Branding Gone Bad - Abercrombie Offers to Payoff Jersey Shore Star

Just how far will a company go to preserve its brand integrity? Just ask upscale clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch (also affectionately referred to as A&F). Obviously famous people that associate themselves with a specific brand can have an impact on that brand's image and ultimately sales. Still, I have never heard of a clothing company offering to pay someone "not" to wear its brand as is the case with A&F executives offering to pay Jersey Shore star Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino.

In a public statement released yesterday, A&F expressed a deep concern over the association with the Jersey Shore star and the A&F brand. They offered up what is described as a substantial payment to the star to wear an alternative brand. Wow! I don't know what to say. Good for them or what were they thinking? Here are my thoughts on the impact of this action by A&F below:

• First and foremost they have drawn attention to the situation (no pun intended).  I myself am an A&F customer for casual attire and had no idea that someone from Jersey Shore was wearing the brand because I do not watch the show, nor do I care what anyone from the show does let alone wears.
• A&F may have alienated a large group of their target audience (largely teens and young adults who watch the show on MTV). Whether this is their target demo or not this could likely hurt sales at least in the short-term as show loyalists react to the news. 
• My guess here is that some other brand like American Eagle will catch wind of this and offer to pay the Jersey shore star or whole cast to wear its line of clothing, realizing the potential lift in sales.

So I am curious to see how this unravels. Of course "The Situation" is now even more famous than he was before, which sortof backfired for A&F I think. Don't they realize that even bad publicity is good for brands - or was this public statement some sort of attempt at that on their part? Makes me wonder. Perhaps this was even a planned event concocted by some fancy New York PR agency. What are your thoughts? 

Justin Timberlake Invests in MySpace Purchase

He brought sexy back but can he bring MySpace back? That's the $35 million dollar question. Specific Media has confirmed Justin Timberlake's involvement in the purchase of the former social media giant.  According to Specific Media, Timberlake will also be involved in the plans for revamping the network.

The new vision for the MySpace network will be announced later this summer in an exclusive press conference.  Until then, Specific Media says that MySpace will become the premiere digital destination for original shows, video content and music.

Timberlake has been involved in other business ventures past and I think buying into MySpace, a social network most closely aligned with music and concerts is a good strategic move for someone as knowledgeable about the music business as he is. It will be interesting to see what the future holds for MySpace.

Most Popular Social Sites for Sharing Content

According to a recent study by social sharing company ShareThis, in which the content sharing habits of some 300 million+ users were studied, it was noted that Facebook largely dominates the sharing space with 56% of all shared content originating with Facebook as compared with Twitter at 8%.

Not surprising because the Twitter universe is so much smaller than Facebook.

New Cheech & Chong Shoe Intersects Brand and Culture for Nike

We all know Nike. It's one of those ubiquitous brands that transcends race, gender, class, age or sport.  From the Michael Jordan basketball ads of yesterday to the simple "Just do it" branding ads aimed at encouraging people to be active, Nike advertising consistently delivers on passion and emotion - connecting imagery and icons with ease.

Just how far will Nike go to connect with its potential customers is evidenced with its new Nike SB Dunk High 420 Cheech & Chong shoe, a skateboarding shoe with a lot of hype around it and rightfully so.  From the name itself to the marijuana-green laces, this is a shoe that is obviously designed to attract some attention. Sources say Nike plans to produce just 1,000 pairs of the Cheech & Chong shoes -  certainly driving the cost demand for such a product through the roof. Some similar niche shoes created by Nike in the past have commanded hundreds of dollars.

I'm interested in your opinion here. Should Nike, a global brand representing athletes in virtually every sport on the planet be promoting a shoe so obviously associated with smoking pot? Personal views aside, isn't this product a little skewed from Nike's inspirational, encouraging "Just do it" tagline? That is unless Just do it also embodies the meaning of Just do drugs. So please share your thoughts: is this a harmless campaign aimed at connecting Nike with pot-smoking skateboarding aficianadios or a campaign that advocates pot-smoking among young adults, who are generally the individuals into skate-boarding?

Starbucks Shows Simplicity Prevails in New Logo

When I first heard that Starbucks was launching a new logo I was surprised. Why would a brand as ubiquitous as Starbucks feel the need to update a logo that has so clearly been part of its success?  Perhaps you had the same thought. Imagine for a moment if you will that Nike had decided to revamp its swoosh? Why mess with something that works?

But then again I suppose all things evolve, logos included.  You'll see in the illustration to the right that the new Starbucks logo is more of a lineart version without the Starbucks Coffee name on it. From a branding standpoint this seems silly to me. When does a company ever want to use just a symbol to market itself versus its name? Sure many Starbucks fans may be able to spot the logo and render what it it - but what about the rest of the population? If they were not aware of or a customer of Starbucks before the new logo how will this convince them?

I completely understand and support the concept of simplicity but personally, I think they should have kept Starbucks Coffee in the logo and just evolved the artwork as they have done in the past. What are your thoughts?

Interesting Social Media Poll Results

There is so much information available on social media - albeit much of it useless.  I get excited whenever I come across actual data that substantiates using social as part of an overall business marketing strategy.  That being said, I am really happy to see that SmartBrief is polling users about their thoughts, feelings and opinions about social - because this is information we marketers can actually use to make decisions!

An interesting poll I saw posted this past week asked readers to select what causes them to unfollow an individual or business on social networks.  While some of the results were predictable others were insightful.

The single most important reason for unfollowing a person or business was that "Their over-communication gets overwhelming" (about 51% had this answer).  Additional answers were as follows:

• The person or business does not add value to my day with their irrelevant postings (33%)
• They only talk about themselves or act irresponsibly toward their audience (10%)
• They rarely communicate or update their networks (3%)
• They're not open to feedback, dialogue or user-generated content (3%)

What I take from this from a personal and professional level is to communicate daily with a reasonable amount of updates based on the network. Twitter for example is a content sharing network so posting 5, 10 or even 20x a day is acceptable if it is relevant and useful to your followers. On Facebook or LinkedIn, that many updates would annoy people and possibly cause them to unfollow.  

Also, be relevant! It's okay to post updates about what you're eating if you're a person but a business should refrain from such updates...unless your business is related to food. Make sense?

Finally, don't just talk about yourself.  Share and engage in dialogue. That is why people are so enamored with social media afterall. We are social beings. So be social and keep it responsible and you'll be on your way to realizing the value that this media generates.

Online Banner Ad Performance Declines

According to a new report released by MediaMind, average click-through rates on global banner advertising remains flat at 0.09%.  In the report titled "Standard Banners-Non-Standard Results", billions of ad impressions were examined over a two-year period. The report indicated that the use of standard web banners today does not equal the results of previous years, when online advertising was in its infancy. 

Better click-through results can be achieved today through the use of more sophisticated ads including rich media, video and flash.  Once a new media is no longer new we tend to tune it out. When this happens marketers have to look for more innovative ways of cutting through the clutter of the online advertising environment.