Banging My Gong - The Brand
Over the past few days I’ve spent a lot of time writing about myself and about my blog. I’m not entirely comfortable with this sort of introspection, to be honest with you. I feel that I am much to young to genuflect. Still, I think this has been a necessary exercise for me. I stated that this sort of thing was imperative for the blogosphere right now, and I believe that the best way to lead is by example. To that end, I’ve tried to articulate my vision and I’ve explored my voice. But where do I go now? How do I translate that into a brand?
I think branding flows, naturally, from vision and voice. My vision is to help other Internet writers get where they want to be. My voice works to accomplish my vision by sharing my own experiences with you, and interacting with you. The natural outcome of this is my brand. So, where do I start? I guess I should start by telling you my story.
My Early Writing Career
I grew up in a middle-class family in Linwood, Michigan. You probably haven’t heard of Linwood; we have one stoplight, two churches, six bars, and a post office. Oh, and a bait shop.
Linwood is just outside of Bay City. If you’re old enough, you might remember the Bay City Rollers, an English band in the early 1970s. The legend goes that the Bay City Rollers got their name by tossing a dart at a map of the U.S. The dart landed on Bay City, and the name stuck:
(How’s that for branding?)
If you haven’t heard of Bay City, you might have heard of Saginaw, which is another twenty miles or so to the South. You may remember the Simon and Garfunkel song, America, in which the duo sing the line, “It took me four days to hitchhike from Saginaw.” If you’re into old-time classic country music fan, its possible you know Lefty Frizell’s last #1 hit, “Saginaw, Michigan”:
(I can personally tell you, the Saginaw that Lefty sang about is vastly different from today’s Saginaw. Not better, not worse, just different. So much for that branding exercise.)
If you haven’t heard of Saginaw, I guess I can tell you that I was born an hour South of Saginaw in Flint, Michigan. You might remember Flint as the setting for Michael Moore’s Roger & Me. I’ll spare you my thoughts on Moore, other than to say he didn’t grow up on the rough streets of Flint, like he claims; he grew up in the white, upper-middle class suburb of Davison. Davison is where I lived until I was seven, when we moved to Linwood.
(Moore, regardless of whether you like him or not, knows how to brand himself.)
From an early age, I enjoyed writing. In the fifth grade, I won the school-wide creative writing contest with a poem I wrote. The poem is long gone, but as I recall it was something about writing music with words. I’ve often wondered if there is a copy of it somewhere in my folks’ basement, but I’ve never taken the time to check. When they are gone, I’m sure I’ll have the opportunity; I think it will be fitting in some ways. I can still see how proud Mom and Dad were of me on that day. I can see myself holding my poem up, surrounded by my folks.
In High School, my experiences weren’t as grand. I took a single creative writing course with a large fellow by the name of Larry who collected Coca-Cola paraphernalia. In retrospect, I think Larry was probably a great teacher. I just didn’t like him. Frankly, I didn’t pick up a pen with any serious ideas of being a writer for another decade. Besides, I developed other interests in High School. I decided that I would, after High School, go to Indiana Wesleyan University in Marion, Indiana, and enter the ministerial training program.
I intended to be a Wesleyan preacher.
Come back tomorrow (or maybe Monday, what with the holiday and all) to find out what happens next to our intrepid hero.
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11 Responses to “Banging My Gong - The Brand”
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I know the Bay City Rollers. My older sister loved them. I listened to them for years (and her, too.)
Now they’re back in fashion, and Quebecois radio stations are playing ramped up versions of “Saturday Night”… and I still know the words.
@ James - That is frightening. On so. many. levels.
Actually, we listened to them quite a bit when I was a kid. We also listened to Ted Nugent religiously, not because we liked him, but because he was from our neck of the woods. We even called him “Uncle Ted.”
My favorite reference to the Bay City Rollers has to be the scene in So, I Married an Axe Murderer where Mike Myers, made up as his own father, sings “Saturday Night” with that crazy Scottish accent.
Hi Bob
All these song and movie references are familiar to me too. Interesting about the Bay City Rollers “branding”.
I always enjoy hearing the stories of other writers and learning about their journeys. I’m also looking forward to hearing more about your ideas regarding the state of the blogosphere. Looking forward to the next installment!
@ Yvonne - I thought so. I mean, what if that dart had hit the nearby town of “Crump?” Would they have been the “Crump Crawlers?” How can you leave your identity or your brand in the hands of fate like that?
@ Melissa - I’ve definitely got some ideas about the blogosphere. I don’t know how unique they are… I’m hoping to write about some of them soon.
Hi Bob,
Someone beat me to the S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y N-I-G-H-T comment. See, life is fundamentally unfair. You open your soul to us, and what do we do — we talk about the Bay City Bombers!
I have enjoyed the posts in the Gong series. One thing I would like to improve at is my “conversational tone”, since that seems to be what sells. (Woops — did I say that out loud?)
Hi, Bob. Thanks for visiting one of my blogs - Sling Words. Branding? Just the current buzz word for what we used to call name recognition. Branding is a good tool, but most people have difficulty with it because they don’t really know who they are as a writer. Yet. I can see that you’re trying to discover this by the reflections you’ve shared. A writer must always look inward and explore in order to create, establish, or discover one’s writing identity and in what way you want to share that identity with the world i.e. what genre or type of writing. Good luck.
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I’m enjoying learning more about you as a writer. I wish this area of Michigan would receive the attention that it deserves.
Lindsey
@ John - nothing wrong with transparency. After all, who is it that doesn’t hope to make a living from their writing?
I put up an article at Helium last week on casual tone, feel free to check it out. It’s pretty basic, but maybe there is something useful there for you.
@ Joan - I’m pretty comfortable with who I am as a writer. In some ways, its a matter of deciding who I am in a given format. When I’m doing my pen-for-hire content work, I’m a very different writer than I am here. I prefer writing here, of course, but it doesn’t pay nearly as well (or at all, for the moment.)
You are right about name recognition, to be certain.
Lindsey - This region has a rich and interesting history, and there is some speculation that Bay City could be the next big “Up North” tourist destination. We’ll see, though. I’m skeptical. I’m not sure that brand is going to stick.
I know where Bay City is. In fact, I know where Davison, Flint and Saginaw are, too. Although I will admit I never heard of Linwood.
I live in Hazel Park, just outside of Detroit, where I was born and have lived most of my life. It’s nice to run across another Michigan writer.