Yes indeed.  Because this is a “merger of equals” (aren’t they all — remember AOL-Time Warner?  DaimlerChrysler? Or even PriceWaterhouseCoopers?), we can’t have one airline appear to “acquire” the other, hence the merged carrier will keep a bit of this and a little of that from each.  The United name, Chairman Glenn Tilton and Chicago HQ stay, but the new airline will adopt the Continental livery, logo and CEO Jeffrey Smisek (who will have offices — you guessed it — in both Chicago and Houston)!  Does this placate various constituencies?  You bet.  Is this smart brand-building?  No.

Recasting the United name in the Continental typeface looks like, well, recasting the United name in the Continental typeface.  Sure, over time, people will grow accustomed to seeing the planes say “United” rather than “Continental” next to the stylized globe logo.  But it’s a missed brand-building opportunity.  Instead of creating a new visual identity commensurate with creating “The World’s Leading Airline,” this pastiche just looks like — and is — a hodgepodge of elements, rather than an integrated, cohesive entity that represents a unique, new assertion of value.

As anyone who has poked around BrandCultureTalk knows, we believe that great brands make tough choices.  We also believe that great brands have to start with an idea.  The most famous assertion of United’s idea developed way back in 1965 by Leo Burnett, “Fly the Friendly Skies” ran an unprecedented 32 years and became one of the most successful and memorable in the history not just of aviation, but branding.

After some less memorable intervening incarnations (Does anyone remember, “It’s important for the human race to stay United“?  Neither do we.) United most recently exhorted, “It’s time to fly.”  We’d argue that providing singularly friendly service beats the more vague temporal urgency of the current United slogan (although we admire the trailblazing pluck of United’s legal department in that they evidently felt this assertion to be of sufficient importance to merit not one giant registered trademark symbol, but two in a row up in the header of this web page).

Continental, on the other hand, currently uses the more aggressive “Work Hard.  Fly Right.“  This promise of honoring and acknowledging the realities of the present business environment — as well as the present realities of flying — firmly puts the carrier on the side of the business traveler.  As itinerant carpetbagging brand-builders who spend a good bit of time in the air, this assertion resonates even more directly with us.

Unlike what they did with the logo and livery, the United merger marketing staff didn’t simply jam the words together into a meaningless amalgam of “It’s time to work hard and fly right.”  Instead they created a new assertion of “Let’s fly together.”  While it may not rival the “Friendly Skies” for the branding record books, it does seem on strategy with the “together” part, and the “Let’s fly” portion feels inclusive, elevated, even vaguely anagogical, as it reaches out toward the limitless possibilities in the wild blue yonder that the carrier . . . and its customers can now seize.

Here’s another idea for how the new United’s brand should look:  start over.  After all,  if ultra-low fare carrier Ryan air can carve out a visually distinctive look, so can the new United.  Think about what the word “United” really means.  It’s fantastic from a brand-building perspective.  And consider the possibilities to dramatize what a new era of aviation (willingly suspend that disbelief!) that will be ushered in by this global colossus.

Now we acknowledge that our being in the business of drawing logos and developing brand lines (among other things) could make us appear less than completely objective in assessing the wisdom of retreading existing brand elements vs. creating new ones.  But we don’t exactly have a lock on the airline design business that, say Landor does, and we like to think we can still opine relatively uncorrupted.  So come on, new United!  Develop a new look worthy of your new brand.  After all, you can’t build the airline of the future based on the trade dress of the past.

There a few activities in life less rewarding than waiting for the cable installer.  Waiting for phone service is a close second.  This time, however, Verizon offered speedy, friendly and fast service while setting up our new office phone lines. Not only did we have a dedicated representative we could contact via email at any time, Verizon even followed up by phone as well. They made the process infinitely more simple and convenient than our prior interactions with at&t, which featured the customary rigmarole of long hold times and inexplicable ping-ponging among different departments. Verizon was refreshing and our customer service representative, Chandra, was a perfect brand ambassador:  competent, polite and above all, efficient.

Napoleon Bonaparte noted in 1795 that an army travels on its stomach; so too does a brand-building strikeforce.  To help with the packing and unpacking, not to mention the settling in to new surroundings while simultaneously delivering exceptional client service, we commandeered a smorgasbord of sandwiches from the Corner Bakery.  Delicious!  Nutritious!  Attractively packaged!   And even giving a hoot whether or not we enjoyed the meal.  A few hours after we picked up the catering order for our office, a Corner Bakery rep called HQ to make sure everything was satisfactory with our order . . . and to see if they could help us with any other services for the rest of the week. We were impressed with their care for customer satisfaction — along with the appropriate, but tasteful cross-sell of future sandwiches.

Every new office needs new furniture.  That’s where CB2 comes in.  Although our taste runs more to Saarinen and Eames, our current TI budget is, well, less than Kozlowskian.  Happily, CB2 the younger, hipper sibling of Crate&Barrel, provides a reasonable simulacrum of high-end mid-century design at a price point that is decidedly less than princely.  Nikki, who assisted us with our sale at CB2′s Sunset Boulevard store could not have been more helpful or willing to work within our more modest means (in stark contrast to our recent experience at Heath Ceramics), outfitting the plupart of our new digs in short order.

And as surely as sunshine leads to sunburn, crumbs follow sandwich mastication.   To tidy our new carpet, we ordered a vacuum at BestBuy.com and went to the store to pick it up.  We’ve previously extolled the virtues of Best Buy’s “Results-Only Work Environment,” but we were even more excited to experience it in action.  Not only was the vacuum ready and waiting as promised, we were in and out of the store in approximately 5 minutes. After we picked up the order, we received a follow-up email inquiring as to our level of satisfaction as well as a solicitation for feedback to improve it.

Do four positive brand experiences a trend make?  Time will tell.  Nothing about them was earth-shatteringly innovative or even extraordinary, but they were notable in aggregate because of their collective competence — that they delivered in full on what they promised.  We take it as proof that sometimes saying what you mean, meaning what you say and following through is all a brand needs to rise above the rest.

For those unfamiliar with Heath Ceramics, it is the echt purveyor of beautiful artisan ceramic dinnerware, tile and accessories — pieces that are as functional and durable as they are visually appealing and sensuous to hold.  A California institution since 1948 (according to the Heath Ceramics logo) or 1949 (according to the website copy), for at least half a century Heath ceramics has fired clay in Sausalito to grace tables as modest as our own and as grand as those of  Chez Panisse and the Four Seasons.

After much deliberation selecting an array of items ranging from salad bowls to bud vases we thought were closely aligned in type and hue for our intended recipients, we happily arrived at the register with nine separate gifts to be purchased and packed.  It was there that we were informed that it was Heath Ceramics policy to provide one box for every $200 in purchases; because our total purchase was “only” about $1,100, we would receive five boxes and could purchase additional packaging for $5 each.  We protested to the sales associate that surely she could find it in her holiday heart to throw in four more boxes gratis — representing a value of 2% of our overall purchase.  Our entreaty was met not with a “yes, absolutely,” a “sure” or even a begrudging “ok,” but by a question of whether we would try to negotiate something for free if we were shopping at Crate & Barrel (an incoherent comparison to us insofar as Crate & Barrel provides free gift boxes with all purchases). We then appealed to the store manager, who reiterated the policy with equal intransigence and informed us that they were “really being more than fair” in providing five free boxes, and that we could imagine “how crazy it would get” if they wrapped up all our purchases for free (a puzzling assertion too as we were the only customers in the store).  The policy was particularly inexplicable because the company’s website currently (through December 31, 2009) offers “Free Shipping” on any order over $75 — which by definition would include a box and packaging!

The Heath Ceramics wrapping policy is isn’t just bad business, it’s bad branding.  Of course we wanted our gifts to arrive in one piece and wanted them packed properly.  And though it is always the thought that counts in gift-giving, presentation matters too.  Besides, we also wanted our recipients to know where the gifts came from and how we had come to select them — how we had attempted to find gifts somewhat more personal than Starbucks Gift Cards while at the same time attempting in some small to support a California economy currently suffering from a 12.5% unemployment rate.   The right wrapping and packaging can add immeasurably to a gift’s impact, and indeed, the practice of wrapping gifts first came into widespread use during the Great Depression during the 1930s when the gifts themselves were by necessity more modest.

Most retailers understand these motivations — and their brand-building potential — implicitly.  Free wrapping isn’t limited to high-end retailers like Barney’s, Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom, but also at your quotidian Barnes & Noble and Borders.  Whether purchasing a $95 silver key fob or a $1,000,000 engagement ring, every customer receives a complimentary, iconic Tiffany & Co. blue box, tied with a bow that miraculously has no knot (it would wrinkle the ribbon) that takes intensive training and hours of practice to master.

The Heath Ceramics $200 Per Box Policy is the precise opposite of the spirit of giving:  if you’re too cheap (or impecunious) to spend at least $200 a gift, you don’t deserve to have it beautifully presented –  or even protected from breaking on the ride home.  Now Tiffany’s gross margins are 57% (!), allowing considerable room to provide free boxes and ribbons.  But don’t forget, Tiffany sells diamonds; Heath Ceramics sells dirt (albeit very pretty baked and glazed dirt); both come from the ground, but the former by any calculus offers a considerably higher cost of goods sold.  Heath Ceramics is a private company and we can’t find out their margins, but we presume that there might be some room in the overall budget to provide a box for a $150 bowl, even if it fails to meet the $200 threshold.

And in the end, of course it wasn’t the extra $20 that mattered, it was the utter lack of reciprocity we felt from everyone we encountered at Heath Ceramics during the purchase process — that they didn’t care a whit about losing a $1,100 sale over four cardboard boxes and some string.  But just because Heath Ceramics didn’t care about our business doesn’t mean that we were entirely without alternatives.  We left our bowls and bud vases on the counter and ended up across town at Design Within Reach.  Brittany (who had an MS in Decorative Art from Parsons) helped us find some perfect gifts, including some fantastic cutting boards very similar to some we’d eyed hanging on the wall at Heath Ceramics.  And she wrapped and packaged each gift with alacrity . . . gratis.  From now on, we’ll leave Heath Ceramics to their myriad fans from The Slanted Door and Auberge du Soleil, inter alia.  Next year we’ll start our holiday search at DWR.

First a site with a header that is the ne plus ultra of understatement. (Be sure to mouse over the sparkling watch)

And second, one of Mr. Kandola’s influences:

a book with a title only its author could love.

We needn’t belabor these efforts. Let’s just say we hope they provide slightly more diversion than inspiration. On the other hand, given the gleam of Mr. Kandola’s timepiece and Mr. Olson’s undeniable success (he built three multi-million dollar sales and distribution forces – early in his career!), perhaps they’re laughing all the way to the bank…

We’ve been following discussion of the newly-announced 2014 Winter games logo on one of our favorite blogs: LogoDesignLove. We’ll leave the design critique to that capable forum. We will, however, offer that falling too in love with your branding can sometimes do more harm than good.

When you follow the logo’s instructions and visit sochi2014.ru, you’re treated to the Sochi 2014 brand video, which closes with this resounding final still:

4 questions come to mind:

1. Who, besides disgruntled citizens and branding wonks, reads websites explaining/justifying/rationalizing brands?
2. Is it really an effective use of your website’s visitors’ minuscule attention spans to wax rhapsodic on your brand, or would it be better to let them experience it through images and/or content that might actually be compelling to them?
3. If you tell people that you are Proactive, Fascinating and True (branding professionals like 3 personality traits – no more and no fewer), will they have any idea what the hell that means for an Olympic destination, and aren’t you probably really the opposite anyway?
4. And perhaps most importantly, is the Sochi logo only slightly better, moderately better or vastly better than the London 2012 train wreck?

London 2012 Logo