I recently wrote a piece entitled What a Packaging Makeover Can Do For Your Company -- it got me thinking about the issue of branding: what exactly branding is, how branding and marketing interact, and just how important packaging is to the whole process of branding, or perhaps rebranding, one's company, products or services.
In the course of my research I conversed with a number of industry experts about how heavily instrumental packaging is in the development and maintenance of a company's brand. All seemed to unanimously agree that packaging is intrinsic to the success of a brand. "Packaging is the number one medium to communicate the brand. "You need to pay attention to this area in your branding strategy because it is the first thing someone sees, touches, and essentially buys. Packaging is often more than a medium -- it can be part of the product," stresses Laurent Hainaut, founder of design agency Raison Pure.
While I was convinced, impressed even, by their assertions on how important packaging is for a brand, a study I came across this morning impressed me even further.
Funded by Stanford and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the study that appears in August's Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, asked 63 low-income children, ages 3 to 5, to taste identical McDonald's foods that were in marked (name-branded) and unmarked wrappers.
The results? The food in the unmarked packaging was always pronounced less tasty than the food in McDonald's branded packaging, even thought the two foods were identical.
About 77 percent of the children said that the McDonalds labeled fries tasted better than the plain wrapped fries and 54 percent expressed a preference for McDonald's-wrapped carrots – well over double the percentage of those who liked the unmarked sample. The results weren’t all that striking with regard to hamburgers however, with only 7 more kids choosing McDonald's-wrapped burgers than the unmarked ones.
An author of the study, Dr. Tom Robinson opined that the children's perceptions about the food were "physically altered by the branding."
While thoughts about the kinds of ethical responsibilities this places on advertisers and chains like McDonalds or Burger King definitely flashed through my mind, I'm more intrigued by the sheer extent of the impact that such marketing strategies have on us all, even children who may be too young to read.
The New York Times website this Sunday had a little surprise for us all. One of the paper's best known journalists, Brad Stone, put the pieces together on who the Fake Steve Jobs really is: Dan Lyons, Senior Editor and tech writer at Forbes. I personally couldn’t have been more surprised.
Now Forbes.com has released an exclusive interview with Lyons, and the 14-month-old blog will be published on the site as of August 6th.
For all the FSJ followers out there, or even for those who've ever read a post or two, what does being busted actually mean for the satirical, and often cuttingly sardonic, voice of the FSJ's blog?
"Fake Steve Jobs will add a different voice to Forbes.com, but one that is in the Forbes tradition…" states Forbes.com Editor Paul Maidment. Hmmm… FSJ in the Forbes tradition…?
While Forbes has, in the past, demonstrated the ability to be unafraid to be controversial, how much can Dan Lyons get away with now that he's inextricably associated with the 90 year old conservative publication run by a highly controlling Steve Forbes.
States Lyons about the future publishing of his blog on Forbes.com in an interview for the site: "The deal is that nothing changes. They want it to be really edgy and fun. They're not going to edit it and they're not going to censor it in any way. They really want it to let it rip..."
It's hard to gauge reactions just yet, but companies, people, and the Real Steve Jobs now have a real live person to direct any complaints to. Forbes has its relationship with Apple to think about as well. One can't help but wonder whether Steve Forbes and company really are going to be entirely hands off about exercising editorial control of any sort on a blog that is posted by one of their employees on the official Forbes website.
And then of course there's the fact that this really is somewhat surreal. Lyons looks and sounds like an unassuming, good-natured, pretty normal sort of guy, and I for one had to make a definite leap of faith to picture him writing some of the more outrageous things that the FSJ is so revered for. Part of the problem with blowing Lyons's cover is that one now pictures the FSJ's posts as coming from a middle aged Forbes tech writer.
Will following episodes of The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs be able to retain their irreverent, snarky entertainment value? I for one am curious to read on.
I've lived in various parts of the world over the last few years, and although I'm one of those people who hardly ever watches television, even I've managed to pick up on the fact that the nature and content of commercials, advertisements and marketing ploys differs pretty substantially across cultures.
Growing up in India for instance, my commercial-viewing experience consisted mainly of happy housewives expertly wielding the latest in cookware; cricket players endorsing just about anything; and bands of convulsing, hip-thrusting movie stars singing about Pepsi or Coke to blaring Bollywood music.
In England the advertisements seemed to focus more on supermarket chains: Sainsbury's, Tesco, Asda and Safeway. And of course there were enough ads for beer to keep Homer drooling all day long should he make a trans-atlantic trip. The commercials seemed to often aim to draw their audience in through humor, with less of a focus on the attributes of the product.
And then of course there are the American commercials. Although there are some ads out there that are superbly researched and orchestrated, I like day-to-day advertising in the U.S. the least: for one thing there's far too much of it (particularly car insurance and fast food commercials -- like we need any more Oreo sundaes...) For another, the marketing is far less subtle. Personally, and I'm pretty sure I'm not alone on this one, I think people are less inclined to watch a commercial that emphasizes the fact that they are being sold something, than to watch one that tries to engage them on another level.
As a London acquaintance pointed out: "British ads are more understated, more laid back. They use fewer superlatives than American ones. They often try to get the audience to like the product by using humor and quirkiness, while American ads are far more about proclaiming how great they are.'"
But even leaving aside the more subtle cultural specificities that tend to color advertisements in various parts of the world, recently an article on marketing in the International Herald Tribune made me pause to think about something as base and obvious as the effect of language on marketing.
The article cites a survey commissioned by translation services company SDL International, stating that according to the corporate marketing managers surveyed, 'language' and 'translation issues' are the biggest obstacles to 'managing a brand effectively in global markets.'
The writer points out that while some leading brands marketed themselves differently in different cultures, traditionally, companies have been hung up on the idea of preserving and propagating brand consistency at all costs: consistency was equated with quality. Nowadays, with the advent of the Internet and the globalization of brands, the idea of consistency remains strong, but its implementation seems to be increasingly problematic.
How does one manage to ensure trans-cultural consistency without a brand's core message being lost in translation? As the Tribune emphasizes -- websites, direct mailings and even instruction manuals can be the victims of inconsistency, "all of which can hurt a brand if the content is inconsistent with its values."
The SDL survey reveals that this problem is hitting American companies particularly hard -- perhaps because, due to the presence of a strong national market, American marketers have not really been as hard pressed to adapt their materials to regional audiences until recently. This unlike their European counterparts, who have historically been forced to adjust their strategies to surmount the constraints created by their relatively small domestic markets.
"Broadly speaking, American organizations are very, very slow in terms of their understanding of language," Chris Boorman, chief marketing officer at SDL told the Tribune. "They often take an old-fashioned, arrogant, and I would go so far as to say a colonial approach."
"Language is becoming a competitive advantage," he said. "If you can deliver your product in a way that looks like it was developed in that country, you have a competitive advantage." Statistics reveal that English is less dominant on the Internet than it used to be, with languages like Chinese, Japanese and Spanish gaining increasingly significant ground.
Boorman's comments seem to imply that companies need to produce content that can be adapted to suit a variety of markets, or perhaps that companies like his that provide translation services are the key players to the solution.
Susan Douglas, Professor of International Business and marketing at NYU's Stern School, notes that the creation of marketing material depends on the particular product and region it is to be directed at. She explains that some brands like Axe, which are targeted to a younger segment tend to follow a uniform marketing strategy worldwide, while others like Lux tend to have very different advertising campaigns in different countries.
With regard to language in particular, she maintains that a crucial consideration is whether the product is trying to convey information or an image. In the case of an internationally marketed French perfume for instance, it may be desirable to maintain the language as French as rather than conveying information, the aim is to convey an image.
How do you think globalization and the growth of the Internet is affecting, or is likely to affect, global brand marketing strategies -- particularly in terms of language?
If you're anything like me you're easily distracted when you're working, you listen to your iPod at dangerously high levels, and your attempts to remedy the former by opting for the latter prove pretty futile in most instances.
I've spent the last few weeks hunting for a pair of noise cancelling headphones that would help me get better sound quality than my existing Panasonic earphones on the one hand, and also drown out the office cacophony when I need to on the other. After some digging, I landed on a pair of Able Planet's latest Clear Harmony Active Noise Canceling Headphones, which although primarily marketed for business travelers, also suit my own less itinerant needs.
The headphones, which retail for $300, are based on a proprietary technology called Linux Audio that was originally developed for hearing aids. This alters the audio signal to increase the intensity of higher frequency harmonics, which makes it easier to hear at higher frequencies which are sometimes less clear. It ensures that high frequency sounds are not smothered by bass tracks, and claims to increase perceptions of loudness without an actual increase in volume, thus minimizing the potential for ear damage. The latter is a pretty big consideration for me personally, as more and more people I know seem to be complaining of tinnitus or asking the same question way too many times for comfort.
The Clear Harmony headphones advertise themselves as disability friendly and can be worn with hearing aids due to a new technology that restricts electromagnetic influence. They are also supposed to be great for air travel, something I fully intend to test on my next excruciatingly long trip back to India.
A few caveats: the noise cancellation facility can make you feel like you've just taken an elevator up 25 floors- there's some suction that can make the ears feel a bit pressurized. You get used to it however.
Additionally, the headphones are not foldable, pick up interference from cell phone signals, and have a gently perceptible buzz stemming from the noise cancellation feature. "Noise cancellation happens when the headphones emit a tone that spans the frequency spectrum of human hearing, droning out the sounds of the 'outside world.' The problem in this case is that since there is seldom high-end ambient frequency in any normal working environment, this leaves the high-end frequencies of the noise cancellation feature remnant in the audio spectrum of the headphone output," explains Fast Company's Associate marketing manager, Josiah Hendler (whose tech-savvyness stems from the fact that he also runs a professional recording music studio in Manhattan.)
All in all, after a few days of testing the headphones (and passing them around the office), the verdict is primarily positive. They sound great, block out a significant amount of ambient noise (in environments that aren't home to too many cell phones,) and although expensive, could be well worth the cost for those who really need the peace and quiet.
A lot of things have transitioned into the cyber realm. People talk online, watch television online, shop online -- they even 'date' and have 'sex' online.
A nationally-representative phone survey of 935 teenagers released last week by the Pew Internet & American Life Project draws attention to the fact that just one more formerly real world activity has transitioned into the online arena: Cyber Bullying.
According to the survey, "about one third (32%) of all teenagers who use the internet say they have been targets of a range of annoying and potentially menacing online activities – such as receiving threatening messages; having their private emails or text messages forwarded without consent; having an embarrassing picture posted without permission; or having rumors about them spread online." However bullying was still widely identified as happening far more often offline.
The Group reports that making private information public appears to be the most common form of cyber bullying.
Fifteen percent of those polled claimed to have had someone take a private email, IM, or text message they had sent them and forward it to someone else or post it where others could see it. Thirteen percent claimed to have had a rumor spread about them online, while another thirteen percent reported having been sent a threatening or aggressive email, IM or text message. Six percent had had an embarrassing picture of themselves posted online without their permission.
Certain groups were identified as being more likely to be bullied. Girls are reportedly more likely to be bullied than boys, particularly older girls -- with 41% of online girls aged 15 to 17 reporting such experiences. Intense internet users, social networking site users, and content creators are all more likely to report being cyber bullied than others.
While the ramifications of cyber bullying may seem small to many, to those being bullied, the ease with which the Internet allows the replication and dissemination of content can cause rumors and consequences that are both far-reaching and potent.
"Bullying has entered the digital age. The impulses behind it are the same, but the effect is magnified. In the past, the materials of bullying would have been whispered, shouted or passed around. Now, with a few clicks, a photo, video or a conversation can be shared with hundreds via email or millions through a website, online profile or blog posting," writes Amanda Lenhart of Pew.
Another key factor as to why cyber bullying can be so severe: cyber bullies can take advantage of the anonymity that the online interaction often offers. This makes them more confident and less concerned with the consequences.
Fourteen year old Kirsty Perkins, who made a suicide attempt last year that was then gossiped about online, told the BBC: "It's easier for people to say things about you on the internet. People are scared to say things to your face."
An interesting direction in which to further extend existing research on cyber bullying could be to examine the premise that the characteristics, and perhaps the demography, of cyber bullies may different from those offline. Someone who is bullied severely in school may use the Internet as a forum to vent his frustrations by targeting others online -- acting as a cyber bully himself. Bullies in cyber space don’t have to be the biggest kids in the school yard, and in a world where sticks and stones really can't break your bones, it is those most adept or loose with their words who can hurt others the most.
Have you ever been the target of bullying, threats or aggressive behavior online? Why do you think people bully others online? Do you think the characteristics of cyber bullies are different to those in 'real' life?
If you can't take your partner away from his videogames, you can incorporate yourself into his routine in a way that's fun, and could get pretty steamy, for you both. That seems to be the aim of Intimate Controllers, a thesis project created by NYU grad student Jennifer Chowdhury.
The project involves building game controllers into underwear so that players have to touch each other in order to play. The idea is to construct controllers in a manner that will bring couples together instead of breaking them apart.
Jennifer cites her first and foremost point of inspiration as the phenomenon of 'gamer widowhood': a situation she describes as "where man plus videogame lead to very sad woman, or even worse to woman giving man the finger and leaving him." Writes Jennifer: "I wanted to create a type of video game play that would center around a couple's intimacy and where two people would touch each other in order to play the game."
She describes two other catalysts for the project, the first being the evolution of video game controllers, through which people have gone from having to use their hands to having a hands-free experiences, or experiences that require people to move their bodies to play. The second is an exercise given to her class that required students to create any kind of interface that could work as a networked objects pong controller, while sending it left and right values.
Jennifer's response to the exercise was to embed sensors into a bra. "I made a pong controller that was made from a bra. The mapping for the controller was simple - touching the left breast made the pong paddle go left and the right breast made the paddle go right."
She also created a controller to be worn by the man, in the form of a pair of boxers that has 6 sensors. The operation requires the man stands behind woman giving each partner access to the other's sensors.
The controller is structured so that as players move to higher levels in the game, they necessarily interact with each other in a manner that is more physically intimate.
The project consists of fSRs, atmel chips, Xbees, clothing and a flash game -- while Jennifer originally planned for her controller to be used with existing video games, after not finding any games that were appropriate for her purposes, she had another student, Sinan Ascioglu, program a game for the project.
Whether this particular project is really going to take off commercially remains to be seen: for one thing games would have to be developed that suit the nature of these 'sexual' controllers. From what I could see, apart from the sexual nature of the players' interaction with each other, the game itself didn't lend itself to being too exciting or active -- it seemed to consist of a bunch of shapes floating across the screen.
Developing physical, but less explicitly sexual controllers, is another direction in which the devices could be developed, as couples who want to interact or be intimate through video gaming might not always want to interact in a sexual manner.
Whatever the outcome, Intimate Controllers is undeniably an innovative endeavor, one that has got people thinking along the desirable lines about how technology can be used to better relationships.
Digital Rights Management is a hot issue nowadays. Labels, artists and producers complain that they're losing money and being denied adequate copyright protection. This has spurred the development of security measures in an attempt to lock up, or at least control, digital content. The problem (if you're one of the people losing money anyway): there are more people out there intent on breaking the system than there are those intent on saving it.
The inevitable question that comes to mind: should DRM advocates just accept that the concept, although still relatively new, is fast on its way to being an anachronism unless modified in light of the Web's increasingly communal culture?
With every new protective technology comes the codes to promptly break it; with every new security measure comes the tools to infiltrate it; and with every step forward, the road to strictly proprietary digital content just seems to get longer. There's a strong cyber community out there that believes that the Web should be an open forum of shared information. And this community is willing, even waiting, to fight back against those who thwart the course of its mission.
The situation really isn’t that dissimilar to the ideals that spurred on Robin Hood and his band of thieves -- take from the rich and give to the poor; or in this case to the greater community.
Of course there are exceptions, and not all artists are against the idea of doing away with DRM. One film project that is actually using the idea of open content to its advantage, and in fact as its basis, is A Swarm of Angels.
Conceived of by digital filmmaker, Matt Hanson, A Swarm of Angels is a revolutionary, futuristic film project, the aim of which is to create a £1 million film that will be distributed to over one million people using the Internet and a global community of members. The film will not be protected by any DRM, will be freely shareable, and will not be created for profit -- all proceeds will go towards the next free community production.
What's noteworthy about Hanson's endeavor is that not only is the film to be freely distributed, but also its creation necessitates a high amount of interactivity and community involvement.
People interested in becoming members pay a fee of £25, which allows them to influence production and development by having a say in creative decisions. They can even contribute more directly by joining the crew if they have the talent.
Two pitches are being developed, based on member input into initial drafts written by Hanson: The Unfold -- a story about a disaffected musician who receives a phone call from his mother, who everyone believed died a decade ago, triggering a search to rescue her; and Glitch -- a story about a neglected housewife, a voyeuristic cable operator and a videogame artist who all make a connection. The decision about which project will go onto the production stage will be made by the member community.
"This type of participate content is the missing link between the top-down approach of traditional media creation and the bottom-up nature of user-generated content," writes Hanson.
The project has been divided into five phases. Phase 2 was most recently completed, during which the scripts and visual development for both pitches, as well as a teaser and promotional material, were all created. Each successive phase aims to recruit more members and correspondingly to raise more money, with the aim for Phase 5 being to recruit 50,000 'angels' and raise £1,250,000.
In keeping with the spirit of the project, Hanson has so far been resistant to publicity through offline media, relying on the blogosphere and online publications to spread the word. So far he seems to be making his mark. Forbes.com has cited him as a person likely to 'Change the World,' while The Guardian Guide dubbed the process "revolutionary and fun."
Once the project is completed, it will be licensed under the Creative Commons, which will allow it to be downloaded and remixed.
Hanson's reasoning behind creating such a project is: "You can’t control media these days. You need to go with it, rather than fight it. We’re part of the remix generation, with the DIY digital tools to make our own digital media, whether that’s film, music, or whatever." Do you agree with his ideas? Are interactively created open source films a transitory trend, or do you think a project like A Swarm of Angels could really be shaping the future of film? Are there perhaps any other trends you foresee in this area?
The face of the advertising industry has changed dramatically over the last few years, as the Internet has become increasingly dominant and has shouldered its way into the mainstream. Although advertising professionals are still inevitably grappling with the notion of how best to harness the power and peculiarities of the Web in order to tell their stories in the most effective manner possible, much of what is generating interest is where this dynamic, volatile platform is headed next.
At a panel yesterday at the Future of Online Advertising Conference in New York, several industry experts tossed around their thoughts on what the future of interactive advertising will be. While there was a spectrum of views on the issue, there seemed to be a tendency for the discussion to keep converging back to focusing on a few particular trends.
A sizeable chunk of ad spending has shifted to the online arena in recent times. Is there really something to be said about the effectiveness of the Internet, or are advertisers just going with the latest fad because they are dissatisfied with the returns they are getting from television advertising?
Definitely the most vocal of the four panelists, Chan Suh -- president and CEO of Agency.com -- answered the question with a firmly pro-online stance: he explained that the Internet provides advertisers with clarity, measurement and increased accountability. Advertisers see the Internet as an opportunity to create a more "gauging relationship;" it provides them with multiple options to develop a deep relationship with, and a richer understanding of, their consumers.
But the consumer's experience online often involves coming up a bunch of random ads that are not targeted at all and in fact having no personal relevance whatsoever.
The general response to this seemed to be that while more customized and targeted ads are the direction in which the industry has heading -- this was almost unanimously acknowledged to be the next big growth market for online ads-- there are also big problems.
According to Alex Blum, CEO of KickApps, through data mining processes nowadays, agencies are aiming to easily and anonymously create and collect consumer profiles that can then be used to fashion advertisements that are targeted in a manner that increases their relevance and effectiveness.
Blum went on to add that the click method of tracking involves the inherent danger of engendering a sense of resentment in consumers, who often feel their privacy is being invaded. His suggestion: advertisers should harness the opportunities presented by social media -- 'scrape' sites like MySpace and Facebook in order to make use of information that people make publicly available about themselves.
Suh was quick to knock the feasibility of this idea, arguing that the cost and time it takes to determine trends and figure out what people want through this method of scraping is not proportionate with the results. In an industry in which clients often demand answers immediately, scraping social media is simply too tedious. He went on to emphasize how useful it would be if ad prices could be determined using cost per influence rather than cost per thousand as their benchmark.
Jim Larrison, GM of Corporate Development at Adify, gave his take on the problem: he explained that the industry has to get smarter about getting hold of a rich inventory of consumer preferences that can then be sold to advertisers.
What will interactive advertising look like in 20 years?
Hilmi Ozguc, CEO of Maven Networks, thinks that it will be "interactively richer… consumers will have more choices regarding how they can interact and what they want to see." Advertisers will be more adept at taking "short impressions and turning them into lasting relationships."
Chan Suh's prophecies were the most eloquent, although perhaps the most hopeful: he explained that the face of interactive advertising will change to become "an incredible dance partner, who knows when you are going to take a sudden step, knows when you're going to dip, and who knows what state of mind you're in based just on your behavior." His take on the future is that advertisers will be able to provide stories and ads based on what consumers want, and not just on what the clients want.
Can display advertising ever achieve the same levels of success as search advertising?
Alex Blum took this one, reiterating his stance on targeted ads -- he explained that the only way to counter this very direct experience of conducting a search is to address the targeting problem, and this can be done through data mining.
With the advance of Internet advertising will the TV become less important?
According to Hilmi Ozguc it will not: he argued that television will continue to remain an extremely important medium, however the face of television will inevitably change, with internet TV coming to the forefront in a manner that blurs any and all boundaries that currently distinguish the internet as a separate platform.
What do you think the future of interactive advertising is? Are there particular trends that are clearly emerging or that you foresee will inevitably emerge over the next few years?
Earlier this week, the Washington DC based Grameen Foundation unveiled the Village Phone Direct Assistance Center -- a new initiative to continue its ongoing efforts to combat poverty worldwide through enabling and improving access to financial services and information.
To give you some quick background: the Village Phone is an initiative pioneered by Grameen Telecom in Bangladesh, through which the Foundation works to create a link between the telecommunications sector and the microfinance sector. This in turn enables microfinance clients to borrow the money needed to purchase a “Village Phone business” -- a small phone booth that uses a cell phone in other words.
The Village Phone Operators purchase a cell phone starter kit and then rent the use of their phone to the community on a per-call basis (they charge by the minute.) The initiative is particularly significant because it operates in places where no telecommunications services previously existed, spurring the development of economic growth and social relationships that were formerly seriously hindered by the lack of any local communication devices.
The Foundation explains that prices are kept affordable and the relationship aims to be heavily symbiotic, with the village phone operator earning enough to repay his loans and hopefully even make a profit, and the villagers themselves finally being able to make phone calls without taking the day off work and trekking miles out to do so.
Village Phone Direct, is a grassroots approach to the original program, through which microfinance institutions can work directly with local telecom providers to set up village phones businesses, without waiting for the Foundation to roll out a national Village Phone replication program. A Direct program is already operating in the Philippines.
The Foundation's new Village Phone Direct Assistance Center features a how-to manual, a message board, customizable templates and other information that will help MFIs work independently with local telecommunications providers to develop Village Phone Direct programs for their clients.
When politicians spout rhetoric about how infrastructure must be developed in order for developing countries to move forward, it often conjures up mental images of huge railroads, dams and telecommunication grids -- huge projects that require massive funding, which ordinary people like me usually feel overwhelmed by and dissociated from. Initiatives like Village Phone are perhaps easier for the individual to grasp, and contribute to, in a directly meaningful manner.
So the next time you leave your cell phone at home and spend your day feeling sorry for yourself because you're so 'cut off' from everyone around you (and I've definitely been guilty of falling into this category of wallowers,) take a moment to think about people who consider themselves lucky to even see a phone once a month. Perhaps you'll carry on with the rest of your day feeling just a little less frustrated and a little more connected.
"I think everybody's just trying not to be lonely" -- Billie (Drew Barrymore) -- Lucky You
It's no news really that people are obsessed with the idea of falling in love. It's an idea that pervades popular culture like no other -- transcending national and social boundaries as a lucrative driving force behind a variety of businesses across a range of sectors, media and entertainment possibly being the most obvious.
A cursory glance at Box Office Mojo's account of this week's highest grossing movies nationwide reveals that 80% of the top 5 movies significantly incorporate themes of love or romance into their plots. Within the US, Valentine's Day is a special occasion for more than just starry-eyed couples -- flower shops, restaurants, jewelers, card retailers, hotels and resorts… loads of people and businesses have positioned themselves to get a piece of the action.
And for consumers out there who haven’t yet found their 'special someone,' it would be unnecessary to harbor worries about being neglected by savvy retailers. The market abounds with online dating services like Match.com, which reassuringly tell you that "it's okay to look," and concerned women's magazines like Cosmopolitan, which confidingly tell you about "The Best Place to Meet a Guy" and invite you to "Check out this month's half-naked hunk."
So when it comes to the arena of love and romance, there appear to be two defined types the market can cater to -- people in love and people trying to get there (or at least trying to not be alone.) But what happens if you happen to fit into neither? Could there possibly be a third? And if so, is this group really big enough to prove sufficiently lucrative?
In Japan at least, the answer seems to be yes. A few years ago, Japanese company Kameo came out with a "boyfriend pillow" for Japanese single women, which sells at approximately $80. The pillow is shaped like a man's torso with one sturdy arm, and is supposed to provide the comfort that sleeping in the nook of a man's arms provides.
The year after, the pillow for women was followed by another pillow that is shaped like a woman's lap, this time aimed at Japanese single men, which retails for about $90.
In many countries, while sexual aids for single (and sometimes even partnered or married) men and women are widely sold, more 'emotional' aids such as the pillows that Kameo is selling, haven’t really taken off.
What's new here? The pillows aren’t really being propagated as a means to the end of being half of a whole. They're being marketed for singles who seem to want to stay single, but would like some of the advantages of being in a relationship, minus the hassles. As the BBC reports, "Japan's single women are being offered the ultimate sleeping partner - a comfort to cuddle up to, but one which does not snore or make demands."
Three years ago, the BBC ran an article on how Japan's women are wary to wed. The piece describes a phenomenon in which Japanese women in their 30's are increasingly more interested in a career and less interested in the idea of getting married and starting a family. Many own canines or other pets as companions, but are childless and husbandless by choice.
Within this context, it doesn't seem a huge stretch for Kameo to conclude that boyfriend pillows might be a hit.
The pillows, which aim to supplement the lack of a significant other in a single's life, raise an important question. Is there a potentially lucrative sector comprised of singles who want to stay single but would like to have some of the benefits that their partnered peers enjoy? Or is this still too novel or perhaps too niche a concept for societies outside of Japan?
It's hard to tell. The end-goal for many single Americans still seems to be the eventual attainment of a partnership if not a marriage, and the confident assertion of many Japanese singles that single is the way they want to stay -- at least for now -- doesn’t seem to have quite caught on yet in more conservative cultures. But as times are changing and careers, particularly for women, are increasingly moving to the forefront, perhaps the market of singles who want to stay single is something entrepreneurs, producers, authors and everyone else should start more paying attention to.
Village Phone Direct, is a grassroots approach to the original program, through which microfinance institutions can work directly with local telecom providers to set up village phones businesses, without waiting for the Foundation to roll out a national Village Phone replication program. A Direct program is already operating in the Philippines.
