A company that fails is often guilty of not following the idea of supply and demand in either their marketing or their general practices. They do not do (or promote) what the majority wants, in the way the majority wants, and thus: not enough customers. It’s an old joke about the pretentious “auteur” or “visionary” who goes experimental and against the grain, and then is somehow...somehow, baffled that he did not get the support/sales he wanted.

Sure, leveled at an artist, this joke seems fitting sometimes, but the fact it applies to businesses too might not be as obvious. Gimmick sales are not the stuff of long-term successful business practices.

But here’s the odd thing. The thing I want to talk about with you here: experimentation in marketing and running a business. And how experimentations’ existence and sometimes application is fickle but necessary.

Let me say two ideas which make it hard for a new or small business to flourish: people like what they know and often have access to what they like already.

Breaking it down further: people like hamburgers. Wait! I have a point here.  If the stereotype toward Americans is true, and if the stereotype about us Southerners is true, people here in Clearwater really like hamburgers. And we have places like Five Guys in Clearwater Mall to supply us with top quality ones. There’s also McDonald’s for the cheaper side of the same want.

And thus, a problem for a new business that may want to sell hamburgers. Because if you are trying to go for what’s wanted, and what people are already buying, you’re in instant competition against the well-established brands. You need to break through the mental, already placed there, barrier that is those existing group’s marketing. And that is hard. Almost impossible sometimes.

You would have to do something better than them.

And that’s the next part to this. Because you have two choices in this situation (because I don’t consider quitting a choice). Be better than the established brands, or do something different.

But, I may hear you ask, if the whole point of the “do what people want” idea is to do what people already want, then why be different? How could experimentation be a good idea?

Well, because it is. Welcome to the gamble. Every one of the major and powerful businesses in the world started out as an idea. An idea which possibly seemed odd or stupid.        

Some people thought television was a bad idea. People thought no one would use it.

But this does not mean it is easy to be like those successes. The world of business is cutthroat, and the only way to survive is to be phenomenally better/cheaper than the alternative, or to do something which people want and need and will love but they just don’t know it yet. And it’s hard to know what is not known yet.

Both are a gamble. But, if you want to make a business, your best shot is clever marketing and advertising of yourself, and your group, and your creations, and doing all you can to make it work.

And, since you’re reading this post, and are on this website, you’re already in the right place for some advice on marketing. So, get reading. Then get producing. A good idea, whether conventional or not, needs the iron well and truly hot for a strike. The world changes fast.

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If you liked this article, you can read more of Brandon Scott’s work over at The Hive, or on his website: www.coolerbs.com

Due to caffeine’s effective marketing pitch of being almost necessary to modern life, statistically, you go into coffee shops often. And, since you do, you probably have ogled a random painting hanging on the shop’s walls, or an artisanal ceramic on a little table, or a collection of CDs for some band you’ve never heard of—ever—in a wicker bin. Or, perhaps, you went to the Pierce Street Market under the bridge leading toward Clearwater Beach, and looked at all the cute and quirky and sometimes rather gorgeous pieces of art. But, here’s the question: do you ever buy any of it?

Does anyone ever seem to buy those sorts of things? I can’t recall ever seeing someone walking away with one of the hundred dollar paintings of the sea or something of that ilk.

And, as a person who makes art, I am not a fan of this outcome. But I understand where it is coming from, and why this happens. And why many people ultimately fail to make a living out of making just art.

It’s the economy, let’s get that out of the way. Money plays a role, obviously.  But it’s not that alone. Art HAS inherent worth. It is perhaps one of the most important things to human happiness. Outside of the necessary to life things like food and sleep and water, humans crave mental stimulation. The urge to become engaged by something creative is the biggest and perhaps, on an underlying level, the entire reason the movie industry and Netflix and YouTube are such smash hits and juggernauts of the world. But, the issue with creation nowadays is not a lack of demand: it is a lack of attention and funds. We humans are such a huge population with varying habits and likes, and the ability to make art (and the drive to make art) is so powerful and so common, that getting noticed is hard amongst your fellow members of the species, even in a niche.

What I mean is, no matter how much work and craftsmanship went into that wooden wolf on a lacquered stand with intricate tribal symbols carved all over it, if you are charging more than a few dollars for the piece, you have a likely incoming issue of finding someone who can or will purchase such a thing without some major marketing push.

We have access to so much media, a flood, in fact, that the only way to remain sane is to flit from thing to thing or ignore the bulk entirely. The amount of stuff free (or just requiring a subscription fee or internet access) is so staggering, and people like their screens so much, that certain art has a real issue being seen or receiving more than a little attention.

It’s a problem which heavily hits crafts and carvings and paintings and statues and anything else physical. Sure, placing all that stuff around a home livens it up, but a lot of people—especially with the turbulent financial stress adults have been going through as of late—can’t or won’t put down the money for another thing in their house.

But, again, I believe physical art has a reason to exist and should be more financially viable—without hurting the artists of the world. I’m just sad to say I am not as helpful to this advice-wise as with other topics. I don’t know the solution yet.

It will take a supreme act of marketing, or a revolutionary change in outlook, to solve this problem. It will not be easy. But it is worth striving for, it is worth achieving. Culture needs physical art. I love technology, but that doesn’t mean all creation should be digital.   

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If you liked this article, you can read more of Brandon Scott’s work over at The Hive, or on his website: www.coolerbs.com

Let me get one thing straight before I start talking about the PR of animals: I like dogs, and cats, and rabbits, and animals in general. So, however odd this topic might go, I am not advocating anything negative happen to most. I say “most” because I am not a vegetarian. Beef, pork, chicken, turkey, fish, all of that—I have no qualms about it. I’ll order a steak at an Outback Steakhouse, say the one in Largo or Palm Harbor, without remorse.

But I get the reason some people cannot bring themselves to chow down on animals: because something about creatures of the earth, especially cute ones, elicits a feeling of needing to protect, to nurture, to care for them the best we can.

In fact, many people focus a huge chunk of their life on helping and keeping animals from harm. And, in a roundabout way, that is because animals have some of the best P.R. in the organic kingdom.

Now, we, as humans, if you consider our species an “animal” (I mean this in the definition sense, not trying for a philosophical argument about souls and “personhood” or anything here) are the masters of our environment. And despite our ability to bend the world to our whims if we want, we care for our fellow animals like we owe it to them.

And this is because of empathy, mostly. Most people can’t stand to see an animal in pain. It triggers a deep-seated drive inside us, and we must try to do something to avoid it suffering. The whimpering of a dog is enough to set a person on edge.

Now, going back a bit, in addition to plain empathy, we may also actually “owe” them something. Animals have been helping us as a species for a long time, and only with the recent—relative to humanity’s existence—advent of machines which can do the bulk of grunt work, we have had to rely on strong or overworked people (I am aware of the historical context there, let’s not get into it) and pack animals to do most of the work.  Even if we don’t need them for that as much anymore, we should still be nicer to them.

And, funny enough, this inherent good PR to animals is useful for marketing. It’s good for sales. Why else would most mascots be animals or objects made to look like animals? Appealing to the base drive of a person is a trick common to media. Beautiful people, succulent food, power fantasies, wealth, the urge for a deal, and cute things are all ways to draw someone in—to get them to pay.

Cuteness can hit a saturation point, sure, but helping animals is a thing almost everyone wants to do. So, working that in as something your company does—is a plus. Even just having a “pet” in an office (if not too distracting) is a way to make humans feel happier, more cooperative.

It’s something animal lovers have known for forever, that animals are sometimes much better than humans. Even at garnering positive PR.

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If you liked this article, you can read more of Brandon Scott’s work over at The Hive, or on his website: www.coolerbs.com

Facebook recently introduced the ability to livestream, and this promotes to an even higher degree the breakdown on privacy, but also the increase of interconnectivity. For the uninitiated, how a livestream works is in the name: it is a video, like the kind on YouTube, that is playing live, as in, if you are watching, it is happening right as you are watching, except maybe off by a few seconds.

And this is astonishing technology. Sure, it might not seem that impressive at first glance, but the fact Facebook gives this power to anyone to use, for free, means that connectivity is increasing. And so is the lack of walls.

As a person who recently tried out the function, the thing that becomes apparent is that people are viewing you right then. Which, as I said: is how the system works. But that reality does not sink in until you start. There is no chance to edit later, or fix flubs. The concept of stage fright is inherent the second you know someone is “present”.

And it’s recorded. Permanently existing somewhere, on some server—unless you delete the video (and they might still save the file somewhere: who knows?). Remember that too. The idea of constant monitoring that novels like 1984 raged against, is being willingly used. And the funny thing is that because we get to choose to some degree when technology is observing our lives, we seem to lose a lot of the concerns.

Like all social media, livestreaming promotes placing yourself, all of yourself, out there so you can be more personal with the world. If you felt connected to the people you watch on certain shows before, then just wait until you watch the person live.

Sure, these videos might remove a little of the magic inherent to life’s mysteries, but knowing someone is somewhere while they are there, is still incredible technology. Yet again: incredible. If you thought video chat letting you bring one person to a vacation with you was cool, if you thought letting one person join you on your errand to somewhere like Nature’s Food Patch was an interesting trick of the new world: well, now you can bring a whole group of people with you.

And, livestreams have changed media in other ways. Livestreaming while playing a game, livestreaming while building crafts, while having a political discussion, playing music, cooking, what have you, garners an audience. Viewing something happening as it is happening, no matter the barriers of space, takes the mundane and stale and makes the experience new and interesting. It’s reality television’s draw on hyper drive.

Livestreaming is effective because humans like being around other humans. And now, one can be with thousands of their fellow man from the comfort of their own home. It’s not quite filming, it’s not quite theater. It’s not even exactly candid camera. It is the direct link between viewer and presenter, between friends/strangers and another’s life.

And this can lead to beautiful things. And things no one has ever conceived of. Yes, some horrible outcomes can, and did, and will, happen: but with how livestreams conceptually link to what we all already promote through our social media use, be we a company or an individual person, it’s not going anywhere, anytime soon.

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If you liked this article, you can read more of Brandon Scott’s work over at The Hive, or on his website: www.coolerbs.com

If only a company’s advertising moved as fast as the media advertises a scandal. If only the fact a place is selling nice products could get out to people as quick as the random horribleness that is on the news and on the internet.

Because we are ever closer coming to a hive mind, but only when the information is big and dramatic. Tell me: how did you hear about the newest political argument or extreme situation in the world? Was it by sitting down at the television and going with the mindset of: “I want to understand what is happening in the world today, I want to be a well-informed member of society”?         

Or did you get it through osmosis. Or by accident.

I am a fan of the way the world is with technology. There are moments, because of technology, where I feel more connected to humanity than I ever have before.

But that same connection means I, and I’m betting I am not the only one, hear about things by osmosis—and with bias. The news of president-elect Trump being held as the winning vote (if he is not already the President of The United States by the time of this article going live) came to my attention because I was on Facebook and someone celebrated.

Now, I somewhat bemoan the dwindling of newsprint, as I’m sure does places like the Tampa Bay Times—as the romantic idea of the newspaper is such a beautiful thing. But it’s too fast now, the world, when it comes to breaking news. We know information almost instantly. Humanity is only one technological advance away from wireless headphones keeping us culturally informed via little unobtrusive voices—if we don’t already have that.

As another example of the quick information-spreading phenomena that various company’s advertising departments wishes it had, my timeline had people posting paragraph long, somewhat researched, rebuttals to Meryl Streep’s statements at the Golden Globes—a television moment which I only had glimpsed because the television happened to be on around me—in minutes. Almost like people had arguments prepared beforehand.

And though a business does not often have that kind of power, there is potential for it. If worked at hard enough. I am not promoting someone does something bad and horrible to ring the media circus’ dinner bell. But I am promoting the opposite. If someone does something good and wholesome, they may earn the same attention. If a company could, or would, stand up for something important, then that has the potential for spurring advertising at the fullest measure. Sure, it’s a little hollow, a little manipulative, but good actions for the world are good actions for the world.

Now, some might not like corporations weighing in on the world’s events. But, in this age, someone will always object, and if done with the right tact, you can have the hive mind of the internet focus on you for a moment, and the majority might not even be angered.

Cultural or societal news is beyond “trending” at this point. Trending does not even describe how society through the pulse of the internet can just know things. How it can be thinking about things like it was there witnessing the event in real time.

And, if you’re clever, you can have them thinking about you. Because that’s all advertising is about. And attention, is power.

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If you liked this article, you can read more of Brandon Scott’s work over at The Hive, or on his website: www.coolerbs.com