Archive for April, 2007

Interview with The Format

Posted by Chris Wilson April 23rd, 2007

Format

You are probably wondering how in the world are the happenings and opinions of a power pop rock band in any way relevant to the world of marketing? Honestly, I think there are a lot of things that can be learned in the corporate world from bands such as The Format. The band never seems to worry about conformity. In fact they were were dropped from Atlantic in 2005 because they wouldn’t conform to create the sound that the label wanted to hear. They are not afraid to bring something new to the table. That’s something that a lot of marketers and businesses a like need to learn. Like Marshall Goldsmith would say, “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There.” The truth is safe is risky.

———–

Phone Interview with The Format’s Nate Ruess (04/19/07)

Changing Dips

With Seth Godin’s new book, The Dip, just around the corner, Seth has been looking for successful people who at one time or another decided that it was time to stop settling for mediocrity and quit. As far as I know there aren’t any power pop rock bands on the list. Maybe The Format should be the first. In 2005, the band was dropped from Atlantic, which was their label at the time, and upon closer analysis you will find that the situation resembled more of a “fired before you can quit” scenario than the typical “band being booted by their label” scenario. Not every band can say that getting dropped from their label (twice) was the best thing that ever happened to them. In fact, in their bio The Format states that they threw parties both times it happened. Soon after getting dropped, The Format teamed up with Nettwerk to help with their management and distribution. By doing this, the band moved from what was a very large dip, run by the industry giants, where it took reaching the masses on a large scale to reach success at the top of “the dip”, and into a much smaller dip, where they answer to themselves and not the hierarchal structure above them. Royalties from music sales flow directly into their pockets instead of the slow trickle of money experienced when working with a large label.

Q: Tell us a little bit about the perks of running your own show and not having a big label breathing down your neck all the time?

Listen to Nate’s Answer:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Creating Format Worthy Content: Building Things Worth Noticing

In a world of cloning, look-a-likes, rip-offs and minor upgrades you have to create something worth noticing in order to be seen.

Q: You seem to be very unique and original with everything from your lyrics and music to your website and concepts for music videos. Everything seems to have The Format spin on it. What’s your method for creating Format worthy content?

Listen to Nate’s Answer:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Relationship Marketing: Interacting with Fans

The art of creating relationships is very important in the music industry. Seth Godin has been talking for years about Pearl Jam’s release of 72 live albums in two years, and they are all profitable. The reason they were successful is that Pearl Jam fans have a relationship with the band and are waiting and listening.

Q: How do you stay on top of interacting and creating relationships with your fans?

Listen to Nate’s Answer:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Creating Buzz

Without the backing of a major music label, The Format has to rely on their own resources to create buzz.

Q: What kinds of things do you do to encourage fans create more buzz about The Format?

Listen to Nate’s Answer:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Spin Tour Blog

Sometimes finding an established platform to stand on is the key.

Q: Tell me a little bit about your Tour Blog up at Spin. How did you guys get that gig?

Listen to Nate’s Answer:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

New Material

The masses don’t just want something new. They expect it!

Q: So when can we expect some new material from you guys? You recently mentioned to Mark Hoppus that you were in the process of recording a few new tracks.

Listen to Nate’s Answer:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

New Song “Swans” & Working with a Full Band

It’s amazing how scarcity can make even the crudest products and information viral treasures. YouTube “Swans” footage from the School of Rock show in New Jersey last week.

Q: Tell me a little bit about the song titled “Swans,” that you revealed at the Jersey show.

Listen to Nate’s Answer:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Things Change: Working with a Full Band

Since the beginning, The Format has been a two man band. Like their song, “On Your Porch” states, Nate Ruess and Sam Means have been writing songs together since they were kids.

Q: Do you think we will see any changes with having a full band?

Listen to Nate’s Answer:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Singing in Simlish

The practice of using video games as a promotional vehicle has been around since the beginning of the gaming industry itself.

Q: It’s a little known fact that The Compromise is featured on the Sims 2 Pets Expansion Pack, and like all the other songs in the game, it’s sung in the Sim’s language, Simlish. Did you actually record it this way, or was your voice mixed to create the Sims version?

Listen to Nate’s Answer:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Cross-Promotion or Happy Accident?

My first thought when I heard that a song from The Format was featured on the Sims 2 Pets expansion pack, was that there must have been some type promotional relationship in play. The connections are obvious, whether they were intentional or not. Both were released at relatively the same time. The Format’s album Dog Problems was released just 3 months before The Sims 2 Pets Expansion Pac. Both carry a pet related theme in their titles, and Nate Ruess has recently been quoted several times describing their music from the Dog Problems album as, “childlike.”

Q: Was there any connection between the song being featured on the Pets” version of the game, with your latest album being titled, Dog Problems?

Listen to Nate’s Answer:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

CATEGORIES: Advertising, Interviews, Marketing

READ:View Comments

Permalink | Trackback

RELATED POSTS: Cataloging Your 2010 Trends and Predictions, Participate in the 2009 Coolest & Gaps Worldwide Branding Survey, Black Friday Campout, Ikea Facebook Marketing Proves Smart & Simple Wins, The Serendipity Engine of Social Media

You Can’t be The Fonz

Posted by Chris Wilson April 11th, 2007

The Fonz Peelers, Online Daters and Corporate CEO’s listen up! “If you want people to like you, first decide who needs to hate you.” That’s the subhead of Chip and Dan Heath’s article titled Polarize Me, from the March issue of Fast Company. The truth is, The Fonz is a fictional character from the popular 1970’s TV show Happy Days, but you see people and companies alike, trying to be be The Fonz of their market. They walk around giving a thumbs up, saying, “Aaay!,” trying to be everything to everyone in the global market, when they should be focusing on a much smaller group. No one can be The Fonz, because he doesn’t exist. For example: You wouldn’t try to be the head of the Vegetarian Resource Group if you were the owner of Smithfield, the United States largest meatpacking plant. It just wouldn’t work and wouldn’t be even remotely effective. ———– This revolves around the same issues that I recently posted regarding risk aversion.

CATEGORIES: Branding, Marketing

READ:View Comments

Permalink | Trackback

RELATED POSTS: Cataloging Your 2010 Trends and Predictions, Participate in the 2009 Coolest & Gaps Worldwide Branding Survey, Black Friday Campout, Ikea Facebook Marketing Proves Smart & Simple Wins, The Serendipity Engine of Social Media

Risk Aversion vs. Innovation

Posted by Chris Wilson April 9th, 2007

Underwater Hotel Poseidon Resorts is planning on opening a five-star underwater resort. Located on a private island in Fiji, it will be the world’s first permanent sea floor one-atmosphere structure.

I first ran across Poseidon Resorts almost 3 years ago while surfing the web. On their website I found that they were actively searching for potential investors. Impressed by the innovative concept and detailed planning, I emailed the L. Bruce Jones, the developer of Poseidon Resorts, about the investment opportunities available. Jones responded informing me that the need had arisen for new investors.

He sent me some nondisclosure documents, which I signed and faxed to Jones’ lawyers. In return I received some very detailed information about the hotel and the investment opportunity at hand. Everything from the amenities in each room to estimates of return on investment, down to the nearest dollar, could be found in these documents.

When it came down to it, I barely had enough money to meet the minimum investment amount required. Even though this seemed like a once and a lifetime opportunity, I decided, the potential risk outweighed the proposed benefits and I had to pass on this opportunity, no matter how good it seemed. If I had invested, I would still be waiting to realize ROI.

The hotel isn’t expected to open until Sept. of 2008, so we will have to wait a little while longer to find out if my risk aversion let the next Bellagio slip through my fingers. So many times I see risk aversion choking out all things new and innovative.

Many companies don’t want to stray from the so called “tried and true. They don’t want to do anything in which the results are unknown. What they don’t realize is that hands are really around their own necks. AeronChair Herman Miller’s Aeron chair is a great example of a product that barely made it into existence because of risk aversion. During product testing the Aeron chair’s ergonomic design did beautifully when it came to comfort, but many consumers had negative opinions regarding the overall look of the chair. It looked very different from any other chair on the market at that time. Despite these reactions Miller decided to produce the chair anyways.

Today the Aeron chair has a place in the New York Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collection. The chair also received the Exclusive Gold Award in The Designs of the Decade: Best in Business 1990-1999 Awards.

On a very similar note, Seth Godin, in a recent post, points out how risk can be a powerful factor in driving word of mouth communication. So Peelers, next time the intern throws you a crazy off the wall idea your direction, don’t be so quick to dismiss it. As Will Rogers once said, “You’ve got to go out on a limb sometimes because that’s where the fruit is.”

CATEGORIES: Design

READ:View Comments

Permalink | Trackback

RELATED POSTS: Cataloging Your 2010 Trends and Predictions, Participate in the 2009 Coolest & Gaps Worldwide Branding Survey, Black Friday Campout, Ikea Facebook Marketing Proves Smart & Simple Wins, The Serendipity Engine of Social Media

Wu Chi for Positioning

Posted by Chris Wilson April 5th, 2007

Tai Chi For a little over 4 months now, some coworkers and I have been attending a Tai Chi class during our lunch hour. I’ve found it to be a very beneficial experience, for mind and body. It’s refreshing to take a break from the hectic day to day office routine and focus solely on the body for an hour.

One of the most interesting concepts, that I am still trying to grasp, is Wu Chi. It is a meditative state entered before you begin the Tai Chi form. In Wu Chi, you move to an internal focus, where desires and cravings have no meaning and outside thoughts are lost. You essentially free your mind of all the clutter and focus inward.

So far I haven’t even come close to entering Wu Chi. My mind running 24-7 and all I seem to be able to do is slow the process down a little. The more I try to clear my mind the more thoughts seem to race across my mind. It’s almost as if I have an internal news ticker with headlines scrolling across it. My Si-fu, or teacher, calls this lack of focus “monkey mind.” The sad thing is, I actually thought of the topic for this post while I was supposed to be in Wu Chi.

I can’t help but think of how a lot of products are positioned in this same fashion. Positioning is the perception that happens in the minds of the target market. In the early planning stages is where you usually find the clearest idea of what the target market looks like. From there everything seems to get out of control. Situations arise that muddy what was a very clear picture.

A competitor is taking a different approach and there is an impulse to match and better their product claims.
Stockholders don’t like the message the product is promoting, it is “too edgy” for their taste.
Some have become bored with seeing the same product branding everyday and feel it needs a face-lift to boost the image.
An idea is introduced, that the selling message should be watered down and simplified to reach a larger audience.

These are all examples of things that I’ve seen get in the way of what was effective product positioning. When positioning a product, the focus should be solely on the target market. Outside factors only clutter message to consumers. We need to develop a Wu Chi for Positioning, in which we can solely focus on the target market, where outside factors that clutter and confuse the message to consumers are lost.

———–

Yesterday, Seth mentioned kanban, which is a term used by Japanese car factories to describe a sacrifice of proficient production to insure quality.

Basically with a kanban mindset in place the assembly line will stop, if needed, to maintain that all parts of production are no less than perfect. It seems there are a lot of lessons to be learned from the Eastern World.

CATEGORIES: Branding, Marketing

READ:View Comments

Permalink | Trackback

RELATED POSTS: Cataloging Your 2010 Trends and Predictions, Participate in the 2009 Coolest & Gaps Worldwide Branding Survey, Black Friday Campout, Ikea Facebook Marketing Proves Smart & Simple Wins, The Serendipity Engine of Social Media

Prelude to The Dip

Posted by Chris Wilson April 4th, 2007

Fellow Peelers might be interested to know that Seth Godin officially opened up a new blog to the public today.

It will be a used to create discussion and release tidbits of information about his upcoming book, The Dip. Seth has been posting to the blog off and on since the middle of March, but decided to today that there was enough content to pass the blog on to the large audience of his main blog. I can’t wait until the book is released on May 10th. It sounds like another great book full of Godinisms. (Pre-order your copy on Amazon)

CATEGORIES: Books

READ:View Comments

Permalink | Trackback

RELATED POSTS: FTC Guidelines: Finding Credible Interpretations

Format Your Marketing: Learn From the Band

Posted by Chris Wilson April 3rd, 2007

The Format Band Tonight I’m going to Norman, to what will no doubt be an awesome live show. Guster and The Format have teamed up together on The Campus Consciousness Tour, to raise awareness of environmental issues.

The bands are aiming “to educate, inspire, and activate students, and above all leave a positive impact on each community and college/university that the tour reaches.” I’m excited to see both of the bands tonight, no matter what their reasons are for going on tour. Guster has been on my music radar for about 5 years now, and I am a huge fan of The Format, as many of you know from an earlier embarrassing post.

Within the last year however I’ve been impressed by The Format, not only because they released Dog Problems, a stellar follow up to Interventions + Lullabies, but because they have created a model for how a band can survive and market itself, and without the support of a major record label.

In 2005, The Format was dropped from Atlantic Records. They formed their own label for the release of Dog Problems, sarcastically named Vanity Label, and are using a company called Nettwerk for the distribution of their albums. This has given them the push of a major music label, in getting their albums into all of the major outlets, such as the Best Buy’s, Wal-Mart’s around the world, without getting pushed around themselves.

They also get a much larger percentage of royalties. This may seem like a dream scenario that every band should wish for, but one important part of the equation appears to be missing. Who is left to do the publicity and marketing for band? The answer is, The Format, and they do it very well. They may not have BA’s in marketing and public relations, but the band is resourceful. They exhibit some of the best examples of how relationship marketing and networking should be done. A true connection with fans goes along way.

If a band is loyal to its fans, the fans loyalty will extend twice as far. The same is true for businesses and customers. If a business is loyal to its customers, the customer’s loyalty will extend twice as far. Format, thanks for the lesson.

CATEGORIES: Events, Marketing

READ:View Comments

Permalink | Trackback

RELATED POSTS: Cataloging Your 2010 Trends and Predictions, Participate in the 2009 Coolest & Gaps Worldwide Branding Survey, Black Friday Campout, Ikea Facebook Marketing Proves Smart & Simple Wins, The Serendipity Engine of Social Media

Arial or Helvetica?

Posted by Chris Wilson April 2nd, 2007

Arial or Helvetica

Can you tell the difference between Arial and Helvetica? If you need help here are some pointers.

CATEGORIES: Design

READ:View Comments

Permalink | Trackback

RELATED POSTS: Interview with Brand Consultant and Author Marty Neumeier, Facebook Manners and You

Subliminal Advertising

Posted by Chris Wilson April 2nd, 2007

The Mind It seems there might be some truth to James Vicary’s claims in 1957 that the human mind can work on a subliminal level. Researchers at the University College London have found the first physiological evidence in favor of the brains recognition of subliminal images. Dr. Bahador Bahrami, of the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience states, “What’s interesting here is that your brain does log things that you aren’t even aware of and can’t ever become aware of…I believe that it’s likely that subliminal advertising may affect our decisions — but that is just speculation at this point.”

I believe that subliminal advertising exists already in some forms. For example, consider the use of product placement, which exists in movies, TV shows, and even in space (special Coke cans were manufactured for astronauts to drink from while aboard the Space Shuttle). Many times, even though the products are clearly visible, the mind acknowledges them at an unconscious level, while fully concentrating on a plot or storyline. I know this isn’t always the case. There are times when consumers are fully aware of product placement, which is why if UCL can backup their speculations about subliminal advertising with scientific evidence, the idea of plugging a product would take on a new and very scary meaning.

CATEGORIES: Marketing

READ:View Comments

Permalink | Trackback

RELATED POSTS: Ikea Facebook Marketing Proves Smart & Simple Wins, Experiments in Social Media, Social Media is the New Punk, Oklahoma City Tweetup: Weblebrity Endorsed, JetBlue: Timing Matters