Longing for a taste of the good ol’ days? The John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History at Duke University just posted thousands of television commercials created or collected by the D’Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles (DMB&B) advertising agency, from the 1950s to the 1980s. From American Express to Vicks VapoRub, they’re all here. (Did not remember the spots for Fluffo Shortening, but they’re all here too!)

Click here to jump into the time machine.

From Wikipedia: “DMB&B was established in November 1985 by the merger of the Benton & Bowles (B&B) and D’Arcy-MacManus Masius(D-MM) advertising agencies. DMB&B created the original Santa Claus icon for a Coca-Cola ad, as well as the slogans “This Bud’s for you” for Budweiser and “Melts in your mouth, not in your hands” for M&Ms. They were acquired by Publicis and closed in 2002.”

These ads reminds us of simpler days, when advertisers could simply blast a clever message out through the limited media channels (NBC, CBS, or ABC) over and over and over, to win the hearts and minds of American consumers.Today, the challenge is much complex and requires actually listening to consumers and speaking with them, as opposed to at them.

Unfortunately, we’ve seen too many current-day ad agencies who are still stuck in the time machine, longing for the “good ol’ days.” This is where service design can help.

A recent article on Retail Wire details how PetSmart, the big box pet supply retailer, plans to add in-home services to their revenue mix. Services will include dog walking, backyard clean-up and aquarium set-up, all in an effort to differentiate itself from Wal-Mart, which offers everyday low prices on pet supplies and even pets, such as fish.

PetSmart currently offers grooming, training and kenneling at many of its 1,137 stores.

“In-home services are a big opportunity, but we have a lot of work to do before we determine how to make that work,” Robert Moran, who became the pet retailer’s chief executive officer last month after serving as COO since 2001.

Conversely, any move by PetSmart into at-home services would put pressure on the many mom & pops currently supplying those services.

“I would really question the training of the people they would hire,” said Jill Tuesday, owner of No Furry Worries in Huntington Beach, Calif., a local entrepreneur providing dog walking and pet-sitting services. “You can’t just hire a bunch of kids and then expect people to let them into their homes.”

But then again, that’s exactly what Best Buy does with the Geek Squad.

Where are the opportunities to enhance your existing core business with specialized services? This is where a service design review can help.

We have posted four new videos today which cover a range of topics related to service design. Click here to check them out.

We recently came across an amazing service designed for kids; a Brooklyn, NY storefront appears to cater to outfitting superheros for his/her next crusade. The shelves are lined with tools of the trade - invisibility paint, capes, deflector bracelets, and bottles of chaos and anti-matter. Customers are treated as real superheroes throughout every facet of the customer experience - and take an oath when they leave the store not to share trade secrets with “villains.”

An actual business generating real revenue, this novel idea actually creates a comfort zone for the real business in the back-room; a non-profit creative writing and tutoring center called 826NYC.

Imagine students, who are hesitant at best when their parents sign them up for extra help (equaling extra homework.) Now they enter a cool and unique storefront, and get to the tutoring center through a secret bookcase in the back wall. What kid wants to walk into a storefront that says “Tutoring Center?”

826NYC is the second in a series. A pirate supply store called 826 Valencia, located in San Franscisco, was the first tutoring/creative writing center and was the brainstorm of Dave Eggers, author of the Pulitzer Prize finalist novel “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius.”

Since then, sister sites have popped up all over the country with different themed storefronts. Seattle has a space traveler theme and 826 Michigan is a robot supply and repair shop.

Many times, we assist our clients in finding new service design concepts in the most obvious places. This story also shows that sometimes you have to “zig” when logic would tell you to “zag.” Kudos to Dave Eggers and everyone involved with his tutoring program for thinking differently in order to help kids bridge the gap between their own inner hero and their schoolwork.

Click here to see a Dave Eggers discuss this project at the 2008 TED conference.

06/30/2009 - EU reaches deal with 10 top mobile phone companies for universal charger based on micro USB socket. Everybody wins!

06/25/2009 - Starbucks returns grinding coffee during the day (not just morning) for the sound and smells of a true “coffee house.”

06/23/2009 - George Gilder: “A recession is the mother of invention.”

06/24/2009 - Amazing video - Stephen Wolfram demos the Wolfram/Alpha “knowledge engine”

06/24/2009 - Billboard above the Mercedes/Smart Car dealership in Manhattan: “Park for $99 per month when you buy a Smart Car.”