open fridge door

Where The Right Answer Is a Question

2010-03-16T23:00:00.001-07:00

Hats off to the Exploratorium in San Francisco. This exactly captures the reaction it is striving to evoke from its visitors, young and old alike.

The Exploratorium goes where flat-footed edu-tainment cannot tread. It's a collection of brilliantly crafted exhibits designed not just to educate but to spark a sense of wonder and stir curiosity within. Each display has been purposely made to compel its audience to physically interact with it, to engage in the sort of playful experimentation that yields rewarding results and engages the participant in a willing game of detective work to figure out what's going on.

As the street banner suggests, it is particularly well suited for helping youngsters learn. The setting encourages them to be absolutely fearless in their pursuit of knowledge. Any self-consciousness they might have about the limits of what they know, or of making mistakes or worst of all failing - the collection of forces that might otherwise hold them back and rob them of an enriching experience - melt instantly away the moment they step inside the Exploratorium.

You could also say that a hallmark of an good account planner is to work in a similar way. We didn't have a child-like capacity for play in mind, we were thinking rather about the role to stimulate further investigation. To deepen the inquiry in a meaningful way that advanced understanding of the challenge at hand, through iterative probing that gets quickly to the heart of the matter.

There are many situations in the communications or consumer behavior worlds in which a question being evoked as a response to a stimulus - or as the effect of an interaction - would be a vast improvement to what it elicits today.

Inspiration to do better, fluttering in the breeze on Gough street above the heads of commuters making their way wearily to work.

What's The Best Way To Make Careful Decisions?

2010-03-09T11:37:00.000-08:00

Good decisions are rarely made carelessly. So there's an intuitive logic behind making careful decisions, whatever climate of decision making might prevail at the time.

In this era of flux, one characterized by many practitioners and pundits challenging existing principles in search of new and more reliable wisdom, this subject of intuition vs analysis and their relative value in decision making is highly topical.

In our view, the issue is rooted in a timeless theme of management science: the issue of thinking vs feeling in decision making.

The idea of using feeling in the context of decision making makes many people uncomfortable which is why intuition gets a bad rap. Emotion is associated with a lack of discipline and robustness in analysis (with good reason to some degree). The fact that intuition cannot be attributed to a specific place, to a linear, observable, concrete set of facts also makes it an easy target. Intuition cannot be explained. It emerges or not.

This character of intuition raises the other main driver of discontent that emerges with reliance upon it: the lack of control. Management needs to be confident it can replicate results, to assure the effective use of resources and ultimately the return to shareholders.

Which leads us to the underlying human issue in play here, which in my view is trust. Decision making begets responsibility and accountability. One feels no better having put that trust in the hands of so called 'experts' whose predictions and recommendations prove subsequently to be wrong than in an internal capacity which transcends tangible analysis and which cannot be explained.

Sound use of intuition depends on sound judgment, itself a product of experience and the right kind of reflection. As with any tool, erudite use comes from knowing how to use it and when. And when not to. This I believe, cannot be taught nor prescribed and in part sustains its immense value among those practitioners who do it well.

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The topic was a provocative one shared in the Working Knowledge Bulletin by Harvard Business School by Profession James Heskett. The Full article appears here, and inspired a lively disucssion among a dispersed community.

Imagination (And Sound Effects) Make A Basic Search Story Sparkle

2009-12-01T13:32:00.000-08:00

We've been writing of late about stories. As marketers are challenged to connect more presently and meaningfully with people, we think story telling is taking on ever greater importance. It's not just a familiar device from which we learn, it's one of potent and enduring human value.

Here's a delightful example from Google. The search behemoth is promoting what it's best known for - its utility as a search destination and tool. What might otherwise be dry has been given deft emotional delivery through a charming story. While the concept that plays out is a highly engaging one, there is something refreshing about the simplicity with which it is done (a deliberate expression of brand character we surmise). Creatively speaking, heavy visual emphasis on the search box might be considered a sizeable constraint. But using the search box as an engine to evolve the drama is shrewd indeed. Sound effects, too, are judiciously employed to give a real warmth and emotional valence.

A Time For Levi-Strauss

2009-12-01T12:02:00.000-08:00

The famous anthropologist and a jeans brand share the same name. While we were saddened at the news of the french intellectual's passing, we're commenting today upon the latter. The jeans brand has itself not been in the best of health in recent years. Grant McKracken points to this in his recent book Chief Culture Officer, by lamenting the billions of dollar in market opportunity the company missed out on by failing to understand the changes fashion in happening around it.

On the streets of San Francisco are examples of spirited Levi's advertising that fits the times. Jeans are a well-worn medium for self expression so it's no surprise that the brand is promoting a belief which it hopes will be shared by the followers it seeks. An added strength in the work (below) is that the themes echo the sentiment of the zeitgeist. Being a time of austerity and uncertainty has forced many people to question old priorities and focus on qualities that are basic yet enduring. We think it's a good move.

Telling Stories to Others (Let's Not Overlook The Ones We Tell Ourselves).

2009-10-27T08:11:00.000-07:00

Here's a shining example of what we think about stories:

We typically see a story as something 'made up', an abstraction from the truth either completely fictitious or embellished with imagination which then removes it from the reality of the events on which it's based.

We also commonly think of stories as something we tell other people. Arguably the most important and potent stories are those we tell ourselves. Each of us has created stories about who we are. Quite literally, we had no choice: it was needed as a way of giving order to the psyche and structure to our identity. Overtime, these stories have been crafted into a coherent narrative about ourselves and our place in the world.

The intriguing part in it all is that many people are not aware that this process goes on, existing as it does usually in the subconscious. (Stephen Johnson's excellent book Mind Wide Open illuminates many ways these silent operators influence our actions.)

But if you have ever talked to a woman who colors her hair, especially one that has become and stayed a 'bottle blond', she will tell you quite calmly that this is who she is. That it fits how she sees herself and not just in the mirror; it is how she feels on the inside.

Such women do not have amnesia. They are well aware of the duplicity at their own hand and they are reminded of it at no time greater than with a showing of roots - evidence of an act of past intervention and a pressing reminder for the need to repeat it. But it does not matter and it does not violate the integrity of the idea.

Stories to ourselves are a secret pact. We know we're fibbing and there's nothing wrong with that because - after all - it is the truth in the midst of the fabrication. Psychopaths aside, we can rarely lie to ourselves and get away with it . Deep down we remember, even when we forget.

Luxury Marketing: Austere Times Call for Disarming Strategies

2009-10-27T00:00:00.000-07:00

Even if the harsh realities of this year's economy have not touched us personally, we have not been unaffected by them.

As has been widely reported, the luxury market has taken a hammering. This year has seen a widespread climate of disapproval emerge in our culture. Mere ownership and display of luxury goods has become synonymous with an almost ostentatious flaunting, seen as reflecting a callous insensitivity to the hard times befalling so many others. There has been widespread rush to judgment, in much the same way that greets a Hummer on the roads albeit for different reasons; its existence has become an embodiment for a disregard for environmental concern..and almost a shameless pride in it.

One smart strategy is not to deny the criticism but to tackle it head-on. It is, after all, a hurdle that prevents people being comfortable buying, however much they might want (and secretly covet) the prize and long to own it.

Hats off to Porsche for adopting this approach. Anticipating criticism is captured elegantly in the headline with a tone that far from seeming defensive sounds pragmatic, evoking a feeling of being confidently prepared. An accomplishment in itself.

The key to success? Leverage the equity that give luxury makers rooted in substance (rather than overly dependent on style) a powerful neutralizing effect: Performance.

Performance is that wonderful quality whose existence is inherently self-justifying. It represents tangible proof for what one has paid more. It is born of advanced engineering and design - noble characteristics indeed - which enables assertions to or inferences about privilege to be assiduously avoided. Porsche has even suggested that the efficiency dimension of performance represents greater environment responsibility, the idea of 'doing more with less'.

Arming the audience with ammunition in the form of knowledge serves to disarm the critics. This is the final part of this erudition -- recognition of what is so overlooked by marketers in cultivating people's relationships through brands: storytelling.

Give people things that help them to tell their stories. If we can tell a story we have a claim to having a reason. An assertion to belonging. Storytelling is a basic human need, one that helps us feel connected to others and perhaps more importantly, to ourselves:

"A need to tell and hear stories is essential to the species Homo sapiens--second in necessity apparently after nourishment and before love and shelter. Millions survive without love or home, almost none in silence; the opposite of silence leads quickly to narrative, and the sound of story is the dominant sound of our lives"

Reynolds Price

Consumer Consciousness: The Third Element Redefining the Value Equation

2009-10-26T19:11:00.000-07:00

In our last post, we outlined PERSONAL and PLANET as two recent dimensions of the value equation emerging in light of the new climate of consumer consciousness.

There's a third that most readers will have seen almost at every turn: PEOPLE.

In the era of higher standards, of greater scrutiny about what is being bought and its effects, people also want an opportunity to participate and contribute towards a greater social good. As a result, they are also expecting more of the companies they buy from, for them to do their part to improve the world we live in.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been around for decades, but it's typically been more of a PR driven initiative to generate goodwill in order to shape perceptions than a deep-rooted embrace. Tom's Shoes is a great example of a commitment on a different scale. It donates a pair of new shoes to a needy child for every pair sold. The social good is inextricably part of its business model.

An example of a more traditional approach is Tide Detergent. The "Loads of Hope" campaign is P&G's latest CSR attempt to link 'doing laundry' with 'doing good'. (Don't get us wrong, something is better than nothing: but not only is the link conceptually a weak one - in our culture 'hope' is not something we think of in terms of 'loads' - but the scale and sustainability of the impact is modest).

Overall, this strategy is an ever popular one with marketers. The basic approach is to link consumption directly with a virtuous outcome.

Starbucks says that by buying its coffee YOU are the force behind change on a massive scale...

Volvic touts its 'Drink 1 Give 10' benefit if you buy its water (click on this recent airport commercial).

The intent of course: shape brand choice in a way that requires no additional effort by the consumer. "Keep doing what you're already doing". The act of buying is an act of giving.

Not a bad strategy (few things are inherently flawed except teapots made of chocolate). Though as Brandchannel points out: Cause Marketing Grows: but is the backlash ahead?

Consumer Consciousness: Two Forces Redefining the Value Equation.

2009-10-26T17:51:00.001-07:00

The bubble of indifference has burst.

Until recently, it used to be very different. Consumers cared about functional performance and price...and cared about very little else. Like how products were really made. The ingredients they really contained. What they really did to the body. So the reasoning went, if it was available, it had to be safe. Governments regulate, after all.

Nothing like crisis to wake people up. And shaken up they have been. Toxicity in toy paint, lethal ingredients in pet food, health threats in the food chain (fruits and vegetables), ever rising cases of cancer, and obesity on a mass scale among not just adults but children. This is the PERSONAL dimension that evolved the value equation of what people buy. No longer is buying convenience foods so easily divorced from the health consequences of doing to. Marketers are responding with convenient foods that force less of that trade-off. It is a good development.

The consumer value equation is also being redefined by another key dimension: PLANET. The environmental crisis has precipitated a shift: people en masse are making a direct personal link between what they consumed and the impact they were having on the planet.

The result: a time of greater scrutiny but if anything higher standards. People care more about what's in products and how they're made. They have to know, it's almost not a choice. The cost of indifference - personally and for the planet - is too high. Companies are responding by making better products.

A new kind of involvement and a new strategy has emerged among consumers: asking question and demanding answers. The smart companies are recognizing this is a new age of transparency. Avoidance is an option but not a good one. Being part of the conversation is a way companies can shape the dialogue about them, thought the days of control are over. Trust has been broken and companies now have to earn it back.

Adjacent Opposites of the Gastronomic Scale

2009-10-22T21:19:00.000-07:00

Opposite ends of a spectrum by their nature don't usually meet. You'll find a curious exception on Market street at Montgomery in San Francisco. On the left, Japanese Sweets makes dessert delicacies and beside it hotdog vendor, Zog's Dogs.

No doubt these two attract different clientele. An intriguing contrast nonetheless.

Platform Thinking: History Beats Jarvis' Edict by 170 years.

2009-10-22T00:01:00.000-07:00

In What Would Google Do? Jeff Jarvis makes many great observations about the new rules of business success that have emerged in the last 10 years.

One example is platform thinking, in which products and services deliver the utility they were designed to, but which users go on to embrace and use for purposed well beyond the original intent.

Jarvis gives the example of Craig's List and Google Earth which have been adopted in new ways never originally envisioned. And with the dramatic popularity of apps for its handheld device, Apple's iPhone is perhaps the ultimate testament to platform thinking by delivering utility that have nothing to do with the phone at all.

We were delighted to find a historical predecessor to this digital idea by some 170 years.

An emigrant ship Niantic was moored and then marooned at a site now deep in the heart of San Francisco's financial district. It was covered in a shingle roof and housed offices and stores on the upper deck, while the hull became divided warehouses. A wonderful historic example of people taking an idea, making it their own and giving life to new uses, ones delivering valuable utility that was never anticipated by the original builders. Like their digital counterparts today, we're sure they were equally pleased.

[Click on image to enlarge]

Lax grammar sends the opposite message

2009-10-21T23:01:00.000-07:00

In LA this week, returning a rental car to the airport I passed a white truck. Its sides were emblazoned with the company's name, which was intended to describe the business it is in:

Nothing may seem wrong but something is seriously awry.

The company is in the business of transporting perishable items, one presumes for the restaurant or hotel trade, and perhaps even hospitals. Careless grammar, however, suggests that fragility and decay are what befall the logistics themselves that the company manages. Not likely to inspire much confidence in the service, needless to say.

The fix is simple: Perishables Logistics.

One imagines that the company has no idea it is sending the opposite message to the one it intends, all because it misses the letter 's'.

Reaching Back to the Past in a Time of Flux

2009-10-06T15:22:00.000-07:00

Storytelling has very much been on our minds. In a recent talk to some students at SF State University we'd proposed it is the essence of account planning. Of course, its roots are altogether more human, for storytelling is a crucial cultural mechanism, vibrantly alive today in the digital age of Facebook updates and tweets, of Flickr and blogs.

This latest social media initiative by Virgin on Facebook strikes an appropriate chord with the times, not just because of its invitation to be part of a global village (Marshal McLuhan anyone?) but through its promotion of Elders.

Elders are a timely idea for two reasons:

First, it affirms the idea that there is value to the opinions of generations that precede us. The elderly have become significantly marginalized in US society, not so much due to intent but nonetheless through a shift over time. Retirement communities have removed them from the mainstream and deny us an opportunity to learn from the richness of their experience.

The second reason we think the idea of Elders is timely is because the term harkens back to an earlier time of storytelling, in which their knowledge was shared at the gathering around a communal fire. For sure, it was a time when life expectancy was half what it is today! But like the campfire itself, there is a simplicity, an enduring warmth about the intimacy of physical (rather than distributed) connectedness.

We believe this yearning is in direct response to what confronts so many people today: the contradictions and ambiguity, the uncertainty of extremes, the fragmentation and convergence and of the deeply unsettling flux, one in which the old rules have already given way and nothing has yet has emerged to replace them. We'd say that yearning for 'old ways' for a former time is not isolated. Like the emergence of artisanal character in the world of consumer goods in recent years, it is a response to it. A way of coping with it. Until sureness should return underfoot, there shall be more of it to come.

Drinking Beer Helps Make Decisions

2009-09-23T18:41:00.000-07:00

Surprising but true. It was a delightfully counter-intuitive discovery, one that parallels what we found under the cap of a bottle of Session beer recently.

There are many choices to be made while drinking is going on, whether at a club, bar or home. Rock paper scissors is an old parlor game that Session beer brings to the moment, and it helped decisions to be made as the evening wore on.

For us, it took quite a few bottles before we amassed the complete set (we think this was not an accident), yet once armed with our prize it became a recurring theme woven into the fabric of the evening as it unfolded, and part of the stories that were shared long after.

"Great brands are no longer the ones that are the best storytellers but the ones that the best stories are being told about" so says David Verklin CEO of Carat America. We agree. Though we have a hard time imagining he was talking about this specific brand at the time, his sentiment is highly applicable to it.

More than pure entertainment, the brand delivered utility, albeit it in an unexpected way. A clever twist to a familiar theme, one perfectly suited to the character of a good time out.

Crowdsourcing finally snags the Netflix $1,000,000 prize.

2009-09-23T18:27:00.000-07:00

It was inevitable. The competition that Netflix launched to improve its movie recommendation algorithm by 10% is finally over.

While the challenge took a while to crack the end was apparently tantalizingly close, with different cohorts posting their breakthroughs within minutes of each other.

Crowdsourcing is not new, but this recent application suggests an interesting lesson. While separate teams made strong progress in isolation, they reached a point beyond which they could not advance the algorithm further towards the goal. It took a final step of amalgamating the efforts of different groups and merging their algorithms together. One can only imagine the messy mathematical mash-up that entailed, but it resulted in the crucial incremental efficiency which enabled the 10% barrier to be breached.

It affirms how much more progress we can make through collaboration when conquering tough challenges. Several heads are better than one (as long as they’re the right heads!).

Full Wired magazine article here...

A Car That Steers Itself. Science Fiction Becomes Fact.

2009-09-22T00:05:00.000-07:00

The prediction that cars will someday drive themselves is nothing new. The tantalizing possibility has appeared in a number of science fiction films including The Minority Report in recent years.

That someday has arrived. The new Lexus HS 250 touts Lane Keep Assist technology. This feature reads the lines on the road, detects the car's position in the lane and helps to keep the HS from drifting out of the lane, even by steering itself back when necessary.

One must wonder how far off the day is when ours hands will be able to be taken fully off the wheel and the coordinates we've plugged into the console will take care of the driving for us. The rollout will be gradual and thoroughly tested for sure. But what might have been unthinkable in the world of commercial air-travel has already come to pass. Planes routinely take-off and land through automation, with the Pilot's involvement reduced to back-up in case of system failure. Our skies are much safer as a result. It takes no leap of the imagination to foresee how much safer our roads would be without human error.

Anatomy of a great night out

2009-09-09T23:17:00.000-07:00

This study explored the night-time social life of young 20 somethings. Its goal was to understand what space there was for mobile devices to deliver greater utility.

The biggest discovery was how much unpredictability and spontaneity were the main experiential elements that defined a great night in the eyes of this cohort. The video gives their account of its value. An abridged report appears here

As folks who shape behavior, we love these stories about the power of data

2009-08-31T22:43:00.000-07:00

For folks in the communications industry, the challenge is often how to deepen people's involvement in a brand. Conventional thinking says give them a new way to think about an aspect of their lives - informed by some kind of insight - and it will achieve the effect.

Here are two timely reminders that 'doing' trumps 'thinking'. That action can be a more potent agent of deepening a bond than words or rhetoric, however well crafted and informed they may be.

It comes down to data. Not the sexiest of sounding inspirations, but the results have been nothing short of transformative in the lives of people who run. Thanks to affordable, portable technology, they've had a wealth of feedback that has shaped their workout behavior and increased their involvement. The results have been not just greater utility - which firmly enhances an appreciation of value - but also entertainment.

Turning exercise into data chronicles this story, from devices like the Nike Plus and Garmin Forerunner.

The Big Draw of a GPS Run is about getting creative with the route. People are using a city as a canvas to draw pictures using their run with the help of GPS technology.

Perhaps planners and engagement strategist would be better served identifying ways that data can be tapped to deepen involvement in other categories, rather than perpetuate the over-reliance on one-way monologue-based communications.

Texting: an update on its effects

2009-06-09T22:53:00.000-07:00

We raised the effects of truncated communication in our April 29th post The language of though: how will it evolve?

Here's some encouraging and some not so good news.

Let's start with the good. Findings from a study of Tweens 10-12 years old in the British Journal of Developmental Psychology (Vol. 27, Number 1) seem to suggest that texting aids literacy rather than damaging it. The results indicated that the increased exposure to print, in any form, led to greater literacy with those using most text'isms being more literate.

Now the not so good news.

The rise in texting might be causing a shift in the way adolescents develop. According to Sherry Turkle at the Initiative on Technology and Self at MIT "Among the jobs of adolescence are to separate from your parents, and to find the peace and quiet to become the person you decide you want to be. Texting hits directly at both those jobs.”

American teenagers sent and received an average of 2,272 text messages per month in Q4 2008, according to the Nielsen Company — almost 80 messages a day, more than double the average of a year earlier.

Michael Hausauer, a psychotherapist in Oakland, Calif., said teenagers had a “terrific interest in knowing what’s going on in the lives of their peers, coupled with a terrific anxiety about being out of the loop.” For that reason, he said, the rapid rise in texting has potential for great benefit and great harm. Read the full NYT here: Texting may be taking its Toll

Although the developments are too recent to have conclusive data on health effects, we'll certainly be watching this space with interest.

Success takes work for geniuses, why not us?

2009-05-02T15:47:00.000-07:00

The appetite for 'Getting Rich Quick' is nothing new in American society. Whether reflected through Ponzi-type schemes or the popularity of lotteries, it a dynamic that exists alongside a puritanical momentum in the cultural fabric of this country.

Open Fridge Door thinks a 'short-cut' mentality has two companions, the 'Get-Success Quick' and Get-Expertise-Quick' trends. (These tendencies are far more prevalent than just among the Generation Y cohort, whose sense of entitled advance in the work-place has been well documented through syndicated research and won't be expounded upon here). People are inclined to inflate their career capabilities and accomplishments because doing so make them appear more desirable candidates and thus more competitive in their hunt for a job. (We'd speculate that such a tendency has evolutionary roots.) The tendency to self aggrandize about career capabilities goes beyond the current unemployed looking for work in this harsh economic climate. Evidence suggests we are in another climate, one in which people have embraced belief in a lower threshold for how success is earned and what it takes to achieve. It has created higher expectations about the value of one's experience and accomplishments.

Can we learn anything by looking at the highest achievers of all in society? From the geniuses in our midst?

It's tempting to think that genius is genetically determined (or god-given), an innate ability that simply exists and emerges of its own accord requiring little effort. Two recent books that study the ways of geniuses share a startling discovery. We might do well to take a page from their books and take it to heart.

In its review of these two books, the New York Times reports:

"The latest research suggests a more prosaic, democratic, even puritanical view of the world. The key factor separating geniuses from the merely accomplished is not a divine spark. It’s not I.Q., a generally bad predictor of success, even in realms like chess. Instead, it’s deliberate practice. Top performers spend more hours (many more hours) rigorously practicing their craft."

The full article is available here.

It is a refreshing perspective indeed: Short-cuts are illusory. If even geniuses have to work hard and diligently for their prodigious feats, what makes us think we can do any less in pursuit of our own?

The language of thought: how will it evolve?

2009-04-29T17:05:00.000-07:00

Truncated communication is a feature of everyday life. We imagine linguistic experts would say that while this tendency has been with us for a while, it's rapid growth is due to a diffusion of technologies and cultural adoption of their expressive possibilities. Texting and emoticons have been augmented more recently by the trend for microblogging, through Twitter and Facebook.

Though linguists, psychologists and anthropologists might disagree on the degree of emphasis, we imagine that they'd concur that one of the richest ways to understand how a culture thinks is through its language.

The relationship between language and thought raises an interesting question about the uptick trend in communications truncation: what impact does it have upon thinking and coherence of thought? Does one beget the other?

As seems characteristic of the digital medium (across the variety of channels people use to communicate) there is a seductiveness in the speed with which people can contribute. Our research suggests that the efficiency and ease with which one expresses one's self or dispatches a reply invokes a confidence in the content itself. (Feel free to contact us to learn more about our findings.)

An opinion however is not synonymous with an idea nor does it confer rigor, though there seems to be a widespread assumptiveness (or at the very least a misconception) that it does.

There is an alarming casualness with which people claim expertise today, a disturbing comfort with which they adopt a tonality that suggests authority, when in reality they are far from having that earned stature. One only has to surf the net on a relatively modest number of sites to witness this in action.

What do Boomers and Gen Y have in common?

2009-04-28T18:32:00.000-07:00

First, Boomers
Boomers have redefined retirement, the latest in a lineage of reinvention they’ve left in their wake. They refuse to go quietly into the night. Unprecedented numbers of this group are giving up the porch swing (or couch) to be actively involved in volunteering. Many report it is a new – albeit unpaid – career.

Now, Generation Y
This cohort has an insatiable appetite for communication. They suffocate without access to IM, e-mail, cell-phones. It is their oxygen, crucial not just for staying ‘with it’ but for managing their social capital and maintaining their place in the social hierarchy. They are prolific bloggers (particularly girls) endlessly taking part in quizzes and promoting the results.

Finally, the tie that binds
Both Boomers and Gen Y share a quest for significance.

Boomers are older and more secure with themselves, having achieved moderate financial success in their lives, but there is still a longing. Theirs is a desire not just to ‘do good’, but to be remembered for something meaningful.

Gen Y craves popularity but the ability to express character is limited when everyone has access to the same brands. Influence has become the new medium, if not currency. By proselytizing opinions their personal brand can achieve significance across a variety of channels: through how many friends will listen to them in the schoolyard or on-line, how many friends they have on Myspace, how many followers they have on Twitter. Of course it’s ‘significance’ with a very short shelf life (especially with this ADD affected group). And that’s the difference in a core theme that these two groups share.

Unconscious activity is 'thinking'.

2009-04-28T16:58:00.000-07:00

When it comes to dissecting the brain, the subconscious can hardly be considered new territory. Freud gave it significant attention almost 100 years ago after all.

There has however been a stack of current coverage which has raised the visibility of this subject, notable contributions being Gladwell's Blink and Robert Walker's Buying In.

Neuroscience has recently shed light on previously unknown processes and activities. Mind Wide Open ably provides an accessible introduction to this emerging field.

All three sources reach the same conclusion. Much of what we believe is ‘free-will’ is apparently far from it. Brain activity below the surface of our awareness accounts from much of what we do, and has an inertia that carries through to our conscious realm.

It’s a theme affirmed in this week’s The Economist. In describing the use of brain imaging upon people given tasks to solve, it reports that EEG traces preceded conscious awareness by a participant of an ‘aha’-type moment by some eight (8) seconds. More curious still, while not all participants solved the task, the character of how brains ‘lit up’ was predictive of which people solved the challenge and which did not.

While the idea of a subconscious is not new - nor is the idea that its processing takes place beyond our ability to access or influence it - such activity is not thought of as, well, thinking. The findings from the study by Dr. Bhattacharya and Dr. Sheth are exciting precisely because they suggest that it is.

So while the magazine's reference to it as 'unconscious thought' might at first appear counter-intuitive, it is highly apt.

The full article appears here Here

Crowdsourcing Caveats: NASA Learns The Hard Way

2009-04-07T20:14:00.000-07:00

Colbert's chutzpah created colossal cosmonaut calamity.

In the spirit of modern brand engagement, NASA decided to invite people to vote for the name of a new room in its space station. Crowdsourcing is in vogue because soliciting participation encourages involvement and belonging (hence enhanced attachment). It's also part of a wider democratization, a trend fueled by the internet and social media in which people participate in brands rather than them being formally planned and imposed by anointed architects.

It comes with risks however, as NASA discovered. Its failure to stipulate that choices were only among those listed gave Colbert the latitude to encourage his devoted followers to write-in HIS name, which thousands duly did.

In an additional failure to understand the cultural climate in which it exists, NASA has announced that it reserves the right not to adopt the winning name and select an alternative. Asking people for their opinion and then not listening to it is a sure-fire way to evoke a backlash. Better not to be involved than actively ignored. One hopes that NASA will come to their senses and that next time it will frame participation in a way that avoids unanticipated - and in this instance unwelcome - contributions.

A Straight Line That's A Curve? Hyperbolic But True.

2009-03-28T20:15:00.000-07:00

It sounds either impossible or something which only lives in the realm of the fantastical, such as that distant and murky realm of Quantum Mechanics in which matter can purportedly exist in two places at the same time.

OFD has found that however impossible problems appear to be or daunting challenges might seem, progress and solutions can often come in a surprisingly simple way: from seeing things from a different perspective.

We sought this ourselves recently, and did what we compel our clients to do on occasion: step away from the problem - and the office - and go seek some inspiration where it matters. For the nature of our problem, we went to The Exploratorium, a brilliant laboratory of ideas which encourages interactivity and literal hands-on learning.

How can something straight fit into a curve?

It was one of the provocative riddles we encountered on an entertaining and thoroughly inspiring field trip.

The answer was simple, with a new perspective. A line rotated in the right plane makes a hyperbolic curve. The hands-on exhibit allowed the viewer to manipulate a steel rod literally through a curve in a piece of plexiglass. The visual evidence was irrefutable yet mind-bending nonetheless.

When is an idea not an idea?

2009-03-28T19:04:00.000-07:00

The image is instantly recognizable for its place in the recent election campaign. Its existence is a testament to the success the democratic party achieved in conscripting influencers to support its cause, such as the artist Shepard Fairey.

Now, it's not without controversy. According to a recent piece in The Guardian, the AP is taking legal action, claiming that the artist stole its image and used it without permission.

Of course, this is not the first time that allegations of copyright infringement have surfaced, nor also in high-profile circumstances. But it raises an interesting question:

When is an idea not an idea? Put an other way, how much change is needed to an original for it to become a different idea?

We think Fairey's cause will be helped by the fact the style that defines the piece has fueled a populist movement, one in which people convert images of themselves into this distinctive graphic form. (Obamiconme). These have been appearing all over the internet, including being used as personal icons in social media venues such as facebook.

That suggests an idea of its own merit to the legal lay people here at Open Fridge Door.

Giving Digital Music that Warm Vinyl Feel in the Age of The Internet - Part II

2009-03-14T21:34:00.000-07:00

We posted a curious find on October 15th last year, one that stirred some unexpected nostalgia.

We've brought it back because it seems that original link to the video has been shut-down. Someone at You Tube determined there was a copyright issue. This is strange indeed for if anything the video provided exposure for an artist (for free). The evidently rough sound of the album recorded through a poor quality video camera wouldn't discourage people from buying the music. The quality really is quite bad. (For decades, The Grateful Dead allowed bootlegs precisely because they helped fuel interest in album sales.)

But You Tube demonstrate short-sightedness in another regard. Instead of trying to 'silence' people sharing music, why not incorporate a seamless way for that music to be bought and downloaded? Why not convert awareness and interest immediately into purchase? Why not have functionality built into the site or linked to iTunes? A great missed opportunity indeed.

As a tribute to the age of vinyl here's another example, created by someone inspired to copy the originator of this nostalgia inducing experience.

There's something oddly fascinating about seeing an album turn on a record player while the song plays. Millions of teenagers spent hours doing exactly this, camped out on a bedroom floor scrutinizing the liner notes while the record spun mesmerizingly. How times have changed.

But in addition to the warmer sound that is attributed to vinyl, it was also a time in which where the music was stored and how it was being retrieved was there in full view, something that with cds, iPods and dvd is hidden as a matter of course.

The Opportunity for Brands in a Time of Adversity

2009-03-14T15:55:00.000-07:00

The adversity felt right now is a collective squeeze, a nation tightening its proverbial belt in a reaction (if not anticipation) of a greater need for frugality. Many companies are experiencing softening sales.

We at OFD think that for certain brands, a time of adversity is an opportunity. It's a chance for brands to strengthen relationships with existing customers, but perhaps the biggest upside comes in inspiring a connection and bond among people currently outside the brand fold. Doing so the right way can stabilize sales and reverse a downward trend, instead of a purely tactic response of price discounting, which can erode the brand's perceived value not to mention profits.

The cultural context
This is a zeitgeist moment. On a mass scale people are struggling financially and psychologically with extended uncertainty; the road through the turmoil is unclear and people have braced themselves for a tough journey ahead.

The brand connection opportunity
Brands can inspire a bond by going beyond mere empathy for how the current climate is affecting people and instead take actions that show genuine understanding and commitment to help.

The idea: Fuel For Everyday Life
Be a champion of the people in their pursuit of moving forward by being the fuel that energizes people and feeds their need to keep going....for getting through their day/week.

The action
Something as simple as a message about the importance of fueling one's day in conjunction with distributing samples at unemployment lines, malls where busy mom shop or to commuters as they file in to work in the morning, could help to give contemporary relevance to products in a context broader than the typical ones these brands are associated with.

The point
Just as adversity builds character, so a brand's character can be built when inspiring a valued connection during a time of adversity.

Using a Little Visual Wit to Help an Idea Stick

2009-03-12T17:04:00.000-07:00

We're bombarded daily with communications imploring us to recycle, to think of the consequences of our actions. These messages have been long overdue, but many of them are being tuned out simply because they are becoming too commonplace.

It is a challenge many companies and their brands face. In the 'noise' or 'clutter' of advertising and promotional appeals, being noticed at all is harder than ever. It was Mae West who famously intoned "It is better to be look-over than over-looked" when asked if she minded being gawped at. Many brands should be so lucky.

So this charming piece of communication stood out effortlessly in a sea of sameness. Here, visual design and a little wit have been imaginatively employed to get the message across without getting in the way. And that's the trick. Not 'design' for its own sake (all too common too is seems these days) but one which inspires the reader to linger and - importantly - take something away that will be remembered.

The Other Thing That Tourists Leave Behind

2009-03-12T16:57:00.000-07:00

Tourists to San Francisco arrive in great number, a reverse diaspora of different cultures converging upon our own. The currency they bring remains after they are gone but there's something else similarly valuable which they leave behind if we're lucky enough to notice - a fresh perspective on the city we live in, one whose familiarity often makes us blind to some of its fine features, character and vitality.

The opportunity is quite literally everywhere around us and comes from that ubiquitous, indispensable accessory of well-equipped travelers. In their act of lifting up cameras - or often these days it seems, phones - to a scene or landmark they want to capture for a memory, so too our own perspectives are raised, and we have the fleeting chance to glimpse our environs in a new way, through the eyes of an outsider.

The beautiful fantasy of revisionist history

2009-01-15T21:43:00.000-08:00

Of course, it was never really like this.

And of course it absolutely doesn't matter. Because our senses our delighted at the imagined world back in 1984 when Virgin Atlantic started flying translatlantically.

It's a faithful (if not tongue in-cheek) capture of London life, full of subtle observations about technology (look at the brick-sized cell phone) the economy (miners' strike) entertainment culture (Asteroids arcade games, rubik's cube, a Big Country album) and how utterly colorless flying was back then (and still is in many regards).

There are definitely hints of Addicted to Love in the stunning collection of Flight Attendants, though here wearing the corporate red rather than the black of the Robert Palmer video.

Thank you to Virgin (and RCKR/Y&R) for this delightful piece of fantasy that does it's job in style.

How To Give Digital Music that Warm Vinyl Feel in the Age of The Internet

2008-10-15T00:53:00.000-07:00

This is compulsive viewing.

If you're born after 1975 you can go back to somnambulence. Those born before may experience a strange yet familiar stirring from this mesmerizing video. It might be nostalgia, not for a sound quality that was generally far inferior to cd and mp3 era music, but for the ritual of sitting down, for that first listen, the disk spinning endlessly as we devoured the liner notes and artwork. People don't listen to music this way anymore.

Thanks to bridgebolt for making it possible, and bringing back a piece of the past which had been too easily forgotten.

A True Maverick in the Face of Pretenders

2008-10-15T00:45:00.000-07:00

Mr Hirst is nothing if not contravertial. But he must be admired for the recent auction of his work, a gutsy move on several fronts:

* He was offering work for sale for the first time (unlike galleries which only sells work that had sold before) The lots falling under the hammer at the September 5th auction lacked a historically confirmed valuation, which could have put his reputation at risk, moreso because of the intense publicity surrounding the event.

* Unlike the safe harbor of a gallery, the price of work can't be controlled when sold at auction (a reserve notwithstanding); the market determines the price and this can be uncertain, particularly for works that have not sold before.

* Selling a moderate number of lots helps to keep the price higher as supply is restricted. Hirst bucked the wisdom by offering a vast number of lots at one time which risked depressing the price (though this did not happen)

* The biggest convention he overturned however is the idea that an original work is produced at the hand of the artist. He employs more than 180 people in operations that amount to factories, assembly line in style, which produce works that Mr. Hirst approves, sometime from no more than a photograph. The result is a prolific scale of art for sale that is unmatched by other artists but not by his ambition and ravenous appetite for success.

Daniel Hirst can certainly be seen as an agent provocateur today, not just through his art but by how he goes to market. Has he always been like this?

We suspect that his mum may have the answer. She can shed light on whether pushing boundaries and hot buttons simply because they are there is a relatively recent development or whether it had early stirrings from the time he was lad.

Should I stay or should I go?

2008-10-15T00:26:00.000-07:00

It's fine for a 1980s era Clash song of the same name but not for a sign that's meant to help to navigate safe passage across the street.

The display somehow manages to overcome its binary wiring, showing two different commands simultaneously.

The result it confusion and hopefully immobility on the part of the casual observer, at least before resorting to the a prudent back-up of glancing both ways along the street.

We've commented on confusing signs recently. This fine example was encountered recently on the streets of lower Manhattan, NY.

Eccentricity Goes Mainstream

2008-10-07T18:03:00.000-07:00

How times change.

It used to be that wearing anything that did not match - particularly something worn as part of a pair, such as shoes or socks - was considered at best odd and usually, far worse, as eccentric.

What used to be viewed with suspicion and lurked at the fringes of pop culture has now been brought into the mainstream.

Little Mismatched offers a line of, well, mismatched footwear and clothing and in doing so seeks to convert a behavior that had conferred the unwelcomed status of social pariah into a desirable one of confident self-expression. With appeals such as 'How mismatched are you?' the brand seeks to competitively incite the prospective buyer with a dare.

It's a great example of how mass marketers seek inspiration from the margins to mine new commercial opportunity.

An Accident Waiting to Happen

2008-10-07T17:12:00.000-07:00

The headline in the ad plays to a persistent perception: insurance is a necessarily evil most people feel they'd rather live without. Promoting a claim to the contrary is going to do little on its own to improve that situation.

It seems harmless enough. An insurance company 'selling the category' without any evidence as to why the viewer should believe this advertiser"s claim over any other company.

But more damage will materialize over time. Why? The industry continues to raise expectations - with messages such as these - while failing to deliver on them.

If that sounds like a harsh assessment, one has to look no further than the average insurance policy against the background of chatter about insurance companies on many blogs and in chat rooms.

The reason why dissatisfaction and distrust are so pervasive in this category is because when it comes to claim time, most policyholders do not get what they feel they should be entitled to.

We at OFD think there are two contributory factors:

1) People don't really understand the full extent of the policy they have bought. Such policies are notoriously difficult to decipher (look no further than the length and language of your car insurance policy). The result is that many people only come to realize the nature of exclusions and deductibles once they are at claim time, when such discoveries are too late.

2) The pervasive imbalance of power between policyholders and insurance companies is magnified at claim time. Insurance companies hold all the cards: they make a determination which is imposed on the policyholder, who has no redress nor ability for arbitration. This fuels the perception of a lack of fairness and a feeling of inequity that's not hard to find on the internet, the legion of stories of people feeling literally cheated by the unequal relationship.

There are opportunities for the taking in this category. We're not suggesting that insurance companies open themselves up to arbitration necessarily (that would be a bold move indeed). But we do believe that the existence of such an unequal relationship - both in understanding of terms and in settlement mechanics - represents space for an enterprising brand to forge greater differentiation in this otherwise highly commoditized category.

Endowment Effect

2008-09-18T19:37:00.000-07:00

This comes from a fascinating article in the June 21st issue of The Economist about what drives attachment.

Simply put, endowment effect suggests that once someone owns something he places a higher value on it than he did when he acquired it.

In a ingenious experiment, students were reluctant to trade a coffee mug for a bar of chocolate even though they did not prefer mugs to chocolate when given a straight choice between the two.

The experiment was repeated with primates with similar results. When presented with a choice, 60% of chimps preferred peanut butter to frozen juice bars. However, when they were endowed with peanut butter, 80% of them chose to keep it instead of exchanging it for fruit bars.

Our evolutionary past may explain it. Giving things up, even when an apparently fair exchange seems to be on offer, was just too risky. These days there are contracts, rights and other ways of enforcing bargains. Animal societies have none of these mechanisms.

In a brain scanning study carried out recently (using functional MRIs) the pattern and location of activity observed suggests the endowment effect works by enhancing the salience of loss. If this is true, it suggests that a shrewd tendency persists even though we have evolved our culture and environment to where we no longer need to rely on it.

I can only imagine the searches that this posting will turn up in elsewhere, given the title it has, no doubt of disappointment to most readers.

An Age of Insecurity and Opportunity

2008-09-17T16:55:00.000-07:00

When it comes to brands making statements about us, there are a couple of ways to interpret them.

The first is that they serve as nothing more that confirmation; of something we already know and believe.

At OFD we take a different anthropological interpretation.

Such statements are valued precisely because we don't ourselves believe them and being confronted with the idea gives us a permission to believe that we can't find our way to on our own.

Navigating the duty free area that one literally cannot avoid after clearing security at CDG airport in Paris, we encountered this fine specimen:

At first glance, it seems faintly absurd and rather arrogant that a brand - any brand - would be so presumptuous to tell us we are unique. How can a brand know us after all? On the other hand, it is precisely because so many people don't feel special that being told we are is so appreciated. Affirming our worth makes us feel good and makes us feel warm and fuzzy about what is showering us with affection, in this case a brand called Magnifique.

L'Oreal has gone as far actually referring to worth in the platitude is directs to women: Because You're Worth It.

While insecurity is bad for people it is, in a sense, good for marketers for it creates an urgent, self-directed need for resolution across a number of aspects of people's lives and how they define themselves. The needs are not latent, rather they are very pressing because they are concerned with issues that matter to us a great deal: whether we are successful, whether we are beautiful or handsome, whether we are good parents or not, to name a few.

The Inevitable Chatter About AIG: Part Two

2008-09-17T16:29:00.001-07:00

This served up by Ad Age today, affirming that blogs and other on-line content are indeed not favorable to AIG, in part due to the company continuing to promote its strength at a time when in was in question.

The Inevitable Chatter About AIG

2008-09-17T12:18:00.000-07:00

AIG has been touting its strength for a long time. It's not surprising that the web is alight with the irony of AIG's bail out by the Fed. The Consumerist is only one site enjoying that reckoning that AIG is facing, whose commercials seem shockingly brazen given this recent news.

AIG is not alone. There are plenty of corporations that play a dangerous game indeed; their Houses NOT in order they continue to shape perceptions in a wholly different manner, oblivious - or arrogant - to the new consequences of the transparent age in we which we live, with the surfacing of inconsistencies that will emerge through fuller, freer distribution of information.

We have William Caxton to thank in 1476 for the first major revolution in free-thought. He developed the printing press which allowed the spread of ideas in written form, which expanded discussion and conjecture and the quality of thinking with it.

We have the internet (at least web 2.0's incarnation) to thank for further dramatically shifting control of debate and distribution of ideas out of the hands of 'producers' to ordinary people.

Klimpton: hotel as playground for adult fun

2008-08-25T21:37:00.000-07:00

Why should the folks at the W have all the fun?

An in-room closet hanger recently suggested guests unleash their 'wild side'; to put on the robes - a wrap for men and a camisole for the ladies - and follow their instincts.

Permission to play is an inventing part of Kimpton's suggestive selling. There's a time and place for adults to step outside of the boundaries of what they know and experience something new. They might even learn something about themselves in the process.

If couples leave with that kind of experience, the memory must certainly halo back to the brand. Not a bad accomplishment in mid-priced hotels segment offering a mostly undifferentiated fare.

Running towards what you should be avoiding

2008-08-25T21:15:00.000-07:00

So this is a mighty confusing sign. And one with potentially fatal consequences.

Imagine for a moment you can't read English.

What does the image suggest to you?

The reasonable take-away is that one should AVOID the stairs in a fire. It suggests that it will bring you closer to the very thing that you should be running away from.

The opposite interpretation is of course intended: that the elevator should be avoided and the stairs used in this kind of situation.

All of which goes to show it matters where you put the flames. Would it have been that hard to put them over the shoulder of our universally recognized stick figure?

An attempt to encourage virtuous behavior backfires

2008-08-25T18:42:00.001-07:00

An ad on the side of the Muni subway in San Francisco. It seeks to create a little more social harmony by giving people a reason why they should be nice, in this instance, road users being more courteous to each others.

It seems reasonable. Give as good as you get. A cosmic harmony of goodwill will be returned. But that's precisely the flaw. It creates an unsustainable expectation. If we are encouraged to behave in a specific way from a literal expectation of reciprocity, then when it doesn't happen the behavior will collapse.

The strategically smarter approach would have been to create value that's not so literally dependent on other people's cooperation.

The Liberty Mutual Campaign in a case in point. (Let's put aside the issue of how feasible it is for an insurance company to build its business on a platform of responsibility when the underlying format of a policy and the claim resolution experience are destined to violate it and therefore dash expectations it has helped create.) If this kind of approach had been leveraged for 'social issue' communication, we at OFD think it would have been more compelling.

The premise of the Liberty Mutual commercial is of people doing some small act of good for the sake of it, which happens to be seen and inspires people to copy, in a 'Pay It Forward' kind of way. Enacting the behavior does not require reciprocity. The motivation to give comes from an acknowledgment and understanding of life's interdependency, one in which we might not be aware of how the connections are made, but taps into the truth that they are, and that it benefits us. So it gracefully dodges the flat-footed rationality of literal reciprocity which the 'social issue' communication is rooted in and which trips it up.

Message perfectly fits the medium: Part Two

2008-08-25T18:40:00.000-07:00

Jet Blue telling people not to fly?

Has the brand gone mad?

It has not. It's an example of great placement, the nature of which contributes to the message and compels engagement. Positioned by the side of the road - where traffic is destined to fly by - provides a counter-point against which the communication works even harder.

It's part of Jet's Blue marketing campaign to create an aspirational identity for people who use the brand. These passengers don't fly. They have more traveling discretion, for they are jetting. The merits of the strategy aside, this is delightful placement indeed.

Message perfectly fits the medium: Part One

2008-08-25T18:37:00.000-07:00

There is something inherently alternative about wildpostings. The term “guerrilla’ is applied to this medium after all.

So it made our OFD culture spotter smile to see this communication recently during the Olympics.

It features a man hurling an incendiary device at some unknown destination, housed in what very much looks like a coke bottle. The sporting apparel he wears bears the Nike logo suggests he’s an athlete, one which resemblance discus throwing from a distance.

Nike is known for its guerrilla marketing at sports events whose sponsorship it is locked out of. But this must sure be parody, a brand hijacking one presumes.

Couched as chocolate

2008-08-25T18:33:00.000-07:00

What a visual treat this outdoor board delivers.

Who would have thought that associations from these two categories could be combined so effectively? There is something succulent and tantalizing about the way the couch is half wrapped, suggesting a thrill in the reveal.

Removing packaging is a sensual part of consuming the product. Several companies understand this. Apple in its superbly crafted boxes that laptops are packed in. GM puts a ribbon over the handle of its used cars so the buyer must break the seal before getting in.

Perhaps this furniture brand could benefit from such thinking and enhance the consumption experience of its product before it's even sat upon.

Good Design: When Packaging is The Product

2008-07-10T12:35:00.000-07:00

The problem with much packaging is that it is designed to become obsolete: it often ceases to be useful beyond getting the product home. This is particularly true of furniture and lighting.

This idea is debunked by Light2Go. The packaging is fundamentally part of the lighting device.

The packaging that houses all the contents.....

......becomes the external shade when used as a hanging lamp and as an internal structure when used in the desk lamp configuration, shown here.

The result is reduced waste. The 'life' of the package is long - as long as the lamp is being used. Now that's good responsible design.

It was bought at the gift shop at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, which we at OFD think is quite apt. After all, anything that subverts and overcomes the limitations inherent in traditional design thinking, without compromising form or function is art indeed.

Use another brand's colors at your peril

2008-05-30T18:57:00.000-07:00

Quick! What company is promoting its breakfast fare?

If you thought the Golden Arches, it's understandable.

After all, McDonalds is associated probably more than any other brand with breakfast eaten out of the home or on-the-go. It's not come free: they've spent millions of dollars to establish themselves in pole position in this regard, in the minds of people who eat there as well as those who don't, such is the scale of McDonalds relentless promotion and ubiquitous retail presence.

The Red, Yellow and White colors are also a key part of the permanent repertoire of associations that are tied to the brand.

All of which makes it odd indeed that a relative minnow of a player - Jamba Juice - should use these colors in the branding of its own breakfast offering.

True, the white strip on the right-hand side promotes Jamba Juice as the owner of this message, but it occupyies only 1/4 of the entire advertising space. We believe that the large red block is so dominating that it is likely to be processed as a separate unit, and so mis-attributed as a McDonald's communication.

We're also left wondering why Jamba Juice doesn't sharpen the distinctiveness of its breakfast offering compared with the burger and biscuit behemoth. After all, this is a time when people are more aware of the health consequences of eating than ever before.

The climate is ripe for Jamba Juice to promote its unique take on breakfast, with fruit and a blender being key elements to 'brand' this healthier approach. Instead we get these items visually with nothing more than a perfunctory promotion that 'new breakfasts meals are here.'

A missed opportunity in our book. Or perhaps, a nervous David afraid to pick up a gauntlet against a category Goliath.

A strategy of direct contrast against a well-known entrenched competitor can be highly successful. It worked for Veryfine beverages back in the late 80s when they positioned their 100% juices against sodas (at a time before the explosion of Snapple, Sobe, Nantucket Nectars and Arizona Ice tea on to the market).

One simple yet memorable ad featured a Pepsi can next to a Veryfine bottle.

'Gas' it read under the Pepsi container, 'Guzzler' underneath Veryfine's.

The point was telegraphed. There's only such much soda you can sup without feeling full of gas. But a beverage without the carbonation? You can drink as much as you want to quench a thirst.

For litigious-fearful among you, the Veryfine brand - largely unheard of at the time - got tremendous credit for the boldness and courage it displayed in challenging a giant. Something that replacing the Pepsi can with an air-brushed generic soda can would not have inspired.

As a brand, if you are a David facing a Goliath, act like it. You have a legion of devotees waiting to believe in your cause if you authentically embrace it instead of hiding in the shadows.

Branding inspiration on the streets of San Francisco

2008-05-30T16:29:00.000-07:00

OFD believes that inspiration is so important to keeping the color and creativity. In work. In life. Whatever the context or relationship.

But it's also something of a riddle. It is hard to find inspiration by looking for it. It is as if the act of searching itself contributes to its elusive.

The solution of course is NOT to look, and instead focus the mind; create a state of passive alertness so that the sub-conscious picks up and notices the very elements in the surroundings that one cannot find by deliberately searching.

A case in point: The Mechanics Institute. Who would have thought that it would provide such sound advice for an aspiration that many brands would do well to strive for?

The plaque outside the organization's premises on Post Street east of Stockton begins with a simple statement of purpose:

'The diffusion of knowledge at the least possible expense to the seeker'

We live in an age when people value actions from brands over words, utility over endless preaching.

Brands that get it are those that realize there are many facets to this value-minded consumer, including delivering relevant content that's been digested, and framed to be easy to assimilate and delivers real utility to the recipient. Not information, but knowledge.

Think about your brand's website, its retail environment, your marketing communications.

How much work and effort does a prospect have to expend for the privilege of engaging with your brand?

Is 'entertainment value' strategically minded or a tactic that actually distracts from a more pressing need to deliver utility quickly, effectively and colorfully?

The credo of The Mechanics Institutes is good brand advice indeed to keep at hand.

Inspiration found in an unlikely place while not being sought.

And that's kind of the point.

Parody display: ostentation is in the rip

2008-05-27T21:59:00.001-07:00

Parody display is an odd phenomenon. At its heart lies an expensive imitation of less fortunate living.

As a fashion statement, torn jeans are one example of a parody expression which first emerged in the 1990's. Celebrities like Lindsay Lohan and other pop culture influencers of the mass market adopt them precisely because they are in contradiction with their own wealth and success.

It costs more to buy these jeans torn than un-ripped (much to the consternation of parents everywhere placating their children's demands for the latest 'in' thing). It is an indulgence of the affluent.

The idea that something worn - damaged even - is worth more than something new is itself not new.

In Elizabethan England, patina - the worn marks that accumulate on a prized object - had status conferring significance. In becoming minutely dented, chipped, oxidized and worn from use over time, the physical property of patina took on a symbolic property: the accumulation of physical flaws suggested the object had been in the owner's possession for some time, implying longevity to the wealth being displayed and that the family was no newcomer to its present social standing. (McCracken 1990)

We encountered a new medium for parody display recently:

Why not furniture? Duct-tape is a universal measure to fix and patch up almost anything that's ripped, torn or broken. Leveraging this association as a purposeful design element in furniture is classic parody display. No one would so willing put it on display unless it carried different expressive value.

Great Branding: helping people connect with the intangible PART THREE

2008-05-22T21:07:00.001-07:00

We've covered this topic from a couple of angles.

Verizon Wireless using a spokesperson who leads a workforce army to embody the network and comprehensive coverage ("Can you hear me now? Good.")

Staples creating customer value and perceived differentiation through the use of the Easy Button device.

As we move on to cover other aspects of effective branding practice, we close this chapter with a classic example, courtesy of Crispin Porter + Bogusky.

In terms of execution, the genius behind their work in 2005 for the Anti-smoking Lobby was in how it took disturbing aspects of smoking that people had become inured to and made it tangible.

Everyone knows that tobacco causes cancer. Everyone knows that people who smoke die. The problem was that no one had found a disruptive way to make it accessible to the people that matter most: teenagers that are in a crucial experimental, proving themselves phase of life who are developing habits.

1200 people a day die from smoking related issues. This number too though is abstract. It's the equivalent of about four jumbo jets crashing, but this does not bring home the horror of the scale.

Body bags are an highly charged image, infused with emotion in our culture. They are not a common sight yet are highly familiar, from media coverage of soldiers killed at war being returned home as well as domestic tragedies like traffic accidents.

By using body bags - the sight and sheer number of them - CP+B put the issue on lips of the very people they were seeking to influence.

Behind the exeuctional brilliance though, was some terrific strategic work without which the great work wouldn't have happened.

The WHAT
The very authoritarian `Don't smoke,' message of past anti-tobacco ads backfired because young people tend to do exactly what they are told not to.

The WHY
Smoking is not about cigarettes, but about rebellion. Kids know smoking is something their parents prefer they wouldn't do, so a cigarette is the ultimate statement of
autonomy - `I'm willing to put my life in jeopardy.'

The HOW
Kids need a common enemy, and kids hate more than anything to be lied to, and hate to be manipulated." The "truth" campaign did just that, telling teenagers that if they smoke, they're playing into the hands of Big Tobacco.

Culture is an adaptive organism.

2008-05-22T18:25:00.000-07:00

We're fascinated at OFD by the organic nature of popular culture and the ability for ideas to be taken, re-appropriated and turned into something new and different from the original intension.

Take the Live strong bracelet.

It started as an idea to raise money for the Lance Armstrong Foundation and quickly became a badge for people who wanted to show their allegiance with the Live Strong philosophy of life. It became a cultural touchstone and was imitated by a variety of charities to promote their own causes.

In perhaps the most bizarre adaptation, it was appropriated in China into candy (confectionery) as a medium for delivering messages.

Now take the twisted ribbon.

It started out life being an emblem for Hope For The Cure in support of cancer. Now, the shape has become a loose canvas on which a whole variety of themes and beliefs are sketched.

Gotta love cultural appropriation, an endless shifting sand. There's hope in the tendency, and maybe a little opportunistic money to be made too.

One of these things is not like the others

2008-05-21T16:34:00.000-07:00

How times have changed.

Slowly but certainly, the need for things to match in how we express ourselves has shifted.

This is no small feat. The matching mindset has dominated for several decades across a variety of milieu in mainstream culture, from fashion and furniture to home furnishings. A table set with unmatching napkins and napkins rings upon unmatching placemats would have been unthinkable in our parents' generation, but now it is all the rage.

It's not just growing up with GrrAnimals that has conditioned people to adopt this way of patterning. Many evolutionary biologists believe our brains are wired to seek out sameness in the world around us, as something unfamiliar represents a potential threat. So too with symmetry: a better procreation partner is one without noticeable deviations from a symmetric norm (genetic abnormalities do not bode well).

There are also consumer behavior advantages to a bias for matching. It simplifies the purchasing process because an entire set can be confidently bought with relative ease. The ownership experience is also helped: there isn't going to be criticism from friends or acquaintances about incongruent elements because there are none - though the overall style itself may be disliked.

The reliance on the uniformity of matching comes from a lack of confidence and time. When we curate our own expression of style we inherently take a risk, exposing us to the possibility of criticism or ridicule because we dare to deviate from the safety of
ordained choices.

It was thus encouraging to see the trend of departing from sameness on show at ABC home furnishings in NYC this past weekend.

In a variety of living room settings, there was clearly one chair which in no way matched any of the others. In fact, so much did the chair not fit the color scheme of the rest that it seemed deliberately chosen, a suggestion that standing out by not fitting in has virtues.

The more observant will have noticed that the inclusion of beige colored cushions on the couch provides a connective thread that ensures the mis-matched chair is interpreted as planned and not an accident. The same tactic is used on the top photo with blue cushions. True, this takes away from what would be a much bolder statement - a chair that is completely orphaned. But it's something.

Appreciation for good design has gone through a similar evolution (and emancipation one could argue) over the last 5 years. Design aesthetics have filtered down and entered mainstream consumption thanks in large part to companies like Target that have made it an explicit part of their messaging and implicitly reflected in their merchandising.

So what brand will it be that takes a leadership role in helping mass consumers develop their curatorial capabilities and give them the confidence to abandon the blandness of matching for the bolder expression of their own richer, more eclectic style?

Jet Blue riffs on Virgin to give its brand some sparkle

2008-05-21T00:57:00.000-07:00

Jet blue are trying to create some cache for their brand. You can't blame them. The Low Cost Carrier market has really heated up recently. It's more than soaring oil prices eroding profitability: new competition has arrived in the form of Virgin America, which offers a great branded entertainment experience that flies between SFO, LAX and Las Vegas to name a few West coast cities.

It seems a bit cheeky therefore that Jet Blue have copied an approach that Virgin Airways took a few years back. In August 2005 Branson's airline introduced the world to a new type of jetsetter, the Jetrosexual (a thinly veiled reference to the then recently defined demo/psychographic - the metrosexual). Virgin defined this group as "globe- leaders among "a new emerging business culture" who are "rock stars of their industry...those who "leave the terra firma behind each day to move business and culture forward.""

Jet Blue has now introduced 'Jetting'. What was once the province of an upwardly mobile jet set has been recast for the mass-market. It comes with leather seats, and award winning customer service which, in a distinctly democractic twist more indicative of Southwest, is available "for everyone".

It remains to be seen how effective it will be given the vastly better planes, human touch and service of Virgin America.

Value in promoting values in a time of disruption

2008-05-20T21:55:00.000-07:00

A good brand is nothing if not a clear and compelling point of view. Crafted correctly it is a compass, one which helps people more easily navigate the category in which the brand belongs and gives it a lift above the fray.

Why does a point of view matter?

A point of view is a reflection of a value or belief. People generally are motivated to form relationships and bonds with things that share not violate the values and beliefs they hold. When a brand extols a point of view directly and clearly it helps attract people who are like-minded and like-hearted.

It also has the advantage of feeling rather noble. It is devoid of any obvious commercial motivation, such as the promotion of a capability, product or price. It inherently feels more earnest which is why people let their guard down and are prepared to suspend if not disbelief then hard-edged skepticism.

The greater presence of brands engaging in point of view advocacy is the result of a widening appreciation of its value. In a previous era (Middle ages thinking) such communication was considered 'soft' because it was removed for direct impact on purchase drivers. But enlightenment has arrived. Marketers now realize that when done well it helps establish authenticity in the minds of prospects and consumers alike because the brand is issuing a forceful opinion behind which it is perceived to stand. It's not like the accountability of measurement has lessened - for attitudinal shifts in brand considerations and likeability are important dimensions of a brand relationship to see progress along - rather that the value of these shifts has increased in line with an evolved understanding of consumer psychology.

It's action even a construction company can get in on. Some enlightened soul at Nibbi Brothers General Contracting saw the need to reshape perceptions at a time that might otherwise be associated with disruption, noise and dirt. While the firm touts itself as being "In the tradition of Old World Craftsmanship" there's nothing Old World about it's brand management. Promoting its point of view about what it takes to be a good citizen and positioning its business of building as one that participates in it is not just opportunistic, it's inspired.

Knock-offs with style

2008-05-20T01:08:00.000-07:00

You expect to see counterfeit merchandise in New York City. They are a presence on every street that a tourist is likely to set foot upon and the variety of vendors is almost as varied as the goods for sale.

On a recent Saturday morning, Sixth Avenue was shut down and a selection of stalls and concessions stands were lined in an orderly fashion along either side of the street. There among them was a cathedral to counterfeiting, a purveyor of the finest knock-offs proudly promoting its wares.

Why be bashful? Rather than pretending to be something other than it is, embracing the true nature of its business actually bestows a sense of authenticity. The dose of irony is welcomed at the very least.

There are few other brands that could fare better by facing their true selves and getting more favor from shoppers as a result.

Creative Disruption: Putting a foot in the door of the mind

2008-05-11T23:01:00.000-07:00

Though incredibly advanced in scope and scale, the brain is a patterning machine at its core.

This structuring activity is submerged in our subconscious most of the time. Nonetheless it manifests itself through our behavior across all areas of our life. Marketers have to work with rather than against this tendency to achieve their goals.

If a marketer wants to promote trial of its brand which is not a part of a group's consumption pattern it has to provide some inspiration to disrupt the existing behavioral and relationship order.

How does it do it?

Providing a fresh perspective - a new way of looking at things - stimulates the mind to engage and reconsider. It requires understanding the psychology of people and consumption.

Take this outdoor advertising for Purely Decadent

It could have promoted taste, but many other brands have used taste so this is not new.

It could have promoted a unique flavor, but it does not have ones so unique as to be new.

What will disrupt? Challenging the accepted relationship between ice cream and cone.

The idea of an ice cream serving so large that the cone is barely visible suggests a new possibility: that ice cream can be consumed on a scale previously unthinkable Supporting copy explains what makes it possible: "Dairy free, cholesterol free and available or mass consumption". It concludes with the suggestive invitation "Indulge".

The visual telegraphs this disruptive relationship simply and directly. The image is arresting precisely because it is so unusual. In doing so, a door in the mind has been opened and the brand has successfully stuck its foot in it.

Great branding: helping people connect with valued but intangible benefits PART TWO

2008-05-11T19:01:00.000-07:00

SITUATION
Staples had nothing to differentiate itself in the business supplies category. Office Max and Office Depot offer the same brands at similar prices.

CHALLENGE
Find some aspect of value relevant with consumers that would reposition Staples as a better choice.

SOLUTION
Visual: The Easy button icon promoted simplicity, convenience and a hassle-free experience in a fun way.

RESULT
Staples has created a compelling basis for differentiating by making formally intangible qualities visible.

The button device was so highly appealing that its popularity extended far beyond what was expected. Over 1,000,000 were made bought and it passed into popular culture, inspiring extensions and imitations.

Great branding: helping people connect with valued but intangible benefits

2008-05-10T18:15:00.000-07:00

Brand stewardship is an exercise in managing people’s relationship with meaning. But a brand should also be considered an agent for helping connect people with value. It's one of our core activities in the work we do for Clients here at OFD.

Value of course involves far more than price: it’s all the other benefits that consumers derive from consuming a product or service – and not just in a functional or physical sense. Psychological rewards are a key part of the unconscious value assessment that people carry around in the heads and which draws them towards brands or pulls them away.

By recognized that a key element of consumer value had gone unowned in its category, Verizon improved brand differentiation and leadership significantly.

Verizon Wirelesss

SITUATION
Coverage is a big issue with cell phone users. Poor quality reception disrupts a conversation, causing frustration.

For years cell phone companies have boasted about their coverage, either the reach (national coverage maps) or the quality (like Sprint’s pin drop). It’s become a completely undifferentiated claim and consumers have no way or reason to believe one brand is better than another.

CHALLENGE
The network is an idea that’s invisible and abstract. Consumers hadn’t been connected to it, even though ironically they use it every time they make a call.

CREATIVE INSPIRATION
Root the solution in something from the consumers’ world so they can relate to the network idea better.

SOLUTION
Visual: Use the idea of the Verison workforce as a human embodiment of the network, which literally follows a verizon user around as they go about their day.
This massive group is led by a network 'tester' that roams the country testing signal strength

Aural: “Can you hear me now? Good.” recast a commonly overheard phrase people say when poor reception is hampering a conversation and turns it into positive affirmation of network coverage quality.

RESULT
Verizon's network has powerful tangible benefit to people, by using a distinctive, visual and aural branding device.

A French name adds that je ne sait quoi

2008-05-05T20:30:00.000-07:00

You'd be forgiven if thinking these establishments are in Europe. You'd not only have the wrong continent but the wrong side of the world. They are in Tokyo.

One will encounter relatively modest coffee shops such as these bearing French names but with no evidence of any other connection to that culture.

According to a local there's a clear hierarchy of style in Tokyo.

Way, way at the bottom are US brands.

Above them, reside the Spanish.

Then come the British (thanks to Burberry and Paul Smith)

Above, the Italian's take second place.

In pole position, come the French, envied deeply for their style in clothes and gastronomy.

So when it comes to sizing up places to grab a coffee or bite to eat on the go, one really can't judge a book by its cover.

The Art of Napping in Public

2008-05-05T20:21:00.000-07:00

It happened at tea houses and coffee shops all over Tokyo. People not so much sitting as slumped on the table in front of them.

The casual observer would be forgiven for thinking something had been slipped in their drink. These strangers at rest are so completely cold to the bustling world around them. This site would make the folks at Red Bull smile, and think of this as potential distribution for their high-energy drinks, even when not mixed with spirits.

W hotels: the key to how and why a brand works

2008-04-19T12:03:00.000-07:00

This is a very different climate for brands to compete in. Companies are beginning to realize that consumers are more important for the success of a brand than they ever used to be. Reaching out to people in the traditional way - a controlled message delivered through controlled channels - is processed by people as marketing, which is disconnected from the lives of the very people they are trying to influence.

These companies realize that a brand is no longer a fixed idea to be imposed, the way old-world brand management decreed. A brand is a dynamic entity, an idea that is more powerful and compelling when there is space and room for their users to integrate it into their lives.

Such integration does not come lightly: it is only when people are motivated, not only to engage but to participate. Such participation is vital if brands are to sustain the energy in the lives and minds of people outside of the limited places and times a company can pay for brand communication or promotion.

One might think this task is made easier by the co-creation phenomenon, examples of which can be witnessed all over the web and which is the content engine of Youtube. But look at how little content on Youtube is branded content, and when it is, it's static content that is being distributed virally, not an example of how the brand is integrating into the lives of its audience, other than through an entertainment channel.

The W is a great example of a company that understands how to deepen involvement and integrate the brand more richly into people's lives. While it's primarily a hotel, OFD believes that the heart of its business and W brand is setting the stage for possibilities to occur. The W understands that people value this quality in their lives, and the places they spend time. The more enlightened companies realize it is understanding where people derive value in the context of their individual and social lives that is an effective way to orient and deliver brands encounters for deeper integration.

Setting the stage for unlocking possibilities is an approach that separates the W from all other hotels. Success relies however on the very thing that it cannot control: how people interact. What it can do is shape what can happen through the power of suggestion and curating a supportive environment.

Lobby of the W hotel in Dallas: "What do you see?"

Inviting participation heightens the senses and inspires people to construct their own subjective experience. There is no single reality, we each craft our own version from how we interact with what's around us.

This impressionistic atmosphere has been deliberately cultivated; where there aren't the rules one feels silently in play at other hotels, where the imagination is sparked by what is seen and what is interpreted. It is a beckoning open door, one that ignites a sense of possibility that is at the heart of the brand's distinctive allure.

The Folly of a Financial Circus Comes Home To Roost

2008-03-13T08:44:00.000-07:00

There's no end to the ways in which messages intersect people's lives today. As media and channels proliferate it becomes ever more imperative to reward a passerby's fleeting attention with something that will rise above the fray and engage meaningfully.

A recent promotion from iShares encountered in the back of a taxi fails this test.

Unless used with care, the context of a circus does not pair well business generally and in the financial category specifically, and with good reason: the metaphor suggests a degree of mayhem and disorganization in which flamboyance in appearance and expression is often at the expense of substance.

Does this unexpected context of this new association add anything to our understanding or perception of iShares? We at OFD would venture to conclude not, other than they're expressing a lack of conventionality about something that has little strategic or tactical value.

It is akin to a demolition company sponsoring an art exhibit of sculptures or some other kind of object installation. There is the hint of the absurd lurking in the partnership.

One can imagine the logic that drove this outcome for iShares: find a platform to promote the unconventionality of the brand, one whose venue enables the brand to reach the high net-worth profile of target prospects it wishes to attract. On the surface Cirque seems to make sense. But that's exactly the problem. Like a parody of the metaphor itself, this sponsorship and cross marketing initiative is less substance than style.

If lack of convention is a desired aspect of character the folks at iShares wish to imbue the brand with, there are plenty of potentially more fruitful places for its desired customers to encounter the brand. The right kind of museum or performance art for example. Both provide immersive venues in which a lack of convention has a spirit which better supports a financial enterprise that the idea of a circus.

A Tribute To Breaking Rules

2008-02-27T15:06:00.000-08:00

At Open Fridge Door skylights make us smile.

Part of it is the playfulness of the idea.

Being able to do something indoors that is only usually possible outdoors: looking up at the sky.

In their own way, skylights are testament to breaking rules.

They appeal to the maverick in us. It's what we like to do for our clients.

Challenge conventions with purpose. Break rules to unlock new possibilities and deliver new experiences.

Light fluctuating from dawn to dusk.

Sounds in flux too.

Wind gusting at different speeds.

An occasional bird brave enough to land on the incline.

And the falling rain.

Communications as oedipal destiny

2008-02-26T10:19:00.000-08:00

Poor Oedipus. He was the unfortunate chap destined to encounter the fate he sought to avoid. You have to admire the ancient greeks for their appreciation of irony.

A modern day reenactment was found on the streets of the city by the bay, not by actors but through a visual narrative.

OFD glanced at the message while walking along Van Ness and were were forced to stop. Three plausible interpretations came to mind:

1. The police should watch out for people loitering in the vicinity who shouldn't be

2. It is the police who shouldn't be loitering and they should heed the warning

3. The police were being told to take the sign which warned others not the loiter

As we lingered in a state of confusion about the variety of possible meanings, we realized we were violating its intent. In creating the outcome it sought to avoid, we found a Oedipus alive and well on the streets of San Francisco. Myths are after all timeless.

How Product Advertising Can Build the Brand

2008-02-22T16:07:00.000-08:00

The priorities of many business are clear today. Make the sale today, worry less about the longer-term brand (which is squishy anyhow). It’s understandable. Wall Street requires that companies focus on delivering earnings now. Better to have a bird in the hand.

The folks here at OFD see a missed opportunity. If the priority is promoting product to motivate desire which makes the sale, then an innovative, strategic partner will find a way to ensure this marketing effort is also an investment in the brand.

It is not an easy thing to do, which it presumably why so few companies and their partners are doing it. We at Open Fridge Door think it is a necessity to serving our clients well.

Here’s an example of our work.

Client: United Airlines

Situation: Promote the extra legroom of Economy Plus in the second year after it’s launch.

Assessment:
Launch year work was effective in connecting travelers with the familiar discomfort of being cramped. Our belief was that a greater opportunity lay in connecting them with positive virtues

Our Approach: Look to the brand for inspiration. Its focus was about helping business travelers connect with success, so this became the context in which the product needed to be placed.

Our Insight:
There’s a simple truth that physical space begets mental space. Giving the legs space gives the mind room to breathe – an important benefit that the seasoned traveler understands intimately.

The Work

The Result
It leverages product to promote the brand, instead of missing the opportunity to do so.

For the intended audience, it is simple, engaging work that rewards their attention and respects their intelligence

For the Client, it increases the return on expenditure by ensuring that an investment in product marketing is an investment in the brand.

Conceptual Thinking Faces a Dire End

2008-02-22T15:06:00.000-08:00

The news was troubling indeed, its nature made more ominous by where it appeared. The sign in question literally pointed to a cul-de-sac, a place of no escape from the disturbing proclamation it delivered.

The humble continuum is core to life and human existence. Without it we'd exist in a world of extremes, relentlessly caught in dichotomies. This sign suggested this fate is upon us, at least on Golden Gate Avenue, just west of Leavenworth

Guiness Advertising Campaign: Genius in Message and Medium

2008-02-22T12:02:00.000-08:00

Like any good strategy it seems obvious in hindsight. Not unlike the 'Born from Jets' campaign that Saab ran a year or so ago. When it comes to establishing performance pedigree, what better than to leverage the company's heritage as a manufacturer of fighter planes?

The 'Alive inside' theme seems like it emerged in a place that many of advertising's finest ideas come from: the pub. No doubt in the spirit of some old fashioned but time honored product interrogation (which the creatives unusually suggested) someone noticed that there's a lot of activity when the pint has been poured and it is settling.

This was a good starting point but not enough. The idea needed to be connected to some distinct group which shares a belief or mindset, actual or aspirational. The result pays of well in this example of outdoor advertising for the brand in downtown San Francisco.

The inventiveness of the medium is easily apparent. The kiosk supports the idea of a pint of Guiness perfectly, which is what it seen from a distance.

Closer up, however, the Guiness reveals itself not to contain bubbles but instead to be filled with people holding up cigarette letters as if at a concert.

The viewer is rewarded for closer observation, but it also confirms the positioning intent: Alive Inside is a statement that extols as much about the characteristics and ambition of the Guiness drinker as it does the drink itself

Sound Branding Ideology Found in The Unlikeliest of Places

2008-02-21T09:01:00.000-08:00

A plaque on the side of the civic center in downtown San Francisco commemorates the spirit of strategically-minded industry and its benefit to mankind.

Looked at another way, it provides a welcome if unexpected dose of good branding sense:

Too often vision and action are not in lock-step under the guidance of those responsible for brand development.

Too often, these stewards lack the creative and strategic acumen to define a vision that will galvanize people not only within the company but in the marketplace too. With the relentless focus on this quarter’s results, there is too much of a willingness to give up a vision for a focus on today.

We at OFD believe that the management of the brand cannot be separated from sales. Done correctly, product marketing can actually build the brand. And the branding can trigger sales. All to often does not. The result is less efficiency and erosion in the brand. We shall write more on this soon.

In the meantime, it is good to find inspiration behaving like it should, emerging in the most unlikely of place.

Innovative communications: a façade carries the meaning behind it

2008-02-20T22:42:00.000-08:00

We recently commented on candy as a communications medium. m&ms being edible confectionery carrying a customizable message it’s ideal for bearing valentine’s day sentiments and surely one of the few situations in which eating one’s words is a virtue.

OFD came across another innovative communications medium. Incorporated into the top of a building façade at 214 Van Ness Avenue are a series of large domes that run from left to right. Equality and Independence is what they spell, but it is through Braille not letters that they communicate the core mission of the inhabitants and the visitors they serve.

Lighthouse is an organization for the blind and visually impaired. The name implies a unmistakable presence, in this situation drawing visitors towards it rather than warding them away, which it does in a maritime setting.

The architects Jay and Joel Hendler felt that the building had to live up to the expectations embodied in the Lighthouse idea itself. Their solution was to incorporate it in to the facade itself. They created a design that is as visually iconic as it is symbolic of the organization’s mission and purpose. Now when people think of the company there is a distinctive image that is conjured up in their mind to associate with the institute.

A clever - and distinct - element of visual identity and another example of an innovative communications medium on the streets of San Francisco.

Range Rover’s Ad Campaign Recycles Nissan and Raises The Bar

2008-02-11T09:00:00.000-08:00

Many SUV brands face a challenge. Most drivers won’t use the vehicles for what they were built to do. The vast majority will stay on road rather than venture off.

The trick for marketers is to figure out how to showcase capabilities in a relevant way that heightens appeal despite the fact that most likely won’t ever be used.

One strategy has been to promote a distinct attitude or mindset that aligns with the character of the brand to foster strong affiliation and therefore confirmation desire.

Nissan’s Pathfinder campaign in 2000 was one good example. The SUV’s were featured in a variety of implausible yet possible situations: one ascending a ski slope, another navigating a steeplechase course and a collection of Pathfinders playing polo (rather than horses). “Not that you would but you could” was the rallying cry. It was an inventive solution to exactly the challenges outlined above.

Print copy closed with a similar theme: “…..So, while you may never storm Pikes Peak or own the passing lane in Munich, isn’t it nice to know you could?”

More recently Range Rover does a nice job of using this strategy. It does more than serve up a fresh interpretation. As an SUV distinctly in the premium class, the campaign ensures the prestige and luxury appeals are elegantly delivered.

At rising tide, few of its owners may ever drive to Mont-Saint-Michel – or possibly escape – but as the copy notes, the fortunate ones have the privilege of an extra half an hour for passage. If you listen intently you can almost hear in the wind crossing the flats….not that you would, but you could.

As Boomers redefine death, Visa misses an opportunity

2008-02-10T12:01:00.000-08:00

It might seem absurd but true to their character Boomers are taking on yet another taboo, one might say the ultimate one, and seeking to re-write the rules on their terms. The taboo is Death.

This generational cohort has already left the detritus of previous taboos they’ve disrupted: love, sex, work, home education, taking charge of one’s health and wellness.

Taking on death has come from a fundamental life shift: it's through their ailing and dying parents that Boomers are facing up to their own mortality.

As American Demographics described it: “When 75 million American confront an issue it becomes culturally significant”. Evidence of it can be found everywhere including the current VISA campaign: “Things to do while you’re alive”

It reflects Boomers’ focus on what they want to achieve while they have the time. It represents a missed opportunity because it fails to recognize the cultural milieu of our time: it doesn’t mention death.

You might think Boomers would be afraid of the word death. They aren't. In true Boomer fashion, their navel-gazing reflection on mortality is not silent introspection: they’ve been openly discussing and debating what it is and what it means to them.

Take their reaction to Joan Didieron’s book A Year of Magic Thinking, as reported by The New York Times:

“It is both amazing and unnerving to see the public’s consciousness so thoroughly saturated with a story as personal and intimate as Ms Didion’s. It is one thing to share her journey as her silent companion in a book. It is quite another to see the trip become a public rite, with full page newspaper ads inviting everyone to come along, or to contemplate strangers making chit chat about it day after day in the ticket line, or on the theater sidewalk under the gushy blurb signs.” But that’s the baby boom for you.”

As a key engine of cultural dispersion, the media reflects the growing appetite for and dialog about death, Six Feet Under and Family Plots in TV; How to Die and 1000 Places to See Before You Die in print (which has also been made into a Discovery channel series).

Had Visa understood the cultural milieu – and been brave – it would have different a rallying cry.

Things I want to do before I die.

For Boomers, it would be a lightening rod. Death is what gives life its meaning. Acknowledging death would create a powerful context to ground aspiration rather the mediocre setting of what's possible in the time that’s left.

Further evidence that suggestion shapes experience

2008-02-08T19:53:00.000-08:00

OFD recently reported on the phenomenon of confirmation bias: the tendency for people to unconsciously adapt to support the stimuli they are confronted by.

Language was the stimuli in the study at Cornell University Food and Brand Lab. The resulting bias went further than merely perception: when taste bud receptors are altered by emotive food descriptors such as succulent, the event becomes a physical as well as a mental one.

Price was the stimuli in the study from the California Institute of Technology. Dr Rangel gave his volunteers sips of what he said were five different wines made from cabernet sauvignon grapes, priced at between $5 and $90 a bottle. He told each of them the price of the wine in question as he did so. Except, of course, that he was fibbing. He actually used only three wines. He served up two of them twice at different prices.

Dr Rangel used functional magnetic-resonance imaging, which can detect changes in the blood flow in parts of the brain that correspond to increased mental activity. He looked in particular at the activity of the medial orbitofrontal cortex. This is an area of the brain that previous experiments have shown is responsible for registering pleasant experiences.

Participants gave higher ratings to higher priced wines. In addition the scanner showed that the activity of the medial orbitofrontal cortices of the volunteers increased in line with the stated price of the wine. This suggested that the confirmation bias was influencing recipients in a physical capacity as well as mental one, just like the Cornell findings.

Marketers will be satisfied at just the perceptual effect of bias. They've long known that levels of pricing come with their own implied associations including quality. If a consumer leans on these and it supports perceptions, does it matter if it is only an event in the mind?

The anthropologists among us did find the evolutionary-oriented origin for confirmation bias fascinating. The point of learning is to improve an individual's chances of surviving and reproducing: if the experience and opinions of others can be harnessed to that end, so much the better. Dr Rangel suspects that what he has found is a mechanism for learning quickly what has helped others in the past, and thus for allowing choices about what is nice and what is nasty to be made speedily and efficiently. In modern society, price is probably a good proxy for such collective wisdom.

However, goods can be desirable for a reason other than survival value. Many of the things for which high price is an enhancement are purchased in order to show off, as any male confronted with the wine list in a fancy restaurant knows. Indeed, conspicuous consumption and waste are an important part of social display. Deployed properly, they bring the rewards of status and better mating opportunities. For this to work, though, it helps if the displaying individual really believes that what he is buying is not only more expensive than the alternative, but better, too. Truly enjoying something simply because it is exclusive thus makes evolutionary sense.

Loyalty drivers that Apple and Microsoft miss

2008-02-06T00:01:00.000-08:00

There’s an easy yet effective way that major companies can inspire their current consumers to stay within the brand and not defect when the time for repurchasing rolls around.

The principle is simple: Recognize the investment the consumer has already made in the relationship and reward accordingly.

It’s standard practice in certain categories such as automotive, who offer a trade-in on existing models.

It’s not just huge ticket items either. Finis, makers of a second generation waterproof mp3 player (below) are offering a discount for owners of the original version, retailing at about $180.

The reasoning is simple: help a consumer unlock a fair residual value in his existing product and he’ll be more likely to buy a new replacement. But it goes beyond economics to something altogether human and valuable when it comes to profitable relationships: respect. This quality is all too absent in many brands strategies yet it does much to inspire attachment and loyalty.

The reason why Apple and Microsoft haven't ventured down this road is no surprise: they feel they don’t need to and focus on maximizing profits. Consumers don't expect a trade-in with computers the way they do for other categories. Certainly, with new marketplace mechanisms like eBay, consumers can dispose of their older version on their own more easily than they could in the past (though that responsibility is still left with them).

Overtime, however, it can leave customers feeling like they are paying too much to continue the relationship. One of our OFD staffers is about to acquire his third laptop. An Apple clamshell and Titanium G4 Powerbook sit on a shelf. In seeking a new, faster model, he’s considering defecting brands. $3800 has already been spent on hardware and animal-themes upgrades of OSX over time. Yet when he steps inside an Apple store to contemplate the purchase of the new Airbook – or any other computer – his loyalty is unrecognized: his value to the company is seen no differently from a potential first-time buyer.

As with any relationship, what incentive is there to stay in it when you don’t feel valued?

Unconscious perceptions of proportions guides grazing behavior

2008-02-01T19:11:00.000-08:00

We like to believe we’re in control of much we do and how we act. Our ego and sense of self requires it. We’re not nearly in command of our actions as we like to think however.

The latest humbling reminder comes from some research, courtesy of the folks at Cornell University. Apparently, the amount we eat has much to do with a sub-conscious assessment of the quantity we are taking.

In the research study, a collection of students were invited to a superbowl party and served roasted nuts and chex mix from one of two buffet tables.
One table had two big bowls of the snacks. The other had the same amount and type of snacks split into four small bowls.

Findings
Those who took from the large bowls ate 56 percent (56%) more than those who munched from the smaller bowls. The difference: 142 calories.

"The size of serving bowls provide a subtle cue of how much we should eat," says Brian Wansink, Marketing professor at the college who led the work. "A handful of Chex Mix from a large bowl doesn't seem like enough, but one from a medium bowl seems just about right."

Implications
This kind of spatially-oriented visual processing of the brain can be used as a form of social engineering to encourage people to eat less - or more or - of certain kinds of foods.

For high calorie foods, smaller bowls will encourage people to eat less.
For lower calorie (and perhaps less appetizing but more healthy) foods such as carrots, larger bowls will encourage people to take more.

The Value in Mistakes, Part III

2008-01-31T18:25:00.000-08:00

This may not be the last dispatch on the matter of mistakes. The issue seems to be everywhere, confirming a point we made at Fallon’s Trendpoint blog back on Valentine’s Day in 2007 (be cautious what one seeks for one may find it everywhere.

Arden’s book is not new (2006) but we venture to say is a timely read, whatever people are dealing with. The perspectives it offers up are short and pithy, so much so that their wisdoms can be missed, over-looked in the brevity of expression. It’s worth lingering on them.

We all need a dose of inspiration from time to time and this slim book is just the thing. It provides a healthy shot of provocation, and challenges the reader not to follow the conventional path, however reassuring and familiar is might feel.

A worthy addition to anyone’s modest library. It’s not a book you read from cover to cover. It’s value comes from dipping – and being pleasantly surprised at how germane the lessons fit the times.

Candy as Customizable Communications Medium

2008-01-30T00:07:00.000-08:00

OFD reported a missed opportunity at Red Envelope recently. While its printed collar stays won a prestigious award for marketing audacity, buyers are unable to personalize the message upon this otherwise ingenious communications medium.

m&ms have seized the opportunity and are executing it flawlessly, as a trip to their website reveals. They see candy as communications medium, with a wide variety of occasions suggested to commemorate with the brand. Furthermore, they enable the visitor to add up to two lines of text to each of two m&ms as well as pick two colors.

The digital rendering on the m&m's is superb, particularly the application of a chosen color which drips down the face of each candy shell as if it were liquid paint. The three dimensional perspective along with the terrific sheen makes for an incredibly motivating presentation.

Of course, there are limits on what is fit to print, especially on candy. Any words that are deemed inappropriate do not appear on the candy canvas and the visitor is advised why the request has not been met. Our intrepid researcher found two words which had slipped through the editorial net - shag and wank - though it's hard to imagine how either would be welcomed sentiments for expressing a valentine's message.

People want to be more involved in their purchases today, they want to create and collaborate in what they buy and what they give. Red Envelope could take heed of this timely advice.

Science that could be mistaken for an Onion headline

2008-01-29T21:17:00.000-08:00

Looks like the folks at Live Science beat the Onion to it.

Well known for faux headlines that state the obvious, the way Live Science's summarize the findings from a recent study comes very close:

Emotional wiring Different in Women and Men.

We at OFD agree that there is something of the absurdly obvious to this statement. Well, when science can't tell us what we know already, at least it can tell us why. Clusters of neurons processing experiences hook up to contrasting brain functions in men and women.

With men the cluster "talks with" brain regions that help them respond to sensors for what's going on outside the body, such as the visual cortex and an area that coordinates motor actions. This skill comes in handy, especially in many of today's dense urban settlements, where parking in a tight spot can be a challenge.

With women the cluster communicates with brain regions that help them respond to sensors inside the body, such as the insular cortex and hypothalamus. These areas tune in to and regulate women's hormones, heart rate, blood pressure, digestion and respiration. Their connection to these vital bodily functions over the course of a lifetime might have a hand in why they live longer than men.

"Throughout evolution, women have had to deal with a number of internal stressors, such as childbirth, that men haven't had to experience," said study co-author Larry Cahill of the University of California Irvine. "What is fascinating about this is the brain seems to have evolved to be in tune with those different stressors."

Next time we're inclined to be frustrated by an emotional display of a spouse, partner of friend, it would be good to consider that perhaps it really might be something out of their control, shaped not only by biology but millennia of evolutionary adaptation and interaction with our environment, more cultural and social than perhaps physical in this instance.

150 years apart, Goldrushes exhibit startling similarities

2008-01-28T19:56:00.000-08:00

There was plenty of gold in 1849, it just wasn’t to be found where most people were looking for it. It was the outfitters that amassed huge wealth, equipping those heading out west to try to make their fortune, fueling their hopes and dreams in the process.

And so it was with the heady dot-com days of the late 90s. It too was a goldrush, a wild frontier in which clients had a dizzying almost panicky appetite for building websites to ensure the presence of their companies and their brands on the web. Of course, few made fortunes as a consequence of their money changing hands. Like their counterparts the century before them it was the interactive shops - outfitters in a technological realm – who lined their pockets.

Things don’t last though. One hundred and 50 years apart, most of enterprises that fed the ambitions of the hungry and made money when the going was good, themselves went out of business, like MarchFIRST.

Check out the ghost sites of interactive companies who have expired. They could fill a grave yard.

Mistake Culture - confirmation without even looking

2008-01-25T11:42:00.001-08:00

It was not more than two days ago that OFD shared its perspective on the value and place that mistakes can have in learning and creativity. We lamented how closed our society is to making mistakes, how ingrained it is in our cultural mindset that making mistakes is singular a 'bad' thing.

The folks at OFD could not prevent ourselves smiling at the irony of having this confirmed the next day in two separate parts of the same paper, the print version of the LA Times on Thursday January 24th, 2008.

The first is courtesy of the Cal State System's Chancellor. His belief reinforces the popularly held misconception that mistakes should ideally occur infrequently, underscoring the idea that they are something to be avoided.

"I make a few mistakes once in a while. But I try to fix them and not make them again." Charles Reed

The second one comes from an interview with the Music Director of the New York Philharmonic who also speaks to the idea of mistakes as something to be avoided.

"The carnage brought about by conflict resulting in war is too horrendous to consider, and yet human beings are almost incapable of learning from their mistakes we made in the past, and go on repeating them." Lorin Maazel

As the context of Maazel's commentary attests, there are situations in which making mistakes are unequivocally a bad thing. There is clearly a place for a desire to avoid repetition to be attached to the concept of mistake. The issue we at OFD have however is that this currently too firmly and exclusively anchors the popularly held conception of what a 'mistake' is.

Here's how OFD envisions the dimensions of mistake. It's not meant to be definitive, just a starting point for discussion, development and, we hope, change in the perceived value of mistakes.

Lamenting the Loss of the Heath Ledger Brand

2008-01-25T00:00:00.000-08:00

The news and discussion of Heath Leger’s untimely death have been spreading across the internet like wildfire. Developments of the story in media properties and social networking sites have been literally unavoidable in the past 24 hours.

As has now become customary, a makeshift memorial tribute of flowers and messages has been accumulating outside his NYC apartment, left by people struggling to cope with this lost and needing an understandable outlet to express their grief.

For those not able to make the pilgrimage in person, a digital forum fulfills the same purpose. The LA Times printed a collection of tributes that Ledger fans left on-line with the newspaper.

One would expect to find expressions of regret, gratitude and sympathy in the excerpts selected for publication. In addition there were four key themes which threaded throughout the sentiments:

The allusion to celebrity as role model: “You taught us so much”

The importance of immortality: “You will live in your films for ever”

Religious conversion: “At times like this I hope heaven really does exist”

Literally saying goodbye: “I loved watching your films”….”You will never be forgotten”

Even as a microcosm, this collection of comments represents a fascinating glimpse at one aspect of the human condition. Struggling with loss is one of the most challenging of all human experiences. It tends to push us to abandon the normal deportment we typically have and adopt different measures and positions that otherwise do not fit either fundamental knowledge we have or the holistic values we hold.

People know Heath is dead and that he cannot hear them. Yet they continue to address him directly and personally, as if in conversation (as the above quotes illustrate). The anthropologist in our midst understands this behavior as the triumph of hope and spirit over unassailable fact. We are prepared to suspend what we know to be true for the desire to connect with someone we cherish. It is also in its own way a refusal to accept death as a consuming dominion, as the Welsh writer and poet Dylan Thomas laments in Under Milk Wood.

It is facing fear and uncertainty that also evokes statements of hope that are expressed as absolute statements of fact. It makes us feel better to make confident pronouncements at this time, even though we may not normally do this is our daily lives.

It is easy to see how much the Heath Ledger brand was admired, valued and will be missed. How many real world product and service brands would have such fond attachments and be so sorely missed if they were expire and depart this world? It’s not a ridiculous thought: brands well crafted are multi-dimensional constructs with distinctly human properties and qualities (which makes the more successful ones inspire human attachment).

Getting consumer workshop and focus group participants to write a Brand Epitaph can be a revealing exercise. Often, the ambivalence can be quite shocking for Brand Managers to hear, but remains a timely wake-up call nonetheless.

Do you have the courage to make mistakes?

2008-01-24T01:36:00.000-08:00

It goes beyond the realm of the merely unfortunate or ironic. A significant enduring impediment to progress is the reluctance to makes mistakes. The stigma exists as much in commerce as well as popular culture at large.

The explanation for this sorry state of affairs is simple. Mistakes are wrongly viewed by society as failures. Failures make people feel bad. In the 'feel-good' obsessed culture of a fragile-ego era, people want to be associated with successes.
Two important misunderstandings are being perpetuated here.

First, that failure is itself a bad thing. There is value in trying a course of action that does not yield a positive outcome. Appreciation of it however has been lost. How few of us really embrace Edison's edict that it took him 999 failed attempts to make a light-bulb before getting it right? The value of 'failure' goes beyond its device of eliminating possibility therefore narrowing the field for ultimate success; it is that often it is only through not succeeding that a true lesson is understood and a deeper appreciation of fundamental concepts is gained.

The second misconception is that mistakes are bad. Creative potential exists outside of intentions. Many discoveries have been made from the unexpected or unanticipated combination of elements or conditions. In short, they provide a tantalizing glimpse at previously undiscovered bodies of knowledge that have found by stumbling upon them. There is collective amnesia is work here and it is odd: many major accomplishments and creative break-throughs have come from mistakes yet they go unrecognized or unremembered.

In the right hands, or minds, mistakes can be a source of valuable creative possibility. Scott Adams sums the idea succinctly:

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.

Challenge for the day: take a mistake as an opportunity to look at a situation from a fresh perspective, one that could not have been planned. Interrogate what factors are operating or climate influences are in play that are condemning an idea or act as a 'mistake'. Perhaps it brings into question the validity of the operating principles themselves and unlocks new opportunities that previously would not have been seen?

Duel insights fuel smoking cessation campaign

2008-01-19T09:00:00.000-08:00

A current effort by Nicoderm CN uses two different but complementary ways to get its message to resonate with smokers.

The first is the addressing the sense of guilt that many smokers who want to quit feel simply because they can't. Endured several failed attempts only deepens the shame. People are frequently harsh and disproportionately blame themselves for situations that are not all their own doing. As the compelling on-line banners point out, the brain has a mind of it's own. Realizing this and accepting it invites would-be quitters that it isn't all their doing, and that there's a formidable force to overcome with the right help. It's encouraging and one imagines a welcome perspective.

The second approach recognizes that we are all to some degree vain and care about our looks. By linking smoking to the effects it has on the beauty overall and the face in a variety of specific ways, it seeks to connect with the audience on an issue that they have strong interest and motivation for, rather than trying to persuade people to stop smoking using the rational appeal to health.

Using sex appeal to promote charitable giving

2008-01-18T17:54:00.000-08:00

There's an effort underway by sfconnect to encourage people to volunteer their time for a variety of different charitable ends. While the initiative is a worthwhile one, the overt use of - and appeal to - sexiness is a mistake.

One version of the bus shelter posters features a young woman with ample bosom wearing a t-shirt which reads "Volunteering is sexy". It's supported by her coy expression and suggestive stance.

Using sexuality to promote products and services can certainly be effective in some categories: cars, perfume, jewelery and liquor to name a few. The question is whether in this kind of situation, and for this purpose, it is the right thing to do.

Encouraging people to volunteer because it might make them appear sexy sends a poor message about the values of sfconnect. It draws upon a societal convention and in doing so reinforces a bias. Our basis for peer respect and likeability should be based on something more tangible and substantial than 'how we look'. Even if 'sexy' is being used in a less literal and more euphemistic way, it is still suggesting that motivation for donating time and effort be undertaken not for one's own reason, but for how it will look to others.

Charity organizations really should aspire to a higher standard in their efforts to grow its volunteer franchise.

Winner of the John Fenton Award for Audacious Marketing

2008-01-17T13:47:00.000-08:00

OFD is proud to announce a new annual award that recognizes audacity in marketing practice.

Named after John Fenton, the legendary English salesman who is able to craft the most compelling pitch in the sale of the almost unthinkable (sand to Arabs, ice to Eskimos) the 2008 award goes to Red Envelope.

What garnered the 2008 accolade is its promotion of love notes embossed on collar stays, those thin rectangular, removable strips that fit in the underside of shirt collars in order to keep them straight and firm.

It is a stroke of inspiration to identify this unused piece of real estate. It is a stroke of genius to create utility and value for space that overcomes the medium’s biggest challenge – it remains permanently out of sight.

Red Envelope does it by using the affection-expressive ritual of Valentines Day. This is a context in which the value in sharing personal sentiments is only heightened by being hidden from others. It succeeds in transforming what was a purely functional accessory into a medium of communication that carries meaning.

The spin that the salesmanship takes is an interesting one:

“Why settle for tucking love notes in his briefcase when you can deliver a message of love from much closer range?”

If it’s proximity one is going for, one wonders why Red Envelope does not also promote love notes on underwear. This would seem an ideal opportunity to create a line of merchandising targeting women: “I wish I was here” for example on a thong would give a girl a lift to wear all day. Women do after all intimately understand the psychology of wearing something no one else knows about: the entire lingerie category is grounded in this principle.

Our advice for Red Envelope: make the love notes customizable. This is the age of consumer sovereignty and personalization. The raciest of the pre-defined messages – ‘That tie will be useful’ - is really too tame in today’s age.

Advertising taglines - a taxonomy

2008-01-16T09:10:00.000-08:00

Taglines are one of the simpler brand positioning tools available. While a tagline can be used for a variety of purposes, its foremost value is to encapsulate a brand position into concise and compelling consumer terms. Incidentally, the reversal of this process is a short-hand way to construct a competitive brand landscape: the strategic territory a brand occupies or its core focus can be derived from its consumer oriented tagline expression (though a more rigorous approach is to deconstruct advertising in the category).

OFD conducted some tagline research recently to see what would be gleaned from the way marketers are using this positioning tool. The day was December 27th, 2007. The stimulus was British daily newspaper The Independent. A comprehensive assortment of taglines from the paper were collected for analysis.

RESULTS

1. There was a heavy preponderance of company-oriented statements which surprised our panel. Sentiments focused on the consumer are much more likely to resonate with their needs and desired. This is the basic premise of authentic marketing after all: the focus is on the consumer, not the company in a self-serving, self-absorbed way.

2. There was a distinct lack of sparkle, creativity or imagination. This is a wasted opportunity to make a memorable impression, however small and fleeting.

3. Most of the taglines were generic and vague. The fact that most were not unique suggests by extension that these brands' positions are also not unique, which raises an even bigger strategic concern. Sustainable differentiation is critical across all points of contact for a brand, in every category.

Our favorite: Holiday Inn. Behind every great discovery is a Holiday Inn. This does it all: It's consumer oriented, suggests a compelling, credible benefit in an imaginative way. Furthermore, it's ownable and consonant with the brand at large. Great Job! To the other brands, you have work to do to improve your positioning clarity, either in tagline expression or fundamental strategic design.

Why the 'wink' in advertising is so important

2008-01-15T03:07:00.000-08:00

Achieving advertising effectiveness has never been harder.

It starts with advertising being an interruption, since most of it is experienced unsolicited. That's not too hard to overcome. After all, we engage with advertising as an implicit contract: it's an agreement to give our time and attention to an advertiser's pitch - and subject ourselves to its manipulative intent for which it has been designed - in return for a reward. That reward must have utility such as information value, or entertain us.

The biggest challenge facing advertisers stems from how literate and skeptical audiences today are about marketing practices. Communications that contain 'marketing speak' and which sound and feel like advertising are viewed as deliberate ploy, and people engage with them differently. Any openness to believe the honesty of the message diminishes quickly. People's defenses are raised and rational scrutiny is deployed, the twin fears of the folks in ad land.

This is why the wink is so important in today's marketing climate.

The wink is a tacit way the advertiser can remain connected and in allegiance with an otherwise jaded audience. It serves to affirm (through an act or gesture not a direct appeal) that "Hey, we're not taking ourselves too seriously...we're just having some fun" and so seeks to lessen the defenses and objections that lay in the way of a person's openness to believe the message.

Case in point, the current Verizon commercial in which alongside business people, the network size is personified as a huge throng of verizon employees all sitting on chairs, completely filling up a large room. At the end the commercial, as the 'network' people are shuffling out of the room, one of them turns to the Verizon "Can you hear me know?" spokesperson and says "Next time, we need more chairs". Speaking to the artifice, the suspended disbelief of the creative construct, it does much to convey an honesty and transparency on behalf of the advertiser. It makes us feel there's a good human quality to these folks, which helps to positively dispose us to the message, whatever it is.

Another example is a Dove Shampoo commercial from 2005 below. The wink at the end (which we won't spoil) does a superb job of showing the audience that the brand is not taking itself too seriously, softens us up and helps make us more amenable to the idea it is promoting. By being playful, we are more prepared to over-look the fact that the event is very evidently staged and interpret it for what it is - beautiful storytelling through an engaging metaphor.

So, consider using a little wink in the right context to raise the cut-through effectiveness of your communications.

A practitioner's perspectives on branding Universities for success

2008-01-15T02:55:00.000-08:00

A response to Brandchannels January 14th piece Two schools of thought in branding education.

OFD led the 1999 re-positioning and re-branding of the Graduate School of Business at the University of Chicago, one of the foremost business schools in the world, and currently ranked #1 for an MBA by Business Week. . Our views are based on this experience and the extensive study of branding engagements for higher education.

1. The traditional vs. conservative dichotomy is helpful to a degree but in practice it’s an overly simplistic construct. In reality, strategists would not have to choose between an outer-facing, outer-oriented brand strategy or an approach that’s inner oriented and culture-based: the ideal route would combine elements of the two. David A Aaker’s Building strong brands provides a comprehensive single conceptual framework that does exactly this.

2. I agree with Schmidt that focusing on the trappings of taglines and promotional campaigns is “superficial tinkering”. I do not however concur that an entire organization should be incorporated into a holistic brand building process. This is where marketing (and brand) practitioners often misstep. Great ideas and strategy are not the result for canvassing a wide group of stakeholders. In many cases, people can only tell you what they know and the varied priorities across stakeholder groups are not naturally unified behind the motivation for solidifying something like a brand identity to benefit a school.

3. I disagree with Lux’s emphasis: It is not extremely demanding to create brands for institutions like universities rather it the management of the brand, particularly of brand actions (that speak volumes across multiple audiences) that is so demanding, precisely because of multiple stakeholders that comprise the typical university community that area difficult to orchestrate.

4. I would also caution against his rallying cry to “get as many people within the organization as possible involved in creating experiences that provide meaning and benefit.” What is needed rather is a clean brand vision, and a strategy that identifies which areas of influence shape perceptions most significantly, rolling out action plans which prioritize resources accordingly to this end. Involvement should not be denied to interest groups within the university that seek it, but it should be guided in such a way to ensure it works in harmony with the leaders that are initiating the identity, so as not to become agents of fragmentation.

5. As to Lux’s contention that it is the non-identical nature of a service organization with complex characteristics that make a traditional approach unsuccessful, ideologically I would suggest it is the shortcoming in the orientation of the traditional approach not characteristics of the context that are of issue. The value of a good strategist is in identifying an enduring and authentic basis that unifies multiple stakeholder groups with different interest.

To offer one perspective from the field, in developing a clearer, more compelling identity for the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business, the answer began with a search for authenticity: identifying what in the enduring cultural fabric of the institution the university should be talking about, which had the potential for contemporary relevance (as yet under-recognized) which would reframe the value of the school in key target groups’ eyes.

It did not come from canvassing and seeking to include multiple stakeholder groups. It did not come from changing the institution. Quite simply, the institution did not want to change and with good reason: it is an environment that has produced more Nobel Laureates than anywhere else in the world. Brand identity and strategic development is not a momentum generating course for widespread collaboration. It’s a nice notion, but ignores the realities of this kind of context and worse risks weakening connections with enduring equities that have made the institution as great as it is today.

Advertising disabilities with darkness

2007-12-24T20:06:00.000-08:00

Among other things, Mae West is famous for a shrewd observation: "It is better to be looked over than over-looked". She was commenting on the matter of women being the subject of unsolicited attention, but the context today might equally be marketing communications and a similar challenge to capture unsolicited attention.

It is the starting point of most agencies working on behalf of clients today to bring heightened attention to a specific cause. This is a time of marketing abundance and a barrage of communications daily that dulls the senses. It makes the first challenge the need to break through the barrier of indifference and be registered. If the advertiser is fortunate, the message will also be read and processed in its entirety rather than being partially processed and abandoned.

This is not to suggest that shock tactics are always a good idea and should be justified. It is merely to provide the perspective that it can be needed in order to gain traction in the first instance.

The campaign in question certainly does that. Which is better however: a less controversial approach that doesn't get noticed as much, or one that is polarizing and inspires greater involvement? The number of responses to the original article is a testament to the latter. There is a rubric in advertising that states that effective communications that engages, moves and persuades will never appeal to the everyone: an authentic point of view will by definition be polarizing. Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty of which a principle OFDer was one author is an example: there are plenty of women who reject this vision and accessibility of beauty, but a core and zealous group that does not.

Like good art, good advertising will provoke a response, which inevitably will be favorable among some and unfavorable among others.

The above duly noted, the campaign does cross the line into poor taste in our view at OFD. Positioning disabilities as 'taking a person hostage' is true in a conceptual sense - but not compelling when expressed in a literal sense. Positioning any person as a victim is not a constructive way to frame the issue. Moreover, the dark overtones of this strategy are likely to alienate more that win people over. Top marks for creativity, but miss-applied in our book. A good idea to drop this approach and pursue another.

Finally, a term for what we've known all along

2007-12-16T17:19:00.000-08:00

For what we are about to receive....

Advertising is an industry of manipulation. It is a vital if not perennially controversial agent of the modern economy that help keeps the wheels of consumption and therefore commerce turning (according to a recent NPR news segment as much as 60% of economic activity is attributable to consumerism, which advertising undoubtedly feeds).

The copywriting craft is a formal function within the industry which recognized that words are a powerful force in shaping people's perceptions, not only of products but the consumption experience.

Recent research confirms this influence and gives it a formal term: confirmation bias. According to a recent NYT article:.

“If you say something is juicy, people almost unconsciously turn up their ‘juicy sensors’ when they taste the food. Once these taste sensors are activated, people become preprogrammed to think a dish tastes good.'’

The notion that confirmation bias can actually have a physical effect on taste bud receptors has to make those in the persuasion profession feel somewhat better about what they do. After all, using the right words is not merely a suggestion. In reading a seductive description which affects the body's physiology it actually DOES contribute to greater enjoyment, not just the idea of more pleasure.

Social Networking: The Now, The Future

2007-12-08T15:03:00.001-08:00

grapes as trajectory

To mix metaphors, social networking (SN) continues is meteoric ascent. Not only does the pace of new community creation continue seemingly unabated, but in its wake so too is the number of pixels – paper or digital – being devoting to the subject. Accordingly, OFD provides a brief view of SN today and the future.

We don't think social networking can't be thought of as a fad, because it is here to stay and it will remain a permanent feature of most people's lives.

We do think it is experiencing heightened and unsustainable levels of engagenebt. It's the novelty factor. For those of who remember the 90s and the internet space before the dot com crash, this feels eerily similar: a giddy abandon to build without the kind of discipline that is needed for utility to pay out.

One inevitable consequence of over-development is fragmentation: with the explosion of social networking groups, let alone individual blogs, there has to be a day (ok era) of reckoning in which hundreds of thousands of SN sites and interest-based groups simply atrophy and wither away like grapes dying on the vine.

If anyone has any statistics on the number of sites that a heavy/medium on-line user regular reads and the subset number s/he contributes to, we be interested. We also be interested to hear of any insight on the curve; no doubt for a typical individual it starts out expanding quickly and then shrinks to a manageable smaller collection.

We believe the repertoire has got to be fairly small. There are, after all, a limited number of hours in everyone's day, and while the digital world has it's appeal there is still competition for limited discretionary time from the real world, which provides something that the on-line world can never provide – the multi-sensory experience. It requires going no further for an example than a neighborhood bar, where one can see people, stimulate taste buds with drink, smelling the weapons of the attraction game (perfume and after-shave) hear music, and have unintentional (and if you're luckier) intentional physical contact. The desire for these kinds of experiences competes with the time people can devote to SN activities, no matter how ubiquitous wireless devices and coverage becomes.

Makes for a perfect longitudinal study of on-line behavior regarding social networks. Any one interested? gugoda@gmail.com

Stirring Bulletin #5

2007-11-29T10:45:00.000-08:00

This is a departure from the usual Stirring Bulletin format.

Normally we contrast Middle Ages thinking (pre-enlightened marketing practice) with Renaissance thinking (post enlightenment marketing practice).

OFD has come across such an outstanding example of Middle Ages Thinking that it merits its dedicated focus.

This satire brilliantly captured the misguided ways of yore: where self-indulgent agencies and their clients were obsessed with espousing their own message, but falling on the deaf ears of consumers who saw through the gesture and artifice. A glaring example of what approach NOT to take.

Enjoy

Stirring Bulletin #4

2007-11-16T11:02:00.000-08:00

THE WHAT
Brand actions make more impact - and count for more - in the eyes of prospects and customers.

THE WHY
People are more sophisticated and savvy about marketing practices than ever before. They have become increasingly aware of marketing techniques and strategies that companies use to appeal to them – it’s not just the younger generations that are seeing through it and reacting indifferently when something looks and smells like marketing.

Rising consumer economic power, more informed choices driven by internet-driven information and social networks had shifted the balance of power towards consumers in how they think and feel about brands.

Compounded by a market situation of product and brand proliferation at shelf and on-line, communications ‘promise-making’ is no longer as effective.

Brands that engage in actions as a way to connect with people will be more successful because, as with people, behavior speaks louder than words.

THE HOW

Middle Ages Thinking

Communications is the dominant strategy to reach and shape perceptions of prospects to attract them towards the brand

Renaissance thinking

It is through actions - and dynamic interactions - that brands deliver value to the prospects that experience them, who in turn fuel a buzz which enable other people to connect with it vicariously.

Example:

Charmin’s brand action in New York City

The brand delivered a welcome experience for tourist about town (and one presumes, locals too) with its 20 individual restrooms staffed with a dedicated team of attendants and cleaners, along with a comfortable waiting area. The communications’ wit and style only added to were charming too.

Stirring Bulletin #3

2007-11-15T15:58:00.001-08:00

THE WHAT
Companies need to embrace the latitude to vary brand expression that the current marketing era provides and use it to their advantage.

THE WHY
We live in an age of fragmentation. The domination of a few networks and a limited number of channels has given way to an ever expanding distribution of content through the web, in which narrow-casting when sufficiently precise is substantial enough to be a viable business model (the long-tail).

More than anyone else, Gen Y and Millenials are particularly comfortable in a world of fragmentation; through the explosion of channels and content they see no pervasive homogeneity in a fast-moving world. They live in a world full of contradictions, exceptions and differences that complexity brings and accept it is they who have to put the pieces together and fashion them into a personal understanding.

THE HOW

Middle Ages Thinking

Ensuring consistency in the brand across all points of expression and across product lines delivers clarity of consumer understanding and ensures the company controls what the brand stands for.

Renaissance thinking

Driving effective brand–consumer connections means it is inevitable that the brand will talk to different groups in different ways. People who witness a brand marketing to other groups accept it as a natural reality of marketing practice, not identity crises.

Example:
VW markets its cars to a number of different groups spanning at least three life stages. The communications are vastly different in idea and executional form, yet speak to each specific group authentically and with real insight about their outlook and relationship with driving.

Stirring Bulletin #2

2007-11-14T10:34:00.001-08:00

THE WHAT
For communications to be more effective, they need to exercise appropriate restraint to successfully engage an audience on their terms.

THE WHY
In the quest to ‘stand out from the clutter’ and ‘do more with less’ there is a greater (and less discriminating) use of shock tactics to grab attention. Equally troubling is the trend of communications towards more telling and selling than engaging with people on their terms.

Engaging in a communication is a contract (albeit an intangible one). People give their time and attention in exchange for a reward. It goes beyond the rational acquisition of facts and information, it is the possibility of a psychic reward. This is not just an emotional reward that comes from the content of the ad, such as humor. It’s the lift one gets from the figuring out an ad, which comes from active not passive participation. It makes people feel clever.

There's another important bonus not to be over-looked. Investing something more than mere attention to figure the ad out – imagination, creative problem solving, deduction – and getting a psychic reward inspires a psychological bond. It may not itself motivate people to drop everything and go an buy the product. But it creates a openness, a positive disposition towards the brand that is separate from whatever the content might be.

THE HOW

The Middle Ages

Communications are created to be complete in design, containing all desirable elements and requiring the audience to bring only their attention

Renaissance thinking

The notion of the audience as participants in communications is taken into account in their creation. It requires restraint: leaving room for the viewer to fill in the space to complete the comprehension.

Example: McDonald's Outdoor Board

Requires the viewer to realize it is acting as a sundial to show that it is time for McDonald's foods and beverages throughout the day.

Stirring Bulletin #1

2007-11-06T21:26:00.001-08:00

THE WHAT
Marketers and their brands need to shift the orientation in how they go to market. They need to engage people on their terms.

THE WHY
The rise in consumer affluence coupled with rising sovereignty from access to knowledge and choices – both driven by the internet – puts people at the center of driving decisions of what and how they want their needs fulfilled. The internet has also spawned a people-driven dialog about issues and brands that is apart from the previously order, controlled and dictated by media companies, marketers and advertising agencies who dominated the channel and the message:

THE HOW
There are so many examples of how marketers can change in order to engage people on their terms, it will be the subject of the next several Stirring Bulletins (TM). Volume 2 will focus on giving ideas to the people they can grow.

Middle Ages thinking

Advertising ideas where communicated at people, as passive recipients. Success was often measured and tracked in terms of whether or not people played back the idea the marketer had defined

Renaissance thinking

Give people an idea they can take, engage with and make their own heightening their involvement, as well as in the process reach into new areas and interpretations not previously planned.

Example: Axe Click

The idea of young men using a clickometer to record how many times they were checked out took on a new life beyond the original idea. Young men debated what the scoring should be, how it should differ in different situations, etc. giving it a life well beyond advertising exposure and penetrating popular teen culture

Stirring Bulletins - a jolt of enlightenment for a new age

2007-11-06T20:44:00.000-08:00

Poor George Samsa. As the protagonist in Kafka’s classic novel, we might think him unfortunate. In waking up to find he’d turned into a cockroach overnight it was he who had changed rather than the world around him.

It is the reverse problem facing many marketers today, for it is they who have not changed while the world around them undoubtedly has, the one they live in, work in and make profits in.

A Darwinian Mandate
The consumer, cultural and technological landscape has so dramatically been recast that it calls for a different approach that fits the times, not only to how to connect with people but in a companies’ primary goal of building profitable brand relationships.

To do so however requires a corollary shift in thinking. Existing ways of thinking and marketing have become outdated over night. Companies are scrambling to re-orient their practice. But it’s a time of unprecedented opportunity for those who are able to adapt quickly and seize the initiative.

We’ve heard that one of the things getting in the way of companies adapting the demands of the new era is in understanding what the existing ways of thinking and principles are replaced by. You can’t get rid of something unless the replacement is clear.

To that end, we're providing some pointers to the way ahead and comparing it to the immediate past. Thus....

‘Middle ages thinking'

describes the old 20th century thinking and approach

'Renaissance thinking'

characterizes the new thinking required for the future

We hope this shines a helpful light on the way ahead. Stand by for next dispatch.

Advertising needs more orginality and less copycatting

2007-11-03T15:16:00.000-07:00

It is said imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

It is also a sign of lack of originality and creativity.

A Hitachi banner at The Economist's website invites readers to learn how Hitachi has helped light up the small town of Bandon Oregon as a 'real world' illustration of its product benefit and brand reach.

If this sounds familiar, rewind about a year ago when Nikon launched the very same initiative in Georgetown South Carolina. Dubbing it Picturetown USA, it aimed to showcase how the ordinary lives of its town folk were transformed by the picture taking qualities of Nikon cameras.

Surely Hitachi could have taken a more distinctive and brand differentiating route?

A goldmine in plain sight

2007-11-03T12:54:00.000-07:00

The standards of service at many mass market retail outlets has fallen to an astonishing low point. It is a huge opportunity for the right minded marketer to capitalize upon, even in circumstances in which they are selling a commodity offering, or in situations in which the normal consumers freedoms are not in place.

Take two shops literally opposite each other on a particular concourse at San Francisco airport. Both sell largely the same items. When encountered yesterday, both were ineptly run. Long lines snaked through and out of the stores because counter staff moved slowly, thought slowly and reacted slowly. Even an activity as simple as handling payment and operating a till became an unnecessarily time-wasting undertaking.

Friends have remarked that there is no value to making either of these operations more efficient. The consumer is a captive one: their choice is confined. There is literally nowhere else to go other than a place selling the same stuff at the same inept service. The friends are also quick to mention that it's not possible to get better employee contributions and commitments when paying minimum wage.

They miss the point in dramatic fashion:

1. Where products are commodities - even of basic staples - service is the opportunity to be a differentiator.

2. Doing so can sustain a modest price premium, one which (presuming the consumer notices) he is probably prepared to pay if he understands that speedy efficient service is part of the transaction beyond the actual item being purchased.

3. It makes sound economic sense to pay employees MORE for retail positions in which higher productivity translates directly into a greater volume of customer processing and therefore sales (to expect minimum wage earners to perform higher is unrealistic)

4. The fact that the consumer is captive - and does not have the typical freedom of choice to exercise - does not mean she or he does not still want better service.

5. The economic benefit for the shop delivering faster, more efficient retail service is to have a greater share of customers. It would require disrupting an existing consumer belief and behavior. Most people don't ever stop to consider where else to buy what they're after: they presume product prices and service are identical in an airport.

6. Promoting the service advantage where and when it matters - before prospects have wandered into a store - enables them to be conscious of a service that may be very much needed and preferred over an unknown alternative, even if that alternative is just a few yards away. This is not unlike the pitches that stall owners colorfully deliver against competing vendors in a marketplace, bringing awareness of something special to attract greater than fair share of traffic.

It is hard for any one who has been on the receiving end of retail service in an airport recently not to come away without being painfully aware of how much room for improvement there is. And where glaring potential for improvement lies, gold is often to be found.

Be careful what you look for. You just may find it.

2007-11-03T12:47:00.000-07:00

It is often the case that one sees what one is trying to find. It's a common but dangerous tendency. Belief is, after all, merely a matter of perspective.

Lambasting current TV programming as a scourge is a popular pastime, criticized for its influence upon the younger generation's values and responsible for the decline in moral fabric of this country. One writer suggests that Sweet Sixteen is a case in point, in that it violates the principles upon which this country is built: "the idea of being a do-it-yourself, hard working, striving individual, who fights to achieve success and prosperity for themselves"

There's plenty of programming out there that upholds these qualities directly if you look at them in an open-minded way. Take I LOVE NEW YORK on VH1. A collection of men compete for the affection of a sultry woman (and one presumes more than that..) and in so doing demonstrate the qualities needed to pursue the American Dream. Survivor is another. Project Runway, The Apprentice. In fact, much of the reality TV genre could be seen to support the American Dream in a significant way.

Don't get be wrong, I LOVE NEW YORK is in my view terrible, terrible entertainment but that is besides the point: in its content it upholds the priorities on which this country was built. It is also good to see some contemporary role reversal, with men subjugating themselves to women and pandering to their arbitrary whims instead of the other way around.

Rediscover the lost art of conversation

2007-11-02T22:56:00.000-07:00

Maligning focus group has become something of a sport over the last few years.
Bad recruiting, the ‘group think’ dynamic, an unnatural discussion environment have all been given as the reasons why this research forum consistently delivers under-whelming results.

In this moderator’s opinion, the over-whelming reason why focus groups don’t provide the actionable insights and inspiration Clients and agencies need comes from the craftsman, not the tools. It is simply mediocre moderating.

Moderating is not about soliciting people’s opinions in capturing reactions, either in feelings or thoughts. Its greater value is in challenge people to engage their imaginations, to make them willing collaborators in evolving concepts, executions or positions. Too often, the focus is upon establishing what the reaction is and what drives it, without engaging participating in a ‘what-if’ type exercise.

Tapping into our imagination is something we all do in our basic experience of every day life: our perception of reality is shaped by it. And yet all too often stimuli are presented in a way which doesn’t encourage people to engage their imagination.

Perhaps the greatest flaw that comprises research value is the tendency to follow a linear line of questioning. Insights come from conversations that mirror the real –world character. They are fluid and evolve dynamically as the exchanges flow. All too often, the imposition of a rote list of questions comes from a client’s restrictive (yet understandable) desire for consistency. Yet what is gained in consistency is lost in quality of discussion because no two groups think the same way and evolve ideas in the same pre-determined order.

At OFD we’re all about maximizing the Return on Research investment. So for all clients and agencies out there here’s a list suggestions for how to get more out of a much maligned research method:

Identify a core range of ISSUES to explore not a prescriptive list of questions
This will keep the discussion focused but allow the moderator to tackle the issues in the way that make sense for the character of each group.

DON’T over fill a group with too many issues
It will compromise the key quality of focus groups which is have the time to explore issues and get a deeper understanding.

Don’t over fill a group with too many PEOPLE
Conversations are richer among discussion of six people than eight. Facility value and moderator time is not improved by talking to more people. Guaranteed, two of eight people will sit back and not say much. It means the moderator will spend more time soliciting opinions than exploring opinions, ideas and reaction, and what-ifs.

Build time in for the moderator to EXPLORE an issue ‘off topic’.
All too often, there’s a moment of magic possibility in most groups when an exciting idea emerges that hasn’t been predicted. Give the moderator the freedom to explore at least one such idea per group. It can often unlock the most powerful learning of the group. In many cases though, the opportunity is passed up by the moderator in order to follow the strict list of question.

Listen as much to what is NOT said as to what it being said.
It requires more active listening and thinking on the fly, but it can provide extraordinary insight. Once you’ve got the hang of it, after a while you will hear them as loudly and clearly as if they’d been actually said.

Pay attention to WHEN comments come up in the evening.
Avoiding group think can be challenged and minimized by a good moderator, but part of being a good back-room attendant is learning what NOT to be influenced by. For example, when the room has been discussing a topic for 20 minutes and only then do problems and issues start to emerge, these are likely to be from venturing into ‘over-think' mode rather than issues that anchor people’s reactions.

Encourage a climate of EVOLUTION
Exposing the same stimuli across multiple groups delivers consistency at the expense of maximizing return of research investment. Far better to evolve the ideas or work to leverage learning and tighten up the form for expose in later groups, than unequivocally prove why the in-going stimuli has failed.