brie de meaux ?

Have you said Brie de Maux or Brie de Meaux ? 

"Maux" my be translated in French by "troubles" which is not quite the kind of thing you expect from a cheese. The Brie de Meaux, is said to be the king of all cheeses since 1815 (unlike being the best ...;) during the Vienna Congress directed by Talleyrand. Anecdote,  the cheese nominated King of all Cheeses during the Congress where coming from the farm of Mr. Courtier, mayor of Villeroy at that time ...

Photo shot in a Carrefour hypermarkets in Medellin, Colombia. That's an explanation for the price of 30500 Colombian pesos per kilo (10,4 euros / kilo).

Store names & Kaufman's store pics

I've always been amazed by the lack of imagination of (most) retailers when choosing a name for their stores (at least in France). Basically, we may find 2 sources of inspiration : location of the first store and founder's name. For example, Carrefour is the name of the building where was installed the first supermarket in Annecy. Auchan is also coming from the name of the place where was located the first store (lieux dit les Hauts Champs). 

As for founder's name some example from the most famous are Leclerc, Darty, Aldi or Wal-Mart. 

Here's a strange collection of Kaufman's [kawf-muhn] store pictures. A bit of a pleonasm when you know that Kaufmann means, in German, merchandiser...

Trader Joe's clients

I visited this summer Trader Joe's for the first time. It's really a unique concept, with special mention to the in-store communication and private label range development.

Belonging to Aldi Group, the company shares the parent company the cult of secret. To know more about Trader Joe's, I suggest the book by Len Lewis, The Trader Joe's Adventure (a book recommended by Jean-Pierre). I particularly liked the description of the target client made of aphorisms :

• Out-of-work PhD's
• College professors who drive old Volvos
• Overeducated and underpaid
• People with champagne tastes and beer incomes
• Yuppie epicures in search of Tasmanian feta cheese

Here's a video shot a sunday afternoon. A lot of clients !!

Have you said Sheraton Hotel ?...

... or Cheraton ? Well maybe confusing but as the avdvertisement says at the entrance of the "Palace", you can find hot water 24 hours a day. Not a bad idea when you travel in Boyaca, Colombia where days may be very cold.

Great souvenir of a famous weekend with beloved friends !

Vintage ad #2

Here are a second part of my preferred ads from worth1000 contest.

Vintage Ad contest on worth1000.com

Worth1000.com is a cool website made for designers and others Photoshop lovers. Contests are organized between members on such topics as "Final Photo, the last pic you'll ever take" or "Alternate history, changing historical moments". Some are really great of inspiration and goes beyond reality.

I've chosen a pick of one of my favourite series, the Vintage Ad contest. Or how an actual product would have been promoted some years back. Enjoy ! 

Vivre et réussir son expatriation, 7 tips in (a less than) 7 minutes video

Henri Kaufman (my dad) and his pal PPC are the creators of "How to - les videos du succès". On a weekly basis they present here a video (in French) on such different topics as "How to say I love you", "Order your desk" (or better said, how to convince yourself to not ordering your desk...;), or "How to become an excellent photograph". More than 20 videos released up to date. 

The tips are out of the box thoughts and make you think twice about a subject you believe have deep knowledge in. Remarkable point,  all videos are structured in the same way : 7 advices / tips given in (less than) 7 minutes.

This week, I'm interviewed about how to live a successful expatriation. Enjoy !

Banana display in Shanghai and Ráquira, Colombia

Bananas are one of the best selling item in Fruits & Vegetables in the world. It's the fourth most widely consumed food.  The price of the banana is very sensitive for customers and it's a strong builder of Price Image among retailers.  

In France, the cheapest price you can find in supermarkets is about 0,99 €/kg. 

I shot this photo in a street market in Shanghaï and liked very much the display. 

But my best ever banana display was found in Ráquira, Colombia. Ráquira is a small village located 3 hours from Bogota and (not so) welknown for his pottery and handicraft. It's so lost than eve Google maps can hardly find an itinerary from Bogota...

Bananas are presented in a unique and very artistic way ! Let me know if you have ever shot bananas in a market. 

Calculators in Beijing and Las Vegas

I shot this photo in a Carrefour in Beijing and was particularly amazed by the range of choice and the quantity offered. Something strange for an occidental, no ?

Some months after, in Las Vegas, during International Consumer Electronic Show, Sharp  presented one of the ancestor of calculators, the EL-805. The model exhibited, amongst the top notch technology devices, was the first calculator ever, pocket sized with LCD (Liquid Crystal Display). It has been released in 1973. I liked very much the nice (and useful ?) strap that emphasizes the pocket size innovation...

Magic and Psychology... plus a strange coincidence

The practice of Magic boosts confidence and self discipline says Pr Richard Wiseman  (Hertfordshire University in UK) in a recent study. The study of Magic is strongly recommended for children from 8 years and scientific studies show that the study of Magic to be much more useful than classic classes. As any magicians know, Magic requires a lot of self discipline to learn the art of astonishing people. You also need to understand deeply how others people think and react. You need to develop a certain sensitivity to people's reaction and learn how to deceive them. At last, for young people, it's an excellent way to interact with their friends and relatives and help them to socialize.

As a cardmagic amateur (and almost daily pratician) I fully subscribe to these findings and support magic classes. Indeed, the French Lycée of Bogota, Colombia is offering Magic workshops for pupils from 8 to 10 years, courses given by the excellent Richard Sarmiento (best known as Mago Richard), one of the best Colombian magician and surely the best teacher and lover of Magic of Colombia. My daughter Madeleine had the opportunity to take the classes and was delighted by the experience.

The amazing coincidence came last friday when my beloved wife bought for the first time of her life the Daily Mail, without any explicit reason. She discovered a short note about magic and called my attention. The incredible is that the article was about Richard Wiseman, the author of Quirkology, the book I was actually reading !!

Nice display of a broom promo

I liked very much the display of this broom promotion, photo shot in a Carrefour supercenter, in Buenos Aires Argentina.

Not very productive for human resources but the "m

ass" effect, undoubtedly, is very effective !

If you find interesting or nice displays of products, do not hesitate to send me your photos to be posted.

Quote of the day in London subway

I was surprised, when I was in London some months ago to see this display in the St Pancras subway station.

A direct and simple way to interconnect with people, who stopped to read the thought of the day (perhaps also a get food for thought...). Direct and effective.

Red meat is more polluting than cars !

Some days ago I've posted a note "Should we eat strawberries in winter" with a conclusion that, regarding CO2 criteria, it's much better to avoid to eat red meat or dairy products than vegetables even if thought hey have traveled thousands of kilometers from the field to your plate.

As Cecilia noted in her comment to my post "red meat consumption is one of the biggest contributor to the greenhouse effect... and not for their transport but rather by cattle's own digestion... methane is 12 times more polluting than CO2 !"  

The Nobel Prize, Dr Rajendra Pachauri,  chair of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, had the same comment - related in The Guardian - that red meat accounts for 1/5th of the total global  greenhouse gas emission. Cow's flatulence methane is said to be 23 times more polluting than car's dioxide carbon !

Pricing puzzle : Why do ice creams are sold the same price ?

Price discrimination is the norm in the modern retail. Promotions, sales, happy hour, coupons, loyalty cards, bulk prices, etc... all these techniques consider charging different prices to customers upon the quantity sold or the time they buy. 

The art of pricing is also the ability to define the higher possible price to maximize turnover without discouraging clients. This is key to any successful retailer. 

Contrary to that law, I've always been puzzled by this consideration : why do ice cream stores charge the same price for all flavors ? It seems to be the case in any store I could see in the world (as an amateur, I've seen a lot !). Even if chocolate or vanilla are much more popular than any other or even if some flavors (like vanilla or chocolate) cost much cheaper to produce than exotic ones (like "Nuit de Chine", a specialty of Martine Lambert made of Szechuan pepper and bitter chocolate), the pricing is based on the number of balls. 

In supermarkets, it's not the case and depending on your taste you can spend 3 £ for Tesco Chocolate & Hazelnut ice cream or 1,99 £ for the Chocolatino (both in 1 ltr). The ease of price calculation maybe one possible explanation, but it could be solved with 2 or 3 range of prices. If you have a possible explanation are welcomed to bring coments !

ps1 : My own ice creams ranking:

1) Berthillon, Paris. The only ice cream store shut during summer

2) Persicco, Buenos Aires. For his Dulce de leche / raspberry cone

3) Martine Lambert, Trouville. Any fruit sorbet is a splendor

4) Sergio Dondoli, San Gimignano. Elected world champion !!

ps2 : I shot the upper photo in Paipa, Colombia, the other one in Firenze, Tuscany last week. The Melone / Apricot was particulary gorgeous !

The raining promo in Bogota

Bogota is a wet city. On average, it's pouring rain 96 mm per year. You can compare this stat with average precipitation of New York (47mm), Paris (64mm) or Beijing (65mm). For weather base comparisons, look here. 

As salesmen can experiment everyday, rain is not favorable of good sales, unless for malls (and umbrella sales !).

The Biblos bookstore is one of my favourite bookstore in Bogota. Located in the Zona Rosa, it has an interesting assortment of books and get some international newspaper. To take oportunity of the rainy days, Biblos bookstore offers special discount of 5% on all books and 10% on coffee, meanwhile it's raining ! It rains so often in Bogota that this promo may be considered as every day low price...

Alpina's Impacting shelf exposition

This impactant shelf exposition of the new Alpina pasta products (since 1844...!) was shot in the Intermarché of Praz sur Arly. 

A different packaging and and a complete range of products make all the difference.

 

Thank's to Philippe Larcher for his contribution.

Should we ban strawberries in winter ?

Some retailers like Casino in France begin to communicate on the packaging of their Private Label the greenhouse gas balance. Beyond the Marketing effect, it raises some questions for the consumers. It surely may afraid a bit more shoppers and if it’s used to compare products in shelf, anyone must be sure of the method used to measure it. Imported products are on focus for the transportation impact on CO2. Some groups are flourishing in the west coast of the US, the locavores, which purpose is to "eat locally" so they only consume food produced in an area of 100 miles around San Francisco bay.

But nothing is simple and we may perhaps be once more victim of a counterintuitive situation. A study from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of the Carnegie Mellon University (here) demonstrates that even carried on large distance (mean of 6700 km) transportation represents only 11% of greenhouse gas emissions. In fact 83% of the gases has to be attributed to production mode.

By the way, and that’s even more interesting, the kind of food shows very disparate rate of gas balance. Indeed, red meat is around 150% more greenhouse gas intensive than chicken or fish. Conclusion, to save the planet, it’s more efficient to switch your diet, reducing the consumption of red meat and dairy products than quiting strawberries in winter…

Instinct vs. "Super Crunching" ?

Google is changing our lives. How ? By turning data into profits. His data mining and capacity to deal and sort out conclusions that makes sense from terabytes of data has changed everything. We’re switching from the power of the experts and experience to the realm of standard deviation and logarithmic formulas (formulas better kept that Coca-Cola recipe !).

Ian Ayres book’s describes amazing examples of application of “Super Crunching” in fields as different as Wine testing (predict future value of Bordeaux vintage upon average summer temperature and rain level during harvest) or Casinos. I was impressed to learn that Harrah’s Casinos predict how much his gamblers are ready to lose and still enjoy the game to be able to come back. The “pain point” of the gambler is estimated with information like age, sex and wealth through his zip code area. Passed the determined "pain point" or maximum estimated loss, a gift / invitation is gently offered to the selected customer ! How to transform a big loss in enjoyable experience...

The interesting point with Super Crunchers is the way it describes the switch between instinct or experience vs. quantitative analysis to predict outcomes.

Transposed to the Retail area, it seems that defining the product to be promoted is, in most cases, more the result of an opportunity rather than a deep analysis of its profitability, cannibalization effect or capacity to attract new customers.For example, this photo shot in Carrefour where all kind of shampoo are in promo in the same time.

Coincidence : the "No" quote by Richard Avedon

I'm always troubled with coincidence, as I'm fascinated by randomness. Even though most improbable coincidences likely result from play of random events, we always try to look for a hidden meaning...

It happened some days ago, I was visiting the superb exhibition of Richard Avedon in the Musée du Jeu de Paume in Paris and got stuck by a quote from the photographer published between the 1st and 2nd floor :


"I've worked out a series of no's. No to exquisite light, no to apparent compositions, no to the seduction of poses or narrative. And all these no's force me to the "yes." I have a white background. I have the person I'm interested in and the thing that happens between us."



Just a few days after, reading Small is the New Big by Seth Godin (a reallllly great book I strongly recommend), page 152, appears the quote by Avedon. Second shock. That's it !

As S. Godin wrote, and you, do YOU have a NO ?

© 2008 the Richard Avedon Foundation

When more is too much !

I shot these "gorgeous" photos in Mexico, maybe in a Comercial Mexicana supercenter. Beans is a traditional meal in the Mexican gastronomy and may sometimes appear a bit strange for the European palate. I should say that just the view of the pics keeps out hungriness !

Those interested in that kind of stuff may find much more recipes here. (take care !)