Does anyone know about variation in cultural attitudes to snoring?
In the UK there's nothing taboo about it and taking the proverbial out of snorers is fair game. I've not been able to track down any info about whether this varies by culture. Is snoring taboo in Japan? Is it a matter of great hilarity in Brazil? No idea.
Suggestions please!
Would you send an email to previous customers? Please see the email below that I just received - I bought one of these widgets roughly 3 years ago for about £5. Nice widget it is too.
Dear Sir/ Madam,
As a previous customer of smartwrap.co.uk, I thought you might be interested to know that the business is currently up for sale.
Since I have been in ownership of smartwrap.co.uk (April 2005), the business has seen impressive growth in both the retail and wholesale (bulk buy) sectors – the latter of which was entirely unexplored by the previous owner. I believe that there is a great deal of potential for further growth in both sides of the business, particularly the wholesale side. Importantly both the Smartwap and Syncwrap can be branded with an individual’s or company’s logo, name or website.
I believe that smartwrap.co.uk is a highly esteemed website with a very prolific domain name and strong reputation for customer service - as testified by our repeat customers.
I am aware of a few opportunities that have unfortunately not been taken advantage of due to time constraints and other responsibilities since I acquired the business. I am of the opinion that this makes it a very attractive opportunity for any individual or company willing to take a fresh view of the business and act on it.
There is a small portfolio of information about smartwrap.co.uk available to all those who express an interest. If you would like a copy, please send an email to the address given below and I will be more than happy to send you the details.
Best regards,
Faris Hamadeh
Proprietor, smartwrap.co.uk
enquiries@smartwrap.co.uk
Weird. However, I did like my smartwrap, so I think I'll request the details. Watch this space.
This latest briefing from Trendwatching is arguably the most important trend of 2007. Please read it! As usual it's packed with good ideas and examples.
Here's some fine directions to get you from NY to London. Check out instruction 24.
In the spirit of reviewing the content of one's moleskine, I found this quote from the gruesome "Haunted" by Chuck Palahniuk (he of Fight Club). This is from the chapter "Slumming, a story by Lady Baglady". The theme of this mini-story is how a group of ultra-rich try to find new kicks by becoming homeless for the night in order to lose their identity & the social trappings of their lifestyle.
"Mrs. Keyes's best friend, Elizabeth Ethbridge Fulton Whelps, "Inky", used to say there's only one "best" of anything. One night, Inky said, "when everyone can afford the best, the truth is, it does look a little - common."
How true. Burberry etc.
I recently spotted some ads on the tube for Information Revolution. The headline of the ad was something along the lines of "70% of internet traffic goes via one company" and then a simple url as mechanism to get involved (complete with authentic ".org" domain). Intrigued, I visited the site. After a little while it dawned on me that this is nothing to do with information protection, per se, but is a thinly disguised campaign by the search engine Ask Jeeves.
It's easy to see how Ask Jeeves arrived here. In the absence of (I assume) a solid reason to claim that they are different or better than Google, Ask Jeeves needed to find a new angle. There are many people concerned, if not deeply paranoid, about information protection and rightly so. However, the sinister behemoth being indicted here is Google, themselves usually associated with being a champion of free-thought, primarily by seriously challenging Microsoft. And that's where it falls flat for me. I guess it will make a few people think about the Google monopoly. But change an indoctrinated nation's search habit? Not convinced.
I'm not completely decided here - this campaign treads a fine line between being a genuine champion of the people and a cynical ploy to get attention by a desperate business. I'm erring towards the latter. Any views? Please vote!
Another thought-provoking post from Indexed.
Remember the possibilities. Remember when it was new. Remember when you cared.
My final year at University was spent studying Experimental Psychology. As part of this I studied how the eye & brain turns light rays into vision. It's pretty obvious when you think about it, but this quote from a lecturer made me sit back and think about just how cool the brain is.
"the light rays aren't coloured".
In other words, nothing in the world exists as we perceive it. Colour only exists in our head. The same applies to the other senses...there is no smell, just chemicals in the air, sounds are just bits of rhythmically moving air.
All marketing happens in that brain too - impacting on a complex associative network of memory and the cognitive processing of information.
Worth remembering when someone next uses the word "consumer" and talks about "doing marketing to someone".
As announced here in The Times, British banks have been over-charging customers who have remortgaged over the last few years. I just called up Halifax and will be receiving a cheque for £40. Better than nothing.
If you've remortgaged make sure you get your money back - it's just a simple phone call away. If you prefer to write, you can download template letters from moneysavingexpert.com
Spread the word!
The Generator Blog features loads of fantastic tools for making interesting presentation visuals.
Thanks to the Plannersphere wiki for the link
I've been updating my Marketing Inspiration Squidoo Lens over the last few days. It's still a bit limited, but hopefully improved. Comments & suggestions welcome. Thanks!
I particularly like from the homepage:
"What kind of blenders are these?! The Total Blender that is used in the “Will it Blend” video series is the entry level blender for the Blendtec home product line. (You ought to see what Blendtec 20 amp commercial models will do…..)"
Spotted this ad for spread betting on the way home from seeing my chum Mississippi MacDonald playing a set over at the Electroacoustic Club at The Slaughtered Lamb. Long copy ads at cross-track locations usually work well - people have time to read and generally do if they are interested. Farringdon is a good location for city types into this kind of thing. It's just a shame that this particular media location was across 2 tracks and the ad was in a minuscule font size.
This is an intriguingly produced video about the evolution of the internet into the gloriously collaborative network that it is today. Some poignant comments towards the end about how the internet is changing the way we interact with the world - and how we need to rethink copyright, ethics, relationships etc.
Because you'll all have signed up to the Trendwatching newsletter, you obviously won't need this link to the latest briefing. If you do, shame on you!
A banner ad for Alliance & Leicester proudly displayed at The Times website today.
How can anyone possibly miss that typo! Maybe one of those crafty compeittors (sic) meddled with the ad.
This is one of the most insightful things I've seen in ages. A really simple construct to show the effects of combining deadly sins in pairs. My favourite is Gluttony + Pride = fat men in speedos!
Reminds me a bit of the Nike "brief-o-matic" that you can find within this blog post from Pink Air.
Simple ways to get to interesting ideas must be the way forward!
