Brands as Myth

Thank you, Deborah Morrison of the University of Oregon’s advertising and journalism program, for pointing me towards this paper called “Logocentrism: Brands as Modern Myths,” by Faris Yakob, who is obviously a kindred soul and long lost brother of ID Branding’s. Read his blog posting and then click on the download link at the bottom [...]

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What’s Loyalty Got To Do With It?

I’m amazed to hear people still using dead language when it comes to brands. One such piece of deceased wordage is “brand loyalty.”
Remember the concept of brand loyalty? Your Mom always bought Charmin so you bought Charmin. Your Dad was a Ford guy so you were a Ford guy. You can still find attitudes like [...]

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The “insincere business of manipulation and seduction”

I find myself returning to a comment made by the Portland art critic, D.K. Row, in his review of an art exhibition at Wieden + Kennedy quite a while back. The show features work done by W+K employees, including the very fine painter Storm Tharp.
Row asks, in his review, why Wieden + Kennedy doesn’t get [...]

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One company, two brands, two cultures

The recent announcement of Amazon acquiring Zappos certainly caught my eye as I have been following Zappos closely over the past year to further my understanding of what it takes to create enduring brand cultures. I have to admit the first thing that came to mind was that this acquisition was the beginning of the [...]

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Branding vs. Lawrence Halprin

On Thursday I was walking to lunch when I happened past the Ira Keller Fountain and stopped.

Originally called the Forecourt Fountain, it was created by the famous landscape architect Lawrence Halprin. I still remember when it opened in 1970. My friends and I were among the multitudes who happily splashed about in its cool cascading [...]

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We have a brother in India!

OK, in the midst of eating my Qdoba burrito today for lunch I am putting down my fork and writing this post.
Because I just discovered I have a brother in India. In fact, all of us here at ID Branding do. Weird. We never knew it.
His name is Prasoon Joshi and he has a ridiculously [...]

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Are we so shallow?

Our thinking about Brand Culture has raised some big questions, both internally and out there in the world. New employees especially are concerned about some of the apparent implications of our new model of branding.
Fundamentally, they’re asking: does the theory of Brand Culture say that humans today are so shallow that brands and consumption are [...]

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Interesting question about Brand Culture

Laura, one of our strategists, just pointed me toward this blog posting about Brand Cutlure. The blogger is asking whether brands can be cultures or not. And whether Facebook is a culture.
I’m looking forward to reading other peoples’ responses to his questions.
- Doug

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Our reading list

Here’s a list of some of the books we love most right now. Just in case you’re looking for something to inspire you or stuff in your carry-on.
Built To Last. Successful Habits of Visionary Companies. By Jim Collins and Jerry I. Porras. This one’s a monster, importance-wise. One of the top two books we recommend [...]

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The Most Interesting Man rocks on

Few advertising campaigns actually go beyond advertising and begin shaping an ethos and a worldview for a brand. But that’s exactly what Euro did for Dos Equis in the still-running and still-brilliant campaign, The Most Interesting Man in the World.
Ever since I blogged about the campaign and posted videos on the blog, we have had [...]

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