Consumer Escapes - A new face for smz.com

A self-serving post. Last night we launched a new website for the agency at www.smz.com. It's not a site about showing off in flash. It represents more detail on a statement in my bio. "We are SMZ. We help make brands part of the consumer's Escape Plan™."

Then, work organized by type. Now, work organized in mini cases. Then, no links to social media tools. Now, links to each of the tools we use and embrace. Then, something for everybody. Now, a strong stand on serving brands that provide a consumer escape. Then, infrequent updates. Now, frequent fresh and surprising content.

Check it out. Hit the escape button and pop some bubble wrap. And of course share open and honest feedback. That's what got us to this positioning and updated website in the first place.

Consumer Escapes - Breakfast On-the-Go

I like a $5 Subway tuna footlong as much as the next guy. And just by writing that the song will be stuck in my head until this afternoon. What I'm questioning is why there's so much buzz for the fact that Subway will be offering up breakfast? Let's see: they have fresh bread, cheese and bacon. Hmmm, let's put those things together in a series of sandwiches for breakfast. That's not exactly a fresh idea.

But what does appear game-changing is being able to stop off at a ubiquitous Subway location, grab breakfast and a Seattle's Best coffee AND takeaway lunch, too. McDonald's, who's been serving breakfast sandwiches since the number billion actually meant something never got people to take lunch on the same visit. With segregated menus they required you to come back later. (How many times have you been on the wrong five minutes of the breakfast switchover at McD's?)

My friends at Mintel report restaurants created 460 new breakfast products in 2009. So Subway who sells every shape and size sandwich except a double-decker wins not just with new products but by getting what I'll call a double-header. That is a fresh idea.

I'll be watching closely. All while trying to get to the bottom of my 168 oz Subway soda.

Consumer Escapes - iPad or iFad?

Yesterday I read an online review of Apple's new iPad. Half way into the review the reviewer revealed he hasn't actually seen or touched the product yet. Amazing. What a window that opens. Online reviews of movies you haven't seen, online reviews of restaurants that you haven't eaten at, and the online review for a new book that isn't even written.

Fortunately David Pogue of the New York Times actually got his mitts on an iPad before tomorrow morning's official debut. His review follows.
April 1 iPad review article

I don't plan to be in the queue at the Apple Store early tomorrow morning. I'm going to be in my iBed.

Consumer Escapes - Self-serve Checkout

In so many areas I'm a confirmed do-it-yourselfer. (Travel planning, investing, taxes, snowblowing, ...) Except at the supermarket. A recent visit to the market reminded me how much I dislike the self-serve checkout system. I actually enjoy talking to a human cashier, rather than having a computerized voice say, "place the item in the bag." (So actually I'm the cashier and the bagger in the self-serve line.) When I shop I'm responsible for buying a lot of fresh produce. I can book a plane flight online at Q-fare but hell if I know the code for sweet potatoes. And because I placed the bottle of Tide on the edge of the scanner the machine thinks I'm making sweet potatoes for an entire aircraft carrier.

So next time you're at the supermarket, look for me in the manned aisles. While the pros do their job I'll be thumbing through the Enquirer and taking stock of what's in your cart.

According to my seven foot long receipt, you just saved $4.22 reading this message.

Consumer Escapes - The shallow end of the March Madness office pool

While I'm productively "working" by writing in a blog, every other working American it seems has his/her nose to the grindstone - the NCAA Men's Basketball grindstone that is. Why has this become such a gigantic mass escape? We don't fill out draw sheets for the NFL playoffs. It's certainly not the money. (I won a pool in 1989, lost every other year and am down hundreds of dollars.) I believe it's the need to "be right all the time" manifest in millions of office pools.

I can hear it now, "hey, how many did you get right in the first round? "Lose any of your Final Four teams yet?" Or, my favorite, "who's your bracket buster?" Note that they're your teams, regardless of where you actually went to college. Somehow by being correct in prognosticating, or a little more correct than your work mate, you're entitled to months of bragging rights.

So go Cornell, 'cause I've got a chance to get the edge on the whole finance department. Maybe later I'll post about those folks who complete multiple draw sheets. Shame on them ...

Thoughts on a final escape

For a year now I've been pontificating (occasionally ranting) about personal things and situations that have a broader connection to consumer escapes. At SMZ, we talk about helping make brands a part of the consumer's Escape Plan™. Most of the time the commentary has been light in tone, attempted to be whimsical, and hoped for the reader to make linkage to the pursuits of a serious advertising agency. Yesterday, with the loss of a family member I was reminded that the final escape - death - is no laughing matter.

My step mother-in-law, Susan Swift, courageously battled ALS, Lou Gehrig’s Disease, for years. And I mean battled! (I hope you never experience this disease first-hand, but I encourage you to read up on it.) Through Susan's final months, final days, final minutes, final breaths she was alert and in control. To the point of choosing how and when to escape pain and suffering to go to her final resting place. Susan was loved and she will be missed. Not for what she did for others, which is a list a mile long. Not for what she did for my wife and daughters, an equally long list. But for knowing when to live for herself, when to live for others, and ultimately, deciding when living was no longer living.

In my future posts I will try to stay to the task of discussing escapes that are genuine, meaningful respite from the every day. I don't need to waste time on the time wasters because if I learned anything from Susan's life, and death, it's that time is precious.

To our breath and dreams.
 Jamie

p.s. If you're so moved, memorial contributions may be made to Pathfinder International, Shake a Leg Miami, or Vitas Hospice Care.

Consumer Escapes - The Henry Ford Right in our Backyard

When I lived in New York I didn't see the Empire State Building or the Statue of Liberty until my family came to visit. When we lived in Baltimore the same was true of the National Aquarium. For all the years we've lived in Detroit we rarely get to the Detroit Zoo or the Henry Ford, both area gems. Why is that?

Regular readers of this blog know I usually answer my rhetorical questions. I believe we feel the need to show these institutions off. We want credit for bringing someone and in the process "where we live" becomes a better place. (Maybe even better than where the visitor came from.)

As an example, two weeks ago we visited the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio in Oak Park, IL with my sister-in-law. She just moved to Chicago and we were choosing from the long list of family-friendly tourist attractions in the area. The tour was fascinating. While we've been to Fallingwater and Taliesin, the picture was clearer seeing where Mr. Wright first lived and worked. So go Wright and make the trip. It's worth it and will inspire much conversation. For that hour or two Chicago was THE place to be.

"Good design isn't just good business," said D.J. DePree, the man who built Herman Miller into a global powerhouse. "It's a moral obligation." While we don't have any out-of-town visitors this weekend, I'm planning to get my butt out of my Aeron chair and get down to the Good Design: Stories from Herman Miller exhibit at the Henry Ford Museum. It's not just an educational escape, it's my obligation!