Seth Hosko | Brand=Experience

One of my favorite pieces of work this year, this gives substance to JW’s KEEP WALKING campaign.

KEEP WALKING has always been one of my favorite lines. The first time I saw it was years before I could even drink, but it left an impression on me. No features, no benefits, just a why.

Why? To continuously keep doing what you do. Unwavering, without changing, with dignity. Brands that continually answer the why keep me doing exactly what they promote. When I think of Red Bull, I want to ski hard. When I think of Nike, I push myself to run that extra mile. 

When your brand answers the why, what you do becomes the reason for why. The product takes a supporting role - and rules out all substitutes.

Keep Walking. Thanks Johnny, will do.

Here’s the question: 

How could JW move themselves deeper into communicating the why? Could JW move forward with campaigns that appropriately up their why in context when called for? When we are looking for inspiration, for times that demand more from us?

Financial meltdown? Keep Walking.

Post-Katrina New Orleans? Keep Walking.

Delivered lightly (perhaps like Ketel One’s advertisements), this works.

What do you think? Can JW make their brand stronger with this idea? 

Finding brand triggers in a jar of tomato sauce.

And process design brings those details to life.

SAAB USA drops “Born From Jets” and changes to the international tagline, “Move Your Mind”.

Saab is one of my favorite (undeveloped) brands, and I couldn’t be happier. Made From Jets sucked. It was loud and was successful in the beginning, but empty. It spoke nothing of Saab’s true heritage - innovation.

Move Your Mind keeps the tagline the same across other markets, and its true to the brand’s DNA. What do you think?

edit: Saab is also free of GM, now owned by swedish supercar manufacturer, Koenigsegg. Hopefully a sign of things to come.

While individuals are positioning themselves as thought leaders and community builders, shouldn’t the agencies be doing more?

Last night, I asked the twitter community about agency blogs and why they don’t comment. Here are some responses I got:

@Anita_Lobo Boring content. No effort to engage with commenters. ‘We’re so big/well-known no comment on blog doesn’t affect our biz’ mindset

@Marcus_Andrews Excellent point. People comment on your blog when you comment on theirs and have a connection with them that an agency cant have.

@TDubb Most are little more than advertisements. They should focus on incite to the Co. and the daily inter-workings. In my opinion.

Are agencies being social enough? Do they even care, or do they think their portfolio and the ‘half effort’ is good enough?

Ambition = Respect.

This video is a quick rant about Bob Lutz challenging any car maker to race him in a CTS-V (500-some hp), and how this has created a huge opportunity for any less competitive car brand (I chose Saab and their Aero-X w/ 280hp, but one of the best AWD systems on the market).

Why? Because the CTS-V has already won. None of the cars that could beat the V are competing. Therefore, if Saab entered, no one would be suprised when they lost, but everyone would be suprised that they showed up when no one else did. The Saab would be the bigger story here. Ambition=respect.

GM recently sold Saab to the Swedish supercar company Konigsegg, which has big ambitions to properly give Saab the resources the ambitious car company needs to compete in its marketplace. GM and Bob Lutz never did that - in fact they sucked all the brand out of Saab and almost killed it.

Putting Saab on this highly visable stage now would be a huge opportunity to show that the carmaker is serious about performance, at a time when no one expects it. As long as the Saab didn’t fall apart or have a dismal finish, it would be brand visibility on a stage where it would shock everyone and be a very positive publicity stunt for Saab.

When every other premium car company is chickening out, it would be so refreshing to see a brand like Saab step up and take on a challenge like this. Even though they wouldn’t win, it would make a refreshing point.

QUESTION: If you were Saab, would it be a good move to put yourself on this stage?

Bluecoat Gin - All the pieces of a great brand.

Apple Can Do Better Building Their Brand Equity

I wonder if you’ll find Smart cars in their brand book..

Ikea just recently announced that they have changed their typeface from a customized version of Futura to… Verdana?!?!?  WHAT!?!? Ingvar Kamprad, how could you let this happen?

The first obvious question is..well..why would they do that? Ikea’s Ivana Hrdlickova says the main reason for the switch was to allow the company to use the same typeface in all countries (current Ikea typefaces do not contain Asian characters, for example). Being that Verdana was designed for the web, it also allows the company’s image to remain consistent online and in print. (via designhotels.com).

Ikea, honestly, I’m appalled and upset. You take a unique typeface that you owned, and was completely unique to you, and throw it away. Instead you replace it with a generic typeface that everyone uses. Hey Ivana, an excuse that its “easier to use” may have some validity to it, but its not worth it. You threw away part of their identity when you made the switch.

How? Because everything that is part of a brand, defines that brand. Ikea owned the modified Futura font. We didn’t associate it with anything else. When we saw that font, we knew it was Ikea, even if it didn’t blatantly say so. The emotions and thoughts that we had when viewing Ikea’s unique font identified itself as Ikea and no one else.

A great example of this in use is Snickers. Take away the name, and you still know what brand it is because of the typeface. 

It’s a Snickers ad, but no had to tell you.

On the other side, Verdana is one of the most generic and used typefaces on the internet. It has no identity. Sure, it may be clean, but whatever thoughts and emotions derived from viewing it, you can’t own. I look at Verdana type and I see Target, Better Homes and Gardens, or some other magazine… and I don’t even know if they use Verdana. Point is, it has no identity. Verdana is so strong that there is no way that Ikea can “own” it and infuse its own brand into it. It will always be generic and without identity, and Ikea has decided to take away the unique identity of their typeface and replace it with something that is valueless. 

What good is it to expand your brand into bigger markets if you destroy the brand along the way?

A shame, really.

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