Category: marketing

Power Shower

daily life economy marketing

Orwellian, isn’t that what you call it?

What happened? Some bean counters at Best Western figured out how much money gets spent on heating water for the guest showers. Probably a fair bit, since BW Hotels operates 320,000 rooms globally.

So let’s put in those water-saving devices.

Yes, actually taking a shower is pretty much impossible now. Your body still gets wet. Somewhat, in some places. But forget about mundane actions like washing the soap away from the skin. That measly drip coming out of the device will not do that. Water is an essential feature of taking a shower.

BW Hotels think that this is not a given.

The amazing thing is, that somebody thought to put up a sign reading:

Dear Guest,
Please be
advised that
this shower is
equipped
with a gentle,
“Rainwater”
style head.
It is not a
“Power” shower

Now we know. It is not a bug, it is a feature. Bugs are unintentional. This one very much is intentional. And it sucks. Really badly.

So, if I have the choice to stay in a Best Western or in any other establishment I know what to do.

Trying to reframe what is normal into something special, that got replaced by something special, is evil. Intentional, and I will not support it.

The TV in the room was from 2011. A lot has happened in TV tech since then.

Canon support: awesome

marketing technology

I don’t have any expectations if it comes to end consumer support. These days I anticipate phone systems that will try very hard to make you give up. Should you reach a person they seem often not to care about your issues, their job or anything for that matter.

When I ran into questions with a recent Canon camera I called them anyway. I have been massively and positively surprised: After 90 seconds I spoke to somebody who cared. He had the camera I had in hand within a minute.
I sent them test pictures, and now they are looking at them. Regardless what the outcome of this investigation will be: I have the feeling that they care about their product and my experience with it.

As I said: I have not expected this. It will probably be a long time before I would consider another manufacturer. Unless there is a killer feature in a competitors product I will always look for a Canon device. I don’t mind paying more for it.
It might very well be that other companies have awesome support too. The risk to run into issues and they don’t is just to high.

So, yes, every support call is the chance to win a customer for life.

How odd that so few companies seem to understand this.

“Fight Club” in 2013

communication daily life economy history internet marketing media politics

Watching “Fight Club” again today is a strange and very interesting experience.

So much has changed since the book / film came out. It is clearly set in a different epoch.

Its character ‘Tyler Durden’ says:

God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables;
slaves with white collars.  Advertising has us chasing cars
and clothes, working jobs  we hate so we can buy shit we don't need.

…

We've all been raised on television to believe
that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods,
and rock stars.

But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact.
And we're very, very pissed off.

It seemed fitting at the time. What happened since then?

Many of those jobs are gone. People in that slice of society
make less money today. Sometimes even in absolute dollars.
Certainly corrected for inflation. In the same time the share
of the upper sliver of society on the other end of the wealth
distribution has nothing but exploded.

So why seems the portrayed unrest even further removed
from reality than less than a score years ago?

The answer might lie in the proliferation of computer games and the Internet
during that time.

Both soak up all that extra male testosterone and time that would
otherwise find not much constructive application in the world of 2013.

Oh, and it looked absolutely awesome. I miss movies shot on film.

hover is awesome

internet marketing technology

Hover is just awesome.

With Godaddy and Network Solutions I have to battle through an ever increasing amount of screens that try to sell something when doing even the simplest things.

Yes, it’s as painful as that last sentence.

Hover is a wonderful. Even if the others were OK Hover would still stand out. It is really nice.

A domain would auto renew next week. I don’t need it anymore. So Hover sends an email asking me what I would like to do. The others just auto renew.

I really like that. Treating your customers right. Looking for what they could want. Instead of looking for upsell opportunities.

Very very nice.

loving a suitcase?

daily life marketing technology

Last century we bought 3 full size Samsonite Oyster suitcases. Back then you had to put some stickers on them to distinguish them from all the others that people had.
That changed. Now there are all those black soft textile bags on the belt. I never understood why.

Those suitcases are simply amazing. They have traveled ridiculous miles by now. Life is tough if you are luggage. I can not imagine what kind of treatment they have gone through. They always worked.

I was very saddened when he lock broke on one of them. I don’t think I want any other suitcase. Rimowa seems to be en vogue. But I feel that they would not work better and probably look pretty beat up within a couple of months. I also don’t like if my luggage tells the world “Hey – check this out – I have money – stealing here is worth the risk”.

But as it turns out Samsonite did not only make awesome products, their service rocks as well:

I emailed them, asking if I could order a spare lock. They asked for my address and will send me a replacement lock for free.

I love it if things work right. I think this kind of service is truly inspiring.

Me loves my Samsonites!

surprisingly insightful

history marketing media

Adweek ventures into cultural history. And – in my opinion – they actually do succeed.

logos

art marketing

Honest logos. Could easily be extended. Probably since companies with much to hide pay more for their branding.

guess the country

daily life marketing

On the carton of orange juice it reads “low in saturated fat”. Orange juice, fat?? WTF. What are they thinking. How many people ever considered OJ to be fatty? Pretty clear which country you are in when you read this kind of ‘nutrition information’.

nice idea

daily life marketing

brand feedback

via Eric Alba.

The end of Nokia

history marketing technology

A good summary of what happened to Nokia. Point is that engineers can not run the show. But -of course- all the prettiest design in the world can not safe a project / company if the underlying technology is not up to the task.