In the 2012 Interbrand survey of world’s most valuable brands three of the top 10 have been around for more than 100 years each; three for more than 70 years each; and technology rules the day for the remaining 45 years and under, with Apple, Microsoft, Google and Intel rounding out the...
Subway is famous for their “foot-long sub”. It is one of the promises the brand stands on. They have talked about their “foot-long subs” for years. They’ve run ads about it. They have even trademarked the term, so we could be forgiven for expecting that the subs that carry that...
It probably seemed like a good idea at the time. A clever hashtag. A tweet. And then faster than you can say RT it all comes unstuck. I am of course talking about Kayser Lingerie and the somewhat infamous #kaysermaleinsider tweets. But it was one in particular that really sent things off...
Playing a bit of email catch-up over the past few days I came across an article from Inc. magazine. While not directly related to the topic of Brand and Promises, it triggered my thinking about today’s topic. The article was titled “Want to grow fast? Then slow down” and was talking about the pitfalls of...
Welcome to the sixth annual roundup of brand good, brand ugly (and brand that should really know better). So without any preamble, the clock on 2012 is ticking down so let’s dive right it – in no particular order. CommBank It’s becoming an annual event. The bank marketing (“rebranding”) campaign that is meant...
I was talking at a Churchill Club event this past week around brand and one of the key messages I had for the audience was that while brand is certainly the result of the promises you keep, whether you keep them or not first shows up in what you do...
Too many organisations have become stuck in the “delight” fly trap. It bears repeating – customer satisfaction and loyalty are a function of organisations meeting the expectations they set. The “delight” fly trap. I gave a talk this past week for the City of Monash Women’s Business Network. The topic was “seven things...
Last week at the QR National annual meeting, shareholders voted to support the change of the corporation’s name to … wait for it. Aurizon. There’s a good article about the craziness of this move at LeadingCompany, where editor Kath Walters explores what they might have been thinking – aided and abetted by yours...
An associate sent me an article from Fast Company the other week called “Why it’s important to integrate honesty into your brand”. It wasn’t the article content that made me stop and think (although there’s plenty in there I could comment on), it was the idea that you can “integrate” honesty. Like it is...
In light of the Virgin Australia stake in Tiger Airways this past week, I was thinking about the promises they make. One of my issues with Tiger Airways is that they seem to want to “have their cake and eat it too” in the promises they have made. It’s a common budget airline...