Cheeky Monkey Business Solutions » Originality

Sustainable PLM & the $1 project?

Nina Dar — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 19:24:23 +0000

For those of you that don’t know Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) is the art of managing your products from idea all the way through the development process to the point of changing it or killing it with “crystal ball” ability to getting the biggest bang for your buck.

PLM may sound simple, the art is all about science and magic. Ensuring that you understand what is happening in the world, in terms of the environment (where the stuff to make everything comes from = science), knowing as much as you can about the people who could buy it and what they need and want (even if they don’t know it yet = science) and putting something together that talks to you and me in such a way that we want it (magic).

This article focus on the start of any PLM journey WHO, WHAT, WHY…How could Reebok sell trainers for $1?

So, what is this really about?

Generating employee loyalty?
Creating and innovating projects in poor and developing areas of the world?
A chance for people to feel good again?
Corporations doing good, really? Just think about what Coke did years ago. They went to the far flung places in the world and sold their product at a price point that area could afford. Where ever I went with my backpack in the world I could share a coke with a local it was awesome and created world domination because of brand loyalty, people have grown up with that brand – it’s a fundamental part of their lives and has kept Coke at number 1 – creating brand loyalty is what this is all about isn’t it?
Even if it is it’s a slap on the back all round because economically this is what developing areas need. Source the materials locally so the people involved in that get money to invest in looking for better materials, get the local workforce to make them, so they have money to buy them (and educate their families which will lead to lots of other ideas) – it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Sustainable PLM is still finding its feet in industry and I think this is a great example of just what can and needs to be done by companies who want to future proof what they do and how they do it. They say it’s a social project which is interesting and I assume a nice PR angle. Social is just one aspect of work that is being addressed adidas are creating projects that address the future needs of doing business, finding new markets and ultimately new consumers.

Interestingly the article focuses on the price point and how they are having to go back to basics to figure out how to make this work and what the price point is, it may not be a $1…this is fantastic and a exercise every business should be doing right now. Forget the term recession, our world has changed and we need to know how to work within the new rules.

How are you looking forward to see who your future customers are and how you are going to reach them no matter how unrealistic that may sound? May be everyone should start a $1 project…

‘Good’ Game?

Hannah Whittaker — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 12:15:57 +0000

Online gaming has become a rapidly growing activity for more and more people in recent years. Partly due, I assume, to the ability of connecting with other players and the escapism of building a different online life or world. Hand in hand with gaming goes the incessant Facebooking that has left many businesses debating over its effect, detrimental or otherwise, on worker productivity. Since purchasing apps or games has become a mass money-making phenomenon in itself, I was intrigued to read about WeTopia, an online game that’s designed to provide gamers with the fantasy world they collectively desire while raising money for real children’s charities.

Firstly, it’s free to play. You can build villages and help neighbours for ‘joy’ currency, in-game coins for real charitable works which are converted to real-world non profit donations that promote healthcare and education. Buying an in-game fountain, for example, contributes a donation for cleaner water. Players can support projects they choose that help people around the world and then track them on a day to day basis. But perhaps most commercially distinctive, players can generate a donation from a sponsored advertiser through ‘joy’ points, without any money out of their own pocket.

I’m not a gamer myself, but could this ‘social gaming’ be a thing that really takes off? Two problems I can see create an interesting debate. Is the very attraction to gaming, in that it’s disconnected from the mundaneness of real-life, undermined by this link to the harsh reality of the real world? Further, is linking this harsh reality for some to frivolous play-time for others ever going to be good thing?

Personally, I fell in love with this idea. The question of success will be answered in how well it’s executed. Social enterprises often struggle with the straddling of economic success and moral purpose, needing to be doing ‘good’ in two often incompatible ways. The key in delivering success in all areas will be answered by asking how well they are fulfilling their players, investors and customers’ needs.

Evolutionary Novel Behaviour…mine’s another glass of champagne thanks

Nina Dar — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 08:42:16 +0000

I’m a brain nerd, I love reading about the latest findings on what this lump of grey matter can do, so much still unknown about why we do what we do and the potential of discovering much more. So imagine my delight when I spotted this headline Why do smart kids grow up to be heavier drinkers?

The reason Evolutionary Novel Behaviour…basically kids with a higher IQ grow up searching for the new stuff. This makes perfect sense and normally that fact would focus on the positive outcomes that you would expect to see, this though shows that it’s good and bad and of course gives me a reason for my willingness to indulge in an extra glass or three!

Although the articles are interesting, the comments left by people were more so…

“Drinking is a social lubricant; most days you don’t fit in but with a few drinks you do; Ignorance is bliss; Dumb people are happier; Intelligent people are more sensitive to what is going on around them, drinking creates a moment in time; Drinking helps to cope with the idiots”

The use of the word intelligence is also well debated; the studies used empirical data (IQ) but we have progressed enough to know that is only one measure, that is what makes the study of the brain so fascinating. Before anyone draws any egocentric conclusions on my behalf, I’m not putting myself in the traditionally intelligent bracket but I do have a mind that never switches off and the comments about alcohol creating a moment in time did resonate with me.

I was also taken by the social nature of all the comments, they weren’t about going home closing the door on a world that didn’t understand you and drinking in isolation, they were about fitting in, being social, getting on with everyone…the real element of “social” in our world of virtual networking.

So as the party season kicks off and we are at our social best, when someone raises an eyebrow at you enjoying a festive tipple or two, remind them you were a smart kid – kick back enjoy the moment and enjoy the company of all the other smart kids around you.

Radiohead – great band but even better example of a brand

Michael Ryan — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 11:17:30 +0000

I am so excited I can hardly concentrate. It’s not because it’s Valentine’s Day and I going out with my fiancée later. It’s this ….

This is Radiohead announcing the release of their new album, “The King of Limbs” on Saturday 19^th February. So what have they done to make me so excited? My passion for Radiohead’s music has increased with every bold and innovative move they’ve made. And let’s make this clear. I didn’t just hear Radiohead and decide they were the best band in the world immediately. They won me over. Here are three things that made me love Radiohead.

Kid A and Amnesiac

It takes a very brave band to risk the huge commercial success of albums like The Bends and OK Computer by releasing two very different sounding albums. Apparently unhappy with the sound they had created, Kid A and Amnesiac embraced the electronic music that the band had been listening to and created something that was not only different to anything they had done before but also quite different to anything that was around at the time. The guitarist Ed O’Brien said at the time “If you’re going to make a different sounding record, you have to change the methodology. And it’s scary – everyone feels insecure. I’m a guitarist and suddenly it’s like, well, there are no guitars on this track, or no drums.”

The release of In Rainbows

The album In Rainbows was released through their website with limited press and with no record company support. And, if you wanted it, all they wanted in return was a donation … and you could pay what you wanted. The average donation was £4 showing that, despite the opportunity to get the album for virtually nothing, their fan base was still prepared to pay for a reasonable price for it.

The In Rainbows tour

The band set their production team the challenge of making their world tour carbon neutral. As a result the team worked with their suppliers to create a lightshow using LEDs that used 50% of the energy of their previous tour. The light supplier i-Pix have an interesting case study available from their website about the development of the lights. The company had only 5 months to design and manufacture 206 units for the tour and they made it with 4 days to spare. They put their success down to “down to an exceptionally good team, some serious planning and pushing their subcontractors to the limits!” The case study is at http://www.i-pix.uk.com/gallery/case-studies.htm. There is also a great document available that gives other examples of the how they planned to reduce the environmental impact like using locations with good public transport and changing the way they moved the equipment. It is also available at http://www.i-pix.uk.com/downloads/RadioheadLSIJune2008.pdf. I saw them at the LCCC ground in Manchester and the effect was breath taking. I recommend that you watch it all but, if not, start at the 2m 45s mark. The lights are great and it puts pay to the myth that they are miserable sods who hide behind their guitars. There is a PLM story here. Radiohead are fearless in the products that they create and the way that they create them. They are prepared to innovate at the creative stage and they are not afraid to look sideways at other genres of music to create their unique sound. They also look forward; Kid A bemused a lot of fans when it came out but since it release it’s been hailed as one of the best albums of the Noughties by Pitchfork, Rolling Stone and The Times. They understand their fans and know that it’s not just what they sell that it is important but it is how they appeal to them. Radiohead have made a conscious effort not to follow the typical record company approach and have used technology to help them do that. But they still retain the elements that make them who they are. They do all this with a wider sense of responsibility and their approach is echoed in everything that they do and in the people that they work with. There is an argument that rock stars shouldn’t do this kind of thing but I disagree completely. Radiohead understand that people look to them as examples and the way they act is as important to their fans as their music. What these things typify to me are Radiohead’s innovative approach to artistic integrity and social conscience; an approach that in itself generates loyalty and excitement in their fans. Needless to say, my copy has been ordered and I am waiting impatiently for Saturday to come so I can download the album. I have to wait until May for the physical product to arrive. The decision to not buy it just didn’t enter my mind. So how about your brands? Are people craving your next move or just reacting to your launches?

Think Different

Nina Dar — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 20:55:35 +0000

“Every act of creation is first of all an act of destruction” – Picasso

Why was Picasso so successful, sought after and inventive? He was not afraid to challenge what had gone before.

How many times do you hear the statement ‘there is nothing new or original anymore’?

Is it true?

Surely everyday little pieces of original creation go missed by the world at large. In fact, have we all become desensitized because we are bombarded with so many things at such speed? Do we take enough time to realise how things knit together?

21st Century Originality

It is the knitting together that creates the 21st century originality. As an example, over lunch with Ralph Ardill from the Brand Experience Consultancy he was talking about the science project he had launched in Dublin, The Science Gallery. Building an experiential science centre is not original, but the key to the success of that project is that disenchanted teenagers who don’t know what they are into (art, media, science, music, porn, etc.)? will walk through the door not to be a spectator, but to be the creators of the projects that go on inside that building.

It is their hope that one of those participants will ultimately become a Nobel Prize winner.

It is the creative and inspiring knitting together of old and new that will enable that to happen.

Move Forward

We have to look back to move forward. The art is to deconstruct something that has been successful and be bold enough to push that vision so that it creates a new legacy.

This art of deconstruction creates disruption. This process un-nerves people, pushing them outside their comfort zone, but only by doing this can we hope to create something of substance and originality.