<a href="http://www.whitehotcenter.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/04/08/wendys_logo.png"><img class="alignnone" style="border: 0pt none; margin: 0px 5px 5px 0px;" title="Wendys_logo" src="http://www.whitehotcenter.com/influence_by_design/images/2008/04/08/wendys_logo.png" border="0" alt="Wendys_logo" width="157" height="171" /></a>

Some of my colleagues, who follow my rants and ramblings about the art of branding, have suggested I am picking on Wendys as a poster-child example of an impotent brand. True, I have dedicated a couple of posts to the subject. True, this forum has a marketing (self-serving) overtone to it that could hardly be an objective point of view. That's the beauty of blogging...

PULL is a small boutique brand development firm that marketing executives  at Wendy's have never heard of... worse , PULL does not even have specialization in the fast-food category... why would they seek our advise?  They wouldn't, unless of course, they discovered we might have a point of view that could be useful to them right now. I see opportunity for them to reinvent their brand and value proposition and, if they think big enough about it, reinvent the category.  For all I know, they are working on it...

Starbucks is in the same boat... today was the first day of their past being rehashed. I think they are looking in the wrong direction too. The heritage values underpinning  both brands are important, but the expression of those values needs to connect with people where they are now.   Of course, that's just my opinion. I see a big upside for Wendy's as it puts new ideas and plans in place to anchor them to a course they can get themselves to believe in... They are looking into the core of their brands soul to find connection to what made them so successful to begin with.

I see opportunity to help them deliver on that idea as they begin to think deeper about their brands iconic identity, its relevant expression going forward, and how far they can stretch the heritage of their brand before they appear "dated" to the growth segment of the market. This is important work indeed! This is the opportunity I see for PULL to add value to the brandscape. One client at a time...  this blog and the direct outreach go hand-in-hand to develop our business as we endeavor to share elements of our expertise and point of view about building brand value.