All tagged branding
Today, after 25 years, Microsoft unrelieved a new corporate logo. As an Apple fan, I really couldn't care less. However, as a marketer, I find it fascinating that a blue chip brand like Microsoft would spend the time updating their corporate look.
It's a smart idea. Here's why.
Chris Brogan wrote a post titled, "Sell Without A Website," and it's about a new venture that he and his buddy at New Marketing Labs, Justin Levy, have put together called Red Pin Marketing.
If you don't know Chris and/or Justin, they are like me in that they are in the marketing business, are well in-tune to all things social media and (the kicker) know how to leverage these tools to actually move business. I've met Chris (he bought me lunch at the 140Conf break) but have yet to meet Justin, though we're connected beyond connected through social media channels.
Since the explosion of social media, brands have looked at it like it was the wild wild west. For the most part it was. Remember back in the mid to late 90s when there was a dot-com for everything? People were snatching up URLs like looters during a riot.
With the announcement of Facebook usernames and Twitter verified accounts, brands (personal or business) need to step up their game and solidify their online identity before it gets jacked. In the same vein, they need to have a slush fund for those folks who are going snatch up account names JUST so they can leverage it with a brand and get paid. It's going to happen. Trust me.
This whole #unfollowdiddy thing is quite interesting from a branding perspective. For those of you with your head in the sand, I'm talking about the recent explosion of Twitter use by celebrities to "connect closer with their fans," i.e. build up their brand empires and grow their celebrity status. Hello @aplusk and @oprah, et al. After the "race to one million followers," there seems to be a little bit of back lash by the general public about celebrities crowding the space that we at one point seemed to own.
Twitter is now populated with more content and more "hey look, follow me" type people than it was when I joined nearly two years ago. I'm guessing the #unfollowdiddy backlash comes from the huge turn off Twitter can be if used by people that are all about themselves, the hey, look at me crowd. I'm guessing Diddy is one of those types of users. His updates are now protected so only his followers can read what he says. Good move? No. Diddy has to understand that no matter what he does, there will be a set of consumers that don't like his music, don't like his clothing line or just don't like him period.