Branding Without Your Name
Have you seen the television commercials that end in an Internet invitation to ThinkAboutIt.com?
I bet I've seen the commercials ten or twelve times but never connected them to a product. It wasn't until curiosity got the better of me and I visited the site that I learned it was a commercial for Hyundai automobiles.
I don't know what you think of when you hear Hyundai, but I am embarrassed to admit that I associated them with inexpensive lemons run by two rubber bands and a gerbil in an exercise wheel with a name that mimicked the well respected Honda but spelled so weird you could never get the vowels in the right place.
They were small enough to put in your back pocket, with a tiny engine and a price significantly lower than the competition so how could they possibly be of good quality.
Yet over the years, their brand has grown in the eyes of consumers.
It takes courage and a little bit of moxie to advertise your business with a brand that isn't your name. Target and the little red circle come to mind. They have done such an excellent job associating themselves with the red target image that words are unnecessary.
And now Hyundai is trying to do the same thing with a web link that has nothing to do with cars or their name: Think About It could mean anything.
Did you connect the website with the car company based on their commercials? Think about it is a catchy phrase that sticks in your mind and is frankly much easier to spell than the car company moniker.
Do you lead with your company name or an image that represents the service you provide?
It is a successful direction for the car company to travel?
p.s. State Farm is doing the same thing with Now What.
Branding | Deborah Brown | 12 September 2007 |
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By Ad Guy, September 14, 2007 @ 1:15 pm
Very thoughtful questions, Deborah.
But may I suggest that you’ve largely answered them yourself.
Did you connect the website with the car company based on their commercials? Think about it is a catchy phrase that sticks in your mind and is frankly much easier to spell than the car company moniker.
Do you lead with your company name or an image that represents the service you provide?
By Ad Guy, September 14, 2007 @ 1:21 pm
Very thoughtful questions, Deborah.
But may I suggest that you’ve largely answered them yourself.
“Did you connect the website with the car company based on their commercials?”
You connected the commercials with the car company by visiting the website. And may I suggest that if you had connected the commercial with the car company you may never have engaged with the website. Who’s interested in inexpensive lemons, if that’s what you associate with the name!
“Do you lead with your company name or an image that represents the service you provide?”
A brand name should stand for the service you provide. If that name gets in the way, then that name is not your brand (yet.) So you lead with what you believe in and what you stand for and rehabilitate the name until such a time where the name is sufficient.
So when there is such a disconnect seems like maybe this is the way to go. I mean would you have visited Hyundai a week ago?
Think About It.
By David MacGregor, September 24, 2007 @ 2:43 am
The interesting thing about your post is that it highlights the fact that brands move on. In the case of Hyundai they did make some pretty ordinary cars (to say the least). But over the years their product has improved considerably. It’s harder to move first impressions. In some cases it is better not to include your logo or brand name in a message. Why? Because you may have something of interest to share with the customer but who simply won’t offer their attention is the first thing they see is the logo or brand name. Logos are shorthand – for better or worse. Bill Bernbach, the advertising legend talked about this phenomenon.
Personally I think the Hyundai commercials are too generic / so soft that I shut them out. But I believe the strategy is correct.