no. 40: good design should be human-centered.
on touchland's acquisition, vacation, and more.
hi all! coming to you from sunny california this week. this week you’ll find a lot of consumer news especially the pieces that have caught my attention. enjoy!
mini news round-up 🗞️
rhode is hitting sephora - rhode did a great job driving organic growth to their website, but they must have calculated the exact time to hit sephora down to the second.
uber will sell in-car ads in new york city, reversing a longstanding ban - this apparently builds on uber’s partnership with t-mobile advertising solutions, which started last year. good luck everyone!
how google is rethinking search in an ai-filled world - “historically, it’s all been about clicks—someone searches, do I get a click? that’s going to continue to be important for conversions. but there’s an additional piece: brands themselves want visibility in that experience even if they’re not the place the user is going to go to buy. there’s value to the impression or the mention, which is something search hasn’t focused on as much historically. this is something we’re going to be talking to advertisers and businesses about.” said nick fox.
dicks sporting goods is buying foot locker for $2.4 billion - dick’s investors were not pleased with this when news broke, apparently. also, surprising i haven’t heard much about this but i suppose things will stay the same for foot locker.
madhappy and guest in residence are collabing - i have had the sense that madhappy has peaked and will not peak again. i said what i said.
church & dwight acquire touchland for $700 million - this was absolutely insane and so well-deserved. this was an awesome piece on how the founder of touchland isn’t that well-known, and whether women need to be at the center and the face of their businesses in order for it to thrive: “Selling for $700MM and No One Knows Who You Are.”
nespresso lightens up its marketing to win gen z’s cold coffee drinkers - reportedly, 50% of nespresso’s marketing budget in the u.s. is now going toward iced coffee marketing. i broke up with my nespresso last year and haven’t looked back since, but it’s surprising to me that they haven’t leaned into iced coffee more before this year.
the weeknd in their latest campaign. partiful partnered with fizz - the new app from instacart is integrated with partiful, allowingyou to plan, split, and get everything delivered without the hassle. partiful is finding ways to expand beyond their core functionality and i think its working.
brand-storming 🧃
marvis - i have been using marvis now for a month or so because of my friend from paris who swears by it. all i can say is that this is toothpaste you want to actually keep on your counter. i’m also seriously loving their marketing — it’s splashy and very jacquemus-esque. also, if you have time, check out their website. it’s the coolest website customer experience.
sofie pavitt face - i have been loving their entire product line, both visually and on my skin. each product looks so nice on its own - my counter is now bright and cheery between this and marvis. also, my skin is clearer than ever these days (not sponsored). also, i noticed they have a substack: (hi!
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trends to watch 👀
i read (part of) the design of everyday things a few years ago and i think back to it a lot, especially when i see certain cpg brands that are just simply outstanding, like touchland: “design is successful only if the final product is successful — if people buy it, use it, and enjoy it, thus spreading the word. a design that people do not purchase is a failed design, no matter how great the design team might consider it.” (don norman)
touchland took the most forgettable category, hand sanitizer, and made it… highly desirable. how?
bright colors, sleek packaging
portable like a tech accessory, not a healthcare product
refillable but not inconvenient
something you want to leave on your desk, not stuff in a drawer
ultimately, design isn’t about how it looks in a brand book. it’s about how people engage with it in the wild. do they use it? do they enjoy it? do they talk about it? if not, it failed.
on that note, my dear friend,
, whipped out this whipped cream appearing sunscreen on the west side highway over memorial day weekend. so foolish of me, someone who considers themselves on brand, to not know vacation made this. it simply blew my mind. this sunscreen don norman’s thesis in real life:
sometimes, things don’t have to be revolutionary, but rather, human-centered. at its core, good design is human-centered — it should make things easier, not harder, and the burden is on the product, not the user, or the person.
I love Vacation and have been eyeing that whipped cream sunscreen for years. Probably worth doing a brand spotlight on them--they have the vintage sunscreen aesthetic down to a T and are pretty inventive when it comes to their marketing!
Okay love this. As someone who gets a lot of cavities - do we know if Marvis is effective??