The Marketing Mix

Laptop Art

From Seth Godin, a picture and a comment about laptop defacing as a new form of personal expression. I'm not sure I would do this with my Powerbook any more than I would put "Tour De France" bumper stickers or political positions all over my wife's silvery Euro car.

For now, strutting around like a poser with my Livestrong band and my Tour De France Nalgene bottle should do the trick. At these those are both removable if another doping scandal hits...

Barnes & Noble's Huge Disconnect

It seems that most book lovers would naturally be introverts. Introverts, by nature, love self-service kiosks. So why doesn't Barnes & Noble take that blinding insight and do something about it. I hate having to ask the person at the info desk about whatever vague notion of a book or author I'm looking around for. Maybe Borders has this technology copyrighted, but it seems like a no-brainer based on their probably heavy-users.

If you read a newspaper, you're probably not young...

Based on this , looks like newspapers are in bad shape. And it will only get worse, Sudoku notwithstanding.

On the other hand, with the aging population, I would bet that the average age of most activities is increasing as a result of the population age average. So maybe this is a bit alarmist. Just a thought.

40 Cereals in a hotel room?

I agree with pretty much everything Seth Godin comes up with, but I disagree with Seth's post that offering 40 kinds of cereal in a hotel is remarkable. In addition to research that shows that too much choice is usually worse for the consumer, my own personal experiences with places like Cold Stone Creamery, Mongolian Barbeque, and Cereality give me the feeling that being able to mix and match millions of possible combinations is just not for everyone.

I'm often left standing at the counter of all of these wonderful places as the pleasant people behind the counter wait for me to make up my mind - an absolutely annoying consequence of this choice overload.

myNHL: Off to a bad start

I get the majority of my prime time commercial fix during my hour with "The Apprentice" every thursday night, so I was delighted to see that the NHL's new marketing campaign was one of the 30 second spots. I had heart about the campaign from the NHL's director of marketing at a kid's conference in Orlando a few months ago, and was excited to see how they would bring out the emotion of the game to appeal to a "new generation" on which the game apparently depends.

Horrible. I'm sure the overall campaign might get better, but the commercial I saw suffered from poor production values, and a strange attempt to associate the NHL with martial arts and Japan. It used words like "Warrior", "Hero", and featured an Asian woman wishing her hockey player well as he went into battle. I can just imagine that the NHL told the ad firm they wanted to be cool with kids, and since Hockey is not cool anywhere but Canada and Detroit, they tried to associate the sport into some kind of Kill Bill-Jet Li-Pokemon-Hello Kitty-Manga coolness.

Note to the NHL: Cut it out. I loved Kung Fu Hustle, and its fusion of broadway dance, and bugs bunny references mixed up with Kung-Fu. But people see right through this mix of hockey and Japancool. You wouldn't draw Cap'n Crunch as a manga character to be more modern or appealing to your kid target anymore than you should Steve Yzerman, so focus on what's great about hockey, not what's great about Ang Lee flicks.

Four Weeks Ago Today

It's been four weeks since I finished Ironman Wisconsin. Since then, I haven't so much as broken into a jog. I read in "Going Long" that you really should take about two to four weeks off because you really don't know how much an Ironman can take out of your body. I am feeling fairly guilty though, especially with the steady diet of lunch Calzone's I've been putting down at the Venice cafe.

I still haven't worked on the race report either. Those are the things that you're supposed to write after you finish that inspire and inform future racers. You're supposed to be a changed person after the Ironman experience, but as you can see, the procrastination gene was not affected. Soon (at least in my own mind) I will start recapping all of my interesting "journey to Ironman" experiences, and it might be on this very blog. So stay tuned (and don't hold your breath).

This can't be "Indian" Food

I had lunch yesterday at a restaurant called "Essence of India" in Lincoln Square. Decent food, and rave reviews from the local eaters, but I couldn't help thinking that this couldn't be Indian food if it cost one person $22.49 for rice, naan, and about 4 oz. of chicken in a sauce.

Based on what I learned at Michigan Business School about the emerging economies of India and China, I find it hard to imagine that any average Indian could be spending this much for a meal. So maybe this place should just be called "Essence of monopoly pricing of Indian food in a trendy restaurant neighborhood". I bet they'd have to get a new awning though, and my Mutter Paneer would be 3 dollars more, so on second thought, strike that suggestion.