http://www.design4brand.com/blog Design 4 Brand Fri, 17 Jul 2009 16:13:56 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en 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 ... http://www.design4brand.com/blog/corporate-identity/taking-a-global-brand-local.php Two years ago I wrote extensively about how Starbucks had undercut its brand experience to rapidly grow the number of outlets. I warned that degrading the customer's sensual interaction with coffee beans and the espresso making process would open the door to low end competitors. Sure enough, McDonalds and Dunkin Donuts, ... http://www.design4brand.com/blog/brand-strategy/starbucks-smells-the-coffee.php Today we launch the new design4brand home page, with the specific goal of increasing contacts and client contracts. We've applied insights and tips from our friends at Marketing Experiments to increase clarity and reduce friction. The fancy term for this is "landing page optimization." What it means is that your website visitors ... http://www.design4brand.com/blog/internet-branding/beyond-seo-more-sales-from-your-web-site.php 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 ... http://www.design4brand.com/blog/corporate-identity/high-tech-firms-can-learn-social-media-from-candy-company.php 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 ... http://www.design4brand.com/blog/corporate-identity/microsoft-stores-can-they-compete-with-apple.php 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 ... http://www.design4brand.com/blog/corporate-identity/5-brand-strategy-lessons-from-obama-and-mccain.php Boost Mobile, a unit of Sprint best known for its teen positioning ("Where you at?" campaign) is changing its positioning to a value message, according to Todd Wasserman in BrandWeek. Facing strong pricing competition from the likes of Cricket and Tracfone, Boost is reducing its rates from 20 cents to ... http://www.design4brand.com/blog/brand-development/boost-mobile-shifts-brand-positioning-to-value-is-that-smart.php If you are a local government or publicly-funded organization, or a non-profit entity, then now is the time for you to create a compelling brand or refresh the one you already have. Brand is all about relationship and both the economic conditions and the high mistrust of government means that your ... http://www.design4brand.com/blog/uncategorized/brand-strategy-critical-for-local-government-service-providers.php 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 ... http://www.design4brand.com/blog/corporate-identity/microsoft-brand-campaign-misses-the-mark.php Some colleagues and I were discussing the branding of the Green Works cleaning products when I was in New York last week. As you may know, Green Works is the eco-friendly brand by Clorox. The question was whether Clorox was literally too harsh of a master brand for a group ... http://www.design4brand.com/blog/uncategorized/sometimes-a-parent-brand-needs-to-play-second-fiddle.php