April 30, 2007
What happens when the lawyers get involved in brand management
It's too bad when these kinds of voices get silenced. Rather than shutting down these kinds of activity, figured out how to work with it. It's the difference between creating online brand ambassadors vs. killing brand goodwill.
Posted by Derek Leverington at 12:37 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 23, 2006
iTunes tries to sing a different tune
Naming is one of the most underemphasized aspects of brand design.
The most common mistake - names that are too abstract or non-descriptive - often done in the name of sounding cool or creative. One of the best practices - naming a product/service so that it associates itself with the product category without explanation - so I kind of get it after just hearing the name.
One of the better examples in recent memory of good product naming - iTunes.
This has it's own catch-22. What about something wonderfully named like iTunes when you want to expand the offering to video-based content when the name suggests a music-based offering.
Well, it looks like the first thing Apple did is quit calling it the iTunes Music Store in favour of shortening it to iTunes Store. (At least, that's how it appear in my lamer Canadian version where I can't actually purchase movies).
I'm really interested in seeing how this works out. Success in one category doesn't alway ensure success in a seemingly related market. And the competitors are started to stack up in this category with several other recent high-profile video download launches - Amazon among them.
I'm watching this case study with interest. I wouldn't be at all surprised if Apple evolves the naming of iTunes gradually to position the brand for market leadership success in the movie and video content category. Although currently used to name their simple video editing software - the name iMovie is kicking around the stable.
They face some challenges though. The name is one. The other is that they are up against a more sophisticated digital right management technology in Microsoft's Windows Media DRM. Fancier technology affords control is this is the kind of thing that content owners like Hollywood studios get seduced by. Although for all the WM DRM technology innovation, Microsoft and partners have come nowhere near replicating iTunes success.
And I don't care how wonderful the Zune is - Microsoft is at a huge disadvantage is trying to make up ground in this race. This isn't like switching where you buy your cup of coffee. Consider the collective consumer investment in iPod players, the money spent on proprietary iTunes songs and getting used to the best user experience around - I'm not going to be switching to anything else anytime soon and I don't think I'm alone in that view.
Posted by Derek Leverington at 9:41 PM
April 14, 2006
Starbucks meets Hooked On Phonics - New Sleeves Suck
Okay, I don't know what the deal with is the spelling bee sleeves on the Starbucks cups.
I don't care for the colour or the silly self-improvment trivia. Bring me back the oh so naturel unbleached corrugated sleeves - you're wrecking the iconic design of the quintessential paper cup.
And on the top of self-improvement, I must defer to my mentor - Tyler Durden:
"Self improvement is masturbation. Now self destruction... "
-Tyler Durden
I want a luxury experience not hooked on phonics... I think someone totally misread what the brand represents to the consumer on this one.
This photo courtesy of bad lighting and not enough megapixels on my Motorola ROKR.
Posted by Derek Leverington at 2:35 PM | Comments (1)
March 17, 2006
Ries on GM's Brand Soup
I really wish someone at GM would read this article from Al Ries and listen and do something about it.
http://www.adage.com/news.cms?newsId=48213
I grew up in GM vehicles and so its hard to watch the company suffer because of this kind of brand mismanagement that continues to go on unchecked. And it totally baffles me that no one is following this kind of advice.
Oh well, when it does finally does go south for real, it'll be the kind of iconic, Titanic textbook example of how not to manage a suite of brands.
Posted by Derek Leverington at 8:24 AM | Comments (0)
March 11, 2006
Nice guys finish last - Personal Branding - Branson vs Trump
I've been watching this the last couple of years and it seems that the arrogant rich guy gets noticed more than the nice rich guy. The Apprentice is still on the air, Branson's program is not. And I hear way more people talking about Trump than I do Branson.
Who would I rather be if I was as wealthy as those two guys? I'd like to be as nice a guy as Branson, but there are a lot of qualities about Trump I find are admirable i.e. decisive, takes charge, accepts responsibility, doesn't put up with crap, etc.
I think the essence of it is that people are attracted to power and Trump wields it in an obvious way and Branson doesn't (or doesn't appear to).
For whatever reason, a guy that plays the power up seems to be more interesting to most people. At least on TV.
Also, all of us would like to believe that the people who have that money are deserving of it. I think that's why most people aren't impressed by a guy like Mark Cuban - one good call on the stock market makes you rich but you still look like new money. Trump on the other hand, has the scars of what it takes to get that kind of wealth. I don't know much about Branson's story (and I should really), but if he is going to keep using himself as the brand icon for Virgin, he should get an ace PR/personal branding crew on board to develop a personal brand strategy for him and start executing on it. I don't know what the exact opportunity is (and I don't really feel like thinking about it right now) but it needs something it doesn't have right now.
Want an easy one? Do something that screws Trump. It would be a quick way to start repositioning the nice-guy image to something more maverick.
Posted by Derek Leverington at 9:05 AM | Comments (0)
September 5, 2005
LEGOS
This via Adrants.
Someone should tell the folks at Lego that a brand belong to consumers, not the guy in marketing who won all the spelling bees in junior high.
Imagine the kid who types this in and gets heck for spelling the name of his favourite toy. That's just wrong.
Warning: clicking on the link below this may result in a negative impact on the perceived quality of your childhood memories - even if just viewed for a few seconds.
My advice: anticipate the error, secure the domain and be gracious in doing a server-side redirect to the correct domain with saying a word about it.
Most bottles of Coke I remember had Cola-Cola Classic on the label. I don't remember get a lecture from them.
Posted by Derek Leverington at 11:40 PM | Comments (1)
August 10, 2005
Eminem & Ford???
Ford has backed out of its deal with Eminem.
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=45577
That's not shocking.
What is shocking is that a brand manager somewhere thought it was good idea in the first place.
I appreciate a lot of Eminem's music, but he's just not right for Ford. Ford is apple pie establishment and Eminem is the complete opposite of that - he's a walking human middle finger. It's a complete disconnect.
I think when you're going from Gretzky to Eminem, something isn't adding up. And this is just not a smart move for a manufacturing with declining market share.
My grandpa has driven a Ford for as long as I can remember. I know for a fact he's not into Eminem. He likes "fiddle music". It's always fascinating to me how these things happen in the first place.
Brand managers need to be more discerning in these kinds of decisions. Thank goodness somehow had the sense to back out now.
Posted by Derek Leverington at 4:25 PM | Comments (0)
June 6, 2005
The Best Coffee?
It happened again this morning.
The Starbucks is steady. At Tim Hortons, the cars are lined up on to the street for the drive through. Presumably a few folks inside too.
Starbucks: ever the darling of the branding folk who talk about its niche appeal and well contemplated customer experience. Tim Hortons: arguably a good cup of coffee but not more fancy, shmancy that it needs to be.
Who makes the best cup of coffee? Who cares. At the end of the day (and we all know this), it's not about coffee. It's about the kind of person you see yourself as that decides what line-up you'll be standing in.
Posted by Derek Leverington at 9:53 AM | Comments (1)
April 28, 2005
One More Olympic Logo Please
According to the 2010 Olympic site:
"A separate process will determine the development of the design for the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Winter Games emblem."
Another sub-brand? Or is it a sub-brand for the sub-brand?
I'll be interested to see the reaction.
Posted by Derek Leverington at 6:26 AM | Comments (0)
April 27, 2005
Olympic Logo - Reinventing the Wheel
Evidently, not everyone loves the new 2010 Vancouver Olympics logo.
No real surprise there, it's hard to get agreement on these things. Unfortunately, the Inuit, from whose culture the symbol is borrowed from, are among those who have issues with it.
I'll not offer an opinion on the logo specifically, but I will say this: I think a little too much creative licence gets offered to the hosting countries. I think there should be more continuity between the series of Olympic logos for my taste.
Maintain the prominence of the rings, put more parameters around the creative development of the wordmark and the host logo (if a host logo is really needed at all) and and maintain the integrity of the visual identity as a brand asset.
Posted by Derek Leverington at 9:57 PM | Comments (0)