Buddhist Marketer

The Trend

A few years ago, I implored the woman at Random House in charge of All Things New Media to start a brand / imprint-thing called, simply, RANDOM.  It seemed appropriate given the psychographic of Kids These DAys.

Several weeks ago, purveyor of second tier electronics Radio Shack announced that they were shedding their Marconi-infused first name and evolving, simply, into THE SHACK.

And yesterday I saw a very large postcard direct mailer introducing THE FACTORY, a store within the Burlington Coat Factory store that’s positioning itself as the leader in

Cutting Edge Styles & Premium Brands

It’s where fashion happens.

Hot designers & the latest trends for men & women, it’s crave-worthy style meets get-real pricing.

Crave-worthy perhaps; cringe-inducing definitely (at least with respect to the grammar and flagrantly abusive ampersand use).

I can’t help but think that the ole’ Burlington Coat Factory is going to need more than a grammar-mangling postcard and an au courant moniker to get foot traffic into The Factory.  And I can’t help but think that Andy Warhol is gently raising an eyebrow ’bout all this, somewhere.

Though I must say: the appellation trumps anything else I can think of.  And it’s probably not a bad way for them to monetize their square footage by pushing edgier lines than normal.

Anyone been there?

Bus-Ted

From the mailbag:

The new posters on the bus stops for that new show warehouse 13 state that the show is on scifi network, not syfy. Which is it? What is the point of rebranding if they can’t be consistent?

Excellent question…

Of course, syfy is completely mongz IMHO.  WTF does ’syfy’ mean, anyway?  Grumble.

Spotted: five recent marketing curiosities

#1.  Perhaps “Classic Joy” didn’t focus-group very well

Am I the only one who finds the non-ultra-ness amusing and curious?

#2. Oh, the products you’ll Obama-ize!

Spotted at an indie coffee purveyor in Hell’s Kitchen.  Everyone wants in on the action of the Obama cult. I wonder what they’ll think of next?

#3. I.M. Embarrassed

I’m guessing that all the other executives tried to get the founder to please, please not use this name, but he or she was so in love with it …

#4. Does this vodka bottle make my butt look big?

Certainly I am not the psychographic for the Ed Hardy line of clothing. But why on earth did they

• Come up with a branded Ed Hardy vodka
• Think it was a good idea to distribute it at a women’s clothing store

???

I can’t imagine that the efficacy throughput is very high for that distribution channel. This makes no sense to me. Then again, neither do full color body tattoos. So, perhaps this is genius and I’m missing out on the party yet again.

#5. It’s actually a secret society

I open up a box of clinical strength Secret (p.s. it’s awesome) and am intrigued to see that there’s a loyalty program. !

Unfortunately, I guess it’s a super-secret VIP rewards program.

Y’know, I was blackballed once during the whole Yale-secret-society thing. Now this?

Oh, that hurts. I.M. Sad and now I must go down some Ed Hardy vodka chased by Obama blend coffee in a mug which I will later wash using non-Ultra Joy.

Zoinks!

The liberation of my inner New York City housewife

I am not the target demographic for the recent email I received from ASmallWorld.  I find the name ‘billion dollar babes‘ as cloying as the branding for bliss products.

My first instinct is to suppose the the appropriate target audience for ‘billion dollar babes’ is the kind of girl who non-ironically sports velour tracksuits, French manicures, a perma-tan, and a highlighted blow-out.  I do not see myself as this kind of girl. Which of course makes me think about an article that a girlfriend of mine put on my radar this past week, Why The Smartest People Have The Toughest Time Dating.  A snip:

3. You don’t feel like a fully-realized sexual being, and therefore don’t act like one.

At some point in your life, you got pegged as a smart person. From then on, that was your principal identity: The Smart One. Especially if you had a sibling who was better-looking than you, in which case she (or he) was The Pretty One.

Now you could be absolutely stunning (in which case you’re both smart AND pretty and everyone hates you except for me — call me, like, immediately), but your identity is still bound up in being The Smart One. So maybe you dress frumpy and don’t pay a lot of attention to your appearance. Or never bothered to cultivate your sensuality as a woman. Or your sexual aggression as a male.

Crumb, the more I think about it, the more I think I should click on that there link and unleash my inner billion dollar babe!

Related:  I am not the kind of girl who would want to admit to being on the mailing list for Frederick’s of Hollywood, let alone the kind of girl who would freely want to forward their offers to all of my friends.

No, I do not “feel free to forward this” to my friends, nor do I want to join a posse of “billion dollar babes”, and yes, this may all be connected to me historically being The Smart One.

And, yes.  Yes I did go to the tanning salon yesterday to maintain my Aruban glow.

Next up:  a velour-covered backside?

Target photo logo

I saw this logo on a Facebook flyer while, um, gathering anthropological data regarding usage of social networks (yeah, that’s it):

I don’t understand why Target doesn’t just swap out one of the ‘o’s in photo for Target logo.  Perhaps this is their style guide for all departments, and thus a convention that cannot be used across the board (for example, the pharmacy lacks an ‘o’)?

Any of you branding / logo jockeys care to comment?

Back to data collection …