Brand Mix

A streamlined Six of the Best edition today for those diehards who have not escaped for the long weekend and still want to keep up-to-date with all the latest and greatest:

1) Branding: The Next Generation: Branding Strategy Insider
From USPs to HSPs (Holistic Selling Propositions). Martin Lindstrom proposes that: "HSP brands are those that not only anchor themselves in tradition but also adopt religious characteristics at the same time they leverage the concept of sensory branding as a holistic way of spreading the news. Each holistic brand has its own identity, one that is expressed in its every message, shape, symbol, ritual, and tradition -- just as sports teams and religion do today."

2) Dramatic Changes in Marketing and Media: ToddAnd
Ah! For those simples times of yore. A cute video from Scholz and Friends about how marketing used to easy and now isn't:



3) Real Social Media R.O.I. – Part 4: FRY Metrics: The Brand Builder
Olivier Blanchard has been considering Social Media ROI all week culminating in this post that brings it all together with F.R.Y. (Frequency/Reach/Yield), the >"ultimate app. for R.O.I. measurement.

4) rubberduckzilla is the friend of water haters: brandflakesforbreafast
Darryl Ohrt is a reliable source of the weird and fantastic and this Oasis ad is both:



5) Supremely bad T-shirt acquires narrative, meaning; becomes top-seller: Murketing
Sometimes being the worst works just as well as being the best. (Further analysis on the branding opportunity for being dead last from eyecube.)

6) Cheapotle.com... It's WAR: The Denver Egotist
The Denver Egotist is waging a war against Chipotle's new advertising and marketing direction with an anti-campaign designed to: "do something that really draws national attention to this crap." The Cheapotle.com site includes a "Gallery of Hate" with spoof ads. Comments are running pretty even for and against whether this is valid criticism or sour grapes.

That's it! See you here on the blog or on Twitter (@martinjbishop) for more stories from the world of brand strategy.