5 Questions with David Whitman

David Whitman is the managing director at Cultivator/Minneapolis. After a short stint as a newspaper reporter, David jumped to the advertising side, eventually working as a copywriter and Creative Director at agencies in Minneapolis and Denver on accounts ranging from Chipotle Mexican Grill to Marvin Windows, Microsoft and US Bank. In 2014, he joined Cultivator to open a Minneapolis office for the Denver-based, craft-focused agency.

Whitman will be a presenter at the MN AMA's September 15 event "Something Is Happening, But You Don’t Know What It Is: How Authentic, High-Craft Brands are Disrupting Brands and Creating a New Marketing Paradigm."

Whitman answered five of our questions about craft brands and how they are changing the marketing field.

1. What does a brand need in order to be “craft” or “artisanal”?
   
   We think of craft as “the art of the well-made” and in order to be a craft brand, we believe it’s about the product, place or service first — and only then about the brand and its image. It has to be based on truth. Do you really care about what you’re making? Do you live it, breathe it, love it? Do you use it yourself, are you happy to have your kids or grandkids use it? Does it make the world a better place? I think you just might just have a craft or artisanal offering.
   
   If what you’ve got is an SKU that needs to be turned, and you don’t give a damn about what’s in it, how it’s made, how well it works or whether people love it or not, then not only are you not craft. In this day and age — you are dead. Or maybe you’re just a living dinosaur.
    
2. When I hear “craft” I think beer, what are other segments where craft is taking over?
   
   A better question is, What segment isn’t craft taking over? Beer, food, restaurants. Apparel, certainly. Technology — you can’t deny that Apple is a craft brand. In the service area, any highly personalized or highly curated experience, such as in banking or finance, or retail. Those are all or can be crafted experiences. I think smart marketers are asking themselves, “Is my brand a craft brand? Could it be? Should it be? How do I make that happen?” Those are the kinds of clients we work with, exclusively.
    
3. How have consumers driven the craft/artisanal trend?
   
   First of all — we don’t think it’s a trend, which is a lot like a whim or fad. Or something that is just starting to happen. We think it’s a profound cultural shift that’s already happened. Companies that are just discovering it or mulling it over, or are just starting to wonder if it’s right for them — they are way, way, way behind the curve.
   
   But your question was one of how consumers have driven it. They’ve driven it by using technology and social media. Not necessarily to buy craft products, although they do. The real economy, the real currency of the technology driven, always on, highly connected economy is not money. The billions of dollars exchanged digitally is nothing compared to the increase and reach of information and human knowledge. Why buy a $15,000 rug from a store when I can find a woman in Morocco who’s made one just for me, for $650? Much bigger than saving me $14,350 is the knowledge, the awareness that “Wow! I can do this!” If I can do this with a rug, why not with many other factors in my life?
   
   The mistake marketers made is that when technology started enabling the consumer, they abandoned agencies and turned to digital firms, because digital firms “really get technology.” They thought that agencies skilled at learning about, caring about, and really loving a brand in a very deep way was no longer important. High tech — low touch. That was a mistake. In some ways we are going back. That doesn’t mean technology isn’t important — it is. But goal or the aim of technology is to get ever-simpler. But people are still as complicated as ever. They still need stories in order to make sense of the world. Craft stories.
    
4. Is it possible for an established brand to respond to the craft trend? Examples of brand that have or have not respnded well?
   
   Short answer is, Yes, it’s not only possible, it may be essential. I say “may be” because it’s not the right move for every product, for every brand. What’s your business plan? What are you great at? Maybe being non-craft, acting more like a commodity and slugging it out in the marketplace in some other way is the right call. You can’t be something you’re not.
   
   I don’t like to take potshots at brands and companies that I don’t understand or am not intimately familiar with. I might think they are dong a lousy job, but maybe they are struggling with things I am not aware of. Maybe being a craft brand is not what they are about. And personally, I’m too busy building things up to be tearing others down.
   
   That said — I know one move I don’t think brands should make. And that is to put craft down, call it a fad, or portray it as silly, the way a major brewery did recently. I saw a TV spot that quite openly jeered at craft beers and the goatee-wearing hipsters who enjoyed them. That’s just dumb. And it comes off as fear, not intelligent marketing. Take the money you spent on that spot and that media buy, and spend it on brewing something better. End of comment.
    
5. Cultivator started in Denver and has come to Minneapolis, why?
   
   There are a few reasons. First, the personal ones, because if you don’t have that, you’ve got nothin’ but just another job. After knowing each other for 20 years, we all wanted to work together again. This will sound scmaltzy, but it’s the truth — the team in Denver is so talented, super-driven, smart, ethical, and so fun. It’s humbling to work with people like that It’s also a blast. But, I live here now. Well, so what? Technology and a direct air connection make it seamless. Most companies have employees scattered across the globe. Why not agencies?
   
   More important, Cultivator was founded as a craft-focused agency. That was 15 years ago. Before craft was the buzz. Before it was even a blip. In some ways — the world has moved to us and our way of thinking and working. We thought there might be a lot of companies here that would want to use our perspective and leverage our chops. It’s going great so far. There’s definitely huge interest.