Consistency & Representation

Ok, I'm a fan of the Virgin brand. It's fun, versatile, adaptable and manages to stick to its brand concept...along those lines Virgin is planning to launch a range of 4-star quality hotels, for the high - end traveler, trust them to find an area in which there is scope for potential development..! 

Zippo Fragrance

Speaking of brand consistency, or in-consistency in this case Zippo is planning to extend into fragrances (say what?!). Zippo is known for its lighters, in fact there is an entire brand community based around the Zippo brand, so when they decided to expand into candle lighter's, it was not great but ... ok especially when compared to fragrances. Sure there are not gonna be any brand communities around the candle lighter (yes even if its themed), but fragrances are such a diversion from their core brand, which is about a certain culture & style. But maybe I'm being overly critical. If done correctly maybe the transfer of brand ideals would be successful, as it depends on the characteristics of their target market as well as how they identify with their brand, although if they are not careful, Zippo might just be the next Ed Hardy. 

ING's Charles

Brand representations, as I like to call it, is how people view your brand, which might not be the same thing as what companies intend to portray..so I'm not sure where ING was going with this....ING are a strong financial brand, and in Australia they decided to change their brand ambassador from Billy Connolly (the comedian), to a talking orangutan. Now if you're anything like me, my first question was why would you use a comedian to promote a financial product?? Sure, humor in advertisements is great, but who would take a comedian seriously especially when selling insurance! Sounds like a bad joke to me...so naturally my second question is why use an orangutan instead?..no matter how smart he may appear to be. If played correctly ING have the potential to develop him into brand mascot, which could be quite memorable. 

GAP - Old & New logo

Logos play a very important part of brand representation, as they are the one stop for brands to convey what they stand for to consumers. Recently GAP tried to redesign their logo, and i say try as the end result was quite dismal to say the least. The GAP logo is iconic and classic, it has stood the test of time and is easily recognizable, so why would you want to change it?? Especially since its not part of an overall re-branding campaign but an attempt to encourage customer involvement with the brand, by asking them to comment on the new brand and to go one step further by designing their own logo. Normally I would say increased engagement and participation by customers is brilliant, but the logo is one of the most important ways through which a company can represent itself so why leave it in the hands of people who may not understand what the company is all about? Although to be fair any one who would go through the trouble of designing a logo would have to be highly involved, but it also encourages others with not so favorable views to air what they think as well. 

Chevrolet in an aim to reposition their brand, or in other words to develop a strong position for themselves, are trying to find a niche for themselves in the market. In response, their campaign focuses on images from their old campaign, in an aim to remind people why they used to love Chevy so much...which is cute and nostalgic, but its a technique used more to reassure and support your existing customers rather than position yourself in the market. 

Branding is a tricky topic and its not easy getting it right. 

How green is the brand?

Lately there seems to be an increasing splurge of brands 'going green'..is this just another trend or are companies bowing to consumer pressure for environmentally sustainable alternatives..? or could it just be that these brands truly care for the environment??

The industry in which this is the latest (and long overdue topic) is the automotive one in which the buzz word is the 'Electric Car'. Currently the most hyped over is the Chevrolet 'Volt'and I say hyped with good reason...as I will explain shortly

The Volt does seem to be a nice little car, with plenty of options of hybrid or electric (depending on how green you're feeling that day), and while that's good as it can be adapted to any driving situation, it might be a little unfair to term it as an all electric car. But its the marketing of it that has me a bit ruffled. It seems Chevy are trying to legally apply the term 'range anxiety' for all their electric car rivals, now I'm not sure how smart this is, as it will adversely affect Volt as well, if its to be promoted as an 'all electric vehicle'...you can't get everything, but it does seem like they are winning all the awards...but then again you know what they say about expectations.. I for one can't wait to see the reactions of when the car finally releases.



Nissan's Cube

On the other had Kia's 'POP'; Nissan's 'Leaf"are competitors to the Volt. While Chevy aims to scare away customers from their competitors, Kia and Nissan on the other hand are trying to engage them. The POP concept while limited, seems edgy, cute and is able to build a personality for the car, in the way only Europeans can do. This may be able to engage young youthful consumers, while the Volt would appeal to older suburban families, especially when you consider the size, the Pop looks like an electric version of the Smart Car. Nissan's leaf on the other hand, is in tune with Nissan's overall branding concept of innovation, combined with its other offerings of the Cube, it depicts their dedication and commitment to re-inventing themselves to gain a better positioning.

It would have been a shame to see, Toyota's Prius (the original hybrid) not take advantage of all this hype on the electric car. They plan to expand its product offering, by making the Prius into a brand in itself and extend the range of cars available under it. This is a good move by them as, when competition increases, by extending the product offering you can appeal to a wider target audience and solidify your base against competition. This would work to Toyota's benefit, if in the case they decide to introduce an all electric vehicle, it would be easier to get customers to switch across , and this can be done within the Prius range itself.

Volvo has gone all out to show its commitment to the cause. What is considered to be a world's first, is a six month experiment is which a family will live in a climate smart green home in Sweeden and will drive a Vovlvo C30 Drive Electric Vehicle. This will not only generate media interest, its excellent combination of sponsorship and product placement which will allow Vovlo to test how the car will be used and maybe plan for the families of tomorrow...

Now to justify why I said hype is because, while the concept is great, and let's admit it we do need it, electric cars would need electricity which more often that not are generated by coal plants, so even if we were all to drive them, it would increase electric consumption, hence more coal burning...and how good is that really???

Also for the concept to be truly adopted there has to be major change in infrastructure by the government to support this, and this could take awhile. How many people would want to adopt it, when its use is quite limited? Maybe car manufacturers should lobby the government for more support?

Since I'm on a green run today, I thought it would be a good idea to examine other 'green' brands....

Ok firstly...fear advertising rarely if ever works....a classic example is the ad for 10:10 campaign i.e. if you don't cut back on your carbon emissions you will be blown up (yes that's right by a button) and this includes children as well...no one is safe! I'm not sure how this is supposed to connect and engage the audience. While the ad is quite disturbing to say the least, Fear makes people want to avoid the topic and run in the other direction, not to mention its not quite realistic...am I the only one who think this is not helping the cause?? Have a look at it here.

KFC has displayed its commitment through it re-usable (recyclable??) food packaging containers although an adoption of 100% would be preferable and the complete phase out of foam and paper would be excellent. 

Sun Chips (of Frito - Lay) have come out with bags which are 100% compostable, although a 'tad'noisy to say the least. While this was excellent, the noise proved to be its ultimate downfall, as it was too loud to be consumed publicly, so while the thought was great it is important to see if the product will be adopted before launch, and to understand how committed consumers are to the cause...but kudos for trying!! *two thumbs up* that they were willing to risk the ire of customers to make a green point. 

P&G's is another company that is hopping onto the green bandwagon by trying to make a positive difference. By encouraging people to recycle, educate themselves and other about the environment they can collect 'Green Stamps'which can be redeemed for merchandise via RecycleBank...if something's boring..why not make it fun? and learn something along the way? P&G's campaign not only shows its commitment but its helping to make a positive change by getting people to take an active part in changing how they think about the environment. 

Goldman Sachs tried to hop onto but fell off horribly from the green bandwagon....I'm not sure why they would try to appear green when they are facing a multitude of other branding crises, but by simply taking out an ad in the paper and saying you're green just does not cut it any more and neither does it generate any good feelings, people believe in positive outcomes and until this can be achieved, it is better to stay away from the green topic as it does more harm than good. 

So why is green marketing good and does it actually make a difference? While not many consumers would always think green while shopping, it does make a difference. If implemented correctly, with positive outcomes, the brand can engage with customers and create a shared meaning. Today branding is not about positioning but about relation, especially in the age of social media, its not enough just to tell people what you're about but to show them as well so as to create a platform through which to engage the customer and create a shared meaning.....