Spam was not invented on Internet. The Internet just helped give it a name. It’s been around for a long time. Essentially spam is unwelcome advertising. The problem with Internet is that you get a lot of it, and it’s VERY LOUD and in-your-face. TV’s not much different. Then there’s junk mail. Very few people even read it. In an effort to get our attention, advertisers are using two tools that seem to work best—loud and obnoxious.

Hey, they work, don't they! And whatever works must be okay because more and more people are willing to do whatever works to succeed. But does it really work? A successful bulk mail campaign would be ecstatic to get a five percent return rate. But, say a campaign is wildly successful, and gets a fifteen percent return rate. That means that it has an eighty-five percent failure rate. Yet, they call it a success because someone can make money at it.

Problem is when everyone is trying to succeed by being loud and obnoxious, things get pretty loud and obnoxious. Then, loud and obnoxious doesn't work anymore because no one can hear anything. So, they get louder and even more obnoxious. People in an argument often assume (or at least act like they think) that being loud improves their position. And advertising follows suit.

Surely, there’s a better way.

Shallow and Immature Self-Centeredness The values of loud and obnoxious have to do with image and impression. Loud and obnoxious want to create an image, and make an impression. And they do! But what are underlying values of image and impression they make? What is really being communicated is shallow, immature self-centeredness. If you think that I'm suggesting that values of reigning advertising and marketing wisdom are shallow, immature and self-centered, you’re right. Do you really want your business associated with such values? I don't .

Most advertising, marketing, and public relations efforts appeal to self-centered and shallow values. As a result, most people intentionally do everything they can to minimize effectiveness of ads. We identify them with inane. We learn to block them out. We don't even see them or hear them. That’s why they have to get louder and more obnoxious. Advertising has become an engine of rudeness and crassness that grows ever louder and ruder. Too often financial success comes at expense of increasing social and moral corruption. Advertising encourages people not to listen, not to pay attention. We have learned to tune in and tune out. Because when you do listen, you are inundated with a kind of shallow self-centeredness and an invitation to envy.

Do you really want your business associated with shallow, self-centered, rude and crass envy? I don't. Surely there is a better way.

First Impressions Substance and content always trump image and impression in long run. Substance and content are worth paying attention to. They don't have to be loud or rude. Substance and content simply stand their ground. They can do that because they actually are what they appear to be.

Of course appearance is important. First impressions are valuable because they create a benchmark for further evaluation. When that evaluation is not consistent with first impression, a disconnect occurs. Questions arise, and doubts are introduced. But when later evaluation is consistent with first impression, an important connection is made that contributes to trust.

Advertising in-and-of-itself is not a bad thing. What makes it good or bad is how it’s done and morals or values to which it appeals. Advertising that appeals to particular morals or values actually strengthens and reinforces those morals or values apart from product or service that is being advertised. In truth, advertising attempts to effect attitudes, values and morals. Morality is vehicle that carries advertising and marketing messages in public. Advertising is always necessarily moral because it always suggests someone’s idea of goodness or correctness of character and behavior, where good and correct are understood in terms of popularity. Advertising appeals to and influences both popular thought, styles and morality.

Most advertising, marketing and public relations campaigns attempt to affect minds and attitudes of people outside company by employing techniques that grab and manipulate a target audience. But people don't like being manipulated, so they learn to ignore ads. The whole endeavor is pure spam, from inception to execution.

Business Integrity and Credibility The advertising industry occupies a key position regarding social morality. We believe that advertising industry should, ought, and must encourage values of moral integrity through work that it does. Advertising needs to appeal to and build upon maturity and sagacity because it is right thing to do. The industry and people who comprise it have additional, not less, social responsibility. They (we), more than others, must be mature, responsible, full of integrity, honesty and moral character—and work we do, ads we create, should reflect this character and these values.

A better campaign will attempt to develop and then reveal substance—the character and integrity—of a company. This way when people see an advertisement, they don't need to be manipulated, but are allowed to make their own associations. They are not manipulated with false images and impressions, but are allowed to see how character and integrity effect a company. The only potential drawback is that these qualities must actually exist before they can be revealed.

The effort to create an image of integrity, for instance, without underlying reality being in place, lacks integrity. Thus, fundamental concerns of business promotion involve character and principles upon which business is built, and way that business employs character and principle in its operation.

Often more a thing is discussed less it is understood. Words have a point of diminishing return. That point is crossed when effort to be clear and precise counts every tree standing, but misses proverbial forest. Such is case with branding.

Because idea of branding is all rage, people are tempted to think that it is a new idea. It is not. It’s roots reach back into history.

The Old West Let’s go back to Old West where brands were burned into hind quarters of cattle. The thing branded was cow, product produced by ranching endeavor. The brand itself was twisted iron logo on end of rod that left its image or mark on hide of cow. Cows were roped, tied and branded in order to identify them, should they be stolen. The brand was a mark of identity, as it is in corporate world.

Some ranchers also used their logo as a welcome sign wrought in iron over gates of corral or over road leading to rancher’s home. Again, brand identified ranch. Some ranchers even got their cowhands belt buckles with ranch logo to identify them as employees. And over time logoed merchandise began to pop up on boots, hats, shirts, etc.

Identity The brand is essentially a mark of identity. It identifies ranch or company, and has come to represent or suggest values and character of company, and of its leaders. The brand is associated with character of company, as well as its products.

The early history of branding was always personal. Where does ranch or company get values and character that are associated with it? From its owners and leaders, and from their business practices.

Branding as we know it today is art of instilling and communicating values and character of a company or organization through association with its logo. Psychology calls it symbolic association, and finds it to be foundational to learning process. Symbolic association has deep roots in human experience and in history.

Fish, Cross & Swastika We find that branding as a practice began very early in history. The sign of fish and cross were symbols used by early Christians. Over time they became Christian brands.

The Roman Emperor Constantine had a vision of a red cross in sky before battle of Saxa Rubra, October 28, 312, near Rome. He put that red cross on his shields and flags, branding Holy Roman Empire for centuries.

On August 7, 1920, at Salzburg Congress, a red flag bearing Swastika became official emblem of Nazi Party, as Hitler branded Third Reich. While our emotional reaction to Swastika is usually negative, both fact and intensity of our response to it points to power of branding. Most people probably have an emotional reaction to examples above. That emotional reaction is aim of branding.