Friday, March 03, 2006

Lipstick & Magazines #49: Think

I'm quite interested in social networks, collaborative filtering, all that new great stuff that smart people are using to make experiencing the web so much more meaningful (LinkedIn, Friendster, Yelp, etc.). Visualcomplexity offers really stunning graphic examples of mapped networks. From transportation networks to mapping the internet, these depictions are incredibly artful and worth a look and a few thoughts.

A respected librarian friend of mine suggested Edward Tufte's work to me, particularly Envisioning Information, which shows many different ways to display information in complex data in non-simple text. I love that he also sells graph paper on his website (see bottom). Great thought.

I'm currently reading Brand Hijack: marketing without marketing (by Alex Wipperfurth, a partner at SF's Plan B), which explores brands that allow themselves, or set themselves up, to be shaped by consumers and enjoy great success because of it (examples: Doc Martens, Friendster, Red Bull). Targeting niches based around values rather than demographic "types," allowing more than enough time for buzz to build, creating a brand "folklore," not taking oneself too seriously (a la Mattel re. Barbie), considering the psychology of the tribe - all interesting ideas that could apply to whatever realm you're working in.

Wipperfurth mentions American Brandstand from Agenda, which tracks "all the mentions of brands in the lyrics of the Billboard Top 20 singles chart." Did you know that in 2005, Jolly Rancher was mentioned 8 times?

No comments: