The Reason: A marketers guide to engaging cliques

No-No-Notorious

I don’t usually write movie reviews, but today I felt compelled after a conversation with PJ, one of the Voices of Reason.

Ok, its less of a movie review about Notorious and more of a focus on Biggie’s brand essence – unparalleled storytelling with catchy metaphors.  That was his competitive advantage. Remember those conversations about who’s the best rapper: Biggie, Jay-Z, or Nas.  Well, Biggie always won for me because he crafted the best stories.  I’m covering a Jay-Z verse here, but I believe B.I.G. led the league in at least four statistical categories: best flow, most consistent, realest stories, and the most charisma.  So why didn’t I get insight into his brand essence from the movie?

Here’s the deal with biopic’s and it reminds me of a Roger Ebert quote about the movie Hurricane…  "Those who seek the truth about a man from the film of his life might as well seek it from his loving grandmother.”  Maybe I was looking for too much insight into what made Biggie the best.  Biggie is one of the greatest storytellers of our time and I wanted to see this creativity in action.  There was a scene when you get a glimpse of it when he drops a rhyme in the booth without writing it down but it didn’t develop.  That’s when they had a great opportunity to lift the veil and show us how he was able to craft stories without a pen and a pad.  I mean did his mother read stories to him when he was young or did she invent stories on the fly like Adam Sandler in Bedtime Stories?  How was he able to communicate so much information in so few words?  Maybe I wanted a blueprint into his persuasive storytelling, because that’s how I remember him.

PJ tells me he felt movies like Ray and Amadeus did justice to their characters because you were able to see what made them creative geniuses.  In many ways, to those of us coming up in the early 90s, Biggie was our Ray Charles, our Mozart, and I don’t think this movie crafts the story of his creative genius.

“What, it aint no more to it”

CodeBlack YouTube partnership

Guess who's Back!!!  Spent a couple of weeks in S. America on "Sabbatical"…inside joke for my friends.  Thanks for the emails; I'm back and better than ever.  So, let's jump right back into it.

With the handful of entertainment clients on our roster, I keep my eye on the industry for brands employing creative, innovative strategies to capture new consumer segments.  And, creativity is what I see with Codeblack Entertainment, an African-American owned film studio partnering with YouTube to bring original programming online.  I like the deal for both parties, partly because I had the same idea...

Let me set the stage here – my barber's an aspiring film producer.  He's got a website and a little bit of traffic; good for whoever does come through his site, not so good for increasing his exposure.  Problem is, his website is literally his only channel – the only place to watch his videos.  Not very web 2.0.

 So, with clippers buzzing over my head and him asking for my thoughts on how to get more eyeballs on his project – I thought… hmmm… how do you get a bunch of eyes on a video, get viewers' feedback, create an organic buzz, and make it easy for folks to share the video with their friends? Yep, just what I was thinking … I recommended he develop a channel on YouTube.  Ok, yeah, a bit of a gut response … so let's use the Codeblack deal to test it out with a little Reason-ing.

 Why it makes sense for Codeblack (and my barber):

• It's tough to get traffic to or interest in an unknown website or brand.
• YouTube has tremendous reach – it's the "go-to" online video library – a known, trusted and heavily-trafficked channel.

Why it makes sense for YouTube:

• YouTube needs original content to grow revenue from advertisers.
• Advertisers won't use a channel with unpredictable content. 100% user-generated content is about as unpredictable as you can get.
  • Competitor sites like Hulu.com are making money with much less traffic because they can let advertisers know which content their ads will be next to.

Kodak being pushy in Best Buy

Last year Kodak entered the consumer inkjet industry touting they could save consumers 50% off everything they printed. According to a Businessweek article, they planned to spend upwards of $300 million to launch their inkjet printer series, All-In-One (AIO). Even “The Donald” got in on the launch buzz with an episode of Celebrity Apprentice. Other than a few meetings in Rochester with Kodak’s research team, I’ve loosely followed the campaign. That is, until the customer-facing element of their campaign, far-from-loosely followed me around Best Buy this past weekend.

Need a clearer picture? It seems Kodak’s campaign has salespeople key-pointed in Best Buy’s printer section. Makes sense, right? Best Buy has less hourly employees on the floor and Kodak gets direct, personal access to the consumer. Based on my recent experience … Kodak or Best Buy missed something in the execution.

Imagine a salesperson pushing the current “Buy a Kodak printer, get $50 off a Kodak digital camera” promo, by clowning me, the customer, for having a 3-megapixel digital camera. Talk about a feel good conversation. But, at least for that brief moment, I didn’t have to hear again, “before you buy a printer, you should consider your costs for ink, Kodak will only cost you blah blah blah.” Regardless of which printer I was looking at, she was right there, in my ear. I’m thinking to myself -- fall back, what makes you think I’m going to be pushed into a purchase.

Random irritating saleslady aside, Kodak has a compelling value proposition – 50% savings on ink costs. Too bad, I couldn’t hear it over the salesperson’s pushy chatter.

Kodak, be Reason-able:

• Train Best Buy salespeople. Spend time educating Best Buy salespeople about the benefits of your printers. As they work the printer section, they can speak to your products’ benefits. More importantly, your training sessions are a perfect time to hear what they are hearing from the customers and what they are finding, and liking in competing products (AKA: Focus group)
  • From a customer perspective, I expect Best Buy employees to be subject matter experts who can help find the best product for me, regardless of brand. A woman walks up with a Kodak logo-emblazoned shirt on, I just can’t trust her opinion – too much obvious bias to ignore.

• Store within a store. Have a Kodak display showing off all your wares. There’s an Apple section in Best Buy, do the same thing with you brand. Place your digital cameras next to your printers, next to your digital frames, next to your customized photo books; bringing to life your brand essence – preserving memories for a lifetime.

• Become part of the ritual. When and where will consumers use your printers? Be THERE. Set up a kiosk at that idyllic, tourist picture spot … imagine the impression you create when I see how easy it is to pop out my memory card and print a picture with as good a quality as when I order online.