Brand Mix

St. George's Day was April 23rd. Poor St George--he slew a dragon--surely more impressive than St. Patrick who only drove out some snakes. But there's scarcely any celebration of St. George's official day. No parades, no rivers turning green, no drunken debauchery--even in England (more than normal that is) where he's the patron saint.

Here's my weekly summary of interesting and entertaining posts and articles. More at the bottom of the page in "Martin's Shared Items:

1) The Physics of Marketing - Newton's Law of Gravitation: davidebowman
Is Jones Soda the moon to Coke's sun? (By way of Brand Autopsy)

2) Beware of Brand Schizophrenia: Jack Trout
Jack's sticking to his guns. None of this new-fangled brands-as-anything-you-want-them-to-be for him. Volvos will always be safe, Pepsi the choice of the new generation and Duracell's batteries will always last a long time.

3) Speedo: Innovation in the Aqua Lab: BusinessWeek
So many world records are being broken by swimmers wearing Speedo's new LZR swimsuit that some people are trying to get it banned and Olympic swimmers not signed up with Speedo are in a panic. Now that's the kind of branding program that Jack likes. Lots of steak (with the sizzle).

4) Brands That Make No Promises: Dim Bulb
We all know it's better to under promise and over deliver. Maybe that's a philosophy brands should live by? Jonathan argues that low-balling promises and over-delivering experiences is the way to go.

5) Just-Enough, A New Trend In The Works: Grant McCracken
Grant detects a new trend towards just-enough rather than what he characterizes as the Denny's model: all-you-eat plus 3000 calories more.