Fresh Perspectives
Principal & Catalyst
Davis Masten creates customer inspired breakthroughs for his clients with innovative brand and product experiences. Davis joined Cheskin Associates, Inc. in 1975 and worked closely with founder and motivation research pioneer Louis Cheskin. Davis stepped down as the CEO of Cheskin+Masten to gain increasing flexibility to pursue his passions. Focusing on the areas of youth culture, branding, trust, and product development, Davis has offered his expertise to more than 2,500 projects in innovation for retail environments, packaging, interactive environments, corporate positioning and identity, as well as industrial design and product development. He is a pioneer in expanding client perspectives, offering a unique and time-tested view of marketplace trends. He applied ethnography to branding in the early 1980’s. Current clients include Microsoft and Coca-Cola among many others.
See Davis's photoblog entries ...
20 April 2006
“I wish you the decency and nobility of which you are capable.”
Jonathan Daniels said this years ago in his college graduation speech. Jonathan, sometime later, gave his life stepping in front of a shotgun blast directed at an African-American woman in Alabama. He had gone to Selma at the call of Dr. King.
Jonathan’s words and behavior are alive and well with me; as they are with my friend Cabell Brand, who pointed out the words to me. And now, I hope, with you.
Thank you Jonathan.
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Etcetera
by Davis Masten
19 December 2005
I was staggered the other day when I heard Intel's Chairman Craig Barret say that 90% of the products his company delivers on December 31st did not even exist on January 1st of the same year. Wow! A company that huge moving that fast. I would hate to compete with Intel.
P&G has also accelerated. Take a look at Tide, for instance. Tide has quickened the pace of new product introductions from Tide with Febreeze to Tide Cold Water to Tide with a touch of Downy to products that add devices or implements like Tide Buzz, Tide To Go, Tide Stainbrush and Tide Kick. They have changed the rules they wrote in the detergent business and are forcing their competitors to accelerate their pace or fade away.
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by Davis Masten
16 December 2005
I heard the Presidents of the National Academies talk about their most challenging issues recently. While all of questions and concerns were provocative and, in most cases things I had not considered much or even at all, one thought has come back to me again and again. This was raised by Harvey Fineberg MD, PhD, President of the Institute of Medicine . Harvey challenged the group to help him think about the role of the double-blind testing in a future world of personalized medicines.
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Consumer Goods
by Davis Masten
25 October 2005
The New Yorker has influenced me all my life. My Mom used to read it. So I was particularly proud to see my friend and colleague, Steve Gundrum, profiled in it last month in a story by Malcolm Gladwell. The article, “The Great Bake-Off,” describes a real project that Steve conceived and led: the development of a new cookie using different approaches taken from technology, primarily open source versus specialized teams.
Steve first came up with the idea to experiment with open source development after hearing it described at the TED conference in 2003. Like a true entrepreneur, he grabbed the idea from one area (after talking with Mitch Kapor) and ran with it in another, getting several notable companies to join him in the experiment. Which approach worked better? The results are too interesting to give away. Read the article or hear Malcolm talk about it in a podcast at foodcom.com.
Posted in
Innovation & Design
by Davis Masten, 0 comments
9 September 2005
It's odd what makes an innovation suddenly move from niche to mass. So often it is unplanned and unexpected events.
Cheskin has been actively involved for years in helping consumers use digital tools to tell their side of an experience. Even before they hit the market, we believed tools like camera phones, PDAs, blogs, and podcasts had immense power to convey a new, more intimate and individualized point of view. But our efforts paled in comparison to the stimulus provided by recent events, in particular the London bombing and Hurricane Katrina.
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Innovation & Design
by Davis Masten
30 August 2005
On the radio yesterday I heard a Target ad for Boots. Not the kind of boots you wear, but rather the Boots that is a major retailer of drugs, health and beauty in the UK.
Target presented Boots as "the largest health and beauty brand in the UK," now available at Target. Ironically, Boots is more like Rite Aid or Walgreen’s than Clinque or Aveeda. But Target is shrewdly using the panache of Boots' British heritage to turn this private label into a major international brand. This is one more evolution in retailers' continued drive to redefine private label branding. With Boots, Target shows once again how they are leading this transformation.
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Positioning & Branding
by Davis Masten, 0 comments
22 July 2005
I was riding in a car today in Battle Creek Michigan. One of my hosts told the story of how he left his keys in his car. He had his cell phone though. So he called his wife, who hit it open the car door button on her set of keys for the same car. The door unlocked.
I’ll remember this the next time I lock my keys in my car. Hope this helps you too.
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Innovation & Design
by Davis Masten
10 June 2005
Leah's blog make a good case for why Black & Decker's decision to extend into kitchen mixers was probably a mistep. But if HP decided to spend some time in the kitchen, they may find a more hearty welcome. According to 12,000+ consumers in over a dozen different countries, the HP brand can stretch into home appliances. Why?
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Innovation & Design
by Davis Masten
8 June 2005
Yesterday we released our latest Global Market Bias study. It has been great collaborating with Paul Strasser at MSI-ITM and Clement Mok of CMCD. I would not have guessed that LG is one of the world’s most extendible brands. I like to think I don’t have a US point of view, but once again, data is forcing me to break through the limits of my perspective.
We included a variety of provocations in the report. These provocations were based on what the 12,000+ consumers told us (not what the manufacturers themselves may or may not have any intention in doing.) There is fun stuff like Sony automobiles, McDonald’s hotels, LG food products and Kraft kitchen appliances.
Over the next few days I will share with you three provocations that did not make it into the report. These provocations are not even based in the data, but, rather are inspired by the data and the collaboration. Clement Mok made these provocations take form. I love working with great designers.
Are these in Starbucks future?
These are fictitious illustrations of possible scenarios. They are not in any way TRUE representation of the company’s products or intentions.
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Positioning & Branding
by Davis Masten
10 April 2005
I am Thomas Friedman fan. His new premise that the world is flat both excites me and frightens me. The premise is simple. In the flat world, competition is abundant and those countries like China and India want to move from products that say Made in China to Designed in China. Essentially, the USA as the world’s innovation engine is soon to be challenged like never before. The American way of life has not been as endangered since the beginning of the cold war.
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Etcetera
by Davis Masten
6 April 2005
I just finished a customer satisfaction call from SBC about a service we activated recently at home. Five minutes into the call about how our home was wired/wireless (much of which was with SBC already and they could have just looked), I asked what the benefit was to me that I give them all of this information.
She said “It’s just a survey!” As if this innocuous technique gave them the rights to my personal behavior. She later went onto say it would help them sell us bundles of services in the future. Let’s see, I give them my information so they can make my relationship more meaningful. Nice idea in theory but would they be able to do this in reality?
My primary experience of SBC is one of sales calls three days a week mostly on things that we have already signed up for or for things we have rejected. They are proof positive that their right hand does not know what their left hand is doing. I gracefully got off the call early because I do not trust SBC to be able to get their act together and actually act in my best interest. Customer satisfaction is more than just a survey.
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Etcetera
by Davis Masten
9 March 2005
My wife, Christopher and I have been going to TED since TED 3. When we were TED Virgins, our world was rocked! New worlds were revealed. More recently, we have been energized into taking action. For instance, Christopher came back from TED a couple of years ago and started blogging. It was very edgy and the NY Times covered her in an article “CEOs that blog”.
This year, as usual, I met some wonderful people and saw lots of old friends. While I loved learning more about Biomimicry; drumming under the full moon on the beach in a drumming circle led by Mickey Hart; running in the Nike 5k; being inspired by Bono to make the world a better place; chatting with Dr. James Watson about his latest work at Cold Springs Harbor and other such notable experiences, the thing that shows up in my everyday life the most is how I tie my shoes.
TED gave a chance for members of the audience to have 3 minutes to share something with their fellow TEDsters. One of these brave souls got up and told us how most of us tie our shoes incorrectly. With all due respect to my dearly departed parents, they taught me to loop to the right and circle the knot on the left. What I am now teaching my 11 year old is to loop on the left and cross over on the right.
You never know from TED what will stay with you.
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Etcetera
by Davis Masten
9 March 2005
In the March/April issue of Foreign Affairs, Niall Ferguson lays out a thought provoking case in his article “Is Globalization Doomed?”. He draws parallels between the conditions now and 1914. He claims that although the writing was on the wall, few were able to recognize it, much less take action. This reminded me of a set of management interviews I did back in the early 80’s. I was doing a project for the Chairman of Atari where we interviewed over 70 senior managers. Only one person had a clue
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Etcetera
by Davis Masten
15 February 2005
“I don’t understand why a Sunday newspaper is worth $5. What’s in it that makes it worth so much money?” I have heard this paraphrased at least a half dozen times from the Starbucks cashier ringing up my coffee and Sunday New York Times. I first heard it in New York then Reno, Lake Tahoe, Martinez and near my home in Silicon Valley. For me, lounging on a Sunday morning with the Times is a sign that I am taking good care of myself carving out some time for fresh perspectives. The experience of my latte and the Times can take me away where ever I am. For instance, our younger daughter had her first volleyball tournament in Vallejo recently. We spent the night in a Best Western in nearby Martinez, the home of John Muir. While the tournament was freezing cold and the played late into the night, I walked across the street to Starbucks the next morning. There I sipped my coffee, read the Times and felt rejuvenated. We spent the rest of the morning at John Muir’s home and hiking before volleyball resumed later that day.
I can not expect Starbucks management to help their employees understand why a paper is worth $5. From the cashier’s viewpoint, I think it is perceived as a ridiculous indulgence. However, I think of it as no less of an indulgence than a $2 cup of coffee or a $4 latte. However, the drink and the paper are part of a Sunday experience I find quite meaningful.
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Meaningful Experience
by Davis Masten
13 January 2005
Words can not describe the depth of the tragedy of the Tsunami. Over time, it will rebuild…
As the long process of reconstruction happens my hunch is that new technology will be commonplace. It is not hard to imagine a rebuilt world where the hotels all have communication devices. These small waterproof devices could be given to each person as they check in and can go with each person everywhere they go – swimming, water skiing, scuba diving or dancing. These local communication devices could tie together every member of the family with low power walkie talkies, connect everyone to emergency broadcasts and provide GPS for transactional purposes. These could come in the form of necklaces, wristbands, headbands or earrings. The impression would be more one of fashionable go any where communication devices with location and emergency functionality than a straight reminder that people are vacationing in the land of earthquakes and tsunami.
However reconstruction happens I suspect that the infrastructure will be more up to date there than here in Silicon Valley in the next 5-10 years.
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Etcetera
by Davis Masten
29 September 2004
It seems we all have an Olympic story. My story starts back in the Spring. It was at the board meeting of Mattson and Co. Mattson is the premiere independent food and beverage development company in the country. I have collaborated with Mattson for over 20 years and been on their board for a few. Anyway, Steve Gundrum, the CEO said he had an unexpected agenda item and he asked the Chairman, Pete Mattson, if we could start with this issue.
Steve explained that Lindsay, the daughter of one of Mattson’s long term employees, Kristie, was playing in the Olympics for the Greek softball team. The employee, a single Mom, could not afford to go to the Olympics. Steve wanted the board to discuss and get approval for a Greek food and beverage tour for Jan. She would stay at the home of Steve’s Greek relatives in Athens. She would also have to sample food and beverages and take notes on opportunities that might apply to Mattson clients. Mattson would pick up her travel expenses and provide a per diem. Most importantly, she could take the time to also be with her daughter and watch her play. We quickly approved the allocation.
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by Davis Masten, 0 comments
22 September 2004
My friend Steve and I trade photos from our camera phones and a host of other digital devices (but mostly via our phones) as a means of communication. We send pictures to each other, often without explanation. The other day I sent Steve a series of photos that show the power of real time pictures.
It was Sunday morning. Steve and I agreed to meet at the Pacific Athletic Club. We had agreed that I would let him know when I headed out for the workout. However I did not know what time I would leave and if it was too early I did not want to wake him or his family. So as I got to my car to leave, I snapped this photo to and sent it to his phone.
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Innovation & Design
by Davis Masten, 0 comments
26 July 2004
July 5th was my 30th anniversary at Cheskin. It caused me to reflect. I love the size of the Cheskin playground. With diverse interests and talents, we've got few boundaries and a super bright green light for us to explore our individual areas of interest.
My partners and I have encouraged each other in the pursuit of our passions. We are passionate people who love to explore the intersections and tension points of daily life around the world. Very little of this has been public. Our clients trust us to keep things quiet. In many ways, we're the 'thought' that precedes their 'hype’. So one of the things I have enjoyed through the years are our occasional collaborations to explore publicly themes we find of interest.
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Etcetera
by Davis Masten, 0 comments
8 June 2004
Reason magazine created 40,000 custom covers to illustrate the editorial focus of their May issue. The image below is an example of what subscribers received: an aerial photo of their home right on the cover. This exercise underscores the powerful article Database Nation inside, which speaks to the benefits of living in a data-mining world. While the free market/Libertarian point of view is clear in the article, it also is a good overview of how much is publicly available about each one of us.
As someone who has studied trust/privacy issues for years, I found the article to be chilling but also refreshing. The amount of easily accessible data available is growing every day and truly frightens me.
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Consumer Technology
by Davis Masten, 0 comments
14 May 2004
It amazes me how often I am asked if I know the right person for thus and so job. Some of these positions are AMAZINGLY GREAT! I think people assume that because I am visible and in research that I somehow know every researcher. The truth is far from it. I've always hung out more with creatives, business types, academics and money people more than market/design researchers. So a couple of months ago when an old friend at a global giant asked who I knew for her 20 open slots, or when I was asked by a VP at another highly visible global giant who we would like to fill a VP slot to collaborate with us, I mostly drew blanks. I wish I knew more researchers. I think this is just another place where perception is not reality. In the meantime, some of the coolest work in the industry is left undone.
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Etcetera
by Davis Masten, 0 comments
8 April 2004
Both my personal and professional life is filled with new experiences that define and redefine how I look at the world. I meet people from all over the world who enrich my life in many different ways, and often stun me with their interesting view of life. However, as I referenced in my earlier Assholes blog post, not all of what I experience is positive. ;)
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Etcetera
by Davis Masten, 0 comments
26 March 2004
On my way to Manhattan from JFK, pried into the backseat of a cab that inched its way through the traffic jam I heard enthusiastic reports about an aspect of the SONG experience that I did not encounter. Its worthy of note in that it is a new way to experience flying.
Me, I get on an airplane and on go the BOSE headphones plugged into my iPod. Out comes my Vaio and I work. My two bookends in the taxi backseat of the cab however played online music trivia on the flight. Unbeknownst to me, the trivia game is multiplayer. There were over 20 people connected and interacting on this flight.
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Etcetera
by Davis Masten, 0 comments
24 March 2004
Over the last 15 years I have conducted my own personal survey around the world. This is not to be considered scientific nor confused with anything other than anecdotal evidence. I have asked hundreds of people in a wide variety of settings of people who deal with the public. Those people on the front lines of commerce where their job is to have close encounters with people who pay. The question typically goes something like this: "Excuse me, I know this is a bit odd as a question and may seem a bit inappropriate but do you mind if I ask you something? What percentage of people that you deal with in your work are assholes?" I typically smile sympathetically at this point and continue. "I don't mean people having a bad day or just stressed out due to travel or something, but are just assholes to the core?"
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Etcetera
by Davis Masten
23 March 2004
I await my first SONG flight to taxi here at Tampa airport. I flew in two nights ago on TED. My virgin tours of America's new airline entries do not inspire hope for the parent companies.
As our group of six executives waited to board we were befuddled by Zone confusion. While Zones may work for Southwest, here they begged coherency. Add this to not being able to hear or read what zones were boarding, it did not did not sing sweetly to us. Once seated the attendant barked directives sharing her obviously bad day with the rest of us. With over 2 million actual miles in the air, I rarely hear attendant say something fresh. But hey, maybe they will sing a new song, play a new tune, whatever. I am open new experiences. Well, here is what we got. We were scolded for putting coats in the overhead bins before all the bags were in. We were instructed to stand up, take out coats out of the bins because people insist on carrying on so many bags. This song is starting off key.
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Innovation & Design
by Davis Masten
30 October 2003
Typically I love articles on design. I remain disturbed by Michel Marriott's recent article For Mars and Venus: A Midpoint in Design (NYT CIRCUITS, October 9, 2003). I agree with many of the points in the article, particularly the quote from my old friend Brenda Laurel “If you are a man you are not a wuss for carrying it around. That’s the bottom line.” Brenda has had to fight in a man’s world and understands that if the product is” too fem”, it narrows the market. But I object to the article not drilling down a deeper gender and design issues.
Design, at least in the world of industrial design, interaction design and product development is still a man’s world. Women are still a small minority in the design world. While Steve Jobs can inspire great design out of men and women, most of the design infrastructure is biased towards the considerably less complicated world of men.
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Innovation & Design
by Davis Masten
16 August 2003
My daughter Kelley, an assistant fashion editor at JANE magazine, called me last Thursday afternoon from New York. She said the lights were out in and all around her office so she wanted to know what was going on. "The lights flickered in the elevator and I got off immediately otherwise I would still be in there. Those poor people who stayed on." I'll leave the Blackout stories to those who were closer than 2,500 miles. (I was in Silicon Valley.)
Kelley called my cell phone from her dark office building in Manhattan from the only thing that was still working, her landline phone. I had not heard a thing so I got on the net. I searched Google, CNN, ABC News and only found a couple of paragraphs of vague description on each. When I hit MSNBC, they were streaming video with voice over. I held the cell up to the little speakers on my VAIO laptop and let her hear the voiceover saying that Mayor Bloomberg was calling this a natural disaster not an act of terrorism.
My take away: 1. I found it amazing how I could help out from so far away with a mix of technologies that barely existed in the consumer world a mere 10 years ago. 2. I found it amusing how “natural disaster” applied so well to describing how a technology had broken down.
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Innovation & Design
by Davis Masten
21 July 2003
One of the things I love about working at Cheskin is the variety of influences to which I am exposed. Lots of designers, cultural anthropologists, multi-cultural gurus, product development mavens, creatives of all walks of life.
Next week Cheskin is hosting the board of Directors meeting of the AIGA Center for Brand Experience. Tomorrow I think we are hosting the Association of Professional Futurists. You never know what is happening from one day to the next!
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Etcetera
by Davis Masten
1 July 2003
At the AIGA leadership conference this last weekend in Austin, I walked away with two things of note. One, the work of outgoing president, Clement Mok, has been most impressive. Clement came in as president in the deepest darkest hours the design and creative business has seen in decades. At his departure he leaves with this institution, founded in 1914, with a good balance sheet, strong local leadership, a vision for “designing” which has a place for all designers to impact business more effectively, and over 16,000 members nationally. While there is much to be done by every member to take the organization to the next level, Clement added his brilliance, many miles on the road and collaborative skills to giving AIGA a future many thought not possible when he became president. Great job Clement!
Secondly, the new national board now has on it a strong proportion of women designers. Personally, I think that too much of the designing in the world has been done by men. My rationale is simple. The vast majority of disposable household income is controlled by women. The demands on American women to feel successful increase every year. Still, the “woman of the house” is primarily responsible for the kids, the cleaning, the communication with relatives, and a zillion other things. I know that for what it takes for me to be considered a “great Dad” is so much less than what it is for my wife to be considered a “great Mom”. So the pressures are different. In our time compressed society I think that women are better able to intuit these pressures and effectively address them than most guys. So with more and powerful women at the helm of designing our world, I think the economy will grow just a bit faster.
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Etcetera
by Davis Masten
26 June 2003
Since I can’t talk about my projects I'd like to speculate a bit about one of the mega trends I've been interacting with to accelerate a client's top line growth: Time Compression.
I was in Kansas City recently, the trail head of points west. When the settlers and pioneers headed west, their idea of getting to California on time was to make it before the snows hit in the Sierra Nevada or before the gold ran out. Whatever the specific notion, it was a lot more general than the 3:05 landing time I had. The growth of time savings devices like washing machines, dishwashers, portable packaging, automobiles have shifted time relative to convenience.
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Etcetera
by Davis Masten
21 June 2003
I don't understand how the airlines make money or how sane investors rationalize the capital formation of the airline industry. But all this serious stuff aside, Denver airport was packed the other day. The three flights I have been on have been jammed full. This is one of maybe 30 anecdotal indicators that make me think that parts of the economy are back. Whether or not the numbers will end up in corporate profits in the airlines I'll leave to the money people. But from my vantage point, it feels like summer crowds again. Over the past 28 years of reasonably intense business travel, I get that more money should be moving through the system and more people's pockets. I am happy for the cabbies, rent-a-car companies, etc. Hopefully, there will be more people whose lives are not so lean, financially at least.
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by Davis Masten
20 June 2003
It'll be fascinating to see what the next large disruption is and how American society reacts. Last night in a little French bistro in Kansas City, it was speculated that America may become less over reactive as we see that the disruptions don't take us to our knees. While the nature of the disasters are always painful, that we can adjust and move on. I've held that the recovery was going to happen sometime back, but 9/11, war, SARS all disrupted the momentum. How we react and don't over react will have a major impact on whether we continue to put the economy into a series of holding patterns. Now at the ripe old age of 52, I have been in lots of holding patterns. My sense is that we are becoming more aware that even in the darkest hours there is light if we have the courage to see it coming.
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by Davis Masten
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