Archive for the 'Brands in general' Category
Mergers and Acquisitions: A Brand Perspective
A group from Liquid just returned from attending the Silicon Valley Brand Forum held on October 16, 2007 at Microsoft in Mountain View. The theme discussed by a group of experienced panelists was “Navigating Your Brand Through Mergers and Acquisitions” - a theme that is very appropriate in Silicon Valley, given the number of companies that are growing using M&A strategies. The panelists included Russ Meyer, the Chief Strategy Officer for Landor; Patrick Moran, the Sr. Director of Marketing at WebEx (now part of Cisco); and Jim Rose, The VP of Brand and Global Marketing at Symantec. The moderator was Ron May, the brand guru at UPEK, a leader in fingerprint biometrics whose experience with Mattel, Synopsys, Tandem and Logitech added a great deal of color to the conversation. The event was presented by the Kevin Heney, the founder of the Silicon Valley Brand Forum, a man whose commitment to the practice of branding is exemplary.
The panelists described the M&A process in terms of several distinct phases:
1. Courtship
2. Acquisition
3. Integration
4. Denial (Sometimes)
For the benefit of the company’s long term success, each of these phases can benefit from a brand perspective. Much of the discussion in the first half centered around the considerations behind which name is kept and which is not – and the answer depends on many factors. The panelists urged the audience to consider whether the acquisition was driven by a desire for the acquired company’s products, people, customers…or whether it was simply a way to stop a competitor from buying the company and become more of a competitive threat. Russ Meyer from Landor advocated doing research that helps identify the strengths and weaknesses of each name from the viewpoint of the audiences (customers and other stakeholders). In the words of the Patrick Moran who is still in the midst of the Cisco WebEx acquisition, “It’s all about the business strategyâ€. A statement that was reinforced by Jim Rose from Symantec who added “Brand needs to enable business strategyâ€.
For more information, visit the www.svbrandforum.com – and make a point of trying to attend the next event. They are definitely worthwhile!
1 commentGoogle Hires Advertising Agency Executive
On Wednesday, 9/19, the Wall Street Journal ran an article about Google hiring Andy Berndt, co-president of New York’s Ogilvy and Mather! Google, the 2007 Liquid Agency Brand Impact Awards Brand of The Year (B2C and Overall), has brought Mr. Berndt into the fray as the Managing Director of Googles new Creative Labs Unit. I’m not exactly sure what the Creative Labs unit is, so if anyone know’s please comment on this posting! Is this yet another move towards traditional advertising, will Mr. Berndt be heading up a major advertising effort for Google, or will Google leverage his expertise to help sell more advertising to major advertisers?
No commentsGoogle and Dell co-brand TV advertising
In a prior post, I made an observation about some Google banner ads I had seen in an online forum, and an assertion that it might be the beginning of the end to google’s reputed aversion to traditional advertising. Since that observation I have seen the new TV spot cobranded between Dell and Google. The Ad features the unique looking Google Search appliance as part of a server rack. The appliance is built by Dell, but branded by Google, the story and video can be found here.
Wonder what we’ll see next……
No commentsGoogle Advertising?…
Google, arguably the worlds most impactful brand (it’s a tough argument these days), built this incredible brand without the use of any traditional forms of advertising, nor has Google used many forms of “marketing communications” in general. Until today, I’d never seen a banner ad, like this banner i saw in a forum this morning:
Could it be that Google has abandoned their aversion for advertising, and will we begin to see more outbound marketing communications from this outstanding brand? If/when you find other Google advertising, or interesting competitive advertising please add comments to this post!
No commentsOlympic Logo: What do you think?
The new logo for the 2012 London Olympics has elicited an amazing amount of controversy. According to Jacque Rogge, President of International Olympic Committee, “this is a truly innovative brand logo that graphically captures the essence of the London 2012 Olympic Games — namely to inspire young people around the world through sport and the Olympic values.” According to many others it is an atrocious symbol that should be immediately scrapped. According to an article in the Times Online by Robert Booth, “The logo, designed by Wolff Olins, a London branding agency, and approved by Tessa Jowell, the culture secretary, was launched to almost universal disdain”. Personally, I am still trying to digest it. My first impression is that it is shockingly unattractive, and reminiscent of post-punk eighties graphics. I’m trying very hard to be open minded and see if it grows on me…but so far, it’s not working! I wonder what you think? I’d love some feedback…especially if you can defend it!
Liquid Brand Summit elicits great feedback.
Organizing the Liquid Brand Summit was no easy task. It required making sure that we had amazing Session Leaders and a group of savvy marketers who would engage in open conversation about the burning issues about brand building today. However, the effort was well worth it. The feedback that we’ve received so far has been tremendous…THANK YOU!
We’re also glad to have started some stimulating conversations…check out Jennifer LeBlanc’s blog. In related news, check out Rob Enderle’s blog, where he mentions the Brand Impact Awards!
Brand Summit 2007: Best Practices Coming Up…
The Liquid Brand Summit was a lot of fun.
About 100 people participated in the Liquid Brand Summit 2007 and helped identify the Best Practices in branding for technology companies. The discussions during the sessions were insightful and stimulating. The session leaders included some brilliant minds from brands like AOL, eBay, Adobe, Technorati, and Linden Labs. And the participants included folks from brands like Oracle, Intel, EA, Intuit, etc.
Now, we’re hard at work compiling all of the findings so we can share them with the world.
As soon as they’re done we’ll post them on the Liquid Agency site, and I will keep all of you informed through this blog!
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