The Musings Of An Opinionated Sod [Help Me Grow!]

I don’t mean in the way I fill out the front of my trousers … I mean it in the sense that occasionally, I have an overwhelming urge to splurge.

Yes, I am a man that likes shopping – not all the time and certainly not for things like carpet, kitchen tiles or cupboards – but the truth is that every now and then, I like to while away a few hours walking around shops and seeing what techno-wizardry I can waste my cash on.

Yes, I know you know I like gadgets – but it’s not all R2D2, Nabaztag’s and Aibo’s – sometimes I like things that are a bit practical and recently I bought what has quickly become something very precious to me, a Wifi-Radio.

Look, I know streaming radio via the internet is nothing new, but this box makes it much easier and – to be honest – more special, because by it not being directly linked with a computer, you are not distracted by incoming emails or a desire to check out some websites.

Anyway, the reason I call it a time machine is because I’ve loaded it up with all my fave stations from all the countries I’ve lived/live, so at the flick of a switch, I can be transported to a time and place that holds a whole different bunch of feelings and emotions – especially when the presenters at many of the stations are still the same old miserable gits that were on it when I first listened years ago.

To be honest it’s nice.

Very nice.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my life but there is something very comforting about having a bunch of stuff around you that lets you still feel connected to your past.

And it’s even more comforting when you can decide when they are part of your life and when they’re not, ha!

Saying that, there is one station that affects my mood to a much greater extent than the others and that is TalkSport.

To explain why, I have to give you a bit of a background …

I left England in the 90’s and whilst I have continually popped back for holidays and projects with various agencies, I have not seen it as my ‘home’ for 15 years, even though it still represents a very important place in my heart and mind, and not just because my Mum and best friend live there.

Anyway, when I go back to visit, I always hire a car and more often than not, listen to TalkSport on the journey between Heathrow airport and Nottingham.

I love listening to it, not just because it helps pass the time, but because it lets me overdose on football news/trash … news/trash you just don’t get [at least in the way the British media present it] outside of the UK.

So when I’m at one of the other places I get to call home, I can listen to it and regardless of whether Forest have won, lost or drawn – makes me feel good because the frame of reference I have for that station is ‘holiday’.

Frames of reference are an amazingly ignored area for planning … so much focus is given to what is happening now, that we forget that first experience forms an incredibly powerful impression on people’s minds, be it good, bad or ugly.

The greatest advocate of this approach is the consultant, Clotaire Rapaille – who is famous for a number of things, including costing a fucking fortune for even breathing in your presence – however one of his ‘greatest hits’ is was when Nestle were trying [and failing] to sell coffee to the Japanese and he told them that because they had no cultural frame of reference for that particular ‘taste’ they should start creating a range of products where ‘coffee’ was a flavour variant.

Zoom forward 10+ years and those young people have not only got used to the taste, but have developed a coffee drinking habit resulting in Japan being the iced coffee drinking capital of the World.

Of course there’s lots of other factors behind the success [factors Clotaire conveniently doesn’t acknowledge] but understanding the frame of reference that someone has towards a particular taste/mood/feeling/brand can not only help drive a creative and effective solution to the challenge but can be the difference between living in the category of advertising or culture.