The Procter & Gamble Logo Then and Now
August 20, 2009
What would people think of the Procter and Gamble brand if the company still used its original logo created when the company launched in 1951? Take a look at the original logo compared to the current logo below.
The original logo is about as antique-looking as a company can get as far as logo design goes, but would you be surprised to know that this logo was used until the 1980s? That was when rumors started flying that the image in the logo of the man in the moon looking over 13 stars representing the original 13 colonies of the United States was actually wrought with satanic symbolism, including at least one hidden “666″ in the curly beard.
Still, Procter & Gamble fought the satanic symbolism rumors until finally in the 1990s they removed the beard graphic and later moved from a graphic logo to a wordmark using just the P&G that the company has become known as in the 21st century.
Little did P&G know nearly two decades ago when the company finally changed its logo that it would be one of the best things it could do in terms of building its brand. The P&G logo and brand name today are far stronger than the old name and logo were. Of course, Procter & Gamble and P&G will always mean the same thing, but in a world of Web 2.0, when people are busy and looking for shortcuts everywhere, it’s great to see a brand story that could have been damaging turn out better than anyone could have hoped.
It just goes to show that rebranding can work, even when it’s not done by choice. Sometimes a brand just needs to be updated or needs a kick in the pants, so to speak.
Summer Reading
August 19, 2009
Suppose you wanted to take some books to the beach and catch up on the latest ideas and the best practices in corporate website design, employer branding, and online recruiting . . .
Okay, use your imagination! You might want to do that, and if so, here are some candidates for your bookbag:
The latest edition of a great annual showcase, American Corporate Identity 2008, presents examples from companies that are noteworthy in a variety of categories, from logos to websites to print to packaging. You can also see examples and browse other volumes online at American Graphic Design & Advertising.
Though I haven’t read Brand for Talent: Eight Essentials to Make Your Talent as Famous as Your Brand, I respect the authors (brand experts Mark Schumann and Libby Sartain), and I like their rationale for using the much-abused term “talent”:
While the employer brand must resonate with people on the inside of a business, the talent brand must attract segments of workers to join, stay, and engage.
FYI: There’s a Kindle edition for those lucky folk who can take a thousand books to the beach in one bag.
A book I have read (and love) talks about branding in a much more general sense. The Hero and the Outlaw: Building Extraordinary Brands Through the Power of Archetypes, by Margaret Mark and Carol S. Pearson, takes a story-based approach to the topic of brand creation and offers fascinating advice that can be applied to any aspect of the enterprise. At the very least, it will make you think about the topic in a new way.
On the cutting edge, I like the looks of Get Connected: The Social Networking Toolkit for Business, by Starr Hall and Chadd Rosenberg. It’s not even published yet (forthcoming September 1, according to Amazon) and I’ve never heard of the authors. But the table of contents covers all the right material and the approach looks both organized and interesting.
Barely off the press is The Green Workplace: Sustainable Strategies that Benefit Employees, the Environment, and the Bottom Line, by Leigh Stringer. Chris Hood, Program Manager for the HP Workplace, says “This is one of the most useful books I have ever read,” and Alicia R. Martin, Sustainability Manager for Sprint, calls it “A must-read for any company, regardless of its place on the green spectrum.” So I’m cautiously optimistic.
And–you can download a free excerpt at The Green Workplace blog.
If you’d rather close your eyes and tune into the MP3 player, download an interview with Talent Synchronicity’s mastermind, Susan Burns. Or you could watch this video interview with Susan on your netbook.
Let me know if you love/hate any of these items, and/or if you have other suggestions for summer reading!
(Thanks to Giulio Nepi for capturing the great feel of reading at the beach.)
CLP Group: explaining financial statements
August 19, 2009
After reviewing many corporate websites, I’m starting to think that USA based companies may be suffering from some groupthink. Maybe its the national regulations and laws, but I think it is simply US corporations “fear” of risks associated with innovation and creativity. Less so with non-USA companies; some of my past posts have highlighted a few. Now I would like to review CLP Group, one of the largest electricity investor-operators in the Asia Pacific region.
First, the About Us page has a welcome message from the CEO–
and there is a link to Resources Centre that contains a rich menu of references–
- Publications (Just about any document you may want.)
- Videos
- Technical Papers (Very interesting.)
- Useful Links
- Photos and Images
Next, on the comprehensive Corporate Governance section there is this icon–
Click on it and it opens to a 15 page PDF (better if it was online) that is one of the most comprehensive and clear Corporate Governance reports I have seen.
CLP uses an innovative graphic to help readers navigate the Report–
Simply follow the colored lines to the related section of the Report. For example, follow the Nomination Committee that leads you to –
Note also to the link to more information. Very user friendly.
Finally, I found an item that should be on any publicly traded corporate website. –
To keep ourselves at the forefront of financial disclosures and guide our shareholders and others towards a better understanding of CLP’s accounts, we are developing an “accounting mini-series” – How to Approach Our Financial Statements? to explain different accounting concepts and practices which apply to CLP’s financial statements. And we intend to continue in our efforts to provide our shareholders and other stakeholders with the information necessary for them to form their own judgement and provide feedback to us.
This is a PDF; once again I would rather see this online with an option to download. Despite this, CLP has shown its intent to keep investors informed.
Good job CLP for a website that applies unique approaches to enhance stakeholder communications.
Banks Shift to a Brand Modesty Strategy
August 19, 2009
There was a time in the not so distant past when financial companies flaunted their money like the latest ‘it’ celebrity in Hollywood. They’d plaster their brand names all over event venues and pay to sponsor pricey dinners and parties in special tents at the hottest events in town. Since the financial meltdown in the U.S., those days are over. Or are they?
Despite a bill that sits in Congress that is intended to put an end to banks that received bailout money from sponsoring pricey events, the practice continues — but in a much more hush-hush fashion.
According to an article in The New York Times, banks aren’t steering clear of high price-tagged event sponsorships entirely. Instead, the new cool thing to do is to pretend they don’t have money to spend on those events at all. The new cool thing is for financial brands and the executives that represent them to pretend that they’re just like average consumers who can’t sell their homes, are in fear of losing their jobs, and have no health benefits and no money saved for their kids’ college tuitions or their own retirements. Do you believe them?
Of course, the leaders of these newly modest brands know that no one is going to buy their feigned brand positioning strategy, and it’s hard to give up the pricey event sponsorships where they can schmooze with their friends clients over caviar and Dom Perignon. So what are they doing to keep the modesty charade going? They’re still sponsoring pricey events but they’re leaving their corporate and brand signage at home. Sometimes they’re even going so far as to, dare I say it, share event space to appear more frugal.
So what does this new trend say about these brands? At a time when consumers are looking for trust in brands, feigning modesty seems to fly in the face of everything consumers want and need, particularly from financial institutions. What do you think?
I want my bailout money back.
Image: Flickr
Online annual reports: what’s next?
August 18, 2009
Nexxar posted this graph via Twitter today, showing the change in the presentation of annual reports by FTSE 100 companies over the last few years.
It shows very clearly that an increasing number of companies over the last couple of years have decided to go for an online HTML annual report, rather than purely PDF or JPG implementations.
We think this is good news. Although we like to see PDFs available for download on the corporate website (ideally indexed, so that visitors can select just the part of the report that interests them, if they choose, rather than the whole unwieldy document), this is in addition to an online annual report. Having the report online, rather than just in PDF, saves the visitor time and makes it easier for them to find the information that they need.
Even now, many visitors will still be using dial-up services rather than broadband – either by choice or because that is all they have access to – and a big download can take a long, long time. Even in those areas of the country where broadband is available, it isn’t usually the superfast kind that a few urban areas of the country have access to.
So an online annual report makes it much quicker for the visitor to find information. It also makes it easier, because better cross-linking and navigation can be put in place in an HTML implementation, along with clever tools that enhance the information provision with elements of interactivity.
And it seems that despite the recession, companies agree that the HTML report is preferable; as shown by the Nexxar graph. This is rapidly becoming the de facto standard, not an extra.
So, when everyone has an online annual report, how will you make yours stand out?
Get our updates
 |