November 7, 2006

Back from the Mountains

Delay in posts caused by business travel and then four days of hiking Vermont's 270-mile Long Trail. Typically at this time of year, the trail is covered in snow and not accessible to hikers. Not so this year. There was only a slight dusting of snow.

Winter's cold is not only arriving later in Vermont, it's also lasting a shorter length of time. Maple sugar season used to consistently start in March. Now it's more likely to start in February.

Between1816 and 1940, Lake Champlain froze over during all but six of those 124 years. In recent years, the lake hasn't frozen at all.

These are hard fact proofs of global warming in just one small piece of our precious planet.

There doesn't seem to be any sense of urgency about this issue from our federal government, so it seems to me that the action needs to be local. As we've written before, the answers are not very complex. It's only a matter of will and commitment...and that's something that we marketers ought to be able to catalyze. It's what we do.

Outside In

One of Steve Wynn's innovative ideas for his new Wynn Resort in Las Vegas was that instead of displaying its glamour and glitter on the outside (like the fountains in front of The Bellagio or the jungle in front of The Mirage), his new resort would present an austere exterior and save all the good stuff for when you came inside.

That's just what he's done, and it's a runaway success.

Now I read that the new Tysons Corner Center mall in McLean, Virginia is picking up on the Wynn idea and presenting rather anonymous facades of stores rather than traditional glass exposures.

As any seductress knows, what you don't show is often more tantalizing than what you do show. That seems to be the theory behind these stores, and people are really digging it.

People really enjoy discovery. They like to be surprised and engaged. And setting it all out there from the git go just doesn't adequately involve the customer. I'd say the Tysons Corner Center - like Steve Wynn- is really on to something.