Experiment No. 1 - Skateboard Shades

Source: http://vimeo.com/26124634

Experiment No. 1 - Skateboard Shades from Shwood Eyewear on Vimeo.

Follow Shwood's own Eric Singer as he meets up with Keith Hufnagel and others to claim the streets of LA in pursuit of Shwood's latest experiment, sunglasses made from broken skateboard decks. Crafted entirely in Shwood's local woodshop, this one-of-a-kind pair of sunglasses was created out of curiosity, just to see what was possible. For more of Shwood's experiments visit: ExperimentWithNature.com

Based in Portland, Oregon Shwood creates handcrafted wooden eyewear using fine exotic hardwoods.
Shwood’s in-house manufacturing process merges precision technology with classic skilled craftsmanship to create a timeless art form. Every step from veneering and precision lens cutting, to shaping and finishing is conducted in our own Portland-based workshop to promise an entirely handcrafted eyewear piece. View the collection at shwoodshop.com


Thanks to Keith and the crew at HUF. hufsf.com

Filmed and Edited by Joe Stevens. joestevensmedia.com

Music:
T.Rex "Mambo Sun"
The Black Keys "240 Years Before Your Time"

Hyper Island project: Karmatech concept film

A concept done at Hyper Island connecting the online and offline worlds using RFID enabled shoes and E-ink interactive mats.

Hyper Island project: Karmatech concept film from Pier Madonia on Vimeo.

The WeSC social shoe concept was developed at Hyper Island, Stockholm, by creativesKris Bengtson, Pier Madonia, Hampus Lemhag, Mikael Naslund, Anna Anderson and Bodil Gustavsson Fürst, with mentoring from Thomas Larsson at B-Reel.

Agritourism blooms

Valley farms are taking part in a booming business in California.

Posted at 11:00 PM on Sunday, May. 15, 2011

By Robert Rodriguez / The Fresno Bee

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Thousands of people come to the Valley every year to tour the national parks and Yosemite -- and Dinuba farmer Mike Naylor hopes a few will stop at his place.

Naylor can't offer the majesty of ancient granite cliffs, but his setting has its own homespun charm: Visitors can stay at his 95-acre tree fruit farm.

"And they don't just stay at our farm -- they stay in our house," said Nori Naylor, Mike's wife. "It doesn't get more real than that."

The Naylors have joined a trend called agritourism. And its growing.

The federal government's 2007 Census of Agriculture found that 685 California farms were involved in some form of agritourism. Now, there are easily more than 1,000, according to University of California researchers who have created a database to track the trend.

The UC researchers also launched the first study of the trend in California. Last month, they announced the results: Nearly two-thirds of California agritourism operators planned to expand or diversify over the next five years. Now the researchers are watching for more growth.

"There is no question that there is a lot of potential for growth, and we are seeing it happen," said Shermain Hardesty, director of UC's Small Farm Program.

In agritourism, growers have found a way to tap into a broader consumer phenomenon. Increasingly, people want to know where their food comes from, and that has become obvious in their buying choices. For example, more people are buying organic products: U.S. sales of organic food and beverages grew from $1 billion in 1990 to $24.8 billion in 2009.

And, anecdotally, growers say they are seeing more people shopping at farmers markets and touring working farms.

Agritourism also has the potential to reach more local consumers. People like Fresno mom Minal Patel enjoy trudging around a field harvesting strawberries, cherries and grapes. She believes it's an important part of eating healthy.

"I also want my 3-year-old to understand where we get our fruit from and how it is grown," Patel said.

Farmers realize the potential this new consumer base represents. The UC's agritourism study showed that nearly 30% of the farmers offering agritourism events supplemented their regular farm income by $50,000 or more in 2008.

"We know from all the consumer trends that people are willing to pay for an authentic experience and for specialty foods," said Ellie Rilla, community development adviser for UC Cooperative Extension in Marin County. "And agritourism provides that."

For Hanford farmer John Olivas, reaching out to the public has meant survival for this three-acre berry farm. Selling directly to consumers means bigger profits.

Olivas grows several types of berries, including blueberry, raspberry, blackberry and tayberry. Tayberry is a cross between a blackberry and raspberry.

Along with letting people pick their own fruit, he also operates a fruit stand and sells at farmers markets. His Rancho Notso Grande draws hundreds of visitors from the Valley and from the Bay Area and Southern California.

"Right now, I am getting about 20 calls a day from people wanting to know if the berries are ready for picking," Olivas said.

"In this business you have to find access to markets and get to the people who are looking for premium, quality produce. And you have to provide them with an experience. You really have to have the whole mix to survive."

The Naylors also know the value of agritourism, despite some good-natured ribbing from their neighbors.

In February, they remodeled their ranch-style home and created a bed-and-breakfast type of venue. Since opening, they have welcomed about 20 guests, who paid between $129 to $179 a night.

The visitors have come from New Mexico, Florida and Southern California.

"I know some of my neighbors thought I was nuts for doing something like this, but it works," said Mike Naylor. "Now they are saying that when they have buyers come into town, they are going to park them over here."

In southwest Fresno, Mike Smith also hopes to cash in. This summer, he will allow people to pick their own flowers, lavender and produce on his 40-acre organic farm. And in the fall, he will open the pumpkin patch for the public and school tours.

"For us, the ultimate goal is to have the entire ranch open to the public," said Smith, a longtime family farmer who has been producing mixed vegetables for years and has sold produce to wholesalers.

Small Businesses Snub Couponing

By Cindy Vanegas

Published May 02, 2011

FOXBusiness

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Entrepreneurs’ willingness to jump on the couponing bandwagon has fueled tremendous growth for daily-deal companies like Groupon and Living Social. The contagion has even spread to non-traditional couponing businesses like The New York Times and Facebook. While it may seem like every local business is out to entice customers through daily deals, there are some entrepreneurs taking a stand against couponing.

“The sales spike from couponing is like a one-night stand,” said Hans Hess, founder of Elevation Burger. "You get something really quick and it’s enjoyable for a little while, but it doesn’t give you the basis for a long-term relationship."

Hess didn’t like the idea of couponing, but when franchisees approached him about offering a coupon through a daily deal site he allowed them to test the concept at five locations over a number of months.

“We tried it and realized it was not a way to build relationships with guests,” recalled Hess, “Our theory is that the kind of person buying the coupon is just looking for a deal and they are content just going deal to deal to deal.”

Hess allows new franchisees looking to draw a crowd to offer one daily deal. But they can’t repeat it and it must be done within the first two months of business.

Tom Kelley, managing partner at Concept Branding Group, warned that couponing can cheapen a brand in consumers’ eyes. “We discourage clients from doing it,” said Kelley, “There are more efficient ways to market than shotgun couponing.” He suggests businesses try building community alliances and working with community organizations to help attract customers.

Consumer psychology toward couponing can also impact price perception. Marketing consultant Michael Zipursky said coupons can be dangerous because people will associate the business with the discounted price. “Say you offer a product or service for $50 that is usually $100, people will perceive the value of that product or service at the lower price.”

An expectation of discounting among coupon-addicted consumers can also have a negative effect on consumers. Stephen Hinkis, vice president of franchise operations at Newk’s Express Café (Newkscafe.com), was approach by several daily coupon sites and turned them down. “The problem with couponing from our experience is you can’t wane your customers off of couponing and if you remove the coupon you have to do damage control,” Hinkis said.

The boom in customers a deal creates could put entrepreneurs at risk of losing future customers after the deal is over. Pierre Panos, founder of Fresh to Order, warned that most business owners get slammed when the coupon takes effect.

“They don’t know how to handle the volume and they lose far more than they would have gained,” said Panos, “If the experience is bad, because they did not execute it well, then the customer will tell potential full-paying guests not to go there.”

For entrepreneurs willing to bite the coupon bullet, Zipursky recommended they “think about the effect that the coupon will have on the business, how much a customer is worth and how much they are willing to spend to get that customer?”

New owner of Pringles needs to bring brand into 21st century

By Bruce Horovitz, USA Today

April 5th, 2011

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Pringles is broken, but fixable.

That’s the consensus of brand gurus and marketing experts, who say the brand sold by Procter & Gamble to Diamond Foods for $1.5 billion on Tuesday, needs a complete image overhaul.

“You can be polite and call it a classic brand, but the consumer sees Pringles as being old,” says Robert Passikoff, founder of the Brand Keys consulting firm. The company’s brand index gathered from consumer surveys finds that consumer perception of Pringles has been flat for five years. But the image of Kettle chips, owned by Diamond Foods, has been fastest-improving in the chip category. So has Kettle’s sales.

Since Diamond acquired Kettle potato chips in 2010, the brand has posted double-digit sales growth. Pringles, which is a $1 billion-plus brand, saw its sales slide slightly in the past 52 weeks, reports SymphonyIRI Group. Now, with the Pringles purchase, Diamond virtually triples the size of its snack business.

Snacking is huge. It’s a multibillion-dollar category, and major foodmakers and big restaurant chains all are clamoring for any piece of it. It’s why McDonald’s Snack Wraps are so successful, and why Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts just rolled out new snacks.

For P&G, the sale is about exiting the food business and focusing on home-cleaning and personal-beauty products. But for Diamond, it’s all about swallowing more snacks.

Consumption of salty and savory snacks ranks among the top 10 fastest-growing food trends and will increase by 16% by 2018, research specialist NPD Group projects.

But change won’t come easily for the 45-year-old brand, originally created for — but never used by — the U.S. Army. P&G has managed the brand in “a very traditional way” despite the fact that the perfectly shaped chips in a canister are a very non-traditional snack food, says brand consultant Martin Lindstrom. Now, he says, Diamond Foods needs to think way outside the canister. Some suggestions:

•Think entertainment. Pringles, which folks buy for fun, should integrate “fun,” youth-targeted computer games into its packaging design, says Lindstrom.

•Fix the recipe. “They need to come clean about what Pringles are made from — or fix the ingredients,” says brand consultant Jonathan Salem Baskin. “This stuff isn’t even potatoes.”

Actually, it’s about 42% dried potatoes that’s cooked from baked dough — not from potato slices.

•Add functional benefits. While it would be dumb to claim that Pringles are good for you, the new owners should consider adding positive “functional” benefits that, perhaps, give more energy, says Lindstrom.

•Tweak social media. While Pringles has a Facebook page and Twitter account, it needs to up the social ante, Passikoff says. “It needs to really resonate on a social platform.”

•Extend the brand. Slap chocolate coating on them. Squirt cheese filling between them. Maybe even sweeten them up into a cookie line, says Lindstrom.

•Update the marketing. Diamond needs to find more “emotional” ways to position the brand, says Passikoff. “They need to look at the category and the competition and understand there are big changes in how young consumers snack.”

•Improve the texture. Everyone knows what a Pringles chip feels like in the mouth, Lindstrom says. Diamond should offer alternatives with more snap.

•Kill the character. The familiar mustache man on Pringles cans must be replaced, perhaps via a social media vote, Lindstrom suggests.

Digital strategies influence consumer spending

Wednesday, 30 March 2011, 11:42

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A digital marketing approach and its associated channels are critical for overcoming the declining effectiveness of mass marketing, according to Gartner.

Although marketers have been using digital channels as part of their campaign management strategies for more than 10 years, most are using them for traditional push, mass-marketed, interruption-type execution of campaigns rather than a two-way engagement approach.

"Mass marketing is no longer a long-term strategy. Mass-marketing campaigns have a 2% response rate and are on the decline, whereas by 2015, digital strategies, such as social and mobile marketing, will influence at least 80% of consumers' discretionary spending," says Adam Sarner, research director at Gartner. "Marketers still need to shift their traditional campaign management strategy around executing campaigns to a customer and move toward a digital marketing, two-way engagement approach."

Gartner analysts say that this evolving customer-focused strategy harnesses digital techniques and channels that will increase engagement, response and conversion rates.

"The internet was built on the idea of users collaborating. Once the internet was commercialised, collaboration was overshadowed by transactional commerce and push-type marketing techniques that focused on one-directional hard sells," says Sarner. "Today, activity on the internet has shifted back to its roots in interaction and participation.
"The hard sell isn't working in this new environment, and successful campaign management strategies have shifted from interruptive push, toward two-way conversations and addressing mutually beneficial approaches to customers' wants and needs, which a digital marketing approach can provide."

The online environment continues to expand, and marketing organisations have more opportunities to be effective. By 2014, 6,7-billion devices will be connected to the Internet. Mobile marketing in the US reached $877,2-million in 2010, up 138% from the $368-million spent in 2009. The developing social CRM application market reached $600-million in 2010, and it is expected to reach $1-billion by 2013.

"For marketers and campaign management to use digital channels effectively, these channels can't be just a port for traditional campaign methods," says Sarner. "Although most marketers are using more than one digital channel, their approach is often no different from a spam model, where success is driven by high volumes and attempting to make a profit from nearly everyone who accepts the offer. Just using digital channels is not the answer."
Gartner's operational definition of digital marketing includes addressable branding/advertising, contextual, marketing, social marketing and transactional marketing. Digital marketing extends the marketing process through channels such as the Web, e-mail, video, mobile applications and social applications, point-of-sale terminals, interactive television, digital signage and kiosks.

"Digital marketing represents a shift in strategy and approach, not just in channels," says Sarner. "Although traditional campaign management thinking involves executing campaigns directly to the customer, successful digital marketing must act more as a mutually beneficial journey aimed at satisfying customers' wants and needs. This is a customer-focused strategy approach that will profoundly shift traditional campaign management strategy."

However, Sarner insists that campaign management and digital marketing do need each other. Although digital marketing represents an opportunity for two-way engagement, digital channels, access to a customer view and precise attribution metrics, campaign management represents multiple processes and channels, online and offline integration, and a complete customer record. Going forward, marketers will need to consider campaign management as a way to orchestrate the complexity of a complete online and offline marketing strategy, while incorporating the evolving customer approach of digital marketing.

5 green consumer trends for 2011

By Allecia Vermillion

GateHouse News Service

Posted Mar 16, 2011 @ 03:48 PM

Last update Mar 16, 2011 @ 04:00 PM

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As more Americans become concerned with sustainability issues and eco-friendly habits, the days of eco-fads like reusable shopping bags and refillable water bottles have become everyday lifestyle choices. Here are some predictions for green trends we’ll see in the coming year:

Savvy green consumers. Dating services, dry cleaning, cookware and cat food — all kinds of companies are marketing countless green products. However, consumers have become savvier about deciphering eco-friendly claims. This year, the Federal Trade Commission will revise its guidelines for environmental marketing claims to combat “greenwashing,” or misleading information about environmental benefits of a product or practices of a company. Simple acts, such reading an ingredient list and recognizing overly vague advertising claims, can serve consumers well.

“Eco-superior” products. More households are buying green products, but an eco-friendly dishwashing detergent still has to clean the dishes. Trendwatching.com says 2011 is the year for “eco-superior” products that are better for the environment and better in practice, too.

Urban farming goes mainstream. Municipalities across the U.S. are revising rules for keeping chickens, bees and other animals, as Americans grow more concerned with eating local, unprocessed foods. Keeping a chicken coop in the backyard will become increasingly normal in 2011.

Green data centers. You’ll likely never see the data center that stores your e-mails, health records, Google searches or Facebook information, but these clusters of computers and servers burn large amounts of energy. Some studies estimate the information technology industry alone is responsible for 2 percent of the world’s carbon emissions. Companies are working to create more energy-efficient ways to secure and store our growing body of data, and the Environmental Protection Agency has introduced an Energy Star rating for data centers.

Buying quality built to last. Consumers are learning the pitfalls of a cheap item with a short life. Add to that concerns about chemical off-gassing and huge landfills, and 2011 is likely to be a year when many people embrace vintage china sets, handcrafted furniture and locally knit sweaters. While these products can cost more up front, savvy consumers know the long-term cost of buying cheap.