Covid19

Letting go in lockdown

When lockdown happened, I imagined that everything was going to hell in a handcart and I’d cling on to things I knew and trusted. A metaphorical reaching out for the banister rail.

In fact, I’ve done the opposite. BBC Radio has been the first casualty. I never want to hear a politician ever again, so bang, out goes the Today programme. You and Yours and Woman’s Hour make me glum, so no thanks. I have discovered Scala Radio as I wake with the sunrise and it’s as though I’m in the park. Lockdown bliss.

Roaming the supermarket aisles, as I have always done since I started out as a designer, is now strictly verboten. Packaging design was, and remains, my first love and the supermarket has been both my art gallery and social anthropology laboratory. Watching people scan the shelves and pick up something we’ve been involved in has always had a frisson about it. How did we capture their attention and what tipped them over the line into putting the product into their basket? Online grocery shopping offers none of this. It is like the difference between Spotify and vinyl. Super convenient, but utterly soulless. Nothing beats picking up a product, turning it over in the hand, feeling its weight and, of course, looking at the label. Call me sad, but it is one of life’s simple pleasures.

Back to my first supermarket love

An unexpected change is the enforced switch of supermarkets. After years of loyal shopping, Waitrose doesn’t seem to want me and Ocado is too unpredictable, so I’m back where I started. Sainsbury’s is ‘my supermarket’ again. They were dead easy to sign up with and their delivery people are delightful, but what has happened to the brand that Peter Dixon and, on occasions, Williams Murray Hamm laboured so hard to make classy, intelligent and joyful? As one unloads the bags, where’s the story? I just can’t make out what the brand stands for. What is all this ‘by Sainsbury’s’ branding and what in heaven’s name is ‘Stamford Street Food Company’? Has anyone walked down Stamford Street lately? Let’s just say it’s not Tenterden High Street. If ever there were a right time to reshape Sainsbury’s, to make us fall back in love with it, it is now.

I didn’t expect to drop the BBC and I thought that Waitrose and I were pals for life. We will see if those relationships are revived if lockdown ever ends. One other quite unexpected change of behaviour is the joy to be found in anticipation. I am not gifted with patience. It is not a virtue and generally gets in the way of doing stuff, but my lockdown has seen a subtle change in this.

I am to be found, for the odd hour or two, wielding power tools and timber as I attempt to rebuild some rotten decking. With the closure of DIY stores, I have to rely on various businesses all around the country to deliver the multitude of fixings that Builder Bodge needs.

The excitement of home deliveries

‘My 6-inch Hex bolts have arrived!’ won last week’s loudest whoop. The big tease was that they couldn’t be touched until the next day in case there was Covid all over them. They took on the same lure as the Hornby Trains Royal Mail Van I lusted over in a Boxing Day shop window in 1960. Learning to wait has been rather wonderful.

There are, of course, vital items that one misses in lockdown. Marmite went AWOL from Sainsbury’s online. If you were desperate it could be found on eBay for £6.99 for a jar, plus £4 postage. Apparently, they’ve sold 48 of them so far. It makes one think about brand value. What brands would you pay extortionate prices for if they went missing? A quick scan of eBay shows a can of Ambrosia custard selling for £7 (inc postage) and a 1.5kg pack of Allinson’s Strong White Bread flour for £12 (admittedly the postage is a whopping £8). But then eBay is a mad place. Who in their right minds would buy Andrex ‘Natural Pebble’ lavatory rolls? A snip at £33.78 for 45 rolls by the way – it seems they are in ‘New Condition’ which is, no pun intended, a relief.

Author: Richard Williams

For any press enquiries email press@wmhagency.com  or call +44 (0) 20 3217 0000. Unless otherwise cited, © copyright 2020 Williams Murray Hamm, all rights reserved.

COVID-19. Expect the Unexpected

Many people will have never witnessed a worldwide emergency like COVID-19. The banking crisis was twelve years ago and 9/11 nineteen. We all thought things would never be the same again. For the young, COVID-19 must seem earth shattering, but for people of a certain age age, well, it’s just another global catastrophe from which the commercial world always seems to recover.

However, seismic events do engender new behaviours and we never quite go back to our old ways, but the effects of these events are not always what we might have predicted.

When the PLO took to blowing up civilian aircraft in the late 1960s and 70s, we thought we’d stop flying because it had become so unsafe. That did not happen – there were 4.5bn air passengers in 2019. Instead, we created a massive new airport security industry. There were new jobs for security officers, expensive new detection devices became essential and airlines screwed more money out of us by creating Fast Track. A crisis is always an opportunity to make money.

In 1973 OPEC made oil prices quadruple. For a time, Americans resorted to buying smaller cars made by Japanese companies they’d never heard of, but once the crisis passed, they reverted to their old gas guzzling ways. By then the Japanese had a foothold in the market that they’ve never lost. Japanese cars subsequently destroyed Detroit and their manufacturing methods had a huge influence on worldwide manufacturing – all courtesy of OPEC.

Beyond gloves and face masks becoming fashion accessories, what might change thanks to COVID-19?

1. Air travel
Hundreds of passengers, cooped up for 14 hours, sharing the same air and spreading their germs offers a business opportunity. Imagine sterilised air becoming the value added. Business and First Class would be ‘Cleanroom’ clean, while poor old coach class breathes its own fug. Who is going to be ‘The World’s Most Hygienic Airline”?

2. Business meetings
For most telepresence is Skype or Zoom. Better than nothing, but a bit rubbish. Video conferencing will improve, but the real breakthrough will come when we feel we are really together. That transformation will happen when virtual reality meets telepresence. If you are sceptical, shell out £140 and try an Oculus Go. You will look an idiot wearing it, but things will never seem the same again – you are really there, in the jungle, in a Spitfire or perhaps, in a meeting.

3. Working hours and time zones
If COVID-19 proves anything, it illustrates just how strongly we are interconnected. With technology that lets us meet sufficiently well online, how long is it before we adopt more aligned working hours/days? It is mad that the UK and Europe do not share the same time zone. Should the US become a magnet for our trade, might we see a swathe of businesses running two shifts, one for Europe and one for the US? It’s called service and Americans swear by it.

4. Exercise
Do we really want to go to a sweaty gym and share unhygienic equipment? Peloton has paved the way for online training. Expect exercise to be done at home, with innovatively designed trainer devices that morph like Transformers into the exercise device of your choice that you can keep under the bed.

These are just some random thoughts and they probably won’t happen, of course. Please get involved and add your own comments and observations. Tell us what you think the consequences might be and remember…the exception to the rule is always the rule.

Author: Richard Williams

For any press enquiries email press@wmhagency.com  or call +44 (0) 20 3217 0000. Unless otherwise cited, © copyright 2020 Williams Murray Hamm, all rights reserved.