This is my new favorite product. My Bubba Keg. Available at Wal-Mart, the Bubba Keg comes in quite a few shapes and sizes, from 20 oz to a whopping 640 oz keg with a push-button valve on the bottom, like the keg-shaped sports Igloos players dump on coaches. Mine is the 34 oz cupholder-shaped model, which I chose because I wanted it to fit my cupholder. It must be noted, however, that most Bubba Keg models are available in standard keg shape. They just won't fit your cupholder, that's all.
Why is this my new favorite product? Well, aside from the fact that I now have an insulated vessel to hold 34 ounces of sweet tea or Diet Dr. Pepper on a glorious summer day, the Bubba Keg is a favorite because the folks at BubbaBrands.com understand me and my sense of quasi-irony. Let me explain:
While I certainly can hold, and have held, my own in the worlds of advertising and new media, not to mention trendy New York restaurants, I simply cannot escape my rural Deep South upbringing. There are some thinks I just naturally like: Fried Okra, boiled peanuts, barbecue, fishing, hunting -- there's a long list, but you get the idea. I like this stuff, and I understand this stuff, and I understand why the culture of my upbringing can be, many times, both alien and amusing to people from both the inside and the outside of said culture. At the same time, I obviously understand the appropriate time to wear the RealTree Peterson's Gun Shop cap, and the time to leave it at home. I can be amused at the folks at the dirt track races, and simultaneously enjoy and appreciate the race. I can laugh when someone from the South makes fun of our foibles, and my hackles are raised when the derision has a Yankee accent. As the saying goes, I can make fun of my mama, but you better not.
Bubba Keg gets this duality, and this understanding of irony. If it's not evident by the name, it's certainly evident by the small brochure you'll find inside every new Bubba Keg product. In addition to cross-selling other Bubba Keg models, the brochure delivers operating instructions with cheek planted firmly in tongue:
• Bubba Keg is Hand Wash Only. Not intended for the dishwasher, washing machine, automatic carwashes, your pressure-washer -- you get the idea.
• Do Not Use in Microwave. HELLO!!? You did see that huge piece of metal on the outside, right?
It goes on, of course, in a similar manner. The makers of Bubba Keg have developed a line of products that are, essentially, giant, permanent Big Gulps. And they're selling them at Wal-Mart, where people who might buy giant, permanent Big Gulps are likely to shop. But they've infused the product with a personality that connects, humorously and emotionally, to guys like me -- who might never seriously buy a Big Gulp-style beverage container, but who get, and appreciate the joke. And along with getting the joke, I now, seriously, have a product I like. Am I using it ironicly, like Ashton Kutcher in a trucker hat? Maybe at first, but not now. I do like my sweet tea in volume.
As the bandwidth increases, the opportunity to connect with smaller and smaller niches presents itself. Present wisely, and that niche can help you spread the word about your product to a larger audience.
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