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Friday, March 28, 2008
The Weekly B.S. is a conversation of thought-provoking reports addressing brands and B.S., otherwise known as brand strategy.
The key to any effective branding effort is to change and take ownership of the conversation. You are invited to this conversation of brands and the stories they tell.
The Weekly B.S. is hosted by Whisper. Contact us to learn more of how to own the conversation® among audiences you seek to attract and influence.
This week’s B.S.:
From The Wall Street Journal - Liverpool, England
The Next Barcelona
Gray skies and gritty reputation aside, Liverpool is trying to remake itself as a hip European destination.
From Business Line - Chennai, India
Eventful branding
Below-the-line branding activities are more important for IT companies that sell intangibles such as service. Aditi Technologies gained immense popularity for one of its videos circulated on YouTube. The video showed what employees did to have a good time at work.
From John Battelle’s Searchblog - Sausalito, California USA
Google’s Second Click Conflict Dominates SES Panel Today
Google’s brand promise - to be neutral, to be above monetary interest - is in conflict with, well, the rest of Google’s brand promise, to be a superstar stock, to grow faster than any company in the history of the world. And all of that is in conflict with …. Google’s brand promise, to get consumers to the best answer, fastest, regardless of who owns the content. Because…sometimes, that content is now owned by Google.
From The Wall Street Journal - New York
Girl Scouts Seek an Image Makeover
Trying to reinvigorate an old brand is a classic marketing challenge, and remains one of the trickiest feats in the business.
From How Do - England, UK
Customer trust and the New Era of Branding
It is very simple. The way people trust brands is the same as the way they trust other people. People who do what they say they are going to do, maintain consistent values and behave in a consistent way (personality) are those that are generally trusted.
From Advertising Age - New York
Using Customer Service as a Branding Opportunity
Conversing with consumers and finding out what they think about their brands has become a whole lot easier for marketers because of the web.
From The Huffington Post - Hong Kong
Chinese Godzillas? The Phantom Threat of PRC Brands
There’s a lack of understanding of how to measure the success and depth of brands. Equity doesn’t appear from thin air; rather, it is “constructed” - meticulously — over time. The essence of a brand is abstract; indeed, proof of its existence is tantamount to the emotional response it elicits from consumers. In short, China needs a “brand vision” and a “big creative idea” that can be woven into all globally targeted communication.
From HRZone - UK
The psychological contract within employer branding
Organisations with engaged employees serving customers well and winning their loyalty can expect higher sales and repeat sales, and hence higher profits. In this respect, employer branding and employee branding are interdependent projects - if the promises of the former are not realised, the credibility of the latter effort will be undermined.
From The Wall Street Journal - USA
Merger, Indian Style: Buy a Brand, Leave It Alone
Ford Motor Co.’s Jaguar and Land Rover brands might seem ripe candidates for a radical overhaul and a swift swing of the ax. Instead, India’s Tata Motors Ltd., which is expected to formally agree to buy the brands in the coming week for $2 billion, likely will take a different approach: Do next to nothing. Rather than seeking to wring profits out of two luxury automotive brands, Tata is looking to learn from them to help launch its own global expansion in autos, using the brands’ own management team and a full roster of employees.
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We are in the word business.
To create engagement we seek out words and imagery to effectively demonstrate the story of our client brands, to attract an audience through a conversation.
As part of this work, we seek the stories behind words and their use through history. Words and their meaning can be tracked through hundreds, often thousands, of years.
WorldWideWords.org is a handy reference for those you wondering about the backstory behind words such as rantipole or honeyfuggle.
Also, take a look at this bibliography of other words sites, with links to a number of helpful resources such as the Online Slang Dictionary.
A hat-tip to our sister naming group, Igor, for the heads-up.
[ More posts about Brand Strategy Reading List | More posts about Branding Resources | More blogs about Branding Resources ]
A new site is catching a fair amount of attention.
With Miss Teen South Carolina, Obama Girl, and YouTube as inspirations, here is a bit of the thinking that led to the creation of SexyPolitics.com:
We are here to inform. Our access to politics has really changed. We’re forced to adapt to the times. And the present times are interactive. Innovative. We are making use of what is not only an innovation revolution, but an engagement revolution…
We believe sexy is being informed. Sexy is clear and simple. Sexy is understanding why global events often have local impacts. We think a political news story is sexy when it simplifies a misunderstood concept or illuminates a trend that should be followed. When a person is sexy, they inspire those around them. When a movement is sexy, it makes others jump on board.
Those behind SexyPolitics understand the difference between engaging an audience through a unique personality, rather than chasing an audience.
Take a look. You might learn something.
[More posts about Brand Personality | More posts about Branding vs Advertising | More posts about Branding vs Public Relations | More posts about Brand Strategy | More posts about Own The Conversation® Strategy | More blogs about Branding vs Advertising]
We talk.
Seeking Alpha, a leading provider of stock market opinion and analysis from blogs, money managers and investment newsletters, listens.
[More posts about Circuit City Brand Reputation | More posts about Consumer Electronics Branding | More blogs about Retail Branding]
Friday, March 21, 2008
The Weekly B.S. is a conversation of thought-provoking reports addressing brands and B.S., otherwise known as brand strategy.
The key to any effective branding effort is to change and take ownership of the conversation. You are invited to this conversation of brands and the stories they tell.
The Weekly B.S. is hosted by Whisper. Contact us to learn more of how to own the conversation® among audiences you seek to attract and influence.
This week’s B.S.:
From strategy+business - New York
On Track for Growth
Railroads have had to become customer savvy — a significant evolution for companies that did no marketing for most of their history. This in turn required substantial organizational shifts: Companies that thought of their basic business as a one-size-fits-all offering, had to learn to build product and service offerings to meet specific customer needs. They had to segment the market and cater to the most profitable segments. [Download a PDF of the full report at this link.]
From The Wall Street Journal - USA
Think Apple: It Boosts Creativity
The key to shaping behavior is subconsciously planting the brand image.
From MyCustomer.com - UK
How can marketers gain influence in the boardroom?
While the term ‘marketing’ is generally defined as “comprising all those activities involved in anticipating and satisfying customer demand profitably,” most management boards generally do not appear to understand the term, and consider it synonymous with advertising and promotion.
From the Los Angeles Times - Los Angeles
The OC does a bland job of branding
If you want to put a fancy brand on a waste management department, why not call it “The Trash Folks”?
From Agenda Inc. - San Francisco
Yellow since 1877
It seems that Veuve Clicquot - as impressively far back as 1877 - was the first company to realize that ownership of color (in their case Pantone 137c) might be a useful part of their brand equity. Perhaps the most famous example - though we are now intrigued to find more - is Tiffany & Co. which now owns Pantone 318.
From The Wall Street Journal - New York
Creator of Silk Milk Starts Juice Line For Aging Boomers
In December, 58-year-old Mr. Demos began quietly shipping his latest food volley: GoodBelly, a line of stomach-soothing probiotic juice products aimed at aging baby boomers, which was created by his new company NextFoods Inc. Probiotics contain bacteria that are an essential part of a person’s immune and digestive system.
From Brandeo - Atlanta, Georgia USA
It’s All In The Brand Positioning Strategy…Duh
[W]hen a brand is struggling, one of the first things to examine is the brand positioning strategy. That’s why Sears CMO Richard Gerstein commented that a key aspect of his plan to revive the Sears brand will be to “make sure that the overall customer experience…works to create a differentiated proposition that makes someone come to Sears versus going somewhere else.”
From The Wall Street Journal - New York
Name That Firm
Selecting a name is one of the most important decisions a company will ever make. But a lot of small businesses don’t give it nearly enough thought… [M]any…companies don’t understand the basics of choosing a good name. They put little thought into the process…and end up settling on names that are meaningful to them but not clients.
From Brandweek - New York
Agencies Are The New Brand
The modern ad agency is a commodity… Agencies are always insisting that clients invest in their brands. Perhaps those agencies should take some of their own advice.
From BloggingStocks - USA
Billionaire Mark Cuban offers opinions on blogging
Branding is essential to blogging success. “Perception is reality. If you can leverage your existing (blog) to create the perception that yours is different from the masses in some meaningful way, then you must do everything you can to do so.”
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Friday, March 14, 2008
The Weekly B.S. is a conversation of thought-provoking reports addressing brands and B.S., otherwise known as brand strategy.
The key to any effective branding effort is to change and take ownership of the conversation. You are invited to this conversation of brands and the stories they tell.
The Weekly B.S. is hosted by Whisper. Contact us to learn more of how to own the conversation® among audiences you seek to attract and influence.
This week’s B.S.:
From Gallup Poll News - Washington, DC, USA
The Chief Marketing Officer’s Dilemma
The “M” in CMO stands for “marketing,” and the job should revolve around the crucial tasks for marketing: profitably increasing sales share and/or volume while meaningfully enhancing the brand. …[A]dvertising merely represents the communication of the company’s brand promise. It cannot ensure an enduring relationship. Making a promise, however impressive it might be and however memorably it may have been done, isn’t the key to customer engagement. Engagement results only when the company keeps the promises it makes.
From the New York Times - New York
For a New Brand, Pepsi Starts the Buzz Online
A beverage marketer known for pouring money into splashy ads in traditional media is taking an unconventional approach with a new product. The decision by the North American division of Pepsi-Cola, part of PepsiCo, is another sign of the growing use of new media to introduce brands in mainstream categories like packaged goods.
From Aaron Amos - USA
Blogging and Newspapers, a Lesson in How Not to Brand and Market
…[R]ather than assigning the brand equity of the NY Times to the blogs hosted, they will take the alternative path of assigning their perception of what a blog is to the NY Times, thereby having a negative impact on the brand equity of the NY Times. That’s an enormous risk for any mainstream brand to take.
From The Wall Street Journal - New York
Revlon’s Makeup Test
After a painful flop, company focuses on its core brand… Focusing on Revlon’s core brand “should have always been the centerpiece of our strategy,” says Revlon CEO, David Kennedy.
From Hindustan Times - New Delhi, India
Incredible India losing sheen
Despite it’s size and diversity in tourism sites, ‘Incredible India’ can manage to attract only about five million foreign tourists a year while Singapore, its South Asian neighbour, draws over 10 million visitors.
From TrendWatching.com - Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Free Love
We have been tracking the rise of free goods and services for years now (and yes, so has everybody else in the trend world), and have occasionally referred to it as FREE LOVE. FREE LOVE thrives on an all-out war for consumers’ ever-scarcer attention… Expect FREE LOVE to become an integral if not essential part of doing business.
From The Wall Street Journal - New York
Retailers tackle an online gender gap
This group is a retailer’s dream: When shopping online, they spend more, make snap decisions — and return less stuff. Who are these desirable shoppers? Men.
From Business Week - New York
Building a Cosmetics Brand from Scratch
I wanted to build a company with heart and a soul that people could feel from just touching one of our cases… The product had to have the power to bring a flood of memories to the wearer, positive associations that immediately made it endearing and familiar. How did I make the brand stand out in a crowded marketplace? Creating a brand is like making a person entirely to your specifications. This person has a personality, a moral standing, a temperament, and a physical appearance.
From The Wall Street Journal - USA
Despite Marketing, Wal-Mart Declares: ‘We Are Not Green’
Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s Lee Scott Jr. drew attention for actions he has taken over the past few years in getting the giant retailer to green up its act. But yesterday morning at The Wall Street Journal’s ECO:nomics conference on the environment and business in Santa Barbara, Calif., Mr. Scott took some attendees aback by declaring: “We are not green.”
From Marketing Magazine - Dublin, Ireland
Marketers by nature
Men are attracted to sales so much because they like negotiating, doing deals and the short lead-time in getting results. Women, on the other hand - and again we have to generalise here - tend to be a little more patient and enjoy multi-tasking and devising strategies. It is no surprise they succeed in marketing.
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Canada’s Financial Post says successful branding is difficult work, and suggests “the cost of getting this wrong is usually much higher than the expense of doing it right.”
We agree.
So much so that this principle becomes our latest Law of Branding.
Here’s more of the story appearing in the Financial Post:
Last week Hewlett-Packard Canada unveiled a survey of 1,225 small and medium-sized business owners in which 55% defined “brand” as their product or company name, and 29% said they thought it was their logo.
In reality, branding is everything you do… It’s not just a logo or a line of shampoos — it’s the entire experience.
Canada’s entrepreneurs may not know what branding is, but they do know they’re not good at it. Only 45% of business owners polled by HP Canada say they are “very satisfied” with their company’s current brand. Yet, 59% of them say they consider branding a priority! Sadly, such disconnects are not rare…
As with any good discussion of the topic, the Financial Post offers this definition of branding:
“…[D]efining why you are, so that you become the only logical choice for what you offer.”
A definition with which we also agree.
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Friday, March 7, 2008
The Weekly B.S. is a conversation of thought-provoking reports addressing brands and B.S., otherwise known as brand strategy.
The key to any effective branding effort is to change and take ownership of the conversation. You are invited to this conversation of brands and the stories they tell.
The Weekly B.S. is hosted by Whisper. Contact us to learn more of how to own the conversation® among audiences you seek to attract and influence.
This week’s B.S.:
From The Globe and Mail - Billund, Denmark
Lego wants to build business by appealing more to girls
To win girls over Lego – whose iconic plastic bricks have entertained children and wounded unwary barefoot parents since the late 1940s – is working to change its mindset.
From AdAge.com - USA
The Most Interesting Branding Story Is in Politics: A Case Study in ‘Product’ vs. ‘Brand’
I was getting my hair cut the other day and the salon erupted in an all-out political brawl between the Clinton and Obama camps.
From the New York Times - New York
A 1950s Brand Mascot Fights 21st-Century Indigestion
A major marketer is plop-plopping a vintage brand character back into ads, hoping to generate some fizz-fizz among a new generation of consumers.
From The Wall Street Journal - New York
Can New Quiksilver Line Reach Beyond the Beach?
Quiksilver Inc., a brand long favored by sun-baked surfers, is banking on a clothing line aimed at 20-something women to help the company branch out. The move is more evidence that for teen-oriented retailers like Quiksilver — niche brands with big growth ambitions — continued expansion requires courting a following beyond their founding cliques.
From LawPeopleBlog - Fort Lee, New Jersey, USA
Joining the British in the Hunt for an Identity
From the historically great gray uniformity of law firms has blossomed a broad range of attitudes and actualities on many subjects– gender and minority diversity, life-balance, training, client service, management involvement, even whether the practice of law is done from dedicated real estate or virtually. No longer is the slogan “We’re lawyers” sufficient.
From Canada NewsWire - Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Majority of Canadian entrepreneurs lack total confidence in their brand
New research from HP Canada shows that Canadian small business owners recognize the benefits of branding, but many are dissatisfied with their own current brand and marketing.
From the New York Times - New York
Wal-Mart Tastemakers Write Unfiltered Blog
Corporate blogs are nothing new — General Motors, Dell and Boeing have them — but Wal-Mart’s site, called Check Out, turns the traditional model on its head. Instead of relying on polished high-level executives, it is written by little-known buyers, largely without editing.
From ZDNet - San Francisco
Value in hospital branding
Branding is a hush-hush topic among hospital administrators. Most prefer to think of reputation. That’s different. You throw out a name at someone, they nod, and that’s a good reputation. They throw a name at you, that’s branding.
From the Scotsman - United Kingdom
Branding’s about much more than just having a new logo designed
IN 2007, Morisons Solicitors decided the changing face of the legal market offered a challenge it would be foolish to ignore. We were in a crowded market where few firms are truly differentiated. We embarked on a rebranding. Any illusions that such an exercise might just mean a new logo were quickly dismissed. In fact, to us, rebranding is simply a convenient label for a major change-management exercise.
From The Wall Street Journal - New York
Eight-Brand Pileup Dents GM’s Turnaround Efforts
The eight brands in its portfolio often compete with each other — both for customers and a slice of GM’s marketing budget.
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Beware the committee approach in creating a breakthrough brand.
For our latest Law of Branding, we turn to this from Karen Post:
A by-product of brands “for the people” is the committee that compromises and kills potential brand home runs. That is why you never see statues of committees in parks; you see brave leaders.
Adam Hanft, author of Dictionary of the Future, notes, “There is no question that multiple levels of government, etc. militate against a successful branding campaign. When the strategy and advertising become dumbed down so that it satisfies bureaucrats and ends up as self-serving pabulum, it’s destined to die.”
The way around this is for leadership to take control and say, “Listen, while some issues demand creating a consensus, this is one area where a consensus will fail.” What might be helpful is to show resistors the kind of advertising that works in today’s culture and how a city that wants to brand itself as cool must rise to that level.
The same is true, of course, for committees in any organization. Including a Fortune 500.
Successful branding begs for insightful leadership.
It also often requires expert support skilled in the brand development process, and in process discipline.
Otherwise, any branding effort devolves to this, or this, or this.
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We talk.
Our CEO will address an assembly of international students at the University of California, Riverside in March, sharing our brand development process and select case studies.
If you are in the neighborhood on March 7, drop in.
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