August 2009
18 posts
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No Label Edition
Following the trend of de-branding, Absolut Vodka introduces their “No Label” Edition bottle, further emphasizing the company’s slogan: “In An ABSOLUT World, There Are No Labels”. The intent of the initiative is to challenge labels and prejudice caused by branding (which they have helped to perpetuate). In any case, this is interesting because the Abosult brand is the bottle, not the typeface...
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Smart Brand Extension
InCase the maker of protective phone and laptop cases is moving into making bookbags. They are using skater maverick Paul Rodriguez as an endorser to help them make the transition from handheld to carry-on casing. This makes complete sense to me. “Bookbags” are not so much about books anymore. The form we retreive information in is progressively digitalized. Laptop’s, mp3 players, GPS units...
New cattle
I’m reading Branding Only Works on Cattle, by Jonathan Salem Baskin. Its style is madly over-the-top, but Baskin’s quite right that ‘Consumers don’t interact with brands. They buy stuff, and purchase real things.’ Baskin’s attack is mainly on one particular view of branding - the old ad agency view that it’s about campaigns that get people to buy into a...
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DE-BRANDING
The Hundreds has an interesting interview with the founder of the brand formerly known as Freshjive, Rick Klotz regarding his recent de-branding of his label Freshjive. Read the whole article here. Klotz has decided to forego using any logos and branding starting spring 2010. According to Klotz:
“Within the streetwear culture, the promotion of a company’s brand has become downright silly to...
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Shopping around
More evidence that brand loyalty is becoming a thing of the past. The latest survey of the UK market by Experian shows the impact of the recession on increasingly fickle consumers. Half of all consumers say they are now less loyal than they used to be. Instead of sticking with a favourite brand, they’re shopping around: three quarters of consumers say they are increasingly price-aware. And...
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Kindle is a lovely thing
Travelling is a natural hazard of doing business, so it was a nice surprise yesterday when my wife presented me with a shiny new Kindle as an early birthday present.
It really is much better than I expected, and Amazon are clearly taking a page out of Apple’s book in terms of both the industrial design and the packaging (although shipping through USPS, with “Kindle” emblazoned...
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meditating on new york city
friday is my day for yoga.
while i walk to the gym nearly every morning (up west 4th street, across west 11th), today i noticed the following:
- dog poo (customary) - 3 used condoms (not as customary) - stomped-on cockroach - vomit - sleeping homeless man - various pieces of food/litter disgarded on the sidewalk - overflowing trashcans
as i sat in my yoga class i contemplated why it is that i...
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Truly Integrated Social Media + Retail
Facebook is stepping up its integration of social media and retail partners with its invention of “Facebook Storefronts”. Soon 20 stores can have more than just fans of their brand, but give their customers the ability to actually purchase items directly through Facebook.
“While retailers like “Sears, the department store, and Threadless, the T-shirt seller, both let users...
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RETRO BEER
For the first time the Northern United Brewing Company will be selling its wildly successful micro brew beers North Peak and Grizzly Peak in stores and restaurants. The new labels designed by Minneapolis-based studio Neatly Trimmed Beard are intended to replicate the ‘old-timey log-cabin vibe’ at Northern United’s brew pubs, the designers say. The new packaging will début in response to the...
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subway, bloody subway
new york
get your subway system sorted out
if there was ever a public transport service that needs a communications overhaul it’s the mta. it’s taken me 2 years to work out where i am and where i’m going - and that’s when i’m on the train!
yes, you’ve got a nice map. yes, you’ve got all these brightly colored circles - but down in the murky depths of...
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18 “DOCUMENTARIES” THAT BLUR THE LINE BETWEEN...
The AV Club has a nice list of documentaries that toe the line between reality and reel. Some common threads linking these films are that many of them never admit their fictional basis and often present the premise of the movies as straight-up fact, with the purpose of their ambiguity unclear.
What’s interesting about these documentary style films is that they reflect a lot of what is...
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