The Antique Selectric

A recent back-to-school shopping trip with my pre-teen son did plenty to remind me of the widening generation gap between us. Navigating through brands I'd never heard of and styles that will, one day, define the cultural lowlight of his generation (just as parachute pants defined mine) – helped me acknowledge that the pigment had indeed left my hair, never to return.

An annual report called the Beloit College Mindset List – you may recognize it as common fodder for chatty 'lite rock' morning radio hosts – reminds us all not only of the generation gap and differences in our cultural context, but the pace of change in today's world. This year's study calls out sixty points of reference that the typical 18-year-old, born in 1990, takes for granted. These include:

• Universal Studios has always offered an alternative to Disneyland in Orlando.
• The Tonight Show has always been hosted by Jay Leno.
• Caller ID has always been available on phones.
• IBM has never made typewriters.

Had the Beloit study existed when I entered college, my elders would have likely been reminded that I never knew the country without a space program, had never listened to radio for anything but music, and automobiles always had air conditioning. In turn, upon turning 18, my son will have never known mobile phones without cameras, grasp the concept of a paper map, or have enjoyed music on anything larger than an iPod.

And forget the iconic Selectric… he won't even know IBM as a consumer brand.

Apples from the tree of no knowledge

As if we needed further proof that today's communication tools make the idea that we, as the Corporation (capital 'c') control the information about our products and ourselves, take a look at this very recent spreading of a rumor, acceptance of it as fact, and rapid errata posting - all without the knowledge or involvement of the Corporation, in this case, Apple:

Monday afternoon Reuters ran with a story that quoted a report from a Taiwanese analyst for JP Morgan. In completing due diligence on the iPhone, the analyst discovered a patent application that (patent-happy) Apple filed in November 06 for a phone with a clickwheel. The analyst, faced with what he thought was a grand discovery, added information given him from 'unnamed sources' and issued a report to his clients and colleagues at JP Morgan. In it, he predicted that Apple would release a mini-iPhone by the end of 2007 and suggested strong sales numbers.

Trouble is, its all wrong. Completely unfounded. And it was picked up by Reuters, who ran with the story.

Day traders scored Apple shares and drove them higher, but by that afternoon, JP Morgan issued a second report by other analysts essentially discounting the first. "We believe a near-term launch would be unusual and highly risky."

So what to learn from all this? Once again, we marketers have little more than the appearance of control over market information and in many ways, even less over brand perception. We can dress it up, encourage it, steer it this way or that, but ultimately our brand belongs to the consumer, and they are prone to believe just about anything.

Expect to engage in brand stewardship, but to expect that you'll ever have brand ownership will just make you crazy.