Geek goes sleek.

     

I wrote in one of my earlier blogs about the opportunity for mainstream laptop brands (Sony, Toshiba, Dell etc) to introduce better styling, color being one of the clear and simple opportunities. Last 3 months have seen many new stylish laptops being launched and the action is hotting up. 

mini1: Swarovski USB drives @ £100

Note : Quite often I come across new products, communication campaigns and ideas which elicit a medley of spontaneous reactions like “Interesting idea, maybe they can price it differently, it can be taken forward this way, will benefit from xyz etc”. Starting this week, I will be sharing such thoughts via a ”mini” series which will complement the longer ”analysis” style posts.  The first “mini” follows,

Philips and  Swarovski have unveiled a range of crystal-studded USB memory keys and headphones at the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin, last week.

If the blinged out design catches your eye, the price may catch your breath at slightly over $200 per drive. The drives will be sold at Swarovski distributors and come in a jewel box. They come with a cord and can be worn as a necklace. There is a fairly basic dedicated website www.active-crystals.com for the range.

Rudy Provoost, chief executive at Philips Consumer Electronics, explained that the alliance enables Philips to enter the market of “luxurious and fashionable electronic accessories for women. These new products will change the way women interact with innovation and technology”.

My early thoughts:  The core idea- “fashionable electronic accessories for women”-has potential; USB drive price is high given the memory(1GB); in-flight shopping catalog listing and product placement can drive volumes; not a bad surprise gift for your wife/girlfriend especially the headphones; good addition of “style” to Philips’ “sense and simplicity” platform; missed opportunity for SANDISK (global leader in USB drives) to move up the value ladder in an increasingly commoditized category.

Business Class Movies-Coming to a theatre near you.

Premiumisation is a big trend across categories. We are now starting to see this trend becoming stronger in the cinema theatre category, in geographies beyond US (some news from India here).  The economics and the principles are the same as “business class” travel i.e less seats, superior and value-added experience, higher margins.

Brand Camp Marketing Toons, Simply Brilliant.

I found this site thanks to a friend (Shyam). The author, Tom Fishburne has been doing these toons for over 5 years now. He has recently moved to UK to launch Method- the US brand of natural, bio-degradable cleaning products (another “Innocent” type brand in the making perhaps). Ecover, Beware! Method has almost the same product range but perhaps better packaging and a more impactful expression of the proposition( i.e people against dirty).

Most of the toons are brilliant. One of the recent ones which struck a really resonant chord with me is shown below. Enjoy !

Thanks for all the entertainment, Tom.