A logo forms the base of a company’s quest for success. Successful logo design is that pointed weapon, which enables a company to draw the attention of its market. You must have seen a logo of a company, which then gets printed on its every subsequent product. In short it becomes the hallmark of that company. This is called branding of the logo. It is considered as the symbol of excellence for that particular brand. Many a times, we identify a product belonging to a particular company by the logo printed on it. This is why branding of a logo is so critical. It helps the company to create a niche for itself in the minds of the people.

Many a times, there are separate logos created by the same company for its different products. A sub-logo is created, which gets associated with a product and the product is identified by that particular logo. This can be illustrated by taking the example of a company which uses logo branding to an excellent effect…

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Our innovative technology has definitely played an important role in keeping this design trend fresh; this is due to the rise of the iPhone and hipstamic app along with instagram. You do not need to be a professional photographer to take wonderful images with a delicate vintage and retro touch. The popularity and demand for faux vintage photography has helped to stabilise this trend in today’s community.

Print adverts have also played a large part in stabilises this trend, we have been highly influenced from the print adverts of the past. The outdated cassette players, milk bottles and cars remind us of a time when things weren’t so fast paced and busy as they are now. The nostalgic value vintage print adverts hold are priceless.  Using this trend in logo design exports viewers back and reminds them that what is old is new again. An emotional attachment is created that adds an element of trust to your brand.

Although it appears a lot of people are using this trend today there are many ways you can make your logo design unique. Blend your vintage theme in with modern effects, this will create an edgy feel and instantly catch a viewer’s eye. Experiment with colour and typography, there are many free resources available that can help you…

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A couple of weeks ago the video below popped up in my Facebook news feed, and I think it’s one of the best examples of engaging social media use I’ve seen.

It’s clever, genuinely funny, and, that word again, engaging. Also, these guys are pretty big stars (even outside of the NZ rugby bubble), so to get them to sit down and be filmed was some achievement. Granted, a couple of them are slightly wooden on camera, but they all seem keen to get involved and thank their fans, as personally as they can. I also don’t think it would be unreasonable to suggest that by getting the players so intimately involved, they would better understand the passion of their supporters, perhaps adding an extra % of effort to their sporting endeavours…

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Being somewhat of a music and technology nerd, I follow several blogs that keep pace with what’s happening in the industry. I can’t remember exactly where, but in browsing one of those sites a few years ago I ran across this marketing video from a company called Tune Up Media (1):

They happened to be running a discount promotion at the time, so in an extremely rare instance for me, I acted on their message, went to the website, and purchased their product. I tried it out, it worked as advertised, and I was one happy camper. Afterwards I found myself thinking:

“That was easy, and everyone benefitted. They got my money and I got exactly what I needed.”

It was shocking how simple the whole process of marketing seemed…

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It’s a good thing the game between the NFL’s New England Patriots and the New York Giants was exciting because this year’s Super Bowl commercials were dull, and what a weird thing to say about the Super Bowl. Generally, it’s the very opposite of that.

Perhaps it’s best not to read too much into Super Bowl ads vying for viral buzz (many of which adopted a new pre-game, social media preview approach to generate buzz, albeit some have argued it was poorly done). But there was one thing that stood out.

In a noticeable departure from the tradition of Super Bowl Sunday, this year’s crop of ads lacked courage. They took no risks. They pushed no boundaries. They defied no expectations. Truth be told, they were gutless.

These are harsh words, but others have expressed similar disappointment with this year’s Super Bowl ads, including Stuart Elliott, The New York Times’trenchant observer of advertising, who wrote in his column the day after the game about the “dearth of originality” in this year’s assortment of ads.

Why so little daring and audacity? Now, rarely is looking from the outside in on the business motives and creative objectives of advertisers a useful way of dissecting advertising decisions. Yet, what was seen on air points unambiguously to the things that advertisers felt comfortable doing, things that hint at their intentions. More specifically, advertisers felt safest recycling the sorts of themes, humor, characters, plot twists and surprise endings that were inventive the first time out in years past. Some of these ads even made direct reference to past ads (or other past pop culture). It was a night of commercials that, in effect, imagined the future as a salvage project of things bygone.

Of course, you won’t. When George Will goes to a baseball game, it’s a religious experience. Me, I don’t even like baseball. Or maybe it’s my nephew’s ball game (the playoffs), or maybe going to the game causes me to miss an important event, and on and on.

We label the experience with just two words, and two words can’t possibly capture the emotions and circumstance surrounding an event.

The same thing is true with brands. If I tell you that a new business was funded by USV, that might mean something to you, or not. Or if someone asks you to pay extra for a brand you trust, that’s stuck with you through thick and thin, that might be an easy sale. It certainly won’t be if your experiences with that label/brand/company are negative ones.

As soon as we put a word on it, we’ve started to tell a story, a caricature, a version of the truth but not the whole truth.

The label removes us from reality. It takes us away from the actual experience. But do we have any choice?

How else can I get you started down the path to understanding me and my life and my schedule and my projects… labels are just about the best thing available to us.

A well-written book, then, is far more powerful than a blog post, because the book can take more time to get the labels right, to help you see what the author means. Five minutes of a movie is probably more powerful than five minutes reading a book because the tropes of a movie (the soundtrack, the lighting, the dialogue) are capable of delivering more accurate labels if the director is any good.

When there’s a disagreement, it’s almost always over the interpretation of labels. When you think your job title or your purchase order or your reservation means something because of how it’s labeled, you’ll end up in conflict if you’re trying to work with someone who interprets those labels differently.

The key is in placing the blame where it belongs–on the labels, not on the individuals who are stuck. Get clear about the labels, clear about the promises and what they mean, and you’re far more likely to generate satisfaction.

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It seems that their aspiration to become the new digital printing specialist, and their strategy to sell printers, even without making any money on them, to later gain profits on the sale and servicing of inks and parts, seems to have over stretched them somewhat and they are now trying to shed assets they can spare.

Loosing that Kodak moment

It may now cost them dearly that they did not focus more on increasing their brand value – more than 10 years ago, branding specialist Interbrand ranked Kodak number 16 of the most valuable brands in the world, estimated to be worth around $14.8 billion. Since then, the Kodak brand has fallen in both rank and value. 4 years ago it no longer appeared in the top 300 list with an estimated value of only $3.3 billion.

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“A fauxgo (fake logo) is a symbol or other small design created to represent a fictional company or organization that exists only on film.” – Fauxgo.com

Check out their site www.fauxgo.com for more!

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For decades, the decision to be an environmentally and socially responsible company has been based on the bottom line: Would it be profitable? In general, companies have crunched the numbers and chosen shareholder profits over a sufficient commitment to invest in greater social responsibility. In terms of traditional accounting and the legal requirements of corporations, costs always outweighed benefits.

But it now seems that this equation is starting to lean the other way as brands recognize the potential financial and reputational advantages they can gain by engaging with consumers around the shared ambition of building a better world. We can see this already happening among some leading brands such as Pepsi, Google, Nike, Patagonia and Starbucks, who have all earned consumer respect for their involvement in some area of environmental or social responsibility related to their business.

How did this come about? In large part, it is because the payoff for corporate engagement with customers has risen dramatically as a result of social media. The new dynamics between brands and consumers, driven by social media, are proving to be a powerful impetus for change.

It begins with brands recognizing that, in the future, they must position themselves to win customers by offering them a vision of a better world and inviting them to help achieve it by co-creating the brand’s story. As the brand’s customers become loyal fans, they use their social networks to spread the word about that brand, driving even more new fans to join in. This dynamic may have its initial upfront costs, but it pays off in the end through an extended global audience of buyers and fans.

Transforming a brand into a socially responsible leader doesn’t happen overnight by simply writing new marketing and advertising strategies. It takes effort to identify a vision that your customers will find credible and aligned with their values. The company must learn how to engage its consumers with authenticity and transparency, using social media to create a meaningful dialogue. Finally, it must beat back the forces resisting change, including opponents among shareholders and management fighting to preserve short-term rewards for themselves.

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