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A Brand Discussion. Clint? Do you feel sloppy Punk? Well, do ya?

This has been really bugging me for a week.

As a back story, I am an avid golfer. I also get Golf Digest every month and in the recent issue was a full-page ad for Pebble Beach Resorts. Now, if you golf you know Pebble Beach. The Holy Grail of golf. The Vatican of Golf! Also I was with a company a while back that did the branding for PB. Kind of proud of that!

It is certainly on my bucket list for golf courses that I want to play. Not that I envision ever having the $500 US it takes to play the course, of course ONLY if you stay at the resort at – oh, call it $500 a night++.

Anyway, I see this ad. The immediate response is the "Brand Sigh" that comes over me. It IS Pebble Beach after all … Tiger, Jack, Tom Watson, Clint Eastwood (One of the owners) etc etc 

Pebblead

Then I look closer.

Inset

There is a major typo in the ad. "Ahe" should obviously be The!  And upon further inspection I look at the grammar of the sub-head above. What's with the hyphens???

WTF?

Who is doing these ads? Do they not have proofing services in Southern Cal? Sure the mag could have screwed it up with say a badly produced ad – as in, the fonts went wonky, the drop-cap was screwwd up … but the obvious grammar errors?

Now, notwithstanding that this is a pretty blasé ad in-and-of-itself, I use the word blasé to be kind, when I should say it really sucks, but I get it that clients get what they deserve. I worked for a couple of very prominent, high-end resort clients and yep they all loved this stuff. The balanced layout, the small photos in the middle etc etc. If you look at any resort ads – they are all pretty much the same. But this diminishes the Brand. THE BRAND!

So my point is. If I ever have a couple of grand I don't know what to do with, and decide to plop it down on a weekend at Pebble will I be thinking – "Hmmm these guys will lose my reservation?"  "They will not have my tee time!"  "The service will suck."  And on and on and on.

I liken it to going to see a specialist surgeon for a serious operation and his office is a mess and he drops his pen a lot. Not good!

It is ALL about touch points and that great old saying – "Look after the pennies, the pounds will look after themselves."

God is in the details …  Clint!

Med-divider

4 Comments

  1. BrainsNBrawn (Shirley)
    BrainsNBrawn (Shirley) January 17, 2011

    Well said. Puts me in mind of someone looking for a job and handing in his/her resume with typos. Tells one exactly what you need to know about that person; he/she doesn’t care, hence will represent my business with exactly the same attitude. Not hiring!

  2. Cathy Cleary
    Cathy Cleary January 18, 2011

    You hit the nail on the head, in this post. In my experience as a graphic designer, the ad creation process includes getting approvals from many sources, including the client, the agency, the magazine. This ad failed in more ways than just introducing doubt into your mind about the quality of the brand. I wonder if anyone involved with the ad was really engaged in what they were doing?

  3. mose
    mose January 18, 2011

    @Brains&Brawn – that is so true! It takes very little effort to have someone look over your work – especially a resume.
    @Cathy – I am still shaking my head. This is arguably one of the top brands in and around golf. What happened here?
    There are many versions of quality control and checks and balances that have been designed for the creative process why would a huge brand like this in a very expensive execution (Golf Digest) drop the ball?
    Work like this is done either by rank amateurs or someone’s relative or as you say someone who just does not care. I personally cannot believe that any of these would have happened?

  4. Jon Cogan
    Jon Cogan January 19, 2011

    “…and he drops his pen a lot” — Love it!!
    This is brutal but as you imply, not all that surprising. And you’re right, the typos and grammar aside, this ad does nothing for the Pebble Beach brand other than diminish it.

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