Marketing Musings: A Paradigm Shift We Can All Learn From

This month Fast Company profiles the endorsement by Sierra Club (America’s oldest environmental org.) of the new Clorox (a big and historically non-green company!) brand, Green Works.

I haven’t looked into the products yet to understand the authenticity behind all of this. Clearly many loyal members are up in arms about an association with a big, bad brand name like Clorox. What did strike me is a quote from the Sierra Club CEO, Carl Pope.

He said he’d been “…pushing for a shift in mind-set…from a mandate to stop bad things…to one about making good things happen.”

Wow. Talk about opening up your mind and looking at a challenge in a new way. It struck me that many trade union leaders, had they been able to make such a shift, may be far more relevant in today’s labor market.

The full article is here.

Marketing Musings: Those Crazy Olympics Commercials...

Any votes for the worst commercials so far? For a few days Subway were in the lead position with this me too QSR gaming effort – if you are going to do it, don’t spend $50 bucks on the production. It is so amateur for a company with a multibillion dollar turnover.



As a quick aside, many Subway stores are introducing frozen pizza which is blasted in a high powered convection oven. No word yet on how these fit into the signature tag line, Eat Fresh…

Luckily for Subway GE has come through with an even more ridiculous production that this time, did not lack money, just imagination (which ironically forms part of their logo on many occasions.) Global warming and the energy crisis are two of the most visible issues facing humanity. Pulling from an Al Gore presentation or educating the public on wind and its viability was the way to go. Nope – the Olympics should be light hearted so let’s create an association between the first Olympics and our modern product, and make it really funny (which is course it isn’t) seemed to be the order from above.

Result = lost opportunity, waste of money and I suspect I am the only one talking about GE or the wind towers.



What else am I missing?

Marketing Musings: Why Do Rabid Fans Wear Lycra?

Have you ever noticed what rabid fans semi-serious cyclists are? Seriously, many look like they just finished a stage in the in Tour de France and its well accepted. What’s weird is you don’t see the same dedication to purity in other sports.

When was the last time you saw someone dressed in full football or baseball kit heading for a casual weekend game? I am not sure what it is but if I were in charge of apparel licensing for other sports I’d be trying to work it out!