Carpetbagger brands

Shame, shame, know your target demographic...

Gamer comic Penny Arcade takes some strips off a brand clumsily concocted for gamers in a post entitled "This is why they hate us":

In the Tom's Hardware interview, we learn that the snack's creator is a "sometime gamer," which is a bizarre turn of phrase. One either plays games or they do not. If they do not play games, but have instead discerned that "gamers" are a discrete "target demo," there's a word for them: carpetbaggers.

That's a nice turn of phrase. Sums up nicely what people who include "being authentic" in a list of brand objectives, or worse positioning will end up being. Whether people call them out or just ignore them.

Have a look at the strip that goes with the post. I'd say Gamer Grub just lost its target demographic? There's a link on the GG website inviting you to tell them what you think on its blog. It was down when I went to take a look...

Thanks to Ben...

brands, brands, gaming, marketing, marketing, marketing, penny_arcade, shame

Comments

[Dan Thornton]

And if you know the 'gamer demographic' it's fairly obvious that there have been a lot of attempts by carpetbaggers over recent years - and most, if not all of them have been left looking pretty stupid...