Brand Love Hate

Starbucks on TV

John Moore has a great post with also-great comments regarding Starbucks' new TV advertising for the holidays. I am a huge Starbucks fan pretty much across the board (brand, experience, product, Web site), but to me, any advertising not focused on the Starbucks customer experience is off-brand. Starbucks has always been the prime example of how the user experience defines the brand relationship, not advertising. However, I think it's wrong to say that because SBUX built its brand on great experiences and word-of-mouth advertising (WOM), it should never run a TV advertising campaign. But the cartoon angle just seems fluffy for a brand as strong and experience-based as Starbucks. How about a 5-second spot using just the red cups?

Personal Branding is Not About Being Famous

Steve Rubel has a nice post and Ad Age link today on personal branding. Both made me realize that I disagree with some of the thinking and articles on personal branding because they so often focus on being famous, "A-list" or a Web celebrity. From my experience, you can develop a personal brand with clients, contacts and co-workers without ever being on Google or having "micro fame" - it's about how you carry and express yourself, and how you do business (reputation). That should certainly extend to anything you do online, but building a personal brand is not dependent on having a blog or a digital identity. The consistency in behavior comes first; the digital element is simply a mechanism for its expression to a wider audience.

A Clean Dell PC

It seems rare to read a positive blog post about someone's new Dell PC, but Ed Bott at ZDNet has one regarding Dell's decreased level of "crapware" on its computers. Last year, I purchased a Dell Dimension 3100 PC for work and experienced the nightmare that was Dell crapware, with AOL being the most pervasive application, along with assorted music and photo management software. That process degraded the new computer experience as well as my opinion of Dell, while just being generally frustrating.

But as Bott documents, Dell has changed its ways. With a new Dell Dimension E521 in the office to set up, I found no AOL and not much to uninstall or configure. The only third-party applications I had to worry about were Google Desktop and Norton Internet Security, and the latter could have been excluded in the configuration process during purchase. I agree with Bott that AVG is a good, free alternative.

For the new PC, setup was fast rather than frustrating. A good change and conversion by Dell. It's nice to see a company (other than Apple anyway) recognize that a computer belongs to its new owner, not to advertisers.

Rambling: Mr. Peanut 2.0, Domain Names and Flexible Brands

I have been seeing the updated Mr. Peanut on TV playing baseball and other assorted activities, then also ran across an article on iMedia Connection that talks about how the Planters icon got a facelift.

My favorite phrase in the article is "monocled legume," which got me thinking about what would have happened if Crispin Porter + Bogusky had the Planters account. I could see MonocledLegume.com as the campaign's focal point, much like Subservient Chicken and Pet Moustache for their Burger King efforts.

That sent me in another direction, thinking about brands that can support promoting those types of gimmick Web sites and domain names that are not their core sites. Clearly brands that do their business exclusively online, like Amazon, eBay or Indeed (where I work), don't want to dilute the brand or their traffic by promoting domain names other than their main sites. The companies with a physical presence and product, where the Web site supports the brand but does not represent it in total, seem to have more flexibility with their online identities. CP+B clients BK and VW are good examples.

Johnson Banks (via kottke) has a great post on brands that have applied that flexibility to their logos.

Our Workplace is Better Than Their Workplace

Posted on Google Docs, Meetup CEO Scott Heiferman put together a hilarious and effective recruitment pitch by comparing working at Google with working at Meetup.

(via Micro Persuasion)

A Couple Articles to Share

Two articles I've been meaning to share:

• What Are Search Engines Saying About Your Brand? - This is a great article, and I would add that setting up e-mail alerts will allow you to monitor your brand on the search engines, and will give you the opportunity to see new mentions and pages indexed right away so you can react quickly. Related article here.
• M&As Can Lead to Talent Loss - While this is not a surprise, it's great to see some data reinforcing what employer branding specialists have said about how mergers and acquisitions can impact a company's employer brand and potentially cause turmoil among employees.

Happy reading!

Brussels Airlines Logo Tweak

A friend from work sent me this link a while back - apparently a logo redesign at Brussels Airlines included 13 dots, which kind of freaked passengers out. A comment on the article adds that there is never an aisle 13 on a plane nor a gate 13 in an airport.

AT&T Brand Hate

I have been catching up on my InfoWorld reading and came upon an interesting Enterprise Insight column about AT&T and its customer service practices. David's phrases near the end - "gotcha approach" and "negative brand equity" say it all - no matter how much a company advertises or says it's new, its brand is defined by the experiences and relationships it fosters - or ruins - with customers.

Kidrobot in Fast Company

When I moved to New York, one of the coolest stores I discovered was Kidrobot in Soho. Since then, Kidrobot has been a favorite stop and included in my New York City tour when friends come to town. So I was excited to see Kidrobot profiled in the March issue of Fast Company. Also check out the 2007 Dunny Edition Rabbit from Volkswagen and Kidrobot with its glow-in-the-dark seats and green LEDs!

Employer Branding Defined

Dr. John Sullivan has a recent two-part article on ERE.net that defines and explains employer branding (he calls it employment branding). He does a nice job of differentiating employer branding from recruitment advertising and marketing, and lays out some good foundational elements for developing an employer brand.

• "Don't Be Fooled by Employment Branding: What it Is and What it Is Not!" (1,2)