Customer Service, Chinese style.

Another flight, another blog. I have been wanting to post this one for sometime now. Immigration officers world over are known for their surly attitude. Russia and India will perhaps vie for top honors here. With the Olympics approaching China is polishing up its act. The immigration counters at Beijing airport have an instant customer feedback mechanism in place, since at least April.

As you

Mercedes and stress relief.

      Car advertising in print usually doesn’t elicit a second glance from me. However the recent Mercedes E-Class ad in the Aug 11 issue of Economist caught my eye. Instead of the customary car shot with some body copy, this ad gave more prominence to an illustration of a “stress” fuel gauge with the needle pointing at E i.e empty.

Taking on Nokia.

I have a friend who works for a start-up mobile handset company called Fly phones. They are doing quite well in emerging markets especially in Eastern Europe. Over dinner he asked me – “How does one take on a giant like Nokia?”.

Convenience and Luxury. Strange partners?

   Every flight I take gives me at least one  idea for my blog, courtesy the people watching and reading.  On Friday, as I leafed through CNN traveller an advertisement for a new product from IDEAL STANDARD, called TRIS caught my eye. TRIS is positioned as the first multi-functional shower cabin (sauna, steam, shower ) in a space no bigger than a bath-tub. In short, well-being at home.  It looks beautiful with real sauna like wooden flooring and walls (unlike the plastic interiors of most hydro-shower cubicles in the market today). There is a wider phenomenon at work here-  “Convenient Luxury/indulgence”.

 

No Innovation, Just Bling. $100mn, Just like that.

Take one of the most visible items of conspicuous consumption, create an even more exclusive, expensive and more importantly “blingy” limited edition of an already “limited or premium” model and  in today’s wealth boom you might add $100mn to your top-line just like that. But make sure you skew supplies to the “noveaue rich” economies- the dragon, the elephant, the bear, a certain West African state and the land of Black Gold.

Thank you, Samsonite Black Label

During my frequent travels and especially during the wait at the airport luggage belt, I have often wondered why luggage is so drab. Why does functionality trip design and style so much in this category? Why do women who have multiple handbags and totes co-ordinated with their wardrobe carry dull black or brown 20″strollers as carry-on luggage?