Flotsam and Jetsam

Useful: an encyclopaedia of smalls

2007-07-07T15:56:00.000-07:00

The thing that strikes me about the useful web is the wonderful amateurness of it. I love the idea of people beavering away at home writing applications they think are fun or cool to then share, free of charge, with people they've never even met. My favourite space is the ecosystem on netvibes which is like some sort of virtual village fete with thousands of weird and wonderful widgets to liven up your netvibes page. (I like the aquarium).

These are quite cool too:

Pipes
Mosaic pictures made out of flickr photos
The musical genome (I've discovered some great stuff on here)
How geeks show they care
and then there's all the cool stuff on Facebook. Food fights, superpoke, virtual bookshelves and the like.

Now here's the thing. I'm not sure if many of these really count as 'useful'. They're diverting, engaging and certainly fun but not really 'useful' in the practical sense, and I think that's what makes them so great. The web has provided an outlet for all that creativity and invention that previously used to be relegated to the garden shed and only very occasionally recognised by some obscure department of the patent and trademark office. Now, anyone with the desire to create or invent can follow some relatively simple instructions and take their creation to market.

One other observation is that there are more and more sites and services springing up to help people create their own mashups and useful things. I'm sure there's a quote about the fact that with any craze or trend - from the gold rush to the web - the smart money is in the ancillary services. Here's a good one that lets you aggregate clips on of stuff onto one page.

So here are my 'useful' thoughts, based on my observations on what people have to say about M&S undies:

Most people (ok, girls) have underwear for all sorts of different occasions, but one or two 'favourites' that are so comfortable they feel like second skin, but have gone slightly grey from extreme overwear. And the trouble is that by the time you can bring yourself to part with them the chances are the place you bought them from has de-listed them. So how do you go about replacing them? Which stockist still has them? which line is most similar to them in line/style/fit?

So, my idea (for M&S) is a sort of 'encyclopaedia of smalls' where you can search using the catalogue code to find the closest thing on the market to your favourites. And of course it doesn't have to be restricted to underwear it could work for anything ...your favourite skirt, shoes, even makeup. Ideally it would have something of the Dear Annie column about it to give it a bit of personality and of course there would be lots of opportunities for user-gen comments and ideas.

Smalls

2007-07-07T13:01:00.000-07:00

I chose M&S as my brand for Buzz and as suggested, signed up to Google alerts, did lots of blog searches and so on. Very quickly, I was inundated with stuff - most of it no doubt very important but frankly immensely dull financial stuff. What I did notice though was that loads of the comments by normal people (as opposed to city analysts and financiers) concerned underwear. Smalls. Undies. Briefs. Shorts. Intimates. Slips. (You know that thing about eskimos having seven words for snow?...What does that say about Brits and their relationship with underwear?) So anyway, I decided to narrow my search a little and see what the great British public had to say about the nation's favourite store for thermals. And there was no shortage of stuff...

Which brings me to my five observations:

1. People are more than happy to talk publicly - even brag - about buying their underwear from M&S whereas they're a teeny bit embarassed to tell the world that they occasionally buy Tshirts there.

2. M&S's appeal is truly universal. Everyone seem to default to M&S for undies, whoever they are. Grannies, mummies, girls on the town, even self-confessed cyber-w**kers who choose to blog about their obsession (think twice before you click through if you're feeling a bit prudish).

3. They may not be the prettiest or the sexiest, but somehow M&S manage to make the most comfortable, comforting, 'shepherd's-pie-on-a-winter's-day' sort of underwear. I can only assume that's part of what makes the brilliantly named Goddess of Laundry keep hers for 10 years.

4. It's that little hint of nerdiness that seem to appeal.

5. People use M&S as a bit of an aladdin's cave for undies. When they need something and don't know where to go for it, it's guaranteed to come up with the goods: 'slips' for people who've never had a reason to buy them before, thermals when the Damart catalogue has run out. As Laura says, 'M&S saves the day'.

And one extra for bonus points:

6. A brand that people are happy to get intimate with everyday is one that's in extraordinarily good health.

Brilliant marketing idea or social experiment?

2007-03-29T16:52:00.000-07:00

Why don't I think of things like this?

Really useful stuff

2007-03-29T15:49:00.000-07:00

One of the things that I like least about myself is how spectacularly disorganised I am. But I have decided that the time has come to really make an effort to change. This time, I have a secret weapon, thanks to NetVibes and via their rather weird and wonderful ecosystem, rememberthemilk. Can this turn me into Caroline Macpherson? Wait and see...

Item 180100567593 - Sold...£1.85 +50p postage

2007-03-29T15:41:00.000-07:00

The lucky dryer fluff is no longer mine. I've parted company with it and off it goes to its new home (fortunately only just up the road at Dare). I am, frankly, amazed that by the time the auction closed the listing had 91 page impressions. On Ebay, you really can sell anything.

Thank you Nads.

32 page views, 9 bids and £1.45 later

2007-03-26T14:17:00.000-07:00

Here it is in all its glory. Farewell piece of fluff...

Thank you Kotler

2007-03-26T13:53:00.000-07:00

I have always found Kotler's various tomes on marketing fairly hard-going, but faced with the task of having to sell my lucky tumble dryer fluff (to which I was becoming somewhat attached...) I thought I'd go back to basics and revisit my old textbooks for a few tips and strategies. So, I took Kotler et al's advice and started tinkering with the '4Ps' :

I've 'improved' the product - it now comes with a handy little bag to keep the fluff in and even a genuine 'Certificate of Authenticity' listing all the lucky events attributable to the fluff
I've clearly positioned the product and defined the key emotional benefit (albeit with a little bit of creative license)
I've cut the price so it now represents fantastic 'value'
and finally, I did my best to promote it by emailing a select group of friends who I thought might appreciate the weird and wonderful world of eBay.

Now, this last bit might be a bit contentious, but given that one of the tactics we often employ for our clients is to use multiple media channels to take advantage of media multiplier effects, I figured why not? And, I'm delighted (and relieved given I'm supposed to know how to generate response...) to say that following my email, traffic to my page increased by 500% within 6 hours...

I'm still waiting...

2007-03-11T16:18:00.000-07:00

The amazing pube-free lucky tumble dryer fluff.
As yet, no sign of its strange and deep mystical powers.

My problem with eBay

2007-03-11T15:27:00.000-07:00

I have a simple problem with eBay. I find it utterly addictive. Every time I take a look I think 5 mins is all it'll take and before I know it at least an hour has gone by. Who buy this stuff? Even weirder, who sells it and how do they find the time? This time, on my travels, with the aim of buying the most surprising thing I could find I stumbled across several strange things. My first idea was to look for some genuine flotsam and jetsam - thought it might be fun to have some real stuff rather than just pictures. Sadly, no stray trainers, toothbrushes or bath ducks, only lots of 'naturally beautiful driftwood, ideal for an alternative sculpture (?!). The theme of the sea led me on to what I think is my favourite item so far. This, rather wonder pink sea cucumber - A perky little thing and a bargain at only £4.99. I was sorely tempted but the postage was extortionate and I expect it might not have survived long post transit. So, I carried on looking and given that I seem to have been plagued by bad luck recently (camera got nicked, favourite t-shirt went grey in the wash, two parking tickets in short succession...) I thought a lucky charm or two might be in order. I found two candidates: the first, 'my super luck burgundy sock' which, from the description sounded ideal: this sock has helped me through many foreign dilemmas including being my only friend whilst I was being held semi hostage on a train in Vietnam by a strange man with an umbrella. But somewhat disappointingly, there was NO PICTURE. How could I be sure that the description was accurate? Much more satisfactory was this 'Amazing lucky sock. Weird sock with the gift of luck.' Good picture, detailed description well worth a read, and clearly a highly trusted seller. So, I bid of £4 - generous I thought given a starting bid of less than a £1 and who else would want such a thing? Well, 23 to be precise, and 29 questions and £8 later it sold, but not to me. How, HOW can someone sell one sock with a hole in it for £8? Fortunately, I wasn't entirely reliant on winning the Amazing Lucky Sock. Only a few clicks away was this: The Amazing Pube-free Lucky Tumble Dryer Fluff. This time I was successful and it only cost me £1. Now all I have to do is wait to experience its 'strange, deep mystical powers'.

When worlds collide

2007-02-18T10:22:00.000-08:00

Continuing the (vague) theme of when real world meets digital world, here are a couple of my favourite things on the subject.

The first is an article I came across a few weeks back about the emerging battle between the 'real-life' socialites (as charted by socialiterank.com) and the 'digital' celebs of MySpace. It's a good read, includes a great definition of digital fame courtesy of the New York Post ('if you have your own Wikipedia entry, been downloaded more than 50,000 times on YouTube.com, crucified on three gossip sites, and boast more than 10,000 MySpace acquaintances, then you've made it onto the virtual A-list') and has links to the 'top' digital celebrities like Mahir Cagri and geriatric1927.

A few months I ago a saw a piece in the New Scientist describing the rise of crime in the cyberworld and how it's spilling out into real life. That's old news now, but since then the story's developed: if there's crime, there are criminals and criminals need to be tried...so now you can hire a lawyer trained in the real world at Harvard Law School to practise in the virtual one. Weird.

My inaugural post

2007-02-18T08:35:00.000-08:00

So this is my first time publishing on the web, and it is a strange feeling knowing that my thoughts can be read by anyone in any part of the world. What image of myself does this blog create? What image do I want to portray? I've struggled with this, wondering if I should be accurate and true to my 'real' self or whether I should create a digital identity which reflects how I would like to be and how I would like others to see me. Some psychologists will tell you that it is only when we are freed of the social rules and conventions that normally influence our behaviour that we reveal our true identity. If this is the case, I'm interested to know how the web will influence the cultural aspects of identity. Countries like China or India are traditionally described as collectivist societies where individual differences are suppressed in many social situations and the individual aims to modify his/her behaviour in order to emphasise the similarities between themselves and those around them. Consequently, societies both accept and encourage each individual to have several 'selfs' that are portrayed in different situations as appropriate. In more individualistic societies like the US and UK, individuality is cherished and encouraged. A practical example of the difference between the two different types of society is in the way that school children talk about themselves. Ask a child from the UK or US to describe themselves and typically they will talk about the features of their appearance that set them apart from others (e.g. 'tall, red-headed, wear glasses'). In contrast, school children from a more collectivist society will emphasise what they have in common (e.g. 'a member of x school, a Hindu'). See here or here for the really scholarly stuff on this). This being the case, how does blogging - when the act itself is a demonstration of one's own individuality - impact on an individual's sense of self? With the opportunity to express your own unique take on the world, does blogging strengthen your image of yourself as a unique individual? Ultimately, what impact could this have in the 'real' world, where stronger senses of personal individuality could undermine the social conventions governing many collectivist societies?