Oct 06 2008
iKor one? Fashion water bottles…
After three years work redesigning the lowly water bottle, the sleek Kor One was launched last week. Kor CEO Eric Barnes explains his marketing strategy for the new product as the first water-bottle entrant into the water-bottle-as-fashion-accessory market. The bottle has a moniker more suitable to a Department of Defense RFP - the company calls it a “Personal Hydration Device” but the design is pretty cool. Far from the standard issue olive drab canteen, or even the plastic Dasani bottle, the KOR one is high design and has a marketing campaign to go along with it. Will consumers gravitate toward the bottle and make it part of their fashion repertoire like they did with the watch after the introduction of the swatch or the handbag with the introduction of - well - handbags? We’ll see.
This from the New York Times: Sensing a business opportunity as well as a chance to reduce the number of plastic bottles in landfills, J. Eric Barnes, a Southern California entrepreneur, set out in 2005 to develop a reusable bottle with the same cachet as single-use bottles sold by brands like Voss and SmartWater. After three years of work by RKS Design, the Kor One will be available for purchase starting Thursday. Bloggers who got an early look have been atwitter for months over innovations like the small release button that allows easy one-hand opening and closing, the hinged cap that stays open while you drink and the extra-wide mouth. While certain aspects of the product may strike some as ridiculous (the company refers to the bottle as a “personal hydration vessel” and the cap has a place for users to insert an inspirational message), its shape makes it an object of interest even if you never put anything inside. The 750-milliliter bottle is $29.95.
Nearly two weeks since Microsoft launched the $300 million advertising campaign featuring Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates, it appears that consumers can’t make up their minds whether it will give Vista, and the Windows franchise, a brand makeover.
I wish I had the reserve brain power to figure this one out. This is a well made networking site that claims that you will get paid to use it. Interesting concept - I think they call it a pyramid, but if it requires no work, maybe it could fly. It reminds me of the Discover Card tagline — Discover the card that pays you back.
Teens would seemingly be the prime target for mobile advertising, be it via text messages or the mobile Web, but research from comScore reveals that while U.S. kids ages 12-17 are cell phone-savvy, they are not particularly receptive to mobile ads. In fact, the relative simplicity of their phones and the fact that nearly 70% of teens need their parents to pay the bill (and thus, green-light extras like data plans) makes them poor campaign targets.
Kellogg Company’s decision to at least temporarily revive the Hydrox brand–the 100th anniversary, limited-edition cookies started hitting shelves this week–raises a number of oft-analyzed life-or-death brand issues. For one, how many brands are currently breathing, but on deathwatch, and how did they get there?
Kellogg has left open the possibility that Hydrox might get a permanent stay of execution if the limited edition sells well enough, but since it has been stripped of the original’s trans fats, might its different “mouth feel” disappoint die-hard fans?, Moore wonders.
I was at the grocery this weekend and saw into the future. It was stuck to the fragile, green skin of a papaya. Take a look at the label to the left. It is the future. In a half-inch oval you have a brand name, a product class, a UPC, a URL, a product code and a manufacturer’s mark (Belize). And all wrapped in a simple, iconic design. As time shrinks and channels grow - and as those channels move from TV, print and web toward smaller devices like phones and - dare I say - wristwatch-sized media this kind of brand packaging will become more common.
If you live in Akron, or around the Cuyahoga River valley, you have probably passed this sign a thousand times. Valley Dental is probably best known for their contemporary building with the dental suites in the window for passers by to see the work going on inside. Its probably a good thing that motorists are distracted by the patients in the window because they might otherwise look at the sign which depicts… Well, you can be the judge. 
In defense of the proprietors of Valley Dental - who are no doubt very professional and ethical (though clearly not design or marketing professionals), this sign has probably been there for 25 years. But that’s not much of a defense considering they have had 25 years to change the sign.
I tested 
Now I know that Pentagram Design is the Vatican, or perhaps the Louvre, of graphic design according to some. And while I dig a lot of their stuff - the minimalism, the dedication to the grid, the big, clean imagery and iconic elements - I’m a little skeptical of the bigger picture of the firm as a can-do-no-wrong studio.
Starbucks, Biber contends, “needs to reinvent itself to remain true to the original mission: a great product served in a dedicated environment to a loyal customer.” If this is true, and I am not conceding the point, how does poured resin counter tops, uncomfortable backless bolted-in-place seating and surgical sterility help them regain it? frankly, the design looks like something that you might see in some warped futuristic version of planet earth where everything including Starbucks has gone to hell in a hand basket. It’s like something that didn’t quite make the cut for Pixar’s Wall-E.
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How could others use apps like this to grow? Simply putting content up — a la the New York Times fine but not revolutionary app — is not enough.
Incidentally, on July 4, 1776, only the President of the Continental Congress, John Hancock, and the Secretary of the Congress, Charles Thomson, actually signed the final draft of the Declaration approved that day. It would be another month before a different copy was signed by all the delegates at Philadelphia. Thomas Jefferson was out buying ladies’ gloves for his wife, and a thermometer, on July 4, 1776. That thermometer cost 3 pounds, 15 shillings, by the way.
VS’s thriving sub-brand, Pink, is only four years old, but its sales are rapidly approaching the $1 billion mark and represents a full 17% of the company’s total sales. It is considered the brightest spot in the Limited’s empire-wide portfolio with six dedicated Pink stores are also open, with plans for more on the horizon. Limited hopes to capture young customers with pink and retain them with the staple VS line.