I’m typing this post from my newly resuscitated iBook (2005 vintage). Over the holidays, someone accidentally stepped on the end of the AC adapter, crushing the metal shielding and bending the center pin beyond repair (I tried to bend it back slowly and it snapped off).

After the initial shock, I thought, oh well, I’ll just order a new adapter. More shock. The official G4 iBook AC adapter is $100 at the Apple Store. Read more »

A few weeks ago I read an article about a rather iconic maker of parkas that I’d never heard of before. The company is called Canada Goose. They’ve made a name for themselves outfitting polar explorers and now produce very durable, warm and fashionable parkas. Naturally, I thought “if these parkas are so great how come I’ve never seen them before???” Read more »

While I typically like to focus on customer experiences from the customer side, this post is a win-win from both sides. For anyone that’s been a server or a waiter in a restaurant, these should, for the most part be common sense, but you’d be surprised at how often people get them wrong. Put these into action, and you’re guaranteed to see your tips improve - unless, of course, the food is just plain terrible. Read more »

So yesterday was Macworld and Macophiles from all corners of the known universe descended upon San Francisco with cult like devotion to hear High Priest Steve Jobs preach the Gospel of Mac. I listened fairly intently to the keynote and one thing struck me as worth writing about. No it’s not the Mac Book Air or the Apple TV Take 2 or the Time Capsule for that matter. Read more »

Starbucks is, by definition about creating remarkable experiences and going that extra mile. They’ve built their entire reputation on it. So why is it that the store experience doesn’t quite translate whenever I try to make that “perfect” cup of their coffee at home?

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Yesterday I was over at Seth’s blog and read his article basically advising marketeers not to dumb down their messages because doing so attracts dumb customers. Then I thought about it, and something about it bothered me. So I thought about it some more, gave it time to digest but it just didn’t sit well because I completely disagree with the whole notion of a “dumb customer”. There are no dumb customers, only customers with different needs. Read more »

You have been bitten by a vampire, so and so’s added some innocuous application that you really could care less about, add this application to spam and alienate the few friends that you have left. This is just a sample of the garbage that now populates the Facebook mini-feed (cynicism aside of course). What was a once a rather gratifying exercise in voyeurism has now turned into a something resembling a flea market escapade. Then there’s the wall which went from elegant simplicity to becoming the equivalent of an elementary school art project and the mini-feed, which is now full of mostly junk interspersed with the occasional treasure of friend related gossip. Read more »

On what was a pretty normal and sedate work day, a colleague from work brought in a bottle of old-style Pop Shoppe pop (soda to those of you south of the border) , which has recently been resurrected from the graveyard of the 80’s. What struck me as interesting was the excitement that the return of this product inspired in my colleagues. It was almost as if they regressed to childhood in front of my eyes, swaddled in oversized adult clothing as they marvelled at the bottle. You would almost think it was the Coke bottle from The Gods Must be Crazy. Read more »

Ok so it’s 2008, and we’ll let you in on a little secret, we kind of dropped the ball last year. Okay, we didn’t “kind of” drop the ball, we dropped it, and then it rolled under the rug. We turned into one of “those” blogs, you know, the ones that only get updated as often as the weather forecast gets it right.

So in the spirit of the new year, we resolved to do better (I know, I know, resolutions don’t work) and after some discussion, we looked back on what we did right, and what we did wrong, and have a new plan as to how we are going to keep things rolling in 2008, without just relying on good faith in our resolution. By sharing our blogging schedule with you, we’re putting it everything on the line that we’re actually going to post on a regular basis. Here’s what you can expect from Crowdspark in 2008:

• regular posts every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday covering marketing, customer service and user experience, engaging business models, strategies, and frameworks;
• a monthly in-depth Feature on a concept, company, or product/service.
• penetrating analysis and god like insight(ok, that might be bit much but one can only hope)

We’re already busy working on what we think will be really interesting features, and once again invite you to share your stories, experiences and comments with us in 2008.

If there’s anything you think we should be covering, please let us know in the comments or by using the Contact form.

Shingi & Chris