Marketing Monday

Perhaps Marketing Monday was too ambitious an idea. Maybe there is not really that much to say. How does Marketing Every-Other-Monday sound? Oh, right... it sounds sucky. So, Marketing Monday it is; not only because it sounds good, but because there really is that much to say. And then some.

The force-feeding image above is a detail from a painting by Baby Tattoo friend and visual wild man Jonathan Wayshak (adult content).

Shameless Plug Sunday #13

Sturdy enough for little kids, yet sophisticated enough for discerning adults... it's Popping Through Pictures, a collection of paintings by Amanda Visell presented in a rigid yet fun board-book format.

Audrey's Evil Twin

Audrey Kawasaki has a newly updated web site. Check it out to see where she has been. The image above is apparently an indication of where she is going... somewhere dark and wonderful.

Hotel Tip

I'm a big fan of Priceline's Name Your Own Price for Hotel Rooms feature. I've had great luck with selecting four star hotels and naming a price that's about one third of the published prices for four star hotels in the same area. Sometimes you have to go as high as half price, but it's still a great deal. As long as you select the four star quality option, you're unlikely to be disappointed.

Little Friday is Little Business Day

If you are about to start a small business, do yourself a favor and set your bookkeeping up properly from the beginning. Consult an accountant who understands the industry you are entering and establish a solid system for keeping track of all of your financial data. This is not a fun or sexy part of startup, and it can cost quite a bit of money, but it will be well worth the effort and expense. If this advice seems overly simple, it is; if it seems dismissible, it is not. Remember, you are starting a financial enterprise; success is entirely dependent on understanding your business' actual worth at any given moment in time (starting now).

The image above is from the Computer Science @ Columbia University web site.

Ahead Of Their Time

Dakin Dream Pets originally debuted in 1957, and they reappeared briefly in 2004. These unusually charming characters could easily hold their own in the current designer vinyl/plush movement. Unfortunately for us, they were ahead of their time (twice). You can buy them (or just check them out) on this atrocious web page.

Event Appreciation Day

April 18-20 - New York Comic Con - New York

April 25-27 - Fangoria's Weekend of Horrors, Los Angeles

April 26-27 - Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, Los Angeles

May 10-11 - Emerald City ComiCon - Seattle, Washington

May 17-18 - Glamourcon - Los Angeles

Marketing Monday

Brian McCarty aka McCarty PhotoWorks is the preeminent photographer of contemporary art toys. Just as the question, "Are they toys or are they art?" swirls around the objects, the question, "Are they commercial work or are they art photography?" swirls around McCary's images. Perhaps the answer is, "They're both." (In both cases).

The use of art photography to promote art toys helps to solidify the notion that these products are sophisticated designer showpieces.

Never underestimate the importance of the quality of marketing materials. The look and feel of any given message will likely extend to the perceived nature of the advertised product.

Shameless Plug Sunday #12

Artist Sisters: Box of Stories contains two beautifully produced story books packaged together in a sturdy, collector-quality slipcase. Princess La La and the Little Bee by CJ Metzger is warm, poetic and charming; Teenie Weenie Tales by Miss Mindy is whimsical, unpredictable and endearing. The two books are as alike and different as the sisters who created them.

Little Friday is Little Business Day

Years ago, I heard that Thursday was considered "Little Friday" in the nightclub business. Does that mean Wednesday is "Little Thursday" or maybe "Little Little Friday"? I love the concept of assigning nicknames to things - especially things that don't really need them. The notion of Little Friday has always stuck with me, so, for this blog's weekly small business post, Little Friday is Little Business Day.

Is there an entrepreneurial message in this? Yes. Using custom lingo to describe components of your business can be an effective method for building consumer awareness (see my previous pizza post); just try not to cross into Stupid Town.

-Bob Self

Dreamlike

I've been a fan of Michael Whelan's art for 25 years, but I never knew the artist himself until this week when a dinner meeting regarding this year's Baby Tattooville event let to an impromptu field trip to an industrial wasteland.

I have spent countless hours wandering around the visually fascinating remains of an old oil refinery in the hills outside Los Angeles. I offered to take Michael to the location and show him around. I know from his paintings that Michael has an interest in exploring relationships between mankind's constructs and nature's, well... nature. 

What an unexpected joy to spend a few hours with a talented artist in an environment so connected to his personal visions. I feel like I lived this morning within Michael's mind's eye. Incredible.

Thanks for the doughnuts, Michael.

-Bob Self

Event Appreciation Day

Baby Tattoo's friends at Dark Horse are hosting a swell book signing event at the Disney Soda Fountain and Studio Store in Hollywood on Wednesday, March 19, 2008 to celebrate The Return of the Gremlins. Details are listed over at the Cartoon Brew blog (click here).

Baby Tattoo is very enthusiastic about these upcoming conventions and festivals. If one of these events is in your neighborhood, please stop by and visit the Baby Tattoo gang.

April 18-20 - New York Comic Con - New York

April 25-27 - Fangoria's Weekend of Horrors, Los Angeles

April 26-27 - Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, Los Angeles

May 10-11 - Emerald City ComiCon - Seattle, Washington

May 17-18 - Glamourcon - Los Angeles

Dough, Sauce, Cheese and Toppings

I am fascinated by marketing, so I'm going to start a post called Marketing Monday.

One of my favorite marketing topics is pizza.

For years, Pizza Hut has introduced "new" pizzas on a regular basis; but the innovative pizzas are almost always the same dough, sauce, cheese and toppings in a slightly remixed configuration. It seems to me that Pizza Hut almost never really introduces new pizzas, but continually reintroduces the same pizzas in different shapes and sizes. Some of my favorite faux-new offerings have been Bigfoot and 4forALL. Recently, Pizza Hut introduced Pizza Mia, which is differentiated by price point rather than presentation, but the product description is as familiar as always.

Now, frozen pizza company Freschetta seems to be determined to join the "How Many Ways Can You Disguise the Same Product" Club by adding PizzAmore to their existing lineup of Naturally Rising, Ultra Thin and Brick Oven Pizzas. PizzAmore is innovative because it comes in a pan and is pre sliced.

Do people really need to be confronted with "New and Improved" pizzas in order to keep demand high? The marketing professionals at both Pizza Hut and Freschetta certainly seem to think that the perception of uniqueness is a significant factor in differentiating their product (which makes sense), and that the allure of something new creates a call-to-action for consumers (which also makes sense). What makes less sense is that enough consumers perceive a round pizza as being significantly different than a square pizza to justify substantial marketing budgets aimed at keeping a well-defined classic on the cutting edge of spinnovation.

Stuffed Crust Pizza photo copyright Pizza Hut, Inc.

Shameless Plug Sunday #11

When Baby Tattoo hosts a booth at a convention or trade show, our team is often asked who created the paper engineering for Seonna Hong's book Animus. The answer is that Seonna did it all by herself, and she used David A. Carter's remarkable book Elements Of Pop Up: A Pop Up Book For Aspiring Paper Engineers. Even if you never create your own pop up project, this book is a fascinating experience.

Big City

Big City is a visually stunning project that Ragnar has been developing for several years. Even though numerous images have been released via the internet, the property is shrouded in mystery. A limited edition Big City Case Files box containing two booklets and a triptych giclee was unveiled at San Diego Comic-Con 2007, and a series of pinup images is reproduced in the artist's forthcoming book Symptomatica. If you have not yet visited this remarkable world, there is no better time than now. Click here.

Wizard World LA - A Complete Report

Underwhelming.

Little Friday is Little Business Day*

*But not today.

I am determined to discuss small business issues on a regular basis, but today I am too distracted by the terrible yet hilarious woman-stuck-to-the-toilet story that I discovered on CNN's web site. If I could afford to, I would try to acquire the movie rights to this story (including the rights to include the plate collecting neighbors featured in this video segment.

-Bob Self

Just Do It!

Once upon a time, not too long ago, a toy manufacturer known as Zizzle Electronics released a light and sound thingamajig called Zounds. Zounds was an incredible product that one had to experience firsthand to truly appreciate. Some cool things catch on; unfortunately, Zounds was not one of those things. I suspect Zounds' manufacturing life cycle may be over, but there are still some units out there up for grabs. In fact, Toys-R-Us has Zounds for the no-brainer price of $14.95. Buy this thing while you still can. Trust me. You can thank me later. Click here.

-Bob Self

Event Appreciation Day

This week is a big one for Baby Tattoo; it is one of several two-places-at-once weekends the company has to contend with this spring. Bob Self will be manning the Baby Tattoo booth at Wizard World Los Angeles, but he'll also be in Palm Springs for Ragnar's Fragmentia opening at M Modern Gallery in Palm Springs. Click on the links below for more info about any of the upcoming events.

Saturday, March 15 - Ragnar's Fragmentia show - Palm Springs, California

March 14-16 - Wizard World - Los Angeles, California

April 18-20 - New York Comic Con - New York, New York

April 25-27 - Fangoria's Weekend of Horrors, Los Angeles

April 26-27 - Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, Los Angeles

May 10-11 - Emerald City ComiCon - Seattle, Washington

Credit Where It's Due

The fact that Baby Tattoo owes a debt of gratitude to Last Gasp for blazing a trail that other independent publishers could follow has been posted on this blog previously. Of course, there are a number of other institutions that additionally inspired Baby Tattoo. One of Baby Tattoo's less obvious muses is The Criterion Collection. Incredible content and equally incredible presentation are what Criterion offers with every home video product they release. Baby Tattoo aspires to Criterion's level of consistency.

Shameless Plug Sunday #10

In honor of our previous Save the Rainforest post, today's plug is The Art and Flair of Mary Blair. While we didn't publish it, we did publish books by Seonna Hong and Amanda Visell who count Mary Blair as a significant source of inspiration.

Save The Rainforest

Rumors of the rainforest scene in Disneyland's It's a Small World being removed and replaced with an all-American scene have a lot of fans outraged. Some well written thoughts on the matter can be found here, and a call to action can be found here.

Of course, there is a real-world rainforest crisis to combat, but I guess some people find it much more comfortable to focus on the smaller things.

Michael Whelan

Today's post is a simple nod to one of Baby Tattooville's Featured Artists for 2008. Michael Whelan is one of the greatest living American illustrators, who has made a significant transition from commercial commissions to personal work. His newly redesigned web site is filled with a career-spanning selection of fantastic art. Check it out.

Notes On a Scam (Part 2) aka Little Friday is Little Business Day

So, as mentioned in last week's first small business post, Baby Tattoo fell for the I'll Send You Money For Books Plus Shipping Then You Forward The Shipping Money To My Freight Person scam. Baby Tattoo ran a credit card, got an approval, wired a big chunk of the money to a third party, then the credit card number turned out to be stolen (or something else sinister) and the merchant bank will almost certainly require that the full amount of the credit card transaction be refunded after the wired money is long gone. Bob Self, who should have noticed the situation was extremely iffy, simply didn't think this one through. He also didn't do his internet fraud homework. There is a well-organized page at craigslist.org that clearly explains the basic form of this scam; if you sell anything online, read the warnings here.

A couple of notes:

In Baby Tattoo's situation, the false funds came from a credit card, not a money order or cashier's check. The credit card approval obtained through Baby Tattoo's online merchant account created a false sense of security. A credit card transaction (even an "approved" one) can be just as bogus as a fake check, so be cautious with out-of-the-ordinary, non face-to-face (i.e. "card not present") transactions.

In Baby Tattoo's situation, the instigating communication was not a single email; it was a series of emails that started off unsuspicious then added the questionable aspects a little at a time.

And here's a little useful lingo that Baby Tattoo learned the by way of multiple frantic phone calls. If you call a credit card issuing bank's fraud/security department about a suspicious transaction, you need to ask if the card in question is, "Still open." The issuing bank will probably not give you much of any information about the card or the cardholder (which is frustrating if you are trying to uncover a fraudulent payment), but if you ask specifically if the card is open, they will probably be able to tell you, "Yes" or "No." Obviously, a card that is no longer open indicates a problem.

You are probably thinking, "Duh." Well, just remember that the easiest people to fool are often people who think of themselves as hard to fool.

Note: The Fool image used at the top of this post was found deep in cyberspace. Baby Tattoo does not know who the copyright should be attributed to. If copyright information becomes available, this post will be updated appropriately.

More small business information will be posted next Thursday.

Kevin Kelly

This post should probably be called 1,000 True Fans, but I wanted to make sure to give credit to the intellect behind the idea, so Kevin Kelly seemed like the right title to use. By the way, I can take no credit for being ahead of the curve on this information since I found it on the highly trafficked boingboing.net.

Kevin Kelly has written an essay called 1,000 True Fans. His premise should be an incredible source of inspiration to content creators. Basically, if an artist (or other creator) can cultivate 1000 dedicated consumers who will spend $100 a year on the artist's products, then that artist can gross $100,000 per year. You owe it to yourself to read the entire essay here.

For a publishing company like Baby Tattoo, the goal of attracting and maintaing 1000 true fans seems attainable. More importantly, for many of the artists Baby Tattoo publishes, the goal of cultivating 1000 true fans has either been achieved already or is well underway.

In January, I uploaded a post titled I'll Take A Dozen about one of the factors Baby Tattoo considers when deciding what books to publish. The concept of 1000 True Fans succinctly defines another factor. If you're interested in having Baby Tattoo publish your work, Baby Tattoo would be interested in knowing how many True Fans you have.

-Bob Self

Event Appreciation Day

Here are some forthcoming event listings. Come out and meet the Baby Tattoo crew.

March 14-16 - Wizard World - Los Angeles, California

April 18-20 - New York Comic Con - New York, New York

April 25-27 - Fangoria's Weekend of Horrors, Los Angeles

April 26-27 - Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, Los Angeles

Glad To Be Noticed

The March issue of Cookie Magazine features a cover story about The Unheralded Classics. The article showcases, "The 33 best children's books you're probably not reading. Yet."

Seonna Hong's remarkable picture book Animus made the list, and Baby Tattoo is quite honored that Cookie took notice of this great title. Baby Tattoo has been thanking Seonna profusely ever since she allowed us to publish this project; now seems like a good time to thank her again. Thanks, Seonna.

Shameless Plug Sunday #9

Baby Tattoo is pleased to announce the release of the company's newest book, Unkle Pigors' Cryptic Art. Bob Self fondly describes this book as a train wreck of art. Eric Pigors crams a seemingly impossible amount of his work into one volume for cover-to-cover visual insanity. Eric is strongly influenced by Ed "Big Daddy" Roth and Wacky Packages stickers (among other things), so, if you like your gross-out monster humor piled high and deep, buy this book directly from Toxic Toons (good luck trying to navigate) or wherever crazy books are sold.

Nothing

Yesterday's post was going to be titled Nothing, and was going to go into more depth, and was going to include links to a couple of interesting books on the subject of Nothing. Then I realized that since my blogger's block might continue for a day or two, I should save the books for a future post. Well, the future is now.

Nothing is a fascinating subject. If you have never given it much thought, you might want to read about nothing. Two interesting books are The Book of Nothing: Vacuums, Voids, and the Latest Ideas about the Origins of the Universe and The Hole in the Universe: How Scientists Peered over the Edge of Emptiness and Found Everything.

-Bob Self