Google+ Still Threatening the Health of the Google Brand

A month ago, we wrote about the damage Google was doing to its brand with its bungling of Google+ policies and enforcement. Shockingly, the company still can’t fix the problem. Today, a columnist at ZDNet was notified of a pending suspension of all her Google products because they erroneously suspected her of violating their policies. [...]

Old Spice in a Win-Win Duel Between Mustafa and Fabio

When Old Spice announced that Fabio would be replacing Mustafa, the outcry was instantaneous. Was Old Spice going to end up like The Gap and quickly backtrack when customers on social media screamed loudly enough?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not so fast. It was a set up from the beginning—a set up perfect for generating buzz and involving fans. Fabio [...]

Google+ Screws Up the Brand Trust Equation

I was right in the middle of writing a blog entry on how the well-documented trust problems of the Facebook brand have left a gaping strategic hole that could have allowed Google+ to topple the social media giant. But then Google+ messed up in a big way. They no longer can claim trustworthiness and may [...]

Branded Top Level Domain Names: Help or Hindrance?

ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) has voted to allow an unlimited number of new Top Level Domains. That means companies won’t be limited to just .com, but can go for.mcdonalds and .starbucks. On the face of it, the decision looks good for brands. But think again. The result could just be more [...]

Consumr: A Yelp For Consumer Goods—No Help

Advertising Age reports the launch today of Consumr, a new social media ratings site. It’s meant to be Yelp-meets-Foursquare to rate consumer packaged goods like Cheerios and Tide. This is a service without a need.

Consumr is working with publisher Rodale to import Yelp-style product reviews for some 50,000 products you can find on grocery store, [...]

The Land Rover Experience Off Road and Online

Land Rover of Larchmont and Land Rover of Mt. Kisco teamed to bring the Land Rover Experience home to their local customers. With the help of Overland Experts, trainers of expedition drivers, off-road racers, and Special Forces teams, the dealerships built a special off road course in upper Westchester County, New York and [...]

BMW X Drive Team Brings the Brand Experience to the Dealer Level

The BMW X Drive Team rolled into Mt. Kisco BMW last week to give drivers a chance experience the BMW intelligent 4×4 system. With demos and test drives, BMW was able to bring the experience of the brand to potential BMW drivers at the local and personal level. The dealership was able [...]

Don't Drop the F-Bomb...And Other Good Social Media Advice

“Don’t use the F-Bomb” is a seemingly common sense rule when using social media for corporate purposes.

But, common sense is not as common as you might hope.

A purported social media expert working for a leading social media agency tweeted this for Chrysler: “I find it ironic that Detroit is known as the Motorcity and yet [...]

Social Media Forces Candid Truth from Brands

Rance Crain has an interesting post in Advertising Age: “Back in the Mad Men days, when the “pioneers of advertising,” as my old boss Stan Cohen calls them, ruled the roost, it was commonly held that a little exaggeration was not unreasonable to accentuate the selling points of the ad messages.”

Don’t try [...]

Johnson & Johnson OB Tampons Stringing on Brand's Consumers

Johnson & Johnson used to be held up as the ideal case study of how a company should respond in a crisis. Their handling of the Tylenol tampering case back in the 1980s was masterful. Johnson & Johnson’s response to the seemingly endless string of current product recalls, however, has been anything but masterful. (see [...]