20 Hats: Thinking Cap

Public Relations Play of the Day

LRAD acoustic nonlethal device in NOLA at Superdome
Originally uploaded by xeni.

Congratulations to New Orleans! The city will unveil the Superdome tonight when the New Orleans Saints host the Atlanta Falcons on Monday Night Football.

The Superdome has undergone a $184 million makeover to rid it of the stench and physical damage caused when 30,000 plus people sought refuge there during Hurricane Katrina.

Holding an event at the Superdome is a critical public relations move and one that I think is brilliant.

There could be some backlash today though. Officials need to be prepared to answer questions about why such a large amount of money was spent on the Superdome while some areas of the city still are without utilities and infrastructure.

Age Defying Branding

At the age of 5, my son can “read.” Okay, maybe not read, but recognize every retail logo on the face of the earth. He can also tell you the names of three of the biggest ice cream chains in the country.

How can a kindergartener that only recently learned how to tie his own shoes, readily identify hundreds of logos and tell you what each company offers? BRANDING.

Not advertising. BRANDING. My son has never seen a Starbucks ad (Starbucks doesn’t advertise), yet he knows that you buy coffee at Starbucks.

What Starbucks has done so well that a 5-year-old can grasp it is to establish a brand and stick to it.

Most organizations feel the need to tinker with their logo, tagline and messaging every 12 to 24 months. This tinkering confuses your customers.

Al Reis writes in his book The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding that a brand is not built overnight. Reis says that success is measured in decades. For example, BMW has been the ultimate driving machine for over 25 years.

Reis also suggests that a brand should own a word in the mind of the consumer like Starbucks owns the word coffee.

What one word do you own?