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According to the BrandZ Top 100 annual ranking of the world's most valuable brands, Toyota's brand value jumped 11% to $24.2 billion, allowing it to overtake BMW, which was No. 1 last year in the automotive category. More »
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Brand New, the blog obsessed with corporate branding, took on OnStar yesterday. They give a thumbs up on the new creative, but although they think modernizing the OnStar logo through a sans serif was smart, they question the execution. [BrandNew] More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5662066&view=rss&microfeed=true Ford plans to give Lincoln a "point of view." What, sitting on a phone book isn't helping? [Automotive News] More »
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If your car shares the same name as a popular brand of menthol smokes, you might as well go ahead and paint the thing to resemble a gasper pack, right? Of course! More »
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The Porsche-branded kitchen earlier this week reminded us that automotive marketing gurus like to use their considerable name equity to brand products having nothing to do with cars. While sometimes this can help increase brand identity with the masses, here's our list of the ten auto-branded products which decrease brand equity and dilute brand stature. More »
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In today's episode of "Branding Shenanigans," we encounter Porsche, fresh off a branding adventure with cohort Ferrari. Back at the lab, Porsche notices that the blinding sun stills makes it hard to drive and commences an update to its sunglasses line, which got it start in the feathered-hair 1970s and logged an iconic triumph with an over-the-top aviator style. Four new models are available—the P'8454, P8456, P'8457 and P'8458. More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=356556&view=rss&microfeed=true Is V-Dub looking at a new logo — or just a more 3-D version of the current one? [German Car Blog] More »
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The above-pictured lady goes by the stage name Lexus Cash. We mentioned this story once before, and although we're still pretty sure we're able to tell the difference between her, a character on a porno site run by two metro Detroiters (who knew we had a porn industry?) and the Lexus brand, Lexus isn't so sure that's the case. Thus, the luxe brand from the number one super best automaker from the land of the rising sun has sued the two entrepreneurs selling videotaped sexy stuff. As a public service announcement, we wanted to make clear that if you're doing a Google search for something like "cash back" and "Lexus" — and after clicking on the Google result marked "porn" and after a click-through of a 21-and-above screen, you come across the above web site — you're probably not where you want to be. Honestly, even if I'd been looking for "something else" I'd probably have bid a hasty retreat from the site as well. That's the scariest looking come-hither face I've ever seen (it's more like a "go-thither"). But just to make sure no one's confused, let's make sure anyone who searches for "Lexus Cash" gets this post. Your mission: If you've got a web site, blog or MySpace page, link here with the text "Lexus Cash." We'll get this straightened out. – Ray Wert More »
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We know whenever we see porn, we think of Lexus — doesn't everybody? According to our fleshy porn-loving sister / brother sibling site Fleshbot, apparently Toyota was concerned about the potential for bran dilution of their up-scale Lexus brand by a li'l porn site that could — one LexusCash.com (NSFW - obvs.), a site run by Mario Mendoza to show off pics of his 19-year-old girlfriend Lexus. Don't we think this is taking things a bit far Toyota — and is this really gonna stop anything? Cause we all know all the best strippers have the name "Lexus" anyway. Mario says he's gonna fight the lawsuit — which we're all for. And we swear it's not just to see more of that "19 year old Voluptuous Vixen with large DD tits and a heart shaped ass." More »
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Okay, far be it from us to be anti-woman. We like chicky things. We listen to wussy-in-touch-with-our feelings punk from the mid-'80s/mid '90s. We like to go shopping with our female friends and play Queer-Eyed Straight Guy fashion-consultant. We're thoroughly of that Gen-X conflicted-boy mindset. But this article just really got our goat somehow. Typical quote from Ford's Anne Stevens: "Your vehicle should bring emotions of pleasure. You should expect fun from your vehicle experience. You should have feelings of security; feelings of confidence. You should have feelings that this is me." Okay, Anne, so why are the only cars you've built that seem to appeal to this demo are the V6 Mustang and the Explorer? And how does Dave feel about this? Just askin'. More »
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What does it say about a car brand when even "Jeopardy!" contestants can't place it? It says it's a non-entity (whoops, that should probably have been more jokey and metaphorical). As The Detroit News reports, contestants on a recent airing of the game show couldn't name the carmaker known for the "Aztek" and "Grand Prix." The guesses? Toyota, Mercury and Buick. That's pretty surprising, even to us cynics. Of course, if the question asked which carmaker built the Phoenix or 6000, well then... More »
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Man, did we ever see this coming. While brand erosion's been a problem for American automakers since the 1970s, their latest bout with employee pricing caused all three of the Big Two-and-a-Half to take a hit in the cred department, according to a survey by badly-branded brand researcher Branddimensions. The issues at hand? Perception that the vehicles being offered at a discount weren't of the quality of non-discounted vehicles from foreign lands. More »
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