MURKETING

In The New York Times Magazine: The Polo logo

THE BRAND-NESS OF STRANGERS:
We’re incidentally exposed to familiar logos constantly, but that doesn’t influence us — does it?

This week in Consumed, a look at an iconic logo, and at what recent research suggests about how exposure to such symbols — via “incidental brand-consumer encounters” — may exert an influence we don’t notice.

Read the column in the November 16, 2008 issue of The New York Times Magazine, or here.

[Bonus link: Study cited in the column is summarized here.]

Consumed archive is here, and FAQ is here. The Times’ Consumed RSS feed is here. Consumed Facebook page is here.

To make a point about Consumed that you think readers of The Times Magazine would be interested in: “Letters should be addressed to Letters to the Editor, Magazine, The New York Times, 620 Eighth Avenue, 6th Floor, New York, N.Y. 10018. The e-mail address is magazine@nytimes.com. All letters should include the writer’s name, address and daytime telephone number. We are unable to acknowledge or return unpublished letters. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.”

In The New York Times Magazine: The RushCard

SOCIAL CURRENCY
Prepaid cards that cash in on the status of plastic

This week in Consumed:

While recent months have found millions of Americans nervously eyeing their mutual-fund holdings, money-market accounts and credit-card bills, millions of other Americans continue to live their financial lives completely outside this system. Figures vary, but by one widely cited estimate 10 million American households have no bank account. And plenty of businesses sell financial alternatives to the “unbanked” — check-cashing places, for instance. In recent years, another alternative has emerged: instead of converting a paycheck into cash, prepaid cards let users pour it into a piece of branded plastic. Aside from competing on the basis of price (check-cashing fees can be brutal) and convenience (a prepaid card can be used to pay a utility bill online, for instance), at least some of this plastic purports to offer something less quantifiable.

Consider, for instance, the Prepaid Visa RushCard, the product of a partnership between Unifund (a Cincinnati company best known for buying up and collecting on bad debts) and Russell Simmons, a founder of Def Jam records and the Phat Farm apparel brand.

Read the whole column in the November 9, 2008, issue of The New York Times Magazine, or here.

Consumed archive is here, and FAQ is here. Consumed Facebook page is here.

To make a point about Consumed that you think readers of The Times Magazine would be interested in: “Letters should be addressed to Letters to the Editor, Magazine, The New York Times, 620 Eighth Avenue, 6th Floor, New York, N.Y. 10018. The e-mail address is magazine@nytimes.com. All letters should include the writer’s name, address and daytime telephone number. We are unable to acknowledge or return unpublished letters. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.”

In The New York Times Magazine: Goodwill

GOODWILL HUNTING:
Rebranding castoffs as couture — or at least as competitive with Wal-Mart.

This week in Consumed:

In the first eight months of 2008, sales at Goodwill stores in the United States and Canada increased by 7 percent over the same period last year. While that obviously runs counter to trends being reported by most retailers these days, it’s hard to say whether it counts as good news that more people are evidently buying secondhand goods. After all, many of us probably don’t think of Goodwill in terms of retail; we think of it in terms of charity.

But operators of some Goodwill stores have been making efforts to prod us to think a little differently, or perhaps more expansively, about the brand — and quite possibly the present economic gloom has primed us to be more open to that idea….

Read the column in the November 2, 2008, issue of The New York Times Magazine, or here.

Consumed archive is here, and FAQ is here. The Times’ Consumed RSS feed is here. Consumed Facebook page is here.

To make a point about Consumed that you think readers of The Times Magazine would be interested in: “Letters should be addressed to Letters to the Editor, Magazine, The New York Times, 620 Eighth Avenue, 6th Floor, New York, N.Y. 10018. The e-mail address is magazine@nytimes.com. All letters should include the writer’s name, address and daytime telephone number. We are unable to acknowledge or return unpublished letters. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.”

In The New York Times Magazine: Billy Mays

TOP YELLER:
The enduring appeal of the pitchman.

Today in Consumed, a look at the appeal of one of TV’s most ubiquitous sellers.

Much more interesting than the unlikely merchandise he booms on about is the boomer himself. With his slicked-back hair, beard and thunderclap voice, he begins most of his many two-minute spots by proclaiming: “Hi! Billy Mays here!” Usually declarations like this are reserved for those whose achievements or fame in some other corner of culture (movies, sports, reality television) are being leveraged on behalf of a product. Mays is a celebrity endorser whose celebrity is based entirely on having endorsed things.

Read the column in the October 26, 2008, issue of The New York Times Magazine, or here.

Bonus link: BillyMaysRules.com.

Consumed archive is here, and FAQ is here. The Times’ Consumed RSS feed is here. Consumed Facebook page is here.

To make a point about Consumed that you think readers of The Times Magazine would be interested in: “Letters should be addressed to Letters to the Editor, Magazine, The New York Times, 620 Eighth Avenue, 6th Floor, New York, N.Y. 10018. The e-mail address is magazine@nytimes.com. All letters should include the writer’s name, address and daytime telephone number. We are unable to acknowledge or return unpublished letters. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.”

In The New York Times Magazine: Wants For Sale

PAINTING BY NUMBERS:
Pricing is an art — or at least these artists have turned it into one.

This week in Consumed, an experiment in the meaning of prices and objects by Justin Gignac and Christine Santora:

The couple — art directors in the advertising business in New York — wanted to work together on a creative project. Part of their motivation was to make a little extra money, and talking about what they might do with it, Santora says, led them to the strategy of “why don’t we just be totally transparent?” If they wanted to make enough to buy a plate of buffalo wings at Le Figaro Cafe (now defunct) on Bleecker Street, they would render a plate a buffalo wings and charge $12.70. If they wanted a Wii, they would paint one and charge $270.92.

Read the column in the October 19, 2008, issue of The New York Times Magazine, or here.

The Wants For Sale site is here; Needs For Sale is here. Earlier Murketing post about Gignac is here.

Consumed archive is here, and FAQ is here. The Times’ Consumed RSS feed is here. Consumed Facebook page is here.

To make a point about Consumed that you think readers of The Times Magazine would be interested in: “Letters should be addressed to Letters to the Editor, Magazine, The New York Times, 620 Eighth Avenue, 6th Floor, New York, N.Y. 10018. The e-mail address is magazine@nytimes.com. All letters should include the writer’s name, address and daytime telephone number. We are unable to acknowledge or return unpublished letters. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.”

In The New York Times Magazine: Milk Media

MILK CARTOON:
Co-opting the kids’-entertainment-character marketing strategy for a lunchroom staple

Today, as part of a special food-themed issue of the New York Times Magazine, Consumed looks at an effort to get kids to drink more milk — by putting pop culture branded characters on the cartons.

As the Milk Media Web site puts it, “We introduced the concept of branded cartons to forge relationships between sponsors who had characters that kids really cared about as a more effective tactic to make milk ‘Cool for Kids.’ ” …

Milk has few enemies. Branding that reaches out to children inside the educational system, however, is a reliable source of outrage. …

Read the column in the October 12, 2008 issue of The New York Times Magazine, or here.

Consumed archive is here, and FAQ is here. The Times’ Consumed RSS feed is here. Consumed Facebook page is here.

To make a point about Consumed that you think readers of The Times Magazine would be interested in: “Letters should be addressed to Letters to the Editor, Magazine, The New York Times, 620 Eighth Avenue, 6th Floor, New York, N.Y. 10018. The e-mail address is magazine@nytimes.com. All letters should include the writer’s name, address and daytime telephone number. We are unable to acknowledge or return unpublished letters. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.”

In The New York Times Magazine: Speedo Warmup Jacket

SUBCONSCIOUS WARM-UP
Wearing a jacket like the one Michael Phelps wore can’t make you a faster swimmer. Or can it?

This week in Consumed, a look at the possibility of, in effect, a subliminal placebo. Recent research suggests that non-conscious exposure to brands can influence not just purchase decisions — but actual behavior. That research focused on the Apple brand and creativity. And maybe it suggests that buying a Speedo jacket like the one Michael Phelps wore isn’t quite as useless a move as you might assume.

“The trick is, the first time you wore the warm-up parka,” it wouldn’t have any effect, one of the researchers says. “Because you’d realize, Oh I’m being ridiculous.” Wear it often enough, though, and you’ll probably stop ruminating about it. “Below the level of conscious awareness, you’d put the jacket on, and what’s activated in your mind is maybe Michael Phelps going very fast,” he continues. “And those things could actually kick up your motivation to go faster.”

Read the column in the October 5, 2008, issue of The New York Times Magazine, or here.

Consumed archive is here, and FAQ is here. The Times’ Consumed RSS feed is here. Consumed Facebook page is here.

To make a point about Consumed that you think readers of The Times Magazine would be interested in: “Letters should be addressed to Letters to the Editor, Magazine, The New York Times, 620 Eighth Avenue, 6th Floor, New York, N.Y. 10018. The e-mail address is magazine@nytimes.com. All letters should include the writer’s name, address and daytime telephone number. We are unable to acknowledge or return unpublished letters. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.”

In The New York Times Magazine: Kazuo Kawasaki 704s

POLITICAL SPECTACLES
How Sarah Palin’s glasses fit into electoral aesthetics

Speaking of politics, Consumed this week — in anticipation of the vice presidential debate — is about Sara Palin’s specs: In addition to pondering what it is that’s made people buy Kazuo Kawasaki 704 frames just like the candidate’s, the column puts her apparent style-setting in the context of electoral aesthetics, past and present. Also: Kawasaki’s U.S. distributor suggests a more fashion-forward alternative for Joe Biden.

Read it in the September 28, 2008 issue of The New York Times Magazine, or here.

Consumed archive is here, and FAQ is here. The Times’ Consumed RSS feed is here. Consumed Facebook page is here.

To make a point about Consumed that you think readers of The Times Magazine would be interested in: “Letters should be addressed to Letters to the Editor, Magazine, The New York Times, 620 Eighth Avenue, 6th Floor, New York, N.Y. 10018. The e-mail address is magazine@nytimes.com. All letters should include the writer’s name, address and daytime telephone number. We are unable to acknowledge or return unpublished letters. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.”

In The New York Times Magazine: Sponsored classes

SCHOOL OF HARD KNOCKOFFS
Is a corporate-sponsored marketing course a real academic service, or a fake one?

A couple of years ago, the International Anticounterfeiting Coalition — a trade group whose members include fashion, software, pharmaceutical and other businesses concerned with knockoff versions of their products — decided to take its message to college campuses. Specifically, the I.A.C.C. College Outreach Campaign aimed to enlist students in spreading its message to other students. While intended as a sort of win-win situation that gives students real-life experiences and spreads the I.A.C.C.’s “fight the fakes” message, the campaign has also ended up sparking an entirely different ethical question about the sponsorship of college courses.

Read the column in today’s issue of The New York Times Magazine, or here.

In The New York Times Magazine: Scrapbooks and scrapbooking

SHARED MEMORIES:
The urge to have your creative talent for recording the past recognized in the here and now

This week in Consumed, a look at scrapbooking, and how scrapbookers’ creations (and their motives) have evolved.

Many of the images reproduced in “Scrapbooks: An American History,” by Jessica Helfand, date back 50, 80, even 100 years. Reproduced in color and spread across wide pages, they are treated as worthy examples of creativity. The anonymous scrapbook creators could hardly have imagined such a fate for their work. Whatever audience they had in mind, it surely did not include a design critic ruminating over this “evocative” and “largely overlooked class of artifact.”

In the 21st century, of course, scrapbooking is a multibillion-dollar affair, with specialty publications and businesses serving a huge market of self-documentarians. By and large, their work has little aesthetic resemblance to what Helfand has compiled. And while contemporary “scrappers” may not be thinking about future historians, a good number are thinking about an audience — and it isn’t just the grandkids. …

Read the column in the September 14, 2008, issue if The New York Times Magazine, or here.

Consumed archive is here, and FAQ is here. The Times’ Consumed RSS feed is here. Consumed Facebook page is here.

To make a point about Consumed that you think readers of The Times Magazine would be interested in: “Letters should be addressed to Letters to the Editor, Magazine, The New York Times, 620 Eighth Avenue, 6th Floor, New York, N.Y. 10018. The e-mail address is magazine@nytimes.com. All letters should include the writer’s name, address and daytime telephone number. We are unable to acknowledge or return unpublished letters. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.”

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In The New York Times Magazine: Red Mango (v. Pinkberry)

GONE SOUR
The sweet benefits of a clearly defined rival

This week in Consumed, a look at Red Mango’s rivalry with Pinkberry.

It’s a cliché that the fight for survival brings out the best in business rivals, but a clear rivalry is also useful to consumers — it’s something to latch on to, an opportunity to take sides. Many Red Mango locations are in conspicuously close proximity to a Pinkberry. Kim claims this is a “coincidence,” owing more to his own chain’s real estate research than to any provocation. But read the reviews on Yelp.com of the Pinkberry and Red Mango locations that more or less face each other on Bleecker Street in New York. The Red Mango at 182 Bleecker registers four stars out of five, based on 74 reviews — many of which reference Pinkberry directly.

Read the column in the September 7, 2008 issue of the New York Times Magazine, or here.

Consumed archive is here, and FAQ is here. The Times’ Consumed RSS feed is here. Consumed Facebook page is here.

To make a point about Consumed that you think readers of The Times Magazine would be interested in: “Letters should be addressed to Letters to the Editor, Magazine, The New York Times, 620 Eighth Avenue, 6th Floor, New York, N.Y. 10018. The e-mail address is magazine@nytimes.com. All letters should include the writer’s name, address and daytime telephone number. We are unable to acknowledge or return unpublished letters. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.”

In The New York Times Magazine: TapouT

ULTIMATE BRANDING

This week in Consumed, a look at TapouT and other brands that “speak to the mixed-martial arts lifestyle.”

The vague term “lifestyle” is particularly vexing in this context. Perhaps clothing lines associated with surfing or hip-hop or Ralph Lauren suggest such a thing. But what “lifestyle” might we associate with one person kicking another in the face?

Read the column in the August 31, 2008, issue of The New York Times Magazine, or here.

–> Murketing readers will recall that I floated this subject here a few weeks ago and got some great comments that both convinced me this was worth pursuing as a column, and offered me a lot of excellent guidance in doing so. Thank you!

Consumed archive is here, and FAQ is here. The Times‘ Consumed RSS feed is here. Consumed Facebook page is here.

In The New York Times Magazine: Blendtec

MIXED MEDIA:
Corny Salesmanship or entertainment — what’s the difference?

Today in Consumed, a consideration of “Will It Blend?” as both a brand builder, and a de facto media property.

Watch the recent iPhone 3G shredding — 1.5 million views and counting — and you’ll notice Dickson pausing to enumerate the great features in the gizmo’s new version. This is because Blendtec worked directly with AT&T to tape part of that episode outside one of its stores the day the 3G was released. Longtime devotees may have noticed a gradual drift toward the blending of hot products and pop-culture artifacts. Blendtec responded to that Weezer star turn by blending the band’s new CD, and Dickson has lately destroyed a copy of “Grand Theft Auto IV” and a “Guitar Hero III” attachment.

Read the column in the August 24, 2008, issue of The New York Times Magazine, or here.

Consumed archive is here, and FAQ is here. Consumed Facebook page is here.

In The New York Times Magazine: Ospop

WORKER SOLE
A simple shoe for Chinese laborers gets made over for Western consumers

This week in Consumed, a new addition to the centuries-old effort to communicate between East and West. Curiously, it’s a consumer product:

Ospop sneakers. Yes, they’re made in China by Chinese workers. But more unusually, and more to the point, they are inspired by Chinese workers. Specifically, Ospop sneakers are based on a design widely worn by such laborers, but with higher-quality materials and structural improvements meant to appeal to a Western audience — one that is, not incidentally, willing to pay $75 for a pair of sneakers.

Read the column in the August 17, 2008, issue of The New York Times Magazine, or here.

Consumed archive is here, and FAQ is here. Consumed Facebook page is here.

In The New York Times Magazine: The Zune

AntiPod
Are Zune buyers motivated by what the device is – or what it isn’t?

Today in Consumed: Who chooses to buy a Zune, and why? The marketing of the device has stressed its “social” features. But is that really the attraction?

Community and togetherness seem like a reasonable counterpunch to iPod’s supposed attraction as an individuality enabler that allows owners to wallow in their own tasteful personal soundtracks. But in real life, the cafe patron checking for other Zune owners is less likely to find one than to arouse mild curiosity about his eccentric product choice. Meanwhile, owning an iPod seems roughly as individualistic as a gray flannel suit.

Read the column in the August 10, 2008, issue of The New York Times Magazine, or here.

Consumed archive is here, and FAQ is here. Consumed Facebook page is here.