on: Icons

I love the new iPhone. A friend of mine just got one. It has a light saber in it that moves with the accelerometer. Are you kidding me? This may sound like a geeky toy, and it is, but what a toy! The iPhone is an icon, a veritible Renoir, or Monet, of product design. Icon is the perfect word, because an icon is something that is purely self referential. And here is why I love the iPhone so much: There is no logo on the front of the device.

The Instinct and the Dare are relying heavily on logo placement to distinguish their device. I'll 9 out of 10 people really couldn't tell you what each looked like. My mom just bought a Dare recently. She couldn't tell me what it was, only that it had a touch screen, "you know, like the iPhone."

If we spend more time on product design: really nailing our inputs, working out the bugs in the preproduction phase, and building iconic products, we wouldn't have to spend so much money on promotion. I realize that not every product is going to be a category changer, but the hell don't we try harder to create them. I mean really, would you rather have the ROKR or the RAZR project on your resume. Most of us aren't in the c suite where the real decisions get made. Try and make a difference where you are, with have what you have, the best you can. or, if you're at a company where management doesn't want to change the game, find one that is (they are out there). Or start it. They is less and less room in the world for the middle class. Like no other time in history. Read Tom Friedman's Lexus & the Olive Tree it you don't believe me, written 10 years ago, and many of his globalization predictions have come to pass with startiling accuracy.

Brands require more than clever icons to survive; they require iconic products. (ref: pets.com)

on: Crafting Brands

I received a Briggs and Riley Carryon Garment Bag as a gift for my birthday last month. First things first, this bag is clever. I have a garment bag that I almost never use because I can't carry it on. For most trips, it's too big, and one the trips where I want to check a bag, I usually take something the size of a duffle. This garment bag folds up into a carryon size, and unlike many compromise products, this one actually pulls it off.

But something else about the bag "fell into my lap" when I was putting it into the closet at my hotel. The guarantee card. The first thing that struck my eye was the brilliantly executed design of the card, bright orange highlighted with blue and gray. And then the real kicker, check this out:

"If your Briggs & Riley bag is ever broken or damaged, even if it was caused by an airline, we will repair it free of charge. Simple as that!"

That is what branding is all about. Do the right thing, do it the first time, and over deliver. You want customers to want your product, give them something worth wanting. Give them an experience worth experiencing. No manufactured BS. No "viral" marketing, just good 'ol Main Street common sense. Take care of your customer and they will take care of you. That's the best branding I know.

on: Pura Vida

If this video doesn't make you smile, vc nao tem jeito!

on: Consumerism

Everybody has voids in their lives, whether its between ourselves and our goals, our spirits and our God, our fork and our mouth, whatever; there are voids. And as varied as the voids are, even more diverse are the ways we seek to fill them. Many turn to workaholicism (now a word), religion, exercise, or pathological eating. I have usually turned to obsessive exercise and religion, as I personally feel that many of us feel a natural separation from our heavenly home, but I read something this morning that really irked me. May be irk isn't quite the right verb, but it gave me pause. I was reading an interesting slideshow on the meaning of luxury in a mass marketing world, and how we can create products, like the iPod, or the Starbucks Latte, that have a certain "massclusivity," i.e. they present themselves as luxury items that are owned by only those in the know, and yet, because of the relative purchasing power of an average American household, are as ubiquitous as McDonalds. Anyways, back to the point. What gave me pause was this slide: "Marketing becomes the ultimate social practice of postmodern consumer culture, it now plays an important role in giving meaning to life through consumption."

I am a bit of a cynic, and this may seem like an easy target, but I believe there is much more to life than owning the right bag, car, perfume, shoe, etc. Marketing has truly become the enemy, as now not only are we giving people things they don't need (a common assumption) but now we have replaced Buddha, Moses, Mohammed, and Jesus as the dispensers of meaningful life. I am disgusted at this assertion because of two facts, one: I believe this life is only a piece of a much larger journey, and that part of this life is learning to discern between what's nice and what's necessary. People are losing focus on what matters. This same presentation identifies growing trend in America. We no longer find meaning in production, but only in consumption. While I disagree that this is endemic of everyone, I do believe it is a growing epidemic.

America, as a whole, has forgotten many of the values espoused by our "Greatest Generation," those raised in and around the two world wars. Work was always its own reward. Now luxury is an expected reward for those who have not worked. We have not only moved from a producer culture to a consumer culture, but I would argue we have gone one step further to an entitlement culture. Young people have an increasing belief that life owes them their every desire, without any effort on their part. If you wonder why our economy is headed into the toilet, look around. People bought things they didn't need, with money they didn't have, at prices they couldn't afford. We keep pumping the credit bubble, consumer credit debt exceed the national debt, with our entitled expectations of luxury goods we can't afford. Cars, homes, clothes, take your pick. It doesn't take a microscope to see that you can't make $50,000 a year and buy $300 a pair jeans, live under a half a million dollar mortgage, and lease two new cars every two years. If we want to be luxury consumers we must do what luxury consumers have done throughout the centuries: a. be born into a royal family or b. bust your bourgeoisie butt until you have enough in the bank to look like the royals. Credit won't get you there, and stealing has some rather unpleasant strings attached. We have attached social status to consumption, not production, and we are raising the greatest generation of whiners to every set foot on our soil. Don't begrudge the Latino driving the brand new lifted Dodge, chances are he or she paid cash. And while they may not have a legal social security number, you may want to check your pride at the door when you look at the REAL value they are creating. I say it's time we quit filling our voids with goods and start filling up on hard work and value creation.

Check out Luxury Brand Marketing in the Culture of Accelerated Meaning

on: Spirituality

I spent the weekend with my Dad playing golf and lapping up his wisdom. Golf, I came to see, after 54 holes in 2 days, is a lot like life. I present the parable of the "Second Shot."

1. And it came to pass that the master of the golf course spoke to his son on said tee box, "Hit it big my boy."
2. And it came to pass that he drove the ball many furlongs to the center of the short trimmed grass.
3. And their was much rejoicing.
4. Yea, the son rejoiced and taunted his father saying, "Beat that, thou who art old and gray of hair."
5. And many shots came to pass among the others. And it came time again for the son to strike the small white ball. And God smote his swing, that he stubbed the ball into the ground.
6. And the father rejoiced silently, saying in himself, "Thou shalt not taunt thy father."
7. Yea and the son was humbled by his old man, and carried within him the lesson.

So yeah, if you hit the ball a long way and celebrate (in such a way as to get penalized in pro-football) God will help you find a little humility on the second shot. It's pretty much the eleventh commandment, "Thou shalt not do the "Dirty Bird" after driving the ball more than 300 yds onto the fairway." I'm pretty sure he wrote after Moses left the mount. Too bad Moses didn't have a Blackberry. That sure would have made things easier.

on: Inspiration

More great work from our friends at smashLAB. I love the nav over the banner. Nothing spectacular, I just like the idea. Definitely going into the grabbag.

on: Politics

I'm left without a candidate in this election. What's a socially moderate, fiscally responsible republican to do? The following article from an Aspen, CO newspaper seems to encapsulate my thoughts perfectly. Remember, there's one special interest group that is feeling a little left out of this election. Please, don't forget the angry white man.