Ed Delia

05/22: Branding Not Lost, Not Even on the Young

We can learn much from our children, particularly when we are not expecting it. Recently, my 2 ˝ year old daughter reinforced for me the value and effectiveness of the branding services that we offer our clients every day.

Last week, I was driving my twins home from pre-school when I heard an all familiar request from the back seat, “I need a tissue, please.” Being on the highway during commuting time and unable to easily find a tissue, I grabbed the next best thing – a napkin that I had taken from Dunkin’ Donuts earlier that day with my coffee. She took one look at the napkin with its pink and orange logo and said, “Hey, this is for donuts!”

Of course, I was proud of the insight of my little girl. But, it also made me stop and think about the importance of consistent branding that penetrates the market place – a message that we continually reinforce with our clients. Dunkin’ Donuts is, and has always been, consistent with its branding message. The result: not just current consumers, but also the future consumers of today’s youth, think of those delicious donuts when they see that pink and orange logo. A true branding success story!

03/21: Your Customer Just Replaced Your CEO.

The word is out. Advertising in the traditional sense is dying. Some would argue it’s already dead. Interruptive advertising – via TV, radio, Internet or phone – has given rise to as many means to shut out marketing messages as there are to deliver them. Think iPod, TiVo, Do Not Call, and Anti-Spam. All forms of anti-communication. The numbers that many top executives lived by are breaking down as a result. I was just talking with an entrepreneur whose business relied heavily on telemarketing. If his call center made so many dials in a given period of time, they would generate a predictable number of leads. And given the quality of the sales force, they could get a fairly good read on projected numbers.

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01/30: Will Vista Change the World?

I'm not sure, but it's going to be interesting to watch. Bill Gates is doing a bit of country touring in support of the MicroSoft Windows Vista launch. Read article here, and here.

I've heard mixed reviews so far. At the very least, I'm confident the new system will evolve the "fusion" of TV and web. And because I've been thinking about "Brand Fusion" a lot these days, the anouncement gave me a flashback moment:

I was shooting hoops with my brother Mike, a long-time Mac-user and art director. We were talking about the onset of the web and streaming video. He predicted that within 2 years, web and TV would be one, that people would operate both (plus a few other functions) via one standard and centralized device. The year: 1996. A great prediction at the time, but the world seems to be operating at a bit of a slower pace. And while Vista might take us another step toward web+TV fusion, I think we still have a few more years before my brother's prediction is fully realized. In the meantime, any hot stock tips, Mike?

01/26: Great overview Post on the A-B-Cs of Branding for Small Business

The following post at Brand Strategy Insider offers a really good overview for the small business or "niche" brander. Read here. I would add that a healthy pr effort, coupled with online activity, is a powerful "one-two punch" for niche businesses today.

For one, web+pr results in rapid exposure for a relatively low expenditure, compared to other brand awareness and promotional outreach methods. And, more importantly, pr+web is a "fused" category that larger brands sometimes overlook, or spend much less time with in comparison to other marketing. It opens the door for the smaller entity to capture a piece of market share, and take the bigger competitor down a notch.

01/26: The Buzz on the iPhone Buzz

By now everyone has seen the iPhone. Within minutes of its unveiling it was appearing everywhere - both on the web and television. It hadn't even appeared on Apple's site yet, and hundreds of sites were already displaying the photos, taken during Steve Jobs' Keynote speech. During the keynote Apple's stock went up over 8%. Not bad for a product that will not even be available to the public for six months.

Apple rumor sites had be buzzing for quite a while on the iPhone. This in turn helped to fuel more analysts to start talking about the iPhone. Even normally tight lipped Steve Jobs succumbed to the pressure and spilled the beans during a dinner with close friends. And of course the story hit the rumor sites, which just kept buzz growing.

Spiraling almost out of control by the time the product was first displayed, the buzz worked. The unveiling was a huge success. Just shy of 120 million shares of Apple where traded that day, and considering less than 30 million where traded the day before - I'd say the world was watching, not just the old mac fanboys anymore.

The millions of dollars of free advertising this product has already received plus millions more it will undoubtedly received in the months till it launch is very impressive. And so far Apple hasn't spent any of there money to market the product. But everyone is talking about it.

Any new product that gets thrown unto DrudgeReport next to Arnold Schwarzenegger, Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton & Barak Obama has gotten hundreds of thousands of dollars of free press. And it just keeps going.

Parodies are already starting to be made, like "George Bush Sending 20,000 iPhones to Iraq", and many more.

Marketing buzz at its best. At least until the product comes out.