Tom Fishburne: Brand Camp cartoonist and marketing guy

the island of misfit launches

Having young kids means that I get to rediscover all of those classic Christmas movies this time of year.  The Grinch and Rudolph have been playing pretty much nonstop at our house. 

I always found the island of misfit toys a bit creepy.  Each toy sings a few lines about why they are misfits and that they were abandoned because kids didn't want them.  My mind wandered today watching it with the kids and it dawned on me that these toys are actually just outputs of product development gone awry.  A lot of product launches wind up as misfits.  So, it made me chuckle to think of these toys articulating the reasons that made them misfits.  I guess the typical NPD process is just as disfunctional for elves.

Here's another Christmas cartoon I drew in 2003.  I was in an elevator at General Mills, and a guy dressed as Santa Claus walked in at one of the floors and jokingly asked what we all wanted for Christmas.

adland

It's a rare treat for me to come across a fellow cartoonist.  Particularly when that cartoonist also has a day job in marketing/advertising.  So, I was really excited to start a bit of email chinwagging with David t. Jones, the brilliant cartoonist behind AdLand, which is featured in Adweek every week.  It was partly his example that prompted me to get Brand Camp published regularly in Brandweek.  Someday, we'll start a union. 

Anyway, David was in London this week for a project.  He recently started Cartoon Friday, where he slimmed back his work schedule to four days to draw cartoons every Friday.  Boy, am I jealous.

Really great guy with fabulous insights on the world of advertising, which is definitely as convoluted as the related world of marketing.  Here's his latest, which appears in Adweek this week.

 

izze

Excited to see that Boulder-based IZZE just launched in the UK at WholeFoods.  I've been a fan for a while, since one of their founders gave me career advice a few years ago.  I also like the stylish simplicity of their bottles.  Interesting that they seem to have found an inroads with school distribution, which have been kicking soft drinks out of vending machines.

I drew an IZZE bottle in this "word of mouth" cartoon a few years ago, drawing a start contrast between the marketing of IZZE and the big soft drink companies.  Funny that Pepsi later acquired IZZE.

pieminister

Brits certainly know a thing or two about pies.  But, the typical pie menu at a pub is usually pretty short and not all that imaginative.  So, I was glad to discover the quirky pieminister guys at a farmer's market in Chelsea.  And then, I saw them at WholeFoods, and learned a little more about them.

They started in a basement in Bristol in 2003 with a fresh modern take on the traditional pie (recipes like mr. porky pie, thai chook pie, minty lamb pie, and matador pie).  The whole approach is very superpremium.  To give you an idea, the ho ho pie features British venison, Cottechino Sausage, puy lentils, winter vegetables, juniper, thyme and port.  Yum.

The pieminister newsletter gives a pretty good picture of the guys behind the brand. 

I get a chuckle at the pieminister name.  It makes me think of Monty Python.  Somewhere down the hall from the Minister of Silly Walks, I like to think there is a Minister of Pies.

the problem with carbon labeling

A few days ago, I met the head of sustainability for a British retailer, and he said he was conflicted about carbon labeling.  There's a big push here to add a numeric carbon footprint to all consumer products (starting with a big announcement from Tesco last year).  It seems like a good disclosure in spirit, and the sheer effort to measure the carbon footprint is a good thing, which leads to ideas on how to reduce that footprint. 

But, labeling on packaging is a complicated one for consumers.  For one thing, it's confusing.  Do consumers really understand what a 75g carbon label on a bag of crisps means?  For another thing, it can create mixed messages like the one in this cartoon.

inside retail partnerships

Obviously, not all retail partnerships work like this.  But, I do feel like the typical starting point can be pretty adversarial.  And the balance of power is definitely with the retailer.

I was in a retail meeting recently, and the category director explained how they tier the meeting rooms.  "The little ones by the lobby are for people we don't like, the ones in the main floor are for people we like OK, and we never, ever bring suppliers up to our floor.  I don't even want them to know what I think."  Fortunately, we weren't meeting in the lobby when he told me this.

I've been fortunate to work with many buyers who are willing to break some of the rules, and think about partnerships in the true sense.  Target is one of the best at this.  But, why does that seem the exception, not the rule?  So many retailers seem to look at brands purely on a transactional basis, I think they can miss the bigger opportunity.

On another note, I always liked that Animal House quote, "thank you sir, may I have another?"