I?ve written about how I love Jet Blue and their branding. They are truly the brand leader when it comes to delivering on their brand promise. Now the sad news?

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I have yet to fly on another airline that even remotely cares about the customer. My flight to St Thomas on Monday was with Continental. Unfortunately Jet Blue doesn?t go to St Thomas! Most of the service was very vanilla. Nothing out of the ordinary, extraordinary or eventful.??

Then we boarded our flight from Newark to St Thomas. Let?s just say the flight attendants were less than nice and that?s being nice. One in particular had such a bad attitude that I actually wanted to say something to her. Then I thought to myself, do I really want to get booted from this plane??

At one point a passenger in the row in front of me asked her if the food he received was the only choice? She said ?Yea, that?s it, you want it or not?. Then came the sigh and then the shaking of the head. Like she was saying to herself, the nerve of this guy asking me (the provider of service) if I had anything else.?? ?

American, Continental, United, Delta and Southwest Airlines wake the heck up. If you don?t want to be treated like a commodity then be different. Provide excellent service all the time. Have your employee?s care about the passengers. Otherwise you?ll all be stuck selling cheap airfare to customers that care less about you.??

Unlike Jet Blue, I try desperately to book with them first every time. Why? Because they care and deliver consistently.

It recently came to my attention that Bose has different policies and procedures for their?employees. Employee?s that work in a more corporate job get the benefits of a full spectrum of a?vacation schedule while customer service and tech support only receive two holidays, Thanksgiving and Christmas.?

Of course I see the need for having a fully staffed department during peak times but having different policies and procedures for employee?s is not cool. Secondly it?s a brand killer. Let me tell you why it will ultimately destroy Bose internally.?

The departments we?re talking about are customer service and tech support. These departments talk directly to the end user (the customer). So if they are unhappy or feel slighted guess what? Exactly, their frustration, anger and general bad feelings transfer to the customer.?

At least this is what has happened to the person I spoke with. Here is a quote from the Bose website:?

?Bose Corporation is committed to being a good neighbor and corporate citizen. The company upholds a longstanding belief that we have a responsibility to give back to the communities where our facilities?and many employees?are located.??

But if you?re a tech support person you are treated differently? Bose, why establish a ?class? system amongst your employee?s??

?Reaching our goals requires uniquely talented individuals with a strong desire to grow and achieve. Individuals who share the values of passion, innovation, excellence, respect and integrity that are embedded throughout our organization today.?

I see ?respect? and ?integrity? but do you practice what you preach? Bose, internal branding is as important if not more important than external branding. You do a great job of external branding but if this is true and you have separate policies for employee?s then you clearly don?t get the big picture.

?We have a passion for what we do and what Bose stands for. Our passion and enthusiasm for what we do enables us to achieve the high standards of performance and innovation we have set for ourselves. We believe that people who are focused, internally motivated and energized by what they do spread their enthusiasm to others. We derive great benefit from individuals who champion their ideas and from leaders who inspire us to higher levels of achievement.?

I?m here to tell you that you are misguided. Look back at the underlined sentence and rethink who you really are and want to be.

Here’s a great video of the history of Thanksgiving, check it out:

Gosh, I laugh hysterically when I see these new Mac versus PC commercials. They are just so well done and on point. The newest spot is with the PC guy at a podium looking like a politician.??

He says, ?some people are giving up on Vista because it doesn?t ?work? the way they want it to?.? And, ?other people are going back to XP?. ?Ask not what Vista can do for you, ask what you can buy for Vista?. Brilliant!?

I?m not sure if this is getting folks to consider buying a Mac or not but I know it sure is entertaining and memorable. So I would guess it?s doing a good job at building brand awareness for Mac.? I can see a nice young group of people 14-24ish starting to get Mac and what they?re all about.??

Kudos to Mac for putting out some good stuff in an era where TV advertising is almost always horrible.

I?ve eaten at Legal Seafood hundreds of times. I like legal?s. I like the entire story they tell and their great tagline ?if it isn?t fresh it isn?t legal. Good stuff. They’ve had some good branding and leadership.?

?So I had a $100 Maine Lobster for dinner this evening. The food was good as usual. The service was good as well. So why the heck am I writing this blog article? ??Because Legal Seafood and Roger Berkowitz, President/CEO have implemented a new policy that is ridiculous. Not only is it ridiculous but it?s totally focused on Legal Seafood and not on the customer.

Here it is:?

We enjoy our great meal and ask for the check. The waiter comes over with a portable credit card machine and hands it to me. I say, what?s this for? He says you need to go ahead and run your card through. I say, huh? What? Me? Why??

Oh he says, it?s our new policy. It?s saves time. Who?s time? Not mine. When I go out to a nice restaurant the only, I repeat, only job I have is to hand you my credit card. It?s not my job to actually run it through your system. ?

Now it is he says. Okay (sigh) how do I do it. Oh just read the instructions. Oh I say, great?instructions.

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1. Is this your credit card? Yes/No (who the heck?s credit card would it be? I?m the one freaking ringing it in?). I select Yes.
2. Are you sure this is your credit card? What???? Are you kidding me! I select Yes.
3. Choose your gratuity: 10%, 15%, 20%…What if I want to leave 18.5%.
4. Are you sure you want to leave ______%, Ah yea, I just selected it.
5. Is this total correct? God I hope so but who knows it?s the first time I?ve ever seen anything like this and I?ve had 4 Crown and Coke?s. So much pressure?

What is Legal Seafood thinking? What?s next, do I have to cook my own food? Get my own drinks? Who made this decision to make the customer ring in their own bill? How is this a benefit to the customer? Why do you require the customer to do anything??

Re-think this move. Be thankful that customers give you their patronage. Don?t make them do anything but hand the credit card over to your smiling wait staff. I?m going to give you the benefit of the doubt but if you require me to do anything other than hand over my card you will lose me forever.?

Here?s some info on this brainless, intrusive rollout:?

For Legal Sea Foods, pay-at-table service is “a controlled rollout” rather than a test, said Ken Chaisson, vice president of information technology (the genius)?for the 33-unit, Boston-based casual seafood chain.?

Chaisson declined to quantify how much pay-at-table is speeding up service, citing the brief history of the terminals–just 60 days in one restaurant, even less in the other two. “We would hope to shave double digits of time from table turns,” he said. “Our restaurants run waits at lunch and dinner.”?

Wow Chaisson, Have you thought about the branding repercussions of this. Instead of saving you time how about the customer experience? It?s not about you, it?s about us!?

More on the branding blunder from Legal Seafood:?

One near-200-unit, casual-dining chain earlier this year halted a test of pay-at-table service, indicating that guests found the process, particularly the tipping aspects, “intrusive.” One official of that chain speculated that some guests might have been uncomfortable because they believed their tipping practices were somehow spotlighted, or “less anonymous,” using pay-at-table devices than when leaving cash or scribbling in the tip amount on a credit card slip left in the check folder.? Sometimes you just scratch your head??

So we purchase advertising on some branding blogs that we like and feel will work for us. We?ve been buying some advertising on Small Business Branding for a while now.??

Recently Google updated its PageRank and Small Business Branding went from a 6 to a 3.? Yaro Starak, I believe is the owner, emailed me to let me know that the price would go down to reflect this. He asked me if I would like to remain a loyal customer at the lower rate.? I agreed and remained a customer.

A week later I received a bill from Yaro that reflected the original higher priced bill. I emailed Yaro and asked him why. He told me it was a mistake and that I would receive the lower rate as promised by Small Business Branding.? Fast forward three days and I receive this email from Yaro Starak at Small Business Branding:?

Hi Scott,?

Since I lowered the price to $100 I’ve been hit with a lot of ad buyers again so I’m raising the price back to $150.?

If you don’t want to pay that price I understand, just let me know whether you want to cancel or keep your campaign active at $150.?

Cheers,?

Yaro

yazzas@gmail.com?

Wow, how unbelievably slimy is that? When times are looking dim he calls on his clients and offers them a lower rate so as to not lose clients. We agree and then within two weeks time things get better and Yaro re-raises the price?? This from a branding blog? Hey Yaro?that?s how you do business?

This is a dumb, greedy move. First and foremost you?re being dishonest and distrustful. This is the ultimate sin for anyone in branding. This is a brand killer.

Maybe you should take some advise from the people who write for you. Ask Ed Roach how he would have handled this.?Secondly your blog gives information on how to properly do business and brand. Is this the example you set?

We branding guys all know each other. It?s a small branding universe. And I?m one of the shit stirring loud mouths.?You?ve made a mistake. But you can recover. Send out a letter or email to any clients that you did this to and apologize. Tell them that YOU value them and this was a temporary lapse in judgement.?

Be a man an honor your word, or as we call it in the branding business, your promise! As a follow-up Yaro emailed me this:?

I usually bump the price every 6-12 months if the site’s traffic has increased during that time. So I don’t change it that frequently.?

The recent changes with PageRank prompted the price reduction, but since it hasn’t impacted demand I’m restoring the price back to what it was.? This is obviously an unusual situation.?

Yaro Yea Yaro, unusually bad Small Business Branding!

Update: Yaro cancelled our ads all together without the decency of even a notification. I guess he didn’t like someone pointing out his business methods. Sad, that a blog about branding would act this way.

No one cares about your TV commercials anymore. We really don?t care about your radio advertising. Every TV commercial I see I fast forward through. And I listen to commercial free radio. Stop trying to SELL to me.?

Here?s what I want. I want to belong. I want to brag. I want to be a part of a culture. We recently had a friend stay with us for a week. One morning she asked ?where can I find a Starbucks?? I gave her directions, 5 miles away. She went. Do you travel 5 miles out of the way for coffee?

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Give me an experience. Stop trying to SELL to me. Start making me feel wanted and cared for. I?m not going to buy your deodorant because you tell me to on TV. That does not work for me anymore. I want more than that or I?m going somewhere else.?

Make me feel like I belong and I?ll buy from you. I promise.

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Amy Winehouse kicked off her 17-date tour with a shambolic performance that saw fuming fans booing and marching out, reports said Thursday.?See the article here.

How sad is this story. We all?like the ?rock star? persona but this takes the cake. Imagine going into your job drunk and on drugs (allegedly). Then calling your very best clients, the clients that?you call “evangelists” on the phone and then saying:?

“Let me tell you something. First of all, if you’re booing, you’re a mug for buying a ticket.??

“Second, to all those booing, just wait till my husband gets out of incarceration — and I mean that.”

The Birmingham Mail newspaper’s music critic Andy Coleman said it was “one of the saddest nights of my life”.?

“I saw a supremely talented artist reduced to tears, stumbling around the stage and, unforgivably, swearing at the audience,” he wrote.?

Hey Amy, you won?t have to worry about your rock star brand persona anymore, cause you?ve officially ended that.

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Sometimes I just have to take a break from all the branding talk and post a pointless article that?s just fun to read. Here?s that article:?

As posted from our friends over at American Dropout here is the list of the top 28 songs to smoke weed to:

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28. The Beatles – All You Need Is Love

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13. Led Zeppelin – Immigrant Song

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6. The Rolling Stones – Jumpin? Jack Flash?

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Read the rest of the list here:?

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A case study in branding research, naming, tagline and logo development:?

We were hired by a high end vault storage company to develop a brand for them. Our first priority was to develop the company?s brand identity and positioning. We executed our Brand-Aid research to uncover how we were to accomplish this.?

After the research was concluded we came up with the positioning of customization. No other vault storage company currently is positioned in this niche so we can easily differentiate them.?

The brand was to represent creative, imaginative?customization. We moved on to our naming process and developed a list of over 100 unique names leveraging the positioning of customization. ? A name was chosen and we moved on to the tagline process.

After submitting 35 fresh taglines a tagline was chosen and we geared up for the logo design.?

The design process was challenging as we had to deliver a graphic which represented imagination and creativity. ?

Here is the end result of the branding process:

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What do you think? Leave a comment…

So in my daily pursuit of coming across branding blogs I came across Abiah. Until recently Abiah seemed like your run of the mill branding agency. I visited their blog and made comments as I liked some of the articles.?

Then like a lightening bolt from the heavens they revealed that their company was being re-positioned. Here is the new positioning:

BRAND CONSULTING & DESIGN
Helping Christian Businesses Grow

Welcome to Abiah

We are a brand consultancy and design firm with a passion to help members of the Christian business community increase their profitability, penetrate their markets, and grow their businesses through use of effective branding practices.

This work fulfills our ultimate goal, which is to advance the saving message of Jesus Christ.

Okay so let?s take a breath??

I?m going to look at both sides of this. Let?s play devils advocate . ?

On one hand Abiah is clearly differentiating themselves and drawing their line in the sand. This is what we preach at BIG (I got a lot of these). And I applaud them vigorously. Really how many other ?Christian? branding agencies do you know of? So if you?re a Christian (and that?s pretty broad) and religion has become intertwined with your business then you?d probably automatically go with Abiah.?

Now here?s where it gets tricky. I have a serious problem when it comes to anyone that eliminates other religions, races or creeds when it comes to business. This inherently bothers me. I mean a Hindu needs a branding agency as well right? Why would Abiah?s services be any different? Branding is branding is branding. ?

I?m totally conflicted on this. On one hand I?m offended that Abiah feels that their services won?t work or apply to say a Jewish business (can?t believe I?m saying that).? Let?s play into the stereotype for a minute and call it a law firm; Shultzman, Steinberg and Horowitz. Would they immediately say they couldn?t help them based on their last names? Or would Abiah ask them specifically if they are Christian??

What if Abiah was so good and desirable that the Jews lied and said they were Christians to bring them on board? Gosh, so many questions??

Let?s look at it this way. What if I opened up a branding agency that said:

BRAND CONSULTING & DESIGN
Helping Caucasian Businesses Grow

Yikes, isn?t that similar? And scary when you look at it that way? Is there a difference??

Then the flip side is that this positioning is very targeted and different. So the chances are that it will be a huge success. But then I go the other way again and ask myself why a company would only WANT to work with a Christian agency? Wouldn?t you just want the BEST branding agency? Why does religion even come into the picture??

I need your help on this one readers. Come on my BIG Kahuna?s. How do you feel??

I leave you with a quote from Abiah?s Chief Branding Officer, Guy Richards:

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?Christian brands have the unique opportunity to not only increase profitability, but also advance the saving message of Jesus Christ.? ?

So we hired a company called Wow iVideo branding and advertising to produce the hi-def video you are seeing on this blog. I expressed my interest in possibly forming a partnership with them with future client projects. Things started off great but went straight down the drain.

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Rusty Stewart the owner of Wow iVideo and Priority One Software Solutions immediately passed me off to Kim Blake (the receptionist) to handle our customer service.?

Rusty never communicated my order to Kim properly and the troubles began. One problem lead to another. Kim was stuck in the middle and the communication between her and Rusty was poor due to Rusty?s busy travel schedule. ?

Meanwhile back at the ranch the only one suffering was Brand Identity Guru.? Rusty finally got back to us to smooth things out. I told him that I was concerned about bringing potential clients to them because of the mistakes Wow iVideo made with us. He assured me that would not be the case.?

After many phone calls and mistakes they finally got our video right. Part of the arrangement we made with them was that we didn?t want prospects/clients clicking through to the Wow iVideo site. They agreed and set that up for us.?

Fast forward one month and my trusty Google alert system emails me a message that Wow iVideo has listed our branding?blog and video in their online portfolio. Hmm, I don?t remember getting a phone call asking for our permission? Normally I like to ask first?seems like the professional, courteous thing to do.?

But the frustrating part is that Wow iVideo knew that we didn?t want prospects/clients associating us with them. This was agreed to in advance and they have broken that trust. ?

So the Wow iVideo has been up for a few months now on our branding?blog. Unfortunately bloggers don?t like the video. They feel it?s intrusive and annoying. So I email the owner Rusty again to let him know it?s causing more harm then good. What is his response? ?

Blame the client:?

?There is a lot of different ways to use the online spokes person if you would just take the time and watch the video that came with the installation instructions?, says Rusty.?

Yea, I did take the time. Thanks??

So I ask if I can stop using the service because it?s not working for me, this is Rusty?s response:?

?You also signed a 12 or 24 month agreement that you are obligated to, I will check on the term of yours.? At the end of the 12 or 24 months you can cancel the agreement with a 90 day written notice.??

Thanks,

Rusty Stewart

Priority1ss & WoWiVideo

President, CEO

rusty@wowivideo.com

www.wowivideo.com

www.priority1ss.com?

Well I think I?did sign an agreement based on good faith but the product isn?t working for me. And if you want to stick it to us (for $250) I guess you can (although if I need to I?ll dispute the charges). But as someone who says they do branding you may want to reconsider. Because this is a rotten move on your part and a great example of poor branding and customer relationship management.?

So Wow iVideo, stick it to us now but remember what goes around comes around. Soon this blog post will be ranked in Google?s top ten (we obviously have no control of that)?when prospects search for you and your company. I wonder how many of them after reading about your pathetic service will reconsider using you?

Your prospects will be reading this wonderful article about how you are not only awful, provide bad service but also break the trust of your clients. Breaking the trust of a client is by far the worst thing you can do for your brand. And sticking it to us for $250 is very short sighted.?

Wow iVideo is yet another example of bad service, poor branding and most of all is an untrustworthy company (in our humble opinion).??

For about 15 years now I?ve been telling clients that internal branding is as critical as external branding. Companies love the external branding. Why? Because it?s glitzy and fun.?

Internal branding takes thinking and strategy. How do we get our employees on board? How can we get them to promote the brand voluntarily? Well our friends over at Buzzoodle know all the answers and they want to share them with you.

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Buzzoodle is a recognized leader in creating employee evangelism. They wrote the book on it (Buzzoodle Buzz Marketing (Paperback).

Ron McDaniel is one of our very favorite blogs we read and expert on word of mouth marketing.? Check out Buzzoodle?s Employee Evangelism Everyone is a Buzz Marketer…

Click here:?

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Buzzoodle is 100% dedicated to helping organizations achieve:

• More Buzz & Word of Mouth generated by the workforce
• Better employee moral & stronger sense of ownership
• Higher employee enthusiasm
• Awareness of opportunities and pitfalls with new media when creating buzz
• Better and more frequent communications
• Personal Brand as an extension of the Business Brand

He?s having a seminar in Vegas for 2 days. If you?re serious about internal marketing you should really check this out.?

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2 Full Days
January 24th & 25th, 2008
The Hampton Inn Tropicana
Las Vegas, Nevada

BIG gives it our BrandStamp approval!

A new company came to us a few months back, Development Management Associates (DMA) and inquired about a new logo. DMA is a high end project management company guiding owners with new construction projects.?

After a long intimate conversation I convinced the owner to change the company name to a name that better suits their brand identity and positioning. The company was known for their creative thinking. Making quick decisions on the fly and providing out of the box solutions.

The name DMA might as well have been invisible.?So we went to work. Over 150 names were proposed with 25 names highlighted as homeruns. The client at first was nervous because the names weren?t typical by industry standards. I told him not to worry, being different is good!?

A name was selected and a company was born:

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The name LeftField represents the kind of solutions and creativity they come up with on their projects. Their solutions are out of the box, or from LeftField. Solutions you didn?t expect but make the difference.?

Next they hired us to develop the tagline:?The Right Choice In Project Management?

As you can see it all comes together nicely.?Now which would you prefer??

LeftField or Development Management Associates? ?It takes a lot of guts to differentiate your company but it?s well worth the risk.?

So in my daily rounds of reading branding blogs I visited Dave Young?s Branding Blog (he writes some cool stuff).

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I reviewed a few articles and then left a comment on one of the articles. The comment was very general but pleasant.?

It went something like this:? I really enjoyed your article, you were right on target. Or something like that. As usual I embedded a link back to our branding?blog which is pretty standard stuff.?? So Dave emails me directly and tells me that he didn?t appreciate the link back to another branding blog (namely ours). That we stole his name and that he reported us for spamming??

Here’s his very professional email to us:

Hey Big Kahuna,Nice try.

It?s a little more sincere than the pornographers and the viagra hucksters, but still a bot-driven comment. Did you even look at the story you commented on? So, you steal the name of my blog (up since 2004) and now are trying to create phony links to point to yours.

It?s been reported as spam to Typepad and I?ve sent them a complaint.

–
-Dave Young

Huh? We left a positive comment on your branding blog. Our blog is called ?The Branding Blog By Brand Identity Guru?, I hardly think we stole your name. Not unless you call yourself Brand Identity Guru? And then to report someone for making a nice comment on your post?is just ridiculous.?

Hey Dave, it?s pretty normal for like blogs to post articles or comments. We get competitors posting on our site all the time. Who cares? Grow up and start acting like a professional.? My suggestion, consider a new line of work. If you?re this insecure about us posting a nice comment then you need to be in a new business.?

Here?s his emails: young@cluemail.com, daveyoung@wizardofads.com

We wrote several articles on the pathetic customer service, ?performance and branding of Magellan GPS Navigation:

Nelson Chan CEO Magellan

Magellan Poor Customer Service

Here’s one from GPS Tracklog

But now the word is spreading and it?s not good. Seems like a plethora of people are starting to share their feelings about Magellan. Usually this is a good thing, you know, word of mouth and all. But this word of mouth is all bad, bad and bad.

Here is just a small sampling:

Ben’s Blog??, CNet Reviews, Shopping.com, Rippoff Report, FixYa, Hawkee, Amazon, GPSmagazine, Eopinions

Since?Magellan painfully doesn?t care I?d like to send out a challenge. Please tell 10 friends about Magellan. Blog about them. Make case studies about them. But make your voice heard.

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The Magellan?s of the world need to know that word of mouth carries significant weight. Hit them where it hurts, don?t buy their products.

Whopdeedo, who cares? No one in baseball. I would say their fans but they have none. So why change the name and identity??

“I think this gives us as an organization an identity,” principal owner Stuart Sternberg said. “We were tied to the past, and the past wasn’t necessarily something we wanted to be known for. Nobody’s running from it or hiding from it, and we’re proud of certain aspects of it, but this is something the organization was able to really put their arms around. I hope and expect the fans who come out will see it as a new beginning.”

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So Stu, you think that by changing your name and logo people will want to come out and see you? Ah, that?s a big negative.?

He goes on to say;?

?Personally, I feel establishing a new brand identity is a crucial success to the future success of the organization, especially for a team entrenched in a constant battle to find ways how to increase brand loyalty, net revenues, and ticket sales, all of which are difficult challenges due to a brief, uneventful history, a painfully low payroll, and the fact that they have to reside in one of the smallest markets in all of Major League Baseball.??

Gosh, it really deeply pains me when I see money and time wasted like this. I genuinely feel angst for them. Let me tell you why this will all fail.?

First and foremost if you have a big pile of dog doo doo that you sell do you think if you throw some blueberries on the dog doo doo that people will want to rush out and eat it? Isn?t it STILL dog doo doo? Ah, yup.?

Secondly, if you wanted to increases fan awareness why surprise them? If it were me I would have done some SERIOUS word of mouth marketing so that the fans felt like they had some part in it. Now there?s buy in and when you have buy in you have an evangelist.?

Hey the Red Sox were losers for a long time, but they sold out every game. Why did people consistently come watch a bunch of losers? They were evangelists. They felt part of it.

People of Tampa Bay have never been given that opportunity. And sadly it looks like they never will.

Lastly you need to differentiate yourself (we call that positioning in the biz). What?s the Rays new positioning? We have pretty shiny uniforms? Soon they won?t be so shiny and new, and then what??

HEY Stuart Sternberg, listen to me. Before you totally ruin your new brand?identity seek professional help from a real branding agency. You?re obviously a successful, smart business man but you are making a critical mistake right at the onset.?

Fans, need to care about you not laugh at you. You can make them care but not by changing you brand identity, name and logo.?

Sincerely,?

A Faithful Red Sox Fan, i.e. Red Sox Evangelist?

1. Develop a brand identity: How do you want to be perceived? If Volvo equals safety what do you want to equal?
2. Positioning: You need to draw your line in the sand. What makes you better and different?
3. Make a plan: Write a marketing plan to determine your best strategies and tactics.
4. Design a good logo: Hire a professional to design a good logo that leverages your brand identity.
5. Develop a tagline: A good tagline sets you apart. Make sure it?s beneficial to your audience.
6. Build a great website: Your website is your virtual front door to your office. Make sure it?s fabulous.
7. Communicate: Send out newsletters, blog, go on Myspace and Facebook. Just stay in touch with your target markets regularly.

Do you know how people perceive your company? We?ve come up with a short test, click on the image below.

At BIG we?re deep into Social Media. As a matter of fact we believe it will change the scope of advertising, marketing and branding today.

But sometimes you just have to keep it real. Check out this great video on YouTube: