tomatolounge

Quick, name something that you use every day but have no idea how it works, or what exactly it’s doing.

Seems silly right? Well what if that thing was a web browser? Hmm. not as silly now is it?

Google has an illustrative video over on youtube.

What does this mean for web designers and developers? A lot more than the layman might think, especially when the dominant web browser for the past 10 years, Internet Explorer (or, as I’ve been known to call it, Demon Spawn from Hell) doesn’t play by the same rules as the rest of the world, making you do more work just to get visual and functional parity between it and the rest of the world.

However there is a bright spot on the horizon (at least for use web developers) it’s about to die a well deserved death. IE6 holdouts, expect to see more of these in your future.

When the news broke about Toyota’s recall, I felt like I used to feel when I was a teacher and the smart, disciplined student who always sat in the front row cheated for the first time.

Then, the details unfolded. The narrative shifted. What was once a tale of Toyota’s fall from grace devolved into an epic of customer betrayal, as the media reported incidents of Toyota’s lack of responsiveness to customer complaints. For years, the straight-A brand had been making decisions not guided by its commitment to transparency and safety. As the  President of Toyota said during congressional hearings this week, “We lost sight of our customers.”

Like Toyota, my straight-A student had been having problems for years. She’d been allowing other students to copy her work. In fact, she was somewhat relieved at being caught. She could finally talk about the problem of peer and academic pressure. I told her that everyone makes mistakes — it’s how we learn and grow from those mistakes that makes us leaders.
 
I am, by no means, calling the Toyota recall a “sophomoric” mistake. Toyota’s eight-million car recall has planted the seed of doubt and paranoia among customers.

But, Toyota can still lead. Like my straight-A student, Toyota has been influenced by the pressure to perform at all costs. We have heard about capacity issues that impacted the quality of Toyota’s production. And, we know that large-scale business crises are often the product of a short-term focus on quarterly results instead of the long-term brand strategy and promise.

In one sense, Toyota is already helping competitors learn from its hard knocks. That leadership should frame a new story about the brand. I’d like to see Toyota start talking about how it will lead a movement to bridge the gap between innovation and safety in the automotive industry.

The automotive industry can still learn from Toyota, and the brand can lead again. (Incidentally, my straight-A student is about to graduate from Skidmore College at the top of her class.) But, Toyota needs more than time to fix the breach in customer trust. Toyota must be and lead the change customers want to see.

saw this ad during lunch break today. its eyecatching but minutes later i had no recall of what product was being sold and what brand it was. not too effective in the long run.

The BBC has been broadcasting since 1927, and has had a web presence since 1997, an eternity in both worlds.

They’ve got a very interesting post up on their internet blog discussing the growth of their Global Visual Language a very interesting read for anyone interested in brand design on the internet, web based grid systems, or watching tv.

Campbell Soup’s Labels Redesigned Using Neuromarketing

Alexander McQueen, the highly creative brain and fashion designer left us at his height yesterday. Mr McQueen’s creative heritage left us some of the wildest shows on the runway.

One of six brothers, his fahter was a cab driver. Mr McQueen was known for his singular voice and hyper sensitivity. He made his first steps by interning for some fo the most prestigious english tailors where he learned the craft relentlessly and built up an unparalleled drive.

his hyper creativity will definitely be missed beyond the runways and his tragic death is a strong reminder that hyper creative people are also hyper sensible individuals.

Then resurface this great branding question: what will happen to Alexander MccQueen, the fashion house without his brain. Bill Blass and Geoffrey Beene, left us a few years ago and the brands have struggled since. I am sure the Gucci group was looking for a better start of Fashion Week in New York Yesterday.

Conservatives have mastered the art of framing issues in a way that moves people to act, and liberals keep trying to get a dead horse to giddyup. Here’s how conservatives manage to frame ideas people may want to buy.

Conservatives view the decision-making process as simple. They believe consumers need to know that the choice is easy. When conservatives view the issue of healthcare, they offer one big choice: Say “No” to the government controlling your healthcare decisions. The audience gets it. They don’t have to spend too much time studying the nuances of our healthcare industry.

By giving the consumer a simple choice, the conservative frame inspires hope. It tells the audience: this issue is easy to solve if we act now. It’s no coincidence that the book Gross National Happiness found that conservatives are happier than liberals. They are given a more customer-friendly lens to view issues.

Here’s how liberals sometimes fail to sell their ideas.

Liberals view the decision-making process as complex. They believe consumers need to know all the information before making such a complex decision. To persuade the consumer, they offer a cluttered list of benefits, features and attributes. Healthcare reform is about Joe who was just laid off. It’s also about the Mom-and-Pop shop that can’t afford rising insurance rates. But, it’s also about saving our economy. And, let’s not forget that too much fast food can cause diabetes.

The liberal frame tells the audience: the issue is more complex than you could ever imagine. The audience is paralyzed by too much information and choice. More importantly, they don’t feel like such a complex issue can ever be solved, so why engage?

I’m not arguing that consumers are too dumb to grasp a complex issue, but they are busy and saturated with marketing messages. They want a brilliant, but simple choice.

Smart brands and communications strategists get this. They wade through exhaustive research, arguments and counterarguments to find the marketing gem — a brilliant, simple choice. And when they find that precious gem and offer it to consumers, they make the choice effortless.

A good creative brief can be therapeutic. Bear with me here. You walk into a meeting thinking you know exactly what your brand challenge is and how to fix it. You just need the agency to execute. Then, you get to talking.

You realize that your brand challenge is stickier than you thought. Or, that you really haven’t mined all the cracks and crevices of a particular opportunity before plunging into a plan of action.

Here’s where a stellar creative brief comes in.

Ideally, the creative brief is a conversation, not an email. You sit in a comfy swivel chair and talk about big, hairy brand challenges and audacious dreams, not headcounts and budgets. You say to your agency, “I want my peers and customers at this industry event to want to have a long-term relationship with my brand. I want them to call my brand late at night just to talk. I want them to hang out with my brand in the cafeteria. I want them to see us and want to be or work with us.”

This is vague, but a good start. A good agency will listen carefully, nod and jot down notes. Then, get to the core of the challenge or opportunity.

They’ll ask probing questions that will uncover new insights. “Why don’t your customers want to call your brand just to talk and who are they calling instead? Why do you want these particular peers to sit with you in the cafeteria? What tangible or intangible benefits can you offer peers and customers at this event? What’s the first thing you want them to think, feel and do when they see your brand? And, when they leave the event, what do you want them to remember about your brand?”

These questions will lead to healthy conversations about your brand. Each and every creative brief — no matter how large or small the project — is an opportunity to dream (and plan) big. Unfortunately, most creative briefs get bogged down in logistics, scope, budgets and timelines. They leave little room for fearless dreaming.

But the creative brief can, and should, be more than a Word template. It should give the client clarity on a specific brand challenge or opportunity. It should also remind the agency of its Hippocratic Oath: We vow to do what is creative and right for your brand.