I'm a big fan of the Good Grips range of kitchen utensils by Oxo. Originally inspired by the need to appeal to people with arthritis, they've proved to be incredibly popular, with huge mass market appeal. About half the stuff in my kitchen is Good Grips. I use them on a daily basis and find them a joy to use. They're comfortable, robust, with a very distinctive look. 

It's a great example of how simple, thoughtful design can make ordinary household items feel a little bit special.

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Over the past couple of years I've been really impressed with the way McDonalds has re-invented itself. It's a great example of brand growth through rejuvenation. Here's a few lessons:

1. Get Back to Basics

It continues to improve its core burger and chicken offering and reassure on the quality and source of the ingredients. In tough times it continues to offer great value, with prices starting at 99p. Students get discounts and free wi-fi. It's still a cheap place to eat.

2. Improve the Experience

The extensive redesign has made it a much friendly place to visit. Goodbye to the red and yellow primary colours and welcome to a more natural, comfortable environment.

3. Broaden the Appeal

The menu is more diverse with lots of healthier options: salads, fruit bags, carrot sticks. You can also buy Tropicana juice and Oatso Simple porridge.  . I'm sure burgers and fries are still their main revenue source, but at least there's more choice. And they serve decent coffee.

4. Keep it Fresh

As well as all the new healthy options, there's a  continual cycle of new offers to tempt the consumers, such as its Festive Menu. You can always try out something new.

This all may sound quite simple but they've addressed their issues head on, executed these changes brilliantly and on a large scale. This fabulous ad - click here, sums up what McDonalds  stands for today - the place for everyone. Really insightful, beautifully observed, nicely shot, great voiceover.

Compare the fortunes of McDonalds with those of Starbucks - the darling of the 90s, which continues to struggle. It now talks about bringing back the old style logo and changing the design so that it appears to be a ‘local' coffee bar. Who are they trying to kid?

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When Woolworths closed down, it was a big news story. Unless I've been walking around with my eyes closed, I don't feel the same public outrage or sympathy at the news of Borders going into liquidation.

The reason for its demise is quite simple. Amazon. Best prices. Speedy delivery. Great choice. All from your laptop. It's hard - impossible - to compete with this.

It's sad, because I think Borders is a decent brand which attempted to sell decent products. However, I can't complain too much as I never gave them my custom.

So what's the future for book retailing? Could there be space for a serious competitor to Amazon? Will Waterstones re-invent itself? Maybe there will be a return to more specialist book retailers and a revival of the local second hand book shop? However, as long as people continue to enjoy ‘real' books the industry will stay alive. One thing I do feel confident about is that they will never be replaced by the Kindle or the Sony Player.

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A week or so, a packet of Dorset Cereals For Kids appeared in our cupboard.  I asked my 11 year old where she'd heard of them and she told me that her friend had got some. Word of mouth in action. I immediately thought that this was quite a surprising move. I can't think of one cereal brand that explicitly brands itself ‘for kids'. On reflection I think that this is a very smart thing for them to do.

The Dorset Cereals brand has huge equity with adults as a wholesome, natural brand, so has real credibility in the eyes of the purchaser. The product seems to be a combination of corn flakes, rice crispies and sugar puffs - all the old favourites. I imagine the kids would really enjoy them and as we all know, they love multi-textured tastes. (Kids often mix up several cereals in one bowl) Not sure how much nutritional value they genuinely contain, but they're certainly proving popular in our household.

The box itself is a source of creativity, containing suggestions for projects and finally there's an initiative called ‘Edible Playgrounds' that encourages school playgrounds to create vegetable plots. Very responsible and very in vogue. Click here for more details

All in all, a strong entry into a crowded market.

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In my attempts to move away from buying expensive and dull Gillette products, I've recently discovered the Italian shaving brand Proraso. Apparently it's Italy's most popular shaving cream and is fantastic. Rich, lathery and made with eucalyptus oil. A real classic. I can also recommend the traditional Merkur razor.  Although expensive to buy, the blades are incredibly cheap and avoids the deep intake of breath that always accompanies a purchase of Gillette blades.

I find you get a lot more satisfaction buying lesser known, specialist brands that have real character. I've even started to enjoyed to shaving, expecially now that I've bought a classic shaving badger hair shaving brush.

You can all of these products at the excellent English Shaving Company website.

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One of the key decisions people who work in marketing must make is whether to work on the client or on the agency side of the business.  I've worked on both sides and wanted to share my perspective.

Working for a client offers the following key pluses: ownership and completion. You're exposed to all aspects of the business, you get the opportunity to genuinely nurture a brand and you deliver tangible results. There's also prestige that comes with working on a successful brand. Agencies are nice to you, your peers respect you, your cv looks impressive.

So far so good. So what are the downsides? In a word - politics. Long meetings, formality, layers of management. It's also easy to get stuck in a rut and feel you're not growing

So what about the agency side? Well, depending on what kind of agency you work at, you can focus in on the bit of the marketing function you really enjoy - often the more creative bits. You also work on a variety of different businesses and therefore learn a lot more. Typically work is more informal, you hang out with your peers and often in cool offices in nice locations.

On the downside - you ‘ve got to service your clients and respond to their sometimes unreasonable demands. You're also always in selling mode and have to become a skilled networker. You're also much more exposed. You stand or fall on the quality of your work. Unlike working in a large organisation there's no hiding place. The rewards can be greater...but the risks are higher

So...it's up to you.

There is of course a 3^rd option. Working for yourself. I'll talk about that in a separate post

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Yesterday was a big day for the book world. The Man Booker Prize Winner was announced - the Oscar /Bafta for books (which was Wolf Hall) and Jeff Bezos of Amazon announced the Global launch of the Kindle a ‘revolutionary wireless reading device'.

I've never tried the Kindle, but to find out more, click here. The 2 big benefits they talk about are

- The paper like quality of the screen

- The fact that its wireless, making it easy to download books, mags, etc

This is the second big entry into the e-book market, following on from the Sony Reader - which I've written out before - so competition's sure to hot up. I should be the prime target audience for this. I travel and read a lot. Market predictions are bullish. However, I'm still unconvinced. You just can't beat the simplicity and beauty of a real book.

A lot's going to come down to price. At the moment it costs $279 to buy and the books cost full price to download. There has to be more in for the consumer, particularly as the cost of electronic s  has come down so much in recent years. Also it's the kind of market where word of mouth is key. If enough people I trust start recommending it, then I may be persuaded.

So who's going to win in the battle between the Sony Reader and the Kindle? My money's on the Kindle. Amazon is so strongly associated with the book world that I think it'll have the edge. Will be really interesting to see.

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The Gillette ad featuring Federer, Henry and Woods was voted number 1 in Campaign Magazine's top ten turverys of 2008. I'm surprised that they're persisting with this campaign in 2009. I suspect its because they need to get maximum value out of the quillions they've paid these superstars. Having 1 superstar sponsor is fine. Having 3 is just showing off. I can imagine consumers thinking...'I wonder how much they paid them?'

I've also seen ads which explain why Fusion Power is better than Mach 3. I've never seen Gillette be as explicit as this in encouraging consumers to drop their old Gillette razor. I suspect that they've had to do this because  Fusion Power's  growth is not as rapid as they'd hoped and that consumers can't see the benefit of trading up.

I often wonder when razor blade innovation will come to a natural limit. I suspect we've now reached the ceiling, but no doubt the Gillette team will try and convince us otherwise.

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