A Book About Innocent



"A Book About Innocent: Our Story and Some
Things We've Learned"
image from http://www.amazon.com/

I bought this book a month ago and have not started reading it since this week. Now that I've started it, I cannot understand why I did not start it earlier. I've you haven't read it, I strongly recommend it.

"A Book About Innocent: Our Story and Some Things We've Learned" by Dan Germain, Richard Reed and John Hamilton, has a pretty self-explanatory title. I'm only half-way through but I've been amazed by how such a great business, that has been used many times as a case example, really started. With no resources, strong will and a simple idea they were able to build in 10 years a £100 million company with 250 people. They want to create a business they can be proud of. And they want innocent to become a global, natural, ethical food and drinks company, always remaining commercially successful and socially aware.

The book itself clearly is an example of what Innocent stands for: Be Natural, Be Entrepreneurial, Be Responsible, Be Commercial and Be Generous.
The book is printed on 100% recicled paper with vegetable-based inks. They are simple and direct.

There's a story that really caught my attention, it was how the 3 friends decided to leave their jobs and start the adventure. Let me tell you about it.

To make the story short, the 3 friends had good paying jobs and were working in great companies, but since college they had joked about starting a business together. After they came up with the natural smoothie idea at the age of 26, they started working on the innocent project on their free time. They developed recipes and found a small farmer who would produce and bottle their products. They decided to run a test, they bought £500 of fruit to produce a batch and sell it at a London music festival they were organizing, to actually see if people liked them and if they would be willing to buy them.

How to measure the results? First they wanted to hand out a two page survey to see what people thought about it but realised it was simply to much. The wanted to know a simple thing, if they liked the products. With some help they developed a new simple testing method. They put up a sign with the question "Do you think we should give up our jobs to make these smoothies?" and put out two bins, one saying "YES" and the other saying "NO", and asked people to put their empty bottle in the right bin. At the end of the weekend the "YES" bin was full, so they went in the next day and resigned.

This is how the Bins Test was born.

It may not be the most orthodox way to conduct research, but it did meet their purpose. In addition, considering the limited market test budget (which was none) I think the idea was brilliant. This is a clear example that necessity is the mother of invention. (Or as it would be said in Spanish "La necesidad agudiza el ingenio").

Have any of you read the book or have other examples of great ideas pursued with few resources? Would love to hear of them.

Quote - So Much To Do

Stew Leonard's

 I have just been told about this four supermarket chain in the USA, located in Connecticut and New York: Stew Leonard's (or locally, Stew's). It was originally a Dairy shop that evolved to a grocery store that has a very peculiar and diferential retailing strategy. The New York Times has defined it as the "Disneyland of Dairy Stores".

I've never been, but from what I've found online it seems very interesting. The store is filled with animatronics that move, sing, flip in the air, moo,... kids can interact with them,... its a fun place for both parents and kids with a petting zoo with farm animals. Customers are also offered a large amount of free food and drink samples all around the store. They have a curious, simple and very clear customer policy engraved on a huge stone at the store entrance:

Rule #1: The customer is always right.
Rule #2: If the customer is ever wrong, re-read rule #1.

From what I've read online, people don't mind going the extra distance to shop at Stew's, they believe the experience is worth it. They've created a shopping experience very unique in all their stores, very engaging and exciting for families. It provides an area for kids to have fun while the parents shop. This new concept of selling has taken away the stress from long lines at the grocery store. The store is not organized like ordinary shopping stores, but has a circuit that takes you throughout the store (even though there are shortcuts). It sounds like IKEA's strategy of directing customer's around the store.

For more information you can visit their website: www.stewleonards.com

Has anyone been there? Would love to hear your experiences!

Today the world is mourning the loss of a genius and a unique mind. All over the internet you find tributes, and references... Thousands of people thanking him for improving our lives. On facebook people are changing their profile pictures, they are hanging pictures from him on their wall, sharing quotes and videos and on their status thanking him and mourning his loss.

I just came across this video: The Lost video of 1984 Machintosh introduction. The video was found in 2004 and released in 2005 for Machintosh's 21st birthday.

After seeing it, you realise he was the master of unveiling and presenting innovations to the world. Witty, smart, funny and simple. He went to the point and made it unbelievebly clear. We tend to want to say to many things (look at the thousand of slides shared in our everyday presentations)... but keeping it simple is an art. It is much more difficult than it looks. But the result is outstanding.

Steve Jobs 1955-2011

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

“Quality is more important than quantity. One home run is much better than two doubles.”

"Stay hungry, stay foolish."

“Insanely Great!”

Thank you Steve

Apple 4s - Siri

Apple made public yesterday it's new improvement on the iPhone. Although many were expecting a radically new phone - the iPhone 5 - we will have to wait a bit longer for this new version to arrive. The new device is the iPhone 4s, and I'm sure it will exceed expectations.

Of all the improvements from its previous version (better camera, dual-chip core, ... ), I am very interested particularly in 2 features: iCloud and Siri.

Although we heard from iCloud a while back, I still think it is pretty amazing how the new technology will allow you to sincronize calendars, contacts, photos, and much more from all your diferent devices. It is true that we are currently lucky to interact with different machines but this also adds the difficulty to remember where you have what you need, or where you last updated information. Apple's solution for this current  everyday problem is iCloud. Here you have the presentation of this new feature.

In addition to iCloud, Apple has introduced a completely new feature: Siri. With Siri "Your wish is your command" they say. It's a new intelligent assitant that recognises your voice and is there to help. Just ask. I am very curious in seeing how this works, because voice recognition hasn't always been great, but hopefully they will have gone one step further to ensure it works without flaws. Also curious to see how it will work with other languages besides English... We'll have to see! Here you find Apple's video introducing Siri - I can't wait to try it.

Amazing how Apple gives solutions to consumer insights. Simply amazing.

Quote - I know nothing...

Because words can be beautiful and can express much more than they actually mean

By type designer, illustrator and artist Seb Lester. To view more of his work visit http://www.seblester.co.uk/.



Photoshop keyboard

Amazing and very smart way to learn Photosop shortcuts with your Keyboard!

I saw it and fell in love with it ;) It is available for American and UK English keyboard.

It's an example of how to simplify the complicated. Make things simple, and people will love you for it.

http://photojojo.com/store/awesomeness/photo-app-keyboards/

The Loch Ness Monster

I've been to Scotland for my summer holidays, and I have absolutely loved it! It's an amazing country, with breathtaking landscapes, a unique culture and very warm and friendly people. It's a place you must go to at least once in your life... I'll be going back there for sure!

On our roadtrip, we had planned a stop at the most famous loch... Loch Ness. It was beautiful, but from my point of view, not very different from many lakes we had seen on the way, and by far not the most beautiful we had encountered. But is was "special".

Standing at the bank of the lake and gazing into it's waters, I came to think,... how come is it so popular and famous worldwide? For it's "monster" of course. Nessie is one of those super famous creatures that no one has ever seen but everyone knows of, like unicorns and Big Foot. I thought it was brilliant how the story that had been weeved around the lake had turned into legend and had been forever linked with the place itself. Unicorns are not from one specific place, but the "Loch Ness Monster" has the origin in its name... and it's not different as a lake from the rest of lakes (at least from my point of view), but all the stories around it have added a lot of value it, and it has become a must-see stop when you are traveling to the area. I thought it was brilliant, how they differentiate something common and normal and grant it this added value.... through stories and myths.

When you say you've been to Scotland, everyone asks if you saw the Loch Ness Monster. Unfortunately, we didn't see it... although deep in my heart I really wished we would ;) Maybe on our next visit.

Photojojo

Great website I have just discovered! Photojojo!

You can find curious gadgets for photo geeks and fans!

Its fun and very interesting to see how from a camera, all these different objects and gadgets have been designed and created with different utilities and purposes. Some examples of what you may find: objectives for iPhone cameras, USB film rolls, Photoshop fridge magnets,.... curious and curiouser.

Really cool and original stuff ;) Give it a look and you'll be surprised for sure!

Imaginosity

I was in Dublin this weekend visiting it for the first time with my family. On my way home, I read an article on the Ryanair magazine about a museum for children in Dublin: Imaginosity. I decided to do some research afterwards.
Imaginosity is an interactive children's museum for ages 9 and under and their families.  They offer workshops and exhibits educationally designed to inspire life-long learning through play, igniting imaginations on the journey from curiosity to discovery.

I was really surprised to read about a museum like this where imagination and creativity are encouraged and where learning is more than just seeing charts and exhibits but interacting is key to the learning process. The concept is great and has been going on since 2007. I wish them the best!

Quote - Lemon

 

 Picture taken with Hipstamatic iPhone App

Word of Mouth

How many ads do we have to see before we actually believe and decide to give a chance to a new shampoo brand? In most cases, a lot.

How many times must a friend recommend you something before you try it? A lot less, and in many cases, just once.

It's amazing how powerful is a recommendation or suggestion from a friend can be, and how it can influence our consumer habits.

If your product or service is good - people will talk about it , because we love to talk (and as we've seen in previous posts - women especially). It is believed that product information communicated in this way has an added layer of credibility.

As most of you I had heard of this concept, but until today, I had no idea that there are actual companies that offer Word of Mouth marketing strategies to interested clients in order to spread the word about their products. Today a Word of Mouth Marketing company came to the office to make a presentation about their services: trnd (www.trnd.com). I must say I was surprised that something like this existed. I thought it was very curious and interesting, and that I had to share it with you.

Trnd is a German company that has developed a method to spread the word about your products. I'll explain roughly what they do, but please feel free to correct me if I leave something out. From what I understood today, people interested in WOM register on their site and can ask to participate on a project that they may be interested in - because they like the brand, the product,.... They may also be suggested to participate by trnd beacause of their interests. If they are chosen to be part of the project, they will receive a package with product samples, not only for themselves but to share with family, friends, co-workers and whomever they believe might be interested in it. They talk about the product, take pictures, get imputs from their close ones, and send the information gathered to trnd. Trnd analyses results and WOM spread. What do these people get in return? Nothing - except the fun of trying new products, sharing them and being part of the marketing process. Pretty cool.

They work in collaboration with the WOMMA (Word of Mouth Marketing Association), a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing and advocating the discipline of credible word of mouth marketing.

Here's what they say on their website (www.womma.org/about/history#1):

Word of mouth marketing is the most effective form of marketing in existence as it combines the newest strategies, tactics, and channels with the most basic human behavior: People like to talk! But the word of mouth marketing industry is incredibly fast-paced and fluid with important new practices, debates, and trends continually emerging. WOMMA is a coalition comprised of hundreds of top marketers who are learning how to encourage and amplify this natural phenomenon while respecting and protecting its honesty and integrity. 

Research shows that individual are more inclined to believe WOM than more formal forms of promotion methods because they believe the communicator is speaking honestly and is unlikely to have an ulterior motive. For this reason in trnd they don't compensate economically the participants.

I just registered and I'll keep checking if I find a product that might be great to share with Family and Friends ;)

Curious, isn't it?

Hipstamatic

One of my best friends shared with me this app and I'm absolutely in love with it.

Hipstamatic is a photography app that has different filters and options to get pictures with different look&feels.

Appstore App Description: Digital photography never looked so analog. The Hipstamatic brings back the look, feel, unpredictable beauty, and fun of plastic toy cameras of the past! The Hipstamatic keeps the the quirks of shooting old school but gives you the ability to swap lenses, film, and flash settings all with the swipe of a finger.

It's not free ($1,99 / 1,59€) but it's worth the price - you'll love the pictures! There are additional options and filters that you can buy, but the basics are very cool. 

Interesting & curious pictures guaranteed ;)

Tropicana Ad - Arctic Sun

On January 8th of 2010, Tropicana brought the sun to Inuvik, Northwest Territories in Canada.

"Because we believe brighter mornings make for brighter days".

This ad is a beautiful piece of film - documentary style - and moved me.

Hope you enjoy it!

Do you know any more?

Quote - People will forget...

Power Point Slideshow Keyboard Shortcuts

One day I was randomly pressing keys on my keyboard and made one of the most useful discoveries for my everyday life... Want some shortcuts that will help you while presenting Power Point slideshows on your PC at work?

Start your Power Point. Open your presentation. Go to slideshow mode. Press "F1". Voilà! A text window with Slideshow Keyboard Shortcuts will appear. Learn them by heart because they can be very useful AND will differentiate you from the rest of your colleagues (It is simple, but not many people know this). Maybe you already know this, but it did help me a lot!

If the "F1" should not work. You can go to "Help" and type "Slideshow keyboard shortcuts". If your computer works in Spanish, you should type "Métodos abreviados del teclado de presentaciones".

Hope you find it useful!

Steal this presentation!

My boss just shared with the team an awesome presentation that we should all have a look at - 'Steal this presentation' by jessedee at slideshare.net. If you work with Power Point all day long, I recommend you to have a look at it... I'm sure you'll find a lot of tips that will help you improve and make your presentations more impactful.

I seriously thought we were doing a pretty decent job. I was aware that our slides were not Steve Jobs material but believed we had gone one step forward by adding pictures and images to our text... I now see we were wrong. Although today they are more colorful and visual, they still need to be a lot more visual and impactful. We must put a lot of effort and need a lot of practice to achieve those levels, but I am positive it will be worth the try.

I know it will impact you as much as it has impacted me!

Quote - Less is more

 

Heineken Ad - "Walk in Fridge"

I know this ad is a couple years old but I simply love it.

After reading "Why She Buys" I like it even more ;)

Enjoy!

Quote - Alice in Wonderland

-

Trendwatching.com

Interested in trends worldwide? I have been recently told about www.trendwatching.com, and actually thought their findings and the Trend Briefing very interesting.

Trendwatching.com defines itself as an independent and opinionated trend firm, scanning the globe for the most promising consumer trends, insights and related hands-on business ideas. For the latest and greatest, we rely on our network of hundreds of spotters in more than 120 countries worldwide.

Every month they publish their findings in a free monthly Trend Briefing, that is sent to over 160,000 business professionals in more than 180 countries.

Their trend findings help marketers, CEOs, researchers, and anyone else interested in the future of business and consumerism, to dream up new goods, services and experiences for (or even better, with) their customers.

They also offer a Premium Service which includes a full Annual Trend Report and 12 months of access to an exclusive Trend Database.

Check it out and get a grasp of what's going on around the world.

Media today + Online to reach young adults

Media consumption has changed. I’m 24 years old and I hardly turn the TV on, I watch everything I can online. I go to my favorite channels online and choose when to see the TV shows. I can spend over an hour on YouTube jumping from video to video on the web. I even rent some movies on iTunes now that it has reached my country. (How I wish Hulu.com was reacheable worldwide)

When I join the rest of the family in front of the TV, I always have my Mac with me, and watch over the screen while I’m browsing and jumping from page to page: from Gmail, Blogger, Facebook, LinkedIn to following world news on my favorite newspaper, check my bank account, and look for new books on Amazon... I’m connected almost all day long.

Young adults nowadays are more online than watching traditional TV – not only from my experience (which I know I should not take as an example) but from several studies I've had the chance to hear about from experts in the field  - from Millward Brown, Ogilvy and IESE. I see that my new habits are spread worldwide. 

When companies design campaigns, they should take this into account – and develop online campaigns that will reach this target and engage them with your brand. Some years ago, TV ads, had the guarantee that they would be widely viewed, but with the media split (with more TV channels, internet, smartphones, radio, magazines, iPads ...) this “guarantee” no longer exists.

Today, I only view great TV ads when:

·       A friend shares it on youtube

·       I receive it through a viral mail

·       People talk about them or sing their songs – I later search it on Youtube

I hardly ever will see it directly on TV. Last summer we developed a TV campaign for a local brand, and two months ago, when recruiting new trainees, none of them had seen the ad – none out of 10 had watched it on TV. I believe it is significant and should be taken into account.

Online campaigns should be designed in addition to traditional TV campaigns, in order to target and reach the population that today no longer pays as much attention to TV as they used to.

iPhone + Apps + Amazon.com App

I am in love with my iPhone. Not only for its beautiful design and the fact that it is so easy to use – but because I feel I am connected, informed and up to date with new technologies, trends and everything everywhere. I have all the information I can think of in my hand anywhere I go – this , to me, is priceless. 

The AppStore is amazing. You can find Apps for almost anything that allow you to carry your guitar tabs with you, check your facebook, follow your friends on twitter, have your financial calculator always in your pocket, check your TV series updates, buy tickets for shows,... Everything I ever dreamed of is in my pocket/or purse – and weighs much less than I could have ever imagined!

One of my current hobbies is to look for Apps that will make my life easier and to discover those potentially useful technologies that will be able to engage consumers with brands.

There are many apps published by companies that are simply not useful, they just display information about their products and don’t deliver added value to the people. You may check them once... and then they are gone. Companies are that are launching simple and useless aplications are wasting amazing opportunities  - because later on consumers won’t download better apps that they may be able to come up with.

An App that I specially like is Amazon.com. Not only can you browse and search for information as you would do on the web, but you can scan a barcode or take a picture of a product, and Amazon will tell you right away if they have it, if they have a similar product, and at what price. Amazon.com has made the whole world it’s store by developing this app – anywhere you go, whatever you see, shoot a picture and you can find it online. You can even try on some shoes, take a picture, and if you find it on Amazon order it right away at a better price. Simply amazing!

Google Trends

Would you like to know if your brand, category, products interest consumers on the web? – If you can afford to pay an analisis, great, but if not visit www.google.com/trends.

You can see on a graph the search levels of the words you choose (you can compare up to five words), and you can filter the searches by geographic region. In adition, some peaks will be related to news or articles on the web that will help you understand the trend.

Here you have an example of what it looks like. I chose five random words -amazon, imdb, starbucks, disney, music- and here you can see the displayed results:

This is a cheap way to measure the interest temperature of your brand, category or subject online.


Hope it is useful!

Why She Buys - Must read book

The more I read this book, the more I have the urgency to share it. Why should you read this book:

·       Women drive consumer purchasing.

·       Men dominate the senior levels of most companies that make and market the products women buy.

·       Men and women are so different, they often have trouble communicating with one another.

·       Understanding these differences can provide businesses with significant competitive advantage, but it takes work.

·       The gender gap is a source of missed opportunities and lost revenue, and it should be addressed through education and training.

·       Political correctness stifles frank discussion of the subject, even among women.

·       Much of the biological research on the brain differences between genders is relatively new and hasn’t trickled down to either the general public or the business world.

·       Gender differences are not widely taught in business courses at the undergraduate level or in MBA programs.

·       The fish are the last to discover the ocean.

·       Women dominate the consumer economy thanks to the combination of purchasing power and influence.

>> Chapter 1 Excerpt

At school, nobody ever mentioned differences between men and women. After 5 years, not even one mention to this subject was made. I have studied differences between cultures: how to make business in China, in Middle East, in Japan, in the United States,... but never differences between genders. We are all considered the same – but the truth is we are in fact very different. We talk differently, we relate differently, we view the world differently, we are interested by different things, and respond differently to the same situations... so when targeting products to women – the main buyers of all consumer goods – we should be more aware of all these differences and drivers.

While reading this book I realise that one of the most useful subjects we could, and should, study in business schools is gender differences. We would be able to better understand men and women and their behaviours in all aspects of life – and more specifically understand better their shopping habits and drivers.

Until that day, read this book and you'll understand what I mean.

Why She Buys - Bridget Brennan

Unlike men, women feel the sense of urgency, even obligation, to tell people about a new product or service they’ve discovered.

I just read this sentence and I must say I feel it is true. As a woman I feel I must share with you this new discovery that came as a gift under the Christmas tree, a book that I truly believe to be necessary and useful: “Why She Buys – The new strategy for reaching the world’s most powerful consumers” by Bridget Brennan. 

It’s an amazing book that should be a must read for everyone who works in marketing, sales or owns a business. It helps understand in a highly informative and etertaining way women’s beliefs, values and sensitivities, and since they account for 80 percent of consumer spending in the US (and the world) alone it’s a great way to get a wide insight of your main costumer’s: women.

I wanted to introduce you to it and share some quotes and ideas that might interest you – but I strongly recommend you to read it. It will help you understand in depth through many stories and examples how and why women are as they are and, subsequently, why they buy.

Here you have Bridget Brennan introducing her book:

This book is designed to teach you what business schools don’t – how to craft your products, pitches, and marketing campaigns to cater to female buyers. Women are females first and consumers second. The ability to understand their brain structures, priorities, worldviews, and demographic patterns can provide your company with one of the most genuine competitive advantages it may ever know. And the bonus of reaching female buyers is that when it’s done well, you’ll make your male customers happier too, and they won’t even realice they weren’t your original targets.

                        >> Women are female first and consumers second – Page 5

You’ll be very happy you picked this book up and will want to share your discovery with everyone else.