Kevin Harrington // marketing // blog

I was rather enthused about Microsoft’s new search engine, Bing. I Tweeted about this a few days ago saying, “Giving Bing www.bing.com a go. It’s good and localisation seems to work well. I also like the ‘format to phone’ feature; ace on Blackberry.”

Today I was further impressed by the following email that I received:

Hi Kevin,

I’m writing on behalf of Microsoft to invite you to a discussion about Bing, the new search engine that recently launched in beta in the UK.

The session will be a small round-table event to discuss Bing and since we saw your recent tweet regarding the use of Bing on a phone, we thought that you might be interested in coming along. The idea would be to get your initial thoughts and you’ll get an update on the future steps for Bing which are being developed specifically for the UK. During the session you’ll have the chance to talk with Microsoft representatives and other people from social media like yourself, who have expressed some early opinion.

This will take place in the next couple of weeks, so if you’re interested in coming along, or have any questions, just get in touch and I’ll send you some more details.

Thanks,

Colin Mercer

Excellent, cooking on gas, was my thoughts. I replied straight away and guess what? The email bounced with this message:  

Subject: Undelivered Mail Returned to Sender　

This is the mail system at host safetwo.sceur.ch.

I’m sorry to have to inform you that your message could not be delivered to one or more recipients. It’s attached below.

For further assistance, please send mail to postmaster. If you do so, please include this problem report. You can delete your own text from the attached returned message.

Perhaps Bing will struggle against Google? Or perhaps this was a freak occurrence.

Apparently Colin works for 1000heads. He was representing Life Without Walls which is a Microsoft sponsored initiative run by 1000heads that organises events, social gatherings, trials and a host of other enlightening activities.

It appears that the Daily Telegraph shares my enthusiasm for the Google G1 phone.

Click here to go to my first post about this.

Google Phone

I’m rather excited by the pending arrival of the Google Phone, G1. But it will be a quandary for me.

Out of principal I would not buy an iPhone as I find their distribution approach offensive. I don’t want to move to O2 and I don’t want a new phone number. These are both things that were demanded at the UK launch of the iPhone.

This resulted in me finally abandoning Sony handsets (having worked for them in the 80s and 90s there was a bit of a loyalty) to get the functionality I wanted. I migrated to Blackberry Pearl 8100.

But the Google Phone is looking very exciting. That said, there are mixed views about the launch. Do I depart from Blackberry in favour of Google?

I rather like the new Google offices in Zurich:

I had to chuckle. I was looking for some information and I dived into Google. Double and triple loop learning was the subject I wanted to read about. The site I landed on was that of my sister, Amanda Harrington.

Mind you, she was always the clever one. Now with a BA, two Masters Degrees and well on her way to her PHD.

And as it happens the information was just the kind of brief summary I like. Thank you, Amanda. Here it is:

Single-loop learning: Feedback within surveys, quality control and performance management all tend to focus on specifics and on asking: “Are we doing things right?”

Double-loop learning: We help you design and use feedback in more challenging ways, questioning underlying assumptions, developing new skills and asking: “Are we doing the right things?”

Triple-loop learning: Working at a deeper level with both self-feedback, and informal and formal feedback from other sources, increases the ability to develop, individually and as an organisation. In this way, our clients learn how to use feedback processes more dynamically and to ask: “How can we make well-informed choices that are right for us?”

Woolworths fascia

Should people play around with corporate logos?

I think Google has added to their brand image by creating seasonal treatments for its logo. St Patrick’s Day and Christmas themes spring to mind. The modifications have given their business more of a sense of personality.

Here, in the photo, is the temporarily tweaked Woolworths fascia board from Broad Street, Reading. I’m in two minds as to whether this approach really works. I may be feeling negative as the snow covered doughnut bits are stuck over the letters in a temporary fashion.

This subject reminds me of the time when an enthusiastic marketing manager for Penguin Books in Australia changed their world famous logo – they put the Penguin on a surfboard and gave him some sunglasses! Normal use of the logo was resumed quite quickly.

What’s your view on this subject?

Aston Martin DB9

I spent a chunk of the weekend trying to explain what ‘cool’ means to Charlie, my 5 year old son. Then today I tripped across the Superbrands Coolbrands 2007/2008. I think I’ll not show him this list just now as it won’t make things any easier!

Well done though to a Aston Martin – topping the table against high tech and new brands.

The top 10 cool brands are:

1. Aston Martin
2. iPod
3. YouTube
4. Bang & Olufsen
5. Google
6. Sony PlayStation
7. Apple
8. Agent Provocateur
9. Nintendo
10. Virgin Atlantic

Click here for the full list of cool brands.

Superbrands have also published their list of the top 500 Superbrands for this year. Topped by Microsoft, Coca Cola, Google, BBC and BP you can see the list by clicking here.