Month: November 2012

Everyone has DEFINITELY heard of Toms. Who has not? The Blake Mycoskie’s company TOMS, gives away one pair to a child in need. Great idea, wonderful shoes, helped indeed. The concept social responsibility pops into my head when thinking of this innovative idea. However, I feel like people don’t really understand the true nature behind the goal of this company. At this point, the main reason why the TOMS are being purchased is because “everyone has it”, I believe. I could be completely wrong. But I truly believe that there are very few companies that have created such a great awareness amongst people. No one before this issue was raised really understood the fact people in underprivileged countries don’t have the simple necessities in life. This is therefore a concept which has actually helped underprivileged children. The concept of TOMS was first introduced to me in the summer of 2011 when I was at summer school in Cambridge and my advertising and Media professor introduced me to this idea. Right after I got back home, I bought them. They’re one of the best pairs I own.

Antrepo, a design consultancy conducts several experiments and one of them caught my eye very effectively. They conducted an experiment called the Minimalist effect where they repackaged some very large brand products to be specific to the brand name. This got me thinking, how important IS the packaging to a customer? And I realized, very. Why? Because of the mere fact that colors attract people, fancy, over the top and out there packaging stands out and catches attention. I would always go for the product which stands out and whose packaging I like compared to the one that just has the brand name on it. Packaging is how a product is recognized and admired and that is the reason why packaging is important.

However, over the years, it has been noticed that brands have been using the minimalist technique to make their brand name simpler and to the point. For example, the apple logo used to be so much more brighter and out there and now it is simpler. Personally I would choose the rainbow one out of the transitions shown below.

Save On Meats: A mecca for Downtown Eastside

Save on meats can truly be called the mecca for the downtown. There have been several other restaurants that follow the social cause. Such as the dark table which is a restaurant that has blind servers and give the customer a complete experience of dining in the dark. While save on meats respectively, hires those that are unfortunate and cannot find a job. As the Eastside of downtown is classified as “lost hope”, when save on meats opened, they hired locals and increased the number of employed people. And therefore both these restaurants have a good reputation are very easily said to be very socially conscious and therefore have increased demands for their products. It gives a very high important to the “experience” aspect of marketing. Giving it a boost up. This helps the customers really understand the cause for the business’ goals and aspirations which helps them gain what they want easily. In the process creating a good reputation for their cause.

The business Pundit commented on the “worst corporate accounting scandals of all time” that someone sent to him as a graphic. He comments that making accounting scandals in the business industry at this time of a technological movement, and where it is possible to do anything through internet, is the worst type of a scandal that can happen to a business and that they are very hard to cover up. This according to me, shows how important it is to professionally look over accounts of businesses as these scandals can easily be overlooked. So after looking at this post, a question rose in my mind. How much can we trust the businesses that we rely on for everyday aspects. If they can lie about their financial statements, they can lie about the qualities of their products, their prices, their ethics, their attention to or rather their lack of attention to social and environmental aspects. This really makes us think about whom to trust and whom not to and the reputation that every company has and whether each of the companies deserve the given reputation.