Moustache Monday?

Recently, I stumbled across an article in the Wall Street Journal that described a start-up company in San Francisco with a busier social calendar than Kim Kardashian. “Moustache” Mondays? “Yoga” Tuesdays? I was intrigued. The company, Airbnb Inc., decided to pump up company perks to entice (and keep) dedicated employees. Competition is fierce in the Silicon Valley for tech talent, forcing employers to get creative.



As I read on about their two-story indoor tree house and “zen” room, I couldn’t help but wonder if this was idealism gone wrong. After all – how productive would you be, sprawled out in a tree house with a fake moustache on? But as I read on about late work nights and serious tech results, I wondered if maybe they were onto something. Maybe their “brand” was so developed and unique that it easily allowed intermixing of work and play, and in fact encouraged long, productive days and evenings. In an ever-growing tech market, where startups go as quickly as they come, perhaps the key to attracting talent lies in utilizing corporate culture as a tool – a point of differentiation. (And if there’s wine and cheese involved, that never hurts either.)



While I don’t see many East coast companies rushing to order their own indoor tree houses – maybe we could all learn a little something about developing our own brand identity in an endless sea of competitors. And really, it begs the question – who’s in for Moustache Monday?

An idea that stuck to the bottom of her shoe.

So you’ve got gum stuck on your shoe. Or perhaps it was a leaf, paper, or just mud you can’t wait to get off.

All of us at some point have run into this situation and our instant reaction is to get rid of whatever it is that’s stuck to the bottom of our shoes as quickly as possible.

Recently I came across an article about Tara Haughton, a 16-year-old who started her own company after someone at the wedding she attended thought the red confetti on the bottom of her shoes made them look like Christian Louboutin shoes.

A simple Google translation of “red soles” into Italian –Rosso Solini– plus some 3M red stickers, and a company was born.

By definitely thinking outside the box, the teen CEO gave her dad a job and made Christian Louboutin shoes available for 25 bucks.

As of now, a very ho-hum website and Facebook are their main means of sales/media. Perhaps in the near future when they plan on expanding and selling more red soles to the U.S. they can give Howell Creative Group a call.

William and Kate

The universal coverage of The Royal Wedding is truly incredible. Images are continuing to emerge weeks after the once in a lifetime event. One particular image was brought to my attention via Facebook earlier today and, without a doubt, the playful image was followed by countless comments and “likes.”

It’s remarkable how we the viewer, instantly recognize the monumental event of William and Kate and immediately directly compare it to the story of Cinderella. Clearly Disney’s image has been altered in order to better show the comparison. More obviously, William is Prince Charming and Kate is Cinderella, and the two that resemble Cinderella’s evil stepsisters are princesses of the royal family.

With the endless media attention, from their engagement to the big day, William and Kate have made completely made a name for themselves: Formerly Price William and Kate Middleton, together are now William and Kate. Fortunately, it didn’t get a far as Brangelina, but let’s be serious, they had to stay classy considering William is second in line to the throne.

This all makes me wonder…can “William and Kate” now be considered a brand?

How tarnished is Donald's golden crown?

Surfing channels this weekend, I ran into the Seth Meyers White House Correspondents' Associate dinner speech and was drawn in to the event. What an example of the basic communication lesson that body language can "trump" words anytime!

Most folks nervously giggled at the mini-roasting of themselves or their associates. And it was clear that our President was quite comfortable getting ribbed...not a lot of squirming there.

But, what really caught my eye was Mr. Trump's reaction. Or a better description was lack of reaction. He sat so amazingly stone-faced that he looked like a statue. In contrast to the rest of the crowd, he appeared eerily unreal - no feelings - no emotion. Except perhaps anger attempting to be disguised as uncaring.

Trump has spent decades and countless dollars building and honing his brand. He would be well served by seeking some PR help - pros who would undoubtably advise him to stop taking himself so seriously.

Apps & Burger Branding

Branding, as described in the dictionary, is “a type of product manufactured by a particular company under a particular name.” This very loose definition leaves out all of the intricacies that “brand” can include (i.e. an environment, service, corporate mantra, etc.). Maintaining this brand across all media is extremely important. Five Guys Burgers and Fries does exactly that – on a nation-wide scale.

Five Guys is known for its delicious burgers, quality ingredients and played-down esthetic. It’s all about the food! Recently, we were tasked with the challenge of applying this understated esthetic to their new Android phone app.

The developers of the app, Solertium, created a very simple and easy-to-use interface that finds the nearest Five Guys franchises and allows the user to place an order for pickup. Our role was to help make this app look and feel like a small, interactive version of the Five Guys restaurant.



We created custom buttons, food illustrations, page layouts and chose fonts that would help create a familiar environment for the user. While this was a project that required design restraint more than over-the-top creative, the result is a user experience worth sinking your teeth into.

Android users can see for themselves at:
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.fiveguys.olo.android

And check out this great app review:
http://androidactivist.com/reviews/five-guys-app-review/

Make friends AND money?

I'm guessing that most of you know about the Pepsi Refresh Project. Instead of spending millions on a Super Bowl spot, they elected to kick off a Social Media Campaign where folks offer ideas to help others, viewers vote on those ideas and then the winners are funded by Pepsi. Interesting gamble. (Check out the page with the finalists for July)

According to Financial Times, it looks like carbonated beverages use in the US is still dropping - and that includes Pepsi. Not too good. But perhaps the campaign has helped them keep from dropping further...anyone have an opinion on this one?

And good news for the company? Gatorade sales have picked up. Now, that's a taste I never acquired.

If you think "colors" are just for kids, it's time to re-think.

Whether you're walking down the aisle checking out the new fall line at Chico's (my favorite), frozen foods at Martin's, towels at Target or dryers at Lowe's, the colors we all see are anything by random. Color selection and management is big business.

Imagine trying to sell my mom's turquoise washer - dryer - Formica kitchen table - sheets (well, pretty much anything in the house we grew up in during the early 60's in the Atlanta area) to a 50-something market today. Yep, we'll all still buy teal stuff (or it's trendy name "Lagoon") for a few more years, but I'm guessing turquoise would only sell as a cool retro color to a sub-set of folks in their early 20's. And even though these colors are very similar, one could spell success while the other ends up as landfill trash.

Having been a member of the Color Marketing Group years back, it's actually true that they and other like-mined organizations attempt to predict colors that the public will like in the future year vs telling the public what to choose. Their goal is to help manufacturers predict color popularity so all those washing machines stay out of the landfill a little longer.

But I really do wonder about how long it takes consumers who may hate a color palette they see in the store at first, start to get used to it, see it in ads or pubs, subliminally notice it on other folks or in other homes, start to like it and then ultimately buy it.

Check out the May issue of Graphic Design USA for the Annual Color Forecast. It's sponsored by the guys who REALLY own color in my world - Pantone. But, that's another story I'll yap about later...