Pepsi Logo Design Brief and the Emperor's new clothes

[D856C]

Pepsi Logo Design Brief: Branding Lunacy to the Max is why sane people should avoid the subject of logo design.

This offers some evidence the logo design process should be regulated by the FDA as mind altering.

And is why branders never connect what they do to sales. Tropicana sales plunged 20% after a rebrand by the same firm. Arnell's "Explanation" of Failed Tropicana Design Resembles His Nonsensical Pepsi Document

Branders take all credit when things go well, and zero responsibility when they go bad. Nothing is a failure of the branding, it's the customer or the execution, never the screwball brander.

Taken as a whole a useful "what not to do" when discussing brand identity design. But a good case history of hit-and-run billable.

[libigoogibil]

It also illustrates the extreme disconnect between the marketing world and the real world.

Pretty much sums up what I think about these "brand experts". Explaining the process and inspiration of a logo is a ok, but this is just ridiculous. It's not branding, it's a competition on how far you can stretch it to justify the overpricing.

I see branding the same way I see jokes . if you need to explain it to the average guy, it's not good enough.

It should be added though, fortunately, that even though these cases pop up now and then, most designers/branders still have their feet firmly planted on the ground.

[Scriptage]

This was a viral marketing ploy. The "leaked document" was released for precisely this reason. This came about early this year and there have been an enormous amount of articles on the subject both in the media and online by both professional writers and personal bloggers.

This was an extremely intelligent piece of marketing and we should all sit back in admiration of what it has achieved.

[D856C]

This was a viral marketing ploy.

Worked well. It makes me want to go out and buy Pepsi, the company, just to fire everyone over janitor level. Must have done wonders for the stock price with the figure of $35 million attached to it.

Any publicity is good publicity? I gotta see the viral marketing document, it must read very similar to this one.

On the other hand, got an outrageous business blunder you'd like the internet to discount, perhaps ignore? Dress it up as as viral after the fact. Brilliant.

most designers/branders still have their feet firmly planted on the ground.

You're kidding, right? I've seen scarce use of the word brand, branding, brand awareness or brand value with anything that made any sense.

Got logo billable for over twenty bucks? "Oh yes, but it's building your brand." Mom and Pop or AT&T, same difference. Except Mom and Pop hear "brand" and think it'll make them AT&T.

[Scriptage]

Any publicity is good publicity? I gotta see the viral marketing document, it must read very similar to this one.

On the other hand, got an outragious business blunder you'd like the internet to discount, perhaps ignore? Dress it up as as viral. Brilliant.

You're missing a trick here; the document was so outrageous that anybody with an ounce of sense could see that it was meant to be humerous.

[D856C]

Here's what one ounce of sense about branding buys you:

Mark Singletary, a New Orleans resident who lost three friends to gunshot murder in the city since Katrina. Mayor Ray Nagin's reaction? "It keeps the New Orleans brand out there, and it keeps people thinking about our needs."
-- Obsessive Branding Disorder

Co-Branding Pop Tarts and Trivial Pursuit must be fake viral marketing, because they also put out a humorous press release saying Pop Tarts are anything but trivial. Not so the brand.

Tropicana's 20% plunge after a rebrand was funny, though, so you do have a point.

Good to have so many level headed branders out there, to make the humor stick out.