last week I’ve also had the chance to discuss the purpose and possible benefits and pitfalls of corporate weblogs with the people at BRAUN design and their head of design Peter Schneider in particular.
common theory suggests that setting up weblogs is quite easy. however the real hazzle starts when corporate policy comes to the stage. as with many trends (corporate) weblogs got their final kick-off in the US. in the meantime even CEOs of NASDAQ corporations are blogging while europe still seems to wait and see what the hype is all about. is this typical for us?
in any case even though the BraunPrize 2005 competition doesn’t make use of a weblog so far, BRAUN regularly offers what they call “Global Chats”. for almost one day head of BRAUN design Peter Schneider and his team are answering questions all around the BraunPrize and Braun related issues. similar to the idea of a weblog, a webcam takes regular photo shots of the live-chat and the protocol can be accessed later on as well.
having compared the experiences of the Global Chat with my weblog Schneider and I agreed that electronic media hasn’t reached its fully potential in terms of a real two-way communication, yet. in particular he misses the real ‘provoking’ questions which do not only address the BraunPrize competition, but which challenge the purpose of the design profession and the work at BRAUN design in particular.
so folks: how about discussing the implications of the recent acquisition of Gillette by Procter & Gamble (see my posting from yesterday) with Peter Schneider at the next Global Chat? just ask him question like:
what could this acquisition mean for BRAUN design in terms of product range and future markets? are BRAUN products now becoming more “feminine” (see my note on the different portfolios of P&G and Gillette? how dominant does global marketing become in this game and what are the consequences for BRAUN’s ‘visual brand language’? any other suggestions?
