Pi-Consulting

Jet-setters in Europe seem to be giving way to train-setters. Air travel is losing its glamour as crowded airports, flight delays, security lines and baggage snarl-ups take their toll. In Western Europe, an invitation to “come fly with me” is these days just as likely to be met with a dismissive “No thanks, I’ll take the train”. The difference is high-speed rail technology, with new lines already installed across France, Germany and Italy, and now snaking their way through Spain and the UK too. Speeds of up to 200 miles-per-hour mean short, comfortable journeys between over a dozen key European destinations. A new rail link just inaugurated in London and South-East England, joining up with the Channel Tunnel, has brought high-speed travel to the British leg of the Paris-to-London route, with the two city centers now only 140 minutes apart. Could this be the beginning of a “Spring Break Party Train–Gone Wild?” And no faffing around in airports! Jet-setting is, like, so last year. Source, The Economist, Pi.

American teenagers want to do their bit for good causes, and one way is the “cut-a-thon”, growing your hair long, getting it all cut off and giving it to charity. Trouble is, the result can be a mountain of hair that no-one can use. Locks of Love, the leading US charity of its type, reports ruefully that around 80% of the hair they receive as donations is unusable for making wigs. Despite circulating clear guidelines, they get hair which is too short, too wet, too processed or flecked with gray. It mostly goes in the trash, rather than becoming wigs for cancer sufferers or patients with hair-destroying immune deficiencies. The charity’s leaders muse that the whole thing may be more about donors getting “a warm, fuzzy feeling” than the reality of actually helping people. The hair-donors? “They get the attention. They get so much out of it. Actually, a check would be easier”. Source: New York Times.

Anglo-Dutch food giant Unilever wanted to find out not only if their products made people happy, but HOW happy. Enter Visual Recognition, an Amsterdam-based computer innovation lab attached to Amsterdam University. VR’s technology and software is geared to reading facial expressions and translating them into mathematical measures of satisfaction. The system works by creating a 3-D facial map that tracks shifts in twelve key areas of muscle-movement. The result is a consistent and accurate register of emotions such as sadness, distaste, surprise and – of course – happiness. A panel of 300 women (more facially expressive than their men-folk, apparently) were recorded while eating different kinds of ice-cream, confectionery and fruit. 87% registered apples as ‘neutral’, yoghurt was ‘sad’ for 28% if the sample, and healthy-option ice-creams scored fewer smiling faces than their full-fat equivalents. Wait. Didn’t we kind of know that already? Source: mrweb.com, WARC, Pi.

Tattoos are forever. That’s the point, isn’t it? A permanent emotional commitment to that dragon or death’s head on your bicep, that pouting cutie or crucifix splayed across your shoulders? Or having the name of The One indelibly and romantically tattooed on your wrist – like, forever? Ah, but what happens when he/she turns out NOT to be The One, after all? Better call Dr. Tattoff, a growing chain of tattoo parlors in reverse, where they erase your past ink mistakes with laser technology. Most of the clientele you’ll find there are young women aged 25-35, proving that it is indeed a lady’s prerogative to change her mind. Ironically, the growing realization that you can get rid of the things seems actually to be boosting the demand for tattoos among both sexes. The price tag can be an obstacle, at $39 per square inch per laser treatment, way more than you pay to have the image put there in the first place. And the experience is uncomfortable. Strangely, however, some of the demand for tattoo removal is so that people can clear the space and get inked all over again. Source: New York Times, Pi.

British author Neil Boorman was worried that branded goods were eating his brain. “I realized I wasn’t buying clothes, gadgets, even food for the functions they performed. I bought them for the way they made me feel”. So he gave up buying anything with a brand-name on it for a year. He found it surprisingly difficult, buying food at weekly produce markets (“You have to plan ahead”), and getting household cleaning products at janitorial supply stores. Technology and entertainment were a problem, since almost nothing came without a brand identity, so he spent a year without TV or DVDs. On the plus-side, he made friends with his local butcher and the fishmonger, whom he now “knows by name”. A surprising by-product of the experience: he lost fifteen pounds in weight, since there were no non-branded equivalents of processed foods and ready-to-eat meals. Source: BBC News, Pi.

Pi Market Research Staff and Pi Consulting wishes every one a Safe and Prosperous New Year!