What else can the NHL do to piss people off?

Are you a hockey fan? Have you bought a pro jersey in the past 5 years and not regretted it? The NHL has again released new uni's for every team in the league. The original 6 are the only sweaters that look unscathed, but everyone else has something different. Teams like the Buffalo Sabres just got new uniforms last year! Again? People bought Sabres jerseys like crazy and now, they can buy more. Or, less? What is the chances NHL fans will be willing to plunk down the big bucks for star-labeled gear? The only guys who would be safe bets at this point are Sidney Crosby, Joe Thornton and Thomas Vanek (yes, there are others), all locked into long-term contracts. Why would fans buy jerseys of anyone else? The jersey carousel and the player carousels need to stop if the NHL wants strong sales into the future. Here's to hoping that the jersey parade slows to a halt because we know the players will move. The good news in the whole debacle? The Vancouver Canucks have ignited Northeastern US fan interest by displayed their new gear... bearing color resemblance to the WHALE. No the Whale isn't back. That would be too good to be true. New jerseys. Higher prices. The market rules, and the NHL is souring its brand with the new line of jerseys. But there are benefits. Players will skate a little faster and the jerseys will retain less water. Yay.

Blackberry, CrackBerry, MarionBerry... is it more about productivity or addiction?

It's no secret, the CrackBerry is the staple of mobility in today's business culture. E-mail on the run. Rock and roll. When it comes to working all the time, the CrackBerry can fuel a habit of obsessing with work. Night and day, professionals around the world have Berry's strapped to their hands. Although it makes it tough to shake hands, BlackBerry users are finally starting to come around to what a BlackBerry can do, such as allow a quick email check on the ride home. As a passenger, of course. And to send a brief message which would otherwise require firing up the laptop and about a minimum 10 start-up/shut-down when all you need is 10 seconds to let Barney know to pick up bagels for the meeting in the morning. But wait, what if Barney isn't Berried up, you might have to actually call him and have a con-ver-sa-tion. I hate the 50 and Justin song, but seriously, easy on the technology. If Marion Berry had laid off the pipe he might not of gone to jail, but then again, he might not have been re-elected. Keep some perspective in mind when knuckling half the day - if your work is that chaotic, take some inventory. Is that really want you want out of a job? A career? Are you satisfied when your neighbor asks what you do and little Bobby interupts and says all you ever do is text on your phone? If so, you are awesome. If not, use the damned thing for what it was meant to be, a phone and email. You chek your messages and respond like everyone else. But when you respond, make sure you can type and no, a small keyboard is no excuse for bad writing. It has a delete key and you aren't blind so we all know you can proof read before hitting send.

What does BlackBerry stand for as a brand? Productivity, or addiction?
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Sent by MarionBerry

AT+T Commits Band Suicide by Dissolving Cingular Name

AT+T apparently knows everything. Except, I don't understand why they sold off AT+T Wireless in the first place, only to re-commit to the market years later by taking an incredibly popular brand, Cingular and rolling out the at+t mobility brand extension. Forget about the twisted corporate lineage. This was a brand execution, one which was mis-qualified by corporate account managers who couldn't close the deal. Two many at&t corporate clients "insisted they wanted one single provider" for telecommunications. And what was wrong with the existing set-up. Cingular was the wireless service brand owned by the new at+t. How can you not tell a customer simply that you offer local, long distance, Internet and mobile services and that Cingular is the branded service for wireless. Would you feel more comfortable using the Cingular wireless service, or the at+t wireless service? Would you not buy the Cingular wireless service from at&t because it didn't say at+t? Are the kids going to clamor for the at+t phone? What kind of stupidity inspired this decision. How much money was spent building the Cingular brand? Who cares. It's dead. Another senseless brand casualty. That maiden name was well worth keeping.

K-Fed Ex and Jared from Subway Shack Up in Brand Brotherhood

The Fed Ex nickname is great, kudos to whomever came up with it deserves a bonus. K Fed sucked because it actually lent him some level of credibility, of which he deserved none. Fed Ex is spot on. This couple never made sense to me so it figures that only after it's over does anything make sense.

So what does Federal Express think about Fed Ex? There has to be a few people that have searched Fed Ex and have Federal Express come across the radar. Maybe a few even went to the web site, and I am certain that people have actually used FedEx over UPS simply because it was funny. Not sure if I see any negatives in this for Federal Express, seeing as you can't buy this kind of borderline buzz, especially in the fourth quarter.

This reminds me of when Jared tried Subway on for size and his 6 grams of fat diet that counteracted umpteen years of Big Macs. Did the jeweler Jared receive any benefit or detriment for simply existing with the same name? Did the Jared name in general get more or less popular and take Jared the Jeweler with it? Did Jared the Jeweler raise the Subway Jared's popularity?

Brand names can cross market borders. It seems that the well of brand names dries up more and more every day. Consider the rate that domains are being gobbled up. So what are marketers to do when the right name is in use in another market? The examples above are more for entertainment than practical market challenges. In both cases, the presence of the second instance of the brand is in an unrelated market. The Fed Ex nickname works better because FedEx exists outside of the celebrity market, although some would argue that FedEx is a celebrity business. The Subway Jared has enough range because even though Jared the Jeweler is a consumer focused brand, sandwiches and diamonds are not typically associated in the same sentence or paragraph. As markets expand, this will become more commonplace, and when it does, you'll see it markets that might be in the same town, but not the same neighborhood.