Branding Phoenix runs into same old issues

March 9, 2009March 9, 2009 / Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

Pity the folks entrusted with coming up with a city brand. It’s one of the hardest nuts to crack for a variety of reasons:

Too many stakeholders and interested parties
Past failures make everyone pessimistic, itch for a fight
Money spent on what seems like a few words is always seen as a ridiculous waste of taxpayer resources

If you don’t believe me, Google ‘London Olympic logo” and you’ll see what an identity brouhaha it created for Londoners, and all those experts out there. Even I couldn’t relate…

So to get back to the branding or Phoenix that has drawn fire, one comment from a reader of the Arizona Republic typifies what I am saying.

No money for education, senior citizens, no decent jobs, the housing market crashed …we have a crazy sheriff who uses our light rail for prisoner transport and a bunch of cameras on the freeway for government finances. Does the advertising agency know what a financial risk our state is?

The writer blames everything he is upset about in the state or county, on Phoenix. It’s too easy! Others have called it ‘too aspirational.’ I think much of this ire misses the point. A brand has to be a bit of a stretch, or a bit of reductionism.

No one blames Vegas for NOT coming outright and branding itself as “fake architecture, losers welcome!” now that “What happens in Vegas” has caught on so well to define ‘adult playground.’ If you analyze it to death, as those who slam all forms of branding tend to do, then ‘adult playground’ is a only half the story. But it resonates with what Vegas visitors accept and expect.

Branding agencies may be expensive, the concept may seem one that an eighth grader could have come up with, and you can’t blame a city for what it is not –not Seattle, not New York, not (who knows) Helsinki.

So my point is, let’s not analyze this new Phoenix branding to death. It sorely needed a refreshing new identity with so much going on there in the past few years, recession or not. As most branding experts say, a brand is what you invest into it. Not the slogan (anyone knows the slogan of ebay?) but the emotional experience.

Quotes for the week ending 27 February, 2009

February 28, 2009 / Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

“Orbiting swarms of junk careen into each other like billiard balls, creating unpredictable sprays of debris, which in turn meld with other space garbage to weave a moving net around the atmosphere.”

The Wall Street Journal‘s Robert Lee Hotz, on the debris of space junk caused by colliding satellites.

“My love of TweetDeck just keeps growing …Love, love, love it.”

IABC Chair, Barbara Gibson, on the new features of Tweetdeck.

“Twitter users may donate their avatar and replace it with an image of the red female sign.”

“NCMFathom, which is asking Twitter users to micro-blog to raise 0.10 a tweet from March 2 – 5 this year.

“After getting a lot of angry calls at my office from frustrated customers, I realized we could do a better job of listening to and supporting you.”

Yahoo’s new CEO Carol Bartz, on her blog, Yodel Anecdotal, about her first one and a half months on the job, and the changes being made.

“Sometimes the face of a brand is a fictional character.”

Chris Brogan, on the Bigelow Tea company’s project, Constant Comments. The company’s president Cindi Bigelow is a prominent figure in its communication.

“There is a differance (sic) between op/eds and news.”

Reader comment on the Rocky Mountain News web site, in response to the last story of the newspaper, “Goodbye, Colorado.” The paper began in 1859. The reader suggested that it demonstrated market forces were doing the right thing.

Blogging the salmonella outbreak

February 13, 2009February 14, 2009 / Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

There are divisions of the Federal government you probably never knew existed or paid attention to that are blogging –such as this or this.

So as they get up to speed with new media, it’s interesting to watch how the latest outbreak of salmonella poisoning –and the massive recall of peanut butter — has been enough to get a blog going. It’s barely two weeks old.

Called the PeanutButterRecall blog, the directors of the CDC and the FDA have begun communicating without simply relying on the statutory press release.

The site runs a bit slow, especially the link to the government database that lists hundreds of products from cookies to pet food to store brands, and the map is not exactly interactive, but who cares? Without waiting for the perfect format someone in the bowels of the crisis seems to have given the order for the PB Recall be covered from their perspective, with so many media lenses trained on them. One more thing, they also have a Twitter account.

Good job!

Sidebar: You can appreciate what these guys are doing when you look at the other Peanut Butter blogs out there. These are mainly run by fans or foodies, but they seem to be carrying on as if nothing has happened to the product.

Quotes for the week ending 31 January, 2009

January 31, 2009 / Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

“I’ve got one question: WTF? Where’s the funding?”

Student Tommy Bruce, president of the student-body at the University of Arizona, at the protest this week against state legislators slashing education budgets

“Our model is not for a quick rebound,” he said. “Our model is things go down, and then they reset.”

Steve Ballmer of Microsoft, in The New York Times, about the layoffs at Microsoft

“pop culture and media that’s ripe for parody”

Ralph Podell of Barely Digital, a new tech comedy model that will feature the ‘Obama Girl’

“It kind of smells like Nixon and Watergate.”

Governor Rod Blagojevich, invoking that other scandal of secret taping. The Governor was wire-tapped by the FBI which used it as evidence to bring charges on him.

“He’s all about PR.”

Christine Radongo, Senate Minority Leader of Illinois, commenting on the impeached governor Rod Blagojevich.

“Digging into work. Must turn off Facebook. Too distracting. So why am I now on Twitter? Argh!”

Corrine Heyeck, Tweeting about (what else?) the distraction of social media

Then: Echo Chamber. Now: Think Tank

January 25, 2009January 25, 2009 / Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

What’s the value of Twitter? I’m sure you get asked this question a lot. I’ve been barely active for the past six months, and find myself pointing people to resources such as this ebook (by GreekPreneur) and Chris Penn’s great Power Guide to Twitter.

I found the head-scratching by David Pogue (he, a tech columnist @ The New York Times) very enlightening. Even Pogue is figuring it out as he goes, so I don’t feel too bad.

Anyway, all this preamble is to make the point that Twitter to me is proving to be a customizable focus group that never sleeps; one I could configure with a few clicks, so that it’s pretty well targeted.

I found a quick poll being taken at The Strategy Web, (try it!) and the instant result confirmed what I thought: More people have found it valuable as a think tank, than a reputation enhancer. The number of people it reflects is very small, so this is not exactly representative of the Twitterverse, but it vindicates my time spent.

Quotes for the week ending 24 January, 2009

January 24, 2009January 24, 2009 / Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

“Citizen participation will be a priority…”

Macon Philips, White House’s director of new media, in a blog post a few seconds after Barack Obama took oath as the nation’s 44th president on Tuesday.

“Communication. Transparency. Participation”

The first message on the WhiteHouse.gov web site that switched over on Tuesday at noon., spelling out the details why ‘change has come to whitehouse.gov’

“an excellent example of witness media and pro media cooperation. It’s not about the ‘versus.'”

Steve Safran, quoted in an article about the evolution of ‘eyewittness journalism’

“Inaugural speeches serve two purposes. They are designed to heal whatever rough roads people had to go down to get elected. The other purpose is to lay out the agenda and the key metaphors for what’s to come-and hopefully to induce people to cooperate.”

John Adams, Colgate Speaking Union @Colgate University, quoted in Ragan.com

“You must find ways to spread – in a new manner – voices and pictures of hope, through the internet, which wraps all of our planet in an increasingly close-knitted way.”

Pope Benedict XVI, on the Vatican’s launch of a channel on YouTube.

“Obama gets a thumbs-up for his Blackberry.”

Headline of a series of articles that celebrated the fact that the ‘tech president’ gets his way in being able to step out of the communications bubble. Only a few people will have his email address, the White House says.

“Twitter IS a massive time drain. It IS yet another way to procrastinate … But it’s also a brilliant channel for breaking news, asking questions, and attaining one step of separation from public figures you admire.”

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Angelo Fernando's blog since 2004

Public Relations

Branding Phoenix runs into same old issues

Blogging the salmonella outbreak

Quotes for the week ending 31 January, 2009

Student Tommy Bruce, president of the student-body at the University of Arizona, at the protest this week against state legislators slashing education budgets

Steve Ballmer of Microsoft, in The New York Times, about the layoffs at Microsoft

Ralph Podell of Barely Digital, a new tech comedy model that will feature the ‘Obama Girl’

Governor Rod Blagojevich, invoking that other scandal of secret taping. The Governor was wire-tapped by the FBI which used it as evidence to bring charges on him.

Christine Radongo, Senate Minority Leader of Illinois, commenting on the impeached governor Rod Blagojevich.

Corrine Heyeck, Tweeting about (what else?) the distraction of social media

Then: Echo Chamber. Now: Think Tank

Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele who took issue with the notion that Rush Limbaugh is the de facto leader of the GOP.

Rush Limbaugh’s statement in January that began the controversy.

John Byrne, of BusinessWeek, describing how he, a digital immigrant (not a digital native) thinks the ‘story’ in journalism is developed where people gather and converse.

Samantha Bee, reporting about Twitter (and Congress) on the Jon Stewart show.

Barack Obama’s pick, Vivek Kundra, as as his chief information officer.

Josh Bernoff of Forrester Research, at the Groundswell blog, on how volunteerism could change the tide.

The Wall Street Journal‘s Robert Lee Hotz, on the debris of space junk caused by colliding satellites.

IABC Chair, Barbara Gibson, on the new features of Tweetdeck.

“NCMFathom, which is asking Twitter users to micro-blog to raise 0.10 a tweet from March 2 – 5 this year.

Yahoo’s new CEO Carol Bartz, on her blog, Yodel Anecdotal, about her first one and a half months on the job, and the changes being made.

Chris Brogan, on the Bigelow Tea company’s project, Constant Comments. The company’s president Cindi Bigelow is a prominent figure in its communication.

Reader comment on the Rocky Mountain News web site, in response to the last story of the newspaper, “Goodbye, Colorado.” The paper began in 1859. The reader suggested that it demonstrated market forces were doing the right thing.

Student Tommy Bruce, president of the student-body at the University of Arizona, at the protest this week against state legislators slashing education budgets

Steve Ballmer of Microsoft, in The New York Times, about the layoffs at Microsoft

Ralph Podell of Barely Digital, a new tech comedy model that will feature the ‘Obama Girl’

Governor Rod Blagojevich, invoking that other scandal of secret taping. The Governor was wire-tapped by the FBI which used it as evidence to bring charges on him.

Christine Radongo, Senate Minority Leader of Illinois, commenting on the impeached governor Rod Blagojevich.

Corrine Heyeck, Tweeting about (what else?) the distraction of social media

Macon Philips, White House’s director of new media, in a blog post a few seconds after Barack Obama took oath as the nation’s 44th president on Tuesday.

The first message on the WhiteHouse.gov web site that switched over on Tuesday at noon., spelling out the details why ‘change has come to whitehouse.gov’

Steve Safran, quoted in an article about the evolution of ‘eyewittness journalism’

John Adams, Colgate Speaking Union @Colgate University, quoted in Ragan.com

Pope Benedict XVI, on the Vatican’s launch of a channel on YouTube.

Headline of a series of articles that celebrated the fact that the ‘tech president’ gets his way in being able to step out of the communications bubble. Only a few people will have his email address, the White House says.

New York Times Tech columnist, David Pogue about how he’s learning to use Twitter