LONDON - GOOD MARKETER/BAD MARKETER

In 2005, Sandi Thom began her famous 'online webcasts', which attracted millions of ordinary people to her music and eventually scored her a UK number one hit. The fans who came and left messages such as 'great tunes. really sweet', and 'your voice is reeeelly solful' were touched by her music. Sure. But they were also touched by marketing. Specifically, by her now-legendary online promotions company, Quite Great PR. And every day, marketing reaches out into our lives and gives us messages about ourselves and our world. Messages like: I should be this person. I should do that thing. I should dream this dream.

Sandi wished she was a punk rocker. I wished I was a marketing consultant. Horses for courses. The difference being that my dream has since come true and I'm on 30k a year, whereas she's probably back to waitressing at the Harvester.

This blog is my own personal window, my brand, but also your brand to interact with: where I offer up some of my day-to-day personal insights into great marketing, past present and future. It's education. Yes. But like all great marketing, it's education that embraces the freedom to be who you are. You'll get no starched collars around here, no fusty textbooks lobbed in your general direction (look out!). It's a fun and engaging brand, a lot like the Ben & Jerry's Festival in Hyde Park. Ok, maybe ice cream is easier to sell than ideas, but ideas can change the world.

I'd like to ease us into the subject by starting off this week with a fun game I like to call 'good marketer, bad marketer'.

Good marketer
Lenin
− Had a slogan which consisted of one-word sentences (“Land. Bread. Peace.”)
− Had an iconic look (little beard, big forehead)
− Brilliantly, named his party 'the majority' ('Bolshevik' in Russian), meaning that everyone naturally assumed they had a lot of support. In latter-day parlance, it's like calling your timepiece brand 'Very-Desirable-Hipster-Watch'.
− Had a rival he could define himself in terms of (Stalin – moustache vs beard = Apple vs Microsoft)
− Kept talking about revolution – even after it had happened.

Bad marketer
Bowie
− Cross-platform reinventions made it confusing to keep track of core brand
− Cross-Googling problem with choice of stage name (brings up hits about knives – dubiously fashionable product)
− Defined an era, but ended up defined by that era, delimiting brand life (Bowie=70s. See also: Rubik's Cube = 80s.)
− Wife too similar to Grace Jones. Public will interpret as failure to acquire premium product.

Good marketer
Salman Rushdie
− Turned a weakness into a strength, limiting negative brand effect of personal ugliness by going into hiding.
− Harnessed broader public wave of Islamophobia by pissing off Iranians, turning himself into a brand champion of this lifestyle choice. 
-       Dated women traditionally considered 'out of his league', offering bonus publicity in gossip magazine features about mismatched couples.

Bad marketer
Mother Theresa
− Wore same stage costume as the rest of her entourage (v confusing)
− Didn't get to 'age gracefully' because only became famous when already old.
− Lepers not a very contemporary issue. Mainly associated with biblical times/bells.

Got it? Good. 

Adios muchachos.

STANLEY COOK

Comments

[burp]

this is a bit odd.

[rami]

great pr? i've never heard of her.

[belcher]

Good marketer:
Barack Obama
(with invaluable help from Shepard Faiery)
-became the black guy everyone rooted for without ever saying it
-inspired backers to bust their asses for him

Bad marketer:
Rudy Guiliani
-recognized by everyone on earth with a TV or newspaper yet completely flopped getting his message across
-rested on his laurels and didn't inspire a damn thing

good marketer: Batman
bad marketer: Superman

[Jim]

Bill Hicks does not approve

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDW_Hj2K0wo

[Jim]

Bill Hicks does not approve of your career path

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDW_Hj2K0wo

good pr - zombies - everyone fucking loves them and they're shit
bad pr - vampires - look like goths

[Louise Haynes]

Good marketer: Jesus- Everyone fucking loves him and he's shit
Bad marketer: Satan- Looks like a goth.

[mandy]

good marketer: football - its nothing but rapists chasing a bag of air around between rapes.
bad marketer: telepathe. everyone says they're shit, but they're great

[buttcunt]

even the word 'marketing' gives me diaoaororehehea

i have a reacurring nightmare that i accidentally marry a woman in 'marketing' (see? sick feeling) or worse: adverfuckingtising.

those people, sorry women, are the WORST

except the marketing lady at work because shes awesome. actually im only talking about a couple of girls. actually scratch this whole post, but you get the idea.

no more 'marketing'

[RD]

Ermmm, I think you've got so wrapped up in the marketing analogies you've tried to propound that you've completely failed to miss how flawed your examples are.

Lenin - never achieved his goals. Failed brand. No effectiveness. Lennon would have been more apt.
Bowie - changed and directed popular culture and his legacy continues to do so. Adapting to change and technology has made him one of most innovative, admired and successful artists of all time. Awesome.

Mother Theresa - A saint adored by the millions across the world. A truly successful global 'brand' and historical icon.

Rushdie - still living off the prowess of Midnight's Children, which his whole career has failed to better, and infamy of a silly fatwa that nobody really cares about. His views are insignificant and he's left a lonely bloated goat-like old man. He started in advertising anyway, coming up with the ridiculous "naughty but nice" phrase. A meaningless brand for anyone not righteously studying post-colonial literature. No fun.

[DURRR]

RD - are you being post-ironic? Or are you just thick? I need to know.

AWESOME!!

[Andrea]

In response to the belcher's comment (third from the top). Shepard Fairey has pretty stinkin'ly cool art, but it's Yosi Sergant who was the brains behind all of that. So in the end it still was the marketer who brought Obama and Fairey together. Just doing what good marketers do.

http://www.laweekly.com/2008-09-11/columns/yosi-sergant-and-the-art-of-change-the-publicist-behind-shepard-fairey-39-s-obama-hope-posters/

Ice cream changed the world. I dunno what the fuck you're talking about.

[RD]

Need to know.
You don't.

Post-ironic? Is that what your piece was?
I'm not being ironic, neither pre nor post.

Thick? As two planks.

[Rene]

Does this mean you'll no longer be updating hipsterrunoff?

This is you, isn't it, CRLS?