You may have noticed that Flickr recently updated their logo to include “From Yahoo!” If you’re at all familiar with Flickr, you can probably guess how well this is going over with the users.
branding
How Radio Shack's Rebranding Makes It Even More Uncool
“Names, like fashion trends, often don’t age well,” notes Chadwick Matlin over at Slate’s The Big Money. In this week’s “Broadband” video segment, he looks at Radio Shack’s weird rebranding effort to get people to call it “The Shack,” even though it’s not changing its name, and even though “The Shack” isn’t any better. “Radio Shack has hedged its bets,” Matlin writes, “Splitting its identity in two and not choosing either. What’s worse, neither is especially impressive, or especially modern.”
Seattle Coffee Shop Owner Says Starbucks Ripped Off Her Look
Starbucks, after finally coming to terms with the fact that it is soul-crushingly bland, has been trying to reinvent itself as… well, not Starbucks. They’re stripping the branding from a few of their stores and renaming them after the communities that they’re in –– but one local coffee shop owner says they’ve gone too far to try to blend in.
The Only Thing Left For Starbucks? To Just Stop Being Starbucks
Starbucks just keeps trying to reinvent itself — and it seems that they’ve tried everything. The only thing left to do is just to stop being Starbucks. So that’s what they’re doing.
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KFC’s screwed-up grilled chicken promo doesn’t seem to have hurt the company after all; Yum CEO David Novak told investors and reporters this morning that it’s “the best product launch in our history” and has “changed the brand so much for the good.” People out there apparently really love the idea of KFC grilled chicken. [AdAge] (Thanks to R!)
Duane Reade May Want To Rethink The Instructions On Their Generic Sandwich Bags
Duane Reade wants you to compare their store brand sandwich bags to Ziploc’s bags, and you should, because Ziplcoc’s bags are $0.50 cheaper.
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Forget all that spin about listening to customer complaints: it looks like the real reason Tropicana killed off its rebranding push after only two months is because sales dropped by 20% during that period, while some big competitors posted double-digit gains. We have a feeling Tropicana is going to end up in a lot of business and marketing textbooks in the future. [AdAge] (Thanks to Ross!)
Jack In The Box Brand Redesign Makes Juvenile Humor Much Easier
I’ve always thought “Jack in the Box” was a weird name for a fast food restaurant, but this new branding approach the company is rolling out in San Diego—where Jack HQ is located—seems like a step back. By isolating “Jack,” so much, they’re going to be sending immature people everywhere into fits of smirking. I keep imagining commercials with taglines like: “It’s time for a little Jack,” or “Hungry? Jack it!” Other than that, is it just me or does it look incredibly retro?
Tropicana's Failed Packaging Design Was A Real Life Poochie
The Tropicana redesign disaster seemed strangely familiar to us, and we just now realized why: the Simpsons already did it.
"Loyal Customer" Backlash Forces Tropicana To Abandon New Packaging
The New York Times says that “loyal” Tropicana customers are up in arms about the new packaging, calling it “ugly,” “generic” and claiming that it looks like a store brand. Others say that the packaging makes it difficult to distinguish between the different varieties of orange juice.
Leaked Document Shows That Pepsi Logo Is Pinnacle Of Human Achievement
When Pepsi redesigned their logo, we all just figure that they wanted it to look more like Obama’s. Apparently not. A leaked document shows that actually… the entire history of civilization and the formation of the theory of relativity was just some stuff that lead up to the new Pepsi logo.
Coke Finally Removes "Classic" From Its Label
In 1985, Coke added the word “classic” to its label when it brought back the original formula of the soft drink following the abject failure of its “New Coke” experiment. Now, finally, they are getting rid of it.
The 10 Most Reliable Car Brands VS Your Preconceived Notions
Consumer Reports just did a study about car brand perceptions, so we thought we’d compare the top 10 most highly perceived brands to their list of the most reliable car brands.
Drug Makers Say Goodbye To Swag In 2009
Beginning tomorrow morning, drug companies will stop peppering doctors’ offices with branded pens, bandages, tongue depressors, stethoscopes, calipers, mugs, prescription pads, soap dispensers, and t-shirts.
Best Buy Testing New Logo At Mall Of America, Do You Care?
Best Buy is tired of their logo, so they’re testing a new one on those local guinea pigs at the Mall of America in Bloomington, MN. (Best Buy is headquartered in Minnesota, land of lutefisk, Garrison Keillor and Target.)