By Gordon Goldsmith
Yesterday, was the largest mafia bust in New York history. The FBI, State officers and NYPD rounded up more than 100 mobsters on charges ranging from racketeering, extortion, drugs, etc.
What I found interesting was the great nicknames some of the mobsters had! Hollywood gave us GoodFellas and The Sopranos, which had some great characters, but isn’t reality always better than fiction?
My personal favorite from the list was Joseph Carna who was also known as “Junior Lollipops”. Wow. What a great nickname. If you are a mobster with a biblical given name and you are in the business of intimidating people, you need a cool nickname.
Angela Bains from CA Design Group, who runs a branding firm, responded to my tweet that this was a great example of personal branding. I couldn’t agree more. We all have our own personal brand and mobsters are no exception.
But how does a mobster brand himself? Does he go through the same process that The Gap went through in trying to rebrand itself? Does he ask himself what his brand promise is? Does he run his tattoo concepts by crime family/peers/focus group? What about brand evolution? If a mobster wants to move up the crime family from Foot Soldier to Capo (Management), what steps does he need to take to ensure he earns the respect of his clients?
I’m not sure what I’d to do if a mobster called me up and asked for branding help. Actually I do know. Not say no.
