the argument for polarization

polarization is a touchy word among brand folks. it's either a black or white or a very, very aspirational gray. you can't be both. and then add into the equation, the actual brand, which may be as vanilla as Wonderbread or steeped in niche and controversy. i, for a vote of one, believe brands must work as hard to have loyalists as they do to define for whom they are not.

that doesn't mean i'm advocating for an "If you're not with us, you're against us" strategy, but a firm stance in what the brand means and stands for. at the end of the day, much to the hopeful brand manager's dismay, you can't be everything to all people.


which leads me to one of the more inspiring brands i interact with - and, possibly uncharacteristically - am for. SWOBO bikes, one of which I ride, is a no-b.s., take-it-or-leave-it, this-is-who-we-are brand. the brand's blog, How to Avoid the Bummer Life is an often hilarious link farm, thought-provoking narration of cycling culture and counter-culture and just a darn fun read. sometimes the blog links to bicycle safety news, sometimes to YouTube's latest. but, in step with the overall brand, it has a distinct personality that you either love or don't.

i was catching up on SWOBO's blog this morning and ran across a great example of this polarization debate: Friday Heroes. the post leads with a blurb (below) from Bicycle Retailer containing a quote from a prospective buyer who loved the SWOBO Dixon, but didn't buy because after researching the brand, realized SWOBO is 100 percent against the Bush Administration. yup.

two things i love here: the consumer made a choice based on personal preference, which is the cost of doing business with a brand that has an actual personality. secondly, i believe it to be true that for every one person who is offended by the SWOBO ethos or its honest blog posts, five more find kinship, and that's a ratio as a marketer, I'm fine with promoting.

for those that know me, they know i'm not an alleycat-racing fixie-nerd. hell, i have a yellow lab and a Volkswagen. but being part of the SWOBO brand is as much a decision to ride a supple, solid bike as it is to connect to a side of cycling that is much different from my road riding and mountain biking. it's what i take to Man Date at McCoy's. it's what I ride to the store. it's what i ride when i put in the earbuds and ride aimlessly at night. it's not what i get kitted up for. it's not what i mix Hammer Nutrition in the water bottles for...it's what I dump the rest of a beer into a bottle for. it's one of many poles in my life and it fills a great place in my heart.

the funny thing about the above blurb is that i love Trek bikes. and i got to thinking - you don't have to be one or the other! i've owned two and admired many more. i love the Trek company. and you know, though the brand gets a bit of the short end in the above post, Trek's also worked hard to form a personality. it's done so successfully enough that it was included as the other pole in the post. and i think that's just as important.

i get the business risk, the brand reputation fears, and the sweaty marketing manager who is trying like heck to hold onto his or her job. but this post made me remember, whether you're known for tattoos on your knuckles and playing cards in your spokes or you're known as the Tour de France winning bike, you have to be known for something.

SWOBO, through both its online and offline communication has found itself a place in a specific culture, one of which customers and loyalists can relate to, and maybe more importantly, one of which prospects can aspire to get just a little piece of.

and by creating that sturdy brand image, and pitting your brand against something WHILE you define yourself in relevant contexts (social, cultural, usage) you can make friends or at least gain perimeter admirers who one day might, as i did, find your brand among others and buy on pure joyful impulse.

kudos SWOBO. that's good press.

sitting at the dealership...

...a couple observations.

www.bekanyenow.com - let's debate: nice execution to Absolut Vodka's "In An Absolut World"campaign, or a new high/low for Kanye's arrogance?

i was reading SPIN's interview with Coldplay. this line popped: (context is Coldplay's manager wanting a 30 second promo to its full-length music video, which MTV will be running)

"...The guys worry this could steal the thunder from a viral video they're preparing to put online, a mash-up of clips of dancing politicians...and they're not convinced the MTV premier will do much to help the song's success."

Well that pretty much sums up so many things.

Is your product essential?

what would you say, if asked "how many products are truly essential to your life?" 2 percent of the market shelves? 1 percent?

few brands are blessed with truly essential products. we marketers may attempt to convince consumers that products are essential and at the very least provide a benefit to one's life. but really, what do you (if you're a marketer) promote that one truly can't live without or might actually be essential to life? the percentage is low.

i was bouldering last night when i decided to take a quick "break" and do some top rope climbing. compare the two above photos, one of an ice climber and the following of a boulderer and you quickly get where i'm going with this post. the ice climber is sporting darn near essential products exclusively. from his crampons to his harness to his helmet and maybe most specifically, each bolt he sets on lead. the woman, however, relies mainly on her own strength, strategy and stamina, as her distance from the ground is not fatal (note the crashpad, a smart idea and in my mind essential).

my point on essential products wasn't realized in the more romantic way of being 30 feet up on a wall while my belay partner picked up the slack from the ground. it came when i was the belayer, carefully pulling slack and lowering the climber and seeing the value in the belay device that held the climber between feat and fall.


and i got to thinking about climbing products' genesis and obviously turned my focus to Yvon Chouinard and Chouinard Equipment - the Patagonia founder's first venture, which revolutionized sport climbing and environmental sustainability. each piton Chouinard forged was a link between life and death. each piece of equipment was relied on by climbers not only to be effective and provide functional benefits, but to ensure safety.

we can't all produce essential products. not every brand is in the business of creating essential friction between a climber and belayer. and i am certainly not advocating marketers bend their bounds to create an essential need when none exists.

but using the concept of essential as a filter surely will make our messages more focused and relevant. surely it can strip the superfluous from strategies and design.

clothing is not essential. organic clothing, however, could have a case made for being essential to the environment.
beef is not essential. naturally-raised, locally-produced beef, however, could be far more essential to consumer health than mass-produced/packed/shipped products that are gaining an unfortunate amount of attention.
cars aren't essential, safety is.

you see where i'm going with this. no, we may not work on the Petzel account, but we can add an element of focus, reason for importance and maybe even a case for essential to the way products work and are produced. this is a conversation far past "marketing." it's about design...which is a conversation that's becoming increasingly essential for marketers to have.

(above photo credit, Jimmy Chin)

remixes, collaborations and brand strategy

one little known love of mine is hip hop. yes, you can laugh at the notion. however, in addition to my love for slow geetar tunes and folksy rock, i nod my head to Notorious frequently. i'm working on a little pet project right now, dissecting collaborations between brands and in that process uncovered this video/song from The Pack: Vans.



got me thinking about collaborations and remixes that crossover between two very different brands or cultures. The Pack's video and the buzz that's surrounded it is evidence that a cross-over from one culture to another can have a powerful impact. whodathunk the traditionally white-boy-skater shoes could infiltrate the sneaker-zealot hip hop culture in such a big (billboard topping) way? cross-over of kicks in hip-hop culture aren't new (think Nike SB Dunks and Air Force 1s), but The Pack is suggesting quite a big change in the way people are dressing and that doesn't come around too often. moreover, i think this is an example of a shattered ceiling for some brands that might not have the guts or insight to enter into new markets.

keeping within the remix theme, i downloaded well-known DJ Amp Live's finally-released remix of Radiohead's In Rainbows. wow. brilliant composition and incredibly respectful evolution to a stellar In Rainbows. i ran some errands during lunch today and pumped the album. the Jetta is 10x cooler as a result. the below videos document Amp's attempt to get around a cease and desist from Radiohead's management, then the thank you video once Radiohead let Amp put the remix out (for free download, of course).

not only is the remixed album amazing, but it's a brilliant collab (per Radiohead's OK) across two very differnt musical genres (with equally proud fans) and ends up elevating both artists' brand and work. please download it. your afternoon will be better.

the most notable collaborations are the collabs you wouldn't have thought of, but once you see them materialized, make total sense. so how does one or one's brand get there? i believe the answer resided in an understanding of cultural needs and consumer insight. it's more than brand a looks great with brand b. it's about empowering consumers to crossover to a new style, culture or mindset via a remix of the familiar.

escapism

i've opined on this blog on the love i have for travel and more specifically, the feeling you get when you GO. the change in lighting as you cross from the terminal to the jetway. the welcomed thud when the airplane's landing gear first hits the destination tarmac. the first step out of a hotel in a new city. a stamp on the passport. it's a feeling that is in every way freeing, overwhelming, invigorating and empowering. you're moving. escaping. going.

i needed an afternoon break from a couple projects and grabbed some stale joe and jumped onto the Influx Insights blog, finding a great post on escape, just when i needed a mental vacation. not only does the post feature one of my favorite authors and stories, Thoreau's Walden, VW's nightdriving spot is embedded.





in short, a British theater company is performing Walden in a parking garage. more here at the BLDblog. a juxtaposition of Thoreau's focus on solitude and nature and the man-made concrete incubator that is a parking garage. it got me thinking of how i define escape. the important act of clearing one's head and experiencing a freshness one can't get just by cycling through life. not literally cycling, though, as it's quite a great escape. how do brands allow for escape? how do our hobbies, likes and activities provide a window into what our soul fights to make constant?

Walden in a garage, awesome. the veedub spot, equally insightful. both underline what I think was one of Walden's main points: awareness.

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived...

Walden was certainly a precursor to modern stories of solitude. just re-reading the excerpts in the BLDBlog made me think of the way I felt while reading Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer and now as I read Desert Solitude by Edward Abbey. so where are you trying to go? where do your customers want to be transported? and most importantly, for your wallet, how do you get there (and get them there) without booking a cross-Pacific trip?

Stress out your brand

(george hincapie's tour of missouri victory)

Olivier Blanchard has an intriguing post on adaptive progression (and what it means for your brand) over at the Brandbuilder Blog. not only is the post dead-on when explaining the cyclical nature of brand development, it does two very important things in my mind:
1) Justifies the importance of consistent brand planning and strategy
2) Explains the need to stress out your brand.

number one is easy to understand, number two however is something we agency folks and our brand-side clients are extremely guilty of. when Olivier puts it in athletic terms, it is obvious: stress out your body, build muscle, perform better. i see this translated (in the brand world) as taking chances. doing something unprecedented. scary. stress out your brand.

i'm talking about the ideas we have that may not see the light of day after they are discussed to death. or the executions that are so unprecedented that the fear of the unknown neuters the concept. or marketplace communication that differentiates the brand instead of follows the same old structure. these are the brand stresses that have the potential to truly strengthen.

sure, stress comes with risk. just as i took a risk yesterday bolting out and pushing my speed up a notch during my last long run before the Chicago Marathon. i could have pulled something. i could have crashed at mile 20. but i didn't. and because i extended - progressed - i finished the run at a higher level than i'd started. it was worth the risk.

proper brand planning creates the same powerful base that athletes rely on to propel them into peak periods. allowing that base to build a brand to the point of peaking (through great executions, risks, big ideas) can yield huge gains.
there's merit in thinking of your brand within Olivier's above training cycle. it's what we often address in annual planning. but there's even more reward available in pushing those peaks past what you're used to. unfamiliar brand territory. brand stress.

great post, Olivier. it's a visual i'll use to remind myself of the importance of not just a solid cycle, but the progress that must be attained within.

New post on the Do Better Blog

too late to re-post here, but it's relevant to us marketers. hit up Interwoven Threads' Do Better Blog for more.

g'night.

Follow your folly

i believe in the subconscious, therefore, i believe that New Belgium Brewery was all up in my mind last weekend when, after a great breakfast at You Say Tomato, i stumbled upon a bicycle swap meet where I found a rusty, worn and absolutely last-cog cruiser for 20 bucks and figured this restoration project was exactly what my soul required.




and then i didn't buy it.




and for the past three days, i've regretted that decision. so in a moment of weakness tonight, i visited New Belgium's site to get my cruiser fix from the progressive brewery's TV spots.



i sighed dramatically, took a swig of Merlot and grabbed my mtn bike for a few laps around the dark neighborhood. a few blocks into the ride, after i accepted the fact that my Trek knobby would have to replace a vintage cruiser, i settled into the peace that is a night ride. there really isn't much that is better than slow-pedaling from side to side down dark streets, admiring the moon and porch lights.

got back home and immediately cued up New Belgium's spots, but this time from a marketer's view. and i realized that the beauty and success in the spots is the ability to connect to two audiences:

1) the tinkerer in practice
2) the tinkerer at heart.

as marketers, that's really our job. engage the rational and the aspirational. the guy who buys Fat Tire Ale because all his buddies drink this and it, very frankly, has a cool bike on the label. AND, the guy who buys Fat Tire Ale because some evenings, the closest he can get to sailing down a long hill by moonlight, freedom and rebellion going through his hair in a little part of the world where a 401K is first measured in miles instead of dollars...is a bottle of beer with a great bike on the label.

connecting both demos in the same passionate way is powerful. while you're thinking beer, check out New Belgium's "Follow Your Folly" microsite. a deeper dive into the above thoughts.

i'm think i'm going to have to hunt down that rusty bike, while Monk crashes out next to the knobby, in a futile attempt to make me feel guilty for not taking him on my night ride.

differentiate.

my head's been consumed in differentiation lately. a few projects that have the opportunity to break out of the proverbial mold have ignited a real look into how successful campaigns have not just done ads better, but done ads that have no precedent. slate has an interesting story (and accompanying slide show) on the "12 Kinds of Ads." using Leo Burnett CD Donald Gunn's work, the slide show (by Seth Stevenson) is proof that even your "best" idea has more than likely been executed the same way before.



looking at the slide show, it's good to see first how to do the "type" better...such as, how to make the demo better (above). BUT, it's even more critical to rethink the category entirely. this slide show is a great addition to any marketing person's desktop - as a gut check or bit-o-inspiration.

more on the global warming brand

an update to my last post. al gore is now launching a competition to create spots to raise awareness for global warming.

time to put some of your creative talents to a good cause? worth a shot.

which comes first: the blog or the brand?

i should make my point/start the conversation on the front end of this post, as i'm guessing i'll lose you to the following link (coming later, keep reading). patagonia started a company blog, "the cleanest line" (still not linking). as with most things patagonia, it's darn near perfect from an execution and brand standpoint. i find very little to not like about patagonia and am continously impressed with the company's commitment to its socially-conscious roots of environmentalism and sustainable growth. so when i got the e-alert that the company was blogging, i was stoked.

after reading the blog, i got to thinking about the classic chicken or egg argument. more specifically, which comes first, the brand or the blog? you can argue successfully either way. many blogs have launched/solidified brands. many brands have beget wonderful blogs. i think we've seen that more often than not, having your brand's house in order yields better communication all around. very rarely is it the other way around.

with social media becoming a mainstream aspect of brand communication, many re-branding campaigns, product launches and company changes are introduced at least in part with a new blog. we marketers are almost conditioned to at least throw "blog" out in a brainstorm nowadays. with so many newer companies blogging about newish issues to help define the brand, the patagonia blog came well after the company has already established its brand identity and voice. and i think that's why the blog reads so well. seems darn natural and nowhere near a corporate communications tool.

i think the issue is worth discussing...in addition to the "what came first," thread, the cleanest line (still not linking) proves what many branding/communication folks have always known and seldom have the guts to tell clients: if you have nothing worth talking about, nothing we can do for you will start a meaningful conversation. patagonia proves this by its ability to first be focused on a wonderful product, innovative company and tried-and-true culture. then blog. then hold a press conference. then....

check out the cleanest line to learn more about patagonia. i can see this blog quickly occupying new media presentations as a blog/company that gets it. the byproduct of this blog is a more enthusiastic consumer base, more loyal evangelists and proud employees. who wouldn't want to work with a boss like this:

(posted on the cleanest line, e-mail from patagonia founder yvon chouinard's wife malinda)

From: M.CHOUINARD
Subject: Surf 3-4ft hot and glassy

Go now 245pm

Listening to - KCUR 89.3 FM - it's Fund Drive time in public radio! Donate.

More Starbucks brand talk

First, I'm having mixed feelings about the authenticity of most of what I'm going to link on here, but I believe the overall conversation and content is more important than the parts that make up that conversation. John Moore, at Brand Autopsy (who spent years inside Starbucks marketing dept.) posted this on What Starbucks Must Do, in response to this "leaked" e-mail from Sbucks CEO Howard Shultz. I don't know if the leaked note is authentic, and I really don't care. Its content is important for branding folks/marketers/coffee drinkers alike and it does a great job highlighting the importance of brand experience, especially during brand growth. So take a gander. It'll be interesting to see what John comes up with as he recruits readers to submit ideas for taking Sbucks back to its core.

On a related note, I was in Tacoma, WA this weekend for a quick vacation. I've been to Seattle, but never Tacoma. It's beautiful. Seriously wonderful city. Reminded me of my beloved Lawrence, but with mountains, better infrastructure, water, mountains, better art, mountains, great outdoor community, mountains and mountains.

While I was in Tacoma, one of the people out with us one night mentioned that she knows a barista who works at the Sbucks Howard visits each morning...again, I don't care about the truth of this ("My best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who's going with the girl who saw Ferris pass out at 31 Flavors last night. I guess it's pretty serious.") but it made me think, a) it'd be good if your CEO interacted with your product daily and b) that's one high-pressure cup of auto-brewed espresso. "I said soy milk. Your mistake cost our shareholders .21 cents. And stop wiping cocoa on your organic cotton apron, don't you know it costs us $1.42 to wash that after each shift? Do you know how much that costs per year? Can I have another scone? And by have, I mean, for free."

Blogging's been light. I'm busy. I was out of town. And to tell the truth, other things are firing my synapses at a greater rate than Woolard Speak (more on this soon) and the hundreds of blog feeds backing up in my Bloglines. It's a phase. But it's a nice reminder that my priorities are in order.

Listening to - Joe Purdy, Canyon Joe.

A Brand's Social Priority

Recently, I've been thinking about social responsibility, both corporate social responsibility and my own responsible choices as a consumer. The first step was to ask myself, as a consumer and marketer, what social responsibility means. I kept going back to two qualifiers, priority and longevity of impact. Those seem to work both for judging a brand's social responsibility and a consumer's commitment to a cause. CSR can get a bad rap, oftentimes simply because a cause program or brand can't demonstrate the priority or impact of its social stance. Consumers aren't held to as high a public standard, so we get off relatively easy. So I started thinking in terms of brands and their social priorities?

I'd love some feedback here, as to what brands you recognize making an issue or cause a true priority. I'll fall back on one of my favorites, Patagonia. Since its founding, Patagonia has been tied directly to the environment, not as a marketing program or initiative, but as a way of life. A part of the employee and brand DNA.

Priority: Does the brand live its cause/social issue? If I crashed the company HQ, would I see a culture that embraces the cause? Or does the cause live only within the walls of the marketing department. If I met an employee at a bar, would that employee get excited - or even be aware - of what his or her employer has deemed an initiative?

Impact: Does the initiative/cause/charitable interaction truly enact positive change? Are the hands that hold a large check presentation callused with hands-on effort? And what is the longevity of the impact? Was the initiative set up to buckle down and impact an issue, or will the whole dang thing be forgotten in a year's time?

I'm already predicting I'll spend a good deal of 2007 blogging on emotion. If I can focus on one thing, as a marketer, this year, it will be emotion. At its core, CSR is emotional. Brands stick their necks out to take a stance on sometimes polarizing issues/causes. No matter how far those necks are exposed, a cause is always connected to consumers' emotions. The great brands have identified what matters to (or seek input from) consumers. They've created social priorities, not just programs. They share emotion with consumers.

Two recent examples have energized my thoughts on this topic. The first, relating to my beloved Apple brand.

In the past week, I've bought a new MacBook, visited the Apple store twice and received a new Mac as a work computer. So I was especially in tune with the brand when the "Green My Apple" campaign from Greenpeace came to my attention. Emotion played an instant role in my impression of this campaign - before sense or logic even entered into the equation. I'm a die-hard Apple brand loyalist. I'm also growing much more passionate about my environment and my role as a greener consumer.

As with most anti-brand campaigns (Note: Greenpeace does not call this a campaign against Apple), one has to search hard for both sides of the story. And as with most anti-brand campaigns, the side that harnesses emotion normally wins. Oftentimes with facts aside. First impressions matter.

First impression scorecard for this campaign:
Big score for Greenpeace in creating a nice parody site, and providing lots and lots of ways consumers can interact should they choose.
Big fumble for Apple, as it's innovative image is marred by its lack of action compared to its much less technologically innovative brand peers.
Spike in the end zone for Greenpeace, which understood its audience (hip, young, creative, viral) better, it seems, than Apple on this issue.

On to another example of brand priority, Starbucks' treatment of Ethiopian farmers. Oxfam launched the "Day of Action" to raise awareness for the 3 cents Ethiopian farmers make on branded "Ethiopian" coffee. Watch this video first.


Starbucks, to its credit, utilized YouTube to post its response.


Now, as a professional communicator, I am impressed with what I imagine is Coffee Team head Dub Hay's ability to read printed cue cards. Nice response. Well written. And, though he takes a page out of "How to be interviewed on camera/always look at the interviewer," he is less than emotional. Kudos for joining the fray, but you're Starbucks! Take a film crew to Ethiopia and show me, don't read to me. Engage me, make me stand next to your spokesperson.

Facts aside (and again, I was impressed by Starbucks response), if you're going with emotion, Oxfam wins.

Two social issues. Both campaigns deal with more than CSR (Apple and Starbucks have admirable CSR/environmental programs). These campaigns deal with Starbucks' and Apple's social priorities. They deal with emotion. Pictures of the affected. Heartstrings. You get the drift.

From a crisis communications standpoint, both brands would benefit from grabbing onto these issues and making the necessary changes or explanation a priority. Both scenarios are great illustrations of a "crisis" where neither brand has yet lost the reputation game. Both are great opportunities for these brands to prioritize their social outreach and in turn, build a relationship with a group of passionate consumers.

Where do the brands you champion stand on social issues? Are they doing the minimum to play the field, or have they prioritized an effort to the point it is ingrained in your overall brand impression? Are you proud to hold that to-go cup or wear that shirt? Have you purchased products to support your own social priorities?

Retail organization and employee evangelists

I’ve blogged many times on the importance of brands engaging and empowering employees – at a retail or customer service level – to be evangelists. No other time of the year polarizes a company’s employees more than the holiday season…it’s when great retail excels and bad retail is a gift-wrapped Pandora’s box of frustrations. And I’d wager that not too many places across our country are as holiday-ed up as Kansas City’s own Country Club Plaza. It’s a Mecca of lights, big-name stores and bustling shoppers.

I was getting coffee and doing some writing yesterday and decided to visit the Apple Store before I headed out of the Plaza. Though I can browse and play in there for hours, I had a few actual questions pertaining to both my iPod and MacBook. So, in I walk: a no-profit, question-asker in the middle of the holiday rush. But the Apple Store was just as prepared for me as it was for the mom who was on an iPod bender.

Oftentimes, at a retail level, the best way to let employees be evangelists is to arm them with the opportunity to interact with consumers. Three ways Apple prepares its stores to ensure each customer gets the attention he or she needs (and lets employees be evangelists):

1. Construct pay-station kiosks for the most popular products: MacBooks and iPods are sectioned off in a stocked-on-the-floor area with an employee (or two) devoted to simply working that product. This allows the register, Genius Bar and other employees freedom to serve focused purposes.
2. Devote people and a place to customer service: the Genius desk is a year-round feature in stores, but it further proves its worth in high-traffic by offering current owners a chance to get their product questions answered. Or simply a venue for advice and brand talk. A physical display of loyalty to those who already are interacting with the products.
3. Offer ample, smart staff: Apple may “over staff” by some retail standards, but I rarely – even on the busiest days – wait for help. Apple's other employee advantage is its training and lack of "seasonal" knowledge. Each of its employees can navigate the brand. And when employees aren’t directly answering inquiries or making a sale, they are messing around with products, showing browsers how to use iPhoto or import music or sync iCal. Brilliant.

By organizing its employees, space and products efficiently, the Apple Store is a low-stress experience, even at its busiest time. This organization ensures the brand’s important experiential environment, which encourages play, interaction and dialogue. All of these things yield sales and brand loyalty.

And most importantly, the organization Apple uses allows its employees the opportunity to engage others in the brand they visibly love.

(Employee/consumer love-fest)

Listening to - Stan Getz, Anniversary

Subliminal Advertising...the tables turned

I just learned of Derren Brown this morning, over coffee and a CLIF bar. Both still are untouched, as I have been watching his videos, combing through his website and jotting down ideas that have popped into my head (maybe from my subconscious to my conscious?). Via designverb, check out this video:



I am not for duping folks. This is quite different in my opinion. The example made in the video is about acknowledging the way environment influences the mind. Marketers have engaged in "subliminal advertising" for decades. Product placement is a rather overt form of this practice. However, colors, taglines and even spokespeople can be far removed from the brand display, yet still resonate within consumers - as a representation of the brand - when part of consumers' environs.

The best brands deftly interweave into our subconscious simply through organic proliferation. Some brands are navigated by marketing strategies that intentionally interweave. Either way, the outcome is a strong mark on consumers' minds...even if those consumers aren't aware they are being influenced.

I'll be saving this video for future presentations. I can already see its benefit in a proposal or as a leave-behind to a big, environmental campaign. I think this falls under the "use for good, not evil" mantra.

Listening to - Imogen Heap, Speak for Yourself.

Does this (further) devalue the Starbucks brand?

I'm all over the map on my opinion of Starbucks as a brand. I don't trade there. Only if I'm in a place like Emporia, KS and am in dire need of a drink do I partake. Although when I'm in Japan, Starbucks is one of the only places I can get soy milk. And I don't have to use my Japanese to order. The point is, I go out of my way to frequent local coffee shops. Better beans, better service and rarely do I have to put up with something like this:










Via CC Chapman over at Crayon, this partnership between Wrigley and Starbucks places extremely creepy white teeth on the bottom of the cup. "Yay, I came up with a non-traditional advertising idea!" Reasons why I find this campaign difficult to swallow (I had to do it).

1) This is intrusive. It's bad enough that consumers (though some very willingly) pimp the Starbucks logo like beverage bling. I have a problem with brands asking consumers to both purchase and display. I mean, does anyone really want to have this on the bottom of his cup?
2) Horse teeth. Pretty white horse teeth, but horse teeth nonetheless.
3) What happens if someone rotates the cup? Are the baristas given a graphic cue on the cup to place the lid in the right spot? What happens after the customer hits the milk station?
4) I get the co-branding opportunity. Coffee stains. Gross teeth. Whitening gum. "We know you're going to keep drinking our coffee, so here's a way to chase the stain." But I'd love to have heard the discussion in the boardroom regarding calling attention to coffee's negative results.
5) Did I already say I don't like paying to be a brand's billboard?
6) Some friends and I argue over Starbucks current on-cup "The way I see it" quotes. I like them. Some people find them rather uppity. A graphic design purist friend hates the clutter. I'm sure she would say these cups are getting close to being NASCAR-like displays.
7) I worked with a coffee company once and we developed some ideas for bottom-cup messaging. It was all text-based and about the drink in hand. I think that works.
8) Why didn't Wrigley partner with Phillip Morris?
9) In that vein, what brand manager from a large teeth-staining winery would allow messaging on the cork?

Final vote? This afternoon I'm going, as always, to Broadway Cafe, which is right next door to the Westport Starbucks, for my joe jolt. They have plain white cups. And better coffee. Maybe I'll draw something on the bottom of the cup just to spite the campaign.

I wonder if Wrigley's could have spent nearly the same amount of money to send a stick of gum sampler to be included with each coffee purchase. That I could get behind. This looks too much like I'm drinking a Triple Grande Carmel Mr. Ed Skinny Capp.

Listening to - The Rentals, Return of the Rentals