?

In new world order, stores and websites are clubs, brands are families, and The New Person is defined simply as combination of several dozen brand settings, like toggle switches on a motherboard: Coke (not Pepsi). Chevy (not Ford). Burger King (not McDonalds). Shaken (not stirred). Catholic (not Protestant). White Sox (not Cubs).

And is there ever any real difference between first and second place players in any given category?

Sure. The one I prefer is like ten times better.

Duh.

6) A key attribute for any successful marketing campaign is repetition – your company may not have marketing resources of an Intel (their "Intel Inside" campaign far exceeded their marketing goals) but you do need to repeat your message and reinforce branding and market awareness by touching your market segment via multiple reinforcing marketing processes; i.e. search engine ranking, print, opt-in e-mail, radio/TV, sponsorship buttons, newsletter inserts, etc.

7) Make it easy to do business with your company by offering pricing and terms of service that fit your client's needs – Digit-Net technologies (www.digi-net.com) sells software and or ASP services to its customers by offering them terms of services that can be flexed to fit their needs, not other way around.

8) Switching costs are high in this challenging market – companies and individuals don't want to change their habits, as this can cost them more money. So, figure out how you can adapt your products and services to fit their needs to minimize their switching costs. Then, communicate this effectively via all of your marketing processes.