Starbucks fans may be as close to KISS fans as you can get in the world of corporate branding. They parade down the street sipping from their Starbucks cups. They spew out orders the way KISS fans shout the words to “Rock and Roll All Night,” sharing a special language that includes such words as venti, nonfat cap, skinny, grande, and Frappucino. And although attending your first Starbucks concert-er, ordering at a Starbucks for the first time-can be intimidating, new fans quickly become part of the community of other Starbucks zealots, often while surfing on their Wi Fi enabled laptops.

How do Starbucks and KISS do it? With the right combination of product, atmospherics, and cast interaction. In addition to selling a functionally excellent product, Starbucks makes people feel part of a community or culture with an in store experience providing individualized attention, service, options, and recognition.

Maintain and Adapt Great Brands It’s More Profitable than Inventing New Ones One critically important truth rises from analyzing legendary rock bands-maintaining, adapting, and improving a band’s existing “product” is usually more rewarding than inventing a completely new one. Many recording labels have forgotten this lesson. In the early days they invested time and patience in the brands of their new stars, accepting a gradual rise to stardom. Today, if success isn’t meteoric and if that success level isn’t maintained, bands move to their label’s second class citizen list or are dropped altogether. The label then looks for and markets the next new thing, forgoing a long term view of the impact of the brand on the market. Individual artists have learned this lesson, however. Just as KISS’s success diminished after it abandoned its full makeup product, Prince lost a substantial portion of his following when he strayed too far from his core sound.

There are several ways legendary rock bands forge and foster emotional connections with their fans, including: S Practice reverse customer intimacy. While much of corporate America is focused on CRM programs that help companies understand their customers better, many bands find ways to let fans get to know them more intimately. The better fans know a band through special information and personal experiences, the more likely they are to maintain a relationship with it. Aerosmith allows customers to get to know the band more intimately with remote staging and backstage tour packages, helping fans feel that they have a special relationship to the band. When the affective (emotional) components of attitudes toward a brand are firmly anchored in the cognitive (knowledge) components of an attitude, they are highly resistant to change or competitive encroachment.

S Keep angel fans engaged. Angel fans discover bands before they become stars, investing time, money and emotion in the success of the band. They take pride in the ultimate success of the band and are rewarded with bragging rights for picking a winning brand. John Mayer, 2003 Grammy winner, tells his angel fans to take tape recorders to his concerts and tape his music, which keeps them engaged in the concert experience and helps them create memories. This actually increases the likelihood that fans will buy the CD, because they will want a good quality version of what they heard live. Whether it’s the KISS Army or the Talking Heads intellectual crowd, harnessing the support of angel fans is key to the adoption of new products ranging from Google to JetBlue.

Now, compare that to Velveeta. Kraft certainly doesn’t have to do a lot of advertising for this product. It has its place in Americana, and it coasts merrily along on that sea of repeat purchases. When it comes time to replenish the Velveeta supply, what do consumers write on their shopping lists-processed cheese loaf or Velveeta? There really is no substitute. Its popularity is partially about consistency, but occasionally Kraft will shake it up a bit with innovations like Picante Velveeta, which, like Diamond’s new releases, is the same basic product consumers love but with a little kick. It’s a fact that Kraft sells tons of Velveeta, but Velveeta fans tend to be of the closet variety rather than an in your face breed.

Closet fans can be challenging to marketers. Their tendency is to be loyal but not to evangelize-a major benefit to companies that create fans. Hormel’s blockbuster brand, Spam, had a similar positioning. Thousands of people ate it, but not many wanted to admit it.

But with a tongue in cheek approach, the company launched a marketing and branding campaign that let people laugh at the product and the fact that they liked it. In essence, the company made Spam cool-or at least as cool as canned, processed meat can be. Now there are Spam cook offs, Spam recipes, Spam hats and T shirts, and Spam fans, who not only are out of the closet but are proud to shout their adoration for the stuff in the blue can.

Diamond established himself as part of the mainstream. Like Velveeta, he has capitalized on his place in American culture, reaping the financial rewards of doing something well and sticking with it.

Examining the brilliance of Diamond’s career uncovers some of the same values and marketing strategies that some of the world’s most enduring brands have used to stay profitable for decades. Those lessons include: S Connecting with a market segment and moving with it S Creating and maintaining emotional connections based on nostalgia and the comfort of familiarity S Understanding how values affect product, marketing, and management decisions.

The Neil Diamond product and marketing approach creates a musical brand that mirrors several successful consumer product brands. One in particular comes to mind-Neil Diamond is the Velveeta cheese of the world of rock and roll. And before all of you Diamond fans get your feathers too ruffled, let us explain. Upon announcing a tour, Diamond doesn’t need to rely on mass advertising to get the word out and sell tickets; word of mouth among fans does the trick. When you attend one of his concerts, you know what to expect; unlike KISS, there won’t be a lot of surprises, pyrotechnics, or fire breathing. There’s only one Neil Diamond, and people know his brand well. His new albums are likely to sound like those of the past, which is pleasing to most of his fans, yet he does release new material occasionally to keep in touch with them and keep them engaged. While we know legions of devotees exist, you might be hard pressed to find many who’ll fess up to being die hard Diamond fans. For most of the 50 and under group, such admittance seems a bit too schmaltzy, classifying Diamond more as someone their parents should like. Yet, when his tour hits their vicinity, these boomers will go-and, more important, they’ll love every minute they are there.

However, as eBay expands beyond a community of collectors and small traders, some angel fans are beginning to develop a love/hate relationship with the company, similar to the way some music fans feel if their bands create songs designed to be commercially successful rather than artistically superior. Often this is labeled selling out.

Aerosmith and eBay alike feel the solution to keeping fans happy is showing loyalty toward them; they’ve come to learn that faithful fans expect loyalty in return for their zealous support. Just as the band allows fan club members to buy tickets before they go on public sale and makes great seats available to them, eBay shows its appreciation to its angel fans by offering special perks. Most recently, the company began offering its Powersellers-those who sell more than $1,000 per month on the site-group health insurance.

Overall, the eBay Army continues its support of the company and its leader wholeheartedly, preaching the eBay gospel and acting as an unofficial sales arm of the company. With every convention and new transaction that occurs, eBay fans continue to add new chapters to their eBay storybooks, just as Aerosmith fans do with the release of each new album or announcement of a new tour. Though the Aerosmith hit “Angel” wouldn’t come until 1987, its lyrics and tone could easily be dedicated to the fans who have made the band the superstar that it is today. It is a declaration of needing someone who holds your happiness in his or her hands-the ultimate definition of a fan.

Livin’ on the Edge and Fallin’ Off After years of writing, recording, touring and selling, the band had reached what to most would be the pinnacle of success. In a article, Rolling Stone had this to say about Aerosmith: Aerosmith is a dinosaur among bands, the last of a generation of rock ‘n’ rollers being edged out by more streamlined competition like Boston, Foreigner, and Fleetwood Mac. What keeps Aerosmith rocking is their ability to relate to their loyal, largely male audience. Night after night, the band’s success or failure hinges on something that’s hard to package; they have to tap into a little of the teenage insanity that lures you to rock ‘n’ roll in the first place.” Aerosmith had completed a grueling tour schedule in 1978-selling out 50,000 to 60,000 seat stadium venues and playing with other giants such as Ted Nugent, Cheap Trick, Santana, and Heart. But the union of the band was worse for its wear. Drug abuse led to fights, infidelity, and physical problems (no matter how good you are, it’s difficult to perform when you’re passed out backstage).

Apple’s angel fans were quirky by nature. So was Apple, in its interface and attitude. Many of these fans became graphic designers, creative directors, and advertising executives, and Apple retained their loyalty with an evolved positioning that stayed connected to that group. Both were still quirky, just more grown up. Apple continued its off thebeaten path positioning by bringing out a line of brightly colored computers in 1998, which delighted its fans and allowed them to express their individuality and pride in being different.

eBay Angels Both Aerosmith’s and Apple’s angel fans invested time and energy in supporting their passion, and in turn, claimed partial responsibility for its success-and that’s what happened at eBay, as well. Call them fanatical, innovative, or just plain weird, eBay’s angel fans, known as the eBay Army, are a faithful bunch who live and breathe eBay, so much so that 5,500 of them showed up at the first company convention, held in June 2002.

There they met people they had traded with online, got autographs from CEO and idol Meg Whitman, and communed with other devoted eBay fans, telling stories of their virgin eBay trades and staking their own claims on the overall success of the company.

But not all was sweetness and light at the convention. As the company pushed to increase large corporate sales, courting giants such as Sears and IBM to sell their wares through the eBay channel, some mom and pop sellers felt a bit betrayed. eBay’s angel fans-the early collectors and traders who helped build the company from day one-wanted their role in the early success of the company to be recognized and valued. They not only watched the company go from $7.1 million net income in 1997 to $90.4 million in 2001, they traded on, talked about, and cheered for the company along the way. In this instance, the first mover advantage belongs not only to the unique company, but to the avid fans who were there from the beginning and have enjoyed the ride to corporate stardom.

Aerosmith’s angel fans have followed the group since its Sunapee days-spreading the word about the band, attending every show they could, and hounding record stores until they stocked Aerosmith records. In return, they got bragging rights and accumulated an interesting scrapbook of great stories. To this day, they take pride in the success of their band. Many of them talk in chat rooms about the concerts they attend and tattoo Aerosmith logos on their bodies.

An Affinity for Angel Fans The loyalty showered on Aerosmith is due in part to its understanding its fans in a way that CRM programs can’t duplicate and perhaps only corporate culture can. From the time they united, Aerosmith’s members well represented the collective voice of the kids of their generation, which made them different from most of the rock groups around during their early years and fostered a better connection to the wants of the market. They had an inherent marketing orientation and affinity for their angel fans.

Aerosmith’s members always dressed in funky clothes they found in little boutiques: hippie garb with an attitude-a little granola, a lot of cool. They all wore their hair too long; Tyler painted his nails; Perry dyed a blonde streak in his black mane. The group created a look that was difficult for others to emulate, let alone carry off without setting off a tidal wave of snickering. While they were different enough to get noticed, they were so representative of their audience that it made adoption of the band into their fans’ lives easy. The kids got it-and at a certain level, they were Aerosmith, and Aerosmith was them.

After months of generating pull through the channel, “Dream On” went on the Cashbox singles chart in October 1973, reaching number 43 during an 11 week run. The album finally got on the charts months after its release, but it only climbed to number 166. Though disappointing for the ambitious Tyler and Perry, it was a moral victory for the group-one which would tell Columbia and the industry that Aerosmith had created brand recognition and band loyalty with its rock and roll genre of grassroots marketing.

Courting Angel Fans Even though the early days were tough for the group, Aerosmith began developing one of its most important assets-angel fans, a term we use to describe fans who discover bands and brands before they become stars. Similar to angel investors who discover fledgling entrepreneurial ventures and swoop in with funds to help them grow and become viable market players, angel fans invest time and money by following a band from venue to venue, forging an emotional bond with the group.

Ultimately, they have an altruistic interest in its success, recognizing that although they may not be able to become rock stars, they can be involved with someone who can.

Angel fans enthusiastically cheer on their favorite bands from obscurity to fame, giving them the chance to tell their once skeptical friends “I told you so” and boast, “I first saw them when they couldn’t sell out Ben’s Bar and Bowl O Rama.” It is similar to how people like to talk about the stock they bought for $2 and sold for $65, giving them bragging rights on picking a winner early in the game. It’s the equivalent of following a high school star through the ranks of professional ball in sports. For consumers, it may be discovering a littleknown brand, buying from a store before others even know it exists, or pioneering a new way of shopping. The rewards for the faithful include being the first to experience or own something and capturing a reputation for being ahead of their time.

By the end of the night, fans feel emotionally charged and physically exhausted-from dancing around and watching the band exude a level of energy most of us lost sometime during puberty. As they leave the theater, many will rehash the evening’s events with respect and devotion in their voices.

Ask die hard fans who have followed the band since 1970, and they’ll tell you that Aerosmith has earned that respect. Most rock androll bands have roller coaster careers. Oftentimes the band splits either for good or until enough time for a reunion tour has passed. But sometimes, though rarely, the band reunites-for the better. What makes the reunion of this megaband so unique is that the reformed version of Aerosmith became stronger and more successful than the original version. On its horizon would be the ups and downs that plague bands-and brands-that achieve popularity, cope with fame, and struggle to stay on top. It gives great insights into: S How to court fans and involve them in the creation of a successful brand S The role of reflecting your market to increase cultural adoption S How to reenter the marketplace after brand failure S How to reinvent a brand with quality improvement, evolvement, and fan involvement S How to create reverse customer intimacy S The role of energy and passion in branding One of Aerosmith’s primary brand strategies is evolution. Some brands are holdover brands, labeled as popular with a specific group of customer or a specific generation. Neil Diamond falls into this category. Oldsmobile even tried to fight that categorization with the “This is not your father’s Oldsmobile” campaign. Other brands are crossover brands, making a connection generation after generation because of how they evolve. Sony has done this well over the years, making a splash with the Walkman and then moving on to the Discman and now plasma screen television sets. Aerosmith has used new technology, physical fitness, cutting edge fashion trends, and new sounds to court new generations of fans, making the Aerosmith saga a cross branding story that’s part epic drama and part business plan.

Just as Elton John has chosen to cobrand with other performers to remain relevant but also cool in the marketplace, JetBlue has chosen to partner with Crunch gym to develop a series of yoga exercises designed to help passengers relax, loosen up, and feel invigorated. The significance of partnering with Crunch may escape some customers, but those with an affinity for coolness know that though Crunch doesn’t necessarily try to be cool, it is. The two brands have very similar messages and core values, which focus on fun and not taking things too seriously.

But ask any rock star and he or she will tell you that being cool is tough to attain and even tougher to maintain, because the minute someone claims to be cool, they begin that slide toward uncoolness.

“Being cool stems from that lack of self consciousness and a trueness to the brand promise,” explains Johnson. “JetBlue simply followed the notion of making an airline that people would want to fly. And they instituted an attitude that flew in the face of traditional airlines, and inherently that honesty of the brand came forward, and it remains there. It is not a contrived coolness; it is one that stems from the honest intent of the company to be different and appeal to people’s emotions.” Like Elton John’s music, the JetBlue brand appeals to a transgenerational group of customers. Its universal brand message and product appeal to people who are hip and style conscious and who think of JetBlue along those lines. Yet 65 year olds like the company and appreciate the friendly service. A common thread among a majority of JetBlue fans is that they write and call the company with ideas for how to paint the jets and improve the product. They also send fan mail to Neeleman and his company. And most important, they love to spread the word about the airline. A high proportion of JetBlue customers become avid fans because of the strong emotional content of the brand. They appreciate the humor that JetBlue tries to interject into the increasingly stressful activity of travel. They relate well to Neeleman, who has given the brand a very human touch. Ultimately, they end up smiling when they think of the brand-it creates an emotional response before many of them formulate the words to express their feelings.