E1FFIRS_1 09/03/2008 5 ThE Cool Factor BUILDING YOUR BRAND’S IMAGE ________________ THROUGH ________________ PARTNERSHIP MARKETING DElBrEckEnfEld John Wiley & Sons, Inc. E1FFIRS_1 09/03/2008 4 E1FFIRS_1 09/04/2008 1 Advance Praise for The Cool Factor ‘‘Del Breckenfeld’s, The Cool Factor gets the inside story on the music business partnering with major corporations fueling their brands.’’ —Billy F Gibbons, guitarist, singer, and songwriter with the multiplatinum ZZ Top and all around ‘‘Sharp Dressed Man.’’ ‘‘The Cool Factor presents a compelling picture on the power of music as a motivator—not just for marketing purposes, but more impor- tantly, for understanding how music making at all ages enriches our everyday lives.’’ —Joe Lamond, President & CEO, NAMM ‘‘In the Cool Factor, Del Breckenfeld shows us first hand how to get celebrities to partner with corporations for the purpose of positive outreach. Del and Fender have personally shared their expertise with us throughout the course of many years, specifically helping us raise significant funds for families devastated by Hurricane Katrina. We salute Del and strongly urge readers to pick up this book. It will help you discover how a brand can effectively be catapulted to new heights through partnership marketing with ‘cool’ products, musicians, and events.’’ —Don Felder, former lead guitarist and songwriter of The Eagles, best-selling author of Heaven and Hell: My Life in the Eagles (1974–2001) ‘‘Del Breckenfeld knows cool. Fender, the brand he oversees, has such a high cool factor that even millions of non-musicians aspire to use its products. I love The Cool Factor—both the book and the idea. It’s what most boring and predictable marketing is lacking today. Read it to find out how cool is your most effective secret weapon and learn how to add it to your marketing arsenal.’’ —David Meerman Scott, author of The New Rules of Marketing and PR and World Wide Rave E1FFIRS_1 09/03/2008 2 ‘‘Del has no equal when it comes to turning what’s hip into a hit. He’s that rare breed who’s mastered the art of combining the very best of music and film, and creating ripples of contagious enthusiasm wher- ever he goes. It’s time corporate America understood they can create and not just duplicate. The Cool Factor is the best big-picture primer I know for anyone looking to ‘widespread’ a little magic.’’ —Dave Philips, CEO, Corner of The Sky Entertainment, and Executive Producer, Evan Almighty and Where Music Meets Film, live from the Sundance film festival ‘‘A truly cool book that is so hot it can help turn any business into one people are talking about and sending money to. Read this one!’’ —Joe Vitale, author of The Attractor Factor and The Key E1FFIRS_1 09/03/2008 3 ThE Cool Factor E1FFIRS_1 09/03/2008 4 E1FFIRS_1 09/03/2008 5 ThE Cool Factor BUILDING YOUR BRAND’S IMAGE ________________ THROUGH ________________ PARTNERSHIP MARKETING DElBrEckEnfEld John Wiley & Sons, Inc. E1FFIRS_1 09/04/2008 6 Copyright # 2009 by Del Breckenfeld. All rights reserved. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey. Published simultaneously in Canada. 1 1 1 1 1 FENDER , STRATOCASTER , TELECASTER , SQUIER , GUILD , and the distinctive headstock and body designs commonly found on these guitars are trademarks of Fender Musical Instruments Corporation. JACKSON1 is a trademark of Jackson/Charvel 1 Manufacturing, Inc. GRETSCH is a trademark of Fred W. Gretsch Enterprises, Ltd. Used herein with express written permission. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600, or on the web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions. Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages. For general information on our other products and services or for technical support, please contact our Customer Care Department within the United States at (800) 762-2974, outside the United States at (317) 572-3993 or fax (317) 572-4002. Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. For more information about Wiley products, visit our web site at www.wiley.com. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data: Breckenfeld, Del, 1949– The cool factor : building your brand’s image through partnership marketing / Del Breckenfeld. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-470-37196-1 (cloth) 1. Branding (Marketing) 2. Brand name products. 3. Imagery (Psychology) I. Title. HF5415.1255.B74 2009 978-0-470-37196-1 2008020133 Printed in the United States of America. 10987654321 E1FFIRS_1 09/03/2008 7 Dedicated to my parents, Ed and Anne, who gave my brothers and I the dream, then the gift, of music E1FFIRS_1 09/03/2008 8 E1FTOC_1 09/03/2008 9 CONTENTS Acknowledgments xi About the Author xiii Introduction xv Chapter 1 The Birth of the Cool—A 101 Primer 1 Chapter 2 The Prime Marketing Motivators—Too Much of a Good or Bad Thing? 9 Chapter 3 Expanding Your Brand’s Identity— Partnership Marketing Outside Your Core Market 27 Chapter 4 We Will, We Will, Rock You—Marketing to the Big Beat 51 Chapter 5 The Recording Industry—An Endangered Species or Emerging Opportunity for Marketing Partnerships? 83 ix E1FTOC_1 09/04/2008 10 x Contents Chapter 6 Product Placement—The Inside Story of Getting Your Brand into Movies and Television 107 Chapter 7 Event Marketing—Reaching Your Core Demo One-on-One 139 Chapter 8 Charitable Causes—Doing Good Things for the Right Reasons 159 Chapter 9 The Celebrity Quotient—How to Wrangle It, and How to Deal With It When You Do 175 Chapter 10 Promotions as an Excuse to Advertise— But We Don’t Really Need an Excuse, Do We? 191 Chapter 11 California Dreaming—The Essence of The Cool Factor in Partnership Marketing 201 Chapter 12 Putting It All Together—Real-Time Examples 215 Chapter 13 The Future of Partnership Marketing— Riding the Wave of a Trend and Trying Not to Wipe Out 229 Liner Notes 247 Index 255 E1FLAST01_1 09/03/2008 11 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS efore writing this, my first book, I had no idea how many B people would be instrumental in bringing it to reality through their dedicated efforts and support—and now I do. Thanks to Bill Mendello, Rich Kerley, Bill Cummiskey, Jason Padgitt, Richard McDonald, Andy Rossi, and my boss, Mark VanVleet, from Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, who, at one time or another, had enough trust to allow me to expand the boundaries of what a musical instrument manufacturer could do. Also from FMIC, my hard-working and loyal assistant, Dave Collins, who jumped head first into this extremely challenging (but he will admit rewarding) department, entertainment mar- keting, and never ceases to amaze me with his seemingly endless drive and positive energy. And thanks to Paul Jernigan, Alex Perez, Rich Siegle, Tony Franklin, Justin Norvell, Keith Davis, Chris Suffolk, Lee Holtry, Gayle Castro, Rose Bishop, Kristy Swanson, Ryan Davidson, Larry, Hector, Carlos, Luis, and all my other friends at Fender who work so hard to keep our brand at the top. Thanks, too, to former Fender family members: Bob Heinrich, John Page, Jack Shelton, Al Guzman, Dan Smith, Keith Brawley, Rick Anderson, Bruce Bolen Sr., Chuck Hem- ich, and Joe Baffa, all of whom placed their trust in me as well. Special thanks to my ex-boss Ritchie Fliegler (who I’m sure at this moment is cruisin’ with the top down somewhere in the Arizona desert in his 1964 Rangoon Red Ford Thunderbird), who shared the vision that the Fender brand should have the same power outside our industry that we have within, and had xi E1FLAST01_1 09/03/2008 12 xii Acknowledgments the bravado to prove it. And to the late Bill Shultz, who I am convinced that, without him, Fender would have never found the light following the dark days under CBS. I am grateful for the many wonderful friends and associates I have worked with over the years in our industry—Elliot Ken- dall at Ume, Scotty Finck at Hollywood Records, Jeff Yapp and Carrie Bantin at MTV Networks, Jody Glisman-Best, formerly of Capitol EMI, Liz Erman at Warner’s, the Jetsyn twins and their gang at Pier 3 Entertainment, Spencer Proffer and Steve Plunkett at Meteor 17, Joe Lamond, Dominique Agnew, Morgan Ringwald, and Jeff ‘‘Jelly’’ Livingston at NAMM; Warren Weideman, Mimi Clarke, and Gary Arnold at Best Buy; Dave Philips at Edmonds Entertainment, and all the record labels, managers, and incredible artists I have had the pleasure to know.