I love all this stuff, but what's bugging me is the transactional angle. I mean despite lacking a 'screen', a code, or not being interactive in any way, overalls are very very relevant to a bunch of people in a load of situations. So, rather then trying ot force new relevance into an old product, why not look for new, screen based ways to find and deliver our product to those who want and need it? Home renovation iphone app that helps you pick apint colours etc then sources products, including our overalls, and allows to buy them and have them delivered to your GPS location?
Thoughts?
Reviving Overalls: 6 Tips on Multi-Channel Strategy November 24th, 2008 by Allison
In this week’s New York Time’s Magazine, Benjamin Palmer (Barbarian Group), Lars Bastholm (AKQA) and Robert Rasmussen (R/GA) discussed how the proliferation of screens (big, small, PC and mobile) will affect advertising and marketing. At one point, moderator by Jack Hitt proposed a mock case study of “Jack’s Overalls,” an old-school functional clothing maker. The brainstorm that ensued grappled with how you can use all these new media channels to make overalls relevant to people today. We’re pulled out 6 top “to-dos”, along with some comments from the peanut gallery…
1) Create Relevance
Palmer: So you have to create a new market. Farming may be going away, but what’s on the rise? Right now your overalls are made with special pockets and holders for farming tools. Maybe we retool them for urban farmers, as it were, and their specialized gear. You have special pockets for your iPhone and your BlackBerry, and a pocket for your headphones, another for your wallet, your subway card, your keys.
We’ve actually seen a number of manufacturers taking this cargo-style approach like SeV’s tricked out sportswear to Thomas Pink’s iPod Tie. Guys hate carrying bags, so this is a good idea.
2) Embrace Technology
Bastholm: Let’s really take the brand into the 21st century, shall we? Why don’t we put a ShotCode on the front of every single pair of overalls. A ShotCode is like a bar code. You scan it with the camera in your cellphone. And then something comes out the other end. With bar codes, it’s a price. But with a ShotCode, it could be a song, it could be a picture, it could be a link to a Web site.
Sure to attract small contingents in NYC and San Fran and get some tech-cred, but not much potential for mainstream. Ralph Lauren recently used barcodes in marketing its Rugby line and not many people actually used it (downloading the reader was a big barrier). But hey, it looks cool.
3) Market to Niches
Palmer: But you don’t want to suddenly be seen as, like, this newfangled Internet overall company. If you’re talking to somebody who’s over 40, that’s going to freak them out, you know? So this becomes your special-edition ShotCode overalls. You place ads only on social networks, like MySpace or Flickr. Facebook users can buy the Facebook edition of these overalls. They come precoded with your Facebook page embedded as your ShotCode. But if you’re not a Facebook person, you’re never going to know about this unique brand…. It’s self-selecting, actually. The more narrowly you talk to your audience through these new screens, the more people and products will gravitate toward one another. And nobody else will necessarily know or care that that’s happening.
Great point, something we’ve thought about ourselves. Everyone doesn’t NEED to “get” it. Just the cool kids.
4) Branded Utility
Rasmussen: I would recommend a Web presence built around a utility that engages consumers and allows them to take your brand and own it. Maybe you give customers the ability to mix and match your overalls with other clothes. Maybe you create a widget that lets you drag your overalls and drop them onto an existing image. And the program blends the overalls with the outfit, so you can say, “Boom, that’s how it would look if I wore a pair of cord overalls with a blue jean jacket.”
Ah, widgets… as sick as we are of hearing about them, the man has a point. This tool reminds us of Instyle.com’s hair makeover tool and “Hair Style” in South Korea that allows users to virtually try on new hairstyles and then locate a salon near to create a similar haircut–all through their phones..
5) Sharability
Bastholm: My company developed this mobile application called Nike Photo ID, where you take a picture with your cellphone of anything and it sends you back a pair of sneakers in the two dominant colors in that picture. So maybe we create a site called Overall This. Send in a picture of somebody and get them back in overalls.
Rasmussen: Then you can post the images on your Web site. Create a gallery that shows how overalls can mesh with many styles, from metro to hip-hop to blue collar. People can comment and vote on their favorites.
We like the name of the site Overall This. Equally sigh of resignation, fightin’ words, and friendly invitation. But then we’re just suckers for wordplay.
Overall (no pun intended) some solid ideas on how to string multiple platforms and channels together to create a multi-pronged and fully integrated approach.
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