In the digital world we live in, we are constantly bombarded with information that influences our perception of many different brands. A poor advertising campaign or a PR snafu can easily tarnish a brand’s image. What about your personal brand though? The idea of personal branding has been around for a while now, and your personal image is easier than ever to create online via websites like Facebook, Google+, etc. However, the rapidly expanding reach of the internet in our daily lives is also making it harder than ever for some to accurately present themselves.Continue reading...

Bank of America just can't get out of the limelight. We noted late last year BofA's questionable decision to introduce monthly debit card fees during the much-hyped Occupy Wall Street protests. Now, months after the OWS movement has died down, BofA is again facing populist scrutiny with this week's launch of a parody website: YourBofA.com.

The website has been attributed to The Yes Men, who have been credited for other satirical websites for the likes of George Bush and the WTO.

The mock BofA website opens with a fake letter from CEO Brian Moynihan acknowledging that the bank “isn't working anymore” and suggesting that the American taxpayer will ultimately own the company. Further, the website offers a forum to visitors to suggest ideas for how to improve the bank and its policies.

The site even hits below the belt by bringing grandmas into the mix, prominently displaying an elderly woman next to the quote “I want my bank to let grandmas stay in houses they've owned their whole lives.” And if all of that wasn't enough, another section of the spoofed site allows visitors to create fake BofA ads online or by downloading Photoshop templates. Customers, beware.

It's tough to be the new guy, especially when you're trying to be the new guy in what many still consider to be a fringe sport, Major League Soccer. The New York Cosmos are not an expansion team yet, but investors in the franchise have been making a case to become MLS's 20th team. The club's competition for this honor includes efforts in Orlando, Miami, St. Louis, and Atlanta.

Despite an all-star management team including Pele as honorary president and Eric Cantona as director of football, the Cosmos have run into some bad press recently concerning its youth academy, formerly known as Blau-Weiss Gottschee. In short, the youth academy claims that the Cosmos owe it $210,000 stemming from a sponsorship agreement made in 2010. It has filed a lawsuit against the Cosmos as a result. This is obviously not good news for a club trying to convince MLS to add it as a second New York team when there is already one struggling team in the area thanks to the New York Red Bulls.Continue reading...

English Premier League club Newcastle United caused a stir by announcing it sold the naming rights for its historic stadium, St. James' Park, to British retailer Sports Direct. In England, a country where soccer stadiums could be mistaken for places of worship, this is scandalous.

However, rising player wages and billionaire owners like Manchester City owner Sheikh Mansour are making money more important than ever in the British game, as the New York Times notes.

Sponsorships, of course, generate significant revenue for sports teams, yet American sports teams have generally avoided covering their jerseys in corporate logos, even though rival soccer teams around the world (including American ones) don't seem to mind. Manchester United even has two shirt sponsors: Aon (game jerseys) and DHL (training kit). Spend enough time around a Premier League stadium and you might mistake it for a NASCAR race.Continue reading...

Brooks Brothers labels itself an “American Classic” brand. Walk into a Brooks Brothers store, and you'll see classically tailored suits, as well as polo and button-down shirts in any color and pattern. These days, you'll also see Brooks Brothers apparel alongside other classic American brands: Levi Strauss, Hartmann, Peal & Co. and Red Wing Shoes. Brooks Brothers has also partnered with the hit TV show Mad Men in the past.

The St. Andrews Links, another globally known brand, has recently teamed up with Brooks Brothers by naming the American brand the official clothier of the home of golf. Brooks Brothers is now selling St. Andrews' logo apparel, and the brand's flagship store even has golf simulator that allows customers to take a break from shopping and play three of St. Andrews' famous courses.Continue reading...

Sad but true: HP's TouchPad caused more excitement during its death than at any other point in its life cycle. Long lines for a $99 tablet were similar to those you'd expect to see for the launch of the next big Apple product. Stock soon ran out, proving that consumers can't pass up what appears to be a bargain.

Now the TouchPad is back from the dead with Best Buy, Walmart and Sam's Club and others announcing limited stock of the TouchPad.Continue reading...

Ten years ago, brandchannel quoted a Google spokesperson as saying “It seems counterintuitive to the concept of stickiness, but the point of Google is to allow people to find information as soon as possible and get on their way.” Ten years later, it appears Google would prefer its users to stay in its realm for as long as possible.

Google has come a long way since Sergey Brin and Larry Page started a research project at Stanford in 1996 that would eventually grow into a company employing 30,000 and producing nearly $30 billion in revenue each year. In doing so, Google has expanded its offering from a search engine to a full-fledged suite of services including email, social networking, cloud storage for files and music, and daily deals. Google even recently opened its own branded products store in London.

Google has always been an innovative company, but it has seen some of its innovative thunder stolen by others such as Facebook and Groupon. In order to remain the first-in-mind internet destination for its users, Google has decided to take to some of its web competitors on their own turf. Google+ takes aim at Facebook, and Google Offers is targeted at daily deals sites Groupon and Living Social. As it keeps rolling out new products, Google seems content to throw its brand's name in front of just about any serve it's offering: Google Voice, Google Docs, Google Maps, etc.Continue reading...

Last Sunday was a bad day for the Glazer family. Both its soccer club, Manchester United, and its American football team, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, lost home games in London over the weekend. That's right, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were the designated home team when they played the Chicago Bears at Wembley Stadium, England's national stadium. It was the Bucs' second trip to London in three years to play a regular season game on foreign soil.

NFL games in Europe are not a new phenomenon. This year's installment at Wembley was the fifth annual “International Series” game played by the NFL across the pond. The International Series began in 2007, the same year that NFL's Europa League ceased operations. The NFL's initial European experiment began in 1995 but failed to generate a profit despite generating strong attendance numbers. Maybe it was a case of too much, too soon.

The NFL's current strategy for exporting American football falls in line with that of Europe's most popular soccer clubs, including Barcelona and Manchester United, both of which toured the United States this past summer to prepare for their upcoming regular seasons in Spain and England, respectively. Many European soccer clubs have also taken their talents to Asia as they scramble to sell replica jerseys and other branded merchandise in Asia's growing economies.Continue reading...