The second song from the Branding Only Works On Cattle soundtrack is ready for your listening pleasure:
Brand on the Run tells the sad story of a marketing engagement gone bad, sung by a heartbroken brand in a retroelectro-acidbluesy style. It's my second collaboration with lyricist Jim Lenskold, who otherwise leads the Lenskold Group and helps marketers find ways to measure their ROI (he literally wrote the book on it). Our first release, The Sock Puppet Blues, topped 1,000 views on YouTube.
I want also to thank Cate Baskin, who stepped in and saved the backup vocals.
Branding Only Works On Cattle is the first and only business book to come with its own soundtrack. As all companies look toward a challenging 2009 (to put it mildly), the book makes two very timely points about brands:
- We need to change our definitions of brands as image and intention, and give up on our expectations that we can manipulate what consumers think (or that it would matter if we could)
- If we do focus on behaviors as the underlying and unifying principle instead, it'll open up lots of new ideas, repurpose old ones in more effective ways, unleash financial resources across the enterprise, and enable companies to seize market opportunities that heretofore seem beyond our reach
The songs are...well...supposed to be fun, as well as illustrative of those themes. Here are the lyrics:
Brand on the Run
I walked into your life
as the latest, greatest thing.
Funny pictures and lines
of the promises I'd bring
My interstitial melody
got you to sing my tune.
You knew my name, you liked my game,
thought we'd get together soon.
Brand on the run,
it looked like so much fun.
Brand on the run,
now my work is never done.
Oh darling, oh darling:
I want to be your brand.
Others tried to woo you
with their dazzle and distraction.
But you kept me on top,
I could feel your reaction.
You talked me up to your friends
as your latest, greatest love.
What you got was hot
and you couldn't get enough.
But when I thought
that I had satisfied your needs,
your attention drifted
and I knew that you would leave.
Looking right through me
missing the things for which you'd dreamed;
sad that all my promises
had left you unredeemed.
Brand on the run,
it looked like so much fun.
Brand on the run,
now my work is never done.
Oh darling, oh darling:
c'mon and touch your brand.
See you on TV:
What am I supposed to be?
Flipping past your ads:
Who thought it'd get this bad?
Conversationally:
You really don't want to talk to me?
Can't you make me care:
I'm getting tired of this dare.
I was sure that the joy I gave
would always satisfy.
But every time I change my story,
you still won't buy.
The thrill is gone, and you've moved on,
but I won't let you go.
New and improved,
I've got to give you my version 2.0.
Brand on the run,
it looked like so much fun.
Brand on the run,
now my work is never done.
Oh darling, oh darling:
won't you let me be your brand?
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