Brand Noise

In Russia, Miller Explores Beer as Healthy Alternate to Cheap Vodka

Graham Mackay, chief executive of SABMiller, is targeting expansion in the Russian beer market as the country’s rapid economic growth creates greater affluence, and drinkers switch from cheap vodkas to beer.

Russia has become an increasingly attractive market for brewers as sustained economic growth creates opportunities to market beer as a healthy alternative to cheap brands of vodka. SABMiller is expanding organically in Russia but it is also likely to consider acquisitions.

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The question to look at: What do Russians consider healthy? They're exploring lifestyle issues now.

Tate Gallery Distributes Ltd. Ed. Cains Beer

The man who created the Sgt Pepper album cover has designed a beer bottle label to celebrate Liverpool's Capital of Culture year. The label by artist Sir Peter Blake features a Union Jack with his signature, and is featured on Cains' Best of British lager bottles. Cains Beer, based in Toxteth, Liverpool, plans to produce 250,000 bottles. The specially-labelled beer will be available until December. It is available in the Tate Britain and the Tate Modern galleries as well as supermarkets.

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Liberace Legacy Needs Simmering

The caretakers of the Liberace legacy can't stomach the idea of the pianist becoming a footnote. (He died in 1987.) But if his devotees have learned anything from a man who branded himself Mr. Showmanship, it's how to fine-tune an image.

In aiming for Hip Hop’s high rollers, they've retooled Liberace as the originator of ostentation and trademarked him as the King -- and Queen -- of Bling.

Last summer, the foundation rolled out $99 sneakers named Liberace Kicks made by Kashi Kicks.

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Our question: Will this work? Not so sure. The element of surprise and discovery is missing which is so critical nowadays.

Reality TV Moves Beyond Trash

Hardisty is a Canadian Pacific Railway town about 200 kilometres southeast of Edmonton with a population, according to the entry sign, of 743.

Last June, 117 women - about 85 per cent of Hardisty's female population - were whisked away on buses sans cellphones to set the stage for a 10-part Canadian reality series. Their destination? A luxurious week last June at a Canmore resort in the Rocky Mountains. They left their husbands, fiancés and boyfriends behind to fend for themselves and care for their children.

Hardisty accepted its role in hopes of gaining a bit of marketing exposure. Replete with farmland, essential services, a recreational lake and nine-hole golf course, Hardisty has lots for sale at $1 per square foot (prices negotiable by town council) and is keen for new residential, industrial and commercial development, officials say.

CBC said The Week the Women Went attracted an encouraging 770,000 viewers, comparable to Royal Canadian Air Farce, but not quite in the same league as Hockey Night in Canada, which gets more than one million viewers on average.

"All of a sudden we're not a small little community nobody knows about," Mr. Kulbisky said. "Everybody in Canada and beyond knows about us."

As reality tv matures and participants get more savvy as to what they can get out of it, the nature will change, bringing it closer to the participatory experience audiences are requiring from all avenues of entertainment.

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Chrysler Carcoons

An very interesting article in today's NY Times puts some motion in the water about how we think about cars and the place they have in our lives.  Bob Nardelli is making his vision known, spring boarding off of what he knows best which is home improvement and consumer nesting habits via his leadership at Home Depot.

“I think a vehicle today has to be your most favorite room under your roof,” Mr. Nardelli said. “I really believe that. I mean, it has to bring you gratification, it has to be tranquil. It’s incidental that it gets you from Point A to B, right?”

Bob is partly right.    The place cars play in the family has clearly evolved from the post WW2 consumer boom.  From one car garages to the "second car" (video)    phenomenon, fueled by manufacturing innovation and global access to raw materials,  got more women and teens on the road and changed how we think about cars.  Cars were about escape, freedom.  They got us out exploring. Roads and businesses evolved as this product reshaped how people worked, played and shopped for goods and services. They spawned road trip vacations and drive-in restaurants- youth culture and new political realities with more of the country opened up to view by the general public. They became a way of communicating who you were because the role they played was fundamentally social and moving out of your home base to do something - to define who you are.   

Now, home base is where more connecting and communication of status  takes place.  Technology has fueled this.  From home theaters, to home draft beer, coffee and wine bars.  Home is now a crucial hub. The need to venture out has changed and become more specific and less open-ended.  More people  share a greater percentage of their work life at home.  More takes place in this space than ever before. There is more venturing inward and bringing people in based on connections helped by a new level of connectivity among people .  The journey is now far more introspective.  And in this move inward women play a far greater role in deciding what that experience is in this hub.  So when we think of cars now we don't think of them as less escape pods and more comfort pods that need to keep that same level of cocooned experience.  More similar to what we see happening in airline interior design.  The other reality is that much of the experience of driving has been taken away  via cruise control and improved roads and highways - so basically the weight of the experience is now a reinforcement of the comfort zone that is established in the home. 

The position of the car as second living room is a bit of a quick jump though. It is more complex than that.  Balancing aspects of car culture with aspects of home cocooning will be crucial.

A Chrysler spokesman, Mike Aberlich, said Mr. Nardelli’s comments might have stemmed from the briefings he received from the company’s marketing experts and car designers.

Their research has shown that customers are placing a greater emphasis on vehicle interiors. In fact, Chrysler has frequently referred to its minivans as “living rooms on wheels,” he said.

Art: A Leisure Activity Across the Pond

“In America, art is still seen as a luxury activity, as a status game for those who want to class up their wealth,” said Michael Workman, founder of Bridge Art Fair. “In Europe, it's seen as something that John and Judy at the end of the block do with themselves on a Sunday afternoon.”

Because the satellite fairs focus on emerging artists, prices can be considerably lower than their Frieze counterparts. At Zoo Art Fair, buyers will be able to pick up limited-edition works by emerging artists like Matthew Harrison for as little as £50 (about $100).

• Zoo Art Fair made its debut in 2004 at the London Zoo, in Regent's Park. Zoo Art Fair will be held Oct. 12 to 15 at the Royal Academy of Arts.
• Year_07, organized by two former artists who run the Keith Talent Gallery in East London, brings some of the East End art scene's wit and swagger to the West End.
• Bridge (formerly known as Nova Art Fair) was founded in 2005, and has staged events in cities including Chicago and Miami, and in sites ranging from hotels to abandoned office buildings.
• Pulse, which has operated fairs in Miami and New York, will be coming to London for the first time. The fair will be held in the Mary Ward House, a 19th-century Arts and Crafts building.

Read the whole NYTimes story.

Entertainment Farming

"In the past 20 years, corn mazes have become big business not only in this country but all across Europe," writes Jane Garmey in The Wall Street Journal.  The idea of planting maize as mazes is generally credited to "Adrian Fisher, an Englishman who for 20 years has not only created mazes but has turned them into a form of popular entertainment." Then there's Brett Herbst who will design any kind of maze you want, starting at $4,500.  Some of Brett's mazes attract as many as "50,000 visitors in a season that typically runs for less than two months."  Brett refers to his vocation as "entertainment farming.”

We liken that to agricultural tourism.

(Photo: Dole Plantation Maze, Hawaii.)

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Forbidding Starbucks in the Forbidden City

(from BBC) A traditional Chinese cafe has opened up in Beijing's Forbidden City, replacing a Starbucks coffee shop that was forced to shut after protests. The Starbucks outlet was forced to close in July, having long been accused of tarnishing the historical site. Read more

Video

Waning Outdoor Traditions Eye Opportunity in Luxury

A new national report shows the number of hunters is dwindling, and to some it’s a cause for concern.

The report shows there were 10 percent fewer hunters last year than 10 years before. In 1996, there were 14-million hunters, and that number has been on a steady decline since; in 2001, there were only 13 million, and there were 12.5 million last year.

Government officials are worried about the economic impact the decline in hunting could have. But it appears that while less people are hunting, those that do are spending more money. In 2001, hunters spent $223-million in Kansas, as compared $245-million spent in 2006.

Meanwhile [whitewater rafting] outfitters in Maine and across the nation say consumer demand for whitewater rafting has fallen to the point where it can no longer support the traditional model — which is you camp out, you experience the thrill of rafting and you head home.

“Today’s guests are not yesterday’s rafters,” said Russell Walters. Walters serves as president of Northern Outdoors in The Forks and also is a member of America Outdoors, a national trade association for outdoor recreation facilities.

“Today’s guest wants full service, comfortable amenities. Those who used to camp are now coming indoors.”

Read the whole story.

Profiting from an Apology is Not Cool

The Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly made a public apology to Kyla Ebbert, a young woman escorted off a flight because the flight attendant deemed her to be dressed too scantily for a family airline. Here's the apology:

"From a Company who really loves PR, touche to you Kyla! Some have said we've gone from wearing our famous hot pants to having hot flashes at Southwest, but nothing could be further from the truth. As we both know, this story has great legs, but the true issue here is that you are a valued Customer, and you did not get an adequate apology. Kyla, we could have handled this better, and on behalf of Southwest Airlines, I am truly sorry. We hope you continue to fly Southwest Airlines. Our Company is based on freedom even if our actions may have not appeared that way. It was never our intention to treat you unfairly and again, we apologize."

The apology coincides with the launch of a national fare sale featuring "mini-skirt" fares.