Brand Mix

Dedicated readers will notice a new name for my weekly round-up of branding stories and events. There was something about "Good enough to share" that I didn't like so I'm trying out this new name. Perhaps I won't end up liking this name either. Now back to the woes of the world:

1) Forget Logic; Fear Appears to Have Edge: The New York Times
Earlier this week, I wrote a post called: Decisions made with 10% logic, 90% emotion based on the book by Drew Westen on how people vote in elections (and why the Democrats usually lose). Here, from The New York Times, is evidence that investment decisions are another category where emotion is the main driver. Fear is gripping investors large and small and most people are in full flight.

2) Your Guide to Meltdown Terminology: The Financial Brand
Jeffy Pilcher provides a handy glossary to help you translate the news media’s coverage of the economic meltdown. Example: “Too Big to Fail” Translation: “Don’t worry boys! Joe Taxpayer’s got your back. There’s trillions more where that came from.” Earlier in the week, Jeffy had an interesting set of perspectives about how banks should talk about the financial crisis.

3) Branding The Financial Industry: Brand Identity Guru
Scott, in his usual forthright style, tells the financial industry what it should do now. #1 on the list: "A letter from the President included in your monthly statement or via email. This letter would apologize for the company and or industry and make promises with solutions."

4) Return on Whatever: Marketing Profs
Steve Woodruff talks about the Return on Whatever (RoW) compulsion which he believes can: "Inhibit people from making sound business decisions for the simple reason that something is the right thing to do." I covered the same general topic in one of my posts in the "Death by tools and metrics" series.

5) Did Anti-Depressants Cause the Mortgage Crisis? The Daily Beast
The Daily Beast is Tina Brown's new thing. What is it? It's: "a speedy, smart edit of the web from the merciless point of view of what interests the editors." Here's a sample story where Adam Hanft explores something new to blame for the crisis. I thought we were all agreed that it's Jimmy Carter's fault.

6) And to cheer us up, here's a brilliant "literal video" of Ah-Ha's "Take on Me" (via Made to Stick):

And now "I'm gonna kick some ass with my own pipe wrench." (If you don't know what I'm talking about, you didn't watch the video.) See you next week for more stories from the world of brands and branding.