Stay on brand, my friends.
Recently, a friend of mine bought some Tecate beer, which had me commenting on their recent commercials featuring the Most Interesting Man in the World. What? He’s not promoting Tecate? Oh, yeah, it’s Carta Blanca. No? Bohemia? I know it’s not Corona. Or Pacifico. Then, what is it?
The Most Interesting Man in the World is a character who’s a cross between Ernest Hemmingway and Castro. A tough yet admirable guy. He’s shown doing interesting stuff, always with a beautiful lady at his side. He’s a man’s man. He’s cool.
A funny thing is I love these commercial. And I remember them. Yet I can’t instantly recall the beer brand. That’s because the beer name takes a backstage. The MIMITW even makes the beer less important. In one commercial, he says, “I don’t always drink beer. But when I do, I prefer Dos Equis.”
That’s it! Dos Equis! Now I remember. These are fun, entertaining commercials. Although I’m not sure if they’re going to help move beer off the shelves.
Karl Gromelski is a copywriter at sgdp in Chicago. He enjoys his Corona with a lime though sometimes it gets stuck in the neck of the bottle and he has to invert it several time to get it to climb to the bottom.
Technorati Tags: Most Interesting Man in the World, Dos Equis
The Latest Logo Design Trends
Question: What do “Supernova,” “Doodles,” and “Jawbreakers” have in common?
Answer: They’re all branding design trends.
So says brand expert Bill Gardner, president of Gardner Design, one of the nation’s top branding firms, with clients that include Fortune 500s such as Chrysler, Hallmark, Cessna Aircraft, and Kroger.
Gardner released his sixth annual report of logo trends in GD USA, a national design magazine. The report discusses 15 trends found all over the world and provides insights on how they may influence customers.
One trend, “Facets,” is composed of logos that remind the viewer of highly polished gems. Another is called “Animotion.” These moving logos are designed for the online audience.
What else does Gardner see among these trends?
- Clean, simple, more succinct identities–in type, in line, in color.
- Getting “metricized”: Increasing value of design on the bottom line.
- Less emphasis on “greenness” in logo design. It is not that unique anymore.
- More vivid colors. Out with desaturation; in with chroma.
- Less is more common: less calligraphy, Photoshop tricks, artificial highlights.
- Found pattern and illustration still hanging on.
Seeing all this, what’s his advice on logo design? “The key is to study the trends, then evolve forward — as far forward as you can leap — from them,” he says.
For a branding resource offering a database of more than 75,000 logos: LogoLounge.com
For a look at emerging trends: http://www.logolounge.com/trends
Christine Babick is a marketing strategist and linguist specializing in marketing language, website text, “emo copy,” and cause and relationship marketing. More…
Word of Mouth Guarantee
In a move to generate interest for the word of mouth medium, BzzAgent is offering a guarantee that their campaigns will outperform traditional media by 20%. The catch is that an advertiser must spend at least $300,000 on a campaign with BzzAgent using word of mouth and other media. An independent third part vendor will be involved with the measurement to help support the offer.
One of the challenges related to social media and tactics like word of mouth is measurement and what is considered success. It’s difficult to measure conversation and more so to translate that conversation into sales. It seems that BzzAgent is willing to take the challenge to it’s clients and put their money where their mouth is.
Are you confident enough in your business and brand that you’re willing to offer a $300,000 guarantee?
SpongeBob and Customer Service
Squidward: Will you let go of that stupid pizza already!!!
SpongeBob Squarepants: No! I can’t. It’s for the customer.
Squidward: Who cares about the pizza??!!!!
SpongeBob: I do!!!
Squidward: SpongeBob, let go of the pizza!!!
SpongeBob: No! It’s for the customer.
In a time when customer service is mediocre at best, I think a simple solution should be to sit your employees down and have them watch the SpongeBob Squarepants episode, “Pizza Delivery.” The message is plain, simple and to the point: Deliver what you promise to your customer and do so with great enthusiasm all while wearing a smile (even if you are tucked away in a cubile and never have interaction with the customer). If you can’t do that, I’ll tell you this: you are probably working for the wrong company. (And that’s not necessarily the company’s fault.) You’re wasting your time and you’re wasting the company’s time. Find a job and/or company that will make you be like SpongeBob in “Pizza Delivery.”
Plus, who wouldn’t want to watch SBSP? Don’t tell me you’d rather watch some boring training video on customer service. Don’t put them through countless customer service sessions and seminars that they’ll probably fall asleep in anyways.
If a component of your brand is customer service, don’t neglect it. Hire employees that are going to be as excited about delivering the brand (and brand experience) to the customer as SpongeBob is about delivering the “first Krabby Patty pizza ever.” SpongeBob never once loses excitment, energy, dedication or most importantly his smile when delivering pizza. He ran out of gas, got lost, had to deliver by foot and face horrible weather conditions yet he never once lost sight of delivering the promise to the customer nor lost his smile. Don’t you want employees that are like that? Don’t you want to be an employee like that? Just sayin’.
Adios,
Michael
PS-It’s okay to be an adult and let your self watch cartoons and be a kid at heart.
Technorati Tags: SpongeBob SquarePants, customer service
What’s in a brand name?
If you love seafood like I do, you’ve probably eaten one of the ugliest looking fish around. And you’ve probably asked for more. In the areas where it thrives, it’s known as the Patagonian Toothfish. For years, commercial fishermen avoided catching this “cod of the deep” because nobody wanted to eat this nasty-looking thing. Today, things have changed.
According to “Hooked: Pirates, Poaching, and the Perfect Fish,” it took a Los Angeles fish merchant to rename this saltwater monster in the late 70’s to change Americas’ palate. Even though this fish is neither a bass nor from Chile (it is found both in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans), it was renamed “Chilean Sea Bass.” Today, this ugly beast is one of the most sought-after fish around and is in danger of being overfished.
When I first heard his story, I was reminded of the Chrysler Cordoba commercials. Having named the car after a town in Spain, the advertising team chose to hire Mexican actor, Ricardo Montalbán, to give this car an international flair. To make this car feel even more sophisticated, Chrysler went as far as to invent “Corinthian leather” to describe their seat coverings. Although manufactured in New Jersey, Corinthian leather was nothing more than the standard leather used in car upholstery. Yet, this name gave the Cordoba a unique selling proposition that no other car brand could match.
This just goes to show that product names can make a big difference for a brand. But knowing what your customers want is the key when creating one.
Karl Gromelski is a copywriter at sgdp in Chicago. He loves advertising and blackened Chilean Sea Bass with a lemon butter sauce. He also blogs at sgdp.com.
Technorati Tags: Patagonian Toothfish, Hooked: Pirates, Poaching, and the Perfect Fish, Chilean Sea Bass, Chrysler Cordoba, Ricardo Montalbán, Corinthian leather
Is Beckham Worth It?
Every so often I am befuddled by spokesperson choices from mass marketers. Recently it happened again. The Sharpie brand enlisted David Beckham as spokesman for their 
brand. I recall seeing ads for him many months ago and dismissed it as unusual but then I saw another the other
day. Granted, David Beckham is a sensation. A name recognized worldwide…more overseas than here in America. But why would the Sharpie brand dole out the dollars for Beckham to sell low-priced markers? Surely, Beckham’s brand will have an impact on sales but my question is: Is he the best use of Sharpie’s advertising dollars? I think the ads featuring the “everyday mom” were just as, if not more, effective…at a more cost-effective price. And I fail to see the “fit” between what the two brands stand for separately and what they stand for together. Simply befuddling.
Is it me or is your logo a little too sexy?
Good logo design is like good writing. When it’s done properly, it looks effortless. This doesn’t mean that designing logos is easy. It just looks that way.
When designers create a new logo, they typically walk away from their design and look at it at a later time so they can see it with fresh eyes. The following real world logos could have benefited from following this simple rule.
Technorati Tags: Good logo design
Looking For The Little Idea
You have probably heard about the dancing guy phenomena by now. His name is Matt Harding and he’s a regular fella who is happily dancing his way around the world. Literally. In his latest video on YouTube called, simply, Dancing, he is seen strutting his stuff in 69 different locations around the world, in some pretty amazing places like Tonga and Timbuktu.
Matt, truth be told, is not one of the world’s great dancers. He does this kind of frenetic jig that looks like step aerobics on Red Bull. But his dancing isn’t what makes the videos so appealing. It’s the sheer, fun of dancing uninhibited wherever the hell you feel like.
Matt started making and putting these videos on YouTube in 2004, and in 2005, a marketing company called GoldNFish saw one and thought they would be a fun way to help launch a new sugarless gum called Stride. Stride simply paid for Matt’s travels and filmed him along the way. A small Stride logo appeared intermittently in the 2006 video and the new video ends with a Stride credit. That’s it. Matt never wears Stride gear and never chews Stride gum.
So where’s the USP and the Key Benefit and the 200 Page Analytics and the reams of Consumer Testing Data? It’s not there! But what is there — and is better than all of that stuff — is pure delight. It’s fun to watch the videos and fun to see how the people in them, particularly kids, love joining in.
The latest video, which has been up a month, has already been viewed 5 million times. Millions of people have sought out these quirky, infectiously fun videos and have come away with a smile and a positive brand impression of Stride, which, by the way, is now the fifth-best-selling brand in the sugarless gum category, with $42 million in sales so far for 2008. That’s some pretty big results for such a little idea.
Steven Stark is a writer and creative director but not much of a dancer — sober or otherwise. You can see his work and read some of his other musings here.
A Road Trip Worth Taking
Blogs have become a staple source of reading for many seeking to grasp a quick inside note to what is taking place around the globe. The largest section of people by far spreading a daily word to the masses would be mommy bloggers. What better way to grab potential dollars then by aligning yourself with mommy bloggers and the road trip to be following in 2008?
The Silicon Valley Moms Group Summer Road Trip 2008, places five moms dashing across America to California for the annual BlogHer Conference. What is amazing about this cross country fun on the road? The list of sponsors rocketing five moms to their final destination.
The trip is sponsored by:
- General Motors (Chevy Tahoe Hybrid)
- Silicon Valley Moms Group
- CBS
- Yahoo!
- Weight Watchers
- Zune
- Six Apart Media
Ultimately, a fantastic promotion for the sponsors to get their brand in front of the main decision maker in the family, Mom. And, not just the five moms on the trip, or the few hundred moms that write for the Silicon Valley Moms Group growing network of blogs, but this trip will be covered by media, both television and Internet. The reach these sponsors will have during this week long journey is unbelievable.
You can follow the Silicon Valley Moms Group Summer Road Trip 2008 here.
Technorati Tags: TalentZoo,Beneath the Brand,Dannie McClain,road trip,Silicon Valley Moms Group,Marketing,General Motors,Yahoo!,CBS,Weight Watchers
Dannie McClain is a Category Manager with a New Jersey textiles company. In her spare time she also blogs on a personal blog and can be see at Deep South Moms, a part of the Silicon Valley Moms Group.
Putting in a Real Bid
Next stop: eBay casinos? Well, maybe not. But the company is certainly out there–and now in casinos.
Slot machines at Winds Casino in New Buffalo, MI, have a selection of eBay items as jackpot winnings. The machines include icons for auction categories such as fashion and electronics. They run similar to other slot machines and also dole out some cash, too.
Race Fans Welcome!
I spent the weekend in
Kristie Lorette is a freelance copywriter and marketing consultant who specializes in the financial services, mortgage, real estate, event planning and non-profit industries. Kristie holds a BS in marketing, BS in multinational business and an MBA. You can learn more about Kristie and her expertise by visiting her website www.studiokwriting.com.
Other Uses for Starbucks: An Eco-Friendly Solution
With the recent news of 600 Starbucks stores closing, Starbucks is using alternative and very creative marketing messages to continue to sell and promote the Starbucks brand (and get you in the doors to buy a skim latte!).
Now, more than just your taste buds can enjoy the Starbucks experience; your garden can also take part in its enriching experience. Starbucks developed “Grounds For Your Garden,” a program that reuses coffee grounds for composting, says Trendhunter.
Starbucks now offers free bags (made of recycled materials of course) of coffee ground waste to customers, parks, schools and nurseries as an initiative for waste reduction on a first come first serve basis.
This is a great asset to Starbucks and the environment as coffee grounds make up the heaviest portion of waste in Starbucks.
What do you think? Creative marketing? Eco-friendly brand?
Source: Trendhunter
Heinz Ketchup Ranks No. 1 in Brand Equity
This year, Heinz claimed the No. 1 equity score in Harris Interactive’s EquiTrend brand-equity study. It has ranked consistently among top brands.
EquiTrend is a study that measures more than 1,000 brands across 39 categories based on six base measures: familiarity, quality, purchase consideration, brand expectations, distinctiveness, and trust.
Total number of brands rated was 1,170.
The study was conducted among 20,289 US consumers age 15+. Each respondent was asked to rate a total of 60 randomly selected brands. Each brand received approximately 1,000 ratings.
This year’s study included specific questions that help quantify the level of WOM marketing within a category. In order of highest volume of WOM activity:
The Restaurant category
Computer-related products
Foods
Consumer electronics
Resorts/attractions
Henry John Heinz once said, “To do a common thing uncommonly well brings success.”
Source: MarketingCharts
Christine Babick is a marketing strategist and linguist specializing in marketing language, website text, “emo copy,” and cause and relationship marketing. More…
Happy 4th of July - From the Muppets.
This is a bit late but I’ve been out enjoying the festivities and time with the family. I couldn’t help but get a chuckle out of this little gift from the Muppets. They’ve been around forever and have found new life in the online world. A brand that keeps on giving. Hope you enjoyed the holidays.
Compliments of Jon Burg
Technorati Tags: Beneath the Brand,Jamey Shiels,Muppets,Fourth of July
Inferior Brands Spiking
Do you know what is so good about having a generic or store brand right now? Well, for one the high price of gasoline. As the price to fuel vehicles continues to climb, consumers are turning to the lower cost version of their favorite products and to dollar or discount stores to purchase everyday necessities.
Stores can capture the action as consumers enter the doors by centrally locating their store brands of hot items before consumers even enter the isles. By clearly focusing on 
the generic or store brand you are giving them a first impression that will stand out when they are ready to make their purchase - same quality product, but at an inexpensive price.
Small discount and dollar stores are going to draw in the customers. Dollar General and Family Dollar have already seen an increase in consumers because their brand specifically builds on the idea that you are spending only a dollar, compared to two or three dollars someplace else.
Going to an old stand by, Wal-Mart’s campaign, "Save Money, Live Better" definitely is bringing in the consumers simply because they can shop in one location for all of their items - home, toiletries, food, and more - purchase store brands, and all of this will come at a cheaper price then the competitor down the street, saving consumers money.
Dannie McClain is a Category Manger with a New Jersey textiles company. In her spare time she also blogs on a personal blog and can be see at Simple Home Basics.
Me Talk Pretty PR One Day
It’s always interesting to me how marketing and PR firms “do” their corporate identity. Forever telling their clients how it’s done, how do they fare when they choose to do what they do with their websites and collateral?
Case in point:
Bock Communications, the only U.S.-based PR/marketing firm focused on the global wireless telecom industry, changed their corporate identity, which was designed to mirror the agency’s three defining tenets:
1. Bock is a luxury brand
2. PR and marketing are art forms
3. Growth is organic
Will it blend in the brand blender? Let’s see…
I guess they mean it when they say they are a BOUTIQUE PR agency.
They unveiled their new identity in a ribbon-cutting ceremony on June 16.
Boutique? Ribbon? I’m feeling the urge to do some scrapbooking. This page makes me want to ink up my stamp pad, embellish the bottom half, and add a paper flower with an eyelet.
Christine Babick is a marketing strategist and linguist specializing in marketing language, website text, “emo copy,” and cause and relationship marketing. More…
Screen Saver Advertising?
The new Toyota Hilux’s brand promise is “Unbreakable” and they are supposedly targeting “the” new generation of consumers.
In attempt to reach these consumers and encourage these new consumers to visit the showroom and arrange a test drive, they developed a screensaver using the motion sensor built into the latest generation of laptops, to deliver a truly interactive experience and demonstrate the “unbreakability” of the 2008 Hilux, according to Ads of the World.
They then distributed this to a database of potential Hilux buyers, and encouraged them to forward it on. From the screen saver, users could click through and arrange a test drive at their local dealership.
What do you think of this advertising via screen saver?
Well, Toyota thinks it worked! There was an increase of 60% in some cases in Hilux enquiries reported by dealerships which of course resulted in an increase in actual test drives.
According to the articles, informal dealer feedback described the campaign as “compelling”, “entertaining”, “very engaging” and “really helps to reinforce that a Hilux is unbreakable.”
So, what do you think? Will we see more screen saver advertising in the future? Does this campaign work with the Toyota target market?
Source: Ads of the World
Sam’s Logo Anatomy
Putting politics aside and focusing on the analysis of Walmart’s new logo, wordmark, and tagline, I noticed that the latter echoed some other tagline, one that consists of two short sentences with a parallel structure, each starting with a verb and featuring one of the 25 reasons why people buy (save money).
Save money. Live better. (Walmart)
Expect more. Pay less. (Target)
It isn’t just the language that’s being copycatted. Walmart’s new starburst echoes competitor Target’s bull’s-eye, with its clean, bright look. Attempting to update its image beyond the logo arena, Walmart has also copycatted Target by changing its corporate uniform for store workers, dispensing with the blue vests and replacing them with khakis and polo shirts similar to Target’s and other retail chains’ uniforms. It is curious to me that as powerful as Walmart is (Even BP asks “How high?” when Walmart tells ‘em to jump—BP offers Walmart’s reps a specially designed meeting room that is “Walmart-friendly.”), they are not only keeping pace with their competitors, but choosing to play monkey-see/monkey-do.
The change to title case/lower case instead of all caps indicates a move toward a more friendly type solution. Using caps can mean strong, bold, and serious, but lowercase means friendly, down-to-earth, and inviting. As far as the symbol goes, Walmart commissioned a design (orange starburst) for a more environmental, warm, friendly, organic element found in nature. The lighter blue of the wordmark indicates a less “heavy” corporate, “lighter” feel, while still being in the cool, professional realm.
BP made the same change when they went from cap BP and the shield toward lowercase bp and the helios, a green symbol to represent nature all the way–although it may appear to be a flower (which is likely a fine interpretation according to their strategy), the bp corporation means for you to understand that it is the circle of the sun, emanating (through the many circles) energy, warmth, friendliness and happiness–and with the circles, even meaning unending love. They used an ad campaign: “Feel the Love.”
And, like the SAT, they wanted to make you understand that the acronym stands for something else–not British Petroleum, but Beyond Petroleum.
Some are befuddled by the hyphen elimination thing. They say that this is “corporate America’s bias against the hyphen” and that companies prefer “smooshing” their names together, like PricewaterhouseCoopers. That’s not a fair comparison, because this is not the result of two names being “smooshed” together. And sorry, but it isn’t just corporate America that eliminates the hyphens. Language research in American English proves that many terms start out with hyphens and after long usage, the hyphens go away. “New York” used to have a hyphen, and so did the word “today.” Walmart once did not have a hyphen anyway.
I’m just glad the smiley face went away.
Christine Babick is a marketing strategist and linguist specializing in marketing language, website text, “emo copy,” and cause and relationship marketing. More…
Caution: Major Logo Redesign Ahead
The Wall Street Journal recently reported that the retail behemoth, Wal-Mart, has redesigned the faithful blue-and-white logo. Reportedly to “update its once-dowdy image.” The new logo is now orange and white, the hyphen is removed, and a silly starburst is added. I, personally, am not a fan of this radical brand change for the following reasons. First, when you are the largest retailer in the world and 80% (and growing) of the U.S. population visits you every month, you have some serious brand recognition. The brand may be boring and mundane but it seems to have worked all these years. Second, the new logo doesn’t fix the PR ills Wal-mart may be facing. A corporate behemoth has no where to hide, not even behind a stupid orange and white logo. A logo redesign is a futile attempt to shift media opinions. Thirdly, I am never a fan of a radical logo redesign that doesn’t help the consumer ‘bridge the gap’ from the old to the new. The term “just noticeable difference” comes to mind. This change makes it seem like Wal-mart is hiding or abandoning its past. Fourthly, the color orange evokes images of Home Depot, loudness, or a construction area. Blue gives a cool, comforting and stable appearance. Finally, I believe the best course of action would have been an update or refresh of the blue and white brand, maybe incorporating the orange and starburst.
Happiness and Your Business
Here’s a fabulous presentation on happiness as a business model from Tara Hunt of Citizen Agency and HorsePigCow. It’s almost 200 slides but it’s worth your time to flip through and soak up the message and the imagery. If we could all operate this way, amazing things would happen. Think of where we could go if our business model was actually built on happiness.
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Technorati Tags: Beneath the Brand,Jamey Shiels,Tara Hunt,Citizen Agency,HorsePigCow,Business Models
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