February 2010
12 posts
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“For years the hollow claims of every marketing guru who insists that consumers...”
– Rob Walker on faux-distressing and the Olympic snowboarding uniforms. (via putthison)
Authenticity is a BS codeword for accepted and expected behaviours. Authenticity is when someone you think you know, does what you think they would do in a given situation.
Question authenticity.
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Notifications and Pattern Recognition.
I’m obsessed with narrative, so it’s unlikely anyone else thinks this way - but as location based social tools, and mobile status updates become more and more common, my sense of pattern recognition comes into play more and more often.
A simple example: a few weeks ago, a co-worker left the office for lunch. My phone vibrated twice while he was gone, with push notifications from...
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Pack Dynamics
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about pack dynamics. Similar to the way wolves have a hierarchy, behaviour is dictated by position, or perceived position, in the group. What makes this interesting to me, is the difference between explicit hierarchy (seniority, job title, etc) and unspoken hierarchy (popularity, reputation, intellect, etc.)
Status has to be respected, as it directly impacts...
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An Unfinished Post.
I’m an english lit geek. This informs my point of view on pretty much everything.
It’s taught me that people are stories. If you understand narrative, understanding people isn’t that much of a stretch.
This is probably why I think of marketing as being about plot points. Everything is a decision made by the storyteller (or the consumer) to communicate something about the...
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Selling Nostalgia.
One of my major problems with the publishing industries, and the content industries in general, is a refusal to fully leverage nostalgia.
If you own a newspaper, or magazine, or network, you have history. And if you’re going to continue fighting tooth and nail for longer, stronger copyright, the very least you can do is try to make money off that history. Sell the past to the people who...
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Gizmodo: New Verizon ad campaign emasculates the... →
katoleary:
joemuto:
Haha… Kat has a mom phone.
Honestly, the whole “devaluing things by associating them with mothers” trope is more than a bit tired. Not to mention foolish, given the purchasing power of women in many households.
Not to excuse this, but very often this problem boils down to demographic targeting. Applied socially, demographic targeting is essentially stereotyping, and...
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Warren Ellis on Information Consumption [Wired UK] →