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OK, this isn’t really an entry in this month’s What I Learned From… project. It just kinda came to me. (Hey, it’s my blog and I can do what I want.)

Normally, I don’t think about the subject of branding much, but here’s a little something that recently tiptoed across my unsuspecting cortex in pink fuzzy slippers… (Why pink fuzzy slippers, you ask? I’ll quote Leslie Neilsen: “Because I like the way they make me feel.”)

Uh, where was I? Oh, yes –

The other day in my work carpool, two of us got into a somewhat zany conversation about old movies and TV shows. It was a lot of fun reminiscing about old shows like “Dukes of Hazzard”, “Lost in Space”, or “Mission Impossible” (not the ridiculously idiotic movies, but the brilliantly original TV show).

But the thing that we ended up talking about most wasn’t some “gripping police drama”. Nor was it yet another in the seemingly endless series of what are laughingly referred to as “reality shows” (I mean, c’mon folks – this is reality?)

No, we ended up laughing the most about that old Batman TV series starring Adam West as the Head Bat. Talk about a silly show! Better than any Simpsons episode, I’ll tell ya! (OK, I’m aware that I’m giving away a lot here, but what the heck – it was bound to come out sooner or later.)

Anyway, despite the proliferation of Batman movies (and assorted Batmans, for that matter - or is it Batmen?) that have hit the big screen over the last few decades, in my mind nothing beats the old TV show. Why? Well, because when I turned on the TV, I knew I’d be entertained - simple as that. I knew what to expect, I looked forward to it, and the show always delivered. In a word, it was consistent.

For instance, invariably at some time during each episode, both Batman and Robin will be seen walking up the side of a building using a rope (well actually, it was painfully obvious the camera was turned on its side – but that’s what made it so funny), and inevitably some well-known TV or movie star would stick their head out the window and initiate some inane conversation with the caped crusaders. This little vignette turned out to be one of the highlights of the show – you just never knew who would pop out.

But for me, one of the silliest things (among literally hundreds of them) the show’s producers did was make sure everything had the “bat-” prefix. You remember the Batmobile, of course. But then there were also the Bat Boat, the Batcycle, Bat Copter, Bat Plane, Bat Phone, Bat Suit (and I have no doubt whatsoever, Bat Shorts) – the list went on and on.

It applied to actions as well as things, too. Once, when Batman and Robin were tearing down a road in the Batmobile and had to make a sudden turn, Batman turns to his trusty sidekick and says, “Prepare for Bat-turn, Robin!”

And who could ever forget the Bat Rope, a piece of regular ol’ rope prominently labeled “Bat Rope” visible for TV viewers to see. (I always imagined an entire industrial complex out there somewhere, producing all these wonderful toys, something like Wile E. Coyote’s mysterious supplier, “Acme”.)

But amid the BIFFs, POWs, and OOFs that speckled the screen whenever a fight broke out (at least once per episode, guaranteed), after all these years, there is one thing that stands out to me, and it’s a great lesson that has truly stood the test of time.

One thing that old show (and for that matter the entire Batman franchise) demonstrated well was the process of BRANDING. Yep, that’s a fact, my friend. Whatever else you might say about Bat Man and the whole Bat “Thing”, boy did they have branding down to a science! I mean, when a plain old piece of rope got branded with the Bat Brand, it became something special – no longer just a rope, but an essential piece of crime-fighting equipment!

So, the next time you think about branding, I just have this simple advice: Take a Bat Lesson from the masters!

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