First to Last, Back in Time in 40 Years

Today is a big day. Right here, right now on this blog you can watch the first music video ever and the last music video (latest). And the were made by the same person, Bob Dylan.

Subterranean Homesick Blues is the first music video not as a video-tapped performance. It is totally a classic, and in fact, technically it may be the first ever rap song. Can you tell I’m a big Dylan fan? If you haven’t seen it, click.

Here is the dylan video just released today. Please don’t think it is just some old fogie with a guitar. It’s more like 5 minutes of marriage to Scarlett Johansson. That sounds nice. After that she might get on your nerves a little. New Video

Oh, the blog title? The first video, in the 60’s about the 60’s. The newest video, about the 50’s = Back in time 40 years later.

Be Different

Next time you want to make the safe presentation, the same presentation, the presentation that you think your clients want to hear, watch the latest Entourage again.

The same thing but different this time

I see Internet video as a very interesting and deep topic of discussion. Today I posted video to my blog for the first time and realized how amazingly simple it is to do so. I agree with Seth Godin when he says that anyone (that wants one) will have his own personal TV station in the future.

Right now Youtube is distributing video, but I think the future may turn youtube into more of a clearing house and the distribution will be handled by individuals.

With the introduction of cable in the early 80s it was possible to create niche TV channels, you didn’t have to appeal to the mass anymore. The networks got devoured bit by bit. ESPN, now a billion dollar business, was a crazy idea in 1980 – sports on television all day.

Video posting, for free mind you, married to extremely low cost production possibilities cuts these niches even thinner. The idea of the food network was crazy 10 years ago. How many people will watch people cooking on TV? Today the crazy idea equivalent is the Internet TV station that only features restaurants in the West Village. Sure there will be LESS people interested, the question is will there be enough people to make it worth it.

Here I am thinking about this post. (Not really me)

 

Best Thing I’ve Seen All Day

Thanks to Bill Simmons for this clip. Very, very cool. I’ve never seen anything like it, please share it with a friend.

Hot dogs, baseball and revolutionary music, is there anything more American.

A Cool Trick

I’m not sure what the more impressive magic trick is, the one on the video or the fact that I (not good with “code”) actually installed this video.

Everyone Does It

Here is an interesting article from the BBC regarding the best products or the best values being hidden.

Basically, a company (Starbucks in this article) has a value item that is regularly available, but is not on the menu. They don’t ost this item on the menu in hopes that you will order something more expensive, but if you already know this item exists, they will serve it to you. They don’t want you going accross the street.

Another spin on this is the Big Box trend.

Take the example of a stationary store. This store carries XYZ’s product at a retail price of $5. What customers already know is that Target probably has a similar product also made by XYZ for $3. Usually it is XYZ’s goal as a manufacturer to keep selling to Target (obviously) and also sell to the small stationary store.

What isn’t apparent on the surface is that the product in Target and the stationary store is usually exactly the same. The only difference is the packaging. The stationary store doesn’t want its customers pissed when they see the same product at Target for half the price so XYZ just changes the package. This usually keeps everyone happy, but people are learning quickly.

This is a tricky problem, because no one really wants to spend more money on the same product, and at the same time we can’t have Target and Walmart being the only retailers in America. This is the best answer for now. Hopefully someone out there is working on a better solution.

Subject:

You can’t judge a book by its cover, but you can judge a book by its title.  You can also judge an email by its subject line.

I have been working for the last 2 hours on a 100 word email (it started at 400 words).  I just realized that the hardest part is still in front of me – the subject line.

You should quite your marketing job the first time you write an email with the subject “The Information you requested” or worse yet the subject is blank.

There are many approaches to the subject line, but I feel treating it like a book title is the best advice.  Draw the reader in.  Sure its another boring day at the office. Does it have to be?

What would Connor write – Lifted… 

Building a Brand = Losing Customers

Making your product name a Brand Name  means that your product has to stand for something.  The first corollary to this rule is that your product can’t stand for everything.

Think about it.  Brands are just as much about the customers that they don’t/won’t sell to as they are about the customers that they want to sell to.  Just like people.  How many Democrats out there are more or less just Non-Republicans.  Has anyone seen the Apple commercial with the Mac and the PC personified.

Compare this to your company.  Sure, you have your target market, your core demographic that your product is made for.  Then, since you are on the shelf anyway, you might as well get as many customers as you can.  Why not tweak the package or raise/lower the price.

This is a great way to kill your brand, or not build it at all.

Once you add this or that target market you lose your identity you no longer stand for the what you used to stand for.

My advice to build your brand is to take the 10-20% of your customers that are the biggest pain in the ass (classified by market demographics) and get rid of them, surgically.  Stop offering the benefit that they buy for.  These customers aren’t loyal anyway and they are killing your brand.

A picture is worth a thousand words.  The Porsche minivan.

Reversing it Forward

Sometimes it takes absolutely nothing to make the greatest things happen.

My friend had a really shitty car back in high school.  It was so bad that the Reverse didn’t work.  Even worse than “The Piece of Shit Car” song by Adam Sandler that was popular at the time.

He didn’t mind that Reverse didn’t work.  He could always roll it down the driveway, or have his friends push him out of a parking spot.  When you are that age you just let things happen and make the best of them.  How often do you have to go backwards uphill?
Only one day near the end of summer the unbelievable happened.  All of a sudden Reverse worked.  He hadn’t tried to fix it or done anything special, it just worked.  No one could understand it or believe what happened.  It was just time for Reverse to work.

Yesterday this same friend (now a co-worker) had his computer crash at a critical time in our office.  He literally spent the entire day shutting down and restarting the computer.  It was almost certain that he would need to send the computer away for customer service.

Then the unbelievable happened again.  The computer automatically worked.

The computer got reversed forward.

On Top of Their Game

I hate to admit it, but I must say that Coldplay has released a great CD.  I am totally not the type of guy to recommend (or even listen to ) a modern, mainstream band.  What started it all was that damn WTC commercial. 

I have been listening to X&Y for the past 3 days straight – meaning this is a deep CD. It has it all melody, emotion and the lyrics are great. This is a great band in their prime. Period.

I can permanently delete this post at a later date, right?

Now that they have my endorsement I hope they can make some money. You know, turn their little artistic project into a viable brand – good luck guys.

Now that we got through that, what you really need to do is check out this great indie band, Bright Eyes. They are great. If you haven’t heard them yet, do it immediately.

Take a quick listen here.

And buy this CD as your first. It will be the easiest transition to real life.