Marketing Genius
If there's one thing this country is good at it's marketing. Whether it's selling bottled water at a premium price or catapulting the country into an illegal war, this country can freakin' sell, as Rob Walker's article in today's NY Times proves.
The good news for Taser International is that its brand is a household name: As Kleenex is to facial tissues, so Taser is to electroshock stun weapons. ...
“I think anyone would be envious of our brand name,” says Steve Tuttle, vice president of communications for the company. It’s a challenge for any product maker, he argues, to make sure that consumers “feel” the right way about its brand. And it is with this in mind that Taser has lately made its latest run at the mainstream consumer market, with the Taser C2 Personal Protector, a model that is, if not exactly kinder and gentler, then at least more innocent-looking. Also: it’s available in pink and in a leopard print.
It may be surprising to learn that the average citizen was actually meant to be Taser’s original market; its early, black or gray, pistol-shaped models were sold at places like Sharper Image. They cost as much as $800. “Wrong shape, wrong pricing, wrong color,” Tuttle says now. Women often found the thing too “ominous” — a big problem if Taser wanted to position its devices as a personal-safety alternative to sprays like Mace. ...
The company has been fairly clever about drumming up nonscary publicity in recent months. Aside from the mere existence of a “fashion pink” Taser, which alone is likely to attract press interest, it showed up at the Consumer Electronics Show with a Taser holster that has a built-in MP3 player. And it has received attention by way of an Arizona woman who peddles Taser devices in at-home gatherings — “Tupperware parties for the Taser” is how her business is invariably described.
What a sorry-ass bunch of cowards we've become when we start packing Tasers in our purses or in holsters next to our cell phones.
Move over, Water Tiger, my head needs your desk for a while.
The good news for Taser International is that its brand is a household name: As Kleenex is to facial tissues, so Taser is to electroshock stun weapons. ...
“I think anyone would be envious of our brand name,” says Steve Tuttle, vice president of communications for the company. It’s a challenge for any product maker, he argues, to make sure that consumers “feel” the right way about its brand. And it is with this in mind that Taser has lately made its latest run at the mainstream consumer market, with the Taser C2 Personal Protector, a model that is, if not exactly kinder and gentler, then at least more innocent-looking. Also: it’s available in pink and in a leopard print.
It may be surprising to learn that the average citizen was actually meant to be Taser’s original market; its early, black or gray, pistol-shaped models were sold at places like Sharper Image. They cost as much as $800. “Wrong shape, wrong pricing, wrong color,” Tuttle says now. Women often found the thing too “ominous” — a big problem if Taser wanted to position its devices as a personal-safety alternative to sprays like Mace. ...
The company has been fairly clever about drumming up nonscary publicity in recent months. Aside from the mere existence of a “fashion pink” Taser, which alone is likely to attract press interest, it showed up at the Consumer Electronics Show with a Taser holster that has a built-in MP3 player. And it has received attention by way of an Arizona woman who peddles Taser devices in at-home gatherings — “Tupperware parties for the Taser” is how her business is invariably described.
What a sorry-ass bunch of cowards we've become when we start packing Tasers in our purses or in holsters next to our cell phones.
Move over, Water Tiger, my head needs your desk for a while.
Labels: Terra Terra Terra
posted by Diane at 1:00 PM
2 Comments:
Next to our cell phones?
Why not just combine one with a cell phone. You could call it the "I-Prod."
Heheheh.
That may qualify as the very funniest comment ever on this blog.
Well-done.
Now, kindly come over and clean the coffee off my monitor.
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