Marketing & Strategy Innovation Blog

Is Everyday Management a Social Threat to Employees?

mro — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 21:07:41 +0000

There’s a neat article by Reuters discussing how workers’ brains and management practices often work at cross-purposes. They cite, among others, Charles Jacobs, author of the book “Management Rewired,” recently reviewed here. An excerpt of the Reuters piece:

E 2.0 - Not Joining the Debate, but...

mro — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 20:47:41 +0000

by: Sigurd Rinde

Being 'diplomatic' I'm not going to step into the debate featuring Dennis, Susan, Nenshad and others... but I've been waiting and waiting for one benefit to be touted, an important but unplanned benefit (the only one?) I've seen in practice myself:

Forget About Harley and Apple

mro — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:57:41 +0000

Have you noticed that most conversations about branding inevitably include references to Harley-Davidson and Apple? Sprinkle in mentions of Coke, Facebook, and Zappos, and you get the context of every agency pitch for more spending on brand engagement, loyalty, or whatever else these examples might suggest.

Pew Internet Research on the Democratization of Social Networks

mro — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:14:41 +0000

Social network services users have gone from being classic early adopters (i.e. Male, highly educated, young to middle-aged, urban) to become every man and woman – with a continued skew towards youth and as diverse, if not more than the internet-using population.

Michael Bierut’s 5 Secrets of Design

mro — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:51:41 +0000

Michael Bierut of Pentagram and Design Observer fame, has shared some of his words of wisdom collected through his years as a designer. He digs through his 86 notebooks filled with his design work, and distills his thoughts down to 5 awesome design secrets.

How Teenagers – and Adults – Consume Media

mro — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:59:41 +0000

This is the unabridged, non-edited version of an article published at bnet.co.uk
The Morgan Stanley report entitled “media and the Internet, how teenagers consume media” is one of the most striking examples of instant information circulation on a global scale. Matthew Robinson — a 15 year-old trainee who was asked to put together a report on how his peers were using the media — no longer needs to work on his online reputation. In a flash, his report was on everyone’s lips (on everyone’s desktop rather) and widely used as a perfect representation of generation Y usage of media and – especially – the Internet.

Advertising in Violent Game Scenes

mro — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:41:41 +0000

Having blasted my way through Carmageddon all the way to the streets of San Andreas and Pripyat, I'm no stranger to cartoony violence, but somehow slaughtering helpless civilian crowds wholesale just feels off. This leaked video is from the upcoming Modern Warfare 2 shooter that hits the stores on November 10th and has already broken Gamestop's pre-order records.

Crowdfunding Artistic Projects Through Kickstarter

mro — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:38:41 +0000

Brooklyn-based Kickstarter enables people to "crowd-fund" new artistic projects (books, movies, films, etc.) and then follow along the progress of the project through regular updates. In my first-ever Kickstarter project, I helped to crowd-fund a new book from Robin Sloan (a former Current TV exec and aspiring novelist) after reading about it on CNET:

The Basics of Social Media ROI

mro — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:03:41 +0000

The last post of our guide to Getting Started in Social Media looked at measurements and how brands should be ruthless about ROI. This presentation from Oliver Blanchard is a great introduction to social media ROI and how you should conceive of it and then measure it. It’s also quite amusing in parts and so is Required Reading this week at FreshNetworks

When Wal-Mart Enters the Funeral Industry, the Business Is About to Change. Will Amazon.com Follow? What's the Latest Innovation in the Funeral Busines?

mro — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:58:41 +0000

Some survey stated that the average person's greatest fear is having to give a speech in public. That’s not for me but I am sure for many. I remember one guy told he when he was put on stage in front of 800 people, the dead silence was like death. Giving a speech in public ranked even higher than death which was third on the list. So, you're telling me that at a funeral, most people would rather be the guy in the coffin than have to stand up and give a eulogy.

Six Social Media Trends For 2010

mro — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:54:41 +0000

Originally posted on The Harvard Business Review blog

In 2009 we saw exponential growth of social media. According to Nielson Online, Twitter alone grew 1,382% year-over-year in February, registering a total of just more than 7 million unique visitors in the US for the month. Meanwhile, Facebook continued to outpace MySpace. So what could social media look like in 2010? In 2010, social media will get even more popular, more mobile, and more exclusive — at least, that's my guess. What are the near-term trends we could see as soon as next year? In no particular order:

Text Is the New Multimedia

mro — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:13:34 +0000

(NOTE: This essay draws on a chapter in my new book, Bright Lights & Dim Bulbs, which identifies nine radical branding and marketing insights for innovative business leaders to watch as we roll into 2010)

My Reading Journal: Morten Hansen’s “Collaboration”

mro — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:49:03 +0000

I’ve finished a few books recently but am a bit behind on reviewing them. My kids have started documenting their books in reading journals that help them with reading comprehension. To add a bit of variety (and to make sure I’m not getting lazy), I’m going to use the reading journal format for this week’s reviews.

25 Must-Read B2B Marketing Blog Posts

mro — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 19:58:41 +0000

Instead of scouring the web in search of the latest insight on B2B marketing tactics and trends, consult our list of 25 must-read B2B marketing posts. Find out what these influential marketing bloggers have to say about B2B social media, landing page optimization, search marketing, marketing ROI, and other B2B marketing techniques.

Three Reasons Twitter Lists Are Great (and Two Areas for Improvement)

mro — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:23:52 +0000

It would seem that this week Twitter has been releasing Lists to everybody. A lot has been written about this move and the differences it makes to Twitter and the way people will use it. For me, it makes a significant difference to the way users will use Twitter. It allows you to segment the people who are interested in on Twitter and group people who write about similar things or that you know for similar reasons or from similar places.

Send Teenagers Into Space

mro — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 21:27:41 +0000

No, I'm not being a grumpy parent. A nonprofit organization hopes to send as many as 200 teachers into space each year aboard private rockets. I think we should launch teenagers there instead.

Random Thoughts: From Aviva Community Fund to Positive Social Change to Women Empowerment

mro — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 20:38:41 +0000

I was so excited that our Aviva Community Program is getting such good response even before the official launch. It is a very important project for both our client and IC because it is something we truly believe in. It is about 1/ Empowering change in our communities while building brand 2/ Prove that social media is not a hype and if you use it right it is the most powerful communication medium 3/ Authenticity is the key ingredient of marketing, this program is about action and not just words. Check out the program here. It is truly where "Marketing Innovation" meets "Social Innovation".

P&G’s Strategic Review of Brands Isn’t Really Strategic

mro — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 21:19:41 +0000

The Wall Street Journal today reported that Procter & Gamble’s new CEO, Robert McDonald, had put a number of brands on notice that they had to improve results or risk being sold off.

Cap and Trade: A Tangled Web of Good Intentions and Bad Policy – Part 2

mro — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 20:52:41 +0000

In the first part of this post I identified 10 features of cap and trade, the favored climate policy of many policy elites at this point in time, that make the policy ineffectual. I outlined how cap and trade was sold to America and the world based on faulty assumptions as well as its superficial political appeal to the then Clinton Administration.

The Sustainability Challenge Is Complex. Is Ecolabelling the Answer or Just Another Greenwashing Tool?

mro — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 21:02:41 +0000

No one will disagree that today’s customer is empowered like never before. With social media and other connectivity, they are able to acquire more detailed information about brands, products and services in order to make smarter decisions; everything is just a few clicks away. Any green-washing or eco-washing can last only for a few clicks. Customers can access new knowledge about the behavior of companies and can more readily question and challenge this behavior.

We Have an Innovation Problem, and It Is Miles and Miles of Indistinguishable Stuff

mro — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 20:41:41 +0000

I learned today that Axe Body Spray for Men is running an ad in Uruguay where readers sending an SMS to their address receive on their phone the missing bits of a picture of a beautiful woman. (Those bits are clothed, BTW.)

Slow Design: 13 Years to Get This Wooden Radio Right

mro — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:39:41 +0000

Edit: An irate Design Sojourn reader has highlighted to me that this is Green Washing at its best. Mahogany trees takes 10 years to mature before it can be cut down. I have responded directly to her, but I also would like to hear your feedback on this?

Some Thoughts on Twitter vs. Facebook Status Updates

mro — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:53:41 +0000

The functional act of constructing a tweet or a status update is very similar. Produce text in roughly 140 characters or less inside a single line text box and click a button. Voila! Even the stream based ways in which the text gets consumed look awfully similar. Yet, the more I talk with people engaged in practices around Twitter and Facebook, the more I'm convinced these two things are not actually the same practice. Why? Audience.

Cap and Trade: A Tangled Web of Good Intentions and Bad Policy – Part 1

mro — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:28:41 +0000

I favor some of the more aggressive actions to avert climate catastrophe, actions which nevertheless do not compromise the continuity of human life and well-being. The climate which enabled our evolution as a species and the societies upon which we depend has almost no price attached to it. Averting this calamity, if we can, is the moral equivalent of war.

Getting Started 4: Track and Evaluate the Success You Are Having

mro — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 18:55:41 +0000

For any brand getting started in social media, the most important thing is to be able to show the impact you are having. To be able to evaluate and assess what is working and what isn’t having the results that you might expect. To show the return on investment that your efforts are having and how this compares to other methods.

Introducing … the Green Confidence Index

mro — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:59:41 +0000

Today marks the launch of a new monthly index, the Green Confidence Index, aimed at tracking Americans' attitudes about and confidence in their leaders and institutions, nationally and locally, on the subject of environmental responsibility, as well as in their own understanding of issues and their willingness to make green purchasing choices. It is the first comprehensive monthly tracking of consumers' green attitudes and purchasing.

Algorithm Fetishism or What Facebook Gets Wrong

mro — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:38:41 +0000

My Facebook news feed is overflowing with people complaining about the changes to Facebook’s news feed/live feed. They boil down to two complaints (1) the news feed has too little and (2) the live feed has too much.

Getting Started 3: Have a Go and Experiment with Social Media

mro — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:28:41 +0000

There are too many stories of brands having tried and failed to use social media effectively. It may have been a disaster or, more usually, just not have had the impact and return on investment for the brand as it might have had. The most effective way to avoid this is to make sure that when you are getting started in social media you have done some effective planning first.

China Needs a National Design Policy. But More So, Needs Entrepreneurs That Think Big and Long-Term

mro — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 21:12:41 +0000

China's design industry experts are calling for greater government support in order to help the their manufacturers raise the competitiveness with design innovation. Zhu Tao, president of China Industrial Design Association, said the Chinese economy suffered heavily from the global economic crisis, with factory closures and layoffs. "Without our own design, we won't have our own brands. Without our own brands, we won't be independent in the world. Being an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) is no way out," he said. China does have a design policy. Not even the US has one.

How to Talk About [Whatever It's Called]

mro — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 20:52:41 +0000

Do people care about the climate?

It's an open question these days, and opinion polls offer little help. Some show that climate ranks fairly low among public concerns, while others indicate a high level of concern among the populace. And in the run-up to the Copenhagen climate summit, now a mere six weeks away, those opinions count for something, particularly in the United States, where lawmakers are looking to be swayed one way or another.

Live TV and Real-time Chat: X Factor and Strictly Come Dancing

mro — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 20:55:41 +0000

Watching TV is almost always a social experience. We talk to the people in the room with us. We talk to our friends on the phone, by instant messenger or on Facebook. We talk to people with similar interests in forums and chat rooms. Some of us even just shout at the TV on our own. However we do it, TV often makes us want to talk, share opinions and express ourselves. And some TV programmes make us want to do this more than others.

Send SMS to Complete This Ad

mro — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 21:38:41 +0000

This Axe ad from Uruguay is the best mobile "send SMS and get something" implementation I've seen. Send a text message after dark to a phone number listed on the ad, and you'll get the missing fragment of the picture. Good teaser, meaningful payback. Very smart.

Getting Started 2: What Do You Want to Achieve?

mro — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 20:54:41 +0000

In the first part of our guide to getting started in social media, we looked at buzz tracking. Why brands benefit from understanding who is currently talking about them online, what they are saying, to whom and where. Once you have an understanding of what is currently being said about your brand in social media, you will be much better informed about the issues of interest to people, the opinions they have, who your influencers and advocates are and where you can start to engage with people in social media. The next step is to work out what you actually want to achieve.

Innovators Are the New Untouchables

mro — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 21:12:41 +0000

In an op-ed piece for the New York Times, Thomas Friedman riffs on American economic competitiveness and the state of our nation's educational system. Friedman suggests that companies are once again placing a premium on innovators and out-of-the-box thinkers:

A Simple Life or Green Living Are Not the Solutions. They Distract Us from the Real Number One Problem

mro — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 20:18:41 +0000

I was hearing a group of designers here in Boston saying that the only way to solve our sustainability problems is to simplify our life and go back to creating less garbage. They went on to suggest that if the government decides to stop collecting garbage, and they end up piling up in our backyard or frontyard, we would then feel the problem and start living a simple life - a radical idea but a silly one that doesn’t work. Why don’t we go back to riding horses and we do that, we will have some serious horseshit problem to deal with.

VW to Launch New Model with iPhone Advergame

mro — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 20:08:41 +0000

AdAge today: "Volkswagen of America is launching the newest-generation GTI exclusively on an iPhone app." The entire launch budget for the new model is estimated $500K instead of the customary $60M, since the game is the only thing VW is doing. Fail or win, this is bound to end up in everyone's PowerPoint decks, so I went in to take a few pictures as a matter of public service.

What You Think about Age Depends on How Old You Are

mro — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 17:58:41 +0000

Buried away in this 164 page report, just published by the Department for Wages and Pensions about the attitudes of Brits to age are some fascinating and a somewhat disturbing findings.

The research in this report is based on secondary analysis of data from five national surveys (with a total of 6000 respondents).

AARP Video - Boomer+ Interrogation

mro — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 21:47:41 +0000

AARP recently created this trade video as a mechanism for overcoming the objections it receives from prospective advertisers regarding the targeting of the 50-plus market.

Good Design Is Still about Doing Good Work

mro — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 21:19:41 +0000

Joe Duffy’s “Demystifying Design: An Argument for Simplicity” is a great little piece that calls out Design like it should be. Here is my favorite bit:

What is design? It begins with ideas–ideas based in purpose. It requires a plan or a process. It yields innovation, invention or creation. It is successful if it elicits response–attention, desire, interaction or purchase.

Do Something Instead of Doing Things to Get Something Done

mro — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 20:59:41 +0000

by: Sigurd Rinde

What if we could shift the whole world to renewable energy sources, feed and educate all children at no extra cost nor resource use?

What if you could double your bottom line without cutting costs?

Innovation at the Bottom of the Pyramid

mro — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 20:38:41 +0000

The traditional view of global innovation is that innovation from developed markets eventually "trickles down" to emerging markets in the form of lower-end, less-sophisticated products at lower price points. Think OLPC. Yet, in countries like India, it's increasingly the case that innovation actually "trickles up" to more developed nations when products are completely re-engineered and re-thought practically from scratch.

Teaching, Nursing, and Second Wave Feminism

mro — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 20:51:41 +0000

I am deeply grateful for all that was accomplished by second wave feminism. I love living in a world in which my job opportunities are not constrained because of what's between my legs. That said, I also struggle with the externalities of the accomplishments in the 1970s. This week, I found myself thinking about the role of teaching and nursing in society and the relationship between feminism and those professions.

Getting Started 1: Do You Know What People Are Saying about You?

mro — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 20:18:41 +0000

When brands are getting started in social media, they really benefit from understanding who is currently talking about them online, what they are saying, to whom and where. After auditing what your brand footprint currently is, you can begin to make decisions about where you should have a presence, the issues of interest to people in social media and the discussions and debates that your brand can both benefit from and contribute to.

Life’s Going To Be Interesting in the UK Care Market

mro — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 19:53:57 +0000

Housing 21 is a not-for-profit social housing landlord that has acquired the quoted homecare provider Claimar Care. You might wonder why this is interesting.

Reason one – you don’t often/ever get a non-profit organisation acquiring, via a takeover, a listed company. Reason two – it illustrates the potential of the care market for radical consolidation.

How Brands Can Get Started in Social Media: A Guide

mro — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 19:46:45 +0000

Last week, I was interviewed for an article in the Independent about how brands should be using social media. Whilst some of the other interviewees talked about how brands could use the like of Twitter, I took a step back:

Sleek Multi-Touch Interface Gets Your Hands out of the Way!

mro — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 21:18:41 +0000

The problem with a touch screen interface is that your finger tends to block the GUI (graphic user interface) object you are engaging. On small screens with just a single finger (or digit) it is not that big of a deal. However on a multi-touch interface where you use more than one finger, viewing problems start to arise. This problem gets compounded when a multi-touch interface moves to a larger screen, where you would use all five fingers for a full gestural input.

Sustainability: What Matters Most?

mro — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 20:58:41 +0000

I’m a big fan of analogies; one of my favorites is equating customer relationships with personal, romantic relationships. If you ask a woman about the kind of guy she wants to marry, she might say, “handsome, rich, successful and exciting.” Fast-forward a few years and we see whom she actually marries: maybe a nice, average, middle-class bald guy who happens to be the best listener and makes her feel special. Perhaps these attributes that tipped the scale were ones that she didn’t anticipate or know how to value until she experienced them.

Twitter vs the British Press (the Cases of Carter Ruck and Jan Moir)

mro — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 20:48:41 +0000

Two things this week have shown the weakness of the traditional media outlets in the face of online communities of people. On Monday a judge issued an embargo on the Guardian newspaper to stop it reporting a question that was asked in the House of Commons. Within 18 hours not only had this embargo been lifted, but the question itself had possibly become the most reprinted and widest spread question ever raised in the British Parliament.

Building the Business Case

mro — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 20:04:41 +0000

Your company has been progressing nicely up the sustainability curve from compliance to cost savings. The next logical step is reputation and revenue generation, and it’s here that many sustainability pros hit a roadblock.

Twitter to Business Users: You Are Now on Double Secret Probation

mro — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 20:01:41 +0000

As far as business use I have always seen and used Twitter as an information gathering tool with an allowance for just a smidge of promotion. I am deeply appreciative of the valuable links and insight posted by those I follow and try to return the same in kind. I've also endured plenty of Twitter spam, as a whole probably no worse than the amount of email spam I get. I do appreciate Twitter's desire to reduce spam.

Vendors Are Talking: Grocer Is “Not Going to Let Someone Steal My Customer”

mro — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 19:23:41 +0000

Language, especially spoken language, is very revealing when it comes to someone’s values. This is why corporate executives are subjected to media training to keep them on message while speaking in public – meaning, of course, to appear to say something while not really saying anything.

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about the UK’s Digitally Excluded

mro — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 20:18:41 +0000

I have already written about the campaign that is sort of going on to get more people in the UK online.

Anyway, this week a report was published that quantified the economic benefit of getting everybody in the UK surfing and twittering. A tidy little sum of £22 Billion. My first thought was: “I wonder what the benefit would be of getting everybody in the UK able to read?” Don’t let’s start thinking about that subject….

Counterculture, Cyberculture and Innovation: the Strange Case of Stewart Brand

mro — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 19:58:41 +0000

A couple of years ago, at the end of this post on the crossover between Web 2.0 and anarchism, I wrote that I'd started reading Fred Turner's From Counterculture to Cyberculture: Stewart Brand, the Whole Earth Network and the Rise of Digital Utopianism, and suggested I might be blogging about some of the ideas in it.

The 6 Types of Last.fm Friends

mro — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 19:15:41 +0000

I’ve been continuing to analyze the data I collected about friendships on Last.fm. Last week I presented a paper at Internet Research 10.0 in Milwaukee co-authored with Kiley Larson, Andrew Ledbetter, Michelle McCudden and Ryan Milner in which we combined quantitative analysis of motivations people had for friending with qualitative answers to questions about what they get out of friending.

Why Thought Leadership Is Your Most Valuable Asset

mro — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 19:02:41 +0000

As a B2B marketer, thought leadership is one of the most valuable assets your brand — or you — can attain.

In down economies, prospects conduct even more research leading up to the purchase. This means B2B marketing professionals must help educate prospects in the early stages of the buying cycle; doing this well can help frame their buying process and establish your brand as a trusted advisor that understands their problems and knows how to solve them. Therefore it's more vital than ever for your organization to be viewed as an industry leader and trusted resource for all key stakeholders: customers, media, analysts, investors and everyone in between.

Creative Capitalism + Social Innovation = New Social Enterprises that Make Money and Change the World

mro — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 20:08:41 +0000

We need more (and more innovative) social enterprises and I really want to see a top tier MBA programs with specialization in Social Enterprises. Call it B-school needs S-school. There are so many problems out there and sometimes we feel we are almost giving up. Our capitalist system is not adjusting well to these shocks. It is almost pointless for these endless debates on how things got to this point and who is to blame. The point remains: We've got to change it—and change it fast – and change it for the better.

The Value of Visual Thinking

mro — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 19:39:41 +0000

Originally posted on The Collaboratory.

I'm leaving for Las Vegas later this week to speak at Blogworld. I'm on a panel discussing the intersection of social media and brands, but what I'm really excited about is a presentation on Friday where I will discuss the value that visual thinking can bring to any organization.

Considering the Mind: Mini-reviews of “Buy-ology,” “Free Market Madness,” “Management Rewired”

mro — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 14:42:41 +0000

These three recently-published books take research on cognitive science and behavioral economics and apply it to business and public policy. A common theme – people aren’t particularly logical, and this has huge impacts on how they behave, yet our business practices and government regulations often ignore this.

Social Enterprises Will Become the Next Big Global Brands. But Not All Social Enterprises Are the Same

mro — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 21:41:41 +0000

Let me make a prediction, 10 of the top 100 most popular brands in 5 years time will be Social Enterprise Brands. What are they? They are a new form of organizations. We see more and more development of a mixed economy of companies coming together to further progress on social, economic & environmental well being. Expect to plenty of innovation where Social Technologies meet Social Enterprises.

Sit Straight, Build Confidence

mro — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 21:09:41 +0000

We know that making ourselves smile or frown can actually influence our mood, and now it seems that the posture we assume can affect our confidence in our own thoughts. A study by Richard Petty, who apparently is not the NASCAR driver but rather a professor at Ohio State University, demostrated the effects of sitting up straight:

Selling Corporate Blogging to Your Boss? Don’t Mention ROI!

mro — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 20:52:41 +0000

important notice: this is the unabridged version of a post published at Bnet.co.uk

One is often told that getting the buy-in for a Social Media initiative requires some solid ROI calculation. One would have to weigh the pros and cons, how much it costs, try and evaluate the effort which is required, measure it and translate it into pounds, shillings and pence. And profit should also come into play, since it is deemed inappropriate for a new project to be set up without a clear definition of how much revenue it brings.

Project Gaydar and Online Privacy (or What You Might Be Telling the World)

mro — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 18:27:25 +0000

An experiment by students at MIT has shown that they were able to ’successfully’ predict the sexuality of people based on their friends on Facebook. The so-called ‘Project Gaydar’* showed that by looking at information that a person’s friends share online (in this case, their gender and sexual preferences) they were able to learn something about an individual themselves, even if their profile had high levels of privacy.

Dannii, Danyl and Instant X-Factor Feedback

mro — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 21:10:38 +0000

Guest Post by: Charlie Osmond

Dannii Minogue, an X-Factor judge, lost her mind for a minute. Twitter and the social web went wild. Could the speed of this feedback help Simon Cowell and his team define the appropriate response?

Customer or Consumer, Who Are You Really Designing for?

mro — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 21:01:54 +0000

Many of us have been taught in design school to be very user focused when seeking design solutions. However if you have been in the industry as long as I have, there is this insidious sickness that tends to influence this fundamental approach we have with design.

The Permanent Sale

mro — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 20:45:41 +0000

Jos. A. Bank is running a big sale this weekend. Wait a minute, it seems that it runs a big sale every weekend. Buy one, get two free. 50% off all merchandise. There are endless permutations of the deal, but they all center on putting the store pretty much in permanent fire sale status.

Got Branding?

mro — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 20:19:41 +0000

The last time I wrote about Nabisco’s Oreo brand, it was in Mega-Branding: The Purple Oreo Problem. In that post I was critical of the seemingly crazy proliferation of Oreo variations – 46 offerings, including “Purple.” My criticism was based on research showing that offering consumers too many choices can reduce sales.

All Nippon Latest Innovation - Pre-Boarding Toilet Monitors

mro — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 21:07:41 +0000

Can design change the world? Or at least let’s try to change healthcare. Or shall we start with our education system? There are plenty to change and no shortage of ideas. Do we need more new and cool products? Or we just need products that last? Or products that are cheap to repair and not throwaways that are costing our environment?

How We Decide

mro — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 20:33:41 +0000

Book Review: How We Decide by Jonah Lehrer

Jonah Lehrer has been translating neuroscience into prose comprehensible by the lay reader for years, and How We Decide helps readers understand and even apply current research in the process of human decision-making.