Four Links – 06.07.06

Yet Another Sadsack Geezer Story: Jane Genova Speechwriter-Ghostwriter
A mature perspective on age discrimination

Coolhunting on MySpace: PSFK
You can wade through 83 million pages of MySpace angst trying to find the next Arctic Monkeys or simply visit SpaceCadetz for “the best of MySpace.” This smart aggregator blog has been in motion since February and its success would seem to hinge on the variety/credibility of authors. But so far it’s not clear as to who is pushing the publish button.

TREASURE HUNT Treasures: Brand Autopsy
John Moore does a post mortem on the new book “Treasure Hunt: Inside the Mind of the New Consumer.” Consider Moore’s post Cliffs Notes for retail junkies. The book discusses why “average” consumers shop at Tiffany and Wal-Mart. I’ll suggest that perhaps it’s because the middle market is disappearing and we have little choice?

AIR – Urban Olfactory Installation: Futurelab’s Blog
Your city stinks if you live in Helsinki, Budapest or Cleveland Paris. Brands would be well served to consider how the senses help immerse customers in a brand. Consider the smell of Starbucks coffee for example—hotels are. Hat tip to IF.

tags | public relations | PR | MySpace | marketing | branding | brand | retail

Comments

[johnmoore (from Brand Autopsy)]

Actually the middle market consumer isn’t dwindling—its expanding. According to Silverstein’s TREASURE HUNT book, in the US, the middle class/middle market consumer is comprised of 48 million households and this customer segment controls 75-percent of all discretionary spending in America.

And it’s not that we lack choices … we actually have more choices. Silverstein says the most successful businesses understand that middle market consumers will deliberately choose to trade-up (spend more) or trade-down (spend less). That’s why we are seeing more options at the high-end (Whole Foods, Nordstrom, Williams-Sonoma) and more options at the low-end (Wal-Mart, Kohl’s, Home Depot).

So yes … businesses that are stuck in the middle (Albertson’s, Dillard’s, ACE Hardware) are indeed dwindling are not succeeding while businesses competing at the high-end and low-end are succeeding.

[Kevin Dugan]

John - Thanks for clarifying. I was using middle market incorrectly as I meant business in the middle were disappearing meaning we had little choice but to shop at either end. Speed kills! Thanks again.

[Ann Handley]

Interesting bit on the Urban Olfactory Installation from Futurelab. A week or so ago, William Arruda wrote in the MarketingProfs blog about how Japanese movie theaters are using ‘scene-synchronized scents’ to enhance the cinematic experience. Sort of like watch and sniff...I guess?

: )