MURKETING

The International Review of Wine Packaging and Aesthetics, Vol. 8

Canyon Road Cabernet Sauvignon, 2000
Maybe $10 or $12, Jersey City.

[Note: Here I continue clearing the Jersey City inventory of wine-label-related entries.]

[Note: This is the eighth installment in a regular Murketing feature. For previous installments and an explanation, go here.]

Although we don’t remember the details, R. suspects this was purchased specifically because it looked like the label had been designed. E agrees that it “looks like they hired a graphic designer, with solid skills. But then the designer wasn’t really allowed to finish the project.” She wonders about the part of the label that’s sort of been slit away — it looks like there is a specific design-related reason for this, but it’s hard to figure out what it might be.

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The swoosh wins again

The incomparable Uni Watch has a particularly fascinating piece on ESPN’s site today about Muslim sprinter Ruqaya Al Ghasara, and her Nike-branded hijab. Uni Watcher Paul Lukas writes:

Swooshifying a religious garment is pretty low, even for Nike — or at least that’s what Uni Watch initially thought. It turns out, however, that the situation is more complex than that.

“It was her choice to wear the one with the swoosh,” says Nike spokesman Brian Tacchini. “I’m not sure if it’s something that she requested to have made, or if we offered it, but she chose to wear it in the 200 meters.”

The full story is extremely interesting. You should read it.

How to offend a Canadian?

I paused this morning over the obituary of Chris Hayward, because the headline said he created The Munsters. What a curious legacy. But it turned out the most interesting thing was related to his work as a writer on the Rocky/Bullwinkle cartoons:

Mr. Hayward worked on all the segments but was most closely associated with “The Adventures of Dudley Do-Right,” which followed the hapless royal Canadian Mountie in his ceaseless pursuit of Snidely Whiplash, a very naughty man.

Because the Dudley Do-Right segments were deemed harmful to the national esteem, the Rocky and Bullwinkle shows were initially not broadcast in Canada.

Easy Ride

In Consumed: The Easy Button: An ad campaign’s comedy prop crosses over to retail.

About two years ago, the office-supply chain Staples began a new advertising campaign. According to Shira Goodman, Staples’ top marketing executive, the chain decided to peddle the perception that it’s a particularly easy place to shop. “All of our ad gurus got together and said, ‘How do we make this amorphous concept of “easy” very tangible, so our consumers can really hang on to it?’ ” The answer was a series of television commercials showing various people accomplishing tedious or onerous tasks, instantly, by pressing a big red button that said, “Easy.” The commercials were, in other words, silly prop-comedy gags. And the outcome? Among other things, demand from consumers for the prop. About seven months after the commercials started, the Easy Button migrated onto the shelves at Staples, where it was priced at $4.99. Goodman says the chain has sold nearly 1.5 million of them to date. …

Continue reading at the NYT Magazine site via this no-registration-required link.

Additional links: Easy Button ads; Easy Button YouTube videos; blogger’s videos about Staples hassles (referenced in the column), parts 1, 2, and 3.

Additional note: I never would have written this column if not for the responses received to this earlier Murketing post about the Easy Button. Sincere thanks to those who commented and/or emailed me about it.

Flickr Interlude

Flickr photo by dead insect \ /

The International Review of Wine Packaging and Aesthetics, Vol. 7

Sidewise
Pinot Noir. 2003. ($11 in Jersey City)

[Note: Speaking of JC, and of wine, there’s going to be a small avalanche of installments of the IRoWPaA over the next two weeks. I’m extremely busy trying to finish another project, and I have a lot of “inventory” of pictures and notes of wines we bought and consumed before we moved. So I’m going to be clearing that inventory out, and otherwise sort of neglecting this site through the end of the month. Just so you know.]

[Note: This is the seventh installment in a regular Murketing feature. For previous installments and an explanation, go here.]

When R. spotted this on a liquor-store shelf, he pretty much had to buy it. Yes, because of the label, but no, not because he thought there was anything inherently interesting in its design. R. bought it, of course, because of the blatant attempt to tie the wine to the movie Sideways. A film, by the way, that both E and R. hated.

For reasons that escape us, a lot of people liked Sideways, a movie about an unpleasant sad sack whose only supposedly redeeming feature was being an insufferable wine snob. It’s been widely noted that this character’s rant against merlot actually hurt merlot sales in the real world. The only thing dumber than being embarrassed to buy merlot because a fictious character sneered at the stuff would be buying a wine called Sidewise. “The very idea of trying to attract people who would be attracted to that movie,” as E put it, “is repellent.”
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The International Review of Wine Packaging and Aesthetics, Vol. 6

The Show
Cabernet Sauvignon. 2005. ($13 in Savannah)

[Note: This is the sixth installment in a regular Murketing feature. For previous installments and an explanation, go here.]

E was shopping at a big ol’ wine store, and when she spotted this bottle she thought: “Wow, that reminds me of Hatch Show Prints.” (Here’s the deal on Nashville-based Hatch, if you’re not up on it.) She took a closer look and found that, according to the back matter, the wine was actually “Inspired by the bold letterpress show posters that Hatch Show Print has produced since 1879.”

Well … what does that mean? That these people weren’t really thinking about making wine until they encountered Hatch Show Prints? And then said: “You know what this makes me want to do – make some wine!” It is, E reflects, “about as stupid a reason to make wine as any I’ve heard.” She wonders what, say, some 10th-generation French winemaker would think of a wine inspired by posters.

And yet, she adds, “I was drawn to it. Because I like Hatch Show Prints.”

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JC

A number of people passed along to me the New York Magazine story about Jersey City, presumably because we moved away from Jersey City about two months ago after living there for about three years. It’s always nice not to get caught living some place that’s the subject of a “new cool place article,” but otherwise I don’t really have much to say about the story, or not here anyway.

However, it did occur to me that I might be able to take advantage of Jersey City’s, uh, trendiness. It just so happens that in the months leading up to our move, I started taking snapshots of the neighbhorhood, collecting images that I thought would make an amusing calendar — amusing to me and to E, anyway. Certainly my vision of Jersey City does not coincide with, say, the picture above, from that New York article. I have an affection for JC, but let’s just say my affection could be described as somewhat idiosyncratic, and not at all related to the degree to which it might have some stores or restaurants that are sorta kinda like things in the West Village.

I lazily had my calendar “produced” by CafePress, and it arrived in the mail a couple of weeks ago. I’m quite pleased to have this item that will remind me of where we used to live, as we go about living somewhere very different. Of course I don’t seriously think anybody else would ever want to buy it, any more than I expected any of our many delightful NYC friends to get on a PATH train. (Some of them did, but I never expected them to.) But given that interest in JC may be at all-time high, I thought I’d move it over into the “for sale” part of Cafe Press anyway. Of course you can also look at the pictures for free — and I’m guessing that for most people, that will be more than enough.

Notable promotional strategy of the day

“Real estate agent gives guns to homebuyers,” reports Reuters. And yes, it’s in Texas, not all that far from my home town, in fact.

A Texas real estate agent looking to add more bang to her business is offering clients in law enforcement a free Glock pistol if they buy a home from her.

…[The agent] placed an advertisement offering a pistol with the purchase of any home worth at least $150,000 in the city police department’s monthly publication, “Badge & Gun.”

“Whether people want the gun or not, it has stirred up a lot of attention,” [she said].

The offer is only good for police officers. She says she’s given away two of the $500 guns to officers who bought houses from her.

To Do in Miami, Dec. 10

Of the Brand Underground subjects, I don’t think I’ve passed along any updates regarding aNYthing, but here’s one: I’m told that Budweiser Select is hosting the “insider event of the week” in Miami (where the Art Basel thingy is going on) tonight: “New York City’s downtown impresario Aaron Bondaroff’s aNYthing artist showcase featuring artists Chris Johanson and Dash Snow (both Whitney Biennial and Deitch Project veterans), art collective Paper Rad and performance artist Brendan Fowler (BARR). Johanson, Snow, and Paper Rad will deejay the event, while Paper Rad and BARR will also perform live.”

Budweiser Select, I am further informed, “is attempting to challenge traditional beer industry trends by continuing to establish a strong presence where you would least expect it.”

Okay then. Anyway, it probably goes without saying that I’m personally nowhere near Art Basel, but if you are, maybe you should check it out.

Phads

In Consumed: How to package trends into consumable ideas.

One of the things that have changed in the last few years is the number of people saying that lots of things have changed in the last few years. There are more of them, and what they have spotted are trends. Many trends. In fact, Reinier Evers has taken to saying that “trends are the new trend.” He says this with a bit of a wink, but still, he’s in a position to know: he is the founder of a company called TrendWatching, which by his reckoning has identified more than 60 trends since 2002. Each is backed by examples culled from a far-flung network of trend tipsters, and each has a name, like “Tryvertising,” “Life Caching,” “Transumers” (not to be confused with “Twinsumers”) and “Youniversal Branding.” Moreover, TrendWatching’s coinages compete with those of futurists, bloggers, business-book authors, advertising agencies, consulting firms, freelance gurus and even magazines. From “IDvidualism” to “Crowdsourcing” to “the One Life trend,” these new concepts are legion. …

Continue reading at the NYT Magazine site via this no-registration-required link.

Additional link: TrendWatching.com.

Flickr Interlude

Flickr photo by IntangibleArts

Q&A: Maak Eebuh

Several weeks back I got an interesting email from Jade Schulz, telling me about her new T-shirt brand, Maak Eebuh, which had just released its first line of three T’s, called “The War Series.” The official site explained: Each Maak Eebuh t-shirt series is theme-centered and is made in limited quantities,” the official site explains. “Currently, The War Series reflects on the war in Iraq. As a commitment to social and economic development, 10% of our proceeds will be donated to Project HOPE in Iraq.”

At first I thought maybe she had mistaken this site for one of those influential spots on the Web that touts this or that new product, bequeaths coolness, and helps sales. That’s not my thing, of course, but it turned out that she knew that. We swapped emails for a while, and I decided it might be interesting to make Maak Eebuh the subject of an occasional Q&A series: Since the brand has just started up – at the moment, it’s available only through the site — it’s an opportunity to follow along as Schulz and her partner try to “make it,” as it were. They have no financial backer for the project; they’re funding it with their own savings. The attempt to deal with serious issues – and it doesn’t get much more serious than the Iraq war – makes the project that much more challenging, and more interesting. So I asked some questions, and she provided answers, and that resulted in the below. I’ll check back in a few months to see how things are going.

Schulz is 28, and has worked in costume design and “high end fashion,” and still does freelance design work and other projects. The T’s are priced at $59 each.

So when did this project get started?

I guess I thought of the idea two years back, but really started to do the actual making of the shirts in the past year. Originally, I started doing it by myself and then a partner, Kim Situ (a friend from high school; she has more of a business-school and fundraising background), joined me later.

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Packaging Mentality

I thought the story in yesterday’s WSJ about “unboxing” videos would get more attention, and maybe it did but I missed it, or maybe it’s old news to everybody else. But the Journal described sites such as Unbox.It! and Unboxing.com, which are

part of a larger phenomenon on the Web called “unboxing.” Dozens of videos showing people unwrapping products like the new Palm Treo 680 smartphone, Microsoft Zune digital media player and the Nintendo Wii game player are appearing on YouTube, on blogs and popular technology sites. The videos are drawing thousands of viewers.

So here, I guess, is another way technology is freeing us from the yoke of lowest-common-denominator mass entertainment. Now we can watch each other open up boxes containing new products. How empowering! Anyway the Journal continues:

Marketers are getting interested. Executives at Organic, a digital marketing agency owned by ad giant Omnicom, say they’re exploring how their clients, which include Sprint, Coach and Bank of America, could use unboxing for marketing purposes.

These are exciting times. Very, very exciting.

Here’s a version of the WSJ reprinted in the Pittsburgh newspaper.

Unconsumption

[UPDATE May 6, 2007: Please see the new Unconsumption page for updates, comments, etc., on the below.]

Okay. New topic! Please note this entry concludes with an open call for feedback and suggestions. Let me know if I need to offer a prize or something to get you interested in this topic. I’ll do it.

The topic is “unconsumption.” By this I mean, getting rid of things. I don’t mean voluntary simplicity etc. — I mean we all have to get rid of things sometimes, and as you’re probably aware, this can lead to problems. Basically there are two kinds of things we need to get rid of: things that don’t work and/or are used up, and things that do work but we don’t want them anymore.
One dimension of this that’s gotten a lot of attention is the disposal of gadgetry, from computers to cell phones. There’s a book that’s evidently on this subject — I haven’t read it — called High Tech Trash, by Elizabeth Grossman. (Here’s TreeHugger’s writeup.) And there’s another book called Made To Break: Technology and Obsolescence in America. I haven’t read that either, but here’s an Utne Reader interview with the author, Giles Slade.

A site called Computer Take Back offers information about “which computer companies will take back your old computer, what services they offer, how to uses them, and how to get free recyling.” THere’s also a list of articles, with links, on the subject of “e-waste.”

More broadly, but within the context of stuff that’s used up or doesn’t work anymore, a project called The Art of Recycling looks like a sort of “awareness”-focused kind of thing. Making recycling cool, maybe? Looks like there’s also a kind of store or project involving the selling of cool stuff made from recycled materials. That’s fine, but it’s not my interest here: I’m not interested in things Joe Consumer can buy (in this rare & particular instance), I’m interested in how Joe Unconsumer can get rid of stuff.

[Side note: I’m not sure how to reckon with things like “make your old CDs into coasters or a disco ball,” as suggested here on Worldwise (via TreeHugger). I guess that’s useful. Is it?]

A UK outfit called Envirofone touts itself as “the best way to get money for your old mobiles and help the environment.” It does not appear to operate in the U.S. (Here’s a Popgadget writeup.) Another UK project is Reverse Vending Machines, “designed to automate the collection and identification of used beverage containers, issuing a refund receipt or money.” (At least it looks to be a UK thing.) Here’s a Treehugger bit on that.

On getting rid of things that do still work, there’s always donating them to charity in one way or aother. And barter seems to be a popular response. Freecycle (“a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns”) appears to be the most prominent example. It claims more than 2.8 million members. PSFK had this rundown of other barter example (all in the UK, looks like), including Read It Swap It, which is book-focused, and Swapz, which bills itself as “the biggest, most established and original direct swap website where you can swap anything with anyone.”

Have any other, or better, examples? Again my focus is not on how to keep from buying things in the first place (which is fine, it’s just not my focus), but rather on disposal of things you’ve already consumed.

What do you do when you are ready to unconsume them?

Update (December 8): Something else I just found in my files: Ebay has an “initiative” called Rethink that’s aimed at the e-waste issue. According to this old press release, at least, it wa launched in October 2005, to address the “understanding of electronic recycling and reuse options.” There’s a list of places to donate, and another of recycling-oriented organizations. I haven’t checked this out in any detail, but, just adding it to the pile. Also: Some good things in the comments section to check out if you haven’t already…