50 Shades Of Industry Stimulation

The Fifty Shades Of Grey Trilogy, by E.L. James, have caused quiet a stir in the bedroom. The fetish fueled book has peeked a sexual curiosity in women and as a result has stimulated the pleasure toy industry. Pure Romance, a sex toy company that models its sales campaign using the "tuber wear party" methodology, has had a 20% increase in party bookings since the books April release. The increased party bookings has led to an increase in sales and Pure Romance is on track to achieve $120 million in sales for 2012.

50 Shades Of Grey was originally written as "twilight" fan fiction. The book explores the sex/love affair of Billionaire Christian Grey as he transforms the virgin college student Anastasia Steele into his sex goddess. 50 Shades of Grey is expected to become the highest grossing book series for Vintage Publishing House. In addition to the millions that 50 Shades of Grey is earning for Random House (the parent company), the book presents an opportunity for product licensing arrangements and royalties. The sex industry has seen a very obvious spike in sales of partner focused products, specifically in the BDSM market. It seems that women are curious to explore the pleasures of hand cuffs, riding crops and in recreating their own Red Room's of Pleasure.

The pop culture reference of adult entertainment does have an impact of the sex industry. In the early 2000's when "The Rabbit", appeared on Sex and The City, the toy literally bounced of the shelves and procreated numerous wannabe products. What is potentially unique about the 50 Shades Of Grey product line is the unlimited potential for product offerings from massage candles, to lingerie, to swings, etc. Adult retailers are enjoying the peaked demand created by E.L James and her descriptive imagination. Retailers, such as Babeland, are using the momentum of the novel to perpetuate market curiosity. Babeland has recreated a 50 shades inspired in store promotion that gives away a copy of the hit book with purchase.

At the moment however none of the "spin off" type products are in away related to Ms. James. However the author is currently pursuing a licensing agent. 50 Shades of Grey is transforming the sex industry and redefining the target demographic. The book has seamlessly managed to transform a taboo topic into a mainstream curiosity. Huge business, marketing and revenue maximization opportunities are available for The Fifty Shades of product lines. I will be interested to see how well the E.L. James does at managing the brand of Grey that will undoubtedly come of her hit trilogy.

MKTG: 4.0

Marketing is a limitless activity, the perpetuates of strategic marketing campaigns is infinite. Web 2.0 challenged the status que on how, where, and when, advertisements can best meet their target audience. The insane technological advances in the past 2 years coupled with the introduction and integration of tablet computers into our daily lives has opened another metaphorical door for marketers to endeavor.  BBH LABS, a global innovation focused marketing company, has recently created the concept of "Homeless Hotspots." The campaign is not a farce, nor a bad comedy sketch that will later be aired on a revived "Candid Camera." Homeless Hotspots, is a real promotion that is being piloted in Austen Texas. Homeless Hotspots is a marketing stunt that brilliantly incorporates social entrepreneurship.

The Hotspot homeless wear shirts that read: "I'm So-and-so, a 4G HOTSPOT. SMS HH So-and-so to 35921 for 4G access." The participating homeless are equipped wit a verizon MiFi; which turn them into wireless hotspots. Homeless Hotspots have no fixed prices, 4G users can pay what they want.

BBH LABS, conceptualized "Homeless Hotspots," through inspiration from the various "street" news papers sold by homeless in cities across the world. The proceeds earned by each "hotspot," go directly to the homeless whom is hosting the 4G users.

I think that "Homeless Hotspots" is a revolutionary approach to helping out those less fortunate. Just look at the smile on Clarence's face. He looks excited. Many people, like Clarence, end up on the streets because of harsh circumstances. Clarence lost his home in Hurricane Katrina and with a struggling economy Clarence wasn't able to build his life back together.  Homeless are not bad people, nor are they frighting. For the most part they, like you and me, want to be useful to the community, while able to provide for themselves. "Homeless Hotspots," give these men and woman an opportunity to earn real money through a valuable service with high demand. I hope "Homeless Hotspots," is a huge success.

Teaser: Superbowl 2012 commercials

The Superbowl is an American Holiday. That truly can be enjoyed by multiple audiences. Sport fans get their plays, marketers get their commercials, and everyone else gets awesome entertainment in watching or partaking in the shenanigans. Personally, I don't care about football. What I do love, is the commercials. The coveted commercial breaks of the Superbowl are the royal court of advertisement air time. Companies dish out millions of dollars for the 30 second time slot. With so much prestige on the line, no ad agency or advertiser wants to play a shit-tay commercial with bad 80's inspired voice over. The super bowl is the chance for advertiser to give-er  hell, showing of their best ads. 

The honor of being a super bowl commercial is huge, and the recognition for the being the best is like a championship ring for the creative concept team. The high costs of air time, and the often lavish expenses to produce a "Super Bowl Sunday" worth ad has companies paying top dollars for award winning directors, and personalities. This year, companies are leaking their super bowl commercials early, just to start a buzz. 

Check out a few of the teaser ads: 

The Adorable, Mr. Quiggly, for Sketchers.

The beautiful, David Beckham, for H&M,

And, the reclusive, Ms. Brown, for M&M's.

Marketing the Stereotype

So much of the marketing focus; is creating a campaign that appeals to a targeted audience. The consumer decision making process follows a stereotypical problem recognition, information search, alternative evaluation, purchase decision, and post purchase evaluation.

Marketing is a guesstimating science that attempts to play to the specific "interests" of a target audience.

In short; although marketers will cringe at my definition, marketing is the series of actions a company strategically research and execute to best reach the ideal target market. Marketing is a process that centralizes the concepts of assumptions, stereotypes, and an inherent desire for both consumers and the company to be realized as an ideal version of oneself. I love marketing, I love the ability to craft messages unique for a particular audience. I am interested in the social science, of being able to profile an audience.

Stereotypes are generalizations about the typical characteristics of a person or  a group based on their appearance, place of origin, education, and or employment. Stereotypes are how we innately classify and catalogue our surroundings.

For example; I have believe that California is always sunny and a perfect 80 degrees.

As a Canadian I find this commercial hilarious, as it plays of the stereotype of Canadian weather. 

Stereotypes have been villainized as a judgmental categorical internal physche library Dewey Decimal system. We are warned about the dangers of stereotyping in grade school. Crafting conclusions based on stereotypes is a flawed and societal dangerous process. Especially if the stereotypes play to a negative image.

Ironically, on the positive, when a marketer plays to affect a desired psychosocial consequence the campaign will be crafted to play to an idealized stereotype. As a consumers, we are comfortable with stereotypes that portray a lifestyle we aspire to achieve. The use of celebrity endorsement and geographic marketing techniques have been successful because they play to an inherit wish for personal recognition, while poking fun at the present short comings.

Marketing is subjective, and will always be victim of criticism and false advertisements. As consumers, I believe that we demand and find comfort in the embellished stereotypes. As consumers we like stereotypes, until they push to far and offend a very real insecurity with in us.    

I wish they had an app for this....

Hallelujah!

All of my classes have finished for the semester, and now all I have left is a few finals. It feels so good to be finished with a course load; and one step closer to graduation. 

This semester has been loaded with projects. It has been tough work, but also very rewarding.

This semester all of the courses I took really focused on applying the knowledge that we've all ready gained through pre-requisites. Compiling each presentation and product pitch was daunting; until I grew in my confidence and realized that: "I already know what needs to be done, and how best to do it!" It is an empowering felling.

For my marketing final project we were encouraged to envision a product with unique attributes to ease the stress of every day life. 

My project, Denada: A smart phone app and key chain, that allows the user to "call there keys" on a cellular network to help locate misplaced keys. I think its genius, and I certainly would benefit from the app...(patent pending) 

Starbucks Financial, A break for The Underdog

"Hi, and welcome to Starbucks. What can I get started for you?"

"Ahhmm, I'd like a grande extra shot americano with some steamed soy, please... And, a Small Business loan."

"Perfect I'll just get that made up for you."

Starbucks an, international coffee house, organization that has long been on the receiving end of harsh criticism for killing local small coffee shops launched on Nov.1, 2011 a program to help encourage local small businesses. 

"Create Jobs For USA,"is an initiative to raise funds to help American small businesses. Through this program Starbucks is engaging is vertical integration, however the integration is not focused on the revenue potential of interest rate profits, and loan calculations. Instead the integration is community driven, the cause is designed to increase American employment.

The Starbucks loan program,  is utilizing the wristband marketing tactic first made popular by Lance Armstrong. The company will is selling wristbands, colored in red, white, and blue, for $5. Each bracelet is inspired by, and made in, the United States. Each bracelet will be inscribed with the word "indivisible," alluding to a proud sense of patriotism. 

The proceeds raised from the bracelet sales will go to the Opportunity Finance Network. A non-profit organization that supports community development financial institutions that lend money at a low interest premium. Starbucks has already gifted the non profit 5 million dollars in 2011. Starbucks financial, is a community centric program.

 Howard Shultz, CEO of Starbucks, personally has chosen to make a political statement in which he has refused to give political campaign contribution until governments solves the debt crisis. The governments inaction has allowed Shultz the opportunity to help his fellow Americans. Through which Shultz is supporting the greater country, not the party.  

Shultz is taking a stand; against the mass kool-aid consumption the media has fed us on political matters. A countries success relies on the imagination and innovation belonging to the people. Ideas should be encouraged and dreams should be crafted into achievable goals. I think Shultz is  acting responsibly and making it feasable for fellow americans to reach for a hand up in the present hard economy. Through this program Shultz is inspiring hope and demonstrating true characteristics of strong leader. 

Props. 

A great BOD

We all want a great BOD right?  But a great BOD is so much more that outward appearances. In marketing the acronym BOD stands for: Brand Awareness, Objectives/Outcome, and Differentiators.
In short the questions marketers need to ask are: who are we, what is our desired outcome; our objective, and how are we different from our competitors; in product and in our message?

Brands are like personalities they're all a little different and need to be celebrated for their uniqueness. I was running like fool on the treadmill earlier today, doing my TAM inspired workout, when a commercial for Rembrandt Teeth whitening came on. The commercial was eerily familiar; it was a near clone of an Orbit Gum Campaign.

The Rembrandt Commercial features an attractive woman dressed professionally in white. Her accent is commanding, and slightly un-identifiable. Is it German, or Future-esque? Not sure. The Rembrandt lady invites us into her laboratory to show us her "Deep Clean" findings.

In the orbit commercial we are again introduced to an attractive woman dressed in white with a hard to place accent. This woman similarly welcomes us to "The Orbit Institute," where she announces the findings of focus group study.

Both Commercials attempt to show product innovation. When I first saw the Rembrandt commercial I thought: Dang they've got a BODY; Brand, objective, different, and YIKES! Copy Cat strategy. 

I immediately questioned if Orbit Gum and Rembrandt were siblings within a large master company (nope). Orbit is a sub-brand of Wriggles, and Rembrandt is a division of Johnson and Johnson. 

The Orbit lady, commercials have been around for a while. I as a consumer recognize the marketing BOD, employed by Orbit. The Rembrandt commercials fails to stand out, in my mind. Its campaign compliments Orbit Gum better that its own product. I like many my age have a selective attention span, for a commercial to grab my attention and make me watch it has to be different. 

Net and flix

On Monday, I received an email from Reed Hasting co-founder and CEO of Netflix. The email was a mass publication responding to the less than ideal customer reactions to Netflix's new pricing strategy. 

Hasting introduces the email with; "I messed up, and owe you an apology." I have an appreciated for people who can admit to making mistakes. So, I approach Hastings letter with an open mind; curious about his reasoning.

As I read through the letter I could feel my head shake in disagreement. Hasting's decided that streaming video content and renting DVDs are two completely different products and there for should be two different businesses. The decision Hasting decided on: LETS SPIT THE COMPANY! 

DVD renters will continue to rent on line, through a new site, qwickster.com. Streamers will continue to watch on line through Netflix. 

In my analogy, Netflix (online streaming) is the crazy trophy wife who is taking her husband to curb for all he's got. "Quickster,"The original concept of Netflix is the loser husband who has just been played. 

In irony, neither of the services are likely to come out clean. The amount of cash spent, and continuing to be spent/lost in this nasty divorce is astronomical. As a customer, I don't want complications- I want consolidation of services. I want easy one click access to either streaming or renting. I think by separating the services Netflix is loosing focus of their mission statement and organizational objectives. 

On Tuesday, after Reed Hastings announcement, stock fell another 10%. Obviously, I am not alone in frustration towards Netflix. 

The Not-so-Happy meal

McDonald's appears to be under pressure from various nutritionist group and the oh so powerful first lady. It seems Michelle Obama and these groups cite McDonald's toys in Happy Meals as a leading cause of childhood obesity. 

Really, A plastic non-edible toy is making children fat? I call Bull shit. The problem isn't McDonald's toys in happy meals. Its parents and their substitution of real nutritionally balanced meals for fast food ( ie. Happy Meals). McDonald's- is McBling, a multi-billion dollar enterprise. McDonald's is not McCalorie-Counter, and their core competency is not providing fresh fruits and veggies. I believe that parents should have the responsibility of making sure their children get adequate nutrition.

McDonald's has had success through their brilliant business strategies, one of which was to be the most dominate highway eatery. Happy Meals and long drives, complement each other beautifully- screaming kid crying because of no toy or happy kid giggling with toy, its not hard to recognize the preferred scenario. In an ideal hippy commune sort of world It would be nice if McDonald's food was healthy or healthier; but with price leadership strategies is healthy affordable for the chain? 

McD's food is a vice, it is garbage we enjoy. If they were to become masters of lean cousine would we the cosumer accept?

In part, I don't believe that happy meal is being bullied with out an agenda. If Pepsi pays huge dollars for "experience" marketing than maybe Disney, pixar, Mattel and all the other featured happy meal toys have paid for their cardboard box.  Maybe we are against overt adverts to children barley out of diapers.

As the argument goes: Kids are fat because they eat happy meals that come with toys. So Kids aren't fat because happy meals don't have toys. There is no rationality to the argument. Kids could be less active because they are hyper sensitive to the latest 3D must see movie and PS3 game...which they learned about while playing with some promo china made figure. 

We as a society have somehow accepted all forms or marketing/promotions into our daily lives at an increasing rate. Half the time we don't realize we were marketed to, until we are hooked. If Michelle Obama and the nutritional organizations rallied against unsolicited marketing- I'd buy that argument and and the not-so happy looking box. 

Back to School Shopping

I am a marketing major at Gonzaga, Go Zags! I love my school and I love my program. Being a business student with a heavy focus on marketing I can't help but observe creative, or brilliant marketing tactics on a daily basis. 

In the US the most lucrative time of year for retailers is the Friday after Thanksgiving (Black Friday) through to the Christmas shopping spree. Back to school shopping is quickly become the second most profitable time of year for retailer. The media coverage and societal need for holiday gifts, and back to school looks sell these prime time shopping sprees. Retailers don't need to extort tremendous amounts of effort on attracting shoppers. In school I lived for back to school shopping- even if I had to store my finds  for "dress down days."

Most retail rents are high. It is reasonable to estimate $25 dollars a square foot for prime shopping store front. At $25 a square foot retailers can not rely on September, November, and December alone. They need to get creative.

Nordstrom created the anniversary sale to get shoppers during the historically worst month of the shopping calender year. July.  The anniversary sale has nothing to do with norstroms "birthday," it is cleverly crafted promotion. I love Nordstrom, and I think Mr. Nordstrom would have aced any university business strategy course. The anniversary sale combine price competitiveness with product differentiation, and luxury.

 They spoke, and still speak the language of their shoppers.

In Spokane alone, the downtown Nordstrom sold $1 mil on the opening day of the sale alone. However you look at that is a successful day-