Ad Memorial #8: Ron Paul

Hey Guys,

As of late my new promotional obsession has been getting the word out about Ron Paul, who is running for the president of the United States. I have created many flyers like the ones above. These flyers try to do one thing I feel a lot of Ron Paul from supporters don't do, KISS (Keep it Simple Stupid). The Ron Paul campaign has done a good job of creating highly targeted slim jims to pass out but sometimes you just need something even simpler people can read on the fly, especially since we're in the process of building awareness, so too much information will trigger selective attention.

Many of us Ron Paul supporters I would claim are more educated than your average American and don't have a hard time following the logic and explanation of non-interventionism and Austrian Economics and attempt to explain them on materials. I just try to point prospects to the Ron Paul website where most issues are broken down in a way anyone fully digest and further understand. This is the argument I use in my politics blog, Cause of Freedom, as to why Mike Huckabees surge in the poll is at a faster pace than Paul's. Paul is the thinking mans candidate.

The point is I'm trying to drive home is simplicity when creating awareness. You want to make sure the only information given is that which NEEDS to be remembered such as Brand Names, Websites, and Logos. As long as these few pivotal things are registered the prospect is more likely to respond more in depth to the next level of information proliferation.

Ad Storm #4: Grassroots Support

Hey Guys,

It's been awhile but I've been involved in the political sphere as of late supporting Ron Paul. If you are a campaign supporter the question I'm about to pose is a no brainer, but if your not it's the question everyone is dying to understand, how does Ron Paul use the internet so effectively in communicating his message.

The Answer...

He Doesn't

While the Ron Paul official website is one of the most Web 2.0 candidate pages and is great at providing info and tools, the fact that he has permeated the net so strongly has nothing to do with a tech savey campaign staff, it's the message. The message behind his candidacy resonates in a way so deep rooted that people can get behind the Ron Paul brand to make grassroots videos, fundraising campaigns, and even renting a blimp without spending a dime.

This is where the other candidates fail in developing their marketing communications, they focus on how to make their message resonate without asking the question, what do the people want? Ron Paul himself doesn't quite have the campaign machine visibility as Romney or Giuliani yet he still permeates stronger in the free media, it's cause his supporters feel Ron Paul is the only one who understands them and is truly out there for them.

While Ron Paul isn't a marketing expert, he has a level of brand equity from a long career of honesty, integrity, and rationality which has afforded him the credibility and authenticity to have the strong loyalty he demands.

So what as Marketers should we learn from this?

• No amount of gimmicks and media saturation will beat having a clear target based marketing message
• Credibility and Authenticity is something that only develops truly over time, taking short cuts for short term gains only hurt your long terms brand equity
• A strong brand can survive on what it represents and will permeate without a huge marketing budget

Ad Memorial #7: kissing Rabits

In order to promote my Social Bookmarking site, Zuki.Us I created a mock Public Service Announcement about an epidemic of Kissing Rabbits. The intention of course that the video would go viral so here's the video and let's see what happens.


Find more videos like this on Fashionably Numb World

Ad Storm #3: Authenticity & Cultural Capital

Hello everyone,

Recently for my consumer behavior class we have had to read the book, "Chasing Cool", which is an amazing book. This book really articulates a lot of the ideas and concepts I've had about brand development back during the Gamers Lounge days that I did not yet had the knowledge to describe. It was just unsure intuition at the time, and makes me regret the many times I didn't listen to it after reading this book.

One of the reoccurring themes in the book is authenticity, and how to break into a market you need to be part of the market or at least make a sincere and in-depth effort to understand the market. My studies are primarily in Pop Culture first, and in marketing second so I approach many of these topics from a anthropological stand point where this idea is common sense. I think my background in Anthropology/Sociology as applied to Pop Culture gives me a distinct advantage in todays branding environment. Although much of what I've learned should be common knowledge so I'm gonna expound on some useful concepts, primarily, Cultural Capital.


I. What is Anthropology/Sociology and why does it Matter?
II. Cultural Capital
III. Conclusion




I. What is Anthropology/Sociology and why does it Matter?

Some definitions as written by the great Google:

Anthropology

The scientific and humanistic study of man's present and past biological, linguistic, social, and cultural variations. Its major subfields are archeology, physical anthropology, cultural anthropology, and anthropological linguistics.

By this definition the study of all culture is anthropological. Most people assume it's only about past cultures, this generalization is why I think many marketers might not look to this valuable discipline for a lot wisdom to understanding the market.

Sociology

the study of social institutions and processes

Again, on the surface it may seem not completely relevant to marketing. But by understanding the underlying structure of a society you can see how to influence that structure which inherently influence the consumers, again this all relies on whether the consumer "wants" or "needs" the change or benefits you offer.

A lot of people have a lot of trouble distinguishing the two so I'm going to use some hypothetical based on the hip hop community on how Anthropologist would approach it than a sociologist.

If I were an anthropologist I'd use method research called, Ethnography, where I would immerse myself in hip hop culture and become part of it (remember this for later). I would become part of what I am studying and I'd be interested in the slang and dialects spoken among hip hop subgroups and what it means in social contexts. I would take a look at cultural forms such as breakdancing, graffiti, DJing, and rapping and study how it differs among different regions.

As a marketer at this point not only have you built an understanding of the culture giving you the ability of authenticity that the word "bling" does not provide, but it also helps to further segment and target.

Although, as a sociologist I'd be interested in the institutions that developed the culture like the education system in urban areas. The economics processes and more to understand where this culture is coming from. It's hard to know where something ends without knowing where it starts which is the beauty of sociology.

Why is this important?

To summarize many of the themes in "Chasing Cool" in order to have sustainable success in todays marketplace you must have a quality product with consistent and authentic brand image that your target market either relates or aspires to. In this search for authenticity a deeper level of understand your market in necessary, and this is why these disciplines are important.


II. Cultural Capital

A concept that was hinted at in "Cool Chasers" is the pivotal idea in Popular culture studies, Cultural capital. While personal branding is about the amount of value attached your personal association, Cultural Capital is about your knowledge of the subcultures canon of texts and processes in order to achieve authenticity. So to set out to present this authentic brand image, it must have an adequate level of Cultural Capital to satisfy your target market.

Let's take communism,

If I call myself communist and write a new book communism but never read the writings of Marx or studied read about the USSR, Cuba, or Vietnam do think I'd come across authentic enough for other communists to buy my book?

This is the question and answer Cultural Capital provides, and develop this cultural capital a firm understanding of sociology and anthropology concepts I would almost deem necessary.


III. Conclusion

In a world where marketing communications bombard everyone from every subgroup, the average consumers senses to authenticity is more acute than ever. No longer is only understanding what benefits your target market wants is enough for sustainable success, you must intimately understand your market and their unique culture. To achieve the cultural capital neccessary for effective brand communication you must understand social science concepts. Being a student of the Popular Culture studies department in Bowling Green State University has lent me many tools to achieve this authenticity.

- Alex Merced

Ad Storm #2 - Social Networking and Online Communities

Hey Guys,

I was thinking today about the plethora of Social Networking and Online Communities that are available today and just felt excited about the future. Most people look at this crowded space and feel it's cluttered and that Myspace/YouTube/Facebook is all you need. In a lot of cases, to go viral those three will do just fine, but there are real strong opportunity in being able to take advantage of smaller growing networks. The main benefits is less clutter to break through, wider exposure, and higher search engine visibility.

Go to Google and look up Alex Merced

I've made a lot of efforts to know who are the other Alex Merceds in the world and to make sure my results are on top. I've been able to beat results and lay a stronger search engine foundation than the Alex Merced from popular Metal Band, Necrophagist. While my highlander "there can only be one" approach to dominance in the Alex Mercedosphere may be a little much, this shows many of the benefits of being an online socialite.

Before we go further, read this article on growing social networks.


So Let's Explore these Benefits:



Less Clutter/Less Competition:

Sites like Myspace and Facebook have such large user numbers, it sounds like a great promotions tool due to the sheer amount of audience. Like my professor Earl Boatwright mentioned, facebook is getting special attention due to it's built in segmentation.

This is all true, these are great promotional tools and they are probably a better investment arguably than traditional broadcasting. Though we can't forget about the value of niches, and while Myspace and Facebook can sort of cater to niches but not like a niche social network can. Take a look at a site like Dogster which caters to a very niche market, Dog Lovers.

Although the problem with Niche social network is while you segment is at easier reach, the clutter among competition is greater since every ad is probably for similar products than yours.

This is where all these smaller general networks like Multiply come in handy cause it's not an obvious ground for competitors and probably has less clutter than myspace, meaning the odds of your ad shining through to more people.


Wider Exposure/Search Engine Visibility:

Ok, now imagine an avid net user checking all his profiles at all his favorite sites and the same ads keep showing up for this New Rock band, now he goes to search on google for the latest rock music. In the results are the profiles of that band in the ad at a lot of different networking sites his curiosity increase. He then finally check his myspace and see the band featured on the music page and finally he gives in to the frequent EXPOSURE to this band and checks them out.

I mean it's not really anything we all don't know already, but this extra effort to hit every end of the web payes off in many ways. If the wider exposure with the ads and profiles isn't enough, the amount of search engine visibility those profiles generate should be a clincher.

Check out AlexMercedRocks.info look at the right menu and see my many profiles

You'll notice not only did I have a lot of profiles I joined many niche communities and activley participated, yes this takes a lot of time and effort, but your spending it socializing which really isn't a bad deal.





A lot of old tools I feel aren't as utilized as much as they used to be. While mailing lists are still as popular as ever, Message Boards have been relegated to sort of standard site feature. While every website should have a message board, it's kinda useless if you don't put efforts to stimulate it's community.

- Create many fun threads that are always reply worthy like "What are you listening to now?" or the "Random thread" I've seen these go viral on many message boards and give something fun for community members to do and build inside jokes and board culture around.

Message boards single handedly made the opening day for The Gamers Lounge a huge success. I would go around and actually hang out at local gaming events and tell people about the store opening and tell them about special events that will be announced on our message board. We had almost 1000 posts before we even opened, although after we opened the in store community was so strong it kinda replaced the online activity, but luckily the message board became a built mailing list of everyone who already signed up.

Before we opened we had a special Beta Test event we announced on the message board where we had people come in and play for a few days before the opening to make sure all the computers worked. We also would have secret late night events announced on the message board which kept people signing up even if they weren't always posting, but posting did stay alive for quite a bit.

Bottom Line: Join as many social networks and online communities as possible... why not.

Ad Storm #1: Personal Branding

Before reading this post listen to this podcast from the foward blog
" Who you was is not who you is" -Mitch Joel

This is resonated with me when I listen to this, and having interest in personal branding for years listening to this really made me want to discuss it a little bit. I really enjoyed listening to Mitch Joel and Paul Young discuss personal branding and eliciting values and molding peoples perception of you on your own terms.

People are going have an opinion no matter what, don't you think you should have some say in what people think about you.

This is the fundamental idea behind personal marketing, I've always been more fascinated in a more product oriented approach which I usually describe by the quote:

"You are your best product"

When I think about it this way it makes me realize the following:

- If I'm a product, what attributes do I have - How do I want to position myself - what are my Marketing Communication Goals (awareness, perception, attitude)
I get some slack for my quite cold approach to myself as a product I'm selling, but to me marketing isn't about making a profit it's about creating value for consumers. I don't sell cause I want profit, I sell cause I want to give value, profit is just testimony to the value I've given.

So I now understand what is my personal brand and what I want to do with it, what's the next question:

- How does my product give value - Who is the target market (like minded people)

At this point you are ready to begin building awareness of you Personal Brand. Here are many things I would recommend to elicit your values to connect your target market:

- Blogs - Social Events - Social Networking Sites - Volunteering - Flyering (that's right, put up flyers about you and your personal brand)

Here is an example of a flyer promoting a personal brand: Alex Merced (myself)




Very obvious we know a lot about the Alex Merced Brand:

- It heavily related to music events and information
- Several Blogs that have information which is valuable
- A Radio show which has entertainment value

conclusion:

The Alex Merced Brand gives me value through Music Information and Entertainment


Now it's your turn :)
Discuss your personal brands in the comments, I'd like to know about your brand

AD Memorial #6: Alex Merced Art Contest

Me and my good friend the super charismatic Richard Ehrbar a.k.a Rich C $ decided this semester we're taking the personal branding approach for our shows to the next level with extensive cross promotional flyers. This being my final semester before I graduate means my show comes to an end so I hope to create a stronger fanbase before my Bowling Green Legacy finishes it's final chapter. Also with my other project, Fashionably Numb Music, I'm promoting a show called FestFest 07 this weekend and we thought we'd leverage our DJ status to help promote it with this next flyer.