My Thoughts

May 04, 2008

Restaurant Deliveries

I've seen on more than one occasion a food delivery being made to a restaurant during lunch or dinner rushes. To me, that seems completely wrong. Not only is the delivery truck blocking the parking lot, but the driver is tying up staff and negatively affecting customer service. If I were a restauranteur, I would be rather upset at this going on. If I needed the food that day, I would expect it to be there earlier and delivered during off peak hours. The only thing I can envision is that this might be the telemarketer effect at work. They call at dinner hour cause they assume you are far more likely to be home at that time. For some restaurants, they might be closed before lunch and dinner and so deliveries are more likely to be completed at meal times. But you would think the restaurant and the company could easily work out a normal schedule for deliveries during slow periods before the rushes.

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April 27, 2008

Branding

I was rather amazed that the new thermostats installed in my apartment came with a large brand name tacked onto the front. I just don't get it. It's unattractive, doesn't fit with product and doesn't seem to serve any purpose. These are the very lowest end thermostats available, I don't think anyone would ever look at them and seek them out at the store, more than likely they would specifically avoid them. What makes it stranger yet is that the brand name on the cover doesn't match the brand stamped into the working components behind. To top it all off, the thermostats are inaccurate by at least 10°C.

As I thought about the branding on the thermostats, it strikes me that nearly every product has branding on it. Often it's a small, unobtrusive label but it seems that many products have added increasingly intrusive branding to the products' design. I certainly understand the traditional theories behind brands and their ongoing, if decreasing, effectiveness. But for many products, the brand really has no value, no recognition and the branding effectively decreases the products' value in my opinion. I've experienced situations where the branding ruined the products' design or look and made me look elsewhere.

The other thing that strikes me as odd, is the smaller players constantly changing brands and images. Even the larger players are often guilty of this. Without a clear, consistent brand and image, there is no hope of generating any benefits from the branding.

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March 15, 2008

Old Technology

What do you do with old technology?

I've been thinking about getting a new desktop. The biggest drawback is not spending the cash, but what to do with the old computer and monitor. I have a growing pile of old pieces of technology that are taking up way too much space. They all still work perfectly fine and I may find a use for them in the future, but currently they have no real market value and I have no use for them. The current plan is a non-plan, hold onto them until they are so obsolete that I could have no possible for use them in the future.

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