Tuesday, July 29th 2008

I'm not the only muppet in the world or 'Why Apple Headphones are Ace'

So… There I was, feeling all proud of myself for having been organised enough to put my washing in the machine first thing in the morning (read: whilst I was still half asleep), so it would be ready to hang out when I got home from church. The sun was shining, I’d stopped off to buy a washing line in our friendly local supermarket, and I’d wrestled with it to put it up in the garden (with the invaluable help of one of my housemates!). All was well with the world, and as soon as I’d put this lot on the line, I was going to chill for a while in the garden, with a glass of OJ and my lunch.

Then… Disaster! As I was unloading the machine I thought – what muppet put some wire in here? and then I realised… that wasn’t just any wire – that was the wire that went to the headphones for my iPod! My iPod! Oh no!! (It’s ok – I knew that the Pod itself was safe and sound in my bag, but even so!) I was apparently that muppet.

I flapped them about a bit. Then I resigned myself to the fact that they were ruined. But, I thought, I may as well just stick them in the sun on the window sill and let them dry out totally.

So last night, I picked them up and tried them… pure perfect sound – all the treble and the bass and all the bits in between! They’re good as new, just as if nothing had happened to them! Yay Apple! Yay Me! Yay World! All is good again – I can go to the gym without fear of boring my brains out before I’ve finished 10 mins on the reclining bike! Hurrah for technology!

So I thought I should share this wonderful news with the world on this blog, and to make it a little more interesting I’d stick a picture of said headphones in.

(Here it is for those of you who are getting impatient!)

And… whilst I was loo…

Read the rest...

Wednesday, April 9th 2008

What brand would you most like to sit next to at a dinner party?

According to brandchannel.com most people said Apple

They would have a lot to say about world events, business and what is likely to happen in the future. They could also be quite good fun and have a different view of the world. A good combination of work and non-work conversation.

Brandchannel’s Brandjunkies survey poses a great set of questions, the full set of results can be seen here.

Monday, February 4th 2008

Construction has never been so cool!

Following on from Tasha’s post about the ‘mighty’ Lego… we didn’t really have it when I was growing up (wrong country y’see), we had fischertechnik instead. It was ace – chunkier than Lego so not as much cursing when you trod on it, and you could motorise your gadgets and make really cool things that did stuff – all with little (but powerful!) motors and elastic bands. You even got proper mini tools to use if I remember rightly. No-one I’ve met as an adult has ever played with this stuff, which I think is a real shame, because it was waaaay more technical than lego, and therefore lots more fun. Besides which, it’s german technology, so it’s gotta be good right? (Deliberately provocative? Me?)

Monday, January 28th 2008

Happy Birthday Lego!

Today is 50 years of Lego. So to commemorate I want to know everyone’s favourite lego toy. Mine was the pirate ship, but I can’t find a picture of it, so here is one of a pirate to bring back all those happy memories.

Friday, January 4th 2008

Bargain basement design

In 1971 Caroline Davidson was paid $35 plus some jewelery to design this logo. Look at where it got the company! Unfortunately, the industry has got wiser since the ’70s and poor Caroline must be ruing her lost potential fortune.

Friday, November 16th 2007

Coca Cola are Christmas

A bold statement you may say.

Coke not only invented the red Father Christmas figure we know today, but their famous ad ‘holidays are coming’ marks the beginning of Christmas for so many people that they are running it again this year. Apparently people were phoning up the customer service line requesting it, according to Brand Republic .

The truth or just really good PR? Either way, what a great example of embedding your brand in people’s lives.

Monday, November 12th 2007

What is brand loyalty?

At ICM we are about to do a major rebrand with one of our existing clients and we began to discuss, just in studio amongst ourselves, what brands we are brand loyal to. I slowly began to worry that I wasn’t loyal to a single brand (maybe Arsenal, but that’s another debate). I wear mainly non-branded clothes from a variety of shops, I buy food in local shops, I change shampoo every time depending how I feel and the list goes on.

A chap from Heinz once said that brand loyalty was not when someone picks Heinz beans over other brands from a shelf, but when they go to a different shop because they didn’t have Heinz. On Sunday I deliberately went to the corner shop instead of the big Co op next to my house, because the corner shop sells Lucozade. And in my amazement realised that I was brand loyal and that this is what it feels like. Even more than this I felt relieved, I am a normal consumer and marketing effects everyone.

Wednesday, November 7th 2007

The global to local approach to coffee shops

I think that Starbucks used to be one of my favourite brands, I find it too impersonal and their coffee isn’t as good now.

However, the way that they built up their brand is tremedous. They spend one percent of their revenue on advertising, building brand awareness by simply opening up as many shops as possible and entering into our consciousness without us even noticing.

This marketing strategy was best captured in the Simpson’s episode where a mall gets gradually taken over by Starbucks during the episode. Fantastic!

Monday, October 15th 2007

Google - friend or foe?

Next in the favourite brands category is Google, the King of the internet, the greatest search engine of them all. If you’re not on the first page of Google, you might as well not be on the net.

Instead of going on a little rant about the control Google has over the internet, I thought I’d talk about Elgoog. Elgoog is a mirror version of Google, which means it is a backward version of the site. It allowed people in China to beat the firewall the government had placed upon certain searches on the Chinese Google page.

You can find more about this on the New Scientist site. This is the sort of thing I love about the internet.

Thursday, October 4th 2007

The one we had to feature

A little while ago I started a feature of ICM’s favourite brands. Here’s one we really had to feature, seeing as how we probably wouldn’t have jobs if Apple hadn’t developed quality graphics packages. Marketed recently as the trendy down to earth alternative to the PC, its ease of use and applications has always lent itself to the design industry.

The ipod is featured in our calendar as an example of thinking beyond simplicity. It probably saved Apple from it’s downward spiral as well.

Tuesday, September 25th 2007

Another thing about innocent drinks...

To keep us on our toes they often add in the odd rogue ingredient. Keen-eyed innocent drinkers will also have noticed shiny trumpets, two-man tents and rubber ducks in the past.

Thursday, September 20th 2007

The chilled out brand

Some time ago I decided to write a feature for the website about my favourite brands. We then decided to create a blog and so I held onto what I’d written until it was up and running.

The first brand to feature is one of our favourite brands at ICM and one which I think a lot of people will agree is excellent. We love the tone and theme of their copy, which compliments their brand identity. It involves the consumer and invites people to participate in the Innocent culture.

The best way to demonstrate just how good the Innocent branding really is, is to visit their website www.innocentdrinks.co.uk.

Look out for more coming along and enjoy!