2009 Anthem Redux

HEADLINE on CNN Money: Retailers That Survive Can Expect A $20 Billion-Plus Boost In Sales. (Article is no longer available, but the headline says it all.) That is the upside of recessions.

HIP - not the body part

When did over-used 60's lingo that I think of as a body part become a design style? Just noticed it on Portfolio.com, and have been hearing the word bantered around the industry ad nauseum.

I hope that it is not a case of my being a fuddy-duddy. In the 70's when the design studio where I worked divvied up design styles for a marketing campaign, I knew that I didn't want French Provincial or Mediterranean, someone else claimed Contemporary and Early American. I had to think fast and announced I would be doing "Country." I got lots of quizzical looks and the question: "What is Country?"

So dare I ask: "What is hip style?" Someone please help me out, as I am usually pretty on top of this type of stuff.

I did convince the others that "Country" was indeed a style and went about my task of finding products to create the look. The year was 1974 and Mary Emmerling's defining book "American Country" was published in 1980, so finding product was a real challenge. Yes, I figured it out - but this "hip style" has me a little confused. Please send pictures!

Only The Strong Survive --- Jerry Butler

Happy 2009! An anthem for the upcoming year.

Past 64 and an instant hit on myspace.com

If anyone in this world is still questioning the future of the internet - just listen to the man who is now past 64 and his latest album... Paul McCartney under the name "The Fireman" has taken "Electric Arguments" instantly to the world at large. Listen to it on myspace.com and don't forget to read the adoring comments from his fans of all ages. Two days after it was posted 166,000 people had listened to the album - does a quicker way to market exist today?

Brooke Shields Volkswagen AD Commercial # 2

Just in case you haven't seen one of these commercials yet - a little hard to imagine - they appear to be everywhere! My comments are in the previous post.

Pregnant ladies and Brooke Shields

Hilarious, offensive, dumb, irrelevant...just a few of the words used to describe the recent advertising campaign featuring Brooke Shields and lots of pregnant ladies.

Even after just reading the reviews for Buyology, I understand what bothers me about this campaign- it is not the product you remember, it is just Brooke Shields and pregnant ladies. In fact, having seen these commercials at least 20 times, I still can't remember the name of the car that is being introduced. (Although I do remember that it is a VW product, but that could be because I drive one rather than the ad being memorable for that fact.)

As one reviewer of Buyology mentioned, the brain research behind this book informs us that using sex to sell a product sells sex rather than the product. I have to assume that is why I remember only Brooke Shields and pregnant ladies from this advertising campaign. Could it be that this is actually a subliminal campaign by the government to create more future worker bees and taxpayers to support the upcoming retirement of the boomer generation? I am looking forward to reading the book.

HOW TO: Track Trends

Trend tracking is not about looking into a crystal ball and divining the future, rather an observation of the here and now and what the impact of the here and now will have on the future.

The first time a real estate agent told me that banks were giving adjustable rate mortgages with nothing down, allowing 50% of income to go to principle and interest was in 2005, I knew that in 2008 there would be lots of foreclosures. (I am sure that this had been going on even before 2005 but that was the first time that I paid attention - I didn't even know that incomes were not being verified.) Where were all of our astute economists who had the true inside information and whose job it was to keep our economy sound?

Tracking and analyzing trends requires both an open-mind and a keen sense of awareness of your surroundings at all times. Because I am involved with construction materials, the mortgage information held relevance to me, so I processed the information immediately. As a consultant, I made the recommendation that my clients expand their product planning and marketing efforts beyond the residential market. As a consultant, I can only inform decisions, the decisions are the clients to make, and their economists never even sounded the alarm. (The few who did were ignored in the press and considered nervous nellies.)

Trend Watching.Com offers a thorough review of the trend-tracking process as well as trends that they observe. Trend tracking may not be a formal part of your job requirement, but every marketer needs a rudimentary understanding of the process to know whose advice to take. Your own observational skills are still required; the internet should not be viewed as a short cut, but as another tool in the process.

Names have Meaning

"Confusing alphabet-soup names like CLK, CLC, CLS, SLK, GLK, CL, SL and SLR have made it hard for customers to keep track of Mercedes-Benz's vehicle lineup, and to fix that the company is looking at returning to more traditional names based around the A, B, C, E and S-Class names," states an article in Motor Authority.

As I have just finished suggesting names for another batch of products, I am reminded of how important it is that the names connect to something - anything that will help the consumer of the product understand what it is he is buying. I know that it gets tougher and tougher with the number of your own products and those of competitors. Naming your product is a process that should never be given short shrift or handled in a bull session. Names must be especially vetted in a global marketplace in various languages. For example, if planning to sell in Germany, never use the word MIST - it means dung in German. Had to check myself on that one - was it...mist or dust that I just suggested? When Ford launched an advertising campaign in Belgium, the headline ‘Every car has a high quality body’ came out as ‘Every car has a high quality corpse’. Car bodies and human bodies often are different words. If this sort of thing amuses you check for more examples at this website.

Why would you ever name a dark charcoal gray product Mont Blanc if you knew that blanc means white in French? In a global environment, it is more important than ever to have at least a passing knowledge of foreign languages. Even a passing knowledge of geography would have been helpful in this case, because you would know that Mont Blanc is snow-capped year round. English may be the ipso facto lingua franca, but rather than risk embarrassment, make sure to check globally before you commit to the expense of printing literature and labels.

Creativity and the Role of the Leader

An article of interest to those responsible for new product development of all kinds titled "Creativity and the Role of the Leader," in October's Harvard Business Review, shares insights from a recent two-day colloquium at Harvard Business School on the topic. My favorite quote from the article:" 'If there is one device that has destroyed more innovation than any other, it is Six Sigma,' stated Mark Fishman, MD, president of the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research." This fact would be obvious to creative types but must have required verbalizing to the management types at the colloquium. The article offers interesting reading on providing the proper setting and challenges for "managing" creativity on the path to building and maintaining a strong and profitable business.

"Project Runway" Tenor of the Times

2007 BC (before chaos-financial ) Style over Substance wins
2008 AD (after demise-of Wall Street) Talent and hard work win

More than any other "Reality TV" 2008 Project Runway has captured the times in which we live and is a hopeful guidepost to the future. Only in hindsight do we realize that 2007 Project Runway's winner did the same; the winner's "style over substance" captured the immediate times. Did the darkness of the collection foresee what was in store, just a year later? The numbers of viewers of the presidential debate may have eclipsed the viewers of the 2008 Project Runway finale, but we can only hope that these lessons are as prescient as those of 2007 - this would not be the first time that fashion portends the future. And did Leanne's use of sustainable fabrics cinch the deal for her? If Leanne's win of the 2008 Project Runway with talent and hard work - without even a speck of attitude and posturing speaks to the future - bring it on sooner rather than later.

The Intelligent Kitchen: The e-House

Kitchen trends to come are showcased here in this on-going laboratory for building science designed by Michael McDonough. He is a pioneer in sustainability in the built environment. His kitchen features a loft-like aesthetic with lots of natural light, beautiful light fixtures and integration with the out-of-doors. The e-house is a high-performance website-controlled building, and was developed with a team of engineers, scientists, environmentalists, and over 100 manufacturers.

Reed Kroloff: Architecture, modern and romantic

Reed Kroloff offers an interesting, blisteringly blunt 15 minutes on the state of architecture in the year 2003. He is Director of the Cranbrook Academy of Art and Art Museum, and a nationally known commentator in the world of architecture and urban design. He previously served as Editor-in-Chief of Architecture magazine.

But sometimes designers need to be saved from themselves

This topic refers back to the previous post about a beautifully designed car from the 40's during a time that designers ruled. But, sometimes decision makers do have to step in and pass judgment on the validity of a design - a role that Barbara D'Arcy played as the creative director in the heyday of Bloomingdale's . Every little detail about the shopping experience was well-coordinated and always in the best of taste, when other stores were selling either bastardized reproductions, stripped-down Scandinavian or "red, black and fuzzy" things in the home furnishings department. When Barbara swept into the offices of the furniture company where I worked at the time in her royal purple cape, everyone listened.

The Barbara D'Arcy's of the world are so often missing today... Phillipe Starch rails against the entire design establishment as only a Frenchman can, and then creates a bizarre installation like the LAN restaurant in Beijing, as if mocking "who knows exactly what." His "Ghost" chair is genius, but I am afraid he is a one-trick pony with way too much to say. (The LAN bathroom above, there are hundreds of images out - so you can "google" the work.)

This leads me to the fact that companies think that affiliating with someone that has created their own "brand" will rub off on them -yes it can, but only if the product is well-designed and appropriate for the particular marketplace and there is someone inside a company that can tell the difference.

I have often wondered why in the world anyone would buy ceramic tile that looks like wood, but now wonder of wonders - Martha has put her name on an area rug that looks like wood. With the hundreds of beautiful handmade rugs in both traditional and updated patterns available these days, who would put a faux wood-look area rug on an authentic hardwood floor? I haven't a clue. (Rug is middle image and tile is to the right.)

Nike Courage Commercial (I've Got Soul But I'm Not A Soldier)

My bet is that this commercial, aired during the Summer Olympics, will go down as one of the all-time great commercials. There is an interesting white paper titled "The Rhetoric of the Mythological Branding" by Fabian Bautista that discusses early Nike advertising and why they get emotions right at brandchannel.com.

When Design Ruled...No focus groups...No marketing teams!

The other day, I was at the post office and saw a dapper gray-haired gentlemen get into the most exquisitely restored gray Lincoln Continental from the early 40's. Personally designed by T. 'Bob' Gregorie for Edsel Ford, this elegant model is a true icon of automotive design. I am certainly not a car person, but I know an icon when I see one and this car was such a thing of beauty that I felt compelled to yell out a compliment to a complete stranger. (Find more pictures of these beauties at HubcapCafe.)

As I look around me, every other car looks the same in that generic sort of way. How did car companies get to this place? Is it possible that marketing teams and focus groups are the culprits? Catering to the lowest common denominator is BORING and sales of today's BORING cars reflect that fact.

Art Inspires

There are days that our involvement with product development seems so mundane and we need a fix of inspiration. Art often offers that fix, especially when an artist, like Jennifer Maestre creates such exquisite beauty from a mundane manufactured product - the colored pencil.

It is the subtle details that make the difference. Manufactured products too, can be more than just ordinary.

Housing idea whose time has come

I grew up next to, what we then called a "nasty run-down rental" with a family living there that called their only son "Brother," the house was easy to ignore because it sat on a large piece of property with gorgeous old growth trees. The owner left the property to his daughter, and to our delight, she immediately restored the house to the charm of its origins - a Sears catalog bungalow. Today, beautifully landscaped, this house makes a good neighbor. My parents are ever hopeful that someone doesn't come along and tear it down to build a McMansion. (For more inspiration see a collection of the original plans from the Sears Catalog of houses at About.com on architecture.)

Bill Valentine of HOK, whose article Voluntary Simplicity: Making Smaller Better, I mentioned in November 07 is finally getting his wished-for form of housing. An article in the Wall Street Journal introduced developers Ross Chapin and Jim Soules from the Seattle area to the entire country in an article:The Newest Cottage Industry. They have been building boutique neighborhoods of a dozen of so Craftsman Style cottages ranging in size from 800-1,500 sf, about half the size of typical new homes. The cottages are built around a communal courtyard and are not cheap, they sell in the $600,000 range. The houses are well designed for optimal living in small spaces, for example, interior walls have been replaced with floor to ceiling bookshelves. It is nice to hear that the Bungalow aesthetic is finally making a comeback when sustainability is on the tip of everyone's tongue!

Designer as Therapist

More than a decade ago, I put together a series of special home furnishings inserts for a regional weekly newspaper called the TAB. Having never worked in publishing, I found the general atmosphere there much more poisonous than any other work environment that I had ever seen or experienced. Judging by what I was being paid, the pay scale must have been abysmal - what made it bearable for me was the positively delightful editor that I worked for. Coming off of a self-designed sabbatical, I had made a commitment to myself to try new and "fun" stuff and this gig - I thought - fit the description.

What jogged this memory for me was Home Is Where the Head in today's "New York Times Home and Garden" section. "Architects complain that they are asked to behave more like mental health professionals than designers, clients complain that their architects and their mates do not understand them, and the stories of couples coming asunder, or of clients suing their architects, are legion." Christopher K. Travis, an architectural designer in Texas has found a solution: "an exhaustive psychological and aesthetic compatibility exercise for would-be home builders that is part New Age self-help manual, part personality test."

I looked on my time at the TAB as a learning experience. What I learned is that the most successful residential designers had first been in some form of counseling - art therapist, sex therapist, sociology and even teaching. I finally came to understand why my initial forays into residential design had come to naught - I never found that counseling connection. In hindsight, a lesson learned - I finally understood why I found business much more interesting! (I also learned the few companies that were getting their money's worth from their p.r. agencies. I found small boutique agencies were happy to be helpful to a novice working with a circulation of 600.000, while larger agencies failed to follow up because they were busy putting out boilerplate releases. I am often curious whether anything has changed in the ensuing decade+.)

The "New York Times" story reinforces the importance of the psychological connection that we all have to our homes for those in the business of making and marketing products for the home.

Disney Innoventions Dream Home goes retrograde

David Rakoff puts it so well in his piece on Disney's new Innoventions Dream Home in the NY Times:
"...Art Nouveau and Arts and Crafts styles, all wood, warm earth tones and nailed-down knickknacks — a mildly hopeful and unthreatening place. One like today, only better. The future, such as it is, is hidden in the wiring behind the walls."

Yes, the new "idea house" is aspirational only in the McMansion sense, but the optimism of the 1957 "Future House" is missing. The images of the "Innovations Dream Home" have an insular bunker mentality about them. The company appears to be stuck in their successful past, rather than shooting for the stars in the idea world, as Walt Disney would have done.

Disney House of the future...very "Twilight Zone"

It is interesting to contrast this 1957 version of Disney's "House of the Future" with today's. Product placement is certainly not a new idea.

ROOM (Happenings in the box)

Is anyone living in this box? Life informs art and art informs life. An interesting take on the impermanence of materials.

Newly revived Wright Palette

When I purchased my 1890's Victorian house, the interior colors were comfortable and tasteful, if not exactly to my liking. I knew that the colors were not Victorian, but couldn't quite figure out their provenance until I toured Wright's Unity Temple in Oak Park. There was the palette that the previous owners had used throughout the house.

Suitable for today's organic aesthetic, Pittsburgh Paints has introduced a palette of Wright colors - the Fallingwater Inspired Colors. These colors have the same spirit that is present in Oak Park, with the inspiration that Wright found in the central Pennsylvania mountains. The colors have been authenticated by the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, the caretakers for Fallingwater. The area and house are well worth a weekend adventure.

Time Travel with "Classic Ad Watch"

As boomers approach retirement, marketers are asking: who are they and what do they want to buy today? Humans prefer the exciting and novel with a touch of the familiar. A good place to begin to get in touch with boomers psyche is on the jalopnik.com website - there you can watch the top 10 car ads of the 60's, 70's and 80's. The narratives, images, music and voice-overs truly allow you to travel back in time.

Germaine Kruip's "Counter Composition"

Germaine Kruip's kinetic art at the Armory in 2007.

Minimalism Lives On

The New York Times weights in on the new Jil Sander store in SOHO..."not a bag, shoe, or double-faced cashmere coat in sight," with an aptly titled article: It’s About...Nothing. Despite several changes in ownership, the new creative director Raf Simmons continues to respect Jil Sander's spirit of minimalism in his approach to both fashion and interior design. He collaborated with Germaine Kruip, a Dutch artist who works with space and light to create the interior of the new store. Although Sander stores have always been spare, it remains to be seen how long the space will show simply nothing.