Exploring the Art & Science of Marketing
Archive for February, 2007
KFC, Taco Bell, rats, and the bite of franchising
Feb 28th
Have you seen this video of rats crawling all over the floor of a KFC/Taco Bell? It’s disgusting. It’s a huge problem for both of these companies as millions of people attach the mental picture of rats to KFC and Taco Bell.
The Problem with Franchising
Franchises aren’t really under the corporate umbrella, which means the PR department now has a crisis on it’s hands because of a a rogue restaurant that apparently doesn’t mind feeding food to customers after rats have had their nibble worth. Restaurants have quality control measures in place as mandated by the parent company, but the actions of one careless franchisee just did major damage to the entire company.
The Honus Wagner baseball card and the price of character.
Feb 27th
Even if you aren’t a fan of baseball, you’ve likely heard about the extremely rare Honus Wagner baseball cards. One recently sold for $2.35 million. – via SI.com.
If I’ve learned anything from marketing great Seth Godin, it’s that the story matters in marketing, and the story of this baseball card is no different. For starters, hockey legend Wayne Gretzky bought the exact card for $451,000 in 1991, and the gentleman who sold it for north of $2 million bought it for a cool $1.2 million just seven years ago. One of the characters in the television series Prison Break gets five years in prison for stealing a Honus Wagner baseball card, which was a felony. When you tell a good story, it tends to spread until others tell it as well.
More of the story. The “Mona Lisa” of Baseball Cards.
There are only 60 of the 1909 Honus Wagner cards in existence, which came in packs of cigarettes. The card is so rare that it’s sometimes called the “Mona Lisa” of baseball cards, but is that really enough to make it worth $2.35 million? Wagner was an incredible baseball player who won the National League Batting title 8 of his 21 seasons and has a host of other records, but that’s hardly enough in my mind to fetch more than $2 million for his baseball card. So how did it become so rare and desired?
The Price of Character
Collectors believe Wagner’s cards are rare because he stopped allowing the American Tobacco Co. to use his image, fearing it would encourage children to smoke.
via SportsIllustrated.
I love this story even if Wikipedia questions it’s validity. Collectors believe it’s the reason the card is rare. Does it matter what Wikipedia thinks?
Telling Your Own Story
I wrote a post once called “In another life,” and people posted some pretty cool stories about their life. The thing is, if you take a minute to think about your life, your business or the products you sell, you likely have a pretty cool story to tell as well. And the thing is, the news media likes to tell stories about businesses that involve a neat story about a person. They still do it for Honus Wagner almost 100 years later.
Media relations skill training tip: … Give free tips.
Feb 26th
Here’s a quick thought about building a great relationship with the media.
Give them news tips even when it doesn’t pertain to you or your business.
Case in point. A good friend of mine knows Olympic Gold Medal wrestler Rulon Gardner, and this friend knows that I like to send news to members of the media any chance I get. My friend called me yesterday afternoon to say that Rulon Gardner had been in a plane crash at Lake Powell. (He was safe, and so were the other people in the plane). Since I had told him about how I like to send tips to the media, he made the suggestion that I call them about the plane crash, which I did.
The Outcome?
I contaced KSL, and they were first to run the news, which is one of the top stories in the state today. The news has since traveled to SportsIllustrated, Forbes, and most important, the Associated Press. All I did was tip them off to it, and they did the research to find out it was true.
We got a tip from a viewer this afternoon that Rulon Gardner, the Olympic wrestler from Wyoming, was in a small plane that crashed into Lake Powell. …
Al Gore runs for president . . . almost.
Feb 26th
Al Gore is still the elephant in the room when it comes to the 2008 Presidential election. Will he run? Who will he support? He says he isn’t running, but the question still looms . . . who will he endorse?
Never from concentrate
Feb 25th
Lot’s of people make juice, and lot’s more make a “not from concentrate” juice. It says it right on the box. So how does a juice company stand out, get noticed or make a statement about how good their juice is?
One Little Word
Sometimes it doesn’t take much at all. One little word can make the huge statement when not a whole lot makes you different. That’s what Tropicana did. Not from concentrate? Nope. A Tropicana orange juice box says “Never from concentrate.”
Fox attacks Barack Obama?
Feb 22nd
Ha. I haven’t even watched this “Fox Attacks Barack Obama” video yet, and I know that an Obama fan-boy who hates Fox is the one who uploaded it to YouTube. Of course, who are we kidding? Fox leans to the right. (Not to the “correct,” but the right). Watch the news during the next two years, and I think you’ll see that other big media outlets lean way to the left as well (um, CNN).
Big Media is Big Business
I have a hunch. I don’t have any proof, and I don’t want to sound like some conspiracy theorist. But, I am a firm believer that despite any “fair and balanced” claim ever made by a news property, they are still influenced by shareholders who want to keep a fair balance sheet. Isn’t capitalism great.
Fox is owned by a publicly traded company. CNN is owned by a publicly traded company. Most of the big media companies are. Do you think for one minute that if the Fox viewer demographic were more conservative than liberal that Fox would air tons of left-leaning journalism? And, do you suppose that if CNN had a viewer demographic that was more liberal leaning than conservative that CNN would air a ton of right-leaning journalism? Not in a million years.
The Profit, The Profit, The Profit
Despite claims of fair and balanced, media organizations are still businesses that change and adapt to their customers’ wants in order to maximize profitability. In “the business” we’re called readers, viewers and listeners. But we’re still customers. How many business owners do you know who would give their customers something they knew the customer wasn’t interested in? I think it’s fair for us to believe that the media isn’t that dumb either. Fox attacks Barack Obama? Are we supposed to be suprised?
