Storms Brewing In The Heat Of Summer!

It’s damn hot down here in the South.

So hot that nearly all the folks I know spend their days and evening under the fans and soothing air conditioning.

The baseball fields are still. The bandstands are empty. The ponds barely post a ripple.

The stage is set for the explosion of sound and light with the July 4th fireworks!

USA Today ran a story this past week about the cable nets.

Here is the lead-in of the article…

“Chefs on the sci-fi channel SyFy? Cars and comics on the History Channel? A show about people with obsessive-compulsive disorder on VH1? Boxer Mike Tyson on Animal Planet?”

The lead-in then follows with this statement…

“Your TV isn’t out of whack, but your cable channel might be.”

In many ways what is taking place doesn’t surprise me.

The article posts a sub-head that reads “Formats are blurring in push for viewers.”

No question that the economy is one of the factors driving the quest.

As ad dollars decline, the nets scrape for whatever remains at the bottom of the barrel like a pack of dogs fighting for the bone.

But the economy is not the only driver.

Bring to the table the impact of online and mobile options, cable network lifescycles, next generation management and the original innovators now replaced by the MBAs.

And its not just the cable nets that deserve the limelight.

I am writing this blob at a Starbucks. Remember when Starbucks declared the ownership of the “Third Place?”

Today that “kitchen table” has been replaced by breakfast sandwiches designed to sway me from McDonald’s and instant coffee packs sold in supermarkets to sway me from Folgers.

Back about eight years ago, I leased an Infiniti FX mini-SUV that sported a completely new auto style and design.

Today when I drive up next to what looks like my old Infiniti, I see brand names like Ford, GM, Mercedes, Toyota and Kia.

And then when I get home I see TV ads for those same brands all declaring their new, novel and break-through new look and design.

Then there’s the new 4G iPhone that really isn’t any more “Mac innovative” than the 3G, but shoot, they have to compete against the 4G Google Phone.

Its like the post-innovative technology CEOs are now overdosing on Viagra.

I can go on with stories about banks all clamoring around service and hospitals all claiming the position of “we care.”

But I won’t.

Maybe it’s the Maslow pyramid hierarchy at work.

Maybe it’s about brands that have not just hit market maturity, but are now on the decline fostered further by the economy.

Out with the brand vision.

In with shedding the brand clothes and scrapping up whatever crumbs fall in the mud below.

Whatever happened to taking the risk to be brand innovative? Whatever happened to the brand platforms? Whatever happened to the brand stewards?

This past week I was again labeled as the proverbial optimist.

As much as it’s damn hot outside, I know that it will not remain still for long.

When the thunder rumbles, my heart beats faster.

A couple of weeks ago, Fine Living became The Cooking Channel, a network crafted specifically around the passion of the kitchen…not restaurants, not how food brands are made, not eating weird foods and not about travel.

When I served as the brand steward of Cartoon Network, we took a firm stand that no live programming could air on the network. Space Ghost Coast-to-Coast pushed the bar, but Space Ghost and his “studio” remained in the cartoon setting.

While MTV is airing movies and Travel Channel is airing game shows, Cartoon Network remains all cartoons.

There is hope.

When brands reach market maturity they will either Innovate again with what some may label as hierarchy or they will go out of business.

Entrepreneurs are crafting new ways to do business without the overhead of the corporations.

YouTube is now posting 2 billion views per day. Gee, wonder if those cable nets want to be YouTube?

As the cable nets elect to blur their brand lines, they may be surprised when they find themselves in the very seats that CBS, NBS and ABC sat in not that long ago.

Trust me. Get ready for the storms.