Branding Is Blather

The Passionate & Objective Jokerfan: You Are Awesome

2010-10-04T00:22:00.016-04:00

My posting has been spotty during the run of this blog. As far as I knew, this was a disappointment only to my friend Jeff at work, who makes the shrugging "Blather pose" (seen in my header) every time he walks by my desk.

Well, today I realized that I was wrong...

Many months (a year?) ago I wrote a post about a hilarious musician who has absolutely no Internet presence beyond listings of his albums on iTunes, Billboard, CDBaby, etc. My entry expressed exasperation, trying to explore why this guy, The Passionate and Objective Jokerfan, would choose not to have a web/myspace page that reveals any information about himself. As no intentional slight to the Jokerfan, I took down this post because I guess at the time I thought it wasn't related enough to "branding."

Today, while doing a google search for this blog, I found out that not only did the Jokerfan release a new album recently, (Unofficial Tributes to Officially Awesome Musical People) but that he specifically asks me on Track 15 why I took down the post about him! I couldn't believe it.

Jokerfan, I am so embarrassed for what happened! Your music is incredible - I am a huge fan. Please contact me!

brandingisblather AT gmail DOT COM

Understanding "That's Why I Chose Yale"

2010-02-11T20:40:00.127-05:00

If you haven't seen the video embedded above, then I strongly encourage that you do so. "That's Why I Chose Yale" is a 16+ minute campy musical extravaganza created by recent alums and current undergraduates, funded by the admissions office - and posted to the Yale youtube channel in mid-January. The premise behind the project, which I read on the dozens of blogs weighing in on this topic, is that the number of applications Yale receives each year had been trending downward - and so an enterprising recent grad working in the admissions office proposed that Yale reinvent the college tour video to generate some online buzz about the school. The video has been viewed several hundred thousand times and has elicited a wide range of reactions from alumni, current students, prospective students and onlookers like me. (Ripped of its context, I think the video is amazing, but as a brand text its existence becomes a little more complicated.)

One of the more common comments I've seen online portrays alumni who dislike the video as aloof and not comprehending that they're not the target audience. The claim is that the students applying for a spot in the class of 2014 have been weaned on the mother's milk of High School Musical and other ironic fare - and that this campiness resonantes in a way that an older generation just wouldn't understand. Yes, it's possible that watching hundreds/thousands of hours of Simpsons reruns and Colbert Reports, et. al. has had an indelible effect on the way young people process (joke about) the world. But, you have to wonder if this is a compelling reason to veer so far away from the posture of exclusivity / austerity that the best U.S. universities affect.

A good friend of mine once joked that one's main goal when choosing a college should be to pick a school that won't elicit the response "Where's that?" Obviously, choosing a college is about buying a brand name - to put on your resume and to proudly mention each time someone casually inquires about your past. It's really astonishing how impactful the name of a good school is. Just stand in the company of someone that went to any Ivy League school as he/she mentions this to someone who went somewhere that was (God forbid) not in the Top 50. It's like that odd silence in the room that appears when people in low income brackets watch Mercedes commercials.

It's important to note that the Yale video asserts very few unique selling propositions. Much like every other major, private U.S. university in existence, you will live in a dorm that has a gym, eat at a dining hall with organic/vegetarian options, join one of hundreds of clubs/activities and take lots of different classes. Ok, maybe you'll take a class taught by a Nobel Prize winner or listen to Brian Williams speak. Oh yes, and the common rooms have fancy leather chairs. But, is that what determines the excellence of a school?

Well, no one really knows exactly. At some point in the indeterminate past, U.S. News and World Reports became the authority on ranking colleges and uses a complex algorithm to quantify the quality of a school. (Sometimes undergrads from my alma mater will call me soliciting for a donation and urge that I just give $1 a year, as % of alums donating is part of the equation. Very odd.) Somehow (perhaps to be discussed in a later post) this rankings system has codified the hierarchy of school importance.

Clearly the framework that U.S. News used when compiling these rankings for the first time was the accepted hierarchy that already existed. (OK, Ivy League schools + MIT, etc are the best, what characteristics do they have?) Currently, Yale sits in the 3-spot. And why does it remain within a 1 slot radius every single year? Because it's already there. It's self-perpetuating. Hire esteemed academics, accept people with high SAT scores, keep the buildings looking Medieval and badass. It seems like a remarkably simple process to maintain.

It's strange territory that Yale has entered into. When your brand is all about austere exclusivity you don't tend to want it to appear accessible. No one has ever accused these top schools of being funny or fun - and that's all part of the mystique. (Sure there are some famous Ivy League comedians and Hollywood comedy writers, but that's hardly the essence of these schools.) I wonder if Yale will further explore this possible new identity as ironic hipster Ivy.

In the end, will this video have much of an effect on the college's image - postive or negative? Likely not. But it absolutely is an interesting off-message message.

Designer Birthday Cakes of the Week

2010-02-10T19:47:00.012-05:00

Part 3 in an ongoing series documenting the genre of designer accessories birthday cakes.

kellythecakelady

2decoratecakes - flickr

pattycakespattycakes

jelmandesign

Museum Portion Control: The Dollar Menu

2010-02-06T16:42:00.013-05:00

The most important take-away from the recent accidental tear of Picasso's "The Actor" at The Met has to do with portion size and endurance. How many of us have been in near-similar positions at many of the huge, prestigious, overwhelming art and history museums? You can only view so much and walk through so many galleries before you get museum fatigue, lose your balance, and then boom: history is destroyed. It could happen to any of us.

Why don't museums offer small tasting menus? Dollar menus? Just because I want to see a Rodin doesn't mean that I also have a whole afternoon to kill. It would not only be a great way for a museum to generate some buzz and increase the frequency of visits, but it would allow them to dust off warehoused gems that are just sitting around, waiting for an artist/period-specific retrospective.

Sure, some museums have benefactor mandated "suggested donations" that allow you to pay any amount - but the ticket sellers always seem to shoot a scathing look when the name-your-price option is chosen, without knowing the intentionality behind the amount paid. Perhaps some of the $2 donaters are just museum Dollar Menunaires ahead of their time. (Other museums offer corporate-sponsored free Friday night admissions, but the spaces can get so crowded at these times as to reduce the value of the experience.)

A museum could develop a separate website devoted specifically to the new and upcoming dollar menu offerings. I imagine that it would be prudent to not only dedicate a separate room off the main entrance to such an effort, but it would be important for the dollar menu items to be excluded from view of those paying regular admission. It would firmly establish this as a different experience.

Perhaps the works could cycle in and out every 2 or 3 weeks. Who knows, maybe the Sarcophagus of Constantina could become the museum world's McRib, appearing on the menu once every few years and drawing throngs of fans?

Sketchy Characters: A Case Study

2010-02-04T01:38:00.019-05:00

For the last two or three years it has been remarkably difficult to walk through Times Square in Manhattan without catching sight of a person wearing a series of slightly different, ragged Elmo costumes (and those of other Disney/Time Warner characters to a lesser extent). As has been documented by various local news outlets, the wearer's MO is to insist upon being paid for appearing in pictures with confused tourists.

nopunintended - flickr

pixellatedspiff - flickr

ashbat - flickr

Sure, in a brand management sense it's obviously bad if someone is misrepresenting your property in any way. What particularly strikes me about this situation is that it's happening in one of the most visible "branded" spaces in the world - a place many out-of-towners purposely visit to revel in the refracted glory of Charmin video screens and such. Encountering this rogue Elmo here can't possibly be the kind of "impression" that a CMO would list in a PowerPoint deck.

What's worse is that beyond being pushy and sometimes committing petty violence against tourists, Times Square Elmo allegedly engages in some even stranger behavior. According to a post on populationstatistic.com...

As for the creepiness factor, a woman once told me that, for several weeks, this furry freak regularly came by her street-level office window on 7th Avenue and lingered there for several minutes, seemingly staring directly at her.

In the video and photos below, you'll also see that Elmo unsurprisingly seems to have regular interactions with the police.

antonkawasaki - flickr

lustres - flickr

So, where exactly has Sesame Workshop "corporate" been? I can't speak with any authority about the legality of dressing up as Elmo in a wildly public space and harrassing people for money. However, I'd imagine that you could send an email to Bloomberg and he'd take care of this. So, what exactly is going on here?

rgp - flickr

Raisin As Texture Vessel

2010-02-03T23:32:00.008-05:00

When I first saw Amazin' Raisin brand peach flavored raisins on the shelf at my local Gristedes, I laughed. Unnecessary frankenfood right?

Well...maybe. But after reflecting for a moment it occurred to me that the folks at Amazin' Raisin might be trying to position this item as less of a raisin snack extension and more of an ostensibly healthier, albeit transmogrified, alternative to fruit snacks. It's very Wylie Dufresne of them, treating the raisin as a texture vessel into which a new taste can be transmitted. I'd imagine that a sizable share of packaged raisins are eaten by kids - so this seems like clever solution for parents that don't want their kids eating chewy LEGO blocks, while still giving them the range of flavors (also available in lemon, strawberry) they crave:

Flickr - annshi

Unfortunately for the folks at Amazin' Raisin, my supermarket carries Amazin' Raisins in the peanut butter / bread / prunes / raisin aisle, as opposed to the fruit snacks section. I will have to check at other supermarkets to see what kind of shelf space this product is getting. I think adjacency to regular raisins is what magnifies the oddity of this snack and deflects its potentially positive tradeoff attribute.

Designer Birthday Cakes of the Week

2010-02-01T22:41:00.009-05:00

Part 2 in an ongoing series documenting the genre of designer accessories birthday cakes.

bcakeny.com

Box detail shot.

bcakeny.com

bunbuninwonderland

Wait list is surprisingly short for this one.

Gilt Groupe: Fashion Editorial 2.0?

2010-01-30T11:25:00.019-05:00

I've always been humored by fashion magazine editorials. The flouncy dresses, the tragic decadence, the models standing on diving boards holding babies... the punny titles. How could you not laugh at the squabbling between Wintour and Coddington in The September Issue - knowing how inconsequential the decisions would ultimately be anyway? I love the idea of the form, but just think it's been driven toward a formulaic endgame over time. Plus, a lot fashion bloggers are reinterpreting the genre and making it slightly more literal and fun.

But as silly as they may be (at least to me), fashion magazine editorials have historically been the best way to learn about trends and the brands that are defining them. (At least before the Scott Schuman online empire took shape.)

Gilt Groupe, the sudden industry force, offers a very 2.0 iteration (or maybe cousin) of the fashion editorial. They send out an email blast seven days/week about the new offerings on the site. These items are dressed up overstock, usually 3-6 months past their sell-by date. But, they're incredibly well presented, curated even.

The prospect of getting a great deal causes me to click through the pages and become much more intimately acquainted with a brand's seasonal product than I ever could through a one-page magazine ad or the inclusion in a traditional magazine editorial. The prospect of getting deals makes me visit Gilt far more often than I would go to the online Saks, Neimans, etc.

I get to see snapshots of how Ralph Lauren is trying to bring back the men's double breasted suit (we'll see about that) and the fun that Lanvin is having with sunwear materials and shapes. Gilt Groupe is the new educator-cum-fancy TJ Maxx of the industry. (The same could likely be said about Rue La La as well.)

I wonder if over time brands will become more aware of Gilt's power to demonstrate seasonal direction and begin to create small in-season runs created specifically for the site. Perhaps Gilt will take this evolution further and develop its own in-house team that incorporates styles from each of the daily sales into an editorial shoot?

Legacy.com's Price Points

2010-01-30T02:39:00.013-05:00

A friend of a friend recently passed away, so I did some Google searching to locate the obituary. On the result I clicked on, the local newspaper article about his passing was embedded within a website called Legacy.com. This site is an online business that provides an interesting solution for aggregating memories of the deceased and maintaining the online documentation of someone's life.

From my best guesswork, I think that the site has bots that locate each new obituary that's published on a vast swath of online newspapers throughout the U.S. The identification of a new obit then likely triggers the creation of a memorial page containing the embedded article. (It's also quite possible that Legacy.com has created partnerships with each of the newspapers and receives the obits as a feed.)

The Legacy.com memorial page encourages visitors to leave messages in the dedicated guest book for the deceased. What's interesting is that approximately 5 weeks after the obit/guest book micro-site goes live, it is scheduled to be taken down permanently. To prevent this from happening, Legacy.com offers two different payment plans to keep the site up for either one year or permanently.

I'm not going to moralize that the system and prices listed above are an egregious way of making money, because I'm not yet sure how I feel about that issue. In some ways this site is a less robust, turnkey version of memorial pages that users can create for the deceased on Facebook. And in the interest of keeping a memory alive online, the Legacy.com results for someone's name rank remarkably high in a Google search.

My main point of intrigue is: where exactly did the price points come from? Was $99.99 too high? Is the odd-number pricing (99 cent numeral) appropriate in this type of situation? Wouldn't $80 make the whole proposition seem a touch classier?

It's so odd that one has to do a Chicken McNugget value meal type math equation and ponder the $9.98 that would be overpaid if three consecutive one year renewals were selected vs. the permanent option.

Obviously this company has overhead/server costs and that those who pay the above rates are to some extent subsidizing the existence/churn of all of the 5 week obits. Though, it's unclear how expensive those 5 week obits could possibly be, even with thousands of obits in their database, as it doesn't entail too much data storage.

I would love to know how they arrived at these price points.

The Goober Grape of the Laundry Room?

2010-01-28T00:47:00.017-05:00

The Purex "Complete" 3-in-1 laundry sheet came out last year to little fanfare and no advertising. Always intrigued by seemingly mundane product innovations, I purchased a package.

As promised, the product effectively combines detergent, fabric softener and anti-static protection into one sheet. But, I must ask, will it eventually earn the crown of laundry room game changer, or is it more of a Goober Grape?

Its pricing is on par with the cost of purchasing each of the three components separately and it does certainly result in a lighter load when carrying groceries from car into house. (Or in my case, grocery store to apartment.)

I'd like to see Purex develop a marketing effort to boost the awareness of this item. Perhaps they could negotiate an agreement to include a 5-pack with every washer purchased at Sears or Best Buy?

Designer Birthday Cakes of the Week

2010-01-27T03:18:00.011-05:00

As part of a new, ongoing series, once per week I will be posting photos of birthday cakes that have been baked and frosted to resemble designer sportswear and accessories. You must admit, the marsipan frosting on cake #2 has been sculpted quite artfully.

U.S. Hotel Industry: I'm Concerned About You

2010-01-24T12:20:00.011-05:00

A Typical Hotwire.com Listing

I find it particularly hard to watch more than 15 minutes of television before being reminded that William Shatner is out there somewhere bullying hotel front desk clerks on my fiduciary behalf. As comforting as this is for my near-term travel plans, it makes me wonder how the future of the hotel industry will take shape.

Like a growing number of adults, I rarely ever book hotel rooms through the actual building at which I will be staying. Hotwire.com is my go-to site and it allows me to regularly stay at wonderful hotels that I would otherwise have no way of affording. Most recently hotwire.com allowed me to stay at the Capital Hilton in Washington, D.C. for $89 a night. Hotwire grades this location as a 4-star and I certainly agree with this assessment.

The online discount hotel bookings sector originated as a solution for clearing out the excess inventory of available rooms that remain unreserved as the date of use nears. Personally, I'm not anticipating my consumption patterns to change anytime soon. Through 5+ years of experience I have learned that a 3 or 4-star hotel in a major metropolitan area should cost no more than $129 a night. What began as a solution will ever increasingly become a problem.

Most 3 and 4-star hotels cannot possibly have a cost structure that is sustainable if most paying customers begin to expect such low rates. But as I age and younger consumers adopt the same booking patterns, how will hotels generally be able to keep up the experience that I am enjoying, based on the subsidized level of service that older, less web-savvy consumers are maintaining for me at their higher rates? What will happen if hotwire.com or a competitor develops a sizeable corporate division that books discounted rates for business travelers? Currently, leisure travel makes up a large percentage of these discounted bookings. But, this sector has ever more room to grow in corporate bookings.

Margins industry-wide are going to compress as these discounted rates increasingly become expected rates over time. I think what we're going to begin to see is the unfortunate commodified price effects of the American department store (special sale every day!) and airline industry take hold in the hotel sector. Price will be king and service/upkeep will slowly erode. I hope I am wrong.

Honestly: A Clarification

2010-01-15T15:41:00.010-05:00

Dear Readers,

I must apologize for my own "lazy or cheap" (or both) research regarding why Honest Tea's packaging has looked differently lately.

Please note the comment made to my post by Seth Goldman, President & TeaEO of Honest Tea. He explains that they have adopted a new bottle design that is more eco-friendly. Though the first run of production had some structural difficulties, Mr. Goldman clarifies that they have fixed this issue and that new packaging clarifies this change.

This brand (that I have respected for quite some time despite my funny way of showing it) deserved some better reflection as to why this product aberration existed. Thank you for the clarification, Seth. I will share the new callout on your packaging in a subsequent post.

Honest Tea's Busted Packaging

2010-01-15T01:19:00.012-05:00

One incidence is fine. Two is pushing it. But being lazy or cheap to the extent of allowing customers to have dozens of exposures to malformed packaging is not acceptable brand management. This is especially true when the brand is part-owned by the Coca-Cola company, the bottling/logistics pros.

Virtually every bodega here in New York that sells Honest Tea carries single-serving plastic bottles that have been vacuum sealed so tightly that the structure of the base becomes disfigured (see below) and the body takes the odd shape seen above. About 70% of the bottles look like this. Such product presentation has been consistent since mid-August 2009.

I'm more baffled than anything else. Does Honest Tea's bottling plant not have QC people? Though I'm quite certain it isn't their intention, I think it would be very interesting to run tests to find out how damaged/disfigured a product's packaging has to be before sales dip precipitously. (This wouldn't yield much actionable data for a brand, but it would surely interest me.)

Would a shelf of bottles with half-glued on labels be more or less damaging to sales than rows of bottles that have scratches and scuff marks all over them? Would people be much less likely to buy a bottle of Honest Tea if it inexplicably had a discolored cap? What product packaging error would surely turn you away from making a purchase?

Art of the Bandwidth Upgrade

2010-01-13T22:09:00.021-05:00

Video Product Previews - burberry.com

Say what you will about how 2002 novacheck is, Burberry has been killing it with their online lately. Most of you are probably familiar with artofthetrench.com, the brand's fantastic/interactive/Scott Schuman-blessed Facebook collabo.

Much less buzzworthy, but equally fascinating in my mind is their groundbreaking use of video product previews on their men's & women's trench pages. Move your cursor over one of the items and a brief, medium-res video of the model twirling/shifting around activates in the photo box.

It's not only cool, but really helps remind you how sumptuous those coats are.

As satisfactory as the current model of displaying photos from multiple angles and allowing the user to zoom in may be, video previewing brings online shopping to a new level. And, if you aren't blown away by the resolution of these Burberry vids, the quality of how you experience this online integration is sure to only get better as other brands discover the existence/value of this tech.

Do Muscleheads Hate Graphic Design?

2009-06-20T17:36:00.031-04:00

A work friend of mine recently decided to start bulking up. He purchased one of those three gallon tubs of protein powder from GNC - specifically, Russian Bear 5000. As you'll see above, the packaging layout for this product is astonishing. When was the last time you saw black, yellow, white, pink and purple integrated together? And what font is that?

I am no workout freak and definitely not in the target market for these powders, so I recognize that my personal opinion about this category might not prove too insightful. With that said, I am baffled by the packaging. Does Russian Bear 5K have a marketing department? Or even an unpaid marketing intern? Were there several designs that were rejected before they ultimately chose the packaging above?

My friend explained that he chose RB5K because it contains more calories per serving than many of the other competiting brands. I'm sure that this appeal accounts for why some protein powders succeed, but gnc.com's best sellers section lists products that appear to be successful for other reasons. One example of this is MuscleTech Nitro-Tech Hardcore Triple Chocolate Milkshake. Just below the pronouncement of being "hardcore" the label explains that one scoop will "immediately trigger an anabolic environment by optimizing nitrogen retention, nutrient absorption, protein synthesis and cellular regeneration."

Perhaps this swirl of black, purple, red and yellow best illustrates what this process looks like inside of your body. Or maybe it's difficult to connote badass-ness AND explain complex metabolic processes. (Even so, I don't believe they are drawing enough attention this high chocolate multiple - 3X. I wonder if that translates to 300% cacao in gourmand terms.)

Do muscle powders lack traditional notions of "good design" because the people using these products believe that what is visually attractive cannot be hardcore? Is this market so reliant on word-of-mouth that packaging is irrelevant? Or is this a strategy that no one has yet explored?

photo credits: russianbear5000.com & gnc.com

Simply A Good Idea

2009-06-19T14:47:00.014-04:00

The solubility of sugar crystals in iced coffee is quite low. It prevents me from sweetening this drink to my desired level. Still, I often find myself purchasing this beverage at coffee shops that don't offer simple syrup - mostly because this liquid is such a rarity.

Thankfully, the Dunkin' Donuts near my office (34th & Madison) has recently begun squirting this fine liquid into their iced coffees as they assemble them behind the counter.

Since the Dunkin' franchise model allows its stores a mild amount of rogueish behavior I'd be somewhat surprised if this is a national initiative. But I think it should be, as it's a very subtle refinement that improves the product experience (unless you enjoy chomping on sugar crystals). Nothing about this change would prevent Dunkin' from maintaining its position as the unpretentious, functional coffee shop choice for people that wouldn't mind watching yuppie scum die - while scarfing down a donut hole or two.

Yes, simple syrup is rarely seen sweetening coffee outside of boho/trendy coffee shops, but Dunkers could avoid this halo as long as they didn't make you ask for it in Fritalian. (Plus, the chain has been adding Starbucks-like drinks to its menu for some time.)

If it's cost effective they should roll this out.

photo credit: Flickr - xsquared

Dentist Office Video Slideshows

2009-06-18T01:01:00.029-04:00

It's hard to trace exactly when the changeover occurred, but sometime within the past decade the dental community made a striking decision. No longer was it adequate to engage in a waiting room pamphlet-based soft sell of available services. In the old days, after you finished reading Newsweek and started scanning the area for other good magazines, a small table offering generic materials about porcelin veneers might catch your eye. Maybe you'd walk over and read through them - maybe not. It was all very calm, opt-in and low-pressure. Downright civilized. Then the video screens showed up.

The before and after photo story is a compelling narrative in the Western world. When a TV infomerical for an ab machine morphs a before shot of some pudgy loser into an after shot of some ripped dude kicking ass, I am always impressed. No, that pudgy guy isn't an aesthetic ideal, but he's certainly not offensive. The same cannot be said of the ravages of periodontosis.

But dentists everywhere seem to love showing frightful before and after video slideshows. Sometimes the TV is mounted in the waiting room - but most often in the examining room. What I find strange about this practice is that these aren't personal highlight reels. I'm quite confident that my dentist was not the one responsible for any of the work being displayed. These are just strange, abstract horror stories with remarkably happy endings.

Not only do these montages make patients less comfortable in an already tense environment, they also don't really make all that much sense when analzyed as point-of-sale signage. After all, if I'm that guy with only two teeth in my mouth, I hardly think that seeing a before/after combo that matches my predicament will put me over the edge and convince me to get some work done. If my problem is on the screen and I'm at the dentist, chances are high that I'm not there for a 6 month cleaning.

These screens should only be utilized to pitch the more mundane cosmetic services (such as teeth whitening). Unbelievable success stories need to be saved for campaigns outside of the office, to wow people who thought there was no hope left for their smile.

photo credit: markpolansky.com

The Heineken Draught Keg: Fresh as Ever

2009-06-16T00:28:00.057-04:00

Draft keg beer is a living thing. It stays fresh for 30-45 days and must be kept cold at all times. It is quite delicious.

Most domestically produced bottled/canned beer is pasteurized. (Exceptions include microbrewed bottle conditioned beers.) Pasteurization involves passing filled, capped bottles (or sealed cans) through a 140 degree water rinse for several minutes to kill bacteria and therefore stabilize the beer. This is what allows it to sit at room temperature for months at a time. Many imported kegs also undergo pasteurization to survive the much longer journey from brewery to distant bar glass. Unfortunately, this process often ruins a beer's flavor profile.

Heineken seemingly turned these accepted truths upside down with its 2007 release of the Draught Keg. How, you may wonder, were they able to design a keg that doesn't need to be kept cold, has no apparent shelf life, but can dispense brewery fresh beer for thirty consecutive days after opening?

Well, they didn't. The Heineken Draught Keg contains the same pasteurized beer as Heineken cans and bottles. However, this 5 liter keg features a built-in pressurized carbon dioxide pump that creates the same perfectly foamy head that you'd get from a bar keg. (The pressure is also what allows the beer to remain crisply pasteurized for 30 days after opening.)

It's important to note that Heineken has virtually no keg heritage here in the U.S. Not only is it a no-show at college keggers, Heineken is rarely, if ever, on tap at the local bar. It's the perfect beer to offer in pseudo fresh-keg form, since it has no readily fresh tap for comparison.

Why are consumers so crazy about this item? (It's a heavily stocked item in my area.) I think the associative brilliance of this innovation is that it pretends to be a beer snob solution (think Guinness draught can/bottle nitrogen widgets) while really tapping into the needs of the post-grad keg reminiscers and present day party-goers seeking to bring something kitschy/different through the front door. It's a keg (and a "cute" one at that), but it doesn't weigh 75 lbs. Mini keg. Case closed.

It's fascinating that Heineken is the only brand offering a faux-fresh keg at liquor and convenience stores nationwide. What's next, the Corona keg? Budweiser, are you paying attention?

Photo Credit: Flickr - nicnbill

Can Fish, Rock & Roll or Baseball Ever Save Camden, NJ?

2009-06-11T20:26:00.029-04:00

The Voice of the Eye - Flickr

My foolish, unflagging love for a band that plays songs called "Fluffhead" and "You Enjoy Myself" led me to one of the most dangerous cities in America last Sunday. Since I've taken a stroll through South Central LA and have spent a fair amount of time in the parts of Brooklyn that don't have gourmet dog pastry stores, I thought I would be somewhat prepared for what I would encounter in Camden, NJ. Our group had printed out Google Map directions to the Susquehanna Bank Center, but after choosing the wrong exit for Route 30 and bending at the ibanker-in-the-car's uninformed insistence to follow the roads that an iPhone suggested, we found ourselves driving through the center of this fair hamlet.

You can only see so many consecutive, crumbling buildings and overgrown lots (the choicest surrounded by barbed wire) before getting the sense that New Jersey has given up on this place. Some Wikipedia research revealed that this isn't exactly the case. In addition to building a concert ampitheatre, the last 20 years have seen investment in a waterfront aquarium and the creation of a minor league baseball team.

After paying Livenation $20 to park in an end-times airplane hangar we asked the parking attendant how long it usually takes to get out of the heavily packed lot after a show. It was quite telling and sad to hear her say "Oh, I don't know. I get out of here before the concert starts." Her voice was less marked by summer job boredom and more by human survival instinct.

I don't pretend to have any answers, but rather I'm just intrigued by Camden as a case study of failed (or insanely slow) gentrification. If these seemingly popular infrastructure ventures have not led to much positive growth in the surrounding non-waterfront community, what will help? Should stadiums and family event centers only be built after a struggling community gets the financial support to fix its core problems - joblessness, poverty, et. al? Maybe these buildings shouldn't be Step #1. Is it important to build these structures in areas that require one to drive through the city, rather than situate them near a highway entrance/exit?

Do you wait until Google deems the area safe enough to drive its Street View mapping car through, before breaking ground? (It's quite ironic that Camden hasn't been Street View'd yet, as it's one of the few places in America through which you'd actually need to take a virtual stroll before showing up.)

Mark Paul Gosselaar is Smart

2009-06-11T19:37:00.014-04:00

Jimmy Fallon has been leading a charge to reunite the cast of Saved by the Bell (celebrating its 20th anniversary) as a way of drawing some attention to his late night show. Surprisingly, most of the cast has signed on for this.

It's tough for any actor to escape a campy past and still be in on the joke - rather than part of it. This past Monday, Mark Paul Gosselaar did this in impressive form. He appeared on Fallon's show, fully in character, to pledge his participation in the reunion. Rather than show up in a suit and sheepishly listen as Fallon annoyingly rehashes his favorite Bayside moments, Gosselaar rocked a familiar old outfit and even interrupted the interview to take a call from Jessie Spano on his giant, grey, iconic cell phone. Definitely worth a watch.

Amtrak: Step Yo Game Up

2009-06-10T22:50:00.037-04:00

Flickr - Pandangel

Amtrak has so many problems that writing this post somewhat pains me. I've had many great experiences with this service, but the company's absolute inability to keep costs down prevents me from riding with any serious regularity. Unfortunately, a recent industry innovation may further deepen Amtrak's problems.

Up until last year the transportation options for getting around the Northeast had clear lines of demarcation. Flying was situated at the top of the tier, for its perceived time savings, despite the time usually allotted to security checks, delays and transportation by cab/subway to/from the airport. Amtrak sat one rung below. That left Greyhound, Fung Wah and Lucky Star to fight over the business of poor college students, post-grads, and middle-aged adults without cars.

Within the last year or so two new bus lines joined the market: Megabus and Bolt Bus (a Greyhound subsidiary). These services launched offering WiFi internet access for laptop users. The connection speed doesn't allow one to download movies, but the bandwidth certainly lends itself to robust web surfing. Currently, this offering serves mostly as a differentiator between the bus lines. I can't imagine that too many regular Amtrak riders are trading down to the WiFi buses.

But, it's likely that there's going to be a glacial trend to the downside. Although I don't have solid data regarding the Amtrak ridership demo, I assume that historically there's been an element of trading up from buses to trains as income rises. Poor college students eventually get jobs, and recent grads with crappy jobs sometimes improve their lot in life. If Amtrak never gets around to offering WiFi, I find it quite unlikely that current WiFi bus riders (for business or pleasure trips) trade up to Amtrak with the same regularity that bus passengers typically did in the past. (This worldview assumes that services such as MiFi remain expensive and far from mainstream for quite some time.)

If Amtrak does offer WiFi, however, it probably won't lead to a substantive increase in ridership - so it's a slight incremental cost without too much positive benefit (aside from staying relevant). Still, I find it hard to believe that the cost savings of eliminating their free magazine couldn't pay for WiFi for every passenger (or at least 2-3 devoted WiFi cars).

My colleague Jeffrey pointed out that perhaps some drivers would be convinced to ride the train for certain trips if they knew that they could get some WiFi-related work done during the ride. Though this is a valid point, I'm not convinced that drivers are malleable enough in their transporation habits to choose the train often enough to result in a tangible volume shift in this segment.

To end on an unrealistically positive note, if Amtrak could somehow find a way to decrease its ticket prices by 40-60% and offer WiFi, then I think there would be a tremendous shift in the way everyone gets around. Until then, enjoy the Snack Car.

mydailystyle's eBay Auctions

2009-06-09T22:32:00.054-04:00

mydailystyle.es

Style blogs are 2000s apparel punk rock. I love the way that they spit in the face of fashion magazine ad clutter & industry pretension and get right to the point - cool/wearable clothing, styled well. Some of it is preposterously expensive and some is thrifted - depending upon on the wearer. Perspective either takes the form of candid street capture of the best dressed people seen that day or one person's daily fashion diary.

Some of the current best are The Sartorialist, (great for his high quotient of natty men's style) Style and the City (Paris/London street fashion) and Kanye West's favorite: Sea of Shoes (I definitely didn't know about Margiela in high school).

The daily diary style blogs all follow the same basic format: 1) Picture of the day's outfit 2) List of brands featured 3) Fawning comments from readers. One favorite blog of mine adds a slight twist to this formula and really opens up the possibility for a interesting brand collabo.

It's called my daily style and is curated by woman from Barcelona. She's been posting since March 2008 and has over 2,400,000 hits. She chooses amazing outfit combinations then runs off to a cool part of the city to stage her own impromptu photoshoots.

Interestingly, the right margin of her page links to an eBay store listing some of the items that she's worn. Each of the garments have 900+ views each. She's found a unique way to monetize her blog by liquidating her old items to the readers that admire them.

I think there's an opportunity here for a brand to contact her and create amazing limited 1 of 1s or 1 of 10s and have her feature them and sell through her eBay page. Undoubtedly she'd be incented by the opportunity to design/consult on the product. Scott Schumann's giddy post about his Gap ad showed that no matter how popular a style blogger may be, acknowledgement from a major brand is downright flattering.

It would absolutely make sense for a brand to become involved in such a collabo, as these style blogs are one of the major spheres of influence today. Even the fashion magazines cover them. It's incredible that I even need to call out this opportunity. Is the image at the top of this post not insane?

A Most Uncouth Product Development

2009-06-07T13:32:00.029-04:00

Source Material: Departures Online Magazine: Desire & Acquire

Many, many of my mid-to-late 20s friends have told me about non-iron Brooks Brothers dress shirts during the last 5 years. I have yet to experience their wonders first-hand, but have been told that you pull them out of the washer, hang up, and then BLAMO, you have a perfectly ironed shirt the next morning.

This strikes me as a product development worth mentioning. Brooks Brothers doesn't exactly deny that they sell this shirt, but they certainly don't mention it in their print ads. If you go to their website, you'll notice that the preponderance of their men's dress shirts are non-iron.

What's most interesting about the word-of-mouth I keep getting is that it's mostly from friends that don't have a history of purchasing their product. The company's decision not to explicitly advertise this product feature vaguely reminds me of Frederic Rouzaud's (Managing Director of Louis Roederer) comments on hip-hop stars popping bottles onto models. Is there something declasse about not having all of one's shirts dry cleaned? Are they ashamed that some of their customers don't work in private equity? Or are they just choosing not to clutter their ads with relevant information? (Yes, I understand it's "lifestyle advertising," but some people live a lifestyle that involves begrudginly ironing their shirts every morning, and I'm sure they'd like to be targeted too.)

The Xlerator: Classy Functionality

2009-06-07T01:43:00.016-04:00

Just when you thought humankind had developed every object that's capable of exuding class through elegant functionality, along came the the Excel Dryer company of East Longmeadow, MA. For years they produced the typical, nice-try public restroom hand dryers that inpatient people everywhere use for about 5 seconds before wiping their hands on their pants.

Sometime in the early 2000s the company unleashed their Xlerator model. This machine blasts out heatless air onto your hands so quickly and hard that skin is freakishly pushed away. The entire drying process takes 10 seconds. And the gorgeousness of the design runs a close second in importance - it's really an objet d'art. (At least compared to other things you find in public restrooms.)

When I first began to notice this product I found myself assigning high-levels of esteem to any early-adopter dining establishment. Now, since the product has been on the market for quite some time, I have different response. I view any upscale restaurant lacking an Xlerator as somewhat of a dump. Ok sure, you may have a human being standing in the bathroom squirting soap onto my hand and handing me a paper towel, but does he make jet-engine noises? And I have to give him a $1 tip? (Honestly, there are times when I wish there was a vending machine-like dollar bill insertion point in the Xlerator - with the tips going directly to the design team.)

Attention: Ballers, Shot Callers & Those With Early Stage Gingival Diseases

2009-05-29T17:00:00.044-04:00

zazzle.com t-shirt link

Over the last 3-5 years the dental floss market experienced a major shift in its sales volume potential via product improvement. Despite all of the previous advances that had supposedly made flossing easier (waxed nylon) and dual-functioning (zesty mint flavor freshens breath!), the purchaser profile for this product remained stagnant:

People who actively try to prevent the putrefication of their mouths.

Yes, flossing is a huge pain. You’ve got to twirl the thread around your fingers, angle it in, work on one of the main four regions and then repeat. This routine is supposed to take place either during the dark hours of the morning or late at night before bed. Few tedious tasks are ever completed at these times. For many flossing is such a pain that they knowingly risk developing considerable, nasty mouth problems just to avoid the experience.

In mid-2004 my local Brooklyn, NY Target store began carrying a floss product from a mysterious industry player named Den-Tek. They offered what they called “floss picks” that came with a pre-threaded nylon strand on a thin plastic hook – intended for one-time disposable use (seen below).

Photo: thefuntimesguide.com

Conceptually, this was a big step forward in the dental game, as it sought to answer consumers’ cries that proper dental care was a hassle. Unfortunately, this item was a design failure, as the floss in this iteration came threaded parallel to the stick, forcing most of one’s hand into the mouth at an awkward angle to land the floss perfectly into the spaces between the molars. This maneuver proved very difficult.

A slight design tweak was a game-changer of the flossing experience. About 3-4 years ago Crest introduced their fabulous take on the floss pick – unceremoniously named the Crest Glide Floss Pick. This version takes the shape of a men’s razor, with the floss threaded perpendicularly to the contoured handle. Each space between the teeth is now easily reachable with the flick of wrist. It's possible to floss well in 10-15 seconds. I find it hard to explain just how easy it is to use this lazy-man's product. I've transitioned from a twice-a-week flosser into a consistent 6 days-a-week pro.

It will be fascinating to see how Crest and its competitors seize the opportunity that this innovation has made possible. (They haven't done too much as of yet.) Yes, the Crest Glide model is significantly more expensive than the Crest spool variety (2-3 times) -- based on the 30-picks per pack you get vs. 60 flosses per spool. However, I don't think this type of price comparison is apt, and I hope to see Crest address this issue in its messaging, as non-users shouldn't be price comparing against a product they have no intention of using.

The significant growth opportunity in this space is transitioning non-users or light-users to steady gliders. I will propose my reco'd marketing plan in a future post (hint: centered on replacing spools with gliders in those oft-ignored post-dentist visit baggies and tapping into people's fears that their easily remediable laziness is causing health problems).

Gingivites, your dream product has arrived.

The Original, Humbling, Possibly Accidental, Pre-Video Age... DVD Easter Egg

2009-05-25T20:23:00.090-04:00

In 1973 Pink Floyd released The Dark Side of the Moon, the band’s greatest commercial and critical success. The album is as equally revered for its innovative use of synthesizers, sampling and looping as it is for its unique exploration of how one is driven to insanity. The group's interest in the latter subject was likely inspired by the departure and voluntary seclusion of former lead singer/composer, Syd Barrett. (Wikipedia)

This work is regarded as one of the finest rock albums of all-time.

In the early to mid-1990s members of the alt.music.pink-floyd usenet group began discussing whether or not a series of grand cosmic synchronicities or purposeful alignments result when the start of DSOTM is lined up with the third roar of the MGM lion at the beginning of The Wizard of Oz. (Since DSOTM is significantly shorter than The Wizard of Oz, one is required to play the album on repeat more than twice to match the length of the film.)

Viewing the fan-based discovery and the genesis of the phenomenon as unintentional is troubling. Playing movies and albums at the same time and reviewing their synchronicities had no precedent in the early 90s, so it's unclear what motivated someone to originally try this. More importantly, the clear signposting at the roar seems like a convenient shorthand to be used while rehearsing or tweaking - so perhaps a person involved with the album’s production ultimately revealed this secret.

Despite these hints at intentionality, it's important to remember that DSOTM was created during an era that preceded movie ownership. If Pink Floyd were to have purposely written the album to match up with the movie, no one could have seen this creation outside of a theatre (if at all, as this was well before the age of Rocky Horror-type midnight movie screenings). It’s definitely impressive to create a work that is “ahead of its time,” but its a different, bizarre, staggering achievement to make something inside (and that determines the shape) of your career-defining album that is so far ahead of the technology of the time that it might never be experienced by more than 50 people. Was Pink Floyd partying with electrical engineering Ph.D. candidates who clued them into the imminent, explosive progress of video and its implications for viewing movies at home – that would eventually unleash their project to the masses?

As there’s no accounting for taste or strong convictions, it would be foolish for me to try to convince you that this work is intentional. Yes, the movie transitions from black & white to Technicolor when Dorothy opens the door to Oz – right as the song “Money” begins. Yes, the lyrics “don’t give me that do goody good bullshit” line up with Glenda’s arrival – and so on, and on.

There are as many moments of chilling, bizarre coincidence as there are head scratching spans of nothing. However, given that the 43-minute album coincides on repeat with moments throughout the entire length of the 98-minute film, it appears that Pink Floyd could be forgiven for some dull, unrelated parts. In fact, what intensifies the experience for many viewers is the inconclusiveness of the evidence - if each part of every song coincided with the film, it wouldn't be as eerily interesting.

Best of all is the band's continued refutation of (and chuckling at) claims that they knowingly created this, which only further intensifies the mystery.

So, the next time you discover a hidden behind-the-scenes-featurette on your Dark Knight DVD, please wait about 20 years (or at least a few minutes) before tweeting about it, out of deference to the genre's quasi-originator.

Asher Roth's Dope Little Blazer

2009-05-21T03:20:00.053-04:00

As silly as it sounds to someone unfamiliar with the genre, the boldest possible statement in hip-hop is never a phrase, but rather, comes in the form of a child's photograph. Because of the precedent set by Biggie and Nas, it's widely understood that dropping a debut album with a picture (or likeness) of one as a child is the ultimate demand to be taken seriously.

For this reason I am disappointed with the cover that Asher Roth and his handlers created for his debut, Asleep in the Bread Aisle. A young, white rapper that sounds remarkably similar (tonally) to Eminem, he’s been trying to identify himself as the true suburban answer to hip-hop. Now that all of the middle-class white kids that bumped Liquid Swords in their moms' Camrys have grown up, we are led to believe that a special one among them has emerged with a point of view and a mic. In his first few videos Asher has done a pretty convincing job of raging at college parties and riding a mountain bike through leafy towns.

However, I think this jokey creation myth could have been perfectly cemented if he had used a cover similar to the one I have mocked up (above, source material from laserportraits.net). No more would need to be said about his past if there was proof of a laser-background in his elementary school picture – and the preposterousness of this image on a rap album cover would quicken the bizarre dialogue about where he fits into the hip-hop cannon.

As an intriguing figure for hip-hop to have to process (given the support he's received from major industry players that otherwise have historically shown discriminating taste), he should have demanded to be taken seriously, rather than politely requested it while he stunts with Cee-lo and tries to ignore rap beefs from Spencer Pratt.

Urban Outfitters: A Lesson in Store Design

2009-05-19T23:10:00.041-04:00

Urban Outfitters has a lot of haters. Much of this contempt is lobbed at the company’s tremendously efficient ability to mine current trends and offer fixture after fixture of items that would take a “true hipster” weeks to find at different thrift stores and boutiques - all in one location. Why spend a lifetime searching for a neon yellow t-shirt screenprinted with Alfonso Ribeiro’s face, when he’s right there, smirking at you?

Urban has 140 locations throughout the U.S, Canada and Europe. At a chosen few (Chicago, Austin and Cambridge, MA, among others) they’ve purposely shattered the glass in the entranceway to the store. Perhaps the glass was manufactured this way – admittedly, my knowledge of store buildouts in the “bombed-out” aesthetic is rather limited.

(Cambridge, MA location - Photo from Cprior23 on Flickr)

I would love to know what motivated the store selection for this technique. Yes, it adds an additional element of "urban grit," but more importantly, it's really difficult to project protest onto a store whose windows are already broken. Did they expect conflict?

Up until my online research tonight I had only known about the Cambridge, MA windows. I'd always thought that management made a purposeful decision not to bow down to the dissenters who had broken them. As someone who finds walking through their doors equal parts embarassing and exciting, I often felt lame shopping at a store that others disliked so much that they sought to destroy it. I wonder how many other shoppers made the same conclusion about the provenance of the windows.

It’s definitely a humorous inversion of the Kelling & Coles broken window theory, as the arrival of an Urban Outfitters in an expandingly gentrified part of town (think Cobble Hill, Brooklyn) usually snuffs out that neighborhood’s last grasps at being cool/"street" and confirms the beginning of the ironic pseudo-danger era.

Hint of... A Slightly Sweeter Future?

2009-05-18T20:24:00.016-04:00

In the late 1990s Frito-Lay widely introduced the concept of marketing just a little bit of a flavor in the packaged foods space – with the Tostitos: Hint of Lime extension. Perhaps they felt it was too much of a leap for the customer to imagine eating a “Lime Flavored” chip, so they did a little copy tweaking.

Lately I’ve noticed that there are more flavor “suggestions” than I originally realized. Ritz Crackers has a “Hint of Salt” offering. This is quite significant, as ordinarily this Ritz version would be labeled "Low in Sodium" - one of the least fun food identifications available to a marketer. Instead, this name confers the idea that the Ritz scientists sprinkled salt onto crackers enough times that they eventually determined just the right amount of salt needed to replicate the Ritz experience for high blood pressure sufferers. There's a certain considerate charm to the name.

Just as importantly, we should note the widespread success (and subsequent Coca-Cola buyout) of Honest Tea. The iced tea category had always been missing a wide-open opportunity. It wasn't until the mid-to-late 2000s, when Seth Goldman’s company (est. 1998) gained wider distro, that he was able to fully provide a unique answer to the omnipresence of 30g of sugar per serving canned/bottled iced tea. Why not add just a hint of sugar or honey and change the product entirely from a quasi-soda into a health food? Honest Tea calls itself “just a tad sweet”.

I really shudder when I think about how many cans of Cool Nestea I drank in the mid-90s, just not knowing what iced tea was truly capable of.

Is it possible that this “hint of” trend has greater potential? What if certain foods were developed and labeled not as diet/lite/zero/free, but rather as slightly fatty/chocolatey/sweet?

Cut Your Creatives: Run a Retro Ad

2009-05-17T12:45:00.022-04:00

Some brands really need to evaluate why they're developing new campaigns. Juicy Fruit is a prime example. They recently started running a TV campaign with country singer Julianne Hough. It's supposed to be a rockin' reimagination of the classic 80s Juicy Fruit ads. And perhaps it is. However, the only thing I ever think about when I see the product in store and now watch this commercial is their ubiquitous 80s ads of beachgoers and skiiers. When you have a brand identity that is so nostalgically seared into the brains of such a large swath of the population, why not explore how to use that? The flush of positive feelings and memories that a viewer experiences when watching their classic 80s spots really can't be replicated when watching an ad produced today. Sure, twelve year olds might not get it, but the commercial above doesn't appear to be targeting 12 year-olds anyway - but rather the Dancing With the Stars set.

A classic ad should be good for more than generating clicks on youtube.

I've been told that running old ads isn't possible because it's so difficult to track down the actors and get permission to use them. I think the real reason we're not seeing this is that it's counter-intuitive for a creative. It would be hard to raise one's hand in a strategy meeting and propose that your agency do nothing other than pull out an old Betacam tape.

Sure, you can argue that the product design has changed, so the sticks of Juicy Fruit in the 80s commercial below are outdated. If a product truly has changed or if the strategy behind the targeting is DRASTICALLY different, then no, a brand shouldn't be running old ads. However, if you're Juicy Fruit, a gum with a seemingly nebulous target and the same exact product, then it makes sense.

If we've relived 80s fashions, music, childhood toys and other related ephemera for the last 5-10 years, why shouldn't some brands consider re-running the decade's most effective ads if they're still targeting the same general demo? It's very strange that no one is trying this. Consider it, Juicy Fruit.

Hey Dramamine: Get Your Shit Together

2009-05-16T22:00:00.013-04:00

One brand that's inexcusably dark and definitely not mature is Dramamine. As a motion sickness sufferer I keep a tube with me for all car/bus/train/plane trips. I've been taking this product since I was 3 years old.

Within the past month I've told two different motion sickness sufferers about this product and their response was "I've heard of it, but I don't really know what it is."

I'm not asking the good folks at Pfizer to start vlogging, or wage a faux-guerrila campaign with wild postings all over urban areas. Nor do we need to go all Bogusky on this one. I would like them to simply tell people about their product. How about some out of home ads in train stations and airports, reminding customers about their potential ailments?

If Pepsi feels the need to flight print ads in Canada about their miniature soda cans, I think a drug that prevents you from puking all over the Northeast Corridor Amtrak line merits some advertising effort - and could certainly boost awareness to their target demo.

Re-Working Some Classics

2009-05-16T19:22:00.012-04:00

I've been a huge fan of the Nike Blazer Umber/Volt since its release. The pop of highlighter yellow on the swoosh and intricate laser etching on pigskin leather gives this 70s shoe model a really nice Aztec/80s/Hoosiers/futuristic flair. I've never seen anyone wear these nor have I read a blog posting that lists anything other than its existence. In a hyper-strike world this is general release gold.
(Photo Courtesy of SneakerFreaker)

Now look at the first release of the Franken-Jordan Spiz'ike line. A fusion of the III, IV and who knows what else, this shoe sold out quickly in '06, perhaps mostly to eBay speculators. Sneakerheads are mostly split on whether or not this Jordan line extension is a disgrace or just the only other direction you can go in after you retro every dope Jordan model in dozens of colors and fabrications. If the Jordan well has run dry, this is its empty pail. (Photo Courtesy of FreshnessMag)