Filed under: Advertising, Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, Audio Visual, Authenticity, Comment, Communication Strategy, Creativity, Culture, Diversity, Emotion, Empathy, Experience, Honesty, Imagination, Insight, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Packaging, Pepsi, Perspective, Positioning, Premium
One of the things I have always found fascinating is hearing how agencies explain their work.
It’s always so brilliantly detailed.
So articulate and precise.
So different to how any of the work I’ve been a part of came about.
In my personal experience, the process to the creative work has looked like this …
That’s right. A bloody mess.
Chaos rather than clarity.
Back and forth rather than a clear line.
Exploration and rabbit holes rather a smooth and efficient act of precision.
Got to be honest, I prefer it that way.
The idea of everything being so pure that you know the answer before you get to the answer scares the hell out of me.
Maybe that’s why I like giving creatives the best problem rather than a good solution.
Let them work out a way to solve it rather than expect them to just execute my answers.
The reason I say all this is because I recently saw this colour chart …
Putting aside that some of the brand/colour associations they’ve suggested make no fucking sense at all [ie: Nike = neutral/calm balance] it is interesting and frightening how much brands align with a colour stereotype.
Or should I say, a suggested colour stereotype.
OK … I’m being a dick, I know there is a lot of research in this field, but that doesn’t mean that just because your brand logo is in a character defined colour, you automatically convey that character.
But of course, this is what a branding company would say in their pitch …
“We chose orange as orange is a colour that conveys friendliness and we believe this makes you even more accessible”
But the reality is colour theory is the driving force behind logo colour recommendations, I would say it’s because of 2 reasons:
1. It’s how the brand wants to be perceived. [Ego]
2. It’s to hide how the brand is really perceived. [Fear]
Am I being a prick?
Probably. But as they say in the movie Dangerous Liaisons … people don’t answer questions with the truth, they answer questions in ways that protect their truth.
This is why I’ve always talked about ‘dirty little secrets’ … because often insights end up being about ‘convenient explanations’ of actions/behaviours/beliefs whereas the real driving force is something more personal. More conflicting. More interesting.
It’s why I find it far more interesting BP are in the green colour – nature, health and growth – than Animal Planet.
It’s also why I find BP far more differentiated than the friendly, orange colour of Gulf Petroleum.
Because while colour choice for logo design is important, anyone who tries to claim it defines what the brand is and/or how it is perceived in culture is either a fucking bubble-dwelling idiot, a ‘category convention’ sheep or someone who believes the Pepsi logo design strategy is up there with Leonardo Da Vinci.
Filed under: Advertising, America, Attitude & Aptitude, Brand Suicide, Comment, Communication Strategy, Corona Virus, Crap Marketing Ideas From History!, Culture, Management, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Pepsi, Walmart
Covid.
A virus that has – at time of writing – affected 7 million people worldwide and killed 220,000 in the US and 43,000 in the UK.
Given brands pathological fear of being associated with anything negative, this blows my mind.
Now, I must admit I don’t know if this is real.
It looks it, but who knows.
However, assuming it is, there are so many questions that need to be asked.
First is ‘what the hell are they thinking’?
Seriously, what’s going on?
Did Walmart offer the tie-in with Pepsi?
Did Pepsi ask Walmart to sponsor the signs?
Is the COVID-19 testing centre anything to do with either of them?
Could anyone please explain the rationale for doing this?
Now … I’ve been in this industry long enough to know that if it is indeed true, some of the justifications will likely read as follows:
1. We’re providing hope and happiness to people at a worrying time in their life.
2. We’re removing the stigma of COVID by embracing it with positivity.
3. We’re about American families and nothing is more American than Walmart and Pepsi.
[Please note, I haven’t even considered that Pepsi or Walmart deny the existence of COVID]
And while I accept this tie-in may say more about the people who enjoy those brands than the brands themselves, it still seems shockingly bad taste to try and make it sound like a family event when over 200,000 people have died from it.
But then, as we have seen from the past, Pepsi’s have a lack of judgement in terms of what is good for their brand.
No doubt we can expect a Pepsi/Walmart tie in at cemeteries in the near future … justified by targeting ‘a captive audience’.