It means nothing without central locking...

A few weeks ago I went out for dinner with a couple of my old school friends. This blog is not, as you may suspect, about the rekindling old relationships; the pair in question belong to the "some favourite people” category of my life and so I'm pleased to say I have relatively regular contact with them. No, it’s about a car one of my friends was driving.

As a petrol head, engine enthusiast this said friend knows her stuff about cars (having a best friend mechanic is a particularly skill I pride myself on). We laugh - because she is so small the garage tested her ability to haul tyres before giving her the job. But anyway that’s beside the point:

The week that we had decided to eat out coincided with a week’s worth of work related training for my friend. As a result she had been equipped with a company car to meet her transportation needs. So, naturally she drove to our eatery if choice in the company perk.

The car was nice (my non-professional evaluation). Fitting in with the sleek design of sibling models, this German brand doesn't often fail to please aesthetically; it was comfy and it “drove well”.
My friend harnesses genuine passion for the company for which she works, so if you're after more emotive opinion please do not hesitate to get in touch...

But wait, there was more! This car had been fitted with an innovative device that tells the driver when to change gear for the most efficient driving. Cool or what? We were suitably impressed.

This car, marrying together superficial and functional elements that aspire to provide the ultimate drivers’ experience, is surely at the forefront of upward moving developments? We were in a prototype of the future!

Oh, actually maybe we weren’t. This car didn’t have central locking.   

"This car starts from £6000!”, defends  my friend to this disheartened comment.

"Still. If I was buying a £6000 brand new car I would want central locking”, I retort. I mean come on, my second hand 51 reg plate has central locking!

“You don’t need central locking”

"But you like central locking” chimes my to-become ally. “I thought all new cars had it.”

"£6000!!"

But that's the point; this seemingly random monetary figure had no tangible value to us. What did have value, or significant lack of, was the missing central locking.

And the point of this story? Well it’s this:

In a time where technological advances allow brands to provide increasingly integrated and exponential innovation experiences surely they can’t afford to fail to deliver on the most basic luxuries that we take for granted. By neglecting the basics, that we as consumers understand and regard, are brands not undermining both the pioneering technology and their own image?

The best thing I've done (to date)

I studied at the University of Nottingham.  The East Midlands isn’t the University’s only home as Nottingham also has international campuses in Malaysia and China. In the second year of my studies my closest ally headed off to complete the year in China, leaving me with an invite to go over during the Easter break.

Although I’ve always had an interest in traveling, prior to this I’d only ventured as far as Europe and always under the safe umbrella with family or friends (admittedly, the latter was slightly less sturdy). This exotic destination would see me on a lone 24hour trip with 2 transport changes. Also, my part time bar job was not likely to cover the cost of the excursion and so I would need to splurge the savings I’d so frugally amounted. But, weighing up the pros and cons (in hindsight there really were no cons) I committed to my China visit and got stuck into travel plans throughout the first half of the year.

Once there my naïve worries were blown out of the water – my independent trip over had really been that simple and now I was here, wow – well worth every penny. Introduced to the province of Ningbo with a ride on the back of an e-bike to the local town, I realised that the following jam packed three weeks were going to be nothing like I’d experienced before.  I clung on to the back of the bike as I watched other bikers ignore the laws of the road and vicariously dodge red lights and larger vehicles; I looked up at towering lights that held impressive Chinese characters and I smelt the food that street vendors were frying in tin cylinders along the path. But China had so much more to offer:



Generally the street food was tasty...

...But I did not enjoy snails!

I flew to Beijing and saw Tiananmen Square, The Forbidden city and The Summer Palace; I played games in the park with a local salesman and stood on the stone in The Temple of Heaven that supposedly ensures a direct path to heaven’s gate. I partook in a 4 hour hike across the Great Wall of China (This was the most challenging and unforgettable experience) which ended with a zip wire off over a beautiful lake; I travelled on an overnight train to Xian and took the local bus to the Terracotta warriors (amazing!). I tandem biked along Xian’s city walls, saw the infamous panda and watched an iconic fountain show. I saw acrobats defy the restrictions of human flexibility and got roped into an exercise class as I danced amongst locals in a town square; I was ferried through secret passages whilst shopping in Shanghai, took a boat trip along the Huangpu River and dreamed that one day I would eat at the top of the Oriental Pearl. I ventured up to the top of the World Financial Centre, the world’s 3rd tallest building at 492 meters, and gazed at the rich structural variety below. I embraced traditional Chinese culture and spent hours in a tea house drinking delicate tea and saw how China encompassed the West when I partied in a club. I tasted authentic Chinese food, some delicious, others not; picked up some basic phrases and witnessed the disparities that exist between social classes. 


Zip wiring from the Great Wall of China; an exhilarating end to a challenging, fantastic experience


I feel I learnt a lot from this trip. Not only were the cultural deviations fascinating, on a personal level I learnt that great reward is possible when you make the most of opportunities and don’t allow insignificant things to hold you back. Further, I’ve caught the contagious ‘travel bug’ and aspire to add to the experiences I’ve gathered throughout my life. After all, I believe that we live for life’s experiences and it is these that shape us into the people we become. 


Shanghi's distinctive skyline

Why you should hire someone lacking in experience, in the words of Paul Arden

“Experience is built up from solutions to old situations and problems, so old solutions will be bent to fit new problems. The likelihood is that if you’ve got experience you’ll use it. This is lazy. Experience is the opposite of being creative” Paul Arden

A good marketing idea I saw over Christmas

With Christmas having only just left us, I have chosen to share a good idea that I’ve seen employed by a couple of brands over the festive period.

Arguably the run up to Christmas is the most exciting aspect of the season, indeed this is when businesses can cash in on people’s good will and giving.

With the exception of those oversize kids (me included) who still spend the month of December opening the door on their advent calendar, a lot of the build-up hype is lost on those over the age of 10. Weighed down by a lack of time and pressure to impress friends and relatives many see Christmas as a wallet squeezing event.

But I have seen a couple of brands incorporate an advent idea into their marketing campaigns that allow bah-humbugging elders to be included and engaged in the Christmas count down. Their festive frolics rewarded customers with something that was relevant to their needs:

Online print company Moo, who produce an array of personalised collateral including business cards, stickers and postcards, produced their own online advent calendar. Customers were invited, via the Moo blog, to click on the virtual door of the day to reveal some date-restricted content.

The doors uncovered a variety of things including a talk from Richard Moross, Moo founder on ‘Why day dreaming is important in choosing a career’ , links to blogs sharing good festive ideas, such as directions on making edible ornaments, and exclusive Moo offers, valid only for 24 hours.

Glasgow based, family run record label Lucky Me also ran a similar campaign in which a track a day was given away in the run up to Christmas. This idea lead Luck Me to become a feature in Creative Review and in turn the word was spread via print and digital.

Not only do these ideas embrace the Christmas spirit and show a fun- loving and personable side of the company, it gives the company the perfect opportunity to show its customers their valued and entices consumers to make return visits.