The BIG Kahuna

Some companies know the importance of building a brand identity. Volvo is and will always be the “safe” car company. They own it. Energizer will own “long lasting” in the battery market forever because of their commitment to their brand identity.

The Energizer Bunny is a branding icon. But for the right reasons. He means that his battery is more powerful than your battery. At least that’s how consumers initially perceive it. What does Duracell mean to you? Do you have to think about it?

Most icons fail because they don’t really mean anything. There has to be a clear, easy message that differentiates you. Energizer is the king of perception when it comes to long lasting. But IS their battery the longest lasting? That’s a story for another day.

All our happy kahunas at BIG would like to wish you and your families a very happy Thanksgiving. Enjoy a day of over eating, football and debates with that special aunt.

Brand Identity Guru Wins Top Honors in Business Competition under Most?Slacker Friendly Category

Boston, MA ? 11-24-08 ? Brand Identity Guru has been recognized by StartupNation as one of the top businesses in its annual Home Based 100 competition under the category of Most Slacker Friendly.?

Many of the StartupNation Home-Based 100 submissions revealed that business owners are bucking the current economic downturn and finding business success in these tight times. Historically some of today?s most well known businesses started in a downturn, including Microsoft and General Electric.

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?The 2008 ranking shows that the home-based business is more relevant than ever. The current recession has spurred a new wave of home based businesses as a response to loss of jobs, the need for supplemental income and the sheer passion for blazing your own trail and running your own show,? said Rich Sloan, co-founder of StartupNation.com, one of the leading small business networking and advice websites. ?Home based businesses are the biggest block of all businesses in existence and we expect numbers to grow ever greater as extra bedrooms, kitchen tables, basements and garages become host to the innovative thinking and pursuit of success by millions of Americans.?

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Scott White, the BIG Kahuna of Brand Identity Guru, says ?making the move to virtual offices for our kahunas in 2002 was the best decision he?s ever made?. Productivity, service and responsiveness have all skyrocketed.

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The StartupNation Home-Based 100 highlights 10 top-ten lists making it not just your ordinary business ranking. From the wackiest, to the most innovative, to the best financial performers ? this unique and diverse list highlights the home-based businesses that usually go unrecognized, but still play a vital role in the economy today. The ten categories for 2008 include:

???????? Best Financial Performers

???????? Most Innovative

???????? Boomers Back in Business

???????? Greenest

???????? Yummiest

???????? Wackiest

???????? Grungiest

???????? Recession Busters

???????? Most Slacker-Friendly

???????? Most Glamorous

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In addition to StartupNation staff, judges for this year?s Home Based 100 ranking included Adam Lowry, co-founder of Method Products, Howard Behar, former President of Starbucks North America, John Jantsch, founder of Duct Tape Marketing, Mel Robbins, host of Make It Happen radio show.

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The full results of the Home-Based 100 ranking are available on StartupNation?s website:

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http://www.startupnation.com/homebased100.

There were thousands upon thousands of entries says Rich Sloan of StartUpNation?and Brand Identity Guru places 8th. Click over and check it out.

We would like to thank all our kahuna ambassadors?for clicking on that damn vote for us button for over 2 months. Your hard work paid off BIG time as it got us to #8 in the USA. You guys rock! I will be posting more on this as I receive more info from StartUpNation.

I spoke with Charlene Li, the author of Groundswell recently. She’s smart. And she’s got a brand new successful business up and running. I’m on her RSS feed. So I was shocked and actually saddened when someone as smart as Charlene did this:

I’ve had good success setting up my own business at Altimeter Group but one thing I never got around to doing was getting a logo done. Last summer, I was briefed crowdSPRING, which is a marketplace for creative projects. So I’ve decided to put my logo up as a project there, where designers can submit their ideas.

Why put my brand logo design in the hands of complete strangers? Well, I figured that anything is better than the simple font-based brand identity I have now! I also looked at some of the existing projects that are on the site, like the logo design for Zodiac Tea — which has 360 submissions as of this post.

All for a $400 fee. That’s not smart.

It’s really disappointing to see this stuff happen from professionals. And it shows her total lack of understanding when it comes to branding and brand identity. Having hundreds of people guess at the soul of her company by drawing “pretty pictures” is insulting not only to the designers for participating but to professional companies who design strategic logos for a living.

Here’s her first comment to her post:

Hi I’m a graphic designer. This type of thing is called ‘spec work’. It devalues the creative process and the design business in general. It is also a disservice to you as a client.

You can learn more here:

http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/position-spec-work

http://www.no-spec.com/

http://www.zeldman.com/2007/08/14/dont-design-on-spec/

thank you.

I agree. This from a woman that charges tens of thousands of dollars a day to her clients. Maybe she should just work for free (or $400) and if her clients like what she does she’ll get paid. Sad, sad, sad.

What say you kahunas? You think she’ll get a logo that leverages her brand identity (whatever that is)?

Yuck is the professional term I use when I see golden opportunities blown. Check out the new company name and logo:

As you can see InBev clearly played to the old logo of Anheuser-Busch. The merger of the two names is at best poor. I think they missed a golden opportunity to rename the entire brand. Let’s hope InBev doesn’t buy another big company because their new name could soon be ABInBevCoors…

What do you think? ABInBev or new name? What about the new logo?

Hat tip to Brand New for the images.

Who are you? What do you want to be? How do you get there? Here are 3 proven methods for obtaining brand identity.

1. Dictate it. You have a vision, that vision is to be the “cheesiest pizza” in town (insert your vision here). Be it. Live it. Make it happen each and every time. Add more cheese and use the best tasting cheese. You own cheese damn it!

2. Brainstorm with outside help. Bring in a company like us and brainstorm it out. Come to your best educated guess at what your brand identity is. Then follow #1.

3. Brand Research. Hire a company like us to conduct real brand research within your target markets. Good unbiased research is a great way to tap into your target market. Then follow rule #1.

Sounds simple right? This is where most businesses fail.

This morning I wake up to see Jonathan Salem Baskin outscooped me again on the Citi branding issues. Damn him! So I’ll just throw my thoughts down but I suggest you bop over to his blog and give it a read (click here).

So laying off 52,000 people ain’t no small task. How will Citi Group handle this from a brand identity?perspective?? What is Citi’s brand identity? I know them as a big and powerful lending institution (I have a mortgage from them).

Here are some thoughts:

1. Don’t do any wasteful advertising. And by that I mean lip service. If Citi is going to advertise it better mean something real and tangible to it’s customers. Otherwise they could have kept a few more warm bodies.

2. Citi needs to connect in a personal way with it’s customers. Social media might be a great way to start a conversation.

3. Maybe Citi could start a social network for the 52,000 that were laid off? Citi could play a role in trying to connect past employee’s to new jobs but more importantly they could play a role in their lives still. This could help the negative word of mouth?

4. A serious internal brand identity plan needs to be established and executed at all levels?for remaining employee’s. I would recommend that select employee’s play a role in its creation. What Citi does internally today will shape the new company moving forward.

This is a unique opportunity for Citi to really take advantage of a bad situation.?If they consider their internal branding they should do fine. But that’s a big if.

You Happier.

That’s the new positioning (tag)?line for Best Buy? What does that mean to us unhappy consumers? We were unhappy in the past with Best Buy but you’ve made changes to make us happier? Are we just unhappy in life? Are we so starved for time that Best Buy somehow makes our life happier? Is Best Buy’s service so remarkable that we’ve become happier? Am I happy because I just bought a new flat screen? If so wouldn’t I be equally as happy if I bought it at Circuit City? Why are we freakin’ happy? What’s it supposed to mean?

The new TV spot attempts to showcase Best Buy’s superior service as a family goes from competitor to competitor, frustrated by the lack of service. Finally the family arrives at Best Buy and whamo, they’re happier because they get service.

Reality check….

In my experience Best Buy’s service is plain awful. Their employees are severely under-trained in just about everything. I could walk into just about any Best Buy and wait very long to be waited on and then find out that the representative knew little about the products they were trying to sell me.? That’s how I perceive Best Buy, but I’ll open it up to you.

Are you happier? Comment below and then hop over to Barry Judge’s blog to let the CMO of Best Buy know: http://barryjudge.com/

According to Seth Godin who coined the phrase, no. But is there a grey area? For instance I received this “spam” email from Lisa Rossi who is a naming specialist.

Attn: Brand Identity Guru,

My name is Lisa Rossi and I have?over 12 years of naming and branding experience working with both advertising/branding agencies and corporate clients around the globe.
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My?industry experience includes consumer products, industrial, medical, pharmaceutical, agricultural, professional services and technology.

And here’s what I mean by that. In my life I exclude people on a daily basis. As I get to know someone I’m quick to know whether or not they are friend/business worthy. As I read other like?industry blogs It’s obvious to me whether or not they’re someone I want to communicate with or at. I don’t like grey areas because grey is a loss of focus.

My personal friendships are 100% in. Ask a friend of mine about me and you’ll get a strong, passionate overwhelmingly strong?response. Ask someone who doesn’t like me and the response will be as strong and passionate. I like it that way. You always no where you stand. And I’m certainly not trying to “fit” in with anyone. Fitting in is like committing brand suicide. So branding is my life.

Since I started this branding blog I’ve received a ton of great feedback and praise. Mostly people like it because I’m not afraid to challenge the witchcraft others call branding. Some have called me a bully, others have literally called me on the phone and threatened me (p.s. I’m a svelt 220lbs, I’m called the BIG Kahuna for a reason). They passionately despise me…man does that turn me on. The line is drawn.

Then I get feedback like this (I’m keeping?this person?anonymous):

As a branding guy myself, I love how you preach the gospel about what a brand really is. People just don’t get it. The new one on brand identity is dead-on. I constantly fight that battle if the word brand comes up. I am a HUGE proponent of aligning your internal operations to your brand promise. Just wish more companies understand the importance of that and are willing to pay for it.

I’d love to find ways to work together – outside of your political leanings, I find myself nodding myself constantly when reading your blog. When you guys look to add more kahunas, let me know…

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Trust me my friend, when the need arises YOU will be a Kahuna! By the way BEING a Kahuna for BIG is not easy. And I promise we can agree to disagree on politics all day long.

So once again the BIG Kahuna demonstrates how important a brand identity can be. In life and in your profession, your identity is everything.

And as my friend Jonathan Salem Baskin would say, my actions (behavior) propel my brand forward. The BIG Kahuna commands you to buy his book today (click on the book):

I meet with some of the best and brightest CMOs (Chief Marketing Officers) in the business. I also scratch my head far too often. If you’re a CMO and you ask me “what all this branding stuff?is” then you have problems. Or if you don’t know what RSS is and how it works. CMOs need to keep abreast of what’s happening as it relates to their profession at all times.

Being a CMO isn’t easy. Your average length of stay at a company is about 18 months. Why? Because either you know your stuff or you don’t. And you’re personally held responsible for your company’s marketing. I don’t expect you to be a branding guru but I do expect you to understand the principles of branding and being smart enough to bring people like me or someone almost as good as me?in

I love working with smart, sophisticated CMOs. They get it and see the BIG picture, call me anytime.

Yesterday I flew to St. Thomas from Boston. The flight was going great until the flight attendant asked if there was a doctor on board…

Flight attendant: Is there a doctor, nurse or emt on board? A woman is having chest pains.

At least 12 people stood up, one of which was a cardiologist. Suddenly an IV was going up. The flight attendant kept us informed as things happened. A few minutes passed and we were informed that given the seriousness of her health we would be making an emergency?landing in the Bahamas. She said that she knew we were most likely going on vacation but this women’s life was too?important and that we’d be back in the air as quickly as possible.

As we started our decent she explained that we should remain seated and that health professionals would take?the sick woman?off the plane. When we landed she said we could stretch, use the bathrooms or get a soda. After 30 minutes she asked if anyone was going on a cruise and to raise their hands. Delta then made some calls and informed all the cruise passengers that the cruise line agreed to wait for them. Wow, that’s some serious service from where I was sitting.

The flight attendant then informed us that we’d be taking of shortly and made a very funny joke to ease our minds…

She asked if anyone had a credit card as we needed more fuel. The plane erupted in laughter. She then informed us that Delta would buy everyone on board a glass of wine and she again informed the cruise people that arrangements were made for them.

As we made our decent to St. Thomas she asked that everyone please check and take all their personal belongings. She said that if they were left behind we could most likely find them on Ebay, again the passengers laughed. She then thanked the doctors, nurses and all passengers that helped save this woman. The passengers all clapped. She then thanked our service men and woman.

I’ve never been on a plane when there was an emergency, but if it ever happened again I’d want that flight attendant.

Thank you Delta!

This past week my wife and I ordered delivery 5 nights. 3 of those nights we ordered from our main delivery company, Euro Pizza. We’ve been ordering from Euro Pizza for about 5 years on a very regular basis. We like Euro Pizza.

Yesterday I called in my order and this is what happened:

I’d like a grilled Ceasar Salad delivered please.

Is that it?

Yup.

I’m sorry we’re to busy to deliver unless you spend $20.

I order from you all the time.

We’re to busy, can you order something else to total $20?

No, I’ll just call the other pizza shop. Bye.

Brilliant huh? We order from them at minimum 2 times a week as we’re always on the go. I must say the food at the new pizza shop was very good. I’ll give them a try for a while.

Here is the problem with word of mouth experts or word of mouth marketing companies. In my opinion they have little to absolutely no knowledge of branding. Here’s a great example from self proclaimed word of mouth marketing guru?Andy Sernovitz, he writes:

A great word of mouth topic has to be interesting, fun, and easy to repeat.? It doesn’t have to be about your product or product features.

In fact, trying to turn your brand message into a word of mouth viral phenomenon will almost always fail–because real people don’t repeat brand messages.

What people like Andy don’t understand (in my humble opinion)?is that a company should be true to it’s brand identity first and foremost. For instance, Nike stayed true to it’s brand identity of performance?when it developed the tagline “Just Do It”, one of if not the most memorable taglines in the history of business. And I’m pretty sure that was quite a word of mouth phenomenon, dare I say it went “viral” as well.

The point is using “fun, gimmicky” efforts to try and spread word of mouth is a big waste of time and money. Hell, Andy will have you selling 10lb candy bars if you listen to him.

Word of mouth marketing just like any other TACTIC should always be on brand and leverage your brand identity. Someone dressed in a gorilla suit passing out lollipops ain’t gonna get er dun.

But just to visually show you the difference between?gimmicky word of mouth and leveraging your brand I give you two examples. Example one is from Andy Sernovitz. Example two is from me, the BIG Kahuna.

Andy Sernovitz demonstrating “A great word of mouth topic has to be interesting, fun, and easy to repeat.? It doesn’t have to be about your product or product features.”

The BIG Kahuna demonstrating the power of delivering on a brand identity:

Vote, which one do you like?

I’ve shopped?at Sears before. They have great appliances and of course tools. But who is Sears? What do they stand for or want to stand for? How do people perceive Sears? Sears, you’re schizophrenic.

As?my wonderful wife?forced me?to watch another episode of Extreme Makeover I asked the question again. Sears is a major sponsor for Extreme Makeover.

They give away thousands and thousands of dollars in product each and every week. All for the hopes that fans watching will rush out and buy their products. Huh?

I’m not rushing out because you gave away boxing equipment to a nice deserving family. Nor am I buying from you because of the new dishwasher. You need to make sense to me as a consumer then I’ll buy from you.

Go to the Sears website and just look at it from a visual perspective (click here)?. Is it warm? Friendly? Family oriented? Or does it look like any other e-commerce site? What’s the first feeling you get from the site? Is it caring? Giving? Or cold and distant?

Sears, you desperately need a brand identity. Call the BIG Kahuna today at 508-238-4347?or call someone else. But call someone. Stop wasting money on meaningless promotions when you have no clear focus or brand identity.

Some CEO’s are afraid to start a corporate blog. The fear is that people will say bad things about them or employees will say the wrong things. Wake up!

If you’re not blogging others will be blogging about you. At least if you have your own blog you control the content and can engage in two way conversations with customers that may be unhappy with you.

BuzzLogic and JupiterResearch teamed up to conduct a study of consumer blog readers’ behavior and found that blog content and advertising can be very effective sales tools. The research focused on individuals who read blogs more than once per month.

Specifically, the study found that:

• 40 percent of blog readers have taken action as a result of viewing an ad on a blog; 50 percent of frequent blog readers say this is the case.
• Top activities include:
  • Read product reviews online (17 percent)
  • Sought out more info on a product or service (16 percent)
  • Visited a manufacturer or retailer website (16 percent)

Read the entire story here.

Blogs can be a great way to communicate your brand, let go of your old school ways.

As?I troll through blogs of “experts” I can’t help but laugh when people use the term brand identity. There are very few who use the term correctly and it’s sad. But here goes it.

Brand Identity as defined by Wikipedia:

How the brand owner wants the consumer to perceive the brand – and by extension the branded company, organisation, product or service. The brand owner will seek to bridge the gap between the brand image and the brand identity.^[2] Brand identity is fundamental to consumer recognition and symbolizes the brand’s differentiation from competitors.

Brand identity may be defined as simply the outward expression of the brand, such as name and visual appearance.^[3] Some practitioners however define brand identity as not only outward expression (or physical facet), but also in terms of the values a brand carries in the eye of the consumer.

A brand identity is not a logo or corporate identity design. Sure those are parts of a brand identity but so is how the phones get answered, or don’t. How about the delivery person? The customer service rep? Those are all areas that need to be aligned with the brand identity.

In other words, the brand identity is the most important thing any company can establish. Or face certain brand death as customers will assign you a brand image. And just so?we’re clear a brand image is defined as how people actually perceive your company.

Most of our new clients come to us saying people perceive them a certain way and they don’t want to be perceived that way. That’s a clear gap between brand identity and brand image. Another big problem within organizations is the gap between management and employees. Often times employees are not even aware of what their company’s brand identity is.

So brand identity not only touches a company’s external efforts but also their internal efforts.

Here’s a big tip from the BIG Kahuna:

Make sure your marketing and advertising leverages your brand identity. If your brand identity is safety like Volvo’s then build strategies and tactics that leverage safety. Easy, huh?

Gosh it amazes me that new marketing, word of mouth marketing and social media?types constantly cry about having to make sales for their clients (like it’s a bad thing). It’s like we’ve created a generation of as Arnold would say “girly men“.

Yesterday Spike Jones of Brains on Fire (word of mouth marketing company)?wrote this girly man statement:

Is all marketing self serving? It?s a question I struggle with. But I guess it?s because I know the answer: YES, all marketing is self-serving. Even this blog and twitter?account and LinkedIn and Facebook and all of it ? it?s not just sharing information. It?s self-serving.

Yea, I’m pretty sure we exist to make money and add to that we exist to make our client’s money. Making sales for our customers should be a top if not the top priority.? Some of these girly men are taking social media to a new level, sort of like, dare I say a religion.

Snap out of it people.

Brand Identity Guru is a for profit company that wants to make money for ourselves and our customers. We love and are passionate about what we do and we charge a premium price for it. I get pumped up when I know that something we executed for a client made our client piles of cash.??

Is marketing self serving? You betcha, thank god for that!

p.s. This was my comment to Spike about his blog post:

Maybe you should curl up with a pint of H?agen-Dazs and a romance novel and cry yourself to sleep?

Last time I checked, you, me and all agencies are still in business to make money. Customers want and expect us to profit from them in exchange for the value (whatever that is, including sales) we bring. That?s the payoff.

Okay, now that we have all the political mumbo jumbo behind us it will be nice to see all the change that was promised.

Amercians want to be lead, they desire a new direction. Hopefully our American Brand will improve. It would be nice to travel to Paris without getting spit on huh?

The American Brand. It’s taken a beating over the last 8 years. That’s change I’m looking forward to. Hopes, dreams, freedoms, caring, sounds good to me.? I look forward to watching the re-branding of America.