How many of these awareness ribbons did you recognize? We got 3, but were surprised the artist who pulled together the graphic above chose to omit Neonatal Alloimmune Thrombocytopenia’s iconic red and gold ribbon.

The red and gold ribbon is, of course, not at all iconic. But ribbons are. In the United States and beyond, the small looped ribbon is widely recognized as a symbol for an altruistic cause. So if we were trying to raise awareness and money for a recondite condition, we’d find a new color combination and start purchasing ribbons with alacrity. That’s what the Komen foundation did, after all. Yellow ribbons had been used for decades in association with the American military, and some AIDS organizations were using rainbow ribbons in the mid 80′s before settling on red in the early 90′s.

When a Brand Should Blend

As loyal readers of this blog know, there’s nothing we love more than originality, so why would we add one more to the sea of ribbons that are already out there? Because it takes time and costs money to start from scratch. Organizations created to address an obscure disease or charity usually don’t have the latter and would prefer not to squander the former. A ribbon is a shortcut that lets people know immediately that you’re up to something noble.

Are you starting a new business or launching a new product without the unlimited resources to cement it in the consciousness of that business or product’s particular public? Consider creating an identity that makes you or your product fit in with the considered set – and makes it easier for potential customers to figure out what you’re offering. There’s a reason most law firms use serif fonts in their logos, and that most tech startups choose quirky, made-up compound words for names.

When a Brand Should Differentiate

On the other hand, some groups are working to galvanize diabetes groups around a blue circle. Diabetes is a well-known and well-understood disease. It affects a large (and growing) number of people. A number of very large organizations all over the world are making long-term efforts to combat the disease, and if they aligned their efforts they would have a good chance of creating the kind of awareness that would put the blue circle on par with the yellow, pink and red ribbons.

Are you starting a new business or launching a new product with a war chest set aside for promotion? If that’s the case, it’a time to bring in the right-brained, lateral thinkers and try to create the next Ally, Accenture or jetBlue.

Of course, we’re oversimplifying things. You can create a safe identity, but use other aspects of your brand, marketing and promotions to help you stand out. It is possible to create something new, spend next to nothing and still see it become a household name. Let’s just hope it’s not because you inadvertently sparked a political firestorm.

*For those of you who must know how many of the ribbons above you guessed correctly (and who trust Wikipedia) here’s a thorough list.

We certainly agree with the pundits that brands now operate in an environment characterized by relentless transparency.  No longer can brands create Potemkin Villages to conceal their true colors because it is so easy to find out what they are really like via the incessant and instantaneous commentary on Facebook, Twitter, Yelp (20+ million reviews alone), Amazon, Ebay,  Epinions, Foursquare, GlassDoor, Google Places/Maps,  Trip Advisor, Yellowbot, et al.  Of course not all of the brand experiences detailed in cyberspace are bona fide with some brands endeavoring to conceal advertising as editorial by hyping their own products and services and others slagging off competitors with false negative reviews. Yet with sufficient numbers participating in the hurly-burly of debate, some semblance of the truth frequently emerges in the form of crowdsourced wisdom with outliers being either explicitly voted up or down a la Quora, or simply being relegated to the margins of consideration.

Yet has all of this transparency caused brands to become too revelatory and confessional?  Remember Netflix CEO Reed Hasting’s sincere, but ham-handed missive last fall announcing (since rescinded) that the company was splitting into two brands and introducing Qwikster? Just as we are not always completely forthcoming in our interpersonal interactions (NO! Those skinny jeans absolutely do not make you look fat!) should brands sometimes adopt the declaratory equivalent of soft focus in what they reveal to actually enhance customer experience and satisfaction?

Case in point: the siren song of exceptional client service has led us of late to frequent travel between BrandCulture HQ in Los Angeles and Atlanta.  This has allowed us to spend some quality time in the world’s busiest airport and aboard the planes of Delta Airlines (Delta dominates the LAX-ATL market as its 4th businest route with over 900,000 passenger trips each year  — a point that has not been lost on Southwest, which is adding service starting in June).  One recent evening our ALT-LAX flight was oversold, but instead of bumping the extra passengers, Delta decided to swap the scheduled Boeing 767 for a larger Airbus A330-300.

So far . . . bravo!  After all 298 of us stowed our luggage and took our seats we waited  . . . and waited.  About forty minutes after our scheduled departure time, the captain explained that because the substituted plane was used primarily for overseas routes, they needed some additional time to conform the aircraft to domestic requirements.  Fair enough; we appreciated the update.  But then he continued that they were actually waiting more specifically for “oven inserts” that would allow the crew to prepare the hot dinner choices for the folks traveling up front.

We’re sure this was welcome news for the 34 passengers who were to enjoy this repast, but if the 264 of us traveling in steerage had a vote, we’d suggest offering the high-flyers a sandwich along with canapes and cocktails as an appropriate substitute if it would shave a few hours off of our travel time. Had the captain simply left the explanation at “modifying the aircraft for domestic operation,” we would have never been the wiser as to the actual picayune (and infuriating!) reason for the delay, and traveled in blissful ignorance that Delta was doing all it could to assure all passengers that we would reach our destination safely and swiftly.

The first thing we learned in law school (a story for another day) was that a lawyer should never pose a question to which he or she does not want to know the answer.  Perhaps the brand-building corollary is that sometimes the most effective customer and brand experience involves revealing some, but not all of what goes on behind the curtain.  Just as Chancellor Bismarck noted about making legislation and sausages, the less you know about the process, the more you can enjoy the result. Building brands that rely heavily on customer service is also hard, ongoing work, and sometimes TMI can spoil the experience as well.

But maybe Delta has taken this to heart.  Last week we showed up at LAX to travel back to Atlanta.  We were delayed again, this time on a Boeing 777 that had flown in from Sydney.  The explanation? The crew needed extra time to “remove some international items” that were left aboard the aircraft.  Enough said.

Their auto clients have not only spanned Ferrari to Hyundai; they’ve ranged from Maserati to Mitsubishi; from Rolls Royce to Ford. They’re moving into electric vehicles. Their non-auto work includes speedboats, commuter trains, perfume bottles and luxury hotels. (photos of some of their work below)

How do they pull it off successfully?

1. A Rock-Solid Foundation. If Pininfarina had only designed one or two luxury vehicles and then moved into other segments and industries, the brand would have been relegated to mediocrity long ago. They haven’t and it hasn’t. Pininfarina has designed almost every Ferrari of the last 60 years, creating an extremely strong base from which to grow their brand. It’s the same reason Missoni can sell at Target and sell a jacket for $5,500 a few weeks later.
2. Confidence in their Customers. Pininfarina can trust that virtually every one of their prospects (corporate buyers – not consumers) knows their body of work intimately. That’s why they don’t have to splash Ferrari all over the home page; that’s why they have been happy to work (in moderation) with non-luxury/non-performance/non-automotive brands.
3. Knowledge of Self. While Pininfarina’s business depends on auto work, they do not define themselves as car designers – they define themselves as designers. Their mission is not merely to design cars  - it is to create and innovate with style.

Are Pininfarina perfect? Of course not. They’ve just announced the closure of their auto production operations, they’ve sold their majority stake in their eight-year-old JV with Volvo and their stock is close to de-listing territory. The assertions above are our educated professional opinions, but there is the chance that their brand-building success could just be dumb luck.

Despite the inner volatility, the brand it projects to the outside world remains sleek and desirable. It is, after all, Italian. Anything else would be off-brand.

Ooooh	Aaaaaaah
Niiiiice	Sweeeet
Siiiiigh	Swoooon
Looooove	Must...Have...

VC’s, entrepreneurs and the rest of the technorati are debating the move’s strategic merits all over the interwebs. Customers who use both services are (rightfully) flipping out about having to visit two websites and manage two queues.

And us? We’re cautiously optimistic.

It’s hard to launch a new brand, but when you have 14 million subscribers already, when you have the visibility of Netflix and when you transition intelligently (note the ‘a Netflix Company’ endorsement line) it’s a lot easier.

And, this is a good name and a decent identity. It’s easy to pronounce, communicates a relevant value proposition and the design is friendly and inoffensive. But it might help if CEO Reed Hastings got 100% behind it, rather than writing “I know that logo will grow on me over time…”

That said, let’s face it, Mr. Hasting’s hesitancy to embrace the new brand is because the creation of the new brand isn’t about growing the DVD-by-mail business. It’s about protecting the Netflix business. Was there ever a clearer sign a company wasn’t going to focus on a product or service than spinning it off? And please, spare us the “opportunity to focus on what it does best” line. Qwikster is Netflix’s red-headed stepchild, plain and simple. The company has made a bet that streaming is a star and DVD’s by mail are a cash-cow, soon to become a dog (especially as it gets harder and harder to actually get the mail delivered).

Of course, the customer backlash will sting. So will the cancelled subscriptions (although some of those high-minded folks will come back). And both the Netflix and Qwikster brands hinge much more on the success of the products and services they provide than they do on the attractiveness of their names and logos.

But if Netflix gets streaming right and delivers consistent service to Qwikster subscribers, most customers will be happy, more studios will make more titles available online, the market will reward shareholders lavishly and only the people with AOL dial-up service will be left to reminisce over the days when you could get a real-live (possibly scratched) DVD and watch a movie you thought you wanted to see 3-4 days earlier.

LET’S SEE…WE’LL TRY… HOW ABOUT THE 2007 FOGHAT

AC/DC aren’t the first musicians to make their band name a brand name in wine – check out a few vintages from The Rolling Stones, KISS, Madonna, Barbara Streisand and Foghat(?!) here.

Not long ago we excoriated Cosmo for trying to stretch its brand to a male-oriented publication. So what do we have to say about AC/DC as a wine brand?

GOOD ON YA, MATES!

Pretend we said like that Paul Hogan, and hear us out. Of course someone looking for a nice wine is unlikely to choose the Highway to Hell Cab for their next dinner party. But aging AC/DC fans might. And in a licensing agreement like this one, there’s no downside to the band. Even if the wine is swill, their fan base is rabid enough that it would have to be lethally poisonous to diminish their fervor. Actually, their fans might even prefer if it was moderately toxic.

Whether or not Warburn Estate has made a good decision producing AC/DC wines is another question. But given that the company exports about $15,000,000 of private label wine annually, we’d guess they have a pretty good system for designing and producing labels and packaging cheaply, deep relationships with distributors who can secure some decent shelf space and a set of protocols to make sure that failures are fast rather than expensive.

IT’S A BUSINESS DECISION

Loyal readers of this humble blog will recognize that we think of brand strategy as a set of business decisions. In the case of AC/DC wine, it’s one that has potential upside and manageable downside. You Shook Me All Night Long Muscat, you say? What the hell – we’ll drink to that!