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It’s a brilliant marketing campaign to say the least. But what makes it so brilliant (besides being launched during New York’s Fashion Week) is that it functions on all cylinders (why not continue the metaphor–taxis, cars….cylinders, get it?).

For one
A variation on the yellow theme by Narciso Rodriguez FW 09.

they’ve used a color, yellow, that exemplifies optimism in a time that screams for it (so did designer Isabel Toledo in the design she made for Michelle Obama to wear on Inauguration Day, although Mrs. Obama’s dress color was a variation on yellow and called lemongrass).

For two, Pantone proclaimed mimosa yellow the color of the year. Thirdly, VIPPS Yellow Taxi reveres one of this country’s greatest and more memorable assets, New York City Taxi Cabs, in style and in their video that borders on perfection and finally the collection itself is an ingeniously crafted modern take on a classic and timeless design.

What’s not to like, love, crave and/or admire? Heck, I even feel better just blogging about it.

VIPP’s Limited Edition Yellow Taxi can be found at The Conran Shop and Giggle in New York as well as many others around not only the United States but also around the world ( check VIPP’s website for the shops in the country you live in).

I will also say, as a final tribute to an incredibly well thought out marketing campaign, VIPP is an excellent example of marketing on a global basis. Their website works easily and for all countries (product found in all countries) but this campaign actually speaks to a region they are hoping to build upon and in, the USA, that will no doubt appeal to other countries just by virtue of its nostalgia relating to the iconic New York City Taxi Cab.

Wish I’d thought of it! (I’ve written more about Yellow Taxi on 2modern’s design talk blog too).

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Donna Karan’s FW 09 collection makes the female silhouette powerful, sexy, and a winner. It says, “I am here to save your company.” She’s even got the looks that will work for celebrating the black ink in the first quarter of hiring her!

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so give me some space here to make my prognostications. I’m no Cathy Horyn of the New York Times, or Suzy Menkes of the International Herald Tribune, but Donna Karan is speaking to me loud and clear for FW 09. Marc Jacobs fell on his face but made his point with his eighties revue which should only be viewed in hindsight along with the winner in his Marc by Marc collection.

One says “Go Ahead, stay stuck in your 80’s spending spree mindset” (that would be the Marc Jacobs collection) while the other, Marc by Marc said “Or you can be in today, get out of denial, know where you are and by the way, I can dress you for that mindset too.” The Marc Jacobs 80’s working girl is everything Donna Karan’s working girl isn’t so I would think the kiss of death for next fall. But the Marc by Marc most definitely has a Donna Karan woman wanna be in the lot (note to employer, here is your future CEO and CFO).

I’ve had my criticisms of Marc Jacobs the man over time, but this season’s collections make me laugh, a little, and underneath be impressed by his message. Or am I giving him too much credit? You be the judge.

Marc Jacobs takes a too long look back at a decade we all want to (by now) forget: the eighties.

Marc by Marc shows us how we can spring for some cool duds for the fall and be humble about it at the same time.

Haven’t seen Ralph Lauren, Michael Kors or Liz Claiborne yet. And I’m waiting with baited breath for them; this trio is emblematic (or should be) of where fashion will be next fall….to the mainstream anyway and to the women who tend to spend money on fashion, recession or not.

What willll they do?

P.S. Note to Marc’s clubbing girl….go for the Betsey Johnson, she’s more of a 21st century 80’s girl.

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And can bring out the best or the worst in us. I’ve seen both. Heck, I’ve been both.

Studying the atmosphere of our culture right now is akin to reading tea leaves. There isn’t a science that exists that can predict exactly what is going to happen. And, Ah, there’s the rub.

Perhaps it’s time to change the science then. We must be in the throes of change to such historic proportions that we mere mortals really can’t grasp what that change will look like until we get there. Economists we all know, while well meaning, usually get it wrong, so anything they say we pretty much have to take with a grain of salt and balance it with some hardcore street reality. Plus there is so much political bickering, it is hard to tell the good guys from the bad guys, except for the obvious of course (I say with tongue firmly planted in cheek).

Looks to me like we, while changing from an industrialized nation into an information society, are now morphing into what a technology driven market looks like: and for the moment, that ain’t pretty cause we aren’t all there yet and even the ones who think they are, just aren’t that good at it yet.

Plus, that technology driven marketplace doesn’t take into consideration the human condition. Not really. Thankfully. So in some ways while this change or morph is taking place, it’s akin to being in the days of the Wild Wild West: no law, no order, lots of fear, but in some cases leaders begin to emerge who are brave and strong and smart and come with such daring do that they can lead us across the unknown to a life that holds the promise of a better future.

I can’t name those few brave and strong and smart daring do individuals as yet myself, but they will emerge. And that is what this technology driven market doesn’t account for: those rogue warriors who can and do infact act against all the models expectations to help create or drive the rest of us to a landscape that will put us back in charge of our own lives again. And that place is not Utopia.
And suddenly the Jetsons aren’t looking so good either. I believe we are past those childish notions. Suddenly Anna Wintour’s Metropolitan Museum’s Costume Institute “Super Heroes” gala seems prescient.

Cause this period is all too much like the Matrix….that step past Blade Runner (for all of you film buffs). Hopefully we don’t all wake up and find out we’ve been asleep in vats plugged into a make believe existence controlled by “the man.”

Oh, too late. Well, you know what they say, the first step towards healing is awareness. And I’d say we are all more aware than any of us would like to be at this point in history. Even if we don’t have the exact answer for the future, we at least are awake to our realities. That’s the good news.

Top image: (”Heroics” Artwork by redpennant)

Middle Image: The Matrix movie poster.

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The New York Times has delved deeper into the topic with several experts weighing in to help generate discussion. See Room for Debate: That ‘Buy American’ Provision.

Hint:
(The answers could lie somewhere in the comments section).

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Personally I consider this a key piece to the stimulus package before Congress. Yesterday, coincidentally, the St. Louis Post Dispatch wrote a great article on how the stimulus package covers this provision and what the possible upside and downside is to the issue. You can find it here. I found all of the comments to be pretty illuminating, too, when you consider that these mostly are comments coming right out of the heartland–where manufacturing has been hit square between the eyes and there are little to none when it comes to actual factories–more like warehouses or distribution centers instead with a sales and marketing team, one product manager, one marketing manager (just lean, very lean).

When speaking to people who are actually making product here in the United States, the thought process is much the same….the cost of the product adds some 25-50% to the price and unless there is a really good reason for paying that, why do it? Wal-Mart has made importing from China a national past-time and for other stores to compete they’ve done the same thing.

As for cars, when you speak to a Lexus owner who also happens to own a GM Trailblazer their experience in customer service is the difference between night and day. With the Lexus they get letters for recalls and the car dealer replaces without any fuss. With the GM dealer it’s more up to the owner to chase down the defect as commonplace and demand, by going over the dealer’s head, that the part be replaced.

Right now I am in fact working on getting product made in America and distributing it not only here in the states but to export it. In the process I am finding that while the product itself is a wonderful idea and people love it, they need the pricing to be more competitive. As told by the above referenced person from industry, buyer’s at the retail stores could care less whether it was Made in America or not. They need for it to be competitive price wise in the market.

To me, now that I have gone through some of the fundamentals of getting a Made In America product off the ground, I also know that government is going to have to subsidize me somewhere along the line in order for me to be competitive: either in health care to offer better benefits and to where I am not footing that bill when trying to attract good people and definitely tax incentives where in hiring it is costing me less to hire those people, plus something that will help me get it started until I can create good economies of scale to the point where I am able to be just as competitive as product coming in from China and where the quality is, without question, better and/or there is a unique feature to the product that can’t be easily knocked off by the Chinese or some other already bigger established manufacturer who doesn’t have the same moral aptitude I have. That said, I am putting a patent on the product (just in case).

Frankly, from where I sit, it is all doable right here in the heartland, only if I get some help from the government. While I plan to pay people a decent living and offer benefits, it will NOT be the kind of wages some of these factory workers have been making from GM and Chrysler: the number I’ve heard circulated has been around $90,000.00 for some of those factory positions. Not bad work, if you can get it.

Give me a break….a large break. Oh, and my factory will not be union since I will offer benefits and safety out of my own moral obligation to the universe. I think of it as karma. Like Starbucks, if I think about the people I hire and know I am making an investment in them as well as my product and my business then I figure the sky’s the limit as long as none of us get too complacent.

Finally, I think I’ll just avoid selling to Wal-Mart. Funny how the chickens have all come home to roost. In the beginning, Wal-Mart was the go to guy for Made In America product.

Now when you have a Made in America product, you want to stay away from them. Ironic if it weren’t so sad.

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I’ve been busy this morning calling and sending emails to the Senators of Missouri, both Republican and Democrat, to give them my two cents worth as far as the stimulus package is concerned.

I encourage all of you out there to do the same thing. As long as this is being done, let’s be sure it’s done to effect since not only is the United States as a whole counting on us, so is the rest of the world.

This is the time for all good men and women to come to the aid of their country…..and call and/or send an email to your senators to tell them what or how YOU think the stimulus needs to work.

I’ve kept up plenty with the papers and how THEY think it needs to be done. Don’t think they are wasting their pen and ink and the time…they’re putting their two cents worth out there into the public to let you know how they want it spent with unbelieveable authority I might add, but now it’s your time.

We count, you count, at no other time in history has the voice of America needed to be heard as much as it does now. While the Presidential election this year meant every vote was needed and counted so too does what and how Congress plans to implement this gynormous stimulus package (although, now I’ve heard it called a recovery package?). I’ve never seen so many people without the background, without the expertise, without the knowledge working on such an important piece of legislation in my life. If we don’t give our feedback now, when it is so very needed, then when will we? After? After its passed and our country remains broken, unfixed and our economy in further decline?

Buck up America. Stand up, call and email your senators what you think and what you know, and help put this country back on track. Do it now, do it tonight, do it this afternoon before they stop answering phones.

Please let your Congressmen and women know what you want. They are here to represent you not themselves. There will be another election cycle in two years, you can bet if they don’t hear you now, they’ll hear you then!

Use this link to find your senator/s to contact him/her/them. Trust me, you’ll feel a lot better for having done so. I know I do.

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