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How Trump and Apple ARE a Lot Like selling CARS.

9/12/2015

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Two of the biggest deals occupying the media of late are Donald Trump and Apple Computers.  Neither the 9/11 observances nor the Pope’s upcoming New York visit (not to mention start of the new Fantasy Football season) could match the fervor with which reporters awaited pronouncements from these two cultural phenomena.

The revolutionary new product star hoped for from the Cupertino crowd didn’t show up, although evolution of the iPhone continues unabated; a stronger case, better camera, new touch feature and Rose Gold color captured a moment’s attention each. The windowpane-sized iPad Pro was announced, along with “The Pencil”.  And there was a hint of disruption to come with Apple TV.  Thousands of devotees watched the product reveals unfold online and speculated about what Tim Cook and his subordinates had to say anew while watching Apple stock prices bounce up and down on their computer screens.

Viewers also anticipated something fresh and raw this week from The Donald -- and he failed to disappoint, although there wasn’t much substance in his pronouncements, just the usual mix of shocking lines about the continuing stupidity of the current bunch in D.C. or Carly Fiorina’s face. That Trump has tapped into an angry underground river of frustration about the country’s social, political and geo-political direction cannot be denied.  The question, however, is now that he’s got everybody’s attention what is he going to do with it beyond entertain us with more indignant blathering? – other than help the media make more money (as CNN staff complains about how much Donald appears on their channel, and Huff Post now has a whole section devoted to nothing but Trump).
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Trump and Apple hawking their respective wonderfulness reminds me of selling cars.  Years ago, when I was but a pup, one of the biggest deals around was each autumn's announcement of the following year’s new models.  Folks looked forward to getting a peek at the latest designs, such as Chrysler’s Forward Look. And automakers worked hard to give people the new styles they expected, especially in the decades immediately following World War II (during which automobile manufacturing had been suspended in favor of producing war materiel).  

These days, most new car announcements produce all the excitement of a morning yawn, unless you’re a true aficionado, and I for one think we’ve lost a little something, because that wedge of the American can-do spirit represented by our automobile industry back then has all but vanished.

I have neither the expertise nor prescience to suggest what Apple may come up with next – if anything.  But I do hope they have at least one more out-of-the-park home run in them, an innovative new product that we can anticipate with the kind of excitement that used to surround the announcement of next year’s cars.

As for The Donald, who tends to speak loudly and carry a big geo-political stick, and who changes his mind all too often about whatever's in his gun sights, including the phalanx of progressive social concerns that so concerns a wide swath of Americans, I’d like to think that he’ll eventually bow or flame out of the presidential race.  In an odd way, the election process may have been refreshed for his having passed through it, like the sun after a violent rainstorm.

Content © 2015 by Brian E. Faulkner.  All rights reserved. 



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VINYL RECORDS: Marketing A Memory.

5/27/2015

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Picture- Image © by Brian E. Faulkner -
I hear that vinyl is back.  No, not vinyl floors or tacky vinyl car tops: vinyl records -- the grooved discs that music used to come on before cassette tapes and CDs and online streaming.  The kind I grew up listening to.  If you’re of the Baby Boom generation, you likely will recall hoarding your pocket change to buy the latest Elvis or Little Richard or Everly Brothers record. 

Three kinds of buyers appear responsible for the rise in vinyl record sales these days: 
  • purists, people who love the more open, warm sound vinyl reproduction provides;
  • young people, for whom vinyl records are a new, more tactile way to listen to indie bands while discovering the music of previous generations (my 29-year-old daughter has been rummaging around for vinyl albums since she was a teenager);
  • and older folks, for whom vinyl not only is a trip down memory lane but an opportunity to reacquaint themselves with all the music waiting in those old boxes of LPs in the basement.

So it’s no surprise that sales of classic artists like The Beatles and Bob Dylan have been selling well on vinyl – helping drive category sales up 15% during the first three months of 2015, while accounting for only about 2% of total album sales.  Top sellers for 2014 were a mix of classic and new artists: Jack White (who has set some vinyl sales records), Arctic Monkeys, Beck, The Beatles’ Abbey Road, Bob Marley’s Legend compilation album from 1984 and a notable young singer/songwriter from New Zealand who calls herself Lorde – among others.

The times they are a-changin’ warbled Dylan back in 1964, and sometimes the times catch us by surprise, especially when a format like LP or 45 rpm records re-emerge from yesteryear to delight us with their new-found authenticity.

You’d think this resurgence of “old as new” products is mostly about nostalgia, a word from Greek that essentially means an ache for home, and you’d mostly be right.  During times of geopolitical turmoil or unsettling societal change, yearning for “the good ol’ days” is common, although we don’t often reach out for nostalgic cues from much further back than our childhoods – which is why toys (and classic cars) from the '50s and '60s can command big Boomer bucks these days.

Heard a bit of conversation on NPR‘s Morning Edition today where a guest was talking about how people are using notebooks or notepads  more often in solo gathering spots like Starbucks.  I recall one person saying that he uses his laptop or tablet for school stuff, not for writing more thoughtful, reflective things like poetry.  If I’m chewing on some ideas, I’d much rather use a notepad than a computer, although writing blog posts come easily on my laptop.  But if I were taking notes in a class, I’d go for pencil and paper every time.  It’s more fluid, more intuitive – at least for me.   Taking notes on a computer requires you to interact with the technology more than you’d do with pen or pencil.

If nostalgia is about recapturing the feeling one had during a simpler, less complex, less technologically saturated and more thoughtful time – personally or as a people, it’s easy to see why vinyl records are enjoying a renaissance.  

And even the old ones sound so good, despite all the crackles and pops that can leap out of the grooves along with the music.  But you don’t mind the noise, do you?   Because they’re your crackles and pops.  You put them there back in the ‘50s, ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s when you were just coming up.

Now that’s a memory!   And memories are marketable.

TakeAway:  Your next new product may be something old --  who knows, maybe formal hats will make a comeback!

Content © by Brian E. Faulkner

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You Gotta Get An iPhone, Dad!

9/13/2014

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PictureImage © by Brian E. Faulkner
Two of my daughters are nuts for Apple iPhones and have been lobbying me to get one for some time.  They figure that if I join the Apple crowd we can talk and perhaps even see each other more often by way of Apple FaceTime.  Not to mention have “in-person” conversations with my young grandchildren, who are spread out way too far.

If I’ve almost arrived in AppleLand, the truth is that I’ve been there before. 

Back in the mid ‘80s, I traded in my ancient MS-DOS word processor (which itself had been traded up from an IBM Selectric typewriter) for a Mac Plus.  It was slick, but compared to today’s devices had the storage capacity of a gnat.  Even so, I could not only type and re-type on it in any number of fonts but also make charts and draw pictures and publish my work right there on my electronic “desktop” (thanks in part to a very expensive, very hefty Apple laser printer that I still have stored in my basement). 

Being aboard the Apple train not only made for greater efficiency, it also made me feel just a little bit cool, which no doubt Messrs. Jobs and Wozniak would have been pleased to know had they been able to see into my little office on Fourth Street.

1984 had promised to be a whole lot more creative with arrival of the Mac – presaged as it was by Apples I, II and III and Cupertino's late ‘70s pronouncement that “Soon there will be 2 kinds of people: those who use computers and those who use Apples.”  Thirty years on, it still seems that way.  For the best part of two generations Apple has managed to maintain the notion that people who use their products are more creative, more spontaneous and a whole lot more fun than the comparative Neanderthals who don’t use Apple devices.   In a genius twist of advertising, Apple painted a picture of Mr. Gates’ PCs as clunky, boring, unstable and prone to catch whatever virus happened to be going around that week.

After a few years, shifting circumstances introduced a PC into my business, which gradually claimed the bulk of my writing and publishing work.   In time, my Apple Plus got used only by my children to play Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?   Then became a dust-catcher.

Flash forward thirty years, to the relentless campaign pursued by two of my daughters to get me back on board the Apple Train.  They have iPhones and iPads and iWhoKnowsWhat. They perceive me as a modern day Luddite (my battered old flip phone works just fine, thank you – except at home, of course, where AT&T’s signal strength couldn’t blow the wings off a mosquito).  A few months ago, I almost bit for a 5S but got entranced with Nokia’s superior camera quality and deliberated between the two phones as if my immediate future depended on choosing the right one but ended up doing nothing. 

My four kids then got together and bought me an iPad for my birthday.  They also bought their mother one, which she has filled to overflowing with apps and videos.  I have not.  I use my iPad to check email and the news some nights before falling off to sleep – and as a stand-in camera when I need to take pictures like the one above.  I can’t imagine reading a novel on the thing or on a Nook or a Kindle or any other sort of e reader.  You can’t fold the pages back on them, underline memorable passages and stuff bits of paper between their pages.

The whole digital-or-die-back dilemma makes me feel like my Dad, to whom being technologically progressive meant switching from black-and-white to color TV sometime in the '60s.  One of my brothers still laughs when I inquire whether he’s got any of the newest gadgets, but then again he doesn’t have to because his wife (a retired science teacher) takes care of all that stuff.

Do my daughters have reason to be discouraged about my stubbornness?  After all, the iPhone 6 is due out in a few days, and it actually has a screen that’s big enough for me to see.  The answer is “Yes.”  Because I am a procrastinator -- not because the iPhone 6 isn’t “perfect” for me.

I noticed while flipping through my iPad last night that Apple sales have barely made a dent in Latin America, which is dominated by Android devices, many of which have larger screens more suitable for watching movies.  That may be a big untapped market.  But I don’t think it holds a candle to the unaddressed sales potential represented by people like me.

Who knows?  We just might respond to an advertising campaign that nags at us -- like a pair of lovely and well-meaning daughters.  I can see the headline now:

 “Apple is for the Rest of You.  So Get Serious!”

If I were you, Mr. Cook, I’d get right on it.

Content © by Brian E. Faulkner


About Brian Faulkner:

Brian Faulkner is a content writer and Key Message expert.  He helps clients come up with words to set their businesses, brands and products apart and attract the customers they want most.  His strategic insights (and the words that go with them) have made a significant, often immediate difference for client companies over many years. His "sweet spot" is smaller to moderate sized consumer products, retail, service and manufacturing companies that may have struggled to find just the right words to position their business, brands or products to competitive advantage:

>  blogs to establish you as the thought leader / authority in your business category
>  case stories that communicate your sales successes and invite prospect inquiry
>  testimonials that showcase customer / client satisfaction in 1-2 short sentences
>  positioning statements to guide business development & marketing
>  landing page copy to set your business or brand apart in a compelling way
>  tagline development to attract the interest of your most qualified prospects

Brian also is a three-time Emmy award-winning Public Television writer and narrator of over 100 segments for UNC-TV’s popular “Our State” magazine series, on the air since 2003.  



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    sample blog:

    This is a sample blog  for writer Brian E. Faulkner.   It presents stories about brands that do a good job communicating competitive advantage. Stories have been gleaned from the business press, personal experience and occasional interviews. Updates are made from time to time, and every so often there will be a post of general interest -- about things like success, passion, social trends, etc. 

    Author

    Brian Faulkner is a writer and strategic communication consultant who helps business clients explain their competitive advantage in compelling and enduring ways.
     
    He also is a five-time Emmy award winning Public Television writer & narrator for a highly-rated and well-loved magazine series.

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