Archive for the ‘Branding’ Category
What does Love mean to brands?
Posted by: Sean X on: January 31, 2012
Love. What does it mean to brands? Often people give presentations about “brand love” and cite brands like Apple, or Starbucks, or Virgin. Guess what? No other brand is Apple, or Starbucks, or Virgin. and you cannot just go out and copy those brands. If I stood in front of you and presented a case [...]
O.co EPIC FAIL
Posted by: Sean X on: December 28, 2011
- In: Advertising | Branding
- 1 Comment
Overstock.com recently gave up on its effort to fully change the company to O.co . When will brands learn that anything but a “.com” address of snow is fraught with disaster? People have said they bailed on their “rebranding.” They didn’t bail out on “branding” They bailed out on a name change. What these brand managers [...]
Chrysler 200 Rant. “USA Today” is the News equivalent of a Happy Meal.
Posted by: Sean X on: March 8, 2011
Chrysler ran an ad on the Superbowl in 2011 for the Chrystler 200, that embodied their brand, repositioned it, and grittily carved out a niche. “Imported from Detroit.“ It was quite possibly one of the most brilliant stances taken by a car company, for reasons I will explain below. In disservice to that ad USA Today [...]
3 Brands that flunked Digital 101
Posted by: Sean X on: December 21, 2010
There are hundreds of brands that continue to be stuck in the “old way” of thinking, pre-Web 2.0. Some survive because they didn’t jump on the next fad, and some perished because they did. Many brands are starting to get it, but for many it may be too late and Web 2.0 has passed them [...]
When taglines go bad
Posted by: Sean X on: April 23, 2009
It is often obvious when the client is the copywriter for their companies tagline. But seldom is the result this aggregious. “Experience the power of the source of all your paper, packaging and facility needs. – Unisource.” Wow. I really should not have to make any comment. “the power of the source” ? Huh? Yeah [...]
Why FriendFinder works… “Sex Sells”
Posted by: Sean X on: April 19, 2009
So while debating with someone who started to spew statistics about FriendFinder and how they have so many emails and registered users I was reminded of a basic axiom in advertising… “Sex Sells” FriendFinder (the company) is basically Penthouse. The vast majority of their network, as far as members and subscriptions, is sex based sites. [...]
Hope is currency
Posted by: Sean X on: April 19, 2009
You are not a Republican. You are not a Democrat. You are not your car, your house, your jewelry. Your double-latte-decaf. You are not the health club you belong to. You are definitely NOT your religion. You are not better than anyone else, nor are you worse than you believe. You are not your body [...]
Sarah Palin is not God
Posted by: Sean X on: November 19, 2008
It is through our limbic system that advertising has the most impact. Love me or hate me, but whatever you do don’t be indifferent towards me. I will force you to react to me, whatever that form takes. The energy required to ignore me is more powerful than that to engage with me. For that, [...]
