Experience Manifesto

Yea, I messed up!

So, even though I write about the mistakes people make and read lots more about the mistakes people make, it doesn't stop me from making a mistake! Late last week, I posted an article on the WOMMA's Word of Mouth vs. Advertising blog about an article entitled Buzz Marketing Comes Under Fire. Seemed to be a topic that I thought would be of interest to the people who read the blog. But, I added a response from Erik Hauser (a colleague from the Int'l Experiential Marketing Association) that I thought supported the WOMMA position about not marketing to children. The full text of Erik's response is below, and the piece in bold is what I read before posting it to the WOMMA blog.

You have an association [WOMMA – Word of Mouth Marketing Association] that has done a great job of promoting themselves and drawing in several brands and agencies. The association has attempted to take all emerging mediums and pull them together using one term: word-of-mouth marketing. Unfortunately, word-of-mouth marketing does not exist. Word of mouth is an outcome. It is a part of the equation that comes after the equal sign. Any attempt to place the word of mouth before the equal sign causes the equation, via deceptive tactics, to be thrown off. Real word of mouth is authentic, genuine communication between two or more individuals for the benefit of the receiving party. This cannot be bought. The only way to guide this conversation is by putting together a solid program that comes before the equal sign.

See, I thought that Erik was writing to support WOMMA and he really wasn't. So, while I may not disagree with Erik, it was not my intention to be negative about WOMMA. I didn't read enough of what Eric said before I posted it to the WOMMA blog. I thought that he was writing something that was supportive of WOMMA's positioning and was in fact, quite the opposite.

You see, I don't really disagree with Erik about the fact that WOM is an outcome of doing something right. Just read my previous posts at WOMMA's Word of Mouth vs. Advertising: Almost Final Thoughts and WOMMA's Word of Mouth vs. Advertising: But WOM is Advertising.

I've always taken a pretty contrarian position on the WOMMA blog. Sometimes I do it to stir up a debate, but I've always questioned the idea that you can create WOM as an independent tactic. In fact, I was invited to become an author on the WOMMA blog because of my comments on a post that I completely disagreed with.

Now, I haven't had a chance to speak with anyone at WOMMA yet (my fault, I haven't reached out yet), so I don't really know how I offended. But, at least this time, I would probably apologize. After all, I had meant to post something positive.

Popai North America | POPAI's Retail Marketing Industry Calendar

If you're in Chicago this week or need an excuse for a road trip, you can join me for a POPAI University On the Road program. It looks to be an excellent program with some great speakers (in addition to me, of course!). And after the formal program, I'll take people on a brand walking tour of Michigan Avenue! Hopefully this incredible weather will hold out for us! Click on the link below to register or for additional information.

POPAI University – On The Road, November 3, 2005

Holiday Inn City Centre
300 East Ohio St
Chicago, IL 60611
Phone: (312) 787-6100

Program Schedule

8:30 am – 8:45 am
Welcome & Introductions

8:45 am – 9:45 am
Buyology 101: The Shopping (R)evolution
Presented by: Jim Lucas, SVP, Director of Strategic Planning and Research

The mantra of the next generation of shoppers will be "I shop; therefore I am." They want purchases to define who they are and connect them to the world. Jim Lucas, Draft's "Retail Ecologist" shows how to create loyal shopaholics by giving them less choice and more control of their experience. Join Jim as he explores the "retail corridor" and uncovers global retail trends that marketers and retailers alike are using to connect with this new breed of shopper.

9:45 am - 10:45 am
Making In-Store Communications Work
Presented by: Craig Childress, Director of Prototype Research Design, Envirosell

In today's retail world marketing at-retail can no longer be left up to opinion or hunches. Decisions today need to be made on science and hard numbers rather than on speculation of performance. Matching marketing at-retail design to current customer behavior and designing for human behavior rather than against it is the key to success. Using video of shoppers, Craig Childress will help you understand:

Which shoppers are using the many incarnations of marketing at-retail --both static and digital --including where, for how long, and why they are using them.

How small movements in position and motion can impact exposure and viewing time.

The effect of matching the message to the consumer's window of opportunity to comprehend.

10:45 am - 11:00 am
Break

11:00 am - 12:00 pm
Building A Branded Experience
Presented by: David Polinchock, Chief Experience Officer, Brand Experience Lab

With the changing face of the retail environment, retail marketers are turning to branded retail experiences to create connections with shoppers that appeal to the their emotional needs and cut through the advertising clutter that surrounds them. Brands, agencies, retailers, and producers must know how to create compelling, authentic, and relevant brand experiences, as well as the tools and tactics that are available to bring a brand's identity to life at retail. Using examples from companies including Coca-Cola, Hershey, Kellogg's and Mattel, David will show how some companies are succeeding at communicating their brand identify at retail.

Link: Popai North America | POPAI's Retail Marketing Industry Calendar.

Google May Try TV Ad Sales; 'Dream On,' Say Media Buyers � MarketingVOX

More of their continued march to world advertising domination!

Google, having recently ventured into print advertising, is considering yet another way to extend its advertising program, this time to TV, according to the New York Post (via MediaBuyerPlanner). TV would likely be a tough nut for Google to crack, as network executives have been successful in resisting all efforts to resell their ad time, and network executives - as well as media buyers - reject the idea that "buying a TV spot can be reduced to a computer-run auction," the Post writes. Enron once tried to create a marketplace for trading TV advertising in 2001, but after the venture was dissolved, employees said that the company had been able to make some deals in the cable spot market but had no luck attracting major networks or media firms.

Media executives said that Google could perhaps make a start with niche cable channels that desperately need ad dollars, but that it's pretty hard to imagine most sellers' being willing to put their inventory in someone else's hands.

Link: Google May Try TV Ad Sales; 'Dream On,' Say Media Buyers - MarketingVOX.

OfficeMax unveils new prototype

More companies understanding the socialization of the retail experience! Interesting combination of both what Best Buy is doing and what Apple has done with thei retail spaces! Once again, you see the community space become an important hub within the retail location.

OfficeMax Inc., Itasca, Ill., unveiled a new store prototype that replaces the industry-standard warehouse format with an engaging, colorful environment that highlights small- and home-office solutions. OfficeMax partnered with Cincinnati-based FRCH Design Worldwide, an international architecture and design firm, to help create a format that helps customers "do their thing," in line with OfficeMax's tagline, "What's Your Thing?" The first prototype opens this month in Macedonia, Ohio, with many more stores opening across the country soon. This design represents the future of OfficeMax's retail stores and the company's customer-centric approach. The new design showcases OfficeMax's solutions by directing customers to boutique-like shopping areas. As customers enter the store, a central technology "hub" creates a striking focal point. Whimsical photographic banners direct shoppers to their destinations, and a community area allows customers to check email, sip coffee or catch up on the news. Ryan Vero, OfficeMax chief merchandising officer, said in a statement: "The new store brings together convenience and style with a warm, inviting atmosphere that re-captures the simple fun of shopping for office products."

Link: OfficeMax unveils new prototype.

Link: business2blog: Office Candy.

Link: OfficeMax Says Goodbye to Warehouse Store Design; Customer Research Drives New Retail Store Concept: Financial News - Yahoo!
Finance.

History of A&F

While I was reading the story about the new American Eagle, concept, I decided to look into the history of another retailer, A&F, which has changed a great deal over the last couple of years! They did some pretty innovative retailing back in their day. I mean, a log cabin on the roof of their 12 story building in mid-town Manhattan with a casting pool? That's pretty damned cool. More retailers should remember their roots.

In the meantime, the store continued to expand. Ezra Fitch was a determined innovator. As a result of his imagination, hard work and sheer force of will, what he created was no ordinary sporting goods shop. Fitch was determined that the store have an outdoor feeling. Stock was not hidden behind glass cabinets. Instead, it was displayed as if in use. He set up a tent and equipped it as if it were out in the middle of the wilds of the Adirondacks. A campfire blazed in one corner, where an experienced guide was always in attendance, imparting valuable information to interested customers.

The clerks hired at A&F were not professional salesmen, but true rugged outdoorsmen. Talking was their pleasure and selling was performed only at the customers' insistence. By 1913, the store moved to a more fashionable and easily accessible midtown address just off Fifth Avenue, expanding its inventory to include sport clothing. A&F became the first store in New York to supply such clothing to women as well as men.

Shortly after Abercrombie's resignation from the company, A&F began publishing a catalog. This impressive book featured 456 pages of outdoor gear and clothing as well as sage camping, hunting and fishing advice to 50,000 prospective customers around the world. Orders soon began to flood in from around the globe, bringing international status to the ever-expanding store.

By 1917, Abercrombie & Fitch moved to Madison Avenue and 45th Street, where it occupied an entire twelve story building. Outside a sign proclaimed "Where the Blazed Trail Crosses the Boulevard." Abercrombie & Fitch had become the largest sporting goods store in the world, as well as the most impressive. A log cabin was built on the roof, which Fitch used as a townhouse. Next to it he had a casting pool installed, where serious fishermen could sample the store's impressive collection of rods and flies. In the basement, an armored rifle range was set up. There was also a golf school, a floor dedicated solely to completely set-up camps, and a dog and cat kennel. In addition to the more standard types of outdoor goods, A&F had a selection of exotic sporting equipment that would make the imagination reel: hot air balloons, yachting pennants, portable trampolines, treadmills for exercising dogs, throwing knives, shirts of chainmail, leopard collars, and everything a person could possibly need for falconry.

Abercrombie & Fitch outfitted many great hunting and exploration expeditions, like Theodore Roosevelt's trips to Africa and the Amazon and Robert Peary's expedition to the North Pole. Ernest Hemingway bought his guns there. Presidents Hoover and Einsenhower relied on A&F for the best fishing equipment. Other famous clients included Amelia Earhart, Presidents Taft, Harding and Kennedy, the Duke of Windsor, Bing Crosby, Howard Hughes, Katharine Hepburn, Greta Garbo and Clark Gable. And there was more: Cole Porter ordered his evening clothes from Abercrombie & Fitch. During Prohibition, A&F was the place to buy hip flasks.

Link: Abercrombie & Fitch Company - 1914.

Adjab

Adjab posted this story about a guerilla marketing program that seems to have a more negative impact then it does a positive one! Didn't anyone think about the negative impact of this before they launched it? Do people really think that this kind of intrusion creates the kind of positive emotional impact that you need to have with the audience today?

There's guerilla marketing that works, and then there's guerilla marketing that makes you want to find the corporation responsible for it and burn down their headquarters. Case in point: A blogger in Chicago writes about an experience she had riding the Chicago Transit Authority to work. Apparently, a man, his face painted blue, got on speaking loudly and annoyingly into his phone, clearly trying to make a point of being noticed. Toward the end of the "conversation" he began to tell his phone friend about the benefits of using US Cellular, ending his little show by turning his back to the other passengers so they could read the copy on his hoodie: "Talk until you're blue in the face with US Cellular." Based on her account, it was quite obnoxious. I would have to agree, and I wasn't even there.

Link: AdJab.

Love this quote from the original posting at CTA Tattler:

This makes things more interesting and more distressing. Not only is he a complete dink, he's being paid to be a complete dink. Not only is his yapping intruding on my aural landscape, but his yapping constitutes an ad.

Link: CTA tattler: When solicitation becomes intrusion.

American Eagle Eyes New Retail Concept

Kinda' sounds like the old Banana Republic stores from long ago.

Teen specialty retailer American Eagle Outfitters today announced a new retail concept targeting a slightly older consumer than the typical 15-to 25-year-old who shops its stores. The new chain, called MARTIN + OSA, is aimed at the 25- to 40-year-old set. Five MARTIN + OSA stores are slated to launch at better shopping centers next fall.

"As we grow, we expect to expand into lifestyle centers and street locations," said Judy Meehan, American Eagle spokesperson. "We're not ready to talk about where the five stores will be, but they will be geographically dispersed across the country."

Meehan confirmed that the new MARTIN + OSA chain could grow within the next 10 years to include 300 stores and add an additional $1 billion in revenue to American Eagle's coffers.

The name MARTIN + OSA refers to Martin and Osa Johnson, adventure travelers who documented their travels from 1917-36 to remote areas of the world in film, photographs, books and lectures.

MARTIN + OSA will sell classic sportswear styles, including denim and active-outdoor looks by lead designers Charles and Michele Martin, formerly of Abercrombie & Fitch.

"MARTIN + OSA represents an important long-term growth opportunity for our company," said CEO Jim O'Donnell in a statement. American Eagle, which operates 78 stores in 50 states, has posted positive same-store sales for 21 consecutive months.

Link: American Eagle Eyes New Retail Concept.

AdJab

More on the video iPod and it's potential impact on advertising. Whether or not the iPod actually does change the advertising industry, the conversation it has opened up should be very good for the industry.

The recently released video-enabled iPod and its sibling iTunes, which you can now download television shows from, is simply scaring television advertisers. As televsion stations such as ABC and Viacom try to deliver their programming outside of the television box, the advertisers feel left out. The programming available on iTunes has no commercials because Apple would not allow it but the feeling is that one day that policy will change as there is revenue to be had. But till then, at least through Halloween, they continue to scare the advertisers.

"It's a great concern to advertisers," said Jason Maltby, co-president of national broadcast for media buyer Mindshare, part of WPP. "Why spend a couple of hundred thousand dollars for an ad unit on Desperate Housewives? The value keeps eroding." (Emphasis mine)

But others believe that putting the shows on iTunes will only pick up more of an audience. Don't tell them that! It is fun to watch them squirm.

Link: AdJab.

Link: MediaPost Publications - The Apple Of My Video iPod - 10/20/2005.

LARRY FLYNT TO EXPAND PORN EMPIRE WITH RESTAURANTS

Damn, where were gigs like this when I was doing themed restaurants!

As Larry Flynt's porn empire continues to lose print circulation, the controversial publisher of Hustler magazine is further diversifying his holdings with plans to open a restaurant chain called Hustler Bar & Grille.

A self-anointed "adult entertainment mogul and First Amendment advocate," Mr. Flynt's LFP company has signed a licensing agreement for undisclosed terms with Gerald Bernard Hospitality to run the operation. Mr. Flynt will have final approval of all plans and will make personal appearances at each restaurant opening.

This latest addition to Mr. Flynt's business portfolio joins a dozen Hustler Hollywood retail stores, a handful of gentleman's clubs, a Hustler Casino, 20 magazines, a dozen Web sites, mail-order sales, video production and cable and satellite TV operations.

100-plus item menu
The casual dining chain will be an homage to Hustler content, Larry Flynt's brand of free speech advocacy and sports. Its 100-plus item menu will include fresh fish, pizzas, pasta, sandwiches, burgers and salads.

Described as "Hooters meets Hard Rock Cafe," the concept is "very mainstream," said Gerald Bernard Hospitality President Brad Saltzman. With no nudity or entertainment, "it really is a restaurant for all intents and purposes," he said.

Except that the food will be served by Hustler Hunnies, wearing tight midriff-bearing T-shirts and short-shorts. Hustler centerfold models will make appearances to sign autographs.

Classier than McDonald's
Mr. Flynt said he accepts that the chain will immediately be compared to Hooters of America -- a restaurant chain known for its buxom waitresses in tight t-shirts and hot pants -- but insisted his restaurants won't be a copy of any kind. "I expect it to be a class operation. We're not going to be like McDonald's." (Boy, am I glad to hear it will be classier then McDonald's, although that's a pretty high bar! DBP)

Mr. Saltzman approached LFP after seeing the success of Hooters, which is fast-approaching $1 billion in restaurant sales. "When you look at a sexy concept like Hooters, there is no other competition," he said. "I've been to Hooters once and I don't think people go there for the food. (Actually, having lived in Flordia for many years, I can tell you that in some locations, Hooter's is a family restaurant that people actually do go there for the food. They have the best wings in the biz! DBP) If you have great food like a Cheesecake Factory with phenomenal service and an immaculately clean restaurant, add that with Hustler memorabilia and Larry Flynt memorabilia and you really have a winning concept."
Mr. Saltzman concedes, however, that it won't be the food that draws customers, at least at first. "The Hustler Hunnies will bring them in, but the food the cleanliness and the service will bring them back."

Link: LARRY FLYNT TO EXPAND PORN EMPIRE WITH RESTAURANTS.

PROMO Expo Blog

The folks at PROMO Expo have a put up a blog up with postings about the latest doings at the program. They seem to be updating it quite frequently, so make sure to check it out often.

Link: blog.