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This blog has railed against the dishonesty behind doublespeak and the long-term damage such “cleverness” can do to the integrity of your brand (i.e. Toyota renaming a “recall” as a “special service campaign”). Using gobbledegook in your brand communications is less sinister, but it still inhibits clear, compelling communication and it definitely can bore your …
Gobbledegook: Brand Doublespeak’s Extremely Boring Cousin Read More »
Burson-Marsteller released a study that claims 76% of blogs were off message. The brand message gap was found in more than 150 messages sent out by companies listed in the Financial Times Global 100 and discovered a large gap between the official brand messages and how they were reflected on blogs, in tweets, and on …
Today’s Wall Street Journal Law Blog has an interesting article on naming laws and statutes. This is an area I have covered a time or two from a branding perspective. Naming anything is actually an act of persuasion–your name says something about your company, product or idea for a new law or policy. It’s no …
Naming Is Persuading: The Commercial and Political Power of Brand Names Read More »
“Brands are how we sort out the cesspool.” This famous quote from Eric Schmidt, President of Google, gives us insight into the importance of brands and how Google uses brand names when determining what search results to offer in response to customer queries. How do you know a word is a brand? Google codes up …
Wikipanic—it’s the new word for the latest marketing threat. What will happen to your brand if Wikileaks attacks it? As Mastercard, Paypal, Visa, and Bank of America are finding out, marketers need to be ready in advance of disaster, whether a plane crash, an oil well explosion or a wikileak/hacktivist attack. Companies can’t risk a …
Caterpillar is buying mining equipment giant Bucyrus International and keeping that brand name. While unknown and even strange-sounding to the average person, Bucyrus is a storied brand name in the heavy equipment industry. In my post of a few weeks ago, I discussed the naming options companies have in mergers and acquisitions. Though Caterpillar is …
Caterpillar’s New Legs—Acquiring the Bucyrus International Brand Read More »
Our client Proxios produced a series of customer testimonials to support their brand. We covered several weeks ago a comprehensive list of ways to use Web video. One of the easiest and most powerful uses of Web video is for customer testimonials. With more impact than a customer list and more persuasive than a quote, …
Proxios Uses Web Video for Customer Testimonials Read More »
Merriam Associates named Geomentum, the hyper-local marketing, media and performance agency unit of Mediabrands (NYSE: IPG), when it launched in August, 2009. Today the company announced the launch of its Hyper-Local Network and a new partnership with Mixpo, a dynamic video advertising provider. Through this collaboration, Geomentum and Mixpo will introduce Dynamic Local Video (DLV), …
Merriam Associates Client Geomentum’s Hyper-Local Mixpo Partnership Read More »
Nestle has announced the creation two new organizations: Nestle Health Science S.A. and the Nestle Institute of Health Science. Nestle says their purpose will be finding “cost effective ways to prevent and treat acute and chronic diseases in the 21st century.” Their idea of finding “a new opportunity between food and pharma” may sound good, …
Nestle Seeking “Opportunity Between Food and Pharma” Read More »