I was driving down 4th Avenue South in Minneapolis last week and noticed an unusual bus stop bench. It had a blue bar across the top that said “What if….” and underneath that “www.jacobs-well.net.”
Being in Minnesota, I immediately thought of Jacob Wetterling. Was this some grand conspiracy theory using outdoor marketing channels? Of course, I had to go check, which I bet you did, too.
A church, who knew? How wrong is that? Not that it’s a church, rather, that it pushes the bounds of ethics in marketing. How could someone in Minnesota not thing that bus bench referred to Jacob Wetterling?
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It’s a great phone. I’ve dropped it at least 20 times and it still works. For the longest time, that was all I wanted in a phone. My Samsung Gravity from T-Mobile actually does a lot of cool stuff — it takes pictures, it sends texts, it sends pictures, it calls people, and lets me know who’s calling me. If I had the “right” email (yahoo, for instance), I could even send email from it. The slide-out keyboard is nice, too.
But what’s next? My T-Mobile contract ends in a couple of months…I’ve always wanted an iPhone, but I shy away from the $200-300 purchase cost (my Gravity was free….), the $70 monthly service charge for unlimited minutes and an additional $15 to $45 per month data charge, which you need if you want to do anything on the internet. It’s cool and it’s fun — the marriage of my WiFi enabled iTouch and my not-so-smart Gravity.
You can get a smart phone for little money, but are they as good as the iPhone? Not to me. But until the price comes down my not-so-smart phone and my iTouch can coexist in my briefcase.
Here’s my analysis:
Now: My phone + my husband’s phone, 1500 shared minutes and unlimited texting for $100 / month
New iPhones:
Option 1: $428 for the 2 new 16 GB (ie small) iPhones and $120 /month for 700 shared minutes, 2 GB of web activity (data charge), and 900 texts
Option 2: $428 for the 2 new 16 GB (ie small) iPhones and $199 /month for unlimited minutes, 2 GB of web activity (data charge), and unlimited texts
I think I could live with the reduced minutes per month and limited texts in exchange for anywhere internet access for about what I pay now per month, but I just cannot fathom dropping $428 dollars on new phones that if I drop or get wet, I’ll ruin immediately and spending $200 month just to use them.
One of my favorite Twin Cities events – the Minnesota Irish Fair — and I’m only Irish by marriage. You can stand in one place and hear 5 different bands; watch some traditional sport, dancing, or animals; or eat and drink both classic and neo Irish foods — Irish Nachos anyone? Not to mention all sorts of literary, history and Irish-language tents. And it’s free — at least for now–thanks to the many sponsors.
Experience it all
Being a St. Paulite, I had no idea what or where Ahern’s Irish Pub hailed from–the primary sponsor of the event. So how did they do? Was their investment worth it?
As much as I bet they wanted their presence to be bigger, it was subtle — at least on the opening night. Yes, the first booth you encounter walking down the main aisle to Croagh Park – the main location for all non-music events–is the Ahern’s Pub booth, but unless you stop to look or have to stand in line for the ATM, you’d never know about the free Kid’s T-shirt or the no-fail contest to win an Ahern’s branded fan, pen, cozy or frisbee.
Ahern's Kids T-shirts
The T-shirts are cute and the kids in-the-know enjoyed coloring them with fabric markers. What great strolling advertising for a pub and restaurant that’s not offensive to families. Green Ahern Frisbees were a common site flying around or vainly keeping patrons dry during the occasional downpour.
Food and beverage ticket include a coupon for Ahern’s Irish Pub with each 10-pack of tickets sold. If nothing else, that should get savvy consumers across the river and into Ahern’s door vs. other Minneapolis Irish hotspots (Google search for Minneapolis Irish Bars). But whoops! What’s missing — Ahern’s Irish Pub doesn’t show up on the list, but Brit’s does and it’s not even Irish.
This could be a problem. Where’s Ahern’s Irish Pub marketing director? Establishing a Google presence is easy and absolutely necessary. But it gets worse, go visit their website (Ahern’s Irish Pub) are they open or is the site just not updated? Good points include the link FaceBook and the Irish Fair Banner which doesn’t link to the Irish Fair, but only a PDF about their sponsorship of the fair. If you read it, you’ll find out they haven’t opened yet! Just an important piece of information that needs to be obvious and not buried in text that only marketing profs read.
Give us an opening date. Publish a sneak peak at the menu. All the history is fun, but I’m not going to come visit unless I stumble upon your establishment or know what I’m getting into.
1960 meets 2010: An old-school bar that worships JKF and all things Irish has a web page: The Dubliner
I’d gone to the web to verify if the Eddies, a local a cappella group, were truly going to play the Dubliner–a bar I’d always thought of as the local Irish dive that I’d driven by a thousand times. Kieran’s it isn’t. I did not except to find a website, let alone a brilliant one.
Inside it’s 1960 all the way with JFK posters, period Guinness advertising posters and the original neon from
the bar’s predecessor the Ace Box Bar. There’s a popcorn maker opposite the bar if you’re hungry and all the usual suspects on tap (Guinness, Harp, Hard Cider, Schell’s, Summit, etc.).
So how do you distill that imagery into a marketing message?
How do you communicate succinctly “gritty, but friendly; neighborhood bar with eclectic music and decent tap selection; no cover; free parking; Irish; JFK fanatics.”
You don’t with just words.
Per Wikipedia, Positioning’s original focus “was cutting through the ambient “noise” and establishing a moment of real contact with the intended recipient.” It’s how marketers build an image in the consumer’s mind. Good positioning catches your interest and holds it — it’s Joe Mauer needing to “take it outside”, but not so much the homage to Coke and Mean Joe Green.
So what makes The Dubliner‘s website so brilliant? It’s what’s not there – no links, no fancy graphics, no obvious smart graphic design, no advertising, no logo, no pseudo Irish pub signs, no…. There’s a drink, some napkins, and the week’s music calendar. It’s spare–just like the bar itself. It tells the consumer just what to expect — good music and a decent drink in a simple setting.
the bar’s predecessor 
Sara Kerr 