Barbie turned fifty and is  losing market share.  Doesn’t that happen even to the best of us?  Except in her case, a team of experts spent two days in some hip LA hotel where they examined her past, reviewed where and how the decline happened and then designed a course for her reintroduction. Basically a facelift if you will. They decided she would have six personalities: wild, artsy, cutesy, glamourous, sassy and girlie. And all at fifty!!

Now I am a fifty-one year old marketing consultant in Indianapolis and trying to reinvent myself. Perhaps I could get some friends to go on a two day retreat and think about the next stage in my life. If anyone is interested let me know.

The magazine industry is in a flux and wondering if people will pay for digital content after they have been giving much of it away. Circulations are down and e-newsletters are everywhere. The advertising opportunities are confusing. There are Web pages, e-newsletters, e-blasts, classifieds, directories and finally the actual printed publication. Most of the options give you little if any information on actual open rates and click throughs.

There are so many options that they are in effect competing with each other and unless packages are better developed they affect one’s ability to make any impact on readership.

Sullivan is a marketing, planning and research consultant in Indianapolis, Indiana

Susan Boyle has established herself as a simple woman with an angelic voice.  She is religious, volunteers and loves animals. You won’t see her doing much of a makeover. She has already it appears, thinned her eyebrows some and tidied up her hair. Too much though would ruin her image. Part of her charm is in her simplicity, humbleness and frugal appearance.  Susan Boyle has established her personal brand and her brand promise to millions.

These direct response technologies deliver digital content to your phone, but is sounds like a lot of steps to me. You have to take photos of bar codes and then have either downloaded an application or send a text and forward the bar code. Scanlife must use a web-enabled phone. Jagtag does not.

They are testing many potential applications. The most bizarre is to see a slide show of a loved one from a tag/barcode on a gravestone. Are you kidding!!!

I see some possibilities. How about going the other way? Let me register for coupons on my phone and then let me beam then at the store right to the cash register.

My cousin from Italy came recently for the first time to the US with her new husband on their honeymoon. They had been to New York and Las Vegas among other places. Her husband proudly showed us her new necklace. It was a simple chain with a small tag that read Tiffany’s. When I read later that week that Breakfast at Tiffany’s was having its 50th anniversary, I thought—now there is a product placement!! That movie and Miracle on 34th Street were classic examples of the value of  product placement.

Jim Stengel, outgoing global marketing chief at P&G is promoting purposed-based marketing. What do you do beyond making money that makes your customer’s lives better? He uses the example of the Pampers brand and helping mom’s develop healthy happy babies, beyond keeping them dry. To do that they offered parenting advice and tips and conducted research to improve the brand.

Basically, they provided additional value with relevant information. This reminds me of social responsibility and cause related marketing. Do something good for your customers relevant to your brand. The pharmaceutical manufacturers have caught on in the last decade, and are providing additional information on diseases and self help measures. Anthem health insurance is providing its insured with all types of information to help prevent illnesses. Utilities provide ways to help customers save energy costs. I like the new name, but I really don’t think there is all that much new with purposed-based marketing.

The Audit Bureau of Circulations as of March 31st showed most of the biggest city newspapers declining in readership. This includes the New York Times, LA Times, New York Daily News, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, etc.

National papers such as the Wall Street Journal and USA Today had slight increases…less than one-half of one percent.

I really enjoy reading my news. In fact, that is where I get most of my thoughts and content for this blog. I certainly hope the trend does not continue, but I do believe the local papers will continue to get smaller and smaller as they drive you to their website for the majority of their content.

The beer market is depressed and they are counting on your depression to help save them. Usually when the economy is down…beer consumption is up. Sadly though, hops prices are driving margins down and beer drinkers are discovering smaller brands and drinking more imports . All of this is hurting the traditional core brands. Anheuser’s shares are down 9.9% in 2008.  Goldman Sach’s is concerned! They said “we remain concerned about U.S. beer business margin outlook due to escalating commodity costs and the need to drive core brand volumes.”

Our domestic core brands should be worried. While shipments of imported U.S. beers have fallen, sales by volume is still up for Heineken Premium Light. Their volume rose 15.5% through March 23 from the same period last year according to (IRI). Yet, this growth is slower than last year and the company is counting on marketing to help increase growth.  Now get this…, according to The Wall Street Journal they are counting on depressed drinkers to be alturistic. Are they serious? Seems they are. They are launching an ad campaing asking folks to “Be a Beer Samaritan.” That’s right. They think that since the economy is depressed giving beer away will lift your “spirits.”  I gotta see this to believe it. If I am short on money I certainly am not going to give away my beer. No sir. These ads are not meant to be funny. They are even going to distribute coasters that say “Adopt a Stranger.” “Share the Good.” I hope they don’t mean the guy on the street corner.  Do you think you can use the coaster as a receipt to write off the donation on your taxes?

Let’s keep our eye on the beer market. This should prove to be interesting.

Just when you thought you had heard enough bad economic news we get hit with another indication we are in big trouble. The Wallstreet Journal today (April 22) tells us that domestic Barbie sales declined as foreign sales increased.  Poor Barbie is fighting for her reputation once again, and it is not because she was out too late with Ken.  Some hip hop-doll who is named Bratz of all things in stealing market share from Barbie.  I checked out Bratz’s website and Barbie’s. I must admit, Bratz had a better site. I feel so bad for Barbie. Will Barbie be able to keep up? Are they messing too much with her brand? What is to become of our old friend?

Savvy marketers have folks monitoring blogs and conversations. At a recent workshop I attended, I found out that IndyMoms has people that are hired to keep conversations going.  At this same workshop I  met someone who to promote an expo had some four people she had hired to create twelve personas. Each person had different e-mail addresses for the type of “Mom” they represented in discussions that would happen to mention the expo. IndyMoms tries to watch out for such fraudulent discussions but I am sure they cannot uncover them all.

Companies also monitor blogs to find customers complaining about service or product features as well as those on forums trying to solve problems.  This is a smart and legitimate way to keep in touch with customers and to monitor satisfaction.