New York Times “Consumed” with Being Wrong
Walker says this leaves ammunition brands to differentiate on “advertising, packaging and other image-enhancing strategies.” He does describe how ammo-maker ATK’s brands such as Black Cloud offer shell design technologies, but then seemingly dismisses it: “Still, technology by itself is not a marketing strategy.” Sure, not technically, but it offers the strongest marketing hook a commodity brand has. Instead, Walker seems stuck on how “image,” even offering a handy color-coded graphic stating “Ads on Hunting Shows + Fancy Packaging + Webisodes + Celebrity Endorsements = A New Ammo Brand.”
But Walker fully tips his hand when he sums up the act of ammo buying as “an afterthought purchase” largely devoid of meaningful branding cues. Here, he couldn’t be more wrong.