trendwatching.com's January 2010 Trend Briefing

trendwatching.com has released their latest report. Here's a quick summary of the 10 trends:

1. Business as unusual
2. Urbany
3. Real-time reviews
4. (F)luxury
5. Mass Mingling
6. Eco-easy
7. Tracking & alerting
8. Embedded generosity
9. Profile myning
10. Maturialism

View the full report online or Download the PDF version.

Source: www.trendwatching.com. One of the world's leading trend firms, trendwatching.com sends out its free, monthly Trend Briefings to more than 160,000 subscribers worldwide.

Twittermaven Survey Results:Users’ perception of brands on Twitter

Twittermaven recently surveyed 240 people with 6 questions regarding interacting with brands. Here are some key findings, as well as a sample chart.

• Most users (89%) agree that brands should engage their customers on Twitter.
  
• almost 90% of users would frown upon poor or inappropriate brand use of Twitter.
• 60% of respondents would recommend a company based on their presence on Twitter and 80% of Twitter users will reward those brands
• More than 60% of respondents have 100+ followers and almost 50% of respondents have posted more than 1000 Tweets

For the full results, including a number of other interesting charts, read the article.

"Insound 20" - creative rock merchandising, that rocks

Insound, an established indie rock purveyor, has just launched "Insound 20". The promotion consists of "Limited edition t-shirts, shirts and hoodies designed exclusively for Insound by Jason Munn of the Small Stakes." The idea of creating a cohesive set of promotional items for a portfolio of bands is very smart. It's a great way to show off an umbrella brand, while also offering their music fans a unique keepsake. Kudos to Insound for some very creative, and well executed product marketing.

Are 3-D logos ruining or revolutionizing logo design?

brandchannel is hosting a 'branddebate' on this topic. As they state in their introduction of the topic: "On the front lines of the branding industry - among the designers - an ongoing battle is being waged over an essential branding component: logos, and in particular, 3-D, or dimensionalized, logos..."

It used to be said that format restrictions were a primary functional limitation that informed the decision making process of logo designers. Thoughts like 'it has to look good in black and white', or 'our budget only supports two color printing' often informed the amount of detail and color that made up a logo design. With the web and better/cheaper printing, these two primary limitations have less bearing on the design process (but don't forget about low quality fax cover pages!). Overall, it is now more of a pure design decision. What level of detail, color, and dimensionality will best serve the brand you are representing with the logo design?

Read some interesting opinions on both sides of this topic at brandchannel.com

Marketing & Customer Service in the Pacific Northwest

brandchannel.com offers up an interesting article about marketing and customer services with an eco-friendly edge in the PacNW...

Best Global Brands: How valuable is green?

brandchannel.com : "Of the 100 Best Global Brands ranked by BusinessWeek and Interbrand, Toyota at Number 6 has among the most highly visible, seemingly committed approach to environmental issues. But does any of this impact brand value?"



Can big business go green when skeptical consumers have become extremely cynical? In the end, it sounds like it will be part conscience, part brand value, and part bottom line.

Pentagram & TIME Magazine

"Today, TIME launches the first issue of a major redesign developed by Pentagram’s Luke Hayman with TIME managing editor Richard Stengel and art director Arthur Hochstein... “The magazine has been modernized,” Hayman agrees, “but it still has the TIME ‘DNA.’ We deliberately chose fonts and design elements that echo classic TIME magazine.”

During the redesign process, Hayman worked closely with TIME’s in-house team.. Web touts have been embedded throughout the magazine that indicate related content at TIME.com. The contents page has been re-imagined on a horizontal axis, like a timeline. The size of the cover logo has been reduced, a decision that allows for secondary cover lines and images to be run in a row of boxes above the logo..."



This article offers great insight into the project. It also includes a number of sample pages with commentary.

Google's Founders didn't know HTML!

Product Manager for Google: "The prime reason the Google home page is so bare is due to the fact that the founders didn't know HTML and just wanted a quick interface... The name 'Google' was an accident. A spelling mistake made by the original founders who thought they were going for 'Googol'..."

The next time your are pondering Google's apparent brilliance in regards to strategy, ui design, and branding - refer to this list. Another reminder that dumb luck and happy accidents are your friends. There are a few interesting metrics for feature adoption in this article too.

read more | digg story

The Mobile Web Offers a Rich Platform for Content and Advertising

Online Publishers Association: "With strong usage growth and consumers watching and acting upon advertisements, the mobile Web is a compelling platform for content and marketing, according to the latest research from the Online Publishers Association (OPA). Going Mobile: An International Study of Content Use and Advertising on the Mobile Web is the first OPA study to go beyond the U.S., involving over 6,000 interviews in the U.S., the U.K., France, Italy, Spain and Germany. The study was conducted in partnership with TNS Media and Entertainment."

Key findings: "Heavy Access and Growing Usage, Advertising is Driving Action, PC Web Brands Driving Mobile Web Activity, Mobile Web is Vital for Consumers of Sports, Weather and News"

They've also got the Presentation of Findings in PDF.

How To Name Your Company

thinkvitamin.com: "Successful entrepreneur Michael McDerment advocates following a rigorous process for determining that all important company name. Here are his tips for making the right decision"

Short sweet article.

brandchannel Readers' Choice Awards 2006 Results Are In

Google and Apple stay on top while YouTube and Wikipedia show up for the first time. As usual brandcannel has regional results as well as the Global list previewed here. Read the full report.

J.Y. Names Thriftmac.com's Mascot - "Scrimpy" it is...

Since I spend too much time checking out Mac-related sites and also love branding - I sumbitted an entry to name the mascot for the thriftmac.com website. Thanks to the site, and party on little worm.

"Congratulations to James Young of Eugene, Oregon, and Ron Silva of Pawhuska, Oklahoma, for winning our Name the Worm, Win a Bug contest. Early on, James came up with the idea of Scrimpy. The judges liked it a lot, and figured it was the one to beat. No one beat it, but Ron equalled it by coming up with the same name. At that point, we had no choice but to declare both of them winners of a free copy of Shutterbug."

New Packaging for Windows Vista and 2007 Office System Announced

"With Windows Vista and 2007 Office system, we didn't just redesign the software packages themselves, but are also introducing new packaging for the two products... Designed to be user-friendly, the new packaging is a small, hard, plastic container that’s designed to protect the software inside for life-long use."

These appear to still be renderings, and no specifics on dimensions or materials. I'll be interested to see this form factor in person.