gdp's Comments

Landor : Landor: Blog: The uncertain future of the founder-led brand

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 17:23:06 +0000

I think Steve Jobs is a "once in a generation" type of leader, and what he brought to the table will be impossible to replicate. He'll still be the Chairman, but his departure from the day-to-day operations, to me, says that Apple has peaked and there's nowhere to go but down, down, down. Jobs left Apple once before, and company hit its all-time low during his absence. I don't think Apple will tumble out of relevance anytime soon, but I think they'll never get better than they are right now... which is pretty good, btw. But all suns have to set at some point.

Landor : Landor: Blog: Will Prius be the Aol of green cars, Tesla the Webvan?

Thu, 14 Jul 2011 14:59:39 +0000

Martin: great observations, as usual. With regard to Tesla, I think their biggest problem is pricing. I actually saw a Tesla Roadster in the "wild" in my Noe Valley neighborhood a few weeks ago. (I posted pictures of it on my photoblog, here: http://lagtime.posterous.com/tesla-roadsterin-my-... It was parked outside of a hospital, and there was a couple of Tesla technicians there -- they had a van parked in front of the roadster -- and they were waiting for the new owner of this vehicle (presumably some high-salaried doctor) to come out so the could give "instructions." While I snapped my shots I asked them, "So how much does this go for?" And they said: $109,000!!! They went on to say the battery system alone cost about $40,000. So, this is not a mass-market vehicle. What working man can affort a $40,000 car... let alone a $109k one? But the Tesla techs there on the curb told me that they were working on more affordable models, that should hit the dealerships in 2012. I asked what's the starting price. They said: $77,000. Apparently, sustainable driving is only a rich man's game at the moment

Landor : Landor: Blog: Jacobs by Marc Jacobs for Marc by Marc Jacobs in collaboration with...

Thu, 2 Jun 2011 20:08:33 +0000

Do not feed the trolls, Martin. Life is too short.

Landor : Landor: Blog: Jacobs by Marc Jacobs for Marc by Marc Jacobs in collaboration with...

Sun, 22 May 2011 21:18:34 +0000

WOW! That label is like one of those M.C. Escher paintings that keep going round and round and round...to infinity.

Landor : Landor: Blog: It\'s not about the CBS brand, it\'s about the Katie Couric brand

Thu, 7 Apr 2011 19:09:27 +0000

@Armanda: because they have a huge influence over public opinion... and that's not just in the USA. anywhere in the world were there is Big Media -- which is pretty much everywhere -- the people "reading the news" as you put it, have a lot of power when it comes to influencing public opinion. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing is a different discussion.

Landor : Landor: Blog: The brand is dead, long live the brand!

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 04:58:00 +0000

Great food for thought Frank. I might even take it farther by saying that brands are becoming THE most important thing in a world that's becoming ever more commoditized. After all, what's the fundamental difference between an iPhone and a Blackberry? Besides a few features differences, they both accomplish the same essential tasks for their respective owners. The difference is the story, the brand. What's the fundamental difference between Virgin Air and a lower-tier airline, when at the end of the day, they both exist to move people from Point A to Point B. The difference—the most important difference—is the cocoon of experience and story that wraps around these entities: the brand. I think brands have never been more important than they are today, because so many things have been reduced to commodities. .LAG

[ caught |n between ] blog : [ caught |n between ] Tracing the Journey of a Single Bit - 12/22/2009

Sat, 19 Mar 2011 19:13:52 +0000

The Ajiguara CLS is located on the northeastern coast of Japan. Reports differ, but it may have been damaged by the recent earthquake. (http://j.mp/gTs5fO )

Landor : Landor: Blog: Over "Consumed"

Wed, 16 Feb 2011 16:43:36 +0000

We need more branding professionals like Rob Walker, and you Ayo. Stating the obvious, if you want to keep your job, you need to constantly deliver value to your clients. If innovation is an outcome those efforts, then all the better. But by being conscious of, and sensitive to branding's negative effects on the minds and attitudes of not just the young, but the old and middle-aged too, then perhaps you'll help discover alternatives to the spend-and-consume-until-we-die treadmill that seems to define modern life.

Landor : Landor: Blog: Where is the brand love?

Mon, 14 Feb 2011 15:29:10 +0000

Julie: I loved the VW Passat/Tiny Darth Vader spot, a nice little bit of childish whimsy and sci-fi folklore. And I loved the Chrysler/Detroit spot... great storytelling, attitude, and production values. So many car ads during the big game.

Landor : Landor: Blog: Groupon's missed opportunity

Fri, 11 Feb 2011 00:16:00 +0000

I agree with you Russ: huge missed opportunity for Groupon on Super Bowl, but maybe it can't be missed if they weren't shooting for it in the first place. As I argued in my Monday Morning quarterback blog on this topic: http://j.mp/dVqbFA I don't think the brain trust running Groupon cares two squirts about Tibet, or rainforests, or dying whales. In their short history, they've been making a habit of wiping egg off their face, for example, their New Years Day blunder where they took a traditional and important meal in Japan and turned it into a cultural mockery: http://j.mp/hwW2vI. Want to have fun? Google the words "Groupon apologies"... But who knows, maybe they're mastering the art of "committing huge and tasteless gaffes and then begging for forgiveness" as a brand-building strategy. According to a CNBC report http://j.mp/fBCeD8 the Super Bowl stunts actually led to a net gain in subscriptions. So maybe they capitalized on the opportunity they were after.

Landor : Landor: Blog: Groupon goes to Tibet: True colors shining through

Tue, 8 Feb 2011 20:32:15 +0000

I agree Martin: they have a fresh spin on old product, the coupon book. They should have done something fresh. But guess what, according to CNBC (not verified) so far, their Super Bowl ad campaign as been incredibly successful, already leading to more than 50,000 new customers, if you believe the report. So however you or I feel about it, Groupon seems to have succeeded with their SB45 ads: people are talking about them endlessly AND they're gaining customers. <sigh /> Here's the CNBC bit: http://www.cnbc.com/id/41456516

Landor : Landor: Blog: Groupon goes to Tibet: True colors shining through

Tue, 8 Feb 2011 16:21:37 +0000

Thanks for the comments Jim. So it seems like Groupon's going to play the "it was all a joke, we actually have friends from Tibet" card. As you alluded: it's puerile and irresponsible. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm all for a good joke, but there some areas you should just avoid, especially when hundreds of millions of people are watching you. But asI stated in my blog: Groupon is showing you who they really are: they lack empathy, they're materialistic, opportunistic, and insincere. Time will tell if these kinds of values will kill their business, or sustain it.

Landor : Landor: Blog: Groupon goes to Tibet: True colors shining through

Tue, 8 Feb 2011 16:10:54 +0000

Thanks for the note KJ! I agree with you when you say, "This didn't feel like an accident to me." As was the point of my blog: this is the Groupon brand showing you its essence. And judging from to email response some of our colleagues received from them, as well as commenter Jim, above, the company line seems to be that this was all in jest. You can tell a lot about people by the kinds of jokes they tell.

Landor : Landor: Blog: Branding features: Don\'t be a Kanye

Mon, 7 Feb 2011 23:25:59 +0000

Ryan: while I am in complete agreement with Martin's take that too much noise can be a problem for brands trying to establish their niche in general, I think you completely nailed the mystique of the Kanye West brand. The guy -- and/or his team -- know what they're doing. I wish I knew more about the music industry in order to analyze it further, but as a marketing phenomenon, Kanye is brilliant.

Landor : Landor: Blog: Groupon goes to Tibet: True colors shining through

Mon, 7 Feb 2011 22:54:35 +0000

BruceV: EXACTLY! The ads were VERY effective. But, as I argued above, they also showed that Groupon DOESN'T care a damn about Tibet, they care about getting their subscribers a deal on a $30 plate of fish curry in Chicago. They probably don't care about rainforests or saving the whales either. And if their customers don't care that they don't care, fine by me. But as a brand, Groupon showed everyone who saw their spots who they really are. Choose your friends, and your brands, wisely.

Landor : Landor: Blog: Crowd Accelerated Innovation for teens

Mon, 20 Sep 2010 21:08:00 +0000

It makes a lot of sense, and Anderson, and your daughter, are on to something very real, in this global, networked village we're finding ourselves embedded in. But on the other hand, I can't help but think this radical transformation suggested here is really just a highway to conformity and ultimately, monoculture. In your daughter's case, rather than figuring out how other girls, her friends and classmates, apply blush and mascara in her high school, now she'll develop her cosmetic tastes along the same lines as girls her age in China, India, Europe and anywhere else YouTube is available. But in the end, as this trend plays out, everyone ends up looking the same, thinking the same, and liking the same things. The "crowd" takes a world of endless possibilities and combinations, and compresses them into groupthink. Do we really want to adapt to that? What's your point of differentiation, when everyone is doing the same thing you are?

Landor : Landor: Blog: (un)Happy Jetting

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 15:11:30 +0000

I'm just a bit confused about the whole story, because I always thought that JetBlue had found a way to reinvent the air travel experience. I've never flown them, so I can't say. So were all the JetBlue raves, you know, just good branding?

Landor : Landor: Blog: How imitation is hurting Chinese brand development

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 23:56:54 +0000

"IP protection" is "intellectual property protection"—basically, the legal ability for someone to protect their ideas from being stolen by others. If you write a book, for example, and publish is, the IP protection called "copyright" prevents someone else from copying your book, putting their name on it, and re-selling it at their book. Make sense?

Landor : Landor: Blog: Foursquare: Hit or miss?

Tue, 9 Mar 2010 02:23:00 +0000

The safety, legal, and privacy issues that a service like FourSquare touch are not trivial, but the users of these services have a huge part to play in understanding what they're doing when they sign on. More interesting is the location-based interaction aspect of FourSquare, BrightKite, Fire Eagle, GoWalla, and the other lesser-known services: it's the genie that's already out of the bottle. Brands need to be there and figure this out. Consumers are mobile, and are increasingly counting on their mobile devices for more than just making phone calls. The things that the HBOs, Zagats, and Harvards are doing with FourSquare are the wave of the future IMHO. Start playing and experimenting now, before it's too late to make sense of what's happening.

Landor : Landor: Blog: Brand for social good

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 19:46:57 +0000

Would love to see it, but might question the authenticity of a brands' commitment if they didn't have some history in philanthropy.