America is or, rather, was full of what Lily Allen might call weapons of massive consumption. This brings to stark relief an ongoing and interesting ethical debate for marketers: How to develop effective marketing without pernicious manipulation.

In recent years, some 70% of the American economic activity was generated by consumer spending. With the trauma of the recession, however, the rate of consumer spending has declined markedly. Recent positive spending indicators are still modest and are dwarfed by the worst unemployment rate for twenty five years. Many households saddled with debt have seen the wisdom of saving. With a savings rate near 0% in early 2008, that has risen to 6.9%, its highest rate in fifteen years. (more…)

“All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players.”
Shakespeare’s As You Like It

Social media has been with us for a little while now, but we have a strong sense that its use is growing rapidly. Over the last six months, the 35-54 year old user base of Facebook has grown by 276.4% and the over 55 year old user base has grown by 194.3% (statistics from iStrategyLabs here) Use of twitter has risen as well. Interestingly, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 10% of online 35-44 year olds use twitter.

Even the venerable news source, National Public Radio, has been exploring the issue of why we tweet.  Entertainingly, and interactively, on February 28 they asked the question “Why do we tweet?” They got plenty of replies, which you can see online here. (more…)

Great article in the New York Times today (Do you want to “Friend” a Detergent?). It speaks to the difficulty for brand managers of using social media to promote their brands … or their incompetence in doing so and, in fact, of trying to do so.

Ted McConnell, the manager of interactive marketing and innovation at P&G, is quoted as saying “I don’t want to be best friends with a brand. Its just stuff.” McConnell’s suggestion is, by and large, that brands frequently assume that the large number of people on Facebook and other like social media applications can be segmented into their customer base or target audience and approached via that medium. However, they seem to ignore the reason why their consumer or target audience is on Facebook in the first place, which is to maintain a conversation with their real friends. It is not to be talked at by brands.

Of course, some brands align neatly with social media as a mechanism for brand expression and conversation. But many don’t. Its just another bad attempt at brand extension, trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.