The experience economy

Back in school, my Marketing professor spoke about the world moving to “The experience economy.” Hey, he just stole my thunder! Actually, based on the number of articles I can quickly find online, this isn’t a new thing–it’s more about a shift in thinking.

For the love of social media

I’m launching this site, nakedbaron.com in conjunction with my upcoming graduation from the Foster School of Business at the University of Washington. Now it is time to put all the learnings from the MBA program to practice. What I do next is beyond simple professional re-branding:

360-degree collaboration on XBOX 360

Here is a snippet about how the XBOX 360 team realized that blasting target audiences with advertising doesn’t gain you immediate traction in the marketplace, but rather making the product a delightful customer experience is what matters.

Hello, Moto!

I think one great example of design stepping forward in a now commonplace technology is with cell phones. Just look at what Motorola is doing with the RAZR, SLVR, and PEBL. I actually own a v400 Motorola and haven’t been the happiest with the reception strength, yet I’m not certain the hardware/phone is to blame here but rather the network.

On Target…

A couple weeks back, my wife and I were watching TV as we usually do in the evening when we happened to see a commercial. My wife thought the commercial was a show, and I was like, “no, that’s a Target commercial…their whole thing now is to use somewhat cryptic artistic commercials to sell different product lines.” OK, so maybe I didn’t quite capture what Target was doing, but what I really meant to say is that Target uses design/art to distinguish themselves and their products from competitors…thus, they use design to sell!