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“9 Criteria for Brand Essence” Deck
Uncovering & Articulating Essence
- 9 criteria for brand essence
- Why “trusted” isn’t the brand essence
- 7 common branding workshop pitfalls
- Patagonia: They also sell clothes.
- Why so few brands get it right
- Why intangibles are the more sustainable competitive advantages
- To inspire loyalty, ask why, not how.
- You say tomato. I say Fox’s Fine Gourmet Ketchup.
- Warning: Your brand is being commoditized!
- Brand essence by every other name
- For brand authenticity, look inside.
- Table-stake attributes do not differentiate brands.
Simplicity & Effectiveness of Messaging
Other Popular Posts
- What every non-marketer should know about branding
- When to hire vs. when to outsource
- Do artisan brands lose their fans when sold to conglomerates?
- So who is “the world’s greatest insurance spokesperson in the world?”
- Does Geico’s multi-concept strategy work?
- BMW uncovers its brand essence: joy
- P&G brands … itself?
Industry News
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Category Archives: art direction & design
Is Starbucks strong enough to drop its name?
The swoosh, the arches, the apple … and now the mermaid. Starbucks is attempting to join an elite group of brands recognized worldwide by their symbols alone. Is its brand identity as powerful as those of Nike, McDonald’s and Apple? The new logo, unveiled this week, drops both the name “Starbucks” and the category identifier “coffee,” leaving the mermaid alone to identify the brand on its omnipresent paper cup. Elimination of the word “coffee” from the name allows Starbucks more latitude to line-extend. As CEO Howard Schultz said, “Starbucks will continue to offer the highest-quality coffee, but we will offer … Continue reading
Posted in art direction & design, identity, packaging, retail, simplicity, standards
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Packaging that unsells: The FDA gets graphic with cigs
Will images of dead bodies on cigarette packs discourage tobacco sales? We’ll find out soon. The Food and Drug Administration, as required by the Tobacco Control Act, will require changes to cigarette packaging and advertising in June 2011. Mandatory will be displaying prominent photos of the realities of smoking, such as cancer, heart disease, and death. The harsh images must make up at least 50% of package panels. Nine images will be chosen from 36 options under consideration. Can’t wait for the alcohol and fast-food warnings.
Posted in art direction & design, health care, packaging
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Show us your Nationwide Insurance tattoo!
Thinking about some new ink? Instead of the usual dragon, barbed wire or butterfly, why not a Nationwide Insurance logo? Although corporate trademarks are rare in the world of stained skin, Nationwide’s wouldn’t be the first. That honor may belong to Harley-Davidson. Harley is the only brand on a list of the top 50 most popular tattoo designs, probably because it has become an icon for personal freedom and perhaps rebellion. Expressing individuality is an oft-cited reason for getting a tattoo. Along with high blood-alcohol content. This may explain why beer logos are among popular designs … Continue reading
Posted in art direction & design, brand essence, event marketing, health care, promotion
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Top ten posts out of first 100
For me, it is informative and sometimes intriguing to see which posts you are most interested in reading. Following are the top ten posts since the launch of BrandSTOKE, according to page views: 9 criteria for brand essence and the accompanying SlideShare deck #1 by a landslide Best branding & marketing books Mayflower’s giant marionette: cute or creepy? Wow! The traffic to this post surprised me. The marionette deeply polarized opinion. P&G brands … itself? G, I don’t get Gatorade’s line extension. Since the post, the Gatorade lineup has changed yet again: G01 Prime, G2 Perform (Where’s the “0?”), and … Continue reading
Posted in advertising, art direction & design, book reviews, brand essence, identity, management, packaging, strategy
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Polaroid: the brand that won’t die
The photos are grainy and often out of focus. The colors look faded. You can’t zoom and you can’t make extra prints without scanning. And the film is expensive. Digital, the new instant photography, does it all better, faster and cheaper. So why won’t Polaroid, which filed for bankruptcy in 2001, just go away? One reason is that people love its imperfect look. Photographer Larry Fink says, “The color combines with soft focus to create images existing in the suspended time of a dream. The everyday appears to us as if from a great distance.” At Fink’s blog, photographer Annalisa … Continue reading
Posted in art direction & design, brand essence, loyalty
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Domino’s fires its food stylists. Will other QSRs follow?
In an exposé worthy of 60 Minutes, Domino’s Pizza takes viewers backstage at a TV shoot, revealing the secrets of making pizza look mouthwatering. The documentary (watch it below) stars power tools and blowtorches. Consistent with its new posture of transparency, Domino’s promises to forsake food styling in the future: We will only photograph real, honest-to-goodness pizzas. Domino’s employees will make the pizzas we shoot. We will not artificially manipulate our pizzas when photographing them. Instead, it invites customers to post photos of their own Domino’s pizzas at ShowUsYourPizza.com. Will other quick-service restaurants jump on the “authenticity” bandwagon and do … Continue reading
Posted in advertising, art direction & design, authenticity
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