7 posts tagged “brand”

Here's a list (Buzz Canuck) and here's a look at the major vote getters in each category (Brandkeys).

Let's see the ones that made my list: Pepsi, Verizon, New Balance, Google, Subway, UPS, Amazon, Samsung (cell), BP (that's ARCO out here), Sony, Starbucks, L.L. Bean. I got some of the second and third place finishers, but who is counting. Let's see - 33 categories so I hit just over a third.

A few posts below, I posted about brand evangelism. Check out this Yahoo! study (via MarketingVOX) that says four of ten online buyers also use new media to promote the brand on their own. The article also mentions ClickZ that says these evangelist have a two to one rate of convincing family or friends to buy the same brand. 

I have mentioned Seth's blog a couple of times as being one of the more thought provoking places I visit. Well, here's another of Seth's takes on branding for mythical brands:

"Myths allow us to project ourselves into their stories, to imagine interactions that never took place, to take what's important to us and live it out through the myth."

". . . I'd want to be sure that there was a story, not just a product or a pile of facts. That story would promise (and deliver) an heroic outcome."

"The key word, I think, is spiritual. Mythological brands make a spiritual connection with the user, delivering something that we can't find on our own..."

Here's Seth's simple statement illustrating the difference between a story, facts and figures and a myth: "People use a Dell. They are an Apple."

Get it? 

Brandcurve has a good posting about differentiation and how many companies are retreating from strong branding. While brandcurve does talk about the seeming lack of risk-taking in today's branding game and the reasons for this, he points at being "financially centered," or not wanting to take a risk if there would be an associated cost with failure. To that, I add my two cents - it IS about fear of failure and cost because far too many businesses are focused on the short-term and branding can sometimes take more than the next quarter to have an effect. 

Business Pundit writes that some of the strongest brands have average returns on capital, so the brands cannot be a source of competitive advantage. Further, the article says, if you do get some competitive advantage from your branding it will be quickly neutralized by your competitors. Thought provoking.

Have you thought about your e-mail sign-off line? Not your sigline, but sign-off? Seems what you say is not an easy choice and what it says might spell out the way the deal goes. Are you a "Warmest regards" person? Or do you just send "Best?"

In personal e-mails, I usually just sign my name in lowercase. The folks I correspond with know this fits my informality in personal situations, others send me the same or any in a range that expends to "luv" or "l8r."

But what does that line say about you in a business e-mail? The "brand called 'you'" should care.

The Washington Post (via MarketingVOX) reports that two of its political reportage stars are leaving for an as yet unnamed multiplatform news organization. Traditionally, even though the reporters became well-known, the brand was still the media they worked for - the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal and so on. Now, reporters have built enough personal brand that they can market themselves in other ways than merely getting a better job. Yet another woe for newspapers that are seeing declining circulation and ad revenue. As Fast Company said years ago, You are the Brand!