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Thanks to David Armano
You probably heard that In Sao Paolo Billboards are illegal?
Well there are other ways of taking back public space..
Below is a clip about the Pixelator rom Jason Eppink.
The Abstractor from Ji Lee is kind of the same project. Ji is also responsible for The Bubble Project
Very inspirational clip with Neil Gerschenfield on TED Talks about Personal (Digital) Fabrication. Especially after 1/3 of the clip when he starts about Digital Fabrication where computer are tools and products are created through code. Talking about FabLabs which are platforms empowering anybody to fabricate..
Basic idea is that anybody can fabricate anything right from home.. Fueling my thought of a new democracy where ALL resources(media, space, production, time) are ‘owned’ by all.
Reshaping production and distribution.
Just posted a comment on Communities Dominate Brands. Found it worthwhile to post it here. It is about social networks/communities build around companies. Basically the advice I see regularly is to engage with your customer. This can be done through communities. I believe that engaging (willingness to communicate) is not enough. All your problems are not solved by engaging. Next to engaging you need to offer access to company resources. That makes it really interesting…Post is below:
Do these companies understand that we are entering a post capitalism world. Where not companies are the centerpiece but people. Production is not the motor of our world anymore. Many companies really overestimate the amount of discussion they will have with their customers. They overestimate their relevant importance in the lives of people. Relevant and interesting companies(should be products) are rare. Please dear companies focus on creating great tools to serve the public and this planet. Create these tools with your biggest fans(if you have any left). Focus on your true qualities. Analyze your access to resources. Rather do 1 thing great in the value chain than to do 3 things mediocre.
As an example: You have a water brand ==> You produce bottled water ==> you bottle fluids. Open up your production unit and let customers decide what they want to bottle.. Open Cola?
I hear a lot of advice to start engaging with your “(water)brand”. Your biggest users will evangelize your water. You don’t need to build a community around your water brand. It is just not interesting enough. Build it around your resources. Open up and give it away. “Ownership of resources” will change in this post capitalism world we are entering.
For consumers there are only 3 types of water: expensive water, chaep water and tap water. If you want to be the expensive water brand: focus on distribution. Force yourself through the channels and good luck to you!
Well. Finally I finished a presentation in which I combine many of my thoughts and beliefs. It is the most personal set of thoughts yet. Like everything I produce still work in progress.
Have a look at the presentation. Like always very curious on your thoughts and comments..
Just read on a dutch blog about Pepsi’s new cans. With these new designs(35) they try to attract the youth and hope that they will choose Pepsi over Coca Cola. Designs are for example about music, cars, and sport. People can also create(yeah yeah) their own design..
Please stop squeezing the marketing system! Optimizing the attention game is just so uninteresting. Change the game!!
I really start to hate this kind of marketing… I really start to be ashamed for being associated with marketing. How do these new cans contribute to anything? How does it make the product better? What additional value is offered. This is just about value extraction. How serious are you about your consumers? Just more share of stomach?
Please Pepsi challenge challenge challenge!!!! Happy to help…
P.S. Sometimes it just all comes out at once.. Hope you are not startled by my emotional outburst..
Two articles that confirm my creeping thought of the polarisation of the the valuechain Cutting out the middle: distribution and marketing.
Excerpt from Seth Godin’s post about web4:
I’m about to buy something from a vendor (in a store with a smart card or online). At the last minute, Web4 jumps in and asks if I want it cheaper, or if I want it from a vendor with a better reputation. Not based on some gamed system, but based on what a small trusted circle believes.
I think it’s fascinating that Web4 is coming from the edges (we see all sorts of tribal activities popping up in blogs, communities, rankings, Digg, etc.) as opposed to from the center. Web 2.0 happened in largely the same way. Even online, big organizations seem to have the most trouble innovating in ways that change the game.
Excerpt from Article of Doc Searls about Intention Economy:
The Intention Economy grows around buyers, not sellers. It leverages the simple fact that buyers are the first source of money, and that they come ready-made. You don’t need advertising to make them.
The Intention Economy is about markets, not marketing. You don’t need marketing to make Intention Markets.
The Intention Economy is built around truly open markets, not a collection of silos. In The Intention Economy, customers don’t have to fly from silo to silo, like a bees from flower to flower, collecting deal info (and unavoidable hype) like so much pollen. In The Intention Economy, the buyer notifies the market of the intent to buy, and sellers compete for the buyer’s purchase. Simple as that.
The Intention Economy is built around more than transactions. Conversations matter. So do relationships. So do reputation, authority and respect. Those virtues, however, are earned by sellers (as well as buyers) and not just “branded” by sellers on the minds of buyers like the symbols of ranchers burned on the hides of cattle.
The Intention Economy is about buyers finding sellers, not sellers finding (or “capturing”) buyers.
Both articles touch the same point of a “customer loyal group” of companies facilitating the customer. These companies probably emerge from the edges oh what we now know as web 2.0. Maybe some operator who dares takes on this role. As the middle man is out, production is not the bottom of the value chain but the foundation. Margin in production will probably increase. This due to felxibility, research, co-creation, crowdsourcing and open innovation. Can’t wait what power will be unleashed when China will open up production platforms with direct links to the customer markets. Already mentioned before that Amazon is one of the players who will play this game for sure.
Via Ben Rowe I read this post from Tara Hunt(I will follow her now). She explains the generation/group of people who are favouring the small local shops above mass consumption/production.
The Boutique Era don’t look at their habits as ‘better’ or ‘gourmet’ (although some do, it’s not part of the core experience, in fact, the less it is about the snobbery, the better the experience). The basic underlying thread is the desire for experience rather than just consumption. Craft over commodity. Boutiquers can enjoy a $7 bottle of wine with the right story and even more with the right $3 cheese and baguette, so it isn’t about money either (like the Trading Up book suggests).
It’s about connection. Community. Local village and neighbourhoods (even if it isn’t geographically local or your neighbourhood).
It’s about caring about individuals and saying so with our spending (sometimes). It’s also about slow food, enjoying life and paying attention to the company we share it with (quite often).
And as per my last post, people from all sorts of areas, walks of life, motivations and desires are exhibiting these traits. What do you think it all means?
Well she asks what it means. I have the idea it is a way to cope with choice. The abundance of choice. Choice stress. Comparisons…
Just have a look at Barry Schwartz and his idea of the negative aspects of choice. How will me manage it all? What effect has it on us that we know that we cannot oversee the total supply of things we can attain? What effect does it have on brands? Will we sell ourselves the story that it is not the “buying of the best” that counts but “enjoying what you have bought” that counts?. Whatever the choice was. Will we learn to see the value in everything just to cope with this constant cognitive dissonance. So are the small things the new treasures. The small brands, the crafters and the passionate. I believe so.. We will be more inclined to shop with favourable “companies” than to shop through rationalised comparisons. Is this the reason why Stormhoek sells so much wine?
So when will we see the first Visa device, BMW device, Porsche device and maybe hmm.. Raimo device??(User Generated Phones can that be the future?)
Seriously.. You see that big scale companies have difficulties managing the customer. Their brand just does not connect. In LG’s case they need a brand closer to the public they want to reach. In this case Prada(a small scale player with a clear target audience). Prada customizes the phone so it will fit that specific segment.
Have a look at this presentation on Slideshare showing the development that large scale production houses are slowly pushed back in the value chain and that the customer relation(knowledge, distribution and provision) is managed by small scale companies understanding certain specific customer groups..
Article at Boing Boing:
LG Electronics introduced its Prada mobile phone today. Designed in collaboration with the Italian fashion design firm, the device uses an entirely touch screen-based interface similar, some say, to the iPhone. The phone is slated to launch next month in Europe for approximately €600 (US$775), followed by China, Singapore, and Korea. No plans to bring it to the US have been announced.
A week ago I posted something about User Generated Products. Part of the post was a powerpoint presentation.. Somehow I had difficultygetiing the point across..
Well. Just read a post on the blog of John Hagel. Here a small part of his post..
Almost a decade ago, I detected an intriguing pattern regarding the unbundling and rebundling of firms (purchase unfortunately required). Those of you have been following me for a while know the drill – I believe that most companies are an unnatural bundle of three very different types of businesses:
* Infrastructure management businesses – high volume, routine processing businesses – think of managing a logistics network or manufacturing assembly operations
* Product innovation and commercialization businesses – coming up with creative new products or services, getting them to market quickly and accelerating adoption
* Customer relationship businesses – getting to know a set of customers extremely well and using that knowledge to be more helpful in configuring tailored bundles of products and services to meet the needs of individual customers
These three business types have very different economics, skill sets and even cultures, yet they are tightly integrated into most companies today. The first wave of outsourcing can be understood as the systematic carving out of the infrastructure management businesses from companies, but we’re just on the cusp of a second wave that will unbundle product innovation and commercialization businesses from customer relationship businesses.
Based on this story I re-uploaded my presentation and used the structure from John..
Have a look.. Curious about your opinion..
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