I was doing a little desktop research (fancy way of saying “surfing the web”?) to learn more about some of iPod’s competitors. Remembering that SanDisk had launched a portable mp3 player named “Sansa” awhile back, I checked their site and was a little disturbed by what I found.
The page opens to a video about slotRadio, a memory card preloaded with music, compatible with some Blackberry models and presumably all of SanDisk’s music players. The video features this guy…
Last week Microsoft opened a retail store. Saw this video of what Ed Cotton calls “faked euphoria” as customers are let in to the blue-screen-of-death-colored wonderland.
Of all the differences between an Apple Store and a Microsoft Store, there is one difference that matters most. One that cannot be ignored—that I believe will prevent Microsoft Stores from succeeding.
The critical difference is that we all work at the Microsoft Store already.
In cubicles all over the globe, Microsoft’s customers and potential customers are already experiencing what the brand has to offer (if you have recent statistics on what percentage of office computers are Dells running Windows, please share). Experiences include:
Bill Marsh’s article in The New York Times a few days ago pointed out that a number of companies have recently redesigned their corporate logos, replacing “emblems of distant behemoths” with updates that are “non-threatening, reassuring, playful, even child-like.” The article includes a nice Flash click-through showing before and after logos. Marsh’s assessment is that these redesigns are aimed at addressing “the economy, environment, image repair,” and that while logos are meant to be differentiating, “there are striking similarities among recent redesigns.”
He’s right to point out the similarities, but the trend he’s seeing—which includes lowercase lettering, “softer” fonts, and lightened colors—began well before the recession. I first noticed it in 2005, while at Interbrand during the design of the new AT&T logo. Shortly after it launched, it seemed, Chevron and Allstate made very similar changes to their logos, incorporating lighter colors, rounder type, and highlights and shading that give the logos a 3D feel.
So while not all of these changes are reactions to the current economy, they do raise some awkward questions about logo design. I turned to Michael Dula, RiechesBaird’s resident logo guru, for some answers.
Should companies change their logos as a reaction to current events—changes in the economy, an increase in popular environmentalism, or even their own PR blunders?
Name the one thing that your company does. Think carefully before responding, because you’ll never be able to do anything else under the same brand name.
I think that’s a little extreme, but I was surprised to learn how passionately some people believe it to be true. About a week ago I wrote a short piece in response to Laura Ries’s post about UPS. In her post, Laura invokes a classic Ries line: “once your brand stands for something in the mind, it is impossible to change the brand’s position.” She goes on to use UPS (shipping), Kodak (film), and Blockbuster (video rental stores) as examples of brands that stand for just “one thing,” and therefore failed (or will fail, in the case of UPS) to be perceived as doing anything else well under that brand name. Follow her logic, and it’s why Kodak isn’t a leader in digital photography and Blockbuster’s Netflix-like service never took off.
An open letter to Bill Gates, or anyone who’ll listen at Microsoft
Dear Mr. Gates,
I’m sorry to say I was bewildered yet again by Microsoft’s most recent marketing efforts when I read about your partnership with rapper Common to launch your new line of DOS-inspired graphic tees, “Softwear by Microsoft.” This most recent stunt by your often brilliant advertising agency, Crispin Porter + Bogusky (CP&B), seems like yet another misstep in a futile attempt to go toe-to-toe with Apple on the “fun/cool” front. While I’m personally a fan of Common, Jerry Seinfeld, and even geeky MS-DOS references, this campaign isn’t resonating with me. Here are some reasons why.
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