WhatTheFont on the go!

A great little download for any designer with an iphone. Just take a pic of the text and the app lets you know the font - in theory.

http://new.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont/iPhone/

Mercury Prize 2009

It's the Mercury's tonight...whose gonna win?

Nominations (with odds from bookmaker William Hill)
Florence and the Machine – Lungs 5/1
Kasabian – West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum 5/1
Bat for Lashes – Two Suns 6/1
La Roux – La Roux 6/1
Glasvegas – Glasvegas 6/1
Speech Debelle – Speech Therapy 8/1
Friendly Fires – Friendly Fires 8/11
The Horrors – Primary Colours 8/1
Lisa Hannigan – Sea Sew 8/1
The Invisible – The Invisible 10/1
Led Bib – Sensible Shoes 10/1
Sweet Billy Pilgrim – Twice Born Men 10/1

My money's on Florence and the Machine!

Marco Brambilla: Civilization

This amazing lift installation made by video artist Marco Brambilla is worth having a look at.

http://motionographer.com/theater/marco-brambilla-civilization/

Design Week's coming up

Design Week is 24-27 Sept. If you register now for the tent event you get free entry!

www.tentlondon.co.uk

Pop-up store around the corner

Wrangler's Blue Bell pop-up store on 47 Lamb's Conduit Street will only exist in about 6 more weeks. Make sure not to miss it!

http://eu.wrangler.com/bluebell/

Work in progress

23 July 2009 | Design Week
Get to know your customer

The art of shopper marketing, says Andy Scott, lies in knowing how to apply branding messages in different retail environments.

Shopper marketing is a phrase that is hard to avoid at the moment, and for good reason. As the recession bites, brands want to know their customers better to sell more products. And as we move away from shared consumption of mass media, brands must learn new ways of communicating with shoppers.

Shopper marketing consultancies are keen to prove their worth in this role. But amid all the smoke and noise, it is easy to lose sight of what such a simple phrase really means.

First off, shopper marketing is not sales promotion with a new name. It is a new discipline that requires companies to raise their game.

Shopper marketing is about influencing shopper behaviour. The purpose is to turn shoppers into buyers, and a large part of that challenge lies in interpreting above-the-line messages in stores. The interpretation is key - simply repeating an above-the-line message ad nauseum can mean a message is lost or filtered out.

I liken this to going on a dinner date with a very attractive companion, who makes a bright and perceptive point within the first five minutes - then goes on about it all night like a stuck record. A similar effect is achieved by taking a witty line from an ad campaign and smearing it over every piece of cardboard available until shoppers are bored stiff.

We are all familiar with the claim that 70 per cent of purchasing decisions are made in-store, but this figure is misleading and inaccurate. If it were ever true, it could only pertain to one category, in one store, at one particular time. Learning how decisions really occur opens up a world of opportunity.

It varies enormously between categories. We use different frames of mind when buying toothpaste, a gift, a television, or chocolate - yet all might be purchased in the same shop, even on the same visit. We shop differently when grabbing food to go at lunchtime than at the weekend; differently if in a forecourt or a large supermarket.

It is essential to recognise that shoppers change constantly. A ‘one size fits all’ communication strategy does not work. The problem for many brands is to admit that it never has. Shopper marketing is the science of finding the right message for the moment.

Andy Scott chairman of Vivid Brand