gapingvoid: "cartoons drawn on the back of business cards"

How are you going to use that domain? Are you going to set up a Global Microbrand directory? Are you going to offer a knowledge base for global microbrands? Is Global Microbrand a Global Microbrand?

I haven't decided yet, Jeroen. I'll let the answer build organically ;-)

Hi Hugh.
Let me be the first to pimp myself:
I'd LOVE to turn ANDYT13 into a global microbrand.
What am I selling? Violà: http://www.andyt13.com
Art, music, poetry, sex, film, sailing...
What more (or less) could one want from a Global Microbrand? "Every night the same thing: variety."
I hope you like...
AndyT13

Hugh - I once gave you crap about the "branding is dead" thing. Which, I agree with in many ways.

For many small business owners (like myself), "branding" and "having a decent-looking logo" are synonymous. I don't think wanting having a decent-looking logo will go away as a major desire of SmallCos.

But anyway, how can being or having a Global Microbrand be the next big thing when branding is dead? =)

Shanti - I think what hugh is driving at, is that the next big thing is to have an incredible reach (global) don't appear greedy (micro) and be recognized for those exact attributes. (brand)

why else would megacorporations be spinning off 'startups' at the rate of they currently are....

it's okay to sell tons of product, just don't let anyone see you do it.

Hugh,

The global microbrand is a splendid idea. And, I think it works so well these days because small companies, entrepreneurs, i.e., the microbrands have meaning...they're personal. That's what people want. They're tired of the big company noise, shouting their message louder and louder and so often lying like hell just to get your attention and make us believe. Instead, we want to believe in things that are real...genuine, not just hot air. Not to say, some microbranders aren't fibbing...but, it's just not as prevelant. Small is good, less is more and all that stuff because it's managable. It's harder to cover up sins, easier to listen to people and even easier to change course when you screw up.

I left big, chain hotel management because it lacked meaning...for me, my associates and my guest. Independents each have their own microbrand, personality and story to tell. I've enjoyed the challenges of every project.

In recent years, and unexpectedly at first, I've created my own little brand which is very niche oriented. I help independent hoteliers create remarkable experiences for their guests...from the ground-up...soup to nuts. Funny thing is...along the way I've had interest from totally unrelated fields, everything from landscape companies to sports teams. You never know where your brand will take you if you can improvise, adapt and adjust.

You're definitely on the right track with your idea. Keep up the good work.

Hugh I put up an olive oil maker example of the global microbrand at http://avinsamtani.blogspot.com/2005/10/hughs-global-microbrand.html

Start a blog about global microbands and then sell the book? For some reason I want to see something along the lines of Seth's Liars blog: just easy examples of global microbrands that already exist.

Maybe it's the parallels I can't help ignore. Lofty idea(l) that asks you to choose between being noticed and being left behind.

A colleague and I are building a global microbrand called Rogue Enterprises. It is oriented towards serving a loosely-connected group of technology developers and program managers from the US Department of Defense, NASA and related industries.

Our brand provides innovative (and often subversive) approaches to technology development and program management. We take a values-driven approach, focused on doing things faster, cheaper, simpler and smaller, and we've got a multi-pronged plan for developing the brand.

Our mainstream prong is represented by articles we write for a journal called Defense AT&L (22 so far) - one recent article was titled "Everything We Know About Program Management We Learned From Punk Rock," and Harpers ran an excerpt in their Oct 05 issue. We've also done a poem and a fairytale... in a defense technology journal.

Then we've got a webzine which just posted it's 4th issue (www.RogueProjectLeader.com). I recently published a book (www.lulu.com/RoguePress), and another is on it's way...

So far, so good...

Hugh, would a very specific kind of cartoon caricature count? I have actually done caricatures in my "gothy cartoon" style for people in Australia and England just from them stumbling across my site via search.

Or perhaps, a concept design artist?

Hi Hugh,

I think the GMB is probably one of the most inspired ideas of yours that I've followed over the last year or two. I think maybe the coolest aspect of the GMB is that a person can really manage more than one at a time, especially when there's the natural overlap that seems to come from what is essentially a personality driven brand. For instance, you generally have what? 6-7 or so related but distinct projects going on... the Hughtrain, How to be Creative, A handfull of blog projects, the cartoons, the shirts. They all make sense and work together because they're based on you and your interests (which, granted can and do change over time).

The synergy that exists between "departments" of the Global Micro Brand is what makes it really interesting, eh? You can reach a fairly diverse range of targeted markets and help them, through your filter, to discover each other. ie: I loved the cartoons, so I read English Cut and maybe I end up buying a tee shirt instead of a suit, but in the meantime at least I now know something about suits. Yeah? Something like that. Maybe I order up some Stormhoek to enjoy while I'm ranting away in your comments.

So the overall strategy seems something like staking out a voice, a style, a panache, whatever and then applying that to various real-world services or products. I suppose it could go the other way, start with, say, suits, and build a voice for them but the voice first model definitely works better for the multiple GMB model.

I've been working on cornering the "sustainable design with an edge" market. I love using efficient production, recycled materials and building things that will last forever-- all good sustainable goals. But if I end up saving the world, I kinda hope that it won't be a world where everyone is always nice, polite and politically correct, you know? I'd like to think there will still be people with a sense of humor that outweighs their sense of taste or caution.

My two main flagships for edgy sustainable market have been: The Great Bowl O' Fire, a hot-rod styled fire bowl available from my ArtBuzz blog at
http://johntunger.typepad.com/ar...uzz/2005/05/recycled_steel_.html

And a brand new venture that just went live today: BadAss Paddles... Spanking paddles made from recycled tire retread material. It's still very much early days on the BadAss site, but the basics are up. Check 'em out at: http://www.tirepaddle.com/

I'd love to hear thoughts from gapingvoid readers on any improvements I could make to the BadAss site. I'm still doing a few design tweaks yet, so now would be a great time to get some feedback. Thanks in advance.