Conference 7.286::digital

    Maybe someone in Stow had watched "This is Spinal Tap" recently?
    
    					Steve

    "It's a very fine line between clever and stupid."
    
    		- David St.Hubbins, Spinal Tap
    
    Cheers,
    Ken
    

    
    re: plain annual reports, less color photos, etc....
    
    In general, it's the "politically correct" thing for a company to do
    when there are financial issues...
    
    
    It probably saved a substantial amount of $$$....
    
    /ljj
    

It couldn't be mo black

    The background is solid black, but the new digital
    color logo is clearly the point of focus.
    Remember the annual report for 1985 ?
    Solid black background with an "actual" VAX-on-a-Chip
    glued to the front cover announcing the new MicroVAX
    systems.
    
    
    AJ

    Some of our TV ads have the "black screen with minimal white text"
    look.  Maybe the theme was carried over from that campaign, whether
    overt or subconciously.
    
    -Mark

    
    and we all know how the company needs that extra $$$ to pay the
    overbloated salaries of a certain few!
    
    me

Some of the front panels on our new systems are jet black. I figured it
was to set off the AlphaGeneration (tm) graphics.

    
    	Since black is basically the absence of color....
    
    	Is there a message here somewhere? Maybe I should call Scott Adams,
    	he might have a clue...
    
    		the Greyhawk

	I thought the all black cover with the full-sized Digital logo was
	excellent! It reminded me of the monolith from the movie
        "2001 A Space Odyssey". Think of it,...lunar explorers unearth, or is
        it unmoon?, a black monolith with a gleaming Digital logo in the 21st
	century! It fits with our Alpha AXP architecture theme,...hmm could
	there be a really cool TV advertisement in this analogy???

	Comments?

	-Dave-

	PS - I have a close friend in the ad business in NYC and he told me
             once that market research proves time and again that all black 
             styling is modern and marketable. Look at the home appliance or 
             electronics section at a retail store sometime and you will see 
             what I mean. Or, look at these stupid phones they put on our desks
	     a few years ago, somebody must have purchased them because they
	     were black,...they certainly aren't reliable. 

    There is a major branding effort underway in Digital to give our
    company a consistent look and feel, this means all of Digital, but
    literature is a big part of what the outside world sees.  Since July
    many of the publications have undergone changes to adapt to the new
    branding image.  The annual report is in that image.  You will see more
    as time goes on; for instance, a new literature architecture is being
    implemented, and will be obvious with product promotion material, such
    as product information sheets.
    
    A booklet went out to Communications folks explaining the initiative
    but I'm not sure all employees got it.  Hope this helps to explain.
    

Ya,

for our "Digital house fair" last week here in GY (with some 1.800 visitors) 
MACOM people have designed everything in the new black style: agenda booklets, 
flyers, cover of the demo CDs and even the visitor badges. 

First I feared that visitors will draw bad jokes on that but .... nothing 
such - only positive comments.

There must be any hidden psychological mechanism which make seems new style
succesful. Any ideas?

Bernhard


 

Black didn't work for the NEXT cube, though, did it?

>    A booklet went out to Communications folks explaining the [branding]
>    initiative
>    but I'm not sure all employees got it.  Hope this helps to explain.
    
  Yes, this helps explain it. Now that I think of it, I have seen the magazine
ads with a black background. And I sort of understand that the black cover
makes sense as a one-time thing to focus on the new Digital logo, which changed
(I think) just after the 1993 annual report went to press.

|    There is a major branding effort underway in Digital to give our
|    company a consistent look and feel, this means all of Digital, but
|    literature is a big part of what the outside world sees.  Since July
|    many of the publications have undergone changes to adapt to the new
|    branding image.  The annual report is in that image.  You will see more
|    as time goes on; for instance, a new literature architecture is being
|    implemented, and will be obvious with product promotion material, such
|    as product information sheets.

I do hope that the new "Look and Feel" will outlive whoever initiated it. In our
more recent years of soul searching we seem to have had an identify crisis with
corporate logo going from blue to gray to blue to wine-red and Alpha logos
changing every two quarters. Meanwhile, black and white Digital signs outside
our buildings are remnants from even before we introduced colors .. 

I know it is costly to redecorate the place, but if we keep the same plan in
place for a few years maybe we can do it gradually.

>Per

    Oct. 1994 issue of Datamation has a 2-page ad on the IBM AS/400 with a
    black background. It even specifically mentioned as to why black color is
    great or something to that effect. I just happened to glance at it.
    Unfortunately, I don't have the copy with me to type the exact words.
    Can somebody who has the Datamation copy tell us the exact words ?
    
    Looks like the industry wide fashion :-)
    

    Also heard from some folks who came from the Decathalon trip that RBP
    is trying to get a corporate advertising tag line approved by the BOD
    like Ford had when they came up with "Quality is Job #1".  He wants:
    
    			Digital.  Whatever it takes.
    
    Hmmmm....this has some interesting play when you place it in context
    with Black backgrounds and wine logo's.  Are we really going to
    transform from a company of Engineering focus building best products to
    a Marketing and Selling machine of a new order?  I hear that some of
    our new corporate T.V. ad's due out in November/December timeframe are
    being test marketed with focus groups right now.  And I also hear we
    are taking our products and services right to the edge of
    competitivness when it comes to taking on our competition.  
    
    Heck, I saw an ad the other day for Sable that said:
    
    	The 64-Bit Server.
    
    	IBM may have it in '96.
    	HP may have it in '97.
    	SUN may have it in '98.
    	Compaq may have it in '99.
    
    	You can have it today.
    
    			Call 1-800 DIGITAL
    
    Wow, all I can say is go go go Digital keep doing this.  It reminds me
    of the story of Patton who had landed the 8th Army on the island of
    Sicily in WWII.  So he takes a drive one day up to the command post
    which is overlooking the road through the mountains between Palermo and
    Mecina.  Well the 8th needless to say is completely bogged down in the
    hills and is getting the SH*T kicked out of them by the Germans. 
    Patton doesn't even ask the Major in command of the battlefield as to 
    what the problem is, he just says "You've got 4 hours to bust through that 
    pass or I'm going to come back here and fire your ass and then he'll
    (pointing to the Major's ade, a Captain at his side) be in charge."
    
    Let's get going 'cause for one I'm out here in the pass getting my butt
    shot off and it ain't making me happy at all, no not at all.
    
    Right Greyhawk?
    
    Mav

    
    
    
    RE: -1  The ad that you posted.  I like it.
    
    
    Mike

    
    	Right, Mav. Absolutely. Were getting killed out here.
    
    
    		the Greyhawk