Right now, my verdict to Marmite is –

I still hate it.

Incident 1: Return of the pest

It all started a couple of weeks ago when Mimi at home decided to constantly stare at the washing machine, and even sleep by it when she can. It happened once before when she was living at another flat at High Street Kensington. I wasn’t there, but story goes that she started to stare under the fridge, until suddenly one day she presented a nicely dead mouse to her royal owner.

How sweet.

And it turns out she was right again. My guess is that the cold winter drove the mouse¹ into hiding indoor—probably chewed its way through where the pipes go out of the walls. You can see a video of her chasing the little creature here.

Incident 2: Stop following me around!

I can’t quite remember what i was searching for on initially (as you do), but before I knew it, I found myself downloading a Java app that tracks the pointer of your mouse. So I let it run free for a day, and this is what I ended up with.

You can pretty much tell what’s happening here:

• I use the top and  bottom right corners a lot because that’s the hot corners for Show desktop and Exposé
• There’re a few horizontal ‘scratches’ at the bottom, where I have a habit of hovering over the Dock before launching a particular app
• You can pretty much tell where the icons are on the dock, given a set of dots lining up nicely along the bottom, with the ones towards the left hand side being used more
• The lines at the left hand side are parallel and horizontal, because I have a second monitor on the left, which the app doesn’t capture
• There isn’t a particular area of the screen that I use more, except the general centre area

One thing I’m not too sure of, is what the size of the dots mean. I mean, there’s this large dot at the right hand side of the screen. I don’t exactly remember repetitively clicking a particular pixel on the screen, or holding it.

Well, you can find out more about the app here, and let me know if you find out anything interesting about how you use your mouse!

Every night before I go to sleep, I’d switch of my phone, and leave it in the living room, where I work. I’ve been doing that for quite a while now. But, I quite often forget to switch it on first thing in the morning, and people often end up not being able to find me.

But then it’s until today that I realised—that’s not a bad idea!

Come to think of it, because the phone has been off and no one (including clients) bas been able to reach me to either bug me about anything, I’ve been able to achieve so much more.

Of course, I do have to switch it on eventually, and now I make sure I switch it on after my lunch break.

Brand specialists and consultants talk mostly about brand loyalty and meeting expectations when they speak of brand images. The Boagworld podcast talked about an incident when a customer of innocent smoothies wrote the marketing team a genuine feedback email. It didn’t contain any particular positive nor negative comments, but simply a sharing of appreciation.

Well, after a week long of homemade lunches, I opted for a lazy bought lunch. But what a fantastic idea the veg pot is, as not only have I had a lazy lunch, but a healthy one!

The best part of this is that I can now happily have fish ‘n’ chips for tea. Well done! The added bonus to this is that our local fish ‘n’ chips shop is busy on a Friday that sometimes it’s necessary to wait, which of course, is best done at the local pub.

Yours truly,

Carolyn

Like Paul said, you don’t get people writing to IBM with that tone of voice. So here’s something to think about when planning brand strategies. How would you like your brand to be perceived by your customers? And more importantly, how would you like to perceive your customers? This is how innocent does it (within 1 working day):

Hello Carolyn,

Thanks for getting in touch. Without sounding too full of ourselves, we’re rather proud of our veg pots too. But the only opinion that really counts is that of people like yourselves, so it’s great to know that you’ve been enjoying them so much.

I’m going to forward your email onto the lovely ladies in our product team who make them. As I know, they’re really keen to hear what people think. You’re no doubt have put a big smile on their faces as well, so good on you!

In fact, hell with it. Take it back. Carolyn, you rule!

Stay funky monkey. And don’t park on the double yellows. The paint burns your tyres.
(This might not actually be true.)

“…what are the three prerequisites for an ideology to be considered a religion?”

“ABC,” one woman offered. “Assure, Believe, Convert.”

“Correct,” Langdon said. “Regions assure salvation; religions believe in a precise theology; and religions convert nonbelievers.”

Interestingly, the first image that popped into my mind was the various Apple retail stores.

I’m a Mac user myself. I admit loving the product and what Apple has achieved in integrating great software with beautifully performing hardware. However, I can’t help thinking how the brand has become a religion (or how the Apple Stores have become more of a Temple than of a retail store):

1. Apple assures softwares that just work;
2. Apple believes in making your life easier and seamless;
3. Apple converts PC users.

More precisely, according to Russell Belk, a consumer behaviourist at the University of Utah:

“This religion is based on an origin myth for Apple Computer, heroic and savior legends surrounding its co-founder and current CEO Steve Jobs, the devout faith of its follower congregation, their belief in the righteousness of the Macintosh, the existence of one or more Satanic opponents, Mac believers proselytizing and converting nonbelievers, and the hope among cult members that salvation can be achieved by transcending corporate capitalism.”

Religion, Belk said, is a belief structure that helps people make sense of the world. The “cult of Mac” is a set of beliefs about Apple and the Mac that make sense of the world of technology. It also imparts the community with a quasi-religious character.

Worshipping at the Altar of Mac, Wired

At which does a brand become a religion? Or more importantly, how can a brand successfully become, if it was ever a good thing to be, a religion?

I think it all comes down to consumer experience and expectations. When a brand reaches a point where promises are being delivered consistently, brand loyalty can easily become a cult-like mindset.

I think however, an altar or temple-like space such as a retail store or online community is also essential in this transformation. For a long time, mankind has been prone to forces of the community. Being able to see and feel the growth in the number of believers certainly strengthens the idea that one is walking the right path.

What do people think?