MURKETING

In The New York Times Magazine: “Keep Calm” and remixes thereof

REMIXED MESSAGES
What happens when an artifact of persuasion encounters the modern marketplace

A blunt slogan and a simple image: these basic elements of persuasion, protest, propaganda or making a point have been used in tandem and to great effect for as long as anyone reading this has been alive. Presumably, these messages have always been received in a variety of ways. But these days, it seems, when a slogan and an image reach a significant audience, that’s not the end of the process. In fact it’s just the beginning….

Read the column in the July 5 New York Times Magazine, or here.

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

Wants, needs … and donuts.

It’s often said that consumers in the downturn are more often stopping to say: “Do I really need that? Or do I just want it?” And of course they are often answering that they don’t “need” whatever it is after all. This is widely read as a) evidence of new consumer virtue, and b) bad news for anything that might be characterized as superfluous, an indulgence, and so on.

This Time Magazine blog lists a few business/product/shopping/etc. categories that are apparently holding up or even thriving in the downturn. One that caught my eye: Donuts.

On the want vs. need scale, it’s pretty obvious where donuts fall. But I would suggest a third word: deserve. You don’t need a donut, but every once in a while, hey, you deserve one. You’ve cut back on so many other things, you’ve been such a frugal and virtuous person, it’s only fair (one might tell oneself) to indulge. Not because it’s something you want. Because it’s something you deserve.

Somewhat related: Earlier Consumed about “compensatory consumption.”

Linkpile

• Struggling mall project wants (or wanted) to track shopping habits in exchange for profits: “Electronic tags attached to every item for sale and inside shoppers club cards carried by customers allow the mall to precisely track consumer shopping habits, right down to what items they pick up, which ones they put back, which ones they buy — and in what order. Brand makers receive access to all of the data and insights about consumers collected by the mall.” The mall’s funding is in trouble, so hard to say if it will happen. And somehow they wanted the brands to turn over all — yes all — of their profits in exchange for this data. Sounds like a bit of a nonstarter to me. But still. [Via Mark O. on the Consumed FB page.]
• BestofHallandOates.com: Rick Liebling, who has moved Eyecube to a new URL (rickliebling.com) on this example of “fan passion as brand extension.”
• Web Ecology’s study on Twitter in Iran: Examines “2,024,166 tweets.”
• Thinking is thinking: “We should be careful not to blame the tools for the kind of people we have become. (If Twitter went out of business tomorrow, many people’s discourse would still remain superficial and inane.).”
• Big demo planned outside Bastille: “The French revolutionaries somehow managed in 1789, without being able to tweet.” I’m glad somebody finally said this. It’s bothered me that so much discussion of social media and revolution has ignored the fact that revolutions of all kinds went on well before Twitter etc. came along. Via Rough Type.
• WWIII Propaganda Posters: “Loose Tweets Sink Fleets,” etc. 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/or the Consumed Facebook page.

Linkpile

• America’s Most Endangered Malls: Via Infrastructurist. Earlier Consumed on dead retail reuse here.
• America after consumerism?: It’s not something that’s happened. It’s something that *could* happen. “Consumerism will not just magically disappear from its central place in our culture. It needs to be supplanted by something.” TNR piece is smarter than most on this subject, though I can’t say I found the latter half all that convincing. Worth a read though if you want to get beyond the trend industry’s pronouncements.
• Taco Bell’s New Green Menu Takes No Ingredients From Nature: Onion video. Funny.
• Denny’s tries rock and roll murketing strategy: “It has added late-night menu items fashioned by well-known musicians including Rascal Flatts and Good Charlotte. On Tuesday, singer Jewel is slated to concoct a new Denny’s menu item at a New York test kitchen.”
• Placebos as performance: Interesting comparison of placebo effects, and advertising effects. (Reminds me of Veladone-Rx.)
• Debt wasn’t always the enemy: Interesting Marketplace piece defends being in hock.
• U.S. Savings Highest Mark Since 1993: Ah, the thrifty days of 1993.

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.