Well Said
This month The Brand Intelligencer lines up quotes covering shopping:
“A shopping cart flipped upside down forms a cage that I use to protect myself from consumerism.” Jarod Kintz, Who Moved My Choose?: An Amazing Way to Deal With Change by Deciding to Let Indecision Into Your Life
“I still believe in the Holy Trinity, except now it’s Target, Trader Joe’s, and IKEA.” Jen Lancaster
“Buy what you don’t have yet, or what you really want, which can be mixed with what you already own. Buy only because something excites you, not just for the simple act of shopping.” Karl Lagerfeld
“Women usually love what they buy, yet hate two-thirds of what is in their closets.” Mignon McLaughlin
“For in some ways the world was like a shopping centre, and he himself was a doubtful customer, often ineffectual, being talked into buying things he didn’t want, things indeed which nobody in their right mind would want to buy.” Margaret Mahy, The Catalogue of the Universe
“…most guys have about 73 calories of shopping energy, and once these calories are gone, they’re gone for the day - if not the week - and can’t be regenerated simply by having an Orange Julius at the Food Fair.” Douglas Coupland, Microserfs
“Hanging onto a bad buy will not redeem the purchase.” Terence Conran, Essential Storage: The Back to Basics Guide to Home Design, Decoration & Furnishing
“I love to go shopping. I love to freak out salespeople. They ask me if they can help me, and I say, “Have you got anything I’d like?” Then they ask me what size I need, and I say, “Extra medium.”” Stephen Wright
“I bet deep down you still wish your mom would take you clothes shopping every August for the new school year.” Bridget Willard
“If men liked shopping, they’d call it research.” Cynthia Nelms
Behind the Brand
Forbes interviews Alfred Dunhill’s CMO Jason Beckley and he explains the steps he’s taking to maintain brand strength in a changing world. Along with the challenges of marketing a men-only brand.
The Marketoonist (http://tomfishburne.com/): Tom Fishburne started drawing cartoons on the backs of Harvard Business School cases. His cartoons have grown by word of mouth to reach 100,000 business readers each week and have been featured by the Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, Forbes, and the New York Times.
Tom is the Founder and CEO of Marketoon Studios, a content marketing studio that helps businesses such as Unilever, O2, Kronos, Baynote, Rocketfuel, and the Wall Street Journal reach their audiences with cartoons.
Tom is a frequent keynote speaker on innovation, marketing, and creativity, using cartoons, case studies, and marketing career to tell the story visually. The Huffington Post ranked his South-By-Southwest (SXSW) talk the third best of the conference out of 500.
Better Branding
Inspired & Inspiring: Meet Talia Castellano, the world’s most inspiring CoverGirl, a teen cancer patient and budding makeup artist. (http://tiny.cc/9oa8lw)
Google Bank?: the search engine company that also happens to do 35 other things, is expanding its horizons once again with a new financial services division. (http://tiny.cc/zxa8lw)
Going Global: There are many more stories of failure than of success when it comes to expanding one’s market. (http://tiny.cc/qka8lw)
Smart Yoga: Lenovo’s new IdeaPad Yoga is promoted by a cool film. (http://tiny.cc/79a8lw)
Scientific Fun: Science World museum & Rethink Canada created a series of brilliant ambient & billboard ads . (http://tiny.cc/l2a8lw)
Design Essentials
Teennick Makeover: all part of Nickelodeon’s larger rebranding efforts. (http://tiny.cc/lgb8lw)
Bookshelf Bests: so cool especially the invisible and ‘cutshelves’. (http://tiny.cc/jjb8lw)
Tempting Menu: Cask & Larder restaurant in Winter Park, Florida serve up a new look. (http://tiny.cc/3lb8lw)
Biting Remarks: designers chat about Arby’s rebranding. (http://tiny.cc/qub8lw)
Actual People: check out the real-life inspirations for Norman Rockwell’s work. (http://tiny.cc/1nb8lw)
Click Here
The Brand Intelligencer goes to the site Marketing Charts for the latest statistics. It is nice when information is free and valuable. (http://tiny.cc/9oe8lw)
The Brand Intelligencer loves this cat’s face and it loves the Corolla.
The classic Jeep Wagoneer was the first vehicle I ever owned. I bought it used as while in university. I soon discovered that the full-time four wheel drive version was not good for the student budget. Their advertising associated ownership with the finer things in life which was a stretch given I could barely fill the tank a quarter way. Interesting is how I have circled back to Jeep twenty-five years later after driving other brands and now own a Wrangler.
A Sober Take on Wine Packaging…
Stranger & Stranger’s packaging for wine maker Truett-Hurst, clearly and cleverly adds value to a consumer’s choice. The bottles are wrapped in paper and are covered with recipes, pictures, and quotes. The content is not random but is linked to the occasions that type of wine would fit. This is solid branding as it makes a customer’s life easier, educates, and entertains.
S&S identified 22 niches and buying occasions for the enhanced packaging. In turn, each unique sleeve was patented and gave the possibility of more content over standard wine labels. The wines have just been launched by Safeway.
Kevin Shaw, founder and creative director of Stranger & Stranger, shared, “The added real estate that the over sleeve gives us has allowed us to engage with people in a way that a tiny back label never can. Everyone just wants to pick up and read these packs. The best ideas are the simplest and we made them look striking and very individual. The launch range is just hitting the shelves and we’re developing new ideas every day.”
“The original Mad Men are all dead…”
“Ironically, they died from consuming the products they sold with such gusto. Their lungs went from the cigarettes they advertising - and smoked by the carton. Their livers melted from all the scotch, gin and vodka they made famous - and the three martini lunches they enjoyed in the process.” …
…quoted from Jerry Della Femina’s book: From Those Wonderful Folks Who Gave You Pearl Harbor: Front-Line Dispatches from the Advertising War written in 1970 and updated in 2010.
Here are a couple of other bon mots from the book…
“There is no such thing as a bad client. But there is such a thing as bad advertising.”
“The quality of advertising really depends on what has to be said.”
“Most account guys live with fear in their hearts.”
“Creative people don’t have a business sense about themselves.”
“There is a great deal of advertising that is much better than the product. When that happens, all that the good advertising will do is put you out of business faster…All the great advertising in the world can never straighten out the stewardess who wakes up cranky one morning. There is nothing in the world an agency can do about the gas station attendant in One Horse Stand, Nebraska, who has a hangover…”
“Whether you start them or whether you’re the victim of them, rumours are crucial to advertising. This is one of the few businesses where people are so rumour-conscious.”
“Part of this business - a big part of it - is illusion.”
