Digi’s new Yellowdude

Did you see Digi’s tougher-looking version of their mascot the Yellowman? I saw him on tv last night. Being tougher, I’ll call him Yellowdude. Come to think of it, he and Spongebob Squarepants will make quite a team don’t you think.

So what will Yellowdude do to the guy in the cinema who screams “Hero also die I tell you, I am taikor mah“? Kick his Ah Beng butt pleeeaaasee. Its about time the Dude showed some backbone.

Characterizing a brand as a person to make people bond with it. Clever move. Think about it. If Maxis was a person, who would it be? What about Celcom? I’ve seen pop and football stars being batted around but has any succeeded in achieving the cultish status of the Yellowman? I think not.

But seriously as a consumer, I can’t help but chuckle at this sudden image makeover. I think we’re witnessing an interesting case study of underdog brand management. I say underdog because for one, I believe they’re the only one in town without a 3G license which some predicted will cause them to fold. Sizewise I’m also told they’re the smallest of the 3 providers here, a real bummer if you’re managing the brand. And so on and so forth.

So the newly refurbished Mr. tough Yellowdude enters a market being pulled in 3 directions.

• The young & trendy who lives and breathes the music of Maxis/Hotlink’s pop stars.
• The football crazies cornered by Celcom plus fans of Wang Lee Hom. (Talk about strange bedfellows hehe )
• The rest of us who are struggling hard to survive in spite of the odds and taikor bullies. Iconized by the non-celebrity Yellowman.

Cool Store Names

I don’t know about you but this store in Cineleisure @ The Curve has a rather catchy name don’t you think?

Sprint fires 1,000 customers

If you think you’ve ever gotten a raw deal as a cutomer, wait till you hear this. Sprint the American phone company has fired about 1,000 of its customers. See the news here and here.

Why? For making too many calls to customer service!

I was like what??? but lets look at it for a minute. Who in their right mind would call customer service just for kicks? People call because they have a problem. And as long as that problem isn’t solved, they will keep on calling.

Yes there are customers from hell and most companies write service contracts to eliminate them easily but to ditch customers who were just trying to get what they paid for is bizarre. Think of the message it sends out to their other customers – knock on our door one too many times and you’re history man. Haha what a laugh.

And as if that’s not bad enough guess who made this “A” list last April.

Source: MSN Money

What a joke

The Great Climate Party

A live concert in 7 continents in 24 hours on 7.7.07. Woohoo!!

Its all over network television and promoted by none other than Mr Global Warming himself Al Gore. What a guy, staying the course in his unpopular mission, weathering the criticisms from the powerful lobby against change, even surviving the critics about the electricity he uses at home.

Above pictures from spinner.com. And don’t ask me about the flying pig.

Anyway here’s a roundup of what I think the concert has achieved.

1. Message of a planet in crisis. Yup the stars would have undoubtedly delivered scripted messages in between their songs. To the throbbing crowd, I’m sure something would register in minds that aren’t too stoned or drunk to listen. If you had already accepted global warming as a problem when you came to the party, it can only strengthen your conviction. If you didn’t have a stand, I doubt if seeing a bunch of ppl prancing on stage would have made a difference

2. Call to action. I can’t tell if its there. I guess there’s a big difference between me telling you you’re sick and you actually wanting to do something about it. Some might take this as a final hour party so lets go with a bang. So whether action will follow is something we’ll have to see.

3. Worldwide publicity. Definitely, both Al Gore and the global warming agenda are winners as they ride on every major broadcaster’s airwaves plus MSN. In fact this is a brilliant branding coup for Gore. It builds tremendous mindshare and heartshare in a crowd of 20- and 30-somethings, the rebellious generation X that’s probably the toughest to penetrate. And its not just in America but worldwide. That’s a stored value that can yield him great dividends and not necessarily in the area of climate change alone.

Perfectionism and success

Does perfectionism bring you success?

For me the first clue of perfectionism is the fastidious use of language.

SpecializED in mobile sales. Its a statement of history. It tells the customer what they did yesterday but not today.

Never mind. If you wanna see something really interesting check this out.

Perfectionism schmerfectionism.

You can be as perfect as you like, we’ll just sit here and make our silly mistakes and rake in our daily thousands thank you.

Now that’s something to chew on…

Are you branded?

Would you believe me if I told you you have something in common with a can of baked beans?

Its called a brand.

Brands have a lot to do with top of mind recall. Quickly now, what’s the top brand of baked beans? Its Heinz where I come from. Best pizza? Pizza Hut. Best place to hang out with friends? Hooters. Oklah, the corner mamak shop.

So where do you figure in all this? Like the baked beans, you too enjoy top of mind recall. Just ask your friends this. If someone mentions your name, what is the first thing they think of? The biggest loudmouth? The stingiest? The most fashionable? The biggest jerk? Whatever the answer, that’s your brand.

You would have clued in by now that brands have a lot to do with reputation. But there’s one troublesome thing about reputation. You can’t demand it. You earn it.

Here’s an experiment. Try putting on the most expensive labels and shout out the window, “I am greatest! I am the best!” and see what happens. People might agree with you or more likely, they’ll think you’re a fruitcake.

And funny as it sounds, that’s exactly what many companies do. Unkown companies or those with dubious reputations throw millions on glitzy campaigns to shout “I am the greatest! I am the best!” to demand the respect of complete strangers and yet do nothing to connect with them personally, simple things like saying hello and answering a complaint. And then they scratch their heads as to why the love and money’s not coming in.

These companies do not ask what their customers think of them. Maybe they never read their miserable feedback forms or prefer to brush aside complaints. When reputations are broken, markets punish these brands by going to alternatives, much like how friends treat you when you break one too many promises.

If you run a business, you should know how your reputation is being formed. It’s the sum of all your products, price, promises, hip factor, service and everything else that your customers see, hear, feel and experience. Connect the dots and you’ll appreciate the enormity of the forces that prop up the reputation of your brand.

And you thought branding was only about the company logo, hee hee.

Anyway I digress. Whether you’re a company, an individual or a blogger, the same rules of branding apply. You can claim to be the greatest and the best but ultimately, it is your audience who will determine who you are and where you belong in their scheme of things. That to me is the hardest truth about branding.

So…what did you say your brand was again?

Celcom football ads

A couple of tv ads by Celcom lingers in my mind although not for the reasons the ad maker would have intended.

The first one is the weeping woman who sobs away as she watches a soccer match on telly. I dunno if she’s crying because she lost a huge bet or her boyfriend left her but she’s clearly distressed.

The second one, probably of the same series, is about a man who laughs uncontrollably to the match on tv. I’ll call him Mr. Hyena. He acts like he escaped from a mental asylum.

I’m no ad guru but if I remember my advertising 101, a good ad has 2 things. First a call to action, second a dramatization of the uniqueness of the product.

These 2 football ads have a call to action alright. They prompt me to switch channels everytime they come on air. I don’t fancy having extremely distraught women or someone like Mr. Hyena in my living room. Not even after a couple of beers.

Perhaps the ad maker assumes that the football-watching crowd’s senses is so dull that they feel compelled to go waaay over the top to send a simple message. Its called overkill.

On dramatizing the uniqueness of a product, I think this one crashed & burned because the target group, young cellphone users like me, have no idea what its trying to dramatize. The only connection I’ve made is that if you watch a soccer match sponsored by Celcom, you will become a hyena or you’ll cry your eyeballs out. Neither one makes exciting prospect.

The things companies do to their own brands…