Since buying the Thinkpad line of products from IBM a few years ago, Lenovo has been busy transitioning the product line branding.

The Same Product, Different Stickers blog post on Lenovo blogs provides an interesting insight into the transition process from a product badging viewpoint.

The lessons are:

Consistency is important, but not a blind rule to be followed.
Consistency goes beyond mere badges and logos.
Transitions must be given time …

Two classic packaging/communications boo boo in one:

On the bottom left:
“Premium Quality” - says the manufacturer.
“NEW IMPROVED” - in what way? For whom? (Is there talc in it?)
“PACKED IN BOX” - this is the punch line. It has to be!

The whole design is already extremely busy. It would not hurt to simply leave out these three lines. What purpose do they serve? Other than to …

Here’s an interesting case of saying just that bit too much on the packaging:

“US #1″ - so, who gives?
“Extra fancy” - the manufacturer would say that of course.
“No talc” - WTF?!!!

Now, I did not know that in some part of the world, coating rice with talc - yes, the very stuff you powder your sweaty bits with - is part of the manufacturing process. To …

This is a fun example of authenticity in product naming - a dust collector is … well a dust collector!

Designed by Sebastiaan Straatsma and spotted on core77.

“This above all—to thine own self be true”

… this is the challenge of authenticity: it’s quite easy to talk about and not so easy to do. If authenticity is hard for people to achieve, it is even harder for businesses.

…

The humanity has been driven out of most branding programmes, replaced by an ever-growing list of clever-sounding jargon and “tools” designed to manipulate rather than engage with consumers. It …

David Dale’s blog post on the Sydney Morning Herald provides food (and stats) for thought.

My 10 minute take on what the patterns are:

Important reference books (Guinness World Records:2007) which makes great gifts for just about anyone, even if you don’t remember their last names.
The twins of food and diet - Get fat with Jamie (just look at him drowning everything in yummy oil), then lose weight …

Some businesses are, by some default, allowed (and expected) to be passionate about what they sell. Examples are hobby shops, pet shops, and toy shops.

When these become “Big” businesses, however, they seem to lose that passion. Contrast your local toy shop with Toys R Us – which is nothing more than a soulless, fluoro-floodlit warehouse. Why is this?

Then there are those businesses we expect to be dispassionate and …

Another thought from The Tao of Pooh and The Te of Piglet by Benjamin Hoff (ISBN 0-416-19526-1):

“[Although] we live in what is commonly described as a Materialistic Society … ours is in reality an Abstract Value society – one in which things are not appreciated for what they are so much as for what they represent.”

So why is Abstract Value so attractive? I reckon it is because Abstract …

Read Meow Mix Academy Puts New Yorkers in Touch With Their Feline Side.

What was your honest uncensored reaction to it?

What a brilliant marketing campaign!
Ho hum, so what?!
The world is soooo f*cked.

I picked c.

This just seem so … wrong. I do have a cat I love - but this just smacked of spoilt, rich, bored, neotenised brats with nothing better to do than just pointlessly consume …

If I were looking for an SUV today. I totally love their Save the Rhino TV commercial.

It still showed the product doing its thing - and actually in aid of a genuine worthwhile cause. (Suzuki is donating part proceeds from each sale to save the black rhino and the tassie devil.)

How refreshing it was not to see yet another super-preened yuppy dude in his super-clean, super-polished, …