Here is a set of stickers of intricately designed rust patches you can apply to your car or bike, in an effort to deter thieves. Whether it works or not isn’t the point–indeed its creator, Dominic Wilcox doesn’t make any promises, though he does claim that they’ve allowed his bike to remain in his possession for thirteen whole days in London.
More curious is that here’s a product made specifically to reduce the desirability of something else. Nice though.
Wandering into my local Sainsbury’s last night I was met by this curious little vignette of the current consumer price anxiety–a homespun display of real products arranged in a slightly unappealing, if enthusiastic manner on a table immediately by front door.
Aside from the curious selection of products, with its strange focus on breakfast foods, it made a simple and powerful point about the cost advantages of own-brand goods over big-brand goods.
This piece of winsome merchandising had the delightful charm of an amateur-dramatics performance–clearly put together by someone in the store, and not a crack team of display artists parachuted in from head-office.
But the printed graphics card gave the game away. The products laid out on the table faithfully matched those on the display card. Not the work of a local price-action hero trying to save his customers some money off their groceries, more an orchestrated effort by Sainsbury’s promotions department to drive home a prescient message using real products–and a little homespun innocence–to add impact and theatre.
Clearly it’s not Harvey Nichols, but that’s kind of the point. There was a real innocent charm about this display that matched the message of saving money in hard times. It said ‘Sainsbury’s are saving money it too; we’re all in the same boat’. A million miles away from Jamie Oliver and his million pound pay cheque.
Hard times are interesting times.
Matter seems to be getting its fair share of attention with features across the marketing and media press in the last week. Even the Mail On Sunday found a big space on its pages last Sunday to tell a uncharacteristically positive story (about Royal Mail).
Matter’s innovation might not be immediately obvious–what could be simpler than a box full of cool stuff?–but it flies in the face of a lot of accepted wisdom in advertising. Though our subscribers might not appreciate it, but you are the first to join an entirely new way for companies to talk to consumers.
Phew, it’s been a very busy week and a there’s been a lot of interest in Matter. The next box is coming in October, and such has been the interest in Matter, that we’ve now had to close the list to get the next edition–you’ll see an announcement on the subscription page. If you signed up beforehand, you’ll get the October edition.
But, don’t worry. If you sign up today, you’ll be at the top of the list for the next edition that we’re starting to put together.
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