Experience the Message

EXPERIENTIAL MARKETING IN A NUTSHELL...(WITH AN EMPHASIS ON NUT?)

THIS IS TOO DAMN AWESOME.

Taking a page from Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails’ recent forays into tiered and pay-as-you-wish pricing strategies for albums, former NIN drummer Josh Freese has developed a wacky but potentially smart pricing system for his new album.

At the first levels you can purchase the CD/DVD, or digital version of the album. Next is the $50 version where you get a t-shirt and a 5 minute thank-you phone call from Freese. $500 will get 15 people a signed CD, t-shirt, cymbal, diner with Freese and a session in a sensory deprivation tank. And it goes upwards in price, with the strange and wonderful bonuses getting stacked ever higher.
 
But there’s more, way more. For two lucky fans with a lot of disposable income ($20,000 and $75,000) you get to participarte in a carnival of “weird and cool stuff”  with Freese and his famous friends.

$20,000 (limited edition of 1)

-Signed CD/DVD and digital download. -T-shirt -A signed drum from the 2008 Nine Inch Nails tour. -Maynard James Keenan, Mark from Devo and Josh take you miniature golfing and then drop you off on the side of the freeway (all filmed and posted on youtube) -Josh gives you a tour of Long Beach. See his first apartment, the coffee shop on 2nd St where his buddy paid Dave Grohl $40 to rip up tile just weeks before joining “Nirvana.” See the old Vandals rehearsal spot, the liquor store he got busted using a Fake I.D. at when he was 17 (it was Dave from the Vandals old ID). Go check out Snoop Dogg’s high- school. For an extra 50 bucks see where Tom and Adrian from No Doubt live.=2 0For another $25 he’ll show ya where Eric from NOFX and Brooks from Bad Religion get their hair cut. -Spend the night aboard the Queen Mary and take the “Ghosts And Legends” tour. (separate rooms…no spooning.) -Josh writes 2 songs about you and it’s made available on iTunes and appears on his next record (you can sing back up on em, clap, play the drums, triangle, whatever….) -Drum lesson OR foot and back massage (once again…couples welcome and discreet parking available) -Pick any 3 items out of Josh’s closet.

$75,000 (limited edition of 1)

-Signed CD/DVD and digital download -T-shirt -Go on tour with Josh for a few days. -Have Josh write, record and release a 5 song EP about you and your life story. -Take home any of his drumsets (only one but you can choose which one.) -Take shrooms and cruise Hollywood in Danny from TOOL’s Lamborgini OR play quarters and then hop on the Ouija board for a while. -Josh will join your band for a month…play shows, record, party with groupies, etc…. -If you don’t have a band he’ll be your personal assistant for a month (4 day work weeks, 10 am to 4 pm) -Take a limo down to Tijuana and he’ll show you how it’s done (what that means exactly we can’t legally get into here) -If you don’t live in Southern California (but are a US resident) he’ll come to you and be your personal assistant/cabana boy for 2 weeks. -Take a flying trapeze lesson with Josh and Robin from NIN, go back to Robin’s place afterwards and his wife will make you raw lasagna.

Shrooms?!? Roadtrip to Tijuana? Your own album? Brilliant!!! Check out the entire list here.

HOW TO WALK THE WALK

I love the attitude of this story and the brand. I love how ballsy it is.

Red Bull, with some assistance from Oakley, has just built a secret half-pipe on the backside of Silverton Mountain in Colorado for snowboarder Shaun White’s training purposes. The area can only be accessed by snowmobile or helicopter and is said to be closed off to the public. The price tag was $500,000, and it looks like it was worth every penny.

You see, that's how a brand leader acts. It does so without hesitation, without a need for justification and without the fear of middle-management blow-back. This is how you grow brand love. Any kid who has dreams of stardom -- especially as a snowboarder or skater -- will now dream of that stardom in the context of Red Bull and how the brand acts towards its stars and brand ambassadors.

Kudos, Red Bull. You are teaching us so much.

SOME NEWS OF NOTE

Here's a good one! Microsoft is planning on opening a number of proprietary brand stores throughout the United States. Taking a page out of the Apple playbook, the PC giant is planning on improving its brand image and access with the stores. According to this article in the New York Times:

The company had hired David Porter, a 25-year veteran of Wal-Mart Stores, as its corporate vice president for retail stores.
Mr. Porter, who is set to start work on Tuesday, is charged with improving the PC-buying experience. The company said his first task would be to set the timing, locations and design of Microsoft-branded retail stores, which will sell computers installed with Microsoft software as well as other company products.

Oh yeah, a Wal-Mart guy is gonna improve the experience. Good luck with that.

Offering up a yin to the this yang is this story from the NYT, detailing Nestle's Nespresso brand and it's impressive growth. It costs "seven to eight times as much" to make a cup of Nespresso brand coffee than it does to brew a traditional cup, and yet Nespresso's sales grew 30 percent in 2008:

While Starbucks usually gets credit for standardizing coffeehouse culture and taking it around the world, Nespresso is credited with standardizing premium coffee in the workplace and at home through its pod machine, which brews a cup at a time from small aluminum capsules that hold just enough grounds for a serving.

Nestlé probably did not invent the idea of the pod — the Italian coffee maker Illy claims that. But it parlayed it into a global marketing phenomenon.The brand is distributed in 50 countries and employs more than 2,500 worldwide.

Most sales come from Europe, but it is also available in Latin America and North America and has made inroads in traditional tea markets like Asia.Nespresso now has about 175 boutique storefronts where customers can buy machines, capsules and accessories, sip coffee and taste the lifestyle.And that lifestyle does not come cheap.

The coffee machines, which are co-branded, range from basic models by Krups and Magimix, which cost 149 euros ($189) at the Paris store, to a deluxe Miele digital model at 1,849 euros, not including installation.The makers keep the profit from the machines.

Nespresso sells the coffee pods, which are available only through Nespresso boutiques, online and by telephone. It charges around 45 cents to 50 cents for each capsule, which contains 5.5 grams to 7 grams of coffee. That price is seven to eight times the price of Colombian ground coffee in French supermarkets.

Word. The experience is the message, folks.

THE BRAND EXTENSION AS EXPERIENCE

I've written a number of posts on the branded brand, or the notion that authentic brand experiences can be communicated through innovative brand extensions and co-brand partnerships (think Nike+).

In my next book, I examine the branded brand even further, using learnings from the Chinese counterfeit and pirate scene as a glimpse into the future of branding.

P&G is doing the same. It has been perfecting the notion of creating experiential places to drive home brand equity and brand extensions. The Charmin Potty Pallooza campagn is a great example. So is the Tide Clean Start program.

Now, the WSJ reports, P&G will be forging a new business model: franchising car washes.

To jump-start plans for a nationwide chain of Mr. Clean Car Wash franchises, P&G in December acquired the franchise assets of Atlanta-based Carnett's Car Wash, which has 14 locations.

P&G is under mounting pressure to find new sources of revenue growth, particularly as more cash-strapped shoppers think twice about buying its premium-priced products. Wall Street is increasingly skeptical that the mammoth company can garner meaningful gains in its slow-growing product categories and a tough economy.

Known for exhaustively testing new ideas, Procter & Gamble has been quietly experimenting with service businesses in recent years. Since 2007, it has operated two Mr. Clean Car Washes near its Cincinnati headquarters. Last year, it unveiled three Tide dry-cleaning shops in Kansas City, Kan., area....

...P&G marketers are also eager to see if Mr. Clean Car Washes dotting roadways will help boost the image and exposure of the overall brand. Mr. Estruth puts it whimsically. Expanding into franchises, he says, is "broadening Mr. Clean's shoulders as a magical helper."

What do you think it will do for the brand? And don't you be surprised in other P&G brands are incorporated into the car wash experience.

MARKETING IS A RIGHT BRAIN BUSINESS

Rarely do I agree with articles in Ad Age, and rarer still do I agree with the old guard like Al Reis. But his latest column in the venerable ad bible is worth a read. In essence, Al says, "left-brain management will never understand right-brain marketing." Filled with old-time anecdotes and spot-on observations, Al does not disappoint in this one.

At one of his first meetings at IBM, Lou Gerstner was listening to a briefing by one of his lieutenants, who was using an overhead projector and transparencies. On the second transparency, Mr. Gerstner reached over, switched off the projector and said, "Let's just talk about your business."

Management is verbal and analytical. Yet most marketing presentations are visual and emotional. They sell creativity when they should be selling logic.

Nice one. There are plenty more. But more true to the article is the notion that right-brain thinking is a must for successful marketing. I touch on this subject a bit in Brand New World when discussing the marketing and advertising coming out of India. The role of right-brain empathy is becoming instrumental in creating global campaigns and global brands.