Russell Davies

added value

Bought a shirt at the weekend. And they added a little value with these ear plugs. Don't really know why, but I liked it.

local is smelly

Brands are all starting to realise that local is important. Nike and Adidas and people do special city-focused limited editions. And here's a terrific new example (from the NY Times, you need to register). With a sense of humour. Another window I walked past in New York.

corporate apology

a tremendous sign over at funkypancake has reminded me of the perfect corporate endline we once wrote.

I was working in the states at the time. It was the sad end of the dotcom boom and every pitch we did seemed to be for some terrible service company. It was all telecoms or technology or something. People with rubbish helpdesks. People who'd built an enormous global corporation before they'd become actually good at anything. And it occured to us that they should simply pre-apologise for everything. Since their relationships with customers were inevitably going to be based on let-down and failure, the simplest thing would be to get it out of the way upfront, and try and get on the same side as the customer. Thus we thought of 'we're just as disappointed as you are'. It's perfect. You can just see it:

'BT: We're just as disappointed as you are'

or

'NTL: We're just as disappointed as you are'

It'd work wouldn't it? You just wouldn't bother complaining, becuase you'd know what response you'd get. And you'd somehow feel like they were on your side. It's you and the global corporation against some other. It wasn't their fault, it was fate or something. Because that's the only satisfaction you get with a helpdesk. The only way they can make you happy is if they take your side against 'the system'. This way the whole company does a corporate shrug and roll of the eyes upfront.

I wish we'd presented it to someone. Just as a laugh. But we never had the guts.

rebraun

It's been around a while but I was recently reminded how much I like the bootleg objects idea. And it shows the value of a brand and a design ethos, that it can sustain this kind of tweaking. If only braun did it themselves.

nano branding

You don't need a lot of room to make a brand statement. Good language, surprise, standing-for-something, imagination and a little square of blackboard and you've got a distinctive brand.

This is both sides of barber's board on the eve of Valentine's Day. On a dug-up Kingly Street in Soho.

scarcity, mostly on wednesdays

This coffee shop in Soho reminded me of the days when shops used to have half-day closing. All the shops in Derby used to close on Wednesday afternoon. It would be a different day in different towns. And it get me wondering whether some of the current disatisfaction with brands is to do with their completely easy accesibilty. There's no specialness any more. Think about the shop Labour and Wait, half the intrigue in that place is that I can never work out when it's actually open. Same with the Rivington in New York. And it's not just about exclusivity, it's also about integrity. It's about a shop that's not just there to serve you. I think there's a difference between service and abject subservience. We respect brands that aren't all about us.

building opportunity

Here's a potentially lucrative consultancy niche. Look at this mess o' brands. Who do you actually talk to about this building? There must be money in being a brand consultant to the construction industry.

starbucks jumps the shark

You know the idea of 'jumping the shark' - the precise moment when a TV show passes it's peak and starts the inexorable slide to rubbishdom.

I think Starbucks has jumped the shark in the UK.

This is the Starbucks in Leicester Square in London. It's a huge place, almost underground, not a lot of natural light. Tons of tourists and it's got this crowd-control-type barrier to direct you where to queue. That to me is an indication that Starbucks has forgotten what its selling. Which Howard Schultz always used to say was something to do with ambience and quality. This kind of barrier says 'Post Office' or 'DMV' to me, not ambience and quality.

This is exacerbated by the fact that employees staff in the UK know nothing of the Starbucks 'traditions' (I don't know what else to call them). But you know that way that Starbucks people think they're a little better than ordinary service employees, they're barristas, they're special. (even to the extent that they get all hoighty-toighty with you). That's part of the Starbucks experience in the US, and you don't get it here. No-one here knows much about Starbucks, they all think they're just working at MacDonalds.

This is going to be a problem for Starbucks.

brands in our bathroom

i was bored last night. my family were away. there was nothing on telly. so i thought i'd take a picture of every brand in our bathroom. just to see what there is. it was interesting. this whole album is just some of it. there's a whole basket of bath toys in there too which i didn't get around too.

it made me realise how long stuff hangs around in the bathroom. and what i'd pay for a multi-purpose product - imagine the clutter you could avoid if you could find a hybrid toothpaste/hairgel/shaving cream/floorclean/antiseptic - all in one big tube.