ShiftHappens

Provoking thougts for a new year.

Your Moment of Zen

Finding Religion?

"While True Religion is part of a new iteration of premium-ness, it faces a very old luxury dilemma: how to keep revenue growing without undercutting that 'aspirational' image."

Outlet for Exclusivity

Snapple Re-do

"As I mentioned earlier, these bottles and the logo are slick — this is half compliment and half condemnation. Everything is very well considered and composed, from the textures in the background, to the fruit imagery, to the typography, but in everything that they have gained in execution they have lost in attitude. And, as I see it, these new bottles are perhaps a bigger reflection of an overall slump in the delivery of the Snapple we have grown accustomed to."

20 Degrees of Separation

Some Experience Required

"In this environment, P&G CEO A.G. Lafley's investment in design as a differentiator in product experience will be put to the test. Lafley has placed much emphasis on retail considerations—what he likes to describe as the "first moment of truth" with consumers. And for national marketers like P&G, point-of-sale consideration is taking on new urgency as they compete in a proliferating retail universe of SKUs (stock-keeping units) and the increasing credibility of store brands. And the company doesn't stop at packaging. Lafley has set out to make P&G as much about design as technology or price point. "

'Product Experience' Drives Performance

Color Me Blue?

"AT least one color authority, Pantone, has taken the plunge and announced its favorite color for 2008. To be sure, this news doesn’t seem as delectable as People’s Sexiest Man Alive or as snugly affirming as Time’s Person of the Year. You probably did not even know that chili pepper red was the color for 2007."

Pantone's Color of the Year Is...

Music is my Bag. Or not.

"But only the best bags make the cut. So stores, sensing a marketing opportunity, are racing to transform bare-bones bags into lavish, thick ones that will become free advertising."

Never Mind What’s in Them, Bags Are the Fashion

A Creative Approach to Education

"In fact, even within the taught arts is a hierarchy that regulates some of the arts to a lower level of importance than others. A dangerously crazy condition when we stand back and measure the importance of creative ideas in our access-flattened world."

Connecting the Dots

Rage Against the Machine

"This is no small challenge for ad agencies, particularly megasize ones like Publicis, which were cobbled together during a wave of consolidation premised on the idea that scale, not precision, was the key to success. Now Lévy and his ilk are watching smaller, nimbler shops -- especially those built around interactive work -- routinely chip away at accounts they long thought secure."

A Mad Man Gets His Head Together

TAG ... you're not It

"However, as the onslaught of holiday ads hit, there are likely to be less of these familiar refrains as many marketers are using their taglines sparingly or not at all."

Advertising: Taglines Lose Their Starring Role In Ads

So Fresh and So Clean (clean)

Some very cool new work from Pemberton & Whitefoord for new Tesco grocery Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market.

www.p-and-w.com