Around the blogging community today, it was discovered that Wal-Mart is selling t-shirts (the cheap $10 ones) with a skull that very closely resembles the Totenkopf “Death’s Head.”

The Death Head symbol was widely worn by members of Germany’s Nazi SS. It’s almost an exact copy as depicted below.

Wal-Mart’s T-Shirt

Totenkopf “Death Head” Used By Nazi SS

I wonder if Wal-Mart is trying to sneak this by us. Then again, they won’t even sell cd’s with swear words in them. From my fairly good memory I can recall Adolf Hitler was very strict on creating the perfect race which wouldn’t use swear words. Wal-Mart is also busy taking over the world like the Nazis’ tried to do in Europe during the 1930’s - 1940’s. Coincidence? You decide!

The color on the iPod / iTalk Spec Phone is incredible! I can only hope the actual product is going to be this adver-deliciously good. The commercial for the new cell phone was developed by award winning filmmaker Christopher DeSantis and design help from Gregory DeSantis.

Seth Godin has an interesting post on the ‘chicken and the egg problem‘ many business owners face. I want to reflect and expand a little on the theory Seth was talking about.

The problem with most businesses is the ‘chicken and egg problem’. That is, most business owners are afraid to be movers and shakers within their industry or creating something completely innovative. There will only come one MySpace and one eBay mega-site every 5 years.

Success doesn’t happen overnight and you will often fail time and time again if you ONLY adapt to what everyone else in the industry is doing. I couldn’t tell you how many ‘idiots’ come up to me as a web designer and ask if I could create them a website like MySpace. These people seriously believe they will be able to sell their MySpace-Imitation or variation thereof for $500 million to NewsCorp.

Not going to happen this decade buddy. The world truely would be a better place and our market would be in better shape if people were shaking and rattling some cages.

The sad truth is that every has their toes on the edge of a cliff of success and are afraid to take a leap. Instead, they latch onto a successful business model and modify it to their tastes. Success rarely follows.

So, if you have the next breakthrough idea do not watch the big guys. Rather than looking to your neighbor for ideas, build and blend a team of highly skilled individuals and put your next big thing into action.

Newspapers will continue to suffer as the online world continues to expand at an incredible rate. During a “Society of Editors” panel in England last week, the editor of the Daily Guardian suggested that classified advertising would vanish by the year 2020.

While online advertising continues to increase by 50% per year, print advertising falls by 9% per year on average. This is true in England as well as in the United States. We here at Caffeine Marketing only hope that the newspaper industry understand that as times change, so do the ways consumers require their information resources to be channeled. That is, whether the consumer wants to receive classifieds via a cell phone, Palm Pilot, the internet, or print the industry needs to meet the consumer demand. Read

Once, Macys operated under many regional brands such as Marshal Fields and Filene’s. After Federated Department Stores launched its’ largest national ad campaign in September, many are wondering if they will use the same tactic nationally for Macy’s. This could mean big losses for local television stations who are faced with the mid-term elections recently ending and the possibility of regional department stores discontinuing local ad campaigns.Read

Two new exciting websites were brought to my attention today. I’ve always been a sucker for a good candy wrapper package from the 80’s and even earlier. A new website called the “Candy Wrapper Museum” was launched to showcase the collection of wrappers dating back to 1977 when the collecting began. You’ll find interesting classics, critters, faces, celebs, foreign, and holidaze wrappers.

Another great website to tide yourself over the weekend is “The Ad Feed“. This website is a series of RSS feed headlines from the following websites all rolled into one page: Ad Age, AdWeek, AdRants, AdFreak, NYTimes, Agenda Inc., and several others. There are even podcasts, tv spots, and daily print ads from around the web all showcased.

The Pay To Blog system on the internet has been a joke for a number of months until ReviewMe launched today. ReviewMe is a pay-per-post like service which pays bloggers to write about advertiser’s products and services. The flip side is that advertiser’s get to choose which blogs they want reviewing their products by filing out a form on the ReviewMe website.

ReviewMe is setting itself apart from the competition by offering a single fee paid to bloggers regardless of blog post size. ReviewMe uses an algorithum similar to Alexa, Technorati, etc. to determine the importance of the blog you submit and charges advertisers a fee based on the importance of the post. Bloggers can earn anywhere from $0.01 to $1,000 per post.

An extra incentive, with today’s launch Review Me is giving away $25,000 USD. I signed up for the service today and my blog was only worth $40.

The Touchpoints IV Survey (.pdf file) reveals that online consumers are more likely to “view through” an online advertisement than click one. That is, a “view through” is when an text or graphical based advertisement online causes someone to visit that sponsor not directly through a click but later through an online search or direct URL write-in.

Some interesting highlights of the study are presented below;

- 61% of respondents said they see web ads, do not click on them, but several hours or days later they are likely to visit the advertiser.

- Only 30% of respondents would click directly on a text or graphical banner to visit the advertisers.

- 67% of those surveyed said they see online ads and will later visit the physical store due to the ad.

As more and more consumers do vehicle researching online, Car and Driver wants to tap into that growing trend. The company will be moving its’ very popular bar graphic vehicle comparisons report from the print edition (magazine) to their website. Csaba Csere, the editor in chief of Car and Driver magazine contends that there was simply not enough space in the magazine. “We wanted more space in the magazine to be more graphically interesting” said Csere.

The United States Army recently launched a new microsite aimed at providing a source for recruitment this Veterans Day. The theme of the campaign will center around the life and times of a solider. The campaign dubbed “Army Strong” will consist or television spots and interactive online content including an Official U.S. Army Game. The “Army Strong” campaign is also busy connecting with social networking sites such as Yahoo, Google, YouTube, and Myspace.

Ben Bennani knows the risks and rewards of niche marketing. Find a niche — either by creating a demand or serving an overlooked clientele — and exploit it.

That philosophy came in handy a couple of years ago when Bennani was trying to revive the small car-rental firm he had acquired. Casting about for ways to lure customers from rivals, Bennani focused on big agencies generally not renting cars to drivers ages 18 to 20. Here, he decided, was a pool of potential customers just waiting to be noticed.

It was a risky strategy; the big companies shun this age group for a reason. For one thing, U.S. drivers 18 to 20 are much more likely to be involved in an accident.

Read the rest of this entry »

MySpace continues to grow by 51% between March and September 2006 and other social networking sites are gaining popularity as well. A new report by HitWise revealed that e-commerce and business websites received (on average) 2.4% of their visits directly from MySpace during the month of September 06′. Other websites that are receiving hits from their MySpace Business Profiles include the telecommunication, banking, and travel industry.

The report showed that business profiles for teen-oriented retailers Hot Topic and American Ealge have received the most MySpace users and traffic to their website. Read

MTV has a very fresh and innovative approach to handling both innovation and organizational structure. The company’s culture of innovation stems from unusual hiring practices which blend people from different backgrounds. For example, the company’s founder had imported textiles. The head of MTV International is an Army Veteran. A chairperson of MTV Inc. is a former copywriter. The company says that “we have a diversity of talent, backgrounds, and experiences. We bring these diverse experiences with us.”

As MTV continues to expand world-wide, the company’s organizational structure must be maintained. The decentralized approach to organizational structure appears to be working for the company as hit after hit show come rolling out. Localization and good control over operations will keep things going in the right direction for MTV this year. Read

Sportswear brand Adidas is hoping to tap consumer demand for customized clothing with the grand opening of its’ 1,750 square meter store this year. The new store is a marketing and technological marvel. The focal point of the new center is a large black cube. Customers can point at the images on the cube and infared/laser sensors interpert their hand movements and convert them into command responses. This allows customers to pick, choose, and customize the exact shoe they want.

The new sportwear store is truly changing the future of shopping and showcasing the latest technology. It’s also a great way to regenerate the strength behind the Adidas brand. I think Adidas is doing the right thing by targeting younger consumers who’ve grown up with video games and computers and will feel very comfortable and at ease with the technologically advance interface of the store. Read

Largely due to niche marketing, small scale Indie grocery stores will continue to thrive. Richmond, Virgina based Ukrop continues to operate after 70 years. The grocery store has survived the Great Depression and the introduction of Wal-Mart’s adoption of grocery sales.

But how do these small scale indie grocery stores survive? Business Week found that it is thanks to the flexibility of the small scale stores, quick introduction of new products, personal connection and instore events for customers, and doing something the big groceries stores can’t. Indie grocery stores are quick to stay ahead of the competition by offering products and offerings the competition can’t or won’t offer. Ukrop was one of the first grocery stores in the country to start offering ready made meals for customers and operates a fresh bakery to give the store a ‘community appeal’. Read