Monthly Archives: April 2009

deja vu redux

blast from the pastFast Company blogs the return of the Cub. Supercub that is, aka Honda C100, as seen at Indy in the Carter-Sym booth. Rebranded as Symba – oh, we get it – and as a knockoff over in the stadium at flyscooters display as a proto version to gauge reaction.

Available next month with out the door pricing of $2,600, the ’60s icon that last sold in the US back in the early ’80s joins a very crowded field in a price sensative market, all jockeying for position in a shell shocked economy shaped by gas prices and recession woes.

big city creative strikes out

if it ain't broke - no really, don't fix it!Last January 8, PepsiCo owned Tropicana rolled out their stunningly bland new corporate look, a makeover fashioned by Omnicom owned NYC shop Arnell, at a campaign launch cost pegged by some at no less than $35 million. A little less than two months later, PepsiCo couldn’t shovel dirt on it fast enough. The funeral was February 23.

That little detour down “Don’t Even Think About It” Lane has now, according to the April 2 issue of AdAge, reportedly cost the powerhouse beverage brand 20% in unit sales, 19% in dollars ($33 million) and unknown market share damage. Ka-pow! For those who still think packaging’s no big deal and brand management is way overrated, this Oh-Jay’s for you. Continue reading

social media strategy…juggling twitter

comm trends - tweeting for effectManaging your online marketing assets didn’t get any easier when Twitter stampeded onto the scene a couple of months ago. The newest, and in some ways the most intriguing, social media limits messages (tweets) to 140 characters. So, like, where’s the value? Lets see if we can break it down.

Online communication – and really, that’s how the bulk of business is conducted these days – revolves around e-mail, web pages, blogs, RSS and social media sites like Facebook. Twitter, for not so obvious reasons, may be the missing link in connectivity. Continue reading

lead and you…part two

no, not recess - peanut butter!The media circus has come and left town since we last considered the impact on youth powersports as a result of the Consumer Products Safety Commission’s interpretation of how much lead should kids be allowed to eat. (Hint: none.)

Malcolm Smith’s protest drew the attention of SoCal’s news outlets and a nice mention in USA Today, along with links on bike blogs throughout the land. Which got me to thinking, how much lead is too much? For instance, working my way through the University of Florida included a stint at the Gainesville Sun. This was at the dawn of what would briefly be known as cold type, or the sunset of hot type. Continue reading

sema adds channel…pwspts is in

web-powersportJust in time for 2009. SEMA – the Specialty Equipment Manufacturers Association – has added a powersports and utility vehicles channel to its massive automotive collection of OE and aftermarket exhibitors.

Peter MacGillivray, SEMA vice president of communications and events, said that “The Powersports and Utility Vehicle marketplace is of growing importance to our core buyers. Manufacturers in this area will discover a slew of potential buyers. Continue reading

the evolution of the revolution

cycle world's for sale: along with the rest of the periodical industryLast week’s AdAge announcement of Hachette Filipacchi’s decision to put their enthusiast titles, e.g. Cycle World, on the block sent another round of chills down the spines of print purveyors. That spicy tidbit was followed by AdAge’s own go-to guy Bob Garfield’s rant on the nuclear meltdown of print in one form or another.

The speed with which print journalism is being rendered obsolete is as baffling as it is breathtaking. Because I remember when Nat Geo used to credit film type – Ektachrome, Kodachrome, etc. – next to their images, my interest in print’s place and what’s coming next is more than passing. Continue reading