Branding. It’s the single most important thing about marketing. A brand communicates how a company wants to be perceived – or how it wants you to think about its products. Branding is a combination of one part image, one part slogan, and 98 parts repitition. Great brands are not created overnight. They are built slowly, one message at a time, until the brand becomes etched in your conciousness. Brands are expensive to build. But their worth their weight in gold. Which makes it all the more interesting – and madning – when I see a company kill a brand that resonates with the public. Don’t believe me? Let’s take a look at three brands that have been killed-off by their corporate masters, and examine the who, what, and why they died (and perhaps why killing them was a dumb idea).
Archives for 2008
My two cents.
I’ve been in the business of using computers, in one way or another, since 1982. I wrote my first college paper on an Apple III. I owned one of the original IBM PCs (Hercules Graphics Card! 512K RAM! Two full-height 5 1/4″ Floppy Drives! Dot Matrix Printer! DOS 2.0! Ashton-Tate Framework! All for the low, low price of $4,000!!!). I’ve worked as a software engineer, product manager, project manager, marketing manager, and user interface evangelist for software publishing companies. I was around for the birth of Windows 1.0, the life and death of COMDEX, the rise of the common user interface, the Year of the LAN, and a slew of other things, long consigned to the dust bin of computer history. I’ve been a user, author, coder, beta-tester, evangelist, designer, and planner. In short, I’ve held just about every job you can hold in the software industry.
Now I’m writing reviews. [Read more…] about My two cents.
The Value of Old.
The older I get, the more I appreciate old stuff. I suppose that makes a certain amount of synergistic sense. When I was a kid, “new” was the thing. If some marketer prefixed their pitch with the magic word “new” – they had my attention. These days, I equate “new” with “not as good as what it replaced.” That’s not always true, of course – a new computer is better/faster/cheaper than an old one. But when it comes to things that require craftsmanship, pride, skill, taste, and durability, “old” beats “new” almost every time. Case in point, musical instruments. [Read more…] about The Value of Old.
Corruption Knows No Party.
I’m a conservative. So’s Sen. Ted Stevens (R, Alaska). I believe in drilling for oil in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge. So does Ted. I believe that conservatives principles should guide our government. Ted agrees. So why do I want to see Ted Stevens resign from office?
Here’s the deal: Corruption is corruption. It strikes Republicans and Democrats alike. No political party has the market cornered on kickbacks, under-the-table deals, favors-for-cash, and other financial hanky panky. For every Ted Stevens on the right, there’s a William Jefferson on the left. Don’t care. I want Congress cleaned up, and I want it done NOW.
If somebody gets in office, and then proceeds to use that office for personal gain, I want them gone. Conservative or Liberal, Republican or Democrat, that kind of thing has no place in our government. Period. So when a guy is exposed as a crook, I don’t care if I agree with him politically – he needs to go, and go quickly. [Read more…] about Corruption Knows No Party.
The Problem with Miley.
Know what a “Tween” is? Unless you’ve been living under a rock (which might not be such a bad idea, actually), you know a tween is the trendy label for those ages 9 to 12 – not quite a child anymore, but not quite a teenager. A “tweenager,” if you will. I’m the proud father of a tween. She’s obsessed with all the typical things that girls her age are – fashion, Miley Cyrus, High School Musical, Jonas Brothers, and fashion. The problem is, I’m not sold on the idea that all those obsessions are the right ones.
Here’s the deal. I had a great childhood. Idyllic, really. I want the same for my daughter. But we live in a radically different world today, and I’m afraid she’s being exposed to a lot of things that are stealing her childhood right out from under our noses. [Read more…] about The Problem with Miley.
Agency Management 101: Don’t Turn Your Clients Into Pets.
Most of what I know about marketing, you can divide into three groups: knowledge acquired by instinct, knowledge acquired by experience, and knowledge acquired by study. I wish I could say this next little marketing gem comes to me via instinct or study, but I learned this (sort of) the hard way: by experience. So here’s today’s lesson, campers:
Don’t turn your clients into pets.
(Some of you are thinking, “what in the HELL is he talking about,” while others are saying “Amen, brother.” Allow me to explain… [Read more…] about Agency Management 101: Don’t Turn Your Clients Into Pets.
Music that’s eclectic.
As some of you know, I’ve been a musician since an early age. Up here in Amarillo (Centrally Located Between Two Oceans!™), I haven’t had many opportunities to play professionally.
All that has recently begun to change.
Andy (the Brother I Never Had) Chase and I have put together a group, and we’re calling it “eclectic” ek•lek•tik.
Tonight, we’re playing at Randy’s of Wilderado (which is actually not in Wilderado at all – it’s in downtown Amarillo on Polk Street in the Paramount building), from 6 to 9 PM. As the band’s name suggests, our playlist is eclectic. Come on down, and you’ll hear everything from James Taylor and Jim Croce stuff to Nat “King” Cole and Hoagy Carmichael – with everything in between. Tonight, we’ve added a really excellent bassist to the mix, so there’s now four of us. Andy and I share lead vocals duty, and we switch off between guitar, mandolin, percussion, and harmonica. Describing our sound is a little tricky, because there’s nobody else doing what we do here in the Panhandle. I guess it’s kind of like [Insert name of artist here] Unplugged, because everything we’re doing is acoustic. However, that doesn’t mean it’s mellow, nor is it all ballads, all the time. We can rock the joint, too. And do.
So if you’re interested in an evening of live music, come on down to Randy’s tonight and check us out.
Don’t Buy This Book.
I love to read. I read just about everything I can get my hands on – from mysteries to histories, tech books to cook books. My favorite for light reading are in the techo-thriller genre…books about heroic Americans fighting the spies and soliders of other countries or terrorists. Glenn Beck (one of my favorite radio/TV guys) had author Christopher Reich on his show recently, to plug the book Rules of Deception. Beck mentioned that he’d not yet read the book (never a good idea to plug something you haven’t read, Glenn), but he was amazed that, as the story revolved around Iran’s attempts to enrich uranium for the express purpose of building nuclear weapons, that the New York Times had given the book a glowing review. Little did I know when I bought it that there was a good reason the NY Times loved it. [Read more…] about Don’t Buy This Book.
Zig Obama.
I’m a conservative. (Note I didn’t say “I’m a Republican.” In today’s world of RINOs – Republicans In Name Only – running the show, I can’t claim kinship…the word “Republican” has no real meaning any more.)
As a conservative, I’m against practically everything Obama stands for. You know – socialism, higher taxes, less national defense, more appeasement – that sort of thing. Frankly, Obama scared me silly from the begining, as I see him as the perfect candidate for this age of political parties held hostage by radical fringe groups and a mainstream media who has abandoned their traditional job as neutral observers and become a bunch of cheerleaders for a single candidate (Obama, if you’ve not been paying attentition to the blatant media bias). But last night, as I watched The Annointed One address a political rally in Germany (?!), I realized what REALLY scares me about this guy. [Read more…] about Zig Obama.
On Hypocricy.
Here’s the deal. Ever since the MoveOn.org crowd decided that the morals of a politician were nobody’s business but their own, we’ve lived in a world of double standards. Both those on the Left (Sen. Edwards, Jesse Jackson, Rep. Jefferson, etc.) and those on the right (Larry Craig, Ted Stevens, etc.) try their best to convince us that their private behavior has no bearing on their public fortunes.
That’s a load of B.S.
This is an issue of trust, and if someone is a hypocrite, you simply can’t – or at least shouldn’t – trust them. [Read more…] about On Hypocricy.