Tuesday 31st March:
How can you combine our desire for exploration, experimentation and excitement with the need for thrift?
Think like Bep, Bonjin, Craft, Beer Table, and Dine with Dale – restaurants who are finding creative ways to play the culinary field while minimising financial risk for both themselves and their customers.
Bep and Bonjin, two Vietnamese restaurants in Brooklyn, use the kitchens of other restaurants and are each open just one day a week during off hours. Craft in NYC offers the affordable ‘Frugal Friday’ (even the signage is frugal) and ‘Tuesday Night Dinner’. And in Chicago, ‘Dine with Dale’ takes over Relax Lounge weekly. This demonstrates that the food industry is catching on to how spontaneity, novelty and thrift add value to the restaurant experience, especially during tough times. How could you adopt a similar approach?
http://www.craftrestaurant.com/
Monday 30th March:
How can your brand help people give something back – and feel good too?
Think like SmallCanBeBig.org, a new venture where people can help local families out of financial crises. SmallCanBeBig was formed on the premise that small donations can add up to a big difference for families on the brink of disaster. And it makes you feel good. The Massachusetts-based organisation has partnered a range of charities in the state, who recommend cases where a relatively modest one-off donation, e.g. towards a mortgage or utilities payment, could save a family’s home. Visitors can browse the stories of those families in need, select one and donate as little as $1 toward helping them through Google Checkout. 100% of the donation goes towards helping the family, and once that family’s need is met, their story is removed from the site. Donors, meanwhile, can track their donations online and check back on the status of the families they’ve helped.
Ref http://springwise.com/weekly/2009-03-25.htm#smallcanbebig
Friday 27th March:
How can you help people make better decisions when buying stuff?
Think about interactive marketing. Sixth sense technology is currently being developed by MIT’s Media Lab to give you relevant information about whatever’s in front of you (in-store, on the high street, while you’re travelling) in real time, just like Tom Cruise in Minority Report. A system comprising built-in camera, projector, mirror and mobile (the computation device) recognises any gestures you’re making and responds to your requests. Then you can project any relevant information to help you make a decision on any surface – your hand, a piece of packaging, a newspaper – anything. This makes it totally mobile and therefore instant and easy to use. Check out TED link for Pattie Mae’s inspiring talk.
http://www.ted.com/talks/pattie_maes_demos_the_sixth_sense.html
Ref http://blog.massivelynetworked.com/2009/03/what-happens-as-marketing-gets-truly-interactive.html
Thursday 26th March:
How can you make sustainability and re-using the everyday more attractive?
Think like retailers MUJI who give new life to the humble phone book as a container.
(Cheers Gemma for spotting this one)
Wednesday 25th March:
How can you make more of what’s staring you in the face?
Think like Koleston Naturals. Their innovative use of billboards re-inforces the beauty of nature by making use of the views right under our noses. Koleston Naturals is a hair colourant made from natural ingredients for women aged 20-40. The strategically placed billboards use a die-cut silhouette of a woman’s head to reveal the scene behind them. And so as the day progresses from morning to night, nature’s light changes to tell the simple story that Koleston Naturals enhances your looks naturally. Brilliant.
(Many thanks to our digital whiz Alex N for this one).
Ref http://www.frederiksamuel.com/blog/2009/03/koleston_naturals.html
Tuesday 24th March:
What could you do to make your brand language work harder?
Think like Apple. No opportunity is missed, no matter how small – even the occasion of forgetting and resetting your password is not overlooked (see the right-hand corner). It may be a little thing but if you get it right it’s something that could make your customers smile inside. (A big thank you to Wadey for sharing her personal experience with us).
Monday 23rd March:
How can you be more persuasive?
Think like Fitness First. No more living in denial about the size of your waistline, thanks to this fantastic, albeit terrifying, guerilla marketing initiative from the health club chain. Unsuspecting commuters in the Netherlands are faced with viewing their body weight in bright lights – quite literally – when they take a seat at this Rotterdam bus stop. A little scary maybe but extraordinarily clever, and guaranteed to increase membership numbers at the local Fitness First. (Thanks Ben for this one)
http://www.ibelieveinadv.com/2009/03/fitness-first-bus-stop/
Tagged with: Health, Retail
Friday 20th March:
How can you turn the organ grinder into the monkey?
Think like new Dutch online facilitator, Spaarbod, who’ve created an auction website where banks bid for customers’ savings.
https://secure.spaarbod.nl/site/
Instead of spending time researching the highest interest rates, Dutch consumers can now put their money up for auction and get banks to bid for their custom.
After registering with Spaarbod, you state how much money you’d like to put aside, for how long and on which terms. The website automatically calculates the best rates currently available. At that point, you can sign up for that offer. Or you can wait and see which banks will bid at auction. Spaarbod sends your data – minus personal details – to participating banks, who make an offer in a sealed-bid auction. Within a day, you receive an email listing the five highest bidders, and you can pick the best offer. The service is free for consumers, and banks pay a commission for every bid that results in a savings deposit.
Ref http://springwise.com/financial_services/spaarbod/
Thursday 19th March:
How can your brand ‘repair’ rather than ‘recycle’?
Follow Platform21’s Repair Manifesto. They want to make repairing cool again by opposing throwaway culture and celebrating ‘repair’ as ‘the new recycling’. Rediscover the joy of fixing things, share your tips, tricks and your most ingenious repair, at http://www.platform21.nl/
Also, check out Planet Green to help you get recession-ready and learn the fourth R – Repair
http://planetgreen.discovery.com/home-garden/recession-ready-repair.html
Ref http://www.psfk.com/2009/03/the-repair-manifesto.html
Wednesday 18th March:
How can you take inspiration from a parallel industry?
Think like confectioners, Mars, who’ve taken cues from the wine connoisseur and specialist coffee house with their high-end chocolate store, Pure Dark. Based in New York’s West Village, the staff really know their chocolate and are there to educate as well as cut you samples and help you make your own combinations.
At Pure Dark, it’s all about the purity of the pod. This is the delicious, raw essence of dark chocolate: the precious fruit of the cacao tree at its simple, natural best. The Pure Dark™ collection is chock-full of robust ingredients harvested straight from nature – thick, hand-crafted Slabs, Barks studded with plump, dried fruits and crunchy nuts, Rounds dusted with exotic flavors, and lightly roasted cocoa bean Nibs which all deliver an authentic, earthy chocolate experience. http://puredark.com/
Ref. http://blog.futurelab.net/2009/03/pure_darktm_chocolate_harveste.html