A marketing tactic studied

[bellatrys]

I've been thinking a lot about the MINX mess, and how it was that that the professionals could get it so wrong and be so oblivious to how and why, when customers and potential customers were trying to tell them so loudly in so many ways for so long, and something somebody said that I saw in my dowsing which I need to find and cite helps encapuslate

Comments

What depresses me

[deiseach]

There is never any campaign like this for boys.

There's no push out there for "Hey, how can we attract non-comic reading boys? What kinda bands do they like, what kinda movies, let's have an imprint about real boys and real-life stories, not that superhero fantasy stuff."

It's almost like they think we're a different species or something.

Anyway, having checked out the Minx site, I see that:

"Also this fall, with the help of SEVENTEEN magazine, MINX books will make appearances at two SEVENTEEN "Rock the Runway" Events going on at malls around the country, including: Lakeside Mall in Sterling Heights, Michigan on September 20th, 2008 and Neshaminy Mall in Bensalem, Pennsylvania on October 11th, 2008. Both events run from 2-4 pm."

Actually, that's the kind of publicity and associating with the successful brand I would have recommended; if they're aiming at the teen girl magazine reading segment, then plug your books in the teen girl magazines.

And this is the kiss of death recommendation I was talking about:

"...Castellucci clearly knows what goes on in the lives in (sic) many teens."
- School Library Journal

Back when I was fifteen, I wouldn't have read this if it were a novel on the school library shelf; I wouldn't have bought it in the local bookshop; and I certainly wouldn't have bought it as a comic or graphic novel (I'd have spent my money on "Fantastic Four" instead - the first American comic I ever saw back when I was seven: ah, Victor von Doom, you're nuts and dangerous, but there's just something about you... and Ben Grimm, many's the time I too have wanted to yell "It's clobbering time!")

So obviously I'm not the target audience :-)

What, you mean we *aren't* Mysterious Creatures(TM)???

[bellatrys]

Are you sure about that? I thought we were, you know, Spinks.

FWIW, I vaguely remember seeing Castellucci's prose books a couple years ago in B&N and thinking the same thing that I did about MINX, that they were for the Travelling Pants crowd and not the Urban Fae/Shapeshifting-Falcon-Princesses/Heroine-Disguised-As-Boy-Aboard-Sailing-Ship crowds. Now, apparently CC is herself a lifelong fangirl of superhero comix, but who would ever guess that from the covers of Riding In Cars With Boys etc? There was nothing about them that said so, not marketed to genre readers, and so a fannish audience for her prior "strong YA showing" is not likely to have existed.

...BTW, have you seen Mighty Godking's infamous commentaries on a particularly bad recent characterization of von Doom? It is truly, truly a Work of EBOL Chaotic Good.

You alarm me

[deiseach]

"have you seen Mighty Godking's infamous commentaries on a particularly bad recent characterization of von Doom?"

What have they done to my favourite insane scientific genius absolute dictator and armour wearer? I swear, if they've made him all reformed and giving up trying to rule the world (or Latveria, at any rate), I will be very disappointed indeed.

Regarding the cute fuzzy kitties for bikers - why not? Biker lolcats - can't you just see it?

Oh, good heavens

[deiseach]

Whoever this Brian Bendis may be, one thing is for sure: he's an idiot.

Talk about totally not understanding or caring about the history and background of a character!

He is proud, arrogant, vain, brilliant, obsessed, scholarly, and convinced he knows what is right for everyone.

This is not someone who is reduced to "Shut yer face, ya fat cow!" when using invective or rhodomontade.

Much, much worse than that--

[bellatrys]

They made him vulgar.

The argument centers around this image and the dialogue therein (admittedly not helped by the fact that Our Beleaguered Heroine's part is entirely played by her ass) which a number of readers felt was simply unworthy of Count von Doom.

Others defended it, saying "But he's a Bad Guy! Of course he's going to say mean nasty things!" as if Bad Guy were a complete personality type rather than a Character Class, and as though a Darkside Paladin isn't going to behave differently than an Orc Commander (or an Orc Political Officer isn't going to behave - and thus talk - differently than an Orc NCO than an unwilling Orcish ballista-fodder underling)...to which the Mighty Godking responded by remixing the dialogue in several different ways, to show how absurd this argument was. Not all sorts of villainy are interchangeable.

Then he got kind of carried away with one of his themes, and...

Well, I'm putting the Coffee & Cats warning here With Prejudice - proceed under extreme caution! poster not responsible for any damages, including those caused by inhaling one's own saliva! (What? It happened - er, happens!)

Ebay auction.

Protecting His Treasure.

Vengeance.

The Da Vinci Pony Code

Hey, I always knew My Little Ponies were evil

[deiseach]

And what does it say when the parody makes better sense, is funnier, is more in character, and is more respectful of the history and backstory, than the original?

The problem isn't just with the vulgarity and banality; it's not just a matter of Doom cracking under pressure and showing the meaness at the core of his being.

The way we see the female character only as a headless torso, with the emphasis on her backside - that's a problem, too.

I think if this is revealing anything about feet of clay and true motivations, it's telling a lot more about Brian Michael Bendis than Victor von Doom.

And it's all part of what I despair of, sometimes: it's all well and good saying "Hey, he revitalised comics by using gritty, realistic, street-talk!" But when he can't rise above that level, when he has everyone speaking the same, when he can't even do bombast - what is the problem with modern writers?

(Okay, *some* modern writers).

Yes, but what do *we* know?

[bellatrys]

We're just whining/unsatisfied/ungrateful/petty/entitled fanboys - how *dare* we suggest that maybe we know better than the PTB what works and doesn't, what forms a greater aesthetic unity, what makes sense and what's just rot? We're supposed to just accept whatever The Authorities deign to give us out of their munificence/magnificence, or else they might just stop trying to sell us pigs' ears if we keep on demanding silk purses!

(Seriously, I looked up some of the discussions of the Star Wars Galaxies online game fiasco that skapusniak mentioned, and whoa, Creator Infallibility Syndrom bigtime! Also a boundless faith that a Better Marketing Job could have stopped the fans from fleeing en masse - no, it wasn't the herky server processes and the lack of clear instructions and the fact that leveling up was no fun at all that was holding us back from having MILLIONS OF SUBSCRIBERS - and it wasn't ditching everything that worked baby-with-bathwater style, and replacing it with something entirely different altogether without warning, that made the few hundred thousand subscribers we *did* have, self-decimate in fury - it was AN UNSUCCESSFUL MARKETING AND PR JOB!

Denial. You will never, ever find the Sources of *that* river...