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One of the toughest aspects of naming a company or a product is finding a URL, a domain name for your Web site. You might want to consider the “used” market of recycled names. Every day thousands of perfectly good URLs are abandoned and left to expire—their yours for the taking. If you have ever …
Macy’s thought it could cut costs and achieve buying efficiencies if it created one single national department store chain. That thinking led to a major brand blunder in Chicago. Watch as shoppers share their feelings about the loss of Marshall Fields and its replacement by Macy’s. Marshall Fields has such a devoted brand following that …
Macy’s Blunders with Marshall Fields Brand Name Change Read More »
Antifreeze in toothpaste, poisoned pet food, lead in millions of Fisher-Price toys, and now melamine in babys’ milk–the list of potentially harmful products made in China is growing. And that means certain harm to some of America’s leading brands. The Fisher-Price recall is expected to cost many millions in administration alone. That is only the …
Don’t tell me; show me. If a picture is worth a thousand words, Web video is worth a million pictures. As we point out in our post about ideas for Web video, video brochures are a great way to engage. This video for the New York City West Side YMCA’s Creative Drama class shows parents …
Just when you thought HP was refocusing on its core business of computer hardware, they’ve decided they can also be low-cost designers. HP has begun marketing Logoworks by HP under the misguided notion that branding is about looks. Your brand is not your logo. Your brand is your reputation and promise. It is what your …
HP’s Swoosh-O-Matic Logo Service–-Bad Branding Made Easy Read More »
Is your brand all talk and no do? Successful brands walk the walk as much as they talk the talk. Great brands are not creatures of the marketing, living only in ads and brochures. Business brands have to break out of the marketing department and work beyond the scope of the ad campaign. They must …
Business Branding: Toward A More Effective B2B Brand Approach Read More »
With toy recalls of toys made in China filling the news, what do shoppers think? How is lead in popular brands affecting the decisions shoppers are making? Is the Mattel brand being hurt by the toy recalls? We interview toy buyers at the Times Square Toys R Us on 12/1/07.
Business has long been enlivened by vivid and powerful brands inextricably tied to real people. Such brands enjoy unusual benefits, but also face risks. Real people do good things as well as bad; they make good decisions but also devastating mistakes. Thus brands tied to people rise and fall with the fortunes of the people …
When a Brand is a Person–Personal Brand Considerations Read More »
“Business-to-business brands aren’t emotional,” claims a chief marketing officer at a major B2B company. “Our product is driven by rational considerations.” We did a project last year that involved interviewing business decision makers. When queried on companies that helped them or hurt them, the answers began with, “I absolutely love Company X” or “I hate …
Advertising is the must-have tool of consumer brands. For B2B brands, it is your sales force. Sales people are the key to building your brand. They are your eyes and ears and your voice. They operate in the real world of the market every day and own the client relationship. They have an ear to …