by Jacquie Ang

Interview with Lucy Johnston

TAXI >> Hello Lucy. Global Innovation Report’s quarterly publications have been a great channel to watch innovation and creative excellence unfold across the international retail industry. While packaging design has been making breakthroughs, is visual merchandising undervalued? Do you see an evolution in its role in recent times?

Lucy Johnston >> Yes, absolutely, I would agree that in recent times visual merchandising has tended to be given less attention than other areas, in terms of retail innovation. However, brands are re-awakening to the fact that this is a critical area of retail get maximize on – in terms of improving the physical retail experience for consumers.

I think a lot of this improvement has to do with advances in use of technologies at the point of sale, which naturally make these visual touchpoints more engaging for customers.

Interview with Nic Fillingham

TAXI >> Google made international headlines with its acquisition of YouTube. News on the grapevine foretell of an Internet TV service by the founders of Kazaa and Skype. Will the Internet kill the TV and radio stars?

Nic Fillingham >> People want to access their media on a variety of devices and in a variety of forms –the Internet now brings us a daily media mix of television, print and radio. The challenge is not that Internet will kill TV or radio, but is more a question of how quickly traditional media can adopt and gain new audiences that are on the Internet.

Interview with Marc Landsberg

TAXI >> You were the co-founder of Digital Knowledge Assets, an Internet start-up that developed a web-based knowledge-management platform. What do you think is the best investment for companies to leapfrog over competitors in the digital age?

Marc Landsberg >> Without doubt, it’s not a technology, platform, tool, or channel. Instead, the best investment a company could make would be developing a human behavior research lab – to explicitly understand consumer behavior, and how to best use digital technologies to deliver on individual needs and wants.

The more technology advances the more transparent it will become. And in a seeming oxymoron, the more sophisticated digital marketing becomes, the more we have to revisit and focus on the most fundamental principle of marketing – that ultimately, it’s about understanding and delivering value for people. Because the more human we are as marketers, the more successful we’ll be. Full stop.

TAXI >>What is the WORD, which you think would reside and reverberate in the design world for the next 10 years?

Marc Landsberg >> Human.

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JACQUIE ANG
Junior Assistant Editor of TAXI Design Network

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