Bon Brand

For some time I have subscribed to the Blogstorm blog and I find the updates keep me on my toes. They have just commented on Google’s new Freshness rankings as follows:-

‘The freshness update is like an enhanced version of the QDF algorithm. QDF applied to searches that were trending whereas the freshness update applies to searches where a user is likely to need new information.
Brands

The big losers in this update are going to be brands. Anybody who has carried out a reputation management campaign knows that the golden rule is to first move the negative listings down to page 2 and then to take over the brands landscape with strong pages that are hard to shift – sub-domains, twitter pages, wikipedia pages and facebook pages are all good examples of pages that can keep negative results on page 2.

This worked fine in the past (unless there was a huge story that triggered the QDF algorithm) but now that Google is continually surfacing fresh stories the task of reputation management gets a lot harder.’ Read the rest of the article or sign up for their twitter and RSS feed

I’m Feeling Lucky: The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59 by Douglas Edwards

Start ups is an information site for new SME’s that I subscribe too. Sara Dunwell of social enterprise Create has just posted an article entitled ‘What Makes a Great Brand?’ and given us her views. Above is a table of great leading brands that you may recognise.

But what do you think makes a great brand?    Let us know via the comments!

The first essential I believe is a great business operated in a business model that delivers great customer product and service.

Interbrand who create and manage brand value by making the brand central to the business’s strategic aims offer these ideas on the essentials of a Great Brand.

1. A compelling idea that delivers a unique customer experience from a distinct position

2. A resolute core purpose and supporting values. It must hold true to values and purpose

3. A central organizational principle. The brand position, purpose and values are employed as management levers to guide decision-making.

4. An ability to stay relevant.

Beating The Branding Trap for SME’s

SME’s and OMB are often caught in a branding trap. They need quick results from scarce resources yet are on a steep learning curve about many business issues.

What is the Branding Trap

• Too little money available for a small, young company to invest heavily in Branding.
• Scarcity of skilled people to implement branding.
• Tendency to invest in brand image over substance. A nice logo and brand distinctiveness are important but they can hardly make a brand.
• Too little time and competing demands on owners efforts.
• Lack of market knowledge and customer research.
• Assumption that an internet presence will bring customers to the enterprise with no more effort.

SME’s can not compete with large mulitnational brands by copying and emulating. They need a new approach to Branding for SME’s that is appropriate for their circumstances.

Overcome the Branding Trap

• Time spent conceptualising, and planning is usually well spent. Don’t rush the first fence.
• Consistency and repetition are important in getting a brand into the subconscious of the customer. Too many companies change their logo, image and even name within a few years of starting business.
• SME’s can be innovative, flexible and ‘off the wall’ when it comes to promotion. One fast food business used radio to ask customers to tear out all yellow pages Pizza ads and bring them into their place for a free Pizza (and a sticker of their contact details.) Branding Strategies
• Put the customer first – that means knowing all about your customers both actual and potential.
• Working on a tight budget can produce some of the best pound for pound results.
• Use PR, for example a web blog may be more powerful than your static web site.
• Invest your networking efforts with ‘The Eagles not with the Turkeys.’

Further Study and Case Review

Students of branding/marketing and SME owners will find much to applaud in this full research paper on SME brand building.

Source from Martine Spence, Leila Hamzaoui Essoussi, (2010) “SME brand building and management: an exploratory study”, European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 44 Iss: 7/8, pp.1037 – 1054




Key Lessons

• The SME founders’ values and beliefs set the tone for the core competencies to be developed and transmitted through brand identity.
• Entrepreneurs need to be aware that their public image may reflect consumers’ perception of their firms.
• SME brands need a focused and integrated communication strategy.
• SME’s should take a creative approach to brand strategies.
• The study emphasizes the use of strong brand associations by SMEs.
• There is a fount of knowledge available but owner managers must resolve to use the parts that are key to their business




The European Journal of Marketing is available via Emerald Group Publishing Limited and the option to rent this and other articles for less than $4 is available via Emerald’s link to Deepdyve.



DeepDyve is an online rental service for scientific and technical reports that has aggregated millions of articles from leading peer-reviewed journals. A brand to watch and a useful tool for students.

No prizes for guessing who owns these brands! However it may come as a surprise to learn that many of them and lots of the related sub-brands will die in the near future. (The terms Marc Boland uses are amalgamate, integrate and move from labels to stand out brands as he tries to rationalise the portfolio)

Blue Harbour                                       North Coast.
Collezione                                            Limited Collection
Autograph.                                          Classic
Indigo Collection                                 Per Una
Nearly Naked                                       Portfolio

‘The M&S brand is one of their strongest assets….   they will shortly be promoting  ‘Only at Your M&S’ … and say they will then develop the identities of our sub-brands – and  for the first time launch brand advertising.’

Watch this space or watch out for spaces.

Corporate activity has long driven the city in it’s quest for profit. With many cash rich companies (yes there are some) the banks would like to see a feast of bids and deals.
Previous bun fights over brands have not always been to the benefit of brand owners but there are several interesting ‘deals on the table’ at the moment.

Asda and Farmfood would like to gobble up Iceland.
The Co-operative Group are looking to bank on a bid for some Lloyds Bank branches.
Boots think that Healthcare at Home will be the right medicine for them.
British Airways will be flying high if they buy British Midland from Lufthansa.

If these deals go through there will be lots of money for the supplychain who will rebrand the newly acquired assets on behalf of the new owners. Shop fitters, printers, and umpteen service companies stand to gain along with the funders and dealers.

Why do retailers use shopping malls or out of town parks? For the same reason technology businesses work well in science parks and banks (formerly) worked in the high street.

Innovation and new companies need a support network and York and other centres have a tool kit to help. Funded by tax payers use it or loose it or at least check what help is available.

Young women’s businesses need help with funding just like other new business activities. Dermalogica’ founder Jane Wurwand has recognised this after she couldn’t get a $10,000 loan to start her now world famous skin care business.

Partnering with Kiva.org and establishing Fite, 25,000 microloans will be available to women worldwide through Financial Independence and Entrepreneurship. Join Fite or check out for more information.

Your brand and business will never get off the ground without enough start up funding.
More about Fite

‘Fite’s mission is to provide women entrepreneurs access to small loans that will help them start or grow a business; and to help educate the public at large about the benefits of empowering women entrepreneurs so that they “can hold up their half of the sky.”

‘Dermalogica, the world’s preeminent professional skin care brand, is the founding partner for FITE, and has invested all the research and development to make FITE possible. From supporting creation of the platform, to being the first partner to create a retail connection with its FITE products, to rallying its tribe of over 100,000 successful women entrepreneurs worldwide to join FITE, Dermalogica has helped make the vision of FITE a reality.

We hope more brands will join us! FITE is an open platform, where any company, organization or individual who wants to active change for women and communities can get involved, make a measureable impact, and be recognized for their work.’

Imitation can be a sincere form of flattery. This Wetherspoon Public house pays tribute to the Two Ronnies.

If your business is an imitation then you need to understand the rules about passing off. The law related to passing off is designed to prevent one person from misrepresenting his or her goods or services as being the goods and services. Passing off is a common law tort that protects unregistered trade marks, goodwill & reputation.

If you believe your trademarks or brand are being Passed Off by others then common law protection is your main course of action.

The headline may be a bit unfair as Brand-Fusion seems to have European leading golf brand wholesale distribution ‘in the bag.’ (Sun Mountain Golf Bags – H2NO).

Logo changes may be needed for mature B2B brands who need to be more attractive on the web and I think the new colour scheme works better than the B&W version above.
Above Par and potentially a golfing brand classic, putt it down to a slice of luck off the Tee.

Swoosh

The swoosh is probably one of the most used of logo design shapes according to Biz-Logo.com:
‘After all, no other shape conveys motion quite like a swoosh. Our advice is to select a swoosh logo that stands out from the rest. The more unusual or unexpected it is, the more it will rise above the noise and the more it will help differentiate your company.’ Well that is telling Nike!

While most people would regard the symbol as a tick or check mark, the ‘Nike swoosh’ was inspired by the flight of the Greek goddess Nike, who was the winged goddess of victory. Appropriate for the London Olympics 2012 we hope!

The OED defines Swoosh as make a noise with the sound of rushing air or water.

In logo speak Swoosh has become virtually any curved graphic line but in case you were unsure the Clic linked, Glamorgan based website, supported by the Welsh Assembly Government adds the word to the deed. see above

For some successful and less so logos look at these efforts from eNormicom

Music rings the tills for HMV, no more so than at the Hammersmith Apollo. 8 store Fopp have also been bought.

Waterstones, HMV’s book retailing high street brand had problems with  ‘It’s Supply Chain’ and online competition despite the demise of Borders. The founder of the Daunt Books chain has been parachuted in to Waterstone’s as its new managing director it seems he is breathing new life into Waterstone’s.

Your supply chain is a key intellectual asset. Mismanage or ignore these assets and you get what you deserve.
Let us hope Waterstone’s performance picks up because customers want the vast variety of books displaying as well as being available online.

Tesco and M&S

If it was ever in doubt that people make a brand then look at M&S this week. After poaching Laura Wade-Gery from Tesco the shares in M&S jumped considerably £214m by one estimate.

Part of this personal brand value is generated by a reassessment of M&S prospects from online retailing. Laura Wade-Gery was chief executive at Tesco.com and Tesco Direct. When the dust settles she will become Executive Director ‘Multi-channel e-commerce’ for M&S.

Tesco will not miss Ms Wade-Gery as much as one may expect as she had recently been moved to head up the non-food division. It would be interesting to know what Sir Terry Leahy thinks about all this moving about but then again…..

In 2010 Volvo was bought by the Chinese company Geely ( yes really!).

Now it may be the turn of Saab who have been offered a bail-out from creditor protection by Pang Da and Youngman.
As with many deals there are regulatory and corporate approvals to negotiate. In this case the Chinese authorities have to give approval of the takeover. The current creditors General Motors and the European Investment Bank also have a say. Ah so!

The Chinese do not need to bail out the Euro as they have the dollar funds and balance of trade surplus to continue buying heritage brands like Saab and Volvo!

Skoda No Joke Now

At one time Skoda was the butt of many a oneliner. Eversince the link with VW the quality and performance has totally reversed that position.

This example show that good alliances and partnerships can materially enhance your business. Fly with the Eagles not with the Turkeys.

Which motor manufacturer and retailer comes first in logo design.

• Mazda’s logo bears an uncanny resemblance to another motor car brand that skips my mind.
• Mitsubishi has 3 red rhomboids which exudes no class as far as I am concerned.
• Mazda combines the image at this garage with an MOT station logo.
• Mitsubishi has the strong red backboard to give a 3D effect.
• Both garages sat next to one another in York. If I was awarding prizes for impact on me personally I would opt for Mazda as the window displayed further enticement and the clean white cars first attracted me to the combined garages.

I have never driven either motor much less owned one so I may be a poor judge.

Young start up businesses have many calls on their financial resources but it is often a good investment for SME’s to register their trademark.

SME’s can do the search and registration themselves for low cost. Alternatively entry level support is available from Trade Mark agents and most Patent agents.

Jaguar and Trademarks

Is it a Car?
Is it a Cat?
Is it a Plane?
No it is Superman pop group with many CD’s to there name

Trademarks are awarded in 35 goods classes and 11 service classes so you need to apply for a class that fits your product. The Intellectual Property Office has a list of classes and web guidance.

I dare not use an image from Nestlé as they are firm in stating ‘All trademarks and other intellectual property appearing on their web-site are owned by Société des Produits Nestlé S.A.’ but I am sure you know which condensed milk I would be talking about. Nestlé have registered the trademark Carnation in 9 of the 46 classes for trademarking in the UK.

Carnation® Footcare as it implies are cornplaster makers par excellence.
Then there is The British National Carnation Society which needs no trademarking but takes me back to the photograph.

Ebay July 2008
All is not doom for the Ebay lawyers as they defend the right to sell designer brands without investigating the provenance. Last week they lost to LMVH in France and are appealing against a $62m fine. LVMH had charged that eBay’s French division hadn’t moved aggressively enough to prevent knockoffs of several of its brands, including Louis Vuitton, Dior, Guerlain, Givenchy, and Kenzo.

Today the Daily Telegraph and New York Sun report the online auction site, has won an important legal victory over Tiffany, which sued it over the sale of counterfeit goods. Following a four-year court action by the jeweller, a New York judge ruled that luxury goods manufacturers must police their trademarks on the Internet and not rely on auctions sites to do it for them.