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Be a Badass Marketer. Be a 1%er

Sons of Anarchy starts tonight on FX. The rise in popularity of the FX hit-show Sons of Anarchy and it’s season six debut tonight, got me thinking how the fight to the top and for respect in the world of outlaw motorcycle clubs is not that different than fighting for your business and a piece of the pie. In this article, I will directly relate SAMCRO and how to protect what is yours and to take what you want.   

SAMCRO, short for Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club, Redwood Original, is a story of the Teller-Morrow family in a fictional town called Charming, situated in California’s Central Valley. The show depicts the lives of an outlaw motorcycle club making a living in both legal and illegal enterprises. With club charters all over the world, the Sons of Anarchy (SOA) was started by two retired Army vets after the Vietnam War. The bond the vets had spread throughout the club and made it that much more attractive to men who didn’t quite fit into normal, cookie-cutter life.

There are a numerous ways I can relate outlaw biker lifestyles to how to disrupt the market place with your business, but I’m going to focus on a few main components and give examples of how to take what is yours and to implement it into your business culture.   

1%er Biker patch. 1%er

The American Motorcycle Association (AMA) has claimed that 99% of motorcyclists are law-abiding citizens, implying that the remaining 1% were outlaw bikers. The claim, that may or may not have been started after the Hollister riot in 1947, had created a bond between Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs (OMG) and has given them away to express themselves, claiming to be a “one percenter”.

If you’ve seen any episodes of Sons of Anarchy you notice that each biker wears this patch with pride. This resonates with me as a way of standing out in the crowd, going against the grain, doing things people tell you can’t do or won’t be successful doing. Our digital marketing firm has made a name for ourselves by constantly doing things differently and having a 1%er attitude.

Do you want to be the 99% or the 1%? Are you doing all the same stuff your competition is doing? How’s it working out for you? Tired of the same old tactics and sales calls to get new business? Are you ready to implement a kick ass marketing strategy?

Colors or Cut

A main component of the outlaw biker world is the club-specific patches worn on a vest or jacket. The term Cut, comes from the days where club members cut the colors and sleeves off of denim or leather jackets to make them look more like vest. Each club has identifying patches the wear to let the world know who they are and that their club is legit. These patches include the club logo, name of the club with the letters MC (motorcycle club), possibly a state name, province, or chapter identification. All of these things combined creates a Cut or Colors.

All of these identifying marks are worn with great pride. It’s very clear, that under no circumstances will an outlaw biker take his cut off, even when his life is threatened. This can be directly attributed to the image the biker gang must represent at all times and the immense price they take in being a part of the club. This is no different than how you represent your business to your clients and potential clients.  In all of our marketing material, we will never sacrifice our brand integrity. We have very strict brand guidelines we follow when creating an email template or a Facebook cover photo. All of these elements reflect on us as a digital marketing firm and as branding agency. We take the same approach to each of our client’s brands; we make sure we are consistent in all branding material so if someone wanted to compare a business card logo to the website logo, there would be no inconsistencies.

Do you take pride in your branding material? Are you consistent in the colors, fonts, and logo you use on marketing material? Do you even know what the pantone colors are in your logo and on the website? Are you tired of publishing inconsistent material and worrying what people think of you? Do you want to strategize with a digital marketing firm to align your branding?