sona khosla

Being German is at the core of the VW brand. Besides massive mugs of beer, lederhosen and perfectly browned schnitzel, when you think about what it means to be German, you can’t help but think of German engineering. Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Porsche, and perhaps the most accessible of all of the German auto brands, Volkswagen which translates into “the people’s car” (Volks = people, Wagen = car).

My new 2010 VW Golf Wagon TDI is an almost perfect example of being German. So many things are right: value, ride, comfort, convenience, fuel mileage, being green. 

The 2010 VW Golf Wagon TDI anticipates my needs
My new car correctly anticipates most of my needs. It’s got a number of smart solutions that make my driving experience more fun and comfortable. For example:

• All the conveniences at the right price. Bluetooth, iPod jack, touch screen, satellite radio, panoramic moonroof, 240 lbs-ft of torque and fuel mileage all for well under 35K CAD. VW is a brand that knows its drivers well: their discerning buyers want German engineering and European styling at a Japanese price.
• The fuel mileage is killer. I went on a road trip and then drove around the city for 2 weeks before I filled up. That amounted to 950 km on a 45 CAD tank of fuel. I’m spending more time on the road and less time at the pumps.
• The iPod hook-up is neatly tucked in the front console. It’s hidden unlike most iPod jacks which is perfect for keeping thieves at bay. It also charges the battery which keeps the tunes playing as long as I need ‘em. 
• The moonroof is massive and makes the car feel a lot bigger than it is. Trust me, driving in the backseat on a long road trip is not something I’m going to complain about. The views are incredible from the double-panel panoramic moonroof.
• The heated seats are the hottest I’ve had. I’m the girl who uses heated seats year-round. These ones get so hot I actually feel like I’m being grilled a little bit.

Where German perfection ends with the 2010 VW Golf TDI Wagon
Here’s where smart gets stupid: Some of the smart solutions actually create more work and discomfort for the driver. Here are two examples:

• When I start driving, all of the doors automatically lock. This is a convenient safety feature. The problem is that when I stop the car, only the driver’s door unlocks. That means all of my stuff in the back is still locked in the car. What if I had a kid? My kid would be locked in my car. What’s worse is that I can’t change this setting (I’ve tried!). Small thing, but that’s the whole point. They decided that automatic door locking is convenient, but 50% of the time, it’s not.
• When I drive faster, the volume on the audio system also increases. This is a comfort feature that means I never have to adjust the volume while I’m driving. The problem is that my audio system gets louder and louder as I drive faster and faster. At the end of the day, when I get back in my car and turn the ignition on, the music literally screams at me. So I quickly crank the music down. Then as soon as I put my car in gear, the volume adjusts for speed again. So now the music is way too soft. I can just see what happened: VW decided that as soon as you drive, the volume adjusts. The problem is that the definition of driving probably wasn’t discussed. Feature guy thought it was when you start the car and spec or builder guy thought it was when you put the car in gear. And now my ears bleed when I start my car.

Despite these small imperfections, Das Auto is right. I have to agree with AJAC that the 2010 VW Golf Wagon TDI is “the car” to have.

AJAC announced that the 2010 VW Golf Wagon TDI is the winner for Family car under $30,000 for 2010. Read more here.

I loooove this book. Yes, loooove with 4 o’s.

The Designful Company: How to Build a Culture of Nonstop Innovation is the third of Marty’s “whiteboard books” in which he takes a deep and complex topic on branding and simplifies it so that it just makes plain sense.

The powerful concept that Marty (I feel like we’re on a first name basis) presents here is that design is change. Wowzer. That’s so powerful. Mainly because it takes the power out of the hands of the few people who know how to use Photoshop and puts it in the hands of every individual in an organization. There are so many kinds of designers. People who re-engineer process. People who design ads. People who dream up new solutions for customers. People who champion the people in their company. People in Marketing. People in Product. People in Customer Service. People in HR. People everywhere.

What I love about this book is that it reminded me of a part of myself I sometimes lose. The creative, the designer, the one who cares so much about beauty, harmony and integrity. The one who fusses over typography and prides herself on guessing the typeface being used in the movie credits. It’s so easy to lose this part of myself. I get caught in typical left-brain ideals like the bottom line, rules, margins, KPIs, standards and start to lose touch with that part of myself that knows with something other than my logic. Then, even worse, I lose respect for my intuition, my instincts, my desire to make things better and different and I become part of the “system” that I myself don’t respect.

Anyways, this book reminded me that designers and creatives are to be respected, if not understood. And it reminded me to trade in the “or” for the “and” to find creative solutions to “wicked problems” that all organizations face like: balancing long-term goals with short-term demands; predicting the returns on innovative concepts; combining profitability and social responsibility. It’s true, these can be solved, albeit not easily.

Admist the simple aesthetic of the book lies some revolutionary ideas that have the power to transform people and corporations. Don’t be fooled. This isn’t just another little book on branding.

I always thought the iRobot Roomba vacuums were a stupid invention—until I got a dog and had to vacuum almost every day.

On a recent shopping spree at London Drugs (one of my all-time favourite stores), I found one on sale. After my husband and I got over the initial shock that we were actually considering buying a robot to help us with housework, we picked it up and brought it home. My husband immediately charged the little sucker then put it into action in the living room. I watched him follow it around the house, commenting on its effectiveness with surprise and delight. He even broke out the flashlight, got down on the living room floor and investigated the Roomba’s wake under the sofa. Not many products can bring a grown man to his knees.

The money spent on our Roomba is the best money we’ve spent in the last 6 months. After 1 week with it, I stopped a meeting at work just to share the Roomba’s time-saving benefits and urge my colleagues to buy one too. I even lent it out to my sister so she could get a taste of freedom from vacuuming (she’s buying one for herself for Mother’s Day). I love this little cleaning machine because it’s freed me from back pain, a chore I’ve always hated and dust bunnies so big they could form governments in the corners of my house.

No offence to my beloved dog, but the Roomba is definitely my new best friend.

About 8 months ago, my husband and I made the switch to raw food for our pup. Prior to feeding her raw, we had her on Acana, a reputable dry kibble made with fresh local ingredients. The problem was that she continued to experience diarrhea and an upset stomach even on high-quality kibble. After 3 days on raw food, however, the pooch’s stomach was a-okay.

Pets Go Raw - love it!
There’s a lot of raw options out there; some of them expensive, others labourious. We chose to go with Pets Go Raw. The mix of raw meat with bone, fresh fruit and veggies, as well as vitamins and herbs like garlic and vitamin C made for a great full meal. Pets Go Raw food also came in a variety of meats like chicken, turkey, beef and fish. This let us mix it up every now and then. At about $10-$15 for about 10 ounces of raw food, it was a good price. The product was easy to prep and thaw too. It came in hockey puck patties that fit nicely in tupperware so we could prep a few days’ worth of food in about 5 minutes while keeping a few extra patties in the freezer.

The thing about raw food is that it can be a mess to prep and feed to your pup, so it’s important that you don’t have to touch the food at all. The Pets Go Raw packaging was perfect for this. There were little slips of paper between the meat patties which meant that you could slide the frozen patties out of the bag and into a tupperware container without touching it. And then when it came time for feeding the dog, you could just turn the tupperware upside down, drop the food in the bowl, then throw the empty container in the sink for a quick rinse and still not get any meat juice on your hands. Perfect!

We told friends about the product. Good price, great quality, easy to prep and feed. You’re happy, your dog is happy, it’s all good.

Pets Go Raw introduces new packaging
After 8 months of feeding our dog Pets Go Raw raw food and advocating the brand to friends for their furry family members, Pets Go Raw changed their packaging. The dog health food stores were pumping us up about the new package saying it comes in easy-to-squeeze tubes, full 1-ounce packages and new branding.

Here’s a picture that shows what the packaging looked like before (the packages on the bottom 2 shelves) and after (the top 2 shelves).

Pets Go Raw (new packaging) - hate it!
After 1 week of working with the new packaging, my husband noticed I was always asking him to do feed the dog. I no longer had the interest or desire to prep or feed our pooch. What I discovered was that I hated the new packaging so much that it actually ruined the bonding experience of feeding my dog.

The new packaging is sealed with two metal clamps at either end of a plastic tube. It looks a lot like a hot dog with metal clasps at the top and bottom. Here are just some of the problems with the new packaging:

• You can’t open it when it’s frozen. So you have to wait for the meat to thaw in the hot-dog tube and then slice the top open with a knife. This means that your hands get wet with raw meat juice when you are opening the package. Gross.
• It doesn’t re-seal well. We don’t feed our dog a full ounce at a time, so we would end up with these half-open tubes in our fridge. Even worse, the meat juice leaked down 2 shelves in our fridge into our vegetable crisper. So my husband ended up spending a Saturday afternoon scrubbing all the crevices of our fridge to get the meat juice out. Brutal.
• There’s more food wastage. You can’t get all of the food out of the tube because it sticks to the sides and openings. Raw food ain’t cheap, so getting every last bit into your dog’s bowl is important. With each portion we were throwing perfectly good morsels away. Bad.
• They aren’t stackable. With raw dog food, you always have to stock some in your fridge and your freezer. If they aren’t stackable, they take up too much room in both places. Annoying.

A “good” business decision with a bad customer experience result
You can see how the new packaging is cheaper for Pets Go Raw - lots of the other brands do it too. It must give them higher margins, which makes business sense. The problem is that the new packaging completely ruins the experience of feeding your dog. People who love dogs know how important feeding is to the bonding process. Pets Go Raw should have kitchen-tested their new packaging before rolling it out. They would have realized that it took all the love and pride out of feeding your dog the best food money can buy.

I spoke with my friend who was also a Pets Go Raw fan. She hates the new packaging too. I mentioned my disappointment in the new packaging at the dog health food store too; they said they’ve been hearing a lot of the same.

Switched to Urban Carnivore
Last time I went to re-stock my raw food supply, I switched to Urban Carnivore (I think they are changing their brand name to Carnivora). It’s a little more expensive, but the packaging is just like the old Pets Go Raw hockey-puck packaging. I am planning to contact Pets Go Raw about their new packaging, but in the meantime, I’m happily feeding my dog again and telling my friends to make the switch too.

Great case studies, but too academic.

Parts of Brand Digital were dense and after re-reading these parts, they ended up being somewhat meaningless. The the last 10 pages, however, delivered the entire message of the book in a succinct, engaging and consumable way. 

It took me a year-and-a-half to read this book. Most other brand books have taken me less than a month to gobble up.