if you believe manifesto by david lemley

© 2011 Retail Voodoo, LLC. All rights reserved. Thursday, June 16, 2011 1

If You Believe

© 2011 Retail Voodoo, LLC. All rights reserved. Thursday, June 16, 2011 2

I've seen the best brands of my generation destroyed by

madness and greed.

© 2011 Retail Voodoo, LLC. All rights reserved. Thursday, June 16, 2011 3

Factories and post-war prosperity spawning an era of hyper choice to the point where we now have 300

choices of toothpaste.

© 2011 Retail Voodoo, LLC. All rights reserved. Thursday, June 16, 2011 4

Design has become a shroud of sameness, protecting us from the

original, the different.

© 2011 Retail Voodoo, LLC. All rights reserved. Thursday, June 16, 2011 5

Business schools and marketing firms have chased the Four P’s of Marketing

into the corner, stripped them naked and stomped them to death.

© 2011 Retail Voodoo, LLC. All rights reserved. Thursday, June 16, 2011 6

There are 300 choices of toothpaste.

© 2011 Retail Voodoo, LLC. All rights reserved. Thursday, June 16, 2011 7

My mission is to rid the world of unnecessary products by helping breakthrough ideas dominate so

powerfully that the pretenders die.

© 2011 Retail Voodoo, LLC. All rights reserved. Thursday, June 16, 2011 8

Have you ever killed a brand just to watch it die?

© 2011 Retail Voodoo, LLC. All rights reserved. Thursday, June 16, 2011 9

300 choices.

© 2011 Retail Voodoo, LLC. All rights reserved. Thursday, June 16, 2011 10

The experience economy is a real conversation helping people

to commune.

© 2011 Retail Voodoo, LLC. All rights reserved. Thursday, June 16, 2011 11

To be different, together.

© 2011 Retail Voodoo, LLC. All rights reserved. Thursday, June 16, 2011 12

To disrupt consumer driven society and reconnect with other people.

© 2011 Retail Voodoo, LLC. All rights reserved. Thursday, June 16, 2011 13

Against all business school theory, I believe that people will let brands

help define them so long as you, their stewards, understand the following:

© 2011 Retail Voodoo, LLC. All rights reserved. Thursday, June 16, 2011 14

The people have assumed control of your brand.

© 2011 Retail Voodoo, LLC. All rights reserved. Thursday, June 16, 2011 15

They want you, and your brand, to have morals and values.

© 2011 Retail Voodoo, LLC. All rights reserved. Thursday, June 16, 2011 16

People look to brands to take a stand on issues the way previous

generations looked to religion.

© 2011 Retail Voodoo, LLC. All rights reserved. Thursday, June 16, 2011 17

They willingly help ideology driven brands become distinctive markers

of human identity.

© 2011 Retail Voodoo, LLC. All rights reserved. Thursday, June 16, 2011 18

No one is waiting to erect amonument to our excuses.

© 2011 Retail Voodoo, LLC. All rights reserved. Thursday, June 16, 2011 19

I believe design without a voice is futile.

© 2011 Retail Voodoo, LLC. All rights reserved. Thursday, June 16, 2011 20

Ideology trumps systems.

© 2011 Retail Voodoo, LLC. All rights reserved. Thursday, June 16, 2011 21

I believe that people look to leaders who are self-aware enough to

listen without worrying what they will say in response.

© 2011 Retail Voodoo, LLC. All rights reserved. Thursday, June 16, 2011 22

And that the people will follow, if they believe.

© 2011 Retail Voodoo, LLC. All rights reserved. Thursday, June 16, 2011 23

300, I say.

© 2011 Retail Voodoo, LLC. All rights reserved. Thursday, June 16, 2011 24

Now, is your mission to sell more product to 18-34 year olds?

© 2011 Retail Voodoo, LLC. All rights reserved. Thursday, June 16, 2011 25

To increase shareholder value?

© 2011 Retail Voodoo, LLC. All rights reserved. Thursday, June 16, 2011 26

Is your mission to line extend in pursuit of 2% share increase, or doyou actually believe in something?

© 2011 Retail Voodoo, LLC. All rights reserved. Thursday, June 16, 2011 27

Are you in the business of selling things, or do you have a higher calling?

© 2011 Retail Voodoo, LLC. All rights reserved. Thursday, June 16, 2011 28

Because if you believe – if you truly believe – then maybe

we can believe, too,

© 2011 Retail Voodoo, LLC. All rights reserved. Thursday, June 16, 2011 29

and maybe we can help reach others who believe…

© 2011 Retail Voodoo, LLC. All rights reserved. Thursday, June 16, 2011 30

and together, build a community of believers.

© 2011 Retail Voodoo, LLC. All rights reserved. Thursday, June 16, 2011 31

But if your biggest goal is line extension – if share capture or stock price is

keeping you up at night,

© 2011 Retail Voodoo, LLC. All rights reserved. Thursday, June 16, 2011 32

then perhaps we will have the pleasure of meeting on the battle field.

© 2011 Retail Voodoo, LLC. All rights reserved. Thursday, June 16, 2011 33

Written from the cottage on the dock, somewhere in Seattle

© 2011 Retail Voodoo, LLC. All rights reserved. Thursday, June 16, 2011 34