Archive for September, 2010
Ladder of Design Leverage
Design—and design thinking—are powerful processes that are now getting more traction in management circles. While it’s well understood that design can be used to improve products and communications, it’s less understood that it can be used to craft services, customer experiences, internal processes, organizational structures, strategic decisions, and business models.
If designing is the process of “changing an existing situation into an improved one,” as Nobel Laureate Herbert Simon defined it, then the higher up the ladder design is employed, the greater the return on investment. Using Simon’s definition, anyone in the company can be a designer, even the CEO.
Here’s an elegant slide, excerpted from The Designful Company, that illustrates the hierarchy of design leverage. Download slide.
What a party!
The new Liquid offices in Portland rock!
The party to unveil Liquid’s new digs in Portland was a raging success. Around 200 people showed up to help christen our newly remodeled space. We had colorful mix in attendance, including loads of our favorite clients and a healthy dose of local partners, collaborators, friends, and family.
The festivities throughout the night included an eclectic mix of entertainment – live music by Manther, a very cool surprise performance by the Last Regiment of Syncopated Drummers, and all-night jams from DJ Safi.
Besides music and performances, guests were also treated to a delicious spread from Elephant’s Deli. And, in true Liquid spirit (sorry about the pun), we also commissioned a specialty cocktail for the evening from one of Portland’s best mixologists, Jacob Grier. “Liquid Courage” features vodka from one of our favorite Portland clients, New Deal Distillery. The drink was a big hit. We‘ve had a load of requests for the recipe…. so here you go!
Although for some of us the end of the night is a bit fuzzy, we’d like to thank to all of you who helped make the party a memorable event. : )
Check out some shots of the evening’s festivities from Manther’s own Erich McVey and our pal Paul Anders. Enjoy!!!
You can see the rest of the party pics on Facebook, Flickr, and some rough movie clips on YouTube.
No commentsTurning customers into brand advocates: What’s the secret?
Some brands create such strong customer communities that they are practically cults.
Apple, the Grateful Dead, and Harley Davidson are a few good examples. The customers for these brands become part of a tribe – with its own culture and sense of belonging. The brands that succeed in creating such a strong connection among its customers and employees benefit from exceptionally high levels of loyalty, to the extent their customers rarely practice brand-switching – instead, they actually promote the brand actively – and often try to convert others into becoming “brand believers”.
I am curious to see if anyone has any thoughts on how do companies create such strong affection for their brands that their customers are compelled to become active brand champions? Does this phenomenon happen on its own…or is there a secret to help it along? If so, what are the programs that are put in place? How are they run? What are the strategies and tactics that turn average customers into brand advocate superheroes? On the other hand, in your experience what have brands tried that simply does not work?
Your thoughts and ideas are welcome. We look forward to hearing from you!!!
12 commentsA new look for Liquid.
The walls came down and the gloves went on to jump start a new look for the San Jose Liquid Agency office. After occupying the large building that spans between South Market Street and First, it was time for us to make it our own, in true Liquid fashion.
Before any work could begin, we established the look, feel and materials that would be used in the renovations. Many sketches were created to review where the new walls would be established, to ensure a successful transfer of all servers, electricity and computers. Sketches also helped to look at the materials that would be used, including the sliding conference room doors, paint for the walls and size and shapes of the new carpet squares. Before we knew it, the time had come to evacuate the area to make way for the changes to begin.
The client services team packed their computers and bobble heads and got cozy with the creative team as walls came down, and carpet was ripped out.
After a few months of hammering and drilling, the office was once more at peace. Farewells were said and the client services team migrated back to their new habitat, and happily so. Geometric grey and black checkered carpet replaced the once solid wall-to-wall, new walls were created, giving our IT department more space to roam, as well as giving life to the new conference room. A secondary meeting area was formed, allowing for more meetings to occur simultaneously and more clients to be met with. The new orange screen doors gave a new life to the area, not only giving a punch of color, but help barrier conference calls from the productivity on the client services side of the building.
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