Dilbert

I'm going to post the occasional Dilbert, only because Scott Adams could be the greatest thinker of the corporate age. Also because he says Mobius. Heh.

In the meanwhile, Anand has embarked on an important mission - please contribute.

Profiting from Higher Oil Prices

It's not just the oil-producers that benefit from higher oil prices, it can be innovative firms too. Take the case of Checker Courier, a NY-based pedal-driven courier service. Which in turn is a client of Revolution Rickshaws, a firm that provides alternatives to petrol-driven vehicles. The alternatives are of course, greener and healthier, which are benefits beyond fickle petroleum prices. 

Via the interesting Reveries, which in turn was pointed out to us by Seth MARKETING-GODin.

- B

Marketing News - Unilever Chief.

This should be interesting: The new Unilever chief. He's ex-P&G! It'd be a shame if the two cultures average out - they're different. 

Read more about it at the Brandgym blog. 

A Brief History of Japanese Design

Interesting link, this. It's a TIME magazine photo-gallery which charts a brief history of Japanese design. The entire list can serve as a set of case studies about innovation and/or outstanding marketing, in it's time. It's also a history of Japanese marketing. Apart from being good examples of design, needless to say.

The list, transcribed here,

1. The Sony TR-63 transistor radio, 1957
2. The Toyota Corolla, 1966
3. Hello Kitty, 1974,
4. Sony's Walkman, (or Soundabout), 1979
5. Nintendo Super-Mario Brothers, 1985
6. Issey Miyake in the 1990's
7. Tadao Ando's pavillion at the World Expo in Seville, 1992
8. The Toyota Prius, 2001
9. Hayao Miyazake's films, especially Spirited Away, 2001
10. Tatsuya Matsui's Palette, 2005
11. The Orochi

I'm disappointed that the Nintendo Wii is not in it, I'd put it as among the best of the lot. Nevertheless, it's a must-see for anyone interested in the history of innovation, marketing or design.

Link to Photoessay.

- B

Clearly

Cleartrip, for the uninitiated, is among the many Indian travel meta-websites around these days. But it's my favourite. By a significant margin. For it's SIMPLE interface. 

I've liked it for some time now, and that preference has been driven purely by the nice clean uncluttered interface that they've always had. I'd say that their interface today is the most cluttered it's ever been. Which still makes it far cleaner an interface than it's competitors. Take a look at a couple of random selections from the same space, shown below. The pictures say it all.

I thought about my preference for the website, and I remembered that though I've always liked it, it's not been the site I've used for ALL my domestic travel (they only recently introduced international flights). I've occasionally used other websites when they've given me significantly cheaper offers. However, if all the prices are more or less closer, I'd rather use Cleartrip. 

I also realised that they have a regularly updated, and interesting blog. I first stumbled upon it, when someone (sorry, but I forget who/where) linked to their 5-part story on how they developed their visual identity. I had used it as an example in a lecture of developing brand identities. The story starts here, and you can navigate from there on.

An aside. The one thing I always wondered, though is whether Cleartrip designed their interface page first, or whether it was Kayak. Their interfaces are visually similar. There is a discussion about that here (scroll down to the comments). Kayak, for it's clean interface, and nice functionality, has been my preference for international travel in the past. However, Cleartrip now has international flights, and Kayak has an indian site in beta. I'll let my emotional consumer decision making decide, at the moment, which one to use. 

- B

PS: for some reason, the images are getting all skewed when I'm uploading it, I'm trying to fix it.

An Unexpected Break

This blog has been neglected for a while due to good news at A's end, and B's holiday. We'll be back, soon.

Youtube Insight

Youtube Insight is essentially like a Google Analytics functionality added on to your Youtube Page.