Under Armour – Lessons in Failed Youth Marketing

by Graham D Brown
Let’s face it – UA ain’t nearly as cool as it should be
Building a brand takes time. The best brands have done it one customer at a time by focusing on share of customer over share of market. Many of the best case studies can be found in markets where the premium [...]

Do vs Say

The above slide is a quote from Peter Van Stolk on what it means for youth brands to be “authentic”.
Years ago, being “authentic” meant hiring a clever ad agency to concoct spin.

Youth today, however, have pretty good bulls**t detectors. That’s why you’ll rarely see youth at the tiller of a successful advertising agency. There’s a [...]

50 Articles That Shaped How We Think

Here’s a collection of articles discovered in the last year that have shaped my opinion on what makes successful youth marketing. Thanks to all the writers here for pitching in with their ideas and making the journey a lot more fun.
The Pepsi Generation Model of Marketing
(1) Today’s Inspiration
(2) Are Celebrity Endorsements even worth it? (enoVate)
(3) [...]

 

You gotta stop benchmarking and start playing by your own rules

The above slide is a quote from Peter Van Stolk on the Big Soda marketing model built on Pipelines rather than Platforms for engaging youth.
The rules say that creating a great brand for youth is about creating the big idea – the drumming monkey, the gopher or the flashmob. That’s the unquestionable rule. Big idea, [...]

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Who are your Passionistas?

Notice how outstanding brands like Monster Energy, Vans, Red Bull, Jet Blue, Apple, Nike and Jones Soda are confident in standing for their values? That’s because they’re not focusing on the 100% we call “the market” but the 10% who are already sold on their product.
Saying “no” more often is the best advice a manager [...]

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You gotta break some eggshells

The above slide is a quote from Peter Van Stolk (founder Jones Soda) on how great brands are shaped by great people.
The Intrapreneurs…The Crazy Ones
If you’re going to do anything great, you’ve got to break some eggshells.
Creating a great brand means treading on a few toes, taking a few hits and singling yourself out for [...]

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We’re in the business of connecting our customers

Are you in the business of selling products or connecting your customers? (Tribes)
Is your business geared towards creating marketing content or context?
As the man says here…
BRAND MANAGEMENT IS DEAD…
(this is 2009, not 1999)

BeingBrave
When Procter & Gamble were tasked with raising the profile and profitability of Tampax for teenage girls they could have so easily focused [...]

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We don’t care about 90% of you

And that’s fine, because 90% of the world doesn’t get it, won’t get it and their world view is such that no matter how much evidence you collate, nothing will change.
And that’s how you should treat your “market”. Forget selling to the unsold.
Your energy is limited, don’t spread it across 100% of the market.
This [...]

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Content is Dead… Long live Context

There was a time when Pepsi said that they were the “choice of a generation” and youth believed. There was a time that in exchange for the inconvenience caused by interrupting young people on TV, in the magazine or at the bus stop, creative agencies would balance the transactional deficit by delivering humour.
That’s what gave [...]

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New Media, Business As Usual

New media is a promise. It isn’t the solution.

It’s a promise that you’ll turn the narrative from one about the brand to one about the customer.
It’s easy to be seduced by the technology. Want to engage youth? Go mobile, go Facebook. Avoid the Meatball Sundae. It’s the Moon not the finger pointing at it.This is [...]

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