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Thoughts on Brand Strategy by Dennis Van Staalduinen

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Tag: Identity

Logo design: Dear Expedia: a brand is for customers, not golf shirts

A unique logo design gets dumbed down by board-room egos

This morning, check whilst Beg to Differ was checking our favourite blogs, advice looking for signs of hope in this new decade, order we noticed the sad tale of a re-branding effort  -or more accurately a logo design project – at do-it-yourself travel site Expedia.com (via Brand New). Seems that their distinctive, fun little logo wasn’t good enough for “the golf shirt test”…

Unfortunately, this is the deciding factor in too many corporate re-branding excercises.
Unfortunately, this is the deciding factor in too many corporate re-branding excercises.

What’s the “golf shirt test”?

old_expedia_logo
The old Expedia logo design. Too much character for a self-respecting VP of brand marketing…

That’s where an executive evaluates a logo, tag line, name, etc. in terms of how it will look on their golf shirt rather than how well it works for customers.

In this case, it’s logo design. The old design was kind of goofy, maybe a little clip-arty cartoonish, and yes, a bit retro (read “old-fashioned”). But it did just what it was intended to do: it conveyed a clear brand idea. It captured a bit of the excitement and adventure of travel, while giving target customers a strong symbol to help them find, remember, and engage with the service.

Now that might seem like a good thing. But that’s just because you’re thinking like a customer.

Instead, think for a moment like a corporate executive who wants to hit the golf circuit with the big kids from IBM, AT&T, etc., with their important-looking corporate swag. You don’t want to stand out; you want to blend in. And alas, a fun, humanizing image can make a VP feel positively bush league – or worse, like dot-commie.

I get that. I worked for Corel during the heyday of  Mike Cowpland and CorelDRAW. So I had to wear ugly shirts with giant rainbow-coloured balloons in the board rooms of Samsung, HP, Compaq, Apple, among others.  I understand  feeling self-conscious about a dorky shirt and wishing you could just change that bloody logo. (Note: please don’t look to Corel for an example on this one).

The new logo

The new Expedia logo. Gosh that will look important on a golf shirt.
The new Expedia logo design. Gosh that will look important on a golf shirt.

So when I saw the new Expedia logo design and branding tag (at right) I thought: aha! Golf shirt logic!

This new logo looks just incredibly… grown up. No more fun cartoon plane. Just a generic white jet icon against a boring blue globe.  An executive with this logo on a shirt could blend right in with the leaders of airports, international aid agencies, government programs – maybe even defence contractors.

Paul Leonard, VP of brand marketing at Expedia, seems to have golf shirts on his brain. Brand New quotes him as saying:

“The whole look and feel is “less cartoonish”… We were striving for a more timeless and classic aesthetic. It’s a little less whimsical and more sophisticated.”

“Timeless.” “Classic.” “Sophisticated.” All words that are proxies for “Won’t make any impression at all.”

You could even stick this Web page on a golf shirt and no one would complain!
You  could even stick this Web page on a golf shirt and no one would complain!

And one assumes Mr. Leonard also chose that very golf-shirt friendly tag line “Where you book matters.” (It’s a shame he forgot to decide why it matters – or if he did, he forgot to tell us).

One also assumes that the he also approved the generic look and feel of the new Web site – with no troublesome differentiating features to help consumers distinguish it from, well, anything else in the travel industry.

Dear executives: it’s not about you

I could go on. But brand managers, please: you need to help your corporate masters understand that branding is not about making them look good on the golf course!

A brand is about three simple things:

  1. Helping customers find you;
  2. Giving them reasons to choose you; and
  3. Creating a relationship that will help them choose you again.

And sad to say, those three things just *might* not look pretty on a golf shirt.

But enough about me: what do you think?

Author Dennis Van StaalduinenPosted on January 4, 2010Categories Analysis & review, Branding Advice, Branding Mistakes, Design System, LogoTags brand, branding, Expedia, golf shirt, icon, Identity, logo design8 Comments on Logo design: Dear Expedia: a brand is for customers, not golf shirts

The difference between Identity, Branding, & Brand explained – in “Twitterese”

With an involuntary guest appearance from Chris Brogan (thanks Chris!)

In Monday’s post, order I  critiqued the term “Personal Branding” which generated a fairly lively discussion – including input from the patron saint of “Personal Brand Experts” Dan Schawbel. But it got me thinking about some basic terminology I use all the time – in particular the difference between “Identity” (Andrew Mueller called me out on this one)  “Branding” (David Sandusky thinks we should abandon the term), about it and “Brand” (Rob Frankel doesn’t think this word ever belongs with “personal”).

Then I got to thinking about how these things could be expressed using the Twitter universe as a metaphor.

Identity - branding - brand - 600 w
Here's my first attempt. Does it make sense to you?

Why Chris Brogan? Well, ampoule duh…

Originally, I was going to use my own Twitter account as an example, but who am I kidding? There just aren’t enough people out there talking about me to make my own little corner of the Twittiverse a very good example.

So who could I use that has great Twitter karma, a well-known identity, is widely discussed, re-tweeted faithfully, and generally respected as a decent fellow? Why, social media rock star and überblogger  Chris Brogan of course. And if you don’t know who he is, immediately check out his blog Chrisbrogan.com, his Twitter account, and his latest book Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust.

It ain’t perfect, but I’m looking for help here

I know that it’s not the perfect metaphor, particularly since in corporate branding terminology, “identity” means name+logo+design standards – all of which overlap with the “branding” category above. But it’s working for me for now.

How about you? Is there a way I can make this stronger?

Author Dennis Van StaalduinenPosted on October 28, 2009Categories Brand Brief, Brand Elements, Brand Names, Brand Standards, Branding Advice, Positioning, Social MediaTags brand, branding, Chris Brogan, Identity, karma, metapohor, Personal Branding, Trust Agents, Twitter, Twitter account branding9 Comments on The difference between Identity, Branding, & Brand explained – in “Twitterese”

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