Remain Calm. All is well.

This is a blog about the intersection of branding and social media. I promise I’ll get there if you’ll indulge me in a little big picture.

These are dark days. My cable news habit has dropped off since the election, but even the half hour I spend with Brian Williams each night is enough to make me need the escape of The Bachelor Finale.

A string of 3 events unfolded yesterday – at least one of which was on topic – that kind of brought a pattern into focus for me:

• Ben McConnell‘s attempt to put yesterday’s Dow dive into the larger perspective of historical performance. Net for me: Sometimes taking the long view can put you in a more productive frame of mind in the present.
• The Skittles meme, which divided the Twitterati into those for and against. Net for me: We’re still trying to sort out the new rules of a new game in the new age of social marketing.
• A story on NPR about – get this – how companies need to be concerned not only with their carbon footprint, but their water footprint. The gist is that it ends up taking 9 zillion gallons of water to produce 1 gallon of soda, and we need to change our ways. Net for me here: We need to change our ways.

Change upon change upon change. These are times of wrenching change. Change was what we asked for in the election, and boy, have we gotten it.

Everything is changing. We need a new energy model. We need a new politics. Our nation is changing, and so is its role in the world. We need to stop spewing carbon into the atmosphere, squandering water, and dumping disposable plastic crap into our oceans. Our lifestyle of the last 50 years is no longer sustainable, and in that context it should come as no surprise that both the marketing model that provided the engine for that lifestyle and the financial system that supplied the gas are in need of an overhaul. And that is STRESSING US ALL OUT.

<Deep breath in and… out.>

But as painful as this relentlessly compounded change is, as radical as the transformation feels, we will get through it. We will arrive someplace very different than where we started, and I truly beleive it will be someplace better. And I don’t say that because I’m an idealist, I say it because that’s what the data on human suffering and human conflict points to.

I also think it will be someplace oddly familiar. It will be a place where bottles are made of glass, and water is obtained through a faucet. It will be a place where people save for the things they want. More of our energy and our food will come from where we live. It will be a place where balance and economic interdependency among nations encourages good behavior. It will be a place where people are valued for the content of their character.

Finally, it will be a place where sellers focus on building and maintaining relationships with the people who buy their products. Customer service will matter, and successful companies will act accordingly. Listening will be expected by consumers, and valued by businesses. Loyalty will be prized. Friends and neighbors will help each other find the products and services that provide superior value at lower cost.

Social marketing isn’t about new technology, or new advertising, or new anything. It’s about getting back to the fundamentals.

It’s back to the future, baby. Will you be ready?

Related articles by Zemanta

• Protecting Planet Earth – one PDF document at a time… (blogs.adobe.com)
• Conserving Water ” As Important as Conserving Energy (wealthyways4you.com)
• The Ford Story: Green – Fun to Drive fuel efficient vehicles | The Ford Story (tsurch.com)
• Tropicana Orange Juice Calculates Its Carbon Footprint (takepart.com)
• ‘Green’ Plastics Could Help Reduce Carbon Footprint (innovationtoronto.com)

Tagged as: Ben McConnell, Business, Carbon Cycle, Carbon footprint, Carbon Management, Charlie O'Donnell, Environment