Brand Dots

Archive for the ‘Branding’ Category

Ahhh, the smell of Old Spice aftershave.  It brings back fond memories of sitting on my grandfather’s lap as a child.  He would wear the Old Spice brand day-after-day with pride and I loved it because it would mask his usual odor of Ben Gay and mothballs.

Unfortunately, until now, the image most of us associated with Old Spice is old, distinguished men.  No wonder the company is working so hard to revitalize the brand; the audience they connected with most is inevitably dying off!

I was tickled when I saw “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” commercial back in February.  It’s hilarious!  And within the past five months, it has turned into an internet sensation, receiving close to 13 million views on YouTube.

No doubt, the company is attempting to reach a new demographic and what they’ve done so far appears to be working! College students and young adults love the commercials.

But Old Spice didn’t stop there.  They took their viral campaign to the next level by reaching out to influential bloggers and admirers.  Mashable announced Old Spice’s latest and greatest viral idea yesterday.  The Old Spice guy is now making personalized messages for his biggest Internet fans.  Check out this video made for Perez Hilton, which was posted to Twitter.

Old Spice has even recorded marriage proposal messages.  (This is my personal favorite.)

So, why is this idea pure genius?  It’s encouraging more viral chatter for an already very successful campaign!

• The Old Spice guy is connecting with opinion leaders and other online influentials that will be prompted to comment and share the video with their target audience.

• A personal connection will be made with people the ads are created for.  People that admire the popular bloggers, and lesser know individuals, will become invested in the brand and more likely to make a purchase.

I wonder what my dear grandpa would say about the technological mayhem surrounding one of his favorite brands today?  I’m sure he’d find the humor associated with the brand just as entertaining as I do.

Over the past year, General Motors has gone through major restructuring, as any company should when they accept government bailout money.  They’ve dropped the Saturn and Hummer brands, redesigned their Cadillac logo and laid of thousands of employees.  But yesterday, news broke that really made me question the people in charge.  An internal memo was leaked, claiming employees were no longer allowed to refer to the Chevrolet brand as a ‘Chevy.’

For decades term ‘Chevy’ has been a representation of the iconic American brand.  Countless artists have written songs about Chevys; from Don McLean’s “American Pie” to Elton John’s “Crocodile Rock.”  Now GM wants to take a more formal approach, encouraging employees to only refer to the brand as a ‘Chevrolet,’ claiming it will create more brand consistency.

The New York Times published the memo in the article, “A Chevy by Any Other Name.” When reviewing this article and applying my own thoughts on branding, two things come to mind.

1. The advertising agency can’t possibly know how important the word ‘Chevy’ is to the brand
2. This may just be a big publicity stunt to get people talking

Words are essential for building a strong brand. Most brands are successful when they reduce the essence of the brand to a single, easy to pronounce word.  In my opinion, the companies that have synonymous nicknames are the ones that are most memorable.  Some companies even trademark their nicknames; take Coca-Cola’s nickname ‘Coke’ and Federal Express’ nickname ‘FedEx’ for example.  These names hold an innate power.

Wow!  This news makes me wonder how much GM is paying the advertising agency that’s willing to sacrifice the a part of the company’s identity.

“F-R-E-E, that spells free, credit report.com baby!”  Well, it’s not really free – and those of you that have checked out the website understand this.  I’m sure you are familiar with the website Freecreditreport.com because of the catchy jingles that you hear in their commercials.

Love the commercials, or hate ‘em, the Freecreditreport.com band has been haunting consumers with jingles – they just can’t shake from their minds – for over three years.  But not for long!

According to Brandweek, Experian, the owners of Freecreditreport.com, just announced that they will be rebranding and shifting their focus to the website/name Freecreditscore.com.  It turns out; Freecreditreport.com commercials have been under scrutiny from the Federal Trade Commission.  The FTC has issued videos implying the company has been misleading customers to think that they can get a credit report without hidden fees.  After all, their name is “FREE” creditreport.com.

As Experian goes through this rebranding initiative, they have decided to fire the old band and launch a new campaign to search for a replacement band.  They will work the auditions into a promotional campaign that incorporates a combination of traditional and social media components.  Know any musicians looking for a job?  Let’s hope the next band isn’t as obnoxious as the first.

What are your thoughts on the rebranding initiative?  Do you think their new plan will change consumer perception?  Is the FTC right for stepping in?

I love music.  If I had my way, I’d listen to it 24-7.  Fortunately, I have the opportunity to surround myself with extremely talented musicians.  I go to concerts, shows and open-mic nights on a fairly regular basis.  The talent I see blows me away.  It’s a shame that the world is full of so many talented people and so few make it in the industry.  But there’s noting like a little controversy to get the attention of the public.

Take Lady Gaga for instance.  At 23 years old, she’s sold 15.3 million digital tracks, generated four number 1 songs from her debut album and is nominated for five Grammy awards.  Yes, she’s talented.  But how did she make it when there are so many other talented musicians that can’t seem to get a break?

It’s all about brand positioning and marketing.  Here are a few things that have propelled Gaga into super-stardom:

• Brand Positioning: Gaga holds a unique position in the mind of consumers in relation to competing artists.  When competition, like Taylor Swift and Beyonce, are appealing to audiences with an innocent, girl-next-door image, the only way to get ahead is by posing as the complete opposite.

• Timing: History repeats itself.  Lady Gaga isn’t the first artist to become famous by stunning her audience. Queen, George Michael and Madonna are just a few artists that have pushed the limits by not conforming to sexual and fashion boundaries.   But it’s tough to have more than one popular misfit in the industry at time so Gaga’s timed it right by entering the industry when other artists are mellower.

• Style: Her style has been described as risqué, wild, cutting edge, and cross-dressing.  Some refer to her as the Marilyn Manson of pop!  Whatever you want to call her style, it’s one of a kind.  She’s hired outlandish designers to fill her wardrobe and she’s not afraid to cover herself in blood to get attention.

• 360-Deal: According to the Wall Street Journal article, The Lessons of Lady Gaga, Universal Music Group’s deal with Gaga is the reason for her success.   Labels are slashing their artist rosters to invest more money in their high-ticket artists.  They invest tons of money up-front for marketing, in exchange for touring revenues, merchandise sales, and even celebrity endorsement deals.  Troy Carter, Gaga’s manger, credits the 360-deal for her success, stating, “Would she be in the position to play in front of 20,000 people a night if the record company had not put up the marketing dollars?“

• Embracing Digital Distribution: Consumers can download and share music for free, without having to pay for songs.  Many musicians condemn digital distribution because they think it’s ruined their chance at getting revenue from their music. Lady Gaga has done the opposite, making her music available to anyone who wants it.  The accessibility of her music has made more people want to attend her shows, purchase her merchandise and it increased her brand loyalty.

• Talent: She wouldn’t be where she is today without talent.  She writes her own music and her tunes alone have a style of their own.

• Initiative: She’s a workaholic.  She is 100% devoted to her music, speaking engagements, concerts, fans and the team of people that supports her.  She shows the drive and determination that it takes to make it in the industry!

Lady Gaga’s got all of these things going for her, however, her long-term success will hinge on evolution.  She may be on top of the world now but her image wont keep up the momentum for long.  Like all life-long musicians, she will have to reposition her brand to achieve long-term success.

Good luck, Gaga!  Can’t wait to see what you morph into next!

Interbrand recently released the results from their 2009 Best Global Brands Summary.  Every year they rank the world’s most well-known brands in order of value.   For the ninth consecutive year, Coca-Cola has been the leader in brand equity.  Could it be their impressive logo that gives them a competitive edge?

Well-known symbols are often used to represent companies.  Take Mercedes-Benz and McDonalds, for example.  Consumers see their brand marks and immediately recall the company name.

Branding has three primary purposes: product identification, repeat sales, and new product sales.  When companies use a logo to represent their product, they allow marketers to differentiate their products from others so consumers can immediately indicate the product’s quality. The repeat and new product sales that are generated from a company’s brand recognition can make or break a company.

Logos are a very important part of branding to buyers and sellers.

Advantages to buyers:

• Helps identify products
• Cue to product quality and consistency

Advantages to sellers:

• Basis for product’s quality story
• Provides legal protection
• Helps to segment markets

A logo’s shape and color can have a lot to do with a company’s success.  Check out 6 Things We Can Learn From Google’s Logo for tips on how to create a meaningful and valuable logo!

Test your brand familiarity by taking this Corporate Logo Quiz.  How many logos can you name?

Boone Oakley is an advertising agency that has created brilliant campaigns for clients, such as MTV, Carmax, and Ruby Tuesday.  Their work is hilarious and their cutting-edge tactics have earned them Ad Age’s title of Southeast Ad Agency of the Year.

Boone Oakley uses a YouTube video for their main website.  It’s interactive and fun!  Check it out.  It’s very clever.

The video above is their homepage.  It shows an innovative and humorous brand story.  Storytelling is a common thread in their advertisements and viral campaigns.

My favorite video on their website can be found under “News,” where they thank Obama for naming his dog Bo after the company.  They make the connection between their initials and the spelling of the pooch’s name.  They also reveal that they share a name with Bo Derek, whom they refer to as a dreadlocked white girl, forever connecting their brand with sexiness.  It’s pretty funny.

Check out this video of one of Seth Godin’s TED speeches.

I’ve become a huge fan of Seth over the years.  I have found that his blog is one of the best marketing resources online these days.  His posts are meaningful and thought provoking.  In addition to creating the amazing new website called Squidoo, he has written books that include Purple Cow, The Dip, and more recently, Tribes.

Sean John Combs has created one of the strongest entertainment brands of this generation.   He is involved in hip-hop’s Bad Boy Records, has two clothing lines (Sean John and Sean by Sean Combs), a film production company, and two restaurants.  There is no question that he has built an empire out of his personal brand.

The world’s most powerful brands typically align themselves with a well-known archetype.  This is true for all types of brands, including celebrities.

I’ve enjoyed watching Comb’s celebrity evolve over time.  He started his rapping career as Puff Daddy.  People nicknamed him Puff or Puffy.   In 2005 he decided to change is name to P. Diddy, which eventually was changed to plain-ole’ Diddy.  This guy has had more names than I can count on one hand.  Through all of these name changes, you would think that Comb’s brand would be worthless, but quite the opposite happened.  With every name change, he worked toward reinventing himself.

In the beginning Diddy personified the outlaw archetype.  He was born in the Harlem projects, his father was shot and killed when he was a small child, and when he started the Bad Boy label, he became involved in the East-Coast/West-Coast Hip-Hop Feud.  In true outlaw form, he eventually faced gun possession and bribery charges.  Combs and his brand embraced the outlaw archetype.  He was a rebel, completely outrageous, and eager to start a hip-hop revolution.

Combs knew he couldn’t maintain success if he continued to embrace the outlaw persona.  He had to change his image.   This is where the name changing began.   Diddy’s new name, or maybe I should say names, were an attempt to reinvent himself as the ruler archetype that he is known as today.

Sean Combs has been able to reposition himself as the king of hip-hop, fashion, and all things entrepreneurial.  This is evident through his I am King fragrance campaign, Sean John ads, Ciroc commercials, and every interview that he is in.  He is an empowered, successful leader.  He’s gained credibility by showing the public that he can be a trusted, responsible, and dependable role model.

This rebranding strategy has worked for him.  He has taken control of his image and has acquired overwhelming success.  His net worth is currently estimated to be more than $346 million and will only continue to grow.

Celebrities reinvent themselves all the time.  Can you think of any good examples of celebrities that have switched from one archetype to another?

Laura Reis’ article, The Demise of Dell, provides a great example of why expansion is NOT the answer. 10 years ago, Dell was the best selling personal computer brand in the world!  They were focused on one thing: selling personal computers directly to businesses.  And then they decided to expand to the consumer electronics market.  They even started selling their PCs in retail stores, such as Sears and Walmart.

What were they thinking? Dell was known for having a direct to business sales/distribution model. They sold their souls, thinking that they would be able to capture more customers if they found new ways to sell and distribute their product. This change turned their tried-and-true business model on its head. It confused consumers and made people wonder what their brand really stood for.

History repeats itself and this is one example that proves that brands can’t be everything to everyone.  Stick to what you know and what you’re known for!

The graffiti revolution was born in New York City subways in the 1960’s.  Over the years, tagging became more and more prominent.  Artists were determined to 1) get their name out as much as possible and 2) compete against each other in terms of style and recognition.

Is it just me, or does this sound like two of the most important goals for brand managers?

There is no question that our society is bombarded by advertising.  You can’t leave your house without seeing slogans, brands, logos, and subliminal messaging.  It’s a form of “style wars,” in a sense.  Marketers and graffiti artists are trying to accomplish the same thing.

Graffiti and marketing share a common goal.  They both strive to grab their audience’s attention and make them yearn to learn more about who they are.  They strive to reach as many people as possible, while focusing on the ability to leave a lasting impression on others.

It’s all about branding!  Taggers understand branding.  They sleep, eat, and breathe branding.  In my opinion, graffiti is art and brand managers would be smart to hire accomplished graffiti artists.

Web Urbanist shows some excellent examples of 3D graffiti and traditional graffiti that has been or should be used in guerrilla marketing campaigns.  Artists like Shepard Fairey, who created the famous Obama campaign HOPE poster, have already proven that graffiti art can be used to promote brands.  So, since we share the same vision, why not unite to reach a common goal?