Favorite Apps

I thought this was a really neat idea!
http://www.mysuitestuff.com/shop.html

Memorable business cards

Okay I know we’ve all seen some weird business cards. I finally decided to post some business cards that are unusual for a variety of reasons. One of my favorites is the self amplified card. You fold up the arm and place the needle attached to the folded arm onto the record and then evenly spin the record. Sound picked up by the needle is amplified by the paper “horn”. Simple and effective!

Very Cool Kuler

If you don’t know about Adobe Labs color scheme resource, you’re going to like it a lot. Basically the site allows you to download themes others have created or you can create your own. Colorschemes are also ranked by popularity. This is a must-have resource for all designers in my opinion! http://kuler.adobe.com

Big brands make bigger brain waves.

From The Wall Street Journal November 28, 2006

According to new research examining brain reaction to commercial brands, strong product identities can create more excitement than weaker ones even in areas generally perceived as dull, such as insurance.

That research, to be presented today at the annual conference of the Radiological Society of North America in Chicago, is the first ever to use magnetic resonance imaging to study the impact of brand-recognition on brains, says Christine Born, the German radiologist who directed the research.

Dr. Born, who specializes in the use of MRI to study neurological questions at Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich, says the brand study involved no industry funding and got under way when a member of her university’s Institute of Marketing approached her about the possibility of using medical technology to study neuroeconomics.

Big brand requires less brain work (top) than weaker one.

A group of combined medical and economic researchers designed a study that would examine neurological reaction to strong and weak brands in two product categories, cars and insurance. They selected 20 adult men and women who had a mean age of 28 and a high level of education, and placed them one at a time inside an MRI machine that had been rigged with a small video screen. The logo of Volkswagen flashed across the screen for three seconds, followed by the logo of a lesser-known European brand called Seat (also owned by Volkswagen).

Film of their brains during that sequence found that the Volkswagen logo produced a strong pattern of activity in the part of the brain associated with positive emotions, self-identification and rewards. By contrast, the Seat logo provoked activity in the parts of the brain associated with negative emotion as well as memory — suggesting that the brain had to work for a response.

What surprised Dr. Born is how little either logo activated the decision-making part of the brain, even though the subjects were required — purely for purposes of ensuring concentration — to answer a question about each image.

But the bigger surprise was that under examination by MRI, brains respond just as powerfully to strong insurance brands as to strong automotive brands, says Dr. Born. The result surprised her, she adds, because “cars are a status symbol. Insurance is an abstraction.”

In the MRI study, the logo of the strong insurance brand — a European insurer named Allianz — produced just as powerful a reaction as did Volkswagen. The weaker brand of insurance — Volksfursorge — evoked the same response as the Seat brand of auto.

Dr. Born says the study suggests that the psychological pull of strong brands may be even greater than previously thought, though she cautions that this study is small, pioneering and, as yet, unpublished.

Up to now, consumer research has shown that brand is very important in the purchase of cars, apparel, food, vacation spots and goods for the home — but less important in the purchase of insurance, shipping services, household cleaners and paper products, says Michael Silverstein, a senior vice president of Boston Consulting Group and an expert in consumer-shopping behavior. And despite Dr. Born’s study, he doubts that insurance brands mean as much to consumers as automotive brands. “I find that hard to believe,” he says. But he acknowledges that in studying the brains of consumers, “you’re at the end of the art, in an area that has not been very well explored.”

Dr. Born says the use of MRI to gauge consumer response eliminates the risk of dishonest or incomplete answers in market surveys. In an informal experiment, she says she asked a student to name his favorite brand of sneakers, and he said Adidas. But under MRI, the Puma brand evoked a more positive response, and the student admitted that his favorite shoe was a Puma model that was out of his price range.

This may be, as Dr. Born says, the first study of consumer brains. But previous studies have shown that shopping can alter blood pressure, heart rate and respiratory rate, says Mr. Silverstein. “We know that a woman’s pulse increases in a Victoria’s Secret store,” he says.

Dr. Born’s previous work included the examination of brain reaction to stimuli among people with and without dementia. Among other future studies, she says she plans to study brain reaction to television versus print advertisements.

Of course, brain reaction to commercial brands is hardly the most important issue being discussed at a conference otherwise devoted to new and better ways of diagnosing disease and saving lives. But of the 2,000 or so studies being presented at the radiology meeting — billed as the largest medical conference in the world — the branding study is one of only 16 deemed unusual or newsworthy enough to warrant a press conference.

Huge, (as in the largest on earth) KFC logo in Area 51

 
KFC made history by unveiling the world’s largest corporate logo near Rachel, Nevada at area 51. The image is 87,500 square feet and consists of 65,000 tiles. KFC’s thinking was to display their new logo with the Colonel showing his new apron (a more hands on approach:) so that pilots that fly commercial jets in the vicinity (hello? area 51?) can entertain their passengers and KFC gets a bit of exposure. I have no idea how sun resistant the logo might be, so you better check it out while you can. On second thoughts, most of the area 51 visitors probably have some serious telescopes…

Cool Business cards

I got this from Communication Arts Design Annual 47 – design by Adam Pickard, Art Director, Duncan Bruce, Creative Director at Publicis Toronto for Poul Neilson Personal Training (client) “Business card for a personal trainer that is impossible to read unless stretched apart. Made out of very durable material difficult to stretch”

Another brilliant idea for a business card taken from: http://anarchitecture.blogspot.com/2006/11/marketing-for-architects.html
Images show a direct marketing campaign for Tur & Partner, a swiss landscape architect company – done by Jung von Matt, Hamburg, Germany.
via: http://doweirdo.blogspot.com

Small Dog Electronics

 Photo of Don Mayer and his son inside their new South Burlington store.

If you who have seen my branding presentation, you’d know that I am a big fan of Small Dog Electronics. They have a pretty unique history in selling Apple products that I use in my branding presentation to illustrate how an “underdog” can become a major player. Anyway, I happened to be in Burlington VT this weekend and suddenly realized that Small Dog Electronics has a retail shop in South Burlington that just opened on November 1. The first thing I noticed when I arrived at the new shop was the blue statue of a man with an iPod holding onto three (statue) dogs. Keep in mind this is right outside and in front of the store. I overheard a kid inside tell his father that he checked and the iPod was real! 

As I walked inside, I recognized Don Mayer immediately and I introduced myself to him. Ever since I included SmallDog as part of my branding presentation, I’ve only had one thing I wanted to clear up with Don, and so I asked him. “Did you intentionally target dog owners since you thought you’d have something in common trust with them, or did you kind of stumble into it and then capitalize on it?” Don smiled and said that he didn’t initially think the name “Small Dog Electronics” made much sense, but somehow he still went ahead with it. He told me he probably stumbled onto it and then saw the light and ran with it.

I took a couple of shots of the interior of the store that had some strategically placed dog-themed art and furniture – quite refreshing to see in a computer store! Don’s son told me they thought Small Dog would be a great approach to getting some warmth and personality on the net, and especially in the computer business which can be pretty sterile. Oh, and the cherry on the top for me is Smalldog’s tagline  “Always by your side” …quite brilliant isn’t it?!

I highly recommend visiting their website, or better still, if you live in the Burlington area, go visit the store.