In Brands and Branding

Brand China is taking a beating. 'Welcome to the NFL'

Without doubt within the Middle Kingdom whispers are whirling. Chinese leaders have misjudged the force of images and symbols. It’s odd, and yet not, for a culture whose language is built on both.

Apple inspires. How’s YOUR brand?

Brand logic is back in fashion. Whether your market is buoyant or bombing a powerful brand attracts and holds audience with the right mix of content, message and interaction. Perhaps you should also think about inspiring

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Thank you, Hansine. It’s all clear now. - December 21, 2007
Physics teaches us that it takes three points to make a space. Furniture teaches us a chair needs three legs to keep from falling over. I’ve been thinking for weeks how to connect ‘engage or die’ and ‘circular entertainment.’ It became clear one day as I was listening to Hansine on the radio.

What Rupert Wants, Rupert Gets - December 7, 2007
According to The Wall Street Journal web site, Rupert Murdoch is moving in his closest allies to run Dow Jones and out goes CEO Richard Zannino who announced his resignation Thursday to be replaced by Les Hinton who runs New International in the UK (Times of London, Times, News of the World, Sun), and The Journal also says Publisher Gordon Crovitz goes (but no resignation announcement as this is written) to be replaced by Robert Thomson, editor of the Times of London.

How To Protect 'Made In China' – If Done Right It Could Be A Classic PR Lesson; If Done Wrong … - August 30, 2007
The stakes have never been higher – billions and billions of dollars of Chinese exports are sold around the world, usually on price more than anything else, but now quality enters the picture and China has a big problem. How it chooses to resolve that in the world’s eyes could become a classic PR lesson, but right now they seem divided on what to do, taking a stick against those who complain too much and a carrot promising reforms.

Another Nike Endorsement Disaster - August 28, 2007
This just doesn’t seem to be Nike’s year for sports endorsements. In the UK it has problems because soccer star Wayne Rooney got injured wearing Nike soccer boots and it has opened a debate whether the new light boots offer the necessary protection when someone steps on a foot, and now in the US it has the Michael Vicks debacle.

Trust in the Age of Diversity and Spin - August 27, 2007

Media organizations are shocked – shocked – when survey after survey reveals how little public trust exists in their brands…and how far that trust falls each year. Blame rests completely at the doors to the big media houses, not necessarily for their blunders – though these are not helpful – but rather for their failure to notice the paradigm shift in their power position. They’ve lost it. The people have it.

Nike Learns The Hard Way That Spending Millions On A Soccer Star Endorsement Can Be A Pain You-Know-Where When That Player Keeps Getting Foot Injuries Wearing Your Boot - August 16, 2007
Celebrity endorsements have always been somewhat dodgy, usually because of the morals clause or similar, but Nike has another bigger problem on its hands – a star British football player has been hurt for the third time wearing Nike’s star soccer shoes and all the denials of “It’s not our fault” still has doctors and players endorsing bringing back the old heavy football shoes. Not exactly the type of publicity Nike craves, the stars certainly wouldn’t be as agile, but would they be safer?

It’s Not Just The Financial Times, New York Times and CNBC That Rupert Murdoch Will Target, But With US Newspapers Drastically Reducing Their Business News Pages He’ll Also Try To Make The Wall Street Journal Brand The Choice For The Common Man - August 2, 2007
Contrary to all the nonsense the Bancrofts and the New York Times put out, Rupert Murdoch is not about to destroy the Dow Jones editorial reputation for which he has paid so much – indeed look for Murdoch’s global plan to make the Wall Street Journal THE US newspaper of record, not just for more of the world’s major business and political decision makers, but also for the common man. If he pulls all of that off then $5 billion will look like chicken feed.

So, Just How Successful Was That Original Prince CD Giveaway? - July 24, 2007
The figures are in from last week’s UK Mail on Sunday giveaway of Prince’s new CD, Planet Earth, and circulation on that day was up a whopping 600,000, a huge financial and promotional success for Prince, but also for the newspaper? All depends how advertisers will look at the circulation numbers and how many of those extra 600,000 sales stick.

The music biz is goin’ through them changes - July 19, 2007
There’s no genius in saying the music business today is far and away different from what it was a generation ago, a decade ago and even 20 minutes ago. What Napster brought, simplistically, the iPod wrought asunder. When a UK newspaper slips a CD inside and its one-day circulation explodes little doubt remains.

A Shrewd Marketing Ploy By Prince, The Artist Who Formerly Sold His CDs In Stores But Now Has Given Away His Latest With A UK Sunday Newspaper, Has Music Retailers Raging Purple - July 17, 2007
For Prince, the pop musician from Minneapolis, it was marketing bordering on the genius that has UK CD retailers furious but got the singer untold millions of $€£ in free promotion for his European concert tour. For The Mail on Sunday newspaper it was a marketing gem that probably cost around £500,000 ($1 million) and boosted its circulation by some 500,000 on the day. So, was it a win-win to give away Prince’s new Plant Earth CD and not sell it in the shops? For Prince, absolutely, For the Mail on Sunday the jury is still out.

Geneva’s Open-Air July 4 Celebrations, The Largest Outside The US, Are Cancelled This Year And That Tells The Story of How American Sponsorship Abroad, Indeed American Companies Abroad, Have Changed - June 13, 2007
Come rain or shine, usually rain, July 4 is celebrated in Geneva, Switzerland with more than 30,000 people turning out for the US Independence Day celebrations. Most times there is a US. high school marching band, the military sends over a band from Germany, there are American football games, cheerleaders, dancing, hot-air balloon rides, great food and fantastic fireworks. But not this year. The sponsors haven’t turned up.

Powerful Radio – “I’d love to turn you on” - June 8, 2007
It was worth hearing, again, that the Beatles album “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” passed a milestone. It was forty years ago this week that radio stations daringly played a song starting “It was twenty years ago today…”. Things change.

Avtoradio – the First Car Radio Station - June 1, 2007
To be big in a market a radio station needs that special lure – a hook, raison d’etre. To be big in a big market, it is essential. Russia’s AvtoRadio has it, a solid radio brand.

All Audi, All the Time – Brand TV on the Internet - May 16, 2007
Understanding post-modern TV means accepting ever shrinking niche markets. A decade ago viewers complained of “500 channels and nothing on TV.” Today there are a million channels and everything’s on TV. For brand marketing, it’s a wonderful world.

“I’ve Got To Be Me.” Disintermediation. Eh? - April 16, 2007
An editors’ life is full of worry. Safety and security is top of mind. With gigabytes of digitally inspired user-generated content filling the in-boxes media managers see less need for journalists and, in due course, less need for editors. When all content is equal, then opportunities for cost savings are wide and open.

Marketing Promotion: Media’s Blackhole - March 13, 2007
Tired of hearing about newspapers giving away DVDs and still losing circulation? Of course; their marketing people are about a generation behind the times. There are radio lessons.

“Ok, You Dirty Rats” – No, That’s Not James Cagney But PR Damage Control, Never More Needed Than When Rodents Invade Your Restaurant Or When Loaded Airplanes Sit For Hours On The Tarmac - March 6, 2007
What’s the worst thing that can happen to a restaurant chain? How about video shown around the world of big fat rats prancing all over one of your New York restaurants? Perhaps worse could be if a significant number of guests a couple of months before throughout the East Coast got e-coli poisoning from tainted lettuce and that had customers staying away in droves. Both happened to Taco Bell and yet the shares for its parent Yum Brands are still flying high on Wall Street.

A Colorado Newspaper Stole Stories From Its Competition For Years And Credited Them To The AP And Everyone Gets Real Indignant. What’s The Big Deal – As If When It Comes To Credits The Media Is Holier Than Thou - February 28, 2007
As editorial scams go, this one was right up there. The Greeley Tribune in Colorado for years had been stealing, uh, picking up, stories from other Colorado newspapers and crediting them to the Associated Press. Apparently it had been going on for several years before a competitor noticed and complained. The Tribune has apologized and said it won’t happen again.

No US Radio Person of the Year - January 16, 2007
Brought to our attention, quite late it seems, was that the turn of the new year did not produce an American radio person of the year. At least this was the judgment of a tip sheet for US radio broadcasters.

Jack’s a Joke - October 26, 2006
Yet another radio format sails across the Atlantic brimming with promise. It’s called Jack FM. The first stop will be Oxford in the UK in March. Liverpool and Manchester might be next if OFCOM is persuaded. Think of it as bird flu on a hard disc.

The Art of Public Relations Is In Full View As Michelin Tries to Right Its Wrong at Indianapolis - July 4, 2005
Bum Tires May End Up Costing the French Company $50 Million. But If It Does Things Right Its Brand Could End Up With a Perrier Outcome.

Interbrand Survey: Europe in Fashion - July 24, 2005

Happy 25th Birthday, CNN!! - May 30, 2005
A Personal Remembrance of The Lengths Salesman Ted Turner Had To Resort To Flog His Fledgling News Network To A Cable Industry That Did Not Want It

Newspapers Should Take a Leaf From Gillette's Promotional Book When It Comes to Getting the Young to Buy the Product - May 5, 2005
Today’s quiz: What does a body spray product and a daily newspaper have in common? Answer: Both want to attract teenagers. Then how is it the body spray does and the newspaper doesn’t? Answer: Because the body spray knows how to turn the kids on, whereas a mainstream newspaper is expert at turning them off.

Brandchannel’s Reader Choice Awards : We’re All Media Brands Now - February 3, 2005
If you thought all brands would be media brands in the future, brace yourself. We’re there!

Brand BBC and Brand Fragility - April 27, 2004
The volumes written and hours spoken about the BBC in the last two years could fill a 40 GB hard-drive. When Lord Hutton blew super-heated air into a pyre of smoldering quarrels, every critic and defender circled round, wailing and throwing either oil or sand. It wasn’t a pretty sight.

Global Kiss of Success - April 2003

Found in more than 25 countries, the Kiss radio brand is everywhere. Station names may vary – Kiss Radio, Kiss FM, Kiss Kiss, just Kiss – but the name is ubiquitous, perhaps the most frequently used radio brand name in the world.

The Six Radio Brands
Radio broadcasters have offered a personal medium for information and entertainment nearly a generation before branding became the most important term in marketing and advertising.