Brand Strategy RE:Bloomberg The Mentor: Kaenon Polarized

“Nov. 9 (Bloomberg) — Kaenon Polarized’s unique premium shades are worn by pro athletes and celebrities, but mass-market audiences have remained elusive. Can retail guru Jay Margolis help brothers Darren and Steve Rosenberg grow “the best sunglasses you’ve never heard of” into a major player in the market? Tuesdays at 9PM ET/PT. Fridays at 9:30PM ET/PT. (Source: Bloomberg)”

via Bloomberg The Mentor: Kaenon Polarized – Video – Bloomberg.

I love this show and the video is on the link above. On this show I think the owners Darren and Steve really missed the opportunity here. They were so caught up in the fact that their glasses were better than the competition that they felt they didn’t need any gimmicks to try and sell them.

They thought product quality was enough to sell their glasses. Big mistake. I don’t care how good your product is, it doesn’t sell itself. Your competition can outsell a superior product with superior branding and marketing. If you have a superior product that is actually less important than if you have a better strategy to brand it and get your product into more buyer’s hands. Quality doesn’t speak for itself if it isn’t in the hands of the end user.

These guys came to a Mentor to get help and because they had their own ideas on how they should brand their product they didn’t really listen to the Mentor. They made a slightly different case for their glasses and patted each other on the back while making no brand message at all. This is an example of when an engineer makes a product and then fails to hire a marketing expert to sell it. These guys may make a great product but they should fire themselves from the branding side of their business and I bet it would grow…

Lesson: Know your strengths, and hire your weaknesses.. If I was their mentor I would have told them straight up that they needed to hire a marketing and brand strategist and stick to making good sunglasses. They are the reason their brand is not growing fast enough.

Don’t sleep on your ideas RE:New Conductive Paint On Solar Cells

New Conductive Paint On Solar Cells « MOLECULE / Furniture & Design — Latest News.

This is crazy I was going to contact Elon Musk about this same thing.. I had this idea like ten years ago for both roof shingles in solar membranes and also solar paint using nano technology. This could then also be used in the auto industry and many other applications.

The key thing here is to be able to get the conversion efficiency up. See what happens when you sit on an idea too long. That is OK I have a billion ideas. The next key is understanding how to turn heat loss into energy with similar technology. We have used waste in many fields and one of the fundamental wastes in our world is heat expelled by a multitude of processes. There are key functions that when innovated can produce a huge amount of opportunities.

A Change in User Interface RE:Developers Work to Bring Siri to Older iPhones

As a direct effect, developers are already working on a project called “i4Siri,” which will hopefully bring the personal assistant to the last year’s iPhone in a legal way. There will still be a need for older devices to run iOS 5, but with a couple of Cydia tweaks and utilities, Siri will probably help you get things done on your iPhone 4 soon.

via Developers Work to Bring Siri to Older iPhones [VIDEO].

It is funny they would waste the time to push this to older phones, in some ways they are the king of building a cool product then creating another one right after that makes you think their old product isn’t good enough. They are bucking the trend here by caring enough for a product to go back and make it better, though I suspect their interest is to push the new voice interface culture more than caring about making your last model phone cool.

The second interesting thing is that Siri is on a phone. It may seem like nothing, but in the user interface world this is a strategic move. Siri lets people now talk to their machines. This is one more step toward trying to humanize the technology interface. Of course using the phone as the gateway makes sense since we already talk into the phone.

Previously talking to other people with the phone being the interface, now we talk to the interface. This is very smart and part of a bigger plan to get people to humanize technology and machines. It will then move the flaw of user interface from the mechanics of use to the translation and understanding of the phone. Interesting to think of the ramifications to other markets, technologies, and devices..

User Interface RE:3 New Ways to Connect With Content That Interests You

This week, we chose three startups that are helping to tailor content in a digital environment that has become over-saturated with information

via 3 New Ways to Connect With Content That Interests You.

Very good post, and besides the 3 startups it lists, they catch on a very powerful concept. Information management and display is a huge issue in an information age. It isn’t just building websites and apps that do this on a singular level. Designers can learn from this and add this to their projects they are working on.

This is the backbone of user interface, and I have said before that the future is about user interface. How we connect to information is measured every time a user accesses our site or product. How much static is in the line and how smoothly the interaction between technology and humans is will determine a large part of every projects success.

Design – Measuring the Purity of your Information Interface

Hello Everyone,

So as I explore the world of information and innovation, I bring with it a point of view and observations of an outsider…

First observation, the news sites and blogs on tech are vomited with ads and clutter. Most popular blogs are so busy I feel like a goat that was scared and might tip over. For technology experts you would think the basic concept of streamlined efficient user interface would be common sense.

Why not have a simple layout that delivers high quality information? That is what my vision for my blog is. Do we need flashing ads? Hell no! people who are smart enough to read about technology and innovation are too smart to be lured into an ad for some crap that is flashing in the sidebar. Do you really buy a Chevy because a banner ad? Let’s start with smarts.

If your information is a Ferrari you don’t need to try and monetize the blog with a flashing idiot ad. I expect more out of the top people in the tech world. Your information has a user interface and it is the layout of your blog or site. How is clutter working for Yahoo right now vs Google…. All this innovation and not the common sense to make a site that is as intelligent as the people reading it. Think about it..

Google may innovate another model but will the changes be good or bad

Google has purchased the copyright management group RightsFlow for implementation on YouTube and other Google properties. The technology will be used to identify the use of copyrighted music and make appropriate payments to the rights holders.

via Google Buys RightsFlow for YouTube Copyright Management – Search Engine Watch (#SEW).

I like this strategy, though it isn’t clear if this will in any way end up hurting the end user by teaching the music industry that they should get paid every time someone on the web uses a song of their artist. The crazy thing is that they may be shooting themselves in the foot.

There is so much talent and so many ways to get paid that I think the day may come when people prefer the free spread of music with the artists opting in with the sites to get paid. Cut out the middle men when their distribution and production is no longer necessary… They are trying to put a meter on music when people have found out they can park for free almost everywhere…

RE: iPad 2 vs. iPad 3: Should You Buy An iPad Now, Or Wait For The Next One?

Is now the right time to buy an iPad 2, or should you wait until the inevitable release of the iPad 3?

via iPad 2 vs. iPad 3: Should You Buy An iPad Now, Or Wait For The Next One?.

This is an example of companies creating such consumerism that it starts to backfire on them. Technology companies are kings of getting you to think you absolutely must have their new product and then in an attempt to get you to buy again from them, they have to come out with one even better. What is the effect of this hype to dissatisfaction cycle that corporations are creating?

The impact is that some consumers get it and stop believing the hype, while others are so afraid they won’t have the coolest version that they refuse to buy and skip a generation which works against the strategy. Inadvertently companie’s creation of fear of not having the best product is backfiring. What happened to longevity… The backside of this can be seen in apple by the way they are rationing out new features. If the goal of a business is to turn over sales, then it won’t load up the new Iphone with too many features, It will sell you one feature at a time. This is why the challenger will always add more features so it becomes a Pepsi/Coke war. Consider this when you position your brand against a competitor..