More Life Imitates Clichés

Today I watched ducks dive under water, then pop up about three seconds later. The water just dripped off their backs like water off a duck's back. Later, I let my sleeping dog lie rather than wake her -- I didn't want her in the driveway as I backed out.

"Authenticity"

Authentic: of undisputed origin; genuine.

Authenticity molded by the hands of professional (or amateur) marketers, is perceived as inauthentic. Inauthentic does not sell today (ever?). In the land of YouTube, actors who pretend to be "caught in the act of doing something real, i.e., something authentic, are obviously inauthentic. Marketers present in the style of authenticity. Things are, quote authentic end quote. Something like Colbert's "truthiness." Viewers often watch things like YouTube (at least me) not because they think the action is real but because they are amused by what goofy things people will perform just to get seen. And by how many people tune in to watch something mundane. Mundane must be the new exciting. Witness Facebook and blahgers.

Will inauthenticity, the straightforwardly commercially-invented offering, one that does not pretend to be original, now be perceived as authentic? Is inauthenticity the new authenticity?

Murketing

Rob Walker uses the term "murketing" (murky and marketing) to describe the merging of the "increasingly sophisticated tactics of marketers who blur the line between branding channels and everyday life" and the widespread "consumer embrace of branded, commercial culture." Truth be told, we not only love to buy, we love to sell. I wonder if we do this to keep people (including ourselves) employed? A noble intention.

Brands

Taken verbatim from Rob Walker, author of "Buying-in," on his site, Murketing:

"There’s a widespread tendency to think 'branding' just means logos and slogans and ads. I see branding more broadly, as the process of attaching an idea to a product. That idea lives in consumers’ heads and can come from an ad campaign—but it can also come from direct experiences. It doesn’t matter if the advertising for a drugstore chain depicts kindly pharmacists going out of their way to help—and the actual experience you or I have at that chain in real life involves a dirty store and a rude pharmacist who makes you wait around for no reason and screws up your prescription—well, the idea that gets attached to that drugstore chain’s brand is going to be the one that comes from real life.

... the one message I try to get across to companies is that maybe it’s better sometimes to stop worrying so much about reshaping your image and start worrying about reshaping the reality of your business. In the book, I bring that up specifically in the context of 'ethical' issues such as sustainability or labor practices.* But the same point holds true for what you’re talking about. Some companies spend absolutely astronomical sums on creating a customer-friendly or creative or 'cool' (or whatever) image through brand campaigns—and then they pay the workers on the selling floor so badly that they couldn’t care less, or outsource customer service, or whatever, and the net experience is bad. And customer loyalty evaporates—yes, precisely because the emotional reaction to a real experience can trump the emotional response to marketing..."

No faster way to kill a bad product than good advertising. No better way to miss the point than to think, "It's the logo, stupid."

Long Tail and Shelf Life

Has the demand curve flattened as choices and access to those choices have exploded? Do the many little guys now have a chance to dislodge the few big guys? Or do people still want to do and buy what most other people do? Do we like the bandwagon or jump off of it? I say short-tailed big bodies still beat long-tailed small-bodies. A crowd draws a crowd. We like social validation. We like to participate in what others are participating in. Read Lee Gomes in the WSJ.

However, it is also true that when something big sticks around so long as to become predictable and boring, it will be slowly knocked off its perch by a fresh, growing replacement. The crowd will cross the street to see something newer, better, more special. Is shelf life growing shorter in the new world? Read Noah Brier about Metcalfe's Plateau.

Nada

More Life Imitates Clichés

Today my hand was caught in a cookie jar, one used as a container for packs of Splenda. Oh yeah, on my way out to drive my car I sneaked past my dogs napping on the kitchen floor. I did not want them running in front of my car, so I let sleeping dogs lie.