A Hot Brand from the North Pole

Early depiction of Santa by Thomas Nast.

One of the oldest living brands on the planet still deeply touching to children and adults alike is Santa Claus—or Saint Nick, Kris Kringle, or just plain "Santa". Boss Claus has skillfully evolved his personal brand over nearly two millennia, perhaps even longer. He is currently our jolly ole Saint Nick—that plump toy broker with the white-beard and donning a red coat with white collar and cuffs. There's a myth around that this image was created by Coca Cola back in the early 1930s. False. It is a true statement that Coca Cola advertising of the era helped popularize this look and feel, but the cola company was not the creator. Nineteenth century cartoonist Thomas Nast gets the credit for Santa's modern conceptual appearance.

To the Scrooges out there about to pop off an email sharing their opinion on Santa ... don't. This is strictly about brand. And whatever one believes about Santa Claus, one has to admit to two undeniable value propositions ... good cheer and an inspiration to pull a little bit of magic out of ourselves.

Moving on.

What you may not know is that much of Santa's brand attributes are Gallic, Scandinavian and Byzantine. The earliest Clausian characteristics are traced back to the Norse and Germanic god, Odin. During the pagan Yule, or Yuletide, which was the Germanic winter holiday, Odin was believed to lead a hunting party through the skies. Very old Icelandic poems described him riding an eight-legged horse that leapt a very long way—not unlike our modern Santa's reindeer. Some traditions have children leaving their boots next to the fireplace and filled with carrots or straw for Odin's horse. Here's where the direct corollary comes in—albeit a bit quid pro quo. For their kindness to his horse, apparently Odin rewarded those children by replacing the food with gifts or treats.

This is possibly the proto-tradition of hanging of stockings at the chimney in homes. And would you believe this still survives in Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands?

Sinterklaas

To zero back on the Gallic traditions, Sinterklaas, or Saint Nicholas, originally did the gift drop around a celebration of his feast in early December. That was up until the 1500s or 1600s when it aligned more with Christmas Eve. Sinterklaas also marks the introduction of a book that contains notes on all children and whether they've been naughty or nice. And the nice ones received the yummy shtuff like chocolate or spice nuts. Along with this new brand experience we get Saint Nicholas riding a horse over rooftops at night, delivering gifts down the chimney to all those good children. This, too, is where the naughty are threatened, but instead of coal and ashes the misbehaved feared being tied up and whipped.

Part of the realignment for Sinterklaas was also due to Protestants believing the true gift giver should be the Christ Child, or Christkindl, and the date for giving gifts changed to the celebration of his coming birth on Christmas Eve.

Not to overlook the Byzantine division of the Claus brand, who some say hugely influenced attributes of Sinterklaas, was Saint Nicholas of Myra. He dates back to the 4th century. Saint Nick was a bishop in what is now Turkey, and widely known for his generosity to the poor. Even today he is revered and characterized by his canonical robes.

Enter the early 19th and 20th centuries where Santa's brand awareness really snowballs. Clement Clarke Moore's 1822 poem, Twas the night before Christmas, lit up Santa's brand like a Christmas tree, defining much of the modern attributes for Santa Claus. Not long after it is revealed he lives at the North Pole, helped by an army of magical elves and a herd of flying reindeer. By 1934 there is a pop culture blizzard, including the introduction of the well-known song, "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town". Santa is thus an icon. Everybody knows him and that he's makin' his list and checking it twice—all to find out who's naughty or nice.

Therefore, submitted for your approval...

1. Determine the most appropriate brand-positioning attribute.

Santa Claus works all year long without complaint to make sure that good boys and girls are given a gift. Santa looks out to see who is naughty and nice. Okay, so you might be a touch mischievous—he still leaves a gift. And on that special night, once a year, he makes good on his promise of spreading Christmas cheer.

2. Devise a distinctive way to articulate the brand position and develop a brand personality that customers can use to introduce the brand.

He is jolly ole Saint Nick—always cheerful, happy and generous, asking nothing in return (well, except for a nibble of some cookies and a sip of milk). 

 Jolly ole Saint Nick 

 His mantra: Ho Ho Ho ... Merry Christmas

 3. Establish graphic standards.

A red arctic suit, white beard, a smile on red cheeks with a twinkle in his eye ... what more does he need. 

4. Implement internal branding programs to reward employees for behaving in ways that are consistent with the brand personality

The naughty or nice list is the single greatest management tool ever devised.

"You better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout I'm tellin' you why ... Santa Claus is comin' to town..." 

5. Consistently and uniquely execute the branding program.

Throughout his brand building process, Santa has consistently been attentive to children, returning each year with the promise of a gift, be it a toy, a treat, or perhaps a wish come true. He is never less than expected, and sometimes more. He lives the ChristKindl spirit of giving of himself without reward or repayment.

NOTE: Click here to send letters to Santa via email.

Living in Infamy

It's All Greek to Me

By William Falloure

We’ve been taught that Greece is the foundation of western culture and the birthplace of democracy. That’s not quite the truth. Few realize that as a nation, Greece didn’t exist until 1832. The term "Greece" is a neo-geographic expression of what we have come to call a collection of city-states located on a peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean. What’s more, our image of Greek culture stems from classic icons like architecture, philosophy, science, and art. And more often than not, many of those examples are Athenian. That’s not to say that none are available from places like Thesbia, Arcadia, or any other city-state. It’s just that Athens is one of two dominant polises of the Greek region.

By the way, the proper name for Greece is actually Hellas. The origin of that name is a minor mystery — nobody seems to definitively know how that came to be, except that the term took hold somewhere around the time Homer was writing the Iliad.

Until modern times, if you were Greek, or a Hellen, you thought of yourself as Athenian or Spartan or Thesbian. Greeks had this tendency to be very tribal. In fact, that’s how they started back in the day when they migrated from the areas of the Ukraine somewhere around the second millennia BC. So even though most of the people of all the city-states in Greece shared a common ethnicity, they were subdivided from various tribes, like Doric, Attica, Ionian, etc. They further diverged in terms of religion, dialect, and customs developed within their own city-states.

Just look at the differences between Athens and Sparta. Athens was the seat of early democracy and a mecca for philosophy and art. And the Athenian dialect was considered the more prestigious among the Greek language (and which is most closely identified with modern Greek). On the other hand, Sparta was a pure military state that enslaved the indigenous populous of its region as farmers and laborers.

Athens and Sparta were in no way buddy-buddy. But don’t be fooled by Athenian pretense of academia. Tribal status trumped everything else and their roots were also in a warrior culture. So they liked a good fight now and then.

There were a couple of brief stints where city-states joined up to present themselves as a whole people. The most famous of which was the Battle of Thermopylae where King Leonidas led 300 Spartans against a million Persians. What is often overlooked is that there were actually 7000 Athenian, Arcadian, Thesbian, and Phoecian soldiers at the back of the Spartans. Equally passed over, and criminally so, is the fact that Athens had a navy of about 200 ships keeping the Persian fleet at bay. And that fleet was led by the Athenian, Themistocles.

Most did not care, but knew that the Persian invasions could rightly be blamed on actions taken by Athens a few decades earlier. While the primary target of the Persian invasions was Athens, they fully expected that the Persian king at the time, Xerxes, would likely move on after sacking Athens to tear up the entire peninsula ... just to make a point.

Rather telling in this brief moment of nationalism is the attitude of Leonidas, the Spartan king having led his 300 against Persia at Thermopylae. Xerxes offered Leonidas governorship and control of all Greece if he submitted to Persia. According to Plutarch, Leonidas said, “I would rather die for the liberty of Hellas than be a monarch over my countrymen.”

Considering that Sparta and Athens were bitter rivals, that says a lot of Leonidas' regard for fellow Hellens. In fact, so much so that he and his men held Persia at bay while Athens was evacuated. You could look at Greek politics this way: it’s like you and your siblings; you beat the crud out of each other and that’s okay. But if somebody outside the family messes with them, you team up against them to protect each other. To paraphrase Plato in his work, The Republic, he argued that when Hellens fight among one another, they are in a state of disorder and discord. But should Hellens fight those outside, such as barbarians or Persians, this shall be called war.

So many scholars agree that Thermopylae was a turning point in Greek politcs. If that’s true, what happened? Why didn’t it stick? You have to go back to their roots in the Ukraine. As warrior tribes, the core of their belief was survival of the fittest. This theme was repeated during the Peloponnesian war, and every other seeming civil war in the region. Resources were scarce and by the gods, your city-state better command control over most of them or die!

It boils down to the Greeks themselves having a problem developing a real brand identity. Who are they? Athenians, Spartans, Ionians, Dorians, Hellens? Similarly, Americans have splintered tribal identities, such as Southern or Northern, Texan or Californian, west coast or east coast. What’s more, and especially now, the American conglomerate has little common shared ethnicity. So why should the Hellens be any less able to unite on a permanent basis then the American melting pot?

Perhaps the answer is as basic as the ability to set aside tribal differences and develop a desire to adopt core common beliefs and culture for the common good. In short, for Greece, it was the inability to take the unity from Thermopylae — a Greek brand identity from that moment ... and live the brand.

             ________________

William Falloure is the producer of the award winning student documentary, The Hellenic Revolution.   He is a National Junior Honor Society member, as well 1st Place medalist in the Houston ISD National History Day competition for Documentary (2010/2011).