CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Whether a brand is new or old, you need a process for turning it around. So says Bobby Riley, CEO and Creative Director of Boston-based Soldier Design. Riley founded his own retail store Concepts and held an executive position at Burton Snowboards. Today his independent brand developmentMORE HERE
Re-reading Peter York’s 1984 book Modern Times, we came to ask the question. Has it come too far? York (real name Peter Wallis), astute author of The Sloane Ranger Handbook, asserted in the chapter “Chic Graphique” that before the sixties, corporate identity was abstract. But with the advent of theMORE HERE
The online magazine Brandchannel has a useful paper on dead brands by Sunil Thomas and Chiranjeev Kohli, both marketing professors. The paper is called “Reviving Weak and Dead Brands: Insights from Theory and Practice” and addresses cases that include Oldsmobile, PanAm, and Woolworth. Their first recommendation is to increase theMORE HERE
These days, the Brand Manager is a sort of oracle. Everyone talks about their “brand” and what happens to “brands” and protecting “the brand.” And even though there are brand managers everywhere, we wonder how great brand names could be lost, or be ruined. How are brands like Sears, Mercury,MORE HERE
In the 20th century, one of the most notable guides to food and hospitality on the road was Duncan Hines’ Adventures in Good Eating. The story is simple; Duncan Hines, a traveling salesman, kept voluminous notes on the places that he traveled in the United States. He loved good restaurantsMORE HERE
Many companies, large and small, are faced with the idea that a brand name might die off, might have died off or be struggling. At right, the logo for the venerable department store Abraham & Straus. The original A&S store in Brooklyn is still open, but it is now aMORE HERE
What happens when you have a 200-year-old insurance brand name and some smartsy fartsy “branding” and “marketing” people get involved? The brand dies in favor of a name that would be better as a diet pill. Believe it or not, it happened recently with the U.K. insurance company Aviva, whichMORE HERE
Canadian writer Mark Shainblum, an Ottawa, Ontario journalist and editor, is best known as a science fiction and comic book writer. He sends us his his top favorite missing Canadian brands. The cartoonist was quite stunned to hear that Crosley Radios is back, and found our site that way. HereMORE HERE
On perusing the excellent children’s book This is London by M. Sasek, readers encounter on page 38 a mention that there “is always time for a cup of tea.” The next page then shows a drawing of a London street scene with the J. Lyons Tea Room featured. First, aMORE HERE
What if you had just bought a company that inspired one of the most cool movies ever, Goldfinger? If you bought that company, wouldn’t you find some way to preserve the brand name? Not if you are the German company BASF. It has been just over a year since BASFMORE HERE