I finally got around to reading Mark Earls' book, Herd - a fascinating look at how humans are, above all, influenced by our primordial herding instinct.
This video from Seth's blog is a perfect visual demonstration of the theory:
The classic festival nutter is sooned joined by another dancer - just another nutter.
But when a 3rd comes along, they're now a socially accceptable bunch of groovers. Everyone wants a piece - they want to bask in the coolness that they now know the first 3 had, but without inherent risk attached.
Now if a flashmob could happen organically that would be interesting... but the instigator would probably get arrested in Liverpool St. station before critical mass was reached
Wednesday 10 June 2009
Wednesday 3 June 2009
Ryanair deserves every lack of success
Ryanair have just posted half year losses of nearly £150m.
Ryanair always seemed like an example of an anti-brand - rejecting every contemporary branding maxim in favour of an approach driven purely by price (on the surface) and destinations.
The customer experience with them is abysmal. From the moment you get to their website, you're inundated with desperate sales / profit-driving tactics. Fair enough, given their business model, but it becomes a game of Cat and Mouse... You vs. Them... You hate them by the end of it, and you're still a month away from getting on their plane.
And then the game of Cat and Mouse continues - excess baggage, drinks on the plane, check-in - all conspiring to prise more money out of you.
Somehow you forget the hatred the next summer just enough to consider them again.... until now.
It seems their model is struggling for longevity... there are only some many dupes who'll be treated like this for so long...
I find it massively reassuring that there really is more to a brand's success than a few product features - ie being cheap and flying to places no-one else does.
Eventually, being underhand and self-centred rather than customer-orientated and transparent, will backfire. And people's credit-crunch-driven holiday cutbacks have only catalysed the process.
The one trick pony needs to adapt.
Ryanair always seemed like an example of an anti-brand - rejecting every contemporary branding maxim in favour of an approach driven purely by price (on the surface) and destinations.
The customer experience with them is abysmal. From the moment you get to their website, you're inundated with desperate sales / profit-driving tactics. Fair enough, given their business model, but it becomes a game of Cat and Mouse... You vs. Them... You hate them by the end of it, and you're still a month away from getting on their plane.
And then the game of Cat and Mouse continues - excess baggage, drinks on the plane, check-in - all conspiring to prise more money out of you.
Somehow you forget the hatred the next summer just enough to consider them again.... until now.
It seems their model is struggling for longevity... there are only some many dupes who'll be treated like this for so long...
I find it massively reassuring that there really is more to a brand's success than a few product features - ie being cheap and flying to places no-one else does.
Eventually, being underhand and self-centred rather than customer-orientated and transparent, will backfire. And people's credit-crunch-driven holiday cutbacks have only catalysed the process.
The one trick pony needs to adapt.
Microsoft Natal
Microsoft have taken the E3 conference by storm with this launch.
It truly takes the concept of interactivity to a whole new level for 2 colossal reasons:
No technological barriers - even my mum could use it, without some new-fangled piece of hardware getting in the way.
Genuine intuition - responding to all human actions, including emotional responses, banishes the invisible divide between man and machine. It works on our level, we don't need to adapt to its level.
oh, and finally all those "it's a bit Minority Report" comments actually ring true....
Incredible
It truly takes the concept of interactivity to a whole new level for 2 colossal reasons:
No technological barriers - even my mum could use it, without some new-fangled piece of hardware getting in the way.
Genuine intuition - responding to all human actions, including emotional responses, banishes the invisible divide between man and machine. It works on our level, we don't need to adapt to its level.
oh, and finally all those "it's a bit Minority Report" comments actually ring true....
Incredible
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