Other Media + Quiz

DUE Thursday, Jan 21 – 3 points
(Friday NOON deadline)

In addition to “Rockstar Personal Branding,” we will be discussing the following items:

  • Becoming A Branding Ninja
    Boagworld #190, including interview with Alex Hunter immediately after his presentation at FOWA London 2009. You can read the transcription, or you can listen to the audio of the interview by launching the podcast player (33:23-49:36).

Once you have watched or listened to or read these materials, you will need to take a quiz of ten true-false questions. (These questions will be randomly selected from the questions below. You can retake the quiz up to five times. Don’t stress about getting 100% on these quizzes: if you get 80% or better, you will be ready to proceed to the next activity and I will give you the full 3 points.)

All questions should be prefaced with an understood, “According to the author / speaker / interviewee …”:

  1. T/F? Alex Hunter worked as Head of Online Marketing for the Virgin Group at the time of this presentation.
  2. T/F? There is nothing better in this world (according the Alex Hunter) than a cool, crisp, refreshing can of Dr. Pepper.
  3. T/F? In the 1950s, the “conversation” between companies and consumers was mono-directional. Consumers generally accepted and trusted what companies told them.
  4. T/F? Web application developers have completely changed the way marketing, branding, and product development work today. This “conversation” is now more bi-directional.
  5. T/F? Dave Chappelle prefers Coke to Pepsi.
  6. T/F? People using social networking tools want to connect with brands.
  7. T/F? Steve Jobs cares enough about his company’s products to risk his own personal reputation on it.
  8. T/F? Alex Hunter tells the story of a janitor working at NASA who met President Franklin Roosevelt.
  9. T/F? Brands need to limit the number of people who represent their brand publicly so that everyone portrays the brand consistently.
  10. T/F? Web application developers do not need to care about branding. They should focus instead on building the best web application only.
  11. T/F? The hosts of the DiggNation podcast are treated like rockstars at their live podcast recordings.
  12. T/F? Alex Hunter’s brother works for Apple.
  13. T/F? Chilango, a gourmet Mexican food restaurant in the UK, raised over 2,500 pounds for charity with their burrito-eating contest.
  14. T/F? Unsigned artists distributing their music through Amazing Tunes get 95% of the profits.
  15. T/F? Digg has one of the best corporate blogs on the internet.
  16. T/F? Companies need to be careful and “precious” with their brands, waiting for something official like a press release and not just talking about what they are doing.
  17. T/F? In the last ten years, there’s a been a real blurring of the line between personal brand and corporate brands: Gary Vaynerchuk is Wine Library TV, Kevin Rose is Digg.
  18. T/F? Even before blogs, Twitter, and other social networking tools, maintaining brand “consistency” was an issue: call center staff and receptionists already represented the brand.
  19. T/F? “Hello Peter” is a popular customer satisfaction web application in South Africa.
  20. T/F? Alex Hunter recommends web application brands extend their reach by producing content and engage their users with real-world networking events.
  21. T/F? When Yahoo bought Flickr, they changed the name to Yahoo Photos.
  22. T/F? Closed-beta, invite-only exclusivity has not been successful for web applications because potential users feel ostracized and insulted.
  23. T/F? Users will become even more powerful in the future, and users’ sense of loyalty to a particular brand will become stronger.
  24. T/F? A brand has succeeded when it becomes a verb (like “google” or “xerox”).
  25. T/F? The ABC’s of Branding poster contains ten essential tips for branding, displayed stylistically.

DUE Thursday, Jan 21 – 3 points
(Friday NOON deadline)