Owner: Jack Yan: the Persuader Blog URL:http://jackyan.com/blog/ Join Date: Sun, 02 Dec 2007 08:09:08 -0600 Rating:0 Site Description: One of the web's pioneers discusses design, branding, marketing, business, leadership and the media. Site statistics:Click here
Vista Group April ’08: remember when it was sunny? 2008-04-15 03:08:00 Last week’s VistaGroup
lunch was brought ahead a week because of my commitments to the Miss (Universe) New Zealand pageant this week, and I was saddened to learn it was the final (for now) that we’ll have with Jim Donovan. Jim’s off to Great Britain in about three weeks’ time, and by the time the Vista Group reconvenes he’ll be enjoying ever-longer days and the bright grey of the British summer sky rather than the dark grey of the winter one. (Yes, I am taking the mick.) Jim and I arrived early and chatted about the pageant, and after the arrival of Mark Di Somma (who relayed a comment his Italian father had about immigrants) and Natalie Ferguson (to whom we stared each time we made a comment that we chauvinistically felt could only be addressed by a woman) we Read more:April
A free Lucire supplement, downloadable now 2008-04-15 02:56:00 [Cross-posted] Each time we put out a Lucire in print, regardless of country, I wonder: do the folks in the countries (such as the UK) where the magazine is not available know what some of the layouts look like? This time around, Laura and I decided we would do a 52 pp. downloadable PDF, containing some of the pages, for those who can’t get Lucire where they are. And for those who can, such as in New Zealand, the downloadable PDF contains some extra pages, and even an article that we’ve earmarked for issue 26. There are two more pages for a shoot; in fact, there’s one shoot in there by Hannah Richards that you won’t have seen at all. It’s almost full circle: I remember putting together a 52 pp. PDF in 2003 as a L’Oréal New Zealand Fashion Week special i
OGC logo brief sounds like a bunch of wank—so the result is appropriate 2008-04-25 18:57:00 After saying there was less to blog because I had the principles down pat, here’s one that deserves an airing. The Office of Government Commerce, part of HM Treasury in the UK, unveiled its new logo, which cost British taxpayers £14,000.And it didn’t take long after the unveiling for employees to see the problem: I am sure it is possible for all of us to be caught out from time to time, because we didn’t study all the angles (ahem) to a problem. But one principle I do abide by in logo development is internal review—not just to see if the client can identify problems, but to cover our own rear ends. The Daily Telegraph reports that staff have removed items with the logo and expects a rush on to Ebay. It states, ‘Th
Samantha Powell best expresses the Miss New Zealand brand 2008-04-25 04:35:00 Above: SamanthaPowell
(Miss New Zealand
2008), Rebecca Connor (Miss Wellington), Rhonda Grant (second runner-up) and Kylie Anderson (sponsored by C. R. Johnson Ltd., and second runner-up to Miss New Zealand
2006).I suppose judging Miss Universe New Zealand was technically work. My last trip to Auckland was a full-on one, with clients during the day and, on most nights, spending time with the contestants. Saturday and Sunday were almost spent entirely with the 12 young ladies vying for the Miss New Zealand title, with the latter attending rehearsals. I do not envy pageant organizer Val Lott in coordinating every aspect of the event. Some of the reports are at the Lucire blog, but what I didn’t discuss here this year—which I did in 2007—were the principles behind selecting
The postman might knock twice, but this blogger does not 2008-04-25 04:18:00 I was discussing blogging with Natalie Ferguson a few nights ago, and how I haven’t kept up the frequency here. I remember hitting the 600 mark in 2006, but these days, it’s down to roughly weekly, at least here. As those who follow my blogging know, I began as a quarterly blogger in 2003 with Beyond Branding (Google Blogger never fixed our blog’s home page despite numerous complaints over the last year), and it was really Johnnie Moore who led the charge on that site. I did the template, and then Johnnie really took it to a strong position. By 2005 I began heading there weekly, then almost daily, before branching off to this blog in 2006. When Vox invited me to beta-test its service in 2006, I began by dividing my blogging. Initially, I put
ANZ loses the plot: everyday Kiwis targeted to boost profits 2008-04-29 00:42:00 I closed the last Jack Yan & Associates account at the ANZ today. If you’ve followed my Vox blog, you’ll know that I am now a happy client of the Taranaki Savings Bank. The last straw was when ANZ insisted on charging $5 per foreign cheque deposit, effective March 1. My attitude is this: a deposit is a customer loan to the bank. Unless I can start charging the bank for making a loan to me (call it the ‘Loaning to Jack Privilege Charge’), then they cannot charge me for loaning to them. Not that Sir Johnny Anderson and his fellow directors really understand banking from the regular Joe’s viewpoint. I think they have been fat cats for too long that they don’t remember. I remember leaving the National Bank when Sir Spencer Russell retired, Sir John took over
The sex-obsessed world of the Miley Cyrus photographs 2008-04-30 16:51:00 [Cross-posted] It’s not that we haven’t kept up with the row over the Miley Cyrus photographs
taken by Annie Leibovitz for Vanity Fair, which sexualize the teenage star, but I have to draw the line somewhere when it comes to news coverage. There are quarters in fashion publishing which would deem these photographs appropriate and artistic, just as Leibovitz claimed, and we ourselves have featured teens in and even on the cover of Lucire, looking probably older than they really are. But if a subject comes to me and tells me that she is embarrassed by a series of photographs, and for a cover decision she may well be in the know, then that’s good enough reason for me to have a meeting or a big office poll about it. And that’s just what Cyrus, star Read more:obsessed
Defending Rhonda Grant: the rationale behind the release 2008-05-02 00:13:00 [Cross-posted] I finally came across the full text of the press release attacking Massey University over its story on its alum Rhonda Grant
, Miss Universe New Zealand’s second runner-up. You can read the statement from the Association of University Staff’s president, Assoc Prof Maureen Montgomery, via Scoop. I think she was pretty persistent, sending it out to the NZPA as well as other news sources—she really disliked the story. It’s a shame Dr Montgomery has received anonymous hate mail over this today, when her release is filled with good targets for debate. I respect her right to hold an opinion and I think she was right to circulate it, but I wonder just how it might benefit the Association of University Staff, or any institution promoting Read more:behind
Buy and get gas 2008-05-06 22:00:00 Chrysler is getting a bit of flak over its petrol incentive: by buying a Chrysler, the company will lock in a price of US$2·99 per gallon of petrol for the next three years. Conditions apply. The very valid criticism is that Chrysler does not have many fuel-efficient cars. They are, really, not that well made, their interiors look cheap and the Chrysler Sebring and Dodge Caliber aren’t the prettiest. In fact, Chrysler’s smaller cars look out of step, which is a far cry from how the Sebring and Dodge Stratus looked at the turn of the century. But this isn’t due to the fault of the Americans, but from the previous German owners, Daimler-Benz AG. As I have said for nearly a decade, that company never understood the Chrysler brands, and Plymouth is no longer ar
Dressing up for the General Election: a new logo for the Alliance 2008-05-08 06:10:00 This has been official for a while (or so I think—not that I ever heard what the Electoral Commission thought, but I did see it on its website). However, I wanted the party to approve the news first before sharing it with you all. The following is the overseas release which was rewritten from the one sent to domestic newsmedia.JY&A Consulting revamps logo for New Zealand’s Alliance
PartyWellington, May 9 (JY&A Media) New Zealand political party, the Alliance, is looking more modern and relevant, thanks to its new logo by JY&A Consulting (). Devised by JY&A Consulting’s Jack Yan, the new logo signifies a new beginning for the democratic socialist political party. Mr Yan says that he has been a keen observer of general elections in the UK Read more:Dressing
, General
, Election
David Horowitz: remembering the reason for the Iraq war 2008-05-08 05:31:00 Whether you support the war in Iraq
or you don’t—and here in New Zealand we have the luxury to criticize the United States—David
Horowitz’s recollection of why the US went in correlates with my own. It’s why I have always held back attacking President George W. Bush, because faced with what he had in front of him, I cannot honestly say I would not have done the same thing. As Horowitz reveals, neither would Al Gore, who supported Bush’s ‘axis of evil’ speech in 2002. The end of this video (cut short) goes into the rationale for war surrounding UN Security Council resolution 1441, which UK PM Tony Blair managed to sell to Parliament—but which, I always felt, the US was less successful at doing. This is one of the problems I tend to have with the U
Leadership comes from the grass roots, not institutions 2008-05-09 05:22:00 Sometimes I surprise myself on what comes
up in blog comments. In a thread about the Iraq war and the short memories of nations over on Vox, I wrote the following. And as I wrote, I believed this to be a possible truth.To go forth in the future we need to discover our past, a hard thing in an age of short memories as you say. … Leadership
might not come from size but from those nations that have steadfastly refused to give in to the prevailing decline in so many places. Switzerland, for all its refusal to join the EU, has managed to maintain one of the greatest gun ownership rates in the world yet not have a single gun-related murder attributable to its own in most years; Singapore, retaining its Confucian philosophies, manages a city-state with limited natural resources. The Read more:grass
, roots
Ford Falcon smaller than Mondeo in width, height, wheelbase 2008-05-18 00:07:00 Now that we are nearing the E241 Ford Falcon
launch in New Zealand, and in response to a comment Robin made about an earlier blog post I made on the subject, I Googled the dimensions of the new car and compared them with the CD345 Mondeo
. I’d been wanting to do this around the time of the Australian launch and now I see why the details were so darned hard to come by. There was nothin
The Medinge Foundation Ltd. incorporated 2008-05-19 06:13:00 Thanks to the hard work of my fellow director Patrick Harris, the Medinge Foundation
Ltd. has been incorporated
in England and Wales. Through this we hope to continue the work of the Medinge Group and, in particular, its commercial arm in brand consulting. More official news from CEO Stanley Moss in time.
On alternative fuels and petrol prices, Muldoon was right 2008-05-23 06:44:00 In January 2006, I predicted petrol would hit NZ$2 per litre but attributed it more to the Labour Government’s mishandling of New Zealand currency rather than oil prices. Now that the price has come to pass—consider that when I made it, $1·40 per litre was unheard of—I am surprised that no one in the mainstream media or even politics has brought up the parallels with the 1970s and New Zeala
Vincent Wright says, ‘Enough is enough,’ with LinkedIn 2008-05-26 18:13:00 I was saddened to receive the following email from my friend VincentWright
, about the experiences he’s had with LinkedIn
Corporation. I have been a LinkedIn user since 2003, and was probably one of the earliest users on it. As long as I’ve known Vincent, I’ve known him to be an evangelist for the service. He’s set up groups championing LinkedIn, and while they do u
A brand plan makes better sense than a business plan 2008-05-26 04:42:00 Over the last few years, I’ve made plenty of predictions that have come right. In 2000, I was interviewed by Josie Vidal for The Evening Post (as it then was) and I said we should expect a war in Iraq if George W. Bush were elected (this was during the day of the election). I was pretty forceful in getting the Audi A4 Avant chosen as Lucire’s Car to Be Seen in for 2001 because I envisaged a fu Read more:makes
, better
Nigerian 419 scammers go mobile 2008-05-26 02:06:00 As friends know, I don’t tend to like those newfangled cellphones for most things with the exception of courtship and for a few close friends, and have kept the number very private. How surprised I was to receive an SMS from Nigeria, of all places! Yes, folks, the 419ers have gone mobile, and they are probably going through as many random numbers as possible. The dumbasse Read more:Nigerian
Vincent Wright driven to the brink of suicide: can you help? 2008-05-30 18:48:00 I thought I was saddened enough last week when VincentWright
, arguably the world’s biggest evangelizer of LinkedIn, decided to sever his ties with the service. Now I wake up here in New Zealand to news that he was seriously contemplating suicide and left a note for members (the chilling ‘By the time you read this, I will be dead’ type) of one of the biggest LinkedIn discussion forums.
Why Yves Saint Laurent’s passing is so felt in fashion 2008-06-02 06:59:00 [Cross-posted] Yves SaintLaurent
’s passing
is such a shock to the fashion media because he was the world’s greatest couturier. When we broke the news on Sunday night at Lucire, it was obvious that we were marking the end of an era. The casual observer might say that the end occurred in 2002, when Saint Laurent retired to his house in Marrakech. But while he remained al
Nein, nein: nine 2008-06-01 17:47:00 Hop on over to Edwin’s blog at Vox and see if you agree that he’s been conned by Royal Mail. He purchased an album for his stamps, and the Royal Mail website says it ‘holds 30 Miniature Sheets.’ When he received it, there were nine miniature sheet holders inside. Upon complaining, he was told, ‘The Album can hold 30 mini sheets but does not come with t
A big Vista bon voyage 2008-06-04 06:31:00 Bon voyage to Natalie, heading on vacation to Melbourne in the morning. Safe travels—and don’t lose your luggage! (Not that she is likely to, but I keep an eye on this astrology malarkey.) Read more:Vista
Dissecting an Obama victory 2008-06-04 05:53:00 It’s been interesting watching the MSM dissect the Clinton campaign with a whole range of experts saying why she will not be the Democratic Party nominee for the presidency. I would venture to say these are the same experts predicting a Hillary Clinton win a year ago. It’s that which I have found remarkable today as Sen. Barack Obama
becomes the presumptive nominee for the Democrat Read more:Dissecting
Another What the ? from Microsoft Word 2008-06-09 20:26:00 Many people know I believe Microsoft
Word to have been concocted by skinheads, the writers of the Michael Fish hurricane gag and William Shatner’s toupée. I am one of the last remaining people using WordPerfect because on WordPerfect, I can set the typeface and point size (i.e. font) and margins, and type away. Miracle of miracles: the text stays in that font and with those margins
When institutionalization is troublesome 2008-06-15 06:08:00 One theme that has been emerging—or I am reading way too much into it—is institutionalization. In the casual posts I put on to my personal blog over at Vox, the theme has come up a couple of times: once in a post about oil consumption dropping (really), and once in the Yale Class of 2008 speech from the Rt Hon Tony Blair. Uncharacteristically, the oil post was a little more serious
What recession? 2008-06-21 00:04:00 I was chatting to a company head serving a high-income, premium niche. And he’s felt no recession. He’s wondering if he should. For his company, sales are up and he’s even been able to focus on the higher-priced items at the expense of the lower ones. The general wisdom is: the rich niches do weather things well, but the premium sector feels recessions first and
In memory of Colin Morley 2008-07-07 17:30:00 July 7 marks the anniversary of the passing of our friend Colin
Morley, who was killed in the 7-7 terrorist bombings in London three years ago. Since then we’ve tried to keep Colin’s memory alive by giving an award named for him at the Medinge Group, for the best branded non-profit organization. My wishes go out to Ros and their children: Colin remains a great influence with his ki
ANZ Bank: revelations from the executive level 2008-07-05 06:44:00 If you follow my ramblings, even when they don’t make sense, you know I had my knives out for the ANZ National Bank here in New Zealand for what I think is questionable practice. So it was interesting to meet a few people tonight who are employees of the bank, one of whom was very staunch about defending her workplace against my charges about, well, bank charges. Humble pie time @ Read more:level
Why it still can be the American century 2008-07-03 06:05:00 In the spirit of July 4, I thought it would be interesting to explore the idea of the United States retaining its influence in the 21st century. What many see is dire. Beyond the anti-war types’ opposition to the War on Terror, there are corrupt institutions, political and corporate, impeding progress on so many things, from innovations to ways society can function more progres Read more:American
Living up to its promise 2008-07-01 00:30:00 A review for Dan Herman’s Outsmart the MBA Clones: the Alternative Guide to Competitive Strategy, Marketing and Branding has been due on this blog for months. It’s taken me a while to get through it, not because there’s a single thing wrong with the writing, but because of my own time, my own ease at which I can be persuaded to buy more books from Amazon, and because of typography. &nb Read more:Living
, promise
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