One of the first posts I wrote in 2005 was about maximizing your brand’s touchpoints. This continues to be favorite topic of mine. The above image from Twitter is a great example of maximizing a touchpoint at a very critical time in a brand relationship – the error message. Every now and then you see a business that puts a bit of time into writing interesting error message copy but rarely do you see an equally witty image accompanying it. They have several more of these as well (the owl that comes up saying ‘Who goes there?’ when there is an identity issue). As I mentioned earlier, this diffuses a potential moment of brand angst with humor. It actually makes you laugh off an error message or warning. In fact, it makes all other Error 404/File Not Found messages seem like you’re getting hit in the face with a sock full of online doorknobs.

It’s a new year and now that the champagne bottles have been tossed out and the confetti has been cleaned up, we have a lot to do. The economy is in shambles, industries from Wall Street to Main Street are faltering — some with government assistance but most without. We need new strategies to right our course nationally and for our businesses because the old ones just won’t work any more.

1. Your brand is impeccable, has always been impeccable, and most of your customers will stick with you through rough times.
2. You have neglected your brand. Your name doesn’t mean much or as much as it used to.

… that transform good marketing into great marketing. This morning, The Lion in Winter was on and I had to go to the endlessly-useful Internet Movie Database. (BTW – Wasn’t this one of the first viral sites that all of your friends told you to bookmark?) Anyhew … I got into the individual movie page and noticed a dramatically tweaked page layout (the movie poster is on the left hand side now!). As always, it was a little jarring but pretty soon I got the lay of the land. Helping me in this endeavor was the small bar below the top nav shown above. If you can’t read it, it simply says ‘Questions about our new look? See our Redesign FAQ for answers.’

This link takes you to a comprehensive FAQ that if you take the time to read you can see that this wasn’t just a cosmetic redesign. Everything was changed based on research and user feedback and testing. Wow. As if I needed another reason to like this online geek-cylcopedia - now they have to go and run the very model of a user friendly site. And the kicker? The FAQ makes it clear that nothing is permanent yet as they are still testing the redesign. A+ IMDB! (P.S. You’d be surprised how many times you have to remind people to test.)

I regard a great ad as the most beautiful thing in the world.

- Leo Burnett

I went to the University of Iowa Museum of Art last weekend and saw this statue – Bob’s Big Boy. I love it. I love that this is the part of the ’special exhibition’ at an art museum that has a Picasso and a Pollock.

Being in the ad businesses I realize that I spend a lot of time looking at and evaluating ads. Then I looked at my walls at home and I realized that I spend even more time than I originally thought. I have an old Westinghouse ad over the stove and a Guinness poster in my office. To me, great advertising is great art. The converse is also true. Think Warhol’s soup cans …

Now let me be clear – I’m not saying that if you make it pretty ‘n artistic it’ll be good enough. Actually, I agree with another thing that Leo said:

Fun without sell gets nowhere but sell without fun tends to become obnoxious.

The Point? A simple equation for the narrow line(s) between art and science (and soft sell and hard sell) that great advertising must tread. And a couple great quotes from one of the great advertising men of the 20th Century. You can get more Leo quotes here and more info on the man from the company that still bears his name. Incidentally, the Leo Burnett site does a better job of infusing a brand with the soul of its founder than any other site I’ve seen. From quotes and stories to dynamic timelines and video, you leave with a clear picture of the man and the legacy he’s left behind.

I let out an audible “Wow” at the grocery store this afternoon when I saw how closely my regional chain had mirrored the packaging of GE’s Reveal bulbs with its store brand.

This couldn’t be a more timely discussion on the importance of design in branding. As I’ve said many times before, nowadays, everyone has to be a designer.

I also call this observation timely because I am reading Phil Dusinberry’s agency memoir Then We Set His Hair on Fire. It’s a great read. Among other topics, the author covers his work for GE with the “We Bring Good Things to Life” campaign. This illustrates the core credo of advertisers — that brand building leads to overall equity and loyalty that creates lifelong users. According to Dusinberry, I should buy the Reveal bulbs just because they say GE and keep buying them for life.

Here’s what’s really happening. The first time I bought the bulbs, it was partially because of the GE brand and their commitment to innovation. And these bulbs live up to that — the light is truely whiter. But the next time I went to buy them, I already knew I was pleased with this bulb but I found a generic counterpart for half the price. What could GE have that the store brand doesn’t? Probably a lot but the packaging and it’s superb design moves it into the same category as GE and helps resolve that dissonance.

The Point? I’m not saying we throw branding out with the bathwater. I think that it’s an important tool in builing a remarkable company. But you also have to foster innovation, creativity, AND design (!) at every level in your organization and then keep on innovating after you’ve done it once or twice. Because you can’t rest on your brand name and expect the masses to keep paying twice as much for your bulbs.