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You say it best when you say nothing at all


Weiden + Kennedy in London have a nice blog. Worth visiting.

I just read an interesting post about Brand Voice - Could Your Brand Voice Please Shut Up?.
It comments on how the Malmaison hotel chain have peppered every point of contact (365 Branding?)with chatty, cute comments. Their own brand mouthwash Anatomicals Snog Me Senseless is a case in point.

I wonder if overtly 'saying' something misses the point of branding. What a product or service 'says' to me is my interpretation of the design, the experience or whathaveyou.

This morning I visited the Apple site to look at the new iMac that my brother had been excitedly telling me about. Apple's own blurb on the site seemed unusually spurious. No point telling me about a design's quality - I need to make up my own mind or listen to independent voices.

Sometimes understatement is the better choice.

Read the original W+K post

P.S. Malmaison seems like a strange brand name for a hotel - Bad House? - ah those crazy Poms.

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