Banana Republic Surveys for a Cause

I used to work in market research, collaborating with Fortune 500 companies and developing their surveys for brand and advertising awareness, brand equity, demographics analysis, etc. The industry has absolutely exploded with the advent of Internet-based surveys. And we used to prompt all of our surveys with some type of gift/cash enticement to encourage participation by consumers. Basically, you could get a chance to win $50, or $100 or even $200 "gift" (see: cash) for participating in the surveys.

Well, I have to say kudos to BananaRepublic.com for their current website survey prompt that allows you to choose 1 of 5 charities to donate monies to as your "Reward". Banana (and sister stores- Gap and Old Navy, apparently) is donating up to $4,000 to these charities based on survey participation.

I have to say, from my perspective, I take a survey (albeit seldom) because I want to, not because of the reward being offered. But this time, I genuinely took the survey only because I felt I could contribute to a good cause. The choices of charities are:

• Boys & Girls Clubs of America - Provides safe places for youth to learn, grow, and develop skills that will help them realize their full potential (www.bgca.org)
  
• Big Brothers Big Sisters of America - Is the country's largest youth mentoring organization (www.bbbs.org)
• CARE - Works to fight poverty around the world through projects that focus on women, their families, and their communities (www.care.org)
• Dress for Success - Promotes the economic independence and self-sufficiency of disadvantaged women worldwide (www.dressforsuccess.org)
• Soles4Souls - Collects and distributes new and gently-used footwear to people in need throughout the world (www.giveshoes.org)

A nice range of charities, depending on if you have a preference. But really it is just about giving back a little, regardless.

Because We Love a Well-Dressed Man.

Sure, the gentleman is known as the Sartorialist, but that is more for Scott Schuman's eye for fashion and well-dressed folk on the streets of cities like New York, Paris, Milan, Stockholm, and London. But do not overlook the man's own personal sartorial style. Scott's cool. And the second shot below (of Mr. George Cortina, professional stylist) is also from Sart's blog- showing you he really practices what he preaches.

And he's right on.


(courtesy: thesartorialist.blogspot.com)


(courtesy: thesartorialist.blogspot.com)

UPDATE: Also found Mr. Cortina (here with Mr. Hamish Bowles- also looking quite dapper) from another of Sart's postings- this time courtesy of Mr. Schuman's blog at style.com

Change for the Sake of, Well... Change

There's no reason other than I am beginning to subscribe to the "Less is More" philosophy, but I plan on changing this blog and bringing it back to a simplistic template of yesteryear in both form and function.

Here is what I know. I no longer have time to update different sections and thoughts and syphon through what I want and where. This was intended as a true weblog (read: journal) of things I find interesting and at some point it became an amalgamation of, well... junk.

These things are like closets... if you do not clean them out once in a while, pretty soon you run of room to put things and they invade your living space. This site began invading my space and I do not like it that way.

So, Spring cleaning time has arrived. Changes to follow.