MURKETING

This coming attraction brought to you by…

Earlier today I saw, on a blog, a reference to a trailer for a documentary I hadn’t heard of but that sounded interesting. I clicked and went to a site called MovieWeb.com.

Before the trailer started, there was an ad (for Axe hair gel). When the trailer started, text ads popped up on the bottom of the video window, advertising other movie-trailer sites I might want to check out. And of course above the video window there was a banner ad, for a movie, and to the right another ad (for Axe).

That seems like an awful lot of sponsorship to deal with … just to watch what is, after all, an ad for a movie.

Linkpile

• Guerilla Retail Sculptures: “French artists collective Encastrable create temporary sculptures from products and materials for sale in the store.”
• Re: Billy Mays: You know the news. This fan site has more, plus hundreds of condolences. (Consumed on Mays here.)
• The Fight Against Fakes: “Not only is there a lot more phony stuff out there, but it’s better made, easier to get, fetching higher prices and taking a bigger chunk out of brands’ earnings.”
• Family, intimacy, technology: Great Peggy Orenstein essay.

These links compiled via delicious, and repurposed here with plug-in Postalicious. Not enough stuff? Not the stuff you wanted? Try visiting unconsumption.tumblr.com, murketing.tumblr.com, and/or the Consumed Facebook page.

Linkpile

• Aleksandra Mir’s Trophy Collection: 2,529 of them.
• Who’s Insulated From the Recession?: Certain high-skilled workers. Welders, for instance.
• Groupons: “Each day, subscribers get an email about a major discount on a local product or service.” That’s a Recessionwire link, even though they refuse to link to my projects. No hard feelings!
• Humans prefer cockiness to expertise: I missed this earlier story on the study Ariely mentioned. Via Mindhacks.
• Cassette Tape Culture: Another of Tom H.’s unconsumption & music posts. “Cassette wallets, a dress made weaving cassette tape, cassette belt buckles, USB sticks and more.” Interesting related notes from Everydaytrash, here.
• Retailers Cut Back on Variety: This is potentially very bad news for upstart, innovative, indiepreneurs.

These links compiled via delicious, and repurposed here with plug-in Postalicious. Not enough stuff? Not the stuff you wanted? Try visiting unconsumption.tumblr.com, murketing.tumblr.com, and/or the Consumed Facebook page.

Final note about How Conference

After I spoke, a bunch of people clustered around with questions. I did my best, but it never works well when 20 people want to have a real one-on-one. Sorry for those I disappointed.

That said, one guy waited through all of it, and I finally said, “Yes?” And he said:

“Thanks. Just wanted to say thanks.”

That was it. No pitch, no business card, didn’t want a thing. Just went on his way after saying those few words.

I don’t know who that guy was, but he really made my night.

So if that guy is out there reading this:

Thanks.

Linkpile

• Consumers Skeptical About ‘Free’ Products: Bundling strategy “leads consumers to devalue the items when they’re sold individually.”
• Vintage T-Shirt Road Trip: Destee-Nation Shirt Co. blog documenting travels — and new T designs from obscure businesses encountered. Earlier Consumed on Destee-Nation here.
• Tumblrs with book deals – gutenbait?: “Furthermore, Give Us A Book Deal offers a regular stream of idiotic book deal-bait tumblr ideas such as ‘Rules for My Future Dog’ and ‘Slutty Ninjas.'”
• The Term Personal Brand Makes Me Want To Kick Myself In The Face.: “Is it me, or are people starting to sound like press releases?” Bracing rant. [Thx Chip G!]
• Social technology: a way of life . . . or just a damn hobby?: “It’s not a way of life, it’s a useful communications tool.” Feels weird to agree with Josh Bernoff about something. But: Yeah.
• We’re Swayed by Confidence More than Expertise: “This tendency led advisors to make their advice more and more precise in subsequent rounds – but not more accurate.” Ariely describes study. I think this is intuitive, and explains the entire guru industry. If you want to be a guru, it’s much more important to be confident than to have the slightest idea what you’re talking about. People want to believe. Believe it.
• Not A Box: In fact: A lamp. Kinda cool. Via Rebecca on FB Consumed page.
• Report: Twitter Users Buy More Music: Seems like correlation, not causality, to me.
• Studio 360 Gay Flag Redesign: I wouldn’t change it. But what do I know?
• OXO Office Supplies: “Easier” stapling, etc. Progress? Or just fresh SKUs?
• The Bar Code Turns 35 – NYTimes.com: “The adoption of the bar code was gradual. For years, businesses were hamstrung by shoppers who refused to buy bar-coded products, worrying that they might be cheated at the checkout counter without price labels. At the time, ‘the vision of the bar code as some sort of surveillance device with ominous social implications was quite resonant,’ said T. J. Jackson Lears, a cultural historian at Rutgers University. But with the advent of Google Earth and global tracking devices, ‘it now seems comparatively innocuous.'”

These links compiled via delicious, and repurposed here with plug-in Postalicious. Not enough stuff? Not the stuff you wanted? Try visiting unconsumption.tumblr.com, murketing.tumblr.com, and/or the Consumed Facebook page.

What the Michael Jackson sales surge is about

Sometimes people ask me why, say, McDonald’s or Coca-Cola or Nike bother to advertise at all. We’ve all heard of them, right? We’ve all decided whether or not we like them. So why waste the money? Here is my answer: Because the simple-sounding issue of salience is very important. And as backup I offer the abrupt return to popularity of Michael Jackson’s music.

Yesterday evening, Cult of Mac predicted a surge in sales of Michael Jackson music. Correct. Indeed as I type this 9 of the top 10 albums, and six of the top 10 singles, on the iTunes chart, are Jackson material.

Ah, but this was a safe prediction, because this kind of thing happens all the time — Tim Russert’s books, to name a random example, took all the top slots on Amazon.com after his surprising, and widely reported, death. Why is that? Is there something about high-profile death that makes us want to buy cultural products created by the recently deceased?

Not exactly. It’s not the death but the “high-profile” part of the equation (the attendant media/web coverage and chatter) that matters. This is for the simple reason that it makes such figures highly salient. Salience is certainly not the only element in a consumption decision, but it’s an  essential one. (This is discussed briefly in an early chapter of Buying In, from which I’ve borrowed a sentence or two in the post that follows). Read more

Linkpile

• World’s Worst Person Decides To Go Into Marketing: “Either that, or PR.” Onion brief explains.
• How talentless celebrities stay famous: “The desire to find common ground pushes us to discuss already popular people.”
• Michael Jackson: Industrial designer: “He dominated many forms of media, but who knew that he also holds a patent? One of the iconic moves from his ‘Smooth Criminal’ music video is when all the dancers lean forward at an impossible angle. In the video this was acheived with wires. Jackson’s innovation was the development of special shoes along with a support system hidden under the stage enabilng the move in a live show. Very clever.”
• The world’s best-selling poster: Q: “What type of product is Farrah to be selling on the poster?” A: “We want to sell Farrah on the Farrah poster.” Story of the iconic image, and the surprisingly squalid tale of the company that created it. Via Coudal.com

These links compiled via delicious, and repurposed here with plug-in Postalicious. Not enough stuff? Not the stuff you wanted? Try visiting unconsumption.tumblr.com, murketing.tumblr.com, and/or the Consumed Facebook page.

The iPhone: Mandatory?

One other note from How Conference tweets that you didn’t have to be there to appreciate. Or maybe to loathe. This dispatch:

@danieleagee: Just heard someone ask someone else, “How do you consider yourself a creative without owning an iPhone?”

Hm.

Maybe the overheard person was kidding.

(Related: Research suggesting mere exposure to Apple logos makes people more creative was discussed in this column.)

Linkpile

• There’s No Business Like ‘Going Out of Business’: But don’t use that as your store name. Funny WSJ piece also has some pretty interesting indirect points about the psychology of discounts.
• Intelligent design: Another Objectified take.

These links compiled via delicious, and repurposed here with plug-in Postalicious. Not enough stuff? Not the stuff you wanted? Try visiting unconsumption.tumblr.com, murketing.tumblr.com, and/or the Consumed Facebook page.

This post will only make sense if you were (or are) at the How Design Conference…

… and happened to attend my talk there.

These are links are follow-ups to various things mentioned, if you want more information or context:

Here’s my column on counterfunctionality, describing Jonah Berger’s work. Here is the spinoff counterfunctionality Tumblr where I’ve lately been compiling watch examples. Here is Jennifer Perkins’ DIY counterfunctional watch project.

Here’s a column partly about consumer attraction to both the novel, and the familiar.

Here’s a column on “venturesome consumption” (and iPhone apps; here’s something on that student-art app).

Here’s a column on “immaterialism” (Facebook gifts and other forms of digital/virtual goods).

Here is the site of F2 Design (letterpress); here are the sites of the other two creators I also hired to make posters for Buying In: Amy Jo, and The Little Friends of Printmaking.

Here is The Kings of Leon’s sprawling merch selection; here’s the site of Barking Irons, whose work with Kings Of Leon I mentioned. Here’s a Murketing post about the Of Montreal lifestyle-products record release; here is a post about the band selling a hunting knife.

Plutonomics discussed here.

Here is more about the Kyoto Box. Here is more about the work of the Center for Vision in the Developing World, including the “self refraction” optics method. Here is more about Pielab, in Greensboro, Alabama. The M-Lab person I mentioned is Brian W. Jones, who is also a collaborator with me and others in the Unconsumption blog (which, actually, I didn’t mention, but maybe I should have).

And yes, I read the tweets after these things. Most amusing one here. (You had to be there.) Most comprehensive tweeting of the How conference by Debbie Millman.

If you enjoyed the talk, you might enjoy Consumed (and its FB page) and/or Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are.

If you did not enjoy the talk, I am sorry.

And if there’s something else I should add to these links, tell me in the comments. Thanks.

Linkpile

• Tron Guy Hits Economic Turbulence: He’s selling his plane, on eBay.
• Promotional mascot suits: Here’s where to get them, if you were wondering.
• Demolished! 11 Beautiful Train Stations That Fell To The Wrecking Ball: Sad.
• Coach offers luxury for recessionary times: Oxymoron? We’ll see.
• Is This a Web-Series Model That Works?: “Among its most prominent series: Momversation, a thrice-weekly discussion hosted by well-known blogging moms.” That sounds horrible! Is it just me?
• Digital Coupon Usage Skyrockets: “Coupons.com expects digital coupon usage to hit $1 billion in savings by year’s end. The amount would top the $313 million that consumers redeemed in 2008.” (Related Consumed from July ’08.)
• Dog Poo Bags at Colette: I do not endorse this product. “Turn the less attractive moments in the life of a dog owner into an original happening.”

These links compiled via delicious, and repurposed here with plug-in Postalicious. Not enough stuff? Not the stuff you wanted? Try visiting unconsumption.tumblr.com, murketing.tumblr.com, or the Consumed Facebook page.

Repellent design?

The Dieline points to the above images and this explanatory post on Pentagram’s site. Apparently it’s a reaction to the most recent anti-tobacco legislation. Pentagram’s DJ Stout “suggests that to comply with the crackdown, tobacco companies should embrace the restrictions and make cigarettes look truly dangerous.”

I guess these are meant to examples of that idea — but I think these packages look totally awesome.

(And by the way, re the text, I don’t know if that’s a real cigarette-package warning or not, but I’m pretty sure all regular smokers “eventually die.” Non-smokers too.)

Unconsumption & music

Over on the Unconsumption Tumblr, contributor Tom Hosford has started a series of posts on music. Go here to check out what he’s added so far: The first post is a video featuring a band whose motto is “find something in the trash…plug it in.” Second a video of a drummer whose home-made (trash-heavy) kit is said to astound crowds on SF’s Embarcadero. And most recently, an interesting and somewhat mysterious set of pix called Trash Can Music.

And if you’ve yet to explore the Unconsumption Tumblr, now’s as good a time as any — lots of fun stuff gets added pretty much every day. Check it out.

Linkpile

• Letter to a Young Writer: Sound advice from Susannah Breslin. Made my day.
• Anatomical Merit Badges: On Craftzine.
• Ten weird vinyl records: In terms of shape. I think this came via Design Observer.

These links compiled via delicious, and repurposed here with plug-in Postalicious. Not enough stuff? Not the stuff you wanted? Try visiting unconsumption.tumblr.com, murketing.tumblr.com, and the Consumed Facebook page.

In The New York Times Magazine: A hotel chain’s “random acts of generosity”

FAVOR ENHANCEMENT:
Real gratitude can be profitable. How, then, to create it?

In the days ahead, managers and employees of the Hyatt hotel chain will be doing favors for some of their customers. Maybe they always did them, but these favors will be different: they will be what Hyatt Hotels’ C.E.O., Mark Hoplamazian, has called “random acts of generosity,” like unexpectedly picking up the tab for your hotel-bar drinks or hotel-spa massage. “Random” seems slightly off as a description, in that Hoplamazian announced this pending outburst of hospitality, and the months of consumer research that preceded it, in a guest post on a USA Today business-travel blog. But the idea is that the unexpected nature of the gifts will leave the customer not just pleased but also grateful. Gratitude is a powerful, and potentially quite profitable, emotion to inspire….

Read the column in the June 21, 2009, issue of New York Times Magazine, or here.

Discuss, make fun of, or praise this column to the skies at the Consumed Facebook page.