Bryan a banner!...

This is very clever [and funny]! Kudos to the BDDO team!

'arry Potter the last outpost?

I think we need another Harry Potter series! Its the first time since my teens [and Nancy Drew or Famous Five] that I have even heard kids [and some adults] taking about reading.....[not to mention queuing for books!]
The problem with reading in the world we now live in is time and the other choices people now have. Who has time... there are so many other ways to spend your time, if you are a teen or tween... TV, mobiles [MXIT], Facebook and XBOX/Playstation to name a few... Why read!? Its sad really.
Reading in my view really does work a different place in your brain. I hope that some other brilliant author comes along and gets kids reading again, it would be really regrettable if Harry Potter becomes the last outpost for reading worldwide....

Mr Price...not so nice

Mr Price has always been one of those shining SA brands for me…. You know the ones that you are extremely loyal 2! That is until my recent experience.
I recently had to purchase office furniture and someone suggested I try Mr Price Home, the ‘Super Store’ on corner of Hendrik Potgieter & Nic Diedrichs Boulevard Wilgeheuwel On The West Rand. Very far for a Sandton chick [had to take my passport] but they apparently had loads of stock! Something Sandton was clearly fresh out of…..

To cut a very long story [not so] short :
1. I spent over R20 000 on office equipment. A LOT of money for a small company (money I don’t just have lying around). Even with that large spend, I still had to actually ask them for a discount and I was made to wait for ages for managers approval [felt a little like they were doing me a massive favour].
2. Whilst I was waiting, two of their staff asked me for jobs?? Slightly unprofessional.
3. I requested delivery and was told it would cost me R150….. ON a R24000 bill you would think delivery would be free?? That also felt like a tall order, especially when I threw a curve ball and asked for it to be delivered on the day that suited me not the store! Eish!
4. I paid in full [had a few issues with the credit card payment courtesy of my other ‘favourite’ Standard Bank]. That was finally sorted.
5. I got a call the next day from a staff member ON MY CELL for a job. So much for privacy!
6. 4 days later I called to check that my delivery was on track and I was told they would not be delivering on ‘my’ day as they have stock take? I asked to speak to the abrasive manager and she informed me of that same fact. To which my response was that does not suit me and why I was not told that when I chose the day. The manager promised to come back to me…. A whole day later but I beat them 2 it.
7. The delivery arrived, once again I was made to feel like they were doing me a favour by telling me that I was the only one that was getting a delivery on that day!
8. The delivery was wrong [partly my fault for not checking up on a bunch of people that clearly did not know their head from there backside]. I had checked the ‘shopping’ list but it was so long and I was so irritated I rushed stupidly. I was missing my 5 office chairs.
9. I called about the chairs, luckily they still had them [I was very irritated now]. I chose to go into the store to collect them just to be safe. I got there, they were not ready [surprise surprise!]. Lots of people standing around holding up counters and a few more doing a stock take.
10. I once again asked for a measly 5 % discount on the chairs as it was part of the original order. I had already been inconvenienced by driving back to get something that should have been delivered if they had of listened and included everything in the beginning! The cashier simply laughed and ignored me. Ringing up the chairs without a thought. I told him I was not joking. He then looked and some other guy, spoke in Sotho and the guy ran off. [My thought at this time was how sadly disempowered these people were]. 15 min later the guy comes back and has no news. The floor manager [not the real ‘big’ manager] just says no discount, to quote him “we only give discount for orders over R15 000” [something that was NEVER offered to me on my first purchase!]. At this point I am so mad I just paid the R3500 to get out of the Store.
11. Whilst this is going on the floor manager speaks to at least 3 customers making their stock take day the customer’s problem. I am fascinated at how low the Mr Price Home customers are on the food chain.

So what has happened? The staff and customers seem to be a means to an end and although the store concept is great, that particular store seems to be totally mismanaged. Maybe this BIG CORPORATE Mr Price no longer cares for its people or its customers [shareholder value now hey guys]? Well good luck on that one without customers you ain’t got no value. There is such potential for Mr P to support small business in the country BUT I will not be referring anyone to them. I realized it just takes one experience [ok a very expensive one for me] to change the fragile face of brand perceptions. I dont think Mr Price will be placing a [red] cap in hand anytime soon for their customers....

So sad and damn frustrating.

[Update:17 Sept- I subsequently found out I should have been offered the option of assembly which infuriated me even more -but briefly, after a call to the Head Office, I managed to get this whole mess sorted. Today Mr Price sent people to assemble the furniture. I am thankful, but saddened that such a fuss had to happen before any real service was given]

Get your gnashes into Tashas!

OK, it really is not often that I punt a place [Vida being the one exception] BUT I have to say for brand consistancy Tashas Cafe in Atholl Square [Sandton-Jozi] is so ahead it is scary......

The food is the freshest around and no matter what you order you are sure to get a great good quality meal, and the service is very good. I realise that some see it as a place to 'be seen' but I can tell you that it is also a place to see! If you are a people watcher Tashas is heaven!

If anyone has been, please give me your feedback...I have been over 40 times this year and had only one marginal service issue...nothing that I would not go back for! Give it a bash!

Shuttleworth's a cool geek..

Ok… I know I have been scarce on the blogging front!!! Sorry.. had a really busy 2 weeks…..
I was fortunate enough to meet Mark Shuttleworth recently. I have to say I was impressed. Not sure what I expected [from a famous oke], but in reality he seems to be a friendly normal dude who is more interested in you than talking about himself! He was keen to share what he had learnt in life and I thought I would share some of what he chatted about. He recons that curiosity and perseverance are 2 traits he has seen in successful people he has met worldwide. He mentioned that from space the earth looks very populated and the atmosphere very fragile. [SO BLOODY LOOK AFTER IT..!] He still professes to be a ‘geek’… lets be honest geeks are cool nowdays! His favourite magazines are The Economist and some other science mag I have never heard of…….
He wants to make heros out of talented SA kids by inspiring them and showing them the importance of maths, sciences and technology using his brand HIP2B2 …..

So in a nutshell this is one cool ‘geek’ and the best thing is he is South African!!!

Mac or PC funny...

I thought this was very funny... I am such a MAC fan that I could not resist! Plus seeing white okes with no rhythm trying to rap is even funnier!!

Media fois gras is coming...

About 2 months ago I went to a ‘Reshaping Media’ conference where there was a discussion about how people’s cell phones are the next BIG advertising platform for agencies/companies. I queried the legality of sending ‘spam’ [otherwise known as unsolicited crap] to people’s phones, noting this was a step 2 far, as a phone is really personal. The ‘expert’ replied - as long as there is an ‘unsubscribe option’ it is not illegal. NOW today I got a multimedia MMS (‘song and dance’) spam message from a company called Mahindra Finanicial Services. This message ‘presentation’ told me about a product I WOULD NEVER buy, showing ugly cars and urged me to visit a dealership. I was given an option to ‘unsubscribe’ at a 50c fee!!!!!

So welcome to the future then…. FORCED MEDIA [media foie gras- yuk]. We will have to pay for rejecting messages that were illegally sent to our phones…. Huh?
I certainly never gave this company the right to send me such a large file and the very, very LAST THING I would ever do is ‘visit a dealership’. A REAL branding faux pax.

I get the same feeling that I think I would get if someone robbed my house. Violated and very angry. So how did they get my number? The cell phone companies would clearly benefit from passing on my details (just add up all the 50c unsubscribe responses they are going to get!). But who knows! Our details are being traded freely for large sums of cash without our permission daily - cant see how that is legal. CHARMING.

The most ironic part of all [and the biggest slap in the face] is one line in the MMS …. “Mahindra subscribes to strict anti-spamming policies. In you do not want to receive any further MMS messages from us, please SMS the words ‘OPTOUT 1658’ to 31234. SMS charged at R0.50.” I rest my case.

Do you know...Zola 7?

Do you know Zola and his show Zola 7. If not, I would suggest you check your passport. Are you in fact South African? Where have you been?

Zola is one of my biggest heros, I have spent many hours crying over his show [in a feel good kinda way… and yes I am a chick and I do cry]. In fact he falls just behind Madiba in a healthy 2nd place on the herometer. He ain’t new, BUT I have noticed that when I have mentioned his name in conversation to a few people, they give me an odd side-on blank stare. It is interesting to note that most of the ‘confused’ happen to be white. I am simply fascinated by how siloed our society still is.

Here is a guy that is [mega cool] and is seen by the poorer households as a modern day Robin Hood and lets face it, we have A LOT of poor people in this country. It has been said that in the popularity/awareness stakes [amongst LSM 1-5] he is 2nd only to Madiba. Almost EVERYONE in the country seems to know who he is, he has built one of the strongest personal brands in SA!

So this post is a wake up call to ANYONE that has not heard of Zola and his show Zola 7. A simple search on Google for Zola 7 will yield a staggering 1.8+million results! Not bad for a guy from the Ghetto. We need more hero examples like him in SA! Real rags to riches!

So turn on your tele and check out the work he does. Zola 7 on SABC 1 at 20h30 – Thursday evening.

Murky water...!

Being in Durbs today it is interesting to see how Shark Fever has hit! Originally being from Durban, I am trying to get into the swing of things, but I am not really sure that I would go as far as branding myself in the Sharks gear! When I was younger [hard to remember way back then] I am sure it was NOT COOL to wear rugby sports gear [as a girl anyway]….. or if in fact it even existed?! [Didn’t everyone just wear black and white?]
It seems that whilst I've been growing up [in a sports slumber], a massive marketing industry has grown with anything from shoes, bedding, toys and clothing [for all ages/genders] with the shark logo on it …..AND it actually seems to be COOL to buy! How American!

It just made me ponder on the age-old issue of brand loyalty. In the end it could be that I am simply just not a BIG rugby fan… or heavens forbid… a Sharks fan! Eish! [did I actually write that?]! Rest assured however, if I had to support SA in anything [World Cup etc] I would join the gang for sure with some kind of CLEVER SA kit! Oh well, it will be interesting to watch the game [not a normal occurrence] and see how many people have parceled themselves as Sharks (or Bulls) for that matter! I ain’t gonna be one…. the thought makes me feel itchy somehow!