A few weeks ago Budweiser introduced a new icon and packaging design for the first time in a decade. The company hopes emphasizing their “bowtie” symbol will help reverse a trend of declining sales, especially among younger consumers in their 20s and 30s. Most of the blue has been removed from the identity, with red and gold taking a more prominent role. In an effort to maintain the brand’s legacy, traditional elements such as the Budweiser Creed and Anheuser-Busch Medallion still remain.


The refresh is certainly bolder and more contemporary than their previous can, which was looking very dated (and not in a cool retro way). The question is whether consumers will resonate with the changes in a way that will result in market share gains. In the past, major redesigns of beverage packaging have been hit and miss. Some are wildly successful, others have no effect at all, and a few actually damage the brand.

One famous example of a rebrand that went wrong in this product category is Tropicana. The popular orange juice was totally overhauled in January 2009 only to have PepsiCo (its parent company) revert back to the old packaging within just two months, due to disastrous customer feedback. The problem with the short-lived packaging was that it seemed to throw away all of Tropicana’s brand equity with a bland design you’d expect to see from a generic bargain brand. Consumers could no longer differentiate Tropicana from other orange juices – the exact opposite of what a rebrand should accomplish.

While it’s safe to say Budweiser’s refreshed packaging is in no way a clear disaster along the lines of Tropicana, it will be interesting to see if it affects sales in the next few months.

Earth to Sherman Williams:  It’s not 1982 anymore.

In a time when American’s concern for the environment and world conflict is greater than ever, Sherman Williams continues to display an outdated, outrageous logo that seems to say, “Sherman Williams: Covering the earth, one toxic paint can at a time.” Or for you folks who like to read between the lines, “Sherman Williams: With endless blood, we will conquer the earth”.

According to Sherman Williams, it’s “one of the most recognized logos in the world”.   Even if that was true (and it’s not), being recognized is not necessarily good for your brand. It’s obvious that it’s not politically correct (or even common sense) to drip toxic paint over a globe, so I’ll skip the commentary on this part.

Perhaps a more interesting topic is the cryptic “SWP” acronym pictured on the pouring can. For the smart ones in the room, you probably knew right away that it stands for Sherman Williams Paint (I had to look it up).  I was thinking more along the lines of: Super World Power or Scarlet Wicked Poison.

Ironically, they credit much of their success to former CEO, Jack Breen.  Breen ran the company for 20 years from 1979-1999.  In 1982 he decided to bring back the infamous logo after it had gone away for several years.  Below is a funny little snippet from their very own corporate history timeline.  Hey, when you’ve got a good thing going…stick with it.

UPDATE:
Wait, they are environmentally friendly after all.  They recently posted their first Corporate Social Responsibility or “CSR” report (because you have to give it an acronym in business).  In the title shown below, you gotta love the juxtaposition of the fresh green grass and soft pastel title, with a blood-red dripping earth.  Now I’m really confused.

Yahoo! is re-branding. Many products and services are in dire need to do the same. But why?

One of the most important things you can communicate to your potential customers and clients is how you can help them. How can you make their world easier? It also helps if your message looks good. Whether you’re only interested in a particular part of advertising or are looking into a revamped marketing strategy as a whole, you need to make sure that your product, your service, your unique selling point is pushed into the spotlight.

(Unique Selling Point: the main thing you have and can offer your clients that no one else in your industry has or can offer)

For example, one of Album’s USP is Confidence. While other items are important, our clients know that they will receive the best service, product, and help possible. We are dedicated to only launching/releasing the best work possible.

Here’s a commercial that does a GREAT job of pointing out their USP, and in a funny way to boot. Can you find the USP?

USP: They help you learn English better.

In the midst of searching through different articles online to share with our fans/follower/clients, we are exposed to a wealth of information that we only hope to convey clearly to help you with different parts of online marketing.

One of our intern’s favorite new information sources is, you guessed it, a twitter feed, that has been linked to some of the most knowledgeable, interesting, and successful people around. Smashing Magazine has been one of those reliable pals that unknowingly has made lots of Album employees thrilled to be in this industry, over and over again. They have posted the Album  site as an example for different educational categories, such as the Speaking Navigation category in the Design Trends for 2009 article.

Now, this is a big deal for us. We put our blood, sweat, and tears into our work, and what kind of an example would we be for potential clients if our own site wasn’t worthy of praise?

Well, apparently it is. So much so that when Smashing Magazine published The Smashing Book, they included us in it. That’s right! Here we are on page 170:

This is in the “The Ultimate Guide to Fantastic Color Usage in Web Design, Usability, and Experience” section.

All we can say is: Go Team!

Fun Fact: As you may have noticed, the article mentioned earlier was called “Design Trends for 2009.” The site was launched in 2008. What does this mean? We are ahead of our time when it comes to what’s cool, what’s hot, what works, and what just looks good.

Don’t mind us if we toot our own horn every once in a while.

Nicholas Felton is a data obsessed designer from New York. Every year he creates an annual report, which is a record of his daily tasks and data for the year. Each year he comes up with a new way to display and present the data, with amazing results. Also check out Datum, which lets you collect, categorize and communicate your own data.

Rational, Understated, Progressive and Relaxed, I am UNIVERSAL. What type are you? Take the quiz.

Pfizer, “the world’s largest research-based pharmaceutical company”, recently released a refreshed brand identity.  For most people the logo update will go unnoticed, but the overall brand identity (colors, fonts and design style) have been upgraded dramatically.  According to Siegel+Gale, the agency behind the design strategy, the new logo “signals positive change and forward momentum and asks people to take a fresh look at Pfizer because it is not the same company it was in 1991″ (the last time the logo was refreshed).

The most noticeable difference in the new logo is the oval shape, which was tilted to create a more dynamic arrangement.  Subtle changes to every character in the font have resulted in a more rounded, friendlier and soothing feel, with the biggest changes coming to the “z” and the “e”.

The new color palette is bold and fluorescent and contains a lot of visual energy.

Pfizer’s new identity also carries a strong circular theme, as evidenced in their new home page pictured above.  Overall, this is the right move for a global brand that has produced two of the most popular drugs in the world: Lipitor and Viagra.  The change positions them as a more progressive and lively brand that is helping to change lives for the better.  I applaud them on this strategic step and believe it’s a boost to their brand resonance.

Hertz cast their shadow away and recently revealed a new brand identity.  While the old blocky letters were bold and unequivocal, thankfully, the sunshine yellow is still shining strong.  The new letters are a nice modern variation, with a rounder, friendlier feel.   I think it’s a good move to bring them out of the 80′s, but not radical enough to lose all the brand equity they have racked up over the years.

We’ll see if the public responds positively.  They definitely have room for improvement.  According to goodlogo.com, they rank 5.5 out of 10 based on 8000+ votes.

From a branding standpoint, they’ve done a stellar job of retaining the yellow and black color palette.  50+ years to be precise…

1949 Hertz ad

Hertz ad from the 60's

Now 8 years after that fateful day, limited progress has been made on the completion of a memorial and museum at ground zero.  Courtesy of Brand New, the image above shows a recent decision to shorten the lengthy name to simply “9/11 Memorial”.  From a branding standpoint, this makes it much easier for the public to “remember” its name.  The new logo solution is bold and simple, leaving the simple element of the blue towers as an impactful reminder of what actually happened.  Check out the official 9/11 Memorial site for tons of information on what’s coming.  We salute our fallen heroes.

You could consider this question like the chicken & the egg controversy… and you’ll get a different answer from different internet experts. 

I am often amazed at some of the websites that Google ranks #1. The design is elementary and the content is irrelevant or somewhat spammy.  These websites all have a very high bounce rate.  Why? …because their website looks terrible.  Nobody will take a tacky, unprofessional site seriously – even if it is ranked #1 in Google.

Obviously, a website is nothing unless it is aesthetically pleasing.    BUT you can’t get too carried away with the appearance. 

A few years ago, people got carried away with the design aspect and created entire websites in flash.  Search engines don’t read flash.  So any content that was on a flash site was irrelevant.  The people who paid for an outrageously expensive, beautiful site were scratching their heads wondering why there was no traffic. This pretty website is nothing but a façade and the company will end up paying a fortune in Pay-Per-Click because their website is no where to be seen in the organic search.

So what is the answer? What comes first?  The truth is, they go hand in hand.  A website needs to be constructed with SEO tactics in mind.  The extra time and money spent to do initial SEO set-up (keyword research, META tag writing and keyword-rich content) will go a long way.

This is why I believe so strongly in working with companies that cover the whole online spectrum – from branding to web design to SEO to social media.  I don’t want to work for companies that only do SEO or that only do web design.  Both need to be mended together from the beginning, otherwise the website will only be partially successful.  COMPLETE online marketing campaigns, will make the most successful websites on the internet.