I will never forget the day my client The Tea Ambassador asked me to get him a cup of coffee during a break at the International Home + Housewares Show in Chicago. The Tea Ambassador’s job was just what you would imagine it to be. Aubrey Franklin (yes, he was a Brit) promoted tea drinking in the United States for companies that made tea kettles. (What a surprise!)
At the time, Aubrey and I were sitting in the cafeteria area of McCormick Place in Chicago. Sporting a pith helmet and mutton chops, Aubrey was easily recognizable. I was mortified. I had just spent months promoting tea drinking with Aubrey and now he wants to drink coffee in front of the housewares industry.
I don’t remember if I actually got him the coffee but, knowing myself, I probably did. I also probably hid someplace while Aubrey drank his coffee and had a good giggle.
I haven’t thought about that incident in many years. It came back to me when I read that Evernote, the very successful digital note-taking software maker, had partnered with 3M for a line of Evernote-compatible Post-It notes, and had expanded a deal with notebook maker Moleskine. Evernote had already sold hundreds of thousands of the Moleskine notebooks.
Evernote now says there are lots of good and convenient uses for paper. “Evernote is better off augmenting than trying to replace,” said Evernote CEO Phil Libin. “Technology has a long way to go to catch up with that.”
The company has products from socks and T-shirts and the new backpacks to scanners and in-app and online stores in its mobile and desktop apps.
Evernote wants to bridge the digital and analog worlds. That may be a good thing, but then again they told me over a year ago that they loved tea. Ha!
Read all about Evernote’s new offerings here.
DigiDame 