Why it’s time for a brand psycho godfather

The »Horse Feed« is back. The blog about brand communication of a seahorse. It’s been a few weeks since you last heard from me. My name is still Michael Barthel and the real star of this story, the seahorse, is still Willi. He is my Love Brand. I don’t want to explain to you any longer what this is all about and what it can be good for – the previous episodes must have been more than informative and are also still available online for listening. Willi and I invited you in episode 17 to come up to us with your stories. Frankly, a Love Brand story was not among, which leads us both to at least tell you about what we went through. It’s a bit of Hollywood when you’re into psychological thrillers. Not with bloody effects, but rather based on an atmosphere of oppressive fear. Who has more courage than fear? Willi of course! Because he has learned how a brand benefits from a psycho godfather.

Not everything is good at the top either

First of all, the psycho godfather is not a psychopath. A bit psycho, yes, but definitely not dangerous. Except for seahorse opponents and socially autistic people, but he communicates that very openly and directly. Because there are things that he fights for. For me, for example, for his Love Brand. And thus also for the quality label of the underwater world.

On October 9th, it was godfather’s day here at the zoo, so we met again. One of the people who recently showed up outside my window to see if I was still there told me so. At first I thought the guy belonged to the male choir that recently rioted and caused a moderate crisis for me and my doubles here in the cool water. In the meantime, however, the crisis has even worsened: there have been quite a few fans recently to visit me. But the guy also explained that: The idiot rioters were active in the city center because it was decided »from the top« that no one was allowed to visit me. Wherever »right at the top« is when I hear you are eating crabs …. Um, yes … Should stay here for young people.

In any case, right at the top has to mean: well above the water surface. Well, and that right there no really helpful decisions have been made for years with regard to the appreciation of the underwater world, or even a Love Brand like me, is not a state secret.

Hello?! You humans sell it as a sensitization for the protection of species when you display a seahorse behind glass and put a warning board next to it. It is a fact. Thankfully, however, I did this Love Brand thing with my godfather. Since I’ve seen myself as a brand ambassador for my own brand instead of a prisoner, I’ve been rocking. Hard. So at this point best regards to my hard rock fans out there.

A Love Brand doesn’t just take a walk

Out there … Punk rock has to come off out there. In here it is more cozy. It has become cozy. Damn calm. That is dangerous, because we have all been able to experience what it means when it gets TOO quiet: Then it gets tight. Especially around the waist. I can do without, that’s not the problem. I just don’t want to – I want to rock and of course reward myself for it. That costs energy, which I usually draw from the crabs. Just as you humans seem to get superpowers through bucks.

Well, that brings us to the subject of addictions. Without bucks, there are no crabs here. I seem to have to take care of your bucks now, don’t I? So what, folks, a Love Brand doesn’t know any short-time work anyway. A seahorse doesn’t just go for a walk when it gets quieter. It performs. That’s a Love Brand deal. And not a bad one, by the way.

By the way, do you know the silence of the lambs? I’m not talking about the little lambs from the petting zoo that nobody was allowed to touch for weeks. Incidentally, also the decision from »at the top« …

Back to the silence of the lambs: I know it very well. I even know Dr. Lecter. Because the film star is just walking past my TV screen in the endless loop. Rather, his fans.

The guy with the pesticides for the bugs in the garden came through here the other day. He wore his high-tech breathing mask all over his face. Apparently not a fan magnet, the Darth Vader style. With the Hannibal Lecter Edition, on the other hand, it is different, the simple mouth and nose protection is worn by the masses.

Well, so what can I learn from this fan magnet? The following, for example: In difficult times, people prefer to return to the flower rather than the high-tech device – that should actually encourage mother nature and her children.

Hannibal and the change of perspective

As long as you all have to walk around like Dr. Lecter during cell inspection, at least I call you Hannibal. Either way, it’s getting harder and harder to keep you apart. Not only visually, but otherwise. In terms of behavior. Mostly rather lamed. And so we come full circle again and, as a world-improving Love Brand, brings me back to the question I just asked: What can we learn from Hannibal?

I’ll tell you: the change of perspective.

Yes, now would be the right time to let my godfather have a say. But it doesn’t work today, so don’t wait for it. One must save the world while others vibrate speeches. In that case me. And no, he didn’t go on vacation to Italy or Croatia despite all odds. And no, he has not withdrawn into the comfort zone of the affluent society and is waiting for a politician to finally step in front of the cameras and announce that everything will be as it was before.

On the contrary. He is resisting what the mainstream calls crisis. Somehow he is more oriented towards a Hannibal. Just another. On a historical one.

In one sentence: an outsider beats a superior force. Sounds a bit like the Romans and Gauls. There is only one difference in the psychological godfather mindset: My godfather doesn’t believe that a magic potion, whether vaccinated or swallowed, keeps all threats at bay.

The godfather’s recipe: Love Brand instead of profit brand. Surprise instead of hiding. Just like this Hannibal over 200 years before the birth of Christ. At that time nobody expected that he would cross the Alps with soldiers, riders and 37 hand-counted elephants. Not to conquer, by the way, but to smash a system. This system of rule was called the alliance system at that time. Tactically defensive, but in superior starting positions, he defeated the sometimes powerfully superior Roman legions. On the other hand, he never pulled against the power center Rome itself, which earned him severe criticism: »You know how to win, Hannibal. But you don’t understand how to take advantage of the victory.« It said.

Oh, didn’t he? Hannibal wanted to destroy a great power position because he simply had a problem with this system. I know, still unimaginable today, that it was not just about more territorial power.

Change old-fashioned systems

And now that’s the end of the history lesson. You humans are too cumbersome to learn for me either way. As often as you’ve heard the story in the meantime, most of them didn’t get stuck with more than Alps and elephants. When you think of Hannibal, you are more likely to think of a psychopath. A masked criminal grin, filmed in 1991. That’s why you probably think my godfather is a psycho-godfather, because he now wears a mask now and then and confronts you with things that nobody wants to hear or see. The godfather may not run smoothly, but in the end he is still someone who changes old-fashioned systems. Without striving for power.

My godfather is a peace-loving person who prefers the sea to the mountains. One who prefers communication with seahorses rather than wars with elephants. And what’s in it for him? A lot of educational work with the lambs, that is, the lamed. Otherwise he would be here right now and speak for himself.

Seahorses are not lamed. They are not embarrassed and intimidated if you tell them the truth. Okay no more. Which is due to the fact that I, Willi the I., trained myself to be a Love Brand on behalf of a whole species. So I can tell you that the godfather was somehow more than right. Long before you wore Hannibal Lecter masks, he said: Love Brand beats status brand. Yep, in your face. Of course, that hurts a status brand.

But instead of yelling, which would be a natural reaction, what are the lambs doing out there? They are silent. It’s a bit like in the 1991 film, just live in 2020: there is an atmosphere full of fear.

Well, it seems like that with you in the world now. At the top, or »at the very top«. In times of crisis you are dominated by fear. The fear that it could never be the same again. With all the luxury, all the comfort, and all the convenience. Sorry folks, that is what changes bring: that it will never be the way it used to be. I understood the change – and noticed what it means to develop into a brand. How much fun it is to stand up for yourself and others. And how many honest fans it brings with it when you communicate authentically as a brand.

Would you like an example from your world? How many fans do you think have those who fight something in the world that doesn’t even exist – compulsory vaccination, for example? Remember the number in your head.

And how many fans do you think have those who fight in the world for something they have never had before – freedom or equal treatment, for example?

And now just forget the number in your head that you remembered earlier. You have now understood yourself that I am trying to answer a rhetorical question … Fear or the will to change – what mobilizes the masses, what motivates them?

If I could write, a sign would be my constant companion here in my aquarium. »Sealife matters!« Would be written on it. Because every life counts. Am I not right? Get ready for a productive togetherness instead of the prosperity of individuals. Hardly anyone can afford it again anytime soon. And the few who can do it – do you think they enjoy it, or do you think they are more likely to be afraid that someone else might take away their prosperity?

You know, I have noticed how many of you have already shit up dealing with the current crisis … Or how can I please understand the drama about toilet paper? In the meantime you seem to have shit yourselves enough for all your fears. Now it’s just about time to show courage. Psycho godfather courage. Then you can finally, after more than 2200 years, show again how outsiders can surprise the powers and change outdated systems. Don’t you think so, Hani-balls? Oops, there we have it again: In the end, shaping change has something to do with …

It was time for Willi to speak to his fans again. Many had asked how he was doing and what he was doing. As you have just heard, he continues to deal with change. And with brands and communication. But not as tools or a means to an end. But as management tools. These are instruments that seem to be lost just as much as the many employees who once identified with their employers and products. Only now is it clear who has really built a strong brand over the past few years. Strong brands don’t just strengthen themselves. They strengthen a system. Just like a seahorse enriches the underwater world. Are you lambs or seahorses? Mainstream or Love Brand? There is another impulse to answer this question in the next episode, in which Willi talks to me about the behavior of some brand ambassadors from the business world.

Next episode

Extraordinary Gentlemen – Why branding is more fun than pretending