Sunday, June 25, 2006
Tag line of the month (June 2006): CRAVENDALE®
CRAVENDALE® is a dairy company in the UK. Launched in 1998, it went to market with a unique (and hilarious) tag line:
Their Web site is truly entertaining. It's a comical call to action, imploring milk drinkers to 
join a grassroots movement of milk-loving activists - passionate believers in the taste of CRAVENDALE®. Their mission: to protect the supply and availability of CRAVENDALE® milk by “monitoring the activities of rogue herds of dairy cows.”
On their Web site, you can view the latest CRAVENDALE® TV spot. I don’t want to give it away, so I’ll just say it’s funny...and memorable.
By the way, if you have a favorite tag line, please send it my way. I’ll feature it in July.
Milk so good, the cows want it back
Their Web site is truly entertaining. It's a comical call to action, imploring milk drinkers to 
join a grassroots movement of milk-loving activists - passionate believers in the taste of CRAVENDALE®. Their mission: to protect the supply and availability of CRAVENDALE® milk by “monitoring the activities of rogue herds of dairy cows.”On their Web site, you can view the latest CRAVENDALE® TV spot. I don’t want to give it away, so I’ll just say it’s funny...and memorable.
By the way, if you have a favorite tag line, please send it my way. I’ll feature it in July.
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
New Lego CEO -- Being nice isn't enough
I love straight talk, especially when it comes out of the mouth of a CEO. In the June issue of Fortune Magazine, there is an article on the rebuilding of Lego. (Yes, another Lego story) This time it’s about their new CEO, Jorgen Vig Knudstrop. He’s made the company profitable again. He’s also rocked Lego’s culture like an earthquake. He replaced the old mission statement, “nurturing the child,” with a new one: “I am here to make money for the company.” His candor is reminiscent of when Lou Gerstner said, “The last thing IBM needs right now is a vision.” The article is short and worth reading. Thursday, June 08, 2006
CEO bites dog.
(This isn’t branding, but it’s interesting.) 
Performance counts, as all of those CEOs who elect to earn a $1 in salary will tell you. But here comes a new twist. W. Alan McCollough, departing CEO of Circuit City, says he will forfeit long-term compensation worth about $6.9 million. Part of that includes a grant of 400,000 stock options (worth approximately $3.6 million). The stock options will be repurposed for “Chairman's Awards,” and given to those individuals who have the potential to make significant contributions to improving Circuit City’s performance.
Like the folks at BP say, “It’s a start.”
Speaking of performance, Mr. McCollough’s was dismal. In his five year tenure at Circuit City, shareholder return dropped 50.4 percent and S&P 500 Index Return slipped 15.6 percent.
Performance counts, as all of those CEOs who elect to earn a $1 in salary will tell you. But here comes a new twist. W. Alan McCollough, departing CEO of Circuit City, says he will forfeit long-term compensation worth about $6.9 million. Part of that includes a grant of 400,000 stock options (worth approximately $3.6 million). The stock options will be repurposed for “Chairman's Awards,” and given to those individuals who have the potential to make significant contributions to improving Circuit City’s performance.
Like the folks at BP say, “It’s a start.”
Speaking of performance, Mr. McCollough’s was dismal. In his five year tenure at Circuit City, shareholder return dropped 50.4 percent and S&P 500 Index Return slipped 15.6 percent.
