AbuLLard Talks about the Twelve Days of Branding

The Twelve Days of Branding

Since it 'tis that season once again, AbuLLard wants to remind you of CattLeLogos Twelve Days of Branding... a surefire way to create an Appropriate, Believable and Consistent brand image.

On the first day: A Vision for your company. Make sure there is one unifying vision for your company -- in everything you say and do

On the second day: Two Types of Image. The visual components of your Brand Identity: logo, web site, marketing materials are one aspect of your "image." How people perceive you through your looks, words and behavior is the other.

On the third day: Three key Messages.  Distill your message down to three key points that are Relevant for your target market. Don't try to tell people "everything" all the time. People remember things that are clear and concise.

On the fourth day: Four Means to Market.  Four things to focus on that will improve your marketing effectiveness: (1) the right channel to the market, (2) business processes  that enable you deliver what you promise; (3) software tools and infrastructure that support the process; and (4) monitoring and evaluation of your efforts on an ongoing basis.

On the fifth day: Five Steps to Value. Vision, Image, Message, Means, and Consistent Implementation. It all needs to work together!

On the sixth day: Beware the Clip Art Trap. Avoid the tired, overused images (e.g. the puzzle, handshake, target, bag of cash, etc). Find a clip art package with style or create your own.

On the seventh day: Seven Brand Metrics. Seven questions to use to rate your brand: Do you have a brand vision? What does you brand look like, in all it's forms? What does it convey - implicitly and explicitly? How well do your messages convey your intent? How easy is it to use? Is it built in to your business process? Will it stand the test of time?

The Art of Internet Gifting

At this time of the year, we share in the spirit of giving — and reflect upon how the Internet has changed even this.  From holiday wishes to expressions of faith to donations to charity to buying toys for the tots, it's becoming an on-line world.  Why is this? 

Choice.  The Internet offers so many choices that the problem of giving has changed from finding something you like to choosing among your favorites.  This is where having a shopping list, i.e., a set of clearly articulated, well-defined needs, comes in handy.  Use your list to search.  And just like shopping in person, it's much better to be as detailed as possible when you search.  After all, your calf will tell you that there's a BIG difference between the 4" Yellow Power Ranger and the 12" Red Target Dino-Ranger exclusive. 

Convenience means hassle reduction.  Admit it, getting store inventory up on-line and maintaining that web site is a hassle, but it eliminates hassle for our customers — and that's what counts.  As buyers who know what we want, many of us opt to buy on-line and avoid the hassles of crowded roads and malls and parking lots and post offices.  Audhumbla also likes to avoid the rigors of taking the calves to the store and hearing, "But I really want this.. PLEASE".

Convenience is obviously also about our time.  Even with extended shopping hours at brick and mortar stores, Audhumbla stills needs to shop at the midnight hour — and that measn the Internet.  And spending less time shopping means more time spent on the important items — like the CattLeLogos business, or with my herd of family and friends. 

Lastly, it's about economics — cold, hard cash.  Each year, the Internet continues to offer us more in the way of savings.  For example, many charities now accept donations on-line.  That means credit card purchases instead of checks — and all of those little perks that they give you.  I recently "discovered" another internet benefit, on-line coupons.  I knew they existed but I didn't realize they existed for me.  And isn't free shipping for on-line purchases just the neatest incentive?  Audhumbla hopes we all take full advantage of the available on-line offers. 

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Top Ten Brand Events of 2005

CattLeLogos Top Ten Brand Impacts for 2005

1. GM decides to use a common brand, putting the GM logo on Hummer and Saab, among others. Do you think that will enhance those brands?

2. AFLAC incorporates the duck into its logo (actually at the end of 2004) but still worth mentioning. A memorable ad concept, but does it work as a logo?

3. Quark rebrands itself. New logo. New Look. But have they dealt with the customer service issues?

4. A really bad merchandising idea get Abercrombie and Fitch in trouble with teenage girls who "girl-cott" the store. It does garner lots of publicity, but is it good or bad?

5. iPod ... everybody loves the concept. Everyone I talk to tells me they are extremely unreliable. What does that do to their brand image?

6. "Memoirs of a Geisha" is filmed with Chinese actresses in the lead roles, upsetting BOTH the Japanese and the Chinese. Why does it matter?

7. Starbucks, the coffee, now has an adult-only cousin: Starbucks, the liquor, the company's most recent attempt to extend the iconic brand from the strip mall to bars and kitchens everywhere. Good idea? bad idea?

8. AT&T, once one of the most powerful brands in the world, disappears in the merger with SBC. What happened to this timeless brand?

9. Baseball's brand is tarnished by the steroid drug scandal. What's happened to the "all American" game?

10. Before Martha Stewart went to jail, the brand value of her company plummeted. She's out of jail now and her brand value is climbing. What did she do right?

NEW:

OLD:

Trademark and Copyright American Family Life Assurance Company of Columbus (AFLAC)

HayLoise's Books of the Month

We at CattLeLogos really like Seth Godin, for the obvious reason! What a clever man to use cows to illustrate good marketing techniques! However, we are also thrilled with the insights he offers, in spite of his being human, not bovine. 
 

Brand Leadership: The Big Moo, Stop Trying to Be Perfect and Start Being Remarkable
By Seth Godin

Godin devotes his previous book, the Purple Cow, to the importance of being remarkable in today’s overcrowded world of images and marketing messages. Quite simply he makes the case that only the remarkable will be noticed. But, he leaves us with the question how do we sustain being remarkable, after all a purple cow is now longer remarkable after you’ve seen a few of them, and nobody talks about them once all their friends and colleagues have seen several of them. So what’s needed? The Big Moo.

So what’s a ‘Big Moo’?  An insight so astounding that people can’t help but remark on it. 

Godin sat down with 33 creative minds, the likes of Malcolm Gladwell (Blink and The Tipping Point), Tom Peters (Leadership, Thriving on Chaos, and many others), Guy Kawasaki (The Art of the Start and Selling the Dream), Dan Pink (A Whole New Mind and Free Agent Nation), to discuss: how to create the ‘big moo’; how to create effective ‘buzz’; and how to get people talking about your Brand! 

The result is a pithy collection of vignettes on a wide range of topics.  Memorable short stories. Stories you can relate to and share with your colleagues. Better yet, stories with a purpose – the power of story telling revealed as well. It’s fun, it’s engaging, and it’s important to any marketing program. If you are looking for a quick gift for anyone interested in ‘marketing’ – you can’t go wrong with this. There’s an insight for everybody and every bovine.

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Click on the book cover image to go to its page on Amazon.com

33 of the world's best business minds tackle one urgent question: What does it really take to make your organization remarkable?

Brand Tidbits:
Coca Cola and Santa Claus

ATLANTA, Nov. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Move over elves. Thanks to Coca-Cola, Santa now has some new helpers to spread the holiday spirit this year.  To help celebrate the holidays this year, the popular Coca-Cola Polar Bears and the familiar Sundblom Santa are joined by a festive group of penguins.

Coca Cola plays a role in Branding Santa

By Jarmo Aaltonen

Santa Claus is a brand with roots going back to the Roman Empire, which marketers and others have sought to adopt for themselves. The archetype for the modern Santa was St. Nicholas, who lived in what is now Turkey in the fourth century. He liked children, and as a shy man he would secretly help neighbors in distress. The story goes that in order to remain an anonymous benefactor, he dropped a dowry present for the daughter of a poor man through the chimney, and it fell into a sock that was drying there. That is why stockings are still hung on the mantlepiece in the Americas in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.

Santa was standardized in the United States in the 1920s, which can be seen as an early case of branding. The brand worked well for Coca-Cola, because the company’s colors were already red and white. The first Coca-Cola Santa in a red suit was drawn in 1931 by Haddon Sundblom, a native of the Åland Islands. The company turned this overweight ho-ho-ho’er into a global brand in its advertising campaigns in 1931-1964.The first red-suited Santa appeared in The Saturday Evening Post in 1931. Until then, Santa’s costume had a color range from green to blue. These colors can sometimes still be seen in European pictures of Santa.

And from a recent press release from Coca Cola:

"Coca-Cola holiday packaging and commercials have become a tradition that families anticipate each year," said Katie Bayne, senior vice president, Coca-Cola Brands,  Coca-Cola North America.  "Our special holiday message of Give. Live. Love. Coke.  reminds people to come together and share the magic of the season and the spirit of generosity, just as our Polar Bears, penguins and Santa do."

Excerpted from HELSINGIN SANOMAT,  INTERNATIONAL EDITION - FOREIGN,
05:35 Helsinki time Wednesday 21.12.2005

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Seasons Greeting
from all the members of the Herd...

Wishing you and yours a very happy holiday season
and a prosperous and healthy new year.

Jean, Jane, Bill, Patrina, Sonia, and

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Give us a call: 215.732.1553 or contact us by e-mail.

Copyright 2005 CattLeLogos Brand Management Systems, LLC. All rights reserved.

CattLeLogos is a Registered Trademark of CattLeLogos Brand Management Systems, LLC. AbuLLard, AbuLLard's ABC's of Branding, HayLoise, AudhumbLa, ChurnbuLL, deCaLfe, and the CattLeLogos Method are trademarks and copyright CattLeLogos Brand Management Systems, LLC.

Published December 21, 2005

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