Backed with the catchy music of M.C. Yogi, Starbucks today kicks off its latest campaign honoring the Obama administration's call to national service -- and offers a free cup of coffee to anybody willing to pledge five hours of volunteer time. Following up on the smashing success of the company's free-coffee-for-anyone-who-votes campaign, this latest initiative is part of Starbucks' own rehabilitation strategy of linking its brand to various causes, says a spokesman for BBDO, the coffee shops' agency.
M.C. Yogi was an inspired choice as the soundtrack for this spot. The young yoga master/hip hop artist is best known for his campaign anthem "Vote for Hope" which sampled then-candidate Barack Obama's riveting speech at the 2004 Democratic convention.
But his route to Starbucks fame came via a more circuitous route. BBDO creative director David Carter happened to be at a yoga class in upstate New York when the yoga teacher played an M.C. Yogi song. He was instantly intrigued, he told me over a latte in a midtown Starbucks (of course) near the company's Manhattan headquarters. The company's creatives tracked down Yogi and asked him to compose a song specifically for this spot.
Oprah will debut the spot today on her show. You can hear the tune for yourself on YouTube (or catch it on CNN, MSNBC, and online), and download it -- for free -- on the Starbucks site.
I'm about to step over the threshold of Penthouse 2, at Trump Place, one of The Donald's spiffy Costas Kondylis-designed real estate temples overlooking the Hudson on Manhattan's Upper West Side. The lobby was serene, in that expensive marble and matte-gold-mirror kind of way; the hallway papered in a discreet, tasteful beige. So what's this loud orange doormat, screaming "Step Into Savings!" doing outside a condo that normally rents for at least $10K a month?
It's one of those surreal moments that keep happening in this meltdown economy: K-Mart-like sales at Saks, layoffs at Chanel. What's next? And early-bird special at Per Se?
In flusher times, The Donald would have cringed at the garish budget-range merchandise sullying this shrine to luxury living. In thismarket, he was probably thrilled to snag even a short-term tenant.
The Target goods on display were screamingly sunny--all 1950's colors--orange, lime green, turquoise. Whether the hues were a nod to the current "Mad Men" and "Revolutionary Road" vogue for the Eisenhower era, or a Pantone-driven attempt to cheer up a dispirited populace no chipper PR wrangler was willing to say.
If you could get beyond the palette, there were some attractive pieces whose prices wouldn't induce buyer's remorse once you check your 401(k). I spotted a green suede microfiber armchair for $500, an elegant lucite column lamp, and a set of plastic chairs that wouldn't have looked out of place at the Milan Furniture Fair. Most of these larger goods are more readily available via the company's website rather than the stores; there's usually some deal on shipping that makes shopping online appealing.
One of the more interesting offerings was a line of clothes for infants in green and lilac, perfect for parents who can't bear the relentlessly pink merch peddled for baby girls at most emporiums. Even more radical -- baby sheets and blankets in brown, green and yellow by Dwell Studio.
In February, Target will roll out a line of accessories by British designer Orla Keily, as part of its continuing rotation of celebrity designers. Others will be announced later in year.
Cash registers may not be ringing at the mall, but for a few days this week beleaguered retailers could live in a fantasy world where not only would customers line up to buy again, but sales clerks could use a slick touchscreen to upsell them even more goods, right from the register.
The Point of Sale system unveiled at the National Retail Federation confab in New York (and shown in the video above, created by Fast Company videographer Michael Shick) is a futuristic device that would have been right at home at last week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas. It was designed by a team at frog design’s San Francisco office for Intel as a “show car,” similar to the concept cars you might see at the Detroit Auto Show, says Katie Dill, the project’s manager. “They wanted something that would be a show-stopper,” she says. But a real manufacturer will have to step up before you’re likely to see it at the Gap.
The goal of the exercise was to combine the recommendation engines of online with real-time, real-life personal persuasion to generate added revenue. This device would “equip salespeople to make smarter suggestions and be more efficient, since they wouldn’t have to run all over,” says Dill.
When a customer swipes a loyalty card, his or her purchase history would come up on the vertical screen. As the salesperson rings up the merchandise, additional suggestions appear, acting as a sort of kiosk-cum-billboard. All this is opt-in, says Dill, so that if you don’t want the folks in line behind you to know that you’re buying an assortment of frisky panties and a push-up bra, the information stays confidential. What happens at the register, stays at the register.
The kiosk is equipped for payment by cellphone, a nifty feature that automatically sends receipts and coupons to your phone or email. No more lost receipts!
Powered by Intel’s Core2 Duo mobile processor, the system would, conceivably, use 70% less power than existing registers. Retailers need not leave their systems on all night, as they do now, since they can simply boot-up each morning instead. All these energy savings could eventually help off-set the system’s premium price.
Still, this doesn’t answer the more compelling question: if you build it, will they come? Even the slickest gadgetry is unlikely to lure consumers for whom the joy of shopping has lost its luster. But look for some of these features to wend their way into next-gen registers when it's finally safe to go back to the mall.
With a dual-city marriage, I spend a lot of time shuttling up and down the East Coast. Trust me: if you've seen the Hartford skyline once, you don't have to stay awake anymore. So why can’t my car do more of the driving so I can devote my attention to my ipod playlist or take a much-needed nap?
These issues trouble me, so I was intrigued by a piece was called Driver Experience Design in the latest issue of frog design’s ambitious proprietary magazine, designmind. It mapped out the advances we’re likely to see that will help us as we try to drive while listening to music, talking on a cellphone (not that I would ever do that!), or putting on mascara at a red light. Think: a sensor that tells you when a car is coming up behind you in your blindspot or chip sensors that alert you to when your lead foot is wreaking havoc on your fuel efficiency.
This is just a one of the issues getting ink (and cool pictures and graphics) in the design consultancy's tri-annual publication. Others include good ideas take so long to get traction, and whether people with ADHD are better equipped than the rest of us to do well in creative fields.
While some of the features feel like retreads (the buggy whip/automotive industry example that leads off the story on "Slow Innovation" may be apt, but sure feels stale), others offer fresh and engaging perspectives.
And the story “In the Flow” updates the idea promulgated seven odd years ago by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi about “optimal consciousness” with the work of British sociologist Richard Sennett, the guy behind the ’10,000 hours’ rule that Malcolm Gladwell uses as one of the touchstones of his latest book, Outliers. Essentially, the story argues that getting bogged down in the details can make you miss the bigger picture – and that sometimes draconian deadlines are actually helpful in preventing this. Remind me of this when I’m whining that I need more time.
Fittingly, the issue’s design is first rate, with some gorgeous photography of choreographer Alonzo King and his company, and crazy images of Parisians falling down by French photographer Denis Darzacq.
It’s available in hard copy at select bookstores in San Francisco, Austin, New York and Shanghai, and online at designmind.frogdesign.com. the latest issue will be up online soon.
For me, the lingering memory of CES 2009 is not just a new appreciation for the vastness of the consumer electronics technology universe, but its crushing virility. I’ve never been in an environment that was so overwhelmingly male that didn’t involve the U.S. Military.
There were a few cool products that spoke to me this year: Sony’s eBook with the built-in nightlight, the handbag and travel-friendly Netbooks that were everywhere, a Prada Bluetooth cellphone/watch by LG that lets you monitor calls during a meeting without being rude and checking your mobile, and a mini TV (also from Sony) that – when the price comes down – will look pretty snazzy on my kitchen counter. But the vast array of offerings were so much sound, RAM and tech specs that I felt like I had landed on an alien planet. Guys, imagine yourself at a 2M square foot Sephora, and you’ll feel my pain.
Which brings us to today’s problem: why is it that manufacturers still can’t seem to crack the code on designing consumer electronics for women?
Here’s one good reason: Women buy 57% of consumer electronics (to the tune of about $80B), but influence 90% of all CE purchases. Yes, fellas. If you really want that cool new 60 inch flat screen, you’ll have to get it by your house’s electronic major domo first.
But here’s a far more dispiriting number: the number of women who said they thought manufacturers had them in mind when developing products: 1%. That’s a number from 2004, but I’d be surprised if today it isn’t more than, say, 5%. And why is this a problem? Aren’t products designed for guys good for the ladies as well? I mean, you don’t need a Y chromosome to work a remote. Or do you?
According to the Femme Den Smarties, Larry Summers was right: women’s brains ARE different from guys’ and, frankly, figuring out how to hook up a router is harder for us. For example, a Yale study tested college students’ ability to set a VCR from written instructions. Some 68% of the men managed to do it on the first try. Only 16% of the women succeeded. This could explain why we’re hopeless when it comes to simple things, like installing a home theater.
Men, literally, have more gray matter in their brains. That makes them better at specialized and focused tasks. Women, on the other hand, have more white matter. That’s the tissue that wires processing centers together. That means we rock at multitasking, and integrating functions, but figuring out the glitch with the WiFi can be a hurdle.
How can manufacturers use these differences to their advantage? The Smart Design women had a few pointers. Among them:
Recognize that being female is not niche. We’re 51% of the population, people! And, when it comes to shopping, we control over 80 cents on the dollar. “The biggest mistake we have seen is treating women like a special interest group with only post-design considerations like color and finish. We call this the ’shrink it and pink it’ approach. And, it’s offensive to most women.” says Enga.
Design for an average user, not a power user. This doesn’t mean a dumbed-down product, but one that’s accessible to the largest number of people. While men have more patience than women with technological complexity than women (see above), they’re equally charmed by products that are easy to use. The iPod is, of course, the benchmark CE product for every manufacturer, but the easy-to-use Flip Mino camcorder, which last year sold 1.5M units, demonstrates the universal appeal of intuitive design. Focus on pleasing the ladies, and you’ll likely get the guys as well.
Expand the focus to include warmer values. Cold values focus on things like faster, bigger, slicker, with more features. Warm values include such things as a focus on how a product fits into a user’s lifestyle. How does it fit into the home or office aesthetically? Does it enable the buyer to do something she normally wants to do, only better or easier?
Design with a recognition of a product’s broader impact. Women’s language around consumer electronics invariably includes other people. They worry about the effect of video games on their children, the ability of their parents to use a cellphone in an emergency, their husband’s obsession with his Blackberry. They are, therefore, intrigued with products that have positive social effects--like the Wii’s knack for enabling interactive fun for a range of users.
Add features only if there’s a good reason to do so – not just to please the marketing department, or because the company’s engineers are enamored with their own technological wizardry. “A 50-page quick start manual is not a good idea,” says Eden.
We asked Erica Eden and Agnete Egna, two designers from Smart Design’s Femme Den, to troll the floor of the huge 2009 Consumer Electronics Show for the Best and Worst gear from a woman's perspective. Smart Design developed OXO Good Grips Kitchen Tools as well as the Flip Mino line of handheld camcorders. Here are the gadgets they loved at CES... and the ones they want to send back to the locker room.
Good This product would fit into to a woman’s life and her bag! We loved the size and weight as it is truly portable and still has a large enough keyboard and screen to do real work. It does just what you need while you are on the go. Strikes a nice balance between smart phone and laptop/desktop. Women could consider owning a home computer, net book and smart phone.
Bad We didn't love the patterns they chose. Why can’t we buy a non-patterned, solid color version? The swirls pattern looks dated and the Vivienne Tam design looks really cheap and plastic-y in person.
Ugly The materials, color and finish make the product look poor quality and tells the user that it is a toy, not a serious product you could use for work. A solid color would be better for both work and play. We won’t buy it until they come up with a simple color solution.
Good Easy back-up without any extra effort, thought or planning. Women have a lot of personal memories/photos on their computers and losing them is tragic. This product is plug and play. Just plug it into your USB and it automatically backs the important data you have entered on your hard drive (minus application and web data).
Bad Totally old-fashioned packaging, form language, messaging. The blister pack was the standard theft-proof solution that women on Amazon.com complain about in droves.
Ugly The graphic treatment didn’t communicate that it was designed for women or the product’s benefit.
Good We loved that LG is addressing the issue of connecting all devices in the home, and we loved their booth, as the name “Connected Home” relates to how they’d be used. From our experience, systems of products tend to be very confusing to operate. According to the salespeople, these systems are very easy to set up, but we would like to see the instruction manual before we could say for sure.
Bad The concept of connectivity was compelling, but the products themselves were still static black boxes that don’t quite respond to our desire for products that blend into the home environment.
Ugly The design of the remote was stuck in the 1990s, although, to its credit, it had fewer buttons than most. They could have done better job connecting the design of the remote with the products.
Bad The phone was a blatant example of a product that violated our principle of “Tech for a reason.”
Ugly The only new and different feature of this product was its round screen. Why is this good and better for the user? The result was a navigation that was impossible to figure out and so hard to use that we both put the product down after about 30 seconds out of sheer frustration.
Good The booth itself was the star of the whole show. There was a strong emphasis on design on all products.
Bad The small USB keys were exciting--big memory in a small package. But the price point is quite high for a tiny piece of plastic. We're looking forward to a time when we can have 10 non-precious, yet durable, sticks in a bowl at our desks and grab memory whenever we need it.
Ugly It was a mixed bag in terms of interface. Some products like the Spinn and the Wave-Home had intuitive solutions, but the P7 media player was confusing. Women are busy and don’t have the patience or interest to figure out non-intuitive product experiences. No-fuss and quick-to-learn solutions are great for both women and men, but especially women.
Good It seems like these ex-Apple designers responded to all the negatives from the iPhone in this new mobile device. They deliver on their message that users shouldn’t have to think about applications, that the phone thinks ahead and gives you just what you want from the phone. Here is why we love it:
Finally no more typos with a full qwerty keyboard. Even women with small fingers make mistakes on the iphone
Can have multiple apps open at once. Women love to multi-task, but can’t on the iPhone. For example, this feature is great for email; you don’t have to send or save an email in drafts folder when you want to check your inbox quickly.
Gestures are quick and easy to learn. Interface is shallow. Both are great since we know that women get easily turned off by too many buttons as they represent options for failure.
Charging dock is easy and fast. Great for busy women who don’t want to fuss with a tiny, finicky, fragile plug.
It’s hard work building a big, recognizable brand. Naturally, once they’ve built one, most companies find it irresistible to try and extend that brand love to other products. Sometimes this is a good idea: Starbucks’s lattes are good; Starbucks’s latte ice cream is pretty yummy too.
But there are pitfalls in this innovation-by-extension strategy, none more egregious, perhaps, than the late, un-lamented Hooters Air airlines.
So each January we look forward to hearing the most hare-brained lunacy the R&D elves at various major American companies have perpetrated in the past year. For this, we have to thank the marketing newsweekly, Brandweek, and the innovation consultancy Tipping Sprung, which polls nearly 700 marketing big shots for their opinions to compile its annual Brand Extension Survey
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This year’s winners for the best brand extensions include Coppertone sunglasses, Mr. Clean Performance Car Washes, Juicy Crittoure (a pampered pet line of doggie duds), and Zagat physician ratings. All logical, if not particularly mind-boggling ideas.
But it’s the losers we love, and this year produced some doozies. Our faves: 1.) Burger King men’s apparel (Stack a cheesy shirt on top of a hamburger brown pair of pants and accessorize with a lettuce green tie and a cardboard crown?), 2.) Kellogg’s hip-hop streetwear (Tony the Tiger hoodies and Rice Krispies trainers?), 3.) Kanye West trip-booking web site (discount rates at the Heartbreak Hotel?). 4.) La-Z-Boy spas. (forget the masseuse. Just turn on the magic fingers.)
And for those of us hungry for a little luxe in a brown bag economy, Tipping Sprung has added the following category: Best Low Cost Guilty Pleasure in a Down Economy. Winners in that cohort: Hershey’s Bliss chocolates, M&M’s Premiums, Wagyu Beef at Burger King, and a Porsche Wireless Racing Wheel for video games.
Other extensions were, well, a little mis-timed for a society where simply getting to keep your job counts as the new promotion. Witness these boners: the Disney Sleeping Beauty executive fountain pen (up to $1200), the Porsche Design kitchen ($100,000), CVS’s Beauty 360 (a chain of upscale beauty shops), and the Hermes Smart Car ($48K.) Hmmmmm. Must have seemed like a good idea at the time.
For a full copy of the survey report, email robert@tippingsprung.com.
Tell us your favorite brand extensions -- plus the ones you find most ridiculous. These days, we take our chuckles wherever we can find them.
Last Christmas, while cleaning up after dinner, I accidentally knicked one of my sister in law’s cherished Waterford crystal goblets. It cost me $75 to replace the thing, but it’s a good thing I did. Those glasses are worth substantially more than the family’s GM stock.
And they’re likely to become even more precious with the news that the venerable Irish glassware maker is facing bankruptcy, along with its corporate stable-mate Wedgwood china.
It’s hard to know if the two are victims of changing tastes -- do today’s young Bridezillas still cherish heavy, formal, expensive patterned lead crystal and china with gilded rims? --- or the recession that’s swinging a grim reaper’s scythe through even the most prestigious luxury brands?
The companies have made valiant attempts to update their wares. Wedgwood moved beyond its traditional blue and white jasper ware and fusty patterns to incorporate hipper designs from contemporary tastemakers. British designers Jasper Conran and Kelly Hoppen both designed collections for the Staffordshire company, and the company has even brokered deals with America’s own stylistas, with Martha Stewart and Vera Wang both contributing collections.
Over at Waterford, Marc Jacobs has designed his first home decor collection for the company, and Robert Mondavi has lent its name to an array of elegant, Riedel-like crystal wine glasses.
Someone may yet come to the firm’s rescue, and save this icon of domesticity. Is there a British version of TARP that might be tapped – the Tableware Artifacts Rescue Project? Or will these brands end up as antiques of a gilded age, as quaint as a hedge fund mogul’s birthday toga party?
All I know is that this year I didn’t want to risk another Waterford Waterloo. I drank my Christmas Yellow Tail out of a jelly jar.
Quick! Name this year's most award-winning bridges! Stuck? Then how about the Residential Project of the Year? Or the best Green Roof projects of 2008?
If you're coming up short, but still dying to know, you might want to pick up a copy of the just-published Almanac of Architecture and Design, 2009, which has just hit the streets.
It's an addictive read if you're in the industry, or just an architecture and design groupie. This is where you'll find history -- the oldest architecture firms, the top ranked buildings; design resources -- registration laws, compensation guides; information on design education and even obits. And for those who prefer their information Guinness style, there are plenty of juicy lists of superlatives: World's Best Skylines, World's Tallest Buildings, the Top 10 Green Building Products, and the Top Urban Planning Books.
If your local bookstore comes up short, order it ($49.50) at www.greenway.us/bookstore or (800)879-0932.
Answers to the above: 1.) Sutong Bridge, Nangtong City, Jiangusu Province, China; 2.) Xeros Residence, Phoenix, AZ, blank studio; 3.) TWA Corporate Headquarters, Kansas City, MO (Industrial/Commercial, Extensive); West Podium Park, Boston World Trade Center, Boston, MA (Industrial/Commerical, Intensive); California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, CA (Institutional, Extensive), Austin City Hall, Austin, TX (Institutional, Intensive)
A Chanel spokeswoman told Agence-France Presse that the 700-piece installation, conceived by Karl Lagerfeld and Hadid as a tribute to the luxury house’s iconic 2.55 handbag, would skip its next two stops, which were scheduled to be London and Moscow.
“In the current context we have to arbitrate. We prefer to refocus on our strategic investments in terms of development,” she said.
Luxury brands have longed claimed to be immune to downturns in the economy, often insisting that the higher end holds up even when the middle rung is suffering. But this economic debacle is sparing no quarters. The Wall St. Journal reported that luxury sales dropped 34.5% in December, and said that LVMH even cancelled the opening of its new store in Tokyo. The Japanese are among the world’s most passionate devotees of designer goods.
When the tour first launched, Bruno Pavlovsky, Chanel’s head of fashion, says the project was designed to “surprise customers, communicate the brand’s heritage, and energize one of its iconic products.”
Seems that even rocket boosters can't move the merch if customers are too spooked to buy.
M.C. Yogi was an inspired choice as the soundtrack for this spot. The young yoga master/hip hop artist is best known for his campaign anthem "Vote for Hope" which sampled then-candidate Barack Obama's riveting speech at the 2004 Democratic convention. 
