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…
When, oh when, will GEICO retire the caveman spokesman? What will it take for them to realize that the joke is over? The caveman has jumped the shark. Let him go extinct…again. It’s not cute, funny or entertaining anymore. It has ran its course. I’d rather see Mrs. Butterworth talk about GEICO than a ‘caveman’ talk about dancing in Baltimore. I’ve said my point. No need to linger…GEICO, let him die.
As we are thrust into this political season, it is hard not to take note of the grandiouse marketing moves each political party makes as they vie to be top dog. Casual observers can easily take note of the machine at work grinding out ads for radio, TV, outdoor, door-to-door, and telephone. Ever more now the web has created a new way of disseminating the brand message, solidifying it in time as a historical record. This week in US politics, the two presidential candidates were both caught flipping positions on previously stated 
positions. In the business world, we know it is…
As Sens. Obama and McCain contemplate their choices for VP, speculation abounds to who will be the eventual picks. Even as the role of the VP becomes a more prominent one, the person chosen still has to paint a picture that voters 
can relate to and balance the potential negatives of the presidential candidate. So the marketing choices that these two campaigns face are obvious. Senator Obama faces skepticism on multiple fronts including his age, lack of experience, and his race. We, as marketing observers, can be assured that the his top VP candidates are most likely experienced, white males with some gray hair. Senator McCain must overcome…
Memorable campaigns mean nothing, just ask Vonage. Everyone can recall their national TV campaigns. Memorable, yes. Compelling, no. Why Vonage Schmonage? Because in their recent ad they can only lay claim to 2 million subscribers?!? It is an impressive amount by itself but not in relative terms. There are well over 100+ million households! And over 50% have the broadband access needed to use Vonage. A ~4% market share is surprising given the ‘inherent superiority’ of their product. Are consumers really just that adverse to the unknown? Probably. Could Vonage have ‘dumbed down’ their message to simply explain their product to the masses better? I…
