The ones that don’t think, usually have to spend lots of money in advertising.

But hey, I’m not complaining. After all I did start my career in advertising

Sean
http://www.psychotactics.com

Allow me to clarify: I was not saying that the companies I listed didn’t market, but that the growth of their brands was fueled primarily by word of mouth, great customer experience, and non-traditional advertising or PR, instead of from aggressive traditional advertising. That’s not the same thing as saying the companies “don’t have marketing.”

-Jeff

Still, there are some ways in which this is the exception that proves the rule. And while I’m tempted to go into them all here, I’d rather use it as a follow-up post. So till then, congratulations, Jonah, you named the first real exception I’ve come across.

-Jeff

In fact, one of the biggest reasons I left being an in house executive in favor of agency work was battles with our CEO about the impact of cutting customer service to increase margins.

Yeah, the idea of building brands solely based on “New Media” is largely garbage, too. And for the record, I still think “Interruption Advertising” is viable. What I don’t think is viable is the ability for that advertising to work absent a superior customer experience/superior product/great WOM. But if you have all those other things you CAN build an awesome brand/company absent major advertising drives.

- Jeff

Geico’s been around since the 30s, and was a publicly traded company since at least as far back as 1976, and became fairly well known for their 24-hour, 365-day telephone service for claims, sales and service in 1980. Granted, their more aggressive advertising didn’t start until 1993, but even that oversteps the constraints I laid out by 5 years.

All of which isn’t to say that I totally disagree with you, Peter, as I think Geico is one of the strongest candidates I’ve heard, but even then, it’s a far from clear winner.

And as for Dockers, are you kidding me, Greg? They’ve been advertising incessantly since the 80s. SNL’s “Bad Idea Jeans” skit was nothing but a parody of Dockers’ cheesy commercials of that decade.

Remember, guys, I said within the last 10 years. It’s OK if the Brand existed before then, but it can’t have established itself as a nationally known brand before then. Both Geico and Dockers disqualify on that count, though Geico comes a lot closer to making the mark.

- Jeff

Malcolm Gladwell has a fascinating article about it:
http://www.gladwell.com/1997/1997_07_27_a_khaki.htm

Apple is the absolute king of spinning nothings into somethings. They are brilliant at it.

Take for instance their amazing new manufacturing process for the MBP – wait for it…. CNC milling aluminum blocks! Viva la reveolution!

I have 2 macs and 4 pcs in the house. 2 Vista and 2 XP. They all work fine for what I use them for. The macs are more expensive for the specifications.

I will also say that if linux is like catching and gutting your own fish, MS is buying your fish from the market and cooking them yourself, and Mac is like getting served your fish at the resturant. Everyone has thier own choice where to get their fish. My trouble with the Mactards is they think everyone cooking or catching their own fish must be stupid because all you have to do is order the Macsurf special from the menu.

In short, they discount other peoples experience becuase they don’t share the same value system when it comes to computing. So, the ad company clever – the Mactards thinking buying a mac makes you clever – silly.

So, actually, thanks for the comments, they’ve spurred me onto a follow-up post to further clarify things.

-Jeff

Sure it is better to brag about your own products if you have something to talk about. Apple does this with the iPod/iPhone ads. The reality is that Windows needs to fix it crap OS because it really sucks, and Apple just loves poking them about it.

Not to be a jerk, but if you go back and re-read the challenge, it was to find brands that have been “created in the last 10 years (or that at least come onto the national stage within the last 10 years)”

The newest brand on your list is Dell and it had it’s initial public offering in 1988. So if you want to actually follow the directions, I’d love to hear of a brand built in the last decade that was built predominantly on the back of advertising.

-Jeff

Maybe these brands can stand behind their advertising…but the br4ands were built on massive ad compaigns. (less than a minute)