MURKETING

How a self-branding expert self-brands

In the months ahead, a certain niche branding consultant may or may not become a mainstream branding guru, as he publishes his first book — and, more to the point, promotes the shit out of it.
When it comes to book promotion, marketing consultants often have an advantage over authors who merely write for a living: [...]

Your content or your life?

“Tweet and FB are making blogging obsolete!,”  writes Andy Serwer of Fortune. He’s not entirely serious, or not entirely literal; he ties his observations into the ongoing debate about whether we’re in a culture of distraction or becoming more smartly connected and all that. In his own case, he says, he’s blogging less because:
I have [...]

Tropicana and the consumer-brand dialogue

Somebody was interviewing me today about the book and the current economy and all that, and the conversation turned to Tropicana bowing to consumer pressure (apparently) to junk its recent redesign. What does that episode say about the present state of the “secret dialogue between what we buy and who we are”?
Well, for one thing [...]

Community and connection brought to you by…

Ad Age notes Meetup’s recent-ish decision to start courting sponsors. The article says co-founder Scott Heiferman was originally against the idea, but changed his mind because group organizers “said it makes their meetings better.” Ad Age says:
Sponsorships take a lot of shapes, but all involve a monthly donation to the group to cover organizer fees, [...]

The professional amateur

Funny story in the NYT today about a guy who has won 11 “user-generated ad” contests, “earning more than $200,000 in money and prizes.” A great example of the co-promotion theory of what inspires amateurs to make ads: It’s not about hyping the brand, it’s about hyping the maker.
Mr. Levinson has a Facebook group entitled [...]

McCain-Plumber campaign tries open-source marketing

The campaign wants “to hear from you and share your story with the American public. It’s simple … make an ad telling us why you are “Joe the Plumber” in 30 seconds and your video could end up on the air as a TV ad.”

Be creative! The video that most effectively tells why you [...]

Brand names. No, I mean *brand names.*

A piece in Salon offers a debriefing on the subject of “What’s up with black names, anyway?” Apart from being a generally well-done overview of the subject, it points to a March post on a blog called Stuff Black People Hate, titled “Stupid Names.” The category of interest to me is “Luxury Latch-Ons,” regarding which [...]

Give me a $4 latte or give me death

The civic crisis sparked by the closer of 600 Starbucks locations rolls on.
The L.A. Times mulls the potential loss of access to lattes in inner-city neighborhoods, a column headlined “A closing Starbucks is a symbol of lost hope and luxury.”
Starbucks is about more than a cup of coffee in many neighborhoods. That block-letter logo on [...]

Collective action to “save” Starbucks?

Some say Americans won’t get together to support a cause, to fight for what matters to them. It isn’t so! People are banding together to make a difference — by trying to convince a multinational corporation not to close up shop in their city or town. They’re fighting to Save Our Starbucks.
In towns as small [...]

Who’s ashamed of murketing?

Sprint is offering to bribe YouTubers to include a particular phone in their online creations. First 1,000 people to do so get $20 and a chance to win $10,000. Not surprising.
Somewhat surprising: Sprint is bragging about it.
“Shamelessly plug the Samsung Instinct into your home movie … this summer, turn your loved ones into cash with [...]