BSP LINES

BSP LINES, originally uploaded by pat_the.

Shawn Farmer

SHAWN FARMER

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Matching Supply With Demand: Burton’s Clark Gundlach

What were the primary causes for the level of supply that snowboarding gear reached last year, particularly for hardgoods, that saw such drastic reductions in pricing and the commoditization of gear?
Burton has made significant changes in its production planning and inventory management processes. The recent challenges in the US retail economies and the ongoing consolidation in the retail channels require every industry to re-think how their stock status is managed. Burton’s stock positions have been significantly reduced from past seasons and we foresee a continued reduction in our reorder stock positions going forward into 2011.
More than ever before, Burton has carefully managed its factory orders and our current season inventory has dramatically improved. Retail fall-out continues to contribute to vendor on-hand positions but overall inventory levels are significantly lower across all categories and brands. Prior year inventory continues to impact current season sales, however, recently retail sales and events have been strong and industry-wide we are seeing current season sales improve as prior year inventories sell down.

What are you doing to right size supply to meet demand?
Significant reductions in our reorder stock positions will reduce the level of goods in the market. Ultimately making product more difficult to get will bring more value to product, thus bringing more margin to the retailer. In addition, we are strengthening our product segmentation strategies with new product stories and technologies in 2011. Our 2011 hardgoods sales programs will offer our dealers the opportunity to build stronger margin platforms that will deliver greater maintained margins.

What direction do you think the industry as a whole needs to go to combat this?
We see hardgoods opportunities in several areas in the coming season. The youth business continues to grow and Burton is fully committed to providing young riders with product and technologies that make their on-snow experience fun. Board technologies continue to evolve and our 2011 line-up will provide every rider a choice of the absolute best performing product on the mountain. Trickling down our high-end product technologies into mid and lower price points will drive increased demand in the best selling price levels. As mentioned earlier a redesigned product segmentation strategy will provide our specialty dealer greater differentiation than in past years. 2011 will be a year of evolutions in the Burton hardgoods product line and it’s the evolution of product design that will provide the opportunity to grow sales.

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How To Optimize Inventory Turnover Rates

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Circle sky

Circle sky , originally uploaded by pat_the.

Welcome Peetu

Welcome Peetu from Urb-Orbis on Vimeo.

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goldwata

goldwata, originally uploaded by pat_the.

Broken glass

Broken glass, originally uploaded by pat_the.

Henry Mintzberg on managing

Management in all business and human organization activity is simply the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives. Management comprises planning, organizing, staffing, leading or directing, and controlling an organization (a group of one or more people or entities) or effort for the purpose of accomplishing a goal. Resourcing encompasses the deployment and manipulation of human resources, financial resources, technological resources, and natural resources.




Henry Mintzberg on managing


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Reach da lad

Reach da lad, originally uploaded by pat_the.

Matt and "The Monster"- Rock Art Brewery vs. Monster Energy Drink

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Thought

Thought, originally uploaded by pat_the.

Finally free

Finally free, originally uploaded by pat_the.

Tara Dakides Re-Joins the Sessions Family

Scotts Valley, CA, October 22, 2009- After 10 years of building her talent and winning the reputation of the “Best Female Snowboarder in the World”, Tara Dakides signs back up with Sessions joining the U.S. Pro Team. Sessions was Tara’s first outerwear sponsor when she first began snowboarding and winning awards and today we are pleased to announce that she is back with us.
“Life really does come full circle… Sessions was my first sponsor back in the day (19 years old) when a girl getting sponsored was few and far between. It’s a trip to come back after all these years with a new outlook and more experience. I’m excited to have more creative freedom with my outerwear designs and to be able to work with such great people who love to ride. Sessions is one of the few core snow/skate companies alive. I say core in the sense that they have kept it real and true with there riders and the people who work hard to build the brand. It’s nice to feel a part of helping build something and appreciated in the process. It’s good to be home!” –Tara Dakides
Tara has had many accomplishments in her career to date from Transworld and Snowboarder including winning such titles as Best Freestyle Rider, Best Overall Female Rider, Female Snowboarder of the Year, Best Rail Rider, Gold Metal Winner for the X-Games in Slopestyle and Big Air, 1st Place Vans Triple Crown, and the list goes on and on…
“I’m stoked to see Tara back with the Sessions family. She is so passionate about what Sessions stands for- snowboarding, skating, music and friendship.” –Joel Gomez
“Snowboarding has a lot to thank Tara for. In a time when women’s snowboarding was not as popular as it is today, Tara was breaking boundaries. She was not only progressing woman’s snowboarding but snowboarding as a whole. She paved the way for the Gretchen’s and Torah’s of today and opened up everyone’s eyes to what was possible. Cheers to you Tara and welcome back!”
- Brett Butcher, Sessions Team Manager
Everyone at Sessions would like to thank Tara for everything she has done for snowboarding and we are very excited to have her back in the Sessions family!
Look out for Tara’s Signature Jackets and Pants with Sessions for Snow 2011.


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tws

The consumer decision journey

Consumers are moving outside the purchasing funnel—changing the way they research and buy your products. If your marketing hasn’t changed in response, it should.

If marketing has one goal, it’s to reach consumers at the moments that most influence their decisions. That’s why consumer electronics companies make sure not only that customers see their televisions in stores but also that those televisions display vivid high-definition pictures. It’s why Amazon.com, a decade ago, began offering targeted product recommendations to consumers already logged in and ready to buy. And it explains P&G’s decision, long ago, to produce radio and then TV programs to reach the audiences most likely to buy its products—hence, the term “soap opera.”

Marketing has always sought those moments, or touch points, when consumers are open to influence. For years, touch points have been understood through the metaphor of a “funnel”—consumers start with a number of potential brands in mind (the wide end of the funnel), marketing is then directed at them as they methodically reduce that number and move through the funnel, and at the end they emerge with the one brand they chose to purchase (Exhibit 1). But today, the funnel concept fails to capture all the touch points and key buying factors resulting from the explosion of product choices and digital channels, coupled with the emergence of an increasingly discerning, well-informed consumer. A more sophisticated approach is required to help marketers navigate this environment, which is less linear and more complicated than the funnel suggests. We call this approach the consumer decision journey. Our thinking is applicable to any geographic market that has different kinds of media, Internet access, and wide product choice, including big cities in emerging markets such as China and India.



The consumer decision journey—an interactive
Consumers are changing the way they research and buy products. Here’s how marketers should respond.

We developed this approach by examining the purchase decisions of almost 20,000 consumers across five industries and three continents. Our research showed that the proliferation of media and products requires marketers to find new ways to get their brands included in the initial-consideration set that consumers develop as they begin their decision journey. We also found that because of the shift away from one-way communication—from marketers to consumers—toward a two-way conversation, marketers need a more systematic way to satisfy customer demands and manage word-of-mouth. In addition, the research identified two different types of customer loyalty, challenging companies to reinvigorate their loyalty programs and the way they manage the customer experience.

Finally, the research reinforced our belief in the importance not only of aligning all elements of marketing—strategy, spending, channel management, and message—with the journey that consumers undertake when they make purchasing decisions but also of integrating those elements across the organization. When marketers understand this journey and direct their spending and messaging to the moments of maximum influence, they stand a much greater chance of reaching consumers in the right place at the right time with the right message.

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www.mckinseyquarterly.com

HalfroadHalfWater

HalfroadHalfWater, originally uploaded by pat_the.

Chester flower field

Chester flower field, originally uploaded by pat_the.

I see the light

I see the light, originally uploaded by pat_the.

plac

plac, originally uploaded by pat_the.

Street Note

Street Note, originally uploaded by pat_the.

S2020164

S2020164, originally uploaded by pat_the.

Apathetic Artsy go CACA go !

Apathetic Artsy go CACA go !, originally uploaded by pat_the.

Half Full

Half Full, originally uploaded by pat_the.

SIA Releases 2008/09 Snowboard Intelligence Report

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See the light

See the light, originally uploaded by pat_the.

AV-8 Harrier Ultra Low High Speed Fly By

See more funny videos and TBT Videos at Today's Big Thing.

THIS IS CRAZY

Jesus is blond

Jesus is blond, originally uploaded by pat_the.

JP SOLBERG TRANSCENDENCE

Transcendence is a condition or state of being that surpasses physical existence and in one form is also independent of it. It is affirmed in the concept of the divine in the major religious traditions, and contrasts with the notion of God, or the Absolute, existing exclusively in the physical order (immanentism), or indistinguishable from it (pantheism). Transcendence can be attributed to the divine not only in its being, but also in its knowledge. Thus, God transcends the universe, but also transcends knowledge (is beyond the grasp of the human mind). Although transcendence is defined as the opposite of immanence, the two are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Some theologians and metaphysicians of the great religious traditions affirm that God, or Brahman, is both within and beyond the universe (panentheism); in it, but not of it; simultaneously pervading it and surpassing it.

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goingsomewhere

goingsomewhere, originally uploaded by pat_the.

Market Watch: Quiksilver’s Quarter and Nine Months Ended July 31, 2009

Quik’s total revenue for the quarter fell 11.2% to $501.4 million from $569.9 million for the same quarter the previous year. Their gross profit margin fell from 50.4% to 46.7%. Selling, general and administrative expense was down 9.1% to $211.8 million. Interest expense rose 30% to $15.3 million. Instead of a foreign currency gain of $1.2 million, they had a loss of $3.5 million.

After taxes, they had income from continuing operations of $3.4 million compared to $33.1 million in the same quarter the previous year. Those numbers exclude Rossignol.

The loss from discontinued operations (Rossignol) was $2.1 million this quarter compared with $30.2 million last year. Net income this quarter was $1.35 million compared to $2.85 million last year. That’s $0.01 per share compared to $0.02 last year. Income per share from continuing operations was $0.03 compared to $0.26 in the same quarter last year.

The numbers for the nine months ended July 31 show a decline in revenue of 13.2% to $1.44 billion compared to the nine months the previous year. Gross profit margin fell from 50.0% to 46.9%. There was a net loss from continuing operations of $57.5 million compared to a profit of $79.4 million for nine months the previous year. Net income, including the impact of Rossignol, was a loss of $190.3 million this year and $225.3 million last year for nine months.

We learned in the conference call that footwear sales have finally softened, and that weakness in the junior’s market is having some impact on Roxy. They are in the process of implementing structural changes and expense reductions that should improve profitability by $40 to $60 million over a full year once implemented. About half of this amount will come from margin improvement, and the restructuring has been extended to include DC Shoes once it was clear that the brand was not going to be sold.

They are using what Chairman and CEO Bob McKnight characterized as “More measured and creative approaches to marketing and advertising.” He cited as an example a reduction of 75% in trade show expense achieved by utilizing buses outfitted as booths that are driven into the show and then surrounded by pop up tents. I like it and look forward to seeing it.

Over on the balance sheet, total assets fell from $2.34 billion at July 31, 2008 to $1.88 billion at July 31, 2009. That includes a $67 million reduction in trade receivables and a $25 million decline in inventory, both of which you’d expect as part of managing through a recession. Most of the reduction came from current assets held for sale falling from $358 million to $2 million with the sale of Rossignol. There was also a decline of $96 million in goodwill.

Total liabilities fell $204 million to $1.435 billion. This was almost exclusively due to the reduction in current liabilities. Long term debt fell only $10 million to $734 million. That’s not a surprise as the debt restructuring Quik has been working on (the last piece will close this month) was meant to spread out maturities, not reduce debt.

The current ratio, at 1.65 has declined only marginally from 1.71 last year. Total liabilities to equity has grown from 2.34 times to 3.26 times, largely as a result of stockholders’ equity falling from $700 million to $441 million. To me, this highlights the fact that Quik still has some work to do in improving its balance sheet, but with Rossignol and the restructuring behind them, they can do it by running their business well.

Quik expects its fourth quarter revenues to be down in the mid teens on a percentage basis compared to the same quarter a year ago. It anticipates a loss per share, on a fully diluted basis, in the mid-single digit range. Earnings will be impacted by the higher interest expense they will incur as a result of the restructuring. They reduced their projection of that expense by $10 million to $100 million and pointed out that $30 million is non cash. Interest expense in their last complete fiscal year was $45 million. They expect interest expense of $21 million in the fourth quarter, and further gross margin contraction of 150 basis points (1.5%)

Quik’s profitability improvement plan should just about make up for their increased interest expense. After all this good work in restructuring and managing expenses, the question is where do sales increases come from? In that regard they have the same issue as every other brand; “The company indicated that longer term visibility into revenues and earnings remains limited due to global economic conditions.”

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Backstreet Ironing

Backstreet Ironing, originally uploaded by pat_the.

Square white

Square white, originally uploaded by pat_the.

Big is back

IN 1996, in one of his most celebrated phrases, Bill Clinton declared that “the era of big government is over”. He might have added that the era of big companies was over, too. The organisation that defined capitalism for much of the 20th century was then in retreat, attacked by corporate raiders, harassed by shareholders and outfoxed by entrepreneurs.

Great names such as Pan Am had disappeared. Others had survived only by dint of huge bloodletting: IBM sacked 122,000 people, a quarter of its workforce, between 1990 and 1995. Everyone agreed that the future lay with entrepreneurial start-ups such as Yahoo!—which in late 1998 had the same market capitalisation with 637 employees as Boeing with 230,000. The share of GDP produced by big industrial companies fell by half between 1974 and 1998, from 36% to 17%.

Today the balance of advantage may be shifting again. To a degree, the financial crisis is responsible. It has devastated the venture-capital market, the lifeblood of many young firms. Governments have been rescuing companies they consider too big to fail, such as Citigroup and General Motors. Recession is squeezing out smaller and less well-connected firms. But there are other reasons too, which are giving big companies a self-confidence they have not displayed for decades.
Big can be beautiful…

Of course, big companies never went away. There were still plenty of first-rate ones: Unilever and Toyota continued to innovate through thick and thin. And not all start-ups were models of success: Netscape and Enron promised to revolutionise their industries only to crash and burn. Nevertheless, the balance had shifted in favour of small organisations.

The entrepreneurial boom was supercharged by two developments. Deregulation opened protected markets. Some national champions, such as AT&T, were broken up. Others saw their markets eaten up by swift-footed newcomers. The arrival of the personal computer in the 1970s and the internet in the 1990s created an army of successful start-ups. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak founded Apple Computer in 1976 in the Jobs family’s garage. Microsoft and Dell Computer were both founded by teenagers (in 1975 and 1984 respectively). Larry Page and Sergey Brin started Google in Stanford dorm rooms.

But deregulation had already begun to go out of fashion before the financial crisis. The Sarbanes-Oxley act, introduced after Enron collapsed in disgrace, increased the regulatory burden on companies of all sizes, but what could be borne by the big could cripple the small. Many of today’s most dynamic industries are much more friendly to big companies than the IT industry. Research in biotechnology is costly and often does not bear fruit for years. Natural-resource companies, whose importance grows as competition for resources intensifies, need to be big—hence the mining industry’s consolidation.

Two further developments are shifting the balance of advantage in favour of size. One is a heightened awareness of the risks of subcontracting. Toy companies and pet-food firms alike have found that their brands can be tainted if their suppliers (notably, from China) turn out shoddy goods. Big industrial companies have learned that their production cycles can be disrupted if contractors are not up to the mark. Boeing, once a champion of outsourcing, has been forced to take over faltering suppliers.

A second is the emergence of companies that have discovered how to be entrepreneurial as well as big. These giants are getting better at minimising the costs of size (such as longer, more complex chains of managerial command) while exploiting its advantages (such as presence in several markets and access to a large talent pool). Cisco Systems is pioneering the use of its own video technology to improve communications between its employees (see article). IBM has carried out several company-wide brainstorming exercises, recently involving more than 150,000 people, that have encouraged it to put more emphasis, for example, on green computing. Disney has successfully ingested Pixar’s creative magic.

You might suppose that the return of the mighty, now better equipped to crush the competition, is something to worry about. Not necessarily. Big is not always ugly just as small is not always beautiful. Most entrepreneurs dream of turning their start-ups into giants (or at least of selling them to giants for a fortune). There is a symbiosis between large and small. “Cloud computing” would not provide young firms with access to huge amounts of computer power if big companies had not created giant servers. Biotech start-ups would go bust were they not given work by giants with deep pockets.

The most successful economic ecosystems contain a variety of big and small companies: Silicon Valley boasts long-established names as well as an ever-changing array of start-ups. America’s economy has been more dynamic than Europe’s in recent decades not just because it is better at giving birth to companies but also because it is better at letting them grow. Only 5% of European Union companies born since 1980 have made it into the list of the 1,000 biggest in the EU by market capitalisation. In America, the figure is 22%.
…but size isn’t really what matters

The return of the giants could well be a boon for the world economy—but only if business people and policymakers avoid certain pitfalls. Businesses should not make a fetish of size, particularly if this means diversifying into a lot of unrelated areas. The conglomerate model may be tempting when cash is hard to find. But the moment will not last. By and large, the most successful big firms focus on their core businesses.

Policymakers should both resist an instinctive suspicion of big companies (see article) and avoid the old error of embracing national champions. It is bad enough that governments have diverted resources into propping up failing companies such as General Motors. It would be even more regrettable if they were to return to picking winners. The best use of their energies is to remove the burdens and barriers which prevent entrepreneurs from starting businesses and turning small companies into big ones.

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Antwuan Dixon’s on Ashbury

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Team Thunder Beauville

Find more videos like this on Snowboarding Hub



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L SPACE

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Ptotheright

Ptotheright, originally uploaded by pat_the.

Area code 281

Area code 281, originally uploaded by pat_the.

Bleeding stairs

Bleeding stairs, originally uploaded by pat_the.

Mr T. could drive a truck as well as turn lawnmowers into cabbage firing machines and kick arse.

Mr T. could drive a truck as well as turn lawnmowers into cabbage firing machines and kick arse.

I assume the is why the new concept of T shaped people was so named. Once was, ok so upto about year ago, if you didn't fit into a planning/creative/account/digital/direct/traditional box you were a pariah.

Now it is almost a necessity to have a core vertical skill with complimentary horizontal skills. As agencies struggle to cope with the changing communications channels and how to navigate them cost effectively the need to have smaller teams of more versatile people who link together across their shared skills will increase.

The term was coined by David Guest in "The hunt is on for the Renaissance Man of computing," in The Independent, September 17, 1991.

I would however agree with the people who have said that this is overly simplistic and the agency of the future will require people of all different shapes integrating across a variety of levels but we are starting from a low base.

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Banana Green

Banana Green, originally uploaded by pat_the.

Black Winter Teaser Standard Films

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Yes Signs Tadashi Fuse

Yes Now Board has beefed up its team with Japanese slayer Tadashi Fuse.

According to a post by DCP on Yes’s blog:

Tadashi Fuse is right now in Japan about to release his new Hearth Films Production movie and we just signed him on YES NOW BOARD, we want to welcome him on board and we are all very exited for the coming season . Tadashi will be developping a pro model line for 2011 season and a limited edition TADASHI board should be available this fall.

YES is So International now and found
Romain de Marchi representing Switzerland
Jp Solberg representing Norway
David Carrier-Porcheron representing Canada
Vince PAges representing France
Tadashi Fuse representing Japan

We are happy to have found an other member who shares the same passion for snowboarding as us!

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tws

How To: Discount Wisely

Cutting prices, and therefore margins, is never an easy decision, but in this day and age as many retailers and manufacturers struggle to get inventory levels back to a healthy level, it has become a necessity.

Business Week recently featured a few tips from Steve McKee, president of McKee Wallwork Cleveland Advertising, which helps companies rekindle growth, and the author of When Growth Stalls.

Rules for discounting wisely

Discounting should be rarely used and carefully managed. Let me suggest three rules of thumb that should be kept in mind if (when) you begin flirting with the discount beast.

First: Discount briefly. Discounting is like a drug. Employed for a limited time to treat a specific condition, discounting can have its place. But like a drug, it’s addictive. Companies that get hooked on it do little more than drive their value proposition down, sometimes past the point of no return.

This is one reason why department stores have been in decline over the past two decades, launching Red Tag sales as soon as their Red Apple sales are over. They discounted so often that they trained customers not to shop if there wasn’t a sale going on.

Second: Discount credibly. Handled carefully, discounting can be used to achieve specific business objectives without compromising your brand’s overall value perception. The key is to make the rationale behind the discount credible (and obvious) to consumers, so they don’t perceive it as an act of desperation.

For instance, Apple’s (AAPL) student discount on laptops doesn’t damage the brand because it’s based on a rational corporate reason (get young computer users hooked on its products) and a credible consumer need (students are poor). The company also offers 10% off a new iPod when customers recycle their old one, which not only encourages upgrading but makes Apple look like a responsible corporate citizen.

Third: Discount creatively. Smart companies understand that price is just one element of the value equation, and find ways to “discount without discounting” by focusing on other elements of the marketing mix. Luxury leather goods maker Coach (COH) did just that by adjusting its merchandise inventory so that half of its handbags are regularly priced between $200 and $300 (compared to its historical average price of $325). While this will have a negative impact on the long-term equity of the Coach brand name, it’s less damaging than hanging a “30% off” tag from the handle of every purse.

Or consider video game retailer GameStop (GME), which is pushing the sales of more used games (that have a naturally lower price point) while times are tough. That will keep customers in the habit of coming to its stores to find what they want. GameStop understands that when the economy comes back, so will the sales of new games. Rather than hurting its future pricing power by discounting new merchandise, the company has found another way to satisfy its customers in the short term.

The bottom line: In your customers’ eyes, your product is either worth regular price or it’s not. In tough times like these that may be a more difficult case to make, but if you’re not winning the value equation in their eyes you should focus on finding a way to meet their needs without reflexively taking a percentage off the top. If you do choose to incorporate discounting into your strategy, it must appear sensible and smart, not irrational or a result of panic.


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tw-mike lewis

U, V or W for recovery

T HAS been deep and nasty. But the worst global recession since the 1930s may be over. Led by China, Asia’s emerging economies have revived fastest, with several expanding at annualised rates of more than 10% in the second quarter. A few big rich economies also returned to growth, albeit far more modestly, between April and June. Japan’s output rose at an annualised pace of 3.7%, and both Germany and France notched up annualised growth rates of just over 1%. In America the housing market has shown signs of stabilising, the pace of job losses is slowing and the vast majority of forecasters expect output to expand between July and September. Most economies are still a lot smaller than they were a year ago. On a quarterly basis, though, they are turning the corner.

This is good news. The first step in any recovery is for output to stop shrinking. But the more interesting question is what shape the recovery will take. The debate centres around three scenarios: “V”, “U” and “W”. A V-shaped recovery would be vigorous, as pent-up demand is unleashed. A U-shaped one would be feebler and flatter. And in a W-shape, growth would return for a few quarters, only to peter out once more.

Optimists argue that the scale of the downturn augurs for a strong rebound. America’s deepest post-war recessions, they point out, were followed by vigorous recoveries. In the two years after the slump of 1981-82, for instance, output soared at an average annual rate of almost 6%; and this time round, output has slumped even further, and for longer, than it did in the early 1980s.

Pessimists, meanwhile, think this downturn’s origins favour a weak recovery or a double-dip. Unlike typical post-war recessions this slump was spawned by a financial bust, not high interest rates, and when overindebted borrowers need to rebuild their balance-sheets and financial systems need repair, growth can be weak and easily derailed for years. Japan’s 1990s banking crisis left the economy stagnant for a decade; a premature tax increase in 1997 plunged it back into recession.
V for vulnerable

Neither of these parallels is exact, because today’s global slump combines several types of downturn and an unprecedented policy response. In formerly bubble economies, it is largely a balance-sheet recession. Debt-fuelled consumption has been felled. But the scale of collapse was broadened and deepened by the freezing up of the machinery of global finance, a dramatic collapse in confidence and stock-slashing. It was then countered with the biggest stimulus in history. The shape of the recovery depends on how these forces interact.

In the short term that shape could look beguilingly like a “V”, as stimulus kicks in and the inventory cycle turns. In emerging Asia, the unfreezing of trade finance, a turnaround in stocks and hefty fiscal stimulus are powering a rebound. Government support, especially employment subsidies and incentives toa buy new cars, has cushioned demand in Germany and France (see article). With export orders rising and confidence growing, the next few months could be surprisingly buoyant. Even in America, the fiscal stimulus is kicking in, the “cash for clunkers” scheme is a big, if temporary, prop to output and firms will, sooner or later, stop cutting inventories.

Yet a rebound based on stock adjustments is necessarily temporary, and one based on government stimulus alone will not last. Beyond those two factors there is little reason for cheer. America’s housing market may yet lurch down again as foreclosures rise, high unemployment takes its toll and a temporary home-buyers’ tax-credit ends (see article). Even if housing stabilises, consumer spending will stay weak as households pay down debt. In America and other post-bubble economies, a real V-shaped bounce seems fanciful. Elsewhere, it will happen only if vigorous private domestic demand picks up the baton from government stimulus. In Japan and Germany, where joblessness has further to rise, that seems unlikely any time soon. The odds are better in emerging economies, especially China. But even there an array of reforms, from a stronger currency to an overhaul of subsidies, is needed to boost labour income and encourage consumption. Until that shift takes place, the global recovery will be fragile and probably quite feeble. A gloomy U with a long, flat bottom of weak growth is the likeliest
shape of the next few years.


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éS & Crooked Tongues Present The Foothills Project

In a departure from their usual collaborations involving major athletic footwear brands on mostly running silhouettes, Crooked Tongues partners with éS on The Foothills Project. With almost 10 years under the Crooked Tongues name, the team over London put together a solid package beyond just footwear which also includes products that compliment each design. Each model gets its own exclusive accessory including a 3-layer jacket, ripstop cap and backpack.

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BuildingCastle

BuildingCastle, originally uploaded by pat_the.

Bursting the branding bubble

“Branding doesn't work any more...You need another branding solution like you need a hole in the head.” Considering that he makes his living as a branding consultant, Jonathan Salem Baskin is a brave man. In his iconoclasm, he reminds of a routine by Rich Hall, in which the American comedian questions why Coca-Cola is willing to spend millions on brand advertising, only for diners in a restaurant to reply “Whatever” when the waiter asks “Is Pepsi OK?”.

Despite his profession, Mr Baskin is nothing if not consistent, as followers of his website and blog will know. His lively new book challenges the brand gurus—and indeed, the entire subculture around the concept of branding, to prove things at the most fundamental level—that their campaigns, no matter how clever or how “viral”, actually make customers buy more of a company's products.

Although a rabble-rouser, Mr Baskin is no Naomi Klein. His book is aimed at chief executives, asking them why branding “isn't held to the same standards as the activities of the rest of the enterprise”. He believes that companies can no longer rely on vague image associations in a world where consumer choice is heavily influenced by information and opinions found online. “People are harder to find, more difficult to convince, and less likely to remember what they're told… We need brands to do more, only we're getting less from them”, he writes.

With this challenge, he takes on a “multi-billion creative Media-Industrial complex dedicated to maintaining the status quo,” making good use of an analogy with the Ptolemaic system (which for centuries placed the Earth at the centre of the solar system). Money is squandered “in perpetuation of a charade that hasn't been remotely relevant since the mass media days of the mid-twentieth century”. As with Ptolemy's idea, Mr Baskin is dedicated to gathering the evidence so the charade can, finally, be refuted.

In chatty, bumptious style, Mr Baskin calls the bluff of some traditional branding assumptions. He disputes that people buy products on the strength of brand alone: once distribution, product quality and salesmanship are taken into account, the brand may have very little impact on sales. He also waves away evidence that brain scans reveal high levels of brand awareness, responding that those brand-aware brains don’t necessarily go on to buy the product. “All we can say for sure is that branding might help create awareness, and that awareness is generally better than non-awareness.” But not all publicity is good: “a dumb commercial …is still dumb the third time I see it.”

Mr Baskin does not simply rail, but redefines branding. “For branding to mean something, it has to do something.” In other words, branding must be generated directly by the experience of the user. At a basic level, straplines such as Nike's “Just do it” and Las Vegas’s “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” work, he says, because they play to feelings that are related to how a product might be used. His notion of branding goes much further, taking in, for example, the way an airline deals with its stranded passengers. The amalgamation of all such company-wide actions emerge to create a brand, he argues.

Action-based branding can be a highly creative process too. Mr Baskin cites a restaurant that only opened for 23 days, (a “pop-up restaurant”) and was a roaring commercial success. He recalls a corporate party where only those who could find it could attend. Indeed, anything from loyalty programs to clipping coupons or even searching for sale items in a store bin can be made into a branding game. Unfortunately, they seldom are. The biggest missed opportunity is in online gaming, a field which should be a marketer’s dream—it's immersive, addictive, involves spending lots of money, and is easy to build. And yet “the best we can do is muck up games with ads”, he rages.

Mr Baskin's thesis is compelling, if repetitively made. Ultimately however, it is unproven. The effectiveness of traditional branding may defy rigorous calculation, but he does not prove its ineffectiveness either. More research, hard data and more in-depth case studies on branding campaigns would have strengthened his case.

Mr Baskin asks readers to imagine a world without brands, and suggests our lives would be little different. But those who experienced life in Soviet-bloc countries might disagree. Branding has its place: it can provide consumers with some reassurance of quality so they don't have to research every item they purchase—even in the internet age.

Generally, Mr Baskin sensibly avoids such social commentary (though he has does indulge in occasional philosophical rambling). However, beyond bursting the branding bubble, he might have gone further: have brands become yet another form of hoodwinking, and if so is the consumer angry enough to demand change? But in worthy and brave fashion, Mr Baskin has at least started a debate. He will undoubtedly provoke a vociferous response from many in his industry.


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Danny Way's exclusive Big Air shoes.

Danny Way's DC Big Air shoe, which comes pre-made with a click over lace saver and a reinforced heel for support (a lot like a snowboard boot).


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Muhammad Fight

Muhammad Fight, originally uploaded by pat_the.

Citybike

Citybike, originally uploaded by pat_the.

TODAY WAS A GOOD DAY !!

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