A few years ago, our ICP Solar marketing team came up with the “Flexgirl” concept to market a range of flexible panels. We had a beautiful young woman wrapped ONLY in a flexible panel with the slogan “I’m flexible”.
Needless to say it was a huge hit in Europe, where dealers were clamouring to get posters just like the one we would show at the trade fairs, yet in the USA, while men admired the poster at the fairs, they said it would simply not “work” in their neck of the woods. Just goes to show that when in Rome…
So now comes the term “Fergalicious” from the female lead singer out of the Black Eyed Peas band (if you don’t know who they are, ask a teenager who is available to you!) and suddenly, a couple of days ago, my guru director of marketing (We call him “Captain Lafite”!) comes up with “Solarlicious“, which is what reminded me of our famous flexgirl (Hmm… I wonder if Fergie would like to be wrapped in our new flex solar panels?)
Well, we certainly could have a good time with that phrase, yet I asked myself (being so fixated on solar)..”is there a product out there which I would describe as solarlicious?” I thought long and hard about many of the cool products that ICP Solar makes, yet I could not quite get that relation between this word and our great solar power products. I was thinking more of something which may not be quite functional yet looks just right. Whereas our panels look great and work great, I think the word is more appropriate for something really out of the box, and doesn’t really relate to performance.
Well, I’ve determined that none other than the SOLIO, made by my good buddy Chris Hornor, deserves that label. At this time, its eggshape is something clearly out of the box which has litle relation to practicality, and all to do with “lovemarks” as defined by Kevin Roberts, CEO of master branders Saatchi & Saatchi in the UK.
The Solio is the epitomy of a superbly crafted product which has that ‘sex appeal’, even though I’m not convinced I’d use it for much more than a paperweight because for my own travels, I need to have as little “extra machinery” as possible, as I really like to travel “super light”. The product is at the other end of the solar spectrum where we have superbly made industrial panels that have the sex appeal of a…well you can imagine yourself what I mean.
So kudos to you Chris, you get the first official “Solarlicious” nomination from me. If I spot other such items in my travels through the solar power world, I’ll make sure to point them out as well…
Sass