The following example is a testament to the power of brands.

Head over to your closest Whole Foods and you’ll probably see this Sigg reusable water bottle display:

Each bottle sells for $19.99 or more.

If you head to Walgreens, you will find very similar bottles selling for $3.99.  The difference?: the brand is not Sigg.

Keep browsing through the Walgreens aisles and you’ll find these coffee mugs (essentially the same product plus a little bit of insulation) selling for a whopping $17.95:

Why would somebody pay between 350% and 400% more for essentially the same products?

Because of the power of brands…

You spend $19.99 on a Sigg not because you need a water bottle, but because you want to tell the world that you are hip, environmentally conscious and stylish. Similarly, you don’t spend $17.95 on an NC State coffee mug because you want to keep your coffee warm, but because you want to display your college colors with pride.

People are willing to pay to belong to a tribe,and brands just make it easier.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulofierro/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Your company name can be one of your most important brand signals. In some cases, like in the example I’m about to show you, a name alone can build a brand.

In 1999 the HVLS Fan Company, a manufacturer of large industrial fans, opened for business in Lexington, Kentucky. HVLS is an acronym that stands for high volume/low speed (HVLS), the main characteristic of their products.

During the early days, as each new fan was installed, they noticed that their customers referred to them as “big ass fans”. Before long, they decided to embrace the quirky name and became The Big Ass Fan Company. The rest, as they say, is history.

The new name has not only turned an obscure industrial fan manufacturer in Kentucky into one of the most recognized and innovative small business brands in the United States, but it has also played a part in creating a remarkable corporate culture that blends an unwavering commitment to business and customer service excellence with community involvement and fun.

If you’re thinking of a name for your product or company, remember this example and shoot for a name that is distinctive, memorable and relevant, and that matches the way your customers would think and talk about your product.

To learn more about the Big Ass Fans brand and culture visit their website.

I live five minutes away from Burger King’s headquarters, and today I passed by a BK restaurant located next to their building.  This is one of the few restaurants that sports BK’s recently launched new look.  The new BK, more upscale and futuristic (and more sit down than drive through) clearly stands out from other fast food chains.

But with this redesign BK not only gains in style and image, but also scores big on branding.  Perhaps the most significant brand signal can be seen above the entrance: BK’s classic tagline “Home of the Whopper” has been dusted off and is now the centerpiece of the new design.  This is a big win, since the Whopper is BK’s biggest claim to fame (remember the Whopper Freakout spoof campaign?).  Also, to the side of each door, you can now see pictures of some of BK’s biggest hamburgers.

At a time when fast food joints seem to have lost focus by engaging in a futile “war on calories” and prefer to hype salads and fruit plates, Burger King gets it right by going back to its roots and repositioning itself as the destination for burgers in the fast food space.

Posted via email from Mario Sanchez Carrion | Posterous

Good brands have succinct, compelling slogans that clearly explain what makes them unique. To illustrate the point, let me bring up the example of two large retailers: a thriving one with a clear purpose and an unbeatable position (Wal-Mart), and a struggling one, grappling with identity issues and with no clear message (Sears):

In 2007, Wal-Mart adopted the slogan: “Save money. Live better.” It is a clear, concise and powerful statement, easy to understand and communicate. It is also the company’s four word mission statement.  So, what did Sears do? More than a year later, it adopted the following tag line: “Life. Well spent.”  I don’t know if it was intentional or not, but it seems to me that Sears’ slogan is a not-so-subtle attempt to say essentially the same thing.

Sears’ slogan has three main problems:

• It came late:  Wal-Mart beat them to the punch. Therefore, the slogan, far from helping Sears, positions it in a futile “follow the leader” path in a battle it cannot win.
• It is weak:  Sears’ tag line is written in passive voice, as opposed to Wal-Mart’s.  Any copywriter worth his or her salt will tell you that active beats passive voice every time.
• It is not credible:  if somebody asked you to name a brand that helps you live the good life without spending a lot of money, which would more easily come to mind: Wal-Mart or Sears?

In summary, aside from making your slogan short (four or five words, tops) make sure it is:

• Expressed in active voice
• A concise version of your brand’s core mission (friendly memo to Sears: it helps if you have a core mission to start with
• Clearly differentiated from any of your competitors’.

What do you think?

On a recent business trip I took a picture of this trashcan at the airport’s restroom. People who got there before me were drying their hands and piling up the used paper towels on top of each other.  I was about to do the same, when I noticed that the trashcan had a self-closing door. I opened it and, naturally, the trashcan was half empty.

Why would people keep on piling up dirty towels on top of the trashcan if they could better dispose of them by throwing them inside? Easy: because everybody else was doing it. After all, If everybody’s doing it there must be a good reason, right?  Maybe the trashcan is full or something… right?  Wrong.  Just because everybody’s doing something doesn’t mean it’s right, or efficient or logical.

In the business world, many entrepreneurs make the mistake of chasing mature markets because they’re “proven”, like the “piling-up-used-paper-towels” market. They believe that that’s where “the money is”, and that if they get just a tiny fraction they will be OK. However, it seldom turns out that way.  Mature, mainstream markets are saturated with competitors, engulfed in price wars and burdened with high barriers to entry.

Instead, why not try to find out what the big guys are doing wrong, what customers they are neglecting, what core brand benefit has taken a back seat in the name of operational efficiencies, and come up with a way to address those needs and those customers?

When everybody is busy looking at the paper towel pile, look around for that elusive self-closing door.

Pizza Hut has started to change the name of some of its stores to The Hut, the rationale being that they don’t want to tie their fortunes to one product (pizza). Its packaging now proudly displays the chain’s new focus (or lack thereof): “Pizza – Pasta – Wings”.

Here’s the problem. Ask anybody you know what Pizza Hut stands for and they will tell you one thing: pizza. Come back in five years and ask: “what does The Hut stand for?”  What do you think the answer will be?

Here’s a wild guess: not pasta, not wings, and most likely, not pizza either.  Those of us old enough to remember that The Hut once stood for pizza will probably have forgotten, and newer consumers will probably be too young to make the connection.  Most likely, The Hut will turn into just another me-too offering in the crowded “a-little-bit-of-everything” budget restaurant category.

On the plus column, at least Yum Brands (The Hut’s parent company) is not yet rolling this out to all the stores.

What do you think? Good or bad idea?