Spent a moment today exploring my bookmarks, when I stumbled upon this article from from FrogDesign, published last October. The article is called Change Agency and Transformologies
Understanding the power of design to facilitate positive change in the end-user. That title sums it up nicely. Really, isn’t marketing, advertising simply visual communication, a way of transmitting a message through visual clues? Marketers want to sell things and branders want to create a relationship, but in essence, it’s about communicating an ideas.

The “change agency” perspective of design adapts the idea that messages should be aspirational, products should have a positive effect, scare tactics pushed aside. From the article :

Personal transformation occurs through an alteration of thought and behavior. But facilitating change that endures beyond the moment of direct user-product interaction requires some knowledge of human motivation – in order to effect ongoing change in a user’s actions, we must also shape her values and beliefs. The rational model of persuasion can be a useful framework for understanding how design might assert its influence in the fulfillment of users’ aspirations.

The article defines a simple method of understanding beliefs and motivations:

Beliefs
(What I understand as fact. What I know.)
+

Values/Motives
(What I judge as good/bad. What I want. My self interest.)
=
Attitudes
(What I like and dislike.)

Behavior
(What I do. How I do it. What I say. How I say it.)

The article offers advice to designers by following these basic principles:
1. Shift focus, focus on the positive
2. Take baby steps towards the users positive transformation
3. Connect with your audience’s alter-ego by focusing on what they are capable of achieving
4. Don’t objectify!! (THIS IS A GREAT ONE!!)
5. Create community support around transformation
6. Prepare for obstacles and make moving through them OK
7. Send in the experts!

The article acknowledges that these strategies are easily adapted for brands whose goal is to improve health and fitness. Those brands have the intrinsic connection to transformation and can presume a level of personal aspiration. However, these same “principles of change” can be applied and adapted to any other marketing or branding challenge.

Great article! I urge you to read it, bookmark it, and apply it!

Now, we understand young Jimmy needs to make an extra buck so he can afford to go see his twelfth consecutive showing of Hellboy II, but from a product design perspective, well, now don’t take this the wrong way, but, honestly, you need to die, Jimmy.
Ok, maybe that’s a little harsh. Maybe we should just point out some no no’s in the branding/ -product design world, instead. If we do that, hopefully, hopefully, just one, one, of the young Jimmy’s in the world will stop designing products while simultaneously eating a frozen burrito and playing World of Warcraft at 3am.

A perfect product example that must have been designed by Jimmy after a fourth bong hit is Rize, one of the many brain-less alcohol- infused energy drinks that jumped into the energy drink market after Sparks, like a little kid sister wielding arm floaties running after you into the pool, screaming “Me too, I do it too!”

Let’s analyze the product design.

Ok, problem number 1: You wouldn’t be able to recognize it in a line-up of five cans. The black and red color palette is identical to other energy drinks: No Fear, Pit Bull, SoBe, Vamp NRG, and Transphusion.

Problem number 2: You can’t read the name. It’s lost in the image of a city skyline, with a steeple forming the I, or is it an A? So the product could easily have two names. Not so good for spreading a buzz about your product, especially if spreading a buzz is literally your bread and butter.

Problem 3: Ok, I know it’s a stretch, a big one at that, but say someone actually likes this drink, and wants to read more about the brand. Shouldn’t you have a website??? Yeah, it’s just a little something we here at jungle[8] noticed, but usually successful brands have websites. It’s just a little something that enables, oh, I don’t know, brand awareness, and oh, maybe a market for your product?

Problem number 4: Usually people want to know what they’re putting in their bodies, and that’s enabled by a little thing put on food and beverage products called “Nutrition Facts”. Yeah, Rize, you might want to consider slapping one of them bad boys on your can.

Problem 5: The Manufacturer named on the can, Heileman Brewing Co, no longer exists. If a company was bought out and absorbed over ten years ago, it might not be a good idea to name it on your product.

Ok, sorry Jimmy, we might have been a little tough on you. But sometimes we can’t help but respond to a bad product when it’s so good at being gloriously bad. Next time, instead of creating the hundred and ninth addition to an already-crowded market, how about investing the energy in an area that’s useful? Think a little before you make/design/manufacture. It’s called conscious design.

Otherwise, everyone’s just going to keep running, and you’re going to be left in your arm floaties, alone in the kiddie pool.

1. Create branded profiles and start groups on existing social networks. Prius drivers have already created their own Facebook user group - a real opportunity for Toyota, according to the report. “Users often connect to a brand or a cause as an expression of their online identities.”

Click to read the rest

…of course not, because it’s not “walkable” like our northern neighbor, San Francisco. SF bay scored a whopping 86 out of a possible 100 according to rankings released today by WalkScore.com, a service designed to help those seeking a less automobile-dependent life. According to the SF Gate:

San Francisco scored an 86 out of 100, besting New York’s 83 and Boston’s 79. Seventeen of San Francisco’s neighborhoods ranked 90 or above - considered a “walker’s paradise” - including Chinatown, the Mission, Nob Hill and Haight-Ashbury.

The article goes on to explain that high-density urban locals are more appealing because of the walkability angle. So, since no one walks in LA should we concentrate on more densely populating our urban-scape? Could that somehow reduce our carbon-footprints while increasing our Croc’s footprints.

Traditionally when times come for celebration, beer is synonymous of festivity. As barbecues are part of the anglo-saxon secular heritage, beers and especially Budweiser is an icon of the American culture.

The symbol of the American Brewery, the Anheuser-Busch ancestral family based in St Louis agreed last Monday to pass the scepter to Belgium renowned quality beer brewer, Stella-Artois. Isn’t it reassuring to know that the power stays in the beer circle?

The anger apart, the 25 billion pounds “sale-out” of an American experience to a foreign company consolidates the tendency of the market.

The current picture displays takeovers, mergers achieved by Europeans over the American market. It also reasserts the European supremacy on a worldwide scale. American breweries facing those strategic grand scale maneuvers to protect their products, brands have no solution but to merge as a retaliation move, to strengthen their position on their local market.

What will be Stella-Artois’ tactic?

According to my knowledge, Inbev, the conglomerate behind Stella-Artois has nothing to prove to the beer industry. Being the world’s leading brewer, Inbev is strongly anchored in 12 markets and is present in 130 countries. With a sales volume of 273,9 million of hectoliters, it realized 14,4 billion euro in 2007.

What is its secret then?

If I stick to their brand strategy, Inbev’s objective is to create a long-term relationship with its consumers by meeting their needs. But it’s more than this, it’s a complete cultural immersion. Here is my understanding. Each time Inbev conquered a market either it bought the leader in the field, either it created a brand that corresponded taste wise to the market. As you peruse at their operational zones each market has its original beer, they adapt a product targeting a market or keep the local champions. They reinforce thus the established consumers and their positioning. The incorporation of any brand to Inbev will propel the brand at the top in its local market.

Furthermore, Inbev is a large “multi-country brands”.  Not only does Stella-Artois represent Inbev but also Skol in Brazil, Beck’s in Germany, Sedrin in China, Alexender Keith’s in Canada… Every beer keeps its personality, authenticity and quality. Why would Budweiser be treated differently?

So what are the chances for Budweiser beer or taste to disappear from the American beer drinkers collective conscious? Won’t it be a glaring mistake to tactically ignore the American pride by sweeping away any trace of their culture…unless it will be for a better quality beer?

And isnt’ it a smooth and refreshing way to conquer a country, to open its choice borders, so far most of the beer imports come from Mexico with 11,997 923 hectoliters. In Inbev Northern America zone, Canada is their bigger consumer, the American market had a “snobbish” protectionist attitude.

Given that quality prevails in Inbev strategic marketing move why to worry, so far its beers still contain the original recipe ingredients malted barley, hops and yeast, isn’t it the main ingredient for fermentation?

As do most lunch events at jungle[8], the lunch conversation covered some interesting topics. Today’s talk was all about geeks, the “Geek Squad” at Best Buy, and the “Genius Bar” at the Apple Store.

The geek talk was kicked off by the notion that Lainie Liberti, la reina de (the “queen of” if your Spanish is malo) jungle[8], isn’t the “geek” she thinks she is. Lainie seems to think anyone who’s into science fiction, is tech savvy and intelligent is a geek. Lainie, being all of those three, lacks some very notable “geeky” attributes. For one thing, she isn’t a social outcast, and probably was a member of the “cool” crowd in high school—not a cheerleader, but probably one of the semi-rebellious trendsetter types. She wears glasses to use the computer and read, but she doesn’t need sonar without them off and has no pocket protectors. Lainie disagrees, claiming she played Dungeons and Dragons in her schoolgirl days. HA! Right now, we’re doing a background check on Lainie see if she really rolled the octagonal geek-dice. We’re skeptical.

What exactly is a geek anyway? The author of this post saw quite a few—he thinks—at the premiere of Hellboy 2, where he admired an exodus of geeky looking people with glasses eager to be the first to see their firey comic book hero grace the silver screen. Lainie argued the Hellboy 2 patrons were not geeks, but nerds. The author countered with his contention that geeks and nerds look the same.

OK, then, what about Best Buy and their “Geek Squad?” Are they truly geeks? Go to any Best Buy and try to find a true geek with the “Geek Squad” uniform on, and you may be bummed to meet a person less tech savvy than you, can’t fix your problem, appears to be less than thrilled to be helping you, and can’t wait to clock out. The “Genius Bar” at the Apple Store seems to have a slight geekiness edge of the Geek Squad—if arrogance and sarcasm are indications of intelligence. If you have audacity to show up at the genius bar with an ipod that isn’t totally broken, don’t be surprised if, after mister hipster-zits fixes it, points out your stupidity and asks you why you didn’t try holding down the “menu” and “pause” button for 10 seconds.

“Cool hunting” once dominated the marketing industry, who’s sole purpose was to predict emerging trends and quantify declining ones. Challenge? Find the next “thing”, stay on ahead of trends, align your brand with the early adapters and attain that every changing badge of “cool”. (Sheesh, the industry takes itself too seriously sometimes. Such a serious discipline, even author William Gibson dedicated an entire book to the to chasing the trends called Pattern Recognition.)

A new report released by PR firm Porter Novelli has declared the next group of culture makers are called “Greenfluencers”. Who are they? Here’s a quick run down:

• Educated
• Generally under 35
• Tech early adapters
• Ethnically diverse
• Politically diverse (And yes, according to the report, there even are some republicans in the mix)
• Physically active

Where do they shop?

• Target
• Home depot
• Kmart
• The Gap

Hmmmm… sounds pretty mainstream to me.

The overall survey and report results are interesting and of course it’s always important to know who you are marketing to but frankly there wasn’t anything earth shattering or unexpected results in this report.

I wonder, if the main intention of this study was indeed PR? After all, Porter Novelli is a PR firm. Download the report for yourself. Curious what your thoughts are….

Source: Sustainable Life Media

“• Engaged in secretive dialogues with carefully selected bloggers with the intention of slipping uncredited, Wal-Mart-approved spin into their seemingly spontaneous utterings;
• Offered unspecified emoluments to a consumers’ right website in return for their agreement to “stop writing about our companies,” including Wal-Mart;• Surreptitiously sponsored a blog by two seemingly ordinary Americans of their vacation tour of Wal-Mart’s parking lots, neither of whom disclosed their ties to Edelman.”

No question, these are shady tactics and props to Stumpette for giving a damn and making such a bold call-to-action. However, isn’t asking a P.R. firm to be truthful like asking Nike’s CEO to step down because Nike made ugly tennis shoes in 2008? Since the underlying mission of all P.R. firms is to dream up inventive ways to change perception, these three so-called offenses are really examples of Edelman just doing their job, albeit poorly. The Edelman scandals were widely publicized confirmation of the blogosphere’s vulnerability—like the conventional news media—to manipulation by corporate and government powers. Bloggers were equally responsible for this fiasco because they took the bribes and participated.

At the end of the day, bloggers are no more than people with pens. People are flawed, and that’s why the news, in case you didn’t know, is not and has never been a source of the truth. Behind every news story, print, or broadcast, is some sort of agenda, good or bad. Government officials and corporations have long used the media to manipulate their own public image and alter perception. P.R. firms like Edelman have raked in billions over the years crafting the strategies. What makes the blogosphere exempt from manipulation? Perhaps there are bloggers out there fantasizing about being part of a new media, one with total integrity, impervious to humanity’s evil forces, poised to save the world. This optimistic view is hardly realistic. As long as blogging involves people and keyboards, integrity will be a pipe dream.

More recently, Strumpette echoed Edelman’s announcement of their irony-laden plan to move forward with a policy of “authentic communications.” In other words, no more fake people writing fake blogs about “Wal-Marting Across America.” Is this a victory for the bloggers who ranted about Edelman’s devious tactics? Has peace, harmony and tranquility been restored? Edelman, no doubt will keep trying to shift perception in this world, using shady tactics now and then, but they’ll be slicker about it so they can avoid another of their own public relations disasters. The Edelman scandals were as much P.R. disaster for the blogosphere as they were for public relations firms. The blogging backlash was, essentially, the blogosphere doing it’s own P.R. work, and doing it pretty well. Who do you blame for the scandals—the little guy or the evil, international forces of greed and injustice? It’s always easy to root for the underdog, but both parties were equally responsible in this case. What’s all the fuss anyway? Do we actually expect anonymous people behind computers to have indefatigable integrity anyway? Please.

In defense of the “man” Edelman P.R., consider this—they do public relations for Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart is considered by many to be an evil corporation because they pay their workers low wages and don’t provide benefits, among many other mortal sins. Is working at Wal-Mart the only menial job that doesn’t pay well? No question, Wal-Mart should pay their workers a little more and provide better benefits, but what about Edelman Public Relations? They’re a multi-national corporation employing thousands of people worldwide. They pay their skilled employees a heck of a lot more than Wal-Mart does. The blogosphere managed to trash the reputation a company that provides gainful employment. So much for saving the working man and woman. If Edelman turned down work from companies like Wal-Mart on the basis of being noble, guess what happens? Profits go down and employees are laid off, meanwhile chances to do P.R. for better causes pro-bono are lost. Edelman been involved with some very noble causes in its history, despite what you may think, like, for example, helping Starkist Tuna figure out how to make all they’re fish products “Dolphin Safe” (term coined by Edelman P.R.). They may not be a completely “good” corporation (is there such a thing?), but they’re no Haliburton. The got caught with their hands in the cookie jar and, thankfully, were exposed blog entities like Strumpette, but there’s always another side to the story.

Stickers are fun, but what if the logo couldn’t be removed from the fruit? We’re targeted by advertising everywhere we look, and now it just might be staring back at you from your plate. Certain fruit grown in Dongguan, China have recently been featuring logos in the fruit itself, presumably created by application of a sticker of some sort during growth.

Wow. It seems the blank spaces in life are slowly being infiltrated more and more by the fingers of advertising. The water we drink is branded by the liter, the clothes we slip into are essentially wearable logos, the brand of device we communicate with often becomes more important than what we are saying on it. Our shoes leave a logo imprinted in the dirt as we walk, even our wide blue skies are being filled with ads written in the clouds, and banners flying by.

In our hyper visual culture, advertisers are grabbing every bit of space left, in an effort to make their mark in, or is it on, your mind?

So where will our culture eventually draw the line? What is too much? For over a hundred years is has been acceptable to brand cattle; will little Fifi the poodle now come home from the groomer with the pet shop’s name and contact info shaved across her bum? Will tattoo artists insist on including their logo in the bottom right corner of every tattoo they do? Will companies test the ultimate employee loyalty and effectiveness of ad executives by demanding they feature the company’s logo as a permenant implant on their hands?

Throughout history people have killed, sold rights, children, and usage of their body for money, is the next item on the market their skin? Apparently it is. People have auctioned off space on their heads for thousands of dollars on ebay. Certain restaurants offer free lunches for life to anyone willing to get their corporate logo tattooed on their body. The Great Northern Brewing Company holds contests, giving away a new Harley Davidson to the person with the biggest version of their “yahoo-in cowboy” logo. Even baseball teams have given away free lifetime season tickets to anyone willing to tattoo their logo on their body.

If it’s all about ad space, where will it stop? Our skies are filling up, ads are creeping onto our bodies. We’ll soon be selling out landscape we know as our dreams. I have some interesting product placement opportunities, if you are interested.