Why would they write about anyone else? You saw "Starbucks", picked up the trade pub and even wrote about it on your blog. Sounds like you answered your own question.

Yeah -- but at the same time, I didn't read the article once I realized it held nothing unique. I wouldn't subscribe to the magazine, either -- I wasn't wowed by its ability to rehash the same ol', same ol'...

That said -- you're right, of course!

Your sentiments are felt by others as well Ann. Just yesterday I received an email from a subscriber expressing the same sentiment: "How 'bout some examples of businesses doing it right, besides the usual suspects in the corporate world (Starbucks, Build-A-Bear, Google, Jet Blue, etc.)"

Boy, you've really struck a nerve with me, Ann. What you just described, I call, "Casablanca Branding": a round-up of all the usual suspects. Time after time, it's Coke, Starbucks, Volvo and sometimes (let's get real wild here!) Harley-Davidson.

Great brands to be sure.

But too much of this brand wisdom is made in retrospect -- in examining already successful brands then suggesting them as models for equivalent success.

Yet I wonder...does any of this stuff work? I mean, for every successful brand, there have been hundreds (thousands?) that made the exact same marketing moves and failed. Truth is, strong business practices, sheer tenacity and a healthy does of luck are every bit as important, if not more important, than the brand magic of positioning, "living the brand," and all the other spells and potions we've been force-fed over the years.

Here's my challenge to brand wizards: Don't point to the most famous brands as illustrations of your theory. Show me how you made a brand name of a new business. And let's get real about the tactics that actually work.

"truly, I live on the stuff" there's your answer to a strong brand.

It should have more to offer than just a giant familiar green something.

The funny thing is that starbucks, ikea, amazon & apple may all get mentioned in regards to "branding" but actually they all succeeded for different reasons.

Apple = Customer Experience, Industrial Design and Evangalism

Amazon = Business Model, co-creation, customer experience

Ikea = Business model and value chain (customers took on role of shipping, and logistics)

Starbucks = Customer Experience, Service Design, Environment

But yet everyone talks about branding? Maybe because that's the one convienient bucket for us to throw all the innovations in. The brands became big because there was something else innovative in the business.

As for Coke, that's about the only one anyone mentioned that relys upon pure, traditional, FMCG branding. Spend, spend, spend on advertising driving "awareness" and "recognition".

As for small successful brands that don't spend alot on advertising, how about:

http://flickr.com
http://37signals.com
http://myspace.com

Cheers,

karl

I want to comment on Ann's exasperation with the content of the media - "But enough already! Is this news?"

Just because I need to vent on this subject....

Is Tom Cruise and Katy Holmes' baby news? Is the fact that Brittany may be pregnant again newsworthy of CNN and NBC News? How about the juicier side of the news like murders and disappearances we hear about ad infinitum?

I, for one, would like to know about - THE NEWS! What's really happening in Iraq? What is happening in the rest of the world? How about more features on health care in this country and the fact that our own people are dying because they can't afford a basic right? (OK, that's the Canadian coming out in me.)

Has this country turned into intellectual mush?

As for what's new on the brand front, I just read Fortune magazine for small business and it's refreshing to read about the success stories of American entrepreneurs who get things done - without all the hoopla and the giant marketing budgets.

There, vent over.

Speaking of brands that planned subtle, effective campaigns...the story of how KitKat became #1, via Seth Godin's blog:

http://alphamale.typepad.com/blog/2006/04/how_kitkat_beca.html

Did i ever tell you about the worm in my Starbucks coffee cake? Click my name to read the story with pictures... nasty stuff!