Brand Story: the decline of Facebook.

Having a good brand story behind your company can make all the difference between success and failure. To have a successful brand, people have to relate to your brand and see it as friendly, engaging and inviting. The story of Facebook wasn't as widespread as it is now after the motion picture telling of the story, but is still a fascinating one. The fact that a college sophomore invented a multi-billion dollar company from his dorm room has inspired young entrepreneurs everywhere.

Though it's a thriving company that started from nothing, it may be threatened by the very thing that made it profitable in the first place: advertising. Facebook has come under siege by critics who say that it shouldn't be using its members data in order to attract advertisers. This has contributed to a negative brand image for Facebook and has taken away from its initial allure: the rag to riches story.

Brand Extension: The highs and lows of Coca Cola.

Today I will be discussing brand extension. This is a term used to describe a spin-off of any given brand by the company that manufactures it in order to expand their repertoire of products and therefore make more money! By spin-off I don't mean the Joey spin-off that followed Friends and for some reason was picked up for a second season, but more so in terms of products, such as Coca-Cola and Coke Zero.

When I think of brand extension, I naturally thought of Coca-Cola because of how many different new brands they have come up with. At the moment, there is the original product, Caffeine-Free Coke, Cherry Coke, "New Coke", Lemon Coke, Vanilla Coke, Low-Carb Coke, Lime Coke, Raspberry Coke, Coke Zero, Coke Black Cherry Vanilla, Coke Blak (coffee-flavoured), Blood Orange Coke and good old Orange Coke.

That's quite a mouthful.

Judging by how many brand extensions Coca-Cola has come up with and how many of them have gone on to have a lasting impact on the market, I'd say Coke hasn't done so well. The problem is that you can't take a flavour that's so unique on its own like Coke and mix it with a random fruit flavour in hopes that it will be "exotic".  Coke should just stick to what it's good at and focus their marketing efforts on regular old Coke. Going a step further, they should even spend more on the diet versions of Coca-Cola, but find a way to make their product calorie-free without using cancer-inducing aspartame. Then they would strike a gold-mine. I might even consider drinking it.

Brand Personality: Redbull

Brand personality can be defined as the brand's values, beliefs, gender, age, and numerous other qualities that associate the brand with a "person". We associate brands with personalities by how positive or negative our experiences with the brand are. If it has solid customer service, is family friendly and has good value for the product then it is more likely to receive a positive brand personality.

It also differentiates brands from each other. For example, Coca Cola would be associated as more classic and mature yet Pepsi would be the younger, hipper version of Coke. Basically, the personality just communicates what the brand is all about and how it wants to be seen by the public.

I was thinking out loud, trying to figure out what a good example for brand personality would be, when my boyfriend overheard and screamed,

"DO REDBULL! REDBULL!!"

So Redbull it is. If this brand was a person, it would definitely be male. I think Redbull tries to position themselves as the athlete/hero/masculine personality, and they do it well. By encouraging people to utilize these energy drinks before sporting activities and using attractive, scantily clad female promotion girls, they are trying to communicate that they are more macho than say, Gatorade.

Brand Loyalty: Apple

When I think of the principle "80% of your business comes from 20% of your users" Apple immediately came to mind. Though it's become somewhat of a cliché to discuss Apple's advertising, I can't think of another current, popular brand that has such a cult following. An Apple customer doesn't just buy a MacBook. If they need an MP3 player, they buy an iPod. If they want a new cell phone, they buy an iPhone. Apple has made it so that all of their devices are in synch with each other and so there is the added pressure to buy more, more, more.

Brand loyalty is composed of many elements, such as perceived value and trust of a brand for example. Apple is perceived as a high-quality, streamlined and modern brand and has built a loyal fan base through good customer service (especially in Apple stores) and reliable products. Because they have built their empire on good customer service and a great product line, it can be said that the majority of customers can be qualified as hardcore users. The hardcore users are the customers who only buy Apply products and wouldn't dream of buying a boring, old PC. Now if only Bill Gates could make Microsoft into what Apple has done for the technology industry.

Brand Loyalty: Banking Institutions

When I was trying to think of a topic of brand loyalty, one of the first things that came to mind was banks. Banking institutions are a topic that I think about alot, more specifically why people stick with different banks for so long. Is it because they feel like that specific bank is more trustworthy because of the image the brand is known for? For example, TD Bank tries to make themselves look more down to earth and friendly, while Scotiabank tries to come across as more trustworthy and easier to approach. All banks are the same so why do people choose one over the other? The answer is obviously brand loyalty. The bank you choose is usually chosen for you by your parents, when they go to open a junior account for your weekly allowance. Personally, I havn't changed my banking institution since my grandma took all my dad's rolled coins (which turned out to be hundreds of dollars) one afternoon and took me to Scotiabank to open a "Getting There" Savings account. I got one of those old school bank books that had my balance printed on it instead of a debit card. The reason why I have never changed where I do my banking is because I've developed loyalty to my bank.

Brand Positioning: Search Engines (is simpler better?)

In the race for the most profitable and relied on search engine, who wins the race? The obvious answer here is Google, but how did they get to the position they're in today? It's because they have positioned themselves so that they're top of mind for the consumer by being the most easy-to-use, simplest and most functional search engine. Back when the most popular search engine was Yahoo, Google created the most clean, simple looking search engine that has ever existed so far. By limiting the amount of advertising and pioneering a new search algorithm that would show results based on the importance of the page instead of how many hits it was getting a day, Google became a publicly traded multi-billion dollar company. What made Google different was that instead of littering their website with in-your-face flash advertisements, they charged companies to show their results in searches at the top of the page. They also only use small, text-based advertisments on the side of searches, as well as sponsored searches. By integrating new functions every so often, such as Maps, News, Books, Images, and their own vastly popular e-mail GMail, Google became the most popular search engine that is top of mind for almost all consumers that use computers today.