Stephanie Fierman - Marketing Observations Grown Daily » dc comics

Stephanie Fierman Says If You Can’t Beat Spider-Girl…

sfierman — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 20:13:50 +0000

Most people think that comic book fans are all single men who either live in their parents’ basements and/or have entire rooms filled with action figures.

It’s not true. Some of them are married (budumbum!).

But seriously folks… I’m not going to share proprietary research here, but chicks are a growth business in the comics world. I met plenty of great women during my years at DC Comics who love comics and graphic novels, and manga has only fueled female awareness in the US. Several recent superhero movies, such as Ironman and The Dark Knight, have also featured storylines and characters that made them watchable for a widening swath of women.

So it’s only sensible that Marvel would come out with an updated line of Halloween costumes for women. This is a really smart, fun idea that will bring new customers into the fold and get devotees to ditch their handmade Spider-Girl costumes in favor of a “real” one. One-third of adults say they plan to buy costumes for themselves this year, with 62.5% of women saying they plan to celebrate the holiday vs. 54.7% of men. and the witch thing is so old-school.

The costumes will not only sell, but they also give Marvel additional moderately-priced SKUs to position at mass retail.

Marvel Comics

Stephanie Fierman Saves Gas, Eschews Exclusives

sfierman — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 15:46:13 +0000

A Wall Street Journal article this week describes how retailers are becoming increasingly focused on exclusive merchandise available through brand licensing.

Phillips-Van Heusen has Calvin Klein, Meredith has Better Homes & Gardens and Toys “R” Us is the only place you’ll find Hot Wheels MP3 players.

I don’t doubt that this is a fantastic way to refresh retail environments and create revenue – I’ve seen it myself at DC Comics and written about licensing several times.

For the moment, however – when 75% of women are saying that they are buying only the clothes their family needs – I doubt that the label on a shirt will make much difference. And few moms are likely to drive out of their way for a parity product, just because it’s Hot Wheels-branded.

Long-term, savvy licensing will remain effective. Short-term, revenue goals should be adjusted downward and I would think twice about pushing in-store exclusives, in particular: if Toys “R” Us wants to sell those MP3 players, they should be available on the chain’s website (I couldn’t find them…)

stephanie fierman talks about a graphic novel for the business world

sfierman — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 16:12:19 +0000

For the past three years, I’ve worked for the greatest comic book company in the universe, DC Comics(yes, the whole universe, and we comics people know our universes…).

And as I’ve written before, certainly one of the most significant boosts to the comics business and the U.S. publishing business overall has been the rise of the graphic novel, essentially a long-form comic in book form. A graphic novel can be about anything, just like a “regular” book:  life, death, war, biography, sex, fantasy, you name it. The business has gotten an enormous push into the mainstream thanks to efforts including Art Spiegelman’s In The Shadow Of No Towers and several non-superhero graphic-novel-based movies in recent years including V For Vendetta , Constantine and A History of Violence (all DC/Warner Bros. Entertainment films, natch). The graphic novel business in the U.S. and Canada was pegged at $330 million at the end of 2006 and is likely to see another 10%+ growth when final numbers for 2007 are tabulated.

Now comes the first business-oriented graphic novel, The Adventures of Johnny Bunko:  The Last Career Guide You’ll Ever Need. Billed as a career advice manual for just about anyone who wishes for a better career, the “first business comic book” is written by Dan Pink, a former speechwriter for Al Gore and the author of several influential books on the changing workplace, including Free Agent Nation (2002) and A Whole New Mind (2006).

Told through the eyes of a cublicle-dweller named Johnny Bunko, Pink’s overall message is that there is power in making career decisions for basic, true reasons, such as doing something you love, rather than tactical ones, like taking a job because you think it will be lead to something else.

The book itself looks great.  In the U.S., graphic novels provide a fresh and new way to tell any story. It’ll be interesting to see how the book sells. Watch this space.
graphic novel manga Johnny Bunko Daniel Pink

stephanie fierman has nothing to wear to the prom (again…)

sfierman — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 22:21:00 +0000

Sears is running a campaign on Facebook that allows young women to gab about the prom. This is a nice kernel of an idea, and I can hear millions of parents breathing a sigh of relief at the prospect of their daughters buying a prom dress at wallet-friendly Sears.

Then, like many ideas, it drops the ball in the execution department.

I know that every CEO and marketer alive is wringing his hands if he’s not on Facebook, but honestly I cannot figure out why. If you have something to offer that meets the high standards of a social community – that (a) takes advantage of the technology and (b) offers true value – great. If not, stay away. So often it seems as though the care, planning and (appropriate) obsessiveness these same folks regularly display when spending money on traditional media fly right out the window when Facebook is put on the table.

Is it because Facebook seems more ephemeral? Or brands think that their messaging will be received in a more casual way or will somehow be judged by lower standards than those applied in the “real” world? That teens on Facebook will take what they can get?

My opinion is nearly the exact opposite: I believe that if a brand can’t bring its A game to social media, it’s better off in the clubhouse. A weak-hearted attempt on Facebook will not work. At minimum, the effort will fail; worse yet, you may be pilloried for a botched attempt (see: WalMart). The New York Times says that I now see 5,000 ad messages a day, which means - if you ask for my time – it better be good.

So if Sears wants in on the action and prom is their game, why not make an awesome application on Facebook? Maybe it could take a girl through a questionnaire about herself, the event, her budget and her favorite style and color in order to provide a few dress recommendations on the other end. Maybe it could let a girl and her friends take the questionnaire together so that they could be sure to end up wearing complementary styles and colors. Maybe the app could provide recommendations for boutonnieres and corsages that would work nicely with the dress. Maybe it could recommend jewelry, undergarments, hosiery and shoes that would go perfectly with the outfit of choice (and that are for sale at Sears!). Maybe it could let the user email her choices to the individual(s) of her choice – her mom, for example.

Instead, the app lets a girl choose 1 of 70 dresses available at Sears and share it with her friends. That’s it. Anything that a girl can do in two seconds with a digital camera phone flunks my “unique value” test.

So frustrating! No doubt, Sears has something to offer and young women with whom they could create valuable and lasting experiences. So again, we’ve all heard the marketing horror stories on Facebook; I’m not talking about those. I’m just talking about companies with good intentions who fail to deliver an experience that’s within their reach. It’s a lost opportunity.