New marketing tool for bands

Again, I love the Internet. Was discussing marketing strategies for “band brand” with a San Francisco band member.

Came up with some new ideas. We’ve all been to shows where CDs and T-shirts are for sale. For about $300 you can have a laptop full of MP3s for downloading onto iPods at your show. One-dollar a pop and it takes like a minute. Have a show special, the entire CD/album downloaded for like $8. Make sure you exchange Twitter accounts and ask them to mention your show – right from the show – on their mobile Twitter (cell phones are a great Internet accessory).

Making money in cosmetic stock - ?

I’m more than likely an idiot, but I was at an outdoor mall today and every girl and woman from age five up was wearing makeup. We’re in a depression (recession). Yet women still have funds to wear makeup and go to beauty parlors, or whatever they call them today? Even pre-tweens (I invented a new term).

Cosmetics and beauty products are not my area of expertise, but I’m always keeping my antenna out for making profits in stock trading.

Looking at the makeup sector of stocks, if it was any other sector, like restaurants, energy or power, I’d run like hell.

Yet I go back to my idiot response that everyone is wearing it. It’s like Twitter. If everyone is doing it, it must be bringing in money. A question on LInkedin revealed the opposite. It appears companies are investing time on utilizing Twitter, but no one is making money from it.

But to wear makeup, you must purchase it. Not so with Twitter.

Revlon is down from its five year high of nearly $40 to just above $2 and still falling. Why isn’t every fiber of my being yelling, no, no, no?

I will admit I’m twitterpated here. When I walk by a MAC counter, or the Scottsdale Mall store, the most gorgeous women are there. The ones working there and others getting makeup put on (maybe that’s the secret, nobody buys, they get it put on like the cheap guys put men’s perfume on at the stores). It doesn’t matter. The most gorgeous women in town seem to be at MAC.

Estee Lauder, a huge conglomerate, owns MAC. Its stock is around $23, near its five year low of just under $20, hit recently. Its five year high is nearly $60. Either it’s a buy or I’m an idiot – and the jury is definitely out on that one.

Look at the originator of modern makeup, Max Factor. It is owned by the 21st Century equivalent of AT&T. When I worked for AT&T – before the 1984 divestiture – it owned the world, literally. No one told it what to do. It spent money like there was no tomorrow. AIG is a boy scout compared to the way AT&T spent money when it was the only game in town.

Max Factor is owned by Procter and Gamble. Yes, they do own everything you put on and in your body, including Tampax to toilet tissue. They do razors, dog food, batteries and tons of shampoos.

I hate companies that diversify like this. It’s like buying mutual funds when you buy their stock. PG stock is at a five year low around $45 from a five year high of $75. I have a term for these type of companies. I call them the Willy Loman (main character in Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman.” Blogging is educational. I read that book in the sixth grade, 10 years after it was published – okay so in literature I was precocious. Didn’t everyone read Shakespeare in the seventh grade?) company – trying to be everything to everyone.

So if you go out and buy any of these stocks (Revlon looks the best) remember you’ve done it listening to an idiot. All the charts have sunk to unheard of low levels (except PG). As I said, all logic says run, but there’s that MAC counter emotion saying, “oooh yeah.”

How NOT to do Tween public relations

For weeks I’ve been trying to get hold of the Disney Channel’s PR department. I call, get routed everywhere and a message says, press 1 for this, 2 for that. Disney Channel appears to have no real humans working there.

That is a great way to build an image. Sure we live in the day of Twitter, Facebook and MySpace, but please, get real people to answer your phones. Eons ago companies would hire an answering service. Disney Channel does not even let you select voice mail. What’s up with that?

Yet, they own the world in creating stars. Miley Cyrus, Zac & Vanessa. How can they have such a crappy way of dealing with the public (guess what public relations means) and still be numero uno?

Call me, Disney Channel. I have questions.

There’s a great story coming here about casting the Hannah Montana show if I could ever get hold of Disney Channel’s PR department!

Miley Cyrus taking marketing sociologist advice?

Spies have said she actually visits this blog. The other day I blogged, “Miley Cyrus, I Hate You,” giving her advice that radio was dead and steps to take to promote her movie (and her autobiography, which is not the new song, “Hoe down,” but instead is called “Miles To Go.” (Next one will be Miles2 Go, then Miles3 Go.)).

So she partly followed my advice. It wasn’t Good Morning America, but it was The View this morning, one of Disney's ABC shows. Where were all the promos last week promoting this appearance? Will she be doing Kelly & Regis, Mike & Juliet?

Here’s a marketing sociologist tip for network (and local) TV. Not only put those promos on your station, post to YouTube and MySpace, plus send a Twitter out about them.

Miley Cyrus trying for $500,000 per day?

Best policy in life: if you make a mistake, admit it. Turns out Miley Cyrus does have a new product out. At 16, she has published her autobiography, “Miles to Go.”

In a recent blog I said she had no new product. Books? Hey even on a recent Hannah Montana episode, she admitted Hannah doesn’t like carrots or reading. So I’m waiting for the audio version – hope the Disney marketing whizzes have thought of this. I envision – “Miles to Go, the Miley Cyrus autobiography as read by Hannah Montana.”

So with the last year of the 21st Century’s first decade only two months old, we have two new singles, “The Climb” and a song about those racy photos, “Hoedown Throwdown.” The Hannah Montana Movie soundtrack on March 24 and then the movie the first half of April.

If this is the first third of the year, what is this girl doing for the last third – Thanksgiving, Halloween and the winter holidays?

Looks like she’s aiming to surpass that $400,000 per day she made in 2007. What can she do with ALL that money?

For you parents, let’s, as Hilary Duff says, “Do The Math.”

$15 – movie

$15 – soundtrack

$20 – book

$20 – deluxe edition of soundtrack, probably in June

That’s only $70. Don’t worry, unless you’re Octomom with all those kids. Brad and Angie can afford it.

Miley Cyrus, I hate you

Right when I’ve been blogging that radio is dead, Miley Cyrus goes on tour – a tour of Clear Channel radio stations.

Either Miley’s people don’t know how to market her, or the tie-in Disney has with Clear Channel/Live Nation is an attempt to salvage the radio stations. I personally think it is salvage.

Why have the world’s current biggest star traipse all over the nation, wear herself out, when she’s not on tour?

Matter of fact, Miley doesn’t have any new product out. The movie isn’t out until April and the soundtrack isn’t released until March 24. In this day of Twitter, people will forget the radio slots in two weeks.

It is ironic she went on tour the week Jonas Brothers 3D broke in theaters. There’s a Hannah Montana movie trailer before the JB movie.

So why is Cyrus doing the tour instead of the Jonas Brothers? Have those interns Disney hires instead of real marketers lost their mind?

Me, I’d be putting Miley Cyrus on the nation’s #1 rated television, American Idiot, on March 25. I’d be hyping that during every prime time commercial break for two weeks before the event. Then, I’d have her on both the Fox (American Idiot) morning shows and Good Morning America (Disney’s ABC) the week of the American Idiot show.

I’d also be doing the phony interview set for independent television stations – making it look like the station’s on-air was actually interviewing Miley. Add appearances on Letterman and Leno, if she’s allowed to stay up that late (not to worry, they shoot around 5 p.m.).

So my only conclusion is – it’s to salvage radio. Won’t work!

Wait, she released “The Climb” the same week as Jonas Brothers 3D and goes on radio tour to support it? How bad was that breakup with Nick Jonas?