BrandToBeDetermined

Feist 1234 song from Apple iPod Nano Commercial

The song is pretty catchy. I love creativity! The whole things was done in one (1) take. Amazing! A few links:

1. Apple commercial on the apple site
2. Feist - 1234: Director's Version on youTube
3. Making of the 1234 video by Director Patrick Daughters
4. Feist 1234 main version embedded below
5. Feist performing one two three four on Conan O'Brien

Speed and Quality - Quality Will Suffer First

  Jellyfish 4 
  Originally uploaded by eschipul

Perhaps the book I have enjoyed reading the most over the last year is The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life by Erving Goffman.

We had a client situation come up today where they are really pressing for a free modification, and a good one, for the Tendenci software. But no budget. And a short time line. I so desperately wanted to say "yes!" But that would be bad.

Erving Goffman describes it as:

If the activity of an individual is to embody several ideal standards, and if a good showing is to be made, it is likely then that some of these standards will be sustained in public by the private sacrifice of some of the others. Often, of course, the performer will sacrifice those standards whose loss can be concealed... (pg 44)

In our particular situation we could easily do a quick-fix that might even placate the client. But it would bump back quadrant 2 activities. And fast isn't always best. Back to Goffman:

So, too, if a service is judged on the basis of speed and quality, quality is likely to fall before speed because poor quality can be concealed but not slow service. (pg 45)

Or to put it another way, slow down, focus on quality, and fade the heat on time lines. It is always better long term to build a rock solid and secure product than it is to placate an impatient modification request. Even if you get beat up a bit in the process.

Have I ever mentioned how much I love my job? And that jellyfish picture? Just a random photo from the Houston Aquarium that seemed to hint at hidden qualities. Like hiding quality to achieve speed.

Headlines - the Most Important Element of Your Web Site

We have been talking about web marketing and headlines for a while now. So it was great to wake up to A List Apart's post on the importance of headlines. Ogilvy would be proud.

Texas Tech and Alabama Waste Millions Suing Supporters

Texas Tech and Alabama have both lost all understanding of marketing fundamentals. Based on this lack of knowledge they are charging forward wasting millions of Alumni dollars. So in order I'll cover the bone-headed-ness and then why it is bone headed.

1. The University of Alabama is suing an artist who depicts football games in his art work.
   

   Mr. Moore’s paintings, reproduced in prints and on merchandise, violated the university’s trademark rights, the suit said. It asked a federal judge to forbid him to, among other things, use the university’s “famous crimson and white color scheme.”

   (NYT article via BoingBoing)
2. Texas Tech on the other hand is suing a bookstore for selling T-shirts about Texas Tech with words like "Raider Land" and such. From the press release:
   

   “We regret having to make the choice to file a lawsuit against Red Raider Outfitters.  Texas Tech never wants to find itself in the position of suing a local business owner.  In this case, however, we believe Red Raider Outfitters forced us to take actions to protect our marks.  Raider Red, Wreck ‘em Tech, Raiderland and many other symbols and phrases are important parts of the spirit and image of Texas Tech. We took this action not only to protect our trademark but also to protect licensed vendors who properly pay royalty fees to produce Texas Tech merchandise,” said Craig Wells, Texas Tech Senior Associate AD.

   They are also prevented from using the trademarked "Texas Tech's well known scarlet-and-black color scheme"
   
   (via Keeney PR a schipul client but not for this issue)

OK, it is possible for reasonable people to disagree so let me start with where I am coming from. After the jump....

VALS Framework for Innovators

At the office we continue to spend a lot of time talking about audiences and publics, as well as persona definition. I have posted on those previously.

One new discovery for me at least was the VALS framework from SRI Consulting Business Intelligence. The visual at the right is how they divide up the eight vals types. Visit the SRIC site for more information.

On a slightly different topic - I really like the simplicity of PRSA's definition of public relations. It goes like this:

"Public relations helps an organization and its publics adapt mutually to each other."

Ron Bloom Sound Bytes from Across the Sound #54

A few notes from ATS #54 - The New Marketing Podcast - Part 2 of the Podshow Interview after partially catching up on my last flight. Ron Bloom, CEO of Podshow, in particular is a sound-byte machine expressing things in a way worthy of repeating. So here is some repetition!

"A person is represented online by the kind of content you keep." (which includes) "relationships, recommendations, and reliability over time." - Ron Bloom

"to enter the Internet with one voice could be a bad approach" - Ron Bloom

(ed: this one makes sense and to me is the same reason people don't want single sign-on. My expressed personality on flickr is very different from this blog and also different from the company-guy.)

(example) "one brand with over 100 voices"

"Rather than teach an entire society a new behavior, take advantage of an entirely new behavior in society. ... That is what brand marketers are missing." - Ron Bloom

Pragmatic Marketing Resources for Software Marketing

Pragmatic Marketing is a company that teaches software product marketing seminars. And the publish a truly great magazine on product marketing. Yes this is a relatively obscure field, and these folks execute well in that area.

The good news is their magazine is free as are the resources on their web site. The seminars appear to cost about 2 to 3k which is not for every start up. Yet if you are designing software products for the open market, perhaps worth the investment?

The image is the Pragmatic Marketing grid from this PDF on their site.