My search for the perfect bag...

I have several addictions... obsessions... hobbies... whatever you want to call them!  One of them is most certainly bags & purses.  I think the reason is I can easily find items in this category that fit.  My feet need hard to find wide shoes and I'm a curvy girl with weird short-waistedness going on, so clothes are sometimes a challenge to find as well, but purses - ahhh... those I can find that fit just right... and unfortunately, I find them often!  Add to this my gadget loving -and there is a lethal pay-check stealing love.

I promise to work this around to marketing, eventually, but first I'm going to mention some of the bags that have my interests.  My current obsession deals with finding good everyday bags to carry my iPad or my camera in (and sometimes both).  Here we go with what I've found:

Vera Bradley Laptop Travel Tote

The laptop travel tote by Vera Bradley was irresistible when I saw it in the KSU bookstore.  It has a padded compartment that fits both an iPad or a 17" laptop without being big and bulky.  I ended up purchasing it in the new Camellia print - and I love it!  My one complaint is that the length that allows for a 17" laptop to fit, also allows me to loose stuff and have to go on "take everything out" digging expeditions.  There is also a tablet sleeve at Vera Bradley that I'm considering and I love my tech organizer so much I may get a second one.

Now, for the first marketing bit.  There's a new social media platform in town that is drawing women like mad - Pinterest.  I'm going to talk more about Pinterest in the near future, but the SocialMediaToday blog already wrote a short post on why companies - especially those targeting women - need to figure out this trendy social media now.

Pinterest allows you to 'pin' things you are interested in on a 'board.'  I think of it as an electronic design or inspiration board that you can share with others.  Vera Bradley should be all over this because a lot of women 'pin' fashion items or looks that they like and want to remember.  I wanted to pin the bag I talked about above - but it was no easy feat.  Websites may have to be redesigned to accommodate easy pinning of product photos.  And Vera wants me to pin from her site instead of copying the photo to my computer and posting it.  If I 'pin' from her site - it will link to the bag when someone clicks on it.  Not so much if I have to copy and pin it.  Actually, truth be told, I didn't even bother pinning the bag after fighting with it for a few minutes.  I moved on...

Speaking of moving or more specifically traveling - I have found my dream camera bag thanks to my friend, Nat.  Kelly Moore has designed camera bags that are functional, fun and feminine (she does have some guy bags too).  There are several things about her marketing efforts that I think are smart (and a few I would improve upon), but first - the bags!!

Kelly Moore B-Hobo Bag

Kelly Moore Libby Bag

There are two bags that I really like the design, function and look of that I think fit my needs.  A big reason I was able to narrow it down was how Kelly markets her products on her website.  The B-Hobo bag I want for when I'm out and about shooting.  It's a great bag to hold your gear while your sightseeing or working on a shoot (at least for me).  The Libby is the bag I want to use for travel.  This bag is perfect for a carry on that can hold my camera equipment plus other stuff!  The Libby bag will also hold a 17" laptop and they both have compartments that securely hold an iPad as well.  I did have a bit of sticker-shock when I saw how much they are, but I may have to save my pennies and get me one before the Ireland trip in May.

Now, back to marketing.  Kelly Moore does several things really right in her marketing plan.  Her website is clean and easy to navigate.  She has a link that takes you to a "find your perfect bag" page that helps you locate the bags that fit your needs.  I love this tool and used it to find the Libby bag pictured above.

There is also a link to her blog from the home page.  The blog is fun to look at and very cleanly designed.  First-up you see her monthly contest - where to enter you need to like her on Facebook and/or follow her on Twitter.  A great way to draw more attention to either of those vehicles.  Now, here comes one of my 'needs improvement' sections for her marketing - the blog is (at least at first glance) nothing more than posting winners and information about the latest bags.  I want more than that from her.  I want to read about her photography - how her bag worked for her in this situation and in that.  I want a guest blog from a bag user.  I want more.  And hopefully she'll follow her name and give us Moore.

Just like Vera Bradley, her site is very unfriendly to easily pinning for Pinterest.  I did take the time to copy and pin my favorite bag -but the direct link has been lost.  I hope she finds a way to incorporate photos that can be pinned into her site, because I really want to pin more of them and share them with others.
The aspect of her marketing plan that I love the most is her use of video and the vimeo service.  Vimeo is an alternative video sharing place that is used particularly in the artistic community.  All of Kelly's promotional and tutorial videos are hosted here.

She has one video that is just a commercial for her bags that shows them in action.  Honestly, it's nice, but not inspiring.  I thought the actors/models were off - but that is probably a personal preference thing-because they didn't look like me or any of my photog friends.  The production quality is great and the music nice as well - and this wasn't an expensive shoot - so a very doable marketing tool for a small business.  I would just like to have seen more of the product in action and less of the actors.

Kelly Moore Bag Promo Film 2010 from Joshua Smith on Vimeo.

Here's another promo video from two years ago that features Kelly Moore as one of the actors/models.  I actually like this one much better because I get more of how to use the bags.

Kelly Moore Bag - Promo Film from Joshua Smith on Vimeo.
www.kellymoorebag.com
produced by Joshua Smith Films
http://joshuasmithfilms.carbonmade.com/



She could easily combine the promo video with a contest to have consumers share the video in various social media platforms, and possibly she did when they were first released.

When you go to the video page of her site you will see some of her videos for her bags listed, but not all of them.  I would list them all in one place so people could find them.  There were many other videos through out the site on product pages that needed to be here as well.  What I really loved about her marketing was that she included videos of how each bag can be used.  I watched the videos for every bag (I started watching just the B-Hobo bag because I liked the look best, then decided I needed to check them all out to be sure about my choice).  I really got a much better sense of what each bag would hold from the videos.  Awesome way to connect with consumers, help to prevent returns and demo the bags.  I close with the video tutorials for the bags I'm hoping to purchase.




Libby Bag from Kelly Moore Clark on Vimeo.

Presentations & the Land Of Nod

While I was trying to find the land of nod last night, I started thinking about what I should blog about this month.  I need to do a Super Bowl wrap-up -and I promise one is in the works- but it wasn't what had me rolling ideas around in my head at 1AM.  A conversation with a fellow faculty member was keeping my brain spinning when it should've been finding the dream fairy.

Our conversation was about presentation styles and tools.  Now, as you know by now, I'm a gadget-girl.  I love trying new things -and if it is connected to computers and electronics, even better!  My colleague, though tech-savy, used more tried-and-true measures.  Some of our differences are definitely related to the subject matter we teach.  Being a marketing professor has the bonus of creativity being an underlying part of everything we should be doing, which let's my gadget-geek girl run wild when figuring out my presentations.

I'm not going to tell you that every presentation I have done has been great - or even kept people awake.  There are days when I feel like I am the one helping people to the land of nod.  But there are times, when I connect and things sizzle.  The creativity bounces around the room and I know my presentation is having an impact that might actually be remembered later - perhaps when they are finding the land of nod unattainable because they can't stop their mind from spinning about that presentation.  So, here is my take on several different presentation tools out there.

PowerPoint - We all know it, we all use it, frequently with horrible results.  It's the thing "creative" presenters are running from, and one of the most mis-used tools in business and most likely education.  Now, as much as I'm not a fan of Microsoft, I will say there is a lot to like here - and I do use it (though the Mac version).  Where people go wrong is by incorporating walls of text in their presentations.  Remember folks, it's about the highlights.  Less is definitely more with PowerPoint.

I can't say I haven't fallen into the traps of adding too much information or using non-related-cheesey-graphics-for-having-a-picture sake in my PowerPoints.  Right now, I know I need to redesign my Theater PowerPoint for my Entertainment Marketing class - particularly those slides about the average theater goer, where perhaps I went into a bit too much detail on screen.  But we shouldn't throw the baby-or PowerPoint-out with the bathwater.  It can still be effective, and it does have some nice whistles like easily recorded audio, a neat presentation tool for distance learning or corporate presentations.

If you're looking to get some inspiration to spiff-up your PowerPoints, check out Microsoft's free templates.  Nothing says blah faster than a standard, over-used PowerPoint template, and worse, nothing makes you blend in more than when you arrive at presentation day only to discover three other groups'  presentations look exactly the same.

Besides being gamger-girl-gadget-geek, I'm also a Mac girl who drank the kool-aid long, long ago.  I was using Apple, when Apple was far from cool.  The main reason was because I thought like a Mac, not a like PC.  The Apple "Think Different" campaign was all about how I think and how that pairs well with Mac/Apple products.  Apple's presentation software is called Keynote.  Hands-down, I like it better than PowerPoint.  It's cleaner with newer and fresher templates, but it isn't the standard in business, and does have translation problems when you convert into PowerPoint (some of the images you easily dropped in using Pages will disappear when you go to PPT because they aren't supported).  When I want a sleek, clean looking presentation, I use Keynote - especially if I know I can connect my laptop or iPad to the projector.  It's part of the iWork suite of products and there is an app I can use to create presentations on my iPad and even iPhone - so it wins in the portability department as well.  Also, you can open PPT presentations in Keynote and turn Keynote presentations into PPT slides in reverse.  I will admit that even if I create something in Keynote, I will post it in my on-line classrooms in PPT.

Speaking of sharing slides with others, let's take a look at SlideShare.

SlideShare is a portal where you can up-load presentations to the web to be accessed by others.  It's a great place for conference presenters to upload their PPT presentations (do it as a PDF to make it easier on you and others) for attendees to access after the dust has settled and they are trying to remember a key-point or long-forgotten factoid.  What is frequently lost at SlideShare is the commentary - the value-added by the speaker information.  If you are using SlideShare to disseminate your presentation after the presentation itself to your audience, more power to you, but if you are using it as a communication method you will need to think about how to redesign your presentation.  Jon Thomas from the socialFresh blog wrote a post giving some handy tips on creating better SlideShare presentations - take a look if you want more info.

But what is different out there?  What are presentation gadget-geeks talking about around water coolers?  Most likely the answer is Prezi.

I have been using Prezis for over a year now, and I finally have some idea for when they are best used.   I have watched students use them effectively and ineffectively - and I have fallen into the trap of using something new and shiny for no other reason than that it was new and shiny.

When is Prezi effective?  I love to use it when I'm a presenter at a conference.  It's different, keeps attention better, and creates movement that PPT and Keynote just can't.  BUT it has some drawbacks - though YouTube videos and images are easily uploaded and included, arranging things takes more time and consideration of perspective.  Can I create a quick Prezi?  Sure - but it may not be the best Prezi.  Perspective matters here - and if used effectively can make a real impact.  My biggest complaint is that I can't link a url to a word or graphic.  Instead, I have to put the entire url text in the Prezi and click on it.  BLEH and ugly - but I do it because the pluses out-weigh this negative in most circumstances.

Prezis work great when you need to incorporate YouTube videos and images or you are frequently linking to web content.  Last night, I used a Prezi presentation in my Advertising class.  I thought Prezi was more effective because it allowed me to embed the YouTube commercials into my presentation as well as print ads and photos of billboards.  It made my presentation easier than if I had done it in PPT.  Also, the large canvas - everything in the presentation can be seen at once - helped me to organize things easily. If I had been using PPT or Keynote, I would have been switching between different slides and most likely getting frustrated and losing content.

Remember those walls of text that are horrible in PPT?  They are worse in Prezi - don't use them - you'll regret it.  There is also a tendency to use way too much movement in Prezi.  An audience that is queasy and on the verge of losing the lunch they had before your keynote presentation is not a happy audience - so use the movement features judiciously and to make an impact.  Also, don't use their multi-user editing tool amongst users at the same time.  One editor at a time, and your presentation will stay in tact.  If you need to create a presentation using multiple users, try Google Docs.  I've had the best luck with not losing changes with multiple editors working at the same time in Google Docs.  

SlideRocket is another newish presentation method.  I will admit I have not used this one yet, but it is on my radar.  It looks to be sleek and easy-to-use, but I'm not sure about the cost of this one.  Let me know if you've used it or take a look on their website.  Here's an example of a SlideRocket all about being single on Valentine's Day:

Now, that the birds are up tweeting, and my furry kids are in the middle of their mid-morning naps, I think I'll find a cup of coffee and rework on those over-verbose Theater slides.

VW and Company start to tease...

VW last year released their much loved (and watched) Super Bowl commercial - before the Super Bowl!  It generated a lot of buzz, and people actually looked for it during the actual Game itself.  So how do you top this:



It's current count on YouTube is almost 49.5 million views....

This year, they released a teaser for their campaign as a whole, and we weren't let down.  It already has 10+ million views on YouTube and has been linked back and forth across the social stratosphere.



The video ends with "vw.com/star-wars-invite" - which on January 27th opened up for people to create invitations to Super Bowl parties with a Star Wars theme.  Pretty cool - but not what I expected.

There's been a lot of talk this year - VW included - about how to increase commercial viewership (both before, during and after the game) associated with the Super Bowl.  Obviously, VW managed to to create a commercial that spoke to many people on different levels and entertained us.  One prevailing thought is that the teaser or pre-Super Bowl commercial release is the way to go.

Honda used a viral :09 teaser video to peak people's interests:


Speculation was flying around in Social Media comments about what is this for?  Is there a new movie coming out?  Soon, the media broke that it was about Honda's new CRV.  Here's the full length commercial:



Now, we know it isn't about the movie - but taking the movie and turning it into a commercial.  It's funny - it's long - it's nostalgic, but does it connect with their target market?  It at least made me remember it was a CRV - which can be a problem any many humorous commercials - remember it not the product.

Kia is trying to get in on the car teaser ads with this one - which I totally don't understand.  Except for the sex sells thing, of course.



Skechers released it own with a bulldog hurdle jumping dog with cute little sketchers on its feet!  His back legs just look wrong!



And yet another car teaser - Lexus this time:



And lastly, Bridgestone - complete with behind the scene video on their YouTube channel tells us the sports world will never be the same:



And because it was my second favorite of last year - here's Bridgestone's commercial from Super Bowl 2011.  I wish they had continued with the cute animal theme instead of the old athletes theme in the teaser.

Do as I say, not as I do... Zynga

I recently talked about Copyright and Trademark in my Entertainment Marketing classes (you can view my prezi on Copyright here).  One of the examples we went over was Zynga vs. Vostu a Brazilian gaming company.  The law suite was settled out of court, but I found some comparison images I wanted to share.

Looks amazingly the same to me.  The real kicker is in the coding - Zynga's has a mistake that they never fixed for a building that doesn't require a road to be built - Vostu's game has the same 'mistake.'


TechCrunch did a great video showing comparisons between the two games on the same screen.  You can read their article as well as the legal documents - complete with photo comparisons - at the TechCrunch site here.



Today brought additional insight into Zynga's practices when the makers of Tiny Tower, Apple's pick for iOS game of the year, called Zynga out for copying their game.  I read about it first at Tech Crunch and I'm hoping they do another video comparing the two!   SF Weekly did an article about Zynga's practices in September, 2010.  Quotes from former employees as well as examples of Zynga's past game development practices are included and give insight into what is happening with Tiny Tower.


In closing, here's the graphic that Nimblebit, the creators of Tiny Tower, did comparing the two games.  I wonder what Zynga's lawyers would say that put together the Vostu case...

Copyright...it's confusing

In class we had a lot of discussion about what constitutes 'fair use' vs. copyright infringement as well as questions on what can and cannot be copyrighted.  

One student asked if a football team's playbook could be copyrighted.  I did my best to answer at the time - that the actually book itself could potentially be seen as creative and therefore copyrightable.  But what about other teams 'stealing' plays and improving upon them?  Is that copyright infringement?  It would certainly put a damper on football if it was and honestly off the top of my head, I didn't know the answer.  I started searching the web and came across an article at the Freakonomics site. 

What got my attention is their use of the word - innovation, used to describe a 'new to the world' play.  Other teams can then take this innovation, study it and improve upon it.  In reddit.com comments for the Freakonomics article, someone suggests that the innovation process described above is just that a process and not protected. Copyright protection doesn't extended to  "any idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle or discovery regardless of the form in which it is described, explained, illustrated, or embodied in such work." (Title 17, Chapter 1, 102(b)).  So, I sort of got it right - the playbook itself can be copyrighted, but the plays cannot as they are a processes - at least that's mine and a couple of others best non-lawyer, this isn't legal advice, opinions. 

The questions about fair use mostly centered on the use of music - is it really ok to use 30 seconds of a song?  What about sampling?  The truth is - I swear I read that it was somewhere, but now after googling I'm even more confused.  The answer seems to be - no.  I did find a great site that summarizes some of the copyright infringement cases involving fair use.  Copyright Website has several summaries about lawsuits concerning different entertainment industries.  The 2Live Crew case brought about by their sampling and rewording of Roy Orbison's Oh Pretty Woman is summarized and demonstrates the Supreme Court's interpretation of the Fair Use guidelines.  

I also found Stanford's website on fair use that has articles and videos from a variety of sources.  The EFF (the Electronic Frontier Foundation) also has a good FAQ on fair use.  Lastly, I found a cute and informative site used for primary eduction called CyberBee.  It has an interactive Q&A about copyright and fair use.  Unfortunately, it doesn't have citations, but you can look at their answers here.  

B-schools and the 4 P's of Marketing

For Josh... who asked.


Why Do B-Schools Still Teach The Famed 4P's Of Marketing, When Three Are Dead? 

The headline brings much promise for the blog post I linked above, but the post shows the writers' lack of marketing and business knowledge. I certainly agree with the concept that the four P's are some what out-dated. Depending on how they are presented, they can be like a disco leisure suite, but I also believe they are still relevant in today's ever changing marketing world.

Promotion-in the mentioned blog post is equated with advertising-which is wrong. The P 'promotion' does incorporate advertising but it is so much more. All forms of communication with the consumer is under promotion- and that includes social media and all things Internet. Do we need to include things in promotion that perhaps we have excluded before? Yes! Do we need to talk about social media as more than a fad? Yes! Do we need to realize that promotion for many brands is now a collaborative process with consumers creating promotional content-even without contests? Yes! Do we need to teach more extensively about branding and having clear branding strategies across platforms? Yes! The promotional world is different from it was even ten years ago, and what B-schools teach has to change to match these shifts.

Place - according to this author is dead because more and more commerce is moving on-line. Let me go tell Kroger to start closing their doors, and I better hurry to see my last 3D iMax movie while drinking my venti mocha, non-fat, no whip add toffee nut frap from Starbucks. Seriously? All kidding aside, yes, online commerce is growing and continues to grow. Does this mean that brick and mortar stores are going away? Not in most cases, but what it does mean is the increase in complexity of place can be staggering. Just do a google search about Toys R Us's first online holiday experience, and you'll find out that logistics (part of place) is even more important in our current marketplace. It's what Amazon excels at! In my entertainment marketing class, I teach about "conduit" - the delivery of the product to the consumer, and with the increase of on-line commerce there is another channel to be measured and our product may have to take a different form. So, B-schools have got to adapt and help graduates understand how to connect their product or service with the consumer when, where and in what format the consumer wants (just think how many headaches the music industry could've saved if they had actually done this!).

What's next...Price! The author would have us believe that raw market forces will now take hold because of consumers having more access to information. Now, he does have something here - if you are positioning yourself in the market based on price, then yes- the Internet will force the market price on you, but what if you are positioning based on benefits? You aren't just focused on the raw market price you are adding value which can add dollars to that raw price. Otherwise, no diamond engagement rings would be bought at Tiffany's because they certainly don't let raw market prices determine their's. See the stuff about branding under promotion to understand why setting price is still important, plus there is that cool break-even formula we should all know.

This leaves us with the last P, Product. The article states, "The only way you can increase the value of your brand is by increasing the value of your offering." I totally agree but it is short-sighted to not realize that value comes in many forms- including those delivered by the other P's. I have a friend who uses an on-line co-op to get fresh vegetables. He pays more than he would at a grocery store, but he gets the added value of having them delivered to his door as well as being locally sourced when possible. That's "place" in action and the website that communicates what the co-op offers is part of promotion - as is the Groupon they issued (good old fashion sales promotion done with an on-line twist). I'll let you know what I think of the co-op - I bought the Groupon.

In the end, the four P's still are a good starting point but B-schools have to expand and adapt them to the current marketplace. I would argue for the inclusion of a fifth P, "participation," but maybe it's just the collaboration I talked about under promotion. What I do know is the time when a year-old text book is still up-to-date is gone.

Overboard? Just a little...

I had forgotten about some glorious examples of product placement in soap operas.  Over-the-top doesn't begin to describe these product placements in Days of our Lives (The Hollywood Reporter even wrote about the outrageous placements).  Soap operas have had a bad run lately, with several being canceled after years on the air - but I have to question whether or not this helped Days in their fight to stay on the air.  They did receive a two-year contract renewal, so hopefully this was just a bad mistake they won't repeat.

After you check out the videos, check out the Days of our Lives website - videos, twitter feeds, photos, polls and games - lots of unexpected interactive elements.






And my personal favorite - Frozen chinese food kept behind a bar...