Dan Pink, author of Drive, talks about the three factors that motivate us to increased performance and personal satisfaction. Surprisingly money is not one of the factors that motivate us. In fact he claims that monetary incentives lead to decreased performance.

The three factors that lead to better performance are:

1. Autonomy
2. Mastery
3. Purpose

Autonomy gives us self-direction, which increases our engagement to an activity and thus increases our motivation. Getting better at a task or activity is satisfying and that drive for satisfaction increases our motivation. A purpose, a vision or a goal makes coming to work better for employees and organizations imbedded with a strong purpose attract better talent.

Why has this never been implemented before? This idea is brilliant.

Excellent photo essay of vintage computers in Time.

Hot on the heels of my previous post about ineffective infographics is an excellent example of an infographic that works. Of particular interest to me is the U.S. map displaying the geographic regions where iPads are predominately being purchased. Unsurprisingly sales are highest in California and the Northeast, while the midwest just doesn't care about the iPad yet.

An excellent infographic. Pay heed USA Today.

The package design utilized for the Kraken Spiced Rum media kit is out of this world. The media kit is set up as "proof" kit, with each element inside acting as proof that the Kraken actually exists. All the elements together make a compelling story proving the mythical creature's existence. Included in the kit is a Kraken tooth, ink, log book, scroll, feature, featurettes and a bottle of the tasty spirt.

Click the link below to take a look at the entire image gallery of the media kit.

http://bit.ly/ah8fZo

What a great marketing campaign for Mini Cooper. The advertising agency behind this campaign created four life size Mini Cooper boxes and scattered them across Amsterdam the day after Christmas. Every couple of hours the agency would move them to a different spot in the city, prompting passersby to tweet about it and and take photos of the display.

It's a great example of a cheap, effective way to generate word-of-mouth buzz about a brand.

If marketing lives up to its mission – creating innovative products and services and finding meaningful ways to make them valuable for customers and society at large – it needs to be a step ahead of customers. Customer research can inspire and validate but it can never replace the inventiveness and ingenuity of excellent marketing.

Found this great post in my newsreader this morning by Tim Leberecht of frog design. In the article Tim discusses that social marketing and social media have reached their tipping point, evidenced by Pepsi's decision not to advertise in the 2010 Super Bowl, and how it's time for creative marketers to discover the next big marketing innovation.

I find it interesting that he dismisses research as a method of discovery since I'm about to start two courses in Customer Analysis and Market Research. Looks like my last semester is shaping up to be an interesting one...

Air Crosswalk Benefits

Increased awareness: Overhead lighting will help drivers quicker notice the pedestrians that are crossing the road.

Increased visibility: illuminated crosswalk could be seen from far away, which is especially important for poor lit roads outside the city.

This seventeen minute Ted Talk from John Gerzema is full of insight on how to sell and market to consumers who are no longer the same people they were before this recession.

Oh the things I find when partaking in study avoidance. This hilarious attack ad from Verizon has the iPhone sentenced to the island of misfit toys because of its poor 3G availability.