Posts Tagged ‘ insiders ’

Immigrant Kitchens

How do you experience the world if you can’t travel?

Or even more broadly, how do you learn about the diversity that exists right next door – the world coming to you?

A beautiful mixture of understanding and experiencing can be found on Immigrant Kitchens.  Developed and written by professional chef Lindsay Sterling who says the inspiration for the blog was the fact that she was:

…stuck in Maine with no fancy world-travel budget.  In an effort to keep from withering away with vacation envy, I started asking anyone with a foreign accent right here if they wouldn’t mind teaching me how to cook their favorite foods from their homelands.

Part anthropology, part broadening of horizons, the blog is a mixed-style education on culture, food, and sharing.  Starting with a quick preview of the culture and food presented, links in the sidebar take you to the recipes, cooking instructions, and the full story behind the meal accompanied by pictures and fun anecdotes.  But the real highlight for me was the podcast of each adventure that is partly voiced-over but mostly background sounds of the context as well as quotes from those doing the educating.  The podcasts walk through the initial meeting, grocery-buying, cooking, stories behind the types of ingredients and meals being cooked, and the celebration and sharing of the food.

This reminds us that everyone brings along their culture and traditions and makes a home for themselves no matter where they are currently living.  So it doesn’t take world-traveling alone to foster understanding and appreciation for other people and cultures, just try your neighbor.

2010
10/07
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Social Stenography

I found this fascinating article about social stenography given our increasingly open and public lives.

There are always things that people are going to want to share with some people but not others, like inside jokes.  Think of those cryptic messages (song lyrics, a random movie scene, an ominous status message update) that people are always sending out into these public places.

Who is the intended audience?  Who are meant to be led off track by these messages?  What is the hidden meaning?

I think savvy marketers are always trying to find more compelling ways to talk to their audience, giving them the benefit of the doubt that they will decode these messages.  No decoder ring necessary, just an affinity for the brand and the brand’s efforts to speak directly to you.

And as we dig deeper into this idea, more nuances can emerge.  A little bit of mystery in the mix and we’ve got a real eye-grabber.  How about the “mistake” made recently on Chipotle’s bags:

Looks like someone forgot to replace the filler text with actual content, but no – this was done on purpose:

Designers will get the joke right away. 95% of people who see the bags won’t. That takes balls. It also takes brilliance. One, because even people who don’t get it will realize that Chipotle isn’t making everything insultingly easy to understand like Taco Bell. I think people like a little mystery. It intrigues them, makes them feel respected and it’s just plain fun.

Even though “95% of people” aren’t supposed to get it, it grabbed their attention.  And then people started talking.  And then if they were really interested, they went online to figure out what was going on….cookie crumbs to the context.  Interested in more about this story?  Here.

Let’s hide more things in plain sight, let’s layer it on, get people involved with our communications, stir up a little debate and discussion, and ultimately communicate things about our brands in the way that we communicate to our customers.

2010
08/27
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Inception

SPOILER ALERT: If you haven’t seen the movie Inception, you may not want to read this post.  (Though, let’s be honest, even if I described everything about the movie, you would probably still want to see it to figure it out for yourself.)

Let’s talk inception.  Not the movie, but the concept.

While watching this movie, I had a nerdy moment of excitement to apply the principles of inception to the world we work in – advertising and consumer behavior.

Let’s start with a few quotes from the movie:

What’s the most resilient parasite?  An idea.

An idea can transform the world and rewrite all the rules.

If we are gonna perform inception then we need imagination.

Sounds like the perfect formula for advertising – plant a very simple idea into the minds of our target audience and let them develop that idea more fully for themselves.  We lead the horse to water but what they do with it, especially given their access to social media, is up to them.  We as advertisers can continue to interact with our own idea to continue to develop it ourselves or bounce off of what others are saying about it, but once the idea is planted it can take on a life of its own.

So now let’s talk about the movie.  I’m so fascinated by the way people have shaped the perceptions of this movie by discussing various theories and scenarios.  Was Cobb, the main character played by Leonardo DiCaprio, still in a dream at the end of the movie?  How did all of the different levels of the dream work?  What would your totem be?  Are we in fact still in a dream?  Did I even see the movie??

But what’s most fascinating to me is that very few people seem to be talking about the main point of the movie – inception.  We have accepted that inception exists and works, that it worked in the movie, and we are now discussing the details around it.  We are focusing on the dream state, what is reality vs. the dream, and how to navigate these dreams but the idea of inception is a given.  The idea of inception was successfully planted in our minds.

I don’t know about you but….mind. blown.

2010
08/20
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RE: What do we really want to know?

I just read Deanna’s post about research methodologies.  Linking to the article she posted, I found it worthy of a whole other topic of discussion.  I guess you can say that I loved Deanna’s post so much that I had to reply post to it!

The article she linked to is titled “Your Customers Are Not Stupid.”  I think the second paragraph sums up the way planners view customers and is a great thing to keep in mind and keep us humble:

Target consumers aren’t just ages and demographics. They’re not just quantitative surveys and focus group participants. They can’t always be summed up in data and metrics, or even in a number of Twitter followers. And most of all, they’re not stupid. I know this because I have met them.

I feel empowered by this statement!  I believe this to be a great mantra for us.

The author, Charlie Hopper, goes on to say he’s about as middle-class as it gets but has connections in high and low places.  It’s interesting to think of ourselves as chameleons.  To be able to fit into many situations and talk to every walk of life.  I consider myself pretty middle of the road and I pick up a lot on what other people are interested in.  That’s not to say I don’t have my own identity or likes and dislikes, but sometimes I do let other people share their opinions on things before I experience it for myself.  I feel it eliminates my bias.  Later, I get to experience those things – I still form my own opinions but I’m influenced and think about how others perceived it as well.

And since Deanna made a nerdy admission, I will do the same here as well!  A great example of me listening to others before I experienced it is the whole Twilight craze.  Yep, I admit it – I’ve seen all 3 movies.  Haven’t read the books but I’m becoming more and more interested in picking them up.  Now how much I was successfully able to not experience the phenomenon is up for debate as I don’t think anyone could have escaped that hysteria, but I did not see any of the movies until just a couple of weeks ago.  Since then, I caught up on Twilight and New Moon and just recently went to the theater to see Eclipse.  I knew the basic storyline, kind of know what’s up with vampires and werewolves anyway cuz I was a huge Buffy fan and am an avid TrueBlood fan, but I listened to my friends (who were in a full-on Twilight daze:  read the books, had a firm position on Team Edward versus Team Jacob, went to the theater opening night for all of the movies, and screamed their little hearts out when any of the actors took off their shirts…or let’s be honest, showed up on-screen for the first time).  I lived that experience through them first but finally closed myself up alone to watch and judge on my own.  And turns out, I’m just a vamp kind of girl and get pretty interested in that stuff!

Connecting the dots back to Deanna’s post, I think it’s not only open-mindedness to research methodologies but being open-minded in general that really helps planners take in the feelings, behaviors, hopes, and desires of any given customer group.

I guess I just wrote a rah rah speech about planners, but I think it’s always a great idea to look inward as well as outward.  Insights into ourselves may help us become better planners.

2010
08/06
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Consumer Behavior
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What the Tweet?

As obvious as it seems, I think sometimes we forget: if people choose to follow our companies on Twitter, they’re doing it for a reason – not just to see us navel gaze.  So how do we aim to please this opt-in audience?  Exact Target and CoTweet surveyed 1500 consumers to find out (see chart below).  The bottom line: Tweeters (or shall I call them Tweetees?) want to be Insiders – of which I have separated into three non mutually-exclusive types.

1) Exclusivity Insiders:  want to know and receive things that non-followers don’t know about (“I’m more special”)

2) Perk Insiders: want stuff such as freebies and discounts (“I know how to work the system”)

3) Information Insiders:  want to be updated on the latest news and happenings (“I’m more knowledgeable”)

2010
08/06
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Social Media
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