MURKETING

Global Crocism

I get the impression that maybe the Crocs thing (Consumed 7/15/07) has peaked — but on the other hand I keep seeing them on the feet of otherwise respectable-looking people at the grocery store and whatnot. And now Adverblog points out a Japanese site that gathers of Crocs photos — “My Crocs Contest.” Not clear to me how new or old this is, but it seems like bad news for Crocs-haters. Popularity in Japan would, I can only assume, break down the American consumer segment that has most ferociously resisted Crocs — the cool-taste-trend-hunter-spotter-setters.

Periodic update: New links

Those of you who read via RSS probably don’t even know about the huge and moderately awesome list of links in the “blogroll” at right. Well you should. You should look it over immediately! (Also you should tell me if any links are broken.)

And you should be aware that hugeness and moderate awesomeness aside, this link list is an eternal work in progress (I still need to add a DIY/Handmade 2.0 category) and I’m adding a few new ones right now. It’s occurred to me I ought to say something when I do this, or you’ll never know.

To the Artists section: Justin Gignac (mentioned in this earlier post); Chris Held (mentioned in this earlier post).

To the Bigshots section: Dan Ariely’s “Predictaby Irrational.”

To the Hard To Categorize section: Delicious Ghost. Actually I added this a couple weeks ago.

To the Various Other Friends section: I Love Beer, a blog by Lee Nichols (thanks for the heads-up, Lance)

While adding these links, I also removed a few. But somehow telling what I’ve removed just seems like bad form.

Niche of the week: Toyota’s prisoner brand

Reading Virginia Heffernan’s column just now, this week on the subject of an Internet discussion board called Prison Talk — which she writes serves “family and friends of the incarcerated” — I was a little surprised by passing mention of one of the advertisers there: There’s a book of tips for people headed to prison, and there’s Western Union, and then there’s … the Toyota Matrix? (Apparently the car’s slogan is: “Get in touch with your dark side.”)

I wonder what positioning strategy it is that led the planner to do a buy on Prison Talk?

Absolut international incident?

Strange Maps, via The Plank:

This map, used in a Mexican ad campaign, shows what the US-Mexican border would look like in an ‘absolut’ (i.e. perfect) world: a large part of the US’s west is annexed to Mexico.

Needless to say this map made its way to ‘El Norte’, annoying and upsetting many Americans – even leading to calls for a boycott of the Swedish-made vodka. What must be particularly annoying is that this map has some basis in fact.

The Plank also points to the reaction of someone named Michelle Malkin:

The advertising firm that created the Absolut Reconquista ad is Teran/TBWA. Teran is based in Mexico City. The company’s website boasts a pretentious statement of philosophy advocating “disruption” as a “tool for change” and “agent of growth.” (Scroll your mouse over the little buttons in the upper-right margin.) The firm advocates “overturning assumptions and prejudices that get in the way of imagining new possibilities and visionary ideas that help create a larger share of the future.”

Translation: The company advocates overturning borders that get in the way of imagining new maps of North America that help Mexico create a larger share of the continent.

Well. Two things.

First: An ad agency with a pretentious mission statement full of doublespeak clichés about change and disruption? No way! Say it isn’t so! That’s never happened before!

Second: Like every other agency, what these marketing pros “advocate” is getting paid by their clients. The way they get paid by their clients is to get their clients talked about and noticed. And that was Absolut-ly the goal here. Ad agencies don’t have a political motive. They have a profit motive.

In The New York Times Magazine: To The Fallen Records

BATTLE CRIES:
How one veteran tries to use entertainment to to convey the war experience

If you’ve seen the polls tracking American interest in the war in Iraq, you already know: If the war were a TV show, it would be cancelled.

The war, of course, is not a form of entertainment. And the apparent loss of interest is a source of frustration to current and former military personnel. One man has found a way to convert that frustration into something positive — a form of entertainment: In 2006 he founded To the Fallen Records, which has since released three compilations of songs made mostly by current military personnel or recent veterans.

Read the column in the April 6, 2008, issue of The New York Times Magazine, or here.

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

Welcome..! (But why, exactly?)

Welcome Marketplace listeners!

That’s right, I had a commentary run on the widely broadcast public radio show Marketplace tonight. I’m pretty pleased about that (even though I haven’t actually listened to it yet; I only know it ran tonight because I just got email from a detractor about it), because I’m a longtime listener to the show.

Anyway, if you look at blogs often, and I’m sure you do, you’ve probably had occasion to encounter a “Welcome!” post, like this one. This occurs when a blog is, say, mentioned in The Times, or on some other superblog (BoingBoing), or the blog’s author has been on television. So the post will say something like: “Welcome New York Times readers!” and the premise is that there are a flood of newcomers showing up as a result of the outside attention, and they need to be greeted in some way.

This isn’t something I’d thought about a whole lot, since this particular site tends not to have to deal with a lot of attention from media outlets or superbloggers. But now that Murketing is — or might be — getting some outside attention, it’s made me wonder: What are those “Welcome!” posts really about? Do these new readers need a welcome? Is a welcome likely to rope them in as regulars?

Possibly. But I think the real function of the “Welcome!” post is status signaling, in the economics sense. That is, it’s meant to signal the importance of the blog by making public mention of the attention it has received from some authority or other.

Again I haven’t listened to the show yet, so the truth is I don’t even know if they mentioned this site. But I know what I said, and it was about the death of conspicuous consumption and the rise of “the invisible badge,” concepts more thoroughly explored in Buying In.

But still: Welcome new readers (if there are any), I think with this post you now have a very good sense of I how I look at the world.

And as for you regulars: Now you know that — or maybe I’ve just tricked you into believing — others are interested, too!

Imaginary brand as actual sponsor

I’m really not much of a convention guy, but I have to admit a certain curiosity about ROFLCon, the gathering of living memes and “brainy academics” who go on about them. (Details here.)

Somehow I had missed the fact that the event’s “partners” include Brawndo: The Thirst Mutilator. This is the combination energy drink and crop irrigation product featured in the dark comedy cult favorite Idiocracy. In other words, it’s an imaginary brand — one that has crossed over into reality. (Here is a review.) So it’s a pretty great choice for a co-sponsor.

I was interested to note on the Brawndo site, up in the upper-right corner, the logo for Omni Consumer Products, a fictional entity from Robocop. (You can show your support of non-existent OCP by sporting a T-shirt from Last Exit To Nowhere, subject of a November 18, 2007 Consumed.) I’m assuming the implication is that somehow Brawndo and OCP are linked — a particularly meta suggestion, connecting imaginary brands from two different fictional worlds.

I don’t recognize that other logo up in there corner, though. Do you? This is answered in the comments now. Thanks!

Anyway, I unfortunately have other plans during the April 25-26 time frame, so no ROFLCon for me. But if you go, pick up a Brawndo, and let me know what you think.

To Do in Portland: “Overstock”

Opening tomorrow night at Jáce Gáce, 2045 SE Belmont, Portland, OR: Overstock. To create this installation, the artist maxed a number of credit cards. He plans on returning everything for a refund after the show comes down.

Selected details:

In the installation, Overstock, Chris Held unites the messages of product marketing and religious practice by creating a monolithic shrine to the modern commodity. Masses of stacked goods ascend skyward towards a peak….

Behind the scenes, Overstock is powered by credit cards and box-store return policies. By taking advantage of offerings such as 0%APR on purchases to obtain goods he’s intent on returning, Held preys on a system of consumer seduction….

Through April 25. Reception April 4, 6 p.m.-Midnight.

More 2D barcode examples

The newfangled barcodes I wrote about in Consumed the other day come up in another variation in this interesting NPR piece. The main focus is a firm called Scanbuy.

In San Francisco … hundreds of restaurants and businesses already sport the little black and white boxes outside their doors [even though] most people aren’t currently equipped to scan them.

And the latest Trendwatching roundup includes Dutch brand Wickd: “Wickd combines clothing and 2D barcodes technology to allow wearers of Wickd shirts, longsleeves or jackets to take their favorite websites with them. “

Nothing says true love like a year’s supply of deodorant

Definitely the promotional contest of the week:

GroomGroove.com and Gillette Clinical Strength, made by Procter & Gamble, are searching for the best marriage proposal.

Contestants can enter the “She Said Yes” contest at the site through April 21 by submitting a 30-to-350-word story. One winner will receive a year’s supply of the new antiperspirant and $1,000 in cash.

Among other things, I’m amused at the linkage of “clinical strength antiperspirant” with weddings. Certainly it’s true that an overly sweaty groom is usually a bad sign.

Via Promo Magazine.

Things that look like other things: continued

Timbuk2 has apparently just unveiled a MacBook Air Sleeve that looks like an envelope.

In February, Core77 noted two examples of designers creating MacBook Air sleeves that look like an envelope.

Flickr Interlude

6th St. Cool Store, originally uploaded by _cheryl.

[Join and contribute to the Murketing Flickr group]

Annals of Murketing: Scion’s cameo in phony ad starring talking rump

On her blog Ex-Files, Brandweek‘s Becky Ebenkamp reports:

To target young adults, Turner’s Adult Swim has developed a mock commercial with ad partner Scion for the second season of its show Assy McGee, which premieres April 6. After the first half of each episode, Assy stars in a 35-second animated ad set at a car lot and offers viewers “low, low prices” for the Scion xB.

Here’s a link to the faux ad. It goes right to the video, so if you’re at work, you might want to make sure no one’s going to walk by and see or hear it.

Now, if you watch it, you might question the wisdom of Scion putting its brand in this situation. Assy McGee is basically a walking naked rear end, with a cowboy hat and a gun. He/it makes exactly the sounds you would expect a walking rear end to make. Also a guy gets his shot off. Pretty crass stuff, etc. And while I would like to get through this item without using the phrase “butt of a joke,” I’ve actually just now failed, because it’s hard not to think of Scion being exactly that.

But think again, my friends. I say this “placement,” or whatever you want to call it, makes perfect sense, and is an excellent example of the murky marketing (murketing yes) of the future.

For starters, you can’t TiVo it and all that. Obvious. And a fine example of what the future holds, which may or may not include fewer 30-second spots, will absolutely include more and more deals like this get corporate dough by putting the commercial message inside the show. Get used to it. This is in essence part of the show. If you miss it, you miss a chance to laugh. And I’m sorry to say it, but I laughed.

Second, Adult Swim programming (subject of 1/18/04 Consumed) has a collegey audience that will also probably be amused, and that is precisely Scion’s alleged target. Won’t they think less of the brand for being sorta-kinda mocked? I doubt it. In fact, as this memorable Brandweek piece noted back in 2006, there’s precedent for brands paying to be made fun of — as long as it happens within the show.

Third, I say young people are Scion’s “alleged” target because I’m well aware that Scion doesn’t just sell cars to young people. (Scion comes up in Buying In, and yeah I’m gonna mention Buying In almost constantly, so get used to that too.) Plenty of non-young people, who might well be appalled to see their brand of car in this context, have bought Scions. But guess what? None of those people will see this ad, because they don’t watch Adult Swim.

Update April 4: AdFreak points out that Scion has actually made a deal to be the exclusive sponsor of Assy McGee. Just so you know.

How to raise prices even when you’re selling garbage. Literally.

Speaking of garbage: I don’t know how I’ve managed to overlook this guy, but Day To Day had a piece yesterday about Justin Gignac, who sells trash. The project, he says, evolved out of an argument over the importance of packaging to the consumer mind. To prove that it mattered, he decided he would nicely package Valtrex up some … garbage. He put it in cool cube boxes. And:

Several years and more than 1,000 sales later, the cubes now go for as much as $100.

Each tightly sealed box comes with a “Garbage of New York City” label and a small sticker with the date that the trash was picked. They are also signed and numbered.

As great as this is, the piece mentions a particularly compelling side note, which is that over time he has raised his prices. What he tells Day to Day is that while he started at $10, he was getting tired of the project and decided to bump it $25 on the theory that https://openoralhealth.org/where-to-buy-lasix/ sales would decrease.

They did not.

He bumped them to $50, and even $100 and they still sold, and sell. The main difference is that now they’re considered art — even though it’s the same old garbage.

I’m not surprised. Observers of both the real-world marketplace and theories of human behavior are well aware that the effect of prices on sales can be counterintuitive. And it strikes me that it would be particularly true in a case like this: Raises the price on garbage, and what it becomes is more valuable garbage.

Not to cast aspersions on any particular brand, but I’m pretty sure Jonah Bloom at Ad Age did a column once about how the owners of Izod (I think it was) pumped up sales by … raising prices. The problem was that Izod had become so cheap it had lost its cachet. And it turned out the easiest way to give it a prestige boost was basically to put a higher price (tramadol) on the same items.

More scientifically, this theme comes up in the work of Dan Ariely, a very clever professor at MIT who studies behavioral economics. He’s done a couple of research projects related to an offshoot of the placebo effect (work that I actually cite in Buying In, by the by).

He (and colleagues) found that subjects who did a puzzle test after drinking an energy drink performed significantly worse if they thought the drink had been bought at (non-quality-related) discount. A more recent study on pain-relief placebos found that more expensive ones were more effective. (More on the latter study here.) The bottom line is that the research suggests maybe we really do get what we pay for. Ariely, who really is one of the smartest people working in this realm, has a new book out called Predictably Irrational in which he makes this point better than I just did — check it out.

Bottom line though is that value is a more flexible concept than we sometimes assume. Even when the thing being valued is, you know, pure garbage.

[For more about Gignac and other cool projects he and his girlfriend are working on, which I might follow up on later, check the Day To Day piece.]

Indie, traditional, or “Shadow:” more ways of looking at craft

I posted earlier (here and here) about “new wave” vs. “traditional” crafting, and mention in passing the American Craft Show’s “New Wave” section this year, which Crafty Bastard found a little problematic. Among the exhibitors in that section was Handmade 2.0 subject Circa Ceramics.

Here’s what their blog has to say. While Nancy goes out of her way to say that it was all in all a wonderful experience to be around great peers… well, this:

But there was a bit of a dark cloud hanging over our little 35x35ft space at the convention center, and it held bad vibes. There was a lot of rumbling coming from some of the veterans of the show, and most of it was beyond cranky – To the point where it almost came to fistacuffs. There were times when you’d see a few come in to check us out, saying out loud ‘Well I DON’T see what the fuss is about!” – I even caught a few artists taking off their badges before coming into our pen.

As she says: “Unfortunate.”

But I want to be careful not to characterize her post as purely negative, so I’ll highlight the closing thought:

I am excited and giddy that this is all the talk at the moment, all this ‘indie vs. traditional craft’ – It needs to be discussed because it’s been lingering in many crafters & artists minds. And perhaps someone will bring up the genre of artist that is what Andy & I and so many of our peers fall into: The Shadow Artist. The artists who have been traditionally trained, but have, through necessity, curiosity, fear of boredom or other, gone down a more adventurous path, taking their knowledge and adding some twists to it, and not being ashamed of it.

Cultivating that way of craft, always experimenting & perfecting methods, and making it work for you. Being able to comfortably hover over that line between Old Skool & New Skool, like a shadow :)