The falls of Ripponden

When I moved back up to Yorkshire, all my friends in the South laughed about the weather. Ove the last few weeks we've had lots of it.

Went for a little walk the other day and was greeted by lots of water trying to escape...

Defintiely no drought here.

The unsynthesised manifold.

A bit ago I wrote about how do we see lots (can't fiigure out how to shortcut you to it, but click on November if you fancy). Germaine Greer cites Emmanuel Kant. as the originator, and talks far more intelligently than I ever could.

The unsynthesised manifold is now a phrase I will try and get into every conversation or interview I have on marketing and media.

Her article also got me thinking about galleries and the hanging of art. Surely, as marketing people we're trying to achieve the same thing, but we talk about "cutting through", and "getting under the radar". Modern media allows us to rethink these old statements. We can create times and places where customers are more receptive, or have less competition for their attention. Its less about cutting through and more about relevance, less about jumping up and down all the time, and more about enticing, engaging in dialogue and dragging yourself out of the unsynthesised manifold. (see, I did it).

Tesco's genetic code

Richard Dawkins has written of a day when you'll be able to read a persons genetic code, and retrospectively work out the environment they lived in, what they looked like etc. You'll read their story from their genes.

When I was walking round Tesco's it struck me that there's probably a parallel in market research. Lots gets done into what people think of brands, why they choose what they choose, how they interact.

Take my shopping trolley. Look at the choices there:

Organic veg
Bread making flour
Flowers
Tescos hand wash
Head and shoulders
British apples
Spanish oranges

Some own brand stuff, some branded goods. A strange mixture of choices, brand interactions and historical purchasing decisions.

You could probably infer masses about my psychological state and what's important to me. You could probably figure out what I watched on TV, and which brands I thought were good and which bad, where I'd choose to bank and what car I'd drive, how much I earned and where I lived. You'd definitely know what I considered to be good value, and how value built up in my mind.

The average set of weekly transactions from my computer would probably tell you more about me than 2 hours with an expensive psychiatrist. Roll in my shopping list and you'd know more about me than my wife.

If a few brands in the UK pooled their research resources, we bunged it all into a computer (how hard can it be, a few ones and zeros) we'll all be rich beyond our wildest dreams. Who's with me?

And before you ask, I don't know why the picture is on its side. I've tried everything and now I've had enough.

Running

A little run in the hils today. Given it wasn't raining for the first time in weeks, I took some pictures whenever I was tired...

Top one is the water running over the dam - no water shortage in Yorkshire.

Sorry about the colour on the second, I'm blaming cameraphones

A day to raise a smile on anyone.

The sunset

Planning work at home this afternoon.

Its been a crap week for a number of reasons, but, when making a cup of tea, this cheered me up.

How do you choose when its all brilliant

Whoever said, "don't judge a book by its cover" evidently hadn't spent any time in libraries with Hannah.