A Presidential Brainstorm – The Afghan War Plan – How Marketing is like Politics..

Regarding the President’s Afgan War Plan, I found an interesting quote today by Obama’s national security adviser, Gen. James L. Jones, “The process was exhaustive, but any time you get the president of the United States to devote 25 hours, anytime you get that kind of commitment, you know it was serious business. From the very first meeting, everyone started with set opinions. And no opinion was the same by the end of the process.”

I find this quote interesting for a couple of reasons:

1. It’s good to know that the Obama and his team can collaboratively focus for 24hrs on making a big decision.

2. It’s bad to think that Obama only spent 24hrs actively engaged in making this decision.

3. But then again, in terms of business, how often does the president spend 24hrs actively participating in a big decision?

I mean interms of the businness world, it seems like this is one of those projects that never ends, and has multiple tangental pieces, kind of related but not really, as well as smaller projects which never really end either. And, of course there are the inevitable project or two on the horizon.. So what do you do?

Well appearently, you do like you would when solving for any other project’s challenge – gather as much information as you can, find an insight, build a strategy, develop an idea, rationalize it, pitch it, then hope it works!

The future starts..today!! – EXTRA EXTRA EXTRA!!

I doubt it’s arguable. The Apple iphone, platform and distribution system has changed not only the industry, but also consumer behavior.

In today’s nytimes.com article, Phillip W. Schiller, head of worldwide product marketing at Apple was quoted, “I absolutely think this is the future of great software development and distribution,” Mr. Schiller says. “The idea that anyone, all the way from an individual to a large company, can create software that is innovative and be carried around in a customer’s pocket is just exploding. It’s a breakthrough, and that is the future, and every software developer sees it.”

WOW!! As both a shareholder and power-user this may be the first time I’ve ever been informed so much by Apple. Essentially, besides Jobs, the guy who’s ass is on the line for all the great Apple innovations that get launched globally.. Just said- the future starts today!

Moreover – Mr. Schiller provides a peak behind the app store review process curtain and provides an Apple POV: “The company places high value on what it describes as “customer trust,” or the idea that users have faith that an application distributed on the iPhone won’t crash the platform, steal personal information or contain illegal content.”

The two insights here, are that:
1. Opportunity is here.
2. Trust / faith is positive.

This means, Dear Marketer – We (consumers) are open to your ideas if the concepts and products are smart, efficient, fun and functional – oh, and most importantly, if you don’t try and fuck us, or in the least think that we are dumb! But don’t wait, hurry, times are a changing – and if you don’t act now, you’ll be showing up to the party late. And it won’t even be the party you thought you were going to, it will be a different party at a later date.. Get it?

FB stat update..

A nice capture from colleague Keane Angle on recent Facebook stats.

hahaha.. And I thought Dick Clark was cool..

Maybe it was because I forgot to give Dick Clark Productions credit.. Below is the lovely notice I received after posting a brief video captured via my iPhone of the Lady Gaga’s performance at the AMA’s on ABC. Yes, yes, I know I don’t have any sort of rights to any of that footage – but what is a savvy blogger to do when trying to share the love (or the news)?

I mean look at it this way – Lady Gaga, Johnny Walker, ABC and the AMA’s all got additional coverage/views/clicks or whatever from my little blog post. So what’s the problem here? Oh my bad – forgot to give Dick Clark credit too.. lol!

Lady Gaga goes Bad Ass - tells Bad Romance to "Keep on Walking"

Lady Gaga goes Bad Ass- tells Bad Romance to “Keep on Walking..”

Whether paid product placement, sponsorship or just plain luck, Johnny Walker Black received some prime time love from Lady Gaga in her performance spot of her new song “Bad Romance.” Are brands forcing these opportunities or are artists doing this on their own. Either way, there is a natural fit and perhaps an opportunity..

Footage courtesy of ABC and AMA’s..

The bar effect..

There is an effect caused by alcohol – for some it kicks in after the first drink, and others after many drinks – where one who is consuming alcohol no longer is influenced by communications in the bar. At this point the strategic drinking decisions are already made – and any choice made after this point is made on auto pilot – so to speak.. Meaning that no matter what  information is available – it is practically irrelevant.

The question then is – how do you reach that consumer before this effect kicks in?

Yes, in bar – but in the beginning of the night..?

More so, it would be interesting to know or learn what effect bar communications actually have?  And if they do, until what point?

Is it when a certain spirit brand’s awareness hits critical mass? Obviously – but how is that critical mass gained.. Hummm?

Sent from my iPhone

Captain Morgan Responds to the NFL’s Guerrilla Marketing Crackdown

Got to love a quick response from a quick thinker! Go Captain!

Dude what’s going on..?

Part 1.1 of many – monthly man reports – a collection of abstracts, stats, graphs and excerpts captured from various sources that provide insights into the M18-34 demographic (for research purposes only!) Thanks.

Workforce | Generation Gap

Now, the generation gap is nothing new. In fact, it seems most people have recognized it since at least 40 years ago. In a Pew Research Center survey released this summer, 79 percent of respondents said they thought there was a generation gap, slightly higher than the 74 percent who answered affirmatively to the same question in a 1969 Gallup poll.

Much of what divides us now is technology. According to the Pew survey, while three-quarters of adults age 18 to 30 say they use the Internet daily, only four in 10 adults age 65 to 74 do so.

With cellphones, the difference is even greater: of adults 65 and over, just 5 percent get most or all of their calls on a cellphone, and only 11 percent sometimes use their cellphones to text. For adults under the age of 30, 72 percent use their cellphones for most or all of their calls, while 87 percent text.

Do you obligingly leave a voice mail after the beep? Don’t bother if you’re calling someone younger than 30. They don’t listen to them.

According to Pamela Redmond Satran, author of the book “How Not to Act Old: 185 ways to Pass for Phat, Sick, Hot, Dope, Awesome, or at Least Not Totally Lame” (HarperCollins), the point for older generations is not to look like a 26-year-old or even to necessarily act like one, but to be open to the fact that times have changed.

This is particularly true in the workplace. nytimes article

 

Dude, what’s going on..?

Part 1 of many – monthly man reports – a collection of abstracts, stats, graphs and excerpts captured from various sources that provide insights into the M18-34 demographic (for research purposes only!) Thanks.

Unemployment:

In 2008, the unemployment rate for men ages 20 to 34 in New York State was 7.4 percent. The countrywide average was 7.7 percent, while the state average for women in the same age range was 6.1 percent, according to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics. (Numbers for 2009 are not yet available.) nytimes article

Urban Lifestyle | Real Estate

Joe Tandle, 32, came to New York from Rochester in 2001, seeking, he said, “this sort of ‘Sex and the City’ lifestyle.” To Mr. Tandle, that meant a two-bedroom condominium in a new building in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, for which he paid $3,300 a month.

“You sort of get inundated with this American consumerism dream, and that’s what I pushed for, and I worked for,” he said. “This beautiful place in the hip area and the hipster friends or whatever. And then, I guess, I realized that was not really what I wanted.”

Mr. Tandle said he had found alternative ways to live the party-filled lifestyle. In place of costly leather sofas, he fills kiddie pools with piles of pillows for guests to snuggle in on his monthly movie nights.

Friends and neighbors pitched in to landscape his backyard, but ever the bachelor, once it is finished, he’s planning to install a $6,000 hot tub. His apartment is not “big and lush and grandiose,” he said, “but sometimes you want to have a ridiculous 150 people and a world-class D.J. in your basement.”

And sometimes your crib is so far from a plush and inviting bachelor pad that you can use it as a way to vet women, as David Friedlander, 33, does with the extraordinary fun-house-like environs where he lives. If a date isn’t turned off by the premises, it’s a good sign.

For Mr. Friedlander, his surroundings are an exercise in mastering a sort of Zen, “and not identifying with my apartment,” he explained, “being able to find peaceful existence no matter what kind of living situation.”

In Fort Greene, Brooklyn, Urtzi Grau took another tack altogether — rather than give in, he conquered the space with manly industry.

Mr. Grau, 32, an architect originally from Bilbao, Spain, splits the $2,100-a-month rent on a 900-square-foot loft with a roommate. It is here that Mr. Grau showcases creations that he calls pods: two 8-by-6-foot boxes made of particle board, topped with Plexiglas and on wheels. (“Man Pod”..?)

If the high-style bachelor apartment was at its core intended as a lure for love interests, a move toward a more ascetic place might seem to clash with this goal. But some bachelors with pared-down pads disagree.
nytimes article

“The West is the Best..”

Wow.. “The West is the Best..” Maybe, maybe not – but coming back to 45 degrees and rainy is sure trumped by 85 and sunny. Though I’d take chilly air anytime over smoggy..

The West is the best because they have a different way of working. For better or worse, to work in different ways, makes work fun and most importantly- interesting.

I know at some point I will work out there, but for right now – it’s NEW YORK – the concrete jungle that dreams are made of..