Brand Inferno, Brand Paradiso

We’re taking a page from Dante, who gave himself permission to put anyone he wanted into Inferno or Paradiso. Likewise, we invite you to do the same with brands. Tell us which brands you think are the best and which are the worst. You’ll be able to see how others have voted once you’re done. We think its an interesting exercise in analyzing how brands affect us and how we think of them. So get all judgmental and make your picks.

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Beyond Petroleum?

What happens when a petroleum company claims to be green, but really isn’t? Putting solar panels on a few concept stations doesn’t offset the environmental disaster in the Gulf.

Of course for British Petroleum it is much more than an environmental disaster, this is a publicity disaster of the highest magnitude, and likely a big hit to quarterly profits.

The lesson for other brands is simple: if you market around values that you don’t have, customers will find out. And they won’t be your customers anymore. When your brand suffers a public relations snafu that exposes such a values-based hypocrisy, the negative perception will only increase exponentially.

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Perhaps the most fun brand book ever

We are cranking on a very cool project for our Bozeman, Montana client, RightNow. It’s a brand book. Perhaps the most fun brand book we’ve ever done. Smart, sassy, inspiring, all that stuff. We’re also working on a new made-for-youtube video for them that’s way fun as well.

Great product, great mission, a great company that actually makes the world less painful for all of us. At least for those of us who ever buy anything.

– Doug

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What’s the buzz on electric cars?

The bees are buzzing

We just created this nifty little device for monitoring conversations, tweets, media reports, etc. on certain topics. We call it “The Buzz.” Right now we are monitoring electric cars. And not just the big brands, but rather some of the innovative upstarts. Check it out here. Go ahead, click on a bee and see what happens.

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Logorama up for Academy Award

The Michelin Man brings it in Logorama

Watch your favorite brands in an epic battle to save themselves from themselves in this Oscar-nominated short film. Censored on YouTube, watch it here.

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Rebranding the Mercenary

Cloaks and Daggers

Blackwater, the notorious private army, contracted by the Bush administration to protect “high value” military personnel, and accused of numerous crimes against Iraqi civilians, has recently undertaken an extensive brand repositioning.

The corporate name itself, Blackwater, had become a public relations liability, a toxic asset if you will. The company spent more than a year in an internal search to develop the new name, “Xe” (pronounced “Zee”). Following this arduous renaming and rebranding process, company spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell announced there was “no meaning at all in the new name.”

Perhaps Ms. Tyrrell is telling the truth, that no meaning whatsoever, is an appropriately pore-less exterior for a company doing secretive contract work around the world. Of course companies spend vast sums of time and energy building brands. We all know that these nuanced signifiers exude meaning to audiences around the world. I sincerely doubt that Xe is an exception. Since this is not a topic they wish to discuss, we are left to judge by what we see as formally trained designers, strategists, and observers of media.

At first glance, the word “Xe” seems vaguely technical. Perhaps it is a reference to the chemical xenon, or more specifically, the highly explosive xenon trioxide, XeO3. The gender neutral pronoun seems a stretch for this brand. But who knows? Maybe Xe is all about inclusiveness now. They won’t let us ask, and they won’t tell. Then there is the phonetic interpretation. The letter Z is the final letter in the English alphabet. Perhaps Xe is a metaphor for the last word? The last line of defense? Who you call as a last resort? The final option…? Or maybe Xe is a reference to another famed vigilante, Zorro, “the Gay Blade” who went slicing his “Z” tag about following a conquest. The new Xe logo does have an slicing motion embedded within it. Perhaps most appropriately, there is Bill Barker’s underground comic from the early 90s, Schwa, where distant alien overlords in concert with omnipresent corporations and religions organizations control all human activity. Xenon figures prominently and is used on items such as “Alien Invasion Survival Cards” so you can tell if you have been abducted.

The old Blackwater mark was crass and ominous, with it’s sharp claws and encompassing bear-trap/target. It might have been seen as cartoonish, like a semi-pro football icon, had the news reports surrounding the company not been so gruesome. The new Xe brand mark suggests a professional level of discretion, subtlety, and cutting edge stealth. This is clearly a company growing in efficiency and evolving in sophistication. In an era of instant media attention, keeping a clean image is of the utmost importance.

Blackwater may now fade into the dark memory recesses of public

consciousness while the kinder, gentler vigilante group Xe can continue doing our goverment’s business. In this light, the rebranding of Blackwater can only be viewed as a success.

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Requiem for Saturn

Farewell, brave effort. The last of Detroit’s idealism. A response to what people were asking for, both in a car that met their needs and in a car company that could restore American pride.

Different has a way of being whittled down to same.

I guess we’ll have to look to meet our needs, and our heroes, elsewhere.

– Doug

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Kleenex® Tissues, thy will be done.

A quick scroll to the bottom of the today’s AdFreak blog found me actually paying attention to a banner ad. As you can see from the adjacent image, Kleenex® Tissue has embarked on a polite campaign to protect the sanctity of their registered trademark name. The legal department over at Kimberly-Clark Corporation is apparently going through some late-blooming self esteem meltdown after decades of “Kleenex” becoming a generic word for all soft paper-based manual wiping apparatuses. The jpeg for the ad even had a ‘TM’ in the filename. Legally awesome.

This is not exactly a hard-hitting attempt to Take Back Our Name. I assume it’s targeted towards the industry and the press, all of us horribly guilty of dropping the “Kleenex” brand name as often as we can just to impress our peers and score free drinks. After spending two intense seconds on their site educating myself to be one o their Trademark Ambassadors, (http://www.kleenex.com/NA/About/Brand-Trademark.aspx) I was sold. Every mention of trademarked names in print and conversation should be accompanied by a circle ‘R’ lest the Republic turn to ash.

But as I moved on to other pages I also thought they might want to spend a little more time looking inward. Maybe some less provocative copy in the nav bar might help.

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Brand Ethos

Spend to save?

The headline says “Every Bottle Makes a Difference.” Ethos water, acquired by Starbucks in 2005 distributes .05¢ from each $1.80USD bottle sold ($.10 per unit in Canada) to fund clean water projects in under-developed areas. Although sales of Ethos water have raised over $4,000,000 for clean water efforts, and the marketing positioning suggests clearly that purchase of this water will make the lives better for people who make less per week than the cost of the bottle itself, the brand is not a charity organization. 94% of the sale price does not support clean-water projects, but rather the Starbucks bottom line. “So what?” you might say, “Starbucks is giving back.” The founders of Ethos say the brand is intended to raise awareness of third-world clean water issues and provide socially responsible consumers with an opportunity to support the cause by choosing Ethos over other brands. After all, nearly 2/3 of the people on the planet do not have access to clean water, and as global population increases, sources are becoming fewer and fewer.

There is no doubt that the money and awareness Ethos raises is

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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 end for Zappos’ culture as we know it.

And for good reason: it is typical for acquired organizations to be assimilated into the acquiring entity without much care or attention to the values and culture of the acquired organization. I’ve certainly witnessed this first hand many times over with clients I have worked with over the years. Look what happened to Saturn when it was brought back into the GM fold. Sure, GM adopted Saturn’s core values as their own, but their culture broke poor Saturn’s spirit until they became… GM.

As I read the letter from Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh to all of their employees, I began to recognize all of the typical corporate speak about this union: “…accelerate the growth of our brand, …we plan to continue to run Zappos as an independent entity, …opportunities to tap into their knowledge, expertise, and resources.”

I have to say I felt a little skeptical. Until that is I came across this statement in the Q+A portion:

Q: Do we keep our core values? Yes, we will keep our core values, and Amazon will keep their core values.

This statement, while on the surface seems very unassuming, gives me hope that they might actually pull it off. It’s because they recognize that for each brand to thrive under common ownership, each must operate from its own distinct set of core values. From these values, each organization can attract both employees and consumers that choose to join its unique brand culture.

Well, I’m rooting for you Zappos. And you too Amazon. You have each created something special for your respective brands, and I’d hate to see you lose what makes you… you. Best of luck.

–Dennis

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