Brandweek has published their ranking of The Top 2000 American Superbrands, and it’s a real head-scratcher. Relying on a suspect “methodology” that is based on many factors, but highly weighted toward ad spending, here are their Top 5 American Superbrands:
AT&T
McDonalds
Verizon
Macy’s
Sprint
The problem is, they are trying to quantify what a “Superbrand” is, and their numbers may add up, but not to anything that a consumer would recognize. This is the same fallacy that leads focus-group decision making toward weak names that have the ability to excite statisticians, but not people. For instance, if you look just at press, word-of-mouth buzz, overflowing retail stores, people lining up to buy their products, advertising and general cultural ubiquity, most people would agree that Apple should probably score very highly on a list of Superbrands. That, however, is not the case here.
The only two Apple products in the Top 100 are “Apple Macintosh Computer Systems” at number 86, and “Apple iPod Digital Audio Player-Recorder” at number 91. No clear reason why other entries are for a company, while for Apple they are for individual products — certainly “Apple” as a company entity would rank pretty highly on a rational list of top U.S. and international brands. Not only that, but some of the “Superbrands” that outrank Apple include, “Chevrolet Silverado Trucks” (32) (maybe Brandweek intends “Superbrand” to be understood in the same sense that Superfund is), “Empire Today Home Repair Services” (55), E-Surance Insurance-Auto (66), and in a head-to-head deathmatch of the brand titans, PeoplePC Website Internet Service Provider (90)!
It’s not like we’re trying to fluff up Apple, or join the iBandwagon, or drink their KoolAid, but whether you love ‘em or hate ‘em, you have to admit that Apple is a very powerful brand, and any list of “Superbrands” that puts them well behind the Chevy Silverado, a dinosaur facing extinction, and “Empire Today Home Repair Services,” makes you wonder if the statisticians who figured all this out might be the same ones who recently lost their jobs in the financial sector after failing to notice the tsubprime tsunami.
May the debate on Apple and religion continue. From Sunday Mass to Sunday Mac. Communion to Computer. All Mighty God to All Mighty Mouse. Eve’s real Apple. Circulating discussions about Appelism, the Apple Church, and various other religious exchanges on the overall Apple faith merely scratch the surface of an increasingly monopolistic Apple Inc. kingdom to sweep the Altars.
It is safe to note that Apple Inc., at the forefront of the digital world, continues to redefine “sacred time” — keeping designers, video monkeys and other creative worker bees at their office cubes working those iApps on their iMacs, with the iTunes from their iPods ringing in their iEars, occassionally interrupted by calls on their iPhones with their little iFingers clicking-beeping-tapping-buzzing-chatting away in their own little iWorld created by some iGod.
One can only imagine the iChurch, iCar, iFood, and then of course the line of pharmaceutical iDrugs to cure the iPsycho, iCrazy, iLost, iConfused illnesses.
But we’re not complaining. We’ve already drunketh from the grail of iCoolAid. Cheers.
Sometimes imitation is flattery, sometimes it demonstrates a complete lack of originality and / or corporate ethics.
Naming and branding parody site Landor has posted an article which they claim authorship of called “How not to name“, accompanied by a photo of Anthony Shore, head of global naming at Landor. It is posted on a section of their website that they ironically named “Thinking”.
Here is an except (from point 2, paragraph 3):
This “positivity principle” explains why a scandalous name (Virgin), a slur (Banana Republic), and a small, hairy larva (Caterpillar) are perceived positively.
Unless everyone understands the positioning and the correlation between it and an evocative name, this is the type of feedback that evocative names will generate:
Virgin Airlines
Says “we’re new at this”
Public wants airlines to be experienced, safe and professional
Investors won’t take us seriously
Religious people will be offended
Caterpillar
Tiny, creepy-crawly bug
Not macho enough – easy to squash
Why not “bull” or “workhorse”?
Destroys trees, crops, responsible for famine
Banana Republic
Derogatory cultural slur
You’ll be picketed by people from small, hot countries
The Landor article “How Not to Name” is written in a format that states popular misconceptions and the debunks them. Here they attack the mistaken idea that focus groups are helpful in choosing company or product names (from point 6, paragraph 1):
As a rule, it’s smart to entrust strategic business decisions to someone who trades an hour of their time for $25 and a few handfuls of M&Ms.
And here is how Steve Manning, co-founder of Igor, expressed the same idea 5 years earlier in an article in Elsevier Food International :
“If you’re trusting the future of your brand to a bunch of people who are willing to give up their time for $45 and a stale sandwich, you’re in trouble.”
Fatten up your computer storage space with bacon, pizza, a slab of pork, or a burger. Simply inject the food into your computer’s USB outlet, and try not to get hungry while you’re working. Keep out of reach of children and animals (hungry people included).
NOTE: This product is not available to purchase with food stamps.
In recent years, street art has emerged into iconic and influential messaging as paint and concrete increasingly compete with paper and computer screens. Though much of modern street art falls short on delivering tangible consumer goods, it undoubtedly capitalizes on the consumer psyche. At the very least, dominating consumer attention.
There is subconscious branding taking place in street art, merely based on the location of the art (city, neighborhood, street, building, wall), in addition to the visual piece itself. How will marketers and ad gurus tune into this medium, and when will street art morph into recognizable advertising?
To kick things off, Vespa’s “Squareheads” is a running campaign with street art imagery of hipsters sporting square heads, a play on the signature vintage square mirrors adorning the scooter. Note to viewer, nowhere on these displays do you read a single Vespa label.
Shedding light on current street art campaigns: London’s Tate Museum wall art from a group of global masters; Berlin’s Urban Affairs booming street art festival; And the Bay Area’s very own eclectic modern street art pieces from 2004, Emeryville Utility Box Art. Each of these exhibitions display pieces to what modern advertising could potentially amount.
Following news that Brangelina named twins, son Knox Leon and daughter Vivienne Marcheline, it appears there’s a global trend toward more sensible names for babies. And, when they aren’t sensible, some courts may remove children from parents regarded as abusers because of the bizarre names of their children.
Family Court Judge Rob Murfitt stated his concerns in a written decision after a custody hearing in New Plymouth, New Zealand, revealed a couple had named their child Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii. He was so disturbed at the effect on the nine-year-old that he ordered her temporarily placed under court guardianship so a suitable name could be chosen.
How about Talula Bankhead?
“Nobody can be exactly like me. Sometimes even I have trouble doing it.” ~Tallulah Bankhead
You read that right: Lake Superior State University, baby, has done what Harvard, Stanford and The Wharton School don't have the guts to do: put out a list of idiotic (mostly) bizspeak words and phrases that if used any longer should get students tossed out of MBA programs and cubicle-wads sacked from their consultant jobs.
Check out the 2008 list of Banished Words, which includes the word that most makes me want to seek out fingernails scratching a blackboard for relief: webinar.
Illinois bank changes their name from First State to Legence to avoid being 1 of 20 million other “First State” related hits upon web search results. Commenting on the identity crisis and strategy to regain attention with the rename, bank president Kevin Beckemeyer says, “A business needs to be top in the mind and heart of its customers, not one in millions sharing the same name or a similar name, Beckemeyer said.”
Fun search facts:
Total Google Search results for First State Bank 22,500,00
Total Google Search results for Legence Bank 184
How memorable is a name like Legence for a bank, especially being a name close to “Legend” where search results for ‘Legend Bank’ round off at 21 million hits? Or is it pronounced “Leg-ence”, as in “leg essence”? A bank willing to Show a Little Leg? A Leg Up on the competition? Or just another case of Restless Legence Syndrome?
Wrangler is about to rope you in with their latest wild ride of a TV spot, out to change the way they represent their jeans. Paris-based ad agency FFL delivers the new message behind Wrangler’s jeans “We Are Animals” as a quasi-erotic-thriller-for-hippies.
WARNING: This content may contain similar visual styles to the works of Natural Born Killers, The Blair Witch Project, Dazed and Confused,and Jenna Jameson with roots buried deep beneath High Noon.
…On these Internet-equipped planes, any passenger with a Wi-Fi enabled laptop — or a cellphone with Wi-Fi — will be able to do almost everything he or she could do online at home or at the office. That includes surfing the Web, using email, having instant-messenger text chats, downloading and uploading files, and streaming video and audio.
In fact, I did all these things a few days ago on a test flight using the new system, called Gogo. During the flight from San Francisco to Denver, on a small test jet, I could operate online as if I were sitting at my desk, or in a Starbucks. I used Dell (DELL) and Apple (AAPL) laptops, a BlackBerry (RIMM), a Windows Mobile phone and an iPhone to perform all the most common online tasks, while soaring over majestic mountains and glorious national parks.
I sent and received emails on Microsoft (MSFT) Outlook and Apple Mail, including messages with hefty attachments. I conducted IM chats on AOL (TWX) Instant Messenger and Google (GOOG) Talk. Using all the major Web browsers, I called up dozens of Web sites, and watched video clips on Hulu and YouTube. I downloaded photos, songs, PDF files and Microsoft Office documents. I used all the Internet functions on the iPhone, and on the Wi-Fi-equipped BlackBerry and Windows Mobile phone…
…The companies say Gogo is safe and won’t interfere with the plane’s operation. It is government-approved, and pilots can shut the system off should they deem it necessary.
Gogo has some limitations. The service plans to allocate its capacity so that low-bandwidth activities like Web surfing and email take priority over high-bandwidth ones like streaming video. That means you may find video to be slow and halting.
And Gogo is a North American, land-based service only. It won’t work over the oceans and, for now, it won’t work on other continents.
But for U.S. travelers who want to stay connected in the air, Gogo does the job.
May the debate on Apple and religion continue. From Sunday Mass to Sunday Mac. Communion to Computer. All Mighty God to All Mighty Mouse. Eve’s real Apple. Circulating discussions about 
