Branding the Herd

DURING TWO OF my summer sojourns, I realized that many of our industry’s finest had done an exemplary job of branding, at least in our household.

While in Vermont for a long weekend, we made a point of taking a drive to visit the Vermont Teddy Bear factory. And yes, after taking the tour and seeing how a bear is made (and hearing more excruciatingly bad bear puns than we could, uh, bear) we trotted into the gift shop and bought gifts to take back to the family.

The next day, friends who live in upstate New York drove over to meet us and we took the Ben & Jerry’s tour. (Sure, their gig is primarily retail. But go online and check out their Web site, www.ben jerry.com. There’s lots for sale-including ice cream-and it’s highly interactive.) We wandered about the grounds and dared to walk through the “Flavor Graveyard,” becoming dismayed when we noticed that several of our favorite dearly departed weren’t memorialized in person, even though they were in the online mausoleum. (Being good little inquisitive customers, we had all, of course, checked out the aforementioned site before our visit.)

I think it’s pretty dang impressive that these two firms I cover during my workday could lure me to spend time-and money-on them during a weekend away from work. Judging by the crowds at both, I’m not the only member of their herd.

A drive in Oregon later that summer reinforced my pride in DMers’ branding skills, as we nearly ran our car off the road in glee at the sight of the first Harry & David retail outlet we’d ever seen. (Hey, it was only a rental car. No big deal.)

However, I’m not so positive about all successful branding exercises. An article on fast food culture in the Sept. 3 issue of Rolling Stone reported that 96% of schoolchildren could identify Ronald McDonald. The only other fictional character with a higher degree of recognition, according to the magazine, was Santa Claus.

I-and I think I can also speak for the Easter Bunny on this matter-find that truly disturbing.