MIUZU

This post may seem slightly orthogonal to our theme, but it’s not. Sometimes lessons in business come from the most unexpected places.

Here is one such place:

You may wince,

you may laugh,

you may cry,

But you will react.

Weddings can be mundane, and they can sure be stuffy.  Can you imagine anything less appealing than tuning in to a stranger’s wedding video on youtube?

Yet, I watched the whole thing, and loved it.

It’s not the setting.  It’s not the people, given I don’t know them.  It’s sure not the dance technique.

It’s the fact that these people had the courage to abandon tradition, and even risk sacrilege, to make the experience memorable.  What’s more, if you look at the comment stream, you can see that some people are even offended at the idea of it. Hurray!

Rhetorical Question: how often do we blindly grasp tradition and follow the “expected path?” And what might be possible if we didn’t?

kanYe West’s blog was quite a find. It’s clear he fancies himself much more than a rapper.  His videos tell the same story.  Either he has great taste, or an awesome creative director.

Witness this gem, from a spanish design firm called Sytem Design Studio.  The iLamp.  I’ll forgive them the name choice, but consider the cleverness of the concept…

It’s another one of those “simple but brilliant” concepts that you can’t help but love.

LED technology is having a delightful impact on the freedom extended to designers.

Oh, the fun we can have!

Definitely check our kanYe’s blog – it may be a little light on the verbage, but the imagery’s great.

Dave

I think the idea is fairly obvious:  design a refuge, an enclosure, that helps to protect lovers / sleepers from the distractions and annoyances of the outside world.  Make it wonderful to behold.  Make it even more wonderful to dwell within.  And offer it to a world starved for tranquility.

The creative minds at Lomme have done it. They’ve created a small and very intimate sanctuary. It combines light, sound, and massage therapies in a designed environment that enhances all the senses.

The form is designed to reduce the intrusion of outside noise.  A discretely built-in iPod and sound system allows the user to add relaxing sounds and music. The Lomme mattress is available with embedded massage functions that can be edited by the user. Surprisingly, the bed shell encloses an antimagnetic field that blocks ambient electromagnetic waves and radiation.

Making the experience even more exotic, the Lomme bed is equipped with lighting that can simulate sunrise and sunset. It really seems they didn’t miss a thing.

At 42,000 Euros, the Lomme bed is high end.  But if you’re on the market for a major investment in your intimate life, this could be it.

We desperately hope to be able to offer it to you!

Dave

Company valuations need a new paradigm.  The driving forces of securities investment need reinvention.

In  a brilliant piece in the Financial Post, Roger Martin (Dean of U of Toronto’s biz school) illuminates the hazards implicit in the current market orientation toward expectations rather than results.  Read the article now!  He articulates so well how business stakeholders, almost always equipped with company stock, will favor the growth of shareholder value – sometimes at the expense of the long-term viability of the company.  Part of the reason the economy is in such a pickle is because the perception of future value has fallen so out of touch with real market value…or authentic potential future value.  Either expectations are wildly oversold, or wildly undersold.  And the incentive systems in place reward deceptive practices by those in the best position to influence broad opinion.

In retrospect, there is more to say about the benefits available in a re-orientation as suggested.  Imagine the effect on innovation; the birth and commercialization of new ideas…

Today, the bulk of securities investment is directed toward the upticks and downticks of stable, and generally successful companies – and whose balance sheets are largely unwavering.  The big wins have already been won.  The company is already mainstream.

Yet, there are so many small companies with important ideas and revolutionary commercial propositions that are desperate for capital, and cannot find it.  They possess the greatest real market growth potential.  We’ve all heard the cliches: “imagine if you bought Microsoft in ’84.”

Forgive me my bias – we’re loaded with potential and short on cash.

Now, imagine how innovation would spike and how the competitiveness of the economy would be invigorated, if the influx of investment capital went to the real market growth opportunities.

It would be a very different world.  And a whole lot more exciting.

Dave

In his recent New Yorker article, HOW DAVID BEATS GOLIATH, Malcolm Gladwell has identified the genius in ‘being different.’

In this piece, Gladwell describes the game tactics of an under-skilled girls’ basketball team in Silicon Valley.  They achieved incredible success against ‘superior’ teams by breaking with convention: after losing possession of the ball, instead of retreating back to their end to align and prepare for the other team’s offensive, they stay on the attack in the opposition’s end. This is called a “full court press.”  It can effectively squelch the opposing team’s attempts to setup down-court offensive plays. Although totally legal, it’s not how the game is traditionally played.  And that’s the trick – it throws the opposition off their game.

The article draws a parallel between this unconventional game tactic and the biblical tale of David and Goliath – how a small and poorly furnished warrior defeats a well equipped giant.

You might be wondering, “Dave, there are no giants in the pleasure products industry! How is this story relevant to your business?”  Yes, MIUZU has competitors.  Lots of them.  But the battle is not between us.

We are all in a battle together against something much more monstrous than any one of us.  Our opponent is conventional thought about sex, pleasure, and intimacy.  More specifically, the enemy is fear, ignorance,  and arcane belief.  We must draw our audience into a new conversation – one that is easy and compelling to have, rather than uncomfortable and scary.

Read our “About Us” page, and this should make more sense…

Dave

Many artists brandish a lens (or a brush)  to capture  the beauty of the world around us.  Art that simply indulges in beauty can be like candy: the effect is very temporary. It washes over us and is gone.

But…. sometimes that art is powerful, permanently affecting our state of mind and view of the world around us.

Last night I had the privilege of seeing the work of an artist with that special power… Chris Jordanobserves mundane objects from contemporary life in a stunningly rich and beautiful manner. At a distance, it’s gorgeous.  Close up, it’s frightening.  Chris shows how little things in large numbers become very very big and very very important. The net impact gives meaning to a specific number (connected to that object), that otherwise would be almost meaningless.

How many tuna do we harvest?

20,500 tuna every 15 minutes

How many plastic cups do we use and trash on airplanes?

How many sharks are killed and pillaged for their fins?

270,000 sharks every day

How much oil are we consuming?

To hear the artist talk about his passion, check out his presentation at TED.

Chris’ work has enlightened me.  I hope you see and enjoy a similar effect…

Dave

Every once and awhile, a whimsical product concept flits through my mind.  Given we have a million of them, every once and awhile I will post one for feedback.  I would welcome messages from anyone who finds this interesting and has something of value to say…

A Vibe, a Lube, and a Fragrance

The labels are whimsical too – they don’t completely capture the spirit of our brand.  But you can probably guess what each one of these cylinders offers…

Dave

Today I read George Will’s column on Chron.com.  I just had to respond.  I’ve recycled my comment here on this blog…

Let me first say that I’m busy enough with my life that I don’t take the time to research the science behind this debate enough to know FOR SURE who is right.  So I’m left to choose a course of (in)action for myself based on the assertions of others.

Who am I to believe?

Do I trust the “eco-pessimists”?
or…
Do I trust the “eco-optimists”?

I so badly want the optimists to be right. If they are, then I can continue to live my life largely as I have been doing.  No need to be distracted by a change in lifestyle and priorities.

I want the pessimists to be wrong.  Their assertions mean I must embrace uncomfortable lifestyle changes.

Alas… this is a good reason to distrust other optimists.  As humans, we defend our current position and invested interests.  Companies do this too.  Consider the tobacco companies and their efforts to stifle the truth about the effects of smoking. Similarly, there is most surely alot of corporate capital dedicated to “protecting” corporate income streams from the spectre of global warming.

At the same time, what interest do the pessimists have in being right?  I don’t see big payoffs. They might enjoy some psychological satisfaction in being righteous, but I believe that motive is shared by both sides, negating any weighting to or fro.  I doubt there’s a lot of corporate power available to defend the pessimists side – there is no long history of corporate profits and therefore a relatively small capital pool to fund propaganda.

Who sits in the pessimist camp?  It seems to include the world’s most respected scientists. As I look around my wide social network, the pessimists tend to be the smartest ones, or the ones that are able to commit a lot of time to consuming information on the subject.  The figurehead was Al Gore, whose only major flaws seemed to be his weight, speaking ability, and political savvy.

Who sits in the optimist camp?  They seem to be rare among the intelligencia.  For awhile there, the figureheads were Dick Cheney and George W Bush. I certainly lost any faith in their good judgement.

So…

By knowing a little about human/corporate nature, and Without knowing a thing about science, there is very good reason to doubt the optimists.

But what about outcomes?

If we all follow the eco-pessimists (zero-impact practices?), then…
If they’re right, we save ourselves from doom.
If they`re wrong, my great-grandchildren get to live an Eden of sorts. Lots of trees, clean water, clean air and other utopian features. That sounds pretty good!

If we all follow the eco-optimists, then…
If they`re right, we get status quo.  Maybe a bit boring, but good for my comforts!
If they`re wrong, then we are doomed.

Seems like we`re better to throw in with the eco-pessimists, in spite of the short term discomforts.

Anyone disagree with my logic here? If so, please explain!

Earlier today, I was flipping through Nico (a Euro fashion magazine) and found an interview of Sam Roddick of Coco de Mer.  For anyone who doesn’t know the name, Coco de Mer is the premier luxury sex boutique in the world.  Sam opened the first shop in London a few years ago. Now, on top of a burgeoning presence in the UK, they have a shop in Los Angeles.

Anyways…

The interview was brilliant – it looked past the aura of the Roddick name to the mindset that brought Sam to the “love” biz.  It’s evidence of what can happen when brains and confidence come of age. Sam was driven not by profit, but by a more meaningful desire. And given the Roddick legacy, it couldn’t have been without some serious reflection that Sam chose this direction for her career.  But Sam saw a chance to have a positive impact on the world, and went for it…with gusto.   Through it all, Sam has gotten to know herself very well. And when you meet her, it shows.

Not everyone is cut out for this business, and it’s certainly not yet mainstream. So it’s hard not to admire those who have taken it on from unlikely beginnings.

But it’s all in how you do it.  And there’s scarce pickin’s if you’re looking for people/companies that are executing with a good measure of taste.  Most of what you see is trashy and vulgar.

Not so with Coco de Mer.  What Sam (and her sis Justine) have created is a bit of a sex fashion oasis in the middle of a desert of cheap jelly products and shoddy lingerie.

Being way more enthused about contemporary stying and design (think Scandanavian), I’m not a huge fan of the Victorian qualities of the Coco de Mer collection. However, I am a HUGE fan of the sensibilities of the founders, the intent of the stores, and the effect of making sex products aspirational rather than just titillating. This underscores a different relationship between us humans and one of our most sought-after pastimes.

Thanks Sam, and Justine too.

Dave