http://brandcatalyst.info By Peter Shaw Wed, 09 Sep 2009 12:21:38 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The idea of Orange and T-Mobile coming together is a bit like imagining Angelina's Lara Croft getting it together with David Brent, two more different brands operating in the same sector would be difficult to find. Orange was the first generation of brands to have a highly conceptual name and identity, in any product sector, ... http://brandcatalyst.info/2009/09/orange-t-flawed/ The old logo:                                                            The new logo:                              The new campaign strapline: The new identity for Keep Britain Tidy brings together the famous campaign and the identity of the organisaiton behind it. Previously known as ENCAMS the decision was made to leverage the equity within the name and make the organisation's name ... http://brandcatalyst.info/2009/06/leveraging-a-generic-equity/ How ironic that Starbucks, the brand that changed the world's coffee habits, has made the move into instant coffee. The launch of its Via instant coffee brand sees Starbucks desperately targetting in-home consumption as the sales of its foaming lattes begin to dry up. Over the last ten years or so Nestle and the other ... http://brandcatalyst.info/2009/03/instant-irony-at-starbucks/ Back in 1986 I was waiting in trepidation in Woolworth's reception on Marylebone Road. It was the occasion of my first client presentation and my rather fearsome boss only served to compound the parlous state of my nerves. As it turned out and largely thanks to Woolworth's welcoming marketing director Mike Sommers ... http://brandcatalyst.info/2008/11/sharpening-a-woolly-proposition/ The Guardian’s article today, on research into the economic state of England’s main towns and cities makes salutary reading. The research, conducted by The Work Foundation, identifies the differences between ‘resurgent’ cities that have responded to economic change and cities that have become ’stuck’. The ’stuck’ cities are typically on ... http://brandcatalyst.info/2008/08/hello-world/ Jim McAuslan’s letter in Monday’s FT underlines the extraordinary challenges facing the BA management team in dragging its employees’ mindsets out of the restrictive practices of the 1970s. What other leading brand would tolerate a member of its production team to write such a public and vituperative challenge to its ... http://brandcatalyst.info/2008/06/ba-pilots-above-their-station/ The news that Virgin is going to launch six one-stop health centres in 2008, hand-in-hand with the NHS, seems a very smart move indeed. Virgin Healthcare will manage the GPs’ budgets and sell additional services including therapies, dentistry and pharmacy. For any of us who have had to wait for ... http://brandcatalyst.info/2008/05/dr-branson-is-ready-to-see-you/ The noisy marketing battle between S&N’s Bulmers and C&C’s Magners demonstrates two truths. The first truth is that significant marketing investment significantly stimulates sales. The second truth is that brewers are still clinging to that perennial hope that cider might one day become a volume contender to beer. Each decade ... http://brandcatalyst.info/2008/03/cider-will-never-be-beer-because-it-is-made-from-apples/ How predictable the reaction to the London 2012 logo - lots of criticism, laughing and “How much…?”. A bit like my granny’s reaction when she first saw the cover of ‘Sargeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ back in 1967. London 2012 has to deliver alot more than a slick Olympic games, ... http://brandcatalyst.info/2008/01/made-you-look-that-london-2012-logo/ Every year we hear the complaint that Christmas is becoming overly commercialised, the celebration of the birth of Jesus barely getting a look in. This is a fact that most of us have become accustomed to, but what has struck me this year is the commercialisation of anti-Christian messages ... http://brandcatalyst.info/2007/12/commercialising-anti-christmas/