The first is this seemingly simple, but excellent post at HBR titled 'A Logo is Not a Brand' which (to really summarise) explains how the brand is its strategy, the stories that its products tell, its calls to action, its customer service, its tone, attitude, its people, communication tools and its logo and visuals are all part of the brand. And he asks a very pertinent question in the end

Whether you know it or not, whether you have a swanky logo or not, you do have a brand. The question is whether or not it's the brand you really want.

With social platforms and user voices that become more effective than the brand's own, the likelihood of different perceptions is indeed high, but the good news is these very same tools also offer brands the opportunity to bridge the chasm.

The second post titled 'Brand Building: Is Function the new Emotion' builds on the view (that I also subscribe to) that the best advertisement for a brand is its product. But the twist in the end is that “the functional integration into a consumer's life creates an emotional bond” and sustaining it requires “superior performance and meaningful, empathetic innovation”. Completely agree, because it does tie into the idea of social business and identifying a workforce and processes that will help build and sustain it.

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ads/2011/06/LB.jpg”>A brand's purpose is something I have written about many times earlier on this blog. I found a very elegant brand framework – part of Leo Burnett's Human Brands concept – in one of the Cannes 2011 decks. According to Mark Tutssel, Chief Creative Officer, “Brands which have a purpose, but don't act dreamy, while brands which act without a purpose are noisy. And, for brands which lack both, they are lazy.” (via) The top right quadrant belongs to  'HumanKind', and that's where successful brands are.

So what prevents other brands from occupying it? One interesting answer I read was 'Fear'. As the post says, to build a leading brand, “organizational thinking must be on the creative plane (possibility and potential) not the competitive plane (hard bargains and discount pricing)”, and marketers are frightened of what this entails. The post even outlines a six step transformational cycle. Metrics are mentioned as a strong deterrent.

I have always felt that most advertising have not been measurable from an actual sales perspective. Parameters like TOM, salience in brand advertising are a no-brainer, but even in 'performance' advertising, there are so many factors that remain unaccounted for and unmeasured. But most brands go through the loops. We come back to the first reference about brands being a collection of various parts, a sentiment that is echoed in the last reference too, as the author defines leadership as “the quality of one’s presence in every aspect of life”. When organisations learn to do that, brand utopia will be nearer.

until next time, contrabrand

Its not difficult to imagine the costs involved in such an exercise, for a global brand. The design cost itself is rumoured to be above $1 million. This 11th logo, in a history of 110 years, comes after 6 years. (the last  update was in 2002) The announcement campaign is expected to roll out in 2009. Experts have already started commenting about the new logo, we’ll come to that later.

Continuing on the lines of the strategic intent outlined by the Pepsi exec, Pepsi did a ‘DM’ exercise by sending 3 packages to 25 “digital and social media influencers”, in sequence, each package containing cans representing different logo designs. (via Adrants). They’ve also started a ‘Room’ on Friendfeed, called The Pepsi Cooler, where ‘room mates’ have conversations (moderated) about Pepsi. The last time I checked, there were 225 members, and some very interesting conversations. Again, the intent is just fine, and there are some interesting uses being made of Flickr and Wordle. Perhaps Pepsi is going about it right, to have branded water cooler conversations.

Some India specific talk before we get to the logo. India has seen a plethora of logo changes in the past few months- Hutch to Vodafone, Canara Bank, Shopper’s Stop, India Post, Union Bank of India, among others. Out of these, I’d say that Vodafone’s task was the toughest, in terms of ensuring logo changes at the ground level, because of the multitude of vendors. Though i believe that Vodafone did a decent job, i still see Hutch in many places.

That should throw some light on the magnitude of the task ahead for Pepsi. I don’t know how this works in the US, but in India, I’ve seen most Pepsi Coolers (supplied to restaurants, kirana stores) store everything but Pepsi – that incudes competitors like Coke to Nestle Curd!! And that thought made me consider the vast ocean of cultural and experiential differences that lie between the average friendfeed user and the Tier 3 town citizen, in a country like india. It matters, because Pepsi is a global brand!!

To me, the logo is a symbol

• for the consumer, a symbol of trust and association with the brand
• for the marketer, a symbol of the attributes that he wants the brand to stand for

Yes, a good logo can do a lot of work for the brand, and create associations in the consumer’s mind, but (say, for an FMCG brand like Pepsi) how much can the cool  new logo and the virtual rooms contribute to the experience of the real consumer, especially in India? Till I stopped consuming aerated drinks a couple of years back, I was a Pepsiholic, it had nothing to do with taste, and it had everything to do with the brand and its attitude. But i wonder how much the ‘brand’ matters in the Tier 3 town, where the concept of social networking, is the consumer walking to the ‘cool drinks’ shop, asking for a ‘thanda’ and the shopkeeper knowing which brand he is asking for, from experience.

I really don’t know if the ocean will ever be bridged, and whether the logo or the smart brand work happening digitally will ever make a difference to the vast majority of Indian consumers, many of whom have vaguely heard of the internet. With reference to the stated intent, I am intrigued, how will Pepsi become/create a social object in such a scenario, or will parts of the digital medium always be confined to a corner of the long tail?

until next time, non digital natives