It’s easy to criticise the failure of an idea after the event, but every now and again we are alerted to a situation where business is guilty of massive error. For instance, I cannot for the life of me understand why, some ten years ago the board of Coke gave a marketer the freedom to change the flavour of the world’s most popular drink. You’ll recall they attempted to change the flavour to ‘cherry’, and what a veritable cod’s head Coke made of that.
Explore our historical blog articles for nuggets of wisdom (and random musings) from our crew.
As any parent knows we all like to see our babies grow up and go on to flourish. The same goes for large companies and their offspring of product brands. But is it the strength of the product brand that influences me to brand loyalty and quality assurance, or of the brand of the parent company? Can the product brand stand alone or must it be part of a company brand?
One of the most dangerous practices in marketing is product diversification. Encouraged by CEO’s, accountants and shareholders, such strategies are implemented in the name of value adding, maximisation, potentialisation, use of by-product etc. It is revered as a panacea for easy growth and profitability.
Good typography has its own personality. It can help a brand stand out in the marketplace and is a very important part of good branding. Done well, the shape and form of the letters can say so much more than what they actually spell out.
Yesterday Apple announced, for the first time in 10 years, the availability of the Beatles’ music catalogue on their iTunes Store. This is great news for the fans of the band who do not already have digital versions of the music. So why has the announcement attracted criticism from the many fans of the Apple brand? This simple PR announcement has turned into quite an interesting marketing case-study of how hype can be damaging to a brand.
A recent blog written by Scott about corporate styling brought up an interesting conversation about brand consistency in the office this week. The Coca-Cola brand and the famous bottle shape that he mentions have remained largely unchanged since their inception over 100 years ago. Everyone wants the brand recognition of this soft drink giant but how many are prepared to keep their brand the same for anywhere near this long?
It’s fair to say that there are a myriad of terms used in our industry that are either generically misunderstood or used incorrectly by sections of the industry in a vain attempt to look professional. One such phrase is ‘Corporate Styling’. So what is it?