WTF?

I teach marketing for a living, live in the same city (well, metro region) where Nike is, and have spent much time talking to people who work there (and at their compeitor, Adidas), and I have no, absolutely no, idea what the point of this ad is.

Seriously, damage control? Is the message "we're peeved at Tiger, and so we thought we needed to publicly shame him ourselves?" If so, well, what it makes me think is that Nike is paying Tiger enough money to get him to embarrass himself. Which isn't the same thing.

Is the message "Like a father, we are going to stick by our Tiger, but we are going to ask him some Hard Questions"? If so, will anyone NOT see through that?

What marketing goal are they trying to accomplish - that has some outside chance at success?

Downward product-line extension: is Basic the new black?

I had not seen this particular brand-extension coming from P&G yet. But it's a pretty good bet that if P&G is trying to protect their flanks (so to speak) from the discount- and house-brand end of the market, that they believe that "the new frugality" is likely to stay around for a while.

Rory Sutherland: Life lessons from an ad man | Video on TED.com

Here's a link to one of my favorite videos on marketing; I do usually show it in class on the first day of each term, but if you haven't seen it, do so now.

Rory Sutherland: Life lessons from an ad man | Video on TED.com

PR consultation

A week or so ago, I requested a free whitepaper from a PR distribution service. I am planning a new PR strategy for my software company, and the title ("7 Cheap PR Tactics for Success in Any
Economy") was appealing enough.

I knew I would get on their house list, and I expected an email follow-up. I always read these, simply because I write autoresponder emails for our company, and like seeing what my peers are doing with this vehicle.

Here's an excerpt from the follow-up I received the next day:

Thanks for requesting 7 Cheap PR Tactics for Success in Any

Economy.

If you respond to this email in the next 4 days -- just
hit reply and let us know what day works best for you (see
availability below) -- we will schedule a free ten minute
phone call for you to discuss your press release needs with
our Editorial Director Heather Fuller, who has edited over
ten thousand press releases.

Please be assured that this consultation will not be a
thinly disguised sales pitch. It will consist of the best
intelligence Heather can supply in a ten minute time
span. We'll even help come up with possible press release
ideas if needed. There is no charge for the call but please
be advised that the call must be strictly limited to 10
minutes. No commitment. No obligation to purchase anything.

AVAILABILITY: Heather is available most business days
between 12:45pm and 1:45pm Eastern Time.

Please let us know what day you would be available. We will
confirm scheduling and exact time by email.

So what did I like about this?

• First, the availability block at the end. It makes the offer feel very "real" - they have scheduled someone for an hour each day to handle these requests. The fact that they have only scheduled an hour increases the plausibility with me - if the person was available full-time, I'd assume that it was really not that person's full-time job to edit press releases.
• Second, the offer to help come up with press release ideas - this company KNOWS my pain point here - if they are helping small companies distribute press releases, they know that coming up with real, valid, appealing press release ideas is hard for us - and that we probably don't have an agency on tap to help (why else would we have downloaded their whitepaper?)

So, into the swipe file it goes. I may decide to put a pitch like this into an email autoresponder sequence I publish - I could offer a 10-minute consultation with an auction consultant on procurement ideas. Scheduled from 10:30 to 11:30 am, Pacific time, Monday through Friday. Matter of fact, I think I'll do that now.