Marketing Advice and Advertising Strategy for Local Business Owners
Holly’s written an interesting take on the squabbles inside of Kmart/Sears to start carrying Lands End products in their stores. I agree. It will likely do much harm to the exclusive brand name that Lands End has spent decades building.
On the positive side, it opens the door for the growth of the next Lands End. Any takers?
I got a chance to spend about an hour with GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz Thursday afternoon at the Denver Auto Show. He was doing a walk through of the GM display with members of the Rocky Mountain Automotive Press.
In between all the car talk, I got a chance to ask him about blogging. To him, the best part of blogging is that he can get his messages out without having to rely on editors and the traditional media gatekeepers.
His post Wednesday on the GM Fastlane Blog is a good example of the power of the blog (even to the most powerful of executives). He gets to set the record straight as he sees it. The comments following the post show that not everyone may agree with him, but he does get to say his piece.
By Bob Lutz
GM Vice ChairmanThe media coverage on the auto industry of late has done much to paint an ugly portrait of General Motors. This happens when a company’s financial results are not meeting projections and so I can understand and respect the increased scrutiny.
But I must draw a line between legitimate coverage and manipulating facts to create "news." Which is what happened when remarks I made in answer to a question at an analyst conference in New York last week were taken out of context and twisted just enough to cause panic among a lot of good people.
Many of you probably read something to the effect that….
Branding Turkey. What a great story for the day after Thanksgiving. Oh wait. It’s the country, not the bird.
I think the suggestion to use Turkey’s history to craft a brand image is a good one.
However, you’ve also got to deal with past images of things like Midnight Express and the usual fears and worries of traveling to the middle east.
Make me feel safe and I’ll think about coming to Turkey and reliving your history.
(by the way, when did they start spelling whiz with two z’s?)
Link: ZAMAN DAILY NEWSPAPER (2004112614182).
Branding Through History
John Grant, one of the co-founders of St. Lukes, Great Britain’s advertising agency of the year, said that if Turkey wants to become a brand, it should use its history to achieve this.
Accepted as the "whizz kid" of the advertisement industry, Grant pointed out Turkey’s great history dating back to ancient times and said: "You have a very young population. If Turkey promotes itself on international platforms using its history, it will achieve its desire to become a brand."
This reminds me of the guy who tried to patent the wheel. Apparently this Chinese company is getting away with it.
Chinese company registers “Happy Birthday” brand: [World News]: Hefei (China), Oct 17 : The phrase ‘Happy Birthday’ can no longer be used to brand a range of products in about 25 countries across the world as a Chinese company has registered it as a trade mark.
The countries that the company Fufeng with about 70 products including toys, dresses, shoes and hats, acquired a right over the phrase include the US, Japan and the European Union members, Xinhua reports.
Faced by the increasingly fierce competition in the world toy market, the company realised the importance of branding its products and registered the “well-known and pleasant phrase”, according to a company official who didn’t give his name.
Fufeng is a major toy manufacturer with more than $5 million annual export turnover.
–Indo-Asian News Service Chinese company registers “Happy Birthday” brand
I’ve been slowly doing a bit of blog housekeeping lately and found a post that I inadvertantly swept under the couch last September. The link still works, so here is is.
Blogging note: If you use Typepad and save posts as "draft", sometimes you might want to filter your posts and see if you’ve got any drafts lying around that should have been posted.
Great branding story today (ok, not from today) from ClickZ. I love the term Brandwashing.
The Branding Dimension: Brandwashing
"Brandwashing" is my dysphemism for branding. Don’t get me wrong, I mean this in a positive way. Similar to its ominous counterpart, brainwashing, brandwashing is conditioning consumers’ perception of a brand and the consequent increase of its awareness, recall, and equity over time.As more brands turn to the Internet as a viable advertising vehicle, the channel will only become more congested. This trend is already validated by ever-decreasing CTRs for almost all standard banners, year after year, as consumers are bombarded with ad units and messaging. If the current challenge is to break through the clutter to get in front of the target audience, behavioral targeting has the ability to ensure timely delivery of the right messaging, in the right context, to the right people.
In a recent discussion with interactive colleagues at WPNI/Newsweek, I learned Shell and Exxon have included online as a major component in their respective marketing mixes. One might wonder why petroleum giants are doing online advertising. I have a few guesses and will confidently say branding is one of their objectives. If branding is about achieving strategic ubiquity online, then behavioral targeting can certainly be a solution.
