Brand Mix

A foggy week in San Francisco. A great for sweat shirt sales and digging out Mark Twain quotes. Also a week for questions about authenticity:

1) CEO Letter: Zappos.com
Big news of the week-- Zappos was acquired by Amazon. Tony Hsieh, he of the 1 million or so Twitter followers, of course announced the deal on Twitter but also sent a letter to his employees explaining that: "We plan to continue to run Zappos the way we have always run Zappos -- continuing to do what we believe is best for our brand, our culture, and our business." Some bloggers were positive, some negative about the deal (one more).

2) Swimming Bans High-Tech Suits, Ending an Era: New York Times
"By an overwhelming vote Friday at its general congress, FINA officials decided to ban the high-tech swimsuits that have been likened to doping on a hanger," reports the New York Times. Since Speedo's LZR suit and its competitors offerings were introduced 17 months ago, more than 130 records have fallen. Not a great day for Speedo that had used its development of these suits to dominate the marketplace. Now that the suits are banned, expect a world record drought for the next few years. Some people estimate that more than 3/4 of the recent records were achieved only because of the suits.

3) Auto-Tune the News #6: Michael Jackson. drugs. Palin. schmoyoho (via brandflakesforbreakfast)
Congress and commentators as you've never heard them before:



4) Foreign Policy: Jay-Z Schools Us In U.S. Hegemony: npr
Earlier in the week, I'd heard something else about auto-tuning in this NPR story about what Jay-Z can teach us about foreign policy (yes, really). Buried in the 11th paragraph, the story tells us that Jay-Z has been campaigning for authenticity and against auto-tuning as a, perhaps misguided, way to protect his dominance of the rapping world.

5) Recession pushes Christmas into July: JWT Anxiety Index
Yes. It's Christmas in July. Leading the guilty retailers who should be punished in some awful way are: Sears, Kmart and Toys "R" Us.

6) Dancing down the aisles: The Kheinz
A YouTube hit of the week for those that missed it.



That's it! See you here on the blog or on Twitter (@martinjbishop) for more stories from the world of brand strategy.