Urban Culture is Experience…not Product

Does every other soda or beer ad have to show young, hip urbanites partying with a fly-girl in one hand and a silver-bullet in the other? Does this played-out formula really work? Yes and no. It all depends on how the typical soda and beer company want to be viewed among urban culture consumers—and usually, its as stereotypical. Typical portrayals of fun-filled urbanites drinking typical beverages means aspiring urban culture consumers will certainly be amused, and that’s good for daily market share and next quarter profits. However, what about next quarter, and the one after that? America’s great brands should know better by now—urban culture is an experience, not product. When one popular fad dies and is replaced by another (remember Whassup!) then exactly how memorable is my brand, how memorable an experience can it ever be?

So, what do advertising researchers do when they want to understand urban culture? They watch BET, MTV, UPN, the WB, get the picture? Trouble is, its their own stereotypical commericals they see reflected back at them in the commercial-heavy music-video formats and lite comedy-drama-sitcoms. They’re convinced because their stereotypical beer commerical looks like their competitor’s stereotypical malternative commerical, they must be doing it right. Let’s, ask the folks at MTV if we’re on-target. They’ll tell us they know what urban culture consumers want and of course we’re doing it right, we big-brand-interested-in-urban-culture-guys, now how’s about co-sponsoring next season’s show about puerile, young men trying to join a very non-urban college fraternity?

Take a look at the quiet success stories of great brands with urban appeal. FootAction has seen tremendous growth in the past few years, and has managed to build real street-cred with the urban culture consumer. How? Footaction knows what it needs, and that’s foot-traffic, young men, primarily, to walk into their stores and buy something, anything. FootAction doesn’t care if its Nike, Adidas, Reebok, Fubu, or your uncle’s used sneakers, as long as you buy it from them. So they create a great urban brand experience and let other street-conscious brands do the selling, other brands who won’t judge them for being downtown and in the suburbans. FootAction (a division of Footstar) is headquarted in Irving, Texas of all places.

Instead of spending tremendous ad-dollars to get rap super-stars to pen a FootAction theme song or appear in a fly-by-night, independent-film style commercial, they simply have popular hip-hop artists doing what they do best, putting on a show. Footaction had the artists make less-costly in-store appearances, driving real foot-traffic, which translated into real sales. Last year, when hip-hop artist Eve showed up at the grand-opening of a FootAction store in Elizabeth, NJ, an out-of-the-ordinary, 360-degree urban brand experience occured. Coinciding with the appearance was a live radio broadcast on New York’s Hot 97FM, hosted by BET Rap City emcee Big Tigger.

What is FootAction saying to its urban culture customers? Its saying, we may not know each other, but we have a mutual acquaintance in common, let me introduce you to her. Bam, you’re in there. FootAction wants to have a meaningful place in the lives of their consumers by creating out-of-the ordinary urban brand experiences for them that make sense, that fit. In-store experiences by artists from around the way fit—not big brand commericals taking place on spacestations in outer-space. Consumers may not remember what kicks Eve was sporting that day, but they’ll never forget where they saw her and then, they’ve just got to go back. Why would anyone return to an anonymous party with stereotypical people, drinking typical beer or soda, arriving in typical cars on an outrageous spacestation? Oh yeah, its impossible.

Real insights into urban culture and its consumers, be they black, asian, white or latino, urban or on the fringe, comes from real dialogue, and these consumers prefer to have their dialogue on the street-level. If its not where they’re from, its where they want to be. The 222 gallery in Philadelphia recently held an exhibition that featured graphic/grafitti artists and designers from across the US. At the opening reception, artists, skaters, and supporters from across the country were present, including a camera crew from MTV. On the floor of the exhibition quietly painted in a corner was the sponsor’s name, clothing retailer Urban Outfitters. The ESPN X-Games were to be held in Philly just a little over a week later. Wanting quiet, but meaningful presence, Urban Outfitters sponsored a show that had no mainstream press—and in a city where the mayor benefitted from a two-year contract with the X-games on one hand, and simultaneously closed down the east coast’s most famous urban skate area, Love Park (an iconic park that drew skaters from across the country, even the world).

Interestingly, Philadelphia is in the midst of promoting travel tourism to the city and area, having recently launched a mult-million dollar campaign on broadcast television. One of the more successful commercials shows an urban spoken word artist singing the praises of the city. But whose city is it? In this case, Philadelphia didn’t see itself as a corporation promoting itself as an urban brand because they were busy being stereotypical—while a typical corporate retailer, Urban Outfitters (find one on a campus near you), acted against the grain to support an out-of-the ordinary urban brand experience. The city of Philadelphia missed an opportunity to participate in telling a crucial story of the young person’s urban experience—because skateboarders weren’t the urban citizens they really cared about. If the X-games staff had heard that the city was ignoring its skate community, would they have picked Philly for a two-year contract? Just like so many great brands, Philly turned itself on TV to see if it was cool, and missed the point.

So how do I tap into this elusive, fickle, yet highly influential market—they’re more diverse than ever, more young, with greater buying power, and they’re growing. It may be a case of tactics and not overall strategy. It may help to start by simply being where they are, and I don’t mean with your corporate logos blazing. We’re going to have to get out of White Plains, and the midwest, and go to America’s urban centers, places like Detroit, Oakland, and Philadelphia. We’re going to have to spend time with urban culture consumers and find out why they do things differently from what they say, and why they get so easily tired of us. Consumer ethnography is one such practical method—especially when its videotaped, because demonstration is often a good way to remind us that urban culture is truly a tapestry.

Marketers may be familiar with street-style trend-hunting, but consumer ethnography is different. Instead of trying to bank on what’s hot today, consumer ethnography often uncovers why something is hot today, why it won’t be later today, and understanding and predicting the values that will make something hot tommorrow. Did I say values? Yes, urban culture consumers have values, and those everyday values influence their receptivity to the messages we send. If the city of Philadelphia had understood the values of its young people, it could have quietly gained brand loyalty instead of the disdain that replaced it with Urban Outfitters. From experimentation to innovation, urban culture consumers are constantly adapting to a changing life scenario. This constant change mixes opinions, gives tastemakers more to choose from, and often creates subcultures that dance and leap around convention. American’s great brands, urban culture is anything but typical.

by Joel R. Johnson, President & Director
livewire strategy/research