How Poor Pricing Strategy Killed A Great Brand

Slick 50 as you may know is a synthetic engine oil treatment that purports to enhance automotive horsepower and performance by preventing sludge build-up and fighting ethanol water damage. At one time it claimed to increase vehicle mileage. Its one of the more lucrative products sold at automotive parts retailers.

We were hired by a leading automotive chemical firm to create a Slick 50 product knockoff that would be sold in AutoZone. Having created thousands of successful automotive chemical products for this firm, we were up for the task.

We were charged with creating “Protect 100,” an unadvertised economical alternative to Slick 50, that had real Teflon® brand as an additive. Slick 50 sold for $21.50 but cost just over a dollar to manufacture and put on shelf.

In Marketing classes they teach us that “Pricing” is one of the critical “P’s” that we must get right for any brand to succeed, and the professors were right. We sold in Protect 100 with an MSRP at $18.49 – roughly four bucks cheaper than the competition at shelf.

Our value proposition was simple: Customers would come through the AutoZone doors driven by Slick 50 advertising and when they get to the shelf, they are confronted with a very similar looking product with real Teflon® brand ingredients for a few bucks less. We saw a winner.

Customers agreed and Protect 100 flew off the shelves at a much higher rate than Slick 50. Within weeks, we had sold $15M in product and had one of top selling sku’s in AutoZone stores nationwide. Life was good.

But the AutoZone buyer wasn’t happy. It seemed that our price was too high. As a buyer, he knew what our client’s ingredients and packaging costs were and demanded a giant price reduction. After weeks of tense negotiations, our client agreed under duress to slash the Protect 100 MSRP down to $13.49 per unit.

Immediately we saw sales nosedive. Customers no longer saw Protect 100 as a parity product to Slick 50. In fact, AutoZone customers now believed that Slick 50 at $21.50 was a far superior product to Protect 100 now priced at $13.49. The obvious price difference led customers to believe that the two products were clearly not the same quality of ingredients even though in reality, Protect 100 was just as good or better.

The brand died a swift death shortly after the price slashing. The takeaway is that the right pricing will make or break your brand.

Contact us at ThatBrandGuy.com to see what we can do for your brand.

Fake News, or Great PR?

With all the fuss about “Fake News” going around, one must realize that we’ve always had “Fake News” around us. I'm not talking about news stories that are completely made up, I'm talking about heavy "Spin." In our business, it’s called Public Relations.

And all great stories begin with a few grains of truth that make the story believable in the reader's mind. The rest is simply the spin you put on the story that shapes it in the most positive light.

A good PR story is an interesting read, and “Spin” has been with us since the dawn of time. Eric the Red helped settle a new land he called “Greenland” which would have sounded like heaven to those living in a place called “Iceland.”

Napoleon fought a battle in a tiny, insignificant Egyptian town in called “Embabeh” that was 8 miles away from Gizeh and its Pyramids. But Bonaparte understood great PR, and named the skirmish, The Battle of the Pyramids, (instead of the Battle of Embabeh) but also hired an artist to paint himself on a horse surrounded by his glorious troops at the foot of The Great Pyramid itself. As Winston Churchill once said; “History is written by the victors.”

Politicians tell their stories in much the same manner. Here’s an example of great PR spin that snopes.com refutes as blatantly false, but it’s a wonderful and humorous depiction of a PR man making the best out of a bad situation. The story goes like this…

Judy Wallman, a professional genealogy researcher here in southern California, was doing some personal work on her own family tree. She discovered that Harry Reid's great-great uncle, Remus Reid, was hanged for horse stealing and train robbery in Montana in 1889. Both Judy and Harry Reid share this common ancestor. 

The only known photograph of Remus shows him standing on the gallows in Montana territory. On the back of the picture Judy obtained during her research is this inscription: 'Remus Reid, horse thief, sent to Montana Territorial Prison 1885, escaped 1887, robbed the Montana Flyer six times. Caught by Pinkerton detectives, convicted and hanged in 1889.' 

So Judy recently e-mailed Congressman Harry Reid for information about their great-great uncle. Believe it or not, Harry Reid's staff sent back the following biographical sketch for her genealogy research: 

'Remus Reid was a famous cowboy in the Montana Territory. His business empire grew to include acquisition of valuable equestrian assets and intimate dealings with the Montana railroad. Beginning in 1883, he devoted several years of his life to government service, finally taking leave to resume his dealings with the railroad. In 1887, he was a key player in a vital investigation run by the renowned Pinkerton Detective Agency. In 1889, Remus passed away during an important civic function held in his honor when the platform upon which he was standing collapsed.'

So the next time you come across “Fake News” – just smile and remember, it’s probably just great PR. 

Brand Names That Kill

Years ago I had a client that came to me with the super green vision of creating a futuristic multi-state recycling center. They had secured $300M in funding and purchased several miles of property along a major railroad spur that served a five state area and ran through a small town in a county that bordered Memphis TN.

They had extensive plans laid out that accounted for separating each type of material from ferromagnetic and non-magnetic metals to colored and non-colored glass, tires and rubber, several types of plastics and various other materials.

All material would be separated mechanically by an automated process and broken down into base materials that would be resold. A less than 1% minimal residue would be left over after the separation process and this material would be buried in a landfill with extensive environmental precautions taken to prevent material leaching into the environment.

You really couldn’t ask for a better green solution to the ever-increasing landfills that served the area. This firm even had proposed purchasing the raw landfill from other landfills to mine and recycle the metal, glass, paper and plastics – effectively reducing the landfill across a five state area.

The firm had created a boon for local business, with agreements in place with large firms willing to bring jobs to the area and build factories near the recycling center that would buy the recycled materials at a fraction of the cost of purchasing virgin material.

What was the firms’ name? Profill was historically in the landfill business, and had a solid reputation. The firm’s lawyers moved ahead with their paperwork to secure the proper local and state permits and begin work registered under the Profill name. Management thought they would have several years until the doors opened to come up with the firm’s final name, branding and marketing.

However, local residents who knew nothing about the firm became spooked by newspaper articles with a firm named Profill coming to town, and visions of a giant landfill in their back yard caused a massive local backlash that went all the way to the state capital fighting this horror of horrors. No one wanted a five state landfill in their back yard, and neighbors petitioned everyone they could find touting the pollution, the stench and the hazardous dumping they feared would all come to their backyard.

Profill was 99% recycling and 1% landfill, but they never got to tell their story to the public. Their name said “Professional Landfill,” and that was all the neighbors needed to hear to make up their minds. Profill was a promise to the community to become the green recycling model of the country, to drive a huge influx of jobs and to clean up the landfills of a multi state area, all the while becoming one of the largest recycled raw material exporters in the nation.

Poor branding changed all of that. The dream of a world-class green recycling center would never be. Had the firm started off with a new brand name that reflected the positive nature of a best-in-class green recycling and environmentally friendly firm, all would be better off today.

The takeaway is for any business is this; get your branding and marketing right before you start. Creating a business first and branding it later on can be massively expensive or kill you like it did Profill.

Aflac was founded in 1955, and spent four decades struggling with a name that customers could not remember or pronounce. Prior to 2000, just 1 in 10 people in the United States were familiar with the insurance company.

But in 2000, that all changed. Aflac introduced its new duck mascot to help customers pronounce and remember their name, and today, nine out of 10 people know the Aflac brand.

If you’d like to get off on the right foot with your branding efforts, give us a call. We’ve successfully done this a time or two and have helped originate a dozen or so global brands from scratch that today lead their category in sales.

There’s no time like the New Year to start maximizing your sales efforts.  

Contact us at ThatBrandGuy.com to see what we can to for your brand.

Conformers & Rebels; The Yin and the Yang of American Culture

It has been said that voting is like eating in a bad restaurant… Regardless of what you order, you always get food poisoning.

Whoever your candidate was, John Wayne has given us the clarity and insight to move forward with his words; "Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It’s perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we’ve learned something from yesterday."

So with the 2016 election now behind us, let’s back look at our cultural path that forged two great post war era forces that emerged from vapor to define the Yin and the Yang of the American landscape to come, that continue to shape society and our culture into the first century of our 3rd millennium – the Conformity and Counter Culture movements.

David Ogilvy and the 1950’s Madison Avenue advertising mavericks of Mad Men lore painted a canvas on early television that drove consumerism to its zenith. Suddenly the power of advertising drove families to want the same things, drive the same cars, buy the same electric refrigerators and wear the same latest fashions. While the creators of this advertising challenged the world with new and diverse ideas, their work’s effect on the public assured a culture of mass conformity that continues to drives us a generation later to have the same designer handbags, and own the latest iPhone.

But just a few blocks away from Ogilvy in Greenwich Village, a bohemian counter culture was emerging of those who shunned consumerism, searching instead for the meaning in life down a more authentic and artistic path. What emerged would later be called the Beat Generation, where we had much to learn about ourselves from bums, prostitutes and prophets “On the Road” with Jack Kerouac.

While the righteous conformers move to the suburbs to compete with their neighbors for the latest brands, the bohemian rebels were expressing their individualism with their impulsive and flawed sprits. Brando and Dean defined what it meant to be a badass, Monk’s “Straight, No Chaser” laid the soundtrack for this new generation that Pollack would soon visualize on canvas.

Hence the origins of the Yin and the Yang of the American landscape that drives our culture today – the consuming conformers and the counter culture rebels.

Here’s wishing all of you the best for the coming New Year; all the consumer goods your family needs and the artistic rebel attitude to enjoy it well.

How Could the Election Polls Have Gotten it so Wrong?

I asked my friend and research guru Ty Ragland "What happened to the election polls this year and how could they have gone so wrong?" Here's his answer...

Market Research/Polling

Since failed polls have been getting a lot of press, I would like to weigh in on that subject.

·     Polls are not predictions, rather snapshots.  Extraneous events can happen as did this year (FBI).  

·     Polls work best when two conventional candidates are facing off.

·     They don’t work as well when the context is a change-election and or cause-election.  Both happened in 2016 and are quite emotionally-driven.  Trump had the stronger “cause.”

The best quote I have seen recently is “data alone doesn’t give you the information you need.”  This means numbers are not the same as knowledge.  We still need to know what data means to us.  The most common need is to learn the “why?” behind the “what.” Political strategists prefer nose counts (are we ahead or behind?) since they are experts on everything else.       

The populist dynamic of this campaign wasn’t really that hard to anticipate if one had asked the right questions and had a receptive audience.  Since political strategists are classic “experts” with established ways of doing things, those on Hillary’s side would not have been open to the message.  They probably are now for future elections.  

It’s not just about Google Rankings Anymore.

Google is no longer the only search engine people use. Sure, it’s the big go to search engine for generic searching, but we frequently use a myriad of specialized search engines to find the niche category search results we seek.

For example:

• Amazon is a search engine for shopping.
• EBay is a search engine for second hand bargains.
• Pinterest is a search engine for decorating and idea generation.
• Etsy is a search engine for handmade crafts.
• Facebook is a search engine for friends & family.
• Twitter is a search engine for topical commentary.
• YouTube is a search engine for video content.

It's still critical to optimize your website for Google, but it' equally as important to optimize your presence across the web. 

You Can’t Brand a CatDog

You Can’t Brand a CatDog

Brand messaging is the canary in the mineshaft. If you are having trouble creating a focused brand message that appeals to all within your target audience, it may be an indication that your business is not focused enough on winning and owning a narrow market niche.

Business success stems from identifying a profitable narrow market niche where you do one thing really well. Brands do not succeed who try to be everything to everybody across a diverse customer group. A strong brand has a specific brand promise to one core target audience. A brand cannot serve multiple core target audiences with diverse needs, as your brand messaging can only deliver one promise to one core target audience.

Ferrari is successful because it serves one niche very well; it makes fast, red, sexy, very expensive sports cars. There are lots of other types of cars out there that Ferrari does not make. This is because the Ferrari brand targets and serves just this narrow niche within the automotive marketplace. The Ferrari brand and its integrity are valued because they focus on serving this one narrow core niche market.

Sure, Ferrari could temporarily sell more cars if they widened their customer focus. If the Ferrari brand ever made a $22K station wagon they would likely sell a few to those outside their core target audience, but within a short period of time, the brand would become worthless as no one would buy their million dollar sports cars. Who wants to see a $22K Ferrari family station wagon pull up next to their $1M sports car? Widening the core target audience serves the needs of those who are not your core target audience and your brand no longer retains its focus and customer promise to your core target. When those who paid dearly for the brand promise of Ferrari exclusivity are no longer served and the brand dies.

Chevrolet has this exact branding problem - what is a Chevy? Is it the most dependable full size pickup on the road (Silverado)? Is it the (Corvette) poor man's Ferrari? Is it a family vehicle? Is it a green, eco-friendly battery powered car (Volt)? Actually- the brand stands for all those things and therefore it says nothing to anyone and the brand becomes meaningless in the customer's mind. BMW’s “The Ultimate Driving Machine” means something to the customer, where “Chevy” does not.

It’s human nature to want to sell to everyone who comes to your door. But this is a grave mistake.

If you are in the restaurant business, there are many food niches within this business sector including upscale fine dining and fast food. Would you go to a restaurant that tries to serve both of these customers, or would you go to the restaurant that focuses on doing one of those specialties really well? Of course you would go to the specialist.

Trying to accommodate both upscale dining and fast food under one roof is a “Cat/Dog” business. It is attempting to serve two very different target audiences that expect two very different deliverables based on two very different brand promises. One brand cannot deliver on two different promises. Your customer promise is either “fast” or “upscale.” Business niche focus is key to success. From a resources perspective, no one has the time, talent, focus and and money to simultaneously build, launch, fund and run two diametrically opposed businesses at once to serve both groups successfully.

To be successful, avoid the Cat/Dog path and select the most profitable business sector of interest that you can own where you will change the world. Find the 20% part of the market that drives 80% of the profit in a niche.

1. Select and serve one defined core profitable target niche serving one set of customer needs with one set of branding and messaging.

2. That we decide what we want to be and who we are.

3. Than decide: Why we matter? And why we are unique?

What do we offer that is highly desired?

When we agree upon and have answered these three questions - we are ready to move forward with with branding and messaging.

The Zombie Generation

The Zombie Generation

What we have all witnessed on a daily basis starting prior to 2011 is nothing less than a total disconnect of the Millennial generation from the centuries old tradition of human to human communication. They have instead chosen to interact and engage with the technology within their mobile device or another’s mobile device.

I call this clear choice to worship technology and user interface over the presence of other humans the fourth phase of our conversion to a total virtual reality.

For millions of years the campfire served as our first social gathering place for social exchange. Then the radio, followed by Television came into our living rooms and started this trend away from direct human interaction. With Radio and TV, we all experienced a shared virtual experience. But Millennials have taken this a step further into the realm of isolated experiences, where those in close proximity are not aware, care nor share the same perception of reality.

Therefore, I hereby deem Millennials: “The Zombie Generation.” We’ve all seen it – the office meeting room where those under 35 are looking down, thumbs flying, totally engrossed with their personal device and not mentally present in the discussion carried out by the rest of the room’s occupants.

Some have called this the “Alone Together Phenomenon” where groups of young “Zombies” get together to quietly enjoy separate personal experiences on their phones, and are not aware or responsive to the world immediately surrounding them.

Strangely, the double paradox of Steve Jobs has led us to Zombieville. As a man who connected the world with his devices, Steve was reportedly lacking somewhat in the emotional arena, and a bit of an isolationist. In some ways, Jobs connected the world but at the same time unplugged a generation from experiencing traditional normal human relationships.

The new religion of the Zombie Generation (ZG’s) is the worship and infatuation with the mobile device. They sleep with it next to them, and “checking in” is the first action of their day. ZG’s can go without food, sex, human interaction and even bathroom breaks for long periods of time while burning up their mobile minutes.

We are connected to a world far away, yet we have lost the world around us. Our lives now exist in a closed world, isolated from scent, touch and taste. The Zombie Generation uses only sight, sound and the occasional thumbs hitting buttons on cold glass. What would Walt Whitman think?

To ZG’s, our national parks are now relegated to a Google Map review or share. The moon landing occurs in a place called YouTube, and those next to us become irrelevant. We have become apathetic to each others existence, as others simply exist in time and space next to us, we each delve into our world of virtual reality.

Sadly, the decision to go “Zombie” is not a conscious one, but a cultural one created by shared peer learning spurred by broken families and busy parents with less time to spend with their children. What will happen to the Zombie child who at some point in life, decides to have its own children. Will they beget more generations of Zombie kids, or will they remiss at some point in age and desire a human relationship with their Zombie kids? Maybe we will each have our own headgear and meet at the family virtual dinner table?

From the marketer’s perspective, the Zombie Generation is a true nightmare and horror story. In the Radio and TV era, you could reach the majority of citizens with one commercial spot. The Zombie Generation however, are not paying attention to the same reality around them.

As they each walk the earth in search of their own interests, ZG’s must be reached individually, so although digital marketing costs are much less than traditional marketing costs, the marketers cost per impression and reach complexity, escalates with each zombie. As our media channels ever expand, marketers will be searching for the new Holy Grail: Cost effective ways to individually reach The Zombie Generation.

The Branding Genius of Donald Trump

Photo by Tim Ransom

The Branding Genius of Donald Trump

How Branding is defining the 2016 Election

Many speculate upon Donald Trumps many successes in connecting with the common man. From a strategic perspective, much of his success is derived from branding. Trump is simply the only political candidate adept at branding himself, and therefore he has resonated magnetically with a wide group of Americans. Here are a few of “The Donald’s” branding methods that have helped fuel his success.

1. Repetition:

The Donald always repeats his key points at least twice and generally three times, slowly and well enunciated while pointing a finger to visually drive the point home. What do we learn in advertising? That repetition is what drives home the message. “The Donald” is a master at making phrases memorable.

2. Simplicity:

The Donald uses a very limited set of words when speaking. In fact, his total vocabulary is considerably smaller than any other political opponent. When he speaks, he uses ordinary words that are common and easily understood by adults and children. Trump would say, “I’m a really smart guy,” where Cruz might say “He’s a highly regarded intellectual thinker.” Simple words resonate. The majority of Trumps’ favorite dozen words are one or two syllable words like: Very, China, Wall, Win, and Money. “Mexico” is the only three-syllable word he frequently uses.

3. Power Words:

Trump has yet an even smaller set of favorite common words that he uses very frequently to effectively define people and situations, such as: “Totally, Dangerous, Phenomenal, Tremendous, Win, Far Worse, L-ooo-ser and M-ooo-ron.” If you listen to high school students, you will hear this form of direct and effective speech. It’s highly limited in scope, and commonly used as an adjective to praise or as a negatively to stereotype opponents. This art form is almost “Twitter-like,” a shorthand vernacular that support his arguments. Trump is using “power words” to brand people and situations into memorable sound bytes.

4. Selfless Self Promotion

Trump is the embodiment of self-promotion. His favorite word is “I.” His fourth-favorite word is “Trump.”

5. Branding Himself

No other candidate has branded themselves well. Hillary consistently searches for anything that resonates and always ends up following whatever is working for Bernie this week, while Cruz and Rubio verbally jab at each other to own the “Most Conservative”, or “Most Evangelical” mantle.” But these are not brand promises or brand positioning, they are simply a posture, and neither has a brand that they are known for.

Trump however, is known for several things, because he has wrapped the Trump brand in a promise to deliver several things of key importance to his constituents.

1. “He will build the wall and make Mexico pay for it.”

2. “He will Make America Great Again.”

3. “He will totally protect Israel.”

And the list goes on. Trump has provided multiple highly valued brand promises, while the other candidates have zero brand positioning and stand for nothing concrete or memorable. The exception is the “If elected, I will repeal Obamacare” mantra, but this position is claimed by many candidates and not unique to any one candidate.

6. Branding Others

Trump not only brands himself, but he brands others as well that have not put a stake in the ground to define themselves. Jeb Bush remained an un-defined brand in the debates, and because of this, Trump was easily able to define and mold the Bush brand into “low energy“ and Bush never recovered.

7. Pride, A Powerful Basic Human Instinct

Branding experts drive customer action utilizing basic human instincts. Sex sells everything from auto parts to alcohol. Fear sells insurance and you’re buying Gluttony when you super-size your fast food.

One of the most powerful basic instincts is human pride. Although no nation in the history of the planet has ever been so generous, Americans have been oversaturated with apologetic politicians blaming them for every possible wrong doing across time, from the “privilege” of their skin color to the planet’s fluctuating temperature. No instinct is more powerful than that of personal pride. For centuries men have fought duels and waged war to protect a bruised ego.  

Trump’s brand promise is to “Make America Great Again.” This nationalist mantra rings true to flyover America who want their pride back more than anything else, and that’s why Trump continues to grow his following.

8. Trump Changes the Paradigm

Trump can be counted on not to follow the path of the rest of the sheep, He frequently breaks out of the gate and into open fields where he has the advantage. When Fox sets up a debate scenario that Trump believes is not beneficial to him, he simply refuses to participate in the event, astonishing the rest of the sheep. Trump writes; ”The point is that if you are a little different, or a little outrageous, or if you do things that are bold or controversial, the press is going to write about you.” (The Art of the Deal). In the world of branding, we call this brand positioning. Remember 7UP – the UnCola? If you position yourself directly opposite of the competition, you own that market position.

9. That Hair

Yes, it’s a comb-over, duck backed, miracle of nature, but The Donald’s hair-do is a defining and unique brand trait. Remember “Carrot Top,” and Shaun White, “The Flying Tomato?” They used their unique hair as an instantly recognizable brand identifier. Off the top of my head, I cannot think of any other of the 7 Billion people on the planet that share that signature yellow hue. In branding – unique equals memorable.

10. Syllabic Accent

“CH-ina, L-ooo-ser, M-ooo-ron.” Trump has a unique way of expressing words by harshly emphasizing the first syllables and holding vowels longer than a Mississippi preacher. Once again defining his brand with unique and memorable attributes.

Trump’s savvy branding, positioning and brand strategy are turning out to shape this political election. Until the competition understands that their total lack of brand comprehension is why they are being beaten in double digits in the polls, Trump will continue to teach them the hard lessons of the basics of branding.

- “If I get my name in the paper, if people pay attention, that’s what matters.” (Donald Trump: Master Apprentice).

Trump's clear advantage in branding genius combined with his opponent's lack of any coherent brand strategy will likely lead to a victory despite what the media may spin.
 

The Muscle Shoals Effect

For any of you music aficionados out there, none of this is news. But for the rest of us, this will hopefully be an awakening revelation of understanding as to what can happen when one man is placed within a certain time and space.

For this story, that time was the late 1950’s, and the space was a tiny city of 8,000, called Muscle Shoals, Alabama. From its first wax cutting, the birth of the Muscle Shoals sound was unique. The delivery room was 603 East Avalon Avenue, in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, where a non-descript roadside building sprouts from the red Alabama clay. It was miles from nowhere, but yet, history sees this as a special place. “It’s an enigma.” Says Steve Winwood.

The letters “FAME STUDIOS” were emblazoned across the building façade. Now generally, you would think that this “off the beaten path” building was named by a proprietor whose dreams of grandeur had overtaken his sense of reality, but in this case, you would be dead wrong.

For the owner was a man driven to be somebody. That somebody was Rick Hall, who grew up in a single parent shack without running water, a dirt floor and an oil drum heater that kept them warm while sleeping on straw they pulled from the fields. Rick hated the poverty that confined and defined him and the want and desire to be someone special drove him to achieve greatness.

But this story is about where great creative magic comes from, and how a barefoot, back-woods boy lived through personal tragedies of extreme poverty, and first a brother and then a wife’s death, with nothing but a dream and self determination to create what would come to be called: The Muscle Shoals Sound.

Just as his Memphis contemporary, Sam Phillips of Sun Records was winding down the hits and closing the doors at 706 Union, Jim Stewart of Memphis Stax Records and Rick Hall of Fame in Muscle Shoals had sent a new sound across the ocean to Liverpool and Dublin.

Rick Hall opened his doors in a little town resting on the North Western tip of Alabama. Here, many of the first songs cut by The Beatles and The Rolling Stones were remakes of the original Muscle Shoals classic sounds that emanated from the voices of Aretha Franklin, Percy Sledge, Wilson Pickett and others.

Four local white boys called “The Swampers” played back up to local black talent during the civil rights era in the South. That same mixture of black and white musicians working together also fueled the Memphis Stax sound. Fame & Stax each defined their own unique R&B sound. “Its like the sounds come out of the mud” – Bono

But the sound coming out of Muscle Shoals was so great it became a giant magnet that drew people from around the world including Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, The Osmond’s, Cher, Elton John, Willie Nelson, Paul Simon, Glenn Fry and others. Muscle Shoals went on to discover the Allman Brothers who pitched a tent outside of The Swampers’ building. Lynyrd Skynyrd cut Sweet Home Alabama and of course, the most requested song in the history of rock music; Freebird. Muscle Shoals had given birth to a new genre in American Music; Southern Rock, and The South had found its new national anthem. 

This tiny town shook the music world and drew global talent to itself like flies to a cut watermelon on a hot Alabama scorcher. This is what I call the Muscle Shoals effect; when a location that seemingly offers nothing unique, suddenly becomes the heart and soul of an industry due to nothing but one man's’ vision and sheer determination against all odds. His belief was that if you’re alive – you can make that difference, no matter where you are – that difference is in you.

So all of this was due to one man and his desire to be somebody, and more than anything, to be shown respect. Which is either fitting or ironic that the Swampers were flown to NYC to record the mega-hit R-E-S-P-E-C-T with Aretha Franklin. It just goes to show you what a little respect will do to power your creativity.