The Voice of Demand

Andrew Re

Andrew Re

http://www.studeo.com

Bio: A renaissance man in training.

Down Economy, Let’s Go Buy Guns!!?

Tuesday, March 10th, 2009

Are people actually hardwired to buy guns in times of hardship? Is there some genetic predisposition that makes one person feel the distinct urge to own a gun? Are we talking some survival of the fittest, life-or-death, we need to “bunker down” and protect the fort logic? I hope not.

Since 4thquarter 2008, guns and ammunition sales are through the roof. All major US companies are seeing an increase in sales during this economic downturn. So this year, what plans do you have for your tax refund? 44-Magnum? Or, is the 45 Ruger more your flavor?

Equally alarming, is the increase in sleep-aids, antidepressant medications, fast-foods, diabetes, and bad movies. You like how we slipped in diabetes, huh?

So, as the economy helps a select few, what products are wasting their time advertising? Not one. But there are plenty of brands wasting marketing dollars in places that are far from recession-proof. What marketers must find is an emphasis on their true customers with local media—back to the basics of finding the target audience and earning their respect with sincerity and great deals. No more of this nickel-and-dime attitude! (hint, hint, wink, wink airline industry.) Need a cheap athlete or celebrity for an online campaign that’s recognizable to just the Midwest? Check out Brand Affinity’s platform! Need a localized approach to TV, Print, and Social Media? Turn to companies like Studeo Interactive or Recipe31!

Wal-Mart, an economic barometer in its own right, has the perfect business model during any recession. Beyond the cheap goods, they have a smiling face for a logo; typically become a small town center; have a great pharmacy program and sell guns and ammo to boot!

Great, just what we need—a bunch of Ambien and McDonalds loaded people buying guns and the latest DVD release, Beverly Hills Chihuahua.

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Posted in Brand, Direct Response, Marketing, Social Media | 1 Comment »

Exploring Social Networking Personalities

Monday, February 16th, 2009

The Pareto Principle states that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. This is better known as the 80/20 rule. Applying this to social networking membership, you soon realize you are among a sea of inactive users just taking up server space. According to Facebook, the site has more than 175 million active users. They define “active user” as someone who has logged in to their account more than once in thirty days. –hardly active…

Anyway, the goal is to explore the personalities of these active users. We can easily examine these under three distinct behaviors and approximate their size with the 80/20 rule:

· Networkateers (9%): members who provide original content and interact with others

· King Cobras (11%): members who only comment on other’s content

· Fort Knoxians (80%): members who do not interact with others nor provide original content

Networkateers: Simply defined as the movers and shakers of the social networking world–people not afraid to air their laundry (sometimes dirty) and typically share opinions on a broad range of topics–the users posting links to videos, funny articles, or personal blogs. The same people not afraid to tweet, tweet, and retweet. The nine percent estimate is based on Facebook’s percentage of users who change their status message within a 24-hour period—which is one of the most basic functions of the website.

King Cobras: Not meant to be negative, but an accurate term to illustrate the behavior of this type of user. Much like a King Cobra that waits patiently, almost motionless before striking its prey, these social networking personalities only comment on others content. Usually, making calculated and overly cautious comments on others pictures, posts, and status updates. It’s safe to say, these users are worried that their online content could hurt them with future endeavors (jobs, relationships, etc.). In the blogosphere, these users largely go by aliases or stay anonymous.

Fort Knoxians: With the growing awareness of identity theft and internet scams, more and more people are just along for the social networking ride. Simply being a member grants access to friends’ pages and gives the individual user a window to their network, but they are reluctant to share any personal information or interact with other users—waiting for the day they can tell their friends “I told you so!” for over-sharing online.

Personalities are usually defined by the leading attribute (Myers-Briggs or Big Five) of extroversion or introversion. In the social networking space, extroverts could easily be a Fort Knoxian and an introvert could live a more social life (or a Second Life) as a Networkateer.

Facebook touts that the average user has 120 friends; or better explained, the average user knows only 10 people that actually post their own content and regularly interacts with others.

………no offense to Fort Knox Army Base or King Cobras!

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Posted in Marketing, Social Media | 1 Comment »

“Dude, Let’s Buy a Bar”

Friday, February 6th, 2009

So, if you don’t watch How I Met Your Mother on CBS, you are missing some funny TV! In a recent episode, Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) and Ted (Josh Radnor) are discussing a five word phrase that every man will utter in their lifetime, “Dude, let’s buy a bar!” They go on to discuss other details like having no “last call” and naming their bar “Puzzles,” Believe me we are not doing the episode any justice, you should check it out on the CBS website. Your work bandwidth is the most efficient and appropriate, ha.

Anyway, if you had a bar what would you name it? Is there some crazy, futuristic stuff you would want in your bar? FYI… the ice, hookah, and oxygen bar ideas have already been done, blah!

Clearly, the name is vital! If it can’t be yelled in two syllables, scratch that name. If you don’t understand the meaning…scratch… or pronunciation…scratch. And don’t try to be too clever. You wouldn’t name a racehorse “Down the Stretch,” nor would you name a bar “Around the Corner” “Drinking Here” or “Passing the Time.”

What about interactive technology? Remember when you could play Frogger and Pac-Man at your table? Those were the days… Other than playing Photo Hunt or Golden Tee, there is really no attempt by most establishments to engage the patrons.

Even the advertising in restrooms is shameful. At best, you see a digital sign that says “advertise here” or the empty brackets of a dying outdoor media company.

We need to do a quick brainstorm, here! If Blade Runner meets Minority Report meets Cheers, creates an interactive bar/restaurant….and discuss!

Here are a few…

  • How about the ability to order your food and drinks from an interactive screen? We download music, shop for books, buy clothes, so why can’t we order-pay for our food and drinks from a digital menu? Lose the worthless wait staff that is ignoring you anyway. The owners could measure customer satisfaction with some type of interactive drink-meal timer and interactive polling.
  • Have you ever been to a dueling piano bar? The good places make a lot of cash because the musicians/entertainers drive up the cost per song. That means Barry Manilow could win out over any Billy Joel song for the right price. So, why not make this an interactive experience? Instead of dropping $100 grand on a few new pianos, how about invest the money in an interactive digital jukebox –where from the customers’ seats they could outbid others for the next song on the playlist, and for the right price, stop a song in its’ digital tracks.
  • Create a REAL online chat room. Instead of spending your Friday night at home chatting away on the overheated laptop, come out to the bar and interact with total strangers from your table. You, “BigBear” (Table 2) says “heeeey, girl” to “SugarBunny” (Table 9), but gets no response. So, you break the ice by buying your crush a few drink credits for their table. Let them choose whether they cash them in or not.
  • Allow patrons to create and edit all their information online. Add pictures, add friends, and restrict access to the creepy, creepers out there. The bar could create a full network that broadcast their specials and promotes their events. With the profile information, it could always stay one step ahead of its customers and market products and events that are actually relevant. Another plus, the bar-club-pub could always control the guest list and the overall mix of people in their place. Have special invite only nights for compatible singles, with similar music taste or personality traits.

It’s only a matter of time before our social networking and real world lives collide!

Dude, let’s buy a bar!

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Posted in Audience, Marketing, Social Media | 3 Comments »

The Greenwashing of America: …and Moss Carpet

Wednesday, February 4th, 2009

You do not have to be an economist to see the impact “green marketing” is having on consumer brands/products. There are thousands of companies going “green” or “paperless” by the day, but are they sincere about their carbon footprint initiatives or merely jumping on the eco-friendly bandwagon?

“Going Green” should certainly become a part of a company’s core values if they opt to make this leap. In fact, it should be woven in to their mission statement and every corporate decision should be influenced by this pronouncement. Too many businesses are flaunting the green emblem without sincerity of purpose, and it’s not long before America wakes up and starts pointing fingers at the posers making profit.

Marketers and advertisers must keep this in mind as more green opportunities come down the pike. If XYZ boasts its eco-friendly paperless billing it shouldn’t then go on a direct-mail binge with the money it just saved. Banks, credit card, insurance and cell phone companies should take heed to this notion. Just because a company saves a few trees in 2008 with “internal recycling programs” doesn’t counteract the footprint of five million credit card applications or high-gloss postcards.

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moss_carpet

Talk about taking the term “Greenwashing” to a whole new level…

Today’s green award goes to Nguyen La Chanh of Yanko Design for creating a living bathroom rug. Albeit, most bathroom rugs have plenty of living organisms on them but this is made from real MOSS. Actually, three different types of moss thrive on the moisture that runs off the body and the humid conditions a bathroom creates.

For some reason I sense the whole April Fools routine with this one. You make the call.

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Posted in Audience, Brand, Marketing | 2 Comments »

“What the EFF!” A Four Letter Word Seeks to Rebrand Itself

Saturday, January 31st, 2009

Illinois Governor ImpeachmentSo, I was totally caught off guard the other day while watching CSPAN. They were airing the Illinois Impeachment trial of Gov. Rod Blagojevich and one of the State Senators began quoting from the FBI wiretap. He mockingly said, “I’ve got this thing and it’s “effin” golden, and I’m just not giving it up for “effin” nothing. I’m not gonna do it.” Of course he was referring to Gov. Blagojevich’s attempts to auction off the vacant U.S. Senate seat to the highest bidder. Politics aside, what really struck me was that the state senator used the word “effin” on a public stage to replace the traditional four letter word (it rhymes with duck).

At what point did this behavior become socially acceptable? Why is “eff” okay to say, it’s just one less letter –the expletive meaning is still the same. If President Obama said on the evening news, “Chill the eff out, I got this!” would you respect him more?–would you consider the President to be more in-tune with Main Street? I think not.

Actually, I’ve seen many variations in the online arena. F, F’n, eff and effin seem the most common. It seems our youth have found creative ways to circumvent the obscenity-censoring programs that many online communities implement to keep things clean. The popularity of “eff” has transcended the blogosphere and is quickly penetrating corporate and political America.

When does a phonic word become so well used that it replaces another word? Shh!? Already taken. Bee!? Already taken. The answer is never. Once hipsters get wind that their parents and politicians are using the word “eff” it will quickly lack the creative luster it once adorned. The raw four letter form will rise again.

In the meantime, I predict that baby names starting with the letter “F” will decline, and I’m adding “eff” and “effin” to my dictionary for good measure.

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Posted in Audience, Brand | No Comments »

Cash4Gold.com is 2Legit2Quit

Saturday, January 31st, 2009

Two days ago, I said to a group of friends, “Who would ever put gold in an envelope and expect to see any money in return?” The whole business model just didn’t seem ethical. It reminded me of my high school days, when I used to stay up late and watch a gold miner on TV sell his “Gold Panning Kit” to any moron who was drunk enough to dial at 3 am. I was so wrong. Cash4Gold is legit and it’s dropping $3 million for one of the few available Super Bowl ads. At least in the modern era, this marks the first time a direct response advertiser will join the ranks of Budweiser, Pepsi and Coca-Cola.

Is this a bad move for Cash4Gold? According to Nielsen, the company spent over $160 million in advertising for 2008. The company claims it will refine around 200,000 ounces of gold in 2009– that’s only $180 million gross ($900/ounce). I’m guessing the company pays around 65% of the gold’s market value back to the customer. So, a $63 million profit is far short of the $160 million it’s spending in advertising.

What gives? Why not stick with the easy, affordable world of direct response? What benefits would there be to spend $3 million on one, 30 second spot? Think of the volume of DR spots you could buy up with this kind of dough.

Cash4Gold has enlisted the help of MC Hammer and Ed McMahon to deliver their message—two images of self-destruction in their own right. It’s pretty obvious that the company needs to bring legitimacy to its brand, but is it worth the hefty price tag? Other “onliners” have seen success, GoDaddy.com managed to separate from the pack when they were virtually unknown and CareerBuilder.com claimed a 68% increase in online job applications directly after the big game. But will the past success of others translate when the current economy is teetering on an implosion of its own? Personally, I’d rather talk about punching a koala bear, or where I was when the Jackson nip-slip happened.

Good luck Cash4Gold and “Please Hammer Don’t Hurt ‘Em.”

Posted in Direct Response, Marketing | No Comments »