I received few photos from a friend the other day.  Here is one of them. The sight of the porcini makes me hungry . But look at the knife just next to it. There are places in the world, especially in Europe, where wild mushrooms picking is a popular outdoor activity.  A special knife may be a practical and appreciated gift especially ahead of or during mushroom season.

Mushroom Knife

The knife comes with a slightly curved blade (to help cut the mushrooms easy from the ground) and a brush for brushing away the soil and dirt. And of course there is a safety lock to prevent injury by accidental closing of the blade.There is enough room for branding too. It can be laser engraved either on the blade or on the metal part of the handle.

Popularity: 3% [?]

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The green fever spreads in our industry. Here is one product marketed as green - the water calculator. Well I am not sure if I would call it green. It does not use any recycled material, it is not even packed in a box made of recycled paper. The only thing that can be considered green is the fact that it does not have to use a battery. How is this going to save the environment .

But while I think the “green product” label attached to this product is just a misleading marketing trick it still is a fun item. Kind of cool promotional product for a drink company.

You run promo for soda - print “Runs on Soda” on the box, you run promo for coffee - print “Runs on Coffee” on the box, you run promo for water - print “Runs on Water” on the box.

The best product to promote with this calculator would however be some energy drink

Popularity: 36% [?]

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I was doing small research on evolution of some big brand logos. OK, not really a research. I needed to see how some big guys polish and revive their brands so I spent about 15 minutes on Google and looked around. I found this article on the Starbucks logo. I had no idea they recently started to use some retro logo design. Over here all we get is still the “classic” green one. But after reading the article I thought this is exactly what I was looking for - some example of return to the roots. And I thought this is quite well done.

The article I mentioned says that the marketing objective in bringing back this version of the original logo was to compliment the campaign slogan “Roasting coffee since 1971. The best cup then. The best cup now”. I think the logo does it nicely. It also gives a different feeling to the Starbucks merchandise - including the mugs.

But then I checked few other links pointing to the new Starbucks logo articles and I realized that some people actually have some issues with it. Serious issues. The problem seems to be the way the siren (mermaid) in the logo is pictured - “naked woman on it with her legs spread like a prostitute”.

Here is one nice article on this. I am quite sure that making people calling them “Slutbucks” was not the idea behind the old logo revival . But it got people talking and gave the retro image quite some publicity. At the end the very people who find the the logo slutty are doing the new old logo the best service. Marketing by controversy in its best .

Time for some coffee . Slutbucks perhaps .

Popularity: 60% [?]

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A while ago I wrote about how I discovered lanyards. When after several years the only lanyard innovations come in a guise of different widths, printing technologies or all sorts of fancy clips and attachments I began to think the lanyard evolution is over. Well, I was wrong. Here is something new:

It looks like this is a lanyard designed to carry something heavy on the neck. At least that is what the padding would suggest. While that may be one of the unintentional benefits of this product, it does not seem to be the point. When you look closer, you see a zipper. When you open the zipper, you can pull out a hood … Who’s idea was this I would like to know .

As a gimmick, this is quite funny. As a promotional product - well, it may not be that bad for the advertiser. The large hood provides quite some area for imprint. But, how often will that large imprint area actually get some exposure ? I would say only if it rains. But now, frankly, will anyone pack this thing as a precaution in case of rain into the back, or carry it on the neck when going out ? I very much doubt so … I would say unless it rains at some outdoor event where these hood lanyards are distributed, the hoods will never be exposed to the public. So all the printable area that actually matters is what is seen on the first picture in this post. Even less than what an ordinary lanyard provides for much lower cost.

So what is wrong with this lanyard ?

It costs more than usual lanyards without any hoods, most of the printable area it offers will never be seen. It offers pretty much zero rain protection. Unfortunately as it is the case with many promotional products and BizGifts these days, this is just a gimmick, and a useless one. If you want to produce a gift item that protects people from wet weather, you better stay with umbrella or if on lower budget with cheap rain poncho.

If on the other hand you want to get peoples’ attention by giving them something silly they will ridicule and talk about, this may be one of those things .

Popularity: 51% [?]

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Merchandising is a serious money maker for popular sport teams (and not only for them). The merchandise itself is not always perfect and almost always overpriced. But it is nice to see when the overpriced stuff is actually designed well and truly represents the feel of the brand and the team. Here is one example - The Vodafone McLaren Mercedes coffee tumbler.

I am not a favourite of the bright reflex colours but as their sponsors pay for that it is part of the image of the car as is the mirror silver metal finish:

The cup has been branded by 3D PVC badge. This is the same technology used for all those cartoon keychains or zipper pullers on garments or bags. Once the PVC sleeve is molded it is simply fixed on the common stainless steel tumbler and the product is almost ready. Well almost. At this stage it only represents the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes F1 racing team. They clearly wanted to incorporate the McLaren group logo into the design too.

Here is the logo:

And here is how the logo appears on the product without disturbing the overall design:

I love the thinking behind this simple design, the attention to details. At the same time I hate the thinking behind pricing this product .

Popularity: 45% [?]

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