Comments on: global microbrands etc

By: Staceyfacer

Staceyfacer — Fri, 22 Jul 2005 05:31:54 +0000

Brands aren’t dead. “English Cut” is a brand. Sony. Toyota. Brands are a good thing. They give the consumer a certain amount of confidence in their purchase. Especially in things that provide a ‘service’ in our lives. (Toasters, washing machines etc.)
Where we are getting micro are in the areas of self-expression (clothes, jewelry, music, cars.) However, there still has to be some trust that if I’m payng for a product that allows my personality to shine out into the world then I don’t want to be shysted with a high price and end up with a low quality piece-of-crap that I could have gotten cheaper at some mass production outlet.
Take the Gaping Void t-shirt, for example. Not a well-known brand in my psyche, no money back guarantee, and not really a “cool” factor if I wear it on the street. (Sorry Hugh.) So my fingers clenched around my wallet and balked at the price. (Yes, I’m an American…)
The Universe is overcrowded with good ideas and good products and great blogs. There is no way to possibly experience or consume all of them.
The global future is (was and always will be?) “word of mouth.” And the “word” will reach as wide a circle of consumers as the universal need that the product feeds.
Feed my soul somehow. That’s what we’re all willing to pay through the nose for. Either that or just allow me to purchase something so razzle dazzle that it allows me to cover up the fact that I no longer have a soul.

By: Jim Wilde

Jim Wilde — Fri, 22 Jul 2005 03:17:57 +0000

Hey,
Demogramphics — people are getting older and living longer — they want fewer shit, mass-produced products or experiences,
Kids want to be cool — not too much mass there, x-tremesports
Too much of the same kind of stuff with little difference,
Values are getting greener!
The net is making it possible for anyone to create and sell.
pimped out coopers are over fl. ca. az. climate

By: quicklinks

quicklinks — Fri, 22 Jul 2005 02:59:51 +0000

Nouveau Niche

BusinessWeek called it ‘The Vanishing Mass Market’, Wired Magazine spoke of the Lost Boys and the Long Tail. Others talk about Niche Mania, Stuck in the Middle, or Commoditization Chaos. We at TRENDWATCHING.COM dubbed it NOUVEAU NICHE [via Gaping Void]…

By: think again - Ideascape is advanture

think again - Ideascape is advanture — Fri, 22 Jul 2005 02:58:32 +0000

Nouveau Niche

Hat Tip to Hugh from gapingvoid on his post about Global Microbrands and the link to Trendwatch.com. Hugh, my corp friends that are stuck behind firewalls cannot access your site. They are more interested in your cartoons than anything.

By: john dodds

john dodds — Thu, 21 Jul 2005 18:59:18 +0000

Agreed — that’s why you’ve been able to enhance its success via a blog that is essentially a constantly updating and passionate corporate website with the boring stuff omitted.
P.S. Can I have that cartoon on my business card?

By: hugh macleod

hugh macleod — Thu, 21 Jul 2005 18:30:52 +0000

“A world of remarkable (for their price) products and services is what we should be seeking. “
Agreed.
English Cut is pretty cheap for what you’re getting, actually

By: john dodds

john dodds — Thu, 21 Jul 2005 18:24:50 +0000

Brands (micro or not) are dead. English Cut is not a brand — it’s an excellent service/product that can command what used to be called a premium price. It is remarkable but it was underexposed — now it isn’t.
However, it cannot represent the universal/global future because by definition not all prices can be premium (sure they all have to incorporate a profit margin to be sustainable but that’s very different from premium pricing).
The reality is that the major trend out there is away from premium pricing — think Primark, think Costco — and with that driver comes an inevitable reduction in choice. Costco undercuts Walmart because it stocks fewer lines in each category and therefore can cut better volume deals.
If we are all time-poor, then the proliferation of choice is a double-edged sword in most demographics and most product categories. So mass production is not going to vanish (and sadly that applies to the overpopulated blogosphere as well). A world of premium priced products and services is impossible. A world of remarkable (for their price) products and services is what we should be seeking.
P.S. And what proportion of the I Pods, Nokia handsets and Mini Coopers that you’ve seen lately were actually customised?

By: hugh macleod

hugh macleod — Thu, 21 Jul 2005 18:19:45 +0000

Hey Yoda,
What part do you disagree with?
Just curious.

By: smallbusinessbranding - Small Business Strategies and Ideas for Savvy Solopreneurs

Thu, 21 Jul 2005 11:56:56 +0000

Hugh Talks “Global Microbrand”

It’s been said that a mark of intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas equally (or something like that). As an example, in Oct 2004, Hugh wrote Branding is Dead. Later, he wrote:We have entered an age where anyone who wants to make a livi…

By: yoda

yoda — Thu, 21 Jul 2005 11:05:01 +0000

You wrote: “We have entered an age where anyone who wants to make a living above minimum wage will have to get used to the idea of building and owning their own “global microbrand”. If you’re not blogging already, I would start. Seriously.“
(Quoting yourself, no less!)
Unfortunately, I think you’re getting too absorbed in the microuniverse of your own blog, and are actually starting to believe everything you write. Seriously.
I like the cartoons, though.