thoughts

BestBuy: brand value and experience, booo.

Posted by _tango! on June 5, 2007

Posted in: brand, design, experience, information, me, thoughts. Leave a Comment

I recently voyaged to one of my favorite hands-on testing grounds store BestBuy, but what I left with was a diminish in their brand value and trust. The events experienced were not new, but they were unnoticed in the past as in recent years my expectations in brands, customer-centric services, and brand experiences have changed a bit.

So, what happened? I needed an external hard drive since my measly laptop was under 1 gig of space. I went to BestBuy and bought a pretty nifty external Hard Drive that you basically just plug in via USB and your set to use. At the check out counter, the sales rep kept insisting that I have a GeekSquad service added to install it since there was a sticker on the box. I said no thanks, and she kept telling me about how much easier it would be to install etc. I told her that all I needed to do was plug it in. Then she said “oh, well I don’t even know what you are buying.” Right there and then, I lost my brand value and trust in BestBuy. First, they had a dumb sticker on a product that does not need a person to come help install it for $$$.(It’s like having a person come install a toaster at your house). Secondly, the person working and selling me the product did not even understand the product nor understand what I meant when I said hard drive.

For crying out loud, don’t hire people into your company that don’t understand the products you are selling. I’m not just ranting at BestBuy, but there are many other brands that have employees that don’t have a clue to what the company does. Yes, I know it cost more to hire people that breathe your brand, but I’m guessing it cost more money to re-market your brand value to customers that have had a bad experience. Good things are easy to forget and bad experiences are never forgotten. I’ll stop my ranting here, but BestBuy, take for example some kick-butt brands like Jetblue, Wholefoods, Patagonia, or TraderJoes; they get it, their employees do it, and their customers know, experience, and live their brands like a religion. Brands are truthful users experiences today, not just portrayed over-marketed lifestyles anymore. We live the digital age…we ignore ads, research deeply, and leave nothing hidden.

mix1 beverage: all-natural fast food

Posted by _tango! on June 5, 2007

Posted in: brand, design, food, information, me, thoughts. 1 comment

On another random drink journey to Wholefoods I came across these brightly packaged Mix1 beverages claiming to be the “all natural fast food” drink packed full of the optimal mix of ingredients to maximize your all-day energy and balance needs.

At first glance, these bottles seemed more like mini paint buckets or large nail polish canisters with their flat sides and corners, but hey, they grabbed my attention being surrounded by the the other over-texted transparent like packages upon the shelf. I picked up the lime flavor to try out. It taste like a mini blended smoothie with bits of protein. It also had this distinct flavor that reminded me of the famous Asian mini bacteria drink called “Yakult“, though pronounce in Cantonese “Yu look doe”. Anyhow, the drink itself was tasty and refreshing, though I’m not sure how much of a boost it gave me.

On a side note: It’s amazing to see how many new companies are spawning out that become their own brand, or need to. Take for instance Mix1. They all sell a story, a story about how they themselves started and wanted to create a drink they would use. Not only does the story apply to the founders, but every single worker down to the sales rep. Another great example is HonestTea. The founders had a hard time finding a drink in the market that was not too sweet yet tasty. Most Iced teas were jammed full of sugars, so they created Honest Tea, which taste like real home brewed iced tea without the over saturation of soda like sugars.(read there story here, or an interview with the co-founder here)

TuneGlue: MusicMap

Posted by _tango! on June 3, 2007

Posted in: art, brand, design, entertainment, experience, fun, ideas, inspiration, music, style, tech, thoughts. 2 comments

Here’s another pretty sweet interactive visual music map suggester(TuneGlue). You type in a band name, expand to see “like-bands”, delete a few, lock down the primaries, and after a few clicks you have a dozen more bands to check out.

The interface is simple, the branching is nice, and the suggestions are pretty good. It would be cool if a “listen” button was incorporated into the pod options rather than seeking a sound sample on your own. Be awesome if you could use this software for your own desktop mp3 collection as well..fun times at parties if ya ha a big touch screen for guests.(Microsoft Surface Table, or Jef Hans multi-touch wall)

zamzar.com

Posted by _tango! on June 3, 2007

Posted in: brand, information, tech, thoughts. Leave a Comment

Don’t you hate it when someone sends you a file format that your computer doesn’t read? If so, give Zamzar.com a try which offers free online file conversions (up to 100mb) for videos, images, documents, and music formats. They even have a nifty little URL video conversion section to download streaming videos to savable formats rather than squinting into the source code.

Zamzar reminds me of YouSendit.com which helps you store and send files across the net (up to 100 megs). So now you have online format converters and online file senders. I haven’t used Zamzar much, but I’m sure many of you will find it handy though the conversion types are basics and nothing super fancy yet(designers: no ai, psd, sldprt). Check out their conversions list here.

iSave water indicator

Posted by _tango! on May 18, 2007

Posted in: design, experience, ideas, information, tech, thoughts. 3 comments

iSave is a pretty sweet concept that just might make you behaviorally turn that fawcet off when brushing your teeth to conserve the amount of precious water you use/waste daily.”This device has a digital display that works with the help of a turbine. When you open the faucet the pressure of the water activates the device and it displays the amount of water consumed.”

I recently read in a card in the book “Drivers of Change” this:

“How long will we continue to flush our toilets with drinking water?”
“Although two-thirds of the earth’s surface is covered by water, only 1% is fresh water.”
“Within 30 years, the majority of the world’s population will not have enough potable water” ‘water wars’ are very likely to occur.”

Personally, I’d love to have the iSave in my house, then yell at my friends that take 2 hour showers, or leave the fawcett running for 10 minutes while brushing their teeth. It’s almost like being carbon-neutral, but just in the world of water. Perhaps the same could be made for electrical sockets. Less is better…kinda like a weight scale when your dieting 😉

via newlaunches

Ripple.org beta

Posted by _tango! on May 16, 2007

Posted in: brand, design, ideas, information, inspiration, tech, thoughts. 2 comments

“Save the World one click at a time!”

Wow, what an awesome idea (which I had once, but these guys made it happen). Basically, Ripple.org operates off the idea of using ad revenue as money for donations. You click, you’ve donated. How simple and brilliant. If your the type that advocates saving the world, but have no money, and only time, here ya go! Click away and save the world. 100% of clicks/revenue go directly to specified foundations, though I wished there was someway for individuals to see how much they have contributed click-wise, time, or money…. check them out..click away!

via NotCot

StoryCorps

Posted by _tango! on May 14, 2007

Posted in: art, design, entertainment, experience, ideas, information, inspiration, thoughts. Leave a Comment

“StoryCorps is a national project to instruct and inspire people to record one another’s stories in sound.

StoryCorps celebrates our shared humanity and collective identity. It captures and defines the stories that bond us. The process of interviewing a friend, neighbor, or family member can have a profound impact on both the interviewer and the storyteller. People change, friendships grow, families walk away feeling closer and understanding each other better. Listening, after all, is an act of love.

A StoryCorps interview is an opportunity to ask the questions that never get asked because the occasion never arises. How did you come to this country? How did you and mom meet? How did Uncle Harry get the nickname “Twinkles”?”

StoryCorps is a captivating project by design studio LocalProjects with recordings from everyday people ranging from friendships, relationships, struggles, identity, heroes, disasters, work, and various other personal experiences told by people like yourself.Â I’ve listened to well over a dozen recordings and feel like I’ve journeyed around the country meeting everyday people with fascinating personal stories over a nice cup of coffee conversations.

Take a Listen, Participate, or learn more about StoryCorps here.

Dragons Den

Posted by _tango! on May 11, 2007

Posted in: brand, design, entertainment, experience, ideas, information, inspiration, me, thoughts. Leave a Comment

If your an inventor, designer, entrepreneur, business leader, or just curious about what make and breaks great business ideas, take a look at the hit show Dragons Den in the UK where entrepreneurs pitch their ideas to Venture Capitalist (the Dragons) in seek of investments to develop their ideas even further in exchange for a percentage in their company. The show ranges from product inventions, to services, to strategies, business models, and every little aspect of what’s needed to be successful in creating a new company.Â I’ve actually met one of the dragons during a pitch once before, but I’ll keep that to myself 😉

If your not in the UK, no problem….just go to their small video page here of winning pitches,(click the full screen button) or cling on to awesome video streams of each show at High Resolution at AllofTV.net (Dragons Den season 2, season 3, season 4) Most of the shows result in no investments, but the ones that make it through are pretty darn good. Here’s an hour long episode I watched recently…pretty good.

Clay Grass Tennis!

Posted by _tango! on May 3, 2007

Posted in: design, entertainment, fun, ideas, information, inspiration, materials, thoughts, wacky. 4 comments

federer nadal tennis court grass clay
How bizarre! First came the breathtaking mile high tennis court with Andre Agassi, and now tennis star Roger Federer dukes it out with French Open champion Rafael Nadal on an experimental exhibition part clay part grass tennis court costing $1.63 million to set up(damn…give me $5000, and I’ll make that happen and pocket the rest). I’ve always been a fan of half&half pizza, drinks, hybrid cars, tools, payments, etc, but I never thought I’d see this happen. It would be interesting to see this again with the split happening horizontally (each player with both floors). Maybe a dangerous oncrete, clay, grass court is next.

Read the rest of the story with more pictures after the jump.
via Slam Sports and ESPN.

“Book” means “Cool”

Posted by _tango! on April 24, 2007

Posted in: entertainment, experience, fun, ideas, information, inspiration, me, tech, thoughts, wacky. Leave a Comment

txt msg Besides this weeks news of 13 year old Morgan Pozgar winning $25k for being the world text messenging champion, another fun, social, behavioral, and somewhat pop cultural fact I learned this past week was the effects of the T9 predictive typing system found on most phones:

“That’s so Book! In an interesting technical flavor to linguistics, T9 predictive text on mobile phones is now starting to have an effect on language. For example, ‘book’ now means ‘cool’ because when either is entered (2665) into a T9 predictive phone, ‘book’ is offered before ‘cool,’ and is now used in place of the latter.”

I don’t use T9 often since it never outputs my designerly modified crappy lingo but this might also be old news as my phone currently does output “cool” before “book”, as does the GUI on the T9 site.

So, can technology change our language or even definitions….sure! Many cultures shorten or replace words much like our Australian friends down under(lingo list). Even mashups are becoming more common. I learned a bunch of pretty sweet custom terms during word queen Erin Mckeans ‘Word Lovers’ Boot Camp during GEL last week. The two words that stuck in my head were:

1.”CrappyJack”: any kind of empty, snacky junk food.
2. “Drunch”: to consume alcoholic beverages with like-minded individuals between the hours of 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. on Sunday. 😉

I also learned the the term “Ecosexual: A person who’s into hybrid cars, low energy lightbulbs, and recycling.” via Treehugger

Rodrigo y Gabriela

Posted by _tango! on April 18, 2007

Posted in: entertainment, experience, fun, information, inspiration, me, thoughts. 4 comments

I finally got to see “Rodrigo y Gabriela ” live in concert last night at the Roxy in Boston and it rocked! (having front seats helped 😉 ) Their vibrant, thrashing, duo acoustic guitar sounds rippled through the jam packed audience with amazing energy and kept everyone stomping for more.Â I’d talk about them over and over again, but I’ve posted about them before and can only suggest for you to buy their tickets FAST. The boston show sold out a few days after they were available to 1500 peeps. Run over to their websites tour list, find your nearests city, and buy buy buy! They are seriously one of the most dynamic, inspirational, and lively duos I’ve heard in a long time!

Googles 411

Posted by _tango! on April 16, 2007

Posted in: brand, experience, fun, information, tech, thoughts. Leave a Comment

Googles 411 service has been out for a few days, but I finally gave it a go today. It rocks! Simple to remember, free, fast, and useful. The voice recognition software is really fast and quite accurate from the few calls I made so far.. The best part is that it’ll text message you the info if you want instead of connecting you right away….(no more scrambles for pens) Give it a call: 1-800-goog-411. It’s fun just to test the voice recognition software as well.

Update: Here’s another free sms 411 service, TellMe, which was acquired my Microsoft..you pick which big cookie monster to use!