"AMERICAN HEALTHCARE": THE "BRAND"

One definition of a brand is "consistency of experience that satisfies expectations." A consistent experience at Nordstrom's is different than what is expected at a Wal-Mart, for example. They each have a distinct brand.

"American Healthcare," -- that's to say, the mixed 50/50 private/public-financed U.S. healthcare system -- is considered by a substantial majority of Americans to be the best brand of healthcare in the world -- compared to the government-run Canadian, UK and Cuban brands.

The healthcare reformers/reformulators in Congress who pushed Obamacare think they can do better. Because, after all, "look at Medicare" (a success except it will bankrupt the nation). But it's easier to start a new brand than to reformulate an old one. The difference between Medicare and the new healthcare law, is that in 1965 Medicare did not for the most part substitute for some other care. It was new -- not a replacement. It started small and grew to be gargantuan. Obamacare is starting out as gargantuan.

If people react as they did to a reformulated soft drink like New Coke, try to imagine the uproar to come as they gradually see American Healthcare being replaced by Obamacare.

MOSQUITOHEAD TWEETS SELECTED FOR LIBRARY OF CONGRESS ARCHIVE

If you follow on Twitter, check out "mosquitohead." (Go to twitter.com, click on "Find People" and type in mosquitohead.)

The U.S. Library of Congress has chosen to save all Mosquitohead tweets and make them available to scholars researching the history of America and media.

Of course, ALL tweets ever posted dating back to March 2006 will be included as well. Every one.

But Mosquitohead is pleased to be included in such distinguished company.

THE GAGA PHENOMENA

The Digital Issue of Ad Age (Feb. 22) had its cover story on Lady Gaga, the exploding-out-of-nowhere 23-year old singer/songwriter who crashed the scene in fall, 2008.

Already she has sponsors that include Virgin Mobile; she has her own lipstick color as spokeswoman for Mac Cosmetics Viva Glam; and she is the new Brand Creative Director for Polaroid, a company looking for a new leading-edge identity. She's the first recording artist to notch four consecutive #1 singles from her debut album -- with 20 million digital-single sales and 8 million CD-album sales (who buys CDs anymore?).

How did she do it? Smart, creative decisions by her and her manager, sure.

But 5.2 million Facebook fans and 2.8 million Twitter followers don't hurt.

Social media made Lady Gaga. No amount of conventional paid advertising could have done it.

TRANSITIONING: From Ad Age to Internet Age.

To the right, is an ad that appeared 104 years ago in Everybody's Magazine at the dawn of the mass media era. The message: "Advertising is the future. You should become a copywriter." If you have any familiarity with the ad business -- and who in America doesn't -- you'll find it an amusing read.

So where are we today? What is the future for someone starting out on the agency side of marketing communications? It clearly isn't print advertising -- either newspaper or magazine. Here in Chicago both newspapers are reorganizing under bankruptcy. And have you seen how skinny most magazines are today?

OUTBOUND vs. INBOUND The future certainly includes print advertising and other traditional, outbound media including broadcast (TV and radio) advertising, direct mail, outdoor, etc. -- but at a much lower volume than ten or even five years ago.

All this outbound messaging (conventional advertising) that imposes itself on people now has to compete for attention (and marketing dollars) with inbound Internet communications where people go willingly to get a message. Search engines, web sites, social media networks like Facebook and Twitter and others are all part of it. Inbound media draws people in and -- because THEY CHOOSE it -- is more personal and has more credibility. Old media is like hunting. New media is like fishing.

Wonder if Page-Davis has a course titled, "Learn to Write Inbound Content?" Or something.