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Brands and Marketing
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07.22.08Premium Means You Should Envy Them
Brands and MarketingMy last post talked about Rene Girard and the concept of mimetic desire. I want to continue with some additional thoughts… Premium products are often marketed via some aesthetic base, often using visual cues (logos, design, premium materials, etc) to make others consumers ‘envious’ to the point that they feel they must have it too. The value is obvious to all who see it. It seems most web services forget that making other users ‘envious’ of the premium features they could have is a necessary step to monetization. For example, the reason that car models change design ever year or two is ...
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07.16.08The Long Tail and Mimetic Desire
Brands and MarketingI’m a big fan of both Chris Anderson and Peter Thiel. Recently I have been reading a number of reports and articles contradicting the thesis behind the Long Tail, a concept coined by Anderson in 2004. The Long Tail describes a niche strategy of businesses that sell a large number of unique items in relatively small quantities -- primarily using the internet as the platform for sales. Examples are Amazon.com and Netflix. However, new research from the Harvard Business Review demonstrates that the revolution in Long Tail sales described in Anderson’s book has not happened and the article begins to ...
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07.11.08Can You Afford Not to Be Funny?
Brands and MarketingIn the past when Heights Media Group launched products for ourselves or on behalf of clients, a common debate was whether or not we should use humor as a marketing component. Generally when a client is launching a “serious product” there is misnomer (IMO) that the product or company will not be taken seriously if humor is used. It’s a misnomer because most clients assume that humor-based marketing is an all or nothing affair. It’s my belief that in today’s market, video is a necessary component for any campaign: it’s low cost, viral, engaging and trackable. Because video is necessary, so ...
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07.09.08What’s Up with the False Advertising?
Brands and Marketing, Venture CapitalUpdate 1: I was contacted by the CEO of WrapMail who gave me a demo of his product. WrapMail's choice of wording may be poor but it is not false advertising. I offered to write a post summarizing the service and will link to it once it's ready to ship. I ran into two falsely advertised products today. While I was initially excited about both, now that I understand that I cannot use the services in the manner they claimed they have lost me as a potential customer. I wonder how many potential customers were also lost by this messaging stupidity? No ...
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06.16.08The Role of Tipping Point Marketing in Web 2.0
Brands and MarketingIn my last post I alluded to something I called tipping point marketing. This is a phenomenon that is hugely relevant to web 2.0 and well worth considering in early stages, in particular around a launch strategy. It's something I am currently thinking through with Workstreamer. There are a number of key industry events that have become literal ‘launch pads’ for new products and companies to debut. The best known is probably Techcrunch50, but others include DEMO, Web 2.0, and even South by Southwest. The idea behind tipping point marketing is straightforward. A startup *could* spend $50,000 over five months attempting ...
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06.15.08Get Your Viral On
Brands and MarketingSo you want to make your product or company go viral. The first thing to know is you don’t choose viral; viral chooses you. The best you can do as a marketer is position something to have viral potential. This is accomplished by positioning your product in three ways: Psychological Undercurrent Social Value Proposition Maneuverability Psychological Undercurrent. Sounds almost military, doesn’t it? That’s because it is. Psyops and captology relate to the art of influence. If you want something to become viral you need to appeal to that which is cool, unique, novel, sexy, exclusive or shocking. These are the things that make an ...
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06.11.08Startup Marketing: Starting from the Inside, Out
Brands and MarketingYou are about to launch a new product or service and you *think* you’ve decided on a key demographic to target: say the 18-34 crowd. However, instead of focusing on marketing to a theoretical audience based on attributes such as age, sex, income, etc (standard acquisition marketing) first priority should be developing a strategy driven by user life-cycle. Specifically, life-cycle related to product engagement. If this sounds confusing, don't worry, it's not. Acquisition marketing is important, but should initially take a back seat to retention marketing. And to get the most out of a retention marketing strategy, it’s best to ...
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06.11.08Real-World Value Litmus Test for Startups
Brands and MarketingMaybe it’s because I studied a decent amount of economics in school, but I think the first step in marketing anything on a large scale is to know the economic conditions and trends you’re selling into. The best products will address gaps and problems being actively discussed on the public record. While a valuable product will sell regardless of economic conditions, strategic positioning can still be influenced by astute economic observations. The best place to get a quick overview of macro trends and conditions is by paying attention to quality newspapers. As an example, here are paraphrased quotes lifted ...
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06.03.08The Obama TwitterFountain
Brands and MarketingI have used the new application TwitterFountain to show instances of the keyword "Obama" in Twitter superimposed over images tagged 'politics' on Flickr. This is sweet! There is some great potential here for brands
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06.02.08Anything Can Be Hacked. Everything Should Be Hacked.
Brands and Marketing, Social MediaUmair Haque has a great post on how to hack the industrial economy. Umair’s main point is that hacking should be encouraged and applied to the world’s big problems. Why is everything hackable today? Because in the edgeconomy, the universe of the economically possible has exploded: resources are more and more accessible. And if you can get your hands on it, you can hack it. The point is simple: nothing is impossible when you’re hacking. In the comments the idea of a shared wiki for hacker collaboration is shared. I believe that Workstreamer will immediately be able to make an impact in ...
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recent posts
- Premium Means You Should Envy Them
- Teaching Dad About the Internet Circa 1994
- The Turning Girl IQ Test
- The Long Tail and Mimetic Desire
- The Price Is Right but the Process is Wrong
- Can You Afford Not to Be Funny?
- Techcrunch Forums Hit DeadPool
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