Climate Cars
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Climate Cars, originally uploaded by JonnyMoss.
Climate Cars has struck me as a great company for 3 reasons. Number one - great concept of environmentally friendly, well-branded cars, focusing on great service and value. Number two - nicely designed website giving you all the information you could possibly want and online account registration. Thirdly, they are making great us eof technology with GPS tracking, GPS-enabled fares so mileage is accurately calculated.
It is nice to see, that something as “mundane” as a taxi service, can be well branded, bringing innovative service and design to their offering.
I am sure there are similar offerings in London, but this is the one that I have seen first (actually from a tweet from Melalicious). If anyone else know of companies who are doing something similar, perhaps in different cities, please let me know in the comments.
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Goole - rebranded
Goole - rebranded, originally uploaded by JonnyMoss.
It needs it. Thanks to Mr Cleary for this - top work sir!
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www.helpineedhelp.com
What a great brand, great products and a nice (very) clean website. Do have a look at their T shirt maker - just placed an order 
I love the colours for this brand and the packaging on the pills and bandages is some of the best I’ve seen this year.
Selling NY Tap Water!
Now this is an impressive bit of marketing.
We all know that some people hate the fact that bottled water is sold, branded, positioned as a better choice than plan old tap water. Well, this is plain old tap water, from NY!
The DieLine has a good write up on it here, and makes interesting reading:
Tap’dNY is a bottled water for the new age: an honest and local alternative for all New Yorkers. We purify and bottle New York City’s famous tap water, leaving out the malarkey and far journey included in other bottled waters.
I love the packaging, and the brand, but the proof will be in the sales. I would imagine it may be a bit of a fad, but you never know!
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A stimulating brand name
Morning campers, it’s FRIDAY! To celebrate this wonderful fact, and that it is sunny here in Hull, I thought you would like this picture I snapped in Waitrose a few days ago: a very different take on a risque brand name, but works rather well!
Since Dorset Cereals shook up the muesli and porridge market with their awesome packaging and design, not to mention lovely food, this market sector has completely changed, most notably all the packaging changing shape to the type shown aboev.
Rude Health is a brand I have only just heard of, but their tongue in cheel copy and brand names are rather good
Misc Tuesday
Stretching the brand?
Innocent Smoothies have been a HUGE success over the last few years and have an enviable market share. I noticed last week that they have just launched their own OJ. I guess it makes sense, people know, like and trust Innocent, and hence will choose their new offering, but will it worry brand’s like Tropicana? We will have to wait and see…. They have a strong name and reputation and advertising that has been now copied to death.
One of my Fave Hotel Brands
Malmaison is a great chain of hotels (they also own Hotel Du Vin). I have consistently had a good experience with them. Stylish hotesl, great service, and great food. A big thanks to James for lunch The burger, as you can see was particularly impressive and the presentation makes all the difference. Their advertising is always distinctive and innovative and their use of rich colours lends itself well to their brand image.
One hotel brand that has really impressed me recently is Premier Inn - not my first choice of hotels if going somewhere nice with my fiancee, but for business when on my own, they provide a spotlessly clean room, great prices (how about £49 per night!) and useful locations. Hats off to them for delivering exactly what their brand promises - a great night’s sleep at low prices.
Bad Apple?
Michael Arrington over at Techcrunch has an interesting post about his Apple woes, and it seems like he has struck a chord. Being one of the most widely read blogs on the web, I hope he has Cupertino taking note. I have not had too many problems with my Apple gear, but there have been some (certainly not perfect by any stretch of the imagination):
- Unable to login on the MacPro last week
- GPS not working on my iPhone 3G
- Shockingly bad battery life on my MBP
Apple need to wake up and realise that they cannot rely on their reputation any more, they also need to deliver quality and reliable products.
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The 2008 UK Superbrands
As always, it is interesting to see what people in the know feel are the UK’s top brands, and the latest results have just been announced. The BBC cover it here and the official Superbrands website can be found here.
The results
Ok, Google have put in an impressive performance here, moving up two places from the 2007 poll. What is unsurprising is that the supermarkets, Tesco, Sainsburys, Asda and Morrisons, have all plummeted, probably due to the fact that food is more and more expensive, and that people are wising up to the fact that these corporate behemoths rip off their suppliers and make way too much profit. Asda dropped 253 places - Tesco 230 - Sainsburys 194. That is a serious fall from grace.
So how is this thing judged?
This to me is always essential to know, and this year, the Superbrands council state that:
” A Superbrand is one that offers customers significant emotional and tangible advantages over other brands”
As well as being judged on 3 other factors:
” Quality, Reliability and Distinction”
A nationally represented group as well as the Superbrands council do the voting and come out with the top 500.
Do I agree with the top 10?
8 out of ten I do. However, I’m not sure Microsoft can be called reliable with the Vistaster or offer emotional advantages! As to Royal Doulton, I really don’t give a giraffe’s breakfast whether I eat off a paper plate or fine china as long as the food is good!
Of course, the big brand missing for me, is my beloved Apple, and that folks is at number 11.
Google is the only web-based brand in the top 50 - Yahoo! coming in at 75 and Amazon UK coming at 285. it is interesting to compare the UK list to a global brand list based on value for 2008:
So, only the big G and Microsoft appear in both top ten. One of the big factors for me at least, is not how well known a brand is but how it behaves, looks and “feels”. A small brand can get a huge following by being, well, small. The unknown, the sort of secret factor of these smaller brands can be a very powerful way of attracting people. Combine that with the power of the web, where the word of mouth marketing can spread virally, the community which can be created, and the two way communication that should be encouraged, and you get a brand which will always be successful, not because of being big and all-powerful, but for being small, and well, cool.
A couple of brands that I feel fall in this category are teapigs tea, Howies clothes, Able and Cole food and IC Berlin specs. These are the brands that impress me, although I am a BIG fan of Google too.
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Are you a supermarket snob? (I used to be)
Supermarket snobbery. A highly debated topic in the tough financial environment we are currently living in. There are of course many supermarkets all to willing to take our money off us, like:
- Tesco (capitalist pigs)
- Asda (can be pretty frightening at times in Hull)
- Waitrose (very civilised shopping)
- Netto (who?)
- Lidl (no frills)
- Aldi (really on the up and up)
- Sainsburys (hello Jamie!)
- Morrisons (Northen outposts)
- And a few others
So, who’s going to be honest here…. where and why do you shop now, and has that changed over the course of 2008? I used to be a real supermarket snob. I am proud to say it was Waitrose every time. The brand name conveyed taste, a quiet and attentive experience and great quality. It also meant some big £££ being spent. It was almost like the Ikea experience when you get to the till with what you think is not a lot, and you hear the words:
that will be £112.31 please.
Not quite what you had in mind. Nowadays thought I’ve changed my mindset and tend to shop in many different supermarkets, including the excellent Aldi - they have their luxury range which is very good (awesome fruit yoghurts) and the prices are very, very good. Yes, I do nip to Waitrose every now and again, but only for things that we cannot get elsewhere. The main weekly shop is usually at Morrisons and they have some great product lines and again, low prices.
It is not surprising therefore to see the BBC news article about this very subject. It looks like people just cannot afford M&S food all the time now (their share price has just got a serious battering), and consumers who have never braved Aldi / Netto / Lidl, are now being lured in. Aldi have actually started a pretty good TV advertising campaign with a very clear message about not having to pay too much for quality.
Right then, spill the beans (Heinz only though still) on your supermarket shopping brand loyalty and experiences in the comments!
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Brand Devotion
When you get people willing to camp out for 32 hours to be first at a store’s opening, you know that there is only one brand in the world that can do this.
Check out the video here - fans like these are the ultimate goal of company / brand. This is when you know you have the story, the myth, the product, the marketing right.
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Dulux jumping on the iPod band wagon
Paintpod? Hmmm, not that original guys.
I snapped this at the local DIY store a few days ago on the iPhone and just remembered I had when I was looking through my gallery. The actual idea seems a bit of a winner, and to be fair to Dulux, is probably due to some serious customer research.The Dulux website explains all about it and looks like a winner. Apart from the brand name. Are they trying to connect with the youth market for trendy painting? Or are they positioning it to be used when listening to you iPod at the same time?
Hey, at least the colours are nice (I’m a big fan of blue), but the font is a tad Mickey Mouse!
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BBC News- You may like to read this...
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