On a recent trip through LAX, feeling like a co-star in the George Clooney flick Up in the Air, I began the habitual routine: head to self check-in, find a seat near the front of the plane, drudge to security, get my identity squared away, enter the waiting game, strategize about which line is shortest at the security check and prepare my belongings for scrutiny.  

I’m pulling out my computer and liquids; taking off my shoes and jewelry; and—what’s this?!  The security bins aren’t the normal smudged grey. Rather, each display a shiny, newly installed advertisement—for none other than the Skechers Shape Ups.

Putting aside the misconceived brand marriage of health and wellness with Skechers, let’s consider the advertising locale: the airport security bins. At no other point during my airport visit do I feel more vulnerable, valueless and at edge than when standing barefooted with my personal belongings projected for the viewing pleasure of four complete strangers. While I grow increasingly more concerned about how the TSA agents stare at the x-ray of my purse like it’s this summer’s blockbuster while I’m waiting there shoeless, Skechers wants me to consider wearing Shape Ups. I almost feel mocked.

If the viral marketing hasn’t made you aware: Skechers has entered the workout authority arena. You read that right: Skechers, the manufacturer of sub-par street shoes, claims you don’t even need to really work out. Skechers’ Shape Ups gives you toned legs and buttocks by doing nothing more than routine walking. Adidas, Nike and Reeboks—move over! Gym membership—sayonara! Beach body, here I come! Pardon my sarcasm, but you get my point. It feels like a major brand misstep to me. 

I understand that airports allow brands to reach a great number of diverse individuals from a variety of locales hourly. However, brands risk being associated with one of the most time consumptive, potentially frustrating and blasé modern day institutions. When the weary traveler trudges through the airport in detest, your brand might well be smeared into the mud if it does nothing to lighten the load or provide much-needed respite.

Delightful disruptions do make the monotony of airport travel bearable. Conveniences like replacement headphones, culinary treasures in greasy bags and intellectual fodder in the form of trashy magazines provide a welcome distraction for travelers and lucrative income statements for brands alike. However, brands should tread lightly when entering the airport showground.

When pondering advertising locales, brand alliances and implementations, be certain to ask yourself: what value is our brand delivering to consumers?  If you can’t make a proper case for consumer delight, I insist you reconsider.

On June 18, Pixar Animation Studios released the third installment in their flagship franchise, simply titled “Toy Story 3.” Now that the reviews are in, Pixar just missed the mark in producing the first movie trilogy to receive 100% fresh ratings on the popular movie rating site Rotten Tomatoes. A 100% rating is near impossible for any individual movie, considering the ratings on Rotten Tomatoes are not a single opinion but an aggregate of hundreds of movie critics’ ratings.  Doing so for all three movies in a trilogy, or even coming this close, would seem to be an impossible task. And yet, they came within inches.

Also, this eleventh feature-length offering from Pixar has all the indications of another smashing financial success. While any individual moviegoer may have some negative opinions about some of Pixar’s movies, it’s hard to argue against the overall universal acclaim and the respective worldwide box office returns.  

So how does Pixar do it? Three simple words: Story is king. From the very beginning, Pixar has followed one simple mantra, which is engraved in stone at their studio: “No amount of technology can turn a bad story into a good one.” Eleven critically acclaimed feature movies, eleven financial successes, all based upon original stories and characters. This seems to fly in the face of the current Hollywood thinking that if you use more special effects, they will come. Make the movie 3D and they will come. Cast the actor-du-jour and they will come. Base it on an existing property (book, TV show, remake of older movie, video game, board game) and they will come. In many current Hollywood offerings, story and characters take a back seat.

Tell a good story with compelling characters, and they will come. It seems so simple and common sense, yet it seems to be forgotten. Pixar’s track record speaks to the effectiveness. They single-mindedly stick to their mantra and always strive to deliver against it in all they do. Now that’s a lesson that any brand could take a cue from.

We are all students of brand in one way or another, and I believe we begin  that learning early, in our  formative years. I remember sitting with an Etch A Sketch for hours and being completely engrossed in little lines drawn in a field of silver dust. A few shakes and I got a completely new canvas. Amazing. Maybe that helped shape my future as a designer and if so, thank you Etch A Sketch. But I suspect there is another brand that, at the very least, helped shape my love and fascination for the automobile. Could there be a cooler brand than Hot Wheels?

I admit to still having my very first Hot Wheels car, a red ‘68 Custom Mustang that is my sole prized possession. It is missing a hood, a bunch of paint, the wheels in the back are curled up like many did back then and it has some original dirt that I happily applied as a kid. It never lost a race. Somewhere, playing with that car flipped a switch in my brain and I’ve loved the automobile ever since.

I could get philosophical about the Hot Wheels brand and how I think it mirrors many aspects of the time in which we live. About how the graphics on the packaging can be seen as an indication of trend and how it becomes a miniature testament to the actual car brands themselves. About how the proprietary designs from the Hot Wheels design studio draw from many aspects of modern culture. Ask any young child what you call the little tiny cars and I’ll bet that you’ll get the correct answer 9 times out of 10. The folks at Mattel have done a great job over the (40!) years of providing a consistent message, keeping true to their calling while managing to leverage their asset across a vast array of other products, from PJ’s to fruit snacks and Saturday morning cartoons. It’s a great historical brand case study and one that continues to be relevant.

A casual glance at eBay will provide you with over 10,000 opportunities to purchase a Hot Wheels, some for thousands of dollars, none of which seem destined for ripping down an orange track and careening down the hallway. But, that doesn’t change the fact that for 99 cents and a little pile of dirt, a kid can still enjoy a truly distinctive brand and maybe launch a  lifelong love affair as well. Thank you, Hot Wheels.

For years, the majority of cash at quick service restaurants has gone “through the window.”  The growing car culture has dictated a focus on drive-thru efficiency to the point where the dining room has become an afterthought to operators and subsequently a barrier to customers.

The cost of updating and maintaining a dining room has seemed cost prohibitive to many QSR chains and their franchisees, especially in light of the high drive-thru ratio. But by not offering a unique, pleasant dining experience, they have let the brand image wither on the vine. And it’s now coming back to haunt them. I contend that the high drive-thru ratio is in large part due to customers avoiding the “ick” factor of enduring outdated, smelly, deteriorating environments with no sense of place or brand personality.

The dining room is the brand.
Most customers will, at some point, come inside and that is the greatest opportunity to make a connection. Panera and Starbucks understood this a long time ago and snagged loads of customers that wanted a clean and cozy place to enjoy the product. McDonalds and Burger King have seen the light and announced major remodeling and prototype initiatives that appear to be paying off.

So to my friends in the QSR and Fast Casual game: differentiated, branded and engaging experiences win with customers; there is only so much connection you can make at the pay window. So elevate your brand with every possible touchpoint including the most important and substantial asset you have—your dining room.

Design Forum has changed its name… sort of.

When we became part of Interbrand in 2002, we kept the name of the company that I founded in 1978. Since then, we’ve evolved from a pure design entity into a multi-disciplined consultancy with a deep pool of talent, including a lot of brand expertise.

“Design Forum” contains valuable branding in its own right. Our name has touched hundreds of success stories and a lot of people who’ve become our friends during thirty years in business.

Anyone who’s been through a company name change is aware of all the ramifications, from switching the sign on the front door to an updated logo on the coffee cups. And the risk, of course, that customers will assume there’s been a change in leader-ship—in our case there has not.

The time has come to take on the new Interbrand Design Forum identity in order to focus more precisely on what our business does—global retail store design that incorporates business brand strategy, shopper analytics, retail architecture, retail-sensitive implementation—and to stress our ability to draw on resources from around the world: 1,249 creative minds in 36 offices and 22 countries.

This month, Interbrand publishes the annual Best Global Brands in conjunction with
BusinessWeek. It’s one of the top three published business rankings in the world. If you think your business is a potential leader, here’s where you can find out what it takes. And of these 100 brands, you’ll see who the top riser and faller were this year. (Spoiler alert: Google and Merrill Lynch.)

Brand value is a simple idea. If retail brands play a role in choice, and shoppers must choose between competing products, then brands must contribute to earnings and profit. It then follows that brands must be quantifiable and valuable to its owner.

By using brand valuation as a diagnostic tool, we understand the precise economic benefit that brand has on every aspect of business. Insights into which brand attributes are relevant at each step in the customer journey tell us exactly what must be changed to make the brand perform better. You can then invest in the touchpoints that generate the most demand.

The topic of brand management has been generating more interest every year in the face of proof that strong brands, consistently managed, are more resilient in shifting economic climates. A study of Best Global Brands versus the S&P 500 conducted by Harvard and USC showed they outperform the market.

Yet, business pundits say we’re living in a post-branded world and that traditional branding is outdated. Perhaps that shouldn’t surprise me. Although the concept of brand value has been evolving since the ‘80s, it’s still misunderstood.

Brand is not an advertising gimmick. It’s a set of attributes and a promise: the attributes consumers have ascribed to store or product, and a promise made by the company to deliver those attributes through the way it does business. Ideally, the brand idea shapes the company and directs the behavior of everyone in it. That’s why we believe brands have the power to change the world.

There are some interesting new names on the list this year. BlackBerry makes its way onto the global brand stage. We’ll see if it can outperform the iPhone. Luxury brand Ferrari zooms onto list. The debut of H&M is a great example of a retailer understanding consumer demands, as is the entrance of Marriott.

Our longtime client Honda still ranks high; also new to Best Global Brands is our client FedEx, whose promise we’re bringing to life in the FedEx Office stores (formerly Kinkos). Like all the leaders, they have managed to strike a clear note of differentiation that we have translated into retail environments.

Although we can understand nervousness in a results-oriented world, we’re hoping the current slowdown will push retailers to change. The world is becoming one global economy. Competing in it demands a connected and holistic approach to brand management, not siloed 20th century corporate habits. In order to stand out from the crowd and engage our associates and customers, our businesses must become branding communities, resilient and flexible. Because—particularly in retail—there are always new and unknown challenges ahead. Thoughtfully,
D. Lee Carpenter