Apropos of nothing much:
The Artisan Hotel in Las Vegas is filled with thousands of reproductions of oil paintings… even on the ceilings. Really nice people, no slot machines. There was a pool table in our room.
Zushi Puzzle in San Francisco has the most amazing fish I’ve ever been privileged to be served. And Roger behind the bar is charming and funny and without pretense. Ask to see the photo of the pencil fish. And it’s almost inexpensive enough to be scary.
Both are purple cows. Neither is trying to fit in (Roger’s place doesn’t look as good as it is) and both are worth talking about.
Neither spends much on real estate. Or advertises. Both do great.
Nice to see remarkable when it works. Tell Roger I sent you.
February 24, 2006
Ron Hogan points us to Google Introduces Web Page Creator.
Sure, this sort of thing exists. But googlified, it’s more likely to spread, to be adopted and to add even more clutter! WPC means that the last boundary to having a web page (or even having your cat have a web page) goes away.
February 23, 2006
Had conversations over the last 48 hours with not one but three companies that are triumphant victors in viral marketing. All three have lots of success and credibility and leverage in marketing themselves person to person.
and all three want to grow
and all three are very close to spending big bucks on ads and salesforces to force the growth to happen faster.
As soon as they start using the tactics of the other guys, playing the game they play, they become them. As soon as they decide that they can buy (not earn) attention, it all changes.
It’s so easy to respond to growth pressure by pulling that trigger. Tempting, but not worth it.
Jeff Clark is right out of school. Rather than making average resumes to send to lots of companies to get past computer screeners so he could get an average job, he built a website. I Hired Jeff Clark! Jeff Clark is looking for a marketing job….
Sign of things to come.
PS Lots of mail criticizing Jeff’s grammar, attention to detail, etc. I didn’t post his site because it’s perfect. I posted it because he’s doing something that’s easy, probably effective and a sign of things to come. More to come, I’m sure.
February 22, 2006
Mark Ramsey points out that the new show from the creator of Law and Order will debut on iTunes, for free. (Radio Marketing Nexus)
It’s hard to see this is a one-time temporary stunt. As iTunes gets crowded, promotions will increase and prices will drop. Getting people to PAY attention is enough for most media companies.
for those curious about this post, the answer, of course, is wikipedia.
I hate it when people on the radio say "of course" before they tell you something. If it’s obvious, don’t bother telling me! So, sorry about the "of course".
Here’s a watch that marks the time in six minute increments… the way lawyers bill: Lawyer Gift – The Billable Hour™ – Clever Timepieces for Lawyers.
February 21, 2006
Las Vegas is an epicenter of a trend that is accelerating through every market and community on Earth.
A rapid increase in dissatisfaction.
If you don’t have enough money, you can fix it by gambling. It’s okay to be dissatisfied with your job and your boss and your income, because someone in Vegas has more, and they got it the easy way. I don’t think it’s an accident that we’ve got record PowerBall prizes and record PowerBall sales.
If you don’t have a beautiful, thin, buxom wife with flaxen hair (or an intelligent, tall, dark-haired husband with washboard abs), it’s obvious that you can find someone better at the strip clubs and revues in town.
Porn and its variants (tech-porn included) often trains people to be dissatisfied. Apple hasn’t even shipped my MacBook yet, and they already upgraded it for free–but I’m still dissatisfied (now there’s an even faster option!).
We’re using electronic media to spread this benchmarking message far and wide. Because there’s always a company offering a better or cheaper or faster product, or a person who’s more clever than Oprah or cuter than Tyra, it’s easy to shop around, to demand more, to be constantly dissatisfied.
Every day I get angry email (not angry with me, fortunately, but angry nonetheless) from consumers of all kinds complaining about perceived slights in customer service. Looked at with a clear eye, most of these complaints don’t make a lot of sense. Yes, the correspondence could have been a lot more thoughtful, but these are organizations that are largely doing a great job, at a great price. Doesn’t matter. Someone else is often more, faster, better, now.
The problem with this emerging culture, aside from the fact that we’re unhappy all the time, is that it doesn’t give marketers a chance to build products for the long haul, to invest in the processes and products and even operating systems that pay off over time. The problem is that when brands fizz out so fast, it’s hard to invest in anything except building the next hot brand.
Is there an answer?
Talk to people who live in Vegas and you’ll discover that most of the hard-working folks who have been here more than a decade (the cab drivers and the doctors and the rest) aren’t so swayed by the billboards and the promises. Instead, they embrace the qualities that come from relationships. A relationship with a front-line worker (ask for "Bob") or a relationship with a provider or an organization that has come through for them.
It seems to me that insulation from discontent comes from building a relationship. From real people. Relationships that make us feel counted upon, respected, trusted and valued cut through the ennui of dissatisfaction. We got ourselves into this mess by acting like smart marketers, and as marketers we can get out of it by acting like people.
February 19, 2006
From the folk song:
They wasted o’er a scorching flame
The marrow of his bones;
But a miller us’d him worst of all,
For he crush’d him between two stones.
Apparently, the prospect of a computer logging in is so, so terribly horrible that Ticketmaster (and others) have made it so that only a computer could possibly read the code words.
I tried to do a parody, below:
… but I failed to do something as broken and bleeding as the actual test that Ticketmaster wanted me to pass. It’s as if they took the John Barleycorn torture process and applied it to a made-up word.
Other than the fact that they have a monopoly, is there anything at all about their site that keeps them in business? If you sell something online, go to Ticketmaster… then do the opposite.
Here’s the "real" test. If you didn’t already feel stupid on their site, now you do:
February 17, 2006
JACK FM, it turns out, will email you about your favorite songs. Thanks to all who wrote in.
But it got me thinking about shark.
Had shark for dinner last night. $10 a pound and totally worth it. Really fresh and delicious.
The fisherman, of course, was lucky to make a buck a pound. And all those middlemen added little in terms of value (they cut it, of course, and kept it cool, and allowed me to buy it midday, but they also added several days to the process of getting it from the dock to me).
What if the fisherman had my preferences and just let me know when he had a good haul? I could meet his truck at Union Square and buy direct, fresh, for $5.
Twice as efficient, twice as fresh.
No, of course it’s not going to happen soon, because fishermen like being fishermen and don’t want to deal with all of these hassles.
But the new middlemen are going to be a lot more efficient than the old ones! And the key asset that will allow them to wipe out the status quo is permission.
