MeyerBros

“The more people you reach the more likely it is that you’re reaching the wrong people.” –Seth Goudin

Ursula K. LeGuin has a fantastic article in this month’s Harpers, called “Staying Awake: Notes on the Alleged Decline of Reading.” The premise is this: reading was never popular in the first place. The decline is in books as exponentially profitable big business. The crossover is easy to see in other artistic mediums.

Books no longer have a monopoly on pop entertainment. Literature as an art, on the part of both authors and readers, was never popular to begin with, and isn’t going anywhere. Some people like writing or reading as art and others don’t. But publishers who rely on the next big hit are finding that the next big hit may be in a different medium.

That is from the artist’s perspective: we’ve always been a minority, even when our medium was being used as the pop medium. But there’s a business/technology side to it as well, that companies may have to pick up on. The advent of the internet is the advent of the long tail: Why make everyone buy the same product, when you can easily sell each person the product they want? Suddenly the long tail of small sales become a threat to business built around pop hits.

Theatre was once the pop medium, to the point of riots between fans of rival actors. The fact that pop media has found a new venue doesn’t mean theatre is dead. Taking the focus off big hits might even make room for more new theatre to happen. Can the long tail make a comeback once the hit-makers are gone? I think it’s something to hope for.

Art isn’t dying - the middleman is dying. And it’s about time. Just ask Radiohead and Wilco.

i’ve been listening to an mp3 of Simon Sinek from Re:Focus giving a seminar on marketing. He talks about the ‘golden circle’ - with ‘why’ on the inside, then ‘how’ and ‘what’. the claim is most companies never get to that central why in their mission, research or marketing. the terms seem a bit fuzzy at first, but i think i’m picking up on how he uses them for each aspect.

to sumerize:

first - the organization should be defined from the inside out. the ‘why’ is your belief or philosophy. he suggests that for apple it is ‘iconoclasm’ - breaking the rules and being different. for southwest airlines it is ‘the common person’ etc. that leads to the ‘how’ - for apple it means inovative design (it just looks different) and interfaces. for southwest it means low and simple fares, and casual service (nothing elitist about it). then ‘what’ your company does is the last and least important. apple doesn’t even self define as a computer company - they can do anything and they do. small electronics? music stores? movie previews? it all fits their revolutionary image, so who cares what the product is - they do it.

in terms of marketing you go the same direction - but it’s all about your customer. not “we’re iconoclastic” but “join the music revolution”.
(more…)

no need for words:

I am continually impressed with this company’s advice on business and marketing. Their re:Focus blog is quickly becoming one of my favorite feeds.

My other favorite marketing/design blog is 37signals Signal vs. Noise blog.

Both focus on simplicity, clarity and focus - in terms of software design, goal setting and advertising. Know what you stand for in simple terms and stick with it.

Re:Focus has this article on Wal-Mart practices from their marketing perspective.

what’s interesting about this to me is how it relates to that company i work for which claims “ethical investing” while investing in Wal-Mart for “better returns” - i mean “Shareholder Advocacy.” (For one, i’d love to see the performance stats for “shareholder advocacy” with Wal-Mart. How are we measuring success and how do we determine when an ends-justify-the-means approach is worth it (if it ever really is)? but that’s off topic for this one…). What this shows is that the two are inseparable. Bad ethics, in the long run at least (and I think this is becoming more and more true in the information age), is bad business. brand loyalty has taken a major shift in the last 20 years - ask anyone in marketing, it’s a new game. people find out about bad business practices and they care. buzz marketing has overtaken everything, and buzz marketing thrives on emotional arguments. thank god.

i love that investment analysts had it wrong on this one. even they thought COSTCO should go evil for profits. how long will it take for investors (cough cough) to catch on? will they ever?

why don’t ad agencies advertise? this is fascinating.

“So if agencies aren’t advertising, why should anyone else? Deutsch built his business without an ad campaign spare that one ad. So have Starbucks, Google and countless others. Two years ago 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, one of America’s fastest growing franchises, relied heavily on pr to sell 50 franchises. They spent only $1,800 in ads versus the hundreds of thousands of dollars other franchisors spent to accomplish the same results.”

idealists drive… BMW?

well, whatever. it’s a good ad. i like the idea, i like the copy, i like it. i think it’s the angle we’ll have to play as meyerbros design - we build it right from the bottom up. that’s why i added ‘cynthia says’ validation to our site. i’m going to buy a honda though. if i can find one. do you have a honda you want to sell me?