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!