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A fun, honest, witty look at the good, bad and ugly of branding.
Recent Posts Tagged With 'brand'
The Bachelor and Bachelorette Brands Can’t Be More Racist
My wife loves both the Bachelor and Bachelorette and she MAKES me watch them. As I’ve watched these reality shows I’ve come to notice there are no minorities to speak of. None. Well maybe a token here and there. Why? Why so white? Here is...
The Ultimate Case Study In Brand Identity Vs Brand Image – Tiger Woods
I’ve been waiting to post on Tiger Woods and his branding problems until the dust settled a bit. It’s been interesting to see who is sticking with him and who is not. I’ve been saying that brand identity is the most critical asset ...
Obama Wins Nobel Smoke And Mirrors Prize
Today I have lost all respect from the brand Nobel. Today they awarded President Obama the Nobel Peace Prize. A fine prize to win based on one’s dedication and hard-work to peace. None of which President Obama has accomplished or worked hard at...
I’m Scratching My Head
In disbelief. Head and Shoulders is the leader in dandruff shampoo. When I was a kid I used it and it worked great. Eventually I no longer needed it but it was and probably is still one of the best dandruff shampoo’s out there. Their brand id...
You’re Only As Strong As Your Weakest Link
Your brand identity has to be communicated throughout the organization. Even down to your weakest link. Let me give you an example. The other day we took guests visiting from St. Thomas on a Boston Duck Tour. We hyped them up for a fun day and a ...
RadioShack - A Case Study In Half Assed Branding
RadioShack has been out of touch with consumers for about 15 years. I just recently visited a store, one of their flagships in Braintree Massachusetts. They’ve remolded but nothing has changed. Except their name…sort of. In an obvious eff...
Where’s The Republican Brand?
As a registered Republican it’s been interesting to see how the party would right itself after the election. I’ve waited and waited. Nothing. The Republican party is a real mess. And they’ve lost their brand identity completely. Rig...
President Obama Takes On New Role - Chief Marketing Officer
This morning I woke up to news that President Obama has fired GM President Rick Wagoner. Which now means the government is running GM, at least for now. I’ll say it again…The government is running GM. Sure GM took some bailout money, sol...
Obama Continues With Social Media and Transparency
President Obama is certainly “changing” the way a President communicates with the people. In his latest update he has developed a website http://www.recovery.gov/ where anyone will be able to see where the money will be spent to help rec...
So I Saw A Good Commercial
Strangely enough I saw a great commercial yesterday. It came on just as I turned on the TV. It’s for the Navy Seals: No words, just the excitement about being a Navy Seal. Join us and you too can become an elite, “stealth” soldier. ...
Obama’s Rockstar Brand
What a day yesterday. The Obama brand took over the White House with quit a splash. I’ve never seen anything like the enthusiasm I saw yesterday. Change is here… Then the stock market dropped over 300 points, the most in inauguration hist...
Unions Role In Branding
As I watch TV shows get cancelled I can’t help but think that last years writer strike ultimately destroyed these brands. Many of them like Pushing Daisies, Eli Stone and Dirty Sexy Money were on the fast track to becoming major hits, then they...
Brand Identity Guru Wins Top Ten Spot In Start Up Nation Contest
There were thousands upon thousands of entries says Rich Sloan of StartUpNation and Brand Identity Guru places 8th. Click over and check it out. Business Location Rank YachtPals Richmond, CA 1 SuccessStream Seattle, WA 2 NapSounds Houston, ...
InBev and Anheuser-Busch Merge - Yuck!
Yuck is the professional term I use when I see golden opportunities blown. Check out the new company name and logo: As you can see InBev clearly played to the old logo of Anheuser-Busch. The merger of the two names is at best poor. I think they mis...
3 Ways To Develop Your Brand Identity
Who are you? What do you want to be? How do you get there? Here are 3 proven methods for obtaining brand identity. 1. Dictate it. You have a vision, that vision is to be the “cheesiest pizza” in town (insert your vision here). Be it. Live...
Citi Group Has BIG Branding Challenges
This morning I wake up to see Jonathan Salem Baskin outscooped me again on the Citi branding issues. Damn him! So I’ll just throw my thoughts down but I suggest you bop over to his blog and give it a read (click here). So laying off 52,000 peop...
An Open Letter To Barry Judge - CMO Best Buy
You Happier. That’s the new positioning (tag) line for Best Buy? What does that mean to us unhappy consumers? We were unhappy in the past with Best Buy but you’ve made changes to make us happier? Are we just unhappy in life? Are we so s...
Branding Is My Life
And here’s what I mean by that. In my life I exclude people on a daily basis. As I get to know someone I’m quick to know whether or not they are friend/business worthy. As I read other like industry blogs It’s obvious to me whether...
CMOs Get With It
I meet with some of the best and brightest CMOs (Chief Marketing Officers) in the business. I also scratch my head far too often. If you’re a CMO and you ask me “what all this branding stuff is” then you have problems. Or if you do...
Word Of Mouth Mumbo Jumbo
Here is the problem with word of mouth experts or word of mouth marketing companies. In my opinion they have little to absolutely no knowledge of branding. Here’s a great example from self proclaimed word of mouth marketing guru Andy Sernovitz...
Sears - Who Are You?
I’ve shopped at Sears before. They have great appliances and of course tools. But who is Sears? What do they stand for or want to stand for? How do people perceive Sears? Sears, you’re schizophrenic. As my wonderful wife forced me to...
Hey CEO’s Listen Up
Some CEO’s are afraid to start a corporate blog. The fear is that people will say bad things about them or employees will say the wrong things. Wake up! If you’re not blogging others will be blogging about you. At least if you have your o...
What Is Brand Identity Really?
As I troll through blogs of “experts” I can’t help but laugh when people use the term brand identity. There are very few who use the term correctly and it’s sad. But here goes it. Brand Identity as defined by Wikipedia: How t...
Anyone Watch The Obama Infomercial?
Just curious to see what people thought about the Obama infomercial? Did it help leverage his brand identity of change? Was it over the top? Did it hurt him? Give me your opinion....
Brand Identity Guru Part Of Worldwide Blog Collaboration
Boston, MA, October 28, 2008 – We’re part of a unique collaboration via the Internet, involving 237 marketing professionals who blog from 29 states throughout the U.S. and from 14 other nations from Australia to the Ukraine. Scott White,...
Saw V - The Brand Ends - Hopefully
Yea, laugh all you want but I’ve loved the Saw movie series. The original Saw was mostly an underground movement that did extremely well. Hence Saw’s 2-5. I’m not going to bore you with writing a movie review because this is a bra...
Anyone Buying The $42,000 Hyundai?
When you build a brand identity you need to consider the future. Strong brands can lower their price by making a less expensive product. Take for instance Mercedes. They make super high-end luxury cars and they also sell the C-Class for $33,000. I...
Manjunk - When Naming Goes Bad
It’s been a while since I wrote on my continuing series of “When Naming Goes Bad” but here ya go, branding at its finest: Manjunk From the Manjunk website: Developed by a man for men, Man Junk is a combination of world-class ingred...
Googling Apple for Obama followers who use Firefox
Shel Israel wrote an interesting article on measuring influence versus popularity. You can read it here. A couple of snippets: But numerical totals actually tell you extremely little about influence. People could be coming because they hate what yo...
The Greatest Musician Of All Time
Taken from my always working branding mind. Who was so different and made such an impact? Who geniunely “lived” their brand…always? The Beatles? The Stones? Elvis? Not even close. Only one man… “Get up, stand up, Stan...
