Month: June 2007

Still clueless after all these years

clueless.jpgSeems the first thesis* of The Cluetrain Manifesto is still relevant, eight years later, as Jeremy Pepper reports in one of a few posts from what appears to be a marketing conference of some sort. But there’s apparently still plenty of clueless marketers out there.

[David] Weinberger [one of the four original Cluetrain authors]: I always see senior people think that they can do the work of marketing, because they do not understand the real value of marketing. There is an uptake of “markets are conversations” and done with enthusiasm, but my blood curdles because marketers have trouble entering the conversation. It’s hard for them to be the bloggers, because it is hard for CEOs and marketers to be bloggers, because they have been trained to talk one way, have an interest in presenting the conversation in one way. Marketers are trying to figure out a way into the conversation, and the first instinct is to talk – they want to bring the conversation in, but it’s going on already on the outside.

* markets are conversations

Study: teens still dig Jeff Spicoli’s Vans (and they like iPods, too)

fasttimes11.jpgThis is U.S. History, I see the globe right there. – Jeff Spicoli, Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)

Attention trend-watchers: A new study from Viacom’s The N Channel reports that Vans, maker of the checkerboard-pattern slip-ons made famous by Sean Penn’s character (Jeff Spicoli) in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, is one of the top brands for teens — 25 years after that movie made them famous.

But as Michael Stoner (whose last name is in no way a reference to Spicoli’s antics) points out, Apple’s iPod was the brand deemed “absolutely essential to teens.” The iPod is “not only a favorite” among teens, Stoner writes, but also was seen as “defining their generation.”

vans2.jpgOf the 47 brands tested, the top brands were a mixed bag that includes American Eagle Outfitters, YouTube, Facebook, MTV and the aforementioned Vans. Stoner links to a few others on his blog and also quotes from a Brand Week article about the study.

The study pointed out — and this may come as a shocker — that when it comes to brands, teens are a fickle lot. According to Brand Week:

Regardless of sex, those who expressed the most intense loyalty were often the same people who would quickly leave one brand for another. Nineteen percent will swap brands due to boredom. One in four will switch if a brand becomes too popular.

The fact that Vans are among the top brands a quarter century after Spicoli wore them to tread on dangerous ground in Ridgemont High history class says something about that brand’s staying power.

Mr. Hand would be proud.