Prince – Master Musician and Brand Master

As many, I was shocked with the passing of Prince yesterday.  A musical genius who had tremendous influence on multiple generations.  Personally, I had 3 cassettes of the Purple Rain soundtrack.  Why 3? I wore them out from listening to some of the greatest songs of my generation.  Thank God the modern CD was created.

Prince was more than a musician; he was the master of the “Prince” brand.  Now whether he was cognizant or had a plan can be debated. 

• -          Color – how many artists are recognizable by a color?  For Prince it was purple.  The evidence was his use of the color in his marketing materials, songs, etc.  Last night’s tributes to him had lighting of purple across the globe.
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• -          Symbol – “the artist formally known as Prince.”  Remember that?  At first it was considered a joke. However, the symbol became as iconic as the color purple.  From guitars, graphics, t-shirts, etc. the symbol was uniquely his brand logo.
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• -          Super Bowl Half Time Performance – when on the grand stage of performance, with 100 million plus people seeing you perform, he cemented his brand.  His 2007 performance in the rain is legendary.  Frankly, it was perfect… the rain provided the backdrop when he played his hit “Purple Rain.”  An Interesting tidbit.. His performance was named the best Super Bowl performance.
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• -          Privacy – Prince was a private individual.  Living in Minneapolis certainly helps you be private.  But he didn’t get caught up in the LA scene, where the paparazzi and tabloid press prey on and can distort images.  That’s not saying he didn’t make the front page of The Enquirer, but it seemed to be tempered.  He controlled his brand by staying out of controversy.
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• -          Letting “Lightning” Strike Once -- After the movie Purple Rain ran its course, I was sure there would be a sequel.  There wasn’t.   But I have to believe it was discussed.  It seems to me he probably knew the risk of trying to make another hit, thus, damaging his brand.
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• -          Have Others Advocate His Brand – just a few artists who he helped or who played work he penned include:  The Bangles, Sheila E., Vanity, Tom Jones, and Sheena Easton.  They carried his brand by making hits out of his songs… those artists broadened his brand through their association with Prince.
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• -          Ownership – Prince was a stickler for “ownership” of his performances and work.   Sheryl Crow and others have discussed his business acumen at ensuring he “owned” his brand.  Prince seemed to know what his brand was worth and controlled it to ensure the value remained high.  

I’ll miss the live performances, new music and trend setting Prince provided.  RIP O’Purple One.

Scott  

Is Mobile Phone Technology Peaking?

I was due from an upgrade on my iPhone for quite some time now and decided to get to the local AT&T store to get what I thought would be “killer” new tech.  What a disappointment. 

I upgraded to the iPhone 6 -- yes I know I was a laggard on this one.   Usually, I’m the first guy upgrading to any new tech, but alas I just fell behind on the phone front.    

For all of the hype which is made around new technology and the lines which seem to wrap around the block at the Apple store I found this one to be a total let down.  When you really consider it all in context of a consumer experience, you really only get:

Larger screen size – yea this is a nice to have, but not a game changer.  Puts them equal with Samsung.

New screen saver – it moves.  Wow!  Who gives a damn.

Wallet and Apple Pay – is really the only new functionality I see.  It’s great and a next step in evolution, but isn’t the must have reason to buy a new phone.

Better camera – I was ok with the last one given all of the apps you can purchase to improve the old camera versions.

It seems “Moore’s Law” on the growth of technology might be fading a bit in the mobile hardware and software space.

Scott

My iPhone Could Launch Apollo 11

I stumbled upon an article on the computer which ran the Apollo 11 space mission.   The 1960’s based technology was merely 64Kbyte of memory.  This computer helped get NASA Astronauts over 350,000 kilometers to the Moon and back.  As I pondered this achievement I looked at my iPhone and realized how far our technology has come.  With just the applications I’ve loaded to my phone I can:

1.       Consume Content

·         Play thousands and thousands of songs

·         Play, store and create videos

·         Read and store books

2.       Communicate

·         Video conference

·         Monitor house security system and cameras

·         Communicate via email, facebook, twitter, linkedin, etc.

·         Translate content into different languages

3.       Commerce

·         Form of payment

·         Purchase items from online merchants

·         Book and manage travel

4.       Inform

·         Instant access to news, stock quotes, weather, sports, etc.

·         Track the location of where my kids are

·         Monitor traffic and get driving directions

·         Determine my exact location via GPS

5.       Work

·         Create spreadsheet, word and power point presentations and project them to another screen

·         Print to any wifi printer

·         Analyze calculations, etc.

And the above are just a smattering of all the things we can now do with technology which can be placed in our pocket.  What tomorrow brings will be even more amazing.

Scott