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The Merlin Edge team includes numerous extraordinarily talented people. Visit here often to read about our take on the latest developments. Don't forget to add Merlin's blog to your RSS feed!
What is “Brand Management”?
A question often asked of those of us working in strategic marketing and communications is: “What exactly do you do?”
The Talon – Fall 2010 Newsletter
Merlin publishes a biennial newsletter called The Talon. It's loaded with business advice, success stories, interesting articles on best practices in our areas of expertise and profiles of some of our people.
A Line in the Branding Sand
An article by Merlin Edge Vice President George Koch from the August 2010 issue of Alberta Venture magazine:
The BP disaster shows that advertisers ignore authenticity at their customers' peril
It was a widely hailed marketing coup, a much-talked-about case study and the biggest antler rack on the ad agency's trophy wall. BP would no longer stand for the storied brand British Petroleum, but for Beyond Petroleum. In a world of climate change angst, becoming one with the green zeitgeist seemed a winner. Applying it to BP - new name, neo-pagan sun-disk-style logo, a prolonged PR campaign by the urbane English CEO, millions shovelled into politically correct foundations and lobbying to buy new friends and convey positions at odds with a global oil giant - was outsized in audacity, but not in concept. Pointing out it was BS wasn't just in poor taste, it revealed your deafness to the era's sensibilities.
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