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.

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.

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?

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

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?

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?

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 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.

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”.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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?