Going Direct
Mike Moran , in his book
Do It Wrong Quickly, explains that
branding and brand recognition originated from the introduction of broadcast media. Before radio and TV, people would travel to Main Street and shop at the local stores. You purchased food, clothes and other staples without thought to who the manufacturers were. You wanted candy? You stuck your hand in a big glass jar and dug for your favorite.
For those who mail ordered because they lived in rural areas or wanted something from Europe, they got acquainted with Sears or another publisher of consumer catalogues. The brand still wasn't in the conscious of the average American. Radio and then, TV made people notice brands because manufacturers paid for advertising time that paid for broadcasting companies' salaries. Those advertisers now had to compete for your attention to buy their kind of soap or cigar.
In 2007, people are too brand conscious. Besides the shoplifting and fighting people do over name brands, folks are travels across oceans to be the first to own a pair of sneakers by Hubda Hubda, Inc. Maybe we need to go back to blind selection of quality merchandise. It's possible with Internet access and language translation tools. It's reality to purchase coffee and seasonings straight from a bazaar vendor in
Turkey,
Jordan or
Ethiopia--if you know her email or Web address. There's no language barriers. You can't read the Web site because it's in Mandarin, French, Yoruba? No problem: get the online language translation tool to switch everything in English.
There so many search engines to make it happen--vertical and horizontal. So, is it really
iPod you want or digital music and video coming from a light weight device.
YouTube?
MySpace? YourWorld!
Labels: boutique PR firm, brand recognition, branding, ecommerce, Ethiopia, iPod, Jordan, media, MySpace, radio, society, technology, translation tools, Turkey, TV ads, YouTube
Thanksgiving Is Feast or Famine for Retailers
Recent NYC news broadcasts indicate that retailers know Friday after Thanksgiving is the tipping point to the US economy. No one uses the words recession or depression but this downturn is a real drag.
Retailers want to know are US shoppers willing to buy the great products on the shelves. Are US shoppers able to pay the prices for the great prducts on the shelves?
One TV reporter, two days before Thanksgiving, back-handedly suggested to viewers to use their consumer power. She said that retailers and manufacturers may have to reduce prices and "people may forego a $4.00 Starbucks coffee for something cheaper." Imagine that. The product prices at market entry will be lower? That's basic economic theory: lower prices result in higher sales.
Has it really come to the "Consumer is King Era?" Has that day really come when the working stiffs--including stiffs who earn six digits--don't feel stiffed but sought after? Wow! This is a momentous occasion. The dollar is weaker than the Euro and other foreign currencies such that our European "cousins" are haveing great shopping sprees while on holiday here.
Manufacturers have to do something. They've tapped the global consumer market. They've tapped the global labor market. They've tapped the global financial market. Prices have to go down so more people can afford these truly great products.
Labels: consumerism, Eurodollar, media, news slanting, price slashing, prices, society, Starbucks, Thanksgiving, US economy
Client Impostor
Though communications is my preference, I take on government funding applications for clients in need. The trouble is knowing new clients from impostors: people who want to pick brains. If you're in business it's part of the business. Going through introductions with someone who really should just ask for advice and pay for the hour.
This short week I encountered one--an impostor--who wanted to learn how to put a service proposal together. She's been asked by a supposed Domincan music sensation to do work for him. This was revealed while getting to know one another. This was supposed to be a sweetener for staying close to her because more jobs were around the corner for me. She's a director of day care center and a food pantry. I'm not swayed by "jobs around the corner or up the road." One paid engagement at a time.
The job was getting funding to embellish her pantry program with equipment, supplies and necessary NYC Dept. of Health repairs. Something was fishy
because her office was in a shambles. NYC-funded day care centers are visited by the
Dept of Health,
Fire Dept and
ACS program monitors. A disorganized director's office would be a write-up that needed immediate correction. The public may have doubts about ACS but they're very good about semi-annual program assessments.
The other tool that tipped me off was her cell phone. I couldn't get the make but it was a longer, sleek, silver-toned model. She fondled it frequently when we met in her office. She contacted me from it and it was the only number she gave me, though she called from the faith-based learning center.
The deal was for me to email her the service proposal later that day. It was much later that day because there was other work that came before her job. She didn't want me to take the funding announcement nor could she make a copy of it for me. It took her a moment to accept that I needed the announcement to write what needed to be done and draft the proposal. We were to meet the following day to get the retainer, see the pantry area and define its needs.
The next day came, no call from her. I call her on her sleek cell but go to voice mail. I call a few hours later and get put into voice mail again. I pull out "the dinosaur", a dictionary, to get the ground line. Key in the digits, the phone rings and it's the director who answers the phone. Wouldn't you know it: she just got in the office. What happened to the cell phone? Don't they work out on the street?
The long and short of it is that we did meet later that day. Her files were in a state that she couldn't find any information--not even her EIN or award ID #. She couldn't explain the pantry program because she felt rushed. She was booked for "the D.R." the next day. She wasn't sure whether she was going because she had two other reports that were past due. She needed to call me with her decision. What was there to think about? Papers and books were falling on the floor, file cabinet drawer stuffed with folders and her desk piled with things. It looked like her PC had Office 2003 or 2007. She had her sleek, silver-toned cell phone in hand, though.
I asked her to walk me to the door. I didn't want to be late for my job. When I finally got home that night, before shutting down my PC, I checked my email to delete unwanted items. What did I see? A message from a CEO. "...Yes, he wanted to meet to learn how traditional PR and
Web 2.0 would advance his cause."
Labels: ACS, bad management, cell phone, day care, ground line, NYC Dept of health, NYC Fire Dept., something-for-nothing
FOT: Future of Television
Digital Media Wire, New York University and Consumer Electronics Association co-hosted
Future of Television NYC conference at
Museum of Jewish Heritage, November 8 & 9. I had time for one panel and one keynote the last day. Did I get bang for my buck. Both were straight ahead and live & direct. In other words, all involved spoke in the affirmative that advertising dollars are to be earned. Warner Bros.' Television Group President
Bruce Rosenbloom suggested that the ad industry use the expression ETC (electronically transmitted content) to open minds to the vast opportunity. ETC included TV, iPod, mobile phones, cable TV, PCs and IPTV. Using "
Field of Dreams" thinking,
if you produce appealing content, the audience will come.
If there's an audience, the advertiser has a sales platform. For the advertiser it's wonderful; for the consumer, there's no way out of commercial-free content unless you're willing to donate.
Rosenbloom kept his cheerful ad game face and energy up 200 degrees for his one-hour keynote. He reminded the audience that Warner Bros' content broadcasts across the five TV networks. America's top shows on NBC, ABC and CBS are Warner Bros properties. The quick stream of show clips tacitly underscored Warner Bros win-win situation. You don't like WB or CW? Don't sweat it; we have shows on other networks you may want to buy time. He referred to branded channels, animation and music as advertising opportunities. Rosenbloom's game face didn't fade a bit when asked about the striking TV writers. He said, "There's enough script to go through February 2008...thereafter, they could show reruns."
The conference production was as informative as the speakers. Gone were the microphones in the aisles to amplify audience members' voices. Rather, people sent text messages that were queued and displayed on a smaller screen on the stage. The moderators periodically fielded the questions. This provided an immediate, interactive air to the proceedings. The big screen, center foreground, showed dazzling feats of advertising ingenuity. The panel for
The Future of Television Advertising included
Barry Frey, SVP for Cablevision Advanced Platforms, Rick Mandler, Digital Media Advertising VP for
Disney/ABC Media Networks,
Michael Yudin, managing director for Carat Entertainment & president of MY Entertainment, Scott Ferris, SVP & GM for
Microsoft, and Victor Siegel, CEO for
Blue Frog Media. The panelists used cable TV to produce branded entertainment or branded channels. What is a branded channel" It's a cable channel that airs content for a particular business-say SONY. Branded content are programs that include a company's product in the storyline or the business' name is part of the title. Case in point Carat Entertainment has a casino show whose title included razor blade manufacturer, Schick.
Panel members showed examples interactivity with content and product. Cablevision has stations such as SONY Bravia TV that engage in two-way conversations with the consumer. For example some shows ask viewers "to choose your ending." Rick Mandler, Scott Ferris and Barry Frey discussed measurement methods. Mandler said Disney/ABC Media Networks were investigating the means to gage influence in purchase within a person's social network. Imagine, advertisers figuring out the number of Friends one MySpace member has and determining the extent to which his enthusiasm or dislike of a product had his Friends buy or avoid that product. Cablevision's Frey discussed measuring viewer behavior from the fast forwards, rewinds, plays and zooms done from the cable set up box. If they're able to pull that off, it's good-bye to Neilson boxes.
Labels: ads, advertising, ETC, media, society, technology, TiVo, TV ads, TV writers strike
At the Central Brooklyn Public Library
I frequently go to the library to borrow videos and DVDs. They have a great store of world cinema. This time I decided to access the Internet. A few years ago, my PC was in the shop and I was dependent on good ole Brooklyn Public Library for a week. I never forgot how I was able to check my email, visit websites and modify documents by signing up for time in different sections of the library. Today was a bit of nostalgia.
Things changed in 3 years. You reserve a PC by swiping your digitized library card through a slot in the keyboard and typing in a password. Once granted time, there's a mounted reservation board that you watch to see when your time is coming near and to know which seat will be yours.
The PC screens indicate when your time is up and gives the next user at least 5 minutes to get to the seat before moving to next ID in the queue. Being a Curious George, I walked through the aisles to learn all of this and to spy the Web sites other people were enjoying. Some were using the PCs to wordprocess; the majority used it to watch things like music sites, sports and Web TV. It was fascinating to watch men and women, young and old and from various ethnicities enjoy collective personal time.
My time came to sit at #17. I went to Idealist to check out PR and marketing jobs at local nonprofits. The man to my left--older, slim , white--was gazing at a bikini-clad women. He scrolled up and down her body. He did this so much that I wondered when he was going to stop. Naive me was surprised that someone would do this in public. I focused on my mission and busily scrolled through job descriptions and wrote down the ones that appealed to me. When I wrote in my pad, I kept my face to the pad and not into the man's screen. Why annoy myself with the objectification of women.
Soon, another man seated himself to my right. He seemed to be late 30's, slim and black. I lifted my eyes from my screen and noticed he was looking at lady bodybuilders. He scrolled up-down; right-left. This site had many pages of either the same woman or different women. What's the matter with this men? Satisfying their fetishes in public! Again, I said focus on my mission. I busily wrote job notices and took notes of an earlier meeting I had today.
What I observed about me was that I wasn't scared about being in between two men who got sexual gratification in public. Believe me when I say I'm concerned about the children and teens that they and others may influence. I wondered how they interact with real and average women. Scared didn't enter my mind.
In the spirit of the 60's crime show: There are 7 million stories in the naked city. WOW.
Labels: Internet access, online entertainment, pornography, public library, society, soft porn, technology
Is Cramping That Bad?
There are TV ads for a new contraceptive pill that reduces menstruation to four periods a year. This pill is called Seasonique. Maybe the name indicates that a consumer only bleeds with the change of the seasons. The ad features one woman who pleases both her emotional side, dressed in jeans and a gorgeous empire waist blouse, and her logical side, dressed in office attire.
The sides of this lady are satisfied in knowing that they have an effective contraceptive and fewer bleeding episodes. This is 2007, not 1977. There's a HIV/AIDS pandemic going around and this lady is dealing with a product that doesn't protect her from HIV/AIDS, vaginal infections and STDs. Sometimes this ad runs with another ad about a pill that counters a virus--papilloma?--that's presently associated with cervical cancer. Just what are advertisers and the pharmaceutical industry saying to women? I say it's a confused and lethal message. On one hand, you have something that allows unprotected sex. On the other, there's something that deals with the lethal affect of unprotected sex. Of course, the ads must include side effect information. The side effects are worse than the bloating and cramping that can occur with menstruation. Do you really want to deal with high or low blood pressure, dizziness, nausea or headaches for the sake of some moments of pleasure? Aren't there alternatives out there?
If you're willing to give up dairy, you'll soon notice that the cramping and backaches that you had during menstruation go away. If you're willing to drastically reduce your sugar and corn syrup intake, you'll notice that headaches and irritability go away. This is not just for "that time of the month" but everyday. Things that had your emotions run amok, don't trigger strong emotional reactions anymore. Isn't that terrific? Instead of dreading your monthly friend's visit, you'll be laughing with her. You'll be a
woman in her flowers, a
sister with ase.
About preventing pregnancy, women just have to get with the program. Men have to put on the condom or you put the condom on them. Men who balk about not getting "that sweet feeling" have to grow up to the responsibility of fatherhood.
Sex = Pregnacy. There's no getting around it. In this era of "friends with benefits", "associates", "jump-offs" and "hook-ups", eat your fruits and vegetables to cultivate a level head, slim body and regularity. Keep the condoms and love gloves around because, right now,
it's nothing but a passin' thang.
Labels: cashless society, casual sex, contraceptives, jump off, media, menstruation, Seasonique
