Gangsters Understand Branding
| July 11th, 2007
Gangsters understand branding and marketing better than anyone else on the planet. Or, at least, they seem to in the movies and on TV. I realized this while watching The Wire, HBO’s fantabulous cop drama. Yadda yadda yadda, best show on TV, yadda yadda, best show evar, blah blah blah.
You see, on The Wire, the gangsters are constantly worried about whether or not they will be able to get revenge for perceived mistreatment. If someone attacks Omar, for example, Omar “got to come back on em hard, no doubt.” If Omar doesn’t return an injustice to those that have wronged him, his name will no longer ring out on the street as a message of fear.
Traditional mafia-types also worry about this. Reputation, it would seem, is the single most important asset one can have in the world of crime, we’re taught. Thus, gangsters seem to have an ingrained understanding of just how important branding is in the world of business. Perhaps this comes from the life or death nature of their business: the names that ring out are still around, those that didn’t aren’t.
Of course, across a long enough time line, the survival rate for all gangsters is 0 (ChuckP is a God.) Those names that once rang out loud are eventually meaningless, except as code passed between those that were there. These brands, as they were, become common touchstones for those that have experienced the same situation; the same time and place.
The bigger that name, the more people it will resound with. Marketing 101. Maybe PR reps should start carrying shotguns.