blog GAMIL: an insider look at design » marketing

Dispatch from WSA

aly — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 05:24:18 +0000

As Billy Joel sang Saturday night, “There’s no business like shoe business.” Overall I can’t say that the World Shoe Association seemed like a great show in Vegas. I think MAGIC, a week earlier, would have been a better trip. Luckily the materials show adjacent to it was eye opening. If anything, most of what was at the Shoe Show was old news.It was interesting to see many brands trying to craft a “sustainable story,” but in some cases this led to recycled packaging only. However there were a few great things there. Most notably a wide divergence in style.

1. Keen was trying to make a human connection with their footwear via a message called “hybrid life.” Hybrid seemed to mean lots of things when you got down to it, so it came off more as a hybrid message. But still some distinct footwear is emerging from that “brand with the big toe.”

2. Ariat, originating from Equestrian wear, had some nice detailing that crossed-over well to urban style.

3. Taos clogs were just too compelling to go unnoticed.

4. But Best in Show has got to go to a beautiful collection from Columbia called Sergio Tomani. I’ve never seen this brand before but these shoes were stunning in person and these pics don’t do them justice. You can get multi views here.

Bling or Formula J? Walking on water all the way to the bank.

beth — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 16:03:57 +0000

Apparently, the bottle of water you choose says a lot about what you might be searching for, or who you want to tell others you are. I’ve often wondered, and tested the theory that you could find relief in a bottle. Never thought it would be a bottle of water…

Spiritual Water “Do You Believe?” is $13.95 a six-pack.

Bling H2O “Do You Bling?”is $40 a bottle (complete with Swarovski crystals)

Branding a product: how a 5-minute blurb turns into 3 days

beth — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 20:03:06 +0000

Ok. As you’ve possibly already read, we have a new product out for the holidays called the Facemod Self-Centerpiece, which we developed to promote our new 3d-printing capabilities. As anyone who has ever written a resume knows, it’s 10 times more difficult to market your own stuff than someone else’s. And that is why it has taken 3 days to decide upon 2 simple words in our marketing blurb: candlestick and bisque.

What is a “Candlestick?”: this word actually means “thing that holds a candle.” The dictionary, Wikipedia and lots of candle sites all agree—but we couldn’t. I mean, the only part that looks like a stick is the actual candle, right? We went through tons of names. “Candle Holder” sounds clunky. “Single Candelabrum” sounds hoity toity. So, after all the research is over, we are sticking with “Candlestick” but using “Candle Holder” at least once in the description.

What’s another name for “off-white?” We went through the Sherwin Williams swatch fan as well as their super cool online color visualizer, took informal surveys around the office, and even found a list of color names on eBay (who knew?)! There are a lot of names for off-white: French Vanilla, Alabaster, Antique White, Winter White, Shell, Oyster, Ecru and Bone, to name a few. Seems there are lots of preconceived notions with each color. “Bone” seemed to be one of the best descriptors, but we’re talking about faces already…adding “bone” to the description seems a little creepy. Anyway, we went with Bisque because it relates to pottery (and because it has a Q in it – YEA), but in the process, we also learned that Bisque, the soup, is not necessarily white-ish. In fact, it’s often red-ish, with the word having more to do with being smooth or pureed than color. But by the time we learned that, we had all grown to like the word, so to hell with it. It’s Bisque (until further notice).