DECEMBER 24, 2008

When purchasing those last minute gifts, consider the fact that consumers today expect products, messages, and even time itself to center around their unique desires and needs. An article in US News and World Report says purchasing personalized products is also a form of frugality well-suited to the current economic downturn. By customizing, shoppers can get the most out of less frequent splurges. And the trend is not restricted to those with money—it spans all ages, income groups, and regions.

People not only want products that express individuality, but also they also want the sense of luxury that comes with a one-of-a-kind product. But as customization becomes more commonplace, is it losing its luxury appeal? Companies are working hard to make sure this isn’t the case by creating customized products that truly go above and beyond. So for gift-givers looking to make a statement, here are a few of the more unique personalized products that caught my eye this year:

• Personalized Warhol - make your picture a work of art
• Name Your Porsche - Porsche owners rejoice
• Replica Houses - if you already live in your dream house, make a mini one to admire while you’re inside
• Personalized Bobble Heads - for the bobble head collector who has everything

Happy shopping!

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DECEMBER 23, 2008

One thing I love at the end of each year is the endless litany of “best of” lists. It ties up the year in a nostalgic, entertaining way that allows me to savor with satisfaction those “best ofs” that I enjoyed, and commit to pursuing those I overlooked. One of my personal “best ofs” this year has been here at the Undercurrents blog, both contributing to and consuming it, so I thought I would mention some of the blog entries I have appreciated the most since our March 31st re-introduction of the site.

On innovation, I particularly enjoyed Lisa Bader’s December 12th post about Google and Procter and Gamble swapping employees so that each organization could learn more about the other and how best to target consumers.  What cutting edge companies, I thought, and how could we encourage our clients to adopt the same kind of experimental attitude?  (I also liked how Lisa surveyed some of her coworkers for opinions on what companies they would like to “swap” with if they could.)

On personalization, I liked Ryan Baldwin’s December 3rd post about Deoxyribonucleic Influence - how individual DNA has become a hot commodity for products, art, and fashion.  I think we’d be surprised how many people are mapping their code and hanging it on their walls as part of their interior design.

On saturation, Michele Cimino offered perspective in her October 29th post about the overwhelming choices involved in planning a wedding, and how her sense of reason allowed her to tunnel through to the information and purchases she wanted.  I realized that in order to stop feeling overwhelmed by my unlimited options (a topic I wrote about on May 5th), it would help if I defined certain boundaries in advance of my pursuit of informational enlightenment.

Kristen Variola’s July 2nd post about the Taiwanese ”Love Boat” educated me about immigration and how - even with the melting pot it creates in terms of diversity - many subcultures fear the loss of their identity as a result.  Her example was insightful.  She talked about Chinese-American parents who send their kids on four-week educational tours on ships so they can interact and hopefully connect with other Asian youth.

Nothing tells a story better than a photograph.  In a globalized world, it is easy to feel disconnected from what’s going on in - say - Africa.  Gloria Huang’s August 28th post about professional photographers teaching the locals in Mozambique and South Africa how to take pictures was heartwarming.  The women and children were then able to share their photos with the rest of the world to improve understanding of their plight.  What a creative new way to communicate a message and make the world seem a little less isolated.

While these are my favorites, here are some honorable mentions:

The internet is changing the world of philanthropy (April 28th) - Corey Mull

The way our irrational fears about risk affect our behavior (May 23rd)- Kelly Stepno

Word-of-mouth is an underrated marketing tool (Aug. 5th) - Krissy Rigopoulos

The disappearance of the newspaper in an internet world (April 29th) - Mike Clements

Evaluating new tools based on usefulness instead of hype (April 3rd) - Gayle Weiswasser

The power of social media (April 11th) - Steve Skojec

And the great VIDEO that started us off - you have to check it out to see what kind of perceptive powers you have! (April 1st) - Jenn Dodd

I believe our beloved Nellie Lide, the original voice of our New Persuasion blog, whom we lost at too young an age, would be proud of us.

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DECEMBER 11, 2008

Facebook Connect and Google Friend Connect were both recently opened up to the public, spurring some discussion about the future of net IDs and profile portability. At the heart of this discussion is the idea that people can use a single profile for different kinds of net activity. Facebook Connect will allow users to send news about their activity on other sites to their Facebook newsfeed. Google Friend Connect is a more open service that allows users to access their info and any networking site that uses Google’s OpenID. As social networking and online services have exploded in popularity in recent years, services that help organize the clutter have been in fairly high demand. The Connect services approach the organization challenge in a new way: they make profile information more mobile so that users can feel like they have personalized information on tap wherever they go online.

As Facebook continues to dominate the social network world, and with the latest announcement about Facebook Connect, it is interesting to consider how Facebook is expanding and what model of growth would work best for the community. In this TechCrunch interview, Mark Zuckerberg talks about the “ecosystem” of developers that has grown around the Facebook platform and how his company tries not to compete with developers in order to encourage good growth in the ecosystem. Since Connect will draw in more and more developers, Facebook’s situation is a great example of how, in the technology sector, companies are now focused on fostering a community of developers who actually create services and experiences for consumers.  This accelerates innovation because the community of developers creates a constant stream of products for the regular user community.

More than 40% of surveyed women in their 40’s participate in social networks, says a study by SheSpeaks. Other results from the survey show that over 70% of women with children ages 13 to 17 had reviewed products on social networks. Targeted social media advertising has had mixed results, and the debate on how to measure ROI in general for social media advertising still rages on. However, these poll results seem to reaffirm the value of marketing towards mothers with teenaged kids, a powerful consumer group.

During the Mumbai attacks, Twitter and Flickr bustled with activity as users posted firsthand accounts and images. Both services were very useful during times of crisis, as people use the sites to find breaking news and first-hand accounts. Flickr user Vinukumar Ranganathan posted over two hundred photos of the attacks as they were going on, drawing hundreds of thousands of views on his Flickr account. Citizen reporting has proven to be a very compelling source of information, especially at times when the world is thirsty for any small bit of information about a crisis.

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DECEMBER 9, 2008

Distance learning has become increasingly more popular with the introduction of new and affordable communications technologies.  In fact, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) estimates that the number of students enrolled in distance education courses will grow to over 18 million in the next 5 years. The biggest factor affecting enrollment, NCES predicts, will be the greater likelihood of traditional college-age students (18-24-year-olds) to participate in distance learning programs, rather than traditional universities.

According to a recent article from George Washington University, a growing population of its graduate students no longer needs to set foot on University property to complete its GW education.  Over the past four years, to be sure, the number of new students who entered a graduate-level, distance-education program run by GW has nearly doubled, while the number of online courses has almost tripled.  Last year, 550 new graduate students entered 18 programs, and during the fall 2008 semester alone, 365 graduate students enrolled in an online program, according to the Office of Institutional Research.

Schools that solely specialize in online education are also on the rise, and for good reason.  Take a look at Western Governors University, recently profiled by Time magazine.  Chartered in 1996 by the governors of nineteen western states, WGU now serves students in all 50 states and in several foreign countries, and employs faculty mentors in over 30 states.

According to Dr. Robert Mendenhall, president of WGU, over 75 percent of students are underserved in at least one of the following four categories: low-income, minority, rural, and/or first-generation college.  Tuition at WGU is under $6,000 for a twelve-month year - without state subsidies of any kind - and the average time to graduation is under three years.  Most importantly, students and employers have reported that WGU graduates are equipped with “all the necessary competencies” to excel in the workplace.

It’s no secret that the success of the online education industry is due to its compatibility with modern, oversaturated lifestyles and career needs – personalization at its best - but I’m willing to bet that this industry’s success is just beginning. 

A brief case in point: Ten Sleep, Wyoming (pop. 350) is home to a company called Eleutian Technology, which has been hiring people in small towns across northern Wyoming to teach English to Koreans of all ages using Skype, the free online calling and person-to-person video service.  According to a recent Associated Press article, Eleutian already has close to 300 teachers hooked up with more than 15,000 students in Korea. That’s amazing!

Just two years old, Eleutian is already one of Wyoming’s fastest-growing businesses, and CEO Kent Holiday says he’s just getting started.  However, in my humble opinion, it’s the entire online education industry that’s really just getting started!

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DECEMBER 3, 2008

In the past few years, deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) has become a hot commodity, saturating the fashion, jewelry and art worlds.  Indeed, from microscopic blueprint to trendy household commodity, the image of the double helix has permeated the consumer consciousness - not without implicit social consequences.

“Spit parties” like the one recently organized by 23andMe have become the latest social-networking craze.  Hereditary blueprints are now being turned into personalized perfumes and colognes.  For a perfectly accurate, 21st-century self-portrait, you can even map your – or your pets’ – genetic coding in a one-of-a-kind work of art that resembles columns of blocks.  All you have to worry about is which material – canvas, sheet aluminum or photographic paper – will look best on your living room wall.

It’s easy to say that personalization and narcissism are the forces driving this trend, but I do not believe those are the only forces at play.  In a sense, DNA-related products have become, purposely or not, propaganda-like tools for the health and pharmaceutical industries.

For example, orchestrators of the Personal Genome Project cannot steal your DNA while you’re sleeping at night, nor can they make you submit a sample against your will.  But what they can do is position their products and services so tactfully in the marketplace, and into the consumer consciousness, that we may actually find ourselves wanting to upload a DNA sample to a public database.  “The Perfect Unique Gift Idea for the Person who has Everything!”  DNA11’s tagline almost sounds like a subliminal advertisement from Huxley’s Brave New World or Orwell’s 1984, doesn’t it? 

Let me be clear: I’m not saying that our current DNA craze is the result of a premeditated, nationwide conspiracy (I don’t want to get arrested, you know).  But the fact that de-ox-y-ri-bo-nu-cle-ic acid has successfully made its way into the pop-culture marketplace can only better serve those individuals who seek it – and satisfy those companies that crave it.

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DECEMBER 2, 2008

Because Christmas tends to sneak up on me, I always try to start thinking about what I am going to be giving to friends and family as early as possible. I usually start looking for holiday gifts right after Halloween because I don’t want to join the herd of people at the malls frantically searching on Christmas Eve. I really like the idea of giving gift cards because I can personalize each gift by matching the store with the gift recipient. At the same time, gift cards cut the guess work — no need to try and predict the proper size, color, or style preference.

However, a recent USA Today Snapshot made me think twice about my gift card theory. According to a holiday survey, on average, consumers have 5.9 unused gift cards (versus 3.7 in 2007). People age 18-29 and 75 and older tend to have the most unused gift cards (8.6 and 7.4, respectively). Does this mean that people are tired of receiving gift cards and not even bothering to use them? Probably not. I think it’s a case of more people deciding to give gift cards, which means the average person just has many more than they did last year.

Regardless, I’m not going to change my gift card giving ways. Even though some would argue that gift cards require no thought and are impersonal, I disagree and still think they are the absolute best option! What about you - will you be giving gift cards this holiday season?

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NOVEMBER 25, 2008

In 2004, vintners and wine store owners commonly referred to the “Sideways effect,” whereby the Oscar-winning film directly influenced consumer impressions and purchases of pinot noir, a once relatively obscure red wine.  According to ACNielsen, sales of pinot noir reached an impressive 370,000 cases between October 24, 2004 and January 15, 2005, an increase of nearly 16% from the same period a year earlier.

It still came as a surprise last week, however, to learn that the “Sideways effect” may have actually reached Japan. Seriously. In an article in Variety magazine, I read that Fox Japan and the Fuji TV network recently announced the details of their joint Japanese remake of Alexander Payne’s 2004 hit movie.  “Wait,” I thought.  “Japan remaking Hollywood?  Usually it’s the other way around!”  This time, though, it wasn’t.

Curiously, as Cinematical’s Peter Martin reports, Japan doesn’t have a native wine culture equivalent to that of the United States, mostly due to weather and soil issues, not to mention a scarcity of land.  In the past year, however, California wine imports have significantly increased in Japan.  Martin writes, “And the comic Kami no Shizuku (translated as The Drops of God; pictured) has become a phenomenon over the last couple of years, read by 500,000 Japanese weekly, according to Telegraph (UK), and sending wine sales skyrocketing across Asia.  The series details a young man’s quest to identify the 12 wines described in his father’s will.”

Set to release in Japan next fall, the remake, which is already shooting on location in California’s Napa Valley, will likely spark a new Asian interest in American wines.  And, if I were a Napa Valley vintner or wine seller, I would already be personalizing my website and my shop for the massive wave of Japanese tourism that is sure to seek my business next winter.

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NOVEMBER 17, 2008

I’ll admit it - when it comes to health news, I tend to fixate on the negative instead of the positive.  I worry about the germs or the .0000001% chance that I’ll develop a disease from some chemical I’ve been exposed to, rather than celebrate all the advancements that have been made in medicine over the years.

However, recently, a few articles have forced me to focus on the positive.  First, there was an announcement about how targeting cancer treatments to a patient’s specific genes offers extraordinary hope for personalized cures.  Another study further proved that statins are a tremendously powerful shield against heart attack and stroke.  (A friend re-affirmed the importance of this news the other night by mentioning a leading heart surgeon they knew personally who raved about the life-saving ability of statins.)  Then there was the 60 Minutes story on someone who could use their brain to convey thoughts directly to  a computer.  And finally, a piece that profiled the Kanzius machine which - if clinical trials prove successful - will zap cancer cells all through your body without the need for drugs or surgery and without side effects.

All reasons to feel hopeful, right?  Yet it seems as a nation, we still seem to cling to ungrounded fears about risk and disease more than we celebrate medical breakthroughs.  Perhaps it’s because we’ve lost trust in institutions as a whole, the medical industry being no exception.  We feel we’ve been lied to, manipulated, and let down, so no information can be “good” or trusted.  We’re so saturated with conflicting information that we don’t know what to trust anymore, and that confusion paralyzes us and makes us fearful.

While I recognize this tendency in my own life, I am going to make an effort to change my habits.  We live in an era of unprecedented innovation in medicine - will you join me in being excited about it?

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NOVEMBER 5, 2008

I really like JetBlue. Not just because of the comfortable seats, in-flight DirectTV, or even because of the cool events the company sponsors (although I was lucky enough to have one hosted near me recently). I like them because of this:

Subject:  Our Apologies…

Earlier this afternoon, I had received a JetBlue promotional email - a fairly regular occurrence as part of my membership in the company’s frequent flier program, TruBlue. I thought the subject line was great and suited JetBlue’s typical, laid-back style. But, when I was opened it, I was disappointed to see who it was addressed to:

Subject: It’s been awhile… we miss you.

I initially wondered if the company was making some bizarre attempt to be cute & random by addressing to me as ”Soandso”. (Some marketing can be a little out there.) But, the “Mr.” confirmed that there was no way this email was meant for me. I’m not particularly sensitive, but this lack of personalization bothered me - and evidently it bothered a few other people as well. I immediately shared the email with my co-workers, looked up the email address of a friend who works with the company, and contemplated sending him an note about it. 

That is until I checked my email again and found the apology.

Maybe it’s because I’m still coming out the election day haze - a time when we all were bombarded with messages revealing alleged secrets and half-truths - but I find this prompt apology incredibly refreshing.  Received just about an hour and half after the Mr. Soandso message, email #2 was simple and refreshingly straightforward: We screwed up and we’re sorry for it.

I don’t always expect companies to be perfect, but sadly, I do expect that most companies would try to cover tracks and bury mistakes. That is why acts of honesty and transparency stand out. You’re having a hard time? Tell us. You messed up? Admit it.

Because in most cases, we’ll like you even more.

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OCTOBER 16, 2008

I recently completed a lifelong dream.

It didn’t require a degree in rocket science, the ability to hit a baseball, or good enough looks to attract Tiffani Amber Thiessen (but I would easily settle for Elizabeth Berkley).

I only needed a clever play on words and a few dollars.

This past weekend I received my new plates and registration for my car. On the DMV’s website I noticed how easily I could add a personalized vanity plate while renewing my registration. As a native of Massachusetts, where it is more expensive to get vanity plates, I was delighted. I quickly solicited some ideas on my personal blog and soon my new plates were on their way.

When I was 16 I thought personalized plates would be cool, but it was a luxury that few indulged in back in Chelmsford, MA. When I moved down to Virginia I noticed that the number of people who personalized was much higher - and I am not the only one to notice.

Personalized plates are now expanding globally. China recently allowed their citizens to purchase personalized plates for their automobiles. In contrast, license plates are randomly assigned in Europe and are very expensive for those who seek specific combinations. Just ask the English gentleman who paid over $20,000 for his.

In regards to my plates- be sure to honk if you are ever driving in Arlington and pass by a beat-up Toyota Corolla with my clever name play: Pho Sho.

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