"I like to launch [products] early and often. That has become my mantra. Nobody remembers [Madonna’s] Sex Book or the Newton. Consumers remember your average over time. That philosophy frees you from fear."
– Marissa Mayer, Google
Unabashed Gearhead Gnarlyness
The 2006 Honda Civic Sedan
After seeing one pass me on the street, I have to admit I’m head-over-heels for the new Civic. The shape and proportions represent a huge improvement over somewhat dowdy 2005 model, and there’s more than a little Alfa Romeo Giulia Berlina in the trunk section, which is no bad thing. This is the first Honda sedan since the famed pop-up headlight Accord of the late 80’s to make you wonder why people bother with two-door coupes. Sweet.
photo copyright Honda
More “How Far?”
I’m writing an extended essay on the subject of "How far? How?". I’m building off the Saturn story from my earlier blog post, but would love to hear about other remarkable ways that companies express their brands.
Please send me an email if you’ve got a good story.
Mahalo!
Thought Contagion
When I first began this blog my day job was marketing web software, and I was obsessed with figuring out how to make ideas more likely to spread across the web. Though part of the reason for blogging was long tail self-expression, much of it was about building my professional chops. I’m a big fan of knowing by doing.
I’m no longer making my dough as a web marketer, but I’m still fascinated by the mechanisms of thought contagion on the web and elsewhere. I love sifting through web logs to see who is visiting and linking to metacool.
Imagine my delight earlier this week when PubSub indicated that metacool was the 14th strongest website out there (out of 16 million sites tracked!!) in terms of link strength and buzz. Sure, I’m happy to be up in the quantitative ranking, but really turns me on is the prospect of figuring out what makes PubSub tick as a measure of contagion. To that end, I need your help:
- If you have any sense of how PubSub derives its rankings, leave a comment or drop me a line.
- If you know of any other online measures of contagion (besides Google page rank), please tell me about them.
Thought contagion is so cool, eh?
The Return of Jolie-Laide
The new BMW Z4 Coupe.
This is fantastic. It’s the return of Jolie-Laide, and it’s about design that takes guts. Love it or leave it, you have to admire BMW’s willingness to take a point of view and run with it. In that sense, it’s beautiful.
(via Jalopnik)
Nano is the new Turbo
The whole "nano-as-the-ultimate-modifier" marketing thing tipped last week with the release of the iPod nano. While I don’t (yet) own one of these iPods, I do own several shirts which supposedly feature a nanotechnology fabric treatment. I believe we’re now going to see "nano" applied to everything from cigars to Civics. Which is fine, except that in few cases will the product actually contain, or be about, nanotechnology.
Such is the case with the iPod nano, and that is why I believe that nano is the new turbo, another technical term appropriated by marketing people and applied in so many ways as to make it meaningless.
Nothing wrong with this, of course, for the truth is all marketers are liars. But it really rankles the engineer in me. And delights the marketer in me.
Design Manifestos: Eva Zeisel
"The designer must understand that form does not follow function, nor does form follow a production process. For every use and for every production process there are innumerable equally attractive possibilities."
– Eva Zeisel
Read more about Eva Zeisel’s point of view on the design process in this wonderful profile written by Virginia Postrel.
Me and My Murse
A few weeks ago I lamented the fact that I couldn’t order a Freitag Murse online. Of course, many of you are lamenting the fact that I want a murse, but for me the lamentation stems only from my continuing state of murselessness. Each morning as I try and squeeze my gadget-stuffed pockets into the seat of my car, I remind myself to find a way to get out to the Freitag store in Davos.
Salvation came in the form of an email from a nice person at Freitag called Manuela, who told me that, while the object of my murse lust won’t be available online until late September, it is possible to purchase one today without jetting off to Davos. How? Well, if you consider the designed-as-a-one-of-a-kind-object premise which forms the essence of the Freitag brand, then the solution is obvious: log into a web cam in the Davos store and have a living Freitag salesperson show you each bag until you find one you like.
Seriously. You must see it to believe it.
It’s kind of cool and brand-enhancing, eh? But I still don’t have my murse. The tyranny of the wallet has yet to cease.
metacool Thought of the Day
"NetGens think of the computer as a door, not a box. When they are on,
they have 5-7 IM windows open and multiple tabs into different
communities. Each community provides a way of being, to express facets
of their identity while engaging in an activity. Most activities are
centered around objects to spin stories and hold conversations. They
don’t go to places, it’s more likely they augment plazes in the real
world. With increasing mobility they tap groups for what they need to
get done no matter where they are and make where they are matter… In other words,
the web is increasingly less about places and other nouns, but verbs."
Knock Knock
The other day I was asked to name the person I’d most like to have evaluate the design of a website. A few designer names swept through my head, but then I thought, "No, I’d want a marketer who thinks like a designer who thinks like a marketer. Seth Godin."
Over the past five years I’ve had a hand in architecting and building five major websites, and Seth’s thoughts on permission marketing, sneezing, and remarkability played no small part in shaping their design. This one was done on less than a shoestring budget but got nominated for a Webby. This one is built around getting people to a permission asset, and as a bonus gives sneezers a handy little manifesto for cocktail parties, too.
Seth just wrote a new guide to creating websites that work. It’s free, it’s here, it’s Knock Knock