Naming

Thoughts to keep in mind as we are naming the competition project (and I do think it should be separated linguistically from GroupOne2)

Required reading from Seth Godin:

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/03/a-dumb-branding.html

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2005/10/the_new_rules_o.html (longer)

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2005/10/the_new_rules_o.html

Highlights:

"Jewelry Central is a really bad brand name. So are Party Land, Computer World, Modem Village, House of Socks and Toupee Town. It's a bad brand name because Central or Land or World are meaningless. They add absolutely no value to your story, they mean nothing and they are interchangeable."

"If you want Jet Blue or ikea or some other brand, you're just as likely to type the brand into google as you are to guess the domain name. In essence, we've actually added a step in the process of finding someone online. (How else would anyone find Del.ico.us?) This means that having the perfect domain name is nice, but it's WAY more important to have a name that works in technorati and yahoo and google when someone is seeking you out."

"First, the main point: a brand name is a peg that people use to hang all the attributes of your business. The LESS it has to do with your category, the better. If you call yourself International Postal Consultants, there's a lot less room to hang other attributes. Some names I like? Starbucks. Nike. Apple. "

12/29 Meeting Thoughts

I had some thoughts on the drive home, and I'm going to keep this short:

1. I think the problem-solving competition web site is a good idea. I think we should try to establish that there is demand for such an idea before we put money into building it.

2. A way to do this is to host a competition online that could be a model for how we want the site to operate.

3. I still think we should try to enter a competition ourselves to get our work-flow ironed out, get our juices flowing, and keep us motivated.

Re: Realize Potential

Realize Potential...I like the concept. Everything has potential (i.e. the potential energy of my stapler), but most things need a catalyst (or an instigator, or insert fun metaphor for GO2 here) to help it be realized.

I think we could even expand it a bit. Think of it this way. An NBA scout's job is to evaluate potential. They decide if a kid is the next Charles Barkley or the next Kwame Brown. So if the kid has great skills, and succeeds, then at best that kid is as good as Charles.

I see this as a self-imposed ceiling. "The next..." comes around all the time. "The next Dylan." "The next Google." "The next Atkins." People feel compelled to compare the present to the past because it's easy, because people can relate to it, and because the past is concrete. I think our job is to help realize future potential. What kind of path can we help you blaze? What can we accomplish that will get people to spread the word? We could phrase this as "how remarkable can you be?" or "how remarkable can we help you become?" if we are focusing on consulting.

Basically, we are here to help avoid lazy thinking and foster. For instance, having a LEED platinum-certified house built for you should cost more than a regular one right? WRONG. Here's a theory by someone willing to use logic to challenge a crippling trap.

Thoughts?

Solar Project

After the break I'm going to build a solar hot water heater for my pool. I think I can get all my supplies for under $150 according to some do it yourself websites I've found. If anybody has some ideas we can draw it up over Christmas break and give it the GO2 touch. Here are some good sites for info...

http://www.motherearthnews.com/uploadedImages/articles/issues/1979-09-01/059-070-01pic.jpg

http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles/hackleman65.html

http://www.thesietch.org/projects/solarthermalpanel2/index.htm

i'm underwhelmed

i was thinking about the bus-nass today while flying back to miami and came up with a reworded concept of what we are trying to do.

realize potential...

for instance i think just about every project we have started up is dealing with improvements. anytime you are underwhelmed by a situation or feel that something is under achieving, add it to the list. for instance while pulling up to the gate i was thinking about skywalks. they're a pretty awesome moment in travel but extremely underutilized in my mind. (simple white tunnels, come on we can do better)

so, thought and discussion on the elevator pitch...

since our world is completely under achieving in the issues surrounding sustainability we have put that as a major guiding factor of our projects. as noble as this cause is, we should let the clients know that this is inherent in our design and allow our true purpose to shine through. maybe we build the groupone2 business model for now and also for once the world has realized sustainability (2030, 2050?, or never) by not putting a movement in our slogan. that would be sustainable.

drumroll please,

Group One2 Realize Potential

thoughts??