From Building Brands comes this parable about the power of branding (I took some liberties with it):

You go to a party and you see an attractive girl across the room. You go up to her and say, “Hi, I’m great in bed, how about it?”
That’s Advertising.

You go to a party and you see an attractive girl across the room. You talk to a friend about it. She goes up and says “Hi, my friend over there is great in bed, how about it?”
That’s Media Relations.

You go to a party and see an attractive girl across the room. You recognize her. You walk up to her, refresh her memory and get her to laugh and giggle and then suggest, “Hi, I’m great in bed, how about it?”
That’s Public Relations

You go to a party and you see an attractive girl across the room. You stand straight, you talk soft and smooth, you open the door for the ladies, you smile like a dream, you set an aura around you playing the Mr. Gentleman and then you move up to the girl and say, “Hi, I’m great in bed, how about it?”
That’s Selling.

You go to a party, you see an attractive girl across the room. SHE COMES OVER and says, “Hi, I hear you’re great in bed, how about it?”
Now THAT is the power of Branding.

The Soccer World Cup in Germany this summer will not just be a fight among the world’s top football teams, but between Adidas’ conventional mass-marketing approach and Nike’s new digital, viral marketing strategy. As the official sponsor of the games, Adidas is spending $200 million on an all out mass-marketing blitz. Meanwhile, Nike has partnered with Google in an attempt to create a social network for soccer fans at “Joga.com.” The ambitious project will be rolled out to 140 countries in 14 languages and models the successful MySpace. Soccer fans can set up their own blogs, swap videos, chat, upload pictures, get news, create their own online clubs, get access to exclusive interviews with Nike’s stable of soccer stars, etc. Joga.com is named after the Brazilian phrase “joga bonito”, or “play,” and is available through invitation only. Even if Nike will only reach one percent of the audience of MySpace, they will be in good shape. Consider these staggering statistics about MySpace (reported by Steve Rubel): It is the largest online social networking portal on the web, with 61 + million registered users, it’s the second largest destination on the web, by page views, it splits 50.2% male, 49.8% female, and attracts 220,000 new registrants daily. During the time you read this post, 150 new members signed up on MySpace. You can’t blame Nike for trying to get into this social network space. I’ll be rooting for team U.S., team Sweden and Nike this summer!

Business Week had an interesting article this week about a new breed of officers in the C-suite: The Chief Innovation Officer. The “I” in CIO is now “Innovation.” Companies as diverse as Citigroup and Coca-Cola have appointed such high-level innovation czars. The new CIO role brings strategy, marketing and R&D together. According to the article, candidates with marketing backgrounds frequently fill these positions. Their responsibilities are usually broader than new product development, including the development of new business models, fresh customer insights and more creative corporate cultures. There’s been a four-fold increase of this position in the last three years, with most of that growth coming in the past 18 months. It can always be argued that innovation is the responsibility of the C.E.O. I still think the idea of a Chief Innovation Officer makes perfect sense. It can never hurt to have an additional member of the leadership team in charge of an integrated long-term view of the customer and the brand.