Boomers & Their Internet Love

CHP Baby Boomers has revealed that young boomers, aged 42 and 52, and older boomers, between the ages of 53 and 64, are the segments of the market that are least likely to give up the internet, and we thought it was children and teenagers that were hooked??!! But while you might think they are addicted to their laptops and avoid human contact, interestingly they also have more in person contact than any other consumer group... and 78% of this market reports that technology and new social media changes play an important part in their everyday life. So hey maybe time to not just attract the young ones..

The Exhibition of a Lifetime

Cant wait to attend the Grace Kelly exhibition at the V&A! Always elegant and feminine (the whole thing links wonderfully with my dissertation topic!!) Grace Kelly's outfits will be on display in April along with accessories and hats...I feel a comeback coming on in terms of 50s style..here is why I love her so much...

Off the shoulder dress, came back in a big way last season. . .

Zara's Pointless App

It impossible to miss the growth of Apps and how brands are increasingly rellying on them to reach out to customers to improve sales during this economy. However without the proper prepartion and excecution of the launch the service can fail to deliver its primary aim: to encourage sales.

Unfortunately the Zara App fell in this trap as it didnt deliver information on price, size availability, store locators or in fact anything else another than just a picture of the product. For my App launch during my Final Major Project I want to ensure than none of these mistakes are done and through analysing and experimenting with its contect during the making of it this issues and problems will be kept to the absolute minimum.

To read what e.consultancy had to say about the app click here: http://econsultancy.com/blog/5192-zara-releases-pointless-iphone-app

Anytime, Anywhere

The Consumer Electronics Group showed us this years,soon to be, most desirable object...

The wireless gold ring that is synchronised with your mobile phone. With the new demand for real-time information and people not wanting to be even a second behind on news, this little device has caller-ID, and vibrates when text messages come through and if there is a meeting coming up. Oh and with the flip of a hand it turns into a headset. Cute and so discreet, now no-one will miss anything ever again!

A really great gadget that alerts you real-time.

Favourite Catwalk Collection for SS10

Proenza Schouler

Favourite Fashion Show Of the Season...

The skirt, long-sleeve t-shirt and waist belt is just amazing, personal favourite.

Read it On IPhone

The rise of "books" being read on IPhone is growing, although once thought of as an idea that woudnt take off, demand is rising and more and more people are using them, just look at the commuter next to you next time you are on public transport, the main reasons for this, as identified by Wallpaper.com, are the convinience of not having to turn the page and hold such a bulky thing, as many of them are and also portability, the IPhone is used for everything these days and storing your book(s) in it just makes everything so much easier.

 This is just another example of how technology is taking of and changes in the way we live are taking place. People are not afraid to be using such technologies, much to a lot of researcher's shock, and this is mainly because of how easy these phones are to navigate, just shows simple design and use, so important!

Real-Time For Digg

Online website Digg, sends news information that is termined by its users, with the new trend for "real-time" news to be send continiously the site aims to join forces with Twitter.com for future expansion and more information to be available.

“We have to look at all the different sources of information and kind of just act as Switzerland. If we’re seeing a trend on Twitter we can map that to the best stories on Digg. And if there’s other things happening on Facebook and other networks, we want to be able to pull that in.” - (Rose, 2009)

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Real-time searching is set to be a huge trend for 2010 and with sites such as Twitter and Google already embracing it, it is also important for my own project, as well as other brands of course, to keep this trend as a main focus in order to keep socially and technologically up to date.

Decode Exhibition at V&A Museum

I found these amazing images I took from the Decode Exhibition at the V&A. An amazing space in the musuem that looks at 3 themes within digital design: Code, Interactivity and Network.

The exhibition was a gift for me and my current research work as I am focusing on digital development in the current market and how by using them information can be delivered faster, more efficiently and within a contemporary way.

"Digital technologies are providing new tools for artists and designers. Innovative, often interactive, displays use generative software, animation and other responsive technologies to instill a 'live' element into contemporary artworks." - Decode: Digital Design Sentations, Exhibition Booklet, 2009

VideoGrid

Weave Mirror

VideoGrid

Digital Zeotrope

C.E.B. Reas

Luxury Brands Need To Let Go

Of having total control of their branding, marketing and advertising. The previous post spoke about "sellsumers" and their ability to hold secondary jobs at the side, as well as their main income, they build brands images, blog about them, tweet them, its all about sharing these days. After the success of artofthetrench.com, thank you Burberry, time is up for luxury market, time to notice social media and be part of it, Nick Knight mentions in an interview:

"Nick pointed out that small films are becoming a great way to show fashion across the Internet. “A lot of image makers are super excited about the medium,” he said. “It’s much more immediately emotional and powerful than still photography.” He added, “I don’t see a wave of new fashion photography coming through, but when you look at fashion film, you’re looking at a whole new visual proposal.” But, as Nick said, you can’t assume that company managers will know how to edit and use the film properly online—“anymore than you would let a standard lab technician go through Helmut Newton’s contact sheets.” runwayblogs.nytimes.com

Kate Moss & Nick Knight Collaboration, 2006

Gareth Pugh, 2009

It seems that brands need something quite important to make things work, something called a professional, for a fashion magazine for example, it isnt possible for the editor to tweet, edit the magazine, the facebook page, the blog and record a documentary live while doing so. I believe it is also important to differentiate. The Burberry site was a success because it experimented with something new, it got people excited to be part of such an influential fashion brand, and that shows it isnt such a bad things to let people get involved.

We Are All Just Sellsumers

A new wave of consumers has been named by trendwatching.com, the SELLSUMERS.

But what are they and or you one of them?

Well what characterises a sellsumers is that during these hard economic times, where everyone seems to be struggling finacially, certain people have decided to have an extra income to help out with money...

People have started renting spare parking spaces, especially near city areas, renting rooms, land etc.

Other great sites that Sellsumers are part of are:

Giftcardrescue.com - Hirethings.com - Libertydrive.com - Redswan.com

More easy ways that anyway can do!

"Blogging

In Sweden, free newspaper giant Metro hosts Metrobloggen, a get-paid-per-view blogging service. Anyone can set up a blog at Metrobloggen and as soon as an individual blog achieves 5,000 page views per month, Metro sends the author a MasterCard that's credited with 150 Swedish kronor (USD 20 / EUR 16).

Phone-based advice

By signing up for a free Ether number (which is forwarded to any regular phone number), SELLSUMER experts—from holistic life coaches to PowerPoint wizards—can charge their customers per hour, minute, or call.

Apps

SELLSUMERS with application development skills can now make a few bucks at the iPhone App Store, Google’s Android Market, Blackberry's App World and the upcoming Palm App Catalog and Microsoft SkyMarket." - www.trendwatching/trends/sellsumers.com

 

What makes this individual group of people so much interesting is that brands need to be aware that with the right kind of skills, what they do can be done also by customers they originaly aimed their own products/services at, like Apple and its Apps,it will be important to work with people and create something that meets each individual customer needs.

Retail Experimentation

Earlier this month in Hollywood hills Urban Outfiitters joined forces with Space 15 Twenty for a new retail experiment.

Space 15 Twenty's role is to aid Urban Outfitters in collaborating with brands. What is going to happen is Urban Outfitters will remain in the store and be sold continiously but at the same time other brands such as Alife and What Comes Around Goes Around, will rotate in the same store. The brands that will take turns to be sold along side Urban Outfitters which compliment the brand and market research was conducted to find out what other products their customers buy and use.

As if that wasnt enough, a courtyard leads onto other galleries in the space that allows for regular performance by artists, musicians and new designers to inspire and attract customers.

Why Dont We Write Vogue a Letter?

With the current technology now allowing readers to leave comments and messages online on magazine's websites a rapid decline in handwritten letters has been noted from magazine publications...

Quotes from www.wwd.com.media-news/fashion-memopad/letters-to-the-editor-live

At Real Simple, managing editor Kristin van Ogtrop receives 600 e-mailed letters to the editor every month. “We get very few handwritten letters, which I mourn,” she said.

Glamour receives 30 to 40 handwritten notes a week, compared with 1,000 e-mailed letters. Both are a fraction of the 5,000 comments glamour.com receives online. New York magazine editor in chief Adam Moss noted the publication gets roughly three snail mail letters and 100 e-mails a week — that’s only 1 percent of the feedback it compiles. One story on nymag.com can elicit 3,000 comments in a week on the site.

Online commenting can have great benefits, one reason being that it is cheaper than organising a focus group to give you feedback on published articles or generating public opinion on a related topic, so much simpler to just scroll down in the comments section and observe opinions and views being shared, the other great reason is that all this is fast and free within minutes of releasing a feature online Vogue gets comments from people on an international scale!

Broadband is a Human Right

Soon all U.K. households could be entitiled to having fast internet access which will be covered by legislation that guarantees supply to every house. The decision is still in talks as to how and when this could happen but with Keith Mitchell of the Local Government Association believing that "high speed internet is now essential to everyday life" the idea becomes even more promising.

"The legal broadband obligation has been proposed by council leaders in response to concerns that rural communities are being left behind by the digital revoloution, with residents and businesses in much of the countryside forced to endure sluggish internet connections." (www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/broadband)

42% of rural households are still unable to access the internet at 2Mbps

figure from the daily telegraph

Looking Forward to Tomorrow

WGSN report claims consumers are feeling confident about the future and optimistic that the state of the economy will improve.

Hopefully consumers will be smarter in the future about spending patterns and people will be able to buy what they can afford to pay off but it is important for moral and confidence as a community to feel positive about the changes of now as well as the future.

Alexandra Shulman Interview

After my post on the future of fashion magazines, I digged a little bit deaper and founder an amazing interview with Alexandra Shulam, editor of U.K.Vogue, along with Imran Amed, editor for Business of Fashion. Here is the best bit of the article.

"on the future of magazines, she agreed that it was the “question on everyone’s mind,” not only in fashion media, but in publishing more generally, because “advertising is going down for everybody” and by the way, Vogue has suffered less than most.

While she stated a personal preference for physical magazines—namely, The New Yorker, World of Interiors, and Vanity Fair—she acknowledged that things were changing at light speed and that there was room for both online and offline publications to exist side-by-side. She added that she and Dolly Jones would be speaking to define the boundaries between them.

Longtime readers of BoF will remember Dolly from a BoF interview last June, explaining the thinking behind the relaunch of the new Vogue.com. Dolly has been there since 1995 when the UK-based Vogue.com became one of the first major fashion internet sites in the world. Since then, it has maintained its UK market dominance with constant online innovation, providing a template for successful follow-on sites in other Vogue territories, including France, India and China." - Business of Fashion.com, 2009.