Chapter 6 of The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding

People are suspicious and therefore tend to mistrust product claims. There one claim that elevates your brand over the competition; authenticity. When you have the right credentials, customers are likely to believe anything you say about your brand.

Take Polaroid for instance. They had credentials as the original instant film, but for some reason, it tried to tackle 35mm film and failed miserably. This is attributed of course to credentials. When shopping for 35mm film, Kodak is the powerhouse, and therefore it wouldn't cross most customers minds to buy Polaroid. Had Kodak attempted to create an instant film, it too would have failed for the same reason; Polaroid is the real instant film maker.

Take a minute to watch a couple commercials and take in all the claims they make….better tasting, saves money, whitens teeth, etc. Everybody says that. Few say its the real thing.

What I learned:

Being the leader in your specific market is important. Creating that sense of leadership is so much easier with credentials. Creating a standout brand out accomplishes your leadership goals.

_gern

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Whew, what a day! Check out all the pictures from our fun video day, click here.  

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I was looking at the logos for all the presidential campaigns and thought it was interesting that the 2 campaigns that are ahead in their respective party's races are the 2 least traditional. Which makes sense after evaluating that one of the main issues in voters minds is bringing about change. It seems much more likely to see change coming from a candidate whose logo doesn't look like every other campaign logo for the last 20 years.

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This is like the happy little treat at the end of an Unsolved Mysteries Episode… UPDATE!

We recently selected The Atlanta Eastside Project as our Pro-Bono partner. Over the next year we will donate our branding and design services to help them launch a new church plant in our neighborhood.

First we started with a naming campaign, and landed on "City Church – Eastside", which allows alot of flexibility for future churches in other neighborhoods and focus on the core message of the new the plant, the city.

Next, we created a brand identity for the name. The goal of the plant is to bring relevant and engaging neighborhood community back into the church, so we needed to capture that in the mark. We decided to combine a modified greek cross, with the small shapes of homes at the cross section.Color was the next important feat to tackle. It couldn't be boring and subtle like most Churches. This is a unique Church with a unique mission, so the colors need to be unique. Green is a healthy, living, vibrant color that contrasted with the neutral grey gave us the energy and life we were looking for.

We are super excited about the results and to be partnered with such an awesome client.Check it out some of the final pieces…

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Today I made an impulse buy.

I was looking at an identity Gern is working on that has a mountain and thought about how awesome Mountain Song by Jane's Addiction was. Next thing I know i was on iTunes downloading, didn't even preview, no need. Went to play and it sounded a little different, the intro was not what i remembered. Half the song goes by… turns out all the songs and song titles on that album were all mixed up. I was a little upset and thought well there goes a dollar. Not So. I went to my account and reported the problem expecting a response sometime this week. 2 hours later got an email from Jhoanne at Apple, she said she wanted my iTunes experience to be a enjoyable as possible, that she was sincerely sorry and going to refund my money.

I LOVE APPLE. Customer experience always exceeded, so important.

Jane's Addiction – Mountain Song

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Okay, it's not a reality show, but for this one day it makes us feel like we could possibly be famous. A film crew from Eye Play (they are awesome) is here all day taking shots around the office. Ultimately it will be a client feature video for Speakeasy, our VOIP provider. If you are at all intersted in VOIP, Speakeasy is the best.

We'll post up the video here once it's complete…It'll be a few weeks.

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Out of all the chapters of The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding, this one sounds the most daunting.In all actuality, its been my favorite.

The main idea is that people usually apply a word to a product or brand, almost unconsciously. What most people don't know is that brands can take advantage of this and expand the market they sit in.

The word applied can be very specific such as a name, or generic like fast. Volvo : safety. Mercedes : prestige. Tissue : kleenex. The last combination is an interesting phenomenon where a product takes the name of a brand, even if it isn't produced by said brand. The way this happens is by being the first in the category. Kleenex came along and single handedly removed the pocket handkerchief with the marketing message, "Don't put a cold in your pocket." Xerox, Scotch Tape and Q-Tips all fall into this category.Now the sticky part of this idea comes when brands decide this is confining and decide to expand their brand (instead of expanding the market) and therefore dilute their word. It loses meaning and the brand loses strength.

What I learned: It's been said before, but it'll be said again. Narrowing your focus does not hinder your brand from growing, instead it creates strength.

_gern

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What does graphic design offer life?

This is the second part to our discussion on wednesday. Here were the takeaways:
• It makes life interesting and richer
• Good graphic design can can offer new solutions to old problems
• Objects and ideas that are dull or familiar can become new and interesting
• Nick made an interesting analogy to a wedding. You can go to 5 different weddings but the one that had a unique invitation and program will be one you remember and talk about
• It can be much more than just decorating. It can motivate, enrich and reflect the society around it.

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To all those who purchased a HD DVD player, my sincere apologies…Blu-ray just won the battle in High Def DVDs. (Craig, you owe me a dollar). Before this happened, we had a lot of debates about who would win this battle. HD DVD was clearly a more obvious name – it seemed like an easily understood evolution from regular DVD format. However, as a name, Blu-ray was definitely more unique and really stood out.

Still, when it comes down to it, this competition wasn't really about a name, it was about a tribe. It seems clear that Sony's marketing genius was in their focus on a specific audience they had a lot of face time with – Playstation consumers. By putting a Blu-ray player in every PS3, they guaranteed that the barrier to entry to watching a high def DVD on Blu-ray would be small for a specific demographic. On the flip side, HD DVD had to count on consumers purchasing a HD DVD player – a $800 cost early on, now closer to $300, not to mention the cost of the new discs themselves. Like Marty Neumeier says in Zag, "Customers today don't like to be sold – they like to buy, and they tend to buy in tribes…In a tribe, news spreads quickly, which gives brands extra traction". At the end of the day, marketing to a small tribe of people passionate about Sony's Playstation proved much more successful than the battle of the names.

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