A brand new day

A brand is a powerful thing. A strong branding message ("Just Do It" from Nike or the Energizer Bunny) can say a lot about your product and convey to your customers what they can expect. Your brand can convey to your customers and your external audience what it is you stand for.

But a good brand can also have a tremendous effect internally. A strong brand message (GE: We bring good things to life; Apple: Think Different; Ford: Quality is Job 1) can define an organizational culture and affect how employees feel about the company.

Clarksville, Tennesee just unveiled a new logo and slogan for the city and all of its marketing efforts. Clarksville, which is Tennessee's northern-most city, is now "Tennessee's Top Spot." It's a nice double-entendre that will work well in marketing the city as a destination. But what is interesting is how excited people at the unveiling are about the brand - not only as a marketing tool but how it makes them feel about themselves and where they live.

As with any change, there can be naysayers. Some in Clarksville are saying it's a huge waste of money and Clarksville is not truly tops in anything. It's true, a new slogan and a new logo won't change the city overnight. It doesn't fix potholes or build schools. But a strong brand can not only reflect the current situation, but it can set a tone for the future. A brand can not only communicate who you are today but who you strive to become.

Clarksville, Tennessee: Just Do It.

The silent majority

In the one week since I published the Logo-palooza post, this site has been visited over 20,000 times. The source for most of the traffic has been StumbleUpon where the post has been recommended by several users of that site.

The point I wanted to make about this is that you would never guess the popularity of that post by looking at it. As of this morning it has received a total of 12 comments. It has been seen and read over 20,000 times but only 12 people commented.

But the more I think about it, I don't think this is all that unusual. Think about all the articles we read online - all the news stories and blog posts. Most of the time we don't have a good reason to leave a comment. Unless we disagree with the author or feel compelled to add something, we often simply move on and read the next thing.

Long before the Web there was user-participation in talk radio. And with that medium too, a small percentage of the audience called in to offer their opinion. Most people just listened.

As more organizations look for ways to use the Web to "better connect with and engage their customers," the trick will be finding creative ways to comfort, stimulate, and motivate them to action. But companies need to realize that, despite their best efforts and intentions, many of their customers may prefer to stay silent.

Logo-palooza

I love well-designed logos. Some of my favorites are not only clean and clear but also clever. There's an "Aha!" moment hidden in the design. Like a Gestalt effect, your mind fills in a gap or makes a connection and suddenly 1 + 1 = 3.

Here are a few of my favorites:

	NBC's famous peacock. Love the white space and the use of color.
	The Amazon logo says two things: We have everything from "A to Z" and the smiley face portrays shopping as fun.
	The Big Ten conference is actually 11 teams now. Notice how they worked in an 11 in the negative space.
	I've always liked this vintage logo from the Milwaukee Brewers. The glove is made from the letters M and B.
	The rail transport company CSX recently added the brackets and dots which paint the familiar picture of CSX rail cars.
	A beautifully designed logo for New York's effort to land the 2012 Olympic Games.
	Nice use of lettering by the Arizona Diamondbacks to form a snake's head.
	Another clever use of white space by F1 Racing.
	This may be the most famous use of white space in a company logo. Once you see the arrow, you'll always see it.
	Notice how the U's and N's in the word Sun are used to create the S.

On logos and branding

Branding, like advertising, is one of those things many people simply can't quite believe actually works. Or at least they don't think it works on them. A brand is not something you can touch or hold. It's more concept than concrete.

But when I think about branding I think of the consistency of the BMW hood or the hidden arrow in the FedEx logo. I see the waves of water in the Dasani logo. I see white earbuds, swooshes on sneakers and the "Golden Arches." Alligators on polo shirts and the Yankees in pinstripes. Or the symbolic power and beauty of the Red Cross logo. I associate green and yellow with John Deere, orange with Home Depot and yellow with Best Buy.

A brand identity is a powerful thing that, when done well, can help associate a company with ideas and connotations that tell a story, reinforce marketing concepts and provide a clear, consistent message to consumers.

Oh, and my children can spot those "Golden Arches" from at least two miles away.

Logo-gate

Much has been written in the past few days on the logo for the 2012 London Olympics. People have called it horrible, ugly, a waste of money, etc.

Seth Godin chimes in today with his thoughts on logos. In short: a logo is just a empty visual. It gets filled in with meaning by the product or company.

I agree. But that's still a pretty ugly logo.