WHILE YOU'RE RELAXING on your upcoming vacation to San Francisco for DMA06 (yes, I laughed maniacally when I typed the word “vacation” — we'll be in a constant flurry of activity too), don't forget to check out our Web site (www.directmag.com) and daily e-mail newsletter Direct Newsline for the latest news from the show and beyond.
And if that isn't enough for you, fly on into DirectBuzz Blog (blog.directmag.com/buzz/), our compendium of news tidbits, gossip and commentary. We'll be at the show blogging in full force, offering up our thoughts on what's happening in the Moscone Convention Center.
Of course, we're buzzing around the blog on a regular basis. Here's a few edited snippets from recent posts.
VIVA DIRECT!
Example 3,625 why direct response rules:
This weekend, I got it into my head that it would be a great family activity to go to the grand opening of L.L. Bean's new retail store in nearby Burlington, MA.
My long-suffering husband sensed the folly in this, but went along anyway. He knows it's easier not to fight when I get something like this on the brain. This is why someday we'll end up at the Mall of America. But I digress.
I had just received Bean's new Christmas catalog and knew of several things I either wanted to try on or pick up for gifts. So why not save on shipping and make an afternoon of it?
We piled the kids into the station wagon and hit the highway on Saturday afternoon. We got there to find — surprise! — a crowded parking lot with not a space to be found. The husband dropped me by the door and decided to circle until a space opened up.
I walked in the store, and was hit by an immediate wave of claustrophobia. The store was mobbed. The line at the cash registers was at least 30 persons deep. The clothing was picked over and in a bit of disarray.
I persevered and waded into the women's department, unable to find most of the items I wanted. Finally, I spied a winter coat that looked as nice in person as it did in the catalog. I slipped it on and looked for a mirror, quickly realizing there were none to be found, at least to my eyes. Perhaps the store was trying to be inoffensive to vampires?
I put the coat back on the rack and wandered on. Did they have the tote bag style I wanted? Nope. The rain boots? Not that I could see.
I tried to remember why I'd always enjoyed my visits to the Freeport, ME L.L. Bean mother ship so much. Then it hit me: We always go the store there late at night. It's open 24/7, and retail shopping is always more fun after dinner when you have a full belly and a few glasses of wine in you.
I left the store, deciding that Bean's reasonable shipping rates definitely are worth the ease of placing an order from the comfort of my home. There, the only parking concerns stem from waiting for a cat to move off the couch. Direct rules!
LISTEN UP
National Public Radio's “This American Life” ran a great piece recently on how branding can negatively affect a consumer's buying patterns.
The story, called “That Guy,” is part of episode 298, “Getting and Spending,” and can be listened to at www.thislife.org. I loved the bit about how one man had to stop buying his favorite brand of deodorant because he despised the “Mitchum Man” campaign so much. He hated the thought that a store clerk would see him with it in his cart and think he decided to try it because he liked the ads, which he didn't.
The man didn't want to become “that guy” who was influenced by advertising, hence the title of the story.
I WANT TO SWAT THAT BUG!
OK, we've all gotten used to “bugs,” a.k.a. those little on-screen logo graphics television networks use to identify themselves.
As long as they're unobtrusive, I have no problem with them. They help you identify what channel you're watching, especially when you get up to the 200s in your digital cable and aren't sure if you're looking at extreme stunt videos on G4 or a particularly energetic episode of “Emeril Live.”
But NBC is going too far.
I tuned in to the premiere of “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” (too long a title, great show), and found that NBC had moved its bug from the right- to the left-hand side of the screen. And they'd changed it from the call letters to the peacock logo and “.com.” That was fine.
But the darn thing was hovering almost in the middle of the screen. I desperately wanted a fly swatter to move it down to the corner.
Someone at the network must have felt the same way. The next week, the bug was back in the left corner, with the NBC.com peacock logo reappearing in its full rainbow splendor only at station breaks. On behalf of one viewer: Thanks, NBC, for not becoming the Mitchum Man.
