Brand Noise

The Method Behind Pep Band Music Choices

Who knew to ask? It can seem that the pep bands are forever behind the times, playing from song lists borrowed from classic-rock radio stations and wedding-reception D.J.s.

But there is a method to their madness — “We try to play songs that not only appeal to the blue-hairs in the crowd, but also to our students,” said Jim Hudson, director of athletic bands at Arizona State.

Updating the songbook is an annual tug-of-war. Most bands hold year-end votes for band members. At U.C.L.A., the bottom five songs are dropped. Five new ones are added.

Most pep-band arrangements, designed for timeouts, range from 100 seconds to 2 minutes. Raps, with their repetitive hooks, are increasingly used for 30-second timeouts.

Choosing the right mix has legal complexities, too. Music is copyrighted, so bands typically cannot simply choose a song and start playing it — although many do.

Read the whole story.

US Girls Playing Indian Arranged Marriages

Online research of nearly 2 million gamers by Indian gaming portal games2win has found that girls aged between 13 and 17 years make for almost 80% of its US traffic. What’s intriguing is that these girls are playing games related to Indian customs: dolling up like brides or playing roles in an Indian arranged marriage.

games2win CEO Alok Kejriwal says: “Our research has found that an average user would be on our site for over 10 minutes, which is almost like watching half of uninterrupted telecast of a soap opera on TV.”

Girls love to engage in stories. Girl gamers are no exception. Indian culture offers an exotic fantasy appeal that girls don’t get from American pop culture. Reason why manga and anime are so appealing. American teens are too old and too cool for Disneyana, yet they still want the dramatics.

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Fashion Bullying Moves to Middle School

Dorothy Espelage, a professor of educational psychology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign,  says she has seen an increase in "bullying related to clothes." Having access to designer clothing affords some kids "the opportunity to become popular -- and that protects you and gives you social power and leverage over others," she says.

Over the past three years, numerous designers have targeted the lucrative children's and teens' markets. Little Marc, the kids' clothing label by New York designer Marc Jacobs, expanded its line this winter and dropped its price, making it more accessible to a greater number of shoppers...

What's curious here is that middle school kids are at a crossroad, moving beyond the parental threshold. Yet they still are looking back for parental approval. Branding at this age shoots right back at the parents. How kids are perceived at this stage and how they receive that perception shapes their future brand directions. WIll they become Abercrombie kids and constantly seek what's "in" or will they break out of the mold?

Read the whole story.

(Photo: Vintage tintype of a pre-teen.)

Jack Feuer on the Evolution of Boy To Man

Boys used to be men by going out naked into the woods with a spear and killing something. Yet when Jack Feuer's college freshman son requested an iPhone, the revelation of a new coming of age was clear as day...

Sure, he's logo-conscious, but like all his peers, he didn't get that from advertising. He got his must-haves from the other kids, and they got theirs from him...

During the year just past, my son expanded beyond the small band of pierced savages he used to chill with and went out into the world. Once there, of course, he was assimilated by the massive marketing Borg that overwhelms all of us, like a pack of piranhas on a pudgy swimmer. Young Feuer didn't need a sharp stick, Dad's wheels or an ill-fitting suit his mother bought at Loehmann's to become a man. All he needed was to stay awake. And a credit card--which he maxed out in a week.

My son has become a consumer...

One thing hasn't changed: Coming of age is about finding your identity, and an iPhone is a cool place to start. A request for a Blackberry would have meant something completely different. Hey, Jack, it could be worse...my 5-year old is requesting a video iPod. What do I do with that? Will she prefer a Zune when she's 10? Probably not.

(Photo: BarCamp, Orlando.)

Research: Brands reinforce identity within social groups

New research provides insight into how consumers use products to signal membership in social groups, but swiftly abandon those same products when the original message is diluted as other groups co-opt the trend. In a paper titled, Where Consumers Diverge from Others: Identity Signaling and Product Domains, Wharton marketing professor Jonah Berger and Chip Heath, professor of organisational behavior at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, explore the power of social identity in the demand for consumer products.

The authors suggest their identity-signaling approach is different from existing notions of anti-conformity because it is rooted in the initial urge to converge within a social group. "People do not just differentiate themselves from out-groups in whatever idiosyncratic way they happen to choose; indeed, to signal identity clearly, people don’t want to be the only one holding a given taste," according to the researchers, whose paper was published in the Journal of Consumer Research in August.

The research shows a complicated relationship between the desire not just to conform or be different, but also to signal desired identities, Berger notes. Teenagers certainly want to look different than their parents, but within the world of teenagers, there are clearly defined social groups. "The jocks want to be different from the geeks." While many teens may shop at Abercrombie & Fitch, he says, different social groups often buy different styles.

People make inferences about others based on the products they buy, and when lots of similar people adopt a product, it can gain meaning as a social signal, says Berger. If lots of tough people ride Harley motorcycles, for example, then driving one may come to signal a rugged identity.

But when a certain taste or product is adopted by people beyond the original group, it loses its ability to signal desired characteristics, according to the research, which is based on experiments conducted over the internet and among undergraduates. If accountants start driving Harleys, then the meaning of driving one may shift, and the bike may come to signal undesired characteristics (example, wannabe tough guys)
(from The Economic Times India)

School Uniforms, the private label brand?

The Elizabeth (NJ) school district has spent more than $2 million since January 2006 to buy navy blazers, khaki pants, polo shirts, gym shorts and even socks as part of a new policy to put all its students in uniforms.

The district, which serves mostly poor and minority families, has outfitted more than 9,000 students — nearly half its enrollment — so far as it phases in the uniforms a few schools at a time over five years to spread out the cost...

The district contracted with a clothing company, American Wear, to take the students’ measurements and provide them with two complete outfits for classes as well as gym clothes. Kindergarten and prekindergarten students receive an additional class outfit that can be kept at school as a change of clothes.

District officials said that parents can opt out of the dress code, but few have done so. Earlier this year, an Indiana couple who sued over a school dress code contended that it violated not only their children’s constitutional right of free expression...Read the whole story.

In another story, A California superior court Monday scrapped the dress code at Redwood Middle School, citing the Supreme Court's affirmation of basic student expression rights in the recently decided "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" case.

The school's ban on all pictures, logos, words, stripes and patterns had landed a seventh-grader in the principal's office for wearing socks displaying Tigger, the character from Winnie the Pooh.

All things considered, the choice of uniform is a branding choice unto itself, making a statement no less conspicuous than the pop diva sporting the latest from Teen Vogue. Expression comes through no matter how you look at it.

 

Concept of "Experiential" Leaves No Stone Unturned

Good Morning America previewed some back-to-school gadgets. The Sonic Boom alarm clock was one of them.

It comes with a ground shaking super-charged bed shaker, and turbo-charged 113db extra loud alarm. Position the bed vibrator under the mattress or a pillow and it will pound the bed when it's time to wake up.

Hey, with the cacophony of media in the face of teens, why not a Sonic Boom alarm clock? Even alarm clocks are in competition with today's gaming systems. It just might work if it's good enough.

Read more.

Pillow Talk Becoming Pillow TXT

A study by Jan Van den Bulck in Leuven, Belgium, looked at teenagers - and found that the use of cellphones for calling and text messaging after lights out was prevalent. Only 38 per cent of the more than 1,600 teens studied said they never used their mobile phone after going to bed.

Talking on the phone from your bed is not new. I can still hear my mom freaking out when she'd pick up the extension to make a call and find me chatting away. The quietness of TXTing and the lack of extensions for parental snooping is what'll drive parents batty. 

Read the whole story.

Functional Clothes Takes New Meaning

Nothing like a confidence-building welcome back to school. Read on:

An East London company called BladeRunner has started selling school uniforms that are lined with knife-resistant Kevlar. The customers are mostly worried parents seeking peace of mind in a city that's seen seven teenagers stabbed to death this year...

A Massachusetts company called MJ Safety Solutions, run by three dads, started selling bulletproof backpacks last month, and already has seen its initial stock of several hundred sell out.          

And in Britain, Trutex, one of the country's major school uniform suppliers, has said it's considering adding some sort of tracking device to children's school clothes. Trutex surveyed 800 British parents and found that 59 percent would be interested in GPS-enabled school uniforms.

Interestingly, Trutex is the first official sponsor of the Anti Bullying Alliance. Now how cool would it be to incorporate a bully alert into the uniforms. "Bully approaching! Run! Or prepare for engagement..."

Read the whole story.

Give the Gen Yers A Little Credit, Please

For some odd reason in conflict with my Gen X self, I feel very protective of Gen Y. The way we slice and dice their motivation across very decided lines doesn’t do them justice, or even us as brand planners.

The highly criticized paper by Danah Boyd makes some sweeping statements about Gen Y that does not look at the underpinnings of their decisions.

We talk with more Gen Y influencers across all ethnicities than socially acceptable for 40-yr-olds (like 3am MySpace conversations with high school students on Friday nights. Their parents are well aware.) These MySpacers are not freaks. They’re intense about everything they do—the same person who Cosplays on Saturday shows up for her Model Congress debate on Monday.

They’re not spending their time collecting countless friends—that is for freaks.

They use their social networking for what it does for them. To date, nothing exists that meets all their needs. So they jump around using MySpace for one thing and Facebook for another, plus a myriad of niche networks and invite-only networks. It hasn’t been a trade off of one for the other. The point where they add Facebook is when they need to network with college people. Picture them sitting in front of a control station for command central and that’s where we’re at.

We’ve got to move beyond talking to the masses…haven’t we learned that yet? Being dragged down by the least common denominator helps no one. If we continue to look at the majority, we’ll get the watered down version of what’s really happening. Doing it that way only let’s you watch the followers. It doesn’t let you look forward. Kinda like sitting on the railroad car facing backward. Sometimes, I like that—when I’m feeling reflective. Drives me insane when I need to get in step with things.