Branding

business_brandingIn the current economic climate where every sane business leader is striving to keep customers, to keep their brand visible and to attract new business in a declining market; there is one company that has joined Gordon Brown?s ministry of silly decisions?Norwich Union.

Norwich Union, a giant and a brand of 200 years. A great name reassuringly safe that appears to be conservative in this turbulent economic climate where there appears to be little safely in financial institutions. I can only presume that the decision to re-brand Norwich Union to Aviva must have been taken by a banker, accountant or lawyer (sorry to offend my friends in these professions). Maybe Norwich Union are going to diversify and don?t want to be identified with providing good value insurance products. Or perhaps they are going into construction, ship building or furniture retailing (great markets to lose money in right now).

Anyhow they probably spent a million or two in dreaming up the name Aviva and are now spending ?trillions? (fashionable word) on their re-branding and advertising etc. This is money that could have been spent on winning new business and increasing shareholder value.

If you have a minute??how about some ideas to destroy other great brands with a new name.

Royal Mail ? you can?t suggest Consignia as they tried that one Virgin Microsoft Scottish Widows Tesco Marks & Spencer McDonalds

I just had lunch on Emerald beach (in St. Thomas). The bartender commented that the bottles were smaller and they looked to pretty. I hear this all over St. Thomas.

Fortune Brands is all about distribution, we’ll see if they keep up with the same passionate, caring production ways soon enough. My guess is they’ll ruin Cruzan.

You are totally off base here with this one. As a Crucian (and that is the correct spelling by the way when you are referring to the people), born and raise, what made this rum mean so much to the islanders was not the bottle, or the priate ship, and it will not be the knight or the sword. What made Cruzan the rum it is to the Virgin Islands was the name “Cruzan”. The name gave all Crucians and to a certain extent all virgin islanders something that belongs to them. It is very similar to the Crucian Bracelet affect. When you gave someone that from the mainland or when someone bought it to bring it back to the states, their is a sense of pride that we all felt it was a sense of belonging, a sense of ours.

The fact that the name “cruzan” still appears on the bottle means that sense of identity will still remain. And no matter what other rum company comes to St.Croix to start producing rum, none will make a another “cruzan” rum. The locals may laugh at the bottles for bit that will be short live. The bottle is new and different and for most folks change can be uncomfortable. But once they crack open the bottle and smell that familiar and distinctive flavor the packaging of the bottle will be forgotten.

We have the historical bragging rights, but that is about all. St. Croix may be heading down this path as well.

These people of the US Virgin Islands are the brand ambassadors for Cruzan. They made the brand into the 5th largest rum producer, they own it. And they can take it away. Until you live here you’ll never really understand the power of local word of mouth.

I can tell you one thing, people are talking here and it ain’t good. They laugh at the knight and shield. What does that have to do with? It’s certainly not part of the Cruzian mystique. And by taking the numbering system away they’ve taken the most crucial part of the brand identity away. That number represented the age of the rum which represented the quality.

I’m sure with the backing and distribution Cruzan will do well. But if they lose the very backbone of their audience their success may be short lived.

While true, it is popular with locals, I am sure the motivation was to inspire a world market. I have no history with the brand so, this new look is the only one I’m familiar with.
Captain Morgan already owns the Pirate, and Bacardi – the bat. Cruzan is going to have develop it’s own mystique, and build on it’s icons.

Packaging is huge in branding – look to Apple.

Already there is buzz that the rum tastes different. You don’t build a brand on a logo/package. You build it on an overall brand identity/positioning. And Fortune brands has no idea what that was.

It’s a bummer when a big company does this. Cruzan meant a lot to the US Virgin Islands both from a lifestyle perspective and from an employment perspective.

I’ll anxiously await the next local rum company to step in and take over for Cruzan. Now’s the time as Cruzan is just another liquor brand in a big company.

As far as the pirate ship thing… I think having the est. date embossed on the bottle in place of the ship is a more authentic message. The date speaks more to the heritage of Cruzan than a pirate ship. Unless Cruzan was originally made by pirates, then the story of pirate would make sense.

Also regarding typography…The original logo was a simple typeset of Trajan without any modifications. The new logotype has been modified and given some extra elements that, like the bottle, are more ownable by the brand.