Posts Tagged ‘Pepsi’

Um, how’d it get to be the end of February already?

Here’s a quick roundup of what’s what in the world of marketing, media, and brand strategy:

• Death to buzzwords.  Finally!  Someone else is taking up the anti-buzzword buzzkill.
• Crocs CEO resigns, is replaced.  Not news to many who have been following the ups and downs of this early-stage success story.  My prediction:  Crocs will get worse — way worse — before it gets better.  It’s dealing with oversaturation, intense competition and knockoffs, and some sad brand stigma.
• LinkedIn is not Twitter. I repeat, LinkedIn is not Twitter.  [Via Deb Kolaras]
• Wait, what?  Pepsi is starting throwback branding in addition to its lame new branding?  Color me confused.

Anyone who’s talked to me in the last few months knows of my overwhelming disdain for the new Tropicana logo.  I must admit to feeling peevishly victorious when I learned that Pepsi has scrapped the new logo against overwhelming pressure from consumers, who felt (like me) that it betrayed the brand’s essential identity.

I was walking through the grocery store last night and thinking of my personal resistance to change…the remodeled store seems unfamiliar and alien.  It ties in with consumer reaction to the Tropicana logo, but it also raises an important question:  at what point do your clients own your brand?

Nobody knows whether the Tropicana rebrand was the result of a committee of marketing hacks or a frustrated CEO with a vision.  What I do know is that through years and years of marketing and exposure to Tropicana, I the consumer have developed a relationship with the brand to the extent where a new logo and identity felt like a betrayal of my trust and confidence.

It seems dramatic, but I believe that after a certain point the client or customer really does have an ownership stake in a good brand.  Sure, I’m not sitting on the board or determining pay cuts (and certainly I am not enamored with
Pepsi’ s own crappy logo), but in order to keep me shelling out the dough, you’re going to need to make me feel respected, heard, and part of your ongoing plans. Creating invested customers is a foundation of branding and smart marketing…let’s hope Pepsi and Tropicana learn from the smackdown and start to respect their customers’ intelligence.

What do you think?  At what point do clients develop a sense of ownership of your brand?

Headed off to a client branding retreat…while I work, here are some great links to start your day:

• Was the Pepsi logo PDF real?
• Colorado is the 5th most creative state…and its creative economy is booming.
• A great glossary of advertising and new media terms (including some dreaded buzzwords) [via SmartBlog on Social Media]
• Wait, what?  Retail sales are up?

Pepsi just revealed their new logo. A couple of comments on their new look. Some blogs I have read were trying to figure out why pepsi spent a million dollars on a logo that look quite similar to their diet pepsi logo from long ago. And they were also commenting on how the apple-inspired minimalist look is influencing everything and does it have staying power.  

My thoughts on the matter.  First a critique:  

The Good:  I like the fact that they did in fact pull the text treatment from past logos, it lends some weight and history to their story.  The sans-serif, rounded font is in fact very appropriate for the design climate right now.  Simple, clean, appleish.  

The Hmmm:  There is not really an integration of the text and the logo.  In fact, it could be two separate elements.  If their intention is to use them separately then that is okay, but pepsi is planning on redoing everything with this logo and it feels disjointed.

The Ewwww:  This pepsi logo must be on people’s mind because I saw a cartoon where someone did a little sketch (see below)

Since seeing this I haven’t been able to look at it the same.  But the biggest question I have with pepsi is that, if you are going to throw $1,000,000 behind a rebranding, new logo process, shouldn’t they be shaking up the design world, introducing something new, something ground-breaking. Being trend-setters?  Instead of just responding to a trend, as Jim Edwards says, is already kind of aged and may lack durability?  

I would love to see the market testing on this logo.