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AdvisorDrive with Andris Pone and guest Ian Ardill.

“I am not surprised at a time when they are changing like this that they are having trouble, but I think they could very much turn it around,” said Andris Pone, president of Toronto-based marketing agency Coin Branding. “[Ms. Reisman] has already managed to make that brand about much more than books. The brand is so well-known and it is a major destination for gifts.”

Financial Post

November 6, 2013

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Andris Pone, Coin Branding Inc. president, said WestJet might be missing an opportunity to differentiate the product in the minds of consumers. He recognized why WestJet is keeping its branding uniform given its admirable brand recognition. But he said the customer experience on its 737 will be different than on its Q400.

“I’m not sure you want to leave it WestJet, because then there’s really no obvious demarcation between the mainline and the regional carrier,” he said.

There are ways you could do both, including calling the regional carrier something that elicits the WestJet brand but is “shorter and snappier.”

National Post

September 12, 2012
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Branding consultant Andris Pone, chief namer at Andris and Associates Brand Naming in Toronto, has a different point of view.

“It is almost beside the point whether aliens are intrinsically more relevant to a wireless brand than beavers are,” he said. “What really matters is whether the creative execution can make them so. Although the relevance of the beaver to Bell’s brand was never made especially clear, the spokesbeavers were amazingly successful at creating awareness. The challenge for Mobilicity is to bring to life that “smart” positioning — which does seem different in this space — over a long period of time.”

National Post

July 22, 2011

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Andris Pone is a Toronto-based brand strategy consultant

Full disclosure: Steam Whistle is my favourite beer. I’ve fully bought in to its premium/craft/heritage brand position, embodied in the historic Steam Whistle Roundhouse, in which every bottle is brewed. So this ad resonates with me. I recognize that the centrality of the bottle opener reinforces the brand position, because I know that SteamWhistle uses bottles that are not twist-off: because management believes twist-off caps are detrimental to product freshness and ergo, unworthy of lovingly-made brew. Noncustomers will miss this vital association and be left watching a bunch of beer bottles being opened, not an enormous step up from watching paint dry. And so the ad succeeds if it’s intended only to strengthen bonds with existing customers — and not to acquire new ones.

National Post

July 24, 2009

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Andris Pone is a Toronto-based brand strategy consultant.

The concept of reinvention is rich with authenticity for GM, allowing us to buy in on several levels. For example, an inventive spirit lies at the heart of U.S. identity and greatness. It’s therefore resonant that this archetypal U.S. brand, at this do-ordie moment in its history, should bet its future on a classically U.S. trait. “Reinvention” also suggests this campaign is not a quick fix, but rather connotes “kaizen” (Japanese for “improvement”). But what’s with the imagery? What do crowded sidewalks, an injured hockey player, a quarterback throwing a football, and the racetrack have to do with reinvention? These ponderous choices distract from the very believable   voiceover.

National Post

July 10, 2009

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Andris Pone is a Toronto based brand strategy consultant.

These TV spots are beautifully shot. The extraordinary experiences captured certainly justify the incredulity of the words that flash on the screen midway through: “Where is this?” The point-of-view camera work underscores these
experiences as personal and unique and therefore, as something we want to do, too.

Yet the campaign is confusing. “Locals Know,” the line ending each ad, seems irrelevant and blunts my budding curiosity about “Where is this?” The ads are supposed to get Canadians exploring new places inside Canada, yet the exciting aspect of the supporting Web site, localsknow.ca, is uploading our pictures of local places we’ve already been. I know that the CTC wants us also to explore pictures posted by others, and then to visit the places depicted. But any honest user of a site like Facebook will tell you that posting and looking at your own pictures is a lot more fun.

National Post

June 19, 2009

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Last month, my friend Martin moved into a new house in Toronto. Bell Canada moved his phone line. But in a story most Canadians can unfortunately relate to, Bell hooked up his service–Internet and all–to the credit card and debit terminal of an antique shop down the street. Martin, who has a home-based business, was without service for five days. Using the landline of a neighbour, it took Martin almost seven hours with 310-BELL to finally get service restored. Yet Bell gave Yet Bell gave all of us reason to believe such a nightmare couldn’t happen.

Marketing magazine

October 28, 2008

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The enemies of brand consistency lurk everywhere. Worst are “old friends.” These are the people inside the organization who are so tired of their own messaging, they assume everyone else is too. Old friends will agree to any new brand message ideas that come along, just to get away from their same old brand position or incessant jingle. They’re the people at Coca-Cola who are sick and tired of giving (or receiving) another red T-shirt, or the folks at Energizer who’d just as soon blow up that bunny as hear his incessantly beating drums.

Marketing magazine

February 25, 2008

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