Not sure Clark Gable and Yoko One resonate with Anyone nowadays ... and Lennon ... some folks have probably heard of him ... Jackie O?

Sharon Stone .. . some folks might know. Clooney and Bradd Pitt, recognizable----but doe s anyone Identify with them?

Obama---sort of polarizing. The young-middle Beatles? No one knows or cares. I don't recognize the r4est.

Better that way because it is easier to identify with a nameless model than a celebrity ... but those photos, as Jim from west of Nantasket says, at least Approach the kind of the stuff the OP was describing---they are Not aimed at people already in the "Bicycling Lifestyle," but at people outside of that. You don't get new customers from advertising to old customers. The idea with that sort of photo array is to reach people who Don't ready Bicycling Magazine or even know what a crank set is.

I know nobody here wants to talk about what the OP started discussing ... but the OP was talking about a New market, not deeper penetration into existing markets. I'd say the normal channels are clogged and saturated with every type of advertisement---they pop up on this site all the time, in my inbox all the time, on every other site I visit .... I don't read the magazines because they are nothing but advertisements.

The photos above at least send the message, "People don't have to get sweaty and dirty or know mechanics or wear funny clothes to have a great time riding a bike." The OP believes there is an untapped market, and everyone else is talking about how to reach people who have already bought half-a-dozen bicycles ... in other words a tapped-out market.

That is the fundamental difference between the original meaning of the thread and many others have decided to discuss ... OP is talking about not a new type of advertising but a new market for that advertising.

We all complain about how the bike companies come out with "New!!!!" stuff regularly, whether it is needed or not, just to get people to buy even more bikes, to own the latest and greatest. We see the mags and sites pushing all the gear, selling jerseys like fashion, doing anything they can to squeeze a few more pennies out of an oversold market.

The OP was suggesting a strategy designed to reach a New, Untapped market. When you buy a McDonald's franchise, sure, you can build it right int eh middle of a cluster of fast-food restaurants, figuring that you will get one of six customers as they rotate through the five other outlets and then yours ... or you can go to some place where there is no competition and be the only one. You might not get rich ... but you have an untapped market, not a jaded market. You won't be fighting hard for crumbs.

I think in America that market is not that large and cannot be manufactured, because of urban design and lacking infrastructure. But one can see where daily transport cycling works well in many other cultures. Can't blame people for wanting to find ways to bring it here..

How many would you like?
If the "lifestyle is good enough for King James, as well as the Kings of Hollywood, Pop, and Rock and Roll, et al. it is good enough for me.

YOU don't care, that is YOUR "lifestyle" problem/issue, not mine.

BTW what makes you think your lifestyle essays posted on BF represent the consensus of thought on popular culture or lifestyle?

Well said, [MENTION=423651]Maelochs[/MENTION].I recognize many of the celebrities in those photos, I don’t know a few, but they are all Beautiful People (and all the bikes have upright handlebars).

While, I may be a lifestyle cyclist in the hardcore sense, my brother and his wife are called by another sister, “the jet set.”

When visiting us in Northeast of Nantasket, I took my sister-in-law on a drive on a moderately hilly cycling route, and she said that she likes riding her bike, but not on hills. Nonetheless, when I visit them in North of Ohio, without my CF road bike, I borrow my brother's heavy duty, upright handlebar, wide seat comfort bike.

Yet,

Youu don't seem to grasp advertising.

The idea is Not t show celebrities riding bikes. Celebrities are already in a different class ... they have options and opportunities that others do not have. Peopl might like to see celebrities, but people don't see their quotidian lives as having any relationship with what celebrities do day-to-day.

Celebrities are great for endorsing a brand ... but a lifestyle? By definition celebrities live lifestyles which most people cannot.

"Lyfestyle" adds such as the OP is discussing---which the bike industry Does use, but aimed at existing cyclists, not new cyclists, show ordinary people doing ordinary bike things. So, current ads show people in spandex struggling up big hills, or sprinting or riding gravel or even touring ... but they are people fully decked out in every piece of cycling gear they advertisers can pack on there,because they want o sell all that gear.

The OP wants to see pictures sort of like the celebrity shots above ... maybe even a little further from the bike, because the idea is to show that the bike is a Part of the "Lifestyle" rather than the Center of the lifestyle. See the difference?

Most people who self-identify as "Cyclists" see cycling as an essential and one of the most important parts of their lives. The OP wants to reach people who might use the bike as an alternative to the car .... but those folks don't consider themselves "Car drivers" who obsess over cars.

The OP is suggesting pictures of ordinary (but better looking than ordinary, better dressed, better groomed, and wearing full makeup ) at bars, art galleries, cafes, cinema pubs, farmers'markets, the stuff that they probably already do .... but riding bikes to do them. Some shots of them riding or sitting on bikes are great, but equally or even more important, shots of four or six people sitting around a table having an unnaturally good time--just like any beer, liquor, or soft-drink commercial or even ads for chain restaurants ..... but prominent in the background are several bikes, or at an outdoor table one person is sitting on a bike on the other sod of a railing but leaning in to take a selfie with the unnaturally happy group ......

The ads are aspirational not in that one wants to be like LeBron ... but in that people want to be that happy and have that kind of camaraderie ... and are stupid enough to think that products can get them there. it is the root of most advertising--better living through better shopping. So the ads need to feature normal people, and not necessarily have bikes as the central theme.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Maelochs

…"Lyfestyle" adds such as the OP is discussing---which the bike industry Does use, but aimed at existing cyclists, not new cyclists, show ordinary people doing ordinary bike things. So, current ads show people in spandex struggling up big hills, or sprinting or riding gravel or even touring ... but they are people fully decked out in every piece of cycling gear they advertisers can pack on there,because they want o sell all that gear…

Most people who self-identify as "Cyclists" see cycling as an essential and one of the most important parts of their lives. The OP wants to reach people who might use the bike as an alternative to the car .... but those folks don't consider themselves "Car drivers" who obsess over cars.

The OP is suggesting pictures of ordinary (but better looking than ordinary, better dressed, better groomed, and wearing full makeup ) at bars, art galleries, cafes, cinema pubs, farmers'markets, the stuff that they probably already do .... but riding bikes to do them. ...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim from Boston

...While, I may be a lifestyle cyclist in the hardcore sense, my brother and his wife are called by another sister, “the jet set.”

When visiting us in Northeast of Nantasket, I took my sister-in-law on a drive on a moderately hilly cycling route, and she said that she likes riding her bike, but not on hills.

Nonetheless, when I visit them in North of Ohio, without my CF road bike, I borrow my brother’s heavy duty, upight bar, wide seat comfort bike.

Sounds like me and the “jet set.”

Jim, the famous jet-setter celebrity from east of Natick, endorses this thread.

Yes.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim from Boston

BTW, I don’t list my location under my avatar, but it is “D’uh” [in Kenmore Square] also DBA:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Maelochs

Jim from somewhere near Cambridge

Quote:

Originally Posted by Maelochs

Jim from East of Framingham

Quote:

Originally Posted by Maelochs

Jim from Southwest of Somerville

Quote:

Originally Posted by Maelochs

Jim from North of Brookline

Quote:

Originally Posted by livedarklions

Jim from a city just outside the Greater Providence Metropolitan Area

.."and the beat goes on"...

What got me into bicycling was having to circle the block for 20 minutes to find a parking spot. I don't see a clear connection between being annoyed at this and any "lifestyle." I do recall the utter shock I had, years ago, walking into a bike shop and finding nothing had a chainguard. Who would want to use something as inconvenient as a modern bike for normal transportation? The bike share companies got it right, however. A large portion of the people I see commuting are on Capital Bikeshare bikes. Fenders, chainguard, coatguard, lights -- all the things that most bikes had 50 years ago but somehow lost, Business is booming, because people need convenient short-range transportation.

I dunno. Three of those guys suffered premature deaths. Just sayin'.

As well as the excess verbiage and verbal self stroking.

Life style? I guess I'm the only mt biker here? Dirt surfing, adrenaline rush, high speed, snap. It's all there. Plus beer. Yummm. Some count the number of breaths, others count the number of times that leave you breathless. Like 40+ mph on a mt bike. Getting more than 3 ft of air under your tires( only once in a while) It sells itself, come on in, the waters great.

Lot's of good stuff here.
To see what "ordinary lifestyle advertising might look like one only has to peruse the old Raleigh type adverts from the 50's in England. Normal people using normal bikes for normal activities. The Clubman was the bike you could ride to work all week and with friends on the weekend and most utility bikes had all those things (guards etc...) you described.

I do think the Citibike / bike share concept comes close to ordinary people using bikes for day to day activities but one very attractive aspect of that is that people don't have to worry about what to do with the bikes. That model completely eliminates the security/parking aspect of using a bike. That's a huge benefit.

........

Advertisers don't want to sell products - they have to sell products; and more specifically their products. That's how they pay the bills and make money. Spending a lot to creating advertising that only shows the product in the background in a generic sense opens the door to the target market thinking the brand of bike itself doesn't matter. Lifestyle brands, like Surly or Rivendell (sorry to keep bringing them up but they are great examples) create a lot of peripheral lifestyle with their blogs and accessories but they still highly emphasize the benefits of their particular brand of bike and they are kept central to the theme.

Don't have to venture so back to the Olde Country.


https://www.sheldonbrown.com/retrora...talog-1972.pdf





and lots more at:
https://www.sheldonbrown.com/retroraleighs/#catalogues

Yep. A well established template. Wonder why they aren't still doing it...

Probably the next cycling idea that will target normal people doing normal stuff, besides the bike share program concept, will be e biking. It's already happening with the focus on engaging more people who ordinarily wouldn't consider themselves able to ride a bike and also appeals to those who want the experience but not the physical effort. I have a friend who lives on a small Gulf Island and she bought an e version of a pedal scooter thing for her local daily commutes. Off Island she uses her car.

Do you watch ads on TV? I rarely do ... but I see enough to see the trend. Look at print ads as well ... The product is Not always the center of the ad .... the Lifestyle that the product supposedly brings, is .... People are amazingly happy, or floating through ethereal sun rays, or romantically walking with a loved one, or playing with grandkids or cute puppies ... Shoot, Subaru ads are what, "Love is what makes a Subaru?"

There is always either text, logos, voice-overs, or all three, depending on the medium ... but everyone is sure what the ad is about. Some of the ads really only feature the product tangentially .... and injectable drugs, never. But, yeah ... there is never confusions about what the ad is for; and in a bike ad ... the person doesn't have to be riding the bike. The bike has to be there ... but what the ad is selling is how amazingly wonderful life will be, how much more fun you will have, how much smarter you will be, how much better your friends will be, how much better your sex life will be .... if you use the advertised product.

Look how many sex pills there are ... and yet in no ad do you see either a pill of people having sex. Walk on a beach, cook on a grill, eat on a patio, sip wine watching a sunset, or the classic sit in neighboring bathtubs ... no erection, and no pill.

But whatever. if you are a high-paid ad exec, I am sure you are .... paid a lot.

S# is what makes a Subaru.




-Tim-

American advertising is not about products at all, but about the happiness owning/using those products will bring. Happiness is a commodity that can be purchased in the marketplace. Buy our product and be happy. It's all nonsense, of course, but it works. That's why companies pay millions for ad campaigns.

Normal people using normal bikes for normal activities.Like avoiding the Spanish inquistion who tries to pull your bike from underneath you?

I guess marketing people's creativity has always been overstretched.

That's Sir Walter Raleigh, a proper English gentleman. Although he wound up being executed by the crown.

So .... I knew the Sir Walter covering the filth in the gutter story ... but never realized that I own a 1984 Headless Rebell Olympian with a Tiagra drive train.

He is reported to have laid down his cape across a puddle so Queen Elizabeth I could walk across, as depicted in that Raleigh ad. He was not executed by the Queen, but later after she died.

She did send him to prison for marrying one of her ladies-in-waiting without her permission.("No good deed goes unpunished.")

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.

Many on this thread fail to realize that Raleigh bikes in the 50's in England were transportation, not sporting goods.

Sure, some used them for fun the same way some now use cars for fun but Raleigh designed bikes for ordinary people to get places and built them to last 100 years with reasonable care.

They weren't toys.


-Tim-