A Better Course

• kitschbitch.com | katy lindemann » Blog Archive » Morph gets a makeover
  "Apparently Aardman model makers spent three weeks creating tiny designer outfits for Morph for the March issue." — the results are quite lovely.
  (tags: awesome kitschbitch morph esquire )
• I Believe in Advertising | Advertising Blog & Community | Only selected advertising » Publicis Vancouver: Paper plates greeting card
  In lieu of a traditional holiday card, paper plates were sent to clients informing them of the donation made.
  (tags: advertising charity ibelieveinadvertising directmarketing directmail )
• Infosthetics Competition: Build a Paper-Based Visualization – information aesthetics
  As a natural continuation of the previous post on the Paper-Based Pie Chart, infosthetics is hosting its first competition. One that everyone should be able to enter, regardless of programming experience or data visualization expertise
  (tags: via:blackbeltjones datavisualisation data infosthetics visualisation paper )

I was breaking down the box that my new Pumas came in, and I found this –

…which I’d thought was a fun little message to find just before you threw a box away – a second chance to consider whether or not you need more storage for useless stuff you really should have chucked away by now.

Something about it really clarified, though, when Nick Richards commented on my photo of it –

Same came on my rugby boots. I was somewhat amused to think of rugby playing dolls.

What’s really good about it is that it totally ignores the context of the product, and looks entirely at the context of the customer. By the time you’re breaking down the box for recycling, you’re more likely to be thinking about domestic tasks than your new trainers – so the message doesn’t relate to the trainers at all.

It’s obviously important to have a good product, but also to remember that your customers do not care, exclusively, about that product. Being in touch with customers – interacting with them in a way that feels more human – is about far more than copy, and admitting that everything has a separate life after it’s been bought and opened is a big part of that.

• Toothpaste For Dinner | Alternate Reality Report
  "Gonna have to redo the quarterly report"
  (tags: comic corporate game report arg toothpastefordinner system:filetype:gif system:media:image )

• Good: Amazon Sends "Best Customer Service E-mail I've Ever Received"
  "I share your wonder that neither you nor any of the other 18 bloggers participating in your thread did not win the "Out & About" round. As a matter of fact, I was quite vociferous in like-minded protest."
  (tags: marketing brand customerservice promotion amazon )

• News Blog – Times Online – WBLG: Greatest ever letter of complaint
  As I said at the start I love your brand, I really do. It’s just a shame such a simple thing could bring it crashing to it’s knees and begging for sustenance.
  (tags: brand branding virgin awesome brandloyalty timesonline complaint )

• One More Go: Disgaea's quest for numerical orgasm – Offworld
  The world of numbers isn’t antithetical to the world of feelings. It’s one that lies on top, or underneath, and looking through one to the other always shows you things you hadn’t noticed before.
  (tags: statistics numbers games offworld margaretrobertson disgaea )
• The Long Tail – Wired Blogs
  "From the issue of Wired that will be coming out in a week or so, this is one of those “Statgeist” funny infographics in the Start section." – superb
  (tags: funny statistics longtail graph chrisanderson )

• Whopper Sacrifice: Ditch 10 Friends, Get a Free Whopper | So Good
  As many companies are now doing, they’ve tapped into Facebook and created an application to help promote it. But this Facebook application is a bit….different. Instead of encouraging you to join a group, find new friends, or spread the word, Burger King’s new Whopper Sacrifice Application is offering you a free Whopper if you DE-FRIEND 10 people from your friend list.
  (tags: advertising marketing socialnetworking facebook awesome burgerking )

• Scoble Blindness | Marketing Profs Daily Fix Blog
  For marketers, the proposition is different: we’ve got to stop listening to the chatter coming out of Silicon Valley. To remember that the people we’re marketing to have a very different view of social media, it’s values and uses. And that we’ve got to advise our clients accordingly.
  (tags: marketing social online marketingprofs web2.0 internet twitter socialmedia )

• FT.com / UK – Stress test
  "If you have a massive trading floor with 150 people, you can't vocalise your problems. You are anonymous and weakness isn't tolerated. In a smaller place, you can speak up,"
  (tags: ft economy london recession uk suicide )

• Consumed – Slow Pitch – Drank – The "Extreme Relaxation" Drink – NYTimes.com
  “We’re not advocating drug use at all,” he continued, but merely offering an innocuous beverage to anyone who feels a little stressed out — carbonated counterprogramming, as it were, to the firmly established “energy drink” category.
  (tags: nytimes brand branding drank drink popularculture )
• kitschbitch.com | katy lindemann » Blog Archive » 2009 – Change We Need
  The digital world is in perpetual beta. Try lots of things and see what sticks. Sure, do your research first (please, do your research first!), get to understand the community you’re trying to engage with, and understand how you can add value. But recognise that not everything will work.
  (tags: advertising social online planning kitschbitch )