What squeaky woodland creatures can teach us about branding
Posted on Fri Jan 23 2009
Fresh from the PR front comes news that the soundtrack album from the Alvin and the Chipmunks movie has, as of Jan. 22, officially hit platinum. (Yes, we know, it was a 2007 flick. But it apparently took a DVD release and a few airings on HBO to move enough parents to buy the CD, if only to silence the pleas of their rodent-crazed progeny.)
Of course, with the economy in the toilet, this might not seem a tasteful time to give a nod to a small, squeaky-voiced creature who sings with his brothers. (Besides, Michael Jackson’s gotten enough ink.) But the truth is, the Chipmunks are the perfect branding parable for recessionary times.
Back in 1958, an out-of-work California man named Ross Bagdasarian was deep in debt, down to his last $200, and had three kids to feed. (Toss in a sub-prime mortgage, and he could be anyone, right?) But instead of doing something responsible, he elected to drop $190 on a new reel-to-reel tape recorder. To his delight, he discovered that by recording his voice at half-speed and then playing it back at full RPMs, he could create what sounded like, well, you know.
Fifty years later, the Alvin movie alone grossed $360 million worldwide, and the branding extensions could—and do—fill a Wal-Mart. So, even if you’re unemployed and dead broke, that dumb idea of yours might be worth exploring further. Something to chew on.
—Posted by Robert Klara
