vivid shining brands

From the NY Times today, by way of the Wheels Blog's coverage of the Detroit Auto Show: By far the most lavish display is from the Korean company CT&T, which has an ambitious expansion plan for the United States. According to  its Web site , “We CT&T are manufacturing environment-friendly Electric Vehicles for your dreams come true with the talented and the stable know-hows.” [emphasis added] Here is another situation where somebody at C&T really should have asked a few key questions of somebody in the United States, e.g. "Does what we wrote on our home page make any sense whatsoever?" and "Would police officers in the U.S. ever be caught dead riding in a vehicle that looks like a cheap toy?" In both cases, of course, the answer would be NO. In the first instance, as anyone who has used Google Translator knows, translation is not the same as Localization or Globalization, where a literal translation is scrutinized for relevance to the cultur...

In relation to its small size, Switzerland packs a hefty brand punch. 5% of the world's top brands in 2009 were Swiss, according to a report by Interbrand . Among Swiss brands, at least 40 are practically household names . What makes the Swiss affinity for branding so strong? Come see me give a presentation on that very subject to the Swiss American Chamber of Commerce 5:30 PM on January 14th, at City National Bank. 150 California Street, San Francisco, CA 94111 (Enter main door no later than 6 pm; sign in with security, and ride elevator to 12th floor. RSVP required to be on the check-in list.) TO REGISTER go directly to http://sacc.fastmetrics.com/events/index.php ($15.00 for Members; $20.00 for Non-Members)

From an interview in AdAge yesterday: Ad Age:  Virgin America doesn't use much TV or print at all, so what are your thoughts on the future of the more traditional advertising mediums? Mr. Branson:  Conventional television obviously is dying as an advertising medium and will continue a slow death, whereas obviously the web and other forms of new media will continue to grow. It will clearly be sharing its grave with radio, newspapers, magazines, billboards, posters, and the like, right? While I admire Mr. Branson immensely, I think making such broad and unsupportable statements is a bit beneath his integrity. He also announces here that he will be moving Virgin into banking in the coming year. The brand's future brand essence is "People's Champion, Slayer of Giants" so I think that fits in quite nicely with the Virgin ethos, don't you?

From the "This has to be a hoax" department: McDonald's is going green — swapping its traditional red backdrop for a deep hunter green — to promote a more eco-friendly image in Europe. About 100 German McDonald's restaurants will make the change by the end of 2009, the company said in a statement Monday. Some franchises in Great Britain and France have already started using the new color scheme behind their Golden Arches. "This is not only a German initiative but a Europewide initiative," Martin Nowicki, McDonald's Germany spokesman, told The Associated Press. Dropping more than a half-century's worth of branding in favor of a consumer trend towards "greener" products? Has McDonald's gone mad? ...or is it branding genius? Since so many of their competitors (Wendy's, BK, In-n-Out) have the classic red/yellow color combo, could they be leveraging part of their massive brand equity to disrupt the fast-food market landscape? ...

From the Economist : In professional networking, argues Dan Serfaty, Viadeo’s founder, having local depth is better than signing up a narrow slice of the highest-powered people around the world. Viadeo is a business social networking site that is popular in France. In Germany, Xing is the thing. Go over to China, and you'd better be on Tianji. Will there ever be a gold-standard, global business social marketing site, or will local always be the most important and valuable aspect?