by Freddy J. Nager, Founder & Fusion Director, Atomic Tango LLC
No pizza for you!
What’s wrong with pizza? I love pizza! Yet fast food giant Pizza Hut is dropping the word “pizza” from some of its store names and packaging. While still officially called Pizza Hut, the chain will refer to itself as “The Hut” to reportedly make it a more appealing place for teens to hang out. Hey, we’re not a fast food joint, we’re a cool clubhouse! (more…)
Categories: Case Studies
Tagged: fast food, marketing, naming, Pizza Hut, retail, Spaceballs, Starbucks, teenagers, The Hut, Yum Brands
by Freddy J. Nager, Founder & Fusion Director, Atomic Tango LLC
Oh, now you've gone and pissed off the mermaid... (illustration by Jeffrey Thomas)
Three yuppies walk into a Starbucks. Sounds like the beginning of a joke, and in a way it is. Two claim a table, while the third goes to order. He asks the others what they want, and they both say “nothing.” He responds, “So why are we here?” One replies, “Someplace to talk.” The first guy scowls and says something that makes me want to high-five him… (more…)
Categories: Random Observations
Tagged: business, coffee shops, retail, Starbucks, third place
"That's when he said he was a marketer! Imagine that? A marketer expecting to date me?"
You’ve all seen the standard romantic comedy: the lead character pines for a fantasy ideal — a millionaire, supermodel, quarterback, cheerleader, prince or princess — but in the end, our hopeless romantic finds true love with a best friend, worst enemy, nerd, prostitute, maid or bodyguard. Delusions dispelled, the true lovers lock lips and live happily ever after. Or until Hollywood makes a sequel.
Today, thanks to the recession, many businesses are undergoing the same head-spinning realignment of expectations. Their dream consumers — namely, the filthy rich — are suddenly coming up short. Damn them. So these once discriminating businesses must now pursue less profitable paramours: potential mates who were once considered “beneath them.” Some businesses even undergo extreme makeovers to appeal to the masses. And you know where that could lead… (more…)
Categories: Case Studies
Tagged: Boxster, branding, business, marketing, Neiman Marcus, Porsche, positioning, pricing, recession, Saks, Saks Fifth Avenue, Starbucks, strategy
by Freddy J. Nager, Founder & Fusion Director, Atomic Tango LLC
"Would you like fries with that?"
That strange gushing sound that you’re hearing is hundreds of commercial landlords across the country salivating all at once: finally, someone to take over those vacant Sharper Image spaces!
According to an amusing article in the L.A. Times, Microsoft is looking to make its image a little sharper by opening its own chain of retail stores…
Categories: Random Observations
Tagged: Apple, Apple Store, Gateway, Microsoft, PC World, retail, Seinfeld, Sharper Image, Starbucks, Vista, Xbox, Zune
by Freddy J. Nager, Founder & Fusion Director, Atomic Tango LLC
"Don't worry, Bob, we're too big to fail."
Hey there mighty brontosaurus
Don’t you have a lesson for us
You thought your rule would always last
There were no lessons in your past…
– The Police, “Walking In Your Footsteps”
If you unfold the business pages and vultures start circling overhead, you know times are tough. (And if you start seeing visions of the Grim Reaper, you know you’re reading a Tribune Company newspaper.)
While it’s easy to blame the economy for business struggles, times like these also present a ripe opportunity for struggling businesses to reassess what they’re doing. Kind of like cardiac arrest makes you reassess whether chicken-fried bacon with cream gravy is the most sensible bedtime snack. (more…)
Categories: How To Tips
Tagged: Apple, Dell, Live Nation, Los Angeles Times, marketing, marketing in a recession, Marketing Myopia, music business, newspapers, record industry, Starbucks, Steve Jobs, Theodore Levitt, Tribune Co
Plus: Why “Price” isn’t Just a Number on a Sticker
Feeling plucky, punk?
Tough times like these separate the plucky from the certifiably pluckless. Plucky companies see economic turmoil as a ripe opportunity to crush weaker competitors. The pluckless see a shrinking economy and resort to shrinkage themselves: they reduce their services and their advertising till they’re but a shriveled ball of what they once were… (more…)
Categories: How To Tips
Tagged: advertising, Apple, branding, business, competition, marketing, pricing, recession, Southwest Airlines, Starbucks, strategy, value, Web 2.0
"Common sense is the little man in a gray suit who never makes a mistake at addition, but it's always someone else's money he's adding up."
- Raymond ChandlerLet's hear it for uncommon sense: that inner itch that inspires you to stray from the herd, ditch the training wheels and leap into the fast lane. As we all know, it's the risk takers who get their faces on the cover of Wired magazine and their words on National Public Radio. No one ever remembers who won "honorable mention"...
Cool Rules Pronto celebrates uncommon sense in marketing and media. It's written by Freddy J. Nager, the Founder & Fusion Director of the L.A.-based marketing agency and production company Atomic Tango. For Cool Rules Pronto, he draws on two decades of experience in advertising and entertainment, including 15 years in new media. He has created campaigns and projects for agencies Saatchi & Saatchi and Magnet Interactive, and for such clients as Toyota, MCA Records, National Lampoon, Nissan & Infiniti, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, the NFL on Fox and numerous startups.
Freddy also serves on the Board of Directors of City Garage Theatre in Santa Monica, California. He holds a BA from Harvard University and an MBA from USC (go Trojans!), and currently teaches marketing through Antioch University L.A. and the University of Wales/Robert Kennedy College. He also wrote the satirical book, Claw Your Way To The Top: Ten Things I Learned About Business From My Cat, which he'll get around to marketing someday.
