CapsuleBlog

Doc Martens: an ailing relic.

A recent piece in The New York Times about the opening of a new Doc Martens store in Soho prompted some hazy reminiscing on my part. I went back to 1994: the year that Reality Bites came out. I wanted Winona's short, choppy hair. I wanted her shapeless floral dresses worn with ratty cardigans. I wanted to be best friends with Janeane Garofolo.

Oh the nineties. Grunge, Kurt Cobain, Marc Jacobs, Ace of Base, Glo Worms and Pound Puppies... you were a fairly flat decade really. No social revolution of the 60s, no disco sexuality of the 70s, no excess and Michael Douglas of the 80s. You were without identity. And, you'll also forever be associated with Doc Martens.

Or, in reverse: Doc Martens, you will always be associated with the 90s. Perhaps for some people that's a good thing. Either reinvent yourself. Or, wait a really long time until the 90s somehow become cool.

 

Crowdsourcing. What if the crowd isn't all it's cracked up to be?

From the oracle that is Wikipedia:

Crowdsourcing is the act of outsourcing tasks, traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, to a large group of people or community (a crowd), through an open call.

At first, the crowdsourcing trend may appear to be cool. Democratic, unique and innovative. But behind the hype, is it really just mundane and mediocre? Find out more here.

So sue me

As it often does, the New York Times raised an especially timely issue yesterday. We've all heard the wonders of social media extolled almost ad nauseum. It provides opportunity at a level never before seen for brands to learn more about their customers and in turn, sell more of their particular product or service. In the reverse of the equation, it also enables consumers to access more information - and particularly more uncontrolled information - about the brands. If I'm left feeling significantly dissatisfied with an experience with a brand, and the brand has had the chance to make it right but didn't, you're dang right I'm going to get online to warn other people about it.

Case in point: there's a great story here from Ken Peters of the Think B.I.G. blog about his less than satisfying experience with the Nook reader device. Well worth a read.

But do you think Ken worried about being sued when he opined on his blog, and then saw his story reTweeted and referenced around the web?

The NYT article discusses the implications of this wonderful new world of transparency and free speech, profiling a disgruntled Kalamazoo student who founded a Facebook group to complain about a Michigan towing company. Within two days, the group had 800 members and the towing company well, freaked. In the form of a $750,000 lawsuit against him.

As America was founded on the principle of free speech, this seems more than a little ironic. Thankfully the law seems to agree. The NYT calls this an example of a "decades-old legal maneuver known as a strategic lawsuit against public participation, or Slapp". Perfect name, isn't it?

"The label has traditionally referred to meritless defamation suits filed by businesses or government officials against citizens who speak out against them. The plaintiffs are not necessarily expecting to succeed — most do not — but rather to intimidate critics who are inclined to back down when faced with the prospect of a long, expensive court battle."

Instead of viewing this an especially powerful opportunity to respond to the customer in question - in a public and powerful way - the towing company is being incredibly short-sighted about this by reacting with a good old-fashioned knee jerk. It is a towing company, after all. Perhaps we really need the social media titans - the Best Buys and Dells of the world - to keep setting the bar until the others catch on. Hopefully it's not too late.

Farmville? Srsly?

Call me a rabid maniac, but I do not understand Farmville. I hide any friend's updates if I see they've found a wandering purple calf with five legs and a bad case of TB in need of care. I was kind of surprised to see that 82 million Facebookers disagree with me.

Microsoft's Bing just cashed in on the cow, according to Adweek, with an in-game offer of game cash to be redeemed for farm supplies in exchange for becoming a fan of Bing. Over 425, 000 fans were added in a single day. I'm speechless.

The reverse resolution

Today, a guest post from our account management intern, Amber:

Hi, I am an intern, and I love lists. It is my coping mechanism in this big bad world of omnipresent media bombardment, and how I make sense of the world. I wake up every morning and make lists in my head. The five things I need to do today. Five reasons I love graduate school. Five things I like about Minnesota in the middle of winter (still working on this one).

Since it is January, it is a good time for resolutions. Since we all know that resolutions are never kept, maybe a list of reverse resolutions would work better. Being a master procrastinator, it should be easier to resolve not to do something than to actually have to take real action. Here’s my list of reverse resolutions from lessons learned in  2009.

1.    Confusing your customers: The fastest way to confuse your customers and see your sales drop is necessarily changing the look and feel of your well-loved products beyond recognition.  Remember New Coke? Or Pepsi’s clear cola? Will people still buy Tropicana orange juice if the packaging doesn’t have the picture of the iconic orange with the straw poking out? The answer is no.

2.     Allowing your brand to be hijacked: Corporate brands have a love-hate relationship with social media. Facebook, Youtube and Twitter and other arenas have allowed companies to have direct contact with their target market. But on the flip side, it has reduced their control of their brand.

Just ask Dominos. Two former employees of Dominoes made a prank video of themselves using less than sanitary practices to make pizza, and posted it on Youtube. It promptly turned into an Internet sensation; the company fired the employees and went into full damage control. But the damage was done and the brand was tarnished.

In another case, a disgruntled United Airline customer wrote a song that became yet another Youtube sensation, after a fellow passenger witnessed his guitar being thrown - and broken - by runway crew. Advice to every brand out there: implement social media guidelines and be sure all employees understand how to follow them.      

3.    Assuming that one size fits all: We have one heard many, many good things about Apple's iPhone, and it finally made it's long-awaited debut in China in October 2009. Shockingly, in a country of 1 billion people, Apple sold only 5,000 units in the first month. How could this possibly happen to Apple? This is the very same company Adweek named “Brand of the Decade.”  

The problem was that Apple sold the iPhone to its Chinese customers with the same carrier-subsidized phone strategy that they use in the United States. The phone was bundled with a monthly subscription plan, but that is not how Chinese customers buy their cell phones. They prefer the pay-as-you-go, prepaid method. By not being in-tune with local preferences and traditions, they managed to take a premier product and shoot themselves in the foot.   

The business world is littered with corpses of failed marketing ideas that we can learn from. Here’s to a great 2010!

Social media: Look before you leap.

I could also title this post Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.

Everyone's been in a rush these past few years to get on-board the social media train. Facebook. LinkedIn. Typepad. Plaxo. That Twitter thing. Digg. Bloglines.

We've seen such a blur of online activity in this arena that you have to wonder how much thought was going into the decision to set up a blog. Perhaps in some cases it was more just a "me too" moment... but it's not musical chairs.

No brand-related decision can ever, ever be made without thinking about the reason the brand exists in the first place. Its audiences. Any organization, whether B2B or B2C, whether it has $10 billion net worth or isn't turning a profit, should understand its audiences with the same certainty that it understands its own product or service. In this case, it needs to know how its audiences want to interact with the brand. Do they care that it has a Twitter account? Do they have unrestricted internet access at home, or at work? Do they know what Twitter is? Do they know what the internet is?  No? Then Twitter is not for your brand - at least, not now. Find better channels that will resonate with your audiences, and in turn see some clear ROI for that marketing dollar.

Lame 'Loser' product placement

I've never been into The Biggest Loser much. This season, I've been sucked into a few episodes. Call it curiosity. Or perhaps I'm just trying to understand the Capsule office obsession with P90X a little better.

Whatever it is, the most standout thing about the show is not the incredible transformations, the tears, or the throwing up after a particularly strenuous workout. It's the horrible product placement. 

Last night I watched Aussie chef hottie Curtis Stone touting Jennie O ground turkey burgers to the team: a giant disconnect if I ever saw one, given that his usual style leans towards local, organic and gourmet. Jennie O mass-produced ground turkey meat is none of these things. The close-ups of the product packaging, over-use of the brand name, and general clumsiness of the segment made the product placement unnatural and icky.

I've seen the same thing before with Yoplait yogurt. In one of the first episodes of the season, we see one of the contestants upset over something - possibly a poor weigh-in result. Bob consoles her. WITH A YOPLAIT YOGURT.

I don't know about you, but when I'm upset, the last thing I feel like reaching for is a low-fat strawberry yogurt. Another example of an unrealistic and forced scene. Poor Bob must have been cringing beneath those gigantic tattoo-covered biceps.

I understand that brands are seeking new ways to promote themselves - new causes, new associations, new ways of connecting with consumers. But they're putting themselves at risk of insulting the audience instead. 

I found a transcript online of a blogger's conversation with Jillian Michaels and Mark Koops, executive producer.

“One of the other questions that’s been brought up by a lot of the readers on [DietsInReview.com] is the product placement that takes place on this show. Everyone [feels it is] very cheesy and it’s very obviously placed. Is there any plan to tone that back in the future or to maybe do it a little differently?”

Jillian: “Mark? I’ll have to defer to my boss on this one because I cannot talk about this at all. I’ll get in trouble.”

Brandi: “Product placement is obviously paying the bills for the show, but it seems to be striking a strange chord with the audience.”

Mark: “I think, you know, it is sort of, no pun intended – part of the reality of where television is moving to in the 21st Century. The 30-second spot, you know, goes away and (DVR) penetrations, it’s a longer topic of conversation.

We’re approached by a number of companies wanting to, to get involved in the show. And I think we’re very selective in terms of who we take. We’ve been approached in the past by all the fast food companies, you know.

I think we do try and have a selective process about who we pick and about the message they’re trying to (sell).

Could at times it be done, you know, cleaner and better? I think there’s always room for improvement."

Seems like Jillian's not excited about it either.

I have three words of advice for The Biggest Loser and its sponsors: Make It Subtle!

I recommend saying it like Tim Gunn.

The power of color

Color is something that's all around us, yet we often overlook its powerful ability to impact both mood and perception. Pantone is often looked to as the color gurus, so lets take a look at what they earlier predicted to be the big color hits of fall/winter 2009/10.

Pantone says, "A natural choice during uncertain times, patriotic American Beauty,a wonderfully balanced, true red, speaks to the need for cohesiveness. Perfect for all skin tones, American Beauty is a feel-good color. Purple Heart connotes a sense of refinement and sensuality, adding an air of creativity and excitement to the top 10, especially when paired with American Beauty."

Congratulations, Pantone. You were right on the money with American Beauty and Purple Heart. Jewel-toned shades certainly become more popular with the cooler weather, and this is more apparent in 2009 than ever. From cosmetic companies to haute couture fashion houses, fabric designers to interior decorators, purple isn't going anywhere anytime soon in the creative industries