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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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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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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How do we spend our time?

Unemployed Americans

Explore American’s time use through an interactive New York Times map charting gender, age, race, employment, and education. Comparing and contrasting can cause us to consider what we value in our daily lives.

Employed Americans

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Could this be the next model of branding?

 

We at ID Branding are constantly in pursuit of breakthrough paradigms on how the world understands and consumes brand. We rely on our branding experts, hand-picked from a broad field of disciplines, to develop innovative new models for vetting by agency leadership. Once these models have been put through intensive intellectual study, they are applied rigorously in the field for months to years with actual brands. Throughout this intensive process, we are collecting, crunching and analyzing everything from established KPI data to the cognitive psychology of consumers. From this, we publish our findings and case studies to share with the branding world.

After digesting our latest model, please share your thoughts with us. If this one doesn’t work for you, then you can read about our other model of Brand Culture. That one does not include Space Invaders.

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Gap and Pantone – an interesting cobranding attempt

Gap Pantone concept store NYC

A popup store recently opened on 5th avenue in NYC as a cobranding attempt between Pantone and Gap, launching limited edition tshirts in various Pantone colors. In particular, they featured Pantone’s 2009 color of the year – Mimosa which is described as:

Mimosa: Optimistic, hopeful, reassuring, warm, cheerful, radiant, versatile.

An interesting attempt for the brand…after many failed attempts (lest we remember the Sarah Jessica Parker endorsement, or the 70s skinny jeans campaign…yikes). This one actually complements the sign of the times and

seems to be a smart, short term move to boost optimism and inspire cheerfulness among dreary consumers. Simple, timely, and smartly executed. While it won’t take their brand to new places or move the mark very far, it’s a nice thought.

-Melissa

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Trends for 2009

Check out trendwatching.com’s overview of 6 key trends for 2009 including:

• Nichetributes (low cost practical tributes to the zeitgeist)
• Luxyoury (In 2009, you define what is luxury)
• Feedback 3.0 (think we’ve reached full transparency?)
• Econcierge (savings are the new green)
• Mapmania (why maps are the new interface)
• Happy Ending (the silver lining of the downturn)

-Melissa

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Artist or Designer..or both

As I sat through a lively group of architects, artists, industrial designers, and craftsman argue the virtues and vices of the furniture design industry the other night as part of SHOWPDX, I was struck by the fact that we are witnessing within product design, and perhaps other disciplines in general, a discord – perhaps discords of sorts – the discord between those that create as an expression (and call themselves artists), and those that create for someone else and someone else’s purpose (we’ll call this person a designer as a defacto term). Add into the mix the notion of mass production and industrial manufacturing and it all goes to hell in a handbasket very quickly. But why is that?

Perhaps the discord has always existed, perhaps it is exacerbated more now, than ever in our DYI/penny-

Meyer May House Dining Room

pinching economy. As an architect of training myself, I have felt the discord ever since architecture school when we were told that architects were ‘master craftsmen’. We were taught to create according to the principles of design – balance, unity, rhythm, emphasis, proportion. Frank Lloyd Wright was the epitome of total craftsman – even dictating what his clients should wear and eat on in their own dining rooms. He was accused at times of sneaking back into his clients’ homes and (re) arranging the furniture.

But what happened to the person that has to occupy that beauty? At what level does personal expression dictate how someone else has to live, feel, or think?  What do you think the Meyer May family felt when they woke up to find their furniture re-arranged? (Hopefully they know what they signed up with Wright – his reputation as a control freak often proceeded him).

I think there’s a choice that is made when you set out to make something – be it a chair, a space, a painting, a whatever. It is either for yourself with your needs/agenda in mind, or it’s on the behalf of someone else’s

Karim Rashid

needs and agenda. Neither is ‘selling out’. In fact, I would like to do away with that term all together.  But the choice should be a conscious one. And knowing when either is appropriate, is all the more important. When rallying against the market for not accepting your ‘art,’ I think we need to remember again its purpose. Neither are bad. But there is something to be said for working with the tide, rather than against it. In fact, I think Karim Rashid has a poetic way of talking about this. Someone who, at first glance, can easily be perceived as a blobitecture artist. But back to the hot button issue of manufacturing – he has chosen to understand its constraints (or freedoms), and work with them rather than against them:

Today poetic design is based on a plethora of complex criteria: human experience, social behaviors, global, economic and political issues, physical and mental interaction, form, vision, and a rigorous understanding and desire for contemporary culture. Manufacturing is based on another collective group of criteria: capital investment, market share, production ease, dissemination, growth, distribution, maintenance, service, performance, quality, ecological issues and sustainability. The combination of these factors shape our objects, inform our forms, our physical space, visual culture and our contemporary human experience. These quantitative constructs shape business, identity, brand and value. This is the business of beauty. (Karim Rashid)

-Melissa

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The New Equation For Small

Check out the newest trend, ‘The New Equation for Small’ on the Trends Page:   https://idology.wordpress.com/trends/

Americans are finally downsizing. I think it still remains to be seen as an across the board trend, but I have been seen encouraging signs that the days of the McMansion are coming to an end. As we become more conscious of the spaces we occupy and the energy we consume, I think the notion of quality over quantity may be hitting the mainstream. Or at least I am encouraged by the signs of a potential tipping point.

-Melissa

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