Daddy, do fake brands come from fake branding agencies?

Discovered this firm the other day and couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw their website. Landor, meet your made-in-China doppelganger.

JundoBrand homepage

Landor homepage

Is there some formal connection between these companies that justifies such blatant copycatting? Maybe, in which case this post is meaningless, and I probably owe JundoBrand an apology. But so far I haven’t found any connection (and if there is one, shouldn’t they mention it somewhere?).

I don’t think I need to explain the problem(s) I see with a branding firm simply copying a competitors’ look and feel so completely. Not to mention the support this gives to the stereotype that China is better at manufacturing copies of things than creating anything original…I mean if a branding firm can’t even try to make itself an original, we’re in pretty dire straits. I’m surprised they’re not called “Lundor,” or better yet, “Slandor.”

I’ve already contacted Landor to see if I’ve missed something here. If so, I owe you an apology, Jundo. If not, anyone know the Chinese for “cease and desist”?

“By an inch”

Back in April, Rob Campbell (now head of planning at Wieden+Kennedy’s Shanghai office) posted an “assignment” on his blog. He and some other account planning types, including Russell Davies and Gareth Kay, have for awhile now been running what they call the “Account  [Planning] School on the Web,” or A[P]SOTW. They more or less take turns posting assignments on their respective blogs and accepting submissions from anyone who’s interested. Then they look at all the submissions, pick a “winner,” and provide useful feedback based on their significant experience in adland.

Having met Rob a few months back in Hong Kong, I check his blog sometimes and I decided I’d give this assignment a shot. The challenge was

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How digitally competent are prestige brands in China?

This is a pretty cool report issued by L2, in partnership with Labbrand (where I work), looking at the “Digital IQ” of prestige brands operating in China and ranking 100 of them. This version of the report identifies some strong positive correlations between Digital IQ measurements and the brand valuations published by BusinessWeek and Interbrand every year. Of course, correlations don’t imply causation, so the relationship between the numbers may bring more questions than answers.

Thanks to everyone at Labbrand and L2 that did the research and put this all together. Stay tuned for an article-form version of this report, which I’m currently helping to write. Should be available in a few weeks.

Recommendations for the new pork tagline

Heard about it on NPR and then On the Button: pork wants a shiny new tagline. Without further ado, some (mostly joke) ideas.

Pork:

• Brought to you by the makers of bacon
• Carnitas? More like carneato!
• Don’t hog the pork
• Don’t stick your snout up at it
• Favorite of the Chinese, your soon-to-be overlords
• Finally, something that doesn’t taste like chicken
• Got a beef with beef? Think chicken’s for chickens? Try pork.
• If you’re not eating pork, the terrorists have already won
• It’s actually red meat. Gotcha!
• It’s cracklin’!
• It’s in the can
• It’s got chops
• It’s time for America to bring home the bacon
• It’s what pork rinds are made of
• Jews can’t eat it. Muslims can’t eat it. Someone’s gotta!
• Makin’ bacon
• Now available in smoked flavor
• Oink it up!
• Pig out
• Probably an ingredient in SPAM
• Red, white and true
• So sweet. And yet so sour.
• Solving the mystery in “mystery meat”
• Swine and dine yourself (Wine and swine yourself?)
• Ten times more charmin’ than that Arnold on Green Acres (Pulp Fiction reference)
• That ain’t kosher
• That’ll do
• The red, white and good-to-chew meat
• This little piggy is delicious
• What’s one less pig?
• What’s the matter? Chicken?
• You can’t spell “spork” without pork

Got ideas?

[Thanks to Mom for originally pointing out this story.]

Idea? Check. Execution? Eh…

While visiting the US I stopped by Take a Bao, a new concept installed in the food court at Century City’s Westfield Mall. Despite feeling a bit funny about traveling all the way to LA for a Chinese-inspired lunch, I was drawn in by my fascination with fusion food, Take a Bao’s visual identity work, and the fact that I love char siu bao.

The idea for the place seems pretty straightforward. In their own words,

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“Branding” = ?

About a month ago, the following question was posted on Linkedin: “What is the difference between MARKETING and BRANDING?” Here are excerpts from four of the first five responses, admittedly taken out of context:

1. “branding [precedes] marketing…”
2. “Marketing is just one component of your brand.”
3. “…branding is one of the many important components of marketing.”
4. “marketing is about product information…but branding is about the product uniqueness…both are about positioning of the product”

My response came next. Here’s part of it:

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