Starbury: New Basketball Shoes for $14.98

Stephon Marbury, guard for the New York Knicks is endorsing a new shoe called Starbury. The shoe share his nickname. Instead of the standard $100 - $200 pricepoint for standard NBA star-endorsed shoes, the new Starbury will retail for $14.98. More details can be found at ESPN

While Marbury may not have the universal appeal of Jordan, or D-Wade, the price should be right for many. Marbury and those around him claim the shoe is the same as the more expensive shoes. (I can’t find a site or citation, but on ESPN's Outside The Lines today, the story claimed the designers for Starbury are the same as those used by Nike for their more expensive sneakers).

Marbury and the Starbury play to a pragmatic drama (more bang for the buck). Will it catch on? I’m curious to see how this one plays out - beyond the business and brand element, I find the social and cultural potential fascinating. Marbury states he’ll be wearing these shoes in the up coming season.

The pricing strategy here should be another lesson in brands – price and features can be duplicated, the emotional connection and symbolic identity cannot. The Starbury provides a pragmatic drama in the world of basketball shoes.

Why So Many Automotive Ad Strategies Miss the Mark

While Al (and Laura) missed the mark on divergence, I agree with him on automotive advertising. This insight goes beyond the auto industry.

Two key points:
1. The strategy and tactics need to support your goal:

Copywriter Julian Koenig once said, "Your job is to reveal how good your product is, not how good you are."

2. The message needs to be geared for the right audience:

Selling to boardroom rather than consumer. It used to be that the objective of an advertisement was to sell something to a consumer. Today, the real selling takes place in the boardroom, where the agency tries to sell the advertising to the client.

Improv & Innovation: The Power of Yes

While working on a change management and communication project for a client, we were discussing ways in which one (or teams) can build trust. I had discussed the improv approach. I used to write sketch comedy in college and my wife was in a touring improv group for four years. One of the basic tenants of improv is to say yes to an idea first, rather than no. Instead of playing whack-a-mole when it comes to creativity, try saying yes and building on an idea. It may seem simple, but it can have transformative effects when it comes to innovation, trust-building, and team-building.

Get to the point already. I didn’t say it helps you to be succinct. You can read more about improv and innovation in John Sweeny’s book Innovation at the Speed of Laughter. Also, check out this video of John Sweeny presenting. Your next presentation might just seem a whole lot easier.

Get the RSS on the BS of 2.0

Via Digg, I found this Web 2.0 BS generator. From there, I was able to create this sexy new Web 2.0 compliant logo.

Wize.Com: The wisdom of algorithms and aggregated reviews

Wize, a new product review site, released its beta today. The site is a service centred around their Wize Rank™, which is based upon the theses from The Wisdom of Crowds and The Pardox of Choice. Check it out.

From the Wize.Com beta site:

Wize Rank™
Wize Rank is an objective measure of collective wisdom from hundreds of thousands of reviews from thousands of sites across the internet.

We are constantly compiling review data, using our proprietary algorithm to objectively rate products from zero to 100. Because we believe in the value of collective wisdom, a product needs at least five reviews to receive a Wize Rank. As more reviews are added, the Wize Rank becomes more accurate. Vastly simplified, our formula looks like this:

Expert Reviews + User Reviews + Buzz = Wize Rank
Wize Rank does not play favorites - manufacturers and advertisers can't buy a higher rating. The only thing that can improve a Wize Rank is more positive data collected from independent sources.

Is the top ranked product always the best for you? No. Although the top 5 ranked products are generally great, you may find a lower-ranked product that's right for you. Reading what reviewers are saying can help you understand more specific information about a product, and can help you make the right purchasing decision.
Our goal is to help you quickly find the products that are right for you. We think the best way to do that is to highlight the top performers in each category, and to allow you to dig into the detail.

More about What Sticks; Interview with Greg Stuart

More about What Sticks from AdAge. This interview further explores how billions of dollars are lost on poorly researched campaigns.

Perhaps the dollars spent, and lost, on “I know it in my gut” is making you queasy.

Looking for a pragmatic way to conduct meaningful research to discern meaning, motive, motivation and identity among our your core audience segments? Contact Sanctioning Agent to explore which services can help you own your identity.

The Origin of Brands or How I Wasted $14.95

My Amazon search engine let me down. I know that Al Ries has contributed quite a bit to the body of popular knowledge around advertising, positioning, and PR, but man was “Origin” a waste of time and money. Published in ’04, Al & Laura (Al’s daughter) use Darwin’s theory of evolution as a guiding principle for brands. Their thoughts about divergence (when species branch off or diverge to fit a special need as they adapt to survive) is interesting, but interesting in the way a half-baked hypothesis is interesting after a pint or two at the pub. Team Ries seem to despise all the hype about convergence and give poorly illustrated examples about how products and services don’t work well (utilizing a Swiss Army knife as metaphor) when they try to be many things. Two years is all it takes to start to poke holes in their anti-convergence arguments as we see industries and products readjusting to the best ways to build, own, and deliver digital content. I believe that a major component of the book that is missing is audience meaning, motive, and identity, as people utilize products are services.

While some of the hard sciences, physics and biology especially, provide rich metaphors for the understanding of communication and brands, I feel that divergence is not the one anchor an argument. As all symbolic identities are organic and have shelf-life, an adapt or die understanding of specialization could have been more useful. An analog from physics could have been entropy and neg-entropy as systems come together or fall apart. From physics we could also have a Zen-like lesson, transcending the dualities of quantum physics and quarks – the rules for the movement of large objects don’t apply to the movement of small objects. I believe that all science (social, pseudo, or otherwise) still seeks the silver bullet of a unified theory. It is safe to say that divergence is not it – it will explain parts of a brand’s survival, but is too specialized to be taken seriously. No matter how many times it is repeated, it is not true. The book reads like the current administration’s communication philosophy, if you say it enough people will believe you.

Will they keep the oil can?

I’ll say this now. Foster’s is not going to improve sales (beyond awareness-driven trial purchases) with its new campaign. It’s not going to stick. They’re tryin to repeat the social positioning of Heineken and Corona. Remember you need to be symbolically unique AND you need to ground that unique identity. More bluntly, don’t be all things to all people.

The new tag has my Sanctioning Agent senses tingling – as in “DANGER!!! No, don’t do it.” The new tagline is "Crack open a friendly." Wha’? I remember an interview with Nicole Kidman (another popular Aussie export) with David Letterman and she used the phrase “crack a fat” which was slang for an erection. So, crack open a friendly may have an unintended double entendre for more explicit social dramas.

So long Foster’s, we hardly knew ye.

What Sticks

From AdAge.Com, a review of the forthcoming book What Sticks, by Rex Briggs and Greg Stuart, highlights some of the dysfunction that translates in millions billions of dollars wasted in advertising and marketing efforts.

From the review:

Unable to define success Ad agencies, the target of nearly nonstop flagellation both self-inflicted and otherwise in the past decade, may find some solace in the book. It pins much of the blame for marketing's woes on marketers and their failure to even define success for campaigns at the outset -- much less measure it properly on the back end. Of the 36 marketers the authors researched, only ttwo -- P&G and Cingular -- had a clear definition of success for each marketing effort at the outset, Mr. Briggs said in an interview.

Some marketers may argue BLINK, but it’s the definition of group think:

The authors discovered that many longstanding axioms of media planning were based on nothing more than hunch and legend. They reveal how frequently marketers disregard research when it doesn't jibe with their own opinions -- or seek out research that does.

To what extent are you defining success before a campaign starts? Do you know why your customers (suspects, prospects, returning, or otherwise) are motivated to utilize your product or service? $53.5 billion in waste on motivation alone, according to Rex Briggs (in an audio interview on his company's site). Not understanding the motivation then translates into poorly designed message. Briggs claims over $38 billion then is wasted as the message doesn’t account for motivation. That’s over $88 billion in advertising spend lost due to an inability to understand and message to its core audience.

I used to work with a group of web developers who used the work motto "suck less." For marketers wasting less would be a healthy start to providing greater value for their organization or clients.

UPDATE 8/14/06 - More Audio (AdAge interviews Greg Stuart)

50 Million Blogs Can't Be Wrong

David Sifry's "State of the Blogosphere" shows a phenomenal growth curve and is nicely illustrated with graphs from Technorati.

The blogosphere has been doubling in size every 6 months or so. It is over 100 times bigger than it was just 3 years ago.

Podcasting the death knell for HD Radio; TV losing its grasp

Traditional media in its digital and analog formats are losing their lifeforce – all good things, I suppose. Identities and mediums have a shelf life and online media is putting older formats in the old media home.

First, Stephen Hill claims HD Radio is DOA and podcasting is to blame.

"System thought leaders and power players are finally united in the realization that digital delivery will happen most powerfully online and will do a far better job of supporting the underlying public service mission of the industry. They are now actively working on a comprehensive plan to do it by aggregating both infrastructure and content to support emerging composite business models," says Hill.

The convergence of media and the changing of channels reshuffles the deck. Reaching an intended demographic becomes more challenging. McKinsey is reporting that TV is losing its power and reach. From AdAge:

That shocking statistic, delivered to the company's Fortune 100 clients in a report on media proliferation, assumes a 15% decrease in buying power driving by cost-per-thousand rate increases; a 23% decline in ads viewed due to switching off; a 9% loss of attention to ads due to increased multitasking and a 37% decrease in message impact due to saturation. (snip)

According to Forrester Research's most recent North American Consumer Technology Adoption Study, people ages 18 to 26 spend more time online than watching TV and are adopting new technology faster than any other generation. Because of that, they tend to be more receptive to blog, podcast and mobile-web ads.

Reinforcing the difficulty in capturing the attention of the youth demographic, the LA Times describes how 12-24-year olds are simply underwhelmed. No wonder MTV gave up on videos they're like three minutes long, man.

While TV’s clarity and simplicity, which may seem like elegance to some and a dinosaur to others, will retain viewers for some time – especially those over 30, it appears like revenues for online venues should continue to climb at an accelerated pace.

Do you know how to translate your brand online?

Thanks to honorary field agent Cory for the Stephen Hill article.

The SOAP Virus Spreads

Snakes On A Plane (SOAP) - the viral movie sensation of the year continues to shine. From the blog-driven hype machine that landed a cover on EW to calls from the star SOAP is on a roll. You can now construct a call from Samuel L. Jackson to a friend, co-worker, ex-spouse, etc. reminding them to see the best movie ever on August 18th.

This viral campaign is spreading so fast the CDC is nervous.

(hat tip to Kevin at Soflow for the 411 on the SOAP call)

iPod will continue to spread; satellite radio slumps

Reaching drivers just became a bit more difficult.

Apple has inked with car manufacturers, including BMW, Acura, Audi, Ferrari, Honda, Nissan and Volkswagen. This will continue to expand the presence of iPod (and possibly bring other Apple products along for the ride as a latent effect). This is a blow to traditional radio and satellite radio.

Apple has sold over 58 million iPods. It works, it's a good product, it's easy and it turns out very viral. Now, let's look at another form of digital media -- satellite radio. Even with Howard "King of All Media" Stern, the industy slumps, sags, and drags. Apple making sure that it is even easier to use your iPod in the car is another blow for the folks over at Sirius and XM who continue to experience losses. Subscriber acquisition costs seem to play a huge factor here.

So the question for marketing professionals: How are you going to reach your target market during drive time? According to Arbitron, about one-third of all radio listening takes place in the car.

Media convergence and the blurring of channel lines becomes more and more interesting. Ten years ago, did you think you’d be able to take your music, calendar, contacts, and videos with you in a phone or iPod? Don't say yes because you hadn't heard of iPod and your phone had limited coverage -- you were happy that it had an address book. You could call all of your friends and brag about your new Sony Discman.