Analtech wants public input on whether they should rename the company

What’s in a name?

We’ve talked with a few experts in the field of marketing, branding, etc. and here’s the general consensus:
   1. Analtech is a brand name known and trusted by the academic and science communities worldwide
   2. Under normal circumstances, such a branding after nearly 50 years would be considered a huge success
   3. Analtech faces certain challenges because of the "juvenile" humor that has developed in the past few decades and current web filters that may block the company name

What do you think?

We’re turning to you, our friends and customers, to see what you think.
Please click here for a simple, two question survey.

Uranustech?

For the record: Fluke has never even thought about it and they are doing just fine.

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Great look at what Disney should have done instead of buying Marvel

Geoff Carter is an excellent and smart writer who, among other things, produces the Disney-centered blog YourSouvenirGuide (but don’t hold that against him). In the post Ten things Disney could have done to geek up without buying Marvel he explains both why Disney buying Spidey was a bad idea and how they could have leveraged the properties they already own.

To my mind, the purchase of Marvel is one of the few missteps the Mouse has made under Bob Iger’s reign. Disney isn’t getting a hell of a lot for its money. The theme park rights to the characters will continue to be held by Universal. And the movie properties .. will remain the properties of Sony, Fox and Paramount for the forseeable future. …. Four billion dollars spent to wait out contracts and to see if Avi Arad and Jerry Bruckeheimer will duke it out in Thunderdome.

My favorite suggestion:

9. The Disney Princesses: Teach them kung-fu and arm them with wrist-holstered blades and pistols.

Works for me.

Mouserine courtesy of KidKalig

Krispy Kreme forced to eat half-baked marketing scheme

Last week, the kreme hit the fan when

An Australian biscuit company has threatened legal action against US chain Krispy Kreme if does not stop selling its Iced Dough-Vo doughnut. Arnott believes the product is almost identical to its own Iced Vo-Vo biscuit, and breaches trademarks registered in 1906.

Krispy claimed the confection was meant as a tribute to the beloved Vo Vo.

This resulted in some of the best headlines I have ever read:

• Oh no, not the VoVo! Holy row breaks out over biscuit ambush
• Arnott’s warns Krispy Kreme Iced Dough-Vo is an Iced No-No
• Arnotts’ anger at Iced Vo Vo vandalism
• No-go woe for doughnut co after Vo-Vo blow
• Arnott’s icy ultimatum in Vo-Vo wars
• Krispy Kreme concedes Dough-Vo no-go
• Dough-Vo bows to Vo-Vo: Krispy Kreme backs down
• Dough-Vo to go-go
• Dough-Vo a no-no: Krispy Kreme concedes

What about: Krisp Kreme donut turns to humble pie

 

As you can tell the Aussies take their Iced Vo Vo’s very seriously: In his November 2007 victory speech, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd jokingly urging his campaign team to have a strong cup of tea with an Iced Vo Vo before getting to work.This reportedly led to skyrocketing Iced VoVo sales, prompting Arnott’s to send a shipping pallet of the biscuits to the Prime Minister’s office in Canberra’s New Parliament House.

Shoe-thrower shows the power of product placement

When Muntazar al-Zaidi threw his shoes at President Bush he unintentionally gave the Baydan Sho Co.’s Model 271 one of the greatest endorsements ever.

Ramazan Baydan, owner of the Istanbul-based company, has been swamped with orders from across the world, after insisting that his company produced the black leather shoes. He has recruited an extra 100 staff to meet orders for 300,000 pairs of Model 271 – more than four times the shoe’s normal annual sale. (Nice to see George is creating jobs somewhere!)

Baydan is planning to rename the model “the Bush Shoe” or “Bye-Bye Bush”.

“We’ve been selling these shoes for years but, thanks to Bush, orders are flying in like crazy. We’ve even hired an agency to look at television advertising,” he said.

About 120,000 pairs have been ordered from Iraq and a US company has ordered 18,000 of the shoes, which have been on the market since 1999 and sell at around $41  in Turkey.

Top 10 Marketing Blunders of 2008

Yeah, there’s a lot more than 10 here. What can I say? It was a very good year for very bad things.

(PS: If you liked this would you mind going here and voting for it on Digg?)

GRAND PRIZE FOR SUSTAINED ORGANIZATIONAL EFFORT

(tie)

The John McCain Presidential Campaign

• “Our economy, I think, is still — the fundamentals of our economy are strong.”
• Has no idea how many houses he (or his wife) owns.
• Picks Sara Palin, the Broad to Nowhere who couldn’t find Russia or Africa on a map.
• Campaign adviser and former HP CEO Carly Fiorina says Palin couldn’t run a major corporation.
• Campaign adviser and former senator Phil Gramm says Americans are whiners about economic problems.
• “Shutting down” his campaign to fix the bailout.
• “Lipstick on a pig”
• Egregious attack on Dungeons & Dragons that clearly cost him the election. (OK, maybe not so much the last one).

GM

• June: with gas heading to $4-a-gallon, company announces it is trying to sell the Hummer brand. As of today, sale is still pending.
• August: with gas at $4-a-gallon, company announces it will take the bold move of investing “$500 million to build a new fuel-efficient, small car the automaker says will show it can make money in head-to-head competition with its Japanese rivals as it fights to return to profitability.”
• October: Asks Treasury Dept. for $10 billion to pay for proposed merger with Chrysler
• Early November: car company that already isn’t selling cars argues it can’t file for bankruptcy because “people won’t buy cars from a bankrupt car company.”
• Late November: leads troika of Detroit CEOs to DC to ask for taxpayer money to balance the books. Each flies in on wings of attitude and three separate corporate jets.
• December: runs weasel-word mea culpa in Automotive News: “While we’re still the U.S. sales leader, we acknowledge we have disappointed you. At times we violated your trust by letting our quality fall below industry standards and our designs become lackluster. We have proliferated our brands and dealer network to the point where we lost adequate focus on our core U.S. market. We also biased our product mix toward pick-up trucks and SUVs. And, we made commitments to compensation plans that have proven to be unsustainable in today’s globally competitive industry.“

Runners Up

1. Ford features “Space Oddity” — a song about astronaut suicide — in new car campaign.
2. Framingham State College  uses the word blah 137 times in a 312-word fundraising letter.
3. Disney (multiple entries): Bans kids from DisneyWorld restaurant; Changes “It’s A Small World” to “A Salute to All Nations, But Mostly America”; and Sells “High School Musical” panties for tween girls with the phrase “Dive In” on them.
4. Woolworths (UK) launches Lolita brand of beds for young girl
5. JetBlue lives up to Southwest’s parody ad by charging for pillows.
6. Russia uses smiling kids in tourism ad for war zone
7. Residents of Lesbos sue those other lesbians over brand name
8. Motrin gets headache from viral moms video
9. Butcher’s ads feature “Meat Products, Fresh Service” on naked woman
10. Hershey asks if you’ve found Mr. Goodbar

Special Jury Awards

Co-Branding That Shouldn’t Have Been

• Windows Vista toilet paper
• The Muppets appear on DVD for Law & Order: SVU
  
• Barbie® Rice Krispies® Treats
• P&G starts hip-hop record label (Bounce® and Beyonce? Jay Z and Oral B®? 50 Cent and Febreze®? Snoop Dogg and Eukanuba®? Ghostface Killah and Ghost®? Lil Wayne & Pampers®?)

The Alpha & Omega of Over-reaching

• God’s chosen racing team loses at the Indy 500
• “Pope’s Cologne Provides Solace to Grieving Widow”
• “Can Batman Teach Spiritual Truth?”
• Email service lets you taunt friends after The Rapture
• McDonalds compares Ray Kroc to Martin Luther King Jr.

Product Failure

• LifeLock ID protection service fails to protect CEO’s identity
• Anti-shark device found to attract sharks

The Penguins Of Irony “Oh NO You Din’t” Awards

• Publisher says bankruptcy puts magazine chain in “a position poised for wonderful growth
• WaMu continues to send credit card offers after going out of business

Previous years’ lists

• Top 10 from 2007
• Dozen Dumbest Press Releases from 2006
• 10 Dumbest Business Quotes from 2006

Sprinkles cupcake store suing other stores over use of “sprinkles”

The Obscure Store unearthed this branding nightmare:

All told, lawyers for Sprinkles said, they have sent about a dozen similar letters to shops around the country and filed three lawsuits, including one last month against Famous Cupcakes in North Hollywood for using dots in its packaging and throughout the store.

Best quote from the story: “The question is whether Sprinkles can lay claim to a word that is commonly used in the context of frosting.”

The only thing I want to know about the context of frosting is do I get to lick the spoon?

Least surprising study result of the day: Pre-schoolers respond to branding

Quoth Reuters: Preschoolers preferred the taste of burgers and fries when they came in McDonald’s wrappers over the same food in plain wrapping, U.S. researchers said, suggesting fast-food marketing reaches the very young.

No! Really?

This is news only to those who haven’t raised a kid in the US in the last 75 years. Even your idiot blogger has figured it out.

• From Sierra Magazine — Branding Baby’s Brain: If you want to mold a hyperconsumer you’ve got to start early
• From Brandweek — ‘Adult’ Brands Get Parents Where The Kids Are
• From Boston Magazine — An Expose of “The Baby-Industrial Complex”

P&G has devil of a time collecting damages in Satan case

That $19.25M they were supposed to get? Turns out that:

1. The jurors guesstimated the amount based on what they think the lawyers charged.
2. The judge — not the jury — gets to decide what, if any, lawyer fees can be awarded.
3. The original judge thought it would be a cold day in … well you know … before P&G collected even if they proved the case.

The Satan Desk at Brandweek has the full details here.

Police Brand Beer Glasses

BENNINGTON, Vt. (AP) — Eager to combat drunken driving during the holidays, police are distributing pint glasses embossed with the logo of the Bennington Police Department to bars and restaurants.

The campaign is the brainchild of Lt. Paul Doucette. Dear Lt., don’t give up your day job.

An example of how the target audience will respond to this can be found across the border in neighboring New Hampshire. There “police said they tried pulling over Patrick Allain, 35, on Bridge Street on Monday night but he refused to stop. Officials said that when police finally did stop Allain, they found him drinking a 40-ounce bottle of beer, which he continued to drink as officers confronted him.“

Hard to imagine a police logo getting noticed, let alone discouraging consumers this dedicated to the product.

Nike losing its mojo: Brits naming their kids Adidas & Reebok.

And I thought naming them Espn was bad. Well it is, but you get my point. Joining young Ad and Ree on the playgrounds of the UK will be an increasing number of Gandalfs, Superman(s?) and Madonnas. What no Swooshes?

Technorati Tags: Adidas, Reebok, Nike, Gandalf, Superman, Swoosh, Branding, ESPN

Playstation 3 brings reality to first-person shooter

PUTNAM, Conn. – Two armed thugs tried to rob a line of people waiting for the new Playstation 3 game system to go on sale early Friday and shot a man who refused to give up his money, authorities said. … In Kentucky, four people were hit by BBs in an apparent drive-by shooting as they waited for a Best Buy store to open.

And here in Boston:

Nearly a dozen police cruisers responded to Copley Place Mall this morning when a crowd of 400 people clamoring for the new Sony PlayStation 3 overwhelmed mall security.

Isn’t “mall security” an oxymoron? Or is it just staffed by them?

Technorati Tags: Playstation, Madness, Brand, Loyalty, Violence, Games