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Dreaming IKEA?

I discovered the new IKEA Dream Kitchen concept thanks to Adverblog. It's a genuinely innovative creation by leading Swedish agency Forsman & Bodenfors. This snapshot I captured whilst wandering through various kitchens. It looks more like a scene from an ad for Smirnoff than IKEA.

This gets the 'you must go to the website' stamp from me. The thing I love most is that the potential of online as a marketing medium is being explored. It's refreshing to see. I see too many examples of websites that look like online versions of brochures.
The IKEA dream kitchen site pulls me into and allows me to walk through it and twist and turn as I choose. It's similar to walking around in a virtual world like Second Life.

Because of this, IKEA means something more to me. I have connected with IKEA at a different emotional level. They have my attention. But I still don't like the way IKEA trap me in those humongous stores. They take hours to get through as I follow the arrows on the floor. It's like being in a maze. I feel differently about IKEA in their online world. There I'm free to explore. Perhaps the virtual world will influence the way we experience the real world?

Lost in translation

No - not the movie. It's my reality. We've recently completely redesigned one of our websites, My Emoticons. Next step is getting the site translated into a few languages. I've tried the robotic computer translation services. My experience is a lot gets lost in translation.

The way I write for My Emoticons is quite cheeky and quirky. It's standard English with a twist. I needed someone to help with translation who 'get's it'. That is, gets the vibe and personality of My Emoticons. But my budget for translation was tiny. Really tiny.

This is where networks became really important to me. Fortunately I have quite an extensive international one. I emailed everyone I could think of to politely ask (or beg) for some help. Could they help or did they know someone?

The result. I connected with Anna in Italy who connected me with Patricia in Ecuador who connected me with Jonathan who is I don't know where. Meanwhile I connected with Rodrigo in Mexico. That's three languages out of five sorted. Phew! My Dutch friend couldn't help but emailed me a list of Danish sites that might help. That's nearly four.

Lost...and now found. If you've not read Keith Ferrazzi's book 'Never Eat Alone' it's well worth a read. It's in my top ten and has some really practical advice for building relationships. It's written by Keith, who shares his experience in an open and honest manner. He just says it as it is. It's real. That's why I like it.

Blogging drought

I live in Noosa. Late August we experienced floods. Simultaneously I was experiencing blogger's drought. Why? I've spent a lot of time thinking about why. I had ideas but I couldn't bring myself to write.

I think I was approaching blogging with the wrong attitude. I needed some time out to do some 'attitude alteration'. To get some perspective.

Here's what was going wrong:

1. I thought a post had to wow and impress. Wrong. It just had to communicate something. Anything.
2. I thought I needed affirmation from others to blog. I wanted comments. Lots of them. Even though everything I read told me not to do this, I tripped up over my shoelace and fell over.
3. I got overwhelmed with all the conversations. I like things in neat packages and let's face it, who can really understand the overwhelming amount of conversations going on out there - somewhere? I wanted to get it all straight in my head. Simply impossible. Like a river, I just have to go with the flow and see where I end up.

So now I'll blog because I want to. Without putting pressure on myself to be perfect. Instead I'll just be. The drought is over. Lesson learnt.

A manifesto of fonts

This is an interesting take on an 'About Us' page in terms of both the language and the use of fonts. It's caught my attention and made me read on. I liked the way Chictoday share their purpose through an inspirational manifesto. The first paragraph written in an array of fonts is free from 'corporate speak' or 'business speak'. It's human and I like it (click to see the larger version unless you want an eye test).

If they'd carried this on into the second paragraph it would have been great. Then comes the...'unrivalled environment', 'compelling contents' 'stunning and elegant designs'. It's at this point I disengage. The word 'bloated' springs to mind to describe such words. They're kind of big and perhaps someone thought impressive but like a balloon, they're full of air. They don't carry weight or conviction. Same old, same old. You know what I mean? It seems to be significantly harder to stop writing crap and just say it how it is.

Weird things people eat...

Armano acknowledged about the new Dorito's chips - flavour X-13D - it sounds distinctly sci fi to me. That said I like the innovation behind the idea.

It got me thinking about the role culture has to play in what we're willing to eat when I saw this post about 'The Weird Things People Eat Around the World'. Cone pizza in Seoul, South Korea might be deemed acceptable - perhaps it was created especially for Western tourists.

Now what would you say to pickled snake head fish? Apparently spotted in an Asian supermarket in Vancouver.

What struck me was that the pickled snake head fish comes in a clear glass jar (and looks rather repulsive hence my reason for not posting a pic). To those Asians eating it I guess it's totally normal. Which brings me back to socialization - a process which starts at an early age. Can clever marketing communications and design concepts ever overcome what we're socialized into? Perhaps sometimes but I'm not so sure I'd ever be compelled to eat pickled snake head fish. The pickled cabbage in a pad thai recipe I recently made is my limit.

TechnoLatin (gobbledygook)

I've been reading the Cluetrain Manifesto. Fabulous reading. Anyhow, I got to the chapter where Doc Searls talks about 'TechnoLatin'. Whilst I didn't know there was a word that described it, I realised it was all the verbal diarrhoea (gobbledygook) that surrounded me whilst I worked at Microsoft.

Here's an apt description by Doc of what I witnessed at Microsoft;

"TechnoLatin is now so pervasive in the computer industry that clarity is the exception when it should be the rule. Today we no longer make chips, circuit boards, computers, monitors or printers. We don't even make products. Instead we make "solutions," a fatuous noun further bloated by empty modifiers such as "total," fully," "seamlessly," "industry standard" and "state-of-the-art"

The thing is, it extends beyond the IT industry to that of the hospitality industry. I'm frustrated by those menus that describe the dish so superfluously that I feel like I might as well be playing pin the tail on the donkey when I order. I went to a fabulous restaurant last night, but really, what on earth is 'sauce soubise' to the average guest?

Sometimes it's hard to even recognise I was writing BS when I was surrounded by people doing 'the talk'. In fact I used to act as a jargon buster in client presentations to kill the TechnoLatin. Unless you get out there, (yes outside the campus and into the real world) and meet the customer and try 'the gobbledygook' out on them and see the perplexed face, a marketer really doesn't stand a chance. It scared me how few of the marketing team that I worked with actually got out and met the people they were marketing to. To me, I couldn't do my marketing job without meeting my customer. It was like walking without tying my laces - eventually I'd trip up.

Make an effort. It can be tiresome but it's worthwhile and in my experience quite energising. TechnoLatin is not necessary.

'Crypto-religious marketing jargon'

I recently discovered the book 'The Cluetrain Manifesto'. I'm busily reading it at the moment.

There's the most wonderfully written paragraph in chapter one that I felt compelled to highlight here:

'To this mindset, the Net is just an extension of preceding mass media, primarily television. The rhetoric it uses is freighted with the same crypto-religious marketing jargon that characterised broadcast: brand, market share, eyeballs, demographics. And guess what? It works. If nobody was getting rich off this stuff, you wouldn't hear about it'

What Christopher Locke is referring to here is the companies with the 'net-dot-dollar' signs in their eyes that are missing the 'something special' dimension. I agree with Christopher. Chasing the dollars is very tempting but too often it gets in the way of communicating intimately with customers. Developing a relationship that will last is key and by that I mean one that customers want to invest time in too.

And then I read Seth's blog yesterday. His post is about the new Olympic 2012 logo. I'm not sure the logo is remotely connected to the Olympics. It's an image of fragmentation. I thought the Olympics was about the world coming together to celebrate sport.

To me it's a manifestation of what Christopher describes above - 'marketing jargon'. As Seth comments, someone got very rich designing this logo. Worth the money? Don't think so. But someone paid. I want to challenge the way things have always been done. I'm committed zagging where people zig. Are you?

iPhone: making the complex, simple

Nice Apple iPhone ad. One of the hardest things to do is to distill many functions and features into a simple message. Apple are experts at it. Microsoft have struggled with it. The point is that the new Apple iPhone ads are another classic example of Apple's ability to communicate with the audience. It almost seems effortless. It's a natural dialogue. I want to hear what Apple have to say. They have my attention.

The ad illustrates how the iPhone helps a consumer solve problems - problems consumers do have  - like being able to do everything I need to do from one device that is clear to read and works quickly. Arguably it's a high class problem, but it is a problem. Each ad tells a story - something Seth Godin has taught me the importance of. The technology that makes the features work isn't even mentioned.

Business cards...with a difference

My mantra is and always has been 'why be the same when you can be different'. I am not a sheep. Nor do I look like one. I don't join long queues just because everyone else does. I don't go to huge tourist enclaves just because everyone else does. Why go to Goa when you can go to Kerala? The Costa del Sol appalls me for that reason. Lots of English tourists wanting to replicate all the bad things about England - but this time in the sunshine. I was horrified to return to Puerto Banus some ten years after my first visit to see Burger King, TGI Fridays and lots of other chain restaurants. I'm in Spain but I may as well be in Blackpool. Yes I'm subject to exaggeration but I like to make a point.

The same applies to business cards. I want something that starts a conversation. Something that shows my spirit. Something unique to me. Thank you Hugh for scribbling on cards and allowing my to personalize your design to achieve this:

And thank you to the Geek in Disguise for making me aware of these cards. And thank you for my new little Fujitsu Scan Snap that scanned this.

Shoes are another tool for starting conversations. I have some crazy ones. I can't tell you the number of times I've been in an elevator and my shoes have been the saving grace...you know when you have 20 seconds with someone but it seems like 20 minutes as no-one knows where to look or what to say and questions if it's worth bothering. Wear some bright shoes and see what happens!

Too good to be true?

I had wanted to find an Asian person to talk with about emoticons and other related content in Asia. I tried to research the market myself but as my Chinese language skills are non-existent, struggled somewhat. There are heaps of social networking sites but at times I find them over facing. I always find face to face interaction 100% more satisfying.

So imagine this, I'm working from a home office for an internet based company. My resources are limited but I want to meet and talk with Asian consumers. My location, a small beach town called Noosa on the Sunshine Coast in Australia. Pace of life: slow. This is the land of the 'surfer dude'.

My brainwave was the local English language school. I went to their website and submitted a 'wanted' post on their forum. I didn't hold much hope. About a week later a get an email from an address with chinese characters. That's how I met Witty.

Witty and I met at Grub & Co (the local deli) for drinks and chat. Her English is good but I failed to understand she wanted a latte when I asked her what she wanted to drink. To me it sounded like 'nata' - a weird drink I'd not heard of or a strange way of saying 'nothing'. Eventually I got it after she said it for the forth time!

We had a great chat and it looks like we'll do some business together. As it turns out, Witty is a graphic designer and can create some images for me. So not only did I learn about icon imagery in Asia, I recruited a new designer for My Display Image.

I find it quite fascinating that I can still do business from this little beach town using the forum of the local language school. Who would have thought. It was important we met. It's funny how the wrong impression is so easily created when English isn't your first language. Short terse sentences are easiest which I find easy to interpret as slightly irritable. Witty was far from irritable. With the Taiwanese accent we needed the use of our bodies to optimize the conversation.