Category Archives: branding

A Poorly Thought-Out Sponsorship?

The Globe and Mail newspaper reports today that at the launch of Waste Reduction Week, hundreds of schoolchildren were given souvenir bags containing bottled water from Nestlé.
To their great credit, the students reacted badly to the Nestlé promotion (Nestlé Waters Canada sponsors the Waste Reduction Week). They wrote to both the recycling council, the [...]

Branding Won’t Solve All Your Problems

Organizations need to remember that just because they shout something loudly, it doesn’t mean it’s true.

Starbucks: Good Move Or Poor Brand Management?

Update: Chris Clarke has written a response to this post pointing out that the store is being renovated at the moment and that Starbucks is providing the coffee gratis. While this post is about my reaction as a passerby to this scene and I think there are still lessons to learn, I say “bravo” to [...]

Why Apple Doesn’t Need Social Media

Apple has a pretty well-known disdain for social media.
Despite being the one company that, more than any other, raised awareness of podcasting and gave the music industry a kick up the ass with iTunes, Apple is dismissive of social software. The company discourages employee blogging. It sued some of its biggest fans. It shut [...]

The Importance Of Meeting Expectations

The Globe and Mail published an interesting article recently entitled Build your brand – but don’t forget to deliver an experience (needs subscription). The article relates how, by not fulfilling its promises to a customer, an auto dealer turned that them from "a walking brand builder for the manufacturer" into a dissatisfied customer.
The article [...]

Are Companies Missing The Point Of Social Media, Or Is Facebook Missing An Opportunity?

The web is full of story after story right now about companies cancelling their advertising on Facebook because of their potential association with dubious content. In the latest move, Reuters reports:
“The British government has halted its advertising on the social networking Web site Facebook over concerns about how its ads are displayed“
I listened with [...]

Democratic Debate… Or Branding Genius?

Mitch Joel wrote on his blog this week that the real winner of the recent democratic presidential debate wasn’t a candidate, but was YouTube.
I completely agree.
You’ve got to admit, Monday’s debate was marketing genius. Almost all of the reporting (and blogging) I’ve seen on this has been about the companies, not the candidates. To this [...]