Often Imitated: CX Stories from History

The cupholder is an often-overlooked feature of a vehicle. But what else will willingly hold a drink, your phone, garbage, a perfectly-sized burrito, or your wallet? That’s right, your local cupholder. Now taken for granted, it was once a novel idea that came directly from customers. When CX leaders at Sears realized the weight of their customers’ opinions mattered a bit more than the C-Suite, they changed the cupholder game foreve...

Baseball has been at the heart of American culture for almost 150 years. Giving us icons like Jackie Robinson, Babe Ruth, and most importantly, Benny “The Jet” Rodriguez. But behind the bravado of men in capris, is a marketing powerhouse. Today we’re doing a deep dive into baseball marketing. Starting with Charles Finley from the 60’s and 70’s to today’s guest, Adam Grossman, CMO of the Boston Red Sox and Fenway Sports. He shares h...

We all love a guilty pleasure. From reality TV to Britney Spears to a 1am trip to your favorite fast food restaurant. Maybe you enjoy all three of those! There’s nothing wrong with that and here at Often Imitated we will always be team #FreeBritney.

What all of these have in common is that they form consumers' experiences and emotions into creating lasting memories. No one understood that more than Pete Harman when he coined the phr...

His Airness. Mike. MJ. All names that represent the GOAT himself: Michael Jordan. When he rocked the now infamous Air Jordans in the 1985 Slam Dunk Contest, he changed the shoe game forever. His sneakers had been banned from the NBA, and subsequently became the world’s next obsession. How he turned wearing shoes into an entire empire and one of the best customer experiences of all time, is something else all together. 

Someone else ...

Few rooms offer more emotional support than the modern bathroom. Bad date? Excuse yourself to the restroom. Need to make friends with other people in your college dorm? Funny enough, bathroom. Went a little too hard at the company offsite? Better hope you’re not running into your VP in the loo.

But the bathroom used to be far less thrilling. Hundreds of years ago, it was a pot in the corner. And before that? Idk…a bush? But one man ...

Maybe you’ve noticed a common thread in every elevator you’ve ridden. They often seem to have a single name branded on the inside: Otis. Now, maybe you weren’t a child fixated on elevators and your caregivers didn’t ask you to stop pointing this out. But on the off chance you were, do we have the episode for you. When Elisha Otis entered the elevator industry in the mid 1800s, they were novel and dangerous. So he invented a way for...

The Space Race was a time of exciting development in science and technology. Did Neil and Buzz actually land on the moon? Who are we to say? (Kidding!) But what we do know is that the push to leave Earth’s atmosphere drove huge advancements in the technology of the time. One of the key lessons we can learn from The Apollo Missions is that with wildly important goals come impressive feats. And that extends to your customer experienc...

Arrested Development. Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist. Firefly. What do these three shows have in common? Well, for starters, people apparently are pretty fed up with hearing correct opinions on how superior these shows are to everything else on TV! And secondly, they were famously canceled. Low ratings are fear of all creative projects (please leave a 5 star review below!), and the grim reaper in charge of delivering them is the all...

When Peter Roget was faced with tragedy he did what all of us hope to do—he turned it into triumph. When life gave him lemons he didn’t just make lemonade. Instead, he invented a water filtration system to make all of London’s lemonade more hygienic. From mastering medicine to inventing a pocket chessboard Peter was one of the original “jack of all trades”. But one of his biggest accomplishments, successes, and achievements was cre...

Left-handed people have spent their lives adapting to a right-handed world. Some were forced to switch to their right hands others were cursed with a life of uncomfortable scissors and smudged writing. But in 1970s San Francisco, a hero emerged. Pier 39 had a new store opening called Lefty’s. It would meet all the needs of this niche (niche?) customer group. But then one day…it all disappeared.

In this episode, we’re tackling some m...

The phrase “return to work” sparks up a lot of emotions these days. We’ve all grown accustomed to pets on video calls, taking meetings in pajamas, and rogue child interruption. Giving that up to go back to the office can make us feel a bit conflicted. Especially if you have to return to a dreary, gray, dull, cubicle. When Robert Propst invented the Action Office back in the 1960s, he had no idea they’d devolve into corporate melanc...

Humans have cared for dogs for over 30,000 years. Are puppies universally the best? Is Caspian Studios staunchly positioned as “dogs are better than cats”? Yes, to both. But it wasn’t until the 1920s when the human/dog relationship exponentially changed. When Morris Frank first met Buddy, he knew his life was forever changed. As The Seeing Eye program brought guide dogs to thousands of people, CX leaders saw a lesson to be learned.

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It’s Friday night, the work week is over, and you’re looking to unwind. Do you want to be the type of person who orders whiskey? Sure. But at the end of the day nothing will get you in the party mood like a Mai Tai. Here at Caspian Studios, we advise that you drink responsibly…we also advise that you find your closest Mai Tai and let your hair down.

Just like the perfect mixtures of a cocktail, your customer experience is a delicate...

When it comes to buying a new computer, there’s a checklist we use to see if it’ll work for us. We think about all the different components that come together to build the final product and figure out if it has the right CPU, processing power, and RAM. But at the end of the day…does it really matter if you’re just using it to send emails and watch cat videos? Well, Andy Grove and Dennis Carter at Intel think so. When they launched ...

When it comes to focus groups—we’ve seen it all. From testing out yogurts to reacting to political campaigns, focus groups come in all shapes and sizes. However, they weren’t always the bastion of a free bag of chips and low quality bottled water that they are today. The first ever focus group was done to study the effectiveness of propaganda to enlist more Americans in the fight against the Nazis. And it was…rough to say the least...

We’ve all had moments where we’ve been a little too obsessed with a movie, celebrity, or sports team. A moment when we take a step back and go “wait…did I really think dressing up like Hannah Montana for a week at school would make Miley Cyrus notice me?” (not based on true events!!). Obsessing over our passions has been a staple part of pop culture for centuries, and Berlin in the 1840s was no different. Franz Liszt was taking the...

Does your dog lose its mind when Saturday morning rolls around and you start vacuuming your home? Is your cat in an endless power struggle with your Roomba? Well, turns out you have two people to blame for that...and today we’re finding out how much their vacuum wars sucked. 

In the battle to create the first vacuum, it was actually a battle of accessorizing. Who could help you reach high places? Could this attachment reach under th...

Before 1959, little girls played with baby dolls to prepare them for motherhood and caregiving. But Ruth Handler knew girls needed a doll that could challenge their imaginations to dream bigger. And so Barbie was born. Whether she’s rocking an astronaut’s suit or a business power suit, the infamous Barbie is always confident and poised to take on the world. With over a billion Barbies sold, her confidence has empowered millions of ...