Brand Echoes - Remember Bill Knapp's?

August 20th, 2002, small midwestern restaurant chain Bill Knapp's announced it was closing.

Last week, while in Ann Arbor, I took my Dad shopping at Kroger's as is our habit. In the bakery aisle, a familiar logo: Bill Knapp's


The price on these "glazed dunkers" was reduced because they were at their sell-by date. Still, they were tasty and about what I remembered.

These weren't from a REAL Bill Knapp's restaurant. The box says, "distributed by Thaw and Sell Solutions, Ltd." out of Saline, MI.

(for non-Michigander's, that's pronounced "sah-LEEN")


From 1948 to 2002, Bill Knapp's was an institution in Michigan and Ohio, plus some outposts in Florida (perfect for sentimental snowbirds). The food was good, the help, helpful.


The six inch round chocolate "celebration cakes" were enjoyed and worn by both of my sons on their first birthdays.

There's a good Wikipedia post on the history of the chain, and a nice article from Bill Knapp's "hometown" newspaper in Battle Creek, MI on the second anniversary of its closing.

The chocolate cake has been available in freezer cases for a while from metro Detroit-based Awrey bakeries.

The Kroger's that I bought these dunkers from is just a quarter mile away from the Bill Knapp's location that was my family's frequent haunt when I was younger.

Now, it is Zingerman's Roadhouse, a restaurant extension of the famed Ann Arbor Deli. Like Bill Knapp's, the Roadhouse does not serve breakfast.



In 2000 or 2001, I remember coming to Ann Arbor after my Dad was recovering from emergency surgery. After visiting him at St Joe's, my Mom and I went to the nearby Bill Knapp's at Carpenter and Washtenaw. We sat down, ordered and while we were waiting, a part of the suspended ceiling fell in, leaving dust and insulation scatter around the dining area, and us. We laughed it off and left (and went to Big Boy's).

That ceiling wasn't the only thing falling in on Bill Knapp's. A year or so later, the chain was closed.

August 20, 2002, the letter they sent out was simple. They couldn't make it. They were closing.


I moved away from Michigan for a few years in the 80's, moved back and then "really" left in '93. Still, I've been an interested observer from afar regarding many things of my much-loved home state.

From that perspective, I've pondered whether Bill Knapp's might have weathered the initial downturn in the late 90's better if it hadn't tried so hard to "update" their interiors and menu in the late 90's. While they wrestled with a changing market and an aging customer base, today's rediscovered yearning for scratch-made comfort food might have made for a return to success.

Or maybe not. Nothing lasts forever.

But we have the brand echoes of donuts and cake and, for some of us, mostly good memories.

Yelling in America - John Adams had his loud days, too

The most important things are best shared without shouting:

I love you;
We're giving you the job;
I'm going to have to let you go;
You have cancer

This isn't an original idea, but it's one that has been on my mind of late, especially with the tone of political discourse this month.

You can't think well while you're yelling. You can't think well when you're sobbing. And the folks on the the "receive" side aren't doing so well, either.

That's not to say yelling or tears aren't important. Extreme emotions have their place. But at some point, the adrenaline eases, a calm presents itself and you need to face your conflicts, your fears, your hopes, your choices. You think. You decide.

When plotting a future, phrases that fit on a bumper sticker cannot explain the details, the nuance, the plan.


Loud Advocacy is Not New

Protest is a long tradition in the United States. Sometimes, protesters gain influence and power, sometimes they don't.

A recent couple of segments from the NPR program (produced by WNYC, New York) On the Media looked into some of the current spate of emotional activism from a broader timeline.

The strategies being used by some conservative activists today have been gleaned from the playbook of liberal activist Saul Alinsky. In an interview with Bob Garfield, a discussion of the importance of passion came up with The New Yorker's Ryan Lizza.

Ryan Lizza "There’s a famous story. Whenever Alinsky would have a new student coming to organize, he would ask them, why do you want to be an organizer, and they would always say, well, I want to help others, you know, I want to devote my life to doing good. And he would scream back at them, no, you want to organize for power."

If you have or get power, you should try to do something with it. Even if you are striving to be heard to at least have some power, you need more than a slogan on a bumper sticker.

Power in the American model of representational democracy is supposed to protect the minority as well promote the will of the majority. That requires discussion. But discussion only starts once the yelling stops. Yet, when some are ready to listen and interact, others may still passionately clamor only to be heard. After a while, the "calm" ones may get frustrated and start yelling again.

Fortunately, the cycle can wind down as the passions echo. As long as nothing else comes up to wind the passions up again.

American discourse is often loud, sometimes even irrational and violent. In 1856, the Caning of Senator Charles Sumner was a prime example, as the "debate" in congress became violent on the floor of "the world's most deliberative body." The passions were high on both sides, the language harsh and cruel. After an escalation of verbal jabs, U.S. House member Preston Brooks of South Carolina came into the Senate chamber and beat Sumner senseless with a cane. Sumner took three years to recover.

The anger and passion on both sides of the slavery issue was superheated. Just a few years later, the country was embroiled in a brutal civil war.

The current health care debate has not devolved to 1856 levels. But the passions do seem pretty high. I wonder if it has something to do with our current wave of cathartic overload.

In the aftermath of the events of September 11, 2001, the opening of raw nerves of pain and anger was huge and nearly universal. The sensory overload has continued as we've added in the din of computer gaming, web sites, talk radio, 24/7 cable news, blogs, myspace, facebook and twitter. It's possible to be in constant stimulus mode, much of it interactive, and rapidly reflecting and inflating personal viewpoints to an astounding degree.

We have many deep feelings, emotions and data points constantly bombarding us. It is easy to get addicted to the drama and energy. Reinforcing that has been the ease of connection with like-feeling and like-minded people in a crowd, online or in mass media. It is more possible than ever to not be exposed to a viewpoint different from your own in a reasoned way.

With a world of choice in front of us, it easier than ever to hear only what we want to hear.


Other things worthy of passion

John Adams was not a necessarily easygoing politician. His administration passed the Alien and Sedition Acts. Those acts were largely about censoring and punishing dissent when it was perceived that the "other side" had gotten out of hand. Later, the rejection of the Alien and Sedition Acts helped set the stage for the relative independence of American journalism, today.

Even with his missteps, Adams' passion had a purpose, a vision, a yearning.

John Adams painting by John Trumbell

In 1780 John Adams wrote to Abigail Adams about the priorities of the new society he was dreaming of:

I must study Politicks and War that my sons may have liberty to study Mathematicks and Philosophy. My sons ought to study Mathematicks and Philosophy, Geography, natural History, Naval Architecture, navigation, Commerce and Agriculture, in order to give their Children a right to study Painting, Poetry, Musick, Architecture, Statuary, Tapestry and Porcelaine.

I hope we can find a way to get back on that sort of continuum. It is important to have passion, but there's more to passion than anger and frustration. Art, music, painting and architecture don't have to be partisan to be meaningful.

The arts are full of stimulation and passion. But they also require solitude, discipline, training and practice. Who has time for that?

Combined with the emotional upheaval of the past eight years, we've been cutting the arts in our schools and communities. In our rush to equip our youth and workforce with skills, we've risked the ability to help our citizens find meaning.



Media and New Media

Power has value. But if you get power, there is the responsibility of wielding it. Which reminds me of this quote:

"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."
-- Abraham Lincoln

With our convergence of technology and communication, we all have power.

The wild card in the latest round of our democratic protest process is the swirling confluence of Old and New Media together. The power and influence of web sites, twitter, facebook, newspapers, radio, TV and cable feed back on each other, fueled by planned and unplanned events. Professionals and amateurs are a part of a cacophonous din like we've never heard before.

There is a "power" in the combination of all of this media, from twitter to radio to cable news and more that has not yet taken responsibility for the influence it wields. With social media, even the smallest among us has the ability to make a lot of noise.

No one is in charge and everyone is in charge. Everyone has the potential for fomenting protest and spreading it across the globe.

This, too, will change. Social media has given more people more tools than ever, but the novelty is already wearing off a bit. Irresponsible use of the power of social media may, over time, fade into the background as more noise.

Everyone has the potential to discover, discuss and exchange, too. When we start to have a conversation, we can talk about what we are for, and maybe discuss where we are going. I just hope that current conduits of communication (and the people who run, feed and use them) don't drive a wedge between citizens when there is so much else in our society we can get together on.

The dream becomes that we all have power and we all take responsibility. And, maybe we can plan to sing, dance and paint a bit more, too.

Great Brands Deliver

Apple does not rely on focus groups.

This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use focus groups, but it does lead to an important point: Apple is sure of its brand.

Apple has had a tumultuous history. Today, the company has a solid brand, direction and products that people clamor for.

Anthony Michael Hall as Bill Gates and Noah Wyle as Steve Jobs in the 1999 cable movie "Pirates of Silicon Valley"

The 1999 made-for-cable movie Pirates of Silicon Valley is worth a rental or even purchase. Two statements from it stand out to me at the moment. One, from Bill Gates, I can only paraphrase: “a good product with great marketing can overcome a great product with good marketing.”

And, from Steve Jobs, “Real Artists Ship.”

“Pirates” came out in 1999 - two years before the launch of the iPod, which has had a huge impact on, well, everything. Learning lessons, it seems, Apple solved the database challenges of iTunes, delivered an easy-to-use interface for both the computer and the iPod, found a price point that worked - and, most importantly, nailed it on the marketing piece.

Delivering at the right time and place certainly helps, but the brand of Apple seemed to have evolved to Passion, Vision and Execution.

Still, I believe that focus groups can be helpful. As a “company therapy” process, you can get a sense of how your brand is perceived among your current or potential customers.

At my public radio station, WDUQ, Pittsburgh, we learned that both our NPR news brand and our jazz brand were core to our identity and a part of what people found admirable about us. The group that helped us with this evaluation were bright 20-somethings under the leadership of Dr. Robert Swinehart of the School of Design at Carnegie Mellon University. They liked us - they really liked us!

It was 1997 or 1998. That early internet bubble was still inflating. The book "FOCUS" was on my mind, as well as Built to Last. This was all supposed to be about "one thing."

And it was. But not about news, or jazz or intelligent talk or whatever. If you look at the 1998 era graph put together at the end of the CMU project, the core was about trust, passion, conviction and authenticity.

We often confuse Brands with formats or devices or the "thing" of the moment. Yet, if we go too far in "extension," we no longer have a core to be passionate about.

In looking at what these young eyes had seen in us, and looking in the mirror, we saw that we had something that could work. Focused enough to fit our sensibilities and experience, yet broad enough to stretch us. A challenge that looked to be worthwhile and fun.

Armed with the information and confidence that WDUQ had some unique, positive traits, the next step was execution fueled with growing passion. Over the course of the next decade, we worked to deliver quality news and jazz programming, partnering on a high level with scores of other like-minded groups and individuals in Pittsburgh to build and grow our civic and cultural goals.

Our staff jumped in to the telling of our story, our vision - to brand and market what we were about, including great work with Fitting Group.

A bit more than a decade later, WDUQ doubled its total audience. The jazz "side" of the station has more listeners than the whole station served in 1996. The news "side" of the station is among the the most diverse in the country, indexed against our market demographics. Yet, for our listeners, the station has no sides, really.

The brand of WDUQ is of a non-profit media outlet that reaches out, everyday, across a diverse array of people, activities and ideas. We have a vision for an engaged, aware Pittsburgh that connects with the world, and we hustle to live up to that vision, every day.

To get love back from your customers, passion helps a lot. But, in the end, great brands deliver.

This post was adapted from a guest blog post written for the Fitting Group.