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

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

Starbucks’ Mission Statement Writers May Have Had One Too Many Venti Peppermint Mocha Twists

The design community is abuzz with yesterday's launch of the modified Starbucks logo into the real world. The visual vocabulary is clever and innocuous even if it is a little too now to be timel

Packaging So Good You Can Smell the Fertilizer

Ever the conscientious consumers (or guilt-ridden bourgeois souls), we couldn't help but choose these when shopping for free range eggs recently: Shockingly bad corporate wordmark aside,

Send in the Clowns: The Circus Rebranded and Reimagined

If we were to hold a contest to find the single word that at once inspires unbridled joy and abject horror, "clown" would undoubtedly make the short list. From the lovable cigar-chomping "King of Laughter" vagabond portrayed by Red Skelton to the malevolent mischief of the WWF's Doink the Clown to the classically trained <a title="Aguste C

Big Brands Check In with Foursquare

Ever wish you were more aware of the incredible things around you?  Millions have answered this rhetorical question posed by location-based social media Wunderkind Foursquare, with an enthusiastic "Yes!" and have "unlocked their worlds" to earn points, props and perks by publicizing where in the world they are — also known as "check-ins."  And where the people are, brands will follow. <a href="https://brandculture.com/blog/wp-content/up

Is Pink the New Green?

Another dispatch from our man on the Continent, this time probing deeply into...refuse bins? Two things caught our eye about this recycling container: <img class="alignleft" title="ENFO Brochure

Logo and Brand are NOT the Same Thing

The usually illuminating Tony Spaeth has let our industry down big time. In his review of Starbucks' new logo, Spaeth repeatedly refers (and quotes Starbucks Chief Design Officer Steve Barrett referring) to the move as a 'rebranding'.

Think Twice Before Using an Acronym for a Name

Deposit Interest Retention Tax - that's what the Irish government formally named the tax levied on interest earned in bank accounts. In practice, the government and its taxpayers call it DIRT. It must be somewhat satisfying for Irish citizens to get to pass judgment on the tax every time they invoke its name, but somehow we don't think catharsis was what the Revenue Commission had in mind when they came up with this doozy. Rather, we think it's a case of monumentally bad naming. Pre