Can You Wiki Your Brand?

Branding has changed through the years.

In its first form, it was nothing but a trademark. Businesses put it on their products so their customers would know who they were buying from.

As branding evolved, it went from something you buy to something you trust to something you want to something you prefer to something you love (please forgive the run-on sentence, I just covered over 200 years of branding history!)

Now, we're moving to the next generation of branding: Wiki Branding.

What's that, you ask?

It's a brand that's driven by its community, much as Wikipedia's 14 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world.

In order to have a Wiki Brand, you'll need a community to nurture it, to advocate for it, and ultimately to help shape its direction. If you're not sure how to build your brand's community, you're in luck: we wrote about how to do it in our most recent newsletter.

And that's practical marketing.

Pizza Hut's New Logo

Pizza Hut has rebranded, including a new name and logo.

In an attempt to resonate with those pesky "leetspeaking" Millennial/Gen Y folks, and to expand the menu to include such delivery delights as hot wings and pasta, they've shortened the name of the company from "Pizza Hut" to "The Hut."

I'm going to do you the favor of skipping right over all my snark-filled references to Jabba the Hutt, or wondering if the Long John Silver's chain will rebrand itself as "The John."

Instead, I'm going straight to why it's wrong.

First thing, I know what Pizza Hut sells. It sells pizza. What does a hut sell? I'm thinking fruity drinks on a remote beach...

And, given that a hut is "a small or humble dwelling of simple construction, esp. one made of natural materials, as of logs or grass", why would I want to buy pizza, wings, or pasta from one?

I get it that it's a nickname. Lots of companies have successfully dropped the formal name in favor of a nick:

• Federal Express --> FedEx
• General Motors --> GM
• Kentucky Fried Chicken --> KFC

But there's a difference! In each of those cases, the public was referring to the company by its nick before the change was officially made.

Trying to force a nick onto a public won't work, even if the new roof on the new logo looks like a nipple. Just sayin'.

And that's practical marketing.

Next Generation Networking

Last night, I attended a networking mixer for a group called "Linked !n Long Beach" at Kavikas Grill & Bar.

The group brings together the powerful online networking facilities of LinkedIn with old-school "f2f" networking. The combination of new-school and old-school delivers a surer, faster way to make deeper connections with the people you need to know.

It was a great mixer at a great location, and the the restaurant provided excellent service and an astoundingly affordable happy hour.

I was surprised, however, by the number of people who could not, quickly and simply, explain the nature of their business and what made them unique.

With f2f networking, the question "So, what do you do?" comes up pretty fast.

It's best to have a solid, well-rehearsed answer before you're asked; one that makes immediate, obvious sense to someone who knows nothing of you or your industry.

If you'd like some help creating a solid answer, give me a call (562) 595-0555. We'll get together for coffee (or a happy hour beer at Kavikas!) and come up with something Fresh!

And that's practical marketing.