Please, don't kill the ad budget!!

Usually when the nation faces a down turn in economic prosperity, major corporations look to cut costs. Who is usually the sacrificial lamb . . . Advertising and Marketing departments. It makes no sense that when a company or product needs to generate sales the most, their brand ends up dropping out of media rotation and therefore out of consumers minds.

However, it looks like there may be a few food corporations that are capitalizing on advertising the value of the products when people are dining out less and eating in more. Check out this article form MSNBC about how companies like Kraft, Sara Lee and Heinz are using promotions and value awareness ads to generate sales for their products. This type of advertising helps them keep customers by showing the value of thier products and the fact that they don't have to shrink the size of thier products like many other brands do.

Obsessive Branding Disorder

I saw this re-run tonight of the Colbert Report, that originally aired on the 4th. Lucas Conley is the guest, promoting his book "Obsessive Branding Disorder". They have an entertaining convo about different brands slapping their names on irrelevant products. Honestly, I was entertained, thanks to my friend Stephen for derailing Conley's messages a lot, but I wish he'd given him a chance to explain his thoughts better. I don't think anyone in the audience got the point either, having product placement constantly thrown into the interview.

Basically by companies carelessly throwing their identity around, it weakens their brand.

Here's the video:



Have you guys seen any of these blasphemous products? I recently saw Crayola brand juices at the grocery store, that, you guessed it, look like crayons. Mmm wax juice.

If the video doesn't work, click here and find the August 4th episode, then you have to wait until like 3 other segments play first.

Marketing for a You Tube Generation

I find it interesting that it has become increasingly more popular for companies to look for new ideas from the very audiences they are advertising to. The popularity of reality television has created a feeling on the part of the audience to participate in shaping brand campaigns and products they'll be using.

A recent example is Crest and thier campaign for a tagline for their line of whitening espressions toothpaste. They've created a You Tube contest where people can submit a clip where they perform their best tagline and the top pics will go on to an Americal Idol like final competition. People gobble this stuff up and Crest's marketing firm has essentially created a campaign that creates itself, which keeps costs down and builds a stonger relationship between the public and the product brand.

Check out the article.

Do you think this type of marketing is a good idea?

Branding isn't just for things, It's for people too!

As things continue to gear up for the political showdown between the Democratic and Republican parties, the public has witnessed the development of campaign brands and now come to expect certain messages and images from their chosen candidate.

If you go back in your mind to when the campaigining first started, you may recall the emergence of these branding campaigns and may even realize the development of your candidate preference as the campaign went on. These brands make or break it for most of the candidates in the first months and as front runners emerge, others try to re-brand to keep up.

This article from MSNBC discusses the candidate brand development and how some candidates like Obama and McCain were more successful than others like Romney and Clinton. The article compares strategies on the announcements of candidacy and you can see how that set up the tone for the rest of the campagin.

Enjoy!

The New Look of Walmart*

Today I saw an article from the Wall Street Journal about Walmart's new signage and corporate logo. Over the last 20 years they haven't spent much time on their image, choosing instead to focus purely on low prices.

While that strategy has been fairly effective, Walmart has run into some trouble with customers and neighborhood groups as they've protested dark stores, low wages and lack of benefits to employees as well as other issues. Now all that is about to change as Walmart unveils their new image and plans for "greener" stores that are brighter and more modern to compete with retailers like Target.


If you'd like to view the complete Wall Street Journal article click here.


Here is what the new sign will look like:

The color scheme will be a burnt orange background with white name and starburst logo. All new stores will have a red brick facade and over time the look of stores and signage will be switched over to the new asthetic.

Here is the new corporate logo:

What do you think about it?