Friday, December 3, 2010

Guerilla Marketing from an Indonesian Boutique

One of my nieces posted a link this afternoon (well, late afternoon for them; 4:45PM, they are 12 hours ahead) of an entire clothing catalog for the Holiday Season. It just so happens I posted a fashion post yesterday. My wife tells me the girl is not our relative (A handful of them have modeled professionally, TV and otherwise) … fine. I still find aspects interesting, worth sharing and deconstructing.


Firstly, an entire 80 page catalog on Facebook?! Who would have thought? Well, the likes of Daniel Pink and, in particular, Seth Grodin have chronicled such efforts; so it’s not unheard of (one simply still doesn’t see much of it).

Second, whomever the dear little model is, she worked hard for whatever they paid her. It appears that the entire shoot took place in her family’s home, mostly living and her bedroom. With about 200 changes, this must have been an endurance issue (who uses just one model (?), photographers and boutiques on a shoestring that have made a nice arrangement). There are even shots with her barefooted! Likely an oversight, yet to fashion photography, clearly a opportunity to establish “the new”.

The lighting is off (sometimes outright dark), most of the clothing still has the fold creases in it and there appears to be no makeup whatsoever. Gasp, how unprofessional? Well, perhaps; but in the balance of things the girl is attractive enough (she is not an aging 36 trying to look 17 … she probably is 17). Given the constraints of the volume of visual material looking to be generated, and the presumed budget, are the creases that much of an issue? (Yes, but it is what it is). The biggest item I would fault the photographer on would be the lighting.

Nearly lastly, what is up with the graphics? Really? You put that poor model through a several day marathon and the photographer trying to squeeze something from next to nothing and they literally want to frame it like that? That is the worst part.

Well, no; there is on part that is worse: lastly the communication of the piece. What do you mean SMS only? The Indonesian post offices cannot even be trusted, and someone is supposed to wire funds and import based on a text exchange?

Listen, I love the ad campaign; I really do. I feel it has gumption, innate passion and I sense everyone connected with the project (including Macadamia House) is well-meaning, hard working, just doing the best they can and looking for a break. I say all this as lessons learned and support. I also feel that there’s a ton of greatness about it: the pluck and spunk to pull all that off, for one thing (and details like the bare feet and no make up for another) … facebooking the whole catalog, etc.

But really, add some part time commission based translators on Skype, add e-mail. Meanwhile, congratulations. If I had to grade the overall effort: A- (I’m that impressed).

BTW, the IDR (1 Indonesian rupiah) currently equals 0.0001 US dollars. So, these really are all bargains (the truffle cargo at 110,000, the first displayed item, is eleven dollars US).

INFO:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=169600753071130&set=a.169584103072795.36260.100000636202553&ref=nf#!/photo.php?fbid=169600953071110&set=a.169584103072795.36260.100000636202553&pid=409732&id=100000636202553
Macadamia House Full III's Photos - DECEMBER CHRISTMAS CAROL

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