Filed under: Competitive strategy, Marketing and advertising, Limited Brands (LTD), Small business

If the current rash of courtroom events surrounding Victoria’s Secret is what CEO Sharen Turney had in mind when she indicated that the company might have become “too sexy”, I think there may be trouble in store for that flagship name of Limited Brands Inc. (NYSE: LTD). I don’t know about you, but I find courtroom litigation anything but sexy. Unless of course, we’re talking about the assistant district attorneys they cast for Law and Order.

First, Victoria’s Secret pulled an ‘Atomic Wedgie” on Kentucky couple, Victor and Cathy Moseley, by gaining a court order to block the couple from using a truncated version of The Victoria’s Secret name. It’s no big deal really because it was fairly obvious that the names “Victor’s Secret” and “Victor’s Little Secret” were pretty flagrant abuses of a trademarked name which deserves secure protection. The one little triumph which came out of that decade-long legal tussle was that the court determined that plaintiffs in trademark infringement cases do not need to show that the infringement actually cost them money, as revealed in a decidedly not sexy Associated Press news blurb.

Next, we find out that Juicy Couture has grabbed Victoria’s Secret by the seat of the pants, regarding alleged product marketing infringement. It seems that Juicy thinks that Vicky has infringed on various aspects of packaging, color schemes and logo placement, as explained by blogger Bruce Watson. Personally, I haven’t analyzed the claimed offenses. I’ll leave that to the courts. I do however find the whole thing to be a bit blown out of proportion — and very un-sexy.

Finally, an MSNBC report briefly examines a trademark complaint against Victoria’s Secret by Sexy Hair Concepts. In that fight, Victoria’s Secret has now launched a challenge against a federal Trademark Trial and Appeal Board ruling in favor of Sexy Hair Concepts LLC. The whole matter centers around the word “sexy” and who has the right to use that word for advertising purposes and/or how it might be used. Victoria’s Secret claims that the word sexy does not attach to brand recognition in the minds of but a few consumers, and the company cites a study it conducted of 308 hair product purchasers. Victoria’s Secret states that only 5 of the 308 individuals studied, associated the word sexy with a specific company’s products. So, I guess “sexy” is fair game for anyone, in a manner of talking.

I’ll tell you my friends, the whole thing is not very sexy to me. If Victoria’s Secret’s Turney wanted to reduce the company’s level of sexiness, she sure got her wish without even trying. All this bickering and finger wagging has really turned me off of the company. In a consumer environment where frilly, lacy and high end garments are low on the priority list, this just isn’t the best time for Victoria’s Secret to have legal briefs be the only briefs the company is making news with. If Victoria’s Secret wants my thought, right about now a good dose of real sexy is exactly what the company needs. All this courtroom banter is just leaving me out in the cold.

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Filed under: Marketing and advertising, Walt Disney (DIS), News Corp’B’ (NWS), Business of sports

Baseball isn’t always a perfect metaphor for life, but it is a good one for investing.

Good teams know how to find value where others may not see it. Spending gobs of money on high-priced players does not always pan out and successful companies do the little things well. There is no superior illustration of this than the current sad say of the New York Mets and New York Yankees.

Despite investing more money than the GDP of some small, developing countries on costly talent, the New York Mets and New York Yankees are being outperformed by teams from the vast baseball wasteland known as Florida. The pain being felt by New York sports fans pales in comparison to the anguish in the executive offices of Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS)’s ESPN and News Corp. (NYSE: NWS)’s Fox Sports, which spent large bucks tor the rights to broadcast baseball games. I bet ESPN and Fox ad sales representatives would break out in a cold sweat at the thought of an all-Florida World Series.

What’s ironic is that the people in Florida don’t seem to care about baseball. More than 80,000 people showed up to watch the football games of powerhouses University of Florida and Florida State in 2006. Last year, the American League Rays attracted an average of 17,148 fans to their games and the NL Marlins drew 16,919, according to the Baseball Almanac. That’s roughly a third of the 52,739 who went to see the Yankees or the 47,579 who went to watch the Mets.

Every baseball pundit with a mouse, personal monitor and keyboard predicted that the New York Mets would win the National League East and stand a decent chance of making the World Series. Instead, the not-so-Amazin’ Mets are near the the bottom of the division with a record of 24 wins and 24 losses, almost six games behind the Florida Marlins. Their cross-town rivals, the Yankees, are doing even worse, languishing in last place in the American League East. Much to everyone’s surprise, the Rays are remaining competitive with the World Series champs Boston Red Sox.

This underscores baseball fans like investors need to question conventional wisdom. It also proves to a long-suffering Philadelphia fan like me that there is a God.

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Filed under: Marketing and advertising, Scandals, Politics

The world of conservative punditry is in a tizzy after Michelle Malkin wondered if Dunkin’ Donuts spokescheerleader Rachael Ray wasn’t wearing a keffiyeh in a current television ad. Just to be safe, Dunkin’ Donuts pulled the ad.

I won’t launch into any ad hominem attacks of Michelle Malkin, much as I’d like to right now. But I’ll offer up a few facts:

• The keffiyeh is an ancient traditional headdress worn by men, and is most connected to the Bedouins. While the keffiyeh was worn by both Yasser Arafat and Che Guevara, it was also worn by bohemian American girls in the 1980s.
• Critics of the keffiyeh’s symbolism point to its connection with Palestinians and Fatah. However, Palestinians themselves wear the headdresses no matter what their celebration affiliation or political leanings.
• Arabs are not all terrorists. In fact, most Arabs are not terrorists. Connecting an ancient traditional garment worn by millions across dozens of countries to a tiny (no matter how awful) faction of criminals seems racist.
• Rachael Ray is not wearing a keffiyeh in this picture. She’s wearing a paisley scarf with a fringe, selected by her stylist. Honestly, I don’t think it looks great on her, but what do I know.

For Dunkin’ Donuts to pull an ad based on the rantings of an ultra-conservative columnist? Far more worthy of boycott than being accused of having a spokeswoman who might wear a paisley scarf while drinking a Cool Latte. One liberal pundit says she’s sticking with Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX until the ad comes back. What do you think?

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Filed under: Law, Dell (DELL), Marketing and advertising, Scandals

Dell (NYSE: DELL) is known for its terrific customer service and catchy ads but the New York State Supreme Court has found that some of those ads were fraudulent and misleading.

Judge Joseph Teresi wrote that the company “engaged in repeated misleading, deceptive and unlawful business conduct, including false and deceptive advertising of financing promotions and the terms of warranties, fraudulent, misleading and deceptive practices in credit financing and failure to provide warranty service and rebates.”

Dell will be prohibited from engaging in such conduct in the future and may also have to pay an as yet undetermined amount of restitution to consumers.

A lawsuit filed by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo alleged that the company’s ads falsely led consumers to believe that they qualified for low- or no-interest financing when, in reality, many consumers didn’t. Following the ruling, Cuomo said that, “For too long at Dell the promise of customer service was a bait and switch that left thousands of people paying for essentially no service at all. We have won an important victory that’ll force Dell to live up to its responsibilities and pay back its customers for profits that were pocketed but not deserved. This decision sends an important message that all corporations will be held accountable for the promises they make to consumers.”

Dell says it’s confident that only a small number of customers were effected — the company’s latest 10-K does not specifically refer to this risk factor, which indicates that the company does not believe the damages could be material. The market seems to concur, with shares of Dell flat on the news.

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Filed under: Business, Design, Internet, Productivity, Adobe, Google, Yahoo!, web 2.0

Let’s pretend you read this column and agree that it’s time to embark on a Web site overhaul for your small business. You comprehend a little about Web 2.0-ness, want some interactivity, are considering using new on the web tools and have created a real job for the webmaster to do site updates. What’s on your Web Overhaul Due Diligence To-Do List? What steps should you take to ensure that your site gets architected, designed, programmed, launched, and updated correctly?

HOMEWORK - let’s begin browsing sites and making favorites/bookmarks out of the ones that catch your eye. Note that you like the drop-down menu in one and the fading background in another. Make a “how did they do this?” list of snazzy features to ask your designer about implementing. In fact, build a spreadsheet and make column headings such as: URL, feature, forms, Flash, menus and more so you can keep your design notes and questions in a handy electronic document to share with all the design firms you interview, and we want you to talk to more than one.

Continue reading Seven Web Redesign Planning Tools

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