Good moves for T-Mobile's G1

So I bought a G1 over the weekend, and looked at the official website to learn how to use the thing (it's a pretty sweet device, although not perfect). I was pretty impressed at the execution of their online presence, and although I could go on for a long time about their marketing in general, I'll just share two things that are most relevant in the context of lifestyle marketing.


Excellent music choices
The bulk of the site is Flash video that explains the phones features. Usually this kind of thing uses lame stock music that makes it feel like some CD-ROM you'd get on your first day at GE to explain your health insurance. T-Mobile, on the other hand, went the extra mile and used legit artists like Motion City Soundtrack (one of my favorite bands). It makes a big difference in positioning the G1 as a device for cool nerds, as opposed to yet another hip hop-influenced wireless brand.

New colorways
Lifestyle brands aren't just a collection of price, performance, and features, they're platforms for self-expression. As such, offering your product in a variety of colorways is a very easy, yet extremely powerful, avenue for adding lifestyle marketing. It really is that simple! Just make it in different colors! In comparison to other product-based options, it's about as inexpensive as you can get: no real capital expenditures like molds, tooling, etc, just a little overhead in managing the additional SKUs.

Anyway, the G1 is now available in brown, black and white. The white one is new, and the most expressive color for sure. I'd like to know their plans for additional colorways, because it seems like it would be a mistake to go too far, but it's also fair to say that brown, black and white aren't exactly the most inspiring options. I'm hoping to see more cool options like the G1 "developer edition" with the screenprinted pattern on the back. It's simple, subtle, and very much on brand.