The Curator's News Feed: Feb. 24, 2012
This week, we're reading about a "magical" food forest, tweens, a new take on pop-ups and more. User Experience The Don Draper Way, Fast Company: To be a Curator brand, a company must find a way to move beyond a transactional relationship with the consumer and develop one that is emotional – one that resonates and provides value in their life. Absent of that, good luck. Who wants to win by being the low costs provider? That’s an easy position to unseat. People don’t buy a cup of coffee at Starbucks because of the cost of the coffee – it’s because of the experience they have around that cup of coffee. There’s value in that – perhaps even more so than in what is found in the cup. - Scott
Nation's largest public Food Forest takes root on Beacon Hill, Crosscut.com: Imagine Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory combined with your local CSA, but open to the public. Here in Seattle’s Beacon Hill neighborhood (just up the ways from Curator HQ) there will soon be a “food forest”: an open, “edible wilderness” of fruits, vegetables and herbs. This article calls it a “textbook example of community outreach gone right,” pointing to how a diverse neighborhood came together over the last three years to make this a reality. Talk about building community through a passion for food! - Lisa
Keeping it simple, Inc.: Einstein once said that things should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler. This is great (though rarely heeded) advice for brands and their marketing teams. It’s a noisy, competitive market out there, and the last thing your customer, consumer or public needs is the added noise of market speak and buzz words. In this article by Garry Tan, co-founder of Posterous, the author explains that no matter how impressive your product is, the consumer just wants to know it works. In other words, learn to break it down without watering it down. – Matthew
The six best things about tweens, CNN.com: In this job, we spend a lot of time trying to get inside the minds of consumers so we can help craft programs that will resonate with them and get them to interact with brands, not just get talked to by them. As such, I spend a lot of time reading up on different demographic groups. This is an interesting article about Tweens (and their parents). Now I know what I’m in for in five years when Josh hits that age… - Dan
Start-Ups Follow Pinterest’s Lead, The Wall Street Journal - With the multiplying success of Pinterest, The Wall Street Journal identified some upcoming start-up companies that are trying to piggy-back off of the site’s boom. This doesn’t come as a major shocker, with the number of visitors to Pinterest growing tenfold over the past six months, the article reports. So, what should we be watching for? That’s left to be determined, but it seems that start-ups are now gearing their energy towards developing video-sharing sites, adding a whole new element to the Pinterest-concept. With these similar businesses beginning to sprout, it will be interesting to watch the number of prominent platforms that are created and how many new ways there are to share even more content. - Annie
Thank Goodness | Elettra Wiedemann Pops Up Again, T Magazine: The concept of “pop-up” is certainly not new, but it seems to continue in its success. I like this one created by supermodel Elettra Wiedemann which doesn’t only promote a brand, but also raises awareness for healthy eating paired with luxury living with a motto stating that "eco is always chic." While the concept itself is interesting, the message they are trying to share adds another layer to the pop-up model which helps it continue to be fresh and engaging. – Julia
I’d Like to Thank My Twitter Followers, Wall Street Journal: Very cool article about how ABC and The Academy are embracing the power of social media as a way to keep viewers watching til the very last Oscar is presented. - Ann Marie