The BIG Kahuna

A few years back we helped our client Humboldt Storage and Moving create their new brand identity “stress relief”. And they’ve done a fine job at delivering that message consistently. Here you can see the logo design, tagline and truck design we implemented.

Great job guys!

I always laugh at people who think branding doesn’t make a person feel a specific way for a company or product. Take this very funny viral video made to discredit Apple’s iPhone and brand.

WARNING, this contains adult, vulgar language:

Let’s just say all these things are true and Evo’s phone makes the iPhone look outdated and behind technology, how does one explain the sales,  loyalty, dedication and overall brand committment to Apple?

One answer. Branding.

You can do all kinds of great stuff with WordPress. You don’t have to stick to standard templates.

Check out our latest project for the Parrot Club, a Gaming Entertainment Center in St. John US Virgin Islands.

We also tied their Facebook and twitter accounts to their blog for automatic updates as well as using NetworkedBlogs.

So you’re Seattle’s Best and Starbuck’s wants you to re-brand. Why re-brand? Well because being everything to everyone is much better than targeting a market and differentiating…right?

Now that Seattle’s Best is expanding into Subway’s and Burger King’s it’s time to change a good brand to accommodate all those lower end types that visit those restaurants…that’s the thinking right?

Check out the email I got from Mandi Armond at Cohn & Wolfe, a subsidary of  WPP:

Hi Scott ,

Seattle’s Best Coffee, sub-brand of Starbucks, announced recently a new logo, as part of an overall effort to repurpose the brand. Recent expansions by Seattle’s Best into partnerships with brands such as Subway and Burger King, show that parent company is eager to use Seattle’s image as a more affordable coffee to their advantage during the recession.

I would like to offer an executive from Landor Associates, one of the world’s leading branding and design consultancies for expert commentary on the Starbucks/Seattle’s Best brand, as well as the new logo and marketing efforts. The firm’s executive staff is highly knowledgeable about Starbucks’ brand strength and has previously commented for other outlets, as well as on their own corporate blog, about the introduction of VIA, the controversy over the legality of carrying a gun in the stores, and most recently Starbucks tea sales to China.  

Please find below my signature, a sample of some of their previous commentary and Landor corporate blogs on the topic.

If you were planning any stories about Seattle’s Best, Starbucks, or the new logo, please let me know and I can organize an interview for you with one of the Landor executives.

Cheers,

Mandi Armond for Landor Associates

415-365-8553

cohn&wolfe

mandi armond | cohn&wolfe | assistant account executive | 415.365.8553 | mandi.armond@cohnwolfe.com

Here are my thoughts, you may not like them:

“The parent company is eager to use Seattle’s image as a more affordable coffee to their advantage during the recession.”

Brilliant, I change my identity all the time in a recession. When things are slow I lower my prices and work for clients that I ordinarily wouldn’t work with. Hell I HAVE to keep the money coming in. When the recessions over I’ll just change it back. Presto.

So what’s the new logo look like? Keep in mind the new target audience is much wider now and they are more “affordable”:

Wow, what a change. Honestly it’s worse than clip-art. It does say “cheap” though, I must admit.

Apparently this new identity was developed by “Creature Agency”.

Isn’t there a point where you have to say, wait a minute here! You want to do what? They have completely bastardized Seattle’s Best Brand to a commodity?

I guess if you follow the rule for recessions you can’t blame Creature Agency for taking the project, after all the money flow needs to happen. But I can tell you one firm who wouldn’t have….mine.

What say you kahunas? Agree or disagree?

That’s how Dish Network described the TV show American Idol the other day. Interesting brand switch away from the main judges and host:

 Simon

Randy

Kara

and Ryan

I bought a very expensive outdoor grilling set including frig, ice maker, bar etc. from Lynx. Lynx is known to be a “high-end” brand. The name means something when it says Lynx. It means expensive, quality and sophistication.

So when my ice maker broke down I called a repair company. He called Lynx to repair it and Lynx referred him to Hoshizaki America as it turns out they are the manufacturer of this product. Lynx just stamps their logo on it.

Here’s the Lynx and Hoshizaki models (they are the exact same size):

The Lynx model retails for $3,100 while the Hoshizaki model retails for about $1,400.  The only visible difference seems to be the handle and the Lynx logo.

Now when I bought the equipment I did so believing that Lynx actually made their own products. So the ultimate question is, does the Lynx brand image mean that much to me that I would have knowingly bought it over the Hoshizaki?

let’s ponder that…

Is it me or do they really mean “Asian Mix”? Otherwise what kind of rug is in that bag?

What do you think? Cool to call it “Oriental Mix”?

My wife and I went over to a shopping plaza called Crown Bay to try out the new BBQ place called Jumbies (excellent by the way) when we stumbled on this brand new store called “Cbay“.

Click the photo to enlarge:

What a creative name and logo I mumbled to myself. It’s almost like I’ve seen it before. Hmmmm, as I ponder through my mental rolodex. I got it! I proclaimed out loud…

Ebay – Cbay, how ingenious these smart (and I’m using that very sarcastically) business people are. I can see the big strategy meeting now…

Hey I love Ebay…

If only we could come up with a name like it.

Hey what rhymes with Ebay? Or wait better yet make it Crown Bay, Ebay-ish…

Abay, nah…Bbay, nah, Cbay? Holy cow…C for Crown and Bay for, um..er Bay. The quest has ended!

So there you have it. A completely ripped off logo from Ebay. What do you think blog readers? Is it cool to rip off a logo like this? Don’t hold back, tell me how you really feel.

Play and have some fun with it. As long as you can back up your brand promise!

Did anyone see last weeks episode of Undercover Boss It featured Larry O’Donnell, President of Waste Management going undercover performing tasks that the average Waste Management employee does?

It was eye opening for him. As it would be with any company.

We’ve been doing this sort of thing for our clients for over 17 years. We always find the same nonsense. Corporate makes policies and procedures that either can’t be obtained or are downright ludicrous. And those policies hurt your brand! Yup, if your company makes a stupid policy the brand will suffer.

In one example Larry uncovered that one of his plant managers was docking employees pay if they were late back from lunch by taking 2 minutes of their pay for every minute late. That’s a bad policy. It hurts morale but most importantly it hurts the brand.

I can guarantee that any company that hired us would be dramatically improved from an internal and external branding perspective by the research we do as it relates to policies and procedures of a company. Guaranteed.

Remember folks, your brand is being delivered by your employees everyday.

A RE/Max Franchisee, Rosemary Sauter, in St. Thomas closed her doors and went missing. Along with approximately 2.5 million dollars in the escrow account. This is the account hard working people put their money into to buy a house. Their dream house in St. Thomas. All gone. Poof.

It’s quite a story in St. Thomas. Many angry folks. You can read all about it here.

One of the people who commented actually contacted RE/MAX and received this response back:

I am in receipt of your correspondence addressed to Mr. Dave Liniger, Chairman of the Board of RE/MAX International, Inc. and other officers of our company concerning a complaint you have which involves Rosemary Sauter of RE/MAX Dream Properties, in the USVI.

RE/MAX Dream Properties has been terminated by RE/MAX Caribbean and Central America, Inc., because of violations of their franchise agreement.

RE/MAX International, Inc., which operates in the USVI under the name RE/MAX Caribbean and Central America, is an international franchising organization made up of thousands of independently owned and operated real estate offices. Although the offices are given the right to use the RE/MAX® name and service mark, each is a separately owned business and responsible for their own activities. Real estate sales associates work as independent contractors out of each office and are licensed by the state real estate commission, wherever applicable. RE/MAX Caribbean and Central America legally cannot and does not manage or control the day-to-day activities of either the independently-owned real estate office or the individual sales associates who work within the office.

RE/MAX has no knowledge of the circumstances that have led to the unknown whereabouts of the Broker/Owner of Dream Properties. Because law enforcement officials are conducting an official investigation, RE/MAX Caribbean and Central America, Inc., and RE/MAX International, Inc. cannot comment further on the case and will cooperate fully with the authorities.

Sincerely,

Ricardo Cardenas, IRES, TRC

Regional Vice President

RE/MAX Latin America and Caribbean

303.796.3454 direct

303.718.3631 mobile

rcardenas2 (Skype)

5075 S. Syracuse Street
Denver, Colorado 80237, USA

So there it is, the RE/MAX response. I found this sentence to be telling: Although the offices are given the right to use the RE/MAX® name and service mark, each is a separately owned business and responsible for their own activities.

What about the RE/MAX brand here? Should they do more than just sweep this under the rug? Or is it how they say? What say you kahunas?

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

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.