Archive for the “design” Category

all things come to them's that wait.

I love Jack in the Box. Seriously. I love their food (the cheddar potato wedges are to die for). I love their commercials. I love their whole attitude and persona. I’m a huge fan. I think the entire “Jack” character is simply brilliant. Which is why I’m nothing short of stunned regarding the recent remake of the jackinthebox.com corporate website. Don’t get me wrong. It’s attractive. It’s cool. It’s got the content (the commercials) everyone wants to see. But you’d think it was designed by someone mainlining Heinz ketchup. Slow doesn’t begin to describe it. And slow = death on the web.

Now understand that I’ve got a lot of experience building rich media websites. Read the rest of this entry »

As a marketing guy, I believe the smartest thing I can do to stay sharp is to spend a part of each day keeping up with what others are doing – and saying – in the world of marketing. In particular, I like to look at TV ads (go figure), listen to commercial radio, flip through magazines, and read the trades. I also enjoy reading marketing blogs, especially those written by people whose opinions I respect and value. Exhibit A: Ries’ Pieces, a marketing blog penned by Laura Ries. Laura is a crack marketer in her own right (you’ve likely seen her on one of the cable news channels) and author, and is the daughter of Al Ries, for my money, one of the living ‘gods of marketing.’ The senior Ries, along with his then-partner, Jack Trout, wrote a couple of the most influential books on marketing ever, including Positioning, the bible for how to view your brand within your marketspace.

I was reading Laura’s blog the other day, and noted her comments on the re-packaging/re-branding of Tropicana orange juice. I hadn’t noticed that Tropicana had changed their packaging prior to this, so I made it a point to visit the refrigerated section of my local grocery emporium, just to see what all the hubbub was about.What I found was…interesting. My conclusion was that, while Ms. Ries makes some incredibly valid and insightful points, there were a couple of things she missed. To wit… Read the rest of this entry »

…THAT is the question. I live Amarillo, Texas (Centrally Located Between Two Oceans!™). We are served by AT&T, Altel (now owned by Verison), Sprint, and…that’s about it. No T-Mobile. No other choices. That wouldn’t be so bad, but of all the cell phone vendors we have here in the Panhandle, how many offer 3G service? None. Nada. Zip. Bupkiss. Nyet. Zero.

Color me frustrated. Read the rest of this entry »

The game has defied my expectations, to say the least. Not so the spots – with only a couple of standouts (from the usual suspects) the Super ads have been anything but. Here’s my spin on the second part of the festivities…

Halftime/Second Half

The GOOD:

NBC: LMAO. Normally, network spots promoting their lineup of shows are pretty lame, or just embarrassing (like the NBC “I’m feelin’ allright” spot earlier). This one was funny, and somewhat reminiscent of the eTrade “Money Coming Out of His Wazoo” spot from the 2000 Super Bowl. Wouldn’t make me watch their shows – but a nice effort, nonetheless. Read the rest of this entry »

My Dad used to joke that he ran a non-profit business…because he didn’t make a profit from it. (Ba-dum DUM. Thank you…I’ll be here through Thursday…try the veal…and please tip your waitperson.) I’ve had a lot of experience with marketing for non-profits, and I’ve found they fit solidly into two camps – groups that think big, and groups that think small. The big-thinkers are usually (but not always) big charities – you know…March of Dimes, Susan G. Kommen…that kind of organization. They are well funded and do some pretty sophisticated marketing. Then there’s the little guys – who generally think small – and get similar results. As a marketer, I’ve found the trick to be getting small non-profits to try and think big. That doesn’t mean spending a lot…it just means resetting their frame of reference, and using marketing to make them appear to be bigger, more organized, and more successful than they really are. Read the rest of this entry »

Back when Comedy Central first went on the air, the Smothers Brothers hosted a Young Comedians show. They did bits in-between the new comics. One running gag throughout was Tom’s (presumed) lack of understanding of the idea of a rhetorical question. Dick asked, “How many man-hours do you think it took to build the railroad that opened up the West?” Tom tried to come up with an answer, until Dick explained, “It was a rhetorical question…you don’t answer it…you just think about it.”

At the end of the show, Dick pulled out a 35mm camera, ostensibly to take pictures of all the young commedians. After snapping a few pics, he opened up the back of the camera and pulled film out of the canister, exposing it, as if it was a Polaroid instant-film camera. Dick sighed, and told Tommy that he’d ruined the film, explaining that 35mm camera film has to be developed, and if exposed to light, it ruins the pictures.

Tommy smiled, and said, “No…it’s a rhetorical camera…you don’t need pictures.”

It was a funny bit, and it points out the dilemma here – the title of this post is – and isn’t – a rhetorical question. Read the rest of this entry »

Well, campers, the readership of the grokmedia | mediablog is growing by leaps and bounds. That’s good. Unfortunately, along with that growth comes a bunch of associated problems – mostly of the spam variety. At first, it was enough to simply delete entries that were obviously spam. That worked for a while, but as you would expect, spammers have gotten increasingly more aggressive, not to mention crafty. Whereas before, I’d get a comment that was obviously spam (my favorite had to be the Viagra ad that was posted in reply to a piece I wrote about the Episcopal schism). But recently, the spammers have gotten sneaky – they’ll actually reply with some text that looks as if it’s a real comment…but then link back to a bogus website that either attempts to sell you the latest in sexual dysfunction products, or (even worse in my book) attempts to infect your computer with a variety of virus code. Not fun.

So with something of a deep breath and a great deal of trepidation, I’ve reconfigured the blog to require everyone to register before commenting. Furthermore, I’ve implemented a WordPress plugin that is designed to detect bots and gently discourage them from registering…or posting.

Frankly, I’m a bit fed up with idiots trying to spam this blog. I’m trying to share what I know with a larger audience. It’s a lot of work to post on a daily basis. While I enjoy all the “real” feedback I get, having to deal with a bunch of second-raters who parasitically glom onto creative work and then use it to spread their useless snake oil wares is a colossal waste of time. I’m in hopes that I can eliminate the spammers from the site, and get back to spending my time talking about marketing.

If you have any problems with the registration process, please let me know.

When I began working in the marketing/advertising/design world, computers were something that only large corporations used – no such thing as a “personal” computer. If you wanted to create artwork that printed using more than one color, you needed Amberlith or Rubylith, and an X-acto knife. White Plaka and Liquid Paper were an illustrator’s best friends, and my biggest problem was keeping a set of Rapidograph pens free of India Ink clogs.

Things have changed. Read the rest of this entry »

This is probably going to sound like a “no, DUH!” rant, but have you ever stopped to think about how you market to your market?

In my job as a wanna-be Design Police Commissioner, I see a lot of bad design, good design, and everything in between. Same for marketing. I’ve seen some pitches that would melt hearts, and some that wouldn’t sell a starving man a steak. But the good pitches and designs all have one thing in common – they all target their market with a look and feel – and message – that is appropriate for the people they are trying to reach.

Think about that for a second.

That is actually huge. It is actually possible to miss your target because you didn’t market to them appropriately. Case in point: packaging. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the first tasks that journalism students tackle in class is to write their own obituary. That sounds a little macabre, but there’s a method to the madness – writing about yourself is considerably more difficult than writing about someone else. (In fact, the trick to writing your own obit is to pretend you’re writing it about someone else.)

Marketing yourself is a lot like that. For some reason (false modesty, a societal proscription against bragging, whatever), it’s a lot harder to market yourself than it is to market someone else. 

Recently, I’ve had the challenge to market myself, in order to build bookings for live, musical performance. It’s interesting, because while I am typically fearless when recommending marketing ideas to clients, when you’re doing it yourself, it’s a lot harder. But why? I have a theory (what a surprise!)… Read the rest of this entry »