Rational, emotional and self expressive benefits and a little magic = brand strategy.

Aligning Philanthropy with Business and Brand Strategy

No corporate web presence would be complete without a section devoted to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). The world, of course, has no shortage of challenges. Happily, there are corporate eleemosynary outlets of almost infinite variety ranging from the currently fashionable like sustainability to the consistently intractable like disease and poverty. Often CSR simply involves giving […]

Pepsi’s New Bottle Won’t Reinvigorate its Brand

Yes, this is really an actual quote from the Pepsi press release about their first bottle redesign in 16 years. “The etched, grip-able bottom allows consumers to have a more stimulating, tactile interaction with the bottle itself.” And yes, we were tempted to end this post there and let Pepsi speak for itself. But soldier on we […]

A New Brand Takes Flight at American Airlines

Well 45 years for a brand identity isn't too shabby.  That's the tenure of American Airline's current logo designed in 1967 by Massimo Vigelli.  Today, that tenure has officially come to a close.  A brief history of American Airlines corporate identity:

Branding a Blatantly Bad Deal: Dollar Loan Center

When we set fingers to keyboard to excoriate First PREMIER Bank Platinum Mastercard for exorbitant fees and a 79.9% APR, we hoped it represented a low watermark for awful consumer credit offers. Unfortunately, we discovered a new ignominious winner: a 196.96% APR from Dollar Loan Center and <a title="Dollar Loan Center" href="http://www.don

Branding Autumn When It’s Summer Outside

As James Taylor once crooned, "Well, the leaves have come to turning / And the goose has gone to fly . . . The frost is on the pumpkin / The hay is in the barn . . . ."  But wait.  It's September 4th and 90+ degrees (32+ degrees Celsius) in most of the northern hemisphere (bl

Conspicuously Private Branding: The Koch Brothers’ “Path to Freedom”

Normally BrandCultureTalk steers well clear of topics political.  We are a broad tent comprised of Cato Institute free marketers, Reagan Democrats,

Thank You for Your Loyalty

In the annals of brand experience, there is no reward quite so prized as that of personal appreciation and recognition.  As consumers, we like to think that we have a choice in the brands we buy and frequent, and feel (justifiably) validated when these br

Can Brands Be Too Honest?

Kumon Logo Strikes Precisely the Right Note of Misery

Our last post on the fuzzy math of social media got us thinking of . . . the 3Rs, back to school, and more precisely, back to school performance!  In the race to ever greater achievement, never have a circle, two dots and a line struck as much trepidation in students and concomitant delight in ambitious parents than the "<a title="Kumon Logo Explanation" href="http://www.kumongr

Naked Pizza = Pizza 2.0

If ever there was a food in need of a brand makeover, the noble pizza would be up high on the lis