Blog | Cooler Insights

August 30, 2007 • Blog • 2 comments

Came across this brilliant post by CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide Kevin Roberts. Apparently, the Museum of London (yeah its a museum folks) is using Google Earth to create a Love Map of the city. According to Kevin,

“You register, locate a place on the map (like all Google-style maps it zooms in from a bird’s eye position to close-ups of houses and streets) and place a virtual pin on it. With your pin you get the opportunity to add a personal story connected with that place…”

Apparently, lots of people have already started populating the map with their personal tales of romance, kinship, historical encounters, and other recollections. In a way, this becomes a clever way of linking a place to the population. The end result is stronger community bonds and rootedness to a location, and of course more love.

Would be a great idea to do this in Singapore. In fact, we already have a champion for this area. Now, all it takes is to expand it to personal stories.

An EX-traordinary Ad

August 28, 2007 • Blog • 3 comments

See the bus stop ad above? It is part of the highly successful Yellow Ribbon campaign organised by a whole host of different agencies and NGOs, which aim to integrate ex offenders back into society. I remembered watching the TV commercial which was rather emotional and heartwarming.

What caught my attention was the bold black headline:

Chief Marketing Officers Wanted

August 22, 2007 • Blog • 7 comments

In the recent “Marketing for Results” conference which I attended graced by Professor Philip Kotler, he highlighted the importance of a new position – the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) – in organisations. In certain companies, this role is equivalent to the almighty Chief Financial Officer (CFO) who usually sits next to the CEO in any organisation.

What should a CMO do? Many things apparently, according to Kotler:

Biggest Biscuit Bash

August 19, 2007 • Blog • 14 comments

Tired of the usual roadshows with pretentious promoters and inane entertainment? Here’s something novel for a change.

In an ingenious use of their product employing one of PR’s oldest trick, biscuit manufacturer Jacob’s recently hit the headlines with their attempt to build Singapore’s biggest biscuit sculpture. Their fabulous feat of food art sits on a platform measuring about 6 by 1.2 metres, with more than 24,000 biscuits from 13 varieties employed. Called Jacob’s Biscuit World, this event showed that biscuits can do a lot more than just stuff your stomach.

I caught some of the action yesterday at Bishan Junction 8 while meeting the Friends of Yesterday (pun unintended).

Fantastic Fireworks

August 17, 2007 • Blog • 20 comments

Brought my family to catch the Fireworks Festival, a must go for anybody with a 3.75 year old. Part of the National Day celebration, this year’s event was unique as you could buy tickets to sit comfortably on the floating platform at Marina Bay. At $8 apiece, it wasn’t too expensive. Besides, it gives you a breathtaking view of the action.

Here are some pics and videos for memories. My son Ethan certainly enjoyed it and I am sure he will have sweet dreams tonight.

An Effective Ad

August 15, 2007 • Blog • 5 comments

Spotted this huge, monstrous outdoor billboard plastered across People’s Park Complex. If this doesn’t catch your attention, I suppose nothing will. Great work by the Traffic Police which gets the message across and yet isn’t too gory or gruesome.

Service versus Sales

August 13, 2007 • Blog • 13 comments

Used car salesman (courtesy of Chaka Raysor)

I am always puzzled why companies spend a lot more energy and focus on trying to sell rather than pleasing their customers. If you don’t already know, customer retention is a far more profitable strategy than customer acquisition. That, plus the fact that word of mouth is taking off more than ever in this ad-saturated age of increasingly powerful social networks. Here are some sobering statistics which tells you why you should pamper your existing customers rather than court new ones:

A typical dissatisfied customer will tell 6-10 people about the problem. A typical satisfied customer will tell 1-2 people.
It costs 6 times more to attract a new customer than it does to keep an old one.
Of those customers who quit, 68% do so because of an attitude of indifference by the company or a specific individual.
About 7 of 10 complaining customers will do business with you again if you resolve the complaint in their favor.
If you resolve a complaint on the spot, 95% of customers will do business with you again.

(Source: Customer Are Always)

Studies have also shown that a Customer’s Lifetime Value (CLV) can be far greater than that of a single transaction. In fact, 70% of a telco’s revenue comes from 30% of its customers: those who stay for years and purchase increasing levels of service. There is a nifty way to calculate CLV here.

Now shouldn’t you start paying more attention to those customers who made you who you are?

Autumn in Singapore?

August 11, 2007 • Blog • 10 comments

One of the things which I love about Jewel Box at Mount Faber (where you can take the cable car) is its decor. There are probably few leisure attractions in Singapore which pay as much attention or fervour to creating thematic zones as the Jewel Box. This is probably one of the reasons why they have been voted so frequently as one of the top attractions in Singapore.

While there recently to catch a cable car ride, I managed to shoot some photos of its golden brown splendour.

Perched high atop Mount Faber, the Jewel Box is a restaurant, cable car station, and pristine function venue all rolled into one. Here, you can see golden yellow and red leaves decking its facade.

Loving My Country

August 8, 2007 • Blog • 14 comments

Today is Singapore’s 42nd birthday. This year, the national day celebrations will be at the floating platform of the Marina Bay area – a first in Singapore. Culture lovers can pop by any of the NHB museums as they will be open to the public for free. There will also be lots of other celebrations and parties going on in the many households here I am sure.

What does National Day mean to you? Is it just another public holiday or does it stir something deep within you?

For me, I find that national day is a good time to quieten one’s heart a little and celebrate the things which makes life worth living here in Singapore. We have fabulous food, an efficient public transport system, relatively clean streets, high levels of security, and a soaring employment rate. If you think you have it bad, just look at the environmental disasters, acts of terrorism, abject poverty, stark hunger, political turmoil and rampant inflation happening around us.

Of course, our country isn’t perfect. There are still lots that we can do to make it better. However, maybe just for this one day in the year, let us look at the positives rather than the negatives shall we?

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