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The Weekly B.S.

Friday, May 16, 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 New York Times - New York
Judge Sides With Red Cross Over Trademark
A decision by Johnson & Johnson, the giant health care conglomerate, to sue the American Red Cross last year for commercializing the Red Cross symbol may be turning into a bit of a disaster for the company

From Ted.com - New York
Where does creativity hide?
Novelist Amy Tan digs deep into the creative process, journeying through her childhood and family history and into the worlds of physics and chance, looking for hints of where her own creativity comes from.

From Conde Nast Portfolio - New York
Buying Chanel (All of It)
A back-of-the-envelope calculation of how much the luxury company everyone would love to buy may actually be worth.

From MarketResearch101.com - USA
Small Businesses Need to Project a Consistent Brand Image Too
How Butterfield Market in New York City developed a brand strategy.

From Business Standard - Mumbai, India
Fund houses jump on the brandwagon
If you think that clothes and watches are the only products that need a brand name to cash in on, then think again. Experts believe even mutual funds need a well-known and dependable image to woo investors.

From The Wall Street Journal - New York
Does Being Ethical Pay?
In our tests, consumers were willing to pay a slight premium for ethically made goods. But they went much further in the other direction: They would buy unethically made products only at a steep discount.

From the New York Times - New York
Citi’s New Slogan Is Said to Be Second Choice
Perhaps the next Citigroup tagline should be “Let’s Get It Right.” Three decades after Citicorp introduced “The Citi Never Sleeps,” Citigroup is borrowing from its past. A “Citi Never Sleeps” campaign began being shown in heavy rotation Sunday. But Citigroup’s marketing brain trust passed on that same idea about a year ago, said people with direct knowledge of the branding initiative.

From the Los Angeles Times - Los Angeles
Mercury may be coming to the end of the road
Speculation is mounting that Ford Motor Co., preoccupied with reviving its Ford and Lincoln brands, might decide to retire the Mercury nameplate rather than spend scarce resources trying to restore its former luster.

From The Faculty Lounge - Philadelphia
Is Starbucks Seattle’s Best Coffee?
I may be the last person to the party on this one, but until this very morning, I thought that Seattle’s Best Coffee was a competitor of Starbucks.

From The Moscow Times - Moscow
Rebranding Gazprom
The transfer of presidential power to Dmitry Medvedev will likely mark a turning point in how the world views Gazprom. As much as anything else, Medvedev is expected to preside over the “rebranding” of Russia on the global stage and of its energy sector. This inevitably means a major rebranding of Gazprom as well.

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  Friday, May 16th, 2008 - 5:17pm  |  The Weekly B.S.  | 

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