vivid shining brands

Watching Toyota wrestle with its major recall and manufacturing suspension due to gas pedal problems reminds me of the similar trouble that befell Audi in 1989, when its flagship 5000 had similar issues that threatened to destroy the brand entirely. From an article in the Chicago Sun Times at the time: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Thursday it has closed a three-year investigation of so-called "sudden  acceleration " in  Audi  5000 models, saying driver error was the major source of the  problem . "The major cause appears to have been drivers' unknowingly stepping on the accleratator instead of the brake pedal," NHTSA said. Reports of sudden accleration, in which a car inexplicably surges forward while still in park or at low speeds, were devastating to  Audi 's U.S. sales. They dropped from 74,000 in 1984 to 23,000 last year. Of course, Audi did not meet its demise as a result, but became a very quiet brand for many years a...

The volume, tenor, and substance of chatter about brands and products on social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn continues to grow in importance, according to an article in BrandWeek . The article notes that measuring "...volume, sentiment, and share of voice" has become as important as established metrics such as awareness, brand lift, and intent to purchase. Dynamic Logic used the capability to analyze an online campaign for a consumer products company that introduced a new product formula. Traditional brand metrics showed that awareness fell below the goal, even though traffic increased for the entire category. The social media buzz, however, showed that consumers who used the new formulation were pleased with it, indicating that marketing was the problem. Ali Rana, vp of emerging media at Dynamic Logic, said going beyond mere mentions to figure out sentiment is key for brands seeing if they're ads are working. "Our clients have long bee...

I was intrigued by some speculation that the Apple event tomorrow might turn out to be all about a breakthrough product...but that that product was not the much anticipated tablet. Well, now the New York Times has put its credibility on the line to say that indeed, a tablet is what it will be all about: “The iPhone was a harbinger,” said Trip Hawkins, a founder of Electronic Arts and now chief executive of Digital Chocolate, which makes games for cellphones. “When you have a device that is this convenient and fun for consumers to use, you can get a lot more people interested in paying for and engaging with the content. Big media companies should be all over this like a cheap suit.” Indeed, they already are.  The New York Times Company , for example, is developing a version of its newspaper for the tablet, according to a person briefed on the effort , although executives declined to say what sort of deal had been struck. [emphasis added] If the tablet delivers, this will br...

From AdAge today : Procter & Gamble Co. loves Facebook after all, and besides encouraging brands to develop a presence there, the world's biggest marketer has opened an office in Silicon Valley to help develop social-networking systems and digital-marketing capabilities with the website. A spokesperson for P&G gave some insight into the marketing giant's developing perspective on social media, saying that they viewed twitter as a "one-to-many" channel, much like TV, that can deliver short bursts of typical PR information, and Facebook as most appropriate for branding and advertising initiatives. As an aside, I find it interesting that P&G somehow feels that its social media efforts will be more effective if run out of an office in Silicon Valley rather than Ohio. Anyway, welcome to the neighborhood, P&G.

Today's Supreme Court ruling that political campaign donations by corporations and unions amount to free speech protected under the First Amendment will not only cause a sea change in the way politics gets done -- for the worst, most likely -- but it will also cause a massive shift in political advertising, again most likely for the worst. With corporate and union dollars now able to flow freely into politics through the media, we will likely begin to find political advertising becoming part of our everyday lives. If you live in California, you've probably been hearing Meg Whitman laying out her agenda for the state if she were governor, delivered through radio ads that are on such high-frequency rotation that it feels like we're being carpet-bombed by MEG-52s. Imagine what it will be like now that the shackles are off, and the inmates have not only escaped from the asylum, but have been given purses full of gold to spend on blaring their messages louder and longer tha...

From the Economist today : WHY can’t Britain hang on to ownership of iconic brands such as Jaguar, Land Rover, the Mini, Rowntree, the  Times  and now Cadbury, purveyor of chocolate to children of the British empire? On January 19th, after a four-month battle, Roger Carr, chairman of Cadbury, said his board was recommending to shareholders a £11.9 billion ($19.5 billion) takeover bid by Kraft Foods, of Northfield, Illinois. Somehow, despite the blustering of politicians and the protests of organised labour, great companies like this one have been slipping out of British control. The British "Brand" has been losing steam for a while now, but things have really accelerated in the past decade, with the loss, as noted above, of all the great British motoring brands with the exception Rolls Royce. So what does the British Brand stand for, anymore? Tea is perhaps one immortal British icon (Twinings, PG Tips), and maybe the Queen. Bass Ale, and within the U.K. fold also Guine...

In the Santa Rosa Press Democrat today, an article about marketing wine to Gen Y , or the Millenials: Wine marketers hoping to get their message across to mobile, fickle 20-somethings have their work cut out for them. While research shows these young people are embracing wine earlier and at a greater rate then either Baby Boomers or Gen Xers, these so-called Gen Yers or Millennials — broadly speaking those born between the late 1970s and late 1990s — are proving impervious to traditional marketing and advertising methods. “You need to be authentic with this generation,” 29-year-old journalist Nadira Hira told hundreds of wine executives gathered in Santa Rosa Tuesday. “This generation craves sincerity. We've been lied to … We don't believe you.” Hira was a keynote speaker at the second annual Direct To Consumer Symposium held at the Hyatt Vineyard Creek Hotel. She is a reporter for Fortune magazine who focuses on Generation Y and how its embrace of technology and social n...