Alright I am amused about this but I am disturbed too. This should make it clear to everyone that there is absolutely no regard for intellectual property in China. So much so that they brazenly took the likeness of Obama’s face plus the internationally known brand KFC and ripped both off at the same time.  If it was not so amusing, I would be totally disgusted. But really we need tougher international IP laws. Just imagine if they can get away doing this with Obama’s face imagine what they can do with a major drug companies IP, or a favorite phone companies tablet or phone,  or a software companies IP…

According to multiple news organizations, this could have been in response to some recent political trade agreements. Who knows either way for now, its funny. Find out more here.

And more about the trade agreement that might have started this.

Well I am not going to call XfinityTv.com’s new sites style a rip of Netflix, but I will say that they must have been heavily influenced by Netflix’s recent site update and paid quite a bit of homage to Netflix.

What’s weird is being influenced in this case is not a bad thing, I think they actually one-upped Netflix in some ways.  But as these sites become more similar looking as a user I begin to think: “Why am I paying twice for a similar product?”

What do you think about XfinityTV’s new site update?

The Previous NBC Logo.

Well first off it reminds me a lot of the new Syfy branding from their new interactive site. The purple palette reminds me a lot of the palette used over at SyFy.

Outside of that the typography is unique looking it is simpler. But is simpler necessarily always better? In this case yes for their corporate site only. I believe that it is less restrictive than their previous branding, but execution wise I am curious to see if it will play out with their sub brands such as NBC news or CNBC etc. Will they stay or go.

Bare Nutrition Promo from MDfilms.net on Vimeo.
Find out more about Bare nutrition’s products at: barenutrtion.com

With all of the down and out stories we hear about on a regular basis, it is great to hear a story such as Hubway being brought to Boston by New Balance. On the surface Hubway has a similar business model to Zipcar and the Velib, a Biking system in Paris France. Basically as a customer you pay a small annual rent cost and you can use their bike between any of the biking terminals throughout the city. Why not ride instead of sitting down for your daily commute? And it is being run by the private sector. Sounds good to you? Sounds good to me.

Taking a look at their newly created site, I dig the simplicity of their new brand identity. And I enjoy the name itself, the word Hub can be defined as many things: the central part of a wheel, a connection point for things or locations around it, and also as a description of Boston. Combining ‘Hub’ with ‘Way’ obviously challenges the notion of riding passively on the subway or highway.  And the brand color is also interestingly similar to Zipcar, done on purpose maybe? It does seem like a cost effective pricing model as well. Currently they have advertised on their site a price that seems even cheaper then the cost of owning and maintaining a bike.  For $60 a year you can pick up a bike at any time and travel throughout Boston year round. Not a bad price for students. But good luck to bikers trying to commute in our less than predictable winters, 8 months out of the year are decent biking months, albeit hardcore enthusiasts I have seen commuting by bike even in January. There are a ton of benefits for Hubway one obvious one that comes to mind is the lack of needing space to store your bike, especially for students who have limited space to place a bike.

I guess the big question is if it works in Paris and we have a similar climate, how it will fair year round in Boston? And how many bikers would be willing to give up owning their bike to be a member, or are they solely trying to attract new cycling enthusiasts?  All good things to wonder but I am happy that New Balance, a local shoe company, is starting this project in Boston!

To find out more Visit TheHubway.comFull Credits:

Today HTC announced that they were buying a controlling share of Beats by Dr. Dre for $300 million. Beats By Dr. Dre is a brand of headphones and loudspeakers created by music producer/rapper Dr. Dre and Interscope-Geffen-A&M Records chairman Jimmy Iovine.  The music industry power couple partnered with Monster Cable Products Inc. to produce their high-end headphones in 2006.  Since this partnership, Beats have become a major player in the music technology space with big celebrity collaborations (P. Diddy, Justin Beiber, Lady Gaga, and Lebron James) as well as corporate pairings with Chrysler Motors and HP.

HTC claims that this was a move to improve the audio of their smart phones.  However, to improve the internal workings of their phone why wouldn’t they partner with Monster Cable Products Inc? Monster creates and manufactures the actual technology that drives Beats.  They have been producing quality consumer audio and video product since 1978.  Branding is the answer.  Monster’s brand is not big enough to carry the true motivation for HTC’s purchase – increased smart phone sales.

This is the era where brands carry far more value than products (2010’s top brands).  It is important to establish strong brands that connect with consumers.  Through influencer marketing, product placement, and celebrity endorsement Beats built its brand equity as a trusted provider of quality audio products.

Clearly HTC is looking to borrow some of Beats by Dr. Dre’s brand equity and push sales for their next line of smart phones.  With new strategies being developed daily, there are several ways to create a strong brand.  Tactics are mixed and matched depending on industry, target consumer, and other internal variables.  The ultimate moral to the story is there’s money in quality branding.

Take it from Dre…he’s a doctor.

- barclay

Slick looking brand update if you ask me. I dig the simplicity and bold use of elements. The prior version was focusing on the illustration of lemon and lime this just gets right to the punch. I never really cared for the taste of 7-Up because it gave me personally that fake sugar headache when drinking but, the brand update is nice.

The brand update was done by TracyLocke New York and will be in stores in several countries around the world. Unfortunately the new brand update will not be updated in the US, which is a very interesting approach. But I guess it is driven by whom owns 7-up in America it is owned by Dr Pepper Snapple Group, and in the rest of the world it is owned by PepsiCo. Either way they are testing the market waters rather than fully jumping into the brand update worldwide and I wonder if that has something to do with other Pepsi brand update(s).

Credits
Group Creative Director: David Moore
Creative Director: Milton Melendez
Design Team: Dan Pulito, Tina Paymaster, Nitin Budhiraja
Account Supervisor: Natalie Smith

Care to hear more about this brand update? Check it out at the source: http://creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2011/march/7up-redesign
If you care to see the old soda cans from America check them out too!
http://www.usasoda.com/

And if you liked the mark, here’s a poster I found for the upcoming film.

As first found on Starbucks.com

. Go there and check out their CEO’s video about the vision for the change.