Redscout Salon Presents: Rob Walker

Redscout initiated the second in a series of innovation roundtables last week. The featured speaker was Rob Walker, contributing writer to the NYTimes, author, and idea provocateur for Murketing. He also has one of the best Flickr groups on the net with his street savvy eyes. Rob is often at the forefront of consumer theses and the subsequent branding implications, and each week seemingly stumbles upon another rich area for fodder. Rob was kind enough to share his opinion as a journalist, on consumers, marketing, and brands. The night was also an excellent networking opportunity for individuals from various backgrounds. Rob had quite a few interesting points such as:

-Red Bull starting as the epitome of anti-mass only to become a mass brand

-Apple's lack of transparency and openness, which can actually boiled down to "Cool Stuff for Sale"

-The power of youth today to have adopted marketing on granular levels to the extent they not only create brands for themselves, but communicate through brands

-The similarity between the ambiguity of Livestrong and the iPod. Both brands mean so many things to multiple crowds

-Reminded me that the true phenomena of Obey is that it was pre-internet, not just its expanse

-The power of brands ultimately lie in the value consumers place, not necessarily what the brand brings or percieves

-Real gurus invent their own words

-Mass culture might be gone with the invention of the net and democratized information

Rob gave a very thought-provoking style and let us know he has a new book dropping soon. Much of this will be explored in a further deep dive here on the Lifefilter. Stay tuned! Redscout will presenting another salon later on in the summer at a "secret location"

Murky Marketing

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