We shot some questions to Paul Parkin, founding partner of SALT Branding, an integrated brand consultancy with clients that include J&J, Microsoft and other smaller startups.

BrandlandUSA: What dead celeb brands are your favorites?
Parkin: The jazz masters of Blue Note records - John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis etc. These guys  were individually amazing in their days, but have collectively amassed a ‘coolness’ that has defined the genre of jazz as one of the most influential musical styles out there. But what is really interesting is how recording labels like Blue Note and Verve have allowed their archival collections to be explored and used by a wide range of contemporary artists, who sample, pilfer and are influenced by these earlier experimenters. This keeps their names, and influence alive to a new generation. The dead celebrities stay fresh in our minds and generate revenues, while their music influences musicians, writers and stylists today.

The Michael Jackson case is interesting. Is Sony interested in evolving the career and legacy of Michael Jackson or simply packaging up a bunch of box sets and videos that represent a 2Dimensional memento of what he was trying to achieve. With the death of these names, their brands become managed by a different group of people, with different motives. How will they make their names relevant for the future, rather than simply lucrative for the next 24 months. How will their ideas and values carry on? Will we see Jackson foundations improving the lives of our children or just another movie dug up from the archives.

BrandlandUSA: How can the family of a mid-tier celebrity benefit from this?
Parkin: Be bold. Be brave. Stop thinking about them as a dead paycheck, but try to bring the values they believed in alive today. Make them relevant to the next generation. Artists, musicians , writers, thinkers. They challenged the status quo in their day - don’t let them become the status quo in ours. The Bruce Lee family wants to develop his name to bring his image and impact to a broader audience. What does that mean? Make more money or make his ideas more relevant. Which will be more meaningful?

BrandlandUSA: What should a celebrity do in his later years to maximize revenue for his family?
Parkin: Decide when dying young will secure greater long-term impact and revenue. Is getting old, all that’s it’s cracked up to be? Dying young seems to be a pretty good way to notch up some immortality!

BrandlandUSA: How does one prevent people from becoming tired of a celebrity. Frankly, I am tired of Marilyn Monroe and Elvis….
Parkin: I think we’re all tired of brand names that haven’t evolved. All the time we cling to the static memories of these names we make them less relevant to society today. They become immortalized as moments in time. Much like photographs do in our own lives. We remember our own childhoods based upon the images that we have seen that represent it. And it’s the same for these celebrities, captured for a moment, remembered for an eternity. But these branded names become real to us when we see something about them that is different or unknown. Something we can relate to.

BrandlandUSA: What would be unconventional celebrities that you see promise in, but others don’t?
Parkin: The reestablishment of villains, dictators and homicidal maniacs appear to be fertile ground. Ché Guevara is epitomized because of a single photo yet is someone that no-one really has any ideas about whatsoever. Pancho Villa has a clichéd, folkloric image around the world but a true story that would shock most of us. Napoleon appears about ready for a revival. Mao Tse Tung died long enough ago that his mass-murders will be forgiven. Even, the insane Pol Pot appears to be going through a resurgence. Hollywood or a bunch of biographic writers seem to be pretty content to create superficial stereotypes for most of them, but I think we are getting to see more villain’s getting their share of visibility over the coming years - the question is how will we seriously think about them. As stars of a biopic, liberators of a society or names that will endure beyond the grave and the test of time.

The expansion elsewhere poses danger for the Mini brand. The Mini is all about British-ness, and Oxford. Mini was, before it was a BMW Mini, a Morris Mini, named after that bicycle-maker W.R. Morris. (Acutally there were dozens of different models over the years.) Morris had a bicycle shop at 48 High Street; the first bicycle he sold was to the vicar of St. Clement’s. In James Morris’ fine history of Oxford, she writes that the first backer of the company was the Earl of Macclesfield, an undergraduate customer. (Pictured here, the Mini that belonged to Paul McCartney, at the Sarasota Classic Car Museum.)

Certainly, Mini, with its success and BMW backing, could easily sell cars made elsewhere. BMW makes excellent cars. But part of the mystique of a brand is where it is made. Some brands, over time, gain reputations in different markets and plants, but that takes time to build the identity beyond its place of origin.

GM made many mistakes with its former Saab brand; one of the most destructive was when it decided that the automobiles did not need to be made in Sweden, and could be made elsewhere in Europe. Badge engineering is fine for American cars brands, as it has been part of the way brands have evolved here. But the Saab was specifically sold because it was quirky and Scandinavian.

But back to Mini, which proved that completely dead brands can be brought back.

No, it won’t hurt to make a few Minis elsewhere, but you do it with great risk, especially at a sensitive time when companies like Cadbury’s are shutting down factories. Better a risk not to take. Europeans might not mind it, but the British market will, and so will the U.S.

• On the Ticketron e-commerce site, if you see ticket prices, it shows you the sorts of performers and events that other people who like a particular artist were looking at hearing. We tried it out. In the case of Glenn Beck’s American Revival tour, “other” suggested performers include Randy Travis, Michael Bolton, Stagecoach Festival (Toby Keith and Keith Urban), Sammy Hagar and Wabos, David Garrett and Mariachi Festival USA. All make sense but Mariachi Festival?
• Land’s End, part of Sears Holdings (NYSE: SHLD), is now officially high end. They are selling Allen Edmonds MacNeil Wingtips for $325. Oh so “My Three Sons” and quite classic. Perfect shoes for a recession. My dad says he got his resoled every two months in the 1970s while he was selling paper products for Unijax.
• Boeing is apparently being squeezed by Bombardier and Embraer in the area of short range competitors to the 737. It was once that Bombardier and such were only selling 50 to 70 seat planes, but that has changed. Perhaps it is time for Boeing to restart its Douglas brand to sell a regional jetliner with all new technology.
• L.L. Bean has a new Signature catalog, selling a high-end look. The smallish catalog is filled with classics like bluchers, though my favorite Double L is missing. Two brands that show up in the catalog, albeit hidden, are a mid 1970s Ford Bronco and a temperature gauge from Petit Marine Paint. Pettit is a subsidiary of Kop-Coat of Rockaway, N.J. Great logo.

If you don’t think it can’t happen, just remember what happened to the stately S.S. France. One day it was taking folks back and forth from Florida to Caribbean islands, and the next it was up on a beach in India.

Apparently, NCL has offered the ship for $1.5 million, but preservation groups can’t raise the money, nor do they have a place to put it. So scrapping is the only hope.

My thought. Sink the ship off Florida. Reasons:

1. Great for tourism, and NCL. NCL could sink it in a place where it takes passengers, as part of the deal.
2. The ship has had all of its asbestos removed; the inside was totally gutted years ago. Most ships have to have all of these things removed in order to sink them, but the United States already has gone through the process.
3. Florida needs a bit of a boost, and the S.S. United States would be just the ticket.
4. $1.5 million is nothing in the scheme of things. Perhaps some of the cost could be offset by environmental funds.
5. Already, dozens of ships and carriers have been sunk, and they are all now great landmarks for diving and tourism. Yet all the ships are Navy ships, and there is no great cruise liner among the assortments.
6. The ship sinkings are excellent for the environment, and help to encourage coral reefs.
7. Perhaps the line could sink the ship in an area where part of it might stick out of the water? That would be difficult to accomplish, but would give it some ability to accommodate even more divers, swimmers and even snorkelers.
8. NCL will get goodwill from the sale, and bookings. In addition, the merchandise and marketing and intellectual property of the ship would be a useful source of revenue over the decades.

There are many groups out there that have done these projects, including the 501c3 Artificial Reefs of the Keys, which sunk the USNS Hoyt Vandenberg.

Purists might hate the idea, as do I, but it might be the only option. And at least NCL turn a potential minor p.r. disaster into a positive.

The company is one of the more interesting in maritime circles, as it is led by Lebanese-born entrepreneur Jacques Saade and is the successor company to France’s Compagnie Générale Maritime and the old French Lines, also known as Compagnie Generale Transatlantique.

With a Zaha Hadid-designed headquarters, it’s all a bit James Bond. Unlike other lines, they have paid attention to the various brands merged into the company, using each separate brand as a market niche, all within the CMA CGM family.

Most fascinating is that the company is one of the remaining cargo lines that emphasizes cruise/passenger service, with their Tapis Rouge luxury travel brand and a serious attempt to sell their berths on cargo ships.

They have other great brands as part of the empire:

• CMA CGM purchased the remnants of the reconstituted United States Lines, though it doesn’t run any United States Lines cruises, which are no more. (We here there is an old ship in Philly, if they want it.)
• London based shipper Mac Andrews, founded in 1770.
• Delmas, founded in 1867, originally took goods from France to its African colonies.

The most James Bond aspect of the brand is that the line’s cruise ship was seized April 4 2008 in the Gulf of Aden by Somali pirates. Le Ponant was seized while en route from the Seychelles to the Mediterranean. Following the release, French helicopters tracked the pirates from the Djibouti military base to a small town Jariban. French commandos from the Jean Bart and the Jeanne d’Arc moved in when the pirates attempted to flee.

But when we saw these Tropicana tangerines, we said that she wasn’t kidding. The display was in a front area of a Walgreen’s on Tamiami Trail in Sarasota, Florida. Big old stack. Not sure if they sold, but they sure looked tasty. I am certain it presented all sorts of difficulties in keeping it stocked, but if they moved and sold quickly, who would care.

Last year’s packaging debacle is long gone. They’ve learned. Man, they look tasty.

Good work. We hope it sells.

Now, get on to the next steps. Opening up the Tropicana Plant in Bradenton for tours. Bringing Tropic-ana back. I want to ride on the back of that train, thank you.

• Tang: What’s the deal with “New” Tang. Granted, we haven’t purchased Tang in years, nor have we actually seen Tang sold. We would submit to our friends at Kraft that if  you don’t advertise it, you can’t sell it.  And where the heck are the ads with the moon creatures? They haven’t been up for years, but if you want to sell it, you might just think about bringing them back. Of course, if we can’t as Americans be bothered by going into space anymore, what fun is Tang anyway? I don’t think its been right since General Foods days. By the way, Tang went great with Freakies. Tang is a great brand, mind you, it just needs to be get back to its true identity, as a fantasy afternoon elixir for latchkey children everywhere.
• O’Boisie’s: Our reader Brian Stevens tells us that Inventure Group of Arizona has brought back O’Boisie’s Potato Crisps. On the packages it says “Back by popular demand.” Sorry it took so long to post the news bit, Brian! (He sent us the news item back in September.)
• Jeep: A friend tells us of the new Jeep brand concrete floor paint, seen below. Yes, it comes in colors that are traditionally “Jeep” though we thought Army green or gray, or perhaps USPS blue would be sufficient. We know that Chrysler is a bit desperate for some licensing revenue but this is a stretch. Anything for a nickel.
• Folks in Carson City, Nevada are reviving the Virginia and Truckee Railroad. The V&T Railway, the richest short-line in American history, originally operated during the raucous silver strike era of the infamous Comstock Lode from 1869 to 1938. When completed in 2011, the reconstructed track will trace all 16.7 miles of the 19^th century route between Carson City and Virginia City and is expected to serve as a major tourism attraction to the area. The Carson City Convention & Visitors Bureau and Carson City have pledged $21 million and Storey County has contributed $2 million to the $54.9 million project.
• Pierre Cardin is licensing its brand for a laptop, says Engadget, calling it the most unlikely licensing of the year. Hmmm. Perhaps its a bit better than Pierre Cardin’s men’s cologne with the phallic bottles, but that’s a real stretch.

The Mobile Paint Company made “Southernized” coatings in Mobile, Alabama’s waterfront district. They developed special formulas for the “subtropical” region and still have a “Caribbean Division.”

Mobile Paint Company eventually bought Mobile  Varnish Works plant and consolidated there in 1934.

Love it if some readers would add some thoughts on the brand in our comments section below. Excellent packaging, particularly the smaller can on the top right.

Brands include the early British Morris Minor pickups, any Willy’s Jeep pickups, any Studebaker pickup, any International pickup, 1963 Volkswagen Transporter, 1977 Datsun King Cab, 1966, 1978 Chevrolet C-10, 1978 Subaru Brat, 1981 Jeep Honcho, 1966 Chevy C10, 1957 Chevy, 1960 Morris Minor, 1964 Dodge D200 Crew Cab, 1965 Dodge A100, 1951 Ford F100, 1967 Ford F100, 1970 Dodge Adventurer, 1973 Ford Ranchero (really a cut-up Torino!) and 1978 Chevrolet C-10. One amusing pickup they missed was the VW Rabbit pickup (early 1980s) and the Chevy Luv.

A few other items recently in the news:

• MCM Return: The German company MCM, which used to stand for Michael Cromer Munich, has been revived as Mode Creation Munich. Sung Joo Kim, a Korean entrepreneur, is reviving the brand for which she purchased in 2005.
• Canvas Tent Return: Like so many other analog things, canvas tents are back. Brands like Davis Tent and Springbar are some of the brands, and websites like ArmyTents.com sell surplus.
• Independent Marriott: Marriott is relaxing brand visual standards in idiosyncratic ways with its new Autograph Collection brand. The brand will attract a variety of international hotels that did not want to be full Marriott hotels, but wanted the advantages of Marriott’s reservation system. This is a smart idea that allows for hotels to keep part of their original identity but join up with a chain. None of the quality standards are relaxed, though. This move has the exciting possibility of helping to shore up the bookings of independent hotels with long brand identities. While there is a target of only 25 hotels, it is easy to see many other properties that might fit the “Autograph” bill.

Said Trent:

“In a Hilton housekeeping outfit. And there was this precious angel, and she held me and she cried and she prayed and we began to pray together.”

It’s a great story, but also evidence that in branding, all your worrying about logos and design, and all this other brand personality and traits junk, often gets in the way of the people. And truly, it is your employees, your front-line people, who are the ones who are your brand to the public. Your employees, ticked off about some dictum from corporate, will not be the ones to console and pray with a grieving widow.

She has told that story hundreds of times, we are sure, and each time the message sinks in as a message to listeners. The subtext? Hilton people care. Hilton people care. Hilton people care.

If you treat your employees well, they will also treat your customers well, and then it will be measured back to you. This is not only true in the tourism and hospitality business, but any business where employees deal with the public.

t have to watch it all the way through.

It’s a nasty, nasty video, filled with prison sex and four-letter words. So we were surprised to see Chevrolet and Diet Coke listed. She is apparently creative director for Polaroid, so that product placement makes sense.

The video is partly set in a prison; so the low-class food like Wonder Bread fits. Though it is odd that the Wonder Bread appears in a sequence where Gaga does a mass poisoning! It’s all so over the top, it’s hard to get to offended by it, but its a dangerous area for brands. Virgin can get away with edgy, but most brands can’t.

The other question. Does Gaga have to “declare” all of this to the FTC, now that “bloggers” and other media folk have to fess up if they get freebie products or promotional fees for a placement? Some of the placements:

1:34: Heartbeats earphones.
2:06: Virgin Mobile.
2:17: Diet Coke.
4:15: Virgin Mobile (again).
4:24: HP Envy ‘Beats Limited Editon’ laptop from Monster.
4:28: Plenty Of Fish dating site.
4:44: Chevrolet.
5:37: Polaroid.
6:24: Wonder Bread.
6:36: Miracle Whip.
8:31: Polaroid (again)

Gaga had more of a luxury spin in another video, with brands like Parrot by Philippe Starck, Burberry, Nintendo Wii, Alexander McQueen and White Safari Carrera glasses.

We guess Wonder Bread and Miracle Whip could use any bit of promotion, but it’s a sad world when this is what you need to do in order to promote brands.

• We happened to notice that the Plymouth brand has been getting an “Old Fashioned” bit of exposure in the new Bacon & Blue ad for Wendy’s. The ad is getting some great airtime, pleasing us Mopar fans to no end. I believe its a 1969 Belvedere, but so many of the late 1960s Chrysler cars (in fact almost all Chrysler cars) were quite badge engineered and so I am not quite sure exactly which mid-sized  model it is. Suffice to say (what does suffice to say actually mean?) Plymouths satisfy me in a way that other cars do not. Perhaps it was the yellow Fury III sedan that we had growing up? Or the Plymouth Cricket? Or the Plymouth Volare? Or the best reason…I can recall our neighbor, Buddy Gifford, who had Green-Gifford Chrysler Plymouth in Norfolk. A great man, who drove great cars, including a rather stylin’ green Imperial, and New Yorker.
• The Palo Alto-based web dev company Adnectar has developed a St. Patrick’s Day Facebook App for the Irish whiskey Jameson. It allows folks to vote for their favorite version of the drink. Jameson is a unit of Pernod Ricard USA, and the largest subsidiary of Paris, France-based Pernod Ricard SA. Pernod brands include The Glenlivet Single Malt Scotch Whisky, Chivas Regal Scotch Whisky, Seagram’s Extra Dry Gin, Beefeater Gin, Martell Cognac, Malibu, Kahlúa Liqueur, Hiram Walker Liqueurs, Pernod and Ricard; such superior wines as Jacob’s Creek and Brancott Estate; and champagnes and sparkling wines as Perrier-Jouët Champagne, G.H. Mumm Champagne and Mumm Napa wines.
• The news that EMI lost a suit brought by Pink Floyd is astounding. The suit said that the band had contracted with EMI to only sell albums, not singles. To any fool who knows anything about music, Pink Floyd’s appeal is its albums. My question is for its owners, Terra Firma, and the banks like Citibank, that lent it money. Putting aside the obvious merits of Pink Floyd’s case, the question is thus. How do you expect to attract any new talent to EMI when you have put in management that can’t figure out a way keep Pink Floyd happy? How do you know anything about music when you seek to sell Pink Floyd songs as Singles? What is obvious here is that the damage that these investment houses did to our institutions is far greater than imagined.

• Disney’s Youth Concern: Disney’s Robert Iger is quite worried about 14-year-old girls, and whether they can be taught to save energy. Or so he tells The Wall Street Journal. “When you have the unique opportunity that our company has, and you can teach them the importance of behaving in a more responsible way from an environmental perspective–it adds up.” Perhaps Disney’s ABC network needs to worry about other things. We would submit that Disney has a unique opportunity with the show The Bachelor to teach teen girls, who watch the show like crazy, that they don’t need to put out in a hot tub or be tested in bed in order to get married. That might be a more “unique” opportunity.
• Macy’s Wrap: Apparently Macy’s has discontinued free gift wrap. Even Borders does free wrap. Please! Tell us it is not so.
• Save Silver Springs: There is a regional effort in Ocala/Marion County, Florida to help save the Silver Springs attraction. It has become run down, and tourism officials and locals are concerned that the whole attraction is in danger.
• Cadbury Closure: So Britain’s Panel on Takeovers is looking into the closure of a Cadbury Somerdale plant in Keynshaw, England. Kraft, before the purchase of Cadbury, said they believed the factory could be kept open. Cadbury, meanwhile, said they wanted to close it. A bit about the factory from Wikipedia:
  • An important industry in the town is Cadbury’s chocolate factory. The J.S. Fry and Sons business merged with Cadbury in 1919, and moved their factory in the centre of Bristol to Keynsham in 1935. As Quakers, the factory was built in a 228-acre (0.92 km²) greenfield site with social facilities, including playing fields and recreational sports grounds. Called Somerdale after a national competition in 1923, Keynsham Cadbury is the home of Fry’s Chocolate Cream, the Double Decker, Dairy Milk and Mini Eggs, Cadbury’s Fudge, Chomp and most importantly, the Crunchie.

Put a spoon on it, and it sells more. That sort of thing.

Great story, so what’s the lesson?

Certainly, if a brand needs some sales, it is appropriate to tweak the packaging so that it sells more. But the long term way to sell goods is to get your packaging and design to a place where the product is so known that you don’t have to do tricks to make it sell. The less you have to change the packaging, the less you confuse consumers.

That being said, we can’t be seen to be complaining too about Campbell’s. They are smart to keep their “classics” classic, and then play around with other more trendy parts of the product line. In any brand mix, you want a bit of the classic, and a bit of the fashion forward. That keeps it fresh.

Just don’t get messin’ around with the Tomato, please.