Barack's An Ox

2009 is The Year of the Ox. Auspiciously enough, what we have facing us in this country and the world needs an Ox year, and we are doubly lucky because our President himself was born in the year of the Ox.

What does this have to do with branding? Well, brands are promises that you make to your customers. They are your core, your philosophy, your essence. And -- no doubt about it -- Barack is an Ox. A Metal Ox to be exact.

The Ox is considered to be a tolerant, courageous and hardworking strong animal. The same characteristics can be observed in a person who is born in the Chinese Year of the Ox. They are often the most forbearing people and posses a strong and firm character. They are absolutely fearless and brave at heart. The resolution power of the Ox is commendable. We all know that since the historical period the ox used to help the farmers in plowing the fields which is a tedious job.The ox people bear the same laborious character always accomplish the tasks assigned to them successfully. In fact they complete their regular duties and responsibilities with equal seriousness and sincerity. They know the value of hard work and determination and this is how they win the race of life. At the same time the ox are very much realistic and down-to-earth. They simply disrespect laziness and laid back attitude. You can rely on them as friends and neighbors. Though they are calm and gentle and often do not show up their feelings but they have a golden heart inside. There are different types of ox with slightly variant characteristic features.

Metal Ox: Born in 1961,they are hard and rigorous workers. They are extremely bold and self-motivated people who will never stop in the way before they reach their goal. They are absolutely trustworthy and responsible. But this is pretty tough for them to open up even in front of their near and dear ones. They are strong like iron and posses ultimate will-power.

ResortQuest Goes Back to Former Name, Aston

Aston Hotels is back. That's a name. Not a brand. Just like ResortQuest is a name. Not a brand.

Names are visual and auditory representations of your brand, but they are not your brand.

All over the local media, this change of name is being referred to as "rebranding." Not.

ResortQuest / Aston whatever you call it has the same brand, but now a different name.

Your brand is your promise to your customer -- In Aston's case, their brand promises relaxation, and care, and Aloha. Showing you the customer their Hawaii.

The Brand Strategy Group worked with them when ResortQuest forced the change from Aston. We have no idea why it is back -- but it's the same, swell, friendly brand.

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. If you want to nail down your brand, call us.

Creating an "IPhone"-like Zeitgeist with Air

We wrote this for a newsletter long ago -- it is worth repeating, so we do it here. It is about branding, connecting with customers, building experiences, and using the internet. It is about a cellular telephone service (and now, much more) called "Orange".

First, we want to tell you that Orange has just announced its "online book prize.":

At the heart of the operation: the internet Orange is calling on the know-how and strength of its audience to support the Award, ensuring a high level of visibility (18 million unique visitors per month on the orange.fr portal). The www.orange.fr/prix-orange-du-livre site also represents the focal point for literary communities that appear from time to time on the web, made up of book fans, authors and booksellers looking to express their views, exchange information, compare ideas and opinions on books…Indeed, internet users are invited to share what they have read and discover the recommendations of other book fans, including the members of the jury. Lastly, it is of course thanks to this site that internet users will be able to participate in the Orange Book Award: on the one hand, applying to be part of the jury, and on the other, taking part in the final selection of the winning work through their votes. The 2009 Orange Book Award will be given out on June 9, with a 15,000 euro prize rewarding the winner, whose work will be digitized in e-reader format and recorded as an audio book for extensive distribution.

And now, the story behind Orange:

ORANGE : A Brand Real People Buy

Big businesses. User-UNfriendly. Highly competitive marketplaces. A well-known corporate names launching a high tech company in the UK reinvented the way business was done, building its brands on customer-focused promises. A mobile phone service and an online bank “for the rest of us” demanded a new way of doing business and a brand name that reflected the user-friendly, every day use this business wanted to encourage.

Once upon a time, it was vital to create a name that said what you did: International Business Machines. Others have found it favorable to create names that mean nothing – Xerox – building the brand name to stand for a category.

Hutchinson Whampoa’s Orange (the mobile phone service) rapidly became the quintessential customer-friendly brand. With this“silly names,” Hutchinson Whampoa built a strong brand with a huge, loyal and affluent customer base.

In 1993, the mobile phone market in the UK was a competitive, noisy market. Customer perception was that mobile phones were for drug sellers, used-car dealers and yuppies. Like in the U.S., distinctions among companies were deliberately unclear, promotions focused on specs few understood and various service packages served to confuse the customers and belied the true expense in using a cellular service.

Hong Kong-based Hutchinson Whampoa intended to launch its mobile phone service in July of that year under the name Microtel. As the 4th entrant into the market, the company had adopted a “me-too” attitude, positioning its $1 billion plus investment as “just as good as” the other cellular services. UK-based Wolff-Olins, appointed to create a brand identity for the new service, produced research which showed the market was unfriendly, restrictive and had no customer focus – recommending to Hutchinson that it drop the sound-alike name and positioning and give the business a new personal dimension.

Wolff-Olins convinced Hutchinson that it must deliver a mobile phone service “for the rest of us,” in the same way that Apple brought us Macintosh and Saturn changed the way we think about buying cars. Defining a brand position called “It’s my phone,” the brand personality needed to be straightforward, refreshing, dynamic, honest and friendly…a far cry from the actual consumer experience with mobile service.

Although a sacrifice for Hutchinson, it brought the promise of the brand’s personality to life with features like not rounding up to the next minute. In order to find a name that made the personality and promise transparent, the name-creation process focused on the idea of warmth and friendliness, deciding on the color Orange.

Not the fruit Orange, but the color Orange. The color of warmth, the color of energy, the color of dawn – and importantly, a color that “read” well in every culture. At first resistant to such a “silly” name (“Silly?,” responded Wolff Olins, “like Caterpillar? Silly like Bird’s Eye?”), Hutchinson has embraced the name throughout its world.

When asked whether they would like to have dinner with the Chairman of Microtel or the Chairman of Orange, focus group customers resoundingly validated the friendly and dynamic nature of the name. The personality was carried through to the environment, to advertising, and to the website.

Although Orange was a service brand, black phones with a tiny orange square prompted customers to begin saying “I’ll ring you on my Orange.” The friendly brand identity won loyalty, persuading customers to stay on board while service was expanded to catch up to other services. Within two years, Orange had 500,000 customers, the highest revenue per customer in the market, and the lowest churn rate. The brand went from 0 – 45% spontaneous recognition in 10 weeks and to 70% unprompted awareness in two years.
Adding the brand-appropriate promotions the (now prestigious) Orange Prize for Fiction, Orange’s Chief Executive said: “Orange is a philosophy and knowledge-led organization, committed to innovation …where better does intellect and imagination meet than through books?”

Orange’s website calls it “A local brand, a universal idea” – proudly “Delivering our service to almost 90 million people around the world: The future’s bright. The future’s Orange.”

Turbo Tax Does the Hula

By now you have guessed that I watch tv alot. It is usually on on my second screen when I am working ...

That being said, this is just a short comment on how Barack's Hawaiian roots will influence everything. On one of the Turbo Tax ads there is a small Hawaiian Hula dashboard figure. (It's subtle, but it's Hawaii).

CBS Tries to Steal Obama's Mojo

Taking the colors and the cue from Shepard Fairey, and the slogan from Obama's campaign ("Yes We Can - in case you don't remember, CBS has shamelessly created promotional spots for

shows like Two and a Half Men and How I Met Your Mother, as well as doing a rip off of the campaign logo for itself.

In marketing, this is called an import strategy, where you take the characteristics of something else and literally import them into your product. Some times it works (Air Jordan). But this time it didn't.

On the one hand, it was irresistible -- everyone else is doing it -- on the other hand, it was slimey. The other hand wins.

Bluebooks Be Gone!

"A Different School of Thought." This is the phrase, or themeline, or one of them anyway, of Kaplan University. I hesitate to send you to their online site, because it is so far away in quality from the fantastic commercial they are running on television.

Asking apt questions about education -- all of which start with "Who said education ..." the commercial's principal stars are old time school desks, empty, stacked cheek to jowl in empty rooms, closing doorways. They are in paths along mountainsides, lining up on the roads.

The point is obvious, and they make it well. The internet has changed the world in so many ways. Digital natives and digital immigrants alike can learn what they want, any time, any where!

When Co-Branding Doesn't Work

Campbell's -- soup is good food Campbell's -- the king of canned soup -- the soul of oven-baked chicken -- the sine qua non of excuses to eat Ritz crackers has made a terrible blunder.

In an effort to communicate "vegetable goodness (I am guessing here) they have combined with

V-8 to create soups where V-8 gets the lead and Campbell's is the follow-on. This is definitely not progress-o-ive.

I will be monkey's uncle if these soups succeed. V-8 is the drink whose brand is based on apology for what it is (or isn't)...as in I am really sorry you put V-8 on your soup, Campbell's.

An Email You Can't Answer

is not communication.

I don't know when it will happen, but it will happen sooner or later.

Groupies (like me, I admit it) who signed up for Ekhardt Tolle's giant online seminar and didn't watch it will eventually get fed up by emails from Oprah with the salutation, Dear Gloria ...Oprah wants to know (fill in the blank).

This is also true of the post-Presidential campaign -- which CNN's John King says DavidPlouffe and his ilk are going to turn into a "powerful governing tool."

For a while, it was a thrill to be part of some famous person's social network, chatroom or whatever. But now, or very soon, these unanswerable emails will be regarded as the spam that they are.

I hope the President will consider just posting the stuff on his website and all of us would know to go there if we wanted the info ... really, we would.

Email was the first digital communication tool --- so maybe it's time to move on.

Another Hawaii First

One thing about Hawaii, we like to be first. We were the first to pass the equal rights amendment, and are proud that Title IX got renamed after our own Patsy Mink who worked like crazy to pass it.

Lately, we have become somewhat amiss about firsts, and we have fallen into the trap of going along with the crowd.

However, 2009 brings with it another first: Hawaii television went all digital on January 15, almost a month ahead of the nation. The reason we did it was because of the nesting patterns of the endangered dark-rumped petrel -- which lives on Haleakala where many of the analog towers were.

This brought us to the attention of Rachel Madow, who covered the item on her show -- as she said -- so she could say the word "rumped" on tv.

Who Sponsors Chris Paul's Underarms?

I first became aware of the phrase "Man Stink" when a deodorant boldly mentioned it in a commercial. Next thing I knew, another deodorant was proudly claiming sponsorship of Chris Paul's armpits.

For those of you who don't know, "Man Stink" is the slang speak answer to "The Scent of a Woman." Kidding. Sort of. Chris Paul is a New Orleans Hornets superstar, and we picture him here with his arm pit.

This is good news for celebrities because they can now have body parts sponsored and get more money: J Lo's butt by Victoria's Secret and her breasts by Bali.

If you're not sure, this is not branding. But it is a stupid import strategy.

Island Shut Down By Mythical Windstorm

It was HECO's fault. Not because they didn't handle the electricity when we were expecting winds and waves with 40 foot faces, but because they have no redundancy and the island went completely black for a good many hours while the President elect was visiting. Five lightning stirkes on the Kahe Power Plant? Give me a break.

So when the "big" storm was coming our way, schools were cancelled, government offices were closed and we were urged to stay off the roads. In case you missed it, this wasn't about the wind: it was because everyone was afraid HECO couldn't handle the challenge of wind and rain.

On television, HECO repeatedly reminds us that if we follow them, they will lead us into a bright energy future. This is a completely unbelievable "promise."

HECO is a weak brand -- with both a weak brand reality and a declining brand perception. How low can they go?

Obama is Own Economic Stimulus

It's not just the hawkers and Montel Williams, every has gotten in on the act of selling the President.

If you happened to have given $$ to Obama's incessant email campaign (I did), then you got an invitation in gold leaf to the inauguration. Regrettably, it did not include tickets, as it did for some, but there was a comparatively small, cheaply printed brochure offering the opportunity to buy Presidential Memorabilia. David Plouffe and his guys have gone a bit too far this time. The President selling his own stuff?!

In .20 seconds, Google could turn up 30,900,000 items for "Barack Stuff." The always-ready-to-capitalize-on-whatever-IT-is cafepress.com has "everything imaginable." Even Stuben got in on the act with a limited edition of 44 $7500 crystal display plates. The guy who bought Obama's Chrysler 360c put it up on E-Bay for $100,000.

Okay. I love Barack. We've been his fans since I was a permanent substitute in his fifth grade class. If other people make money off him, good for them -- it will help the banks when they deposit their earnings -- but please, David Plouffe -- no more merchandising of the President, unless you're sending the money to someone who needs it.

As the President would say "Look. It's just not my brand."

The campaign took in $750 million -- enough to pay the New York Yankees payroll for four years. Enough already.