When I say Starbucks, you say_______. If you answered “sea nymph” that’s just what the company was hoping you’d say… I, on the other hand, would’ve said coffee.

I wouldn’t be in this business if I didn’t deem the new Starbucks logo blog-worthy, especially since it’s been covered by every media outlet imaginable. We were intrigued when Starbucks announced the addition of alcoholic beverages to its menu (Drink For Thought) and now, to commemorate their 40-year anniversary, they’ve introduced a new logo. The brand specialist behind the decision is Adam Hanft, who regarded the siren logo iconic enough to stand-alone… I couldn’t disagree more.

However, I do understand the company’s direction and certainly appreciate the less is more theory but I’m failing to see the benefit in this re-brand. Can removing the company name from your logo actually be good for business? It worked for Mac, Nike and McDonald’s; the apple, swoosh, even the golden arches are as synonymous with their brand as the name itself but I’m not sure the sea nymph makes this same statement. Is this another Gap Mishap or is it true that there’s no such thing as bad publicity?!

What do you think about the new Starbucks logo?

As the final chapter in our brand discussion this week, I’d like to comment on the Gap mishap. Now, I’ve been a long-time fan of this brand and personally get goosebumps when teens layered in brightly colored t-shirts and jeans dance around to pop music while waving presents during the holidays… I’ve also marveled at Gap’s ability to weather the retail storm for decades with its classic wardrobe staples while trendy boutiques rise and fall like the stock market. But when I saw they had changed the one symbol that defines their brand, I had to ask myself, what were they thinking???

The answer to that question isn’t clear, however, Gap North American president Marka Hansen said the old logo was reinstated a week after backlash from the new logo caused controversy from design firms, publications and bewildered bloggers alike. She also admitted, “There may be a time to evolve our logo, but if and when that time comes, we’ll handle it in a different way.”

So back to branding basics… First of all, when your sales are suffering do not overact and change the one identifiable element you have going for you. Secondly, if and when the time comes to modify your logo, strategy is key. Use an agency, your consumers and your employees to develop a plan and ensure a seamless transition from the old look to the new. Finally, just remember, your brand is your identity – wouldn’t you consult those close to you before drastically changing your own appearance? Trends may come and go but a classic logo never goes out of style.

I was headed to an appointment this afternoon and in the parking lot of the Starbucks was a handyman’s truck. The bright colors caught my eye, and then I read their name and the tagline: “Toolman 4 U: Finishing the work your husband started”.

Now that is a company who knows their target market and their ideal customer. Men do not hire handymen (at least no guy I know). Women are the ones who will call someone to fix the sink, and they are the ones that are willing to admit that they need help. They are also the ones who will call the handyman when the ‘honey-do’ list remains undone forever.

Their tagline is clever, creative and definitely one I will remember! So of course, I got home and the first thing I did was head to their website. The marketing girl in me always needs to see if the marketing matches throughout.

Unfortunately, when I hit the Toolman4U website I was met with disappointment. They didn’t have the same tagline on the site, and the site didn’t match their logo at all. The site looked like it was meant for an interior designer, not a company you’d hire to fix leaky toilets and mend your deck.

There was a complete disconnect, and therefore, they have completely lost the memorability they had created with their truck. The good news? With just some small tweaks to their site, they could easily create a streamlined brand and a complete message.

Does your branding create disconnect or do you have one solid brand?

What can $120 million media buy get you?

Hopefully a new brand. But if you’re Brinks Home Security, you might as well have set that money on fire.

On July 1st, Brinks Home Security revealed that they would be separating themselves from the red trucks and armored guards we all associate with security and would be renaming their home security brand to Broadview Home Security.  Huh?

They started their campaign with a collection of new ads run on an aggressive media push:

Did you catch why they changed their name? Me either. They’ve poured money into ads that explain nothing. They’ve grabbed your attention just like they used to, and terrified you about home invasions. But all of a sudden the name is different without any explanation…that’s a little terrifying too.

How could the campaign be improved and be more effective at both selling the service while establishing the brand transition? Easy. How about answering the questions that you know everyone is going to be asking when the ad ends instead of just showing a new logo?

Let’s start with: Why are you changing the name in the first place? People know Brinks. They know what it means. They know the brand. Brinks is serious security – trucks, guns, tough black suits. You know your money is protected with Brinks, why not extend that to the home as they’ve done in the past? Clearly there’s a business decision behind this but c’mon, we’re adults we can take, go ahead and tell us the reasoning behind the decision to change the name and let us embrace you as smart business people serious about security, not awful marketers.

Once we’ve established the reason for the change, then we can move on to: What’s Broadview and why did you choose it? What new services are you offering? Are you better, stronger or more secure now? Did you improve my services in anyway?  Create and establish a believeable, marketable strategy for the name so that existing customers feel secure with the change and potential customers establish an understanding for the brand and the company behind the brand.

Those are the tough questions these ads should be answering, otherwise they are just pouring the $120mil down the drain.  What their competition should do now is to run a switch campaign to capitalize on the uneasy feeling existing Brinks customers will have with this sudden shift.  Most consumers don’t realize that you can switch your service provider anytime you like.  Just because you have Brinks branded security panels in your home  doesn’t mean that you have to use them for monitoring and you can just as easily use ADT or another provider, which at this point seems like a pretty good idea.

This all seems pretty shaky to me.  If your brand is all about security, you don’t want your customers thinking your company isn’t secure, do you?

Things at Motor Creative have been a little busy – of course this isn’t a bad thing – but it also means that we have been less than stellar on keeping up with our blog posts. Lucky for us, there are lots of bloggers who have been more consistent and sharing great articles. Here are just a few of the top articles in branding and marketing strategy I’ve seen in the last few weeks:

How Bud Light lost it’s sense of humor – An insightful look at what happens when alcohol companies forget their market and what they should be focused on.

Why parents write more persuasive copy – Although I disagreed with the fact that you have to be a parent to understand the principles the article explains, I can understand how it would help.

Predicting brand loyalty – Or better yet, who does brand loyalty exist for?

Felony Franks – Interesting choice of branding, but if it works, then more power to them!

Mainstream news and Twitter – This article isn’t so surprising seeing how influential twitter is, but it is still and interesting read.

..and one just for fun

The 100 worst (but most hysterical) real website urls – My favorite has to be effoff.com, a furniture website.

I have a friend, we’ll call him Bob, and Bob’s worn a red hat everyday that I can remember. It’s kind of his ‘thing’. Doesn’t matter what he’s wearing or where he’s going, he always wears a red chapeau.  So we’ve all come to expect him to wear the hat. It fits him, he’s kinda like the hat – vibrant, fun, colorful and a little spicy. Without the hat, Bob just wouldn’t be Bob.

Then one day, Bob changed, and came in wearing a godforsaken black hat. We asked him what was wrong. We thought the worst! Had someone passed away? Was he leaving the country? What?!  He assured us that all was fine, he just needed a change; same Bob, different hat. We didn’t believe him. We knew something had to be wrong…Bob wouldn’t just not wear a red hat. His red hat was a part of him, a symbol of who he was. But there he was, in that black hat, trying to make us believe all was well.  We didn’t know what to do, our faith in Bob and that red hat was waining. He just wasn’t the same person. The black hat wasn’t Bob. I was confused.

Of course this is a very simple analogy to “brand”.  Bob’s brand became his red hat.  Imagine that your company, product or service has a red hat.  It’s the behavior you’ve exhibited while you’ve created your brand.  Your company has worn that hat every day. It stands for your brand, it envelops you, your employees, your offices and storefronts, your advertising and marketing efforts, everything. Your customers trust this hat, they love this hat, they know this hat.  Then you bring in a new marketing team their first impulse is to change it all, because after all, change is good  right?  They change how you are seen by your customers. They give you a black hat and what happens? Customers, partners and employees get concerned. They’re not familiar with this hat. They want to know what happened and why you changed. They’re concerned. But you tell them nothing is wrong and continue on in the black hat. Fear, uncertainty and doubt amounts to brand abandonment and with that comes mass exodus of sales.

Are you wearing a hat?  What color is it or haven’t you looked lately?  Don’t be a Bob.

What color hat are you? What color hat do your customers think you are? Do they match?

Is that a blow-up doll?

Yep, it’ll blow alright – your ad, your brand and hopefully your job.  And not in a good way!  Let’s see, if we have  a really disgusting looking sandwich, how can we make it more appealing to men in the 18-35 demo? Oh, I know, let’s bring sex in!  Sex always sells right?  Yes it usually does do the trick but not when you’re selling cheap, greasy food and comparing it to a blow job.  7-inches of hot meat?  Let’s see, what does that remind us of?  Oh, I know…giggle…giggle.  I can just see the little goatee sporting, skinny jeans-wearing creative toads at the agency (reportedly NOT CP&B, but an agency servicing Singapore for BK) sitting around giggling about hot meat and blow jobs when some one finally said “That’s it!”  We can degrade women, insinuate about the sex we’re not having and win a ComArts award! Let’s do it.

The brand?  Aww, the brand sucks anyway – get it? Sucks? Blow? Meat?  Fire them and fire them now.

I know all the other blogs have done what I’ve done too and made sure that CP&B wasn’t given credit for this piece of trash.  But aren’t they BK’s global agency of record?  Shouldn’t they have had creative say-so in this? I’m sure Bogusky ranted to his crew about how this is the kind of work he expects from them here.  Nice work. Frankly it blows and you blow.  Time’s up CP&B.

Now that GM has been rescued and is living on borrowed money and time, you would think they would have had more concern about how they were using it. Bring in brand strategists from car companies still doing well, and done a complete overhaul. Unfortunately, GM has done none of these things and their branding is still just as poor. But this time, their using our money for poor advertising. Rather than just sit and complain about how they are doing it wrong – let’s discuss how they could do it right.  Here are the top 6 questions I would answer, and expect that whomever is in charge of their strategy should be thinking about as well.

1. Would you keep the name GM? GM, or General Motors, is a rather blah name as it is. It doesn’t stand for power, no one immediately thinks of performance. And although you may like many of the brands that they make, did you even know they were GM? I would suggest possibly re-naming or at least allowing the power brands to step out under their own names and let ‘GM’ fade away.
2. What car lines would stay and which would go? If I were to name off brands in GM, the first few that come to mind are Chevrolet, GMC, Jeep and Hummer
3. What is the ultimate goal of the website? Currently, GM has launched a restructuring and renovation site, to give people an inside look at what is going on in the company. Neither site are the “GM” site, and neither site scream building customer loyalty. But what will happen in 60 days when the re-launch is complete? Will their website fit the new brand or fall short?
4. How will the print and tv commercials be focused?
5. How would you focus on social media strategy? With the Fastlane blog, a facebook & flickr page, and a budding presence on Twitter, they are making the right steps…but that doesn’t mean they will be able to sustain them. For example, their twitter page is run by an assortment of 6 people, who all also have their own twitter pages…a bit confusing and unorganized. Won’t be long until they are failing at keeping up at least one of them.
6. Which age group/demographic would you focus on? This is probably the most difficult question as their brand does span the markets. For example, their most recent product launch, the Camaro, is definitely going to be important to get right. While one might think the Camaro should be aimed at a younger generation, it is going to be the car guys who dreamed about owning one in the 60′s/70′s who will have the connection (and the money) to afford the new one. This type of analysis should be done for all of their vehicles.

What do you think about these questions? If you were given the reigns to decide on a new marketing/advertising strategy, what would you do?