Archive for category branding
united trilogy ends
Posted by Chris Houchens in branding, strategy on March 2, 2010
Last July, I wrote a post about United Breaks Guitars.
Dave Carroll had promised to write a trilogy of songs about the sub par customer experience he had with United Airlines. The first song was an internet sensation. Currently, it’s nearing over 8 million views on YouTube and it was heavily downloaded on iTunes. The second song wasn’t as much of a hit but still did well with about 900,000 views.
Carroll is releasing the third and final song tonight. I doubt if it will be as hot as the first one, but these three songs make a great point about how companies need to act in this digital age. In fact, the United Breaks Guitars case study was a last minute addition to my book Brand Zeitgeist as an example of how one unhappy customer can use the power of social media to move the image of the brand in the zeitgeist.
As Dave says…
I had hoped that creating these videos might make a big corporation rethink how they think of each and every customer but could never have imagined the potential hidden inside a music video and a few social media tools. Corporations of all kinds around the world now feel compelled, in part because of United Breaks Guitars, to build in a better model for customer care into their businesses. I’m proud to have been a part of it but the real credit goes to the millions of people around the world who took the time to laugh and tell a friend. The power behind the United Breaks Guitars Trilogy lies in the numbers of people from countries far and wide who are laughing with me.
Companies are worried about the effects of social media are having on their brands. Social media is not the danger. Businesses need to be concerned with customer service. People will tell their friends.
Update: The third song…
business book reviewers
Posted by Chris Houchens in branding on February 22, 2010
My publisher has provided me with a limited number of review copies of Brand Zeitgeist. I am looking for a few good online mavens and connectors who want to review the book.
If you have an active (couple of posts per month) small biz or marketing related blog, some dedicated Twitter followers, you’re a power Amazon reviewer, or you have some other online superpower — please email me and I’ll mail you a free copy of the book.
You’re under no obligation to provide a positive review — just an honest one. The reviews will be highlighted on this site and others during the online book tour from March 22 – 26.
The book is a quick read, 108 pages, and full of interesting case studies. The big idea behind Brand Zeitgiest is that it reinforces basic marketing and branding principles and illustrates how businesses can use fundamental aspects of human nature to develop a brand strategy. Find the pdf of the Brand Zeitgeist sell sheet here.
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By the way, the best way to keep up with events and other info about Brand Zeitgeist is to connect on the Brand Zeitgeist Facebook page (or if you’re not a FB person, all the Facebook posts feed to @BrandZeitgeist on Twitter.)
And mark your calendar for the Brand Zeitgeist Amazon.com Blitz on March 23rd. (Download a reminder for your calendar here.)
(Or if you can’t wait 
buy your copy of Brand Zeitgeist on Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble today!)
judging the book by the cover
Posted by Chris Houchens in branding on January 29, 2010
Brand Zeitgeist will be available in March.
Finally. I present to you the cover of Brand Zeitgeist.
My book, which will be available in March, reinforces basic marketing and branding principles and illustrates how organizations can use fundamental aspects of human nature to develop a brand strategy.
Click here to connect on the Brand Zeitgeist facebook page to stay informed about events and announcements about the book.
I’ll soon be looking for some folks who want to review advance copies of the book and/or host a stop on the blog book tour. Stay tuned.
christine is not jared
Posted by Chris Houchens in advertising, branding on January 6, 2010
Way back in the “early oughts”, Pepsico / Tricon (now known as Yum!) employed Jason “george costanza” Alexander to make the pitch that Kentucky FRIED Chicken was diet food. It was attacked as a stupid outrageous advertising campaign and was quietly shelved.
But just because a stupid idea didn’t work doesn’t mean the same company can’t try it again a few years later.
Here in 2010, Yum! is trying to get me to go on the Taco Bell Drive-Thru Diet. The most striking thing is how the disclaimers outweigh the copy on the ads. It’s like talking to Mr. Subliminal:
- Try the Taco Bell Drive-Thru Diet! (not a weight loss plan)
- I lost weight! (results are not typical)
- Fresco is a healthier choice! (not a low calorie food.)
Rule of thumb: If you have more in the disclaimer than in the ad, then maybe it’s not a great promotion idea.
Companies almost always have cricks in their necks from looking at what the competition is doing. I’m sure Yum! thought they had found their Subway Jared when they found the face of the Drive-Thru Diet, Christine, who said she lost 54 pounds by eating at Taco Bell.
But healthy is a part of the Subway brand. If a major part of your normal promotional campaigns involve trying to get people to eat another “Fourth Meal” or getting customers to add more nacho cheese, then you should stay away from the words “diet” and “healthy“.
A consistent long-term brand image that consumers can identify with (even if it’s unhealthy) is more important that a New Years resolution inspired revenue bump in Q1. Pick a strategy and go with it. You can’t have your nachos and eat them too.
getting priorities straight
Posted by Chris Houchens in branding, strategy on December 18, 2009
Paula Berg is leaving her position as Manager of Emerging Media at Southwest Airlines. And instead of burning bridges on the way out, she left a (ahem) LUV note about Southwest.
Like any good marketer — alot of it is promotional talk, but there are many items on the list that showcase how Southwest builds a brand through their employees.
The one that struck me the most was #33:
Employees first, Customers next, Shareholders last.
Companies get the order of these mixed up all the time. Actually, most businesses have priorities that are the complete reverse of this.
And then there are businesses that think the customer should be first. That’s not always true. The customer is NOT always right. But if you have treated your employees right today and shown them that they are valuable, then they are eager to make sure the customer is satisfied tomorrow.
And shareholders will be happy with their ROI because good employees cultivate good customers (see previous paragraph) who are loyal to the brand and continue to spend money with the company.
we’ve got trouble right here in Newspaper City
Posted by Chris Houchens in advertising, branding, media on December 2, 2009
For several months, the Newspaper Association of America has offered a series of free, downloadable print and digital ads that papers can run. The ads mostly talk to readers but are actually subversively directed at advertisers.
Newspapers are not in trouble. They just think they’re in trouble and these ads just reinforce that idea with them, their readers, and their advertisers. They do not inspire confidence.
Newspapers, like all media, are in the eyeball selling business. It doesn’t matter if those eyeballs are looking at column inches or pixels — just as long as those inches or pixels are filled with good content.
I’m offering this version of one of these ads that any newspaper can use for free.
(Click the ad for a larger version to read the copy.)
want to write a business book blurb?
Posted by Chris Houchens in branding, marketing on November 12, 2009
UPDATE: manuscript has been sent to all who requested it for blurbs. If you requested and didn’t get an email from me, contact me.
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For the past year, I’ve been writing a book.
(a blog post will eventually be written about the joys and struggles of doing so)
It’s due to the publisher the week of Thanksgiving. (thankfully)
This new business book will hit the streets (as well as bookstores and Amazon) in early 2010. It looks at how groups and the overall society relates to brands and how brands can relate back to their markets’ culture. The book is geared toward brand novices. But it can also can be enjoyed by branding experts as a fresh look at how brands relate to society as well as a refresher of branding basics.
I’m looking for experts with demonstrative credentials in branding, advertising, or other business marketing areas to offer blurbs about the upcoming book. These blurbs will be used in the forthcoming promotion of the book with the possibility of some being used on the book cover.
(uh, exactly what is a BLURB?)
If you’d like to write a short blurb about the book, please contact me via email or twitter by this weekend.
A pdf of the manuscript will be sent over the weekend only to those respondents that have offered sufficient credentials in their initial request. (super bonus points for previously published business authors!)
You’ll have a week (until 11/20) to read the manuscript (it’s a quick read) and send the blurb back to me along with how you’d like to be credited. If after reading the manuscript you feel that you cannot offer a positive recommendation, you are under no obligation to do so.
Bonus for people who read to the end of blog posts: Currently, the book will be published without a foreword. If after reading the book, you feel you can offer a 500 – 2000 word foreword. I’d be delighted in talking to you about how we can do that.
And if you’re stressed that you can’t help me right now, don’t despair. After the first of the year, there will be a blog book tour, a sales blitz, and the opportunity to do reviews.
drinking new coke at disney
Posted by Chris Houchens in branding on November 5, 2009
The great thing about established brands is that they all have a deep core element that they can always refer back to. This core attribute defines the brand in the public’s mind.
- McDonalds has the arches and the clown.
- Playboy has Heff.
- And Mickey Mouse is the square one that Disney can always go back to
But after building 81 years of brand equity with Mickey, Disney is rebranding the mouse. They hope to “re-imagineer” Mickey to show his darker side. They want him to be cantakerous and cunning.
What a horrendously bad idea.
For years, marketers have had the example of the spectacular New Coke disaster to use as a warning for brands not to mess with core brand attributes. We’re about to get another example.
Of course, Disney does have a problem. They’ve failed to keep Mickey relevant to a younger generation. But this is not the answer.
The first step of trying to make Mickey more edgy is an appearance in a new video game:
Epic Mickey, designed for Nintendo’s Wii console, is set in a “cartoon wasteland” where Disney’s forgotten and retired creations live….The game also features a disemboweled, robotic Donald Duck and a “twisted, broken, dangerous” version of Disneyland’s “It’s a Small World.”
A disemboweled, robotic Donald Duck.
Walt is spinning in his cryogenic frozen grave.
rebranding the hut
Posted by Chris Houchens in branding, marketing, strategy on June 19, 2009
In one of the worst “re-branding” moves that I’ve ever seen, Pizza Hut is dropping pizza from its name and will now be known in some locations as just ‘The Hut‘.
What a great move. Trash over 50 years of brand equity for something that makes me think of a dark dank dwelling in the Third World. Of course, it’s been coming for awhile. They’ve brand-extended themselves to oblivion instead of doing the core product (pizza!) well.
What makes it even more sad/funny is the delusion they’ve sold themselves and are now sending out in media relations…
…characterized the name change as an attempt to transform its stores into hip hangouts…..The new “hut” stores will be more than a place to simply pick up some take-out…they will include televisions that broadcast CBS programs such as “Wheel of Fortune” and “Entertainment Tonight.”
Because we all know the kids think that nothing can be more “hip” than Wheel of Fortune. Maybe they could reach back into the CBS archives and air old episodes of ‘Murder She Wrote’ to be even more hip.
They just may have a bad case of self-loathing with their name. They’ve tried to “rebrand” the Pizza Hut name on several previous occasions like “Pizza Hut Pizza & Pasta Cafe”, “Pizza Hut Italian Bistro”, “Pizza Hut WingStreet”, and the half-joking April Fools’ prank, “Pasta Hut”. A smart guy once said “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is the definition of insanity”
Hey Yum!, listen up. The problem is not the Pizza Hut name. The problem is the customer experience. Even though your spokesperson, Christopher Fuller, gave a cheesy non-answer to real issues, the facts are clear in the public’s mind: Your employees don’t care. Your stores are dirty. Your service is horrible. (In one of my local Pizza Huts, there’s a sign above the lunch buffet that says not to even bother requesting any type of pizza because they aren’t going to do it.) And as I previously said in this post, you have forgotten your core product.
In kneejerk fashion, other chains may follow the move:
- Dominos will become “Backgammon”
- Papa Johns will become “Papa Smurfs”
- McDonalds will become “Mick”
- Taco Bell will become “The Bell”
- KFC will become “Sammy Nellas”
- Burger King will become “CP+B”
bada bing
Posted by Chris Houchens in branding, online on June 3, 2009
Lots of people are hating Bing just because it’s from MSFT. I think you can find lots of other reasons to hate it including that Bing can’t seem to find things that are on the Internet — which is the first thing I look for in a search engine.
I really hate this line from their introductory page:
We sincerely hope that the next time you need to make an important decision, you’ll Bing and decide.
Oh snap, Google! See how they’ve verbed themselves!? What a fabulous marketing tactic for any company:
–Don’t treet my email address.
–Make me a canon of this document.
–Just stick a Curad on it.
I also dislike their look. They apparently decided to be everything that Google is not. Google’s page is clean with lots of white space. Bing looks cluttered with a background that is remnicent of a “ahem” PC desktop background.
But the big basic problem is that they’ve just slapped a new look on a pre-existing bad product. Live Search wasn’t good. “Rebranding” by slapping a new name on something is never the answer.
And what about that name? Among many other meanings, Bing means “disease” in Chinese. Nice. It’s callled research, boys. You could have googled it and found out.
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