The Seattle Times reports that Starbucks is dropping its global corporate name from its store in the Capitol Hill neighborhood in Seattle. The store was one supposed to close last year under the consolidation plan. Instead, it is being reborn as an eco-frendly outlet with a rustic, neighborhood feel. How far is the local branding effort going to go? Pretty much all the way. You won’t see the Starbucks’ name or logo, and the coffee beans, teas, and other products will be branded with the 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea name. Those names are meant to give the stores “a community personality,” said Tim Pfeiffer, senior vice president of Starbucks global design.

Most branding discussions I have with clients have to do with taking a local brand global or maintaining a global brand identity. Here’s Starbucks taking an opposite course. Smart move? You bet! Howard Schultz is taking advantage of the consumer trend of buying local, a particularly strong sentiment here in the Northwest. Starbucks has been losing foot traffic in recent years. The new coffee house will attempt to attract local residents not only with the re-branding, but also by serving beer and wine, hosting musical performances and poetry readings - all items that should appeal to Capitol Hill residents. But can the new store distinguish itself and hold its own against the truly small, locally owned and operated coffee house, like Victrola Coffee Roasters also located on 15th Avenue? Its owner, Dan Ollis doesn’t think so. “Starbucks is Starbucks and we are different from them,” he was quoted in the newspaper.
I think I’ll have to drive up there next month and check it out for myself.

Popularity: 40% [?]

Mainstream high-tech firms have been dipping their toes into the shallow waters of web social media for the past five years. But finding a shining example of social media among the fortune 100 firms is a futile search. Take HP, for example. Their websites are designed to present, and sell, to you their prdoucts and services. All well and good, especially as they have made selection easier by customer segment. But conversations with, and among, customers is not visible. You have to go within the Customer Support area to find any kind of forums. And while kudos to the Customer Assurance groups for even having these forums, the content is naturally geared toward solving product issues. And the forum page is filled with legal cautions and warnings HP wants you to know before you dare join a forum (talk about throwing some roadblocks!). Apparently participants can be awarded points, but who knows what those points will get you?
Compare this with the Skittles website, which takes you directly to the conversations from and among customers. Some are very positive, but there are the negative ones as well. How about “I don’t like skittles,” or even “Skittles are (swear word). M&M’s rule.”? This is akin to having customers complain about the price of ink on the HP Home page. Don’t see that happening? Neither do I. But they and IBM and Nokia and others should lean more in the direction of Skittles. What does this say about Skittles? That they have FULL FAITH in thier Brand!
“Some will question whether it’s wise to give up control on the Web–whether this is a good use of social media,” says Charlene Lin, author of business best-seller Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies, consultant, speaker and blogger (altimeter.com). “But they are controlling content in the most important sense, which is that they’re getting people to talk about and engage with the brand. It’s hard to get people to engage with a candy, but this is generating incredible buzz and PR. This is a big brand pushing the envelope toward what a brand will be in the future.”
High-tech marketeers - go take a look at Skittles, and then chew on it.

Popularity: 51% [?]

Faced with the need for additional revenue streams, Microsoft corporation is planning to open a “small number” of retail stores, ostensibly to gather better insights into what customers truly want (apparently they are not hearing enough from Vista users…). To spearhead this effort, Microsoft has hired David Porter as VP of retail stores. Mr. Porter has recently served as the distribution manager for DreamWorks Animation SKG, but has spent a much larger part of his career as an executive at WalMart. Does this choice alone predict how successfully Microsoft will compete? Eight years after the opening of the Apple Store, will Microsoft’s efforts follow in the tradition of Vista or will they truly innovate the retail experience?

The folks up the road in Redmond have been testing out retail designs in their 20,00 square foot wharehouse. But the hiring of a former WalMart Exec suggests that the emphasis will be more on destination shopping strategies and efficient supply chain versus an inviting atmosphere and superior staff that one finds at the Apple stores. I imagine if an MS Store opens in Pioneer Square here in Portland, I’ll be standing in line with others, bringing in my laptop with the Vista OS and pleading with the MS sales staff to fix this @*&## thing! I doubt I’ll get much help.

And this raises a fundamental issue for Microsoft as well. The Apple Stores are designed to work wonderfully well in promoting the Apple products. People come in to try out the latest iPhone, iPod, etc. Microsoft will need people to come in and try out the newest version of their software, but will that draw them in. People love to play with new gadgets, not new operating systems.

 I wish them luck, but they will have to double down on the retail experience or face the equivalent of the Vista failure.

Popularity: 58% [?]

Now that the election is over and we can all calm down a bit, it’s time to reflect on the learnings on brand strategy from the Obama and McCain campaigns. No matter which candidate you favored, there are distinct differences in how Brand McCain was managed versus Brand Obama. Here are 5 important lessons.
Lesson 1: Know the Trends that Impact Your Customers and Your Brand
If there was one advantage that Brand Obama had going into the early primaries, it was embracing the trend of change. He was the first candidate to stake his positioning around it. Hillary Clinton jumped on the change trend, but much later than Obama. And by adding on “experience” to the change message, she left herself hanging in-between these two brand attributes.
How well do you know the social, business, marketing and design trends that are impacting your brand? Are you using these trends to help shape your brand strategy?
Lesson 2: Address the Emotional and Social Needs of Your Customers
Remember the early days of the campaign when most people insisted that Obama was merely a great orator but lacked substance in his talk? What he understood was that the Democratic candidate needed to first resonate with the customer base (e.g. all voters in the U.S.). Making the rational arguments of the political platform without keying into the emotional needs of the constituents has been detrimental to the Democratic brand since the time of Ronald Reagan. The economic meltdown obviously amplified this desire to turn a new page. Obama made sure that his brand first met the emotional and social needs of his customers, and only then did he specify how the functional elements of his plans would work. Sarah Palin obviously understood and strongly met the emotional and social needs of her customer base as well. The difference? Obama viewed his market as the entire electorate, thus extending his brand into many more sub-segments.
Can you map the emotional and social needs of your customers? Do you have specific plans to address these?
Lesson 3: Create a Clear Positioning and Stick to It
This was perhaps the most important element of the success of Brand Obama and the greatest failing of the McCain brand. Once Obama staked his positioning around change, he stuck to it. When his competitors attacked him on his lack of experience, his associations, etc., he and his team kept to their positioning and stayed on message. Brand McCain, in contrast, did not have a clear position. Was it experience and change? Was it old, but not too old? Was it conservative, but centrist (except for the Palin sub-brand)? The position seemed to shift week to week, as opportunities arose.
Do you have a clear and differentiated brand position? When your competitors attack you, do you react by changing your position, or do you hold firm to the value proposition you have taken to the market? 
Lesson 4: Use Social Networking to Create Brand Evangelists
It’s been well-documented that Brand Obama embraced the learnings from the 2004 Howard Dean campaign and heavily leveraged the social networking power of the Web. From acquiring donations to getting supporters to volunteer at a moment’s notice, to deflecting any unwarranted attack, Brand Obama fully understood how to use the Internet to take action. His site was well designed and easy to use. He used the power of social networking strategically. And it reinforced the emotional connection with his volunteers and kept them engaged as active evangelists.
Is social networking a core part of your promotional strategy or a mere afterthought? 
Lesson 5: Have a Design Strategy that Supports Your Brand Identity
Remember John McCain standing in front of the green screen and looking old and tired as he addressed his audience? Clearly someone was not paying attention as to what this would communicate about the McCain brand persona. What was the persona of the McCain Brand? The campaign theme was “Maverick”, but the persona seemed to be “loyal and experienced.” At the end of the day, the brand identity was confused and confusing. How many times did you hear, “Is this the John McCain of 2000 or the John McCain of 2008?” Then there was the $150K shopping debacle of Sarah Palin. It’s not that I begrudge her the clothes, and I certainly think it is the right of the RNC to spend their campaign dollars as they see fit. But it just was so contradictory to the brand persona that Sarah Palin and Brand McCain was trying to build. Once again, Brand Obama was disciplined in its identity and conveyed a persona of “youthful, forward-looking and presidential.”
Do you have a clear line of sight of when and where your customers meet your brand? Does every point reflect your brand identity?

At the end of the day, you need to manage your brand strategically, review and refesh it as needed, but don’t change your tactics every quarter, based on tactical goals.

Popularity: 71% [?]

In the words of Jerry Seinfeld, “What’s up with Microsoft’s corporate brand identity?” The new ad campaign with Misters Seinfeld and Gates is remarkably unfunny, unconvincing, and just boring. And I’m a great Seinfeld fan. But who wants to see Bill Gates nerdily shake his suburban rear end? I don’t mind the absurdity of future PCs being made out of chocolate, but how does that help Microsoft position themselves against Apple? Answer: it doesn’t.
A worse problem is in the ads where a John Hodgman look-alike pathetically whines that he is a PC and he has been mocked. Alas! Oh, shame! Then the ad cuts to real world/global PC users who work outdoors, as artists, etc, all to show us that there are “cool” people who use PCs powered by Microsoft. The effect is to reinforce in the viewer’s mind just how un-cool the PC is, compared to the MAC. The old adage of not wanting your customers to think about the competition applies here.

Microsoft doe shave the ability to differentiate their brand. The idea around working without walls is intriguing. it would help if we actually saw these people with a PC doing something creatively or making a breakthrough discovery. Microsoft should have started and stayed with the “working without walls” theme, and drop the pathetic attempt at responding to the popular Apple ads. 

Popularity: 65% [?]

When the new WalMart logo appeared a few weeks ago, many of us speculated as to its intended meaning. What was that starburst all about? My belief is that it has to do with repositioning the WalMart brand against competitors such as Target, who allow WalMart to hold the low-end price leader position. But it’s a guess, because WalMart’s brand management has been so confusing.

The only thing stranger than the new corporate identity is the rollout itslef. I went visiting WalMart stores and saw no sign of the new logo. The old WalMart logo, with the star, was on the front signs, the shopping bags, the name tages, everywhere I looked - except on the bottom of the WalMart TV news screen. There the new starburst logo sat by itself. The familiar yellow smiley faces still filled the store, touting WalMart as the low-price leader. But the new logo was noticeably absent.

The rollout of the logo shows a brand identity program that is completely backwards. Let’s think about it. About 8 months ago, WalMart announced it would be selling organic produce. Aha! Something to entice the more upscale customer. But could they believe WalMart as a trusted provider of organic products? Hmm.

Then we got the new tagline on the radio and TV ads: “Save money. Live better.” So, now it’s not just about looking for the lowest price, but to live a richer life because I can spend my saved money on things that matter (hopefully on the organic produce). Months after that comes the new starburst logo, with no explanation. And dripped out ever so slowly. Have you seen the ads that have the old bags and the new logo? I can hear the discussion in the WalMart conference room. “Why waste money re-doing old footage when we can just edit the old ads and the new logo together?”

Yes, implementing a new logo costs money. If anyone understands supply chain costs, it’s WalMart.  But that is no excuse for getting the order of the brand identity all wrong. First we should have seen the new logo with a big messaging splash about how you can not only save money, but live the better life. Then, with that positioning firmly planted in our minds, should have come the proof points, such as the availability of organic produce.

This so-called campaign is a muddled mess. Yes, they saved some implementation costs. But they lost the brand message. Maybe their new tag line should be “Save money. Muddle brand.”

Popularity: 58% [?]

An international brand always has to determine how to capture the hearts and minds of customers in local markets while maintaining its corporate identity. I think the folks at Coca-Cola have done a marvelous job of doing just that with their sponsorship of the Olympic Games in Beijing. They’ve always done well in China, and it helps that Coca-Cola translates into Mandarin as “Delicious Happiness.”

To build on their success, they’ve taken the Olympics platform, a symbol of human beings from around the world coming together, and created their “Design the World a Coke” campaign. This social media program invites consumers to redesign the iconic coke bottle.

Think about that - using the core design element of your global brand and encouraging individuals to play around with it - creating whole art galleries if they want to - and posting them on the web. The result is that it strengthens the global brand by playing on the theme of unity through diversity and individual creativity. All of this plays delightfully into “Delicious Happiness,” especially for the folks at Coca-Cola.

Popularity: 55% [?]

Every brand needs to do four jobs for its customers: functional (what the products do); emotional (how I feel when I use the products); economic (do I feel this is a good use of my dollars); and social (help me feel connected and socially responsible). The social value of brands has been gaining quite a bit of momentum since the early 2000’s. Think of all the commercials you see where companies tout how they are good corporate citizens. They are trying to let you know that if you buy their products, you can feel good about your purchase.

Cynical? In some cases, yes. But if brands can truly discover not only what creates and emotional connection with their customers, but demonstrate a hgher social value (what Dave Norton calls “brand truth”), then they can pull away from their competitors. Consider the Body Shop.

Brand and product positioning based on higher social and emotional value can command a premium price in the market. Think ethos water, organic clothing for children, working vacations to Costa Rica vs. Cancun.

The social job is not always the most important and cannot be done at the sacrifice of brand trust. But it can add to your brand’s value.

Popularity: 54% [?]

Five Rules for Naming Your Brand

If you are just creating or re-inventing your company identity, you’re probably thinking about your brand, company or product name. It can be a daunting decision, and everyone, including your cat, will have an opinion. Here are five rules to help you be successful.

1. Choose a name that conveys a sense of benefit and value to your customers. My colleague Michael Thompson named his company Market Accelerators. Wow! Lots of energy and you know they’re really going to help you succeed quickly! It’s always tempting, and satisfying to the ego, to name your company after yourself, e.g. The Dan Berne Group. The problem is that no one, besides you, knows what it means. Is Tom Jones and Associatesa civil engineering firm or a medical practice? If you do have your name as the primary title of the business, then try to use a tag line to convey what it is you offer. In the Portland area, Lili Pang and Chris Hansen teamed up to form PANGHANSEN. But just below their combined name, they’ve added “creative group.” So there you get the sense that they are a design firm.

2. Convey a sense of stability. Customers and retailers like to know that they are dealing with someone who’s not totally new. Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard famously named their first product, an audio oscillator built in their Palo Alto garage, the Model 200A (versus the 100). Even though it was the very first one, they wanted to create the impression that the product, and their brand new company, had been around for awhile. It worked! Walt Disney purchased the product and the birth of Silicon Valley began.

3. Try to avoid acronyms. Yes, historically high-tech comapnies have used them, but in today’s market, how will an acronym help you stand out? Use complete nouns and verbs to give a better sense of the value and to pack an emotional punch. Again, try to communicate your benefit and value, and what makes you different from the competition.

4. Put energy and emotion into your name and logo. Your customers and sellers want to know how you are going to benefitt them. What is the emotional message you want to convey to your customers and retailers? What do you stand for?  Are you professional and serious or fun and irreverent? The shape, colors, size and placement of characters all convey a visual statement. Think Nike swoosh.

5. Protect your name legally. You have, of course, researched your name and are sure that it is not infringing on other names and trademarks. Talk with an experienced trademark and IP attorney. In the age of the internet, this is more important than ever.

Popularity: 44% [?]

I was recently advising a colleague on writing a brochure. The goal was to attract potential clients to purchase their products and consulting services. The first drafts she showed me proudly proclaimed the mission statement of their organization, which, if it were an academic or non-profit institution, may have made sense. But it did nothing to communicate the company’s positioning, their persona, nor did it answer the “what’s in it for me?” for the potential client.

The desire to communicate mission statements seems very strong in corporations. Even Disney has their mission statement front and center on their corporate page. But do you know what? NOBODY CARES ABOUT YOUR MISSION STATEMENT! OK, maybe the upper levels in your organization care. It’s doubtful that other departments in your company care. And even if they do, can’t we all just fill in the mission statement blanks…”to be the premier provider of X in the entire world!”

Instead of a mission statement, make sure your marketing collateral communicates the value proposition you have for your client, exactly what you are offering, and why they should choose you over other alternatives. A great way to do this is to pose a question that relates to a problem they need to solve or an opportunity they could easily benefit from.

Use language, colors and images that project your brand persona. Professional and straightforward or creative and irreverent? Let your brand personality come through, even as you provide the compelling hook and clear call to action..

Popularity: 42% [?]