MURKETING

Consumed links

Hey, so, I’m not going to do links to Consumed from this site anymore — a notable moment, since I basically created this site for that purpose, back in the days when it was impossible to follow Consumed via RSS any other way!

As of right now, you can follow the column through any of these methods:

• The Consumed Facebook page.
• The MTKG Tumblr.
• The @notrobwalker Twitter feed.
• Consumed RSS feed via NYTimes.

Tomorrow’s column now available through all those sources right now. Pick your poison.

And happy new year.

In The New York Times Magazine: The Most Expensive Gulfstream Yet

HIGHFLIER
Considering the G650 not as a symbol, but as a designed, engineered, manufactured object

When I learned that Gulfstream completed a version of the tricked-out interior on one of the five G650s it has built so far, I asked if I could have a look.

Read the column in the November 28, 2010, New York Times Magazine, or here.

Discuss, make fun of, or praise this column to the skies at the Consumed Facebook page.

In The New York Times Magazine: Walgreens tries “food oases”

FRESH APPROACH
The marketplace created the “food desert” problem; can it also solve it?

The experiment in creating these “food oases” is intriguing because it involves a well-known retail brand not typically associated with groceries — and, really, because it involves a well-known retail brand at all.

Read the column in the November 14, 2010, New York Times Magazine, or here.

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In The New York Times Magazine: Marketing with data

STATS APPEAL
A dating service converts info-mining into buzz.

Many, and possibly most, of the people spreading OkTrends’ findings are, like me, not really interested in using the actual OkCupid service. Is this really good for business?

Read the column in the November 7, 2010, New York Times Magazine, or here.

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In The New York Times Magazine: When is bad news good news?

GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS
Can negative publicity help? The research says yes — under the right circumstances.

“Can negative publicity actually have a positive effect?” researchers ask in an article published this month in the journal Marketing Science. “And if so, when?”

Read the column in the October 31, 2010, New York Times Magazine, or here.

Discuss, make fun of, or praise this column to the skies at the Consumed Facebook page.

In The New York Times Magazine: Mom blogs & advertising

MONETIZING MOM-NESS
The right to express yourself — and to make money doing it.

To understand what any of this has to do with empowerment, recall that the Web revolution hasn’t simply been about giving masses of people a chance to express themselves — it’s also about giving them a chance to sell ads against that self-expression.

Read the column in the October 24, 2010, New York Times Magazine (it’s a special issue — “The Women’s Empowerment Issue”), or here.

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In The New York Times Magazine: Kitchen “incubators”

KITCHEN COMMUNAL
A cooking space where interesting back stories meet a business model.

Markets and communities have similarities but also differences. For an example of how this gets reconciled by a “kitchen incubator,” it’s useful to look at one of the better-known examples of the form, La Cocina, in San Francisco

Read the column in the October 10, 2010, New York Times Magazine, or here.

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In The New York Times Magazine: “Grey’s Anatomy” scrubs

BRANDING OPERATION
Selling real-life scrubs with references to a fictional hospital drama.

“Grey’s Anatomy” scrubs have been popular with medical professionals pretty much from the moment they were first produced.

Read the column in the October 3, 2010, New York Times Magazine, or here.

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In The New York Times Magazine: “Junk”ing up carrots

CARROT TALK
A vegetable borrows from the junk-food branding vernacular

It’s hard to say who gets the last laugh here. The makers of Doritos aren’t exactly complaining. (“We’re happy to serve as inspiration,” a Frito-Lay spokesman told USA Today.) And the reality is that marketers have long since recognized and accepted that “how your snack looks” makes a difference, to kids in particular.

Read the column in the September 26, 2010, New York Times Magazine, or here.

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In The New York Times Magazine: Music Objects 2.0

HEARING THINGS
Can the value of music reside in a lamp (or stickers, or a high-end sculpture)?

Merchandise is gaining momentum, and it’s not hard to imagine a time when a fan buys a sculpture, home décor item or other tangible good and gets the music as a kind of free soundtrack accompaniment.

Read the column in the September 12, 2010, New York Times Magazine, or here.

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In The New York Times Magazine: Things that tell stories

SAY ANYTHING, THING
If our favorite objects could talk, what tales would they tell?

The relationship between the possessions we value and the narratives behind them is unmistakable. Current technologies of connection, and enterprises that take advantage of them, surface this idea in new ways — but they also suggest the many different kinds of stories, information and data that objects can, or will, tell us.

Read the column in the September 5, 2010, New York Times Magazine, or here.

Note: Earlier looks at a different sort of thing-story — the manufacturing “narrative” of an object — aret here and here,

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In The New York Times Magazine: Involuntary branding

CROSSOVER POP
One of the longest-running — and weirdest — unsolicited celebrity endorsements

Insane Clown Posse mention Faygo a lot and spray concertgoers with it during shows. This has resulted in one of the longest-running instances of an unsolicited celebrity endorsement.

Read the column in the August 29, 2010, New York Times Magazine, or here.

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In The New York Times Magazine: Fruit branding

BANANA DEMOCRACY
A design campaign that has made the most of minimal packaging.

Humans have always noticed novelty, but it’s harder to get our attention in the multicolored and abundant context of a megamart, where one heap of bananas looks much like another. This makes it all the more impressive that Chiquita has received so much notice by being creative with the little blue stickers that adorn its flagship fruit

Read the column in the August 22, 2010, New York Times Magazine, or here.

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In The New York Times Magazine: Books, the idea

SHELF EXPRESSION
Physical books’ bright future — as decorative objects and props.

Set aside any emotional attachment you may feel toward the reading of physical books; the truth is that creative uses for books that do not involve engaging with words on a page already abound.

Read the column in the August 8, 2010, New York Times Magazine, or here.

Discuss, make fun of, or praise this column to the skies at the Consumed Facebook page.

Yes, this column is the culmination of my long-running musings on this subject, here and here.

In The New York Times Magazine: Designer diapers

THE BORN IDENTITY
Designer diapers join the repertory of child-as-prop tools.

Even in penny-pinching times, parents still want to demonstrate how well (or at least tastefully) they are bringing up baby. Designer diapers are a useful tool for sending that message. And perhaps more to the point, they are also an extension of the well-established tendency among contemporary parents to treat their children as identity props.

Read the column in the August 1, 2010, New York Times Magazine, or here.

Discuss, make fun of, or praise this column to the skies at the Consumed Facebook page.