Positive Branding

2008-11-27T05:48:00.000-08:00

Two days ago we were approached by a researcher at the BBC. She asked if, as a London based embroidery company, we could do a very urgent but small job. The BBC wanted one baseball cap embroidered with the text: "Butcher of the bard". Not only did they want it next day, but the also wanted to film the cap being embroidered for a piece on the BBC's The Culture Show. We said we'd be delighted to be involved and arranged for the film crew (one man and a camera) to come to our factory the following morning. The director David Shulman arrived at 8.15am and duly set-up up his recording equipment to film the machine embroidering the baseball cap.

The job was done, they were very happy with the cap and filming and promised to send a copy of the rushes so we can add it to our website http://www.positivebranding.co.uk/ .

Below is the email received this morning in appreciation of our work.

Dear Jonathan and David,
Many thanks for your help filming a sports cap being stitched with a customized phrase ('Butcher of the Bard') used by the Hollywood director Baz Luhrmann who describes the process of writing his film 'Romeo & Juliet'. Our Baz Luhrmann Special for the Culture Show will be transmitted on Dec 9th and 12th on BBC2. I was very pleased at how beautiful it looked, how professional your set up was, and how accommodating you were on such short notice. I hope you enjoy the item!
All the best, David

Lee Evans Wembley Arena 30th October 2008

2008-11-02T01:55:00.000-07:00

Finally, months after booking the tickets on-line the day arrived to see the Lee Evans Big Tour 2008. My wife and two sons were as excited as I was. We arrived in Wembley early by tube and went for a sit down meal at a restaurant; Mesopotamia, 115 Wembley Park Drive HA9 8HG [directions]. The food was good, the service was fine and the location just a short walk from Wembley Arena.

The temperature outside was pretty cold so we walked briskly down Empire Way, along Engineers Way to the venue. Our bags were checked at the door. Inside, the place was buzzing with expectant fans. We bought a program for £6. The tour merchandise on sale ranged from DVD box sets of previous tours to key rings, posters and clothing. The t-shirts and sweatshirts were Fruit of the Loom brand and screen printed. The beanie hats were embroidered. I thought the clothing was a reasonable quality but quite expensive. Working in the promotional, corporatewear and licensed clothing industry I tend to look at the wholesale cost of the garment and the cost to decorate (screen print or embroider) the garment. And I'm usually surprised at how much mark-up is put on to the garment. But it's no different from buying a football shirt or t-shirt at a rock concert.

Our seats were pretty good. We're upstairs in section N6, the block of seats closest to the stage, looking at Lee Evans side-on. To the right of us was one of three giant screens. The music before the show is a 'best of' Van Morrison album. I'm a huge Van The Man fan so it was a delightful wait. Five minutes before the show started a short video (part animation) was shown on the huge screens of Lee preparing for a show, drowning in his own sweat.

Eight o'clock and the show starts bang on-time. A short introduction, a tremendous applause and he's onstage, marveling at the size of the venue and thanking us for coming. And then he's off into his first routine, firing on all cylinders. The stories and jokes come fast. Topics we can all relate to; from our past, the present or situations we all recognise. An hour and five minutes passed without let-up and Lee announces that there will be a short break. Half an hour later we are all gathered back in the hall and part two of the show starts. Again, he is full of energy, enjoying his performance and keeping the crowd spellbound with his observations of modern life. He has a nervous laugh which pops up at the end of some stories which the audience like. Another hour has passed and he tells us that he has been asked to do this 'bit' and seeing as how we're here in London and who knows what might happen if he doesn't do it, the music of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody starts and the place go wild. This is like watching the Rolling Stone perform Sympathy For The Devil or The Eagles do Hotel California. We've seen this mime so many times on DVD but to see it live was the perfect way to end the show. It was only then that it occurred to me that this mime and the Natalie Imbruglia and Johan Lippowitz mime of her song Torn performed at the Secret Policeman's Ball for Amnesty International were twins separated at birth. Reunited in the mind of a music and stand-up comedy fan. Welcome home kids.

The show wasn't quite over. For his encore he came out with a ukulele and played a song. Then Lee went to the piano and sang and payed a mildly political song while the dry ice and silver paper fell. A stirring end to a great show. After waving and thanking all sides of the auditorium he went to the front of the stage, literally on his hands and knees to shake hands and sign his autograph. Surprisingly, this was his only real interaction with the audience. His set didn't interact with the audience as is typical with stand-ups. This is not a criticism, just a little surprising these days.

As we walked with the crowd along Olympic Way back to the tube station the air was filled with snippets of his gags remembered by the delighted visitors to Wembley that night. The temperature was cold but everyone seemed lifted by the spectacle we had all just witnessed. One man, a large stage, no props, no cues, simply holding the audience's attention for over two hours with a stream of funny and warm observations we could all relate to. Bravo.

For more information on our clothing products and services please browse our fully priced website www.positivebranding.co.uk

Website Usability - ask the users

2007-11-09T04:59:00.000-08:00

During a meeting at work this week we discussed our website and how much business it brought into the company. We talked about the look and feel, functionality, order processing and user experience. We are planning to have a re-vamp and started to make a list of the bits we wanted to change. Then someone suggested we ask our customers what they thought of it. What a great idea - but how to do it so the information we get back is relevant and useful. And would they even want to help? The great thing is that the respondents are not techies, or even in our industry, so their input is perhaps the most valuable.

We tossed around a few ideas on incentives to get the customers and contacts to respond. We decided that cash would probably work best. So we emailed over 2000 contacts offering £10 in cash plus a 10% off their next order coupon if they respond.

They were required to list 5 dikes and 5 dislikes. We asked them to imagine they were looking to buy workwear. It's incredible, you have no idea what people are thinking. We had over 25 replies (which we think is pretty good going), detailing many different facets of our website. I suspect there will be some conflicting opinions, and it will be up to us to square the circle, but the one thing we can say is that web users have strong opinions about the websites they visit. So it seems important to get the website working logically, so that users know where they are and how to get to the next step in the buying process (even if that's not through a e-commerce site). Now we need to properly analyse the information, write-up a brief and get the job done. The sooner the better as I already feel we are missing out.

Just so you know, we did send out the £10 notes in cash by recorded delivery, along with a money-off coupon, a brochure and a sample hi-viz vest. A couple of people asked how the research was going as they want to do the same for their website and a couple even placed orders.

Happy browsing!

Yamaha Pacifica versus a Porsche, a bird and a divorce.

2007-08-13T04:46:00.000-07:00

You reach 44 years old. You're surprised. You realise you've done nothing exceptional in the last 20 odd years. You've been busy with work and raising a family. You've forgotten that this enormous world with endless possibilities is out there at the end of your street. It's in sight and you can almost touch it. All you need is a few good years, sell the business then you're off. But in the meantime you need something to keep you sane and in the game.

Walking down the high street at the weekend I passed a guitar shop. Writ large in the window is a sign 'Starter Kit £199'. It could have said 'Bored Dad £199'. So I hang around outside for a bit and finally go in. I have already decided that an electric guitar, amp, case, strap, pick x2, book and CD is what I need in my life. I have a quick chat with the owner of the shop, hand over my credit card, collect my bits and I'm off home.

So now I'm embarking on learning to play the guitar. It looks complicated and I realise I need more stuff. I need a DVD tutorial, new headphones and curtains in the room I'll be practicing in. Probably lessons, but I want to make a bit of a start first.

So will this do it. Will it mollify the mid-life crisis or will I still need a bird and a Porsche? I don't yet know but it will be an interesting journey.

IKEA - smart guys

2007-07-27T23:40:00.000-07:00

Last night (and into the early hours of today) I assembled two pieces of Ikea furniture. Ikea stuff is cheap, contemporary, and bloody clever. Last year I bought a small metal six draw cabinet that fits under the desk. It houses stationery, catalogues and the usual collection of stuff you don't know where else to dump. It's so useful I decided I wanted another one. Last year it was fully assembled and wrapped in cardboard and a polythene for protection. This year it now comes flat-packed and you have to assemble it. When I say flat-packed I mean approx, 40 mm x 600 mm (in old money, that's an inch and a half thick by two feet long). So I was interested in how they had managed to condense the pack to such a degree. The metal draws are assembled out of three pieces. One piece is bent into shape by the assembler and the two ends are clipped ind position. Brilliant! Such engineering. I know it's not the space shuttle but even so, a lot of thought has gone into the self-assembly design.

It got me thinking, it's incredible how much work the consumer now does. Petrol stations, garden centres, even telephoning your bank or the gas company. In supermarkets we go around filling up our trolley, take it to the checkout and pack our own bags. In some supermarkets you can now scan and pay for your items yourself (we'll that's the theory, but in practice you always need a member of staff to adjust the machine). It's the same online, the customer selects the product, enters all the billing & shipping data and then pays by credit card. If fact the first human contact for that sale is in the warehouse when picking and packing the item.

We the consumer are now doing all this work which was previously done by an employee of the vendor. So where's the pay-back for the customer. We'll it's price. Whilst the cost of utilities and housing has risen, almost everything else we buy has come down in price. Obviously cheap offshore labour has a dramatic effect on costs but that's not the only factor. Technology and distribution play an enormous part in driving down costs. And so does the fact that the consumer is now expected and prepared to do much of the work involved in the buying process.

Well done everyone.

david@positivebranding.co.uk www.positivebranding.co.uk

Oh, I didn't see you there

2007-07-23T09:24:00.000-07:00

I went out to get a pint of milk for my tea this morning and I was struck by how many workers are now wearing hi-viz reflective safety vests. Not just guys digging holes in the roads but also delivery drivers, fellas erecting those huge advertising hoardings, road-sweepers, builders and warehouse men. This increased use of PPE (personal protective equipment) is good for companies such as Positive Branding because we now sell loads of it. As the market has grown the price has tumbled - but that’s normal. I started to wonder if we’ll get so used to seeing people wearing yellow hi-viz clothing that the safety effect will diminish. That is to say, will we no longer be alerted to a potential danger by the sight of those bright yellow vests? If we see them all day every day, up and down the streets of this country will we soon need some other visual warning? High visibility reflective safety clothing is not like other PPE, which physically protects the wearer. Take hard hats. These have an in-built strength designed to protect the wearer should something fall from above. The tolerances allowed are set-out in European standards. The same is true for safety footwear. Should a fork-lift truck run over your foot whilst you’re wearing a shoe or boot with a steel or composite toe cap (to 200 joules) there’s a good chance you’ll get away with a bit of bruising. Without it – we’ll I don’t like to think about it. david@positivebranding.co.uk http://www.positivebranding.co.uk/

Pint of Milk

2007-07-20T05:30:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Positive Branding blog. This is the first blog I've created, so I might not get the tone right straight away.

It seems these days that health and safety at work is such an issue that people are afraid to do anything that might fall foul of perceived H&S rules or even best practice.

Do you need to carry out a risk assessment before sending out someone to get a pint of milk for your tea? What would happen if that person got knocked over by a bus? Would the Health & Safety Executive come down on you like a ton of bricks? Probably. The HSE investigate fatalities and serious accidents at work and it is the responsibility of the person in charge to report the incident under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 (RIDDOR).

Would they ask to see the training manuals and records to show that the injured/dead person had been trained how to cross the road? I think they would. Would they ask to see the risk assessment you carried out? Yes, they probably would. This is not to say that the HSE are mad, bad or stupid. No, it's the logical step an investigating body would take and it only seems mad, bad and stupid because we all cross the road everyday.

So where does this leave managers and business owners? Cowering in the corner just waiting for that knock on the door. We'll try and keep smiling and send out the employee that's a pain in the arse for the milk! david@positivebranding.co.uk www.positivebranding.co.uk