In the London Review of Book (January 3rd 2013) Paul Myerscroft writes about Pret a Manger, and ‘affective economics’. He paints a picture of a dynamic beneath the surface of the affable, funky, good natured feel of the shops. He writes: ‘Pret workers aren’t supposed to be unhappy. They are recruited precisely for their ‘personality’, in the sense that a…
Bryan Applehard in his book ‘The Brain is Wider then the Sky’, further explores the twist that reality is ‘presented’ to me – based on the history of my preferences, my search habits. He describes an example of two people searching ‘on Egypt’ at exactly the same point in time; one gets a series of ‘search’ results which prioritise (in…
Daniel Soar discusses the way in which Google is like a ‘baby’s brain’, developing its relationship with me through its relationship with me; learning from my search habits and inferring information from my interactions with it (eg where I tend to keep my Android phone overnight is my ‘home’ address, in their database). Something similar – but different in terms of…
The risk in any brand experience based on aesthetics is that so long as I am part of this organisation (so long as I am organised like this) I will never have a new experience – as Eric Schmidt (then of Google) envisioned, in 2030 young people will either ‘be asleep or on-line’. The idiom could not be more clear- ‘on-line’,…
Philip Kotler write about ‘making the invisible visible’ through his concept of ‘ingredient branding‘. One of the features of intimate innovation in business, product development and the uses of technology is that ‘my experience of the brand becomes the central ingredient’. My interactions with the brand are what adds the value for me – as if the brand was itself…
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