During Brand Week, I asked “What factors do you consider when deciding to create a new brand within an existing business?”. Marketing Sherpa has an answer with their How to Switch Brand Names Without Confusing Your Marketplace: palmOne’s Successful 4-Step Process. Just a warning: it is only available online for another day or two.

Thanks to everyone who played and conversed during Brand Week.

People are still leaving comments so feel free to contribute to the entries below.

We’ll do another topic week in June. I am open for suggestions on the next topic.

I find it interesting the things that company’s will do in the name of their brand. I was particularly intrigued by the BMW Films. I absolutely loved the series and I will forever associate that experience with the carmaker. The trouble is I don’t think it made it any more likely that I would buy one of their cars.

What brought this to mind was a visit to Daypop’s Top 40 last week. At number #32 was “The Adventures of Seinfeld & Superman”. Jerry and American Express have teamed up to create a couple of short films (4-5 min). The first film is up and it is great. It seems AE is taking the same route as BMW to create entertainment to enhance their brand.

So, here is the question – Do you agree with this method of brand building? Will BMW and American Express’ brands benefit from producing entertainment? Why or Why Not?

Today’s we are going to talk about the birth of brands. Specifically, I want to discuss the decision for company to create a new brand.

Let me give you a few thoughts. The number of the major airlines have announced low-cost service under a new name (i.e. Song from Delta, Ted from United). Vollrath, a Wisconsin based cookware manufacturer, is entering the consumer market, after 130 years of success in commercial kitchens.

Today’s question is: What factors do you consider when deciding to create a new brand within an existing business?

I opened up the April 19th issue of Forbes that someone passed along and found a foldout section on brands. I thought it would go along well with Brand Week.

The article talks about the value of brands and computes a financial value for them. Nothing particularly new, but it is interesting to look down the list. You will find all of the usual suspects from J&J to GE to UPS. P&G tops the list with an estimated corporate brand value of $107.4 billion.

I thought we would begin with something simple:

What is your definition of a brand? 25 words or less.

I thought we’d start with this question to see where everyone is as we begin the discussion.