Sunday, May 4, 2014

"May the fourth be with you!!!"



"You can't do it unless you can imagine it." George Lucas  

For the last week or so I have been reading “The BrandWithin” by Daymond John. This is the only time I will ever say this and I hope Mr. John appreciates this.  If you don’t own this book stop reading this blog right now and follow the link above to buy it. Don’t forget to come back though.

Now that you are back I want to review the Four Stages of The Product Evolution discussed in Mr. John’s book. I hope my paraphrasing of his four stages does them justice.


The Item: Generic product with no markings to link it back to any particular source.


The Label: A step up from the item.  It has a marking that can be linked back to a particular source but it isn’t a source that stands out.


The Brand: A place where labels want to be, kind of like Cheers, a place where everybody knows your name. A brand stands out and not only does it have a marking that can be linked back to a particular source, the brand itself is the link. It has almost an occult like following.


The Lifestyle: No longer is a link needed to a particular source because it has become the source. It is the inspiration that inspires avenues that were never envisioned in the beginning. It is the money maker! Slap a picture of Cher on a bag of dog food and that dog food will sale. Not because she knows anything about dog food, just because we all know Cher and we want that dog food.


I want to focus on the Lifestyle stage for this example. Today is May 4 and the occult following of George Lucas’s Star Wars franchise have deemed this as “May the fourth be with you” day, a play on words for “May the Force be With You,” a parting statement used in the franchise. Now I know all of you know this, but I just wanted to point out some things that I find interesting. The original Star Wars film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977. Now I am not sure of this because I would have only been a few months old, but I doubt anyone said on May 4, 1977 “Hey may the fourth be with you.” Yet thirty-seven years later it is unofficial holiday created by fans to honor the Star Wars Franchise and they call it Star Wars Day.


A quick internet search yields tons of T-shirts and other products being sold to honor this holiday. The Star Wars franchise itself has yielded astronomical figures in the merchandising realm and now it has spawned a side phenomenon that is selling its own merchandise. Star Wars has achieved a success that most of us only dream of and it has reached a level of The Lifestyle stage that it is now creating Lifestyle status in other products. All of this because a guy decides to write a line in a story on a piece of paper and then refused to give up forcing that line into a movie.
 
So as you guys prepare to start a new week and you prepare to chase your dreams, I say unto you follow wisely, never give up, but take time to rest and invest in those things that recharge your “Happiness Tanks.” The journey is long and sometimes the storms arise making that road impassable, but you just have to camp out and let those storms pass. It is not a sin to stop once in a while to recharge, it only becomes a sin when you fail to start again. So no matter what you are doing this week “may the force be with you” and today just for fun “may the fourth be with you.”

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