Because we believe we can add value for users and, at the same time, help drive innovation on the web.
-Google on their new browser, Chrome
Open Source
Google launches Chrome, its open source web browser, today. News of the release, initially leaked in comic book form then later confirmed on The Official Google Blog, has the Internet abuzz with talk about the demise of Internet Explorer and Firefox.
Chrome is a natural addition—an integrated mechanism to deliver the search giant’s extensive suite of free, albeit ad-driven tools and services.
Open Season
Chrome bolsters Google’s efforts to prevent Microsoft from leveraging Internet Explorer to wrest Google’s position in the search market space.
But whether users adopt Google’s latest development en masse, or not, marketers in every sector will benefit from a viable communication partner offering an integrated delivery vehicle.
With this week’s Sirius-XM
merger approval, we take a nostalgic look back at our XM packaging experience.
About the Project
Packaging is a part of modern life. This article, an insight into the design of a consumer package for satellite radio provider XM, includes many aspects of a typical package development process. In the interest of time, we’ll skip research, diagnostic and technical methodology phases and concentrate on the basic iterative process steps in this article.
Contracted as a co-branded piece with equipment manufacturer, Delphi, the XM package is designed to contain a variety of product configurations while meeting the requirements of multiple retailers.
Thumbnails (above: click for larger view)
The first stage of the package design process is broad idea generation with an eye toward reasonable possibility through the use of quick sketches called thumbnails—essentially a Brainstorm session on paper.
Even in this early ideation phase, function and manufacturing objectives established in earlier logistic explorations are at the forefront of the design rationale.
A plump and friendly ovate design—suitable for both pegged and stand-alone shelf display—captured the team’s attention. It features an interchangeable outer shroud designed to accommodate variable messaging and XM product differentiation.
Rough Refinements (above: click for larger view)
Of the 32 initial thumbnails, five are selected for tighter “rough�? conceptual sketches. The rough design stage serves several purposes. Roughs allow the customer to collaborate in a conceptual dialog with both Brainstorm and their own internal team.
In addition, roughs allow the design team to further reconcile a host of issues—from substrate selection to detail and aesthetic considerations. Increasingly the form is discussed with a heightened sensitivity to relative manufacturing requirements and capabilities.
Although computer-generated designs are great for visualization, introducing them too early in the development process can consume allotted resources and generate fewer options. Furthermore, their finished look can ignite concerns about exhausting budgets without the benefit of conceptual buy-in.
Design Control Drawings (DCD) (above: click for larger view)
DCD drawings are to final fit and finish what roughs are to concepts. In this case, the forms are expressed as orthographic projections, i.e., front, right side and plan (top) views.
The primary intent of this phase is to convey relative proportions and relationships between forms within the package, i.e., to “control�? the design. A rough and wispy hand drawn line could mean anything to a packaging engineer. Conversely, detailed and dimensioned schematics begin to define a working reality.
Of course, many issues were addressed during the XM DCD phase: Drop test considerations, proper cavity allowance for nested accessories, marrying the outer shroud with the stand-alone clamshell, substrate selection and opacity levels, inherent multi-part clamshell tooling considerations, etc.
Rapid Prototyped 3D Model (above)
Project participants hailed from several continents. So, to help bridge geographic and language-based barriers, we produced a quick 3D model based on data and dimensioning extrapolated from the vector-based DCD drawings. The model proved a useful discussion tool in describing general functions of the package.
Aesthetic and Messaging (above: click for more initial design examples)
Although this article primarily explores the physical form development of a package, the aesthetic process is important enough to warrant an article of its own.
Some aspects of messaging development begin as early as the thumbnail stage. However, on many levels, full graphic exploration doesn’t begin until a form factor direction is set. At retail, messaging and brand continuity are crucial.
A Finished Package (above: click for larger view)
Although concessions were made along the way, the completed two-part package is remarkably similar to the original concept design in form and function.
UCI Irvine computer scientist Crista Lopes turned to Second Life in developing her rapid transit software called Skytran when access to real life high-end simulation technology proved prohibitive. Read the full Orange County article here.
The B Series awareness campaign was designed to introduce Brainstorm’s strategic branding, design, and interactive media capabilities to a select group of marketing executives who were not familiar with our company. As part of that introduction, we wanted to provide something of value to the recipients—incentives they might find useful—that would also demonstrate our expertise.
Three Offers
In our bid to connect with our audience we offered three items, an informational download about a specific demographic, a digital marketing reference chart, and a t-shirt.
B Relevant
Our first B Series offer was a summary sheet of our popular Web 2.0 and Generation Me presentation. The paper condenses the 2 hour presentation into a downloadable 12-page pdf (below).
Initially developed to assist our higher education clients understand how current high school and college-aged students think and communicate, we discovered many of our corporate clients wanted to better understand that demographic as well. Therefore, we felt the offer would be relevant and useful to members of the B Series audience.
Our second offer, The MediaSphere (below), is a tool we created to help marketers plan and develop an integrated communication strategy. The MediaSphere is a single source menu and glossary of both traditional and emerging channel options available to today’s marketers.
Our clients are using it as tool to develop initial marketing mix ideas, as a learning resource, for war room brainstorming, and even as a way to mitigate interdepartmental communication barriers.
If useful knowledge-based tools are the new black of incentives and offers, t-shirts are retro noir. Tactile, fun and useful, we offered a B brilliant t-shirt for completing a 3-minute post-campaign online survey. In this case the rationale behind the offer is clear and straightforward, less trust-building, more “Thank you!”
The shirt is purposely devoid of urls or any direct promotion of our firm. This group doesn’t represent existing customers or friends. They know where they got the shirt and we just want them to enjoy wearing it.
In B2B communications to C-level executives it’s important to respect the recipient’s time and focus on their needs. Dangling incentive carrots to obtain email opt-ins or artificially inflate response statistics is counterintuitive and may land you on SPAM blacklists.
Our Web 2.0 and MediaSphere pieces were offered without obligation simply to demonstrate our capabilities.
The Priority
The primary objective of the B Series was to create awareness. By offering our audience useful tools, we positioned ourselves as brand strategists here to serve and support, and established a foundation for trust. If recipients agree, they’ll opt-in—genuinely. It’s all about creating value, dialog and trust—not building stats for stats sake.
Useful tools and educational materials are a great way to connect and communicate information about your company. Consider putting your audience first and they may just reciprocate.
Up Next
The B Series Part 6: The Metrics
To read previous installments in this series click on one of the links below or “B Series” under topics:
Brainstorm Named Best of Show in International W3 Web Awards
Iconic Site Launch
Developed by Brainstorm for Anderson University and Warner Press WarnerSallman.com features, among other iconic images, “The Head of Christ,"? from The Warner Sallman Collection - an image so famous it's been reproduced more than 500 million times worldwide. More from the Herald Bulletin article about the site.
under Branding. Grouped by topic, Alltop aggregates stories from “all the top"? sites across the web (that’s their story and we’re sticking to it). View our .think listing, here: branding.alltop.
Our 2008 Multiple Sclerosis holiday project. Every run of Brainstorm's holiday, "Memory Machine," generated ¢.25 for the Multiple Sclerosis Society - up to $5000. It went viral fast - the $5k was just a memory by the time our holiday dinner started.
Brainstorm's 2007 holiday blog parody. A new post everyday featured the ongoing drama of an entirely fictitious corporation replete with fictitious products. Items like the "iPlanet,"NPI’s personal cosmos transport. Like Ray Bradbury’s Dandelion Wine Happiness Machine, the iPlanet promises a “thoroughly self-absorbed social media experience."? Our content was tongue-in-cheek, but the chocolate and gifts we sent to commenters were quite real.
18-24 year old text messaging users (23%) report sending or receiving more than 100 texts per day - more than one in 10 (12%) say that they send or receive more than 200 messages per day
Author: Ed 
