When Bad Things Happen To Good Brands.

See for yourself…

The Original Logo

On October 4th this became the new logo

And on October 11th...they returned to the old logo

On Monday October 4th, the executives of this beloved brand chose to re-brand themselves with a new logo and the outrage of the public went viral. (As of course any bad Marketing Strategy these days does.)

Now as someone who has been in the Advertising/Marketing industry for 8+ years I can tell you first hand that re-branding isn’t always the best idea.  I have seen a number of campaigns that have gone sour after a re-branding attempt.

Examples:

Tropicana

Sun Chips

Gatorade

The New Coke

Why do these companies keep doing this?  Honestly it’s so frustrating when these things happen, especially for someone like me who is on the agency side of things and knows that more than likely the “Creative” team working on that logo re-design at the New York Agency Laird & Partners had something way better then what they ended up going with, you can be sure about that.  I’d be willing to bet money that what they had was shot down by the execs at Gap and they were told to go back to the drawing board. Now can I prove that? No, and I could be wrong, but chances are I’m not.

Take a moment to look at this video…this is what it’s really like to be on the agency side! What if there were no stop signs, and a major corporation was charged with inventing one? They'd brief their agency and let them do it. Sorta. Welcome to corporate creativity, where groupthink and endless revisions help good ideas get executed.

But this isn’t just about the bad logo, it’s about how quickly and in such a massive way the outrage against the new logo went viral on Twitter, and Facebook.  And within hours there were sites like Crap Logo Yourself created to mock the brand.  But what’s truly amazing is that it’s being tagged as a Social Media success story.

These days brands have to listen to what their customers are saying on the social media network because if they don’t, it could cost them millions of dollars and not just that, but their integrity.  Companies need to consider whether or not they are going to loose their “brand loyal” customers if they make a massive branding change.

Has Gap learned their lesson?  Have other brand's learned from this experience? 

We will have to wait and see…

Where Our Music Influences Come From & The Ease of Buying on iTunes

So seriously how do people decide what music to listen to?

I guess everyone is different. Sometimes it’s because of what they hear on the radio or on TV shows. Sometimes it’s because of what their parents made them listen to when they were a child. Sometimes it’s because they heard it in a club and liked it. For me my music taste is very eclectic.

These days some of my favorite Albums and Artists are of the “Singer Songwriter” category. What can I say the music moves me and somehow when I listen to it I always get wrapped up in the lyrics themselves and how those lyrics relate to my life. Isn’t it so funny how that always happens, (or maybe that’s just me). 

I remember when I was going through my divorce I didn’t stop listening to the songs by The Veronicas “Goodbye To You” & “When It All Falls Apart” what can I say the following lyric from “When It All Falls Apart” was one that described exactly how I was feeling at that very moment. It goes like this…

Everything is F'ed up straight from the heart

Tell me what do you do, when it all falls apart

Gotta pick myself up where do I start

'cause I can't turn to you when it all falls apart

And then there are the lyrics from the movie Crazy Heart, which for some reason after I saw the movie for a while after I heard them, they brought tears to my eyes, don’t ask me why, but here they are…

I was goin’ where I shouldn’t go

seein’ who I shouldn’t see

doin’ what I shouldn’t do

and bein’ who I shouldn’t be

a little voice told me it’s all wrong

another voice told me it’s alright

I used to think I was strong

but lately I just lost the fight

funny how fallin’ feels like flyin’

for a little while

funny how fallin’ feels like flyin’

for a little while

you never see it comin’ till it’s gone

it all happens for a reason

even when it’s wrong

especially when it’s wrong

I guess the point I am trying to make is that music can touch us in ways we never knew, and I for one seem to be that sappy girl who always ends up finding music she likes on television shows and then immediately downloading it on iTunes.  I mean you got to admit, that is a way better way of buying music then waiting for a CD to be released. It is amazing how immediate iTunes is and who doesn’t love instant satisfaction?

Here are a few of my favorite artists, the funny thing is I ended up learning about some of them because they opened for the other person at one of their concerts.  I discovered Matt Nathanson when he opened for Gavin Degraw, at The Roxy Theatre in Atlanta.  I discovered Matt Wertz when he opened for Matt Nathanson at The Roxy Theatre in Atlanta. Tyler Hilton & Kate Voegele I discovered through my favorite TV show “One Tree Hill” on The CW.

http://www.tylerhilton.com/

http://www.mattnathanson.com/

http://www.mattwertz.com/

http://www.katevoegele.com/

http://www.gavindegraw.com/

http://www.theveronicas.com/

I hope some musical lyrics touch your soul today!

Social Media & Decision Making

When you think about buying something usually your purchase has been influenced by something. It might be that what your looking at is on SALE or it might be that you saw it being advertised in a commercial, or it might be something you read about that got great ratings, or perhaps a friend told you about it and said it was a “must have”, but somehow you are usually influenced to purchase something because of an outside factor.

Let’s consider when that outside factor is Social Media and how sometimes that forum helps make decisions for us.  Specifically let’s focus on Twitter. Twitter is a medium that a lot of companies and their clients are using to get information about what people think about their brands and products. Twitter is a place to go sometimes to get the help you need in making a decision and not just a purchasing decision but maybe even a hiring decision.  Agencies are using it to find talented people and people are using it to get the dream jobs they have always wanted.  Companies are getting their influence to hire someone from the world of social media and vice versa people are making decisions of where they want to work based on a companies creative approach on Twitter.

Twitter is a medium that gets used in many different ways and some Ad Agencies use it as a forum to send information out about themselves. So the Ad Agency is “Advertising” itself.  Sometimes they do it to find talented people to come work for them, sometimes they do it to “be different” and original, but in reality what they are really doing is using it to inadvertently help people make decisions.

Why would a company want to pick you to work for them when there are tons of other people out there vying for the same job? Well to be honest they are not going to look at you if you don’t show them why YOU are the one that’s special and why they should be picking YOU. Just like a product or a brand we as people & companies need to stand out we need to “Advertise” why we are the “right choice”. 

Let’s go back to the basics for a moment and go over the reasons we buy something:

1.              We need it

2.              We want it

Now let’s break that down even more:

·               Why do we need it?

·               Why do we want it?

Well when we talk about needing something there are many ways to talk about this.  Do we need the item because we can’t live without it, like food, clothing, and shelter. Or do we need the item because it serves a more in depth purpose

In the end it all comes down to making decisions, whether it’s a purchasing decision or a hiring decision, we are all affected by outside factors and those factors help make up our mind for us and help us make decisions. 

Remember that the next time you decide to get that blue blazer your friend was wearing. 

I know I will!

The Joy Of Creativity

This is my first attempt at a blog. But I have lots of thoughts and sometimes you just need to write to get them out of your head.

First let me just tell you a little bit about myself. I have a BS degree in Human & Consumer Sciences from Ohio U. I was a Retail Merchandising major because Fashion is a passion of mine.  I took a class my freshman year in Advertising from Professor R Watson and I fell in love with the industry.  I have spent the last 8 years working within the Advertising and Marketing communities both client side and agency side.  I have a very organized personality and almost a few OCD tendencies, which play in to my career choice of “Traffic Management”.

To be in Traffic you have to have a few key personality traits:

1.              You have to be extremely organized

2.              You have to be able to be a problem solver

3.              You have to be able to handle all different types of personalities

4.              You have to have a thick skin.

Although when I first started my career in Advertising when I graduated from OU in 2002, I had number 1 and was working on number 2, I had still a lot to work at for number 3 and number 4.  But now 8 years later I feel I have mastered all 4 of those qualifications.

One of the things I love most about being in this industry is the chance to be around truly outstanding creative minds, and I don’t just mean the people in the creative department.  I love being around the creative process as a whole, including the strategy development and problem solving that goes in to a Communications Campaign or Plan.  Throughout my career I have been privileged to work with some of the TOP Creative minds in the Advertising & Marketing Industries and I have learned a great deal!

In addition to working within “Traffic” I have been extremely involved in a part of the industry called “Art Buying”.  When I was a junior in college I didn’t even know what Art Buying was. And then I had the opportunity to do part of my internship in that department within one of the top agencies in the country that had a very large DC office. I learned from a woman who was truly passionate about her job and it made learning about it so interesting.  Ever since then I have loved everything about Art Buying. I love working with the Creative staff members to find the right image for a project, or the right photographer to shoot a campaign, and I even enjoy working with the Rep’s for those photographers and artists to negotiate the licensing agreements.

My creativity extends beyond this industry. Since I was in 8^th grade I have been making and selling beaded jewelry.  My grandfather was a jeweler and when I was a child I loved to sit and play with the loose stones at his store.  About 2 ½ years ago I had the great pleasure of working with 2 fantastic photographers in Atlanta, GA to work on a series of photo shoots to create a library of photographs for my Jewelry website.  Please check it out, www.designsbylisafox.com my site needs some updating but I am very happy with it. I primarily sell through word of mouth or at craft fairs or home trunk shows, but I also do custom orders.

I am always trying to expand my mind, learn, and do more to become a well-rounded individual and today I decided to start this blog to add to my repertoire of things I have accomplished in this lifetime. You certainly never want to have regrets, so folks here goes nothing………enjoy!