Wednesday 24th December:
How can you turn thrift into a leisure activity and create a social network?
Think like the Savvy Shopaholic the blog for updates on the latest bargains.
With deal-hunting a newfound hobby for many consumers, bragging about bargains has not only become cool, it’s practically a new consumer sport.
Deal seekers, coupon clippers, bargain hunters regularly check the Savvy Shopaholic, for friends-and-family promos and any “deals worth spreading.” Triggered by a grocery bill upward of $300, one mum initiated the “coupon bank,” enabling her local network of mums to deposit and withdraw coupon clippings at their monthly meetings. After all, one woman’s trash is a buck off another’s diaper bill.
Born in a fragile market and cultivated by a communal spirit, extreme clipping is more proof that thrift is trendy, saving is savvy, and snipping (whether online or old-school) is leisure time well spent.
http://savvyshopaholic.wordpress.com/
Ref. Iconoculture
Monday 22nd December:
How can you help people recuperate in times that call for you to work harder?
Think like spiced tomato juice brand Big Tom which is finding a role for itself as part of Chill Out Sunday brunch! Hectic lifestyles and long working weeks have generated a new Sunday morning bar culture that’s gripping the UK, appealing to those whose motto is ‘Work Hard, Play Hard!’ The stylish Sunday morning bar brunch is taking off across the country, with bars like Revolution and Bar 38 seeing up to a 40 per cent rise in Sunday drinking in recent times. (Ta v much Mr Lawrence for this one)
Revolution,the biggest vodka bar chain in the UK, has seen a dramatic rise in Bloody Mary orders, with sales nearly doubling compared to this time last year as well as more Sunday revellers enjoying the ambience. Clive Greenhalgh, area manager at Revolution Bars, said: “The atmosphere on Sunday is always relaxed and we do our best to ensure customers enjoy brunch in a laid back atmosphere, with soft lounge music and a pitcher of Bloody Mary. People are working harder and longer than ever before and don’t want to waste time lying in bed, just because they’ve overdone things on a Saturday night. The rise in footfall over the past year has well and truly proved that the Sunday morning brunch is the definitely the cool new way to chill out.”
Friday 19th December:
How can you help people get enjoyment out of maximizing their finances?
Think like Takara Tomy who’ve developed the Osaifu Saver (wallet saver) personal finance RPG (role-playing game)
The world economy is in shambles and you’re thinking about every penny you spend so enter the Osaifu Saver the personal finance RPG that makes every withdrawal, deposit, and expense a notable event!
Osaifu Saver uses a stylus for inputting every financial transaction you make, and assigns it to categories (utilities, food, love life, etc) to fit within a budget that you sent at the beginning. The action moves according to your own preferences: Stay within your budget and good things happen, but go over and be prepared for the worse!
Ref. CScout
Thursday 18th December:
How to help people manage their budgets
Think like Swiss start-up Taxmobil which is about to offer unlimited taxi use for a flat-rate charge of EUR 48 a month. Customers will be able to buy a Taxmobil card online or from sales points around the city, and can call for a car to pick them up at whatever time they choose, travelling to any destination in the city. If two strangers are travelling in the same direction, Taxmobil may combine their journeys.
http://www.taxmobil.ch/cms/front_content.php
The key to Taxmobil’s strategy is the fact that it doesn’t own the cars it uses. Instead, it buys the time of idle taxis that are already out and about, creating a service that’s affordable and convenient for customers, and could decrease congestion and parking problems if city dwellers trade in their cars for a Taxmobil card.
Böblingen in Southern Germany is likely to be the first town offering the service, starting early 2009, with other towns across Europe to follow. Travel is only permitted within a city, although members will be able to catch a taxi in other participating cities, too. As well as expanding the service’s reach, Taxmobil will soon be extending its package options by complementing its standard EUR 48 subscription with cards for businesses and families. Discounts and member benefits will be made possible with the cards in future, too.
Ref. Springwise
Wednesday 17th December:
How to take a creative and subversive approach to the credit crunch
Think like edgy fashion brand ksubis who created, among other things, airplanes made out of shredded Economic Activity Surveys for their new “Pop N Shop” store in Melbourne to begin the pop-up store series that will go to Brisbane, then Sydney and in March, London. Each new location will feature an original interior concept by the ksubi collective. The first one is entitled “Lest We Regret” features 120 glass jars suspended from the ceiling containing shredded files from the Australian Bureau of statistics. ksubi thus sticks two fingers up at the current economic climate and attempts to distract people with this impermanent space filled with one-off and exclusive piece as well as all the latest ksubi collections. Located at the Schwipe gallery in Melbourne, ksubi will take over the space for 12 weeks.
(Many tx to Gemma in Oz for this . . . bit of an Oz theme this week!)
REF. Dazed Digital
Tuesday 16th December:
What norm from another industry can you adopt or steal?
Think like 479° Popcorn who’ve taken a leaf from the book of gourmet wine tasting establishments.
479° offers ‘Samplers’ and ‘Collections’, all linked by theme. Samplers’ five boxes feed 2–4 people, and the Collections’ three canisters are enough for 4–8. Prices range from USD 33 for the Purist Sampler to USD 52 for the Caramel Collection.
http://www.479popcorn.com/index.html
Aware that made-to-order popcorn that’s handmade with posh flavours, like Alderwood Smoked Sea Salt, Ginger Sesame Caramel and Black Truffle & White Cheddar aren’t always enough to ensure premium status, 479° Popcorn stresses its green credentials. The majority of its organic fair trade ingredients are sourced from farms close to its San Francisco kitchen, with the popped corn packaged in 90% recycled paper canisters that are also sourced from local suppliers. 479° Popcorn—named for the ideal Fahrenheit temperature for popping corn—is currently available in select Californian stores and via its website for delivery throughout the US.
Ref. Springwise
Monday 15th December:
How can you find ways of reinforcing that your customers are in the know and therefore make them feel closer to the brand?
Think like Aesop the botanically based skin, hair and body products for men and women, and known for their passionate engagement with the larger cultural landscape. To create this feeling that people who buy Aesop appreciate leading edge stuff they post news of the latest ideas and events around the world that can be an inspiration in your life.
(Tx to Joe in Oz for this one)
Friday 12th December:
How demonstrate irresistibility
Think like Floralp butter (from Swiss diary provider Emmi) which showcases the showcases people’s love of butter through a 3D billboard of a giant piece of crusty French bread with the middle eaten!
Thursday 11th December:
How can you demonstrate the benefits of your product ‘live’?
Think like fashion retailer Uniqlo who recently set up a Human Vending Machine for their HEATTECH apparel line in Times Square, New York. Prior to getting their free stuff people went through a ’scanning station’ manned with a Uniqlo associate with a hand held thermal camera. Each person’s heat image showed up on an adjacent screen and identified their core body temperature.
After that, visitors proceeded to to the vending booth where either a male or female dispenser were giving away the HEATTECH gear. The reasonably priced line claims to offer warmth from a very thin material. Shirts cost just over $10.
Wednesday 10th December:
How can you help your users ‘tinker’?
A backlash to the excesses of consumerism is starting to brew as people increasingly look at ways to ‘make-do’, re-use, and re-cycle as a way to deal with the credit crunch and it’s called Tinkering.
Tinkering is partly an answer to the traditional assumption that people who buy things are “consumers”– passive, thoughtless, and reactive, people whose needs are not only served by companies, but are defined by them as well. When you tinker, you don’t just take control of your stuff; you begin to take control of yourself.
Tinkering is a way of investing new meanings in things, or creating objects that mean something: by putting yourself into a device, or customizing it to better suit your needs, you’re making that thing more meaningful.
Tinkering is our new leisure activity: Two hundred years ago, tinkering as a social activity– as something that you did as an expression of a desire to invest things with meaning – just didn’t exist: it’s what you did with stuff in order to survive the winter!
Ref. PSFK