Yaffe Tidbits

Me and My Magic Mouse

Guest blog by Joanie Abraham, Partner at Style Branding.

I was having trouble with my track pad on my MacBook and decided I’d rather break down and buy a mouse rather than part with my Mac for a week. They showed me a picture of the magic mouse online and as soon as I laid eyes on the new magic mouse there was no turning back. The design and function of this product so took over there was never any decision as to which one to buy; the more reasonably priced mouse or the magic mouse for another $20.

From the moment they grabbed the product from the shelf I was completely smitten with this mouse. I love looking at it, holding it, and even working with it. I can’t wait to pull it out at meetings. It completely intrigues me. All of a sudden it hit me that this is how people must feel about getting an iPhone. And it is surely how I feel about my MacBook

Everything Apple makes is just a little better looking and a little more expensive than it’s competitors and you can walk into any Apple store any time of day and you will see people from every walk of life and all different income levels. This demonstrates the power of style and design in action.

I covet my new mouse and it actually makes my hours at the computer much more appealing. It makes me feel good, and smart working with it. It glides around the desk following my instruction with such grace and precision. And everytime I glance at it I marvel at its incredible design.

I am grateful to Apple for imposing an awareness to style in our society. When you buy an Apple product, taking it out of the package is a thrill. To make people feel so good about a product, so devoted, so thrilled with every use, so empowered, is an objective every brand desires. That’s the power of style. Even Hewlett Packard realized you can charge more money and sell more product if you incorporate a sense of design and style.

Good design adds a layer of desire. You are proud to have the product serve as a reflection of who you are. You feel good around good design. Style makes us smile once we learn to see it. It’s what I call the SWOON factor. It speaks volumes so subtlety about what you stand for as a brand. In a virtual universe a sense of trust is a valuable asset. Style and design are universal with no language issues. It’s your unique sense of distinction worth it’s weight in gold in a world of abundance.

How To Fashion A Great Brand Online

Fashion has become so tied in with entertainment that everyone everywhere is exposed to it’s nuances. Fashion is no longer considered a urban awareness...it’s universal; it has pervaded all levels of society with its visual appeal.

Fashion in a sense reflects how you feel about yourself.

Branding is the extension of this. The essence of the brand has to be communicated so loud that everyone can hear, and so resonant that everyone can feel. The more distinct and pronounced the statement, the more people remember who you are. The degree of distinction is the fashion quotient. This is style.

We can relate this to any product, but it is especially significant with cars. An automobile is brought to life wrapped in a coat of style. Surely the "swoon" of style can add value to the feel of the car. Fashion is the sense of fun, the personal connection with the car.

The American auto industry is going through great pains to accommodate the changes our environment requires, regardless of what we desire. That means, for American automobiles, creating awareness is going to be about creating a sense of desire to stay competitive in the marketplace and move us unwillingly into becoming a smaller car nation. So, sometimes fashion desires and perceptions need to bent and blended into a shape that fits the realities of the situation.

The Internet is a good place to do that reshaping. As marketers, we shouldn’t underestimate the Internet presence of any brand, both as created by the brand and as created by the users of the brand. The online environment is a key location to change perception about the feel, the quality and the services associated with a brand, product or company..

I use the auto industry as an example but this is true with any product in any price range or size. An unusual relationship between the product and the customer can be created on the Internet. The Internet has a number of seductive creative tools that can be implemented to elicit that emotional connection between the consumer and the product at the point of purchase. We walk through the aisles of our favorite retail emporium and our heartbeat quickens as we see all of the appealing merchandise on either side of us. The Internet can effectively elicit that same emotion with the right combination of creative features. If you have defined your online audience with the proper measurement tools and efficiently sorted out the data related to your online audience, you can begin communicating and servicing their needs in a very personalized manner. You can customize products for them. You can offer services and information and engaging promotions that go beyond anything they have known before. And you know about their interests because you can ask them. It is the access to specific areas of interest that makes you valuable to your customers.

Magazines can present luscious pictures of the essence of a brand, television can go even further with movement, music and desirable characters. Retail stores can make the seduction three dimensional; the product can be touched and felt. But the Internet brings access right into the bedrooms of your audience. The seduction and the point of purchase are available at the consumer’s personal whim and convenience, wherever they may be.

No matter how many stores you have, or what your advertising budget is, whether you are Wal-Mart or the woman down the block selling handmade knick-knacks, you can offer purchasing access to more people on your website than anywhere else. Anything new I heard about, any new resource that I should know about, can immediately be accessed through the web, where I can instantly see what all the buzz is about. So the Internet becomes Swoon Central for anyone selling a product.

Swoon Central is defined as the most accessible and appealing location you can have. The Internet qualifies hands down. The Swoon Factor is that illusive thrill and sense of style that creates the appeal. This will only become more important as technology evolves. Fashion is a potent elixir in establishing the swoon factor. So, when you look at the space your brand is occupying online, make sure it's located in the neighborhood of Swoon Central and your customers will always come back for more.

Joan Abraham, Digital AE & Fashion Fan

Seduce Your Customers With Style

Design, style and fashion put the thrill in our everyday lives. Looking at an aesthetic object gives us pause. Keeping that in mind when you go to market with your product or brand can positively affect your bottom line.

Every day the general public is introduced to the excitement of design and they are responding to it. No one seems to have a better grasp on that than one of the most successful retailers of our time, Target. Target’s ability to integrate the value of design so broadly and effectively has spread the thrill factor throughout the mass market of consumers. Now we all have to pay attention to design and style to compete.

From the Michael Graves egg timer to an Isaac Mizrahi dog leash, Target has style. This sense of style then oozes out to everything incorporating the Target bulls eye, even the way they show mundane products such as Tide detergent. To maintain their reputation of style, Target approaches designers that are not "over exposed" in the market place. Through their marketing, these designers take on an elevated role in heightening the image of Target. Part of that strategy for Target is to take the time to educate consumers on the appeal of style and the intrinsic value of their designers, such as Michael Graves, Luella Bartley and Isaac Mizrahi. The customer feels the value of Graves’ egg timer every time she sees it on her kitchen counter, which makes her feel good.

Design has an emotional impact on the consumer. It’s a sure bet that anyone can go online and find something from Target that excites them. Good design, either in the product itself or in the presentation of the product, gives the consumer trust and confidence. Trust is essential in the online environment. If the product follows up and performs, then you have won yourself a loyal customer.

Website design and product design become increasingly more important as we cross cultures in our now world bazaar environment. The design element is the emotional tie between the brand and the consumer. If you can get into the hearts of your consumers, you can engage them in the seduction of your brand. If you get into their minds, they are successfully wooed. Companies like Target and Apple understand how to do both, each in a most distinctive way.

The E-commerce portion of your business will become most influential in determining how people feel about your brand. Design and creativity, your personal stamp on the world as a brand, is communicating the heart and soul of what your product stands for.

Art and design in our daily living make us happy. Good design can make a grown man smile even if he takes in the sense of design unconsciously. The seduction of design and creativity is a powerful force. Today’s retail demands the collaboration of merchandising, design and technical knowledge to aesthetically accommodate your audience. It is the synthesizing of these elements that will create your full growth potential in this environment.

Joan Abraham, Digital AE & Design Fan

Our Style Is In Our Cars

Detroit is in such an interesting place at this moment. I am an outsider who was an insider connected to the Detroit Advertising community and fashion community growing up in the city back in the ‘50’s when Detroit was the center of the universe. I was a bit concerned about having to return to the Motor city after 20 years in fashion and new media in New York. I moved back to Detroit in February of 2008 and I have seen some pretty devastating days as Detroit fights to remain standing. I think it’s pretty safe to say that the overhaul of the American auto industry has deeply affected every one of us who lives in this great town.

But what Detroit has not lost is a distinct sense of style born from car design and marketing. When it comes to style and new media Detroit is rich with resources. There are great influences in the city that have grown out of car country. And every major new media resource is represented in Detroit because of the money and development Detroit autos have poured into new media marketing.

As we start pulling out of the economic disaster by overhauling the infrastructure of auto production, we seem to be attracting many young, hip growth industries requiring a lot of energy and creative thinking: namely alternative energy sources, innovation in making our world green and even a little film business, thanks to our connections in Hollywood and the Governor’s film incentive package. Detroit is starting to look like it will have a strong re- tooled future after all.

For a city that could have been written off, Detroit has never lost its mojo. There is something to be said about the Motor City and the sense of style that we generate here.

Style is that illusive element that fills all of us with desire. Style is what separates the cool from the ordinary. Imparting an image of style on a car will energize the senses of a female audience faster than any other factor. And the sense of style that used to govern the Detroit auto industry needs to be reinforced more substantially than ever. Understanding the appropriate role of fashion in creating a sense of style is the key to attracting and keeping the female audience.

Joanie Abraham, Digital AE & Author of StyleBranding 

Chin up Detroit! A new Day is Dawning

From my perspective , Detroit is looking at the light at the end of the tunnel. As the auto industry retools itself for the 21 Century, Detroit is going to end up meaner, leaner and ready for the future. 

The pain of downsizing and addressing how cars will be made in the future with alternative fuel sources has given us a new lease on life.  New fuel source companies are starting to develop here in town which will bring in hope and many new jobs that prepare us for what lies ahead.  By readjusting our systems we have made ourselves competitive and that’s what we’ve been missing.

The power and the glory of the automotive industry will be alive and well in Detroit once again.  We have the infrastructure that branches out in so many directions to support the rebirth of the automobile fit for modern times.  Our muscle and our cool will resurface if we focus on the need to be thoughtful and responsive to preservation and efficiency.  Efficiency is what built our city into the great automotive powerhouse.

Now creating that sense of cool and adventure has to be developed around new parameters.   It’s all possible.  That’s what we do.  The difference is the perception we create around the automobile will be fed through new media and all the creative ways to touch the buyer’s heart and soul new media allows us.

So the challenge is on to create new paradigms for presenting the thrill of the ride.  It’s an open field and nobody understands it better than the advertising minds in Detroit.  This is car country.  Always has been, always will be.    

Joanie Abraham, Digital Account Supervisor

Auto Industry Fuels Detroit Creativity

  You have to be in Detroit to understand it’s virtues as a vibrant, creative environment. The auto industry has produced a long, established sense of power and style on the world stage, from the actual designs of the cars to the creative industries they affect.

If you're in advertising and new media communications, Detroit is a Mecca. As the home of the American automobile industry, Detroit plays a major role in the world of advertising. And it's even more pronounced in the online arena. I am surrounded by the leading edge of new media communications as digital companies have sprouted up to service the massive budgets the auto industry has pumped into the online environment.

The city has an obvious love affair with the automobile. The city understands better than any other advertising capital the nuance of one’s relationship with one’s car and how that should be communicated.

I grew up in Detroit, but spent the last 20 years living in New York before recently moving back. Unlike New York, the Detroit advertising industry lives and breathes that phenomena everyday. And unlike Los Angeles, our city has had this relationship over many generations. The industry has produced a wealth of design talent that is produced and nurtured here. And that talent manifests itself in many different media. The power and innovation indigenous to the automotive capital of the world is not written about very often, but I have adapted very quickly to my new/old environment as a result of the ongoing creative stimulation that resonates in the area.

Car advertising is big business. This is The Motor City. This is Motown. We are the heart and soul of what’s hip at the nation’s collective core. As Detroiters we have to fight with every inch of our being to save the foundation of auto development as it morphs into the shape of cars to come. And we can't let the industry lose that essence of glamor or the power it brings us as Detroiters. When it's at it's best, it truly lives up to a full understanding of The Seduction of Style. It's what gives this city its vibe.

It's good to be back. Joan Abraham, Digital Account Supervisor

Thisnext.com is What’s Next

I want to be trendy.  So do a lot of people.  So how do I make sure I am always in on the newest, coolest, next big thing?  Well, consumer websites are giving me the opportunity I have been waiting for!

Thisnext.com is a site for consumers to go and see who is buying what.  You can search for any item you have an interest in, you can see what others thought of it, or you can make your own recommendation.  Today I told everyone what my favorite music is this summer. And I have been tracking down what other people think is hot right now. Maybe a stylish purse is in my future!

The next step for thisnext.com is applications for use on other sites.  I can pass on what I found at thisnext.com to my friends on facebook.com.  How great! So I am now totally trendy, and my friends can be too!

Items on the site have no limitations.  Users can recommend clothing, accessories, movies, books, furniture, green products, whatever their heart desires. Even what beer they enjoy the most….

So, if you are indecisive, but desire to be cool, check out thisnext.com. 

-Lauren Cavanagh, Yaffe Trendsetter

The Seduction of Style

Design and style are having a pervasive influence on the vast middle and aspiring middle market consumer.  Nothing demonstrates this better than the crazed reaction to the launch of the iPhone and its predecessor the iPod.   The iPod instantly became the new definition of cool.  Everyone wanted one.  The iPod does not appeal to a specific age group, ethnic group, social-economic group or gender.  Young and old, rich and poor and every nationality see the iPod as a listening device and an identity tool.   The design, more than the technology completely captured our attention as a nation.

To further demonstrate this point is the overwhelming impact of Target on the middle market consumer with its emphasis on style and design in it’s products and its communication.  Target’s communication puts the excitement into everyday products as generic as Tide and Clorox.   Target always speaks up to its consumer in how they visually present the message.  They select recognized designers that are not overused and can bring a real cache to the brand  and they educate the consumer on the design provenance their designers bring to the table, like their relationship with Isaac Mizrahi.   

When they started selling products designed by Isaac Mizrahi they launched a cross country promotion introducing their customers to Mizrahi and his legacy in the fashion industry.  When the Target consumer purchased the Mizrahi pea coat, they wore that extra sense of pride knowing that along with the Bergdorf Goodman shopper, they too appreciated the style of this great designer.    When they wear their Isaac Mizrahi coat with extra pride and self-confidence it’s because they understand the significance of the design along with finding it personally pleasing.  The value is even deeper because Mizrahi is not a household name and understanding the value of his designs lends a sense of cool.   

Everything Target communicates from the sponsorship of New York cultural events to their national reading programs at schools across the country conveys a sense of “Cool” that people want to be a part of.  Keep in mind that they don’t have a store in New York City and I’m sure very few of their customers support the ballet and regional theaters. They are a mass market retailer which has set its identity through intelligent style and design.  And they are the benchmark for every retailer today in creating an identity that people want to internalize and make their own in some form.  We don’t think of just saving money at Target.  We want to identify with the sense of cool that Target has created.  We want Target to help us define who we are.  The extra cache of style puts Target right at the top of the list of exciting Brands to be a part as it trains the eye to enjoy these nuances that add value to our perception of the product.

No frills means no thrills.  In a world of abundance there is not much of a market for the mundane.

We are realizing that aesthetics and visual appeal are universal in voice.  No need for “swoon” translation when a product is viewed across cultures.  Visual appeal crosses continents and cultures with no need of interpretation.  Good design, either in the product itself or in the presentation of the product, gives the consumer trust and confidence. 

Trust is essential in the online environment.  If the product follows up and performs then you have won yourself a loyal customer.   Web site design and product design become increasingly more important as we cross cultures in our world bazaar.    The design element is the emotional tie between the Brand and the consumer.  If you can get into the hearts of your consumers you can engage in the seduction.  If you get into their minds they are successfully wooed.  Companies like Target and Apple understand how to do both in a most distinctive way.

Joanie Abraham - Livin' Yaffe Style