Indie Marketer
He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.

- Muhammed Ali

Entries Tagged as 'twins'

couch

Working late, from the couch.

August 3rd, 2010 · Uncategorized

Summer means baseball and my baseball team is the Minnesota Twins. Yesterday evening as I was laying on the couch, watching the Twins game and soaking up the cool air-conditioning, I received a call on my iPhone. It was from a customer who was mildly unsatisfied with my product and wished for a refund. I was in a good mood and after a few polite questions I apologized and agreed to refund his money (it was only $20). After the conversation I was still laying on the couch and decided to log into my Google Checkout account from my phone. I logged in, with a few finger taps I issued his refund and laid my head back down. The whole transaction might have taken 3 minutes. That was it. A few finger taps on my iPhone and back to the evening/couch/baseball chill session. You couldn’t do that 5 years ago, and it was unheard of 10 years ago. It just hit me as how fast and simple things are getting with hand held mobile devices and the web. If you’re still in denial, you’re probably missing most of your teeth or just afraid of change. This is an exciting time to be alive folks.

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twins

A Sense of Familiarity, 1,700 Miles From Home.

May 1st, 2010 · Uncategorized

I’m moving across the country at the end of August. As you could imagine there’s a ton of mixed emotions involved. As I slowly align my life’s initiatives and meticulously plot out my departure, I find myself making a mental “Things To Do or Buy – Before I Leave” list. On this list are some understandable things like “Eat a Matt’s Juicy Lucy” one more time. “Buy a t-shirt from the Electric Fetus. Renew my MPR membership and most importantly – buy 2 new Minnesota Twins baseball hats.

On a road trip out to San Francisco in 2008 we met up with a few friends (all from Minneapolis) and set out into the city record shopping and hanging out for the day. One of my friends had brought along his San Francisco native girlfriend when she noticed that all 4 of us were wearing different variations of a Minnesota Twins baseball hat. Upon realizing this we all collectively chuckled and shrugged it off, she gave us a look as though we were all nutty. What causes this team/brand/state/loyalty? Where does it come from? Is it a learned action from our parents or peers?

Marketers can spend their entire lives trying to garner such fierce consumer loyalty. My best guess is that it comes from a few main factors:

- Either it’s bestowed upon us by our parents or elders (If I ever purchase a truck you can bet your bank it’s going to be a Ford). All thanks to my family tradition, we’re a Ford truck family. It’s as simple as that.

- The brand or item is tied to positive emotions such as spending time with your grandparents at a ball game or eating that particular brand or item during the holidays. (read: Lutefisk)

-  Sporting a particular team or city sends a signal out to others in a crowd “Is there anyone else here from this locale? Do you relate to where I hail from?” If someone does recognize your team logo or something from where you’re from, you know that you’d have an immediate commonality in which to converse with – if not only slightly larger than if they were a complete stranger from another state.

This sense of place, and unspoken provincialism can be a very powerful tool when marketing anything. After all, deep down, you can’t really ever change where you came from. Oh and by the way, Go Twins!

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