"Refreshingly Different"

Carlsberg brings out a new 'gender neutral' beer. Beautiful design and a good example of category disruption. It will be interesting to see how popular it becomes and with whom.

It's a beer, but not as we know it.

Money to burn, anyone?

I've been looking for examples of super-luxury packaging and came across this bottle of Guerlain's exclusive "Artist Edition" of "Idylle".

It's certainly eye-catching, if not a little odd-looking. It was created by Ora Ito, and is a solid 18-carat gold perfume bottle enveloped in a clear Baccarat crystal ball.

"How do you open it and where can I get one?", I hear you cry.

You'll need to buy two: one for decoration and one as a perfume. You have to smash the crystal to get the bottle out.

That's ok if you've got a bit of extra cash knocking around and lots of staff around to help clear up the shards of glass and tend the injuries incurred while trying to get at the bottle.

Each one is on special order and costs a mere $45,000.

If that's a little rich for you, then relax with a nice glass of Champagne. Perrier-Jouet recently launched this stunning Limited Edition (only 100 units) to celebrate their bi-centenary. It could be yours for a 10,000 euros if they haven't already sold out.

Steve Jobs is God ...

... or so the fervour with which Apple fans worship their brand would make it seem.

I watched "Secrets of the Superbrands", a new series which started on BBC3 last night, beginning with an episode focussing on Technology. If you're remotely interested in the World we live in today the best thing to do is watch it but, if you don't have time, carry on reading.

Alex Riley presents "Secrets of the Superbrands"

The presenter, Alex Riley, spent time on each of the key technology brands and very succinctly managed to give some interesting and often surprising insights into their strategies for success.

He opened with Apple, which commands evangelical support from its disciples. We watch as an avid Apple fan has his head examined, literally, with an MRI scan. Electrical responses measured as he watched a slide show of technology items showed his brain light up when he saw Apple products. This response was the same as very devout religious people responding to the sight of their religious icons.

Riley asked the question on all our lips: "How does a brand work in religious terms?"

The answer he proposes is that it needs:

1. A Story: in Apple's case, two guys in a garage ...
2. The Antichrist: IBM
3. The Place of Worship: Apple stores and all the mysticism that surrounds their evangelical opening events
4. The Messiah: Steve Jobs who, like Jesus, was cast out by his people and, unlike Jesus (yet), had a Second Coming and rescued Apple from oblivion in the '90's with the iMac, iPod and all those other iThings.

An Apple store opens in Covent Garden

The programme then moved on to Microsoft explaining how IBM, who made the hardware, engaged Bill Gates to write the software and allowed him to keep the rights to everything he had written. Oops!

Then the astonishing fact that Sony's Playstation 3 costs $805 to manufacture and retails for $499, creating around $3 billion in losses for the company so far. The reason Riley gives for this is that Sony is using Playstation as a "Trojan Horse" for its BluRay disc technology in a bid to win against Toshiba's HD DVD. Sony is desperate not to repeat the mistakes of the '80's when its Betamax video cassette lost out to the VHS format from JVC. Apparently, the reason for their failure was prudishness and an unwillingness to allow the porn industry to use their video format. JVC had no such qualms and, these days, nor do Sony.

The programme continued with the story of mobile phones and how Nokia has become the Old Man of the industry, some evasive interviews with the folks from Facebook and finally Google, how they managed to position themselves as the gate-keeper of the internet.

And that, according to Riley, is the secret to the success of technology superbrands: they control the doorway to a larger experience. The reason Nokia is currently failing is that "they're just making gizmos".

Gang Culture

I'm all for exploring innovative ways to create brand awareness. We all go on about using "stories to engage brands with consumers" etc, but using 'literature' to sell expensive clothes to pre-schoolers is something I find a bit galling.

Curled up reading the wonderful The Week Magazine this evening, this story caught my eye and made me wonder how far brands will go to sell their wares.

Ralph Lauren have produced "The RL Gang: A Magically Magnificent School Adventure" (*cue finger down throat and theatrical retch*).

"Do we look like we're having fun?"

It follows the adventures of (presumably extremely wealthy) kids called names like Willow, Hudson and Willow as they skip through their impossibly Magnificent childhoods. You even get the chance to "look inside Oliver's closet" (Perverts!) and buy his Fair Isle cashmere sweater ($75).

“We are raising the bar by expanding the retail environment to new platforms,” said David Lauren, Executive Vice President of Advertising, Marketing and Corporate Communications. “By delivering a best-in-class virtual shopping experience to both parents and their children, our customers can discover their style in a way that is engaging, informative and entertaining.”

... and possibly a bit lame.

If you're too busy to read to your precious darlings, don't worry, there's a video narrated by Uma Thurman so you can plonk them in front of the telly instead.

They're even donating to charity (not much, but a bit) to help foster that caring mother/baby-type vibe,

"As Polo Ralph Lauren is dedicated to children everywhere and the preservation of the arts and education, the Company will donate 15% of all proceeds from the first month of sales of the Childrenswear Spring 2011 collection on RalphLauren.com to Room to Grow—a charitable organization chosen by Uma Thurman. Room to Grow is an innovative program which provides parents raising babies in poverty with one-on-one parenting support and essential baby items throughout their children’s critical first three years of development."

The first MONTH of sales?

Well done, Ralph Lauren, for the magnanimous gesture but I think I'd rather dress my kids in something less prissy and take them to the park instead.

Leadership

There's a lot to be said about leadership. I saw this video of Beyoncé visiting some students at a school in Harlem and thought it just seemed to sum it up. Draw your own conclusions, but I was impressed how she mucked in with the unsuspecting girls and how they reacted to her - even if she did have the advantage of being an international star and looking like a bit of a diva.