Gee! No, G!

Sometimes a brand has to reinvent itself.

And sometimes a brand thinks it has to reinvent itself only to realize that the old way was working just fine. How do you know the difference?

So hard to know. Almost impossible. Just ask Nike. 10 years ago, they gave it a shot and strayed from “Just Do It.” Remember?



Probably not. And Nike hopes you don’t either. After their red faces regained their color, they quickly scrambled back to their vaunted tagline faster than you can say “Ooopsee!”

One thing that’s certain is that a brand that’s strongly established and firmly established in the consumer’s mind with a likeable, consistent campaign is a beautiful and rare thing and money in the bank, even for brands that depend on coolness and hipness to stay current and contemporary.

And another thing that’s certain is that change is good, especially for brands that depend on coolness and hipness to stay current and contemporary.

Gatorade is about to become the poster child for either change or constancy. They’re going through a massive overall of…well, just about everything, including positioning and advertising. We’re getting our first looks at the packaging, which is a radical departure from the classic bolt (this is just a redesign of the basic logo; extensive packaging do-overs are to come). The new logo is mostly getting raked over the coals. Mindy McCready would probably get a better reception at the Clemens house for Sunday dinner.

I have a particular interest in the saga, having worked on the brand for 15 years, writing some famous ads and having been very emotionally connected. So I promise, more to come on this one, for sure.

If you hear or see anything, please pass it on.

$1 billion for a plumber's smile?

The new Pepsi logo is popping up everywhere on Ad blogs. The corporate Mega Giant took five months to develop it and will spend a billion dollars to update their 21 year old wavy thing.



That means repainting trucks, rewrapping vending machines, replacing stadium signage and sending out new point-of-sale materials…and that’s just the beginning; picture anything with a logo. Letterhead, briefcases, those slick polo shirts and all of their wonderful corporate clothing, even the napkins in the cafeteria. All will need to change. I still see trucks with logos from the late ‘90’s on one of the brands I used to work on. The is a massive undertaking.

According to Pepsi leadership, each brand has it’s own version:

Pepsi’s logo is a smile, Diet Pepsi looks like a grin, and Pepsi Max will be a full laugh. Hmm. It’s so…what’s the best way to say this…well intentioned, yet horribly unclear, and more confusing than memorable.

It’s a great example of a marketer telling us what they want us to know, not what we might be interested in.

In general, I think change is good, but this is very expensive, very corporate change. If Pepsi thinks people are going to remember the smile distinctions between the different products, they’ve been to one too many logo design presentations.

Some have described the new logo as asscrack. I wouldn’t go that far, but Coke has been kicking ass in the marketing world. And I think Pepsi blinked.