Duracell Vs Energizer Showdown

This display in Home Depot was like the Duracell vs. Energizer dual to the death for batteries. 

Which one wins?

The whisper is that Duracell beats Energizer close to 2 to 1 for most things. 

Whether or not that's true, the Energizer rabbit "keeps going and going" while the Duracell is copper-topped.

Copper? Bunny? Bunny is cuter!  ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Duracell Vs Energizer Showdown

Laundry is a Colorful Cleaning Affair

It's great when laundry goes from smelly and dirty to fresh and clean!

Some nice refreshing laundry detergent is just what's needed. 

When the detergent comes in big, bright bottles like here, then it's even a more inviting experience. 

Clean laundry, clean mind, clean mouth way to go! ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Laundry is a Colorful Cleaning Affair

Porsche Lovers

Awesome Porsche "Teddy Bear"!

For Porsche lovers, I think it's mighty hard to resist it. 

Now that's a brand that inspires with its meticulous eye toward design and quality. 

The result is even a huggable Porsche is sweet! ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Porsche Lovers

Lipstick On A Dog

Interesting business card for Dog Walkers. 

Not sure what they mean by:

Not just a lipstick visit

I've heard of lipstick on a pig, but never on a dog! 

Playing dress up with a dog? 

As they say, only in America. ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Lipstick On A Dog

I Say Upside Down You Turn Me

I liked this advertisement for WOOW eyewear. 

Like the faces, the colors, the upside down and right-side up orientations. 

Seems cool, hip, with it. 

Happy hippie times. ;-)

(Credit Photo: Michelle Blumenthal)

I Say Upside Down You Turn Me

Sizzle Is Not Steak

There was an interesting quote in the Wall Street Journal the other day.

It was about how the stock brokers all too often hawked hot stocks to their unsuspecting and foolish clients:

You sold the sizzle, not the steak!

Wow, isn't this all too often what happens with products and services in the marketplace?

People get you hyped up on all the excitement of something.

The latest and greatest widget or whatever. 

It's gonna revolutionize the world!

Even when the thing itself may not be all that it's cracked up to be.

Or in fact, it may be a complete dud!

But whatever sells goes, unfortunately, whether it's right or wrong

Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle. 

Doesn't that sizzle really make you want to buy the steak?

The Greater Fool Theory in full blossom. ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Sizzle Is Not Steak

Capital One Cafe Catastrophe

So I've seen the advertisement for Capital One (Bank) Cafes on TV for some time now.

Well I saw my first real one in Fort Lauderdale this week.

It was big, bright, comfortable and had children's games and a host of meeting and breakout rooms. 

They even gave us two cards for some free coffee at the embedded Pete's Coffee.

It was a corner store in a large, expensive space. 

It was great place to get some work done or relax. 

But aside for a cash machine or so, there was nothing that I could see having to do with banking in this place. 

Also, there were also almost no customers for the coffee.

Basically, it is totally confusing idea from a marketing and branding perspective--Is it a bank or a coffee house?  And why would I go to Capital One to get coffee or to Pete's Coffee to do my banking????

While I think that Capital One has literally outdone Starbucks in building a great cafe space, I don't think anyone will actually get what this is or why it is!

My guess is that whoever came up with this idea is going to be looking for a job within about 6 big money-losing months. ;-)

(Credit Photo:  Andy Blumenthal)

Capital One Cafe Catastrophe

Selling By Customer Stereotypes

Saw this displayed on the wall inside a Free People clothing store...

It categorizes their female shoppers into 4 types:

1. Candy (hearts): Sweet, girly, flirty, whimsy, and femme  

2. Ginger (cherries): Sexy, confident, edgy, attitude, and mysterious

3. Lou (baseball): Cool, tomboy, laid back, tough, minimal

4. Meadow (sunshine): Flowy, bohemian, embellished, pattern, worldly

So this is how they stereotype their customers "to be helpful"?

Interesting also that they don't see that people can be complex with: multiple traits that cross categories or even in no category at all.

Moreover, people can have different sides to themselves and reflect these in different situations. 

Perhaps in an effort to market and sell more, what they've done is reduce people to these lowest common denominator of idiot categories.

And what makes this worse yet is that it seems to be based just on snap judgment of how someone looks coming into the store and all the biases that entails. 

How about we look at people a little more sophisticated than this and treat them as individuals, with real personalities, and not just as another empty label?  ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Selling By Customer Stereotypes

Shopping Vs Psychiatrist

This sign had a pretty good point:

"Shopping is cheaper than a psychiatrist."

Plus it's more fun and you get to take the junk home that you buy.

For many, shopping truly is a form of mental/stress relief--almost like medicine. 

Unfortunately, if you think about it, things don't really make a person happy...rather people do and doing good does. 

But industry wants you to think a lot more superficially and materialistically than that. 

Hence the notion that if you take your daily dose of shopping, maybe you can skip the shrink! ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Shopping Vs Psychiatrist

Tie Dye Hammock

Loved this tie dye hammock by Enonation (Eno) from Australia that I saw at REI. 

It's called "DoubleNest," so I guess that means it fits 2 people. 

So open, colorful, and inviting to rest and relax in. 

Sillily, the store only carries the hammock and not the stand...so good luck with that. 

Also REI clumsily filled this gorgeous hammock with Nalgene bottles--on sale 30% off!

Uh, if you make even the nicest stuff look like junk for storage, you're not gonna get the brand image you want. 

Anyway, the hammock was awesome!  ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Tie Dye Hammock

Success Anchored in Function AND Beauty

Just a saying from Dr. Ferry Porsche (as in Porsche cars) that I liked:

"It has always been a principal of our company that function and beauty are inseparable."

If you can make something useful and attractive--you have a real winner!

Companies like Porsche and Apple get it (many, many others are clueless).  

Product development is both art and science and therein lay the foundations of their success or failure. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Success Anchored in Function AND Beauty

Really Highest Quality

Just thought this was a funny, educational photo.

Vendor is selling jewelry on the corner (outside the Metro).

They're advertising:

Products Of The Highest Quality

But would you even expect to get the highest quality jewelry off the street. 

As nice as these products may be (and he may be), I don't think anyone would really believe this. 

So while the ad grabs your attention and makes you look, it doesn't make you believe. 

Advertising and branding has to be credible to reach their intended audience or else it'll just come off as fool's gold. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Really Highest Quality

This Is What You Smell

Great sign at the nut stand at Sugarloaf Festival.

"This Is What You Smell!"

Hot cinnamon pecans or almonds. 

Wow, did that smell nice.

I got a tiny bag of the pecans, and when I opened it, the smell and taste that hot cinnamon really took over. 

Were there other smells present as well?

Probably, but I chose to focus on the cinnamon nuts. 

The other smells will have to wait for their special sign and appropriate attention to deal with it. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

This Is What You Smell

Extra Large Sizes

Obesity rates have been consistently growing in this country.

This is concerning for all sorts of health effects (including unfortunately Cancer). 

Many of us struggle with our weight and it is not easy to fight it especially given the processed foods and carbs all around us. 

The picture as of 2015 is that almost 40% of Americans are categorized as obese (versus a below average of 18% in Israel)  

In this context, this store sign in Israel for big and tall clothing was off the charts. 

Talking about extra large sizes for people...

Check out how many "Xs" as in XL this store is advertising? 

A full 11 Xs (after that I lost count)!

Hey, that is a large size for anyone. 

What does a size 11 XL look like.

Now that's something that I don't have a good picture of.  ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Extra Large Sizes

Selling CRAP

I just thought this was an interesting acronym that Amazon uses for selling unprofitable knick knacks.

They call it:

CRAP

It stands for:

Can't Realize A Profit. 

Sometimes, you see people buying stuff, lots of stuff, and it's not important--often, it's all a lot of junk. 

But they like to shop--bordering on shopsholics' compulsion. 

Maybe they don't even have a lot of money for this stuff.

However, just the act of buying it--of having some control in their lives and some freedom of the purse--makes them feel good and buy and hoard more and more things. 

Likely it ends up in Goodwill, recyclables, the attic, or the trash. 

Is it crap?

Well you can't make realize a profit on it. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Selling CRAP

Tag Lines Deliver

Ouch!  How is that for a tag line?

Unlike Your Boyfriend, We Deliver.

That certainly has a sharp bite to it, but you know what?  It works. 

Witty, funny, and maybe even true. 

It's the old adage that "sex sells."

That's a delivery service that I'm sure many would nod their heads to. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Tag Lines Deliver

Black Thursday For Shopaholics

So Black Friday Shopping extravaganza that used to happen the day after Thanksgiving has now turned into Black Thursday mega-shopping on Thanksgiving Thursday.

The huge Sawgrass Mills Mall in Sunrise, Florida is open 10 AM to 1 AM!

The mall was packed with people and the deals were pretty fantastic.  

Under Armour was 50% off!

True Religion was buy 1 get 1 free!

Almost every store seemed to be 1/2 price off already reduced prices.

What I liked in this video I took here was the WOW! display around the entire entrance to this Century 21 apparel store.

Watch the whole thing...it is really cool what they did with this frontage real estate for this store. 

Great job on the marketing and very inviting!

So lots of compulsive shopping, but not so much turkey today. ;-)

(Source video: Andy Blumenthal)

Black Thursday For Shopaholics

Wine Makes Me Smile

What a great labeling of this bottle of wine. 

Just a big simple smiley face on it!

After I saw this bottle in the store, I just had to take a picture and also look this up on the internet. 

It's part of the "SMILE" wine campaign from Lindeman's Wines.

Apparently each limited edition bottle reminds you of something that we have to smile about: "family get-togethers," "discovering new places," and "randoms acts of kindness."

Wow, I love this idea.  

Wine makes you smile, but so do these wonderful things in life. 

And it's not just showing/associating the product with something positive (like beer and soda commercials always do), but it's making the product itself smile at you!

I think this is a really smart marketing campaign.

Also, the cute smiley face on the bottle would make this the life of the party. 

Great job Lindemans--I'm smiling. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Wine Makes Me Smile

Anyone Have A Question About This Car?

Yeah, all I can say...

Anyone have a question about this car?

I am pretty sure this car is owned by Matthew Lesko, "The Question Mark Guy."

Lesko was in a number of commercials and infomercials about asking him how to get free information and grant money from the government. 

He dresses and drives in question marks, and I've seen him a number of times around town. Frankly, it's sort of hard to miss this guy!

His self promotion sort of makes you wonder, if you had to choose just one symbol to wear everywhere to represent you to the world--it could be a punctuation mark or anything else--what would that look like?  ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Anyone Have A Question About This Car?

Pet Rock 2018

So when I saw this colored rock last evening, it made me think two things:

One, cool idea, looks nice and fun to make.

Two, it reminded me of the Pet Rocks in the 1970s that made millions (this one was hippie even though those back then weren't actually even colored).

A business guy came up with the idea to sell smooth rocks from Mexico beach and market them as pets.

Yeah, they are so lovable and easy to care for!

It was one of the great branding and marketing events of the 20th century.

Who would think people would actually spend money on a plain dumb rock that you could basically pick up off the street?

But incredibly, putting the rock in a box with holes (so the rock could breath) and sitting it on a little stack of hay with an joke of instruction book for caring for your rock, SOLD. 

And in fact, over 1,500,000 rocks were sold at a pop of $4 each.

The guy became a millionaire and got rid of a truckload of worthless rocks.

Yes, "One man's garbage is another man's treasure!"

But surely this was getting a little ridiculous.

Hey, I'll give you a nickle for the shinny painted rock in the photo here. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Pet Rock 2018