In which the world actually seems to start listening…
These were heady and humbling months for Beg to Differ and included three of our most popular posts (below) – including 25 meaningless tag lines (first post to clear 100 views a day – which seemed like a big deal to us), healing the Princess Bride post (shameless “link bait”? Perhaps… but it cleared 1000 views over a week.) , information pills and of course the break-up letter to Intel (which peaked at 620 views / day with more than 3250 unique visitors to date).
But though the stats are fun to throw around, price more importantly, the conversation got deeper, and we started hearing from Fortune 500 branders and important thinkers in various fields. And we started to feel like this project could actually make a Differ… ence.
25 meaningless taglines
August 13, 2009
Taglines & positioning: This one by Lauren Hughes still gets a lot of hits, because a) it’s really funny, and b) seeing this list makes almost everyone who reads it think about their own tag line – and realize just how empty most of them are.
Other posts on tags & positioning: tag lines have to help humans; 13 more meaningless tag lines; that guy in the kilt
10 brand strategy lessons from “The Princess Bride”
August 24, 2009
Branding lessons: this was our first viral “mini-hit” and still has more Re-Tweets on Twitter than any other post. Why? Well because it’s based on one of the greatest movies of all time of course.
More humourous lessons: 5 more from Princess Bride; modest proposal for GM; protect your crown jewels; skateboards & stripping poles;
New Coke 25 years later: was it all just a brilliant conspiracy?
September 2, 2009
Consumer branding: this is a reflection by Dennis Van Staalduinen on what he – and all of us – can learn from the New Coke debacle in the mid-eighties, and the monumental arrogance behind Coke’s faulty assumption that they owned their brand…
More on consumer branding: weird breakfast brands; Crunchberries; Nutella; Trident loses intensity.
Return of Sir Steve: 6 ways Steve Jobs taught me to be human
September 11, 2009
Humanity in branding: this theme has been picking up steam in the last couple of months, and you can expect to hear much more on it in the future. But this post reflects on all the ways Steve Jobs brings humanity and emotion to branding.
More on the human side of brands:be human in 5 easy steps; “Personal Branding” an oxymoron?; branding is about cowboys, not cows
Dear Intel, you had me at “Intel Inside”. Now enough already!
September 30, 2009
Clarity in technology brands: Based in Ottawa, Brandvelope spends a lot of time dealing with technology branding issues. But this post became our biggest hit ever for a surprising reason: because thousands of Intel employees sent it to each other, and dozens of current and former employees let us know we were right on the money with our critique.
Thoughts on tech branding: more on brand architecture & Intel; Geek-speak and Google; Google assimilates Microsoft.
More in this series:
- Tuesday: Beg to Differ highlights from June & July
- Wednesday: Beg to Differ highlights from August & September. (this post)
- Thursday: Beg to Differ highlights from October & November.
Oh, and another reminder: please sign up for e-mail updates (on the right) or our RSS feed, so you keep track of our future posts.
for me, the greatest movie is non other than War of the Worlds.-:*