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Archives for October 2010

The Clorox Company Unveils New Logo with a Green Twist

Both The Clorox Company and the Clorox brand have long been linked with the colors of blue and white.  It’s not surprising since those two color create a sense of cleanliness and purity — exactly what the Clorox product stands for.  If you want something insanely clean, use Clorox.

However, in recent years, The Clorox Company has worked hard to revamp the Clorox brand image in an effort to get away from the “chemical” image it conveyed and move more toward an environmentally-friendly image.  The company released new products and new formulas for existing products as well as new packaging with a concentrated effort in bringing “green” to the brand.  Now, the effort has come full circle.

Last week, The Clorox Company unveiled a new logo that adds a new color to the blue and white that has been a tangible representation of the Clorox brand for more decades than most of us have been alive.  That new color is green.  Also, the blue color is lighter and brighter.  You can see the old logo and new logos below.

Old Logo


Clorox-old-logo


New Logo


clorox-logo


According to the press release from The Clorox Company, the new logo is modern and better reflects the brand’s image in the 21st century.

“Our new logo better communicates what The Clorox Company stands for today,” said Clorox Chairman and CEO Don Knauss. “We’ve kept visual elements that reflect our heritage but we emphasized our forward-thinking mindset and objective to achieve strong growth, drive innovation and focus on sustainability.”

Designed in-house, the new visual identity presents the company as modern and evolving, reflects the strength and direction of its brand portfolio, and underscores its commitment to sustainability and focus on natural products. The logo also utilizes “The Clorox Company” in its entirety as a way to distinguish the corporate identity from its flagship bleach brand.

This logo redesign certainly does seem to be an improvement and should help the company in its efforts at driving focus to their more environmentally-friendly positioning.  What do you think?  Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

The (In)Famous Candidate Experience


500px-Labyrinth.svg

HR provocateur Gerry Crispin asked some good questions recently in The Candidate Experience: Is it just Smoke and Mirrors? The point of his post:  seems like people (on both sides of the process) would take the quality of the candidate experience more seriously if it were really important.  There followed an interesting exchange of opinions from commenters!

Summing up for the majority was recruiter Jerry Albright who puts it this way:  “Know what experience a candidate wants? To be hired. The rest is over-hyped.”

The main argument put forth by the minority:  Badly treated candidates will have a bad opinion of the company.  The majority response:  So what?

Looking over the discussion, I notice that it’s all pretty much about filling positions.  And several people point out that a badly treated candidate who doesn’t get the first job they apply for with Company X will very likely apply for another job at Company X if they think they might get it.  Which is probably true.

Someone notes that a good candidate experience will make for a better employee attitude on the part of the person who does get hired, which also is probably true—but how long will that difference last, and how much of an investment would it be worth?

Another person brings up the golden rule and common courtesy, but there’s not much support for that view either.

A different perspective can be found in Overcomplicating the Candidate Experience, an article posted on the Human Capital Institute blog by talent technology guru Peter DeVries.  His contention:  “Too often, companies create career websites that overcomplicate the candidate experience, making it difficult for candidates to complete one of the most critical activities on a company’s career website: applying for a job.”  DeVries points out several problems . . .

  1. Too many companies still bury the Careers link three or four clicks away from their corporate home page.
  2. Too many companies use unbranded third-party ATCs for the job search and application processes—which means the candidate effectively leaves the corporate site as soon as they start trying to find a job.
  3. Too many companies rarely update the information on their Careers site because the process is too cumbersome.
  4. Poorly designed applications discourage candidates—and don’t even gather good information.

DeVries has some good advice for dealing with these issues.  In fact the advice is so good that it’s worth another post.  So coming up soon, some alliterative alphabet magic:  from the potent potential of APIs for ATSs, to the powerful productivity of the CMS.


(Thanks to metoc for the hand-drawn maze.)

Consumers Weigh in on Online Marketing, Advertising and Content

hand_mouseIn a study released by AOL called “The Consumer and Content: Benchmark Study,” that combines both qualitative and quantitative research, it is revealed that consumers not only accept online advertising in exchange for free information and content but they also expect it.  As long as that advertising is relevant and not intrusive, the majority of the online audience can live with it.  In fact, if that advertising is highly-targeted, it’s actually welcomed by the online audience.

Here is how the data shakes out:

  • 69% – Ads targeted to my likes are very or somewhat acceptable
  • 61% – Ads with photos (like magazines) are very or somewhat acceptable
  • 58% – Ads from sponsors in search results are very or somewhat acceptable
  • 53% – Ads with sharing functionality such as on Facebook or via email are very or somewhat acceptable
  • 33% – Ads in videos are very or somewhat acceptable
  • 15% – Pop-up ads are very or somewhat acceptable
  • 14% – Ads that takeover the screen and experience are very or somewhat acceptable

In other words, less intrusive but useful ads are not only the most acceptable form of online advertising from consumers’ perspectives, but it’s also the most likely form of online advertising to drive a positive reaction from those consumers.

The report also studied how people conduct online shopping with 49% of respondents claiming they go directly to an online shopping site.  The remaining half of respondents were split between using search engines (25%), following email alert links (12%), using a portal or homepage (9%) and following links provided by friends (6%).

The AOL report also supports prior research from multiple organizations that claim online reviews are used frequently by consumers during the online research process prior to making a purchase decision.  The AOL study provides the following data from consumers when they were asked what is important to them when they’re looking for information prior to making a purchase decision:

  • 29% – Online reviews from people the consumer knows are very influential.
  • 26% – Online reviews from experts are very influential.
  • 22% – Online reviews from people the consumer doesn’t know (not experts) are very influential.

In fact, the 18-34 year old demographic is even more highly influenced by online reviews with 39% being very influenced by online reviews by consumers they know, 34% by online reviews by experts, and 34% by online reviews from people the 18-34 year old consumer doesn’t know.

So what can brand managers take away from the AOL report?  First, developing highly targeted and relevant online ads that enhance the user experience rather than interrupting it is key to success.  Second, leverage the power of online reviews on shopping sites as well as on social media sites such as blogs, forums, Facebook, Twitter, and so on.  You can do this by giving people positive things to talk about and then giving up control and letting them talk.  There is perhaps no form of marketing more powerful than word-of-mouth.  Let the social web do what it was made for and spread your brand messages and consumer experiences organically.  You can’t buy that kind of reach!

Image: stock.xchng

This Week on Corporate Eye

This week on Corporate Eye

  • How Much Sustainable Business Is Just Hot Air?
    In one of those quiet relaxing moments when I wasn’t haring after one person or another, I settled down to read the World Business Council for Sustainable Development’s (WBCSD) July report Business and Development: Challenges and Opportunities in a Rapidly Changing World.
    Something unsettled me about it and I found myself wondering how much of WBCSD’s […]
  • UK Mobile Marketing Wide Open for Business
    According to a June 2010 report from comScore, the number of people who own smartphones in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain and Italy nearly doubled to 60.8 million people between 2009 to 2010 (41% growth to be more precise).  In the United Kindom alone, smartphone use nearly tripled (70% to be precise) to 15 […]
  • Most CMOs Still Believe TV Advertising Works
    The print publishing world might be falling apart, but television advertising won’t be dying out anytime soon –not if the opinions of CMOs matter.
    In an Advertising Week panel of Chief Marketing Officers hosted by Fast Company last week, CMOs agreed almost unanimously that television advertising is still an important part of their marketing strategies and […]
  • Writing Treehugging Into Law
    Just in case you’re starting to lose track of all this eco-sustainability-responsibility-footprint stuff, a timely reminder of the sheer complexity of the task came last week from one of the most interesting of the new crop of MPs, Caroline Lucas.
    The Illegally Logged Timber (Prohibition of Import, Sale or Distribution) Bill was introduced somewhere just after […]
  • Clearing Your Clutter
    Years of content accumulation can lead to a chaotic site. When the internet first started out many didn’t realise it would become so important and so threw together a basic site, which have then grown and grown. How can you tidy up a site like this? Would it be easier to start from zero?

How Much Sustainable Business Is Just Hot Air?

Photo ManipulationIn one of those quiet relaxing moments when I wasn’t haring after one person or another, I settled down to read the World Business Council for Sustainable Development’s (WBCSD) July report Business and Development: Challenges and Opportunities in a Rapidly Changing World.

Something unsettled me about it and I found myself wondering how much of WBCSD’s work is geared towards creating sustainable business, and how much concerns businesses taking advantage of sustainability for their own ends.

The phrase which really got me thinking was the first key conclusion:

… business cannot succeed in countries that fail. Stable and prosperous societies make for better business opportunities.

This is a statement of orthodoxy these days, but I’m not entirely sure it’s true.  [Read more…] about How Much Sustainable Business Is Just Hot Air?

UK Mobile Marketing Wide Open for Business

mobile phonesAccording to a June 2010 report from comScore, the number of people who own smartphones in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain and Italy nearly doubled to 60.8 million people between 2009 to 2010 (41% growth to be more precise).  In the United Kindom alone, smartphone use nearly tripled (70% to be precise) to 15 million users between 2009 to 2010.  The latter data comes from a report from the Internet Advertising Bureau UK as reported by eMarketer.

Considering the fact that it’s estimated that 1 in 3 people in the United Kingdom who use the Internet have accessed the web via their mobile devices in 2010, it appears that the opportunities for brands to reach consumers via mobile advertising are significant.  However, eMarketer also reports the comScore study found that in the United Kingdom in 2009, mobile advertising spending accounted for, “just 1% of the sum spent on all online ads aimed at PC users.”  As you might expect, that spending is expected to grow quickly.  In fact, the Internet Advertising Bureau UK predicts it will more than double before 2011 comes to a close.

Keep in mind, there is still much to be learned about mobile advertising.  Although many consumers claim not to mind receiving mobile ads that are actually useful to them, there is still not a written recipe for success.  There is much testing to be done in the coming years, so although we’ll see ad spending in the mobile environment grow by leaps and bounds, return on investment numbers are likely to track across the charts.  However, without experimentation and more research, there is no way of knowing what will work in mobile marketing and advertising.  It’s an exciting time to be a marketer, but the challenge is getting the budget to do the necessary testing without a guarantee of success.

Have you been successful in convincing your executives to set aside a percentage of the marketing budget for mobile marketing?  The numbers don’t lie.  More people are using mobile devices to conduct more aspects of their lives everyday.  It can easily be argued that brands which don’t carve out a space in the mobile environment will find themselves playing catch-up later.  Certainly, smartphones aren’t going to disappear anytime soon.  On the contrary, they will only get faster, more affordable, and more prevalent.  There’s no turning back now.

What do you think?  Leave a comment and share your thoughts about mobile marketing in 2010 and beyond.

Image: stock.xchng