Perfume

Today I took some time out to have a clean out of my bedroom, and began sorting out my perfume and make-up. I realised I have far too much perfume for one person, but I find myself on every trip “stocking up”, which is madness as my perfume shelf looks like I am stocking up for a nuclear winter. Last trip alone I bought four new bottles. A Paul Smith, two by Agent Provocateur, and one by Jo Malone I bought on a whim.  As of this afternoon I still didn’t know what it even smelt like.  

I love Jo Malone colognes. I have Mandarin and Basil, Orange Blossom and now White Jasmine and Mint. The White Jasmine and Mint took me by surprise. It’s sort of…well, old fashioned. I can’t describe it any better. I put it on when I opened it, and instantly thought of old ladies. Now, this may be considered to be a bad thing, but it was actually the smell of kind old ladies. And the longer I wore it I realised it wasn’t the smell of just any kind old lady, but my Great-Grandmother, Myra. 

I’m fascinated about how scent is one of our most powerful senses. Gardenias will forever be about Christmas for me, and the tree at the front of my Nan’s house.  When the flowers got burnt by the summer sun they smelled the best, the most intense. Cinnamon brings me back to my twelve months in America (it’s everywhere!).  I bought a fragrance from Bobbi Brown called Beach, which smells exactly like Coppertone (and yes, I do wear it) which in turn reminds me of Wollongong and a life time of summers at North Beach.  

I think Aveda uses fragrance well.  Most of their products appear to be set with the same base fragrance, which you also smell in their store. Another memory link is then bought home through their day spas. I haven’t been to one in years, but every time I get a whiff of that smell, I’m bought back to being wrapped up in towels and having my back rubbed. A very nice memory.

I’m reading that more and more “experiential” brands are getting more deeply involved in fragrance. I’m sure there are many that are using it that I’m not even conscious of. 

So after my clean up I decided to have a stroll in the fading sunshine and get out of the flat for some air. As I walked home I passed an elderly man on Albermarle Street, who smiled and said “You smell nice.” I wondered who I reminded him of and if she and my Nandie Myra had shared the same perfume. 

• Some interesting reading here on what smells are most likely to be linked to childhood memories
• a brief run down here of how we physiologically remember scents and smells
• and here I found a lovely quote by Roja Dove…“A fragrance is like a cat burglar in your brain, it has the key with which to pick the lock and unleash your memories.” 

 

cupcakes take the cake…

I received an email today from Brooklyn Museum about the final results from their “crowd curated” show Click! The exhibition was based on The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki and the idea that no single individual or an expert would be smarter than the crowd – the best pics submitted would emerge.  People were asked to submit a photo they thought expressed “the Changing Faces of Brooklyn”.  These were uploaded and people went on line and evaluated what they thought of the picture from “most effective” to “least effective” based on meeting the theme. Evaluators were also asked to rate themselves on their “art knowledge” – from zero to “expert”.  they could also leave comments on the pics. I evaluated some of them.  The process was mesmerising – image after image – some OK, others compelling. It was addictive. And now the results are out. They got 389 submissions and are displaying the top 20%.  CapitalD directed me to the “In the Gallery” link that shows over three pages these top 20% – and as he pointed out they are like a visual tag cloud.   The size of the image is relative to its “pull”.  This is how they’ll be shown. What I also find very interesting is the differences and similarities across each self-appointed group (from expert to zero knowledge).  This makes me want to be in/live in Brooklyn a little bit more…but I’ll save that for another day.

This got me thinking about my own pics. In August 2005 I took a picture at Betty’s tea room in York.   I loaded it into flickr and it is my most viewed pic.  It has been viewed over 3500 times. Each week it gets an average of 20 views. People seem to just love cup cakes. People love cupcakes even more if they are made into the shape of pigs and bees and lions.  I think it’s a very happy picture to share with folks on Friday.  I also think it’s so funny that one picture (out of the 1500 I have uploaded) can attract so many people.

This stuff is getting more and more relevant to the work I’m doing (the whole stock market approach to concept evaluation, NPD, innovation) and this show has given me a few ideas about how we can use it…I think.  Watch this space.

 

linen love

I am in love with third drawer down – and while I have been tempted once or twice to buy myself a lovely t-towel from them in the past I have so far not sucuumbed. 

I love how they have turned the humble t-towel into something beautiful or witty or whimsical. And since I soon may not have a dishwasher, I may have to get myself one to make dish drying a lovely thing.

ebay puts the E into Evil Empire

Commenting on my post on ebay, CapitalD directed me to this article here.  Ebay will now be offering discounts to PowerSellers; trying to attract more of those who shift lots though their system; rather than the hoards of little fish like me who don’t.

I know, I know, eBay is a big business and it has to make money.  But sometimes big businesses really piss off the users who make them big in the first place, and although they stay big, they create so much bad will that it comes back to bite them on their big successful rounded arses.   

When I was in America in February Starbucks was freaking out as their growth has severely stalled.  A lot has to do with total saturation and cannibalisation – Starbucks pave the streets there. But they announced that one day all their stores would close for a training session and they’d be focusing on service and product.  This got a lot of press that day, and I’m not sure what the results were.  But it seemed like such a good thing to do.  Focusing on customers and service – how novel!  It may have just been a good PR stunt, but it sent you a message as a customer that you were a key focus for this big monolithic monster churning out frappucinos by the million and you mattered.  

eBay is sort of like Microsoft.   They are building a business that doesn’t have to deal with little people, just big players. But brands like Starbucks have to deal with punters daily so they have to focus on them – no neat and tidy medium Enterprise grande latte accounts for them. 

eBay has the potential to be as hated as microsoft if it keeps pissing off little fish like me.

 – And as “hated” as Starbucks may be, I have read some quite nice things about them of late. Kim Gordon said in an interview (after Sonic Youth launched their latest CD through them, so granted a bit of a vested interested – but Kim has cred) that Starbucks was actually a good company for employees as they have medical, good training and generally good working conditions. And while I NEVER buy Starbucks here – too much good coffee to warrant it – I have to admit in some some parts of some cities in the states good coffee is very hard to find and I have been “saved” on more than one occasion by a dopo soy macchiato and an Odwalla Superfood.

 

Brands of Emptiness

I just read here about a new term – Brands of Emptiness – that was coined by UK wine writer Oz Clarke.  Like David Farmer, I also think its a great term, not just a catch all for all those appalling Australian “critter brands” that have flooded overseas markets, but also all those other brands out there with hollow cores – sort of like the Wizard of Oz I guess.  From the distance they look full of subsatnce and promise, but get closer and there aint much to look at.

But getting back to wine; I have been doing some branding work for a few different wine brands – mainly exploring potential brand stories through label design – and it is entirely true that once you give a wine drinker a way into the brand they latch onto it.  An interesting snippet about the history of the winery, a new way to look at a varietal or blend, a quirky piece of packaging – People become interested.  They look at Australian wine in a different way.  It tells people that the wine makers actually care about their product and the people who drink their wine because they are doing things a bit differently, and they are talking about Australian wine beyond the horrible caricature that we have become. The big brands have relied on embarrassing cliches that limit and stunt a drinkers relationship with the brand.  All they can see is cheap and cheerful.  I am dismayed when I hear drinkers from overseas tell me that “Australia doesn’t produce any great wine”. Not their fault – ’cause that’s all we sell them!

As we have to compete more and more with “cheap and cheerful” wine from other parts of the world, we are going to have to rely a bit more on our brands to pull us through.  And people want engaging brand stories (and will pay more for them) than the cliches.

(The picture above demonstrates the sometimes absurd moments of my job. Hungover in Miami, soaking labels off mock-ups of 24 bottles of wine, before I flew back to Australia…)

 

A tale of two hotels

Last month I was doing a bit of work over in the states and managed to jam in some fun time with mm in New York and San Fransisco on the weekends in between the project stuff. I met mm first at The Hudson on West 58th Street. I was prepared for the size (or so I thought) by a text message from mm telling me my closet at home was bigger than the room.  I had stayed in NY loads of times – I knew all about the pokey, expensive rooms, but the last few times visiting I had stayed at The Dream Hotel which was small but really comfortable – and apart from a strange night of screaming teenagers in the corridor during one stay it is generally pretty good.  But the Hudson was something else…it wasn’t actually the room that really bugged me. It was the mood of the hotel.  I never felt comfortable there.

I’m not a dag, and I’ve stayed at some pretty cool places around the world, but this place took the cake for attitude.  Sloppy front desk service, security guards who acted (grunted) like they were on human growth hormones, and a night desk clerk with the worst service ethos I have ever experienced.  If Russel Crowe was stuffed around at the Mercer in the same way that I was by said security guard and night desk clerk as I did one night at the Hudson, then I understand why he hurled the phone.  The room and its lack of facilities (no fridge, a joke of a desk) really was just the icing on the cake.

So the following weekend when I met mm at The Clift (part of the same chain – or should I say – group as The Hudson) I didn’t really have high expectations. “Oh well”, we mused, “We don’t spend much time in the room anyhow…”

 

But this room rocked. This hotel rocked.  I arrived to find mm having a cocktail in a dramatic but inviting foyer after my flight was delayed and my luggage lost.  After a swift and seamless check in I joined him and got served really fast by a great waitress.  We had a few very soothing drinks, then went up to check out the room (which was substabntially cheaper than the Hudson!) and it was huge! Big soft bed, i-pod docking station, full mini-bar, big bathroom, robes.  Lovely!

So, a tale of two hotels and two cities. The Hudson – trying too hard to be too edgy, with staff who are equally “too kool for skool” in a city that I actually find the opposite. I love NYC complelety – the service you get in bars and restaurants is normally second to none, the people are generally friendly, and while there is a NY attitude, it’s not rude and arrogant.  While at The Clift – possibly one of the coolest places to stay in SF – the whole vibe is warm, inviting and comfortable.  And both from the same chain.

How can they be so different? Maybe the Hudson has high enough occupancy rates that it doesn’t need to worry about actually making guests feel welcome.  But surely the Morgan Group has a consistent level of service and staff training – indeed – a service style.  While each is branded seperately they still are part of the same parent brand, and any great service brand needs an ownable and recognisable service style. 

So, next time I’m in NYC I won’t be heading back to the Hudson.  It sucked.  But I would stay at The Clift again in a heart beat.

(One of the best places I’ve actually ever stayed in NYC was the Pod Hotel but it’s great rates guarantee it very hard to get in – you have to book well in advance. ) 

Clarial gets her cash!

Just checked Clarial’s page on Kiva and it appears she has her requested cash!  So this means she gets her loan and can go out and buy her stock.

We are trying to think of ways to raise some cash at work to support more entrepreneurs like Clarial.

Kiva

I have just become a small business lender. I have made a loan of $25 through Kiva to Clarial Peralta Campo who is a small business woman in Nicaragua. She needs cash to buy more stock for her shoe stall in a market in the city of Chinandega. 

Now, I love shoes, so it seemed a good fit.  And making a loan of $25 is something I can afford to do, even though cash is a little bit tight right now.  Clarial has requested a total loan of $525 and she’s got $225 so far. Now, I’m not sure if anyone reads this apart from one person, but if you do read, go to her page on the Kiva site and maybe chuck in $25. It’s such a good idea and allows people who wouldn’t get access through mainstream lending a chance to get a leg up. 

Look at that – two “feel good” posts in one day.

Rockin’ Pool

Ok – this has made me very happy!  For a while mm and I have been threatening to go swimming.  And each week something happens, until this week, where we set aside enough time in between a market trip and cooking dinner. So instead of the local pool, we made a “day of it” (well, an hour or two of it) and visited the Ian Thorpe aquatic centre. And we were impressed!

Firstly, the  building is beautiful.  A rolling wave roof, bright white floors and walls.  You walk in feeling positive.  The women on the front desk smile, and people seem really happy to be there.  Lots of kids and their parents having a bit (actually a lot) of fun in the pool, dedicated lap swimmers hypnotically moving up and down lanes, Jesus – even a scuba class. Everything is nice and clean and new.

It was one of Harry Seidler’s last commissions I think.  I just found out it was his second aquatic centre – his first was the pool for the Melbourne Games in 1956.  I love how it is a public pool, yet feels sort of like a swanky gym. After doing some laps (not enough) we headed to a smaller pool with a bit of a spa area. “Worth the admission price alone”, we sighed (which is a mere $6).  Then, we checked out the steam room and sauna.  It just seems so cool that a public pool has these facilities.  Snaps to the City of Sydney for not skimping on the added features. 

So the next time that a swim is on the cards, I will not wriggle out of it, but look forward to it if we go back to the Ian Thorpe Aquatic Centre!  It’s a great asset for the city and the local community. 

My other “top pools” are (in no particular order)…

1. Fanny Durack Pool in Petersham.  Classic Aussie pool with coin operated BBQs for some snag action, and a classic tuck shop for a lemonade icey-pole on a hot day
2. Bronte Pool – spent a good deal of time here in mid 90s swimming laps when I had a late start job.  Just me and the old guys who sat like lizards on the rocks tanning.
3. Wylie’s Baths – just because they are so good looking and relatively quiet even on a busy day
4. Rocks Pools in Wollongong– where my Grandad used to race in the 30s, where I saw my first blue ringed octopus, where I still like to walk to when I visit my Mum.  This place reminds me of my Dad’s side of the family and the stories my Grandad tells me about him growing up in Wollongong

 

ebay can go to hell

I worry this blog is quickly turning into one big complaint file – me whinging about stuff that just pisses me off.  And by the title of this post, you may guess I am not happy with eBay.

They are insisting their sellers use paypal to receive payments as part of their “secure payment” policy.  Which is odd, because they used to tell us all was safe and good and trustworthy on eBay, but now we need security!  And it is a policy!  And that means that using paypal is the only safe and secure way to transact over eBay.

Now, I work in marketing, and this has all the fragrance of marketing and PR blitz.  Why? Well they are using highly consistent language.  They tend to never mention paypal directly, but keep referring to their “secure payment policy”.  And while they “sympathise” with the concern that sellers have, the new “secure payment system” will benefit us all.

A few years ago, I saw a great ad for eBay. It really summed up why their system worked.  The ad was all about honesty, and trust and how generally people are “pretty good folks”. They had images of people leaving money in a swear jar, dropping some cash in an honesty tin, jangly guitar music – you know, very feel good and sweet and down-home. I buy something from you and you believe in my promise to pay. You sell something to me and I trust that the goods will be as you list them.

So, this system has been running for a while now, and no doubt there are people who try and rip others off. And no doubt some people have been ripped off. I remember a friend paying $20 for a belt buckle with a  little screen that displayed any message you typed in.  It never turned up. If you ask me, that seller ripping him off did him a big favour!  But I’ve done a lot of transactions as a buyer and seller on eBay.  Apart from the odd person winning an item and then never paying up, it has been all good.  I have never lost a cent.  I get what I pay for.  People tend to pay for items on time.  Mostly everyone I’ve dealt with on eBay have indeed been “pretty good folks.”

Now, in a clear bid to make more cash, eBay is trying to scare us in believing there are some “very bad folks” on eBay, and we must be protected by their “secure payment policy” and therefore use paypal.  If you are running a business on eBay this is a pretty good idea as you are selling a lot of things to a lot of people.  For all the people like myself who may sell things on eBay a few times a year, this is bad.  Not only do you pay for a listing and a cut of your final sale (which is fair – they provide a good system) they now also expect us to give them another cut through using their payment system and force us to do it through paypal. All other methods of payment, like direct deposit and COD are “unauthorised”.  I would suggest if paypal was so great, then people would have adopted it, but there obviously hasn’t been the adoption that eBay wants – so they will now force people to use it.

I hate how they are using fear mongering to justify wanting to make more cash.  I hate any campaign based on fear – basically just making people scared of other people, removing trust and the idea that people can be and are honest.  Their old campaign celebrated the fact that people are good and that’s why the system works.  Now they’ve spun that on their head and said people are bad and we need to be protected from them.  

I instead will aim to be protected from eBay.  I’m going to check out other auction sites – I think Trading Post has set up a new one and they are rubbing their hands hoping for thousands of little sellers will come running to them.  I’m not sure how many people at the end of the day will leave eBay for good – it’s a big brand and it’s a good product. But I won’t be back cause it is rolling in the mud with all the other brands that pretend to be about “protecting us” from each other when all it really wants is to make a quick buck.

I promise that the next post will be about celebrating something good, or something that I like!