Thursday, October 28, 2010

Pril blumen

I can remember back to my university Marketing class, hearing story after story about how a company cannot simply take one marketing strategy and apply it everywhere. Several businesses learned the hard way and one tale that stood out was about the Chevy Nova in the 70's... it took a while to catch on that perhaps their car was not selling so well in Mexico because "No-va" in Spanish means "no-go".

So, needless to say, I have learned that not everyt
hing that works in the States also works here in Germany. Each person is influenced by their surroundings, things in their own culture that affect the way they see things... even right down to fabric!

I just recently got in the new collection "Pretty Bird" from Pillow & Maxfield for Michael Miller and let me say, I really love these new to the scene designers... the friends design team really adds a playful, bright, and cheerful twist to each of their fabric collections, and though I say it about every fabric collection that I get in, my fingers are itching for this one.

But a recent conversation helped me to see the collection in a new light. I'm sure that there are some commercials or advertising from when we were children that one immediately recognizes and remembers and connects one thing with another... "mmm, mmm, ...good" (Campbell's soup)... "hey, Mikey likes it!" (Life cereal) "I'd like to teach the world to sing, in perfect harmony..." (Coca-Cola)... just a few for me.

... so the new fabric collection for my friend was a bit of a nostalgic blast from the past from an advertising campaign of a dish washing detergent company that, to promote their brand, included funny little retro stickers that one could stick to EVERYTHING... I think I might have even found one in our old kitchen before we remodeled.

So, what I randomly picked because I fell in love with the fantastic design, just happens to remind another of a childhood memory about dish soap...

... here's to celebrating the joys of different cultures!

4 comments :

  1. What's a good place to learn about college marketing?

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  2. Great fabric. I still see flower stickers on Bobby Cars like those on the brown fabric...

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  3. I love these fabric, but I am American. It amazes me that my sister-in-law has much of the same design taste of her mother. It seems very old fashioned to me. But it is the same all over Germany. I love the browns and oranges in the fabric.

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  4. I met my husband when he was over hear for school. Thankfully, he wanted to stay in the states. While I love Germany, I am not sure I could live there full time. One reason being that I am an only child and there is know one else to look after my parents. Where as my husband has a sister to keep an eye on his mother. I studied German in high school and college, but really couldn't say much beyond Wie geht's and Ich heisse. My husband and I purshased some book on our honeymoon and I studies enough so that I could talk with his Oman. My German is ok. I can get around. Depending on the accent is the factor in how long it takes me before I shut down. Some are harder than others. I am sure you will do a great job in raising your son to speak both languages. Our children have both passports too, which comes in handy when we send them over for the summer to study over there. The German government has to take them.

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