Tag Archives: brand

Award Winning Wine Labels

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It is estimated that there are more than 6,000 wineries in the U.S., another 6,000 in Australia, and over 360 in Canada and each may produce 10 different wines or more.  Add in Europe and South America and you clearly have a very, very crowded market-place.  Even if you decide to purchase through your local wine store, the choice is formidable.  The BC Liquor Stores Product Catalogue, for example, lists 3103 table wines.  If you are one of those wineries, how can you try to ensure prospective customers hear about your wine.
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VTEA a special needs acronym

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Special needs children are associated with a large number of acronyms, both to describe their condition and to identify the different educational opportunities that are available.

One acronym you may not be familiar with is VTEA. That stands for Valley Therapeutic Equestrian Association.  It provides therapeutic horseback riding or hippotherapy to children with special needs.  Given the cost of such therapy, there is a constant search for additional funding so it is important that this charity be as visible as possible.

Those who are familiar with the work of VETA know well the extreme satisfaction that children with special needs have when involved in the VTEA program.  In publicizing these programs, how can this ‘brand’ be best presented.  Does the acronym work or is it better to spell out the full name, Valley Therapeutic Equestrian Association?

Acronyms As Brands

There are many examples of companies and organizations which have decided to downplay their full name and use an acronym in their marketing efforts.  One of the most venerable is that for IBM, or International Business Machines as it was known even some fifty years ago.  Having made the switch there has been no turning back and the acronym IBM is now the only company identification for many years. 

IBM is not the only company that has ditched a longer name in place of a catchy acronym.  Here are some others to test your acronym skills.

  • 3M
  • CVS
  • ESPN
  • CBS
  • DKNY
  • IKEA
  • fcuk
  • BMW
  • AT&T
  • GEICO
  • QVC
  • MGM

These are taken from a company acronym quiz, where you will find any answers you are not sure about.  Why would so many companies go for acronyms?

Acronyms Are Perfect Brand Hooks

Using an acronym provides much more marketing opportunity than just being a shorter way of identifying the company.  Whereas a company name using words may suggest certain associations, the acronym is often almost a set of gibberish symbols.  It brings with it no particular associations and the company can through time build up the associations that the acronym suggests to the average prospect or customer.. 

The other advantage of an acronym, is that it may well be possible to buy the associated domain.  The traditional company name may present all kinds of problems in choosing which domain would be appropriate.  In many cases the company name is so long that it would produce a very inconvenient domain name for visitors who wish to type in the URL address.

IKEA a great example of a brand hook

An IKEA Store along Alexandra Road in Queensto...
Image via Wikipedia

Perhaps the best example of this acronym approach is IKEA.

What does IKEA stand for?  It is not an acronym derived from some long forgotten complex company name.  In fact it stands for Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd.    Ingvar Kamprad was the IKEA founder and he was brought up on a small farm called Elmtaryd close to the small village of Agunnaryd in Sweden.  As you might imagine, IKEA has the various domains associated with that name and this ensures anyone can find the website in any country very rapidly.

Over the years the company has developed a very clear image so that anyone seeing the acronym knows immediately what is on offer.

VTEA may use the brand hook principle

Valley Therapeutic Equestrian Association could well use the full name in its publicity, but the VTEA acronym is much more powerful since the associated domain, vtea.ca, does belong to the organization.  The full name may not be clear to some people since it does not highlight that the service is designed largely for children with special needs.

The advantage of the acronym is that with a little effort it can become the simplest way that people refer to this therapeutic riding service. It can also appear relatively quickly as the top ranking in a search for its name.  For that reason, you can expect to be seeing a lot more of the acronym VTEA in the months to come.

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Alberta Tries Brand Marketing

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It seems only yesterday that Alberta decided that it would no longer be Wild Rose Country.  It has been touting the Alberta Advantage for almost 15 years.

The above web page as of today notes that Alberta has a Tax Advantage, being the first debt-free province in Canada. It also has a bundle of other advantages:

  • a strong and vibrant economy
  • a young, skilled and productive workforce
  • affordable living costs
  • a strong commitment to innovation and knowledge-based progress
  • a highly entrepreneurial and competitive business community
  • a business-friendly province committed to responsible regulation
  • a modern and efficient infrastructure
  • an abundance of natural resources
  • a beautiful natural environment

So why drop the Alberta Advantage slogan.  It apparently has some negative connotations.  Perhaps it is because advantages are often there to be exploited.  Exploitation is certainly a word that has only negative vibes.

Trying to think up a brand for a province is not easy.  After all, the ideal brand instantly conjures up in the mind of your prospect some promise, some ideal solution to needs they may have.  For a whole province, that is a pretty tall order.  Only a few provinces have attempted it.

  • British Columbia – The Best Place On Earth
  • Saskatchewan -  Strong and Steady
  • Manitoba – spirited energy
  • New Brunswick – Be Unique … travel your own path
  • Prince Edward Island – the gentle island

As of today, Alberta has a new corporate message and ad campaign.

alberta brand

In a soft launch at the end of the annual spring convention of the Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties in Edmonton, a video featured sweeping images of the Rockies and the Badlands, along with the new, corporate message.

They are certainly putting some Big bucks behind this new Alberta brand.

Out is the 15-year-old motto: “Alberta Advantage”. In is the more generic and blah: “Freedom to Create. Spirit to Achieve”. Municipal politicians on Wednesday got a sneak peek at Alberta’ new slogan and logo, which will cost the province $25-million over three years.

It is none too soon according to Don Braid: who suggests that the Branding iron is heating up in the nick of time.  The hope is that the New brand will counteract the image of ‘dirty oil’.

The province will be working with industry, educational institutions and various organizations, including municipal politicians, to spread “the good news about Albertans.”  The goal is to attract more tourism and more investment to the province.

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Brand Canada – Aw Shucks

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The headlines this morning point out that Canada’s ‘brand’ second only to Australia’s. That is based on a study by Future Brand, a New York consulting firm who surveyed 2,700 business and leisure travelers to gauge which countries they had visited, which they most wanted to visit and which they would recommend to friends.

For four years now, Canada has been working on its brand with the phrase "Keep Exploring," to show that we offer more than just pretty scenery.  Perhaps it is working. Rina Plapler of Future Brand wrote. "It’s a familiar country to people. It’s familiar, it’s well-liked, it’s safe, it’s seen as family oriented."

Canada Brand International Is also trying to leverage that brand to sell more food around the world.

Canada has a positive image around the world. We’re known to be trustworthy, reliable and competent people. Our land is thought of as pristine, fresh and environmentally friendly. Our food and agriculture products are considered safe, fresh, and natural.

Clearly getting to the top spot will be tough.  The experts on Branding in Canada cite the following difficulties:

  • Canada itself, and what it means to be Canadian, are widely debated but any agreement there might be remains largely unarticulated
  • Canadian brands have not consistently leveraged "Canadian-ness" nor have they created a universal appeal for Canadian attributes and values in corporate, product and service branding
  • The Canadian character does not lend itself to bold communications

That is perhaps why another study by renowned national branding experts, the Anholt-GfK Roper Nation Brands Index, puts Canada at only the number four position with Germany as number one.

nbi country brand hexagon

Their index is based on a survey in which respondents from across 20 major developed and developing countries are asked to rate their agreement with statements about each nation. The statements cover six categories: Exports, Governance, Culture, People, Tourism and Immigration/Investment. The NBI ranking is based on the average of these six scores.

Germany is viewed as the best overall "brand”, receiving the highest ranking of the 50 nations measured. The full listing of the top twenty is as follows:

1. Germany
2. France
3. United Kingdom
4. Canada
5. Japan
6. Italy
7. United States
8. Switzerland
9. Australia
10. Sweden 		11. Spain
12. Netherlands
13. Norway (tie)
14. Austria (tie)
15. Denmark
16. Scotland
17. New Zealand
18. Finland
19. Ireland
20. Belgium

Clearly the time for Aw Shucks is over.  Canada needs to continue to speak out but at least we seem to be making progress.

Books that may be of interest

Ikonica:
A Field Guide to
Canada’s Brandscape Jeanette Hanna

Brand Innovation Manifesto:
How to Build Brands,
Redefine Markets and
Defy Conventions John Grant

The Global Brand:
How to Create and Develop
Lasting Brand Value
in the World Market Nigel Hollis

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There Is No Space In Brand

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Keep It Simple, Simon
KISS

Focus, focus, focus as Peter Drucker would have said. Andy Sernovitz, the word of mouth guru, puts it another way: There’s no “and” in “brand”.

Here’s why it doesn’t work:

  • You can’t sell it. Your sales material can’t convince people that you’re the best at A–and, by the way, you also do B. Not believable.
  • You’ll never be the go-to guy. People call Andy Sernovitz for word of mouth advice. They call Guy Kawasaki for startup advice. Until you are the obvious answer to “I need to call ___” you’ll just be one of hundreds of random names.
  • You’ll never get referrals. Your friends and clients don’t know what to say about you.

It is also true that if humans have a problem with your brand then search engine robots will have an even bigger problem. You must own your brand on the Internet. In practical terms that means when you Google it, you come up first.

Building on Andy’s idea there is also no space in brand. In other words it’s one word. That is important in branding too. Stick with a brand that is a single word and you will avoid a great many problems on the Internet. Allen Adamson of BrandSimple leads by example here. He believes strongly in simple brands but his brand is BrandSimple. I guess he reversed the words because SimpleBrand was already taken. His blog is worth exploring for further ideas on this. Quite rightly his attention is now much more on digital brands and you can guess the name of his next book. BrandDigital of course. I assume DigitalBrand was already taken too, but by now perhaps reversing the words is a kind of trademark for him.

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Island of White Rock

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If the Island of White Rock as a brand is not sitting easy with the general populace, it appears that the White Rock BC Council may be having equal difficulties, according to the Peace Arch News. The Whisper presentation in open council ? which was to happen in May ? is to be rescheduled to take place sometime in July. Whisper is the brand strategy consultant from California who suggested this as a brand.

There are other White Rock islands

Another strike against the brand is that others got there first. In the state of Hidalgo some 100 kms northeast of Mexico City and about 50 kms east of the pyramids at Teotihuacan, there is a 16th century Franciscan monastery spectacularly sited on a huge former pyramid dedicated to the chief Aztec deity Huitzilopochtli and designated the “Island of White Rock“.
White Rock Island
Another White Rock Island is currently the subject of a dispute between Malaysia and Singapore in The International Court of Justice at The Hague. This piece of bird-whitened rock (also called Pedra Branca or Batu Putih) is located at the east-side entrance to Singapore.

Nearer home, an islet lying in San Pedro Channel off Southern California is also called White Rock Island. Its undisputed owner is now Mrs. Helen K. Morton of San Francisco. It is located under the lee of Santa Catalina Island and consists of two acres of level tableland formed of whitish rock, sheering out of the sea and covered only with stunted growth.

Owning the brand on the Internet

The real test of whether a brand works is whether Google acknowledges it. So what turns up if you do a Google search for White Rock Island?

Someone is going to be very happy. #1 on the list currently is Bob White Masonry, of Rock Island, IL. Clearly finding a brand that will really perform for White Rock, BC seems to be more complex than one might have thought.

Related:
For another example of a group in search of a brand trying to swim against the current, check out Creative Accountants Need King Canute.

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Branding White Rock BC

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The White Rock Re-Branding survey raised some serious concerns for Pauline Mott, which she expressed in a comment on our post on White Rock identity (Canny for the Bairns).

Her comments have now also appeared as a Letter to the Editor in this morning’s Vancouver Sun. She is far from alone in her views. Lance Peverley has expressed similar reservations in an article entitled Slogans are more than just words. This re-branding urge is fine but you have got to do it right.

What Is A Brand?

By coincidence, Terry O’Reilly on CBC Radio this morning in the Season Finale of The Art Of Persuasion was discussing Six Remarkable Brands.

The images below illustrate these six examples. Most people will instantly recognize the six ‘brands’ he was talking about.

The Beatles
polar bear
Oprah
Las Vegas
lego
Mohamed Ali, Boxer
 

It is a question of instant recognition and knowing exactly what that brand stands for. The brand is not some slick marketing packaging. It reflects reality.

The Magic Is In The Product

That heading is a quotation from William Bernbach, one of the founders of DDB (Doyle Dane Bernbach), one of the major US advertising agencies. It was said more than 50 years ago but it is still true.

I’ve got a great gimmick .Let’s tell the truth.

No matter how skillful you are, you can’t invent a product advantage that doesn’t exist. And if you do it’s just a gimmick, it’s going to fall apart anyway.

Developing A Credible Brand For White Rock

There are many millions of people who know and love White Rock. How do they think of it? How can you capture their perceptions in a brand? One approach is just to ask people what word do they think of when they think of White Rock. There is even a website, brand tags, that tries to combine such word choices. By now it covers many major brands although the results are not very impressive.

The Whisper Branding Strategy Consultants were a little more elaborate in their study for White Rock. Among other things they asked a series of questions, If the City of White Rock were a motor vehicle what would it be? and on through … a food, … a song, … a famous person, … or a colour. Unfortunately from first impressions it would appear that those who know White Rock do not relate to this new brand.

Pauline Mott wrote to me and said that for her White Rock is:

A walk on the beach, a stroll down the pier, fish and chips with an ice cream cone chaser – that’s the great White Rock experience. This is what makes it special – making happy memories for generations of families.

If many of White Rock’s fans see it that way, then the brand must encompass that. Perhaps Canny For The Bairns if translated from the original Scottish might just work.

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White Rock, BC – Canny For The Bairns

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White Rock is not just a pretty place.

White Rock is looking for a new identity as Pete McMartin tells us in the Vancouver Sun this morning. Perhaps the City of White Rock could do more to sell its charm but the reality is beloved by many already.

White Rock Beach is famous for its 1,500 ft. long pier, its 2.5km long beach promenade and of course the large white rock which weighs in at 486 tons and is a glacial deposit from the coastal range.

White Rock BC

In some ways it reminds me of a place close to my birthplace. That was Seaton Carew on the North-East coast of England.

A splendid promenade connects the Marina with one of the Victorian’s favourite North-East resorts. Seaton Carew with its miles of broad golden sands and safe sheltered bathing is still the perfect venue for a traditional family day out at the seaside. Enjoy good flat beaches to fly kites and build castles, rock pools to hunt shrimps and amusement arcades that flicker and sing.

In those days marketing was all about getting the right slogan or tagline. Seaton Carew proudly proclaimed that it was Canny For The Bairns. For those unaccustomed to the lingo, that translates as ‘the kids will love it’. Seaton Carew seems to have lost the slogan on the Web according to a Google search for the phrase, since the bairns now seek more excitement, to be found only at Flamingoland, Yorkshire in the UK.

The standard Vekoma corkscrew coaster. Dated, and dull, the ride is notoriously rough on necks. It is nevertheless a classic, worth a ride.

Certainly White Rock does not want to appear in any way dated or dull.

Buy Me

This whole business of new identities is really about marketing. How can White Rock get a new brand? That is what Montreal has been struggling with in recent years. How can you rebrand something as complex as the city of Montreal? What is really needed is a reason for people to buy – what the experts call a Unique Selling Proposition (USP).

David Taylor of the brandgym works with some great brands like T-Mobile, Hellmann’s, Bertolli, Top Gear, Peroni and Mars and he today is suggesting a brand should communicate a RTB. That’s Reason To BUY, not Reason to Believe. It all sounds like USP by another name.

Hear the Buzz

White Rock now has a re-branding report funded by a $70,000 grant from the Union of B.C. Municipalities. It was prepared for them by Whisper who are Brand Strategy Consultants. Perhaps the report will help them define a new Reason To BUY. However it may be that Whisper has more to offer than just a new RTB. Perhaps White Rock needs a whisper campaign.

As it says on the Whisper Home Page:

Brand strategy boils down to eliminating the need for advertising and PR. By establishing an engaging brand that consumers are drawn to, you can stop chasing them.

Creating that level of engagement requires that you change and take ownership of the conversation in your industry. Own the conversation. It’s the only brand strategy you need to focus on.

It is what people are calling Buzz marketing now. Find ways of getting into the news. Spread the word. Use the social media. When people on Facebook or in their blogs are telling their friends about White Rock BC, then the City Council will know that $70,000 has been well spent.

Related: Unique Selling Proposition or Point (USP)

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