Inspired by the bottom line

Roger Hislop

Pick ’n Pay. Or, with their rebrand, simply Pick n Pay. They’re now “inspired by you”, which means using less apostrophes. The new logo is pretty inoffensive. Which is not really what you want to hear when you’re spending R110 million on your rebrand. It’s a bit flaccid, a bit anodyne, a bit lame. Marketing blogger James Duarte was quoted in the Times saying he wouldn’t pay R5,000 for it. Which is a bit rough, since Pick n Pay brought in corporate ID heavyweights Landor all the way from the UK to do it. And they don’t even get out of bed for less than a few hundred grand. In Sterling.

No, it’s not the logo that gets up my nose, even though their launch spiel is absurd (rebrandings are always great for the absurdly hyperventilating hyperbole – read Swisscom’s for a good laugh).

No, it’s the payoff line that offends. “Inspired by you”.

Is it possible to have a payoff that’s any more generic? Any more designed by committee? Any less tangible as a commitment? Why didn’t they just get Oprah to write them one and be done with it?

It says, “We are not willing to make a brand promise, we are not willing to commit to any course of action, we take no responsibility for our business. We lay responsibility with YOU, the public. We are jellyfish that do only what we think focus groups want.”
But it’s fundamentally dishonest … because we know that Pick n Pay are not invertebrates. They’re hardened retail professionals, or, translated into the language of the FMCG industry, “Complete bastards if you’re a supplier or partner. Or customer.” This is a company that has got as far as it has by screwing suppliers for every cent, driving the hardest possible bargain in every negotiation, and ruthlessly and relentlessly clawing their way to the top of the retail pile in SA.

In PR we have a term: “the arc of credibility” – how much does your brand promise or communications storyline align with people’s gut-feel about you, their instinctive reaction to your name. If that arc between what you say, and what they most likely think gets too big, your credibility withers, and scorn mounts, rather like Telkom or Eskom claiming to be customer-centric.

I don’t believe Pick n Pay is inspired by me, any more than I believe the suppliers of Woolworths milk take their beloved hand-reared Ayrshire cows into their bedrooms when the winters get cold.

Inspired by you…and by our UK-based branding consultancy, our board, our shareholders, our lawyers and our ad agency. Wonder who has the biggest say?

Comments

Could not agree more, or so the saying goes. If they were inspired by me their food would be a better quality, their staff would be friendlier, their prices would not be equivalent to Woolworths without the quality. I could go on on needless to say I never set foot in Pick n Pay.... Inspired by me

karen Poole on 2008/05/08

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james on 2009/05/08

luv this article. great stuff

allison mlitwa on 2009/06/19