[ swarm theory ]

Ok, I’ve seen some things in my day, but nothing as “brand crazy” as what I experienced this weekend at the Vera Bradley outlet sale in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Vera fans from around the country made the pilgrimage to Fort Wayne - the city that has been home to Vera Bradley since the beginning (1982). The 5 day event provides fans with a killer chance to save big time on overstock and retiring products and designs.

I’ve been working on a number of projects for the company, and thus have become quite familiar with the social strength of the brand, and the loyal following of its user family. The Vera Bradley Facebook group, launched in November of 2007, already has nearly 23,000 fans. But the outlet sale event brought it all to another level. This is truly a phenomenal brand. 40% off select items from Vera Bradley

I took a bunch of pictures while my wife shopped (and bought like the rest of the women) - you can check them out on flickr. Also, check out the video link at the bottom of the post. The quality is bogus because it was taken with my camera, but I had to capture the “Swarm” otherwise nobody would have believed me.

See movie clip below:

p1010147.MOV

Another link to some more great pictures posted on flickr by AC.

I just launched a new Flickr page for Fat Katz and it is packed with lot’s of killer photos. The images show the incredible fabrication skill of the Fat Katz crew, along with some awesome product shots.

Looking to capitalize on more social media tools, I’ve also just launched a new Fat Katz blog to provide another touch point to the consumer and provide a place for news posting and syndication.

I finally have a new bike that I think is worth sharing to the world. From what I’ve been able to find out about the bike (haven’t really been looking too hard), this Zenith fat tire was built around 1950. My buddy “E” had this baby sitting in his garage so we did a swap. This thing is a total blast to ride and a refreshing change from my other rides.

You don’t become the American motorcycle industry choice for custom tanks and fenders by accident. Some of the biggest names in the bike industry are proud to say that they trust Fat Katz with all their customized sheet metal needs. It’s easy to see why, Fat Katz boasts both a selection and a quality of product that is second to none.

We recently launched a new site for the Fat Katz crew…take a look fatkatz.com

Let’s make the work week suck 20% less!

A plan we can quickly endorse. No doubt the work of our buddy Dylan - promo/web guru at Yakima. On-line/off-line promotion at its best.

Dylan with the Pope

A study by the Luxury Institute, reveals that 6 in 10 wealthy consumers use social networks on a regular basis. No longer just a MySpace, youth driven on-line media channel; social nets are pulling in the wealthy at a dramatic pace.

I guess this should indicate continued e-commerce growth and provide major opportunity and support for ad agencies to divert customer funds on-line. Hopefully the “social media” will keep things under control - and self-police the marketing (read: Facebook Beacon).

Networks such as LinkedIn have done a great job of keeping pages “clean” and without MySpace style page clutter. But time will tell, as the “participatory web” community members become desensitized to the brand messages. The “Wealthy” in this report has been identified as those with an average income of $287K and average net worth of $2.1 million (Source: Luxury Institute).

Let’s hope we can keep golf (and anything associated with golf) off-line as luxury brand marketers design interactive strategies to reach the social elite.

Original article from MarketingVox.com

Fast Company did an article in Feb titled “Is The Tipping Point Toast?” - putting Malcolm Gladwell’s book The Tipping Point under fire. Duncan Watts, a network theory scientist working at Yahoo has performed a number of experiments challenging the Tipping Point theory. Overall the article is an interesting read - but full of many “no shit” points.

Seems like the biggest trend is to grab hold of some “silver pill” philosophy with the hopes that it will launch that “shitty product” that nobody seems to want. Come on - what happend to brand “Touch Points”??? There are no short cuts and spreading a message is quite different than motivating a sale.

Luck is when preparation meets opportunity.

Another popular buzz phrase you have probably heard is the “Long tail”.  The long tail refers to a niche based culture replacing the hit driven economy. Products that are in low demand or have low sales volume can collectively make up a market share that rivals or exceeds the relatively few current bestsellers and blockbusters, if the store or distribution channel is large enough. The Long Tail is a potential market and the distribution and sales channel opportunities created by the Internet often enable businesses to tap into that market successfully.

The real long tail impact seems to be coming from the affiliate marketing publishers.  Those individual bloggers who are given financial incentives for promoting products on their site.  Don’t underestimate the power of niche influence.

Want to see a visual graph of your website or blog?  Websites as graphs visual