Brand Tags: it’s sort of like marketing research…but fun!

Brandtags.net was started by a man who wanted to prove that the concept of a brand exists only in people’s minds.  The website shows you a company logo and you “tag” it with the first thing that comes to mind.  You can look at the “tag cloud” for each company (the more people use a tag, the bigger its text is).  An additional feature randomly pairs 2 brands and lets you vote for the “better” one (operating like puppywar.com).  Yet another feature lets you try to guess the company from the tag cloud.

It’s really interesting, and could be a good indication that a company needs to change its negative/outdated/BORING logo or public image (tick tock tick tock, IBM!  Lose the scanlines!)  It’s like marketing research for free, and your company can ask the site owner to add them.  This is a great idea (and free namedropping) for up-and-coming new businesses, or things that have faded from the public’s attention.

The website owner blogs about his observations as well, and interestingly pointed out that some brands (like Xerox) are ambivalent, people just tag them with what they are, but others (like Apple) are “passion” brands…. (a note – I’m leaving out the self-descriptive tags, like “apple,” and pluralisations/different forms of the same word, and misspellings of words)

Apple Computer

1. mac
2. cool
3. ipod
4. design
5. computer
6. awesome
7. innovative
8. expensive
9. creative
10. love

See, people love macs!  I love my mac, anyway.  I can tell you though, in the pre-ipod days, all of those tags would have been “gay,” “nerdy,” “crap,” and the like.

Here’s a sampling of some other really really interesting “top 10s” of company tag clouds:

America Online ™

1. internet
2. old
3. crap
4. online
5. dead
6. slow
7. outdated
8. sucks
9. lame
10. shit

Wow, that’s…shocking.  I for one stopped using the AOL browser years ago…I know a clueless adult who still used it THIS YEAR….and no surprise, they got phished from a fake eBay email (at a site that firefox warns you about).  But yeah, even with the new shiny rounded logo, AOL screams “’90s DIALUP!”

Windows

1. crap
2. Microsoft
3. computer
4. shit
5. crash
6. vista
7. bill gates
8. monopoly
9. PC
10. sucks

This brings great joy to my heart.  Not that I have anything against Windows…. if macs were more mainstream, they’d get viruses too.  Seriously, I’m not one who argues one over the other (each system is good for different kinds of stuff).  But seriously, it’s bad news when “crap” is the first thing that comes to your mind with ANY brand….unless it’s a brand of manure

Hummer

1. gas guzzler
2. big
3. car
4. gas
5. waste
6. wasteful
7. blowjob
8. asshole
9. stupid
10. huge

and can’t forget to mention #14, “small penis.”  Yeah, Hummer, even using Who songs in your commercials can’t shake the public’s perception….that your cars are too big, waste gas, and are driven by assholes with small penises.  I’m not defaming you here, just stating the facts.

The Young Men’s Christian Association

1. gay
2. village people
3. gym
4. pool
5. kids
6. youth
7. cheap
8. song
9. family
10. swimming

I think the YMCA is seriously angry at the Village People, for not only associating them with a lame disco song, but giving them an irreversible connotation of gayness that keeps all the right-winger’s children away.

Old Spice

1. old
2. dad
3. old man
4. smelly
5. grandpa
6. deodorant
7. cheap
8. cologne
9. men
10. stinky

Yeah, it’s definitely time for Old Spice to stop trying to look “sexy” in their ads. Maybe in the ’70s it would have all the girls pawing at your hairy chest, but here’s proof that Old Spice has officially become an “old man” scent.  I think it has to pass the torch to AXE and TAG….the “2000s” “sexy man” teen body sprays. XD

Butterfinger

I found that people tend to go a lot lighter on food brands.  Maybe because they’re hungry?

1. candy
2. bart simpson
3. simpsons
4. tasty
5. crunchy
6. yum
7. cookie
8. childish
9. gross
10. chocolate

Wow, I guess a lot more people than me still remember those old butterfinger ads from the ’90s!

You know what they SHOULD do?  Put up countries’ flags on one of these!  See what kind of stereotypes (or praises) come up.  Or maybe famous people’s faces?  That would be hilarious.  and fun.

This whole idea is very Freudian

Oh, and here’s the top 10 from the “brand fight” part of the site (as of this post):

Adidas

Ferrari

Google

M&Ms

National Geographic

Target

Lego

Apple

UPS

Coca-Cola

So people like trendy brands, junk food, stylish budget stores, they like their mail on time, they like the internet and computers, they like toys (and big toys a.k.a sports cars) and the pursuit of knowledge.  Sounds like upper-middle class America to me   (this site is global though!)  What is also neat is that 7 of these top 10 brands are American.