Week 4 Post 1:

Red Rover, Red Rover... someone please send some help over to Roverp6cars.com! My eyeballs are on overload and my brain for sure has been caught up in a tornado of moving banners, pictures of cars, and lots of words. Not sure what the MGBD stands for and not sure what a Rover P6 is either by the landing page. The aesthetics and design appeal of this website needs to streamlined. They need to heed to "less is more" when it comes to their overall branding to send a clear message that they specialize on a specific make and model of a rare collectors car. Their brand image is confusing and can frankly cause dizziness if you stare at it too long.

Are they in the penny business or the juice business over at pennyjuice.com? I chose this topic because I clearly didn't understand the branding name combination with penny and juice before the dot com. Within the first ten seconds of landing on their website, I still couldn't figure it out. I had to read enough copy from various different locations to formulate exactly what their business was about. Their color palette was confusing and didn't flow nicely for the viewer. The focus was not clearly pronounced when the website opens. Low and behold, the are juice providers specializing in concentrates for childcare centers. Why didn't they just say that within their tag line next to Penny Juice? Instead they chose "It Makes Cents". What makes sense? The viewer has to struggle to find their message and their product association within the brand.

What a nice surprise that a governmental page nps.gov has a clean engaging website! The government is not known for their cutting edge creative expression, produced a very nice website for the viewer. They immediately want the visitor to have an experience at one of their parks, so they offer an immediate call to action "find a park" in the center of the page with a drop down by state organization. What a breath of fresh air! Above that drop down (because drop downs can be so boring) is a stunning graphic of a statue highlighting the celebration of African American Heritage. Way to be in the current cultural moment nps.gov! They then offered windows of experiences shared with pictures and stories that is tantalizing for the website visitor.

I mean, what does Apple NOT do right? They are the marketing leader for hard goods advertising, period. From their overall branding approach of simplicity and approachability, to their fore thinking product launches tied with exciting videos and presentations... Apple does it right from the start of the brand. The focus is always on the product and the landing pages are produced to make you want to click the key words to learn more. They are the king of keep it simple stupid. No matter how smart you are, you want your tech to be simple.