Category: Format of post

A fresh look at brand Canada. What do you think?

Just today, thanks to a tip from Dave Jones (thanks Dave!), I came across the project below sponsored by American Public Radio International (PRI) radio program Studio 360. The goal: to re-package Canada’s brand for Americans. Tall order, and I think they *mostly* nailed… something here. But what do you think? Love it? Hate it? Beg to Differ in the comments!

It’s fresh. But does it work?

Just today, adiposity thanks to a tip from Toronto agency punk Dave Jones (thanks Dave!), I came across the project below sponsored by American  Public Radio International (PRI) radio program Studio 360. The goal: to re-package Canada’s brand for Americans. Tall order, and I think they *mostly* nailed… something here. But what do you think? Love it? Hate it? Beg to Differ in the comments!

Sacrilege or divine revelation? You decide.

But before you weigh in on the success or failure of the exercise, check out these four things:

 1) A Summary: from Studio 360 of how it worked and what they were after:

To get beyond hockey, beer, and Mounties, we asked the international firm Bruce Mau Design to come up with a visual rebranding. As part of its research, the BMD team talked with Scott Thompson of the sketch comedy group The Kids in the Hall who summed up the issue simply: “We know you, but you don’t know us.”

“Canada didn’t need to be rebranded or redesigned,” explains BMD President and CEO Hunter Tura. “America needed to be educated. And that is the basis for our campaign: Know Canada.”

2) The brief: to read a more full explanation, click the image below for the agency’s presentation in PDF format:

Click here for Bruce Mau design brief (PDF format)

 3) The video teaser ad: the YouTube Video below shows how the idea would play out in multimedia format.

The big question: does it work for you?

  • Visual appeal: does the logo and design system create a memorable foundation for Canada’s brand?
  • Tag line: do the words “Know Canada” work for you? What do they say – or not say – about us?
  • Sustainability: can this really work as a brand – or is it just a clever campaign?
  • Customers: Who is it actually aimed at, and more importantly, for what purpose (i.e. who would pay to roll this out? Tourism? Trade? Canadian Chamber of Commerce?

Update: Oh, and for some more fun summer reading, you can also check out the “Know Canada” Web site here, other 360 Redesign Projects, and the paired Redesigning Project with Jian Gomeshi and CBC Radio Q taking on brand USA . Great discussion on the Brand New blog a few days ago.  Articles by Huffington Post, National Post, and Here and Elsewhere.

How to speak Bizbabble in one easy step: DON’T!

Last week, I was excited to hear that Mitel, founded by Ottawa high tech stalwart Sir Terry Matthews, had released a revolutionary new product. So as a loyal Ottawa geek eager to talk up the new device to my network, I hastened over to Mitel.com to find out more. I found this instead. And I Beg to Differ.

Try your customer’s language instead: it’s called “Human”

Last week, cure I was excited to hear that Mitel, founded by Ottawa high tech stalwart Sir Terry Matthews, had released a revolutionary new product. So as a loyal Ottawa geek eager to talk up the new device to my network, I hastened over to Mitel.com to find out more. I found this instead. And I Beg to Differ.

I call it “Bizbabble”:

“Bizbabble”: (n) a set of words arranged by well-meaning business communicators in such a way that they look like they should mean something to a human of average intelligence, while utterly failing to actually help anyone understand the thing being babbled about.

Now I mean no disrespect to the good marketing folks at Mitel. I’ve been in their shoes, and I’ve written my share of Bizbabble myself. It’s really hard to communicate well while also navigating the minefields of engineering jargon, business politics, investors, analysts, and more.

But the experience reminded me of this story. And I’m speaking here as someone on the outside who wants to help them get the message out. And to do that, I first need to understand.

10 little words

Let’s go back a bit and read the words above again: “Next-Generation Multimedia Collaboration in the Personal Office Meeting Space”. Now tell me, dear human of above average intelligence. What is this thing? What does it do? Who is it for? Is it something you want to know more about?

The best I could do was “some kind of high tech thingy that helps people collaborate” but I had no idea whether it was a conference phone, a projector, a wireless hotspot, or a mini computer, and I had no clue what a “personal office meeting space” was. A home office maybe?

The words don’t help. And neither did the press release, the product name (“UC” stands for “Unified Communications” not “ulcerative colitis” which came up first on Google) or the the (almost impossible to find listing on) the corporate site.

Nor, unfortunately, did the slickly produced little product site , which spends most of its space talking about why the product is important, but very little about what the heck it IS! And that’s the key thing anyone looking at a new product wants to know!

So here you go Mitel. I solved your problem.

If I were advising Mitel on how to position and describe this product, I’d start with a simple formula:

  • 1) Tell us what is in terms most ordinary humans are already familiar with.
  • 2) Tell us what makes it special or different from the things we’re already familiar with.
  • 3) Do it in a way that people will remember – in this case by surprising them.

So, for example, here’s what I would say their product is after reading a bunch of materials (that said a whole lot less):

“The <insert better name here>
is a conference phone on steroids.”

(Pause. Sound of crickets…)

I could go on of course, but now it’s your turn:

What do you think? Does that help? Or am I hopelessly out of touch? Any examples of simple, helpful corporate communications – especially in very technical or jargon-laden fields? Weigh in below!

Railroaded! 10 misleading brand names.

Is your name putting customers on the wrong track?

I’m excited.  Tonight I get to meet the brilliant Nora Young from CBC Radio’s Spark at the Third Tuesday Ottawa meetup! Wait… “Third Tuesday” you ask? Isn’t today the Fourth Wednesday in June?!? Um, unhealthy yeah, thumb about that name… I Beg to Differ.

My Third Tuesday story
WARNING: Contents may not be as clearly implied!

For the non-Ottawans (or those tragically not hip-enough-to-know) Third Tuesdays are evening events at a downtown Ottawa bar organized by the inimitable Joseph Thornley of Thornley Fallis, find the ProPR blog, and recently working with my online friend (and secret biz-crush) Gini “Spin Sucks” Dietrich. For Third Tuesdays, Joe flies in smart speakers on social media topics, and their talks are held in the intimate, beer-fueled atmosphere of a real social gathering. It’s social, but actually social.
And as of noon, you can still get a ticket.

Perfect right? Almost.

You see, in March, after having missed several great Third Tuesday sessions in a row (I have these three kids you see), I saw that the presenter was William Mougayar on becoming a social media entrepreneur. So I eagerly signed up online, paid my fee to attend, and booked the evening “off” child care with my wife (did I mention three kids?).

But, silly me, I booked that evening and set my Outlook appointment for – get this – the Third Tuesday of the month. Can you believe how foolish I was? Ha ha ha. Of course I should have remembered that the Third Tuesday group almost never meets on an actual Tuesday, much less the third one, and checked carefully to see what date it was actually scheduled for… my bad!

Now to Joe’s credit, when I grumbled online about this, he promptly refunded my money, apologized,  and said he hoped there were no bad feelings. And there weren’t – aren’t. But he also said this to me about the genesis of the name:

“We didn’t want to give the group a name that would tie it to terms that would rapidly become dated. So, we gave it a whimsical name that means nothing. (emphasis mine) That has allowed us to keep the content ever fresh and to follow the leading edge of thinking.”

Hmm. Can a name that seems so obviously descriptive (to my pea brain at least) really be just a “whimsical name”?

I beg to differ

And I tell my naming clients the same thing. Choosing a name that has clear descriptive overtones has a number of advantages for branders: less time explaining your product, or helping customers remember an aspect of your service – like the date for example. It’s like a pair of memory rails guiding your customer in a certain direction and reducing the friction if they go that way.

But the flip side is that a descriptive name also sets expectations that the product will continue to line up with the “rails” – so, like rails, you lose flexibility with a descriptive name as well. As I always say to clients:

You expect ’Canada Shipping Lines’ to ship stuff, but would you ever buy toothpaste from them? (Me)

Which brings me to the The Railroad Commission of Texas and 8 other examples of descriptive names that have gone off the rails – but happily pretend that they can blithely keep chugging as they churn deeper into the swamp:

10 Misleading brand names:

  1. Third Tuesdays. (See diatribe above)
  2. The Railroad Commission of Texas. If you visit the Web site, you might expect to see pictures of trains. Silly. That’s because you don’t live in Texas. If you did, according to my good friend Julie Pippert from Austin, you wouldn’t need a Wikipedia explanation of this uber-powerful state agency: “(it) regulates the oil and gas industry, gas utilities, pipeline safety, safety in the liquefied petroleum gas industry, and surface coal and uranium mining. Despite its name, it no longer regulates railroads.”
    So branders, a tip. If Wikipedia needs to include a disclaimer like that? Time to change the name!
  3. Noted bluesman Snoop Dog. (Creative Commons ceedub13)

    Ottawa Bluesfest. Funny story. Ottawa Bluesfest used to be a festival about the blues, for blues fans. But since around 2005, it turns out that you can draw a bigger(and more lucrative) crowd with Kiss, Soundgarden, the Black Eyed Peas – or this year’s headliners Snoop Dog and Iron Maiden – than you can with Stone Blind Louisiana Willy – or whoever the current top Blues star is.  Crookedmouth.net says”Bluesfest is a big, fat misnomer”, and I agree. It has become a rock festival – maybe even hard rock. Time to change the name!

  4. Apple iTunes. Once upon a time, in the days of iPods, this app was actually about tunes. Now if I want to download a movie, buy apps, update my software, or synch my iPhone calendar with my PC, I have to use this tool – which is now a comprehensive dashboard for smart devices. Time for a change Apple.
  5. History Channel. I must have missed the section in high school history where we learned about Ice Road Truckers, Ax Men and Pawn Stars. And I’m not the only one who feels that way:  Why not change the name?
  6. MTV / Music Television. In February 2010, the venerable Cable brand MTV made news by finally “bowing to the inevitable” and removing the term “Music Television” from its corporate identity. So okay. But the M in MTV still stands for “Music” and will for as long as they keep it around. And as I’ve said many times: an abbreviation is not a brand!
  7. Warning: may cause facial hair or premature Nobel prizes.

    Disney Baby Einstein. Pretty simple really. You buy a DVD; your child becomes Einstein, right? Not even close. In 2009, watchdog groups called for the name to be changed. But, as you can see, while Disney toned down the “educational” language and have shifted to saying they “create products that engage babies and make discovery fun for them and their parents” the clear implication is there. Change the name!

  8. Podcasters Across Borders (PAB). Two weeks ago, I attended the last iteration of this venerable – and mind-blowingly awesome – conference, which, it will not surprise you, was originally for Podcasters. But as time passed, and “Podcasting” became less the hip, insider cool-kid thing it once was, Mark Blevis and co started saying that the name was now “PAB”. But you also won’t be surprised that this caused confusion, consternation, apologies, and lots of onstage corrections.
  9. 140 Character Conference.   Last year, I was pitching some ideas around for speaking engagements, and saw that Jeff Pulver would be bringing his 140 Character Conference to Toronto. So I pitched him an idea, and I guess I must have used the word “Twitter” one too many times, because he sent me an abrupt – and oddly peevish (“pulverish”?) – e-mail telling me that if I had taken the time to read his site, I’d know that his conference was not about Twitter but about the emerging “real-time internet”…
    Funny thing though, I had read the site, like this part on the home page: “#140conf events provide a platform for the worldwide twitter community to: listen, connect, share and engage with each other, while collectively exploring the effects of the emerging real-time internet on business. To his credit, Jeff is now shifting from emphasis on “140” to a new master name “State of Now”, so perhaps we’re seeing the name change. Real time.
  10. Cru (formerly Campus Crusade for Christ). And speaking of changing. Here’s an example of an organization that got the message, saw the disconnect, and made the name change. And they took the heat for it from pundits like Glenn Beck who misread this as a move away from the “Christ” part of their name. But as John Piper responded:

The problem was not “Christ”. The problem was the limiting word “campus” (when CCC ministers to millions that have nothing to do with any “campus”) and “crusade” (which for millions of people has one main connotation: Medieval crusades against Muslims). Beck’s approach is not responsible journalism but careless hype for the religious right.

So how about you Brand fans? What are you doing to make Glenn Beck angry? Any examples of misleading names you’d like to see changed? Fire away in the comments below!

Grinding to the next level: new era at Bridgehead

Three short years ago I wrote about my favourite coffee shop chain Bridgehead on the occasion of their 10th location in Ottawa. Well, tomorrow, they’ll be opening their 15th store just off Preston. Think it’s a fluke they’ve been so successful? I Beg to Differ!

The new HQ – off Preston Avenue.

More than a store

The bright, spacious new retail store is just the beginning. There’s a lot more to this space.

Sorry, when I say “store”, I’m using the wrong word. The new Bridgehead location – just now getting its final tweaks prior to public opening tomorrow – will be far more than just another retail coffeeshop. It’s going to be the new head office for the Bridgehead chain and the new central warehouse to supply all 15 Bridgehead outlets across the urban core – big enough to have space for a community room, and hold coffee tasting workshops for staff and the public.

But in an even bigger development for the chain, it’s a roastery as well! So as of tomorrow, all coffee in all Bridgeheads across Ottawa will be roasted by their own local staff right here in Ottawa. 

This marks Bridgehead’s transition from being a retail reseller of other people’s coffee to being a producer and innovator, selling their own coffee. Along with this, they are building a team of experts who have already had to learn to produce large volumes every day.

Bridgehead 2.0

The roastery is filled with gear straight out of a steam-punk alchemist’s lab.

And you can really taste, smell. and see the difference. I tried one of the new Espresso roasts in a tasty, steaming cup of Americano today, and it not only tastes better, it looks better – with a real head of dense foam like you find on your cup in Europe.

One day early, I was invited in for a sneak peak at the new location, and I asked Bridgehead’s Coffee Program Manager Ian Clark whether  that was just my imagination. Here’s his geeky-but-fascinating answer, plus a look around the new roasting facility – including a glimpse of their new “Human Roaster.” Check out the YouTube.

Brand evolution

What becomes very obvious very quickly is that Bridgehead is evolving into a different kind of brand. Always a savvy purveyor of great coffee, they are now becoming a place where great coffee products are developed and refined.

What does this mean for Bridgehead? Well, this is where I’d love to hear from you. Have you tried the new roasts? Are you excited about visiting? Let me know in the comments!

Surface impressions: Microsoft just nibbles the Apple.

Microsoft tries to challenge the iPad, apple-to-Apple. But scratching the Surface, it is bruised at best, and may even be a lemon. We Beg to Differ.

Microsoft tries to challenge the iPad.  But scratching the Surface, viagra approved Microsoft wants you to compare them apple-to-Apple. We Beg to Differ.

I finally had a chance to see the video of the much-hyped “secret” launch event for Microsoft and look into the branding and positioning of even more hyped new tablet.  Now, price I’ve never touched the actual product, ask but just skating on the surface here, a  few impressions.

Reinventing the reinvention

The format of Microsoft’s presentation seemed oddly familiar to me, like deja vu, or a vaguely remembered movie. And here’s why. Read Write Web did a beat-by-beat comparison (embedded below) of the Surface launch with the epic launch of the iPad by Steve Jobs.

And you’ll never guess who comes off looking like an innovator and who comes off like a copycat:

Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming.

Tough day on the Jobs: Steve Sinofsky’s “somebody’s gonna get fired” face.

In the clip above, you see a brief moment where Microsoft  Executive Steven Sinofsky goes pale, tightens his lips, and sprints for the podium to grab a back-up tablet after the machine he’s holding completely freezes. Here’s a blow-by-blow of that excruciating moment from UK’s Daily Mail.

Now, as someone who’s done presentations for major consumer product launches (remember CorelDRAW 8?), and had to skate through crashes in the middle of your prepared schpiel, I have great  sympathy for what this guy is going through. Particularly since my screw-ups weren’t documented on YouTube for later dissection.

But this ain’t Palookaville. This is Microsoft (remember Windows 98?). So when the stakes are this high, you have to wonder how unstable the machine is to crash at that moment.

The name and brand strategy

I’m having a lot of trouble wrapping my head around the name. Maybe because it’s a two-dimensional metaphor – and most of the product shots are three-dimensional, and because Microsoft can’t seem to make up its mind whether this is a tablet (just a “surface”) or a new kind of lightweight quasi-laptop.

This confusion seems to be baffling even the most enthusiastic reviewers:

Microsoft is clearly straddling the uncomfortable divide between the old world of mice and keyboards, where it dominates, and a future ruled by touch screens, where Apple and Android devices prevail….

Surface splits the difference between a standard tablet and super-light laptops such as Apple’s MacBook Air or ultrabooks that run Windows.

So what is this thing? I’m sure a new category descriptor like “power tabs” or “laptabs” will emerge. But Microsoft could have helped us – and themselves – by figuring that out ahead of time.

Microsoft’s brand mangers also can’t seem to make up their mind whether it is a “Microsoft Surface” – like “Microsoft Word” or “Microsoft Comfort Mouse” – or whether “Surface” is a standalone brand with “Microsoft” as a lower visibility endorsement- like X Box. If it’s the latter, the Surface name is too weak to be memorable, and not distinctive enough to create a solid new product category to stand against iPad.

The wordmark is pure Apple minimalism as well, and the design of the Surface’s paper-thin launch site could easily be straight off Apple.com. Except that Apple actually tells you something substantial about their product.

And that’s the real problem with the Surface (and the substance of this product). Microsoft should have spent less time playing the Apple game (which they will never win), and more time playing the Differ game.

But, my fellow brand-watchers, what do you think? Am I being too hard on this little West-coast start-up?