The latest incarnation of Apple TV has again fired up the “cut the cord” talk – killing off your obscenely-priced cable or satellite subscription. The stranglehold is broken. Cutting the cord is absolutely a trend.
Apple TV, for example, has now joined more than 100 other devices that support Netflix streaming, which allows unending access to a huge library of programming direct to your television.
What you want, when you want it, as often as you want it – it’s easier than ever and doesn’t require a $100 cable bill. Just a little bit of new hardware, a high-speed internet connection, maybe some new software, some non-cable and non-satellite programming subscriptions …
Just don’t tell me it’s about saving money.
Go old school: harness high definition television in its cleanest form with a $10 antenna or even a paperclip - compliments of your local broadcaster.
High definition television in its cleanest, purest form is always available to you at no cost. The signal gets no better than straight out of the air. No expensive hardware to purchase (because you already own that 42″ HDTV). No cable, no satellite, no high speed internet, no Hulu, no Netflix … no subscription required of any kind.
Digital broadcast signals are in the air and all you need to harness them is a $10 antenna (though a large paperclip will often suffice). Again, high definition television in its cleanest, purest form can be brought into your home at no cost.
Yes, you’re limited in programming. In most areas, though, you’ll get a dozen channels or more between primary and sub-channels, from such content providers as PBS, NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX, Univision, Telemundo and others.
Yes, you’re giving up some precious control, subjecting yourself to a linear broadcast with incessant commercial interruptions.
Yes, it’s ludicrous to imagine cutting a high-speed internet subscription.
Yes, you may want to augment your options with a sub-$10 Netflix subscription.
But … over-the-air television is absolutely free. Right now. All the time. And it’s nearly 100% stupid-proof … just plug it in and turn it on. It’s the true essence of passive entertainment.
I know this sounds like the ramblings of your grandfather, but the point remains: if your argument and motivation for “cutting the cord” is financial, you must celebrate the role your local broadcaster plays in entertaining and informing you.
High definition television in a linear form is a relic. And it’s absolutely free.
Like water into wine, Pabst Blue Ribbon went seriously upscale for its product launch in China, demonstrating the power of positioning. Though the dynamic of consumers’ definitions of who you are and how you relate to competitors is always a factor, opportunities arise for brands to make that definition and claim that mental space for themselves. The jury’s still out since this story’s only a couple weeks old, but I’m anxious to know how this works out for PBR.
A brief history of Pabst Blue Ribbon in America from my perspective:
born in the late 1800′s in the upper midwest
a blue collar beer for most of my lifetime
sales peak in 1977 then fall off dramatically
enjoying a resurgence among urban hipsters who can’t resist the great taste of irony
overall a decent brand for its overlord, Miller Brewing
As if from water into wine, PBR goes luxury for China launch.
A brief introduction of Pabst Blue Ribbon in China:
now called “Blue Ribbon 1844″ (reference to Pabst founding date)
now a luxury brand, a “world famous spirit”
now sells for $44 per bottle (720-ml bottle, more detailed brew)
Pabst launches "Blue Ribbon 1844" in China
What a clever way to take advantage of a huge, new market – completely re-position the brand for introduction to an audience largely ignorant of PBR’s unpretentious past.
As noted above, this isn’t simply a repackaging of the same product. The March 5 edition of Modern Brewery Age describes the person and process nicely. They hired Alan Kornhauser, of Jos. Huber, Anchor Brewing, Portland Brewing, August Schell and others, to work in China six months of the year. “We just produced China’s first real specialty beer, an all-malt, reddish brown strong (15.7 plato) ale, dry hopped with Cascade (38 IBU) and aged in new uncharred American whiskey barrels,” MBA quotes him. They’re only selling Blue Ribbon 1844 in China.
So they’ve re-positioned the Pabst Blue Ribbon brand in an honest and meaningful way. That’s even better than clever.
Here are the before and after images (actually arranged as after and before):
Before and After Photoshop: BP Command Center
I’ve seen two primary, polar reactions to this story:
“It’s no surprise coming from those no-good, lying, reckless, corner-cutting, profit-hoarding goons!”
“What’s the big deal? They’ve obviously got bigger fish to fry!” (or fish to slick and suffocate, as it were)
I’ll take a minute to stand more toward the middle, but clearly on one side.
Altering an image is directly opposed to fundamental principles of management and public relations. For the past 5 years, you couldn’t spend 5 minutes with any Harvard Business Review publication without feeling the movement toward transparency and authenticity.
Social media, in particular, has really brought these concepts in practice to the fore. Fold in some Seth Godin-style storytelling-as-marketing and the picture is even more clear: every individual and organization has the opportunity to tell the world who they are, what they’re about, where they’re from, why they’re here. Beyond that, they can always share what they know, when they know it, directly with people who care.
If, however, these efforts are not received as honest and forthright from a good corporate citizen, this may be done for you (witness: BPGlobalPR on Twitter). Regardless, companies of all sizes have embraced this opportunity and grown as a result.
As small an infraction as filling in a few Command Center monitors with some action shots may seem, it’s not honest. When your every move is under the most extreme scrutiny you’ll ever enjoy, why doctor the images that are helping tell your story of response and recovery? Apparently, trucking in workers for a Presidential photo op isn’t enough.
The BP spokesperson’s response to this story wasn’t awful: “Normally, we only use Photoshop for the typical purposes of color correction and cropping.” Transparency, authenticity and honesty should be employed constantly, not “normally.” Yes, it’s asking a lot, but truth is ultimately easier and best.
Original estimates on the amount of oil pouring into the Gulf (5,000 to 50-100,000) now seem as ridiculous as the original cost estimates of the war in Iraq ($50-60,000,000,000 to $2-3,000,000,000,000).
BP continues to buy pay-per-click campaigns (Google, Bing, Yahoo, YouTube) to try to steer searches to BP-produced information (to be fair, it’s a fine idea – I mention it because they took some heat for it).
BP withheld video of the leak for weeks, only released it through government mandate and continued to withhold HD video from scientists working on the problem.
Though off-point with regard to honesty, Hayward’s “I want my life back” and weekend of yachting earned charges of being aloof, insensitive and out of touch (um, 11 people lost their lives permanently in the initial explosion). He even described the spill as “relatively tiny.”
The list goes on and the point remains: the PR response to the worst oil spill in U.S. history has been neither excellent nor honest. The scope of this disaster is unprecedented. It could have happened to any oil company working off shore. Some PR blunders and gaffes can be reasonably expected. Active obfuscation, however, is beyond “blunder.”
Bottom line: I find the Photoshopped image to be a micro-representation of an attitude, philosophy and practice completely opposed to the best path forward: transparency and authenticity.
What a great ad. What a great message. What a great brand.
I loved where Toyota was with this:
The automotive branding textbook example is “Volvo = Safety.”
A runner up: “Toyota = Reliability.”
Once the darling of the automotive world for its efficient production, fantastic sales and extreme reliability, however, Toyota‘s taken quite a hit over the past year.
Result: a hard tack away from reliability toward …
Wow! That’s a ton of “safety.” A quick count has them at seven mentions per :30 spot – nearly one time every four seconds!
On the upside: message is loud and clear, yet casual and clean. Also, safety is not wholly separate from reliability; I consider the two concepts quite compatible. It’s also timely and topical, if not a little bold given the state of all things Toyota.
On the downside: if you’re a Toyota owner (which I’ve never been), you may not buy the message – especially if the recalls have been particularly inconvenient. This “safety” onslaught (I’ve seen several full-page print ads to match these spots) is not even fresh on the heels of the safety and reliability problems – it’s amid them. I feel strongly, though, that something often enough repeated comes to be believed (for better and for worse).
I feel like this direction could really work … but they’re already giving up on it.
“They’re Already Giving Up” Exhibit A:
In short: “smart, young go-getter gets a helping hand from a good corporate citizen.” Two notes: “Erica” does say the word “reliable” and it’s the same voice as the safety campaign.
The “safety” sell, though, seems to have expired. They must have research that suggests their problems with perceived safety and reliability are over – or that those perception/imaging problems were never too deep.
If not, I’m considering Toyota lost in the wilderness.
Disclaimer: Toyota is obviously a highly sophisticated marketer. My observations are based strictly in mainstream television and magazine messages. I expect fully that they’ve got many targeted, niche campaigns striking exactly where needed that are beyond my view.
On the eve of one of what could be the most significant free agency period in the history of the National Basketball Association, I’d like to share a few observable upsides.
The downsides are easy. Free agency connotes “hired gun,” disloyal mercenary and money-grubbing whore. OK, that last one was over the top, but the point remains: free agency can make players seem as though they’re simply chasing cash and/or the opportunity to win a championship.
Disfavor toward free agency also comes from Association purists, who like to see the same franchise send the same squad to the court year after year. Larry Bird was a Boston Celtic. Isaiah Thomas was a Detroit Piston. John Stockton and Karl Malone were the Utah Jazz franchise … until the Mailman chased a championship by bandwagoning with a Los Angeles Lakers team that was surprisingly felled – no, crushed – by the Pistons in the 2004 NBA Finals.
I can’t get into restricted and unrestricted free agency, salary caps, salary matching or any of the other mind-numbing nuances of NBA roster-building. I’ll simply add, as open season on the NBA class of 2003 begins, that free agency is not all bad.
Chris Bosh, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade - NBA Class of 2003 - Foundation for Huge Free Agent Market in 2010
1. Renders jerseys obsolete and requires the purchase of new jerseys. I would never purchase, nor wear, an NBA jersey – never going to happen. That said, hudreds of thousands of people around the world would – and do. Players changing teams means more jersey sales. Result: Goodwills and garage sales become littered with instantly “retro” gear – yours on the cheap! Allen Iverson Nuggest jersey, anyone!?
2. Renders video games obsolete and requires the purchase of new editions. No one wants to create new rookie players, much less shuffle rosters through trading, releasing or signing players. It’s far easier just to buy this year’s release – especially if there have been substantial changes across the Association. Don’t care about current rosters? Just want to jack up some 3s and throw down some dunks? BANG! NBA Live 2007 will set you back just $0.59 on eBay.
3. Takes fans one step deeper into the process. Video games have done this to some degree by providing the opportunity to coach teams and build franchises. The combination of enhanced mainstream and niche media attention and roster dynamism have given fans interested in the NBA a deeper look into the relationships and negotiations between owners, GMs, coaches, agents and players. More awareness and transparency generally results in deeper loyalty.
4. Enhances the soap opera element. Let’s face it – professional sports are, in part, simply soap operas for men. Deny it if you wish, but you’re accepting blindness in doing so. More movement means more story lines means more drama. I know I’m curious where everyone will land – and how. I’m also curious how the new chemistry wherever changes take place will develop. I’m also curious about the balance of power – where and how it’ll shift. I also watch reality television – what can I say?
5. Adds more year-round interest to the game. The NBA season now runs from around Halloween through mid-June, leaving only four months to fill with inter-season interest. The draft helps, as does this free agency period. New rosters take shape and next thing you know, they’re in camp for the new season.
6. Gives new hope to desperate fans. The promising combination of the draft and free agency gives even the most dejected fan Chicago Cubs-like optimism for next season. I’m all for that.
So as the league’s superstars prepare to entertain whatever offers and scenarios their agents can line up, I refuse to hearken back to the day when Zeke and Stockton were unwittingly competing for “world’s shortest shorts.” Instead, I look forward to a new-look Association this fall.
Spring snow melt is producing seasonal streams down the high east slopes of Pikes Peak. The alpine tundra is greening and blooming. With perfect weather and good, unexpected company, my second round trip hike of Pikes Peak by Barr Trail was the best summit experience yet.
Self-timer near the A-Frame Timberline Shelter, Barr Trail, Pikes Peak
I pulled into the parking lot off Ruxton over the Hydro Plant immediately behind a guy in a Toyota Tundra. As we were both getting our stuff together, he asked if I was heading to the summit and if I’d ever done so. I answered in the affirmative to both questions, prompting his follow-up: can we hike up together. He wasn’t so keen on my idea of starting the hike on the Incline, but he decided it’d provide a good challenge and cool story.
(Aside: committing to spend the entire morning with a complete stranger may seem striking, but it’s not. My rationale: we’re both in the parking lot at the bottom of Barr Trail at 4:45am – we’ve definitely got enough in common to carry 5 or 6 hours of conversation!)
Just like that, Jay and I were headed up the mountain.
We’d probably have made it to Barr Camp a half hour or 45 minutes faster, but Jay tweaked one of his calves on the Incline and it kept seizing up on him. He worked through it nicely and we kept a nice pace the rest of the way.
I love the mountain, the people and the culture of the place, but where Pikes Peak by Barr Trail really gets great is at the Ghost Forest a bit above Barr Camp. Next is the A Frame Timberline Shelter, followed by a climb up to a broad, bouldered bench. For its beautiful alpine tundra and wild granite figures, my favorite part of the hike is around the 3-miles-out mark (progress is all very well marked). Once the trail switches on a long, southerly crossing of the east face of the mountain, you’re treated to a couple nice looks into the 1,500-feet-deep Cirque. A few mouths full of diesel exhaust from the Cog train let you know you’re close to the destination. The “16 Golden Stairs” are the final switchbacks before the summit, where a zoo awaits.
Greening, blooming tundra and granite figures make this my favorite part of Barr Trail, two or three miles shy of the summit.
Jay wasn’t hiking round trip, as he had a 5pm commitment far across town. I hung out at the summit house while Jay lined up a ride down with a family from Kansas City. We thanked each other for what was certainly a mutually positive experience.
The hike down was marked with a nice Father’s Day phone call with my wife, son and father, all of who are in Michigan at the moment. Passing through Barr Camp, there was a little to-do about a huge black bear that’s been hanging around this spring. I also took a little more time to shoot some photos than I did on the way up (example: the stands of Columbine just above the Fremont Experimental Forest were in the shadows on ascent, but lit on the way down).
It was a fantastic 12-hour day throughout which I became more fond and more familiar with my “home court” hike. Pikes Peak and Barr Trail don’t get much love from the serious hiking and climbing community (my impression), so I’ll share it in abundance. I aspire to return annually, maybe at different times of the season.
Random Notes
I really felt great all day – never weak, tired or sore. That said, I woke up pretty tight on Monday morning!
The summit is not the best part of Pikes Peak. The views are nice, but not nearly as fine as those on many, many other mountain tops or as those from elsewhere on the mountain.
To enjoy the finest part of the experience in a way that doesn’t require as long or high a climb, I recommend you drive to the summit and hike down three or four miles. Sure, you’ll have to hike back up, but you’ll have walked the finest part of Barr Trail.
By starting the hike on the Incline, you knock off a mile or mile and a half in distance and put 2,000 feet of the 7,500 foot climb behind you.
Tomorrow, I’ll day-hike Barr Trail to the summit of Pikes Peak and back down for the second time. This hike, however, already feels different.
My first ascent was undertaken in gleeful ignorance just three weeks after moving to Colorado Springs.
Sure, I knew I’d be hiking about 25 or 26 miles round trip to the top of “America’s Mountain,” the inspiration for the writing of “America the Beautiful.”
Yeah, I knew it would require most of my waking hours that day.
Absolutely, I was up for a walk up through three distinct ecological life zones (Montane, Spruce-fir and alpine).
It wasn’t until I hiked up alongside of JJ, a 20-something from Denver who’s in the Colorado Mountain Club, about 5 miles up that I really understood the accomplishment of day-hiking it. The young man filled me in.
First summit hike of Pikes Peak by Barr Trail, September 2006
Pikes Peak by Barr Trail is marathon-length, the longest approach of any of Colorado’s famed 14ers (+14,000 peaks). It also has the greatest elevation gain of any approach; from the trailhead in Manitou Springs to the summit, you climb approximately 7,500 vertical feet.
Among more than 50 qualifying Colorado peaks, Pikes ranks 30th at 14,110ft above sea level. So, it’s not even close to being the highest.
It’s also not the most technical. In fact, it’s probably the least technical. Barr Trail is a Class 1 walk-up, about as simple a summit hike as you’ll find.
It’s also insanely civilized. To call Barr Trail heavily used is a gross understatement, even by 14er standards. There’s Barr Camp halfway up, where many hikers spend the night, purchase t-shirts, eat a pancake breakfast or pick up a bottled drink. The summit itself is a tourist’s delight, designed to satisfy all those who drive up the Pikes Peak Highway or ride up the Pikes Peak Cog Railway. In addition to a huge gift shop, replete with the requisite “Got Oxygen” t-shirts, summit house offers a snack bar and fresh donut stand. Note: in addition to hiking it, I’ve been up by (rental) car and by cog railway.
So, what’s the difference between my initial go at it and what I’m preparing for tomorrow? I don’t keep a list, but I’d guess I’ve climbed a couple dozen mountains since my day-hike of Pikes Peak. So what’s the big deal?
I’ll call it the mental aspect of endurance. It’s a little more in my head now. I’m thinking too much about it. It’s shaping up as more of a mental challenge than a physical one.
It’s going to be a long day – probably 12 or 13 hours of hiking. I’m going to start before sunrise. I’m certain to have blisters by the end of the day (even though I plan to switch between shoes and boots near treeline).
I’m not going up the much shorter Crags route on the west side of the mountain. I’m not splitting the hike in half with by staying overnight at Barr Camp. I’m not hiking up, then catching a ride back down in a car or on the train.
Instead, I’m heading up as fast as I can, buying a Gatorade in the summit house, seeing how full the parking lot is, then hauling all the way back down and out (the hike down’s different, but it isn’t easy). I’m already wondering how tired and sore I might be as I head in to work on Monday morning.
To feel a little more prepared, I put on my boots and a full pack and did The Inclinethis morning. And to think … last time, I simply decided on a Thursday afternoon that Saturday’s weather looked good, so I should head up that mountain in my back yard.
(((Disclaimer: this is not a technology review or product comparison. This post is about product positioning in prospects’ minds.)))
They’re the best commercials on TV right now … but they’re probably too late. The first of these hit the air in March. The iPad dropped on April 3.
Amazon hit up Ithyle for these fun, imaginative and insanely stylish ads for their Kindle reader. Between the visual technique, music, props, scenes and transitions, they sing “the simple pleasure of stories” to me. The feature or benefit sell is strictly limited to “books in 60 seconds,” which is subtle and sound.
Too bad this effort wasn’t undertaken a year or two back.
Check out the first three:
The Kindle has a very specific purpose. It’s uniquely focused – no apps, no color, no video, no internet, just reading. 3G wireless provides access to a huge library of books, each of which can be downloaded in a minute or less. That 3G access requires no subscriptions or monthly fees. The battery life is very, very impressive. Quite simply, it’s the best e-reader currently available.
Despite all this, I feel strongly that the iPad takes Kindle’s place in the mind of prospective buyers of e-readers.
That said, this isn’t a zero-sum game. For the sliver who only want to read books and who do a rational side-by-side comparison, the Kindle should come out ahead.
For a couple years now, Amazon has done a nice job profiling Kindle on its homepage, particularly around holidays and other gift-buying times. They have end-cap displays at Target complete with a live device that you can pick up, hold and explore. They continue to roll out beautiful ads on television.
A quick follow up to the last post about a vibrant painting by a local artist hanging at the Pioneers Museum in downtown Colorado Springs.
I brought the post to the attention of the artist, Tracy Felix. We had a short email exchange in which he shared a few additional images and gave me insight into his creative and production processes.
In some cases he works from his own photographs, as well as postcards and photos from others. In other cases he works strictly from imagination, informed by decades of hiking, skiing and exploring our area.
Here is an example of the former, a new painting from a recent trip to Durango:
The Grenadier Range from Molas Lake by Tracy Felix
Here’s an example of the latter, an imagined scene generated from the general idea or concept of “northern New Mexico”:
Along the Rio Grande by Tracy Felix
The point of this post: rather than simply enjoying a painting at a local treasure of a museum, I decided to shoot a couple photos and write a brief piece about it. From that limited initiative, I received more insight into the person and the process behind the images, images of three additional paintings not in the online gallery, information about a current showing of work by him and his wife, Sushe, and a standing, informal invitation to the Felix’s home and studio. I think that’s wonderful.
Here’s the third image I received; it’s inspired by the La Plata mountains in the San Juan range near Durango:
Three things I truly enjoy intersect just 2 miles from our home: local history, a local artist and landscape art.
Physically, they intersect at Tejon and Vermijo in downtown Colorado Springs.
The Pioneers Museum is dedicated to local history, including the settlement and development of the Colorado Springs area. Its home is the former El Paso County Courthouse; one of the exhibits is a fully restored courtroom. It used to be open from 10am-5pm every day of the week, but the city budget is an absolute wreck. It’s always free to the public and absolutely worth a visit by locals and visitors alike.
The Pioneers Museum in downtown Colorado Springs is housed in the former El Paso County Courthouse
One of my favorite exhibits is “Looming Large: The Artistic Legacy of Pikes Peak,” which was developed during the 2006 bicentennial of Zebulon Montgomery Pike’s expedition up the southwestern slopes of America’s Mountain. It’s a room filled with various artistic renderings of the mountain that now bears Pike’s name. One painting truly stands out from the rest and earns prominent placement.
Entrance to the Looming Large exhibit at the Pioneers Museum
The oil painting is “Pikes Peak 2004″ by Tracy Felix, who grew up and worked as an artist in Colorado Springs. Within the past few years, he and his wife, artist Sushe Felix, moved to Denver.
Pikes Peak 2004 by Tracy Felix
Perhaps for my love of mountains, wilderness and trails, I’ve always favored landscape photography and landscape painting over most other artistic forms. Fold in the fact that the artist is local and the subject is Colorado mountains and I’m all in.
The style here is obviously bright, playful and inviting. Though this treatment of Pikes Peak is relatively straightforward, much of his other work is a bit more abstract.
