Create a “category of one”

I heard they have the world’s number one kumquat & jalapeño juice, too.

Branding Concepts in Photos from Southeast Asia

[A version of this post was first published on FutureBrand's FBlog.]

FutureBrand Singapore is a regional hub, meaning we service clients not only domestically but also in Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. That means a fair bit of travel for most of us, although sadly it’s all too often the kind of travel that involves less time site-seeing, meeting people and getting to know local cultures and more time on planes and in airports. (And in cities like Jakarta, Manila and Bangkok, a lot of time on the ground is spent in traffic.) But even with all the running around, there’s still plenty to see, do and photograph. Here are ten photos from around Southeast Asia—mostly shot from my phone, while on the go—all demonstrating some aspect of brand strategy. Check out the slideshow first and then read more about each photo/idea below.

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Great name: Belly Flops

As if it wasn’t brilliant enough to package and sell assembly-line mishaps, the American jelly bean makers Jelly Belly have gone the extra step of coming up with a great name for the product. “Belly Flops” is at once descriptive, funny, evocative of the brand’s personality (fun and silly), and a bit daring (because a belly flop is a painful thing). And if Belly Flops really are Jelly Belly’s mistakes, it’s a win-win for company and consumer—incremental revenues for them, and for us, a fun, novel (presumably discounted) way to enjoy a favorite candy.

Can you think of any other companies that have managed to package and sell their mistakes?

[Thanks to Lauren for reminding me about this great name, and for the pic!]

Pizza Hut needs a time machine

Dear Pizza Hut,

The money you spent on this ad (concept, production, media) might have been better spent trying to invent a time machine to go back in time and name your restaurant something besides “Pizza Hut.” (Note: that won’t work for your China operations, since time travel has been outlawed there.) And no, dropping “Pizza” from the name now, after 50+ years, will not have the same effect. Alternatively, you could’ve spent the money trying to improve your pizza, like Domino’s did. Or you could’ve used it to run ads that focus on a strength we already associate with your brand, like pizza for families (not frat houses), or the in-restaurant dining experience (brick walls, arcade-game tables, and pitchers of icy root beer).

Because all this ad does is a) remind me that your pizza was never really that great, b) show that you’re not focused on improving the pizza, and c) make me think you probably set a similarly low bar for all this other food.

Hut’s Chicken Steak? Clearly, the naming troubles run deep.

Sincerely,

Rob

Five silly reasons to hate Starbucks’ new logo

1. It’s different.
You’d think this kind of knee-jerk reaction would be limited to amateurs, but even Laura Ries writes, “when it comes to branding, the best kind of change is usually no change at all.” Really? Companies change, market conditions change, competition changes, consumers and their preferences change. The world changes. But logos shouldn’t?

2. They got rid of “Starbucks.”
CoreBrand contends that “dropping the Starbucks name from their logo will only serve to confuse consumers who are not as familiar with the company” (posted on Branding Strategy Insider). Seriously? Starbucks has 16,000 stores. Nike, Apple, McDonald’s and others have dropped their names, and seem to be ok.

Besides, this will aid the company’s global expansion efforts by focusing on a universal design rather than a language-specific name. “Starbucks,” or a localized name like “星巴克,” can still be printed nearby, like on the opposite side of the cup.

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Reactions to the new logo on Starbucks.com

I spent some time yesterday reading through comments on Starbucks’ blog post announcing the new logo. It seems like the feedback there is mostly negative, but many are clearly knee-jerk reactions from people whose thought process seems to be “it’s different, so I hate it!” Nonetheless, I thought it’d be interesting to see what words were showing up most in those 100+ posts, partly as an alternative way of quickly gauging group’s sentiment. Here’s the result (courtesy of Wordle):

Of course, “Starbucks” and “logo” were the clear winners, so I removed those, along with common English words and names of posters. Note that “like” shows up a lot, but it’s often in phrases such as “looks like…” or “don’t like.” Some of the more interesting words that show up are “sorry,” “Nike,” “Swoosh,” “iconic,” and “mistake.”

For a more interesting debate about the new mark, check out LogoDesignLove.