Project Mayhem

So here it is my first blog. Or maybe flog as it’s about fashion and the art (or not) of selling things. The Project Mayhem boys said they thought a female voice would be a good addition so I’m gonna break up all the talk of football and online dating with the serious stuff, like shopping. In January this year £4.5 billion was spent online shopping in the UK. Now I don’t know how much of that was on fashion but what I do know is that online clothes shopping is a whole lot more fun that trudging around the shops. A visit to the much-hyped new 17,000 square ft Banana Republic Store on Regent Street last week reminded me why I hate shopping for clothes on the high street so much. It shouldn’t be this difficult to buy a pair of basic black trousers. The store superficially looks good – it’s built in the old Dickens and Jones store and is airy with a great central staircase - but no-one appears to have actually  considered what the shopping and brand experience might be like for a customer. The sizing’s invisible – after checking the labels in the back of 15 pairs of trousers for some in my size (none, they had sizes 0-8 ) I had a minor strop and left them all in a pile. A dress that looked promising was available in only 2 sizes. Ditto 15  shirts in small or er, extra small. Goodie. There are few mirrors anywhere to do the  ‘holding it up to your face thing’ we women like doing and not a salesperson in sight. I gave up and walked out, feeling disappointed and more than a bit annoyed. I was surprised to discover that Banana Republic is owned by Gap who has suffered dwindling sales in recent years – the distinctly un-user friendly design of the Regent Street store is not going to help customers part with their cash. Most of the problems are really not difficult to fix, it just seems that no-one bothered to take a walk in the customer’s shoes.

Compare this with the anticipation of an online order and then the delicious delivery of clothes in your size, delivered 2 days later, beautifully wrapped where you can mess about at home to your heart’s content deciding whether to keep them or not. I live by the 2 week rule – if I haven’t worn it in that time then it’s likely I’m not going to and back it goes. Best of the bunch in my opinion are figleaves.com, net-a-porter.com and ASOS.com.  A lot has been made of the future of (fashion) retail and giving the customer a  brand experience but no stroppy sales girl, badly lit changing room and 10-deep queue can ever compare with ordering swimwear from the comfort of your sofa. Whilst eating a biscuit.

Until next time.

 Claire

If you’ve read this author’s posts with any regularity (and for a moment, let’s just humor me, shall we?), you know that I’m a big fan of research.  Love it, love it, love it.  Research drives insight and strategy.  Research informs and illuminates.  Research clarifies and coalesces.  But research doesn’t replace your gut.  I’ve said it many times –  Numbers are like people: Torture them enough and they’ll tell you anything you want.  For all the good that research does, research can also be limiting.  Take a look at the video below.  Yeah, laughed my ass off when I first saw it – but holy cow, it was spot-on.  How many great ideas have gone into the circular file because the research – focus groups or otherwise – made the decisions for us? 

Listen, I understand that in business, you never want to make a decision without having all the information.  You not only want to make an informed call, but you want – and often need – to cover your ass in case things go south.  But – and this is a salient point – it’s YOUR call.  Not the research, not the focus group, not the numbers.  YOU.  The research is awesome – but its not smarter than you.  You need to own the research, not vice-versa.  We all need to get all the research we can get our hands on, weigh the pros & cons and ask the advice and opinions of trusted colleagues – but we also need to trust in ourselves and in others. 

xoxo
Marc

…in the series of “the coolest things that marc has ever seen”…

Before I begin, you have to remember that my partner in crime, Jeremy, is a lot older than me.  A LOT.  Jeremy was alive when the Dead Sea was just sick.  I’ve seen younger faces on money.  And me?  Well, I’m a spry late-thirty-ish kid – albeit with the body of a 55-year-old and the sexual maturity of a Bar Mitzvah boy.  OK, now that the stage is set, let’s get to the heart of the matter, shall we…?

As I age – and in this industry, its blatantly obvious with all the whipper-snappers roaming the halls – I’ve begun to wonder how my lifestage will impact my creativity.  There are two sides to the argument (well, more than two, I’m sure, but hey – we’ve got bandwidth issues):

We Get Less Creative As We Age.  Someone much smarter than me once said that every kid gets a box of crayons, and slowly loses them over time.  The older we get, the more cynical we become.  As the realities of the “real world” descend upon us, our imagination shrinks.  Our ability to suspend disbelief is diminished.  Every “no,” every “can’t,” every “impossible” contributes to casting a longer, darker shadow over our creativity.  And it doesn’t stop there.   Too often, our clients construct a bubble of “never-woulds” from which we constantly try to escape.  As David Byrne once said, “I can feel my lifetime piling up.”  How could we NOT become less creative?

We Get More Creative As We Age.  Oliver Wendal Holmes said, “A mind, stretched by a new idea, never returns to its original dimensions.” The key to creativity is inspiration, and the older we get, the more inspiration sources become available to us.  Exposure to travel, art, literature, science, communities – these can each inspire creativity.  New landscapes, new horizons.  Every interaction, every engagement.  Each challenge, each accomplishment.  They’re all opportunities to be inspired, and to inspire others.  And hey – let’s not forget the failures (in my case, it would be nearly impossible, but try to stay with me).  The more we learn, the more we’re exposed to the new, the more we embrace the unexpected – the more creative we become.  Nothing’s better than a well of inspiration filled to the brim.

So, the answer:  Well, I believe we get more creative as we age.  I understand, of course, that this conclusion may seem self-serving.  But personally, I’m a lot more creative than I was last year.  Or last month.  Or yesterday.  But the secret is ALWAYS striving for better creative work.  Because you DO have to fight cynicism and negativity.  You DO have to battle mediocrity and complacency.  And you don’t have to journey far – but you DO have to constantly view the world through new eyes.  And that, my friends, is the heart and soul of creativity.

xoxo

Marc