The BIG Kahuna

It stinks to be ripped off but when someone rips you off and does so promoting honor and trust it makes it even worse.

Meet Two Marines And A Truck: www.twomarinesandatruck.com. When you think Marines you envision strength but more importantly honor. Honor is everything to a Marine. Here’s the Marines pledge to honor:

Honor requires each Marine to exemplify the ultimate standard in ethical and moral conduct.  Honor is many things; honor requires many things.  A U.S. Marine must never lie, never cheat, never steal, but that is not enough.  Much more is required.  Each Marine must cling to an uncompromising code of personal integrity, accountable for his actions and holding others accountable for theirs.  And, above all, honor mandates that a Marine never sully the reputation of his Corps (see it here).

So why am I writing about Two Marines And A Truck? Because this company that represents itself as Marines miserably failed at the honor code. Two Marines And A Truck strangely have  the same copy that WE wrote for our client Humboldt Storage and Moving. Honor? You make the call.

Here is the copy we were hired to write for our client:

At Humboldt we understand that moving can be a stressful and unsettling experience. We look at every aspect of the moving process from your point of view and tirelessly work to make you feel comfortable and relaxed. We pledge our commitment to this promise, and that assurance extends to every level of our company, and every employee.

We believe that the first 100 years of our reputable history was only a beginning. What we see now is a great opportunity to reach new heights in our business and in our own lives, by making you, our most important asset, feel at ease throughout the entire moving process. This is our goal for the next 100 years.

You have my word on it.

Jim Sullivan
President

Now check out Two Marines And a Trucks “copy”:

At Two Marines and a Truck we understand that moving can be a stressful and unsettling experience.  We look at every aspect of the moving process from your point of view and tirelessly work to make you feel comfortable and relaxed. We pledge our commitment to this promise, and that assurance extends to every level of our company, and every employee. 

We believe that the first 234 years of our reputable Marine Corps history was only a beginning. What we see now is a great opportunity to extend our service to our country, to our community by employing motivated veterans to make you, our most important asset, feel at ease throughout the entire moving process. This is our goal for the next 100 years. 

You have my word on it.

Nick Baucom

We have your “word” on it Nick? Honor…seems you have little of that. But wait there’s more they then go on to more copy.

Here’s the copy we wrote for our client:

1. We promise to work diligently to add trust, not stress, to the moving process.

2. Your belongings are safe and secure for the entire moving and storage process.

3. You can always expect us to be efficient, professional and service-oriented.

4. We will handle every one of your belongings as if it were our own.

5. You will have all of the information that you need from us up front to successfully budget your move.

6. We will quickly address any and all issues that occur during the moving process.

This is what they are calling their copy:

Two Marines and a Truck Pledge
1.    We promise to work diligently to add trust, not stress, to the move.
4.   Your belongings are safe and protected during the entire move.
5.   You can always expect us to be efficient, professional and proficient.
6.   We will handle every one of your belongings as if it were our own.
7.  You will have all of the information that you need from us up front to budget your move.
8.  We will quickly address any and all issues that occur during the moving process.

Our client then contacts them to let them know that their Marine honor system has gone askew, here is their response via email:

Dan-

Thank you for bringing this to my attention.  Without admitting any wrong-doing, I am working on changes now.

Semper Fi

Nick E. Baucom
703-623-5288 office

www.twomarinesandatruck.com

Wow Nick Baucom even in defeat you are unhonorable. These guys did go on to change the copy but it’s still like our client’s (see it here on copyscape). They just tweaked what our client so honestly paid for. If they had any real honor they’d write it themselves, how about it Marines?

But thanks to the Internet we are able to expose Two Marines And A Truck and soon this article will appear in a Google search for that company for all to see. So think twice about trusting a company that has this kind of honor, you really want them in your house?

What say you kahunas, honor or not?

Check out my interview in the Art Institutes newest article “Great Design Key To Building Brands“.

Here’s a snippet:

Today’s marketplace makes building brands more challenging for companies because the Internet has removed most buying limitations and exponentially increased consumer choices.  Brand Identity Guru.

All that competition makes it more important than ever to shore up a brand’s identity. In the best cases, brand identity corresponds to the soul of a company, says  Scott White, a branding expert who goes by the title Big Kahuna at

When building brands, living up to the established brand identity is everything, White says. Online shoe retailer Zappos is a good example, he says, of a company that lives up to its brand identity by providing great customer service.

“In the end, if you don’t deliver one what you say, the brand image is going to suffer,” White says.

Read the full article here

My wife loves both the Bachelor and Bachelorette and she MAKES me watch them. As I’ve watched these reality shows I’ve come to notice there are no minorities to speak of. None. Well maybe a token here and there.

Why? Why so white?

Here is the cast for this years new Bachelor:

And the lucky guy:

And last years Bachelorette and cast:

That’s a lot of white.

So why the obvious discrimination?

In 17 total seasons, neither show’s main role has ever been filled with a person of color. ABC representatives say they are “exploring” the issue for upcoming seasons.

How do these brands go unnoticed? Is this a branding strategy from ABC?

Whay say you kahunas, are the brands racist?

According to Domino’s Pizza’s latest TV commercial they think their pizza is pretty bad. The commercial features some feedback from clients stating “the crust tastes like cardboard” and “the sauce tastes like ketchup”. Ouch.

I have to agree, but does their target market really expect more for the money? After all they’ll give you two medium pizzas for like $5. They’ve been the low cost provider for decades. Do people really buy it for the quality? Or was it because Domino’s built their brand identity on speed of delivery?

Here is their new “Guarantee”:

“Domino’s new hand-tossed pizza has been reinvented from the crust up to be our best tasting pizza ever. Guaranteed. If you are not completely satisfied with your Domino’s pizza experience , we will make it right or refund your money”.

And they have a new website: http://www.pizzaturnaround.com/. And the Early Show on CBS Chimes in here.

What do you think kahunas? Good branding strategy or not?

Says Irish budget carrier Ryanair and their CEO Michael O’Leary who have cultivated a reputation for controversial innovations and colorful language.

O’Leary says branding is dead. Good for him. Here are my thoughts.

We all need the Walmart’s of the world which is exactly the brand you get in Ryanair. Their brand identity is cheap, no nonsense flights. Believe it or not O’Leary has done the thing he so openly despises, or does he?

Walmart has been brilliant at being creative in cutting costs and delivering price value to the customer. And their niche to middle to lower income target market eats it up. Same with Ryanair. All their really doing is targeting their market effectively with a low cost strategy. Kudos, way to live the brand.

They’ve gone so far as to consider charging for their toilets on a flight. Explaining the toilet charge, O’Leary says that again, it’s not about the money. It will train passengers to use toilets in the terminals before and after flights, which means the airline can replace a few toilets with more seats and reduce fares some more.

Brilliant, way to live the brand. Oh this is branding people, at it’s best. You or I may say hogwash to this airline but that’s just what they want. They’re excluding you because they really want only price conscience fliers. And if something goes wrong with your flight these customers will expect nothing in return because that’s the deal. You’re a number to them and you know it going in.

How’s it working for them? Ryanair’s ancillary revenue grew from 8% of total revenue last year to 20% this year. Ryanair carried 66 million passengers with a 15% jump in year-on-year traffic, resulting in revenues of €1.8bn with an 80% increase in net profits. As of now, Ryanair is the single-largest carrier of international passengers in the world.

And how does O’Leary describe his brand identity:

He says “You’re not getting free food. We don’t want your check-in bags. We’re not going to put you up in hotels because your grammy died… It’s a commodity. It’s not some life-changing sexual experience, which is what the other high-fare airlines have tried to convince you that it is.”

Now does anyone really think it’s a commodity or are they doing a great job at branding?

I’ve been waiting to post on Tiger Woods and his branding problems until the dust settled a bit. It’s been interesting to see who is sticking with him and who is not.

I’ve been saying that brand identity is the most critical asset a company or person can have for almost 20 years. Most people still really don’t know what brand identity means, no it’s not a pretty logo. So this Tiger Woods epic is a great way to understand what brand identity really means.

Tiger Woods had a brand identity of a winner in every aspect of his life. The best golfer, family man, husband, father etc. He worked tirelessly to bring this identity forward to make him into the most powerful athlete I’ve ever seen.

A month or so ago if you asked anyone what they thought of Tiger Woods you would have got the same answer over and over again. A champion of life. That’s what we call brand image. When your brand identity aligns with your brand image you’ve achieved brand success.

This was Tiger’s brand identity before the drama:

This is Tiger’s new brand image:

You’ll notice they no longer align.

Tag Heuer, the Swiss watchmaker, has dropped its sponsorship of Tiger Woods  following the golfer’s admission of marital infidelity. Tag Heuer joins a growing list of companies to part ways with the top ranked golfer.

Accenture (NYSE: ACN) and PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP) have dropped Woods from their sponsorship roster and Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) said its Gillette unit would no longer run ads featuring Woods.

For the moment, Nike (NYSE: NKE) appears to be sticking by Woods.

Now you should have a good idea of what brand identity really is. It’s the heart and soul of who you are as a company or a person. It permeates everything you do. Faking it leads to disaster.

I’ve written about Best Buy before but I just have to ask what the hell are they doing? Last year I wrote how I thought their new tagline “You Happier” was meaningless because it didn’t relate to their brand identity (whatever that is).

It’s not a brilliant tagline like Walmart’s :”Save Money. Live Better“. Walmart is using their tagline to actually leverage their brand identity of cost savings.

But now Best Buy has again changed their tagline. Instead of “You Happier” it’s now “Buyer Be happy”.

I guess customers couldn’t figure out that You meant buyer so Best Buy really got literal with it.

When are these big companies going to learn to commit to a real meaningful brand identity and then live it?

I’m sure you’ve all seen this cheeseball commercial:

Do you believe this brand called “Lend America”? Do you find it insulting how they pretend to be a newscast? In this day of mortgage crisis do you believe a bad credit score is okay?  Have you done a Google search for the phrase “Lend America Scam”? Would you be surprised to learn there are over 51,000 results? http://www.google.com/search?q=lend+america+scam&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7GGLG_en

Your brand identity is everything, don’t blow it.

As I walk the mall shopping and making buying decisions I always question why I buy one product over another. The other day I had a new home alarm installed. I shopped around and know for certain I could have saved a few bucks with a lot of other people. Who did I go with?

Brinks. Sorry, Broadview. Why? I know if there’s ever a problem they’ll take care of me. I’m safe.

Same thinking applies to all my shopping. Whenever I’m faced with a decision between two brands I’ll always choose the one that makes me feel the most comfortable. I’ll pay extra for that feeling. A lot of people today say feelings don’t matter. I say that’s a bunch of hogwash. They matter. They matter in each and every purchase.

If you’re not making your customer feel safe with your brand you’ll most likely be second best or at best a commodity. Who wants that? That’s not branding to me.

Ah, no you’re not, and I watch you all the time. Let’s face it, you’re a conservative, Republican promoting TV News outlet. Get rid of this ridiculous tagline “Fair and Balanced”. It only makes you look weak.  Embrace your brand identity of representing the right. No one else is. You’ll automatically stand for much, much more by embracing the brand.

We all know CNN and MSNBC go way left. Liberals love those stations. They don’t have the guts to come out and say they are liberals either. You do Fox. Just proclaim your rightness and be done with it. You’ll be stronger and more focused.

Brand Identity is everything, don’t run from it. Love it. Be the ball…nah, nah, nah…nah.

If you are stop it. Now. Really, cut the crap! This sort of practice just gets morale down and makes your company an undesirable place to work at.

Go ahead, tell me your employees will be less productive. Hogwash. They’re doing it anyway from their SmartPhones, iPhones and whoziedoozzies. Soon we will all have chips surgically implanted in our heads and we won’t need a device.

Here’s a great article on the issues, read it:

Access to social media improves productivity. According to Dave Willmer, executive director of Robert Half Technology, “Using social networking sites may divert employees’ attention away from more pressing priorities, so it’s understandable that some companies limit access.” But multiple studies prove exactly the opposite.

Read more here.

Get with the times folks or they will pass you by.

Today I have lost all respect from the brand Nobel. Today they awarded President Obama the Nobel Peace Prize. A fine prize to win based on one’s dedication and hard-work to peace. None of which President Obama has accomplished or worked hard at (he’s only been in office for 9 months).

President Obama says: 

“I am both surprised and deeply humbled,” Obama said at the White House. “I do not view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments. But rather as an affirmation of American leadership. … I will accept this award as a call to action.”

I’m sure he is surprised because he in-fact has only made campaign promises. Last time I checked we are still in Iraq (promise of peace not yet kept), Gitmo is still open for business (promise of peace not yet kept) and he’s actually sent more troops to Afghanistan. That is far from peace last time I checked.

The Nobel Committee said it decided to honor Obama for his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.” What exactly has he done? What peace treaties has he signed? What cooperation between conflicting countries has he repaired? What summits has he been part of that resulted in peace? Does Iran, Iraq, Russia or anyone really think differently of the USA now?  Do they mean just because he won the election? I’m confused?

I’m disappointed that the Nobel Peace Prize is now a political tool rather than an objective achievement of someones life and dedication. To me this is now a big joke, a scam.

Shouldn’t this award gone to someone who has made a real difference and not a smoke and mirrors wish? Wasn’t there someone much more deserving of this award?

The Nobel Peace Prize means nothing. They’ve sold out. Their brand is dead to me.

What do you think? Can someone, anyone win a prize like this based on promises or should actual achievment be the driver?

Ahoy ye scallywags, taday be talken’ lyke a pyrate day. If ye agree say ayeeeee!

Change ye facebook page and posts in ye blowgs. Cash inn ye booty an hide da wenches. It be talken’ lyke a pyrate day!

Tanks ye salty dawgs!

Brand New reports on Stonyfield’s new brand identity:

Here’s my 2 cents. The execution of the new logo is fine if you’re just looking to make a change. Personally I wouldn’t do it just for the sake of doing it. But obviously there was some sort of strategy change because they eliminated the word “Farm”. And that’s WHAT I don’t like about it. Farm meant organic to me. It represented all that was good and different. I mean really, how many yogurt/milk choices are you faced with when they stare at you in the face at a grocery store?

To me FARM was the reason I bought Stonyfield. It meant personal touch, small and caring and fresh.

What say you Kahunas?

Here is a sample of our latest brand identity project, BullPen. We created the name, tagline and logo and internal/external strategy. The look and feel represent the higher end product and service that our client Agar Supply brings to the table. We also wanted to stress that Agar is known for their excellence in meat distribution and ability to offer clients the best value based on buying expertise. Which is represented in their tagline: Meat. That’s Our Game.

Well Republicans that like Glenn Beck anyway. In a recent branding blog article Jonathan says people that watch Glenn Beck are “a small group of right-wing loons, evangelicals, and would-be terrorists“. 

I happen to like Glenn Beck and I don’t seem to fit into the loon, evangelicals or terrorists categories?

So I wrote a response:

Let’s see in one week Beck got Van Jones to quit (fired) and the Census Bureau to sever ties with Acorn.

Add to that that he has the 2nd highest rated cable tv talk show. His show is so wildly popular with “terrorists” (like myself) that all the other shows on MSNBC and CNN and the like combined don’t add up to his numbers. The last time I checked ratings sort of matter.

But what you a SERIOUSLY MISSING is his awesome brand building. He doesn’t want you, he wants you to write these great articles though. Do you feel that hook in your mouth? That’s Beck reeling you in.

I sit in awe at his positioning which is clearly different than anyone out there. People (liberals) like you are never going to like him. The more you hate him the more his “right-wing loons” will dig in and defend him. So as far as branding goes he clearly eliminates liberals and makes his audience ferociously supportive. Sounds like a good plan to me.

I think you totally have this wrong. He’s not the Dems best friend. He’s their worst nightmare. He’s going to keep reeling in liberals like you who will do his bidding. Feel like a sucker?

I’m a huge fan of Glenn Beck and I certainly don’t always agree with his views. Sometimes he’s just to out there but other times I get a neck injury from shaking my head in agreement. He will play a pivotal role in unseating Obama.

I’m disappointed at the name calling and stereotyping in this article. It’s not your best moment and I’ve been a fan for a while. I think it’s also a good idea to go back to what you do best, it’s just to easy to hit the “UNSUBSCRIBE” from my Google Reader…

His response… I encourage you to unsubscribe

Years of me following and supporting his blog. Writing articles on my blog pointing to his blog. Talking on the phone and in one swift moment it all ended. He lost a fellow branding guy, friend and most of all my respect. It’s not cool to ever call Americans terrorists no matter what your political beliefs. Just throwing the word “terrorist” around so haphazedely is scary. He should apologize to a lot of hard working regular people for his statement. But that’s just my opinion.

I deceided to send him a personal email and clarify the issue and this was his response:

Sorry, Scott. I wrote about Beck’s ability to advocate extreme positions that take his followers out of the realm of real debate, and into the category of ideology and sometimes outright fantasy.  Your response to me only proved my case.  There’s no way to debate with people who can’t debate, but who’d rather make nutjob accusations.

What it comes down to is is strong belief in his own thinking basically means he can’t communicate with people on the other side. Love or hate Glenn Beck, the fact that he can’t rationalize why people do like him is again…scary. 

This is not a you like Glenn Beck debate.

What say you kahunas? Cool, uncool?

Who Cares!

General Motors chairman Edward Whitacre Jr. appears in one of the automaker’s new television commercials. (General Motors via Associated Press)

The GM logo and the initials will not appear in the ads, however. Instead, the brands will be the focus, since consumers’ perception of GM is affected by the bankruptcy filing. See the massive brand image problem they have? The refunds are only good for the first two months. Who has problems with their car then? Not many.

I’ll say it again, who cares?

GM just can’t do anything right. I wonder who is giving them their brand advice?

In disbelief.

Head and Shoulders is the leader in dandruff shampoo. When I was a kid I used it and it worked great. Eventually I no longer needed it but it was and probably is still one of the best dandruff  shampoo’s out there. Their brand identity is eliminating dandruff.

Now for the brand kiss of death…Head and Shoulders wants you to believe their shampoo is not only good for dandruff….wait for it…but it’s gonna make your hair all soft and pretty like EVERY OTHER shampoo on the market. And they do it with this commercial:

They want you to “rethink Head and Shoulders”. Why? It’s a dandruff shampoo isn’t it? It works on dandruff right? Why muddy the waters and loose your edge? Call me crazy but this is another case of  trying to be everything to everyone. It gets rid of dandruff. Period. Embrace it, use it, own it. Love it, be the ball…nah, nah, nah, nah.

What say you fellow kahunas?

Your brand identity has to be communicated throughout the organization. Even down to your weakest link.  Let me give you an example.

The other day we took guests visiting from St. Thomas on a Boston Duck Tour. We hyped them up for a fun day and a lot of “quacking”. The Boston Duck Tours are known for quacking at pedestrians or other Duck Boats. It’s corny but fun. Even I do it.

The tour started with our driver “Marco the Plumber” who was dressed like one of the Mario Brothers:

Marco seemed like a very nice man and was informative. But we couldn’t have had any less fun. I actually nodded off during the tour. The people behind me actually said and I quote, “we just lost two hours of our lives”.  During the tour another Duck Boat approached us and Marco actually said, “do you want to quack at that boat (he never discussed quacking during the tour so some of the guests looked at him cross eyed)? I was thinking yea, that’s fun…let’s do it. Then Marco said, “I never tell people to quack or not, it’s up to you”.

What? It’s up to me? No Marco it’s not. It’s part of your brand and therefore your brand is only as strong as you, Marco. We should have been instructed on the quacking at the start of the tour, then visitors could have had fun quacking at people walking by. Even pedestrians quacked at the Duck Boat, although we looked at them in confusion.

Marco lacked the qualities of being a Duck Boat tour guide, mainly he was not funny and he repeated the same attractions over and over again. We drove by the Boston Garden twice and he never mentioned it. That’s sort of famous I guess?

I actually apologized to our guests as my wife and I have been on other Duck Boat Tours that have been fun.

Moral of this story? No matter who your weakest link is they need to stay on brand. They need to know and understand the brand. Then they need to deliver on it consistently. Now I’m not bashing Marco, he was a nice man. Maybe he was having a bad day? And I’ve had other tours that were great. But on this day I felt like we just threw away $140 for little to no value.

If you have drivers, delivery people, movers, customer service people…remember these could be the face of your brand and ultimately the weakest link.