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When a corporation uses slippery doublespeak, particularly for brands with trust trouble, they double down on the damage they do to their reputation. Brand Doublespeak Doesn’t Fool Anyone Who does Toyota think they are fooling when they try to paint the new recall of the Tundra as a “heads up” to dealers of a “special
Toyota Brand Doublespeak: Spinning Possible Recall as “Special Service Campaign” Read More »
How are the recalls and bad headlines affecting the Toyota brand? In Context Opinion hit some parking lots to talk to everyday drivers to find out if the brand is in trouble. What we heard is that people still value the brand—some passionately. While some people are concerned about the way Toyota initially handled the
Toyota Brand Still Strong Despite Recalls Read More »
With the growth of web video, more and more companies are considering adding video content to their Web sites and using web video in marketing. Beware of charging blindly forward without a good understanding of what works on the Web and how web video is different from video for television. TV vs. Web video: The
Ten Ways Web Video Is Different from TV Read More »
The Marketing Executives Networking Group, an national organization of top-level marketing professionals, has just released new study of top executives on marketing trends across industries and marketing disciplines. We spoke with Tom H. C. Anderson, founder and CEO of Anderson Analytics, the firm that conducted the study:
Marketing Executives Networking Group Top Marketing Trends 2009 Read More »
Funny brand names work. If you have a pet, you’ve surely dealt with your share of barf. In light of that, would you eagerly feed your dog or cat BARF brand pet food? Believe it or not, the company BARF World has made a business selling raw BARF to pet owners across the country. I’ve
Unintentionally Funny Brand Names: BARF Pet Food Read More »
Merriam Associates Insight On-the-Street went out to discover what people think about the debate on health care reform. We wanted to see if there is a consensus among regular people who are not taking active part in the debate. What we heard is rather different from what is reported on the news. Away from the
The Untold Health Care Reform Narrative: Blame Pharma Read More »
The FDA has fired a warning shot at one of Americas most beloved brands. They accuse the makers of Cheerios of selling the cereal as a drug to prevent and treat high cholesterol—a charge with a potentially huge impact on Cheerios brand sales and reputation. We talked to Cheerios eaters to find out why they
FDA vs. Cheerios: Blurred Line Between Food and Pharma Read More »
We walked the floor of the New York Bar Show at Jacob Javitz Center to see what trends await customers across the bar and on the shelf in 2009.
Focusing The Message of an NGO Doing Place Branding Promote Uganda is a non-governmental-organization (NGO) founded by successful ex-patriot Ugandans with the goal of improving the economic lot of people in Uganda. The organization is an ambitious one. We helped them organize and articulate their agenda around several key place branding initiatives: Providing tourists information
Promote Uganda: Focusing the Message for Place Branding Read More »
AIG is trying to outrun its old reputation by adopting a new brand. Will it work? Most people aren’t buying it. The entity, formerly known as AIG, is firmly attached to its reputation of irresponsible financial stewardship and credit default swap schemes that played a major role in the global financial collapse of 2008. The
AIG Name Change to AIU Read More »