Kim Kardashian is Dead

January 13, 2012 # 12:04 pm # Marketing Insights, Specials # 9 Comments
According to several reports out there, the Kardashians, especially Kim Kardashian, once able to push almost any product online, have hit a serious stumbling block. Their show, which was once one of the top shows on reality television has lost almost all of its viewership and worse, no one picks up magazines with Kim Kardashians face on it. It is reported to be on the block, to be canceled after this season.

“I’d pay her $600,000 personally not to go to Red Egg,” said Travis Bass, referring to the Chinatown hot spot he co-owns. “Kim Kardashian would be crushing to us. We’d have a meeting Monday and talk about how that happened.”

This is an important note to performance marketers, because Kim Kardashian in particular was an early adopter of Twitter, and was reported to have been paid thousands of dollars to promote products on Twitter. In fact, many people saw Kim as an unofficial spokesperson for Twitter’s success. This raises some questions if that people are tired of the Kardashians, could their focus on twitter also be starting to turn?
Additionally, it really brings attention to how finicky people can be. If Kardashian only a year ago could sell almost anything, and do no wrong, but now is considered a pariah to brands, what does that mean to something like Facebook? Could one mistake for Facebook cost them their almost 1 Billion users? One bad rumor about Facebook, perhaps spread on Google+ could cause a mass exodus and destroy the brand — like perhaps a sex tape of Zuckerberg?
Business Insider has insight on how they destroyed their brand

The wedding of Kim Kardashian to New Jersey Nets basketball forward Kris Humphries took place on August 20, 2011. It is estimated to have cost $10 million. However, by most reports, it did not cost the Kardashians a dime since it was financed by a variety of media and sponsors that used the wedding to promote their products. Unfortunately, the marriage lasted a mere 72 days when Kim announced through her publicist that she is filing for divorce. This caused the segment of anti-Kardashians to grow and for many to label the wedding a sham and a publicity stunt. Even noted saxophonist, Dave Koz, who played during the ceremony, told the press that he thought the wedding lacked authenticity and seemed more like a scene in a movie than a real wedding.

Whatever is happening with the Kardashians, it shows how fast people can go from a $100M a year brand to being completely hated. It’s a great example of how marketers need to stay focused and understand their audience and how to avoid bad press, or worse, associating themselves with something getting bad press.

Friday, January 06, 2012

Domain Bedtime Stories: Mike Mann Recalls When He Couldn't Give Menus.com Away

Frager Factor reports, As part of an on-going attempt to familiarize you with some of the great archived content here, that gets searched and read every day profiling/ interviewing Internet thought leaders, pioneers and visionaries, I will begin to repurpose content in small bites.

Tonight, in a new segment I am calling "Domain Bedtime Stories" I will share tales told to me from the pros--- insight not part of any book or course and maybe never shared anywhere else.

From our 2008 three-part interview with Mike Mann (originally broadcast on my membership site, DomainSuccess.com) a lesson to those trying to take domains today like Forces.com simply because they were too late to the party....

We asked Mike: "One of your first sales was $25,000 for a domain you had paid about $50 a year for. I think anybody listening would say, "Hey that's a great entree into a market in helping someone garner an appreciation for a budding industry." Tell us a little bit about that success and how it affected you.

Mike: "I owned an Internet service provider and web developer called Internet Interstate. Then it became part of Verio. Back then, I owned the means to build websites as mostly an attempt to entice customers. For example I bought Menus.com. I was hoping some of the national restaurant associations would become my clients. I said, "Hey, I have this great name for a website and a great idea for an application, etc." But a bunch of the names that I bought and registered, those companies that I was soliciting had no interest in building a meaningful website. They didn't understand the brands, the domains, etc. The ones we did not build sites out of I ended up continuing to own, and at some point somebody offered me $25,000 for Menus.com. There had been a very rudimentary site. I thought, "Man, this is the best thing. $50 a year for the registration and I just sold this thing for $25,000." At that point I just wanted to figure out how I could get lots and lots of these names and try to sell them for as much as possible. Ever since that light bulb went off in my head many years ago I still have that same idea. I still want to buy low and sell high."

Later adds Mike about reflecting on UDRP's today on names that you couldn't give away then, "There are always annoying lawyers and people all over the place, so one out of every couple thousand domains gets challenged. Almost every time it's a joke and a scam from my perspective, because in no case were any of those domains really somebody else's property. They were names that were just totally broad, generic names that somebody believed they had some God-given right to for some reason. Every once in awhile the UDRP panels, which are terribly incompetent overall, give away our domains but it's extraordinarily rare, one out of many thousand domains."