B-Log

Screaming out loud. This offline promotion inside the store leading you to an online desitnation is first of the kind I have seen in a fashion store in Dubai. The repeated “FaceBook” text demanded my immediate attention while paying at the counter. It made me search Facebook out of curosity, if nothing else. I know such ventures are common for many organisations on social networking sites, but for the first time I have come across something which deals with a brand/organisation I have been a customer of. Therefore it deserves a post! :)

The group promises to provide an interactive platform to showcase latest collections, provide interaction between the management/ staff and the customers.

What saves them is the backend cost of building the website and creating features and sections for interaction. Their image becomes more casual and approchable, like that of just another friend on your list. The group would become more searchable, gather word of mouth and attention through mini-feeds. Further the group would get database of their customers.

It would be interesting to know that the sign and the group specifically speaks about only one branch store. I am guessing it’s due to some management issues.
More activity needs to be created around there and better pictures to showcase the collections. The current images are not at all appealing. Plus better visual and other channels of promotion can be used.

Now what could be the next platform for such brand building and interactions….
Hmmm…

Fotu is up and running again!
Do check it out and drop in your expert comments and critques!

Fiction becomes fact here.
The much talked about(not as much as Burj Dubai or the World though) air conditioned bus-stops shelters have arrived. And I saw one up close and personal in an almost running state today. A bit late but better late than never!
Waiting for the bus in the scorching sun would not be a reasonable excuse anymore.
Though finding a space inside these could soon become one. Each air-conditioned bus shelter would accomodate 14 people - 8 sitting and 6 standing. And given the way we are, if it is filled only with only Indians, 40 can easily be squished inside!

The shelters would earn revenue for the Road Transport Authority through advertisements inside and outside the shelters along with vending machines. They are also expected to have ATM’s. I have seen a lot of them have 3 different kind of waste bins besides them which look like pin ball machines. I think they might start charging ppl a Dh. or so soon to enter. Who knows!

It would also be insteresting to see a system which has been proposed in Abu Dhabi to track school buses to help worried and concerned parents(which all of them are). A tracking system using mobile towers and SMS would provide information about the location of the bus, thus making it possible for the parents to know that their kid is on his way and where exactly is he starving in the daily afternoon traffic jams.

It would be interesting to see this getting included in the new bus shelters. People could be informed about the expected time of arrival of the next bus. A feedback system can also be incorporated through an automated kiosk. Weather information, pollution levels, etc. could be shown. It would be an interesting place to take public surveys. And given the presence of bus shelters and their proximity to people in the city, several new uses could be thought of.

P.S. My wait for airconditioned footpaths starts hereon.

After using earbuds for a long time to listen to stuff on my phone, today I tried on a pair of headphones recently discarded by my dad. I was under an impression that my earbuds were delivering excellent quality of sound for what it had costed me. But these headphones for a lesser amount actually rendered a much better audio quality.

And this feeling of trying them on and the intial thrill and kick of experiencing this superior audio quality is just so overwhelming.

Wouldn’t it be great to something that when used, can render an experience similar to that. A service or product that renders a nicer, better experience everytime you use it with a certain familiarity.

There would be some examples of that in the cyber space but what about real life?

Have you seen those ads of fairness creams where they give away free shade-cards for you to gauge the improvement in ur skin tone?
That’s not the change of the color of your skin you are measuring there. It’s the rise of your self-esteem and social status.

Staying in a city like this, feels like everybody has those cards over here. They do not use it for themselves, but to judge how well they should treat you.
It’s like those movie ratings you look at to decide whether to watch the movie or not. And these rating are not even given according to performance, in this case. It’s been given outta whim, massive compound superiority/ inferiority complexes or just the basic human nature of differentiating itself from others.

There’s a constant you vs. me here when two nationalities interact. And victory takes place just by the way the person looks. From his descent. From his nationality.

Why can’t this place be more about “Us”? Why can’t this place be more human?

This is a rant because of a fight I had with the staff at a supposedly hi-class store here, when I was clearly mistreated and shouted upon because I am an Indian. Not to worry… I put them in their place.