The Corpus Callosum

Look at these Puma kicks and tell me what comes to your mind? Looks like Classic Pumas in different colorways right? Well, read on and you’ll see that a little marketing can go a long way.
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Mos Def is a world-renowned MC, Hollywood actor, producer, and stand-up comedian just to name a few of his talents. Now he can add creative marketing guru to that list with the launch of his latest album, “The Ecstatic”.

He’ll be one of the first artists to fuse digital music with graphic design by releasing his album in a Music Tee format. “The Ecstatic” Music Tee features the cover art on the front of the t-shirt, tracklist on the back, and a unique download code printed on the hang tag.

A clever concept, indeed. Maybe funky t-shirt designs will be incentive enough to entice the public to purchase albums again.

Coke vs Pepsi. Mcdonalds vs Burger King. PC vs Mac. These are a few of the many heavyweight head-to-head brand wars we see in the media every day. Who doesn’t remember the Pepsi Challenge “Taste Test” commercials or the hugely popular Apple “Get a Mac” commercials. Well, there’s a new battle brewing in the Socal billboard advertising space - BMW vs Audi.

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When it comes to getting a bigger piece of the market pie most people try to outdo the competition in an attempt to gain a larger share. In the design world, this can be achieved through lowering costs, providing additional benefits, delivering work faster, or various other strategies all of which require some sort of sacrifice. So is there a better alternative?

One way to expand your business is to increase the overall size of the pie by reaching out to an untapped audience. By targeting a new audience you effectively increase your potential for growth since you’re no longer limited by your existing consumer/client circle. Better yet, if you’re an early adopter of a new target group you can grab as much of the pie as possible before your competition catches on and follows the path you’ve paved.

The beauty of this method is that you don’t even need to alter your core business model; you can get your bigger slice through savvy marketing and branding or, in some cases, by offering extended products/services as illustrated by the following two global brand examples:

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When the brand name Honda comes up in conversation, one conjures up the image of a steel-box emitting greenhouse gases that add to the effects of global warming. With this in mind, the people at Honda developed a marketing campaign that not only raised the awareness of their eco-friendly lawn and garden equipment (I bet you didn’t know they existed, huh?), but it also acted as a solution to the problem.

Introducing Plant This Letter, a direct mailer printed on specially made paper containing seeds that literally grow when planted. All the elements were Al Gore-friendly; only soy inks were used and both the paper and envelope were 100% recycled and acid-free. Recipients were encouraged to toss the mailer in their garden and, with a little TLC, watch it sprout. In effect, their trash became a means to remove carbon from the atmosphere.