Characteristics of a green brand are transparency, credibility, accountability, being a visionary and an enabler. Interestingly these are also the characteristics spoken about in the Democratic debates to which candidates measure themselves upon. Barack Obama has questioned Hillary’s transparency, while Hillary has concerns with Barack’s credibility. All of the candidates have different stances for removing the troops from Iraq.

The National Brand Index evaluates national brands on assets, geography, exports, people, governance, tourism, culture, immigration and investment.

Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart has been criticized for its handing of employees, putting mom and pop shops out of business and impact on the environment. To counter the negative perception of their brand Wal-Mart has created Sustainability 360, which is a website where consumers can voice to Wal-Mart ways in which it could help sustain the environment. By hosting this site, Wal-Mart aims to show the public they can be accountable, transparent, an enabler and a visionary. To further influence the consumer, Wal-Mart has updated its tagline to “Save money. Live better.” A noteworthy product Wal-Mart has been pushing is its organic cotton yoga outfits. By aligning itself with a social cause, Wal-Mart aims to sustain its business by staying ahead of consumer expectations.

With the Olympic games taking place in China in 2008 and Canada in 2010, these nations are working to strengthen their brand images. It’s expected that the juxtaposition of these two countries will create discussions in how each national brand relates to the environment. Air pollution in cities is leading higher rates lung diseases, which has caused concerns amongst Olympic athletes who may withdraw from the event. China’s reputation suffered from lead paint in children’s toys, poisonous pet food and polluted cities. Concerns about the quality of China’s exports has resulted in a decline of China’s brand value. In contrast, Canada is seeking to base its national brand on sustainability. It wants to slow the extraction of its national resources and increase its brand value through quality.

Kellogg’s is staying ahead of consumer trends and competition by placing green banners that read “Organic” onto their iconic cereal boxes. By updating their brand they are staying current to the times to create new customers, while remaining familiar to its loyal customers.

Nintendo repositioned itself in the videogame market with the Wii. The Wii uses an innovative controller that creates a distinct gaming experience, which can only be found on the Wii. Instead of focusing on creating the most powerful gaming system, as its competitors Sony and Microsoft had, Nintendo leapfrogged them both to make itself visible to the consumer.

A new tactic in advertising being used is to blur the line between the advertising and the desirable content. These ads aren’t intended to just fill the holes between the content but be perceived and distributed as part of the content itself. Banners on myspace advertise ring tones and you’ll get a free ring tone if you’re able to slap the sumo’s belly faster than your opponent. These ads/games are often just as fun as the site itself and fits into the emotion experience that myspace creates. A company called Massive is developing ways to place ads into video games since young males are no longer being reached through television. Here a TV ad for Toyota uses the game World of Warcraft to advertise the emotional experience of driving a truck to young males. The truck battles a dragon and returns to the group with the dragon’s beating heart its bed, worthy of bragging rights. Dove created a string of commercials that proclaim themselves as films. The label of being a film is more positive than having the negative label of being a commercial.