The rivalry between Adidas and Nike is nothing new. Nike owns about 18% share of the UK sports apparel market while Adidas follows closely behind at 15%. Competition will likely intensify this coming London 2012 Olympics as both sides compete for “gold”. At the heart of the depute are athletes on Team Great Britain, where existing binding contracts put certain athletes at an uneasy position. Adidas’s contract with Team Great Britain states that everyone on the team must wear Adidas apparel while moving about the Olympic Village and during medal ceremonies. Athletes can wear whatever brand of footwear they want during competition but it’s the rest of the time that is getting complicated. What about those who already have contracts with Nike? Nike insists that those too are binding and cannot be negotiated. What should athletes do? One option is to go on the podium bare foot and choose not to offend either sponsors. Another option is to wear a Nike shoe on one foot and an Adidas on another – but that would just be ludicrous.

It’s fascinating how the fight for a logo receives more media attention than the athletes themselves. The sad reality is that the audience are more likely to recognize the brands on the athletes than the athletes themselves.

As for now, we’ll just have to hold our breaths and see what UK sports stars will wear on the day we all eagerly await. May the best brand win.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/9071610/London-2012-Olympics-Nike-insists-its-footwear-contracts-are-legally-binding-as-podium-row-continues.html

Ever since the video Shit Girls Say went viral, a string of parodies have been made. From one of our own Sh*t UBC Says to Sh*t Americans Say to Canadians, fill in the blank Sh*t _____ Say(s) on Youtube and you are bound to find a video you can relate to. It’s interesting how viral videos only last for a cycle of a couple months max, after which they become irrelevant or simply “old news.” Riding on this ‘Sh*t Says” wave is a nonprofit organization in the UK call the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. Their campaign, interestingly enough, is targeted towards children and those on the sideline who want to help. The video starts off with kids saying cute things that makes you warm inside a little. “All pigs are pink even boy ones!” Then it shocks you a little when there’s a girl giving her doll some vodka and then there’s the boy who doesn’t have bed time and says ‘he’s a mistake.’ When you realize how real these situations could be, there’s the punch line “It could be nothing, but it could be something. If you are worried and need advice don’t wait until you’re certain” and a number. There’s also a number and website so you can find out more.

I really like this campaign because I think it takes into what’s current and amplifies it into a cause. At first, not knowing what it was about, I thought it was cute, but as the video progresses, it made me almost mad that parents would do such things to kids. They definitely achieve what they wanted from this campaign.

To watch the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=LagGSTiSnto

The CEO of Mobilicity imparted a lot of marketing wisdom in the recent Style and the City. One of his main points was that the power of brand loyalty lies not in your consumers loving your brand, but them desiring and being captivated by it. When he asked the audience how loyal or impressed they are by banks such as TD, RBC, and CIBC, their response were lukewarm at best. It was hard to tell the difference. The same is true of telecommunication companies such as Bell, Rogers, and Telus. It was hard to tell what these telecom giants stood for as a brand and in marketing, complicated message often drive consumers away rather than to your brand. It’s incredible how much money these big companies spend in marketing and yet consumers often do no understand or relate to these messages. Facebook spends close to nothing in Marketing and yet their popular is immense to say the least. Their power lies in word of mouth and their services speak for themselves. It’s time companies review their products, rather than simply dumping money into marketing that achieves little measurable results.

It’s encouraging to see companies still manage to invest in inventive products in tough economic times. Meet the Handpresso Auto – a bullet-shaped espresso machine designed to sit in a car’s cup holder and plug into its 12V cigarette lighter receptacle made by the French design company Handpresso. Simply add water, insert a coffee pot and with a touch of a button there you have it – fine italian expresso. Does the company every worry about spillage? Of course. Which is why they recommend drivers to pull over or create a cup before you hit the road. For $200, you can save your gas from tips to Starbucks and dealing with inefficient barista. Just make your own in the comfort of your car – genius!

It’s amazing how often we miss something right before our eyes on a day to day basis. How often do you notice the people and things around you? How often do you observe a restaurant and think about how to cut-cost or stream lines processes? How often do you sit in a class and wonder, how can this course improve? The power of observation is often overlooked – it is how companies become inventive and entrepreneurs come up with their million dollar ideas. It is how every business idea comes about, by looking around the world and finding a need to satisfy. One company that specializes in this field is IDEO, a global design firm that takes a design approach to help organizations improve on products and service and most of all to be creative and innovative. They believe that observation is king in challenging the status quo, in fact there’s a position int he company known as the Human Factor Specialist they look for passionate and curious people to analyse and observe a business problem in order to make a solution. One of the major activity they do is to spend time observing business processes, documenting everything they noticed and share about how people’s experiences there could be enhanced, and what resulting opportunities there might be for a viable market offering.