Here’s an interesting project you can participate in: Noah Brier has put together Brand Tags, what he calls “a collective experiment in brand perception.”
Since brands are what consumers say they are, Brier’s Brand Tags site simply displays well-known logos and asks you to share the first thought that pops into your head. The aggregated results are viewable as a tag cloud.
Here’s a portion of the current tag cloud for Pabst:
And if your Holiday Inn client doesn't believe that his brand means "cheap hotel" in the minds of consumers, direct him here.
A very cool—and surprisingly simple—tool. Hopefully Noah will add more brands to it and keep it growing.
For those not into branding, Noah’s also created a celebrity version.
Many of you who know me probably know I don’t think bathroom activities are an acceptable topic in polite conversation. Picture me, then, hopping on the Times Square shuttle yesterday and finding myself surrounded by the Cottonelle campaign that’s been up since March.
Because it’s two months old, I won’t go into the work itself, other than to say “We shine where the sun don’t” is a funny headline. And I like how the text is framed by a rounded border with detail in the lower right that mimics both a tuft of cotton and a human butt. Clever.
But seeing this effort reminded me of something I’d been thinking a few months ago.
As with many other products, I have a toilet paper preference. Or at least I think I do. Some brands are better than others, but I can never remember which one I like.
The reason has to do with my interaction with the branded portion of the product. I buy the stuff at the store, take it home, remove the rolls from the plastic, and stock them in a cupboard in my bathroom. If I buy a pack of twelve rolls, it can be quite a while before I need to buy more. Three or four months? Six months? I really don’t know for sure. But during that time, I’ve completely forgotten what brand I’m using because I'd discarded the wrapper shortly after returning from the store.
None of my other toiletry products suffer from this disassociation between the product and the brand. My toothpaste tube is branded, and I interact with the brand until I’m squeezing out the last bit of paste. My deodorant is branded throughout my experience with it. Ditto my shampoo. And the same for most other goods I use.
So here’s a free idea for anyone in the TP industry: Brand your cardboard core. It’s the last part of your product your customers experience. Put a funny message on it (see above) and connect with your customer on another level. Seize the opportunity to remind them of what they’re using. If it’s a good experience, they’re more likely to make a repeat purchase simply because they’re more likely to remember your brand.
I saw a new TV spot for SunChips yesterday. It has the look of one of those corporate, earth-friendly ads, the kind we’ve seen from Chevron, GE, Subaru and others. The spot ends with the voiceover, “Now SunChips from California are made with solar energy.”
My first reaction was positive. Of course SunChips should be made using solar energy! It’s totally right for them, completely on-brand. Nicely done.
Then I did some investigating.
Watching the TV spot again, via the SunChips website, I caught that voiceover. “Now SunChips from California are made with solar energy.” What’s with the “from California” part?
One of the print ads is a bit more specific. “As of April 22nd, one of our plants is using solar energy to help make SunChips snacks.” Ah, so one plant is using solar energy. Out of how many plants?
The website offers this additional detail:
“Have you ever had an idea that seemed like such a good idea, such a bright idea, that you couldn't believe you hadn't thought of it before? For us, that idea was using solar power. Seems obvious, doesn't it? We make SunChips® snacks, after all. So we've started using solar energy instead of fossil fuel to help make SunChips® in our plant in Modesto, California. And although Modesto is only one of the eight plants we use to make SunChips® snacks, for us it's a small step in the right direction.”
OK, so one plant out of eight. My guess is “from California” is a mandate from the legal department, a reference to the Modesto plant.
My problem with all of this is that I get the sense SunChips is trying to get more credit than they deserve.** No, that’s not right either. It’s that this advertising claims more than is necessary. I agree that it’s a small step in the right direction for them to use green energy in manufacturing their product. But why make a vaguely inflated claim about it? (Or in the case of that print ad, tout a claim and then diminish it one line of copy later.)
It’s a real disappointment when the more you learn more about something, the less you like it. And this is exactly the sort of thing that leads consumers to distrust advertisers.
What would have saved this for me is a statement about plans for further employment of eco-friendly energy sources, something like “We’re committed to being 70% fossil-fuel-free by 2010.”
More companies should employ green energy. We’ve pretty much all come to accept this as fact. Perhaps years from now, we’ll look back and see SunChips as one that helped lead the charge.
Unfortunately, I now see them as a brand that’s promising big and delivering comparably little—but the problem isn’t in what they’ve delivered, but in what they’ve promised.
* According to a New York Times article from last month, the solar farm at the Modesto plant provides “up to 75 percent of the energy needed to produce the product.”
** Thankfully, while there are numerous examples of advertisers that spent more telling the public about their noble activities than was spent on the activities themselves, this does not seem to be the case with SunChips, whose financial outlay for the solar farm exceeds their campaign spend.
See the SunChips ad campaign elements here and here, and possibly here (note the accusations of fakery in the comments section).
Google went black today. The search monolith known for altering its logo for holidays and such switched to black this morning in honor of Earth Hour.
According to Google: “We think the 'lights out' idea's individual-centered nature is something that millions of people worldwide can participate in. In short, we really like it. So we did something about it.”
Interesting to think how this seems “so Google,” and how if it were Ford or Chevron or Verizon or McDonald’s it would come off as disingenuous.
Join the fun by turning off all lights for an hour tonight, beginning at 8pm.
