this and that

     Thank God for specialty products. Sometimes you really do get what you pay for. I don’t usually spend a lot of money on clothes or shoes, but I certainly made an exception for my Uggs, and my feet are glad of it. When Uggs first started getting popular, I wrote them off as just a trend that would be over soon. Their website tells you the high quality sheep skin boots are designed to “keep your bare feet close to your natural body temperature regardless of the temperature outside”. Seeing how my feet are frozen solid from November through February, I decided to prove them wrong. So far, they’re right.

     It’s funny how Payless will sell boots for literally a tenth of the price, but with the entire boot being synthetic, you’ll probably wind up with a good case of “swamp foot”.  I have to admit, they are not the hottest looking footwear, so why would I trapse around in a sub-par version? From what I hear the Australians only wear Uggs as slippers inside their homes, and find it silly that us Americans wear them outdoors. God bless America, I say. Crikey, I’ve been wearing these suckers outside, inside, summer, winter, you name it. I’ll keep wearing them long past they’re stylish until they fall apart. Put that on your barbie, mate.

     What is the mental hang-up with people that choose not to purchase a functionally modified product? One example of this that boggles my mind is when people don’t buy products that have a squeeze bottle, instead of the old-school jar nonsense. It just makes for a quicker, cleaner existence. I was once at my friend Bill’s house, and attempted to make a sandwich. I opened the jar of mayo, and there were chunks of tuna festering in it. My next attempt was thwarted when I opened a jar of ranch sauce, and there were bits of broccoli hanging out in there. “Your condiments are atrocious! Haven’t you heard of a squeeze bottle for both of these?” I demanded. To which he replied, “I can’t handle change.”

     Shortly after that, the U.S. Postal service came out with self-stick stamps (replacing the “lick ‘um and stick ‘um” ones). When the lady behind the counter asked me which type I wanted, I was astonished that people would actually prefer the older ones. She told me some people were irate with the change, and would not buy the new and improved stamps adding “stay away from those people if you can”. In marketing “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” has been replaced with “let’s shoot for new and improved, at least we’ll get some attention”. If it doesn’t work, they can pretend it never happened. What’s the worse that could go wrong with introducing something new to the masses?

    Wouldn’t that be great to have your own “CRM” to filter out what you don’t want in life? If it were as successful as the one that Netflix uses, I’d buy it in a millisecond. Being new to Netflix, I was ecstatic when after a few rentals, they had suggested a great comedy series, “Little Britain”. How did they know I think there’s nothing funnier than a British man wearing a dress? CRM. That’s how. If only you could expand this to filter out bad relationships, you’d be a trillionaire and dating sites would fold left and right.

      Now back to reality, and the downside of such technology. My concern with these programs is that I consider myself somewhat of a private person, and I wonder how much of my own personal information is stored somewhere. I don’t want someone knowing what size underwear I wear, or all of the products that I use. Google has a CRM available, and I’m not too thrilled about it. From what I understand any mail sent via gmail is stored on their database. Now Google will be storing health records. I’m okay with my tastes in dvd being stored, but I’d like to stop there.

     The first company that comes to my mind when I hear “repositioning” is Banana Republic. They can repeat “modern” a million times to me but I’m not buying it. It’s like beating a dead horse. Just take a look at a google search for Banana Republic . The first 2 search results immediately tell you, you guessed it, they are modern.  When I hear Banana republic, I think “let’s go on a safari, or some other adventure”. I recently donated a brown bomber jacket that I bought from them in the 80’s. The lining had a detailed map of Europe, which would come in quite handy if I was airdropped over France for some reason.

    My suggestion to them would be to invest more money in advertisement for A-list celebrities in their other company, the GAP. They’ve got a winner there with their latest campaign featuring the incomparable Jason Bateman. What’s more believable, a safari company selling black sequined cocktail dresses, or a middle of the road, somewhat preppy store selling hip clothes? I’ll stick with the GAP, thank you very much.    

     Why do I know who this Dora chick is? I don’t have kids, and I’m not in the “growing ethnic market” that this was aimed toward. But since Dora is so popular, when I’m involved in team projects at work I can’t keep her voice out of my head saying happily “weeee did it”. God help me. Then the jaunty salsa/rumba lite music starts. I believe they got their tarket audience and more.

     It really is a great character for girls, and the website is nothing to sniff at either. It’s chock full of rad videos to improve your life and teach you stuff. Don’t YOU want to make a Dora the explorer cake, too? I know what I’ll be bringing to the next potluck lunch at work. How can anyone not like Dora? The marketing team at Nickelodeon must be pretty ”feliz” with themselves. See that? I learned that from Dora.

     Maybe it’s because I’m a “Gen X’er” and I remember fondly playing Monopoly in my childhood. Or maybe it’s because I just love McDonald’s food- every single item on that darned menu (not to mention their incredible new coffee they came out with last year). You put those 2 together, and the annual Monopoly game means I can look forward to putting on a quick 5 pounds of pure fat, in between gulping down large diet cokes (they don’t give you a game piece on the smaller sizes), and excitedly tearing off game pieces from select meat sandwiches (that’s right, select). I can stay away from McDonald’s for months at a time, then that magical marketing campaign starts up again. It’s like the scene from the Godfather III- “just when I think I’m out, they suck me back in!”

     Those rascals at McDonald’s know what they are up to with this game. They get you all hopped up on sugar, simple carbs, and animal fats, then force you to play a cool internet game. For the last few years the most I’ve won was this “season”. From one quarter pounder with cheese meal (FYI-that’s a number 3 on the menu) I won a free medium fries, and a free coke. I went back for my very next meal to cash in, but was told I could only use one freebie per visit. And so the vicious circle continued. It’s so addictive, part of me is glad it’s only once a year. As a stockholder since 03′, I do what I can…….. and I’m lovin’ it.

Welcome to my blog. I’m Eileen- a 30-something, single, cubicle dweller by day masquerading as a corporate drone. After 5 I like to improve/create anything I can see or get my hands on. I love making jewelry, painting, and writing (look for my best seller in about a year and a half from now-you can say you knew me back when). Another passion of mine is pyschology-I find it fascinating to find out why people are the way they are. I believe this is an area where everyone can use improvement, there’s just no end to learning lessons. Which brings me here to my first ever blog. I dread computers, so this is a real challenge for me. I’m looking forward to broadening my horizons with what I learn here, and hopefully this will open up doors for me outside of school.

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