Accidental philosphy
Macro
(Source: , via beforetherewasinternet)
(via verogisselle)
I will simply marry the next man I see with a proper pompadour.
When shopping in stores, that means having a nice person greet the customer as he or she walks in, spacious aisles, clean fitting rooms and candies by the checkout - - she said - - When shopping in the mobile sphere, those luxuries translate into an ease of use on the device.
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From: Shuli Lowy via Tricia Carr on Luxury Daily
Luxury still struggles to create an experience as refined and satisfying as their retail presence in my opinion.
Luxury shopping should shine on mobile - especially iPhone and iPad - since the experience is truly high touch, highly visual, on-demand and 1:1.
I remember the first time I used an iPhone, it felt very luxurious. How can luxury retails build on the experience?
Grinders
I’ve been really interested in the latest group of body modifying trailblazers who are calling themselves “Grinders”.
You may have seen some coverage of their crusade to become cyborgs here, here or here. This Eyeborg is really cool. (Understatement)
What I love about these pioneers is their desire to be the future they felt they were promised. I imagine them sitting in a cafe somewhere (although it was more likely a basement in Philly) saying, “What do you mean I don’t get to have a robotic super arm, I’m like 25, my life is half over. If I don’t get it now, when will I?”
So he decides to build one.
Fantastic!
As a mobile marketer, who spends a lot of time thinking about how a smartphone’s censors can be used as part of an ad; I love to see someone install (essentially) a magnetometer in their fingertips and live with it, sensing another dimension.
We know it is there, but he feels it.
Thoughts on storytelling
It feels as though we are only now getting the hang of digital content. In fact - I don’t think we are there yet.
Great stories will always be compelling, whether accessed from a computer screen or many pieces of mashed together dead tree.
But how many examples of storytelling exist that use the full capabilities of digital contexts? I can think of this or that. “Co-viewing” applications, in my experience, are ancillary at best. They do not compel use, but rather are used because they are tied to something already compelling.
Then I read this article. (Kickstarter a reality show?) and I began to understand how content and story can change to to better fit our new multi-context lifestyle.
The industrial revolution brought us the ”Work day”/”leisure” separation relatively recently. I hear it was pretty swell.
Yet against our own protest we began adopting technologies that connected us to productivity 24 hours a day.
Why did we do that?
I believe it is because we have an innate desire to unify our experience, but that is just conjecture.
Focusing on observable trends:
- The pager allowed us to be connected more often
- With the cell phone were became even more connected
- The real change came when blackberry brought email to the table
- And now with the ubiquity of the smartphone class thanks to iPhone, we went from Etewaf (everything ever made available forever) to Etewafarn (everything ever made available forever, all right now). The former is attributed to Patton Oswalt, the latter I coined just now, feel free to improve it.
The trend, then, is from somewhat available to completely interconnected.
So, to follow this approach, we can also look at content - or for the sake of argument we’ll call it “story”.
- When story was etched on stone it had to be curt and important. Kings birthdays and such.
- Handwritten books were expensive and only the most important story would be worthy. We had preachers or teachers to distribute those stories.
- The printing press changed that. Eventually any kind of story could be printed.
- Blogging made that even easier. Then micro-blogging.
You can really see the degradation of story from a monolithic, self contained “thing” to a combination of smaller, more mundane narratives.
So how do these two trends fit together? I don’t know. But I do see a potential convergence.
IF digital touchpoints allow constant interconnectedness of and access to narrative experience PLUS narrative is becoming more readily available and real THAN the future of story is an interconnected always-on narrative accessible all the time.
This is taking shape here, here and these. Here too.
There is, however, one major blocker - Story as we know it is expensive. And by that I mean it takes capital and talent to develop and market. 24/7 always on always accessible content could not come cheap. So how can we pull it off?
That brings me full circle to our innate desire for unity of experience. “Reality” is the narrative we will consume. In many ways this is already happening. Not with reality TV, but with what we are calling “curation”.
This, I believe, is behind the need for branding to shift from storytelling to honest action. The shift from disruption to utility.
But it does not end there. Basic hierarchy of needs tells us that once utility is satisfied we begin to look upwards towards fulfillment.
A “reality narrative” that is imagined and chosen by us, carried out by the bots - our filters, apps and mechanisms to experience a satisfying reality, or many reality narratives of our choosing.
So what is mobile content? I think it might be the access and curation of reality available 100% of the time.
More than half of those under 35 are concerned about overconsumption
Does that sound high to you?
Euro RSCG conducted this global study on attitudes toward consumption. Something that stood out to me, apart from the fact that almost half of people across the globe feel that they consume too much, is that the young, under 35 set seems to already feel like they wasted money consuming things they didn’t need.
I wonder, is this because they are closer in years to that wasteful spending? Or is this an indicator of a general trend of increase in wasteful spending. Where 55+ may not be buying iPhone after iPhone immediately following each WWDC, I have distinct memories of wasted money on “early mover” gadgets only to leave it in a drawer the next year.
Here is some other cool stuff from the Marketingcharts post:
Other Findings:
- According to the Harris Poll results, there has been a rise in the proportion of Americans who describe themselves as conservationist (20% in 2012 vs. 17% in 2009), green (17% vs. 13%), and environmentalist (16% vs. 13%).
- Only about one-third of American adults said they are concerned about the planet they are leaving behind for future generations, a 21% decrease from 43% who reported that concern in 2009.
- 3% of the Ipsos survey respondents said they only buy eco-friendly products. 40% said they buy these products when they are readily available and there is no big cost difference. Yet, 51% said they buy whichever products suit their needs at the time.
- Women are 25% more likely than men to buy green products if it is convenient and the price point is right (45% vs. 36%). College graduates are 18% more likely than those without a college degree to do so (45% vs. 38%).
- College graduates (46%), Northeasterners (48%), and adults under 35 (48%) are more likely than the average to say they would pay more for green products.
Building a better “me”
From The Atlantic
…whether or not we’re living in unprecedented times is a matter of debate…
Take a read of this article from the Atlantic about how we use the supercomputer in our pockets to optimize ourselves.
Evolution is an awfully slow way to improve, it requires a lot of painful failure and you personally don’t get to benefit from the rewards. Technologies are faster, and our faster technologies allow us to be faster even faster (but you already knew this).
Meanwhile ‘intentions’ for iPhone remain high.
Good information hits your senses. It compels you to react, to hold it, to pass it on.
This passage was written by a Native American man, who seems to be in his old age at the time, in 1978. He relates high quality information to sounds of nature - the sounds billions of years of evolution have trained us to notice.
Interesting - Pictures and video are the most popular links on Facebook- and chances are - on your brands site.
