Secret Squirel - a day out in the Bull Ring

Every now and then the Gtech Design Team feels the urge to go see what's cool. Last Monday I went with them to the Bull Ring and Mailbox shopping centres in Birmingham.

At 0900 it turns out, only the Apple store is open. It was an education.

All their goodies were plugged in, ready to go and free to use; you can twiddle with an iPad, dock your iPod or watch Apple TV for as long as you want.
People did want to, it was packed.
Amongst the crowds, one lady was sitting listening to a music player, reading her book and the ‘Genius Bar’ were entertaining a group of summer-holiday kids colouring in pictures of iPods (the Genius's were doing most of the colouring).

It was amazing brand-interaction, as a budding brand you kneel before it.


Anyway the rest of the trip was much less inspiring, lots and lots of average appliances. We saw plenty of nice bits but very few products which showed dedicated attention to detail and quality. If our new product doesn't wipe the floor (I know, I know) with the lot of the household appliances we saw, I'll eat my hat.


One other thing arose worth mentioning. A store we visited had a customer in saying her Gtech was 'spitting out bits' when the tray wasn't full, they'd tried everything and swapped her product, but it was still doing it.
'Easy one that', says me, 'static build-up in a newish carpet'. The cure is to wipe down product and brush bar with a water solution with the tiniest drop of washing up liquid. An email this week confirmed all is now well.

I suppose blogs should be useful, so if any of you have questions or need hints or tips, feel free to ask.

I haven’t decided on a subject for next post yet, shocking.

GASP

The Gtech Annual Summer Party is always great fun but this year it doubled as our inaugural annual company meeting.

Lead item was that while Gtech staff have been content until now, serving a dedicated but modest following, we feel the time has come to spread the word further. We've recruited a top marketing manager, who'll assemble a team to let the general public into our secret - powerful floor-care doesn't mean hard work, let it be fun. I'm looking forwards to seeing what they can do.

Meanwhile New Product Design (including me) are working harder than ever. We have a 3 year plan to equip every home in the battle against grime. The first product, code-named 'Dirt Monster', is well under way. We need in-home testers soon, if you're in the Worcester area and want to go on the list, let us know.


Rounders and fun followed the meeting, but unfortunately, for the second year running my team lost. Despite catching up in the second innings, the loss could be attributable to my metronomic, generous bowling.

For the third year running Lauren, purchasing controller, rained supreme in the bull riding as various individual events ensued. I'll leave the pictures to tell the rest of the story, but a big thank you to all staff and their families for joining in.





I'll exit with a thank you and a question.

Thanks for your review of our Gtech SW02 Mellow Mummy Emma.

Gtech sweeper review here, opens new window
Give us an update in a month Ems if you get time, most people grow to like it even more, it picks up loads a Hoover can't.


The question is how to help the younger market discover our sweeper. Our testing shows excellent customer satisfaction in 25 to 40 year-olds, but not that many buy.

Is recommending a sweeper to your trendy friend like admitting you find large pants comfortable? Does the name 'sweeper' turn you off? Are we too compact and light-weight, no bigger than the manual sweepers of yester-year, for our own good?

OK several questions, but I promise a free Gtech SW02 to the best insight emailed to me at GtechOnline





Next post will be sooner and covers the Getch design team and I, day-tripping in the Bull Ring Shopping Centre, Birmingham searching for cool.

To Getch or not to Getch...

Isn't it nice to discover something you didn't know you had?

This week, a grand-mum, bought a Gtech SW02 sweeper by her daughter, called us for a replacement battery. Accidentally through to our marketing team, Gladys asked 'is that the Getch?'

Putting her through to Customer Services our marketing colleague mentioned the mistake. 'It's common' she was told, what's more Customer Servicers already call our loyal and affectionate users 'Getchers'. The more people like our products apparently, the more they want a name, our closest followers like Gladys call us 'The Getch'.

A rose by any other name of course, but maybe they choose to 'Getch' rather than adopt the sterile 'Gtech'. If so Getch.com could be our service site, attracting the most experienced 'Getcher' as well as 'Getchlings' registering their first warranty. We could sponsor 'Getch yourself into design' to nurture Britain's budding inventors.

Hopefully 'Getch yourself a better brand' isn't the underlying message and presumably we do nothing, 'Getch' doesn't exactly ring. But I feel flattered people want a name for our sweeper.

So adopt Getch, or let it lie? A new name for our flagship sweeper? - a free Gtech product of choice to any commented names we use!


With last weekend being the Gtech Annual Summer Party (G.A.S.P.), next post I'll tell who swept all before her again, riding a mechanical bull. Oh and the picture up top is what I woke up to in the morning.

All that fuss

Well my BBC2 moment came and went without mention of my name or Gtech. I'm unscathed and no longer a media virgin, whatever.

After the anticipation (mine, everyone else was bored silly), the anonymous TV debut was a light look at who gets paid what in Britain today.

The 'MoneyWatch' team is preparing us for the worst and though I reckoned I was to be the villain, they seemed genuinely pleased it had not gone badly for me.

With luck I might get another media chance to gain publicity for our little brand.

I won't dwell further, see it at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00t0zpg/How_to_Beat_Tough_Times_Money_Watch_Earning_It/ I'm the one in the pink shirt.

Talking websites I don't know if I've mentioned our own www.gtechonline.co.uk

Next up I'm revealing something unearthed, which has questioned the very basis of the Gtech brand... (Space-odyssey style drum-roll)

15 minutes....

...of fame? Not really, but an interesting 5 minute glance nevertheless.

When the BBC Money Matters team wanted an entrepreneur to interview on 'How to beat tough times' I thought 'why not'?

Abbie from our PR company promised I'd be fine and packed me off to the 'Custard Factory', a beautiful independent studio with skyline views stretching from the Bullring shopping centre across the city of Birmingham.

It was quite an experience, though I may well end up the villain and I'm praying the BBC editors have not been unkind.


Ben the producer told me “I would see how ‘telly’ works” as a cross section of 10 other citizens and me got together to discuss salary.

There's more, a bus driver, a single Mum trying to start a business and me, were to be a judging panel who would take the combined earnings of the other 8 and redistribute the dosh as we saw fit.

That's never going to go well, is it?

And what after a good old argument over 'who deserves what' where I've 'played God' with their salary, do they all say to smarty-pants here, sitting next to the single mum when I get revealed as the highest earner?


To be honest I'm curious myself how it will look. I still don't know and it air’s on BBC2 tomorrow night Tuesday, July 6th, at 8 o'clock.

The team promise I came over nicely, but if it doesn't look good, well Mum I promise I was nice to them all... and I might reveal some of the secrets of how ‘telly’ really works….

Media Training

Today I've been media trained. We did some 'Idol' dreaming of our own recently, thinking of how we should adjust our sweepers to appeal to a wider range of ages. I put in the pic' up-top to kick-off with some colour (excuse gratuitous World Cup link). Feel free to vote for any favorites by commenting...

Now, media training involves going to a proper studio and being taught how to act in front of the media. Evidently if our new product is to be a roaring success, I must front-up and extol it's virtues to anyone interested enough to listen.

It is, I'm told, the secret to many great brands; Virgin = Richard Branson, Dyson = Sir James, Kara Dioguardi = American Idol etc. etc. (kidding Simon, if you ever get to hear)

Well Yvonne Gaskill, legendary TV presenter spent today polishing me up, so I'm ready as I'll ever be.

BBC2 have shown an interest and I'm to appear on 'Money Matters' on July 7th, as you'll all probably be watching the World Cup, I'll let you now how it goes on here.

brave new world

Having been told by our new PR company that I must do a blog, I need help. Gtech are the latest 'David' amongst the floorcare 'Goliath's' and we are very ambitious.

True we believe we can change the way Britain cleans their floors and that our latest technology will be the greatest things since Mr. Dyson wheeled out his no loss of suction vacuum cleaner, but who would take any notice of my blog and how would they hear about it anyway?

You start somewhere though and this is mine.

Currently I am testing prototypes and very pleased. Tell me anything that might be of interest, what do you hate about cleaning? which part of the chore do you like least? does anyone actually believe that using a vacuum cleaner can be fun? (as opposed to 'not as bad as the others, but never in a million years fun')

I plan to write 2 or 3 times a week, I welcome all input and will try to share what goes on in a small design company with a big idea.

Plus there will be vacuum cleaning tips and hints plus ideas to make vacuuming easier.